Seal

WASHINGTON - A federal judge ruled yesterday that government prosecutors must turn over to alleged terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui their top secret plan for giving him limited access to information from one of the al-Qaida network's top lieutenants. Prosecutors had filed the plan under seal, but the judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, immediately ordered the entire document handed over to Moussaoui in his attempt to have a group of captured terrorist suspects appear as defense witnesses at his trial.

This is how Truffaldino, the title character in "A Servant to Two Masters," attempts to create a bit of makeshift glue to re-seal a letter in the Young Vic/Royal Shakespeare Company's production: First actor Jason Watkins takes a bite out of the small piece of bread he has been hoarding as "emergency rations." But chewing it into a sticky paste gets the gluttonous servant's taste buds going. He raises one foot in glee. A look of sheer ecstasy crosses his face. Before he realizes what he's done, he has swallowed the morsel.

A few years back, an Annapolis priest decided he wanted to be a Navy chaplain.But before the Navy would consider him, he had to shed 70 pounds.So, the priest rang up Stewart Smith, a Navy SEAL and Naval Academy fitness trainer who introduced the priest to such staples of Navy life as crunches, push-ups and curls.Seventy pounds lighter, the priest is now chaplain at a Marine Corps base.And Smith, realizing the power of the push-up, is embarking on a new career: teaching the overweight and inert what the Navy taught him.Smith ended a seven-year Navy career on Nov. 2, and dreams of becoming the new Richard Simmons, a modern Jack LaLanne in combat boots.

ROCKVILLE -- Former Navy SEAL Benjamin Sifrit, on trial in the death and dismembering of a Virginia couple in Ocean City last year, once detailed to a friend how he would chop up a body to dispose of it if he ever killed someone, the friend testified yesterday. Michael McInnis of Virginia Beach, Va., described a conversation that he said he had with Sifrit at a strip bar in 1999, when both were SEALS. Sifrit said, hypothetically that he would put down plastic, chop off the limbs and head with a knife, and place the body parts in separate bags, according to McInnis.

In 1978, Bill Seal coached McDonogh to a 14-3 record and one of four Maryland Scholastic Association B Conference boys soccer crowns. And in 1990, another Eagles squad lost, 2-1, to Calvert Hall in the tournament semifinals."

HAGERSTOWN -- For Cecil Anderson and his 50 companions, the worst thing about old age is "the routine of nothingness," and one of the best is going to day care.The elderly people at the Easter Seal's Break-A-Way center here are not sick enough for a nursing home, but they have physical or mental disabilities that would require family members to stay home and care for them. Or they live alone and want companionship.The program is inexpensive, compared with private centers that offer similar services to seniors.

Ike the gray seal - that big, horse-faced critter who has greeted (or ignored) visitors to the National Aquarium in Baltimore since it opened in 1981 - is retiring to Albuquerque, N.M., tomorrow, at the age of 30. Flying with him on a chartered DC-9 FedEx cargo jet will be his mate, Lady, and two smaller harbor seals. They are the last of nine residents of the aquarium's seal pool shipped away to new homes since 2000. The popular pier-side pool, which has always been accessible for free, is being closed to make way for aquarium expansion on Pier 3, due to start in the fall.

One worker at a Southeast Baltimore plant has died of suspected Legionnaires' disease and eight others have developed possibly related respiratory illnesses, forcing the company to shut down more than a third of its plant while the state health department investigates the outbreak.Poly-Seal Corp., a maker of plastic caps and seals, has laid off about 250 workers -- roughly half its work force -- while the plant is partly closed during the investigation.It could take a "couple of weeks" for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to investigate, health and company officials said yesterday at a news conference at the plant in the Holabird Industrial Park.

Ike the seal may be getting a new home.The National Aquarium in Baltimore unveiled plans yesterday for a $50 million to $70 million expansion that might include an outdoor otter exhibit, a larger seal tank and a building to house marine exhibits.The goal is to convert bare concrete plazas outside the aquarium into shady parks with fountains, Chesapeake Bay marsh grass and perhaps live turtles, sea creatures and water crashing over rocks.The proposal could create a greener and more welcoming entrance for the 1.6 million tourists who visit the 18-year-old aquarium each year and stay to stroll around the harbor, aquarium and city officials said.

The builder of luxury homes in two Elkridge subdivisions troubled by high levels of methane gas has offered to seal sump pumps and reroute drainage systems in an attempt to solve the problem.But many residents in Calvert Ridge and Marshalee Estates say they're unhappy with the plan and are consulting with lawyers to determine whether they should agree to the Ryan Homes proposal.All but three families in Marshalee Estates are being represented by the law firm of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos.