Officials have begun studying ways that other airports could help relieve congestion in the skies over New York.

New York Fliers May Get Choice a Bit Farther Out

Tucked in a remote river valley in Arizona is a "life care facility" for some 450 parrots, cockatoos and macaws.

A Retirement Villa for Chattering Birds

China has turned to its Asian neighbors to satisfy its need for raw materials, often at enormous environmental cost.

Forests in Southeast Asia Fall to Prosperity's Ax

President Bush signaled that he stands with conservatives on the Spanish version of the national anthem.

Bush Enters Anthem Fight on Language

Grants of discounted stock options are yet another way some top executives have insulated themselves from the market forces affecting their equity pay.

Stock Options at Wholesale

Pfizer resumes ads for controversial painkiller Celebrex, adding boldface warnings that drug may increase chance of fatal heart attack or stroke; new print campaign raises ire of consumer groups, who say Celebrex is so dangerous that Pfizer should stop selling it, not encourage patients to use it (M)

Celebrex Ads Are Back, Dire Warnings and All

A Life Filled With Trouble Comes to a Sad End

Never a Featured Back, Not Yet on the Marquee

Pres Bush, commenting on new Spanish version of national anthem, says immigrants who want to be citizens should sing anthem in English; his statement is seen as signal to conservatives that he stands with them on what many see as clash between national identity and multiculturalism; song, Nuestro Himno, which includes some departures from original lyrics, is distributed to Spanish-language radio stations, many of which have been encouraging huge numbers of protesters to take to streets; it is released by Urban Box Office Records; Adam Kidron is label's chief executive; photos (M)

Roger Toussaint, president of transit workers' union in New York City, leaves jail after serving nearly 4 days of his 10-day sentence for leading illegal strike in December; says state's Taylor Law, which governs public employee unions and prohibits them from striking, is unjust and needs to be fixed; says law has no consequences for employers who negotiate in bad faith or fail to resolve contracts in timely manner; photo (M)

Union Leader, Out of Jail, Vows to Fight No-Strike Law

International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has curtailed cooperation with nuclear inspectors and has sped forward with its nuclear enrichment; Iran's failure to comply with Security Council deadline to freeze all nuclear fuel enrichment all but guarantees struggle in Council over how to contain country's nuclear ambitions; Iran vows to resist outside pressure; demands that world acknowledge that it has legal right to enrich uranium under terms of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and start negotiations from there; Pres Bush says Iran's intransigence is not acceptable (M)

U.N. Agency Says Iran Falls Short on Nuclear Data

Aviation officials are worried about looming traffic jam in skies over New York City; they are studying ways that other airports, some over 60 miles from Midtown Manhattan, could help relieve congestion; Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executives are considering range of incremental improvements that would allow them to squeeze more planes and passengers through La Guardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports; Port Authority chmn Anthony R Coscia says time has come to start creating another major airport to serve metropolitan area; photo; graph (M)

Houston Texans sign defensive back Mario Williams to six-year, $54 million contract, making him No.1 draft pick; photos (M)

Opting for Defense, the Texans Pass on Bush

Buddhists meditate at cadaver exhibit at South Street Seaport in New York City; Asian monks traditionally contemplate transience and preciousness of life on charred ground among bodies decomposing and festering in open air; photos (M)

Calming the Mind Among Bodies Laid Bare

Joe Nocera column on Nicholas Negroponte, who has given up his Wired column and stepped down as head of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab in order to create and mass-produce computer that will cost $100; Negroponte, through nonprofit One Laptop per Child, hopes governments in developing world will buy laptops in bulk for poorest of poor children, thus revolutionizing way children learn; aim is to help raise living standards all over world; photo (M)

Computer CARE Packages

Crude oil has become valuable financial asset, bought and sold in electronic exchanges by traders around world who have helped to push prices higher; hedge funds and other investors have helped propel crude oil prices from around $50 a barrel at end of 2005 to record of $75.17 on New York Mercantile Exchange last week; high energy prices may be political liability for Bush administration, but for outside investors, resurgence in oil market has been golden opportunity; photo (M)

Trading Frenzy Adding to Rise in Price of Oil

Article on little-known use of discounted stock options at dozens of companies, where spike in stock price is not required for executives to reap big rewards; says while regulatory changes have stopped most companies from issuing new discounted options, executives continue to benefit as previous awards vest; photo; graph (M)

Arrests of more than 1,180 employees of IFCO Systems of North America as illegal immigrants send panic through immigrant communities nationwide; officials in New Jersey and Long island receive flood of hysterical inquiries about rumors of raids at specific construction sites, stores and factories (M)

Immigrants Panicked by Rumors of Raids

Damon Darlin Your Money column questions soundness of doing major or even minor renovations to homes in order to increase profit; annual Cost vs Value Report in construction trade magazine Remodeling shows just how few projects yield positive rate of return; photos (M)

