Allegation

ATLANTA - Herman Cain is still campaigning for president. But by most measures, his White House bid is all but over. His standing in polls is cratering. Supporters are wavering if not fleeing. Fundraising is suffering. And, these days, the former pizza company executive is less a serious candidate than the butt of late-night comedy jokes after a string of accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and, now, an allegation of a 13-year-long extramarital affair. "His chance at winning the presidency are effectively zero," said Dave Welch, a Republican strategist who worked on both of John McCain's presidential bids.

Citing the sex-abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and at Pennsylvania State University, the Orthodox Church in America has dismissed its presiding archbishop for failing to remove a priest who had raped a woman and been jailed for other violent acts. The Holy Synod of the church, whose members number about 85,000 in the United States and Canada, announced this week that Metropolitan Jonah, 52, had stepped down Saturday after ignoring the church's procedures for responding to sexual misconduct.

It was a smart move by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey to confirm that he'll go ahead with plans to enlarge the Police Department's Internal Affairs bureau by 25 percent - and to do so during the same week he launched a charm offensive with police-community meetings around the city. Ramsey needs to work in-house and in the community to drive home his message of zero tolerance about police misconduct. His trouble within the ranks with rogue cops is well-documented. Eleven city officers have been arrested on charges including murder, rape, and drug dealing since early 2009.

An elite Ukrainian hockey coach accused of fondling a teen who was attending clinics in the United States frequently traveled with his charges, transporting them from city to city for camps and tournaments, according to court documents. Ivan Pravilov, a mentor to several NHL and college players, will spend a week in detention before a bail hearing Friday, a federal magistrate judge ruled here Friday. Pravilov, 48, voiced concern for the 20 or so players visiting the United States this month to train with him and asked for an earlier hearing date.

Whether the allegation that Eagles coach Buddy Ryan placed bounties on Dallas' Luis Zendejas and Troy Aikman turns out to be fact or contrivance, it remains very real as an issue leading up to Sunday's Eagles-Cowboys game. And even if the Cowboys try to withdraw from the controversy, Ryan may not let them. So far, he seems intent on keeping the emotional thermostat set high. "It's hard to play an emotional game two weeks in a row," Ryan said yesterday. "We're coming off a big emotional deal with the Giants, and we beat the Cowboys 27-0 10 days ago, so (we)

In life, Timothy Downing and Karey "Fats" Hooks were close friends and constant companions. In death, the two 12-year-olds were laid to rest side by side. Yesterday, after a long, emotional service, the two boys were carried out of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, just around the corner from Bellevue Avenue, the street where they had lived and played. Their bodies rested in white coffins, a color often reserved for infants. "They were babies," murmured a mourner as she watched pallbearers carry the caskets down the church steps.

Police call it a prank. Parents are not amused. Days after the circulation of a list containing the names or nicknames of about 80 Harry S Truman High School students - along with derogatory remarks next to each name - teachers and administrators are dealing with upset pupils and concerned families. A meeting previously scheduled for Sunday to focus on school district issues also will address parents' fears about the list. Titled "Take out list," it appeared Monday on school cafeteria tables.

Lisa Michelle Lambert's lowest moment came late in 1994. She was 21 and two years into a life sentence for a murder she swore she didn't commit. And while imprisoned at the Cambridge Springs Correctional Facility in rural Crawford County, Pa., she had become the sexual property of a male guard - raped at his whim. When she complained, she said, she was placed in "the hole" - solitary confinement for 24 hours a day. Lambert had been pregnant when she was arrested in 1991 for the killing of another Lancaster County teenager, 16-year-old Laurie Show.

THE 13-YEAR-OLD ran three blocks from his mother's West Philly home to the 16th Police District on March 7, telling officers she had just beaten him with a belt, a metal ladder and her fists. He was crying, shaking and distraught, with scratches around the eyes, cheeks and neck, according to a four-page police domestic-violence report obtained by the Daily News . His mother, Sierra Thomas Street, ex-wife of Sharif Street, is now a candidate for judge in Philadelphia. The Police Department's Special Victims Unit and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office later decided no crime was committed during the March 7 incident.

DOVER, Del. - A man arrested in Delaware and linked to an alleged cigarette-smuggling ring that may have funneled money to terrorist groups was being held Friday on $12.5 million bail. State police arrested Adel Abuzahrieh, 47, of Staten Island, N.Y., after a traffic stop Wednesday on Route 1 near Milford. Troopers said they found 201 cases of cigarettes in the box truck he was driving and seized between $15,000 and $20,000 in cash. Abuzahrieh loaded a 2007 Mitsubishi box truck with cigarettes stored at a facility in Selbyville and began driving north on Route 1, said Sgt. Paul Shavack, a Delaware State Police spokesman.