Dominican Republic

Alex Rodriguez has been told by the New York Yankees to keep his cousin away from ballparks. The message was given to the star third baseman yesterday, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The message applied to spring training and the regular season, the person said. Speaking at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., general manager Brian Cashman said only that the matter of Rodriguez being picked up from his spring training opener Wednesday by his cousin "has been handled."

In the Cal Ripken 12-and-under World Series' five years in Aberdeen, the one constant has been Mexico playing in the International championship game. Mexico, which has won the previous four International titles here, advanced again yesterday, surviving a scare from Japan (2-3) for a hard-earned 3-1 victory at Cal Sr.'s Yard. Mexico (5-0) will face the Dominican Republic (4-1) in the International final today at 3 p.m. Southeast Lexington, Ky. (4-1) will play Tampa, Fla. (4-1) in the U.S. title game today at 5:30 p.m. The International and U.S. winners will meet tomorrow at 5 p.m. for the championship.

Fear of crime and resentment against immigrants are perennial themes of U.S. politics, and Congress touched both when it revised U.S. policy toward legal residents in the mid-1990s.Noncitizens, even permanent residents, were made subject to deportation for a wide range of crimes that had previously been considered too minor. There was, at least according to immigration officials, no flexibility in deciding whom to deport.The Draconian nature of the change brought immediate cries from civil libertarians and advocates for immigrants, but court challenges have had little effect.

SOSUA, Dominican Republic -- Nearly 60 years after the Dominican Republic became the first nation to welcome European Jews fleeing the Holocaust, the second and third generations of this once thriving community are dwindling away because of migration, assimilation and fusion religion.At a Shabbat service, Benny Katz belts out Judaism's sacred prayers. His son shakes a scratchy-sounding noisemaker. His niece jams on a keyboard, and other relatives with tambourine and drums lay down a bouncy merengue beat.

Fred Avila wanted his son to connect with their Latino culture -- the merengue music, the exotic food and stews, the infectious steps of a salsa or bomba y plena, the traditional dance of Puerto Rico.Before taking his 7-year-old son to their homeland next month, Avila brought his boy to Baltimore's Latino Festival at Patterson Park, a two-day celebration of the vibrancy and beauty of the Caribbean and Latin American people."I'm really getting into the culture," said Avila, 41, a respiratory therapist whose family left Puerto Rico for Florida before moving to Perry Hall.

MIAMI -- When Roberto Rodriguez was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1989, apparently ending his reign as one of Los Angeles' premier cocaine dealers, a federal judge in Los Angeles gave the Cuban immigrant 30 days to get his affairs in order.That month became nearly a decade.Rodriguez jumped bond and headed south, embarking on an odyssey through the drug underworld of the Americas that made him a target of hit men in Los Angeles and Detroit, a drug supplier for street gangs in Chicago, Detroit and New York and a partner and friend to leaders of the Cali cocaine cartel in Colombia.

THE CENTRAL Intelligence Agency is desperately in search of a new role.By becoming peacekeeper between Israelis and Palestinians, the agency would go a long way toward mitigating its indecorous past. It is a good place to start for an outfit that has caused domestic headaches and foreign embarrassments.The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard C. Shelby Alabama, expressed concern about the designated role and said he will hold hearings. They should be substantive; neither the agency nor the White House should alone define the future of an agency that, at times, has seemed a government unto itself.

Nobody in the Orioles' organization suffered more over the last few weeks of the season than first base coach Carlos Bernhardt, and it had nothing to do with baseball.Hurricane Georges had torn through the Dominican Republic, leaving one of the poorest nations in the Caribbean in ruins. Because phone lines were down, Bernhardt had no way of reaching his family in San Pedro de Macoris. He tried not to assume the worst as the remaining games passed by without word from his wife and three children.

Archbishop Bazyli, 84, who as head of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Poland guided his church through communist oppression and secured the church legal status under democracy, died Wednesday in Warsaw.Jerome L. Murray, 85, whose many inventions include the pump that made open-heart surgery possible, died Jan. 7 in Dover, N.J.Irene Kampen, 75, who saw her sometimes strife-torn life as such a sitcom that it took Lucille Ball to portray it on television, died Feb. 2 of breast cancer in Oceanside, Calif.

