Chicago Bulls player Ben Wallace prepares for regular season; photos (M)

Can Wallace Help Bulls Get Over a Michael Jordan Hangover?

Hykiem Coney, 24-year-old onetime gang leader who became anti-gang organizer in Hempstead, New York, dies after being shot outside bar; community mourns and holds rally against violence; local lawmakers call for more law enforcement and funding for outreach groups; photos (M)

In Violent End of a Life Reformed, a Legacy of Fear and Questions

Some of the nation’s big insurers are turning to Washington in a bid to gain protection against future catastrophic losses.

A Proposal for Federal Protection From Catastrophe Divides Insurers

As the U.S. toll for October rose to 101, Shiites said that American security cordons are limiting their ability to defend themselves.

Spate of Bombs Sweeps Baghdad; Cleric Faults U.S.

In his combative new book, an architect of U.S. antiterrorism policy makes the case for unfettered executive power in wartime.

What Torture Is and Isn’t: A Hard-Liner’s Argument

Violence sweeps Baghdad, and radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr blames Americans; 46 Iraqis are killed in six bombings, moderate Sunni Arab figure is gunned down and American toll for Oct rises to 102, highest since Jan 2005; security is controlled almost exclusively by American military, which has placed cordon around Sadr City in search for missing soldier; attacks in Sadr City are putting pressure on Prime Min Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to press for greater hand in security; Moktada al-Sadr threatens action if American cordon continues; residents of Sadr City claim cordon blocked movement of Sadr's Mahdi Army, making neighborhood less safe; attacks continue as American national security adviser Stephen J Hadley meets in Baghdad with Iraqi officials to discuss new American-Iraqi committee set up with aim of giving Iraqis more control over their troops; total Iraqi deaths reported for day is 81, including bodies found in rivers near Baghdad; photo (M)

Gaining seats could lay the groundwork for redrawing Congressional districts after the 2010 census.

Democrats Are Seen to Gain in Statehouse Races

More than 1,000 bands will perform over five nights in more than 60 clubs around Manhattan and Brooklyn during 26th annual CMJ Music Marathon; marathon is music-business convention devoted to independent musicians and bands who are all hoping that show will be their big break; 12,000 paticipants have signed up for events, panels and concerts and CMJ hopes to stretch event out into full week next year; photo (M)

Where ‘Every Band in the World’ Tries to Make It

Sarah Ruhl's strange grab bag of ideas and images  magically coheres to form one of the finest and funniest new plays you’re likely to see in New York this season.

Always Ready With a Joke, if Not a Feather Duster

Whitney Museum of American Art, after fighting for more than year to have addition to its Madison Avenue building approved, has decided that tower designed by architect Renzo Piano may not give museum sufficient additional space for price; has set its sights on location further downtown at entrance to High Line, abandoned railway that is to become esplanade; Upper East Side residents who were vehemently against Piano tower celebrate decision; photo (M)

Whitney Museum May Move Expansion to Downtown Site

Professional distance runners from around world training for major marathon season flock to Boulder, Colo, for high-altitude boost; competitors' schedules are dictated by agents; scene is more clannish than collegial as runners train in quiet isolation, guarding their strategies; various runners' camps operate in their own universes; scene described; photos (M)

In Boulder, Runners Gather in Guarded Isolation

The proposal would ban public institutions from considering race or sex in education, employment or contracting.

Race Preferences Vote Splits Michigan

Interior Dept drops claims that Chevron Corp systematically underpaid government for natural gas produced in Gulf of Mexico, decision that could allow other energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties; decision could make it easier for oil and gas companies to lower value of what they pump each year from federal property and thus their payments to government; Interior officials claim it would be useless to fight Chevron after appeals board ruled against auditors in separate case; but state governments and private landowners have challenged company over essentially same practices and reached settlements in which Chevron paid $70 million in additional royalties; in Chevron case, auditors in Minerals Management Service addressed issue that has bedeviled royalty enforcement for decades: how does government make sure it gets its due when companies sell natural gas to businesses they partly own; case detailed; photo; chart (M)

U.S. Drops Bid Over Royalties From Chevron

With polls showing a dead heat race, Thomas H. Kean Jr. and Senator Robert Menendez are strategically placing themselves around the state. 

Kean and Menendez Begin Final Appeals to Their Bases

Phoenix Suns player Amare Stoudemire prepares for regular season after knee surgery; photos (M)

Stoudemire Tries to Regain His Health and His Status With the Suns

President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, arrived in Baghdad to discuss how to pull Iraq back from the brink. Though his deputy said Mr. Hadley was chiefly expressing support, one option widely discussed before his trip, according to American and Iraqi officials, was a substantial troop increase in Baghdad by both countries.           Article, Page A10.  

Weighing Iraq Options

No one has invested more in Andrew Cuomo’s quest for office than his father, who seeks to rehabilitate the family name.

In Son’s Race, Father Sees Cuomo Comeback

IAC/InterActiveCorp's programming president has a Hollywood dominated résumé, which may provide some insight about future Internet ventures.

Diller’s Web: Think Cable of the Past

Marc D. Hauser has proposed that people are born with a moral grammar wired into their neural circuits by evolution.

An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong

Over the next five nights, more than 1,000 bands will perform in more than 60 clubs around Manhattan and Brooklyn for the 26th annual CMJ Music Marathon.

Dr Marc D Hauser, Harvard University biologist and author of book Moral Minds, discusses hypothesis that human morality is biological in origin; evidence to support theory is mostly indirect and comes from studies of animals and children; drawings (M)

The Pentagon runs a little-publicized giveaway and tag sale program to clean out excess equipment that ranges from jets to battleships, often free to America's allies.

Free to a Good Country

Securities and Exchange Commission files civil fraud charges against nine former executives of Delphi Corp, accusing them of manipulating company's finances to project healthy facade while it descended into bankruptcy; Delphi itself will not have to pay fine or admit defrauding investors under settlement reached with SEC, which cites company's cooperation with investigators; settlement will allow company to proceed with its reorganization; SEC charges 13 people, including former chief executive J T Battenberg III and former financial officer Alan S Dawes; photo (M)

S.E.C. Sues Ex-Officials of Delphi

The decision could allow oil and gas companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.

The museum has all but decided to scrap plans to build an addition to its Madison Avenue building. 

Pieter Willem Botha, was a South African politician who served as the last Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and as the first executive State President of South Africa from 1984 until his resignation in 1989. Nicknamed 'Die Groot Krokodil' due to his tough political stance, he was considered the final hardline leader of South Africa during the apartheid era.

P. W. Botha, South African soldier and politician, State President of South Africa (born 1916)

P._W._Botha

Peter Fryer was an English Marxist writer and journalist. Among his most influential works is the 1984 book Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain.

October 31, 2006

Headlines from October 31, 2006

Can Wallace Help Bulls Get Over a Michael Jordan Hangover?

In Violent End of a Life Reformed, a Legacy of Fear and Questions

A Proposal for Federal Protection From Catastrophe Divides Insurers

Spate of Bombs Sweeps Baghdad; Cleric Faults U.S.

What Torture Is and Isn’t: A Hard-Liner’s Argument

Billboard 200

Still The Same... Great Rock Classics Of Our Time

The Open Door

Rotten Apple

Take The Weather With You

Duets: An American Classic

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for October 31, 2006