He drew pictures of himself with angel wings .

He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment .

He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital .

Then he began to write what would become a 200-page journal for our son , in case he did not make it back from the desert in Iraq .

For months before my fiancé , First Sgt . Charles Monroe King , kissed my swollen stomach and said goodbye , he had been preparing for the beginning of the life we had created and for the end of his own .

He boarded a plane in December 2005 with two missions , really -- to lead his young soldiers in combat and to prepare our boy for a life without him .

Dear son , Charles wrote on the last page of the journal , `` I hope this book is somewhat helpful to you .

Please forgive me for the poor handwriting and grammar .

I tried to finish this book before I was deployed to Iraq .

It has to be something special to you .

I 've been writing it in the states , Kuwait and Iraq .

The journal will have to speak for Charles now .

He was killed Oct . 14 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his armored vehicle in Baghdad .

Charles , 48 , had been assigned to the Army 's First Battalion , 67th Armored Regiment , Fourth Infantry Division , based in Fort Hood , Tex .

He was a month from completing his tour of duty .

For our son 's first Christmas , Charles had hoped to take him on a carriage ride through Central Park .

Instead , Jordan , now 9 months old , and I snuggled under a blanket in a horse-drawn buggy .

The driver seemed puzzled about why I was riding alone with a baby and crying on Christmas Day .

I told him .

`` No charge , '' he said at the end of the ride , an act of kindness in a city that can magnify loneliness .

On paper , Charles revealed himself in a way he rarely did in person .

He thought hard about what to say to a son who would have no memory of him .

Even if Jordan will never hear the cadence of his father 's voice , he will know the wisdom of his words .

Never be ashamed to cry .

No man is too good to get on his knee and humble himself to God .

Follow your heart and look for the strength of a woman .

Charles tried to anticipate questions in the years to come .

Favorite team .

I am a diehard Cleveland Browns fan .

Favorite meal .

Chicken , fried or baked , candied yams , collard greens and cornbread .

Childhood chores .

Shoveling snow and cutting grass .

First kiss .

Eighth grade .

In neat block letters , he wrote about faith and failure , heartache and hope .

He offered tips on how to behave on a date and where to hide money on vacation .

Rainy days have their pleasures , he noted : Every now and then you get lucky and catch a rainbow .

Charles mailed the book to me in July , after one of his soldiers was killed and he had recovered the body from a tank .

The journal was incomplete , but the horror of the young man 's death shook Charles so deeply that he wanted to send it even though he had more to say .

He finished it when he came home on a two-week leave in August to meet Jordan , then 5 months old .

He was so intoxicated by love for his son that he barely slept , instead keeping vigil over the baby .

I can fill in some of the blanks left for Jordan about his father .

When we met in my hometown of Radcliff , Ky . , near Fort Knox , I did not consider Charles my type at first .

He was bashful , a homebody and got his news from television rather than newspapers -LRB- heresy , since I 'm a New York Times editor -RRB- .

But he won me over .

One day a couple of years ago , I pulled out a list of the traits I wanted in a husband and realized that Charles had almost all of them .

He rose early to begin each day with prayers and a list of goals that he ticked off as he accomplished them .

He was meticulous , even insisting on doing my ironing because he deemed my wrinkle-removing skills deficient .

His rock-hard warrior 's body made him appear tough , but he had a tender heart .

He doted on Christina , now 16 , his daughter from a marriage that ended in divorce .

He made her blush when he showed her a tattoo with her name on his arm .

Toward women , he displayed an old-fashioned chivalry , something he expected of our son .

Remember who taught you to speak , to walk and to be a gentleman , he wrote to Jordan in his journal .

These are your first teachers , my little prince .

Protect them , embrace them and always treat them like a queen .

Though as a black man he sometimes felt the sting of discrimination , Charles betrayed no bitterness .

It 's not fair to judge someone by the color of their skin , where they 're raised or their religious beliefs , he wrote .

Appreciate people for who they are and learn from their differences .

He had his faults , of course .

Charles could be moody , easily wounded and infuriatingly quiet , especially during an argument .

And at times , I felt , he put the military ahead of family .

He had enlisted in 1987 , drawn by the discipline and challenges .

Charles had other options -- he was a gifted artist who had trained at the Art Institute of Chicago -- but felt fulfilled as a soldier , something I respected but never really understood .

He had a chest full of medals and a fierce devotion to his men .

He taught the youngest , barely out of high school , to balance their checkbooks , counseled them about girlfriends and sometimes bailed them out of jail .

When he was home in August , I had a baby shower for him .

One guest recently reminded me that he had spent much of the evening worrying about his troops back in Iraq .

Charles knew the perils of war .

During the months before he went away and the days he returned on leave , we talked often about what might happen .

In his journal , he wrote about the loss of fellow soldiers .

Still , I could not bear to answer when Charles turned to me one day and asked , `` You do n't think I 'm coming back , do you .

`` We never said aloud that the fear that he might not return was why we decided to have a child before we planned a wedding , rather than risk never having the chance .

But Charles missed Jordan 's birth because he refused to take a leave from Iraq until all of his soldiers had gone home first , a decision that hurt me at first .

And he volunteered for the mission on which he died , a military official told his sister , Gail T . King .

Although he was not required to join the resupply convoy in Baghdad , he believed that his soldiers needed someone experienced with them .

`` He would say , ' My boys are out there , I 've got to go check on my boys , ' `` said First Sgt . Arenteanis A . Jenkins , Charles 's roommate in Iraq .

In my grief , that decision haunts me .

Charles 's father faults himself for not begging his son to avoid taking unnecessary risks .

But he acknowledges that it would not have made a difference .

`` He was a born leader , '' said his father , Charlie J . King .

`` And he believed what he was doing was right . ''

Back in April , after a roadside bombing remarkably similar to that which would claim him , Charles wrote about death and duty .

The 18th was a long , solemn night , he wrote in Jordan 's journal .

We had a memorial for two soldiers who were killed by an improvised explosive device .

None of my soldiers went to the memorial .

Their excuse was that they did n't want to go because it was depressing .

I told them it was selfish of them not to pay their respects to two men who were selfless in giving their lives for their country .

Things may not always be easy or pleasant for you , that 's life , but always pay your respects for the way people lived and what they stood for .

It 's the honorable thing to do .

When Jordan is old enough to ask how his father died , I will tell him of Charles 's courage and assure him of Charles 's love .

And I will try to comfort him with his father 's words .

God blessed me above all I could imagine , Charles wrote in the journal .

I have no regrets , serving your country is great .

He had tucked a message to me in the front of Jordan 's journal .

This is the letter every soldier should write , he said .

For us , life will move on through Jordan .

He will be an extension of us and hopefully everything that we stand for .

I would like to see him grow up to be a man , but only God knows what the future holds .

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ : AN APPRECIATION .

Summary: Dana Canedy , in appreciation of her late fiance , First Sgt Charles Monroe King , holds that he boarded plane for Iraq in Dec 2005 with two missions -- to lead his soldiers in combat and to prepare their boy for life without him .

Summary: Notes that he wrote what would become 200-page journal for their son in case he did not make it back .

Summary: Says that Charles was killed on Oct 14 , and journal will have to speak for him now .

Summary: Photo shows Charles with their young son , Jordan .


Jordan W . Hess was the unlikeliest of soldiers .

He could bench-press 300 pounds and then go home and write poetry .

He learned the art of glass blowing because it seemed interesting and built a computer with only a magazine as his guide .

Most recently , he fell in love with a woman from Brazil and took up digital photography , letting both sweep his heart away .

Specialist Hess , the seventh of eight children , was never keen on premonitions , but on Christmas of 2005 , as his tight-knit family gathered on a beach for the weekend , he told each sibling and parent privately that he did not expect to come home from Iraq .

On Nov . 11 , Specialist Hess , 26 , freshly arrived in Iraq , was conducting a mission as the driver of an Abrams tank when an improvised explosive device , or I.E.D. , blew up with brain-rattling force .

The blast was so potent it penetrated the 67-ton tank , flinging him against the top and critically injuring his spine .

His four crewmates survived .

For three weeks , he hung on at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio , long enough to utter a few words to his loved ones and absorb their kindness .

On Dec . 4 , Specialist Hess slipped onto the ever-expanding list of American military fatalities in Iraq , one that has increased by an average of more than three a day since Oct . 1 , the highest three-month toll in two years .

On Sunday , with the announcement of the death in Baghdad of Specialist Dustin R . Donica , 22 , of Spring , Tex . , the list reached the somber milestone of at least 3,000 deaths since the March 2003 invasion .

The landmark reflects how much more dangerous and muddled a soldier 's job in Iraq has become in the face of a growing and increasingly sophisticated insurgency .

Violence in the country is at an all-time high , according to a Pentagon report released last month .

December was the third deadliest month for American troops since the start of the war , with insurgents claiming 111 soldiers ' lives .

October and November also witnessed a high number of casualties , 106 and 68 respectively , as American forces stepped up combat operations to try to stabilize Baghdad .

`` It escalated while I was there , '' said Capt . Scott Stanford , a National Guard officer who was a commander of a headquarters company in Ramadi for a year , arriving in June 2005 .

`` When we left this June , it was completely unhinged .

There was a huge increase in the suicide car bombs we had .

The I.E.D. ` s were bigger and more complex . ''

`` And it was very tense before we left in terms of snipers , '' said Captain Stanford , a member of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America .

`` I do n't know if there were more of them , or if they were getting better . ``

This spike in violence , which has been felt most profoundly by Iraqi civilians , who are dying by the thousands , has stoked feverish debate about the nation 's presence in Iraq .