JACMEL, Haiti -- Once, the streets of this Caribbean port pulsed with the incessant traffic of sailors and merchants. Its harbor was lined with ships loading mail, coffee, tobacco and indigo.Now, as it celebrates its 300th anniversary, the shabby but picturesque town 55 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital, is preparing for a possible renaissance. With its wide, sparkling bay and gingerbread houses, Jacmel has become the spearhead of a government drive to develop Haiti's tourist industry and revive the floundering economy.

DONALD WARNER HENDERSON, 79 Dancing-drama director Donald Warner Henderson, credited with keeping a globally recognized, slavery-era dancing drama alive, died Sunday. He was 79. Warner died in the Dominican Republic after fighting liver cancer, said Xiomara Perez of the Ministry of Culture. Warner was director of a dancing drama known as "Cocolo," a once-pejorative term that described migrant workers of British sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic.

J eff Brauner of Baltimore likes the name Hortense but hasn't heard of a Hurricane Hortense in a while. He wonders what became of the name. Alas, it was retired after flooding from a Hurricane Hortense in 1996 caused 39 deaths and $217 million in damage in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico saw 24 inches of rain; 20 inches fell in the Dominican Republic. Hortense was replaced by the name Hanna.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - No further proof is necessary that major league baseball is a global sport after yesterday's exhibition game between the Orioles and the Dominican Republic team that will compete in the World Baseball Classic. Japanese right-hander Koji Uehara pitched an impressive three innings for the Orioles, validating their new commitment to international scouting, and a raucous group of fans wearing the colors of the Dominican team had Fort Lauderdale Stadium rocking to a Latin beat for the 2009 debut of legendary pitcher Pedro Martinez.

Jim Bowden's final move as Washington Nationals general manager was his own resignation. Bowden stepped down yesterday morning after four seasons, leaving under the cloud of a federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to Latin American prospects. He has maintained his innocence in the matter but said, "I've become a distraction." Seated at a table with Nationals president Stan Kasten before reporters and team officials in Viera, Fla., Bowden read from a statement, sometimes deviating from the script as he struggled to contain his emotions.

Alex Rodriguez has been told by the New York Yankees to keep his cousin away from ballparks. The message was given to the star third baseman yesterday, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The message applied to spring training and the regular season, the person said. Speaking at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., general manager Brian Cashman said only that the matter of Rodriguez being picked up from his spring training opener Wednesday by his cousin "has been handled."

Back on the field, Alex Rodriguez was able to put aside the steroid scandal. At least for a little while. Booed and taunted by opposing fans in the New York Yankees' spring training opener, Rodriguez homered and drew two walks yesterday in a 6-1 exhibition victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla., that was anything but routine. Rodriguez then got into a sport utility vehicle that, according to the New York Post's Web site, was driven by Yuri Sucart - the person identified as the cousin who provided Rodriguez with performance-enhancing drugs.

Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis and Los Angeles Angels starter Ervin Santana received the steepest raises among the 111 players in salary arbitration, a group that overall earned a record increase of 172 percent, according to a study by the Associated Press. The rise broke the previous mark of 169 percent set in 1999 and was up sharply from last year's 120 percent hike, partly because the arbitration group started out with a lower average. The 111 players in this year's filing class rose to an average of $3.07 million from $1.13 million.

5 Blackwater guards indicted in Iraq killings WASHINGTON: Five Blackwater Worldwide security guards have been indicted and a sixth was negotiating a plea with prosecutors for a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead and became an anti-U.S. rallying point for insurgents, people close to the case said yesterday. Prosecutors obtained the indictment late Thursday and had it put under seal until it is made public, perhaps by Monday. All who discussed the case did so on condition of anonymity because it remains sealed.

Beware of an extortion scheme by callers who falsely identify themselves as "FDA special agents" or other FDA officials, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Several cases have been reported of callers enticing consumers to purchase discounted prescription drugs by wiring funds to one of several locations in the Dominican Republic. No medications are ever delivered. A subsequent call is received from a fraudulent "FDA special agent" who orders the consumer to pay a fine of several thousand dollars to an address in the Dominican Republic to prevent incarceration or other legal action.

The Orioles' season is long over, but in fall and winter, baseball aficionados can savor the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd in the Dominican Republic, one of the Caribbean's "it" destinations. Most people know that several top sluggers hail from the country, but did you know Christopher Columbus is also one of the country's claims to fame? The explorer discovered the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti, on his maiden voyage to the New World. Not a sports or history buff?