A week after the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda still has not publicly anointed a successor, and the most likely heir apparent could prove to be a divisive figure within the terrorist network.

U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts said they expected that Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon and bin Laden's longtime deputy, would take over as al-Qaeda's emir, or paramount leader. But they added that his ascendance was not guaranteed, pointing to a statement released Friday by al-Qaeda's "general command" that acknowledged bin Laden's demise but gave no hint of who was in charge.

It could be years, if ever, before the world learns whether Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) helped hide Osama bin Laden.

But detailed allegations of ISI involvement in terrorism will soon be made public in a federal courtroom in Chicago, where prosecutors late last month charged a suspected ISI major with helping to plot the deaths of six Americans in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The indictment has explosive implications because Washington and Islamabad are struggling to preserve their fragile relationship. The ISI has long been suspected of secretly aiding terrorist groups while serving as a U.S. ally in the terrorism fight.The discovery that bin Laden spent years in a fortresslike compound surrounded by military facilities in Abbottabad has heightened those suspicions and reinforced the accusations that the ISI was involved in the attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai.

Advisers to President Obama are tiptoeing carefully around the political bounce he received after the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, wary of appearing unseemly, convinced the boost will be temporary and confident that the event will ultimately speak for itself.

But Obama is already stitching the victory into the broader tapestry of his 2012 reelection campaign. It fits neatly into one of his core messages, that Americans are capable of tackling in­trac­table, long-term problems. "Doing big things," as he put it in his State of the Union address.

WASHINGTON — Secret until now, stealth helicopters may have been key to the success of the Osama bin Laden raid. But the so-far-unexplained crash of one of the modified Black Hawks at the scene apparently compromised at least some of the aircraft's secrets.

The two choppers evidently used radar-evading technologies, plus noise and heat suppression devices, to slip across the Afghan-Pakistan border, avoid detection by Pakistani air defenses and deliver two dozen Navy SEALs into the al-Qaida leader's lair. Photos of the lost chopper's wrecked tail are circulating online — proving it exists and also exposing sensitive details.

George Allen and Timothy M. Kaine are locked in a dead heat 18 months from Election Day, according to a new Washington Post poll, suggesting that the U.S. Senate race between the Virginia titans may live up to its billing as one of the most competitive contests in the nation.

The candidates are tied at 46 percent among registered voters in the battle to succeed retiring Sen. James Webb (D). Neither Allen (R) nor Kaine (D) is guaranteed his party's nomination, but the survey shows that both men enjoy huge leads over potential intraparty opponents.

Advisers to President Obama are tiptoeing carefully around the political bounce he received after the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, wary of appearing unseemly, convinced the boost will be temporary and confident that the event will ultimately speak for itself.

But Obama is already stitching the victory into the broader tapestry of his 2012 reelection campaign. It fits neatly into one of his core messages, that Americans are capable of tackling in­trac­table, long-term problems. "Doing big things," as he put it in his State of the Union address.

The Obama administration on Saturday released five videos of Osama bin Laden that were seized at the compound where he was killed, part of a vast collection of data that U.S. intelligence officials said shows that bin Laden remained highly active in directing the terrorist group.

The trove of data from Pakistan reveals that "this compound in Abbottabad was an active command and control center for al-Qaeda's top leader," a senior U.S. intelligence official said in a briefing at the Pentagon. "Though separated from many al-Qaeda members, [bin Laden] was far from a figure­head."

COLUMBIA, S.C.

Jon Huntsman Jr. was leaving for dinner here early Friday evening when he was greeted on the front porch of his hotel by another guest. "I'm looking forward to supporting you," the guest said, "but I haven't heard you yet."

The remark summed up the anticipation — and the absence of information — that surrounds the former governor of Utah. For the past two years, he was the U.S. ambassador to China, appointed by President Obama. By June, he is likely to be running for the Republican presidential nomination with the goal of unseating the man who sent him to Beijing.

JACKSON, MISS. — A half-dozen blacks and whites sat with boxed sandwiches and sweet tea in a community center on a recent afternoon, wrestling with what's changed — and what hasn't — since the Freedom Riders came to town 50 years ago.

"We're still trying to see each other as human," said Albert Sykes, a 28-year-old black man. "We're still struggling with this."

On Mother's Day, 1961, a bus full of young people was firebombed in Anniston, Ala. The passengers were black and white, one of several groups that rode from Washington, D.C., to force the integration of interstate transportation on a reluctant South.

A week after the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda still has not publicly anointed a successor, and the most likely heir apparent could prove to be a divisive figure within the terrorist network.

U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts said they expected that Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon and bin Laden's longtime deputy, would take over as al-Qaeda's emir, or paramount leader. But they added that his ascendance was not guaranteed, pointing to a statement released Friday by al-Qaeda's "general command" that acknowledged bin Laden's demise but gave no hint of who was in charge.

BEIRUT — Syrian troops and tanks swept into the northern coastal town of Baniyas on Saturday to suppress anti-government demonstrations, tightening the squeeze on a persistent yet largely leaderless opposition movement that has refused to stop staging protests despite a deadly military crackdown.

Human rights groups said three women were shot dead in a village outside Baniyas when they joined a demonstration to protest the army's actions, but that otherwise land lines and cellphone services to the town were cut off and no information was emerging about what was happening there.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan government forces bombed fuel depots in the rebel-held city of Misurata early Saturday, causing a massive conflagration that threatened key sources of electricity and fuel for the besieged city, residents said.

The city is the rebels' only major base of power in western Libya, and it has been a scene of fierce back-and-forth fighting for months. Residents said the fuel depots were hit shortly after midnight Saturday, and some said they had heard helicopters — a violation of the NATO-imposed no-fly zone blanketing the country, if true. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The Obama administration has decided to provide about $1 billion in debt relief for Egypt, a senior official said Saturday, in the boldest U.S. effort yet to shore up a key Middle East ally as it attempts a democratic transition.

The aid would be part of a major economic aid package that also includes trade and investment incentives, officials said. It is intended to help stabilize Egypt after demonstrations forced out longtime President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

While the Obama administration has been preoccupied of late with the war in Libya and protests in Syria, it sees Egypt as even more critical for U.S. interests. Washington has long regarded Egypt as a moderating influence in the Middle East. With one-quarter of the world's Arabs, Egypt could emerge as a democratic model in the region — or, if its revolution fails, a locus of instability or extremism.

HONG KONG — Oil companies usually focus on barrels, but Chinese petroleum giant Sinopec is struggling to get a grip on bottles — or, to be more precise, 1,176 bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild and expensive Chinese liquor.

The alcohol, purchased with $245,000 in company cash, has created a public relations debacle for Sinopec, China's biggest company in terms of revenue. The scandal is also a headache for the ruling Communist Party, which controls the oil behemoth and appoints its top management, and has reinforced a widespread belief that big state-owned corporations serve the interests — and lavish lifestyles — of a tiny group of insiders.

Once at the U.S. Open, I watched Seve Ballesteros practice bunker shots for 20 minutes, sometimes stepping on the ball to simulate a buried lie, or throwing it down hard to create a fried-egg lie. The result was a group of nearly perfect shots engulfing the hole, as tight a pattern of excellence as any pro could achieve from a steep-faced trap.

However, the method was just slightly different: Ballesteros only used a 3-iron in the trap, a club that, it was universally assumed, was utterly impossible to use for such a purpose. Perhaps no other player in the world could have gotten even one ball over the head-high lip of the trap and onto any part of the green.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The crowd was so big and boisterous Saturday that it made Jonathan Byrd a little uncomfortable. Seeing his name atop the leaderboard? Byrd is getting used to that.

The guy who only last October was worried about keeping his PGA Tour card ran off a blistering stretch of birdies in the Wells Fargo Championship for a 5-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead as he goes for his third win in seven months.

"Twelve months ago, I would never have thought that could happen," he said. "But now, the way my game is, why couldn't it happen? I'm playing well. I feel like I have all the tools to play well. I'm just going to play, and then when it's all over, I'll enjoy whatever I've done."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — J.B. Holmes didn't see it go in. The television cameras didn't catch it, either.

But the thunderous cheer around the 15th green at Quail Hollow on Saturday made it clear Holmes had one of golf's ultimate rarities: an albatross.

"Usually when it gets that loud you figure it went in," Holmes said. "Still, from that distance it's hard to get that ball in that little hole."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jonathan Byrd lived up to his surname Saturday in the Wells Fargo Championship.

In the mix with a half-dozen other players trying to keep in range of Pat Perez, Byrd ran off five birdies in six holes to start the back nine and finished with a 5-under 67 to take a one-shot lead.

The one hole he didn't birdie might have been his best putt — a 7-footer with a sharp break to the right into the grain. Byrd poured it into the heart, birdied the next two holes and was on his way.

Selected quotes on the death Saturday of golf great Seve Ballesteros:

"It was his creativity, his imagination, and his desire to compete that made him so popular not only in Europe but throughout American galleries, too. He was a great entertainer. No matter the golf that particular day, you always knew you were going to be entertained. Seve's enthusiasm was just unmatched by anybody I think that ever played the game." — Jack Nicklaus.

He looked so uncomfortable sitting on that stage, lowering his head and blushing as others gushed over him. But Derrick Rose has gotten better with all of this attention — and he has had no choice, because his electrifying play has raised his profile and that of the Chicago Bulls, who finished with the best record in the NBA after struggling for relevance since Michael Jordan walked away.

Rose received the league's most valuable player award in a hotel ballroom in suburban Chicago last week, but the ceremony was a celebration of not just a young man but also a plan, hatched several years before, by a single mother and her three oldest sons to form a protective wall around the baby of the bunch, the one they call "Pooh."

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Washington Nationals arrived here in the wee hours Friday morning, at about 3 a.m., with their season starting to wobble. They had been stripped and sold for parts by the Philadelphia Phillies, and next they would have to play three times at Sun Life Stadium, where they had beaten the Florida Marlins 11 times in 39 tries. It was early in the season, yes, but it was starting to look ugly.

Just as they seemed ready to stumble, the Nationals righted themselves with two victories built on superb defense, stellar pitching and just enough offense. After their 5-2 victory over the Marlins on Saturday, they will wake up Sunday morning having already won the series, attempting a sweep of their own that would send them back to .500.

Last night, the Nationals struck a blow against their rotten history in South Florida. Even after their heart-pounding win, they are 12-28 against the Marlins at Sun Life Stadium since the start of 2007. They needed that win last night, several players said, after they way they were beaten in Philadelphia.

They will look to make it two straight against Chris Volstad, who they've had some success against in the past – he has a 4.79 ERA against them since in six starts since the beginning of 2010, having allowed 38 hits and 12 walks in 35 2/3 innings. And yet, the Nationals have lost all six of his starts.

Roger Bernadina will be with the Nationals for at least 11 games as he replaces Rick Ankiel on the 25-man roster, and today's lineup, which features him leading off and playing center, is an indication of what's to come: Bernadina is going to get his chance to play.

The Nationals, barring a scheduling change, will not face a left-handed starter for another six games. Bernadina will likely play center field all those days.

"We want him playing," Manager Jim Riggleman said. "He'll be out there for several days, as I look five, six ahead from now. He'll be out there one way or another, either in center or in left. … But we want to get a look at him in center."

One of the top prospects in the Nationals' minor league system will make his first professional appearance tonight. After spending the first portion of the season in extended spring training, right-handed pitcher A.J. Cole will start for Class A Hagerstown.

The Nationals signed Cole last summer with a $2 million signing bonus, a record for any player chosen in the fourth round. Tall and lanky, Cole throws a high-90s fastball and features a "spike" curveball that's thrown hard like a slider but breaks down like a curve.

The Nationals have indeed recalled Roger Bernadina to replace center fielder Rick Ankiel, whom the Nationals placed on the disabled list last night with a right wrist sprain. Bernadina is in the lineup, batting leadoff and playing center field. Jim Riggleman moved Danny Espinosa from leadoff to eighth in the order. Michael Morse remains out with that sore right knee, though he has pinch-hit the past two nights.

Nationals

1. Roger Bernadina, CF

LAS VEGAS — Kelly Pavlik beat Alfonso Lopez by majority decision on Saturday night in the former middleweight champion's rusty return from nearly 13 months out of the ring.

Former three-division champion Jorge Arce also stopped Wilfredo Vazquez in the 12th round of an action-packed fight, claiming Vazquez's WBO 122-pound belt on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao's meeting with Sugar Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden.

Pavlik (37-2) looked sluggish and tentative for most of a plodding bout. He couldn't seriously hurt Lopez (21-1) until the final minute of the final round.

Selected quotes on the death Saturday of golf great Seve Ballesteros:

"It was his creativity, his imagination, and his desire to compete that made him so popular not only in Europe but throughout American galleries, too. He was a great entertainer. No matter the golf that particular day, you always knew you were going to be entertained. Seve's enthusiasm was just unmatched by anybody I think that ever played the game." — Jack Nicklaus.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield stopped Denmark's Brian Nielsen on a technical knockout in the 10th round Saturday night.

In the 10th round, the 48-year-old Holyfield pressed Nielson in the corner and the bout was halted after Holyfield landed several jabs in the corner and the Dane spat out some blood. Nielsen said after the bout he was hit by Holyfield's headbutts.

"My goal still is to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world," Holyfield said. "This fight showed other champions what I am able to do, but it also taught me I got to be better. The most important is that I didn't quit. I am not quitter."

In the new movie "Everything Must Go," Will Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, a Phoenix salesman who loses his job in the first scene and whose life goes downhill from there. The small-scale film required Ferrell to navigate minefields most actors would consider tricky: playing a drunk, working with a kid and trusting a first-time writer-director to nail down just the right tone between serious and funny.

Throw in the fact that "Everything Must Go," based on a Raymond Carver short story, has nothing in common with the comedies that have made Ferrell a star, and the degree of difficulty increases exponentially. But Ferrell aficionados will remember that he has delivered convincing dramatic performances before, most notably in the 2006 film "Stranger Than Fiction." And it was just that kind of quirky, unclassifiable movie that Ferrell was looking for when "Everything Must Go" landed on his desk.

Ask composer Missy Mazzoli about the state of contemporary classical music, and you'll get an earful. The academia-centered world of composing is "grumpy and dogmatic," she says, an isolated, inward-looking place where composers need to write in an abstruse style if they want to be respected by their peers.

No matter that the thorny music of the last half-century has kept audiences away in droves; composers who try to reach a wider audience risk being "looked down on as stupid and uneducated," she says, or they leave classical music entirely.