Many Democrats in Congress are urging a phased withdrawal from the country , and the Bush administration is leaning toward deploying additional troops in 2007 .

If the conflict continues into March , the Iraq war will be the third longest in American history , ranked behind the Vietnam War and the American Revolution .

President Bush did not specifically acknowledge reaching the milestone of 3,000 American deaths , but a White House spokesman , Scott Stanzel , said the president `` grieves for each one that is lost '' and would ensure that their sacrifices were not made in vain .

The campaign against terrorism , Mr. Stanzel said , will be a long struggle .

Specialist Hess had volunteered for his mission to spare another soldier the danger of going outside the wire that day .

Like so many of his fallen comrades , he had become the victim of an inescapably dangerous roadside landscape .

`` It was the type of injury you rarely recover from .

In past wars you would n't have gotten out of theater , `` said his father , Bill Hess , a Boeing engineer and retired Air Force man .

`` So that was a blessing , that he could talk to us .

He mouthed words and we were able to say we loved him .

There is a lot to be said for that . ``

A Steady Toll of Deaths In many ways , the third 1,000 men and women to die in Iraq faced the same unflinching challenge as the second 1,000 soldiers to die there -- a dedicated and ruthless Iraqi insurgency that has exploited the power of roadside bombs to chilling effect .

These bombs now cause about half of all American combat deaths and injuries in Iraq .

Over all , the casualty rate has remained relatively steady since 2005 , dipping only slightly .

It took 14 months for the death toll to jump to 2,000 soldiers from 1,000 .

It took about two weeks longer for it to rise to 3,000 from 2,000 , during the period covering Oct . 25 , 2005 , to this week .

`` It is hugely frustrating , tragic and disappointing that we ca n't reduce the fatality rate , `` said Michael O'Hanlon , a military analyst for the Brookings Institution .

The service members who died during this latest period fit an unchanging profile .

They were mostly white men from rural areas , soldiers so young they still held fresh memories of high school football heroics and teenage escapades .

Many men and women were in Iraq for the second or third time .

Some were going on their fourth , fifth or sixth deployment .

But in other ways , the situation has changed in the past year .

Improvised explosive devices -- the kind that killed Specialist Hess -- have grown deadlier , despite concerted Pentagon efforts and billions of dollars spent trying to counteract them .

Insurgents are now more adept at concealing bombs , booby-trapping them and powering them to penetrate well-armored vehicles .

They are also scattering more of them along countless roads using myriad triggers and hiding spots -- under garbage and tires , behind guardrails , inside craters .

At the same time , Iraqi citizens have grown less inclined to tip off soldiers to the presence of these bombs .

About 1,200 roadside bombs were detonated in August .

The toll of war has fallen most heavily this year on regular Army soldiers , at least 544 of whom died in this group of 1,000 , compared with 405 in the last group .

This increase was the result of fewer National Guard soldiers and reservists being deployed to Iraq in 2006 .

Considering the intensity of the violence in Iraq this year , it is remarkable that the casualty rate did not climb higher , analysts and officers say .

Long-awaited improvements in body and vehicle armor have helped protect soldiers , and advances in battlefield medicine have saved many lives .

New procedures , like leaving wounds open to prevent infection , and relaying soldiers to hospitals faster than ever , have kept more service members alive .

Troops now carry their own tourniquets .

During World War II , 30 percent of all wounded soldiers died of their injuries , a number that dipped to 24 percent during the Vietnam War and then to 9 percent for the Iraq conflict .

Though this is a positive development , it also means that more soldiers are coming home with life-changing injuries , including amputations and brain trauma .

More than 22,000 soldiers have been wounded in Iraq .

`` There is no question that the number of dead should have been far higher , '' said Dr. William Winkenwerder , the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs , referring to the Iraqi conflict .

`` Some of these blast injuries are very powerful . ''

Bombs and bullets are not the only things that can kill soldiers .

Nearly 20 percent of those who die in Iraq do so outside of combat operations .

Sometimes it is the hazard of driving too quickly on badly rutted roads to avoid danger .

Humvees , weighted down with armor , can easily flip if maneuvered too quickly .

Many of Iraq 's roads are not built to hold heavy vehicles , and the ground can give way , tossing multi-ton machines into narrow canals where soldiers have drowned .

Helicopters are sometimes strafed by sandstorms or crippled by mechanical malfunctions .

Accidents make up two-thirds of the nonhostile deaths .

With so many soldiers carrying so many weapons , unintentional casualties occur , sometimes while handling firearms .

Fire from one 's own side is another inevitability of war , as is suicide .

Since March 2003 , 93 soldiers have died from self-inflicted wounds in Iraq .

In a way , these deaths , coming not at the hands of the enemy , but as a consequence of inferior roads and turbulent weather , can be even more difficult for parents to accept .

Sometimes they wait months for official reports , since all noncombat deaths must be investigated .

`` I do n't think I ever thought something like this could happen , `` said Shelley Burnett , whose son , Lance Cpl .

Jason K . Burnett , 20 , died in May after his tank toppled into a canal .

`` We talked a lot about the I.E.D. ' s and the dangers out there , but Jason kept saying , ' There is not a whole lot they can do to a tank . '

`` Death at Roadside Over the last two years , the Pentagon has worked frantically to harden body armor and the armor on its Humvees and other vehicles .

And the insurgents in Iraq have responded just as forcefully with deadly innovations in roadside bombs , and a fury of sniper bullets .

The most lethal development is the use of the `` explosively formed penetrators , '' which pierce armor and stay intact when they explode .

Roadside bombs are often detonated from a distance -- with garage door openers , for example -- or automatically , from pressure-sensitive devices , like a simple rubber air hose .

Motion detectors and infrared devices are also used .

The vast majority of these bombs do not kill soldiers , or even injure them seriously .

Four out of five I.E.D. ` s that detonate do not cause casualties , an improvement over previous years , the Pentagon says .

But those devices that do cause casualties are killing more soldiers .

An analysis by The New York Times of military records found that in 2003 , the devices accounted for 16 percent of troop fatalities .

This year , they accounted for 43 percent .

And an increasing number are killing more than one soldier .

`` Unfortunately , when there is a fatal I.E.D. attack , there often are multiple wounded and casualties , '' said Christine DeVries , a spokeswoman for the Pentagon 's Joint I.E.D.

Defeat Organization .

`` The enemy has had some success in adapting to what we are doing . ''

Lance Cpl .

Jon Eric Bowman , 21 , affectionate and angel-faced , was typical of many of the soldiers and marines who found their calling in the military .

He was raised in rural Dubach , La . , far from the razzmatazz of New Orleans , and could not wait to join after the Sept . 11 attacks .

He was first sent to Iraq early in 2005 .

When he came home later that year , he had changed .

Three days before he was set to redeploy this September , he sat with his wife in their truck and talked for six hours .

`` He was crying , he was so scared , '' said his wife , Dawn Bowman , 26 .

`` He was having dreams that he was n't coming back . ``

In fact , Corporal Bowman had been having blackouts , migraines and a tic , new ailments from his time in Iraq , his wife said .

The diagnosis was Tourette 's syndrome , and he was then told by doctors in in Louisiana that fluid had built up in his brain .

He wound up back in Iraq , anyway .

`` They felt he was just trying to get out of Iraq , '' said Johnny Bowman , the corporal 's father , of his son 's superiors .

`` That there was really nothing wrong with him .

That 's what he told me on the phone . ``

Corporal Bowman did not push the issue , feeling guilty about abandoning his fellow marines .

On Oct . 9 , his Humvee ran across a roadside bomb , killing him instantly .

He had been manning the machine gun .

`` Jon Eric was not just my only son , '' his father said .

`` He was my best friend . ''

Lance Cpl . Jeromy D . West , 20 , a mortar man who loved to fish as much as he hated to study , was killed on Nov . 25 by a sniper bullet as he stood guard on a roof in Haditha .

It was his second deployment .

In December , shortly after word of his death , his family honored his wishes and held a memorial for him on the football field at Hamilton High School , near San Diego , where he had been a star player .

A thousand people showed up .

`` Everybody liked him , '' his stepfather , Ron Klopf , said .

`` People would say , ' God , your son is polite . '

And I would say , ` My kid .

` I called him Eddie Haskell -- so polite at everybody else 's house . ``

Corporal West was goofy in the best way .

Not long before he joined the Marines , he and his friend would compete to see who could get a bigger freeze headache from eating too much ice cream .

They would writhe in pain .

Then they would do it again .

He was 17 when he decided to get serious and join the corps , something his parents tried to talk him out of .

`` ` You can get killed doing this , ' '' Mr. Klopf remembers saying .

`` And he said , ' Should we send some other parent 's kid out there .

` And that 's how he was . ``

For Corporal Burnett , death came not from bullets or bombs but from riding in a tank in a country crisscrossed with irrigation canals and crumbly roads .

Just two years after graduating from high school in St . Cloud , Fla . , where he spent his summers building houses for the poor and four-wheeling on back-country roads , Corporal Burnett 's tank fell off a bridge and plunged into a canal , in which he drowned .

His mother can not forget the day Jason and his younger brother tossed her back and forth in the yard to make her scream with laughter .

`` He was a fun-loving kid , '' Mrs. Burnett said .

`` If you heard laughter , you knew Jason was around . ''

Optimism was Specialist Robert F . Weber 's indelible quality .

A gunner from Cincinnati , he had warned his mother , Cathy , that the roads in Iraq were wretched .

She worried a lot during his first deployment , particularly after he sent home a roll of film to develop .

