July 11, 2005

Number of children needing foster care soars because of methamphetamine, which has created virtual orphans in rural areas without social services networks to support them; number of foster children is up 16 percent in Oklahoma and 12 percent in Kentucky from year ago, with overwhelming number of them taken from parents who are using or making methamphetamine; methamphetamine problem has existed for years, but state officials attribute spike in foster population in last year or two to growing awareness of drug problem; say it prompted more lab raids, and more citizens reporting suspected methamphetamine use; officials say methamphetamine's particularly potent and destructive nature and way it is often made in the home conspire against child welfare, making it harder to attract and keep foster parents because of many behavioral problems common in children of methamphetamine; photos (M)

British intelligence officials summon counterparts in United States and two dozen European allies to help in developing possible leads in worst terrorist attack in Britain since World War II; Britain is regarded by other European countries as often having access to more and better quality of intelligence because it is part of long-established, Anglophone intelligence-sharing agreement with US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; but European participants in meeting voice surprise at how little is known about these attacks, which hit three trains in London Underground and double-decker bus; unusual meeting indicates that British officials running complex inquiry are frustrated because they have had few breaks, few leads and no suspects in first 48 hours after attack, most important investigative period after any terrorist bombing (M)

About an hour into his All-Star Game break, George Steinbrenner marched into a Yankee Stadium elevator yesterday with his shades on, his chin up and his chest out. At last, his team also seemed stout. Winners of seven out of eight games, the Yankees must look just as he expected. ''The way they're playing right now, yeah,'' said Steinbrenner, the principal owner. ''Not the way they were playing before this.''

For a while, Ricky Williams was a character straight out of a Herman Melville short story, a modern-day Bartleby. He withdrew from the workaday world last July, telling his employer, the Miami Dolphins, that he preferred not to carry the football anymore. Unlike Bartleby, a copyist who starved himself to death rather than submit to a life of soul-crushing compromises and repetitious tasks, Williams reconsidered. His agent has said Williams will return to the Dolphins this month and resume running off tackle.

Dozens of recovery workers in heavy protective suits enter London subway tunnel, encountering nightmarish scene of mangled remains, twisted metal and hellish temperatures to recover body parts and search for clues in terrorist bombings; last of visible remains of 49 people known to have died in bombings have been pulled out, but job is not finished; police say more remains might be obscured, because some people may have been blown out of front of train and then run over as it skidded to halt; recovery workers are trying to crawl under cars from smaller tunnel opening beside train; above ground, Salvation Army and other groups keep watch for workers as they emerge, looking for signs of stress and grief and offering help; many workers are ordered to take time out for counseling before they go back down (M)