July 23, 2005

In a dramatic turnaround that is almost certain to free a Bronx man who has been in prison for more than 13 years, the Manhattan district attorney's office announced yesterday that it was asking a judge to throw out the man's conviction for the murder of a bouncer outside the Palladium nightclub in 1990. Prosecutors said the conviction of Olmado Hidalgo should be overturned because new evidence that has surfaced would cause a jury to look more favorably on his case.

The brochure promised a challenging week of competitive swimming under the guidance of Fairfield University's illustrious swim coach William Farley and supervised night activities centered on team-building. But as campers at a Nike swim camp told the police, their time away from home was challenging for all the wrong reasons, and hardly supervised. Nine campers, ages 10 to 13, barricaded themselves into a Fairfield University dormitory room on their second night of camp after the coach's son, James, and other counselors who were responsible for them began drinking excessively, according to parents of the campers, the local police and campus security officers.

A rival bidder to Bruce Ratner, the developer, has made a $150 million cash offer for development rights at the Atlantic railyard in Downtown Brooklyn, three times the amount Mr. Ratner bid for the property, where he proposes a $3.5 billion tower complex that includes a basketball arena for the Nets, stores, parks and 6,000 apartments. The rival bid, made by the Extell Development Company, is a far more modest $1 billion proposal to build almost 2,000 apartments over the yard. Mr. Ratner, who also intends to acquire many of the parcels to the east of the yard, bid only $50 million for the development rights, according to documents released yesterday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Lance Armstrong smoothly moved a day closer to his coronation and retirement while spending a quiet Friday afternoon in the countryside as the Tour de France followed a script as inflexible as that of a Kabuki drama. ''You enjoy yourself when you know it's almost over,'' Armstrong, the leader of the Discovery Channel team, said Thursday, referring to his retirement on Sunday after the race concludes in Paris.

When the Yankees traded for Al Leiter last week, they hoped he would simply keep them in games. Leiter did better than that in his debut, pitching marvelously at Fenway Park to earn a victory. Leiter could not sustain that success on Friday at Angel Stadium, but he fulfilled the minimum requirement: after scuffling in the early innings, he kept the Yankees close. But there was no comeback against the Los Angeles Angels' hot bullpen, and the Yankees lost, 6-3.