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ny0206846 | [
"sports",
"golf"
]
| 2009/06/18 | Miller’s Little Orange Book Helps Decipher Bethpage Black | FARMINGDALE, N.Y. Johnny Miller’s orange yardage book from the 2002 United States Open at Bethpage Black follows a famous golf obsessive’s journey into ball behavior on the course’s greens. Lines drawn by Miller, NBC ’s star golf analyst, show the variety of breaks on the greens; some of his diagrams inadvertently depict a sunburst, a bird’s beak and an absurd tic-tac-toe board. His asterisks are trick putts. “I don’t even know how they’ll break,” he said Wednesday at the NBC compound at Bethpage Black, where the Open has returned. “5L” means a putt will move five inches to the left. “10R” is a 10-inch break to the right. “S” is a straight putt. “RC” expresses Miller’s certainty that a putt will take a right-of-center direction. And he has drawn fluffy-looking trees on the edge of the eighth hole. Miller’s yardage books are products of his play on the course and surveys to divine what is likely to happen when a club face strikes a ball. He calls himself a greenaholic. He claims to have a stimpmeter, to measure green speed, in his head. He used to carry a surveyor’s tool to assess how putts would break, but last year he downloaded the Break Meter application to his iPhone . He demonstrated his toy in an NBC trailer, showing the angle and slope of a table and the linoleum floor. “This thing is Johnny Miller, it’s totally Johnny Miller,” he said cheerfully as the iPhone registered its findings. “I don’t really need it, but it verifies things for me.” Miller peppers his yardage books with various judgments. In the 2002 Bethpage Black book, some are terse, some ready-made for on-air use. On the book’s cover, he wrote: “Rude greens, 8, 11, 12, 15.” (“Rude is a Johnnyism,” he said. “It’s an unwelcome shot.”) On hole No. 1: “A lot of balls suck back to lower level.” On No. 2: “Flattish.” On No. 3: “False edge. On No. 4: “Left is dead” and “green was built backwards, F to B slope.” On No 6: “Small green ... bunkers everywhere ... rough in front.” On No. 7: “No B to F tilt.” On No. 11: “Rude. Superfast.” After field work Wednesday morning, Miller determined that 90 percent of his judgments from 2002 are valid today. But with rain expected for much of the tournament, Dan Hicks, NBC’s host, said, “Even Johnny’s book might be out the window.” (Hicks said he does not peer at Miller’s books too often, he said, lest he become confused.) Miller said his goal was to use his research to let him know courses better than the players. “Whether I can pull it off, I don’t know,” he said. “It might be a tie now. But when I say it’s a right-edge putt — and I’ve been doing this for 20 years — I do not misread too often. I’m not bragging. This is my homework.” He began to annotate the (already annotated) yardage books when he started at NBC in 1990. “And every year, I’d throw them away, like a dumbbell,” he said. “And after 10 years — it takes me 10 years to figure this out — why am I throwing away these hard-earned breaks so the next year I don’t have to do them again?” His homework, he said, is designed to eliminate on-air guesswork. “I might write down about a certain bunker, ‘dead,’ ” he said, “because you can’t get inside 20 feet of it because the green is running away from you.” He is proud enough of his oeuvre to proclaim that no other golf analyst has ever done the sort of coursework he has, which may be unverifiable. Gary Koch, one of NBC’s analysts, said he annotates his yardage book for the holes he is responsible for following. “But Johnny’s a little more detailed and anal than the rest of us,” he said. Tommy Roy, NBC’s golf producer, does not need to look at Miller’s yardage books. “He seems prescient, like he knows things will happen,” Roy said. “But he’s studied it so intensely, he knows what will happen.” Miller confessed to one weakness: “I don’t sit on the range all day and talk to players. My thing is to be more of an expert on the holes, to know what to watch out for, what not to hit, how the putts break and to know every bunker.” He also knows that Nick Faldo, the lead golf analyst at CBS and the Golf Channel, has something he will never have: a knighthood, which was announced last week. “Is CBS going to call him Sir Nick now?” Miller asked. “Jim Nantz might.” Would he like to be Sir Johnny? “As long as it doesn’t take three divorces to get it,” Miller said, referring to his friend Faldo’s marital history. He smiled and said, “I guess that wasn’t a cool thing to say.” | Golf;Miller Johnny;United States Open (Golf);National Broadcasting Co;Television |
ny0077392 | [
"business"
]
| 2015/05/08 | World’s Largest Steel Maker Loses $700 Million in Quarter | ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, on Thursday lowered profit expectations for the year and said it had lost $700 million in the first quarter as a recovery in Europe failed to offset a sharp drop in prices for iron ore and steel. The company also said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which is a more closely watched metric than net income in the industry, had fallen to $1.4 billion for the quarter. Earnings were $1.8 billion in the same period a year earlier. “We faced a number of headwinds,” Lakshmi Mittal, the company’s chief executive, said. The company, based in Luxembourg, cut the lower end of its guidance range for that pretax measure of earnings to $6 billion from $6.5 billion. Revenue for the first quarter was $17.1 billion, compared with $19.8 billion in the same period a year earlier. | ArcelorMittal;Steel Iron;Earnings Reports |
ny0022007 | [
"us"
]
| 2013/09/26 | Maine: Former President Is Witness at Same-Sex Wedding | The first President George Bush was an official witness at the same-sex wedding of two longtime friends in Maine, a spokesman, Jim McGrath, said. Mr. Bush and his wife, Barbara, attended the wedding ceremony on Saturday for the couple, Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen. Mr. McGrath said the Bushes were attending as private citizens and friends. Mr. Bush has deep ties to the area and owns a compound in Kennebunkport. Ms. Clement and Ms. Thorgalsen own a general store in neighboring Kennebunk. Gay marriage became legal in Maine in December. | Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage;George Bush;Maine;Bonnie Clement;Helen Thorgalsen |
ny0118641 | [
"sports",
"football"
]
| 2012/10/22 | Fan Falls Off Escalator at Giants Game | The New Jersey State Police said a man was critically hurt after falling more than 20 feet from an escalator as he left MetLife Stadium after the Giants beat the Washington Redskins . | Falls;MetLife Stadium (NJ);New York Giants;Football;Washington Redskins;New Jersey |
ny0104641 | [
"world",
"asia"
]
| 2012/03/08 | In Myanmar Election, a New Risk for Aung San Suu Kyi | WAH THI KA, Myanmar — Wah Thi Ka is a dust-choked village without electricity or running water, where no one has a laptop, where no one uses Facebook or e-mail and where sick residents sometimes die on their way to the nearest hospital because it is too far down a deeply rutted dirt road. It is also ground zero for a new and risky chapter in the life of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , the leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement, who is transforming herself from dissident to stump politician campaigning for a seat in Parliament. A global champion of democracy who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize but spent the better part of two decades under house arrest, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is establishing residency here for elections on April 1. Villagers in this once obscure backwater sound as if they had won the lottery. “I cannot describe how happy I was when I heard the news,” said U Kyaw Win Sein, a rice farmer in Wah Thi Ka who is helping organize the campaign. “Some people said if we can only have the chance to see Mother Suu in person we will be satisfied; we can die in peace.” It is difficult to overstate Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity in Myanmar, or Burma, as the country is also known. A gathering of her supporters in Mandalay last weekend resembled a political Woodstock, with tens of thousands of people clogging the streets to greet her motorcade and cramming themselves into a field where she spoke. Yet by inserting herself into the cut and thrust of Burmese politics, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is placing some of her hard-fought prestige on the line. Increasingly, she is being asked to propose solutions to her country’s woes rather than merely lament them. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is a consummate intellectual who spent the first decades of her life hopping across the globe. Being elected to Parliament — assuming she wins — will be a test of whether she can help bring prosperity to a constituency that gets its water by pulling buckets out of a well. “There’s an element of gamble and risk for her,” said U Thant Myint-U, the author of several books on Myanmar. “Once she’s won, and pretty much everybody assumes she’ll win, things will be very different,” Mr. Thant Myint-U said. “She will have to deal with a range of issues, from the government’s fiscal policies to health care reform to responding to demands from her constituency for electricity, cheaper phones and more jobs.” Until now, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s life has often been defined by her steely defiance of the military junta and by personal tragedies, starting with the assassination of her father, Gen. Aung San, the founder of the Burmese Army, in 1947 when she was 2. Biographers and filmmakers have tended to emphasize the wrenching decisions in her adult life, including her leaving a comfortable existence in England to pursue her political struggle for democracy here. Her two children remained in England, and her English husband died of cancer there as she rallied resistance to military rule, which ended last year when a nominally civilian government came to power. The transition from critic to policy maker has been a tricky turning point for dissidents in other countries. Her career could follow the trajectory of Vaclav Havel, who after his rise as an intellectual and activist against Communist rule was twice elected president of the Czech Republic. Or she could slump like Lech Walesa, the hard-charging hero of the Solidarity labor movement in the waning days of Polish Communism, who alienated allies and voters, flirting with single-digit percentages in opinion polls during his one-term presidency. One factor for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, is her health. The relentless campaign is taking its toll. She fell ill during the trip to Mandalay, cut short a speech and was put on a drip by her doctors. Biographers say she seems to have inherited the dogged personality of her father, who before his assassination was in line to become the first leader of Burma after independence from Britain. Those who have met with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi since her release from house arrest in late 2010 say she appears driven to play a substantive role in the country’s political future. “I don’t think she wants to be perceived only as an icon,” said Larry M. Dinger, the head of the United States mission here until last August. “She’s a democrat who sees herself as a practical politician.” During the campaign, she has spoken about the need for more jobs, better health care and education. She emphasizes the importance of achieving unity among the country’s many ethnic minorities. But on most issues, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi rarely delves into specifics. She jokes in speeches that she does not like to make promises. Still, Sean Turnell, one of the leading analysts on Myanmar’s economy, described her as “fluent in the language of economics” and well versed on issues like microfinance and property rights. Myanmar’s economic prospects are uncertain. For a country sandwiched between the rising economies of China and India, poverty is jarringly endemic, especially in rural areas. Oxen pull plows; houses are made of thatch and bamboo. The constituency where Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is running is a two-hour drive south of Yangon, the country’s main city, and is not as underdeveloped as other parts of the country. But in most areas it remains without a sewerage system, paved roads or cellphone reception. Residents power light bulbs with car batteries, though there are few cars in sight. Years of mismanagement by a corrupt military leadership have left Myanmar without a functioning banking and finance system. By entering politics at this delicate stage, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is imparting legitimacy on a government run by the same generals, now retired, whom she battled for two decades. If the reform in Myanmar falters, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi could be held partly responsible, analysts say. Even if her party, the National League for Democracy , does well in the April 1 elections, her power in Parliament — numerically, at least — will be slight. The 48 constituencies in contention are just a fraction of the more than 600 seats in Parliament. Her party’s main challenger is the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a proxy party for the former military junta. But there are also signs of fracture and disaffection within her wider democracy movement. “I respect her. I like her. But she isn’t the leader of all other democratic forces,” said U Kaung Myint Htut, a candidate running against Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. “Sometimes we think she is a little self-centered,” he added, accusing her of acting like a queen who does not consult other democracy activists. Bertil Lintner, one of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s biographers, predicted future fissures as her party entered the political system. “As long as they were suppressed and almost banned, they remained united,” he said. “Once the pressure comes off, all sorts of conflicts and contradictions will come to the surface.” Whatever bickering exists, it does not seem to be diminishing Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s standing among voters. “I am the head of the village, so it’s hard for me to say this directly,” said U Khin Tint, a local official in her constituency. “But I don’t see any competition.” | Aung San Suu Kyi Daw;Myanmar;Elections;Democracy (Theory and Philosophy);Politics and Government |
