Scandal

Barney Frank is in love. This is not exactly news — he's getting married in July — but it's still striking, the way a congressman who has cultivated a reputation for prickliness can be so publicly, sweetly sentimental. "It's funny," Frank said last week, musing about his relationship with his fiance, Jim Ready. "I used to listen to these songs about love and . . . they didn't mean anything to me. I would almost be kind of annoyed by them, you know — it's like I was left out. The whole thing takes on a meaning it didn't have.

Several small groups of Secret Service employees separately visited clubs, bars and brothels in Colombia prior to a visit by President Barack Obama last month and engaged in reckless, "morally repugnant" behavior, Sen. Susan Collins says. She says the employees' actions during the stunning prostitution scandal could have provided a foreign intelligence service, drug cartels or other criminals with opportunities for blackmail or coercion that could have threatened the president's safety.

In the final months of two mostly unmemorable terms in office, Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri boasted about his little state's big splash - stealing former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and his nascent video game company from Massachusetts. "This is a risk worth taking," said Carcieri, a Republican, announcing the 2010 deal that lured Schilling's company, 38 Studios, to Providence, and put Rhode Island taxpayers on the hook for up to $75 million in guaranteed loans to an athlete who liked video games but had never developed one. "I think the governor...

PHILADELPHIA - Two more Roman Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been found unsuitable for ministry after sexually abusing children. The archdiocese said it had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against Monsignors George J. Mazzotta, 73, and Hugh P. Campbell, 77, who were both ordained in the 1960s and held a series of positions in Philadelphia-area parishes and hospitals. Mazzotta has not been permitted to work or present himself as a priest since May 2010 when the archdiocese received the abuse allegation against him and reported it to law...

Published in France in 1954, "The Story of O" knocked a sizable dent in the buttoned-up sexuality of Western culture -- it was, in effect, the literary equivalent of "The Kinsey Report. " Written by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage, the novel tells of the consensual abuse of a young woman at the hands of her lover, Rene, and an older man named Sir Stephen, among many others. Blindfolds, whips, and various . . . devices are introduced, and the novel offers a cool (and for some, cold)

WHOEVER PLACED the two Sunday op-ed pieces “Self-control in childhood brings future success’’ and “Men and their sex scandals’’ side by side deserves a standing ovation. Now, if we can figure out a way to get these men into a kindergarten “Tools of the Mind” curriculum. Lorraine Lordi, Londonderry, N.H.

VIENNA -- Pope John Paul II officially named yesterday a prelate who investigated a child pornography scandal at a seminary to replace the bishop who resigned in the case, which rocked Austria's Roman Catholic Church and triggered an exodus of embittered believers. John Paul accepted the resignation of Bishop Kurt Krenn as head of the diocese of St. Poelten and named as his successor Bishop Klaus Kueng, who had been appointed by the Vatican to investigate the scandal. Krenn had dismissed the scandal as a "childish prank.

Michael Ramirz illustrates the GSA scandal.

AS THE Walter Reed Army Medical Center prepares to shut down, the storied institution should be remembered for its long, honorable history, and not just for its recent woes. The hospital has treated hundreds of thousands of the nation's warriors since before World War I. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur died there. Bob Hope and Tom Brady alike have greeted service members from their generation's wars there. Still, an aging hospital like Walter Reed simply cannot compete with leaner and more modern medical facilities.

Nothing is simple in the nation's capital. Consider Olivia Pope, the D.C.-based crisis management consultant whose clients range from a military hero accused of killing his girlfriend to a South American dictator whose family was kidnapped. Even the President of the United States needs her help as a fixer — and more. As viewers of the new ABC drama "Scandal" have learned in its early episodes, Olivia is tough, shrewd and charismatic on the job. But her personal life is a little more, um, complicated.

State media say police have arrested four senior executives at a major state-owned shipping company for alleged mismanagement. Online VnExpress says Duong Chi Dung, former chairman of Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines, and three other executives were detained Friday for allegedly causing losses of $80 million from 2009-2010 after purchasing old ships and making poor investments. Dung was promoted in February to head the government's Maritime Department. The arrests come more than a month after nine senior executives of another major state-owned company, the Vietnam...

Of all the critical questions swirling in the public square this week - do we really have to live with Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren for the next five months, would it have been better if JPMorgan Chase just played blackjack with the $2 billion it lost - there is one issue that trumps all others. Who lies about a degree from Stonehill? The answer, of course, is Scott Thompson, the freshly ousted chief executive of the struggling Internet giant Yahoo. Stonehill, for those new to the area, is the quaint Catholic college in sleepy Easton, Mass.

WASHINGTON - The director of the Secret Service will be called before a Senate committee May 23 to provide details about the investigation into the Colombia prostitution scandal that has resulted in the dismissal of nine employees. Director Mark Sullivan has not spoken publicly on the misconduct that took place last month in Cartagena, Colombia, where a dozen agents were implicated in a night of heavy carousing two days before President Obama arrived for an international summit.

Lawyers for a French pharmaceutical group suspected in the deaths of at least 500 people argued Monday that a trial against their client should be halted as two separate cases should be rolled into one before the court can proceed. The trial of Servier on charges of "aggravated deception" opened in Nanterre, west of Paris just as a similar case is being investigated in the French capital over the diabetes drug Mediator. The company is accused of hiding that Mediator — also used for weight loss — contained an amphetamine called benfluorex, which was taken off the market in 2009...

REVELATION: Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks says Prime Minister David Cameron commiserated with her after she quit in the wake of Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal. Her comments draw Cameron closer to the scandal. ABOUT BROOKS: She's a pivotal figure in the scandal. She resigned in July as chief executive of News International, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper operation. OTHER TOPICS: At a media ethics inquiry, Brooks listed Christmas parties, private dinners and hotel lunches she shared with the country's most powerful political...

Developments in a phone-hacking scandal involving British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.: November 2005: News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman writes story saying Prince William has a knee injury. Buckingham Palace complaint prompts police inquiry. August 2006: Goodman arrested along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for suspected hacking into voicemails of royal officials. January 2007: Goodman jailed for four months; Mulcaire given six-month sentence.

CHICAGO - Illinois plunged deeper into turmoil yesterday over disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich, as the attorney general asked the state's highest court to strip the governor of his powers, billions of dollars in bills went unpaid, and lawmakers moved closer to impeaching the scandal-plagued politician. But Blagojevich showed no sign of backing down. He took time to pray with ministers at his home and signed a bill that extends insurance coverage for autistic kids, sending a sign to his critics that he's still in charge.

A trial has begun for 17 defendants accused in a major Indian corruption scandal involving the sale of telecommunications spectrum nearly four years ago. India's Central Bureau of Investigation filed charges against 17 people in the 2008 sale of cellular operating licenses, which resulted in losses of nearly $36 billion in potential revenue for the government. The court opened the trial Friday by recording the statement of a prosecution witness. A former telecoms minister, two ministry officials and several telecom company...