Low black turnout in the first round suggests that incumbent C. Ray Nagin faces major hurdles in a runoff.

Vote for Mayor Points to Change in New Orleans

Lawn mowers lack catalytic converters, but the dominant engine manufacturer vigorously opposes adding them.

A Greener Way to Cut the Grass Runs Afoul of a Powerful Lobby

Iraqis are wary of their new government, but seem to be clinging grimly to the battered hope for democracy.

Warily, Iraqis Investing Hope in New Leaders

Gazprom is not just a lucrative state-owned energy monopoly. It is also a powerful instrument of Kremlin policy, at home and abroad.

Workers' Paradise Is Rebranded as Kremlin Inc.

Virginia Heffernan Critic's Notebook reviews podcast The Ricky Gervais Show, which is available for download on iTunes and Audible; photo (M)

A Comic Expands His Persona via Podcast on 'The Ricky Gervais Show'

The seats in the Broadhurst Theater are no softer or wider than the ones in most Broadway houses, where the penalty for playgoing is almost always fanny fatigue. Yet for the entire, substantial length of the ''The History Boys,'' the madly enjoyable play by Alan Bennett that opened last night, you somehow feel nestled in a plump armchair that has been custom made for your body -- a perch that you are reluctant to leave, even after more than two and a half hours of sitting.     The components that induce such unexpected comfort are not ergonomic but theatrical, and of a seductive polish that New York audiences have seldom experienced of late. Granted, the themes and situations of this comic drama, imported with its original cast from the National Theater in London, about a battle for the hearts and minds of schoolboys preparing for their university entrance exams are not of a kind to put American theatergoers at instant ease.  

Rivals for Young Hearts and Minds in Alan Bennett's 'History Boys'

Series of police raids on March 31 that led to shuttering of 5 establishments and arrests of 20 people on drug charges has left many New York City bar and club owners feeling under seige; police say recent raids were prompted by complaints from local residents, but owners complain that calls to city's 311 hotline do not tell officials if calls are coming from hundreds of local residents or one disgruntled neighbor; some owners say that expecting large nightclubs with thousands of patrons to be drug-free is unrealistic and point out that most of arrests in March were for relatively small amounts of recreational drugs held by patrons; representative of SoHo Alliance, neighborhood group, says problems are so bad that residents are moving away; photo (M)

Clubs Feel Sting of Police Raids

 Eyes on November, Organizers Turn to Divisive Issues to Drive Voter Turnout  Democrats are pressing their support for embryonic stem cell research in Congressional races around the country, seeking to move back to center stage an issue they believe resonates with voters and to exploit a division among Republicans.   PAGE A12    About 50 prominent religious leaders have signed a petition in support of a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage. Organizers said it was, in part, an effort to revive the opposition to same-sex marriage that helped bring conservatives to the polls in 2004.   PAGE A12    History Class, With Audience  A new Broadway arrival takes place in an English school. In ''The History Boys'' -- starring Richard Griffiths, above, with Jamie Parker, left, and Andrew Knott -- the subject is history, and the object is to pass exams while balancing truth, spin and adolescence. A review by Ben Brantley.   THE ARTS, PAGE E1    Baker to Advise Bush on Iraq  James A. Baker III, secretary of state under the first President Bush, has been recruited to help the second President Bush find fresh ideas on Iraq, a role that is drawing comparisons to Dean Acheson's counseling of President Johnson during the Vietnam War.   PAGE A8    Rules With a Familiar Ring  William H. Swanson, chief executive of the military contractor Raytheon, has reaped publicity and praise with his list of 33 ''Unwritten Rules of Management.'' But it appears that he borrowed many of the rules from a book published in 1944.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    Bin Laden Audiotape  The leader of Al Qaeda accused the West of waging a war against Islam and urged his supporters to go to Sudan. He also sought to tap into the support among Arabs for Hamas, which Israel and the United States say is a terrorist organization.   PAGE A8    Nepal Crisis Taxes Hospital  The crisis in Nepal has overwhelmed the Katmandu Model Hospital. Too many emergency cases and too few supplies have strained staff and care.   PAGE A3    Billboards With Legs  A hotel Web site in the Netherlands has a novel approach to outdoor advertising, seen here outside of Joure. One town says the ads are illegal.   PAGE A11    Lay Expected to Take Stand  Kenneth L. Lay, a former chief executive of Enron, is expected to testify in his own defense today, hoping to persuade a jury that he is not guilty of fraud.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    F.D.A. Faulted on Safety  Disorganization, bureaucratic infighting and an inability to force drug makers to conduct needed safety tests have undercut efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to uncover drug dangers, government auditors say.   PAGE A12

INSIDE

William H. Swanson has become something of a management guru thanks to ''Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management.'' It is a compilation of folksy business advice from Mr. Swanson, the chief executive of Raytheon, that the company distributes as a free booklet. No. 3 in his list of 33 rules begins: ''Look for what is missing.''     What is missing from Mr. Swanson's 76-page booklet, as an engineer discovered last week, is any reference to what appears to be the source of many of his rules: the 1944 book ''The Unwritten Laws of Engineering'' by W. J. King, an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.  

Raytheon Chief's Management Rules Have a Familiar Ring

With a deadline looming in just three weeks, Medicare drug plans are expecting a surge of new enrollment that threatens to overwhelm already busy phone lines and leave beneficiaries struggling to figure out how to sign up for the new plan.     The telephone complications are among the latest round of problems that have left thousands of beneficiaries with large belated premium payments and raised questions about whether insurers are complying with federal standards.  

Deadline Near, Jams Are Seen for Drug Plan

Trial of Pakistani immigrant Shahawar Matin Siraj on charges of plotting to bomb Herald Square subway station in 2004 begins; is first involving New York City Police Department's Intelligence Division since it was granted expanded surveillance powers by Judge Charles S Haight Jr 2003; defense argues that paid police informant Osama Eldawoody, who made secret audio and video tapes of conversations with Siraj and James Elshafay, ensnared Siraj, who would not otherwise have become involved in plot (M)

Terror Case May Offer Clues Into Police Use of Informants

Some have automatic transmissions. Drink holders. Electrical outlets. That staple of the American suburb, the lawn mower, now has many features of a late-model car. But not a catalytic converter, a muscular piece of antipollution engineering. At least not yet.     So when Heidi Ramaekers mows her yard here in lush exurban Atlanta, she inhales the competing scents of spring: the damp sweetness of grass cuttings and an acrid chaser of hydrocarbons. Mix in some of the nitrogen oxides from her push mower's exhaust and cook it in the sun for a bit. Presto, she has made smog.  

New home for Caesar Augustus's Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, is inaugurated in Rome, despite fact that work is not finished on $24 million glass and marble structure designed by Richard Meier; museum has been 10 years in making and has been subject of controversy; inauguration is first time 2,000-year-old altar is available for public viewing in seven years; photos (M)

Richard Meier's New Home for the Ara Pacis, a Roman Treasure, Opens

THE Bush administration has been characterized as relentlessly pro-business, but that all depends on what business you are in.      Those involved in the journalism industry would never confuse the president for a friend. Last week, the long-running custody battle over state secrets, leaks and sources between the administration and the press broke out into public view, with each day bringing a new wrinkle to the deepening conflict. How secret should secrets be? Perhaps it depends on the secret.  

The Pulitzer, Now a Badge of Controversy

Memory Softens a Brother's Sadness

Jere Longman Reporter's Notebook on Paul Greengrass film United 93, which portrays actions of passengers aboard United Airlines flight 93 on Sept 11, 2001, that was hijacked by terrorist and eventually crashed; Greengrass worked closely with families of victims and used unknown actors to portray parts; film will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival (M)

Paul Greengrass's Filming of Flight 93's Story, Trying to Define Heroics

Like a dog that responds to high-frequency sounds, Martin N. Bandier has a knack for hearing music that goes unnoticed by most humans. Whether it is a few bars of a Burt Bacharach classic slipped into a car commercial or the wordless strains of a James Taylor cover piped into an elevator, Mr. Bandier, the chairman and co-chief executive of EMI Music Publishing, is astutely aware of his aural surroundings.      It is a talent that has served him and his company well. After attending ''Jackie Mason on Broadway,'' Mr. Bandier left the show in stitches but he could not help but wonder whether the producers had paid for the use of a half-dozen EMI-owned songs (among them ''New York, New York,'' and the theme from the film ''Rocky'') inserted between Mr. Mason's comic spiels.  

Music's Hottest Star: The Publisher

Selena Roberts Sports of The Times column contends that New York Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson and catcher Jorge Posada make good team; photo (M)2

To Beat Nature, The Yankees Should Nurture This Duo

Gov George E Pataki proposes final budget compromise that would restore less than half of $2.9 billion in spending that his vetoes cut in current fiscal year; Pataki's plan would restore some property tax breaks and child tax credits and reduce Medicaid costs; legislative leaders are unlikely to accommodate governor and legal battle could be looming over $112.8 billion budget (M)

Pataki Offers Deal to Avert Budget Fight

On the cusp of their first permanent government since the American-led invasion, Iraqis are not exactly celebrating. Rather, they seem to be gritting their teeth and clinging grimly to the battered hope for democracy, even in what many see as a strange and uncomfortable incarnation.      Iraq, said one Baghdad doctor, is a drowning man, and the prime minister-designate a floating plank.  

Here in the Caucasus, above Sochi, Russia's only subtropical city, an elite ski resort is rising beside the Layura River. The resort, a multimillion-dollar project with a hotel and conference center, cottages, six lifts and miles of trails, is a centerpiece of Sochi's improbable bid for the Winter Olympic Games of 2014.     Even more improbable is the project's developer: Russia's state gas monopoly, Gazprom.  

Cendant is planning to put its travel business, which includes Orbitz, CheapTickets.com and Galileo International, up for sale today, according to people briefed on the company's plans. The unit is expected to be sold for more than $4 billion, analysts said.     The sale of the travel business, recently renamed Travelport, would be a shift for Cendant, which had been set to spin off the unit as part of a larger plan announced last October to break up the entire conglomerate into four separate publicly traded companies.  

Cendant May Put Travel Unit Up for Sale

Indiana Pacers defeat New Jersey Nets, 90-88, to lead first-round playoff series, 1-0; photos (M)

Nets Have Trouble Locating the Basket

Three Long Island brothers who prefer not to be identified are last remaining members of Adolf Hitler's paternal bloodline; their father was William Patrick Hitler, son of Alois Hitler Jr, Adolf Hitler's half-brother; despite efforts to live quietly, brothers face limelight as new play Little Willy, based on their father's life, opens in Manhattan; photos (M)

Three Quiet Brothers on Long Island, All of Them Related to Hitler

Mayor C. Ray Nagin may have led Saturday's mayoral election, but he now faces a popular and better-financed opponent on a political landscape utterly changed by Hurricane Katrina, one in which the long-running dominance of the city's black vote has been significantly reduced.     Black residents, whose neighborhoods were the most devastated by the storm, voted in much smaller numbers than whites did on Saturday, even more so than usual. White turnout is usually higher than black turnout, but the gap was about double what it is normally, analysts said Sunday.  

Brian Leslie Labone was an English footballer who played for and captained Everton. A one-club man, Labone's professional career lasted from 1958 to 1971, during which he won the Football League championship twice and the FA Cup once. He also played 26 times for the England national team.

Brian Labone, English footballer (born 1940)

Brian_Labone

Moshe (Moses) Teitelbaum was a Hasidic rebbe and the world leader of the Satmar Hasidim.

Moshe Teitelbaum, Romanian-American rabbi and author (born 1914)

Moshe_Teitelbaum_(Satmar)

The Dahab bombings of 24 April 2006 were three bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab, in the Sinai Peninsula. The resort town is popular with Western tourists and Egyptians alike during the holiday season.

Bombings in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kill 23 people and injure about 80.

April 24, 2006

Headlines from April 24, 2006

Vote for Mayor Points to Change in New Orleans

A Greener Way to Cut the Grass Runs Afoul of a Powerful Lobby

Warily, Iraqis Investing Hope in New Leaders

Workers' Paradise Is Rebranded as Kremlin Inc.

A Comic Expands His Persona via Podcast on 'The Ricky Gervais Show'

Billboard 200

Me And My Gang

NOW 21

King

High School Musical

Greatest Hits Vol 2: Reflected

Notable Deaths

Historical Events

Historical Context for April 24, 2006