ny0240417 | [
"world",
"americas"
]
| 2010/12/01 | Colombia’s Beauty Pageants Put Income Gap on View | CARTAGENA, Colombia — The Champagne flowed. Cigar smoke floated in the thick air of the tropical night. Women in miniskirts and men in pressed guayaberas danced at Jet-Set magazine’s fete in this city’s Naval Museum, as the candidates for Miss Colombia sashayed about, flashing perfect smiles and impossibly high cheekbones. Another party unfolded the same night last month outside Cartagena’s stone ramparts. In a slum called Boston, Ivonne Palencia, an elegant 19-year-old, tiptoed in the mud outside her family’s hovel. Amid the din of firecrackers and reggaetón music, neighbors toasted her victory as Miss Independence, the queen of this city’s slums, with beer. “We have our queen,” said a glowing Patricia Álvarez, 44, a social worker in Boston who led a collection drive to support Ms. Palencia’s candidacy. “They have theirs.” Despite making strides in stabilizing the economy in the last decade, Colombia has South America’s most unequal distribution of wealth, except for small Paraguay, according to the Center for Economic Development Studies in Bogotá. And each November this port city puts that inequality on open display, when it hosts two beauty pageants at the same time. The rival contests offer views not only of the country’s yawning income gap but of issues of race and class in a country that has, by some measures, the Spanish-speaking world’s largest black population. Miss Colombia, the better-known event, features two dozen strutting candidates, many of them light-skinned daughters of prominent families. The pageant positions Cartagena as its boosters often market it: a playground for the global elite with $475-a-night boutique hotels and Audis prowling the narrow streets of a colonial gem once coveted by corsairs. In the shadows of that opulence, Cartagena’s slums hold their own pageant celebrating the city’s declaration of independence from Spain in 1811. Largely featuring Afro-Colombian candidates, the contest, which unfolds during a tumultuous street festival, reveals rival concepts of beauty in a city that was also imperial Spain’s major port of entry for slaves being shipped to its South American colonies. “One pageant portrays Cartagena as its elite wants it to be seen: rich, white and glamorous,” said Elisabeth Cunin, a French sociologist who studies Cartagena. “The other reflects the reality of the city as the majority of its inhabitants know it: poor and neglected, a complex mix between racial domination and an emerging current of black consciousness.” The national pageant, founded here in 1934 as a tourism linchpin, employs a multilingual staff at an air-conditioned building in Parque de Bolívar in the old center, attracting sponsors like Edox, a Swiss watch manufacturer. The municipal contest, created in 1937, operates on a shoestring budget from a crumbling structure a few blocks away. Few nations, with the exception of neighboring Venezuela, attach as much importance to such pageants. In addition to Miss Colombia and Miss Independence, Colombian juries award many lesser titles, like Miss Plantain and Miss Coal. Cellblocks in a Bogotá women’s prison have their own pageants . One town in northern Colombia takes it even further, putting makeup and wigs on its donkeys then parading them for its annual Miss Burro celebration. No pageant attracts as much obsessive attention as Miss Colombia. Paparazzi swarm the city each November. Gossip columnists speculate about plastic surgery, while investigative journalists try to uncover whether drug kingpins paid the surgeons’ bill. In a further stamp of legitimacy, Colombia’s intellectuals deride the event. The writer Laura Restrepo skewered the whole scene with the words of a cynical reporter in her novel “ The Angel of Galilea .” “Of all my assignments for Somos, covering the pageant was by far the worst, having to rhapsodize on Miss Boyacá’s Pepsodent smile, Miss Tolima’s dubious virginity, Miss Arauca’s preoccupation with poor children.” One of this year’s candidates boasted that she was studying at DePaul University in Chicago. Yet another emphasized that she was born in Paris. In contrast, the bios from the municipal pageant described one candidate who came from a family of 10 children. Another said she simply dreamed of visiting the capital, Bogotá. Sometimes the candidates from both pageants have to greet one another, as they did at a military parade one morning in November. Organizers seated them side by side under a canopy shielding them from the sun. Awkwardness reigned. The mostly fair-skinned Miss Colombia candidates fidgeted. There were attempts at small talk, and smiles for the cameras. In an interview, Raimundo Angulo, a former mayor of Cartagena who now directs the national pageant, chafed at criticism that his event was somehow racist or excluding. He said the pageant could improve life for residents by helping to make Cartagena into “the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean,” replete with chic casinos and a Formula One race. “It is democratically elitist,” he contended of his pageant. “I simply want what is beautiful, wherever it comes from, according to certain principles, certain values.” As Mr. Angulo points out, an Afro-Colombian candidate has even been named Miss Colombia. That happened precisely once in the pageant’s 76-year history, in 2001, when Vanessa Mendoza won the crown. Winners of the local contest sometimes go on to compete in the national pageant the following year. As with the national pageant, the views here of the local contest are far from unanimous. Some Afro-Colombian leaders see it as a poor imitation of the rival pageant, while reinforcing standards in which women are judged almost solely on their appearance. Still, it is clear which pageant elicits the most excitement on Cartagena’s streets. The candidates from the slums strut through different districts as the city’s carnivalesque celebration of its independence from Spain unfolds. Shop owners shut early, fearful of assaults. A bawdy parade is led by a troupe dressed as whip-wielding priests pursuing sinners, re-enacting the Spanish Inquisition’s tribunal, once based here. This year, bystanders greeted them with cries of “Long live our queens!” as they marched through the Getsemaní district. Bands of youths roamed the streets carrying buckets of black paint, threatening to paint the faces of visitors. For a few small bills they would relent. Within this anarchic scene, a panel chooses a winner. The title of Miss Independence this year went to Ms. Palencia, who took time off from her job as a preschool teacher to compete. Her slum, Boston, said to be named for a red-light district once frequented by foreign sailors, erupted in celebration. Ms. Palencia’s mother, Yadira Querubín, 50, a maid who earns $6 a day cleaning houses in a rich area of Cartagena, proudly welcomed a visitor into their home, which has a dirt floor that turns into mud when rain leaks through the ceiling. “I’m a maid, and I have a daughter who is a queen,” said Ms. Querubín. “Maybe my lovely girl, from this difficult place, will have a more dignified life than my own.” | Cartagena (Colombia);Beauty Contests;Race and Ethnicity;Income Inequality;Beauty;Colombia;Miss Colombia;Independence Queen Contest |
ny0187776 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2009/04/21 | The Moldovan Brothers, Culinary Soul Mates | Brice and Petrous Moldovan are 27-year-old Franco-Romanian twins who work at the Russian Tea Room: Petrous, above left, as a chef, Brice as a host and sometimes bartender. They live together in Astoria, Queens, with their endlessly patient significant others, who have grown accustomed, the brothers say, to living with two grown men who finish each other’s sentences. Who was born first? (Brice) On paper it says he is. But my father says they might have switched us at birth. (Petrous ) We do know that there was a one-minute difference. (Brice) Our father couldn’t tell who was who until we were 12. Why restaurants? (Brice) Our parents had a brasserie in the small village where we were born, in the center of France. They were always doing parties, entertaining at home. Instead of running with the kids, we were helping our mother put together the food trays and cutting the vegetables. (Petrous ) We started at culinary school in France when we were 13. Who did better at school? (Brice) We were actually the same. Believe it or not. How did Petrous end up as chef and Brice as host? (Brice) I might be more outgoing. Also, up at the front I got to meet Vanessa Williams for her birthday and Richard Gere after a show. (Petrous ) We cook a lot at home. We try to challenge each other. (Brice) We’re each other’s guinea pigs. What’s the first thing you ever made? (Brice) A roasted duck with pineapple and rice. (Petrous ) The duck was precut and everything. The pineapple was in a can. Our mother was supervising the cooking. (Brice) I’d say we were 8 or 9. (Petrous ) We’re part Vietnamese, so rice is easy for us. (Brice) Most parents were scared of kids cooking, getting burned. But we were careful. We knew the risks. How often do you finish each other sentences? (Brice) A lot. (Petrous ) Sometimes Delfin [his wife] will ask me something. I’ll start to answer, and stop. And she’ll look at him — it’s a reflex now — and he’ll finish the sentence. That’s the perk of being twins. Ever eaten at McDonald’s here? (Petrous ) We tried once. (Brice) It’s not the same as in Europe (Petrous ) In Europe they cook the burgers à la minute, per order. What’s the worst thing you ever made? (Petrous ) We tried to make a cocktail with curry powder, coconut milk and vodka. That one was a little tricky. But it turned out well in the end. We have 45 kinds of vodkas at home, and 200 bottles in all. (Brice) Not that we drink a lot. He’s infusing a lot of vodkas. (Petrous ) With things like mustard seeds. Sesame seeds. Mint. Signature dish or libation? (Petrous ) Beef stroganoff; it’s on the menu here. It’s homemade whole wheat pasta with fresh herbs, wild mushrooms and beef, and foie gras, with a mustard Chantilly. (Brice) Mine’s the 1917. It’s Bacardi, Bacardi Limon, pomegranate juice, a touch of Cointreau and a dried slice of blood orange. Nineteen seventeen was a bloody year. You’ve worked at the same restaurants since you were teenagers. Are you a package deal? (Brice) In 28 years we’ve only been separated for one year, total. (Petrous ) It’s buy one, get one free. Your cellphone numbers are nearly identical. Was that also planned? (Brice) Yes, they always are. (Petrous) We asked for it. We share clothes, too. (Brice) Except underwear. | Restaurants;Russian Tea Room;Cooking and Cookbooks |
ny0000702 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2013/03/11 | Among Cardinals, Deep Divisions Over Next Pope | VATICAN CITY — The cardinals who enter the papal conclave on Tuesday will walk into the Sistine Chapel in a single file, but beneath the orderly display, they are split into competing lineups and power blocs that will determine which man among them emerges as pope. The main divide pits the cardinals who work in the Vatican, the Romans, against the reformers, the cardinals who want the next pope to tackle what they see as the Vatican’s corruption, inefficiency and reluctance to share power and information with bishops from around the world. But the factions in this conclave do not break along geographical lines, and in fact, they have produced alliances that are surprisingly counterintuitive: the Romans’ top preference appears to be a Brazilian, and the reformers are said to be pushing for an Italian. This conclave is far more unpredictable and suspenseful than the last because the church landscape has shifted in the last eight years. The next pontiff must unite an increasingly globalized church paralyzed by scandal and mismanagement under the spotlight in a fast-moving media age. And among the cardinals, there is no obvious single successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who rattled the church by resigning last month at age 85. With all of the uproar over Vatican scandals, the Romans are aware that they may fail if they back one of their own, and so they are said to be coalescing behind the Brazilian, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, the archbishop of São Paulo. Cardinal Scherer is of German heritage, but his selection would give the Roman Catholic Church its first pope from Latin America. The region is home to about 40 percent of the world’s Catholics, and the church is staving off challenges there both from surging evangelical churches and a drift toward secularism. The reformers, led by the Americans and some influential Europeans, are reportedly uniting around the Italian, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, a