In the hours before Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in court on Friday morning, rumors flew that prosecutors might drop the case against the former director of the International Monetary Fund. As first reported in the New York Times, prosecutors disclosed to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers on June 30 that the woman accusing him of trying to rape her in his hotel suite had lied to investigators on a number of occasions and that her credibility had come into question. Judge ...

A clinical psychologist practicing in Newcastle, Australia, Michael Currie has worked with adolescent boys and their families for 20 years. Much of his attention has centered on the anger that can consume boys during their high school years. Manifesting in the home as sullenness, disobedience and fierce assertions of independence, teen rage confuses and distresses parents, who often make matters worse with their clumsy, if well-meaning, attempts to address it. In his new book, Doing Anger Differently, ...

MOST Americans know the first Americans only by cliché. There is the 19th century image, caught in bronze and in lithograph, of the defeated warrior, head drooping forward so that his feathers nearly mingle with his pony's mane. The bow of his shoulders and the slump of his body evoke his loss of pride, of green and fertile lands, of earth's most favored continent. Then there is a recent image, often seen through air-conditioned automobile windows. Grinning shyly, the fat ...

The aging bosses seated at the defense table in the packed federal courtroom in lower Manhattan look harmless enough to be spectators at a Sunday-after noon boccie game. Anthony Salerno, 75, the reputed head of the Genovese crime family, sits aloof and alone, his left eye red and swollen from surgery. White-haired Anthony Corallo, 73, the alleged Lucchese family chief, is casual in a cardigan and sport shirt. Carmine Persico, 53, is the balding, baggy-eyed showman of ...

In a packed courtroom on the 13th floor of 100 Centre Street, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, dressed in a black suit, stood before Judge Michael J. Orbus and calmly said "not guilty." Although he didn't say much else, the defense that the former director of the IMF and his lawyers — who proclaimed his plea a "powerful statement" of his innocence — will now most likely begin building is that his encounter with the Sofitel employee was consensual. Early ...

Visitors board Simba One, an oversize tram that will take you on a safari through "the Serengeti grassland system," and as one fellow steps into the open-air vehicle, he asks, "Is it air-conditioned?" No, mate, this is reality. Real crocodiles lazing primordially below that rickety bridge. Actual cheetahs motoring their stretch-limo bodies across the savanna. Genuine loamy smell over there near the warthog. And real work for the travelers. The recorded voice at the start of the adventure ...

Here's a tale for our times. Last week Ali Abbas, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy who lost his arms during an air raid on Baghdad, continued his recuperation in a hospital in Kuwait, wearing a T shirt emblazoned with a picture of his hero, an English soccer star who was about to start a promotional tour of Japan after having just been traded to a Spanish club in a deal--vital to the fortunes of a German shoe company--that merited an editorial ...

When critics challenge Barack Obama's patriotism, his supporters have a ready reply: True patriotism has nothing to do with little flags on politicians' lapels. It's not about symbols; it's about actions. It's not about odes to American greatness; it's about taking on your government when it goes astray. But there Obama is, in his first TV advertisement of the general-election campaign, talking about his "deep and abiding faith in the country I love." And there, perched below his left shoulder, ...

The long-awaited trial of the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's drug death was delayed Monday for four months, with a judge saying defense lawyers needed additional preparation time to effectively represent their client. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he was more concerned with justice for Dr. Conrad Murray than with the speed of the proceedings. Murray, who had insisted on a speedy trial, waived that right and agreed to start jury selection anew on Sept. 8. ...

Europe had a new royal house last week. In Dublin newspapers appeared a personal pronouncement: "I, Prince Michael Neale, landowner, will assume the title of Prince of the Saltees at the conclusion of the war. Also I wish it to be known that no one will be permitted to enter the Saltee Islands without a permit issued by me." Anybody caught interfering with the millions of birds or their eggs which inhabit those islands will be severely dealt with.Prince Michael Neale is Eire's No. 1 ...