June 9, 2005

Rodriguez Is Youngest to Join 400 Club Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs and became the first player to hit 400 before turning 30. His teammates' bats showed signs of life, too, in New York's 12-3 rout of the Brewers in Milwaukee. It was just the second victory in the Yankees' last 11 games. SPORTSTHURSDAY, PAGE D1 U.S. Again Rebuffs Germany The Bush administration, in a move that is straining relations with the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, has again rebuffed Germany's effort to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. PAGE A4 Terror Arrests in California An American man of Pakistani descent has been arrested in California along with his father, a naturalized American citizen, as part of an investigation into possible connections with Al Qaeda. PAGE A18 Shadowy Sunscreen Mexoryl, considered by dermatologists to offer very effective sun protection, has not been approved for use in the United States. But shoppers who know where to look and what to ask for can buy products that contain it. STYLES, PAGE G3 The Race for Trenton The Republican and Democratic nominees for governor of New Jersey, Douglas R. Forrester and Jon S. Corzine, sketched out the themes they hope will win voters. PAGE B1 A Foe of Liberalism Janice Rogers Brown, who was confirmed to the federal appeals court in Washington, often invokes slavery in describing what she sees as the perils of liberalism. WOMAN IN THE NEWS, PAGE A22 Clash on Gay Issues in Schools Emboldened by the political right's influence on public policy, opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality or promoting tolerance of gay men and lesbians are challenging such programs. PAGE A18 A Rockefeller Milestone David Rockefeller, the last grandchild of John D. Rockefeller, is feeling particularly philanthropic as he nears his 90th birthday. PAGE B1

IT never occurred to me that you needed sartorial ambition to be a fashion writer, any more than you needed a background in crops and land prices to write about farming, although I did in 1982. Newspapers -- the speed of newspapers, the magnitude of the printed word, the exalted squalor of the newsroom itself -- tended to mute the need for specialized knowledge. On the other hand, anything could happen on a newspaper. In 1969 The Times sent Gloria Emerson, then assigned to the haute couture collections in Paris, to cover the Vietnam War. That could happen. And the idea had been Emerson's.

Article on Escolania of Montserrat, Europe's oldest boys' choir, based in monastery in Montserrat, Spain, which dates to at least 13th century; for centuries, choir required parents to give up their 9- to 14-year-old boys for most of 11 months each year; seeking to remain viable, choir will reopen in fall with greatly relaxed rules governing student life, including eventual admission of girls; photos (M)

Analysis of need to develop new security methods to prevent identity theft; holds disappearance of entire box of tapes that contained personal information of nearly four million American Citibank customers that was in care of United Parcel Service illustrates that methods of transporting such personal data must be changed; sees need for creating more secure online access methods, robust customer authentication, hiring dedicated data security staff, and improving way large amounts of consumer data are stored or moved (M)

CLEOPATRA welcomed Mark Antony in a room knee-deep with rose petals. Shakespeare wrote about the Eglantine rose with apple-scented leaves. Victorian women sniffed their violets and nosegays to mask the odors of the street. Scent may be the most heady garden element of all, but many of our best-loved flowers have lost their fragrance over the last half-century as hybridizers pursued traits like brighter colors, bigger flowers, compact growth or long stems for cutting. Take a whiff of some hybrid red roses, for example, and you'll smell -- well, almost nothing: an olfactory blank.