War Zone

Louis J. Averella, a World War II merchant mariner who later was port agent and spokesman for the National Maritime Union, died in his sleep Tuesday at his home in Lady Lake, Fla. The former East Baltimore resident was 86. Mr. Averella, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Baltimore and raised on Exeter Street. He attended city public schools. During World War II, he sailed on Liberty ships, and his decorations included the Atlantic War Zone Bar, Pacific War Zone Bar and Victory Medal.

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is pressing for the nearly 10,000 armed security contractors now working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely the American military, in an effort to bring Blackwater USA under tighter control, senior Bush administration officials and Pentagon advisers say. That idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which relies heavily for protection in Iraq on about...

NEW YORK -- A United Nations aid agency yesterday accused Sudan's Islamic fundamentalist government of banning food flights to a beleaguered rebel-held war zone, threatening hundreds of thousands with starvation and death.Holding up a photograph of a child with a bloated abdomen and matchstick legs, Catherine Bertini, executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program, said:"When people look like this, and more and more children are dying any decision not to allow food to reach them is cruel."

S. E. BomgardnerMerchant seamanSpencer E. Bomgardner, a merchant seaman, died Saturday of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Towson. The Rosedale resident was 72.He spent the last 34 years of his career as a deck officer and retired in 1981 as a navigator for American President Lines.After a brief tour of duty in the Army before World War II, he joined the merchant marine in 1941 and was a seaman on the Standard Oil Co. tanker Rochester. While steaming in a convoy in the South Pacific, the Rochester was credited with shooting down an enemy plane that had attacked it.For his wartime service, he was awarded the Merchant Marine Emblem and the Atlantic War Zone, Pacific War Zone and Mediterranean Middle East War Zone bars.

Our youth must live in a war zoneViolent crime in today's society is robbing the innocence of our youth.The playground is no longer a safe environment for our children, and we as parents can no longer view the playground as a safe haven.We can no longer rest in the assurance that our children are surrounded by youthful interactions with one another.Instead, even the playground has become a ''war zone,'' making our young people prisoners of war in their own back yards.No longer will you find innocent bubble gum wrappers lying on the ground.

MIAMI -- Laurice Smith didn't know what else to do, so sh decided to run a hoe across her kitchen floor.The hoe was for the mess left behind after Hurricane Andrew ripped through southern Florida, killing at least 11 people with its 160-mph gusts of wind. Mrs. Smith raked up the remnants of the storm's fury: a soggy pile of newspapers, broken glass, attic insulation and a small white phone."I have to do something," Mrs. Smith said. "We did not know where to start."She could have started anywhere in what was left of her two-story yellow house.

LOS ANGELES -- As Los Angeles firefighters and police spent a weary day and night battling arson blazes and looters, stunned residents and business owners grappled with the question of who is torching and pillaging their communities. The answer seemed to be: both criminals and opportunists.The rampage, which began Wednesday hours after four white police officers were acquitted for beating Rodney G. King, continued yesterday with scenes reminiscent of a war zone -- smoke billowing from dozens of fires, looters hustling out of stores with merchandise and the periodic sound of gunfire.

NOVI SAD, Yugoslavia -- How quickly could you raise $10,000 to pay off warlords and get your husband safely out of Sarajevo?In this war, where military offensives to glorify religion and nationhood barely disguise a reign of plunder by rival gangs, such questions face thousands of Croats, Muslims and Serbs every day.Testimonies from all corners of the war zone show that some volunteer troopers answering to dozens of local warlords have taken the field to...

Early maps and accounts of the Chesapeake indicate tha American Indians had set aside lands for tribal combat -- a sort of war zone -- off limits to normal settlement and commerce.Ironically, these areas were abundant in wildlife, which was scarce near Indian villages even in the time of Capt. John Smith and other early European explorers.And the delicious irony has, if anything, enlarged with modern times and weaponry; war zones still are good for wildlife.Around the bay, jet fighters and nesting great blue herons coexist nicely on Bloodsworth Island, the Navy's bombing range in Tangier Sound.

Mothers cry, cameras rollLives go onThe list of don'ts grows longDon't sit on your stepsDon't go out night or dayDon't play inside or outYou will have no protectionHere in BaltimoreYour blood could flowAnd cameras will roll

Civilian workers who suffered devastating injuries while supporting the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home to a grinding battle for basic medical care, artificial limbs, psychological counseling and other services. The insurance companies responsible for their treatment under taxpayer-funded policies have routinely denied the most serious medical claims. Those same insurers - primarily American International Group - recorded hundreds of millions of dollars in profits on this business.

Death Wish done as an ultra-violent superhero saga for the arty graphic-novel set. That's the low concept behind Punisher: War Zone, starring Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, a U.S. commando who turns himself into a vigilante killing machine after his wife and two kids become collateral damage to a gangland execution in a public park. The Castles, of course, were having a picnic - which raises the question, what causes fans of grisly hipster comic books to ooh and aah over story pegs that would make their stomachs turn in a Spielberg movie?

The big boys of comic books like Batman and The Hulk all have movies on the way this summer. But a slew of films based on lesser-known superheroes (ever heard of Ant-Man?) are also in the works. The runaway success of Iron Man, which grossed $200 million worldwide its opening weekend and has already spawned plans for a sequel, proved that an able cast and solid storytelling can turn a second-tier superhero into box-office gold. "A good story, good filmmaking and a talented cast can make all the difference in the world," said Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films for Lionsgate Films.

It's very different from World War II or Vietnam, when people would go months without hearing anything. I am so grateful we can talk to them. But it's true that at times you can get too much information. You hear things, and you feel their anxiety, and it makes you worry even more." - TERESA SOTO of Granite Bay, Calif., whose sons Joshua and Benjamin are serving in Iraq, on the benefits and drawbacks of easier communication between the home front and the war zone through satellite phones and the Internet

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is pressing for the nearly 10,000 armed security contractors now working for the U.S. government in Iraq to fall under a single authority, most likely the American military, in an effort to bring Blackwater USA under tighter control, senior Bush administration officials and Pentagon advisers say. That idea is facing resistance from the State Department, which relies heavily for protection in Iraq on about...

Louis J. Averella, a World War II merchant mariner who later was port agent and spokesman for the National Maritime Union, died in his sleep Tuesday at his home in Lady Lake, Fla. The former East Baltimore resident was 86. Mr. Averella, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Baltimore and raised on Exeter Street. He attended city public schools. During World War II, he sailed on Liberty ships, and his decorations included the Atlantic War Zone Bar, Pacific War Zone Bar and Victory Medal.

Balad Air Base, Iraq -- The boy was dying much faster now. His blood pressure had skyrocketed, and his pulse was in the 180s. Standing at the foot of his bed, Dr. Heather Cereste could see his heart shudder in his skinny chest. His father seemed to sense what was coming. It was past midnight, Heather would later recall, and he was still at the bedside of his 6-year-old, who had been shot in the head while playing outside his Baghdad home. The father had been waiting this way for several days, dressed in the same black robe, stroking the boy's shaved head or resting his own head on the child's legs.

I read Police Chief Willliam McMahon's "open" letter to the public (The Sun, July 15) about better driving. Very nice, but I really wasn't impressed. I'll tell you why. I lived in Montgomery County for 15 years. Only had 1 point on my license since 1983. After 2001 (and 9/11), I couldn't get a job anywhere in the D.C. area because I didn't have a security clearance. So I went back home to New Jersey. In June of 2004, I was hit by a drunken motorcyclist. He slammed into my car doing about 65 mph. He died about a week later.

The grim, near-future world outlined in Shooting War, a compelling new serialized online graphic novel, is not hard to imagine - a world where terrorist bombings on American soil are routine, sectarian chaos in Iraq has spread far beyond its borders, an Islamic insurgency has evolved to be as media-savvy as it is ruthless, and a blogger finds himself thrust onto the world stage by a salivating global news corporation after bearing witness to the latest...

WASHINGTON -- It is both sobering and saddening after the recent release of Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor freelance reporter held hostage in Iraq for 82 days, to hear the haunting war stories of other correspondents traveling to and from Baghdad. At a forum Tuesday at Georgetown University, recipients of the 2006 Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting (named for Teddy Weintal, who spent 25 years covering foreign affairs for Newsweek magazine) spoke of the harrowing experiences of covering the war in Iraq.