popular pastor and an erudite moral theologian. As an Italian, he is familiar with the culture that dominates the Vatican bureaucracy, but he is not a part of it or beholden to it. Many cardinals, however, say they are eager for a pope from outside Italy and better yet, from outside Europe, which they hope would energize the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Image Cardinal Angelo Scola of Italy is a top contender for pope among some in the conclave. Credit Dylan Martinez/Reuters Other front-runners could easily emerge in what is shaping up to be a fluid contest with ever-shifting alliances and priorities, according to interviews in the past week with church officials, and the scholars and journalists who study the church. With the stage truly wide open, the next pope to come out on the balcony to address the crowd in St. Peter’s Square could be a cardinal from Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Mexico, the Philippines or even the United States. Whoever he is, he will have to convince his fellow prelates that his gifts as an evangelist and an administrator can move the church past the scandals of child sexual abuse, the Vatican bank, the recent resignation of a cardinal who admitted he had used his own priests for sexual favors, and the so-called VatiLeaks episode in which the pope’s personal papers were stolen and published, revealing bitter infighting in the church’s central administration, known as the Curia. “The most perceptive cardinals understand,” said Sandro Magister, a Vatican analyst with the weekly magazine L’Espresso, “that the evangelization of the church is obscured by the petty realities that represent the disorder of the Roman Curia.” The last conclave eight years ago presented a far simpler scenario. There was one dominant candidate to beat going in, and that was the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the longtime head of the Vatican’s office on doctrine and the close collaborator of the previous pope, John Paul II. He was elected on the conclave’s second day after just four ballots and took the name Pope Benedict XVI. “In 2005, it was, if not Ratzinger, who? And as they got to know him the question became, why not Ratzinger?” said Austen Ivereigh, a writer on Catholicism from England and the former spokesman for the retired Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. The alignments then were animated by theological differences, with the dwindling pool of liberal cardinals backing alternatives to Cardinal Ratzinger whom others might find acceptable. But this time, there are not enough theological liberals among the cardinals to create a viable bloc. “While there is doctrinal homogeneity between the cardinals,” said Paolo Flores d’Arcais, editor of the liberal Italian journal MicroMega, “the divisions are harsh between those who want change, in particular on issues of pedophilia and the Vatican bank, and the bishops who want to preserve the status quo of the Curia and preserve its power, even though on the surface they all say they want to change.” The election comes down to the vote count, and with a two-thirds majority required of the 115 voting cardinals, the winner will need 77 votes. The cardinals in the Roman bloc, who work in the Vatican bureaucracy, number only 38 and come not just from Italy but also from other countries. Video The Times’s Daniel J. Wakin reports from Rome, where the voting process to elect a new pope is set to start on Tuesday with no clear front-runner. Credit Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images They, too, are split into rival factions, many church experts say, between those loyal to the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. Cardinal Sodano is beyond the age of 80 and ineligible to vote, and will therefore not be in the conclave in the Sistine Chapel. However, Mr. Flores d’Arcais said, “They put their differences aside when it comes to blocking anyone who wants to change.” For the first time, an American could be poised to overcome the conclave’s traditional aversion to a pope from a superpower, though not all analysts agree on this. The most likely contenders are: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, known for his exuberant presence and evangelizing skills; and Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, a Capuchin Franciscan friar, who has a reputation for having calmed the waters in three successive dioceses (Fall River, Mass.; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Boston) torn by child sexual abuse scandals. Both have spoken out in favor of change. Gian Guido Vecchi, a journalist who covers the Vatican, said last week in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, “Even if this won’t be the time for the first American pope, it’s difficult to imagine that the pope can be elected without, or even against, them.” Some cardinals are considered long shots as candidates, but they could still play kingmakers whose endorsements carry great weight. One kingmaker for the reformers is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, a savvy diplomat descended from nobility who studied with Benedict. Cardinal Schönborn supports Cardinal Scola, the archbishop of Milan, according to Carlo Marroni, a Vatican expert for the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore . If neither the Romans nor the reformers have enough votes to elect their front-runners, there are compromise candidates. One name mentioned even before Benedict’s resignation is that of a Canadian, Cardinal Marc Ouellet. He is a doctrinal conservative who taught philosophy in Colombia and may have support from some Latin American cardinals. But Cardinal Ouellet has spent many years working in the Vatican and has led the department for bishops since 2010. He could be seen as a crossover candidate acceptable to both Romans and reformers. Another candidate who is attracting a lot of attention is Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, 60, a canon lawyer who despite his relative youth has twice been elected president of the European bishops’ conference. He has also cultivated close ties to African prelates. Although both Cardinals Ouellet and Erdo are liked by their colleagues, neither can light up a room, church observers point out, which could be a liability at a time when the church needs a pope who can connect with people. Nobody can now say reliably who will come out of the conclave as pope, Mr. Flores d’Arcais said, “Today only Nostradamus can make predictions.” | Catholic Church;Pope;Angelo Scola;Odilo Pedro Scherer;Marc Ouellet;Peter Erdo;Sean P O'Malley;Cardinal Dolan |
ny0171674 | [
"science",
"space"
]
| 2007/11/16 | Gap in U.S. Access to Space Station Is a Concern | WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 — When the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, the United States will be dependent on an increasingly hostile Russia for five years to give American astronauts access to the International Space Station, lawmakers and NASA officials said Thursday. Senator Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who leads the Senate subcommittee on space, which oversees the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said he was concerned about the gap before the launching of the shuttle’s replacement, the Orion crew vehicle, in 2015. This gap gives Americans no independent access to the $60 billion space station that they are largely paying for, he told a subcommittee hearing. It also gives Russia, whose leader, Vladimir V. Putin , is increasingly challenging American interests, greater influence over the joint project. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, agreed with Mr. Nelson and asked what the reaction would be if a deepening chill in relations between the nations were to bar American access to space. “The American people will wake up and say, ‘What happened?’” she said. NASA’s administrator, Michael D. Griffin, said that he, too, did not care for the plan but that it was the best alternative the United States had, given a NASA budget constrained by tight federal spending and the need to use shuttle money to develop Orion and its launching vehicle. “I don’t like it,” Dr. Griffin said. “I consider it unseemly in the extreme and unwise strategically for the United States to be dependent on any other nation.” Orion is scheduled to make its first flight with a crew in March 2015, he said. That could be moved up to as early as September 2013, he said, if the project received more money. The lawmakers said they were not optimistic about the acquiring of more money, however. Ms. Hutchison said that she, Mr. Nelson and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, had introduced a measure to provide an additional $1 billion, but that the proposal was not gathering support. | Russia;International Space Station;National Aeronautics and Space Administration;Putin Vladimir V;Hutchison Kay Bailey |
ny0181872 | [
"business"
]
| 2007/12/05 | Dow Chemical Job Cuts | DETROIT, Dec. 4 (AP) — The Dow Chemical Company announced Tuesday that it was cutting 1,000 jobs, or about 2.3 percent of its work force, as part of a plan to rid itself of underperforming businesses and increase efficiency. The company, which is based in Midland, Mich., is one of the country’s biggest chemical makers. It said it would exit the automotive sealers business within 9 to 18 months in North America, Asia and Latin America. Other cutbacks include idling a styrene plant in Camacari, Brazil, on Jan. 1 and closing a cellulose manufacturing plant in Aratu, Brazil, in the first quarter. | Layoffs and Job Reductions;Dow Chemical Company;Chemicals |
ny0039700 | [
"us"
]
| 2014/04/21 | 50 Years Into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back | TWIN BRANCH, W.Va. — When people visit with friends and neighbors in southern West Virginia, where paved roads give way to dirt before winding steeply up wooded hollows, the talk is often of lives that never got off the ground. “How’s John boy?” Sabrina Shrader, 30, a former neighbor, asked Marie Bolden one cold winter day at what Ms. Bolden calls her “little shanty by the tracks.” “He had another seizure the other night,” Ms. Bolden, 50, said of her son, John McCall, a former classmate of Ms. Shrader’s. John got caught up in the dark undertow of drugs that defines life for so many here in McDowell County, almost died of an overdose in 2007, and now lives on disability payments. His brother, Donald, recently released from prison, is unemployed and essentially homeless. “It’s like he’s in a hole with no way out,” Ms. Bolden said of Donald as she drizzled honey on a homemade biscuit in her tidy kitchen. “The other day he came in and said, ‘Ain’t that a shame: I’m 30 years old and carrying my life around in a backpack.’ It broke my heart.” McDowell County, the poorest in West Virginia, has been emblematic of entrenched American poverty for more than a half-century. John F. Kennedy campaigned here in 1960 and was so appalled that he promised to send help if elected president. His first executive order created the modern food stamp program, whose first recipients were McDowell County residents. When President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty” in 1964, it was the squalor of Appalachia he had in mind. The federal programs that followed — Medicare, Medicaid, free school lunches and others — lifted tens of thousands above a subsistence standard of living. But a half-century later, with the poverty rate again on the rise, hardship seems merely to have taken on a new face in McDowell County. The economy is declining along with the coal industry, towns are hollowed out as people flee, and communities are scarred by family dissolution, prescription drug abuse and a high rate of imprisonment. Fifty years after the war on poverty began, its anniversary is being observed with academic conferences and ideological sparring — often focused, explicitly or implicitly, on the “culture” of poor urban residents. Almost forgotten is how many ways poverty plays out in America, and how much long-term poverty is a rural problem. Of the 353 most persistently poor counties in the United States — defined by Washington as having had a poverty rate above 20 percent in each of the past three decades — 85 percent are rural. They are clustered in distinct regions: Indian reservations in the West; Hispanic communities in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas; a band across the Deep South and along the Mississippi Delta with a majority black population; and Appalachia, largely white, which has supplied some of America’s iconic imagery of rural poverty since the Depression-era photos of Walker Evans. McDowell County is in some ways a place truly left behind, from which the educated few have fled, leaving almost no shreds of prosperity. But in a nation with more than 46 million people living below the poverty line — 15 percent of the population — it is also a sobering reminder of how much remains broken, in drearily familiar ways and utterly unexpected ones, 50 years on. A Scarred Landscape Much of McDowell County looks like a rural Detroit, with broken windows on shuttered businesses and homes crumbling from neglect. In many places, little seems to have been built or maintained in decades. Numbers tell the tale as vividly as the scarred landscape. Forty-six percent of children in the county do not live with a biological parent, according to the school district. Their mothers and fathers are in jail, are dead or have left them to be raised by relatives, said Gordon Lambert, president of the McDowell County Commission. Beginning in the 19th century, the rugged region produced more coal than any other county in West Virginia, but