A once totalitarian system faces growing pressure from a population awakening to the power of organization.

Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool

Some Damaraland mole rats simply don't pull their weight.  

Why Industrious Rats Put Up With Lazy Ones

The move was a humiliating defeat for both President Jacques Chirac and his political protégé, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Chirac Will Rescind Labor Law That Caused Wide French Riots

The bodies of storm victims are still being discovered in New Orleans. In March alone there were nine.   

In Attics and Rubble, More Bodies and Questions

Salamanders can do it. Why not humans? Scientists try to harness the genes that let animals replace lost body parts.

Regrow Your Own

Richard Sandomir Sports Business column contends that New Jersey Nets are not financially solid team, despite changes for better made by new owner Bruce C Ratner; photo (M)

Nets' Chances Look Good; Books Don't

Steven Vitale, retired Port Authority police officer, is shot and killed in parking lot of Staten Island shopping center; police surround nearby home of suspect, retired New York City police officer, and are trying to persuade him to surrender (M)

Retired Officer Is Killed in Hail of Bullets at Staten Island Mall

 Lawyers Say DNA Clears Duke Lacrosse Players  Lawyers for 46 players on the Duke lacrosse team said DNA test results released by the state proved that none of the players raped a woman at a party last month. They called for the investigation to be dropped, but Michael B. Nifong, the district attorney for Durham County, N.C., said he would not do so.   SPORTSTUESDAY, PAGE D1    Italy's Election Up in the Air  The high-decibel elections ended in so tight a race that it was impossible to tell half a day after the polls closed whether Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi or his challenger, Romano Prodi, had won. Mr. Prodi claimed victory, but his opponents said he was premature.   PAGE A6    Union Leader Ordered to Jail  Roger Toussaint, the president of the city transit workers' union who led bus and subway workers in an illegal strike that left New Yorkers trudging for miles for three freezing days in December, was sentenced to 10 days in jail.   PAGE B1    SPECIAL TODAY    Retirement  Young workers who think that Social Security and pension plans will not support them later in life are trying to prepare themselves for being on their own then. Some are even saving.   SECTION G

INSIDE

James H Dean, chairman for Democracy for America, liberal grass-roots political action committee founded by his brother Howard Dean, chairman of Democratic National Party, endorses Ned Lamont in his bid to deny Sen Joseph I Lieberman Democratic nomination for re-election; Howard Dean has no comment (M)

Dean Is Mum, but Brother Backs a Lieberman Rival

It is hard to imagine a company sinking as low as Smith & Wesson, the legendary arms maker that equipped soldiers from the Civil War to Vietnam and 98 percent of American police forces.      Just two years ago, the company's chairman was found to be a convicted felon: he had failed to disclose spending 15 years in jail for armed robbery. Federal investigators were looking into accounting irregularities, and the company's stock was stuck at $1.50 a share.  

Smith & Wesson Is Fighting Its Way Back

Indiana Pacers defeat New York Knicks, 101-82; photo (M)

Francis Ignores Now And Focuses On Later

From the early days of the C.I.A. leak investigation in 2003, the Bush White House has insisted there was no effort to discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV, the man who emerged as the most damaging critic of the administration's case that Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons.     But now White House officials, and specifically President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, have been pitched back into the center of the nearly three-year controversy, this time because of a prosecutor's court filing in the case that asserts there was ''a strong desire by many, including multiple people in the White House,'' to undermine Mr. Wilson.  

With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight

President Jacques Chirac crumbled under pressure from students, unions, business executives and even some of his own party leaders on Monday, announcing that he would rescind a disputed youth labor law intended to make hiring more flexible.     The retreat was a humiliating political defeat for both Mr. Chirac and his political protégé, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, underscoring the paralysis of their center-right government 13 months before presidential elections.  

Scientists, involved in various areas of medical research, explore biology of regeneration in animals in hopes of translating process to human body parts; Jeremy Brockes, University College (London) regeneration researcher, says that much can be learned by looking at vertebrates that regenerate and holds that regenerative properties may be easier to manipulate than well-supported, but controversial stem cell applications; regeneration research, like stem cell research, is in early stage of development; animals that are able to regenerate described; photos; drawings; graph (L)

For the Walt Disney Company, plans to make television shows available free online are a way to bolster revenue by selling two sets of advertising -- TV commercials and online ads -- for a single show.      For advertisers, the online offerings represent an opportunity to capture the attention of particularly Web-savvy consumers who do not have the luxury of fast-forwarding through the ads as they can on a digital video recorder.  

Soon, Catch 'Lost' Online, a Day Later

It is common for multiple books on same subject to be published at same time, but sometimes it is calculation rather than coincidence that drives synchronicity as publishers want to cash in on hot topics in news and culture; this can also have negative consequences when publishers and authors must scramble to distinguish their books from pack, often altering release dates and marketing plans; some authors and publishers comment; photos (M)

Boston Mob, Party of 4: Authors Publish in Packs

Foreign tennis players often accept prize money in tournaments, which should prohibit them from playing NCAA college tennis; coaches are now complaining that many college players are actually professionals playing unfairly; photos (M)

Foreign Pros in College Tennis: On Top and Under Scrutiny

Berlin's fourth biennial features works by 84 artists and attracts 7,500 international art patrons on opening weekend; curators Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick comment on installations; photos; maps (M)

At Berlin Biennial, Art Fits Anywhere

Several research studies on 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire focus on exactly how and where greatest damage was caused during historic quake; computer simulations look at current city structures and predict where improvements need to be made to avoid loss of life and property if another quake should occur; research points to how areas comprised of filled-in land became liquid when severely shaken by waves and assesses current risk in same areas; accounts by witnesses in 1906 and current research discussed; map; photos (L)

The Ground Shook, a City Fell, and the Lessons Still Resound

This winter, Liu Xianhong's life was changed for the second time by her infection with AIDS.      The first time was seven years ago, when she discovered that she, along with her newborn son, had contracted the disease through an infusion of contaminated blood given to her during childbirth.  

Waving American flags and blue banners that read ''We Are America,'' throngs of cheering, chanting immigrants and their supporters converged on the nation's capital and in scores of other cities on Monday calling on Congress to offer legal status and citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.     The demonstrators marched under mostly clear blue skies with Spanish-language music blaring, street vendors selling ice cream and parents clinging to mischievous toddlers and the banners of their homelands.  

Immigrants Rally in Scores of Cities for Legal Status

Thousands of immigrants converge on New York City Hall Park to rally for citizenship; are diverse crowd showing unity for both legal and illegal immigrants; Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen Charles E Schumer speak of immigrants' contributions to New York; photo (M)

Eclectic Crowd Joins a Call for the Rights of Immigrants

Like many American teenagers, Julissa Vargas, 17, has a minimum-wage job in the fast-food industry -- but hers has an unusual geographic reach.      ''Would you like your Coke and orange juice medium or large?'' Ms. Vargas said into her headset to an unseen woman who was ordering breakfast from a drive-through line. She did not neglect the small details --''You Must Ask for Condiments,'' a sign next to her computer terminal instructs -- and wished the woman a wonderful day.  

The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

Michael Scantlebury and Nigel C Bennett of University of Pretoria lead study on eusocial behavior of Damaraland mole rats; research, which is published in journal Nature, finds that within rat caste system there is group of lazy mole rats that are only active when needed to aid in reproduction of species and appear to hold no other rank; photo (M)

Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, took the stand in his own defense on Monday and declared that he was ''absolutely innocent'' of charges that he conspired to defraud Enron. He vowed that he would fight the charges ''until the day I die.''     With his fellow defendant, the Enron founder Kenneth L. Lay, looking on and nodding and smiling, Mr. Skilling began his risky attempt to rebut charges that he orchestrated a scheme to deceive Enron's investors, while making millions of dollars from selling company stock when he knew the company was in deep financial straits.  

Skilling, on the Stand, Implies Fraud Was Unnecessary

DeShaun Dupree Holton, known professionally as Proof, was an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. During his career, he was a member of the groups 5 Elementz, Funky Cowboys, Promatic, Goon Sqwad, and D12. He was a close childhood friend of rapper Eminem, who also lived in Detroit. Proof was often a hype man rapper at Eminem's concerts.

DeShaun Holton, American rapper and actor (born 1973)

Proof_(rapper)

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the supreme leader. The first election was held in 1980 and was won by Abulhassan Banisadr. Masoud Pezeshkian currently serves as the president of Iran, after being elected in the 2024 Iranian presidential election and being officially endorsed by the supreme leader.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces Iran's claim to have successfully enriched uranium.

April 11, 2006

Headlines from April 11, 2006

Chinese Turn to Civic Power as a New Tool

Why Industrious Rats Put Up With Lazy Ones

Chirac Will Rescind Labor Law That Caused Wide French Riots

In Attics and Rubble, More Bodies and Questions

Regrow Your Own

Billboard 200

3121

High School Musical

Back To Bedlam

The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties

In My Own Words

Notable Deaths

Historical Events

Historical Context for April 11, 2006