March 1, 2006

New York Mets infielder Julio Franco discusses his diet as oldest player in Major Leagues at 47; photos (M).

New York City officials said yesterday that they had agreed to broad new measures to control the use of force by guards against inmates in city jails, including the use of blows to the head. The settlement with 22 inmates caps two decades of grinding legal battles; it is the first time reform measures -- already in place in some correction facilities -- will be applied citywide to reduce violence behind bars.

As Saddam Hussein watched quietly from the dock, prosecutors on Tuesday displayed what they said was his signature on orders of execution for 148 men and boys, some as young as 11, in what appeared to be the first evidence linking the former dictator to large-scale crimes since his trial began in October. The presentation was a striking turnaround for a trial that had been widely dismissed as a farce, with the defendants and their lawyers alternately refusing to appear and delivering angry tirades in court.

New York Knicks player Steve Francis looks to help turn struggling team around; photos (M)0

Gliding gracefully half a mile below sea level, two robotic submarines are part of an unusual repair job intended to restore much-needed oil resources to the nation's strained energy network. After two months spent digging and cutting and shuffling heavy equipment by remote control, their job should be done by early March. But the huge task of fixing the country's most important energy hub is far from over. Six months after Hurricane Katrina battered the gulf with 175-mile-an-hour winds and waves higher than eight-story buildings, more than a quarter of the region's oil output is still shut down.