Sales of jeans with the beat-up look are booming on both sides of the Atlantic, making battered jeans a case study of global competition.

Yeah, They Torture Jeans. But It’s All for the Sake of Fashion.

The health care industry is providing support for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate re-election bid.

Once an Enemy, Health Industry Warms to Clinton

Many Iraqis say the worsening security crisis in Baghdad and neighboring provinces feels like a low-grade civil war.

Wave of Violence in Baghdad Puts 3-Day Death Toll Past 100

Some European biotechnology companies consider their science second to none, while conceding the superiority of American financial markets.

U.S. Finance Pulls Biotech Across Seas

This magnificent journey through the dark, comic landscape of one of the less celebrated Irish literary masters shouldn’t be missed. 

The Six-Play ‘DruidSynge’: Why Not Take All of Him?

Using age-old techniques, Mr. Kim creates complex compressions and layerings of time at the International Center of Photography.

In Atta Kim’s Long-Exposure Photographs, Real Time Is the Most Surreal of All

Will the 2008 Olympics enhance the city‘s ‘‘cultural heritage’’ or help finish off what remains of old Beijing? 

Olympics Imperil Historic Beijing Neighborhood

Reconnected by Hurricane Katrina, the duo crooned a complex and subtly powerful mixture of emotions at the Beacon Theater on Monday.

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint: A Bouncy Take on the Grim

Seven bomb blasts brought Mumbai, India’s financial capital, to a panicked standstill, resurrecting memories of past bloodbaths.

Series of Bombs Explode on 7 Trains in India, Killing Scores

Marco Turco's meticulous and angry documentary examines the effects of Mafia power on Sicilian society and on Italian political life in the 1980’s and early 90’s. 

‘Excellent Cadavers,’ an Italian Documentary, Dissects the Mafia

The Bush administration conceded for the first time that suspects had a right to protections under the Geneva Conventions.

White House Says Terror Detainees Hold Basic Rights

A database of targets is so flawed, inspectors said, that it lists more sites in Indiana than in New York or California.

Come One, Come All, Join the Terror Target List

Russia and the United States are racing to reach a deal this week that would allow Moscow into the World Trade Organization.

Russians and U.S. Push Hard on Trade

Like the waistlines of offensive linemen, N.F.L. staffs as well as those in other sports have been supersized in recent years.

Hold That Line, but Don’t Hesitate to Supersize the Coaching Staff

Don’t want to spend $200 and two and a half hours for dinner you reserved a month in advance? Get an affordable snapshot of what top chefs can do at these six  restaurant lounges.

Let's Hear It for the Lounge Act

American culture -- American cinema in particular -- has long had a soft spot for the Mafia. The colorful idioms of wiseguys have helped many a big-city newspaper columnist through a slow day, and the characteristic Cosa Nostra mix of Old World ethnic sentimentality and cutthroat capitalism has proved irresistible to artists of the big and small screens. It may be that this indulgent, even romantic mythology is a sign that organized crime has never posed a serious threat to the American social order, providing instead a rich trove of tabloid headlines and hard-boiled metaphors.     While not explicitly addressing Hollywood gangster folklore, ''Excellent Cadavers,'' a meticulous and angry new documentary, offers an implicit critique of the lovable-goombah view of organized crime. It does this by examining, in unflinching detail, the effects of Mafia power on Sicilian society and on Italian political life in the 1980's and early 90's.  

THERE'S not much magic left on Long Island, but there are a few things that remain -- the white ribbon of sand, the roiling crest of surf, the glorious beaches. They're the things that remind people that Long Island is, well, an island, a special place, not just an endless loop of concrete and cul-de-sacs.     So, yes, there were familiar notes from the Not In My Backyard aria on Monday night when hundreds of people packed a high school auditorium in West Babylon for the first public hearing on a proposal to build the nation's first offshore wind park off the south shore of Long Island.  

Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Beach

The White House conceded on Tuesday for the first time that terror suspects held by the United States had a right under international law to basic human and legal protections under the Geneva Conventions.      The statement reverses a position the White House had held since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, and it represents a victory for those within the administration who argued that the United States' refusal to extend Geneva protections to Qaeda prisoners was harming the country's standing abroad.  

Can the mystique of a British sports car be recreated by a Chinese company in America's heartland?     That's the bet by Nanjing Automobile Group, which plans to resurrect the fabled MG marque in a tricontinental demonstration of how truly global the automotive industry has become.  

Chinese Company Intends to Build MGs in Oklahoma

Manhattan restaurants Del Posto, Keens, Perry Street, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park and Nougatine at Jean Georges make good use of lounge spaces to offer sampling of formal restaurant menu for less expense; various menu offerings and dining experience described; photos (L)

When she tried to overhaul the nation's health care system as first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton alienated some people and institutions in the health care industry by championing a huge expansion of the federal role. She provoked a fierce reaction from the industry, which mocked her proposal in television advertisements and dispatched lobbyists who ultimately helped kill the plan.     But times change. As she runs for re-election to the Senate from New York this year and lays the groundwork for a possible presidential bid in 2008, Mrs. Clinton is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from doctors, hospitals, drug manufacturers and insurers. Nationwide, she is the No. 2 recipient of donations from the industry, trailing only Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a member of the Republican leadership.  

Giovanni Petrin remembers well his first efforts at beating up jeans.     Italian industrialists had visited Japan years ago to observe how the Japanese washed denim garments with small stones. ''So we took white stones from riverbeds here in the Veneto,'' said Mr. Petrin, referring to the northern Italian region where his jeans factory is situated. ''It destroyed the washing machines, and the jeans.''  

Yeah, They Torture Jeans. But Its All for the Sake of Fashion.

More than 50 people were killed in Baghdad on Tuesday in violence that included a double suicide bombing near busy entrances to the fortified Green Zone, scattered shootings, mortar attacks, a series of car bombs and the ambush of a bus with Shiite mourners returning from a burial.      Tuesday's killings, many of them apparently carried out with sectarian vengeance, raised the three-day death toll in the capital alone to well over 100, magnified the daunting challenges facing the new government and deepened a sense of dread among Iraqis.  

NFL teams are increasingly expanding coaching rosters to include more assistant and specialist coaches; photos (M)

Hold That Line, but Don't Hesitate to Supersize the Coaching Staff

When the Scottish economic development agency injected about $9 million into the biotechnology company Cyclacel last October, the country's enterprise minister explained that ''there could not be a more important company for Scotland's future.''      But only two months later, this flag-bearer for Scottish biotechnology said it would move its headquarters to Short Hills, N.J., and merge with a publicly traded American company.  

The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. It marked the third Israeli invasion into Lebanon since 1978.

July 12, 2006

Headlines from July 12, 2006

Yeah, They Torture Jeans. But It’s All for the Sake of Fashion.

Once an Enemy, Health Industry Warms to Clinton

Wave of Violence in Baghdad Puts 3-Day Death Toll Past 100

U.S. Finance Pulls Biotech Across Seas

The Six-Play ‘DruidSynge’: Why Not Take All of Him?

Billboard 200

Testimony: Vol. 1; Life & Relationship (Bonus Track Edition)

Dusk And Summer

Loose

Taking The Long Way

A Girl Like Me

Historical Events

Historical Context for July 12, 2006