The first print she saw was of a missile hitting a barracks .

But he made it back to America and bought a blue Kia , the color of his eyes , before redeploying three weeks later .

The Army had been a good fit .

`` He was proud of himself , '' she said of Bobby , her only child .

`` I was very proud .

It was like he found his niche . ``

On his second deployment , though , the situation in Iraq had become grimmer .

`` Mom , things are getting worse over here , more dangerous , '' he said , from his base near Mosul the Saturday before he died .

`` The roads are bad .

You do n't run over anything even if it looks like a piece of paper . ``

But the lumbering armored Humvee he was on never hit a bomb on Sept . 30 .

It swerved somehow and flipped , killing him .

Mrs. Weber said she can not imagine seeing the troops walk away from Iraq now , when democracy seems as unattainable as ever .

`` For what did all these guys get killed over there .

`` she asked , incredulously .

`` What for .

`` Seven Days from Home Back in America , countless families and friends have waited and worried and tried their best these past years to keep themselves busy until their husbands , sons , wives , daughters , fathers , mothers or buddies returned home safely .

For 3,000 of them , the reunion never came .

In too many cases , the homecoming was tantalizingly near , a few more X 's on the calendar and the vigil would be over .

A number of soldiers were killed just days and weeks from the end of their deployment , a date close enough to allow those back home to lower their guard a trifle , making the deaths all the more devastating .

`` It 's almost like Christmas is here , and you wake up Christmas morning and there is no Christmas , `` said Col . Bill Rochelle , a retired National Guard commander of the 42nd Division support command .

Gunnery Sgt .

John D . Fry , a 28-year-old marine from Lorena , Tex . , was seven days from scooping up his wife , Malia , and his three kids into a group hug back in America .

`` My plans , '' Sergeant Fry told his commander , `` are to go home and wrestle with my kids . ''

He and Mrs. Fry were only 15 when they went on their first date , to see `` A League of Their Own , '' and then to eat ice cream at the mall .

Mom and Dad drove them home .

A year later , he plopped her on his lap and proposed .

They kept their engagement a secret .

Not long after , he was named salutatorian at Heritage Christian Academy .

Another student bested him for the top title .

It was the future Mrs. Fry , the valedictorian .

`` We were soul mates , '' Mrs. Fry said .

On Nov . 15 , 1995 , five days after he graduated from boot camp , they were married .

Mr. Fry , who liked a challenge , specialized in defusing explosive devices , a nerve-racking skill he brought with him to Iraq .

`` Babe , '' Mrs. Fry recalled his saying when he chose the specialty , `` it 's dangerous , but I want to do it .

And I said , ` Let 's go . '

`` A team leader , Sergeant Fry , who shipped out to Iraq in September 2005 , disarmed 73 bombs , including one of the biggest car bombs found in Falluja .

Once he helped defuse a suicide vest that insurgents had belted to a mentally handicapped Iraqi teenage boy .

The boy had been beaten and chained to a wall .

Another time , he spotted a bomb from the roof of a house .

A little boy popped into the yard , hovering dangerously close to it .

Sergeant Fry won his confidence by playing peekaboo , then got him to move away .

He was in `` very high spirits '' in March , calling his wife to say that his duties were done , his paperwork filed and his anticipation impossible to stifle .

`` He had made it , '' she said .

Then a mission came down , and commanders were preparing to send a team of mostly inexperienced men to defuse bombs along a road in Al Anbar province .

He volunteered for the job , instead .

`` That is how he led , '' Mrs. Fry said .

Sergeant Fry found three bombs that night and defused them .

But the insurgents had hidden a fourth bomb under the third one , a booby-trap .

It blew up and killed him .

An Army team stayed with his body for six hours , fending off enemy fire in the dark until soldiers with mortuary affairs arrived to take his body away .

The war never scared him , Mrs. Fry said .

`` It was hard , but he felt he was making a difference , '' she said .

`` He believed truly , that if he was n't over there , they would be trying to harm us here . ``

Estimates of Iraqi Civilian Deaths Unlike the tally for American service members , no official count is available for the number of civilians killed in Iraq .

Estimates based on mortuary tallies , news reports and household surveys vary widely .

Using figures provided by the Iraq Ministry of Health , which counts violent deaths at hospitals across the country , and Baghdad 's central morgue , the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has estimated that more than 28,000 Iraqi civilians were killed during the first 10 months of 2006 , a number 40 times higher than the number of American service members killed during that time .

The American military has criticized the civilian count as high , but it has not released statistics of its own .

In its quarterly reports to Congress , the Pentagon has provided a rough estimate of the number of Iraqi civilians and security forces killed or wounded by insurgents .

That number has risen sharply , to an average of more than 90 a day since last May .

In an off-the-cuff estimate during an official visit to Vienna in November , Iraq 's health minister , Ali al-Shimari , said that 150,000 Iraqis had been killed in violence since the war began in 2003 , the Associated Press has reported .

Iraq Body Count , an independent group that monitors news reports of deaths , has recorded the deaths of more than 52,000 Iraqi civilians .

The highest estimates of the civilian toll come from a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health .

In a study published in The Lancet , a British medical journal , they estimated 600,000 Iraqis died from violence between March 2003 and July 2006 , basing their analysis on a survey of 1,849 households in 47 neighborhoods across Iraq .

That study was widely criticized -- the sample interviewed may not accurately represent the entire country -- but it emphasized both the difficulty of tracking deaths in a war zone and the need for a reliable count .

There were three , not four .

Summary: List of US military fatalities in Iraq has reached milestone of 3,000 deaths since March 2003 invasion .

Summary: Number reflects how much more dangerous soldier 's job has become in face of growing and increasingly sophisticated insurgency .

Summary: Pentagon reports that violence in country is at all-time high .

Summary: No official count is available for number of civilians killed .

Summary: Estimates based on mortality tallies , news reports and household surveys vary widely .

Summary: Brief sketches of several US servicemen killed in Iraq .

Summary: Graphs .

Summary: Photos .


Eliot Laurence Spitzer takes the oath of office as New York 's 54th governor in a capital desperately in need of a new moral authority figure .

Whether or not he succeeds in fulfilling the soaring expectations that led to his landslide victory , his political timing is fortunate .

After making ethical reform one of the central pledges of his campaign , Mr. Spitzer has watched from the sidelines in recent weeks as scandal has engulfed the upper reaches of state government .

`` This is a crisis that I do n't want to waste , `` Mr. Spitzer said in an interview before he was sworn in early today .

-LSB- Page B4 . -RSB-

`` If there is a result of this momentary concentration on ethical dilemmas and failures , an opportunity to galvanize support for reform , we better seize it . ''

Since the November election , Comptroller Alan G . Hevesi , a Democrat , has resigned and pleaded guilty to a felony .

The Senate majority leader , Joseph L . Bruno , a Republican , has revealed that federal authorities were investigating his outside consulting work .

State Senator Efrain González Jr . , a Democrat , has been charged with stealing more than $ 400,000 in state money .

And a state court judge has forced a recalcitrant Legislature to reveal how it spends hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funds on pet projects .

In his effort to change the culture of Albany , Mr. Spitzer said that upon taking office , he would issue `` a slew '' of executive orders `` relating to ethics , procurement and the behavior of the leadership in the agencies where a governor has unilateral control . ''

The orders will mirror those he recently outlined for his own staff , which included a ban on gifts of more than nominal value and a prohibition on members of the executive branch from lobbying any part of the executive branch for two years after they leave their posts .

More daunting will be his efforts to push lawmakers to pass a number of measures early in the legislative session as he seizes on his landslide victory and the recent corruption scandals to push his agenda .

`` He has talked about redistricting reform , he 's talked about campaign finance reform , he 's talked about ending pay to play and he 's talked overall about a transparent and accountable state government , `` said Blair Horner , the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group .

`` If he accomplishes all of that , that 's probably more reform than we 've seen in New York for the last 200 years . ``

Mr. Spitzer is trying to reshape a state government notoriously resistant to change .

Voters re-elected Mr. Hevesi as their comptroller after he admitted using state employees to chauffeur his wife .

And while nearly a dozen lawmakers faced criminal charges in the last few years , many were subsequently re-elected .

Mr. Spitzer will probably gain more traction from voters by delivering on his other priorities , including lowering property taxes and revitalizing the upstate economy .

As attorney general , Mr. Spitzer made his name by taking on Wall Street corruption as the bull market of the late 1990s unraveled and the Securities and Exchange Commission had a limited appetite for enforcement , giving him an opening to redefine his job and make himself a nationally known figure .

But he now must learn to work by consensus instead of by subpoena , and close watchers of the Albany scene say Mr. Spitzer must act fast so as not to lose momentum .

Still , while reform proposals have stalled for years in the legislature , lawmakers are aware that Mr. Spitzer was elected by a record margin .

`` Right now the Legislature is on its heels , '' Mr. Horner said .

`` They know the public and the new governor wants action , and I think the Legislature will want to accommodate him , but if he gets bogged down in the first session , it makes it harder to achieve the things he wants to do . ''

Already , Senate Republicans have embraced Mr. Spitzer 's proposal to delineate all spending items in the state budget , ending the practice by the Legislature and Gov . George E . Pataki of writing large blank checks into the budget that they could later spend , largely in secret .

Certainly , the new governor has a much more caffeinated style than the old one .

There were titters in political circles when Mr. Pataki recently escorted a group of former Republican governors to the Broadway show `` The Drowsy Chaperone . ''

The play 's title echoed the criticisms frequently lobbed at Mr. Pataki -- that he has been rarely seen or heard in Albany as its problems have festered .

