Oath

An immigrant missed her citizenship hearing. A state education worker failed to show up in time to receive an award. And frustrated Baptists couldn't get to workshops they had traveled across the country to attend. Everyone was late, late, late yesterday and the cause was "horrendous," "terrible," "ugly" traffic - and those were some of the nicer words commuters and out-of-town visitors used as they described the traffic snarl in downtown Baltimore, on nearby highways and along the Interstate 95 corridor.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- What do you call someone who, in violation of her oath, reveals government secrets to a reporter, who then prints them and exposes a clandestine operation intended to get information from suspected terrorists that could save American lives? Here is what one dictionary says about that word: "One who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty." The word so defined is traitor. The Central Intelligence Agency fired an intelligence officer after determining she leaked classified information to a Washington Post reporter about secret overseas prisons used for interrogating suspected terrorists.

BERLIN -- Angela Merkel, a pastor's daughter known for her ambition, capped a remarkable rise through German politics yesterday by becoming the nation's first female chancellor and the first to have grown up in what was then communist East Germany. The 51-year-old conservative, the youngest person to reach the chancellor's office, will lead Europe's largest economy as head of a fragile coalition that faces high unemployment, low growth and problems with the welfare state. Less a charismatic campaigner than a sober tactician, Merkel is expected to rely on her gift of persuasion to keep the government from splintering along party lines.

An Anne Arundel County teenager is protesting his high school's decision to broadcast the Pledge of Allegiance in languages other than English during National Foreign Language Week. Patrick Linton, a ninth-grader at Old Mill High School in Millersville, said he and some other students sat down yesterday rather than stand when the Pledge was read in Russian over the school's public address system. The 15-year-old said his teacher told him if he had a problem, he should leave the room - so he did. And, he said, he doesn't plan to return this week.

Baltimore's outwardly tough-as-nails City Council president began her second term yesterday showing a softer side in a speech during which she was moved to tears at moments, gave heartfelt thanks to God and suggested that she is not nearly as fearsome as her black belt in karate might suggest. "Sometimes they think I'm the toughest of all," Sheila Dixon said, referring to her council staff. "I'm actually the gentlest of anyone you can imagine. But I want the best for Baltimore." Dixon and the 14 other members of the smaller, reconfigured council were sworn in during a two-hour ceremony at City College, a location Dixon said she chose to highlight their commitment to Baltimore public schools.

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's political crisis deepened yesterday as opposition leader Viktor A. Yushchenko amassed legions of demonstrators outside parliament and lay claim to the presidency by taking a symbolic oath of office, warning that civil conflict could ensue if the government intervened. "Ukraine is on the brink of civil conflict," Yushchenko told fellow lawmakers inside parliament shortly before taking his symbolic oath on a 300-year-old Bible. "We have two choices. Either the answer will be given by parliament, or the streets will give an answer."

Calvin W. Burnett, a resident of Westminster and former president of Coppin State College for 32 years, was sworn in yesterday as Maryland's secretary of higher education. He had been serving as acting secretary since Jan. 1, and last month was appointed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. as secretary and chief executive officer of the Maryland Higher Education Commission. The swearing-in, which took place at the Carroll County Courthouse, included the installation of Michael J. Kiphart of Sykesville as assistant secretary for planning and academic affairs for the commission.

J. Barry Hughes trades in a law practice for a robe and a gavel today when he is sworn in as a judge for the Carroll County Circuit Court. Hughes, 55, is expected to begin hearing cases Tuesday. "I'm ready to go to work," he said this week. Hughes fills the vacancy left by Judge Luke K. Burns Jr., who retired in January. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. appointed Hughes to the court last month after a judicial nominating commission submitted a list of six applicants at the end of March. Hughes has divided his cases among his partners at the law firm of Hollman, Hughes, Maguire, Timchula and Titus in Westminster.

In ceremonies across the country this week, robed medical school graduates will rise, degrees in hand, and perform their first act as physicians and their last as students. They will swear an oath with ties to ancient times, one generally credited to Hippocrates. The ritual is an eerie chant of principles that Dr. William Henrich, the University of Maryland's chairman of internal medicine, describes as a resonating link with all physicians: those long since gone, the robed young doctors standing shoulder to shoulder in the ceremonies of the present, the healers yet to come.

ARLINGTON, Va. - She spoke with authority. That was my first impression of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as she faced the commission investigating how 9/11 happened and what might be done to prevent future attacks on American soil. Mere mortals would have melted during the three hours of sometimes-intense questioning, but Ms. Rice didn't even break a sweat. One might have thought she was engaging in after-dinner conversation and not the high drama that persuaded the three broadcast networks to interrupt the banalities they usually carry in the morning for something - and someone - of substance.