Daily online newspaper: The Christian Science Monitor

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

WORLD

China's Hu: well liked, little known
His humility and genial persona are popular, but his status, habits, life, and advisers remain a mystery.

Clashes worsen Somalian food crisis as drought sets in
Fighting between warlords and extremists compounds the country's notorious security woes.

Egyptian riots reveal wide religious divide
Muslims and Christians in Alexandria have called for calm after two days of clashes.

My Afghan fitness guru
This gym-shunning reporter forms an unlikely bond that makes Islamabad feel more like home.

Reporters on the Job

USA

Flap over pet projects roils GOP
The party is split over curbing spending in the face of wartime commitments and record deficits.

Why so high? Oil markets riding new currents.
A barrel of oil tops $70 - but some analysts say prices may be near a peak.

Between New Yorkers and New York: the doorman
With a strike looming, residents wonder whether doormen are city necessities or expensive nuisances.

Duke lacrosse case: No DNA, but old-fashioned sleuthing
The case is becoming a public gauge of just how important - or unimportant - DNA evidence really is.

Illinois jury says no more politics as usual
The fraud conviction of a former GOP governor plays into November's election as the party aims for a rebound.

Should oldest US nuke plant stay on line?
New Jersey says the plant is too vulnerable to terrorist attack to have its license renewed.

Backstory: Those whom the river beckons
Towboat life pays high school grads well, but it is physically draining and hard on family.

COMMENTARY

Hiring illegals is just as illegal
An immigration reform package must include enforcement of laws against hiring illegal workers.

External forces on Iraq's new government
The US and Iran should put their interests aside and work together to stabilize Iraq.

The immigration issue won't be solved through politics
Borders must be better policed, but deportation of illegal migrants is impractical.

Vacations: Yours, mine, and ours
Increasingly, 'I do' doesn't mean 'we do' everything - including vacations - in lock step.

Letters to the Editor

WORK & MONEY

Even those of modest means can afford a financial planner
Some charge an hourly fee rather than working on commission, making sound advice easier to obtain.

Time horizon will help you determine when to make a move on I bonds
Our personal-finance expert tracks down the answers you need.

A Week's Worth
Work & Money news briefs.

When the Tax Man cometh, they don't answer the bell
An estimated 10,000 Americans are refusing to pay their federal taxes this year in protest of US military power.

Banking on the world
Resilience and growth are adding luster to global equity funds.

When fund performance lags, look for signs of 'asset bloat'
Oversized funds often can't buy or sell meaningful positions in a stock rapidly enough.

LEARNING

Colleges volunteer financial aid for returning soldiers
Schools are offering education, training, and jobs to a group whose transition to civilian life can be challenging.

LIVING

A captive audience for salvation
A for-profit prison company stirs hope - and church-state issues - partnering with Evangelical Christian ministries.

Chefs offer their freshest picks for spring
Hearty soups move to the back burner as peas, morels, and fiddleheads take center stage.

Christian mavericks find affirmation in ancient heresies
The Gospel of Judas, unveiled last week, is striking a chord with progressive Christians.

Backstory: An ode to Wal-Mart
Where else but a the big-box behemoth can you still get 'Frankenberry'?

Where women build new lives
For those with a history of prostitution and drug abuse, the Magdalene community offers a second chance.

Download a tour, then tour downtown
Many young people are replacing traditional city and museum tours with downloadable 'podcast walks.'

Divorce's shadow: when older parents need help
A dissolved marriage can impact everything from caregiving to questions about loyalty and inheritance.

Confusion remains as drug-plan deadline nears
To maximize savings, some seniors must sign up - and choose from dozens of different insurance plans - by May 15.

Backstory: A teen hijabi comes of age
Sarah Ismail is one of a growing number of Muslim American teens who wear a head scarf.

Backstory: Cheese whizzes
At the 'Olympics' of cheese, judges sniff, poke, and chew to determine the world's best variety.

In Ipswich, a return to the 17th century
The Monitor's Teresa Mendez spent the weekend in Ipswich, Mass.

A place for young achievers to connect
A free online magazine caters to people from four different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Backstory: Rocky mountain sigh as slow-lane life speeds up
Small towns wrestle with how to prosper year round without becoming part of boutique America.

SCI/TECH

Avian-flu concerns push bans on drugs for animals
Health officials worry that use of antibiotics on farm animals will help lead to 'super bugs' resistant to drugs.

A year's worth of audio oddities
Completed in 2003, the 365 Days Project can't compete with the iTunes Music Store for size, but it easily wins in the field of obscurity.

California tackles greenhouse emissions
Companies could reap huge financial rewards, some say, but others see a net loss of jobs.