Mr. Spitzer has the on-the-offensive style of a former prosecutor and is well known for rattling rich and powerful cages .

He made a campaign slogan of changing Albany `` on Day 1 '' of his administration , but sought to set a new tone even earlier .

Shortly before the election , he withdrew his endorsement of Mr. Hevesi , even though the two had been close political allies .

Mr. Spitzer said that after the election he would begin adhering to a set of campaign finance guidelines far stricter than those required by state law .

There have been , however , some steps that have raised eyebrows , including Mr. Spitzer 's appointment of a Cablevision lobbyist to be his new secretary of state .

But many of his closest advisers will be veterans of the attorney general 's office or of his campaign .

In his inaugural address , Mr. Spitzer will strive to flower his litigator 's prose with rhetorical flourishes .

Along those lines , he said he would `` hearken back to the great transformations New York has gone through -- the Erie Canal is everybody 's favorite metaphor , and there will be some passing reference to it -- and Teddy Roosevelt 's effort to bring a new ethic of governance to the capital . ``

`` The theme of the inaugural speech is clearly going to be that we are turning a corner , '' he said .

`` We have to think of ourselves through a different prism , both in terms of ethics and as an entire state .

We have to think of ourselves as one New York and not a series of interests that are spoken to , appealed to and mollified . ``

Brass tacks will probably wait until Wednesday , when Mr. Spitzer delivers his first address to the Legislature , and until Feb . 1 , when his first executive budget is due .

`` Somebody told me an inaugural is values , a State of the State is principles and the budget is the bad news , '' he said .

The bad news starts with the multibillion-dollar deficits projected for the state in future years .

`` The surplus we had at the end of the year is no different than an advance on a credit card bill that will come due on our next statement , '' he said .

`` There is an increasing series of deficits as we proceed to Year 2 , 3 and 4 .

The deficit increases by several billion dollars a year thereafter , and this is a consequence of prior budgets having pushed costs into the out years .

That will make it tough , and tough choices have to be made . ``

But Mr. Spitzer has some costly promises to keep , and conversely , some politically risky cuts to make .

During the campaign , he outlined a complicated set of priorities , including reining in state spending to offset escalating future deficits , but also increasing spending on education and cutting by half the number of New Yorkers without health insurance .

In his speech , he said , he will touch on his three overarching goals .

At the forefront are his plans for ethical reforms , which include exploring changes to the quasi-independent public authorities that control much of the state 's spending but act , as he has said , as a `` shadow government '' with little accountability .

A second focus will be investing in the state 's infrastructure , including large transportation projects like replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge and building the Second Avenue subway .

He also wants the state to take a much more assertive role in creating lower-cost housing .

`` We have n't had an aggressive state housing policy for how long .

`` he said .

`` The state has to participate if we 're going to build the housing stock we need . ``

Perhaps the most complicated part of his three-pronged agenda is his plan for economic revitalization .

Reviving the economy of upstate New York , and particularly the Buffalo area , is of such concern that he split the leadership of the Empire State Development Corporation in half , with leaders for upstate and downstate .

He also wants to rein in state spending overall , in part by overhauling the Medicaid system , but also by lowering property taxes and providing relief to businesses on issues like workers ' compensation policies .

At the same time , he wants to increase education spending by billions of dollars .

With so much to do , he hopes to move quickly .

`` Delay is the enemy of progress , '' he said .

`` If you do not lay out the agenda early on and lay out the framework for change , we wo n't get there . `` .

Summary: Eliot Spitzer is sworn in as New York 's 54th governor , after making ethics reform central pledge of landslide victory in his election campaign and watching in recent weeks as scandal reached upper reaches of state government .

Summary: Spitzer says that he will issue slew of executive orders relating to ethics , procurement and behavior of leadership in agencies where governor has unilateral control .

Summary: Orders will mirror those he recently outlined for his own staff , which included ban on gifts of more than nominal value and prohibition on members of executive branch from lobbying any part of executive branch for two years after they leave their posts .

Summary: Photo .


The Democrats taking over Congress this week are promising sweeping changes to ethics and lobbying laws , pledging to clean up after a spate of corruption scandals under Republican rules .

So far , however , their proposals are not as comprehensive or far-reaching as changes already adopted by many state legislatures .

Democrats in both chambers are proposing new restrictions on gifts , meals or trips paid for by lobbyists .

They say they plan for the first time to require lawmakers to disclose their sponsorship of the pet items known as earmarks that they insert into major bills .

House Democrats also want to require members to certify that they will not personally profit from the projects .

Several states , responding to the federal scandals as well as their own statehouse imbroglios , have already adopted more sweeping gift and travel bans , broader measures to end the central role of lobbyists or government contractors in financing campaigns and new public campaign financing intended to reduce lawmakers ' dependence on big donors .

To enforce their rules , about half the states have also created independent ethics watchdogs , outside the control of the lawmakers they police -- something federal lawmakers have so far resisted .

House Democrats recently said they would create a panel to study the idea .

John Hurson , a former member of the Maryland General Assembly and president of the National Council of State Legislatures , remembers marveling at the goings -on just a few miles away in the United States Capitol .

He was barred from letting a lobbyist buy him a cup of coffee under rules enforced by the Maryland Ethics Commission .

Meanwhile , congressmen were flying across the country for golf trips with lobbyists and enlisting them as major fund-raisers for their re-election campaigns .

`` It was amusing in a sad kind of way , '' said Mr. Hurson , who now works as a Washington lobbyist himself , for a cosmetics industry trade group .

`` At the state level in Maryland a lobbyist ca n't even have his name on a campaign flier .

And at the federal level some of these guys are basically running campaigns . ``

Democrats say their proposals are significant first steps , especially given the customary opposition of most incumbents toward rules that would restrict their fund-raising edge .

The Democrats argue that their proposals go further than anything Republicans managed to pass .

`` It is an important step forward from where we have been , let 's put it that way , `` said Representative Chris Van Hollen , the Maryland Democrat who is taking over the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is a proponent of several more drastic changes .

Still , some Democrats say they hope the Congress will go beyond the party leaders ' current proposals .

They argue that their party took control of Congress in part because of backlash against the corruption scandals under the Republicans , that many new members campaigned on ethics reform and that a failure to deliver meaningful changes could hurt the party in the 2008 elections .

Lawmakers say the Supreme Court made it difficult to regulate campaign spending by ruling in 1976 , in Buckley v. Valeo , that it is a protected form of free expression .

States , however , are testing the limits of that decision .

More than a dozen states , including New Jersey and Connecticut , have enacted so-called pay-to-play laws that block contractors or executives of their companies from making campaign contributions to officials who could influence state contracts .

Connecticut , reeling from a payoff scandal that unseated its governor , recently passed a pay-to-play law that takes aim at a time-tested tactic for evading contribution limits : funneling money through dependents .

The law bans campaign contributions not only from lobbyists and contracting executives but also from their children and spouses .

To make enforcement easier , lobbyists and contractors would be required to disclose the names of their family members on a public Web site .

-LRB- No Congressional proposal does the same . -RRB-

On Tuesday , a federal district court judge in Connecticut will hear a challenge to the law .

Connecticut has also borrowed some aspects of a decade-old Maryland law that seeks to restrict the most valuable gift that lobbyists give lawmakers : campaign fund-raising .

At the federal level , caps on individual or corporate campaign contributions have placed a premium on `` bundlers , '' who solicit and collect donations to turn over in bulk to a candidate 's campaign .

Many Washington lobbyists are among the biggest bundlers , and even help run re-election campaigns .

Across the District of Columbia border in Maryland , state law bars lobbyists from soliciting contributions for candidates or playing any roles in the campaigns .

`` Lobbyists can no longer be the center of the fund-raising process , '' Mr. Van Hollen of Maryland said .

Mr. Van Hollen said he planned to introduce a measure requiring federal lobbyists to disclose whom they ask for the contributions that they bundle and how much those people give .

A similar measure was deleted from a bill by the Republican leadership before it reached the floor .

States are also adopting new forms of public campaign financing .

Congressional candidates receive no public financing , and there is no limit on what they can spend .

And the public financing system adopted for presidential campaigns after the Watergate scandal is on the brink of obsolescence .

For the first time in three decades , the major 2008 presidential candidates are expected to reject the system in favor of raising unlimited private funds .

Several states , however , are expanding the idea .

Maryland and New Jersey are among those considering a system enacted in Arizona and Maine .

The new Connecticut law includes a modified form of the idea , known as `` clean elections . ''

Participating candidates who get a certain amount of small contributions -- as low as $ 5 in some places -- receive large lump sums of public campaign money early in the race if they agree not to raise or spend private funds .

And , up to a limit , the state pledges to give participating candidates enough money to match the campaign spending of any rival candidate outside the system .

No state , of course , has eradicated the influence of money .

In Maryland , for example , lobbyists can not take individual lawmakers to dinner but can treat whole legislative committees , a rule lobbyists say favors the well-financed .

Even so , some Annapolis lobbyists appreciate the fund-raising ban .

`` Legislators can call and say they need your help , '' said Minor Carter , a Republican lobbyist .

`` And you have the absolute defense of saying , ' I 'm sorry , I ca n't . ' `` .

Summary: Democrats taking over Congress are promising sweeping changes to ethics and lobbying laws , pledging to clean up after spate of corruption scandals under Republican rules .

Summary: Their proposals are not as comprehensive or far-reaching as changes already adopted by many state legislatures .