it got almost none of the wealth back as local investment. Of West Virginia’s 55 counties, McDowell has the lowest median household income, $22,000; the worst childhood obesity rate; and the highest teenage birthrate. It is also reeling from prescription drug abuse. The death rate from overdoses is more than eight times the national average. Of the 115 babies born in 2011 at Welch Community Hospital, over 40 had been exposed to drugs. Largely as a consequence of the drug scourge, a problem widespread in rural America, the incarceration rate in West Virginia is one of the highest in the country. “Whole families have been wiped out in this county: mother, father, children,” said Sheriff Martin B. West. Video Footage from the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library of the President’s “Poverty Tour” through the Appalachian states in 1964. “These are good people, good families,” Sheriff West, an evangelical pastor, said of his lifelong neighbors. “But they get involved with drugs, and the next thing you know they’re getting arrested.” The sheriff’s wife, Georgia Muncy West, has a historical link to the war on poverty. Her parents, Alderson and Chloe Muncy, were the first beneficiaries of the modern food stamp program, traveling to Welch to collect $95 in coupons. Ms. West, one of 15 children, said that unlike many current families, hers remained intact even through the leanest times. She went to work the Monday after she graduated from high school, sent her two children to college and served on the county school board. As coal mining jobs have declined over half a century, there has been a steady migration away from the mountains. McDowell County’s population is just 21,300, down from 100,000 in the 1950s. Those who stayed did not have the education or skills to leave, or remained fiercely attached to the hollows and homes their families had known for generations. Alma and Randy McNeely, both 50, tried life in Tennessee. But they returned to McDowell County to be close to their large extended family. The couple married when they were 16. In a family photo album, Ms. McNeely appears in her white wedding dress as if headed to the junior prom. Turning the album’s pages for a visitor, she apologized for its lack of captions. “Mama couldn’t write, so, you know, there ain’t no names in it,” she said. Ms. McNeely, whose long, dark hair is gathered behind, is known as Maw for being a surrogate mother to many in Hensley, a dot of a community. Her home is a few small rooms under a metal roof, clinging to a hillside. Her husband worked in sawmills before a back injury in 1990. His disability payments, some $1,700 a month, are the family’s only income. After marrying, the couple had two children. Their daughter, Angel, gave birth at 14 and was expelled from a Christian school, her mother said. Now, Ms. McNeely is raising Angel’s daughter, Emalee Short, who is 15. Image John F. Kennedy, then a senator running for president, with miners near Mullens, W.Va., in 1960. Credit Hank Walker/Time Life Pictures, via Getty Images A high school sophomore, Emalee dreams of being a veterinarian or maybe a marine biologist. The house and yard ring with the yelps of a dozen Chihuahuas and other small dogs, some of them strays dropped off by neighbors. A confident teenager in a “Twilight” T-shirt, Emalee is enrolled in Upward Bound, the federal program that offers Saturday classes and summer school for bright students aspiring to college. “I want to be one of the ones who gets out of here,” she said. “I don’t want people to talk about me” — meaning the recitation of damaged young lives that is a regular part of catching up. Another photo in the album shows Randy Jr., the McNeelys’ son, known as Little Man. Little Man dropped out of high school six months shy of graduation, “with me sitting here crying,” Ms. McNeely said. He has been in and out of jail but is one of the lucky ones who have found work, at a junkyard run by a family friend. Although Ms. McNeely encourages her granddaughter to aim for college, which would mean leaving McDowell County, she said that “her other mommy and daddy” — meaning Emalee’s biological parents — “and all her aunts and uncles, they don’t want her to go.” “They’re scared she’s going to get hurt,” Ms. McNeely said. Food Stamps and Coal Many in McDowell County acknowledge that depending on government benefits has become a way of life, passed from generation to generation. Nearly 47 percent of personal income in the county is from Social Security, disability insurance, food stamps and other federal programs. But residents also identify a more insidious cause of the current social unraveling: the disappearance of the only good jobs they ever knew, in coal mining. The county was always poor. Yet family breakup did not become a calamity until the 1990s, after southern West Virginia lost its major mines in the downturn of the American steel industry. The poverty rate, 50 percent in 1960, declined — partly as a result of federal benefits — to 36 percent in 1970 and to 23.5 percent in 1980. But it soared to nearly 38 percent in 1990. For families with children, it now nears 41 percent. Today, fewer than one in three McDowell County residents are in the labor force. The chief effort to diversify the economy has been building prisons. The most impressive structure on Route 52, the twisting highway into Welch, is a state prison that occupies a former hospital. There is also a new federal prison on a mountaintop. But many residents have been skipped over for the well-paying jobs in corrections: They can’t pass a drug test. Sheriff West, a former coal miner who presided over a magistrate court before he was elected sheriff in 2012, said the region’s ills traced back to many failures by elected officials, including local politicians who governed by patronage and state leaders in Charleston, the capital, who took the county’s solidly Democratic voters for granted and never courted them with aid. 50 Years of Poverty While government programs have kept millions of people, especially the elderly, from falling into poverty, rates remain high for many groups of Americans, including children, blacks and Hispanics. The sheriff and other members of McDowell County’s small elite are not inclined to debate national poverty policy. They draw conclusions from what is in front of them. “Our politicians never really did look ahead in this county for when coal wouldn’t be king,” Sheriff West said. “Therefore, we’ve fallen flat on our face.” Returning for Neighbors Not everyone with an education and prospects has moved away. McDowell County has a small professional class of people fighting long odds to better a place they love. Florisha McGuire, who grew up in War, which calls itself West Virginia’s southernmost city, returned to become principal of Southside K-8 School. For Ms. McGuire, 34, the turning point in the town’s recent history was the year she left for college, 1997, when many of the 17-year-olds who stayed behind graduated from beer and marijuana to prescription pill abuse. Many of the parents of the children in her school today are her former classmates. In some, emaciated bodies and sunken eyes show the ravages of addiction. “I had a boy in here the other day I went to high school with,” she said. “He had lost weight. Teeth missing. You can look at them and go, ‘He’s going to be the next to die.’ ” Ms. McGuire, who grew up in poverty — her father did not work and died of lung cancer at 49; her mother had married at 16 — was the first in her family to attend college. On her first morning at Concord University in Athens, W.Va., about 50 miles from War, her roommate called her to breakfast. Ms. McGuire replied that she didn’t have the money. She hadn’t realized her scholarship included meals in a dining hall. “I was as backward as these kids are,” she said in the office of her school, one of few modern buildings in town. “We’re isolated. Part of our culture here is we tend to stick with our own.” In her leaving for college, she said, “you’d think I’d committed a crime.” As the mother of a 3-year-old girl, she frets that the closest ballet lesson or soccer team is nearly two hours away, over the state line in Bluefield, Va. But she is committed to living and working here. “As God calls preachers to preach, he calls teachers to certain jobs,” she said. “I really believe it is my mission to do this and give these kids a chance.” Image Emalee Short played with her dog outside her grandparents’ home in Hensley, W.Va., in long-struggling McDowell County. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times Ms. McGuire described War as almost biblically divided between forces of dark and light: between the working blue- and white-collar residents who anchor churches, schools and the city government, and the “pill head” community. As she drove down the main street, past municipal offices with the Ten Commandments painted in front, she pointed out the signs of a once-thriving town sunk into hopelessness. The abandoned American Legion hall. A pharmacy with gates to prevent break-ins. The decrepit War Hotel, its filthy awning calling it “Miner’s City,” where the sheriff’s department has made drug arrests. When coal was king, there were two movie theaters and a high school, now closed. “Everybody worked,” Ms. McGuire said. She turned up Shaft Hollow, where many people live in poorly built houses once owned by a coal company, their roofs sagging and the porches without railings. At the foot of Shop Hollow, a homemade sign advertised Hillbilly Fried Chicken. Another pointed the way to the True Light Church of God in Jesus Name. “This is one of the most country places, but I love these people,” Ms. McGuire said. She said it was a bastion of Pentecostal faith, where families are strict and their children well behaved. She and others who seek to lift McDowell County have attracted some outside allies. Reconnecting McDowell , led by the American Federation of Teachers union, is working to turn schools into community centers offering health care, adult literacy classes and other services. Its leaders hope to convert an abandoned furniture store in Welch to apartments in order to attract teachers. “Someone from Indiana or Pennsylvania, they’re not going to come to McDowell County and live in a house trailer on top of a mountain,” said Bob Brown, a union official. Another group, the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition , is working to create a home visitation service to teach new parents the skills of child-rearing. Sabrina Shrader, the former neighbor of Marie Bolden in Twin Branch, has spoken on behalf of the group to the State Legislature and appeared before a United States Senate committee last year. Ms. Shrader, who spent part of her youth in a battered women’s shelter with her mother, earned a college degree in social work. “It’s important we care about places like this,” she said. “There are kids and families who want to succeed. They want life to be better, but they don’t know how.” | McDowell County W VA;Poverty;Drug Abuse;Appalachia;Jobs;West Virginia |
ny0134470 | [
"business"
]
| 2008/04/02 | Dear Investor: We’re Stumped | HEDGE fund managers generally see themselves as smarter than the average investor. After all, their business is finding profits that others miss and earning above-average returns. How else can they justify their legendary fees, unless they are bringing extra insight to the table? Lately, though, even these high-finance wizards seem lost. In their letters to investors, many hedge fund managers have conceded that they have little to no idea what’s in store for the markets, which have been careening in directions that fancy computer models could never predict. “We are in the process of trying to figure out if the world is coming to an end (which we still doubt) or if the global sell-off was more a function of $75 billion in futures being liquidated over a U.S. holiday,” Daniel W. Morehead, chief investment officer of Pantera Capital Management, wrote this year in a letter to investors after a bruising January. Mr. Morehead sprinkled his letter with references from Shakespeare, the Eurythmics and Hunter S. Thompson. He relied on a quote from Thompson to sum up the queasy feeling in hedgefundland: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” On the question of where the markets are going, Cerberus Capital Management all but threw up its arms. “We do not know what will happen with the economy or the markets,” Stephen Feinberg, managing member, and William Richter, senior managing director, wrote in January to investors of Cerberus, which runs hedge funds and private equity funds and has a controlling stake in Chrysler. “We are not macroeconomists, and even the best of those do not have the answers.” Scott Booth, founder of Eastern Advisors, whose hedge funds focus on Asian markets, made no effort in an investors’ letter to hide his uncertainty. But in a Zenlike twist, he suggested the admission was actually a strength: “There is no shame or lack of erudition in admitting we simply don’t know,” he wrote in the letter in February. “If anything, it is one of the most underappreciated traits of good decision-making.” Some hedge funds are still prognosticating. Byron Wien, a 40-year veteran of the stock market who is now the chief investment strategist for Pequot Capital, predicted in his March commentary that “the present problems will persist and it will be later this year or sometime in 2009 when we will see demonstrable improvement in the economy.” | Letters;Hedge Funds |
ny0044427 | [
"science"
]
| 2014/02/04 | In the End, It All Adds Up to – 1/12 | This is what happens when you mess with infinity. You might think that if you simply started adding the natural numbers, 1 plus 2 plus 3 and so on all the way to infinity, you would get a pretty big number. At least I always did. So it came as a shock to a lot of people when, in a recent video , a pair of physicists purported to prove that this infinite series actually adds up to ...minus 1/12. To date some 1.5 million people have viewed this calculation, which plays a key role in modern physics and quantum theory; the answer, as absurd as it sounds, has been verified to many decimal places in lab experiments. After watching the video myself, I checked to make sure I still had my wallet and my watch. Even the makers of the video, Brady Haran , a journalist, and Ed Copeland and Antonio Padilla , physicists at the University of Nottingham in England, admit there is a certain amount of “hocus-pocus,” or what some mathematicians have called dirty tricks, in their presentation. Which has led to some online grumbling. But there is broad agreement that a more rigorous approach to the problem gives the same result, as shown by a formula in Joseph Polchinski’s two-volume textbook “String Theory.” So what’s going on with infinity? “This calculation is one of the best-kept secrets in math,” said Edward Frenkel , a mathematics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality,” (Basic Books, 2013), who was in town recently promoting his book and acting as an ambassador for better math education. “No one on the outside knows about it.” The great 18th-century mathematician Leonhard Euler , who was born in Switzerland but did most of his work in Berlin and St. Petersburg, Russia, was the first one down this road. Euler wanted to know if you could find an answer to endless sums of numbers like 1 plus 1/2 plus 1/3 plus 1/4 on up to infinity, or the squares of those fractions.. These are all different versions of what has become known as the Riemann zeta function , after Bernhard Riemann , who came along about a century after Euler. The zeta function is one of the more mysterious and celebrated subjects in mathematics, important in the theory of prime numbers, among other things. It was one of the plot threads, for example, in Thomas Pynchon’s 2006 novel, “ Against the Day.” In 1749, Euler used a bag of mathematical tricks to solve the problem of adding the natural numbers from 1 to infinity, a so-called divergent series because the terms keep growing without limit as you go along. Clearly, if you stop adding anywhere along the way — at a quintillion (1 with 18 zeros after it), say, or a googolplex (10^100 zeros ) — the sum will be enormous. The problem with infinity is that you can’t stop. You never get there. It’s more of a journey than a destination. As Dr. Padilla says to Mr. Haran at the end of their video, “You have to face infinity, Brady.” The method in the video is essentially the same as Euler’s. It involves nothing more complicated than addition and subtraction (although the things being added and subtracted were more infinite series) and a small piece of algebra that my sixth-grade daughter would breeze through. You are not alone in wondering how this can make sense. The Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel , whose notion of an Abel sum plays a role here, once wrote, “The divergent series are the invention of the devil, and it is a shame to base on them any demonstration whatsoever.” In modern terms, Dr. Frenkel explained, the gist of the calculations can be interpreted as saying that the infinite sum has three separate parts: one of which blows up when you go to infinity, one of which goes to zero, and minus 1/12. The infinite term, he said, just gets thrown away. And it works. A hundred years later, Riemann used a more advanced and rigorous method, involving imaginary as well as real numbers, to calculate the zeta function and got the same answer: minus 1/12. “So Euler guessed it right,” Dr. Frenkel said. Those of us who are not mathematicians probably wouldn’t care so much about infinity except that it crops up again and again in calculations of things, like the energy of the electron, that we know are finite, or in string theory, which physicists would like to hope is finite. In this case, our current understanding of the very solidity of reality depends on coming up with a consistent way to assign values to infinite sums. In the process known as regularization , which is a part of many calculations in quantum theory, physicists do something similar to what Euler did, arriving at a real number that corresponds to the quantity they want to know and an infinite term, which they throw away. The process works so well that theoretical predictions in quantum electrodynamics, the fancy version of the familiar force of electromagnetism, agree with experiments to a precision of one part in a trillion. Which is remarkable given that infinite quantities have been thrown away, or “swept under the rug,” in the words of the California Institute of Technology physicist Richard Feynman , who helped invent a lot of this stuff but thought it was more than faintly scandalous. Likewise, it is no surprise that the factor 1/12 shows up a lot in string theory equations, Dr. Frenkel said. Why it all works is still a mystery. “Quantum physics needs its own Riemann to come and give a rigorous explanation of these mysteries,” Dr. Frenkel said. To him and others, this is just another example of what the eminent physicist Eugene Wigner called the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.” Why should such woolly and abstract concepts as zeta functions or imaginary numbers, the products of a chess game in our minds, have such relevance in describing the world? Riemann’s explorations of the geometry of curved spaces in 1854 laid the foundation for Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, half a century later. There were mathematicians and philosophers who were ready to jump out the window later in the 1800s when Georg Cantor , a Russian-born mathematician, set out to classify the kinds of infinity. In a speech in 1908, the French mathematician Henri Poincaré compared “Cantorism,” as he called it, to a disease. Mathematicians today agree that there is an infinite number of natural numbers (1, 2, 3 and so on) on the bottom rung of infinity. Above that, however, is another rung of so-called real numbers, which is bigger in the sense that there is an uncountable number of them for every natural number. And so it goes. Cosmologists do not know if the universe is physically infinite in either space or time, or what it means if it is or isn’t. Or if these are even sensible questions. They don’t know whether someday they will find that higher orders of infinity are unreasonably effective in understanding existence, whatever that is. Here is where we sprain our imaginations, and perhaps check to see that we still have our wallets. | Mathematics;Physics;Video;Bernhard Riemann;Leonhard Euler;Ed Copeland;Brady Haran;Antonio Padilla |
ny0072800 | [
"sports",
"football"
]
| 2015/03/12 | Saints Owner Tom Benson Files Suit to Remove Teams from Trust | The New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson wants to remove the Saints and the Pelicans from trusts he set up for his daughter and her children in exchange for promissory notes worth $556 million. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Benson requested that Bobby Rosenthal, the trustee, allow him to make the exchange so he can fulfill his promise to leave the teams to his wife, Gayle, when he dies. According to the suit, Benson put nonvoting shares worth about $200 million in trusts that name his daughter, Renee Benson, and his grandchildren, Rita and Ryan LeBlanc, as the beneficiaries. In January, Benson said he planned to leave the teams to his third wife, not to Renee, Rita and Ryan, as had been previously arranged. The trustee blocked his attempt to swap out their shares in the teams from the trusts. Renee, Rita and Ryan then filed a lawsuit in New Orleans that said that Benson was mentally unfit to oversee his businesses, and sought to put Renee in charge of his assets. In his filing, Benson promised to pay $556 million for Renee, Rita and Ryan’s minority stakes in the teams. The shares do not come with voting rights, which means they are worth less than those with voting rights. Renee Benson and her children said in a statement released Wednesday that “we are pleased that so far we have been successful in our steps to protect our beloved father and grandfather during this time in his life.” They added that they “have every intention of carrying on our father and grandfather’s legacy for future generations by continuing to support the city of New Orleans, the Saints, and the Pelicans, as we have consistently done in the past.” | Basketball;Football;Tom Benson;Renee Benson;Gayle Benson;Lawsuits;New Orleans Saints;New Orleans Pelicans |
ny0074980 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2015/04/23 | Putin Bolsters His Forces Near Ukraine, U.S. Says | WASHINGTON — In a sign that the tense crisis in Ukraine could soon escalate, Russia has continued to deploy air defense systems in eastern Ukraine and has built up its forces near the border, American officials said on Wednesday. Western officials are not sure if the military moves are preparations for a new Russian-backed offensive that would be intended to help the separatists seize additional territory. Some analysts say that President Vladimir V. Putin may not want to act before the European Union reassesses in June whether to ease or keep the economic sanctions it has imposed on Russia because of its annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine. Others say it is possible that Russia is making the moves to increase the pressure on the Ukrainian government to make concessions to the separatists on political and constitutional issues. Either way, the new military activity is a major concern because it has significantly reduced the amount of warning that Ukraine and its Western supporters would have if Russian forces and separatists mounted a joint offensive. And some of Russia’s actions, American officials say, are flagrant violations of the cease-fire agreement that European nations negotiated with Russia and Ukraine in February. “This is the highest amount of Russian air defense equipment in eastern Ukraine since August,” Marie Harf, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. “Combined Russian-separatist forces continue to violate the terms of the ‘Minsk 2’ agreement signed in mid-February.” In recent weeks, the war of words over Ukraine has intensified. Last week, Russia charged that a modest program to train Ukraine’s national guard that 300 American troops are carrying out in western Ukraine could “destabilize the situation.” To respond to this and other Russian allegations, the Obama administration declassified intelligence describing a range of Russian military activities in and near Ukraine, which was included in Ms. Harf’s statement. Some of the Russian military’s air defense systems in Ukraine have been moved closer to the front lines, her statement noted. The Russian military and separatists have also kept substantial communications and other “command and control” equipment in eastern Ukraine that would be needed to organize an attack. In addition, the Russian military has been providing extensive training for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Western officials said such training might indicate that the Russian military was looking to play a less obvious role and avoid a possible expansion of sanctions should hostilities resume. The use of Russian reconnaissance drones in the training exercises “leaves no doubt that Russia is involved in the training,” Ms. Harf’s statement said. Even as it has been training the separatists, the Russian military has been engaged in a buildup near Russia’s border with Ukraine. “After maintaining a relatively steady presence along the border, Russia is sending additional units there,” Ms. Harf’s statement said. “These forces will give Russia its largest presence on the border since October 2014.” The State Department did not say how many Russian troops were arrayed on the border, including near the Russian city of Belgorod. But one Western official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing intelligence reports, said Russia had moved 12 battalion tactical groups close to the border. The number of troops in such units can vary, but a battalion could have about 1,000 troops. The cease-fire agreement that was negotiated in February in Minsk, Belarus, was supposed to ease political tensions and put an end to the bitter conflict. Germany and France negotiated that accord with Russia and Ukraine. It called for the pulling back of heavy weapons, the removal of foreign forces and the disarming of “illegal groups.” The Obama administration did not send an official to those talks, but it was in close touch with European officials when the agreement was being negotiated. “Combined Russian-separatist forces maintain a sizable number of artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers within areas prohibited under the Minsk accords,” Ms. Harf’s statement said. “Russia has continued to ship heavy weapons into eastern Ukraine.” | Russia;Ukraine;Military;International relations;Vladimir Putin;Crimea;EU |
ny0278196 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2016/11/07 | Emails Warrant No New Action Against Hillary Clinton, F.B.I. Director Says | WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told Congress on Sunday that he had seen no evidence in a recently discovered trove of emails to change his conclusion that Hillary Clinton should face no charges over her handling of classified information. Mr. Comey’s announcement, just two days before the election, was an effort to clear the cloud of suspicion he had publicly placed over her presidential campaign late last month when he alerted Congress that the F.B.I. would examine the emails. “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Mr. Comey wrote in a letter to the leaders of several congressional committees . He said agents had reviewed all communications to and from Mrs. Clinton in the new trove from when she was secretary of state. The letter was a dramatic final twist in a tumultuous nine days for both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Comey, who drew widespread criticism for announcing that the F.B.I. had discovered new emails that might be relevant to its investigation of Mrs. Clinton, which ended in July with no charges. That criticism of Mr. Comey from both parties is likely to persist after the election. Letter From F.B.I. Related to Clinton Email Case James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in a letter to members of Congress that “based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” While the new letter was clear as it related to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Comey’s message was otherwise vague. He did not say that agents had completed their review of the emails, or that they were abandoning the matter in regard to her aides. But federal law enforcement officials said that they considered the review of emails related to Mrs. Clinton’s server complete, and that Mr. Comey’s letter was intended to convey that. One senior law enforcement official said that as recently as Friday, it was not clear whether the review would be completed by Election Day. But after days of working in shifts around the clock, teams of counterintelligence agents and technology specialists at the bureau’s headquarters in Washington finished their examination of the thousands of emails. Officials had decided to make their decision public as soon as they had reached it, to avoid any suggestion that they were suppressing information. According to the law enforcement official, many of the emails were personal messages or duplicates of ones that the bureau had previously examined during the original inquiry. Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said in a post on Twitter that the campaign had always believed she would be cleared of any wrongdoing. These Are the Bad (and Worse) Options James Comey Faced When federal officials concluded their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had a decision to make on how to announce that news. The choices he made in July set the F.B.I. on the path toward the predicament it faces today. “We were always confident nothing would cause the July decision to be revisited,” Mr. Fallon said. “Now Director Comey has confirmed it.” Kellyanne Conway, Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager, lamented the fact that Mr. Comey had again inserted himself into the election, but she predicted that his conclusion would have no effect on the outcome. “The investigation has been mishandled from the beginning,” Ms. Conway said on MSNBC, arguing that Mrs. Clinton had wasted taxpayer money and federal resources because of her email practices. “She was reckless, she was careless, she was selfish.” The new review began after agents discovered a cache of emails in early October in an unrelated investigation into the disgraced former congressman Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of one of Mrs. Clinton’s closest aides. When searching Mr. Weiner’s laptop for evidence of whether he had exchanged illicit messages with a teenage girl, they discovered emails belonging to the aide, Huma Abedin. On the Trail: Sunday, Nov. 6 11 Photos View Slide Show › Image Doug Mills/The New York Times That announcement renewed talk of an investigation that had shadowed Mrs. Clinton for much of the Democratic primary campaign. She and her aides had been under investigation for improperly storing classified information on Mrs. Clinton’s private email server. The discovery of new emails raised the prospect that the laptop might have new information that would renew the F.B.I. inquiry. Federal law enforcement officials had said for the past week that only something astounding would change their conclusion that nobody should be charged. But the mere potential for legal trouble was enough to make Republicans gleeful, and Mr. Trump highlighted the F.B.I.’s actions in campaign ads. At the end of a rocky week for Mrs. Clinton that included wild, false speculation about looming indictments and shocking discoveries in the emails, Mr. Comey’s letter swept away her largest and most immediate problem. Republicans immediately accused Mr. Comey of making his announcement prematurely. “Comey must be under enormous political pressure to cave like this and announce something he can’t possibly know,” Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser, wrote on Twitter . Mr. Comey’s move is also sure to prompt questions from Democrats. Most important among them: Why did Mr. Comey raise the specter of wrongdoing before agents had even read the emails, especially since it took only days to determine that they were not significant? Just hours before Mr. Comey sent the letter to Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats said hearings should be held to examine how Mr. Comey had handled the matter. After the letter’s release, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said the Justice Department “needs to take a look at its procedures to prevent similar actions that could influence future elections.” “There’s no doubt that it created a false impression about the nature of the agency’s inquiry,” she added. The F.B.I. director’s vague, brief announcement on Oct. 28 left Mrs. Clinton with few details to rebut and little time to do it. Many current and former F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials said Mr. Comey had needlessly plunged the F.B.I. into the politics of a presidential election, with no clear way out. A long list of former Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., chided Mr. Comey. Despite the fact that the bureau did not find anything that changed its original conclusion about Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Comey has insisted that he had no choice but to inform Congress about the new emails because the investigation had been completed and he had pledged transparency, according to senior F.B.I. officials. Because of Mr. Comey’s Oct. 28 letter, Attorney General Loretta Lynch made completing a review of the emails a top priority. Late last month, Mr. Comey ordered agents to work around the clock to sift through the messages. That process, senior F.B.I. officials said, was painstaking, because each message that had been sent to Mrs. Clinton had to be reviewed to determine whether it had sensitive national security materials. In Mr. Comey’s short letter to Congress on Sunday, he said he was “very grateful to the professionals at the F.B.I. for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.” | 2016 Presidential Election;Hillary Clinton;James B Comey;Classified Information;Email;FBI |
ny0271253 | [
"business"
]
| 2016/05/03 | Opioid Prescribing Gets Another Look as F.D.A. Revisits Mandatory Doctor Training | A pain management specialist, Dr. Nathaniel Katz, was stunned in 2012 when the Food and Drug Administration rejected a recommendation from an expert panel that had urged mandatory training for doctors who prescribed powerful painkillers like OxyContin. That panel had concluded that the training might help stem the epidemic of overdose deaths involving prescription narcotics, or opioids. At first, Dr. Katz, who had been on the panel, thought that drug makers had pressured the F.D.A. to kill the proposal. Then an agency official told him that another group had fought the recommendation: the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest doctors organization. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Katz, the president of Analgesic Solutions , a company in Natick, Mass. “You go to medical school to help public health and here we have an area where you have 15,000 people a year dying.” Now, as the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal and state agencies scramble to find solutions to the vexing opioid problem, the role of doctors is coming back to center stage. The Obama administration recently announced that it supported mandatory training for prescribers of opioids. On Tuesday, a new F.D.A. panel of outside experts will meet to review once again whether such training should be required. The hearing will almost certainly touch off an intense debate inside the medical community and focus attention on medical groups like the A.M.A., which have resisted governmental mandates affecting how doctors practice for both ideological and practical reasons. The panel is expected to make its final recommendation on Wednesday. An F.D.A. spokeswoman said the agency now supported mandatory training. Since 2012, the F.D.A. has required drug companies that produce so-called long-acting opioids — drugs like OxyContin, fentanyl and methadone — to underwrite voluntary educational courses on the medications. In a surprise, last week many of those manufacturers came out in support of rules requiring doctors to have specific training or expertise in pain management before getting a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe a strong opioid. The approach, which would require congressional action, would ensure that prescribers got “appropriate training in pain management with opioids so their patients can continue to access treatment options,” the group said. Dr. Patrice A. Harris, who is the chairwoman of the A.M.A.’s Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, said the organization was committed to helping doctors better use opioids. But Dr. Harris added that the A.M.A. continued to oppose mandatory opioid training for doctors because many physicians do not prescribe the drugs. She added that the group also opposed laws that require doctors to check databases before issuing a prescription for a narcotic painkiller. Such laws, which a growing number of states have adopted, are intended to help doctors identify patients who seek prescriptions from multiple physicians and to help doctors avoid prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs. Data shows that when such programs are voluntary, many doctors do not use them. “We know these tools are a great tool in the toolbox,” said Dr. Harris, who is a psychiatrist. “But they are not a panacea.” Doctors say measures like checking prescription databases take up more time in days already filled with bureaucratic duties, and many express ideological concerns about government’s reach into medicine. And experts say many doctors believe that their practices and their patients are not responsible for the opioid problem. Timothy Condon, a former official at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said he encountered that attitude in 2010 when several federal agencies approached the A.M.A. and medical groups representing specialists to seek their support for mandatory physician training. “The take-home message was, who are you as feds to tell us how to practice medicine, you already regulate us so much,” said Mr. Condon, who is now a research professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He added that when he countered that the scale of the prescriptions that doctors were writing for opioids was central to the overdose problem, the response from the medical group was “silence.” Mandatory training before prescribing the drugs is not the only area where government officials and medical experts are cautiously circling each other. The Obama administration has asked American medical schools to incorporate new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how to treat pain into their curriculums. Along with urging physicians to try nondrug approaches first, the guidelines suggest that opioids be used sparingly. So far, however, only about one-quarter of the 145 teaching institutions that belong to a major organization, the Association of American Medical Colleges, have agreed to incorporate the C.D.C. guidelines into their programs. Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the organization’s president, said his group and medical schools were actively working to reduce inappropriate opioid use . But he added that many institutions preferred to develop teaching guidelines based on their own expertise. In addition, Dr. Kirch said that medical school leaders feared that committing to one federal guideline could lead to a situation where lawmakers imposed agendas on physicians that are not in the interest of patient care. Last week, the F.D.A. released data showing the impact of a voluntary approach to educating doctors. The figures showed that only about half of the 80,000 doctors who the agency had hoped would receive training by March 2015 had completed it. While the agency said the results “make it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the success” of the program, it also raised concerns that requiring training could make it harder for patients to get needed drugs. The F.D.A. will also ask the panel to review whether doctors who prescribe so-called short-acting narcotics like Percocet or Vicodin should have access to training. The medical community is not monolithic in its views. Recently, for example, the Massachusetts Medical Society supported legislation in that state imposing a limit on an initial opioid prescription to a seven-day supply. Some doctors and dentists give patients 60 or 90 high-strength painkillers, enough for a month, giving rise to potential misuse of the drugs or opening a door to addiction. Dr. Katz, the pain expert in Massachusetts, said he understood the resistance of physicians to mandates, including the fear that malpractice lawyers will seek to wield them as weapons. But he has been urging regulators for about 15 years to require doctors to undergo mandatory training. “There is incredible rationalizing that exists,” he said. “There is a problem, and patients and doctors are a part of it. But doctors think it is not me and it is not my patients.” | Doctor;Opioids;FDA;AMA;Fatalities,casualties;Drug Abuse |
