Role

You can't take your eyes off Shohreh Aghdashloo. It's not because she's strikingly beautiful. She is. Or because her voice is deeper than Barry White's. It seems like it. Or because she's a good actress. She was nominated for an Oscar for House of Sand and Fog. No, it's because the 52-year-old Iranian actress is playing a chillingly sinister Middle Eastern terrorist on 24. As the wickedly cunning Dina Araz, Aghdashloo is stealing every scene she's in with her icy looks, throaty voice and scary ability to poison her son's girlfriend with ease.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta spoke to the media Saturday for the first time since returning to the Orioles from Triple-A Norfolk. Arrieta, who was called up Friday to bolster a thin bullpen after the Orioles' 13-inning win on Thursday night, has struggled this year in appearances split between the Orioles and Triple-A. “I just want to have success again in the big leagues,” Arrieta said. “If that's as a starter or as a reliever, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to get back into throwing the ball well and contributing any way to this team winning ballgames.

Ricky Williams didn't join the Ravens under the pretense that he would usurp Ray Rice as the team's featured tailback. Instead, Williams said he is comfortable being the change-of-pace back that he presents in a two-man rotation with Rice. “I think that's the way it's been,” Williams said. “My role kind of changes each game. Whatever we need, if Ray gets tired or it's time to close out the game and ray's had a bunch of carries, it's whatever they need me to do to try to step in and do it.” But Williams acknowledged that coming off the bench hasn't been entirely easy.

The latest open debate over security and privacy is a welcome pivot from the irksome father-knows-best attitude that has prevailed too long regarding the government's contention of superior judgment in the realm of national security. As with most cases of governmental excess in the shadow world of intelligence, the attitude goes a long way back in American history. It can be traced at least to the Alien and Sedition Acts under John Adams, and Abraham Lincoln's suppression of the habeas corpus protection that trampled civil liberties in the young nation and then in the Civil War. Later, there was Lyndon Johnson's defense of expanding the American military role in Vietnam based on the supposedly superior intelligence he possessed, and then Richard Nixon's arrogant contention that if the president of the United States did something, that automatically made it not only right but legal.

The Ravens' smallest player continues to loom large as a weapon on offense. Running back Ray Rice ranks fourth in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage with 409. He ranks ninth in rushing (231 yards) and fifth among running backs in receiving (178). Although he is less than two years removed from leading all running backs in catches (78) and receiving yards (702), the 5-foot-8 Rice at times is overlooked by opposing defenses. That's fine with Rice. “I feel like if I go into a game and the team doesn't respect me, then that's on them,” said Rice, who is tied with wide receiver Anquan Boldin for the team lead in receptions (14)

Since entering the NFL as a second-round draft pick two seasons ago, Ravens defensive end Paul Kruger has contributed 12 tackles and just one memorable play -- an overtime interception against Dennis Dixon and the Steelers in 2009. But Kruger feels he "should have more of a starting role" for the Ravens in 2011. “I feel like this year coming up, I should have more of a starting role, and if not, something real serious, playing at least 50 percent of the plays if not more,” Kruger, 25, who attended college at the University of Utah, recently told a television station in Salt Lake City , according to Mike Duffy of the Ravens’ website . Kruger has already persevered through much more than a roster battle , so it will be hard not to root for the guy in training camp.

Prior to the current lacrosse season, Maryland's players gathered to vote on team captains. The only representative from the defense was junior long-stick midfielder Jesse Bernhardt, and it's a role he is relishing. “It's something I embrace,” he said recently. “I enjoy being a captain. It's a great privilege that I was picked by my peers to be in that situation. I really do enjoy it.” The Terps defense was ravaged by graduation, which sapped the unit of three close defensemen, the long-stick midfielder and one of two short-stick defensive midfielders.

Dave Trembley said last weekend in Toronto that converted starter David Hernandez would be used in long-relief situations for the time being, but it took only one outing for the Orioles manager to change his mind. Trembley said after Tuesday's series-opening 3-1 loss to the New York Yankees that Hernandez, who pitched 11/3 scoreless innings in the game, would most likely be used late in games, particularly in the seventh and eighth innings. "I think he's looked a lot more comfortable than I expected he would look coming out of the bullpen this early," Trembley said when asked what changed his mind about Hernandez's role.

David Reed got his old job back. A week after watching Bryan McCann return kicks against the Houston Texans, Reed re-assumed that role in the Ravens' 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday night. Reed had missed two games after suffering a left shoulder strain against the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 18 before returning after the bye week. Reed said he was grateful for the opportunity to return kicks - an assignment that he had carried out well last season when he led the NFL with a 29.3-yard average.