Summary: Several states have adopted more sweeping gift and travel bans , broader measures to end central role of lobbyists or government contractors in financing campaigns and new public campaign financing intended to reduce lawmakers ' dependence on big donors .


With his plain pine coffin strapped into an American military helicopter for a predawn journey across the desert , Saddam Hussein , the executed dictator who built a legend with his defiance of America , completed a turbulent passage into history on Sunday .

Like the helicopter trip , just about everything in the 24 hours that began with Mr. Hussein 's being taken to his execution from his cell in an American military detention center in the postmidnight chill of Saturday had a surreal and even cinematic quality .

Part of it was that the Americans , who turned him into a pariah and drove him from power , proved to be his unlikely benefactors in the face of Iraq 's new Shiite rulers who seemed bent on turning the execution and its aftermath into a new nightmare for the Sunni minority privileged under Mr. Hussein .

-LSB- Page A7 . -RSB-

The 110-mile journey aboard a Black Hawk helicopter carried Mr. Hussein 's body to an American military base north of Tikrit , Camp Speicher , named for an American Navy pilot lost over Iraq in the first hours of the Persian Gulf war in 1991 .

From there , an Iraqi convoy carried him to Awja , the humble town beside the Tigris River that Mr. Hussein , in the chandeliered palaces that became his habitat as ruler , spoke of as emblematic of the miseries of his lonely and impoverished youth .

The American role extended beyond providing the helicopter that carried Mr. Hussein home .

Iraqi and American officials who have discussed the intrigue and confusion that preceded the decision late on Friday to rush Mr. Hussein to the gallows have said that it was the Americans who questioned the political wisdom -- and justice -- of expediting the execution , in ways that required Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to override constitutional and religious precepts that might have assured Mr. Hussein a more dignified passage to his end .

The Americans ' concerns seem certain to have been heightened by what happened at the hanging , as evidenced in video recordings made just before Mr. Hussein fell through the gallows trapdoor at 6:10 a.m. on Saturday .

A new video that appeared on the Internet late Saturday , apparently made by a witness with a camera cellphone , underscored the unruly , mocking atmosphere in the execution chamber .

This continued , on the video , through the actual hanging itself , with a shout of `` The tyrant has fallen ! May God curse him ! '' as Mr. Hussein hung lifeless , his neck snapped back and his glassy eyes open .

The cacophony from those gathered before the gallows included a shout of `` Go to hell ! '' as the former ruler stood with the noose around his neck in the final moments , and his riposte , barely audible above the bedlam , which included the words `` gallows of shame . ''

It continued despite appeals from an official-sounding voice , possibly Munir Haddad , the judge who presided at the hanging , saying , `` Please no ! The man is about to die . ''

The Shiites who predominated at the hanging began a refrain at one point of `` Moktada ! Moktada ! Moktada ! '' -- the name of a volatile cleric whose private militia has spawned death squads that have made an indiscriminate industry of killing Sunnis -- appending it to a Muslim imprecation for blessings on the Prophet Muhammad .

`` Moktada , '' Mr. Hussein replied , smiling contemptuously .

`` Is this how real men behave .

`` American officials in Iraq have been reluctant to say much publicly about the pell-mell nature of the hanging , apparently fearful of provoking recriminations in Washington , where the Bush administration adopted a hands-off posture , saying the timing of the execution was Iraq 's to decide .

While privately incensed at the dead-of-night rush to the gallows , the Americans here have been caught in the double bind that has ensnared them over much else about the Maliki government -- frustrated at what they call the government 's failure to recognize its destructive behavior , but reluctant to speak out , or sometimes to act , for fear of undermining Mr. Maliki and worsening the situation .

But a narrative assembled from accounts by various American officials , and by Iraqis present at some of the crucial meetings between the two sides , shows that it was the Americans who counseled caution in the way the Iraqis carried out the hanging .

The issues uppermost in the Americans ' minds , these officials said , were a provision in Iraq 's new Constitution that required the three-man presidency council to approve hangings , and a stipulation in a longstanding Iraqi law that no executions can be carried out during the Id al-Adha holiday , which began for Iraqi Sunnis on Saturday and Shiites on Sunday .

A senior Iraqi official said the Americans staked out their ground at a meeting on Thursday , 48 hours after an appeals court had upheld the death sentence passed on Mr. Hussein and two associates .

They were convicted in November of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Shiite townspeople of Dujail , north of Baghdad , in 1982 .

Mr. Hussein , as president , signed a decree to hang 148 men and teenage boys .

Told that Mr. Maliki wanted to carry out the death sentence on Mr. Hussein almost immediately , and not wait further into the 30-day deadline set by the appeals court , American officers at the Thursday meeting said that they would accept any decision but needed assurance that due process had been followed before relinquishing physical custody of Mr. Hussein .

`` The Americans said that we have no issue in handing him over , but we need everything to be in accordance with the law , '' the Iraqi official said .

`` We do not want to break the law . ''

The American pressure sent Mr. Maliki and his aides into a frantic quest for legal workarounds , the Iraqi official said .

The Americans told them they needed a decree from President Jalal Talabani , signed jointly by his two vice presidents , upholding the death sentence , and a letter from the chief judge of the Iraqi High Tribunal , the court that tried Mr. Hussein , certifying the verdict .

But Mr. Talabani , a Kurd , made it known that he objected to the death penalty on principle .

The Maliki government spent much of Friday working on legal mechanisms to meet the American demands .

From Mr. Talabani , they obtained a letter saying that while he would not sign a decree approving the hanging , he had no objections .

The Iraqi official said Mr. Talabani first asked the tribunal 's judges for an opinion on whether the constitutional requirement for presidential approval applied to a death sentence handed down by the tribunal , a special court operating outside Iraq 's main judicial system .

The judges said the requirement was void .

Mr. Maliki had one major obstacle : the Hussein-era law proscribing executions during the Id holiday .

This remained unresolved until late Friday , the Iraqi official said .

He said he attended a late-night dinner at the prime minister 's office at which American officers and Mr. Maliki 's officials debated the issue .

One participant described the meeting this way : `` The Iraqis seemed quite frustrated , saying , ' Who is going to execute him , anyway , you or us .

` The Americans replied by saying that obviously , it was the Iraqis who would carry out the hanging .

So the Iraqis said , ` This is our problem and we will handle the consequences .

If there is any damage done , it is we who will be damaged , not you . '

`` To this , the Iraqis added what has often been their trump card in tricky political situations : they telephoned officials of the marjaiya , thesupreme religious body in Iraqi Shiism , composed of ayatollahs in the holy city of Najaf .

The ayatollahs approved .

Mr. Maliki , at a few minutes before midnight on Friday , then signed a letter to the justice minister , `` to carry out the hanging until death . ''

The Maliki letter sent Iraqi and American officials into a frenzy of activity .

Fourteen Iraqi officials , including senior members of the Maliki government , were called at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday and told to gather at the prime minister 's office .

At .

3:30 a.m. , they were driven to the helicopter pad beside Mr. Hussein 's old Republican Palace , and taken to the prison in the northern suburb of Khadimiya where the hanging took place .

At about the same time , American and Iraqi officials said , Mr. Hussein was roused at his Camp Cropper cell 10 miles away , and taken to a Black Hawk helicopter for his journey to Khadimiya .

None of the Iraqi officials were able to explain why Mr. Maliki had been unwilling to allow the execution to wait .

Nor would any explain why those who conducted it had allowed it to deteriorate into a sectarian free-for-all that had the effect , on the video recordings , of making Mr. Hussein , a mass murderer , appear dignified and restrained , and his executioners , representing Shiites who were his principal victims , seem like bullying street thugs .

But the explanation may have lain in something that Bassam al-Husseini , a Maliki aide closely involved in arrangements for the hanging , said to the BBC later .

Mr. Husseini , who has American citizenship , described the hanging as `` an Id gift to the Iraqi people . ''

The weekend 's final disorderly chapter came with the tensions over Mr. Hussein 's body .

For nearly 18 hours on Saturday , Mr. Maliki 's officials insisted that his corpse would be kept in secret government custody until circumstances allowed interment without his grave becoming a shrine or a target .

Once again , the Americans intervened .

The leader of Mr. Hussein 's Albu-Nasir tribe , Sheik Ali al-Nida , said that before flying to Baghdad on an American helicopter , he had been so fearful for his safety that he had written a will .

Bizarrely , Sheik Nida and others were shown on Iraqi television collecting the coffin from the courtyard in front of Mr. Maliki 's office , where it sat unceremoniously in a police pickup .

After the helicopter trip to Camp Speicher , the American base outside Tikrit , the coffin was taken in an Iraqi convoy to Awja , and laid to rest in the ornate visitors ' center that Mr. Hussein ordered built for the townspeople in the 1990s .

Local officials and members of Mr. Hussein 's tribe had broken open the marbled floor in the main reception hall , and cleared what they said would be a temporary burial place until he could be moved to a permanent grave outside Awja where his two sons , Uday and Qusay , are buried .

At the burial , several mourners threw themselves on the closed casket .

One , a young man convulsed with sobs , cried : `` He has not died .

I can hear him speaking to me . ``

Another shouted , `` Saddam is dead ! Instead of weeping for him , think of ways we can take revenge on the Iranian enemy , '' Sunni parlance for the Shiites now in power .

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ .

Summary: US and Iraqi officials who have discussed intrigue and confusion that preceded decision to rush Saddam Hussein to gallows have said that it was Americans who questioned political wisdom and justice of expediting execution , in ways that required Prime Min Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to override constitutional and religious precepts that might have assured Hussein more dignified passage to his end .

Summary: New video that has appeared on Internet underscores unruly , mocking atmosphere in execution chamber .