ny0180980 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2007/08/22 | Central Islip: Bail for 2 Accused of Forced Labor | Three months after their arrest on federal charges of forced labor and harboring illegal immigrants, a Muttontown couple were released yesterday on $4.5 million bail after agreeing to strict house arrest. The couple, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, have been in custody since they were arrested in May. Federal prosecutors have said the couple, who operate a perfume business, kept two Indonesian housekeepers as virtual slaves, subjecting them to physical abuse. The Sabhnanis have denied the charges. Judge Thomas Platt of Federal District Court, who initially denied bail for the couple but was overruled by an appeals court last month, imposed security restraints that included 24-hour armed guards on the Sabhnanis’ property. Both were required to wear electronic monitoring bracelets. | Slavery;Illegal Immigrants;Immigration and Refugees;New York State |
ny0209787 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
]
| 2009/12/31 | Some Fans Hesitant as Mets Ticket Deadline Looms | With the Mets on the verge of signing Jason Bay to fill one of their biggest needs, a left fielder, the question arises: Who, literally, will notice Bay next season? One of the biggest complaints from Mets fans about Citi Field last season was the obstructed views from the seats in left field. From the highest of the three decks, many fans could not see the left fielder, the warning track or the fence, and sometimes could not see the center fielder, either. Fans in the lower decks also struggled to see plays in left field, and often had to crane their necks to watch replays on televisions hanging above them. Mets executives have defended Citi Field’s geometry, saying that the partly obscured views of the field are the tradeoff for putting fans closer to the action. In good times, a debate over stadium sight lines would be a footnote. But these are not the best of times. Many Mets fans are frustrated by the team’s dismal 2009 season and by their uncertain prospects in 2010. Other than Bay, the Mets have not made any big off-season moves. Fans have also voiced concerns about the cost of tickets. That issue, combined with the discontent over the team and some of the views, has left some fans in no mood to renew their season-ticket plans by Thursday’s deadline, which had already been extended earlier this month. “For the life of me, I don’t know why I’d want those seats again,” said Len Jokubaitis, who had a Saturday plan with two seats in the top row of Section 531 in left field. He was one of more than two dozen fans who talked to The New York Times about their ticket plans for 2010. “I wish the team well and I’d love to see them turn it around, but I just don’t think they are worth it right now.” Jokubaitis said he would go to fewer games next season and search for single-game tickets on StubHub. He is willing to pay more than face value for those tickets, he said, because he will be freed from the risk of being left with tickets he cannot resell, something he said happened repeatedly last year. Fans sitting in the outfield are not the only ones making other plans. Ominously for the team, fans like Jamie Schreck are also taking a pass. He had two seats in the Metropolitan Bronze level last season that cost an average of $150 per ticket. But the team’s poor play, the relative lack of free-agent signings and the slim resale market for his seats persuaded Schreck to opt for single-game tickets in 2010. “I’ll probably go to the same amount of games that I did last year, but I’ll remove the stress of having to get rid of the 50 or 60 games that I don’t want to go to,” he said. Acquiring Bay , he said, will help the team. But, he added, “there’s got to be a very strong chance of them going to the playoffs year after year to justify these prices.” To induce fans like Schreck to buy new plans, the Mets cut ticket prices by as much as 20 percent on some seats. The price of Schreck’s seats, though, fell just 3.3 percent. In the sections farthest from home plate, where many holders of partial season tickets plans sit, prices were mostly unchanged. That includes the Promenade Reserved sections in deep left field, where tickets cost as little as $11 a game. Mets officials declined to say what percentage of their season-ticket holders have renewed their plans, or what impact they expect the Bay signing will have on ticket sales. The team, of course, may still make some significant off-season moves, but even that might not satisfy every disgruntled fan. For instance, one fan named Jay, writing on The New York Times’s Bats blog, listed an array of reasons for not renewing his tickets on the promenade level, including the location of his seats and the lack of access to some of the stadium’s clubs. What seemed to really set him off, though, was the team not meeting his request for a Johan Santana bobble head doll. “Well, it’s been two years and I reminded him every time I spoke with him,” Jay wrote on Bats Blog about his conversations with a Mets ticket-sales representative. “But he has no problem calling me every week or so asking when I’m going to renew.” | New York Mets;Prices (Fares Fees and Rates) |
ny0032328 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
]
| 2013/12/04 | 3 World Cup Stadiums Miss Deadline | At least three World Cup stadiums in Brazil will not be finished by the end of December as FIFA requested. The stadiums in São Paulo, Curitiba and Cuiabá are unable to meet the deadline because of construction delays. At the site in São Paulo, a crane collapse last week killed two workers and damaged part of the stadium. ■ Hoffenheim stunned Schalke, 3-1, to reach the quarterfinals of the German Cup, and the three-time champion Borussia Dortmund eased to a 2-0 win over third-tier Saarbrücken. | Soccer;2014 World Cup;Stadiums Arenas |
ny0190725 | [
"technology",
"companies"
]
| 2009/05/23 | Dispute Over Advisers Cancels Microsoft Antitrust Hearing in Europe | BERLIN — Microsoft and the European Commission have canceled the only hearing planned in an antitrust investigation into the company’s Internet browser because of a dispute over the attendance of European regulators serving as advisers. As a result, the commission, which began its inquiry after a complaint by Opera, a small browser maker in Norway, will reach its decision and levy a fine based on written statements from Microsoft and its adversaries. Microsoft decided not to give oral evidence in the case after it was unable to persuade the commission to move the meeting, scheduled for June 3 through 5, so that it did not conflict with a global antitrust conference in Zurich that draws European antitrust regulators. Dave Heiner, a Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel, said the conflict would have prevented some regulators from attending the hearings as observers and advisers. “It appears many of the most influential commission and national competition officials with the greatest interest in our case will be in Zurich and so unable to attend our hearing,” Mr. Heiner wrote on his blog on the Microsoft Web site. The regulators’ attendance was important, Microsoft said, because they may have been more sympathetic to the company’s argument that the bundling of Internet Explorer in Windows did not represent a breach of European law. The commission typically consults with the national regulators before issuing sanctions and fines in the case. The commission ruled in 2004 that Microsoft had unfairly used Windows, which powers more than 90 percent of the world’s computers, to benefit its own media player and computer server software. The company ended up paying more than $1 billion in fines and penalties fighting the inquiry over nine years. Jonathan Todd, a commission spokesman, said the panel was puzzled by Microsoft’s request. He said the hearing would have been attended by Neelie Kroes, the competition commissioner for the European Union and ranking executive. Usually, the hearings are conducted only by a staff hearing officer. “The commission would have been represented at the highest level by Mrs. Kroes,” Mr. Todd said. Thomas Vinje, a lawyer representing Opera and other Microsoft adversaries, said he suspected Microsoft was trying to win some sort of delay. “I have never seen E.U. national competition officials, who are observers, play a significant role in such cases,” Mr. Vinje said. The development comes little more than a week after the commission fined the computer chip maker Intel a record 1.06 billion euros, or $1.45 billion, for offering rebates to computer makers and retailers in exchange for exclusive sales and distribution agreements. Intel is appealing the decision. Any delay in the Microsoft case could have extended the outcome beyond the reach of Ms. Kroes, whose future as the Europe’s top competition official will depend on the outcome of June 7 European elections. Mrs. Kroes has said she wants to issue a decision in the Microsoft case before her current term, which could last through the end of the year, expires. But that will depend on the June elections, and whether the current commission president, José Manuel Barroso of Portugal, is re-elected and whether he reappoints Ms. Kroes, a Dutch lawyer. | Microsoft Corp;European Commission;Antitrust Actions and Laws;Web Browsers |
ny0156869 | [
"us"
]
| 2008/06/01 | Train’s Speed Is Cited in Boston Crash | NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — Federal officials say a commuter train was going nearly 30 miles per hour faster than it should have when it crashed into another train in suburban Boston. Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday that a red signal had required the train’s operator, Terrese Edmonds, to stop for 60 seconds at the Waban station before proceeding at no more than 10 m.p.h. Ms. Higgins said Ms. Edmonds’s train was going 37 to 38 m.p.h. when it struck the other train. Ms. Edmonds was killed in the crash here on Wednesday. About a dozen passengers were injured. Ms. Higgins said the board was investigating reports that Ms. Edmonds was talking on a cellphone at the time of the accident. | Accidents and Safety;Railroads;Boston (Mass) |
ny0044861 | [
"business",
"international"
]
| 2014/02/11 | Flying Like a Rock Star, but It’s Not Cheap | I HAVE had my complaints about air travel. However, I’m not sure that these are going to be addressed by buying a service that includes “bypassing the main terminals and other passengers” to be “whisked by luxury limousine” across the tarmac to the side of my airplane. But according to the promotions for Heathrow Airport’s V.I.P. Service, you or I may actually purchase this exalted level of service at the London airport, joining “the world’s most discerning passengers,” for a mere 1,500 pounds, about $2,500, before tax, every time you use the service. In my own definition of discerning passenger, all I require is a sensibly priced seat that doesn’t jam my knees aboard an airplane where the bathrooms, bins and entertainment systems work, on a safely operated flight that will arrive at a place that’s reasonably close to where I ultimately wish to be (hopefully sometime the same day). Call me a piker. Frankly, being whisked by vehicle across the tarmac to the foot of the airplane stairs sounds to me a lot like being luggage — but hey, the tarmac-whisking is only a part of Heathrow’s V.I.P. Service, which includes a private lounge where you can mingle with the others among the discerning till a “V.I.P. Liaison” escorts you through security and to the airplane where said escort “will present you to the airline.” Yes, we may laugh. But the fact is, airlines and airports all over the world are profitably selling such exclusive services — which used to be quietly provided just for heads of state, diplomats and major celebrities — to the flying public. Here’s what’s going on. For several years, airlines have been raising additional revenue by putting price tags on things that used to be included in the fare (checked bags, for example, or pillows), or offered as loyalty-program perks to elite fliers. In 2013, such extra charges yielded global airlines $42.6 billion in additional revenue, according to estimates by IdeaWorksCompany, a consulting firm that specializes in ancillary revenue for airlines. In recent years, airlines and even airports have wrung money from even more perks and created fancy ones to sell. One result is a swell of dissatisfaction with elite-status mileage programs among airlines’ most loyal customers. Last week, IdeaWorks issued a fascinating report, “V.I.P. for a Fee,” which describes the various V.I.P. services airlines offer at airports. The services often include airport curbside-to-plane personal escorts, priority check-in and even fripperies, such as being driven to the airplane by limousine. (By the way, that usually requires the fancy-pants passenger to climb steep stairs from the tarmac to the airplane.) Jay Sorensen, the president of IdeaWorks, said that this marketing was “a way for an airline to reach deeper into the pockets of people who are willing to pay more for a higher