Interpol

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

Almost every Interpol song contains a thrilling moment, usually just before the third chorus or the bridge, when everything - the hurtling and melodic bass, the machine-gun drums, the portentous and stentorian vocals - drops away, leaving only a naked guitar riff for a few bars. That pause shifts the dynamic by providing a few seconds of sharp clarity in contrast to the dark, post-punk tension that is Interpol's specialty. It heightens the anticipation before the rest of the band kicks back in. Saturday night, those moments were legion, as were the Interpol fans who packed the Tower Theatre.

An early casualty of the war on terrorism is the easy sharing of information among countries - information that could avert another attack. Nations with large Muslim populations are reluctant to be seen providing intelligence to the United States. American law enforcement officials worry that loose tongues will sabotage their investigative leads. Sounds like a job for Interpol, the cool-sounding but oft-misunderstood international police agency based in France. Ronald K. Noble, a South Jersey native and the first non-European to head the 78-year-old organization, is hoping to make Interpol more vital as the go-to agency that can bridge a divide of distrust.

Klaus Reinke, who was convicted in February of embezzling more than $1.4 million from two Delaware County auto dealerships, apparently jumped bail Tuesday night, forfeiting his house and leaving behind his wife and 13-year-old daughter. He was to be sentenced this month to up to 14 years in prison. Reinke, 51, a German citizen who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was free on $50,000 bail. He was permitted to work during the day, but was required to return to his home in Villanova each night by 8. On Tuesday night, Reinke did not go home, said Timothy Rice, the assistant United States attorney who prosecuted Reinke.

Ronald K. Noble, a former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia who prosecuted several high-profile drug and corruption cases in the city in the 1980s, was chosen yesterday to become the new chief of Interpol, the global police information clearinghouse. The South Jersey native is the first American named to the position. The 13-member executive committee of Interpol, which has headquarters in the central French city of Lyon, selected Noble over seven other candidates to lead the 76-year-old organization.

Health warning in Puerto Rico SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico's top health official warned Monday that the U.S.-affiliated island could face a grave dengue fever outbreak if people don't act quickly to destroy breeding areas for mosquitoes that spread the disease. Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez Feliciano issued the warning after a 37-year-old woman from the northern town of Hatillo died of the hemorrhagic form of the tropical virus. Her death was the third fatality from dengue fever this year on the island.

The Defense Department said yesterday that a U.S. jet fighter was missing over the Mediterranean but denied reports from the Middle East that Libyan antiaircraft fire had shot it down. The F-18 aircraft from the aircraft carrier Coral Sea, with one man on board, disappeared during a routine training mission on Wednesday, a Defense Department spokesman said. The spokesman said the pilot and the plane from the Marine fighter attack squadron were lost at sea south of Nice, France.

WARSAW POLAND'S P.M. STEPS DOWN Polish Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka resigned today following the election defeat last month of the parties in her centrist government coalition, the office of Poland's President Lech Walesa said. Walesa said he would nominate Waldemar Pawlak, the candidate of a new left- wing government coalition, to replace Suchocka. JERUSALEM 1ST WOMAN NAMED TO POLICE AGENCY Interpol, the international police agency, has appointed a woman to its ruling body for the first time in its 70-year history, Israeli police said in a statement yesterday.

They say the solution to our current financial predicament is a new "bad bank," though I doubt it will be as bad as the bank in "The International. " This purported thriller stars Clive Owen as a obsessive Interpol investigator convinced that a global banking conglomerate is assassinating people as it works to consolidate a deal to provide arms to an African insurgency. Interpol believes the arms deal is part of a pattern by which the bank uses transactions to seek long-term leverage over people in power.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan will ask Interpol for help in arresting former President Pervez Musharraf for his failure to prevent the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the interior minister said Tuesday. Rehman Malik said the government was seeking Musharraf's arrest because he allegedly failed to provide adequate security for Bhutto, who was killed in a gun and suicide-bomb attack in 2007. He made the comments in a televised address to lawmakers in Sindh province, Bhutto's political stronghold.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan will ask Interpol for help in arresting former President Pervez Musharraf for his failure to prevent the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the interior minister said Tuesday. Rehman Malik said the government was seeking Musharraf's arrest because he allegedly failed to provide adequate security for Bhutto, who was killed in a gun and suicide-bomb attack in 2007. He made the comments in a televised address to lawmakers in Sindh province, Bhutto's political stronghold.

A riches of embarrassment. That's what Sunday's WikiLeaks "document dump" - 251,287 documents, to be exact, some going back to 1966 - really is. No bombshells. In the United States, China, Yemen, and Germany, pols and ambassadors are red-faced. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, among others, is looking pretty sneaky. The WikiLeaks leaks have embarrassed people and fueled many a talk show and political mouth. But the real story is that of information: In today's media world, info is immortal, and hackers have the edge, creating a designer headache for those - governments, for example - who want to keep info secret.

Health warning in Puerto Rico SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico's top health official warned Monday that the U.S.-affiliated island could face a grave dengue fever outbreak if people don't act quickly to destroy breeding areas for mosquitoes that spread the disease. Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez Feliciano issued the warning after a 37-year-old woman from the northern town of Hatillo died of the hemorrhagic form of the tropical virus. Her death was the third fatality from dengue fever this year on the island.

Swift and suspenseful, Tom Tykwer's 1999 art-house hit Run Lola Run signaled the arrival of a smart, inventive new filmmaker. But the German director's subsequent entries - The Princess and the Warrior; Heaven; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and now The International - have been uneven at best. (Of the bunch, I vote for Heaven, even if the guy opposite Cate Blanchett is that genuinely annoying Giovanni Ribisi.) The International, coming in the midst of our epic financial crisis, should have been a winner.

They say the solution to our current financial predicament is a new "bad bank," though I doubt it will be as bad as the bank in "The International. " This purported thriller stars Clive Owen as a obsessive Interpol investigator convinced that a global banking conglomerate is assassinating people as it works to consolidate a deal to provide arms to an African insurgency. Interpol believes the arms deal is part of a pattern by which the bank uses transactions to seek long-term leverage over people in power.

Almost every Interpol song contains a thrilling moment, usually just before the third chorus or the bridge, when everything - the hurtling and melodic bass, the machine-gun drums, the portentous and stentorian vocals - drops away, leaving only a naked guitar riff for a few bars. That pause shifts the dynamic by providing a few seconds of sharp clarity in contrast to the dark, post-punk tension that is Interpol's specialty. It heightens the anticipation before the rest of the band kicks back in. Saturday night, those moments were legion, as were the Interpol fans who packed the Tower Theatre.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is an American success story. Raised in the Little Odessa section of Brooklyn, where his parents moved after fleeing the Soviet Ukraine, he grows restless working in the family deli and sets out on his own. Full of confidence and a willingness to take risks, he bluffs and beguiles his way into business, becoming wealthy and powerful in pursuit of the American dream. The fact that he is selling weapons - automatic rifles, missiles and tanks - doesn't seem to bother him. If he didn't, Yuri rationalizes, somebody else would.

Cable TV's gaping maw demands programming, and it can turn the most respectable intentions into sleaze city. Tonight's case in point: Interpol Investigates at 10 p.m. and its luridly uninformative rehash of the famous case of Ira Einhorn, which cheapens the often distinguished National Geographic Channel. "When crimes are committed," breathless narrator Michael Shapiro gushes, "an international organization unites police officers to deliver justice. " You know the show's dying to follow that rip-off of the Law & Order prologue with the distinctive musical dunh-dunt, but that would unite an international organization of copyright lawyers to deliver subpoenas.

Those expecting the sellout crowd at Interpol's Electric Factory show Sunday (a three-band bill that included On!Air!Library! and Secret Machines) to resemble a Stepford-like sea of black blazers, tight sweaters, skinny ties, and assorted dye jobs would have been disappointed. Many indeed modeled the fall mope-rock collection, coiffed as if they'd gone to their local Hair Cuttery with a photo of Interpol bassist Carlos Dengler - he of the Shemp-gone-goth 'do - and exclaimed, "I want this!"