Summary: Photo .


It may fall short of a feel-good sequel to `` Chinatown , '' the movie based on the notorious , somewhat shady water grab by Los Angeles that allowed the city to bloom from a semi-arid desert .

But in one of the largest river restoration efforts in the West , water is again flowing along a 62-mile stretch of the Owens River after a dry spell of nearly a century .

That part of the river had been left mostly drained when upstream water , fed by snowmelt from the towering Sierra Nevada , was channeled 233 miles south to fill swimming pools and bathtubs throughout Los Angeles .

The restored flow is among several long-awaited steps the city is taking to help make amends for the environmental consequences of its water maneuvering , most notably the drying up of Owens Lake , an area more than three times the size of Manhattan , here in the Owens Valley .

Los Angeles agreed in December to expand efforts to control toxic dust storms that erupt from what is left of the lake , a 110-square-mile body that emptied when the river was diverted to Los Angeles through an aqueduct opened in 1913 .

The lake 's salty , mineral-laced basin has been the largest single source of particulate pollution in the country .

It looks so otherworldly that it doubled as a desolate planet in the movie `` Star Trek V : The Final Frontier . ''

To restore the river , Los Angeles built automated gates at the point where the river veers into the aqueduct .

The gates steer some water into the original riverbed , setting the stage for the growth of cottonwood trees and other plants and the return of waterfowl and other animals .

Much of the water eventually returns to the aqueduct , though some of it is being used for lake irrigation and other projects .

Environmentalists here say they are keeping an eye on Los Angeles for backsliding , but they acknowledge that the new efforts will make a significant difference .

As winds whipped across Owens Lake on a recent afternoon , Mike Prather of the Owens Valley Committee , which along with the Sierra Club took Los Angeles to court over the environmental fallout of its water policies , marveled at sandpipers , American avocets and other birds frolicking in the shallow pools created by the irrigation .

`` This work will bring back more and more of them , '' Mr. Prather said , savoring the twist in the battle that means water once intended for Los Angeles will feed the lake .

`` It 's Owens Valley 's turn to stick its straw in L.A. ` s water , '' he said .

Court rulings and the threat of legal action have largely forced Los Angeles 's hand in dealing with its past water moves , but city leaders say they are also intent on doing the right thing in keeping up a vital source of water while avoiding further damage to the Owens Valley .

H . David Nahai , president of the board that oversees the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power , said Los Angeles was looking for less adversarial ways to resolve differences over the valley , which provides 40 percent to 60 percent of the city 's water supply , depending on the snowfall in the mountains .

`` We ca n't change the past , but we can shape the future , `` said Mr. Nahai , one of five board members appointed by Mayor Antonio R . Villaraigosa , who promised a friendlier approach to the valley when he took office in July 2005 .

Susan Cash , the chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors of Inyo County , where the Owens Valley is located , said animosity toward Los Angeles had lessened since the early 20th century , when the water diversion was made possible by the purchase of much of the valley by less-than-forthcoming city operatives .

The underhanded moves , as chronicled by historians , included city representatives posing as ranchers as they bought up property .

The questionable land dealing provided the inspiration for `` Chinatown , '' the 1974 movie starring Jack Nicholson as a private detective who stumbles across corruption on a Los Angeles water project .

Water from the valley made possible the growth of what became the nation 's second-largest city .

But people in the valley have long regarded the water dealings as a double-edged sword .

Officials here have argued that the water diversion undercut the potential for growth .

But others say that such prospects were dim anyway in such a dry and remote valley , and that Los Angeles 's keeping the water clean and the land relatively untouched has been a boon .

Los Angeles 's policy of allowing public access to much of its land and the fact that many people here have worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power , one of the valley 's largest employers , or have friends or relatives there , have contributed to improved relations .

The godfathers of Ms. Cash 's children worked for the department .

`` The fact is , '' she said , `` we are in a marriage with no annulment in the near future , so we have to find a way to work together . ''

Inyo officials said the city 's projects could inspire more tourism , the only real economic activity in this dry , high-desert valley .

`` We have recreational users now but not to the extent it can be once the river is flowing and there is sufficient water for fish and wildlife , '' said Arlene Grider , president of the chamber of commerce here .

The long-promised river restoration is a $ 24 million project , compensation won from a lawsuit by environmental groups over excessive groundwater pumping .

It came after delays that prompted a county judge in September 2005 to impose daily fines of $ 5,000 on Los Angeles .

The penalty has so far cost the city $ 2.3 million and will continue until a large volume of water flows through the river in the coming months .

The work on the lake , scheduled to be completed by 2010 , will irrigate or otherwise control dust over 43 square miles .

The improvements result from an agreement the city signed with the local air pollution control regulator in 1998 that sets a timetable to comply with federal requirements to control dust on the lake .

The city has spent $ 400 million on dust control for just under 30 square miles of the worst pockets , and in December , through a mediator , it agreed to do 12.7 more square miles by 2010 at a cost of $ 105 million .

A water department spokeswoman in Los Angeles , Carol Tucker , said ratepayers would see relatively modest increases in their monthly bills .

The river restoration , for example , would amount to an increase of about 26 cents .

Los Angeles has one of the country 's more intensive conservation programs , allowing it to use roughly the same amount of water even as it has grown by 750,000 residents in the past two decades .

But environmentalists say they doubt the city can grow much more without finding more water .

Mr. Nahai said the Department of Water and Power was already studying other possibilities , like using groundwater from within Los Angeles , buying water from other places and desalinating ocean water .

But one thing is certain , he said : `` Are we going to get to a place where we are going to pump all the water out .

No . ``

Still , most everyone suggests there could be rough going ahead .

Ms. Cash , the Inyo County supervisor , said officials were only `` cautiously optimistic '' about a changed relationship with Los Angeles because they had heard nice words from the city before , only to end up in court .

Mr. Nahai acknowledged that the litigious nature of the relationship would be difficult to break .

`` Nobody can guarantee there wo n't be litigation in the future , and litigation has its uses , `` he said .

`` There is no denying what the City of Los Angeles has done far too often has been because of court order . ''

He added , `` It 's like what Mark Twain said : ` Whiskey is for drinking , and water is for fighting over . ' '' .

Summary: Water is again flowing along 62-mile stretch of Owens River in eastern California , in one of largest river restoration efforts in West , and after dry spell of nearly century .

Summary: That part of river had been left mostly drained when upstream water , fed by snowmelt from Sierra Nevada Mountains , was channeled 233 miles south to Los Angeles .

Summary: Restored flow is among several long-awaited steps city is taking to help make amends for environmental consequences of its water maneuvering , most notably drying up of Owens Lake , area more than three times size of Manhattan .

Summary: Diagram .

Summary: Map . Photos .


With his wife , his children and his parents looking on , Eliot Laurence Spitzer was officially sworn in at midnight as the 54th governor of New York State during a private ceremony here at the governor 's mansion .

A cheer rose from the guests : `` Go get ' em , Eliot ! '' And with those words , New York 's Democrats reclaimed the governor 's office after 12 years of Republican rule , and Mr. Spitzer , 47 , ascended to a historic office that has been held by Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt , Alfred E . Smith , Thomas E . Dewey and Hugh L . Carey , who was present .

A more festive public inauguration ceremony with pomp , circumstance , food and music is scheduled to be held Monday afternoon , but Mr. Spitzer needed to take the oath of office by midnight in order to ensure the smooth transition of government as he took over from Gov . George E . Pataki , whose 12-year term ended at midnight .

Mr. Spitzer was sworn in by Judge Robert W . Sweet , the Federal District Court judge who gave Mr. Spitzer his start in public service , hiring him as a clerk in 1984 after his graduation from Harvard Law School .

With the new governor were his wife , Silda Wall Spitzer .

His daughters , Elyssa , 17 , Sarabeth , 14 , and Jenna , 12 .

His parents , Bernard and Anne Spitzer .

And dozens of political figures and family friends .

The party was not without drama .

Lloyd Constantine -- Mr. Spitzer 's friend , tennis partner , onetime law partner and co-chairman of his transition team -- continued his tradition of buying Champagne for a Spitzer oath of office .

The bottles seem to grow in size with the job .

As Ms. Wall Spitzer put it , `` The bottles just keep getting bigger . ''

This time Mr. Constantine went for a 12-liter bottle of Veuve Clicquot called a balthazar .

But opening it did not prove easy -- the Champagne did not flow until Mr. Constantine attacked the giant bottle with a wrench , enlisted the help of another guest , and eventually broke the lip of the bottle , cutting his hand , and waving the bloody hand in triumph .

Asked if it was worth it , he said , `` Yeah , sure . ''

The public festivities later Monday were to feature New York State wines from Long Island , the Hudson Valley and the Finger Lakes , as well as regional specialties like Guss 's pickles , Junior 's cheesecake and Buffalo wings from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo .

There was some trepidation about the weather forecast , though .

Mr. Spitzer , who spoke about the value of optimism during the campaign , planned an outdoor inaugural for New Year 's Day in Albany -LRB- and a 6 a.m. run through Washington Park -RRB- .

But with light rain falling , and freezing rain forecast , most of the inaugural events were pushed back an hour in the hopes that the bad weather would move through .

Summary: Eliot Spitzer is sworn in as 54th governor of New York State by Federal Judge Robert W Sweet at governor 's mansion in Albany .

Summary: Ceremony i small and private and is attended by family , friends and dignitaries .

Summary: Larger celebration is planned for afternoon of January 2 .

Summary: 12-year regime of Gov George E Pataki ended at midnight .

Summary: Photo .


As she wrote her first inaugural speech , M . Jodi Rell turned to the remarks of Gerald R . Ford .

Like the former president who took over after the resignation of Richard M . Nixon , Governor Rell was looking for a way to soothe nerves , not make waves .

She was sworn in on a hot day in July 2004 after the abrupt resignation of Gov . John G . Rowland , a Republican who would be sentenced to a year in federal prison on corruption charges .

`` People were so disappointed , they were so disillusioned , they had just lost faith , '' Ms. Rell said , apparently referring to both her own situation and President Ford 's .

`` They just needed somebody to say it 's going to be O.K. and we are going to get past this . ``

Now , with Mr. Ford 's death coinciding with Ms. Rell 's preparation for her first full term , she said her role as the state 's leader had evolved .

She was no longer the accidental governor .

`` After the election , it just felt like coming back to work .

Nothing really changed , `` Ms. Rell , a Republican who swept 63 percent of the vote in November , said in a recent interview at the Capitol here .

`` But it 's only in the last week or so where it 's hit me -- this is different .

The expectations and the new session gives you pause to say all right , this is what we are going to do .

This is my agenda . ``

Extremely popular and perceived as honest and calm , Ms. Rell is just now beginning to form her own cabinet , dismissing nearly all of Mr. Rowland 's top assistants .

After two years largely characterized by initiatives to `` right the ship '' in a state crippled by corrupt politicians , Ms. Rell , who will be sworn in on Wednesday , now must attack more complex problems , such as soaring health care and energy costs .

And though she was one of only a handful of Republicans in the Northeast who managed to retain a top office this election season , Ms. Rell faces a veto-proof Democratic majority in both chambers of the General Assembly .

The dominance of Democrats could certainly hobble Ms. Rell 's plans to cut taxes .

Already , she has compromised one of her signature ideas : after legislative leaders indicated they would block her efforts to cut the car tax , Ms. Rell dropped the subject , saying she would choose her battles carefully .

`` I think we are approaching a time where we have to come up with some really creative solutions , and if the governor ca n't get there it is possible the honeymoon would be over , `` said Donald E . Williams Jr . , leader of the Democrats in the State Senate .

But for all the chatter in political circles of their party 's new power , Mr. Williams and other Democrats speak of the Republican governor in tones usually reserved for one of their own .

`` I do n't think anyone is looking for unnecessary fights , `` Senator Williams said .

`` The governor has sealed her popularity among voters and made people feel extremely comfortable . ''

Confrontation and flashy speech are not Ms. Rell 's style .

Elected to the State House of Representatives in 1984 , she earned a reputation for dealing with mundane details , picking apart legislation and knowing precisely where there was room for compromise .

That approach helped lead to a sense of Ms. Rell , 60 , as a maternal figure , something that has stuck through her term in executive office .

Some Democrats remark privately that when the governor admonishes them to kill or push through a bill , it is like being scolded by their mother .

Ms. Rell cultivates that image : In a season of brutal campaign attack advertisements , one of her commercials featured the governor sitting in a chair with her grandson .

A public service announcement encouraging drivers not to drink and drive has Ms. Rell on a playground surrounded by children .

And when she released a health care proposal last week , half a dozen children sat on either side waving to the television cameras .

Peering out at the audience over her bifocals , Ms. Rell resembled a teacher reading the lesson of the day .

Ms. Rell and her supporters have always been happy to acknowledge that she was an unlikely candidate to become the state 's top political figure .

A former homemaker who dropped out of college , Ms. Rell earned her political education on the job , working her way up to become minority leader of the House before being tapped by Mr. Rowland to run for lieutenant governor .

The two were never particularly close , and Ms. Rell maintains that she had no clue about Mr. Rowland 's wrongdoings , something that infuriates opponents trying to tie her to the corrupt administration .

Such criticisms have somehow yet to stick .

Even when Ms. Rell 's chief of staff became embroiled in controversy for distributing invitations to a political fund-raiser on state time last year , voters consistently told pollsters they trusted the Rell administration .

Some people in both parties complain that Governor Rell has done little to articulate or push her own agenda , instead favoring policies typically backed by Democrats such as stem-cell research or civil unions for same-sex couples .

Others see that as her strength .

`` You hear Democrats claim : ' She has n't done anything , she has n't done anything , ' `` said Chris Barnes , a pollster at the University of Connecticut .

`` Well , the last governor did something and the something was lining his pockets .

People are quite happy this governor is not doing that something . ``

Instead , Ms. Rell has wisely been `` adjusting the course rather that setting it , '' Mr. Barnes said .

`` People were not begging for grandiose plans .

They just want the government not to mess things up . ``

Such a modest goal aptly sums up the governing philosophy of Ms. Rell , who describes herself a steadfast moderate who believes in `` less government , less intrusive government , and less spending whenever possible . ''

Her biggest fights with the Legislature will likely be over the budget , which Ms. Rell will present in February , and taxes .

Also , Democrats plan to making universal health care a top priority , while Ms. Rell last week offered a far more limited proposal than what Democrats envision .

Ms. Rell opened the health care bidding last week with a plan to let uninsured adult residents buy into a pool with a premium of $ 250 a month .

Emphasizing that she would not support a `` big government '' subsidy , Ms. Rell said the cost of the plan to the state would be minimal .

After decades in public office , Ms. Rell can still appear wary of the spotlight , blushing at the slightest embarrassment or standing at the back of a crowd -- and she guards her privacy .

When she had a mastectomy to remove breast cancer two days after Christmas in 2004 , her assistants did not announce the operation until she was already at the hospital and asked well-wishers not to send flowers .

There are signs of increasing comfort with the pageantry .

On Wednesday , Ms. Rell will lead the first inaugural parade and ball the state has had in more than a decade -LRB- though she turned down a society reporter 's request to photograph her off-white ball gown last week -RRB- .

`` I think you 're going to see more and more of her , `` said Robert Farr , an ally of Ms. Rell who recently retired from the General Assembly .

`` A year ago she was the governor by accident , but she can clearly be the real thing now .

`` She is not going to be one rushing for press conferences , '' Mr. Farr added .

`` She is not one to go out and state a political position every day .

But when she stakes something out , she is going to present something that can give measurable results . ``

For her part , Ms. Rell said she is still drawing inspiration from the former president she looked to the first time she took the oath of office .

`` Gerald Ford was not flashy , '' she said , her voice softening .

`` He wanted to talk to people .

And I know that 's what I want .

I want people to feel comfortable .

I want them to see a governor up close . `` .

Summary: Gov M Jodi Rell is set to begin full term at helm of Connecticut after taking two years to right ship .

Summary: Took office in 2004 following resignation of her predecessor John G Rowland .

Summary: Plans to use full term to attack serious problems , such as soaring health care and energy costs .

Summary: Dominance of Democrats in State Legislature will hinder her plans to cut taxes .

Summary: Photo .


In New York City , rapes , robberies and assaults , among other crimes , continued to decline last year , prompting the Police Department 's top official to herald 2006 as a very good year .

Homicides , however , climbed 10 percent in the city , reversing a much-hailed decrease .

`` We 'd like to see no homicides .

The reality is we 're going to have them , `` said Police Commissioner Raymond W . Kelly .

`` I think this is a very good year . ''

He called the increase in killings in 2006 all but negligible compared with 1990 , a year with one of the highest homicide rates in recent history .

That year , crack-fueled violence soared , and 2,262 people were killed .

Last year there were 579 killings citywide as of Dec . 24 , an increase of 52 homicides over the same period in 2005 .

Yet overall crime last year was down 5 percent .

The number of reported rapes declined by 7.4 percent to 1,486 , subway crime plunged 13 percent and auto theft fell 11.4 percent .

The police said the year 's jump in homicides was rooted largely in an unusually high number of `` reclassified '' deaths , deaths linked to injuries incurred in months or years past .

There were 38 reclassified homicides in New York last year , compared with 21 in 2005 .

New York 's overall fall in crime also contrasts with an increase nationwide .

According to a report by the F.B.I. , violent crime across the country rose 3.7 percent during the first half of the year .

Dallas remained the country 's most violent city , with 3,985 crimes per 100,000 people , according to the midyear report , while New York ranked 10th with 1,1,87 per 100,000 .

Myriad factors account for New York 's continuing decline in crime overall , the police and criminologists say .

They cited more effective policing , shifting drug patterns and the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years .

Yet what is puzzling , one expert said , is that overall crime is dropping even as New York becomes an increasingly polarized city , with haves and have-nots often living side by side in luxury condominiums and public housing .

`` Within a few blocks , people are living worlds apart , '' said Andrew Karmen , a sociology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of `` New York Murder Mystery : The True Story Behind the Crime Crash of the 1990s . ''

`` In theory , that should make the poor more dissatisfied and drive people to commit crimes , '' he said .

`` But that does n't seem to be happening in New York . ``

One possible explanation , Dr. Karmen said , is that the city is largely populated by immigrants , many of whom are driven by a determination to succeed .

`` I think they still maintain a positive outlook and faith in the American dream , '' he said .

`` But if it does n't deliver , attitudes could change . ``

It has proven difficult to root out violent crime in the city 's toughest corners .

One of the city 's most perilous neighborhoods is in the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn , which includes East New York .

There the number of slayings last year was virtually unchanged from 2005 at 28 , and 3,239 crimes were reported .

Public housing projects have a disproportionate number of crimes .

While 5 percent of New York 's eight million residents live in public housing , Commissioner Kelly said , 16 percent of the city 's homicides take place there .