level of service.” Those people are typically high-spending travelers who are not beholden to strict company travel and preferred-airline policies, “a small portion of the marketplace,” Mr. Sorensen said. He said V.I.P. services that used to be provided quietly are now being openly marketed because: “Airlines are realizing that they can actually sell this. And we’re going to see more and more of that, because it works.” The revenue is immediately seen by airline executives and investors on airline income statements, while the benefit of spending money on the perks of elite loyalty programs isn’t as apparent, he said. The successful marketing of the V.I.P. services “has alerted airline executives to the possibility that: Hey, we don’t have to give all these things away for free. We can actually generate profits from selling them, as opposed to bundling them as some sort of elite-status perk,” Mr. Sorensen said. To me, this highlights a disconcerting trend toward imposing almost-medieval degrees of social stratification on air travel. This trend can be most easily witnessed in that absurd routine you see at airport boarding gates, where the agent invites premium and elite passengers to board along a blue or red carpet and then quickly closes that lane off with a rope and directs the nonprivileged to walk on a gray-carpeted lane next to it. But that’s only the stuff most of us see. For the right price, there’s a whole new level of privileged service at the airport — not to be confused with the spectacular levels of in-flight service (private compartments, bathrooms with showers, sumptuous beds, haute cuisine) being marketed by international airlines in first-class and business-class cabins, all unseen by coach passengers shoehorned in the back into 10-across rows. While continuing to sell basic coach travel at basic fares, airlines are focusing more on higher-value customers, including those who spend a lot using the airline-branded credit card and those who will pay a lot to be treated like V.I.P.s. “It’s a caste system,” said Ralph Nader, the consumer activist. “It’s all part of stratifying the consumer, which the computer makes possible. And they’re going to keep doing this. They will appeal more and more to the top 10 percent that doesn’t care about cost.” As Mr. Sorensen said, “There’s no easier way to profit from a customer relationship than to establish the relationship with someone who can actually open up their wallet and decide what they’re going to buy and who they’re going to buy it from.” | Customer Loyalty Programs;Airlines,airplanes;Airport |
ny0269761 | [
"world",
"asia"
]
| 2016/04/21 | China Drone Maker Says It May Share Data With State | SHENZHEN, China — DJI is the Chinese company that took drone technology — long the purview of major military forces — and made it cheap and accessible enough for ordinary people. But as the technology is put into the hands of consumers, it raises new questions for DJI and others in the industry: What should be done with the information those drones gather? The little pilotless flying machines typically carry cameras, GPS sensors and other devices that can tell interested parties where they have been and what they have seen. How much of that information should be shared with local governments? That question is especially important in China, where regulators have looked askance at drones while tightening their hold over civil society. In a briefing for Chinese and foreign journalists at DJI’s headquarters in Shenzhen on Wednesday, Zhang Fanxi, a spokesman for the company, said it was still working out how to deal with the data it collects in China. But for now, he said, DJI is complying with requests from the Chinese government to hand over data. A Field Guide to Civilian Drones As consumer and commercial drones increase in popularity, the government is taking more steps to address safety concerns and regulate the aerial vehicles. Adam Najberg, another DJI spokesman, said DJI evaluated each request and complied if it decided that request was legitimate. DJI could also give the government data from flights in Hong Kong, Mr. Zhang said. That could raise eyebrows among drone users in the city, a semiautonomous Chinese territory with its own laws that guarantee freedom of expression and its own independent judicial system. Protests in Hong Kong that shut down parts of the city in late 2014 were prompted in part by concerns that Beijing was interfering in local affairs. For the moment, Mr. Zhang said, DJI was uncertain what the industry would decide to do with the data. “This data, exactly how we use it, when we use it and which government departments we give it to” is a continuing discussion, he said. DJI also sells drones in the United States. Mr. Najberg said DJI did not have a way to see video or images from drones beyond those that users upload themselves via a company social-media app. He also said that the company’s phone app uploads flight data to its servers, though consumers can use third-party apps that do not. DJI is not alone in cooperating with Chinese authorities when they request data, which is required of all companies doing business there. In its most recent report on government requests for information , Apple said it received about 1,000 requests for data in the second half of last year from Chinese authorities and supplied data about two-thirds of the time. Apple said this week that it had never handed encryption keys over to the Chinese authorities, which would give Beijing direct and broad access to communications on Apple’s products. (Over the same period, Apple received about 4,000 requests from the United States authorities and handed over data four-fifths of the time, according to its report. Access to encrypted communications on Apple devices has become the subject of a fierce American political debate .) But China has been seeking more ways to tap into electronic communications. Two years ago, it proposed a law that would require foreign companies to turn over encryption keys for security reasons, though the final version dropped that language. Officials have cited rising online crime in China, worries about terrorist attacks and disclosures by Edward J. Snowden, the former United States government contractor who revealed that American intelligence agencies sometimes used American technology products to gather information. Mr. Zhang said DJI did not give Chinese authorities direct access to drones unless requested. “If the government says it wants this data, we will tell the user,” he said. “We communicate all of this.” Still, China has not formalized rules over drones, so the industry’s obligations are unclear. Already, DJI’s user agreement flags the possibility that whoever flies a drone may not be flying it alone. It reads: “Please note that if you conduct your flight in certain countries, your flight data might be monitored and provided to the government authorities according to local regulatory laws.” In other areas, relations with Beijing remain untested. The company has had numerous requests from local governments in China to work with and train the military police and other security forces to use its drones for surveillance and to track criminals, Mr. Zhang said. Still, drones face a skeptical audience here. In 2013, Chinese forces shot down a drone over a Beijing suburb. Several months later, a foreigner who took breathtaking shots of central Beijing with a DJI drone earned a brief detention and a stern talking-to. Drones have raised security concerns in the United States as well, after one crashed on the White House lawn last year. At the briefing, DJI said that it continued to expand a system that ensured the drones could not fly in sensitive areas, an arrangement known as geofencing. | China;Drones;Government Surveillance;Hong Kong;US |
ny0013096 | [
"business",
"media"
]
| 2013/11/26 | Times Names a New Editor of Video Content | Bruce Headlam, editor of the media desk at The New York Times since 2008, has been named managing editor of video content development. He will succeed Richard L. Berke, who recently left The Times to join Politico. In a note to staff released on Monday, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The Times, said that Mr. Headlam “pioneered our coverage of new media from the time it was an afterthought for many newspapers to it becoming central to the future of the industry.” In Mr. Headlam’s new role, he will report directly to Ms. Abramson. The move also marks a change to the video desk’s organizational structure. Rebecca Howard, the general manager of video production, who previously reported to Ms. Abramson and Denise F. Warren, the executive vice president for digital products and services, will now report just to Ms. Warren. Mr. Headlam, 50, joined The Times in 1998, starting as an editor for the Circuits technology section, and then as an editor for the Escapes section. He became the weekend business editor in 2002, and editor of the Monday business section in 2005. Under his leadership, the Monday media section won a Mirror Award for overall excellence from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2008. Before joining The Times, he was an editor at Saturday Night magazine and Canadian Business magazine. Mr. Headlam will be succeeded by Peter Lattman, a reporter in The Times’s DealBook section. Mr. Lattman, 43, joined The Times in August 2010 from The Wall Street Journal, where he reported on legal affairs and the private equity industry. | Appointments and Executive Changes;The New York Times;Bruce Headlam;Peter Lattman |
ny0120444 | [
"us"
]
| 2012/07/30 | Forest Service Urged to Update Firefighting Fleet | WASHINGTON — The best aircraft to fight the growing number of Western wildfires would be dozens of modern “scooper” planes that fill their bellies with water skimmed in seconds from a lake or river, and not the slower helicopters and tankers now in use, according to a study released on Monday by the RAND Corporation. But the chief of the federal Forest Service , which commissioned the study, has rejected its central finding. The problem is urgent because destructive fires are increasingly frequent, and the existing fleet of planes, leased from private operators, is old and accident prone . Firefighting crashes have killed seven crew members this year. According to the RAND report, a quick, pre-emptive attack on an emerging fire could save $3.3 million, on average. Thus, it said, spending more on firefighting planes could save money over all. Edward G. Keating, an economist who was the study’s lead author, said some government agencies leased the scooper planes for $1.5 million to $2.5 million per season; depending on estimates of the destructiveness of fires and the effectiveness of air tankers, it might save money to use up to 55 of them, the study said. But the Forest Service, which relies on older tanker planes that must land at an airport and be refilled by pumper trucks and which uses only a handful of scoopers, said the RAND study was wrong. The skimmer planes mostly drop water or foam, when often what is needed is fire retardant, said Thomas L. Tidwell , the chief of the Forest Service. And, he said, “they’re underestimating the cost of scoopers and overestimating the cost of tankers.” Congress is considering a plan submitted by the Forest Service this year to buy C-130J air tankers, a variant of the Pentagon’s cargo plane, but those could cost $85 million to $90 million each once refitted to carry fire retardant, government officials say. The new study and the Forest Service’s response highlight fundamental disagreements about how to fight fires. The study, for example, noted a “dearth of statistical evidence” about the effectiveness of using air tanker drops on already large fires. It used a term sometimes used by firefighters, who refer to “CNN drops,” high-visibility efforts that give the impression of a strong government response. The study also acknowledged uncertainties about the relative value of water, which is cheap and widely available, and retardant. Some of the water will blow off target or evaporate on the way down, and it will not last long on the ground, so dumping it in the path of a fire may not be effective. (Aircraft do not usually put out fires; they slow them down so workers on the ground can extinguish them or establish a firebreak around them.) “Often when we’re having these large fires, the relative humidity is in the single digits,” Mr. Tidwell said, and what reaches the ground may be “just a real light sprinkling.” The retardant, which is denser and does not evaporate, can penetrate the canopy of leaves if the fire is in a wooded area, experts say, and can be dropped from a higher altitude, reducing risks. Mr. Keating, the study’s lead author, said such operations would be dangerous even with newer equipment. “There are extremely irregular wind currents because of the heat coming off the fire,” he said. “You’re at high elevation and low altitude in irregular terrain,” close to the ground in mountainous areas, “and, oh, by the way, it’s on fire.” In some crashes, pilots may have become lost in the smoke. But the RAND study argues that more frequent drops of water may be more effective. A scooper plane, which flies about 100 miles an hour over a river or lake and lowers a small scoop to skim off hundreds of gallons in a few seconds, can manage 60 loads a day if the water is convenient. That may be 10 times the capability of a plane dropping retardant. Two-thirds of the fires fought by the Forest Service are within 10 miles of a suitable body of water, the study said, and fires near towns are even more likely to be near water. Another goal is to spot emerging fires that can be stopped by dropping water or retardant