PHONOGRAPH

The most enticing property yet found outside our solar system is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra, a team of European astronomers said yesterday.

The astronomers have discovered a planet five times as massive as the Earth orbiting a dim red star known as Gliese 581.

It is the smallest of the 200 or so planets that are known to exist outside of our solar system, the extrasolar or exo-planets. It orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.

• Sci-fi prediction corner: After polluting our planet to the brink of destruction, humans fly off to Gliese 581, only to find that the life-forms on that planet have polluted it to the brink of destruction as well.

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.

As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot by Russia or Osama bin Laden to bring down American agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven? Researchers have heard it all.

The future of “Law & Order,” one the most enduringly popular shows in television history, will be decided over the next few weeks as its network, NBC, and its creator, Dick Wolf, mull a wrenching decision:

Is it finally time to shut down production of a series that has churned out almost 400 episodes, fueled ratings for several cable channels with its voluminous repeats and spawned two successful spinoffs, all the while generating enormous profits for both NBC and Mr. Wolf?

The answer will come in the negotiations now going on between Mr. Wolf and NBC Universal, the corporate entity that includes the studio that produces the series. The talks involve not just the 17-year-old “Law & Order” but also its most recent offspring, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” now in its sixth season.

At least according to NBC executives, it’s possible that either or both “Law & Order” and “Criminal Intent” will be canceled.

A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced legislation to ban smoking statewide in all workplaces, including restaurants and taverns.

Backers of the measure said it would create a level playing field for all businesses while protecting the health of workers in all industries.

Tickets would cost $35 in advance and $40 on game days. In return, fans could gorge like George Kennedy in The Naked Gun. The menu would include nachos, hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, and soft drinks, what one Dodger PR flack called "basic ballpark fare that most fans enjoy."

Meanwhile, a chilling portrait of the gunman as a misfit began to emerge.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not know Cho. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."

"There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."

She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.

The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.

Mr. Biskupic insists that he prosecuted Ms. Thompson only because he believed a crime was committed, and that he did not discuss the political implications of the case or the timing with anyone in the Justice Department or the White House. Congress has asked the Justice Department for all e-mail messages about the case to help resolve the matter.

But even if there were no discussions, Mr. Biskupic may have known that his bosses in Washington expected him to use his position to help Republicans win elections, and then did what they wanted.

That would be ironic indeed. One of the biggest weaknesses in the case against Ms. Thompson was that to commit the crime she was charged with she had to have tried to gain personally from the contract, and there’s no credible evidence that she did. So Mr. Biskupic made the creative argument that she gained by obtaining “political advantage for her superiors” and that in pleasing them she “enhanced job security for herself.” Those motivations, of course, may well describe why Mr. Biskupic prosecuted Ms. Thompson.

Captured by the Italians, in the prison camp at Montecassinao he completed the work we now know as the Tractatus ­Logico-­Philosphicus, a set of aphorisms based on the principle that language is a combination of propositions picturing the facts of which the world is composed.

Dressed in jeans and a blue work shirt, Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, helped awaken Irving Zywoto and tried to explain to the 83-year old resident who he was.

"Remember the last presidential election in 2004? Kerry and Edwards? I'm Edwards. I'm running for president this time," he said.

Later, Edwards donned rubber gloves to rub moisturizer on Zywoto's legs and gave him his morning shave.

Family members say the 73-year-old Baptist minister was driven to kill himself by the traumatic experience of being awake during surgery but unable to move or cry out in pain.

Sizemore's death has drawn attention to a little-discussed phenomenon called anesthesia awareness that some experts say may happen to 20,000 to 40,000 patients a year in this country. Typically they feel pain, pressure or other discomfort during surgery because they are not adequately anesthetized.

The causes can include doctor errors, faulty equipment or medical conditions so severe that the patient cannot be safely put under deep anesthesia.

"It's the first time I know of anyone succeeding in taking their own lives because of this, but suicidal thoughts are not all that uncommon" among such patients, said Carol Weihrer, president of the Virginia-based Anesthesia Awareness Campaign, which she founded after her own experience with anesthesia awareness.

Sizemore, a clergyman and former coal miner from the town of Beckley, was admitted to Raleigh General Hospital on Jan. 19, 2006, for exploratory surgery to diagnose the cause of abdominal pain, according to a lawsuit filed March 13.

An anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist who worked for Raleigh Anesthesia Associates gave Sizemore paralyzing drugs to prevent his muscles from jerking and twitching during the surgery, the complaint alleges. But it says they failed to give him general anesthesia to render him unconscious until 16 minutes after the first cut into his abdomen. The family says he suffered excruciating pain.

After snow wiped out Cleveland's series against Seattle for the fourth day in a row Monday, the Indians moved their next series against the Los Angeles Angels to Milwaukee's Miller Park.

The teams will play a three-game series beginning Tuesday in a ballpark that has a retractable roof, unlike Jacobs Field. The opener and Wednesday's game will be played at 7:05 p.m. EDT, with Thursday's scheduled for 1:05 p.m.