The Police Department plans to tackle that seemingly intractable problem by redeploying personnel from other areas and opening police substations in the most troubled housing complexes , Commissioner Kelly said .

Both homicide victims and suspects tend to have links to crime already , he said .

Of those arrested last year in homicides , 95 percent had criminal histories .

75 percent of the people killed did .

Such figures point to the department 's need to continue expanding its homicide , shooting and crime databases , Mr. Kelly said .

`` The more information we have , the greater the potential we have to prevent crimes , '' he said .

New York 's rebirth as a safer-than-average large city since the 1990s has coincided with an increase in tourism here .

According to city officials , about 44 million people visited last year on business or pleasure .

`` One overarching reason why people are coming here , in a city that was attacked five years ago , it 's because they have a sense of comfort as far as security is concerned , `` Mr. Kelly said .

The department is continuing to pour more resources into community policing , forging bonds between its officials and local leaders , especially those from new immigrant communities .

Yet in neighborhoods where homicide rates climbed , residents seem divided about whether this recent and heightened focus was improving their lives .

Allah B , the director of the Allah in Mecca Youth Center in Harlem , commended officers in its precinct , the 28th , for holding local forums and listening to community concerns .

Even though slayings in the precinct more than doubled , to 11 , last year , he said the increased connection between residents and the police fostered a greater sense of ease .

Yet a longtime resident of the St . Nicholas Homes in Harlem said police efforts to rout out criminals were having a divisive effect in her neighborhood .

`` They caused a lot of trouble trying to play one person against the other , '' said the woman , who would give only her first name , Keisha .

She said people in the neighborhood also felt harassed and persecuted by the police , and that such impressions heightened the tension and stress in the community .

Still , despite a slight increase in the number of homicides in her neighborhood , she said the streets felt far less violent than in previous years .

The sense that New Yorkers are increasingly inhabiting two different realities seems particularly strong in places like Fort Greene , Brooklyn , home to a thriving cafe scene and crime-plagued public housing complexes .

Eleven homicides were recorded in the neighborhood last year , compared with none in 2005 .

Strolling along a stretch of DeKalb Avenue by Fort Greene Park late last week , Cheryl Pickett , 36 , said she had no idea that murders had risen so sharply in the area .

Ms. Pickett , who has lived in Fort Greene for five years , said her perception of the neighborhood had not changed .

She still thinks of it as a safe , child-friendly place with charming shops and bars .

`` When things happen , it 's really surprising , `` Ms. Pickett said .

`` This year seems no different than last . '' .

Summary: Murders in New York City rose by 10 percent in 2006 over 2005 to 579 , even as overall crime continued to decline .

Summary: Homicides were well below 2,262 in 1990 .

Summary: Rise reversed declining trend .

Summary: Overall crime fell 5 percent in 2006 compared to 2005 .

Summary: Reported rapes were down 7.4 to 1,486 .

Summary: Subway crime plunged 13 percent and auto crime fell 11.4 percent .


Standing before a row of enlarged photographic slides of deadly viruses like Ebola and Hantavirus that decorate the new lunchroom at his office , Dr. Sherif Zaki professed himself to be uplifted .

`` I ca n't tell you how much this has done for our morale , `` Dr. Zaki said .

As a leader of an 11-year-old program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here that tries to ferret out the cause of 700 or so unexplained deaths across the United States each year , Dr. Zaki spends his days on matters that could test the morale of any scientist : a boy in Mississippi who died 17 days after developing a fever and headache .

A football player at the University of Missouri who died hours after collapsing on the field .

A skateboarder who scraped her knee and died a few days later .

These are among the mysteries for which Dr. Zaki and his colleagues at the Unexplained Deaths Project , or UNEX , serve as the medical detectives of last resort .

Now , after years of toiling in the subbasement of a 1950s-era building on the C.D.C. ` s campus , Dr. Zaki 's team has moved to a futuristic-looking building nearby where the window shades automatically rise or fall depending on the amount of sunshine , a transmission electron microscope stands ready to magnify bacteria and viruses up to 740,000 times , and images of deadly pathogens pass for décor .

Started in 1995 as an informal collaboration among a handful of C.D.C. scientists determined to identify outbreaks of new infectious diseases before they reached epidemic proportions , UNEX distinguished itself as an interdisciplinary group that brought together the expertise of virologists , bacteriologists , epidemiologists , veterinarians and clinicians .

As enthusiasm for the program grew , four affiliates in state health departments opened in California , Connecticut , Minnesota and Oregon .

Despite their success and the continuing threat of emerging infections , the state programs recently lost their financing , and enthusiasm for UNEX even within the C.D.C. was dwindling , to the point where its very future appeared to be in doubt until late December , when another year 's financing was finally approved .

The problem , Dr. Zaki said , is that the program 's interdisciplinary nature clashes with the trend , at C.D.C. and in science generally , toward specialization .

In fact , each researcher involved with UNEX has another position within one of C.D.C. ` s specialized departments .

Dr. Zaki , for instance , is chief of infectious disease pathology activity .

The hundreds of cases referred to UNEX each year by state health authorities , medical examiners and the occasional private physician represent a fraction of the true number of unexplained deaths across the country .

Dr. Zaki estimates that there are `` tens of thousands '' of such cases each year .

Most are presumed to be caused by infectious agents , usually carried by animals or insects , which is why UNEX is housed in the C.D.C. ` s National Center for Zoonotic , Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases .

`` There are so many cases where we say , ' We know this is infectious , ' where I 'd bet you anything the death was caused by a virus we ca n't find , `` Dr. Zaki said .

In fact , UNEX is able to find the particular killer pathogen in only about 15 percent of the cases referred to the office , he said .

On July 12 , 2005 , for instance , 19-year-old Aaron O'Neal , a reserve linebacker for the University of Missouri Tigers , collapsed on the field during a preseason workout and died soon after at a hospital .

An autopsy found that the lining of his brain had been inflamed , a possible sign of viral meningitis .

But even when UNEX received brain tissue samples , no virus or any other clear sign of what caused the inflammation could be detected .

Aside from storing the remaining tissue sample on the chance that a new test might one day solve the mystery , the case was closed .

Still , UNEX collars its share of microbial culprits .

On Sept . 13 , 2005 , a 10-year-old Mississippi boy went to his pediatrician with a fever , headache and an itchy scalp .

Within days he became so disoriented and agitated that he bit a family member .

Admitted to the hospital , he grew sicker , but all tests came back negative .

After he died on Sept . 27 , it took UNEX just eight days to detect the rabies virus in serum samples .

They later learned , by speaking with friends and family , that dead bats had been previously found inside the boy 's home and garage , and that he had removed a live bat from his bedroom and released it outdoors in spring 2005 .

Sometimes , finding the cause of a death means discovering a pathogen previously unknown to science .

During the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome , or SARS , it was a colleague of Dr. Zaki 's , Cynthia Goldsmith , who first identified the SARS coronavirus using an older-generation electron microscope at their old lab .

`` It took my breath away when I first recognized it , '' Ms. Goldsmith said .

Then there are the times when a probable cause of death is suspected , but local health officials are reluctant to perform an autopsy .

On Oct . 5 , 2001 , minutes after a Florida photo retoucher for The National Enquirer died of what appeared to be inhalation anthrax , a doctor who treated the man called Dr. Zaki .

`` The medical examiner was n't inclined to do the autopsy , `` Dr. Zaki recalled .

`` Finally they said , ' O.K. , we 'll do it , but only if you come down . '

`` When Dr. Zaki and a small group of colleagues flew to Florida the next morning on a private chartered jet , they learned that some of the staff at the Palm Beach County medical examiner 's office had had second thoughts about the autopsy .

`` When we got there , '' Dr. Zaki said , `` the people in the facility told us , ' If you do that autopsy , we 're all going to leave and never come back .

You 're going to leave spores , you 're going to contaminate the facility . '

`` Dr. Zaki 's group explained that the spores become dangerous only if allowed to dry out -- something they would prevent through meticulous cleaning -- and that antibiotics given as prophylaxis would eliminate the slim remaining chance of infection .

Even so , they performed the autopsy in a small room used for storage .

`` We left that room much cleaner than when we found it , '' Dr. Zaki said .

His own laboratory has an unequalled collection of automated testing equipment and a trove of tissue samples dating back decades .

`` I do n't think there 's any laboratory like this in the world , `` Dr. Zaki said .

`` And there 's nowhere else where people from so many different fields are together in such close proximity .

It makes one very proud . ``

Egyptian by birth , Dr. Zaki graduated third in his class of 1,200 at the University of Alexandria medical school before coming to the United States to study pathology in 1983 .

Asked why he chose pathology , he replied : `` My mom asked me the same question .

She said , ` Be a real doctor . '

But pathology explains how and why a disease happens . ``

Yet UNEX , as sophisticated as its equipment may be , is still routinely outfoxed by nature 's most archaic life forms , the viruses and bacteria whose roles in human disease , and hiding places in blood and tissue samples , continue to defy detection .

`` We think we know everything , '' Dr. Zaki said , `` but we do n't know the tip of the iceberg .

`` There are so many viruses and bacteria we do n't know anything about , that we do n't have tests for , `` he said .

`` A hundred years from now , people will not believe the number of pathogens we did n't even know existed . `` .

Summary: Dr Sherif Zaki , leader of 11-year-old Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Unexplained Deaths Project , describes challenges of being medical sleuth .

Summary: Says there are about 700 unexplained deaths in US every year and it is his mission of project to try and find out why each person died .

Summary: Program files tissue samples so they can be tested again if new information emerges .

Summary: Case examples described .

Summary: Photos .