Wearing a sharp designer suit, Ravens running back Ray Rice exited M&T Bank Stadium late Monday night looking as fresh and content as he did at any point during his team record-breaking 2011 season. He had just scored two touchdowns and gained 93 yards of offense in the Ravens' 44-13 blowout victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, and he did it while touching the ball only 13 times. That kind of workload for the Pro Bowl running back last year inspired finger pointing inside and outside of the Ravens' locker room.

Alfred Sommer, a former Johns Hopkins University dean who discovered the importance of vitamin A in preventing child blindness, will accept an award Sunday in Israel honoring his contributions to preventive medicine. Sommer was chosen as a laureate of the Dan David Prize, bestowed in various fields by Tel Aviv University. He shares the $1 million prize with Esther Duflo, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist being honored for her work on poverty. The Dan David Foundation awards three prizes each year - one for achievements focused on the past, one for the present, and one, as in Sommer's case, for the future.

As the Arab Spring unfolded in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East, Turkey was held out as a model for how Islam and democracy could co-exist. This week's massive civil unrest in Turkey, erupting over the destruction of the Gezi Park in Istanbul's center, raises the broader question of whether that model is viable. The response to the protests has been harsh. Police liberally used tear gas and water hoses in a counterproductive attempt to quell the unrest. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was dismissive of the protesters' demands and, showing his characteristic pugilism (he is a former boxer)

Many predicted the 1980s crack epidemic would create a generation of children with major developmental and behavioral problems, but a new study found much of that hype hasn't panned out. Researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found that the effects of crack cocaine in utero had only small effects on adolescent behavior, cognition and school performance. Crack is a more addictive, crystalized form of cocaine that is smoked for a intense high.

Brendan Fowler won more than 55 percent of his faceoffs and scooped up at least 34 ground balls in each of his first two seasons at Duke, but still was not making much of a dent in terms of playing time. Then again, considering that C.J. Costabile - who won 53 percent of his draws and collected 376 ground balls en route to being named Division I's top midfielder - was atop the depth chart, Fowler was not fretting about his opportunities. “C.J. just brought a different dynamic as a faceoff guy,” Fowler recalled Wednesday afternoon.

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice will be the first player featured during the upcoming season in USA's "NFL Characters Unite" campaign, the cable channel will announce later today. Rice will also announce an expanded relationship between the NFL and USA at the upfront TV presentations in New York City later today. Here's the release from USA: NEW YORK - May 16, 2012 - USA Network announced today that it is expanding its Characters Unite collaboration with the National Football League.

The opera world has been giving a little extra attention to a couple of giants born in 1813, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. Locally, that bicentennial salute has included memorable concerts by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra featuring excerpts from Wagner's mountainous operas. And this week, Lyric Opera Baltimore offers a production of one of Verdi's earliest masterworks for the stage, "Rigoletto. " The "Rigoletto" staging brings tenor Bryan Hymel back to town after his Lyric debut last season, when he made a formidable impression in Gounod's "Faust.

Jake Layman 's selection to USA Basketball's U-18 team shouldn't be a surprise any more. After the first weekend of play at the FIBA Americas U-18 Championship, the future Terp answered all questions about his place on the national team. On Sunday, Layman scored a game-high 18 points to lead the U.S. to a 110-59 win over Mexico in Sao Sebastiáo do Paraiso, Brazil.  “Jake Layman gave us really good 3-point shooting and obviously our frontcourt did a great job on the glass," U.S. and Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan said in a news release . When we subbed everybody today contributed and gave us really good minutes.

Josh Selby emerges from the Stevenson University locker room, his hot pink sneakers with silver trim sparkling as he takes the floor. The Lake Clifton graduate's eye-catching shoes - which he says he wears to raise breast cancer awareness - quickly become an afterthought once play begins and his flashy game is on display. In the first quarter of Ravens wide receiver LaQuan Williams' charity basketball game late last month, Selby finds himself stuck in a corner beyond the arc, tightly guarded.

Denver coach Bill Tierney jokes that it took only four years for college coaches, including himself, to put Eric Law in the best position to succeed. Law has gone from being a backup at Salisbury as a freshman to - after transferring to the Pioneers - a sophomore midfielder to a junior wing attackman to the quarterback of the offense in 2013. And Law has thrived in his latest role, setting both team and personal bests in assists (31) and points (64). “So finally, after three years of playing - one at Division III, one at midfield and one at not his most comfortable position - in his fourth year of college, he gets to do what he does best, and you've seen the results,” Tierney said with a chuckle.

In Hillary Clinton's farewell remarks in February on stepping down as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, she echoed one of her predecessors, Madeleine Albright, declaring America to be "the indispensable nation. " "We are the force for progress, prosperity and peace," Mrs. Clinton elaborated. "And because we have to get it right for ourselves. " Ms. Albright had put it this way: "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation.