Da Silva

Ariel Da Silva, 36, the first person ever granted political asylum by U.S. authorities because he was fleeing persecution for being gay, died of AIDS last week in a Los Angeles hospital. The native of Mexico, previously known by the pseudonym Jose Garcia, was granted asylum in March after he told U.S. authorities that his life would be in danger because of his homosexuality if he were returned to Mexico. The case marked the first time that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service acknowledged that a homosexual may belong to a persecuted social group that deserves asylum under the Refugee Act of 1980, his lawyers said at the time.

Companies are recruiting former workers back into the fold, another reason to think about your retirement benefits as you walk out, or back in, the door. Kirsten DaSilva, 35, spent the first eight years of her career as an auditor with accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers in Florham Park, N.J. She jumped ship for an opportunity to join a company that was going public, but the company later was acquired, and DaSilva wasn't happy in the new regime. So, last fall she went job hunting, on familiar turf.

Led by three goals apiece from veteran Adauto Neto and rookie Lucas Roque, the Blast earned a 22-13 victory in Game 1 of the Major Indoor Soccer League semifinals Tuesday night against the host Chicago Soul. Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Saturday night at 1st Mariner Arena . If the Soul wins, a 15-minute mini-game will immediately follow to determine which team advances to the championship against the Milwaukee Wave or Missouri Comets. The Soul jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Blast fought back to take a 6-4 lead by the first-quarter break and never looked back.

ROME - Resolving the global food crisis could cost as much as $30 billion a year, and wealthier nations are doing little to help the developing world face the problem, U.N. officials said yesterday. At a U.N. food summit attended by dozens of world leaders, Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, opened the meeting by sharply criticizing wealthy nations that he said were cutting back on agriculture programs for the world's poor and ignoring deforestation - while spending billions on carbon markets, subsidies for farmers and biofuel production.

MILWAUKEE - Blast rookie forward P.J. Wakefield was a late addition to the Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star Game, but he proved he belonged. Wakefield scored two goals, Blast forward Denison Cabral added two assists and Blast defender Sean Bowers had a solid game, but the Eastern Conference fell to the Western Conference, 20-13, before 8,429 yesterday at the Bradley Center. Wakefield, a rookie who played at UMBC, found out Tuesday that he would be a replacement for injured Cleveland Force forward Hector Marinaro.

Three fraternity brothers being investigated in connection with a series of suspicious winning bets on thoroughbred horse races have been ordered to appear today in federal court, where they are expected to face conspiracy charges. Attorneys for the three men say they have been told to report to the FBI office in White Plains, N.Y., at 8 a.m. today. From there, they will be transported to the U.S. District Courthouse for the Southern District of New York for an appearance before a magistrate.

Arlington Park Racecourse yesterday asked a court for permission to distribute winnings to bettors on last year's Breeders' Cup who would have collected had fraud not occurred. Arlington, the track near Chicago where the races were held in October, withheld the payout on the Ultra Pick Six after authorities noticed a suspicious pattern involving the wager made by a Baltimore man. In a Pick Six, the bettor attempts to select the winners of six consecutive races. Derrick Davis, 29, held the only winning tickets.

When you're the president, you do get certain advantages. Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, is an avid soccer player. He recently played in a match against other politicians and scored on a penalty kick in his team's 5-0 victory. Morales' side did have somewhat of an edge - his team included members of his security detail and retired players from Bolivia's 1994 World Cup squad. Morales tried to get some other South American presidents to play - Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina - but they all declined.

Blast coach Tim Wittman often has been described as blunt or brutally honest. Simply put, Wittman doesn't hide his feelings well, and the coach showed that side of his personality in the minutes after the St. Louis Steamers handed his Blast a 12-9 loss last night at 1st Mariner Arena. Wittman sat in his office, repeatedly ran his hands through his hair and displayed complete frustration with the Blast's flat effort in its fifth straight loss before a crowd of 6,090. The Blast (2-6) hadn't lost five consecutive games since a franchise-record six-game skid during the 2002-03 season, and though injuries have riddled the team, Wittman was more upset with its effort.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For the Blast to earn a spot in the Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs, it was going to have to win a game on the road. The good news was that Baltimore had four games in which to do so, and it could still make the playoffs if the Harrisburg Heat lost. The bad news was the Blast had a 4-10 record away from 1st Mariner Arena this season. The Blast threw that poor record out last night, defeating the Kansas City Comets, 16-11, with a fourth-quarter scoring outburst that also avenged a 17-6 road loss in late February.