17+JANV

 **** __Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises__ **** By GINGER THOMPSON and DAMIEN CAVE A sprawling assembly of international officials and aid workers struggled to fix a troubled relief effort.

**** __Looting Flares Where Authority Breaks Down__ **** By SIMON ROMERO and MARC LACEY The impulses for theft were borne of desperation and the lack of food and water as well as the absence of law.

****POLITICAL MEMO**** **** __Massachusetts Race Tests Staying Power of Democrats__ **** By ADAM NAGOURNEY There may be no better place to measure the fortunes of the Democratic Party than in the race for the Senate seat that was Edward M. Kennedy’s. **** __Quake Ignores Class Divisions of a Poor Land__ **** By MARC LACEY and SIMON ROMERO Earthquakes know nothing about the lines that keep the poor in slums and the rich in the breezy hills.

**** __In Show of Support, Clinton Goes to Haiti__ **** By MARK LANDLER Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Haiti with supplies and the president’s pledge to help the Haitian people.

**** __Lonely Trek to Radicalism for Terror Suspect__ **** By ADAM NOSSITER Behind Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s journey from gifted student to terrorism suspect was a struggle between an investment in this life and a longing for the next. **** __A Truncated Term for the Democrats’ 60th Vote__ **** By CARL HULSE As Paul G. Kirk Jr., the Senate stand-in for Edward M. Kennedy, waits for the outcome of an election, he has helped to keep the health care bill moving.

**** __NBC’s Slide From TV Heights to Troubled Nightly Punch Line__ **** By TIM ARANGO NBC has been brought down by missteps that have made its prime-time lineup a loser and turned its late schedule into a media circus.

**** __On Los Angeles Bus Tour, an Insider View of Gang Life__ **** By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD The inaugural run of LA Gang Tours visited key locations in the city’s street gang history. **** __NBC’s Slide From TV Heights to Troubled Nightly Punch Line__ **** By TIM ARANGO NBC has been brought down by missteps that have made its prime-time lineup a loser and turned its late schedule into a media circus.

****DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION**** **** __Forget Gum. Walking and Using Phone Is Risky.__ **** By MATT RICHTEL Cellphones make pedestrians inattentive, and emergency room records show the results.

**** __China at Odds With Future in Internet Fight__ **** By SHARON LaFRANIERE Many in China, especially university students, view the possible loss of Google’s maps, translation software and access to scholarly papers with real distress.