Renovating With Profit in Mind? It Just Might Not Pay

Indonesia has signed deal with China that will level much of remaining tropical forests in area so vital it is sometimes called lungs of Southeast Asia; deal is double bounty for China: wood from forest will provide flooring and furniture for its expanding middle class, and in its place will grow vast plantations for palm oil, increasingly popular ingredient in detergents, soaps and lipstick; forest-to-palm-oil deal, one of array of projects that China says it will develop in Indonesia as part of $7 billion investment spree last year, illustrates increasingly symbiotic relationship between China's need for wide variety of raw materials, and its Asian neighbors' readiness to provide them, often at enormous environmental cost; map; photos (M)

Republican New York State senators are angry with Gov George E Pataki for declaring he will not be sending out property tax rebate checks this year because Legislature's tax rebate plan, which altered similar plan he had proposed in several key respects, was unconstitutional and void; some had sent out mailings to constituents trumpeting rebates and now feel that Pataki has left them twisting in the wind (M)

Your Check Isn't in the Mail, and Your Senator's Angry

Probe into whether lawyers at Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman used illegal tactics takes turn after retired real estate mortgage broker Howard Vogel agrees to plead guilty and cooperate; Vogel says he received nearly $2.5 million in kickbacks for agreeing to be, or having family member agree to be, lead plaintiff in 40 cases; charges have yet to be filed against firm or any of its lawyers (M)

Case Turns Toward Law Firm

New York Mets defeat Atlanta Braves, 5-2; photo (M)

Aces Match Up, And Martínez Trumps Smoltz

 U.N. Agency Cuts Rations To Sudan Victims in Half  The World Food Program said it would have to reduce by half the amount of food it has been providing to refugees displaced by the conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan because it had received just a third of the $746 million it had requested from donor nations.   PAGE A3    Limbaugh Settles Drug Case  The radio host Rush Limbaugh has reached a settlement with Florida prosecutors in a case involving prescription painkillers.   PAGE A12    Mexico Legalizes Some Drugs  The Mexican Congress passed a law aimed at combating street dealers while allowing the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and marijuana.   PAGE A7    Inquiry Into Ex-F.D.A. Chief  A grand jury will question a former commissioner of food and drugs, Lester M. Crawford, over his finances, his lawyer said.   PAGE A9    The Return of Rosie  Rosie O'Donnell will return to daytime television this fall as a co-host of ''The View'' on ABC, replacing Meredith Vieira, who is joining ''Today'' on NBC.   THE ARTS, PAGE B7    No Delay for Shuttle Flight  Despite concerns about debris from the external fuel tanks, NASA has decided to fly the shuttle Discovery in July as planned.   PAGE A9    THIS WEEKEND    Literature's Labors Lost  ''The Book of Lost Books,'' by Stuart Kelly, surveys literary works that disappeared, were destroyed or were simply never written.       Also: The Russian oligarch in Gary Shteyngart's ''Absurdistan'' wants nothing more than to gorge again at the great American buffet and reunite with his Bronx girlfriend.   BOOK REVIEW    A Grand Exit  As Joseph Volpe, the impresario of the Metropolitan Opera, prepares to retire, he is framing the final impressions of his legacy, including a marathon gala he has largely shaped.   ARTS & LEISURE    Playwright at the End of the World  As he neared his 78th birthday, Edward Albee traveled to Easter Island, a journey nearly 50 years in the making.   TRAVEL    The Muslim Televangelist  Amr Khaled combines conservative Islam with Western style, and millions of people in the Middle East have been tuning in.   MAGAZINE

INSIDE

Oasis Sanctuary is 'life care facility' for 450 parrots, cockatoos and other tropical birds in Arizona desert that was founded by Sybil Erden in 1998; she says many of birds have life spans of 80 years or longer, and have outlived their human caretakers; says others reached end of their productivity as commercial breeders and faced euthanasia; she wants to expand and improve sanctuary, whose $250,000-a-year budget is financed by donations; photos (M)

Xochitl Fiona Gomez-Deines is an American actress. She began acting at age five, performing in local musical theater productions and student films. Gomez made her professional debut in 2018 in Raven's Home. She starred in the first season of the Netflix comedy series The Baby-Sitters Club (2020), and gained wider recognition for playing America Chavez in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). In 2023, she won season 32 of Dancing with the Stars.

Xochitl Gomez, American actress

Xochitl_Gomez

John Kenneth Galbraith, also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s. As an economist, he leaned toward post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective. He served as the deputy director of the powerful Office of Price Administration (OPA) during World War II in charge of stabilizing all prices, wages and rents in the American economy, to combat the threat of inflation and hoarding during a time of shortages and rationing, a task which was successfully accomplished.

April 29, 2006

Headlines from April 29, 2006

New York Fliers May Get Choice a Bit Farther Out

A Retirement Villa for Chattering Birds

Forests in Southeast Asia Fall to Prosperity's Ax

Bush Enters Anthem Fight on Language

Stock Options at Wholesale

Billboard 200

Me And My Gang

White Trash With Money

NOW 21

High School Musical

King

Notable Births

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 29, 2006