Etiquette's electronic frontier
Tech gadgets at work may raise productivity, but they also can raise the ire of coworkers.

Searching the stars, hoping ET left the lights on
A new telescope dedicated exclusively to SETI highlights the project's growing respectability.

Games: 'Brain Age'
The hottest new title arriving from Japan is designed to stretch, train, and expand mental abilities.

Original music goes mobile
A new service allows emerging musicians to create melodies for cellphone alerts.

Historians strive to save old sounds
The early precursors of vinyl records and compact discs are seeing rebirth in digitalization.

On the horizon
News from the frontiers of science.

Two computers in one: put a PC in your Mac
Apple's 'Boot Camp' allows Windows XP to be installed on Intel-equipped Macintosh computers.

When news was sung or stuck to a wall
An online collection of Scottish broadsides, printed between 1650 and 1910, reveals interesting parallels to today's media and its audience.

Venus Express zooms toward new finds about Earth's twin
The spacecraft will soon begin probing Venus's atmosphere - and could answer questions about life on other planets.

TV enters a new universe
In a major shift, the Web is surpassing television as the destination for original programming.

As water rises, a valley tested on past lessons
Many are closely watching the dozens of new systems put in place since the Red River flooded in 1997.

Fossil fills gap in move from sea to land
New findings in Canada, coming out Thursday, show an ancient fish that could lift itself up.

New case for regulating CO2 emissions
A report finds progress in fighting air pollution and suggests that could hold for carbon dioxide, too.

Mysterious microbes trade genes
Their ability to adapt to changing environments is rewriting the rules of how marine microbes interact and evolve.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The man who faked Rockwell
An exclusive tour of the home where a lost painting was discovered behind a false wall.

Who's best in the NBA? Let the debate begin.
It's LeBron. No, it's Kobe. No it's....

Into it: Alexander McCall Smith
We asked the author of the 'No. 1 Ladies Detective' series what he's watching, reading, and listening to.

Noteworthy CDs
Reviews of three distinctly different new releases.

Monitor Picks
Five things we think you'll really like.

Tubegazing: King of Cars
A new show on A&E; introduces viewers to the Harlem Globetrotters of the car dealer trade.

Bio-pic glosses over sleaze
'The Notorious Bettie Page' sanitizes the life of the famous model.

Quirky British comedy may not be a shoo-in
'Kinky Boots' isn't stellar, but the performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor certainly is.

Movie Guide
Capsule reviews of new releases.

Pink Floyd guitarist hasn't hit the wall
David Gilmour's new tour, 'On an island,' kicked off last week in Radio City Music Hall.

A British singer rooted in American soul
James Hunter spent decades toiling in near obscurity. Now his classic R&B; is finally getting heard.

Bold designs, simple materials
Paulo Mendes da Rocha has won the 2006 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Backstory: Remember when running was simple?
The market for the sport has seen an explosion - in accessories, apparel, and outlets selling them.

BOOKS

A poet who celebrates the joy of verse
X.J. Kennedy has cast a long shadow as poet, editor, teacher - and loving advocate of verse.

A fascinating journey with two women poets
Szymborska's work makes imaginative leaps, while Hirshfield's is analytical.

Poetry sharpened by wisdom
In Czeslaw Milosz's verse, keen intellect is blended with hope.

In all details of life, she finds grace
Barbara Crooker's carefully observed verse moves from darkness to the light.

A roundup of bestselling poetry books
Reviews of five bestselling poetry books - a segment often overlooked in the book world.

Lit bits
Poetry notes & news from around the world.

How religious did they expect us to be?
America's Founding Fathers were comfortable with both the Christian and the secular, argues this journalist.

She promised to wait and so she did
In this novel, a Russian woman keeps a lifelong vigil for a soldier who never came home from the war.

CSI: Sherlock Holmes?
How the fictional detective meshed with the forensic science of his times.

She taught even Washingtonians to be civil
More than just a gracious hostess, Dolley Madison helped unify a young nation.

In search of a broader context for US history
A historian argues that the US is best seen as part of a global puzzle.

A life shaped by a larger cause
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka chronicles his adult life in the second half of his memoirs.

Readers' picks
What are you reading?

Page turners: 'Quite Honestly'
'Rumpole of the Bailey' author John Mortimer serves up light satire, with a little larceny on the side.

THE HOME FORUM

American Life in Poetry
A column by the poet laureate of the US.

A quick quiz to jump-start the day
Fill in the blanks with things that jump or are jumped over, on, or through.

How my readers keep me on my toes
Writing for the Monitor feels like being part of a global conversation.

V drills, square plays - and a real team win
When her youth soccer team started losing, it came time to focus on the small but important wins.

Finding faith in prison
A volunteer in a prison finds God-given dignity and integrity.