July 19, 2005

Pres Bush reaches agreement with Prime Min Manmohan Singh for India to secure international help for its civilian nuclear reactors while retaining its nuclear arms; photos of two at White House; agreement, if approved by other nuclear countries and Congress, would remove ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to India that has been decades-long source of antagonism; India would obtain nuclear fuel and reactor components and in return allow international inspections and refrain from further weapons testing and arms transfers; Pakistan is likely to demand similar concessions; agreement is major step in administration campaign to improve ties (M)

German High Court Blocks Qaeda Suspect's Extradition In a ruling seen as a sharp blow to coordinated counterterrorism efforts in Europe, Germany's highest court refused to turn over a German citizen suspected of aiding Al Qaeda to Spain, arguing that a recent European agreement to streamline extradition procedures violated the rights of its citizens. PAGE A11 Bomb Victim Faces Attacker A woman who was injured in an abortion clinic bombing addressed the bomber, Eric Rudolph, before he was sentenced to two life terms, calling him a coward. PAGE A14 Report on Car Trunk Deaths Three boys who suffocated in a car trunk in Camden, N.J., last month were alive for at least 17 hours, and perhaps for as long as 33 hours, after they were trapped inside the vehicle, said a lawyer representing one of the boys' families. PAGE B1 Yankees Return to the Top On a night when their flaws nearly ruined them, the Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 11-10, to take over first place in the American League East. SPORTSTUESDAY, PAGE D1 Harder Road to 8th Grade Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to extend a policy now in place for struggling third and fifth graders by holding back failing seventh-grade students. PAGE B1

Charles Isherwood reviews Theater du Soleil production of Ariane Mnouchkine's two-part theater piece Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees), part of Lincoln Center Festival; photos (M)

Guidant Corp, already embroiled in controversy over recalls of heart devices, alerts doctors that nine of its older pacemaker models are prone to failing; some patients might need to have units replaced; alert covers 28,000 pacemakers made from November 1997 to October 2000, and still implanted in patients (M)

''Why is the sky blue?'' is a favorite question of children and physics teachers. A more subtle question is, ''Why is the sky not purple?'' The answer to the first question is that short-wavelength blue light bounces off air molecules more readily than long-wavelength red light, and that suffuses the sky with blue.