As the investigation into the leak of her name has unfolded clamorously, Valerie E. Wilson has kept her silence.

Private Spy and Public Spouse Live at Center of Leak Case

On the day George Steinbrenner was born, a Yankees team with nine future Hall of Famers lost a holiday doubleheader in Washington. Seventy-five years later, another Yankees team loaded with star power played one game that seemed like two.     In the longest nine-inning game in the majors this season, the Yankees outlasted the Baltimore Orioles, 13-8, yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Steinbrenner was not there, staying home in Florida with his family. After the Yankees needed 4 hours and 12 minutes to put away the victory, he might have needed a few more candles on his birthday cake.  

Victory a Long Time Coming for Patient Yankees

Some people are attracted to women; some are attracted to men. And some, if Sigmund Freud, Dr. Alfred Kinsey and millions of self-described bisexuals are to be believed, are drawn to both sexes.     But a new study casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.  

Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited

WELL before dawn's early light, 40 people prowled Lower Manhattan yesterday in search of the nation's past. With a guide to show the way, they had no trouble finding it.     Chasing history is what the Fourth of July is all about, or should be, anyway. At the tip of the island where New York got its start, the past can envelop you like a harbor mist.  

Seeing the City and Its Past by Starlight

Bolivia is latest of several oil-and-gas producing countries in Latin America and beyond that are squeezing foreign energy companies with increased taxes as never before; producing nations are demanding larger part of mineral wealth with prices of crude oil and natural gas at record highs; Russia, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Algeria are tightening terms; photos (M)

Energy-Rich Nations Are Raising Price of Foreign Admittance

The popularity of Eminem and 50 Cent is undeniable.      While sales of his 2004 album, ''Encore,'' rolling toward 4.7 million copies, Eminem just rallied his faithful with a performance on the annual movie awards on MTV. 50 Cent, meanwhile, is amid a streak of radio ubiquity with singles from his latest album, ''The Massacre,'' which, with 4 million copies sold, ranks as the best-selling album of the year so far, and he's soon to appear in his own movie and video game.  

Will Rap Fans Pay More and Fill the Arenas? A Tour Bets They Will

Deep Impact spacecraft slams into comet 83 million miles away, right on target; spacecraft travels at 23,000 miles an hour to hit nucleus of Tempel 1 comet; force of crash results in blast of icy debris, stunning scientists with its size and brightness; this culminates six-month journey for craft; NASA scientists had only one chance for collision with fast-moving target; because radio communications take more than seven minutes each way, spacecraft was on its own to complete mission; purpose of $333 million mission is to make most detailed study of comet to date; crash creates crater spewing primal material that makes up comet's core; material that will be analyzed could perhaps hold clue to formation of solar system 4.5 billion years ago; photo (M)

Spacecraft Hits Passing Comet, Just as Planned

It was just another murder in a city battered by crack and gun violence. A club bouncer was shot and killed, two men were convicted and most New Yorkers quickly forgot about the November 1990 shooting known as the Palladium murder.      But in the years since David Lemus and Olmado Hidalgo were sent away for 25 years to life, three unlikely souls -- a retired homicide detective, a freelance magazine editor and a former federal prosecutor -- have become champions of the men's innocence.   

Unlikely Champions of the Convicted

Pentagon considers whether to shape military to mount one, rather than two major wars at same time, freeing more resources for anti-terrorism efforts; profound change is being considered during top-to-bottom review of Pentagon strategy, as ordered by Congress every four years; it will determine future size of military and fate of hundreds of billions of dollars in new weapons; intense debate reflects growing recognition that current burden of maintaining forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with other demands of global campaign against terrorism, may force change in assumptions that have been foundation of all military planning; this is first time in decades that Pentagon has questioned wisdom of two-war strategy; photo (M)

Pentagon Weighs Strategy Change to Deter Terror

Two experienced sky divers were killed at a parachuting school in southern New Jersey yesterday afternoon after colliding in midair and hopelessly entangling their parachutes.     The two were jumping from an airplane with more than a dozen others at Freefall Adventures Skydiving School, based in Williamstown in Gloucester County. When they were about 150 feet aboveground, they collided and then fell to the ground at the Cross Keys Airport, where the school is run.  

Two Sky Divers in Fatal Tangle in New Jersey

 Sunni Group in Iraq Urges Members to Vote  A major Sunni group called on members to register for the next round of elections ''despite our reservations.'' Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the January elections, leaving the ethnic group that ruled Iraq until 2003 with little influence.   PAGE A8    Same-Sex Unions Supported  The United Church of Christ became the first mainline Christian denomination to support same-sex marriage officially when its general synod passed a resolution affirming equal marriage rights.   PAGE A10    Studies on Sex and Genes  A study has cast doubt on whether true bisexuality can exist, at least in men. Another survey has found that identical twins, despite having the same set of genes, grow less similar as they age.   SCIENCE TIMES    Nan Kempner Is Dead  A hostess and glittering fixture at social events and fashion shows for decades, she was 74.   PAGE B7

INSIDE

A Dilemma for T-Mobile: Invest Heavily or Cash Out

International flights are in record demand as summer travel season kicks off, and ticket prices, always high at this time of year, seem extra pricey compared with low fares at home; biggest push is to Europe, as Americans take advantage of euro's recent weakening; consumers who waited until now to book their international tickets can expect to pay minimum of $1,000 from New York to popular destinations like London and Paris; all major American companies, and some of big foreign airlines, have added new cities and extra flights, especially across Atlantic, hoping to capitalize on brief, but lucrative season for overseas vacation travel; present and upcoming flight expansions at major airlines, including United Airlines, Air France, Northwest, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, noted; charts (M)

Airlines Get Boost by Flying to Europe

IT was a glorious holiday inside Tampa, Fla., headquarters while up at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the Bombers batted in the second inning. The Boss wanted to express his gratitude, share his joy.     Gary Sheffield hit a three-run blast in the first inning off the Orioles' Bruce Chen, Hideki Matsui went deep, too, and now Jason Giambi was into his home run trot. With his team beginning to percolate in month No. 7, five runs were in, and the Boss, celebrating his 75th birthday, contemplated the karma.  

A Birthday Seesaw Ride for the Boss

Lance Armstrong finished 87th in the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, a significant result only because his ride was without incident, keeping the yellow jersey of the overall leader within arm's reach.     With a 42-mile team time trial scheduled for the fourth stage Tuesday, and only two seconds separating Armstrong from the leader, he appeared to be on the verge of slipping back into the attire that he has worn so often during his six-year reign as Tour de France champion.  

Cautious Armstrong Is Seeing Yellow

 Juicing the Game  Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball  By Howard Bryant  439 pages. Viking. $24.95.       In that magical summer and autumn of 1998, as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased each other in their pursuit of sports immortality, Major League Baseball's commissioner, Bud Selig, congratulated himself on overseeing ''a renaissance'' in the game. The two players' shattering of Roger Maris's home run record, along with the Yankees' gaudy 125-victory season, had re-ignited the interest of fans, even those disillusioned by the 1994 strike. Along with the boom in home runs, attendance skyrocketed, salaries soared and in the 10 years following the strike, 14 teams would move into new ballparks. In 1998, Howard Bryant writes in his compelling new book, ''the sport that once seemed to lack the ability to market itself had now become the singular sports story of the year, even dwarfing the retirement of the great Michael Jordan.''  

The Taint Baseball Couldn't Wish Away

Australian housing boom has come to halt in last two years, in move that many experts see as first signs of end to housing bubble, not just in Australia, but also in US as well as several other rich countries around world; despite predictions that housing prices in Australia would plummet by as much as 20 to 30 percent, there are no signs of crash; prices have leveled off or dropped slightly; graph; photo (M)

Hole in the Housing Bubble

If Hollywood was looking for some good news this weekend to relieve the drumbeat of despair over a box office malaise, it didn't find it.      Yes, the Steven Spielberg juggernaut ''War of the Worlds,'' a science-fiction spectacular starring Tom Cruise, opened strongly, taking in an estimated $113.3 million over six days in the United States and an estimated $102 million in 78 other countries around the world.  

Weak Sales Dampen Hollywood's Summer

Plan by developer Bruce C Ratner and architect Frank Gehry for new Nets arena in Brooklyn and for surrounding area would create dense urban skyline with 17 buildings, many 40 to 50 stories tall; this is largest project proposed outside Manhattan in decades; it includes much more housing than originaly announced in 2003; real impact would be in size and density of buildings, which are taller and bulkier than once envisioned; Brooklyn's often-intimate landscape would be transformed; project will come before Metropolitan Transportation Authority July 6 when Ratner makes his formal proposal to buy and develop Atlantic Ave railyards; project detailed; photos; map (L)

Instant Skyline Added to Brooklyn Arena Plan

The security plans are in place, the delivery efforts are under way and lawyers are standing by in case any copies of ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' go astray before 12:01 a.m. on July 16, the official time of release for the latest installment in the J.K. Rowling series.     There is only one thing left to do, in fact, in the days leading up to the release of 10.8 million copies of the Harry Potter book in this country and millions more around the globe.  

Test for Security Efforts: Next Harry Potter Book

Valerie Wilson, known to country by her maiden name Valerie Plame, returns to CIA in new job after being identified as covert officer; startled neighbors say they thought of her as 'working soccer mom' before her true job was revealed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak in 2003; her husband Joseph C Wilson IV interprets leak of his wife's CIA connection as act of vengeance from White House officials for his public accusations of Bush administration deceit in building case for Iraq war; former CIA officers differ on impact of Novak's identification of Valerie Wilson, who had been working against weapons proliferation in Europe posing as analyst for shell company set up by agency (M)

Frank Gehry's new design for a 21-acre corridor of high-rise towers anchored by the 19,000-seat Nets arena in Brooklyn may be the most important urban development plan proposed in New York City in decades. If it is approved, it will radically alter the Brooklyn skyline, reaffirming the borough's emergence as a legitimate cultural rival to Manhattan.  

Seeking First to Reinvent the Sports Arena, and Then Brooklyn

The first night out was fitful, scary even. After putting in at Helena, Ark., the homemade raft got caught up in the wash of the massive towboats that surrounded it on the Mississippi. The craft bounced along in the inky black, and then searing beams of light from the towboats began to strafe it, the captains wanting to see what manner of contraption was before them. The ragtag crew slept in terrified shifts, dodging the tugs and avoiding a ledge formed by a dike that threatened to pitch them into the mud, water and mayhem.     John Wray, 33, a Brooklyn author who dreamed up the idea of conducting a reading tour by raft to draw attention to his new novel, ''Canaan's Tongue'' (Alfred A. Knopf), wondered if the adventure -- a play for press and the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy -- might turn as gothic as the book it was meant to promote. The novel is a fictional rendering of John Murel, a real-life horse thief and itinerant preacher who came up with a scheme to lure slaves into an escape and then promptly resell them. It is lavishly annotated with blood and violence, much of which is set on the river between Louisiana and Mississippi, where Mr. Wray floated along last Tuesday and Wednesday with a reporter and photographer jammed on board the tiny raft, bringing the total crew to five.  

An Author Indulges His Inner Twain

Chevron's managers have gone into overdrive to portray Chinese government-backed offer for California-based Unocal as unfair competition and to close their deal for Unocal as quickly as possible; they have received support from many lawmakers in Washington, who have painted Chinese offer as threat to America's national security; Chevron must walk fine line between fending off China's bid for Unocal and risk of alienating China National Offshore Oil Corp, its largest partner in China; much is at stake for Chevron and its cautious chief executive, David J O'Reilly; graph; photo (M)

In Seeking Unocal, Chevron Ruffles an Asian Partner

The Mets were as much a prop in this Independence Day celebration as the Air Force Singing Sergeants who performed the national anthem and the military helicopters that flew over Robert F. Kennedy Stadium before the game.     The real attractions in town were the parade down Constitution Avenue, the fireworks at the National Mall and the first-place baseball team, merely another slice of local Americana.  

For the Mets, It's One Game in July

James Bond Stockdale was a United States Navy vice admiral and aviator who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War, during which he was a prisoner of war for over seven years.

July 5, 2005

Headlines from July 5, 2005

Private Spy and Public Spouse Live at Center of Leak Case

Victory a Long Time Coming for Patient Yankees

Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited

Seeing the City and Its Past by Starlight

Energy-Rich Nations Are Raising Price of Foreign Admittance

Billboard 200

X&Y

In Your Honor

Never Gone

The Emancipation Of Mimi

Monkey Business

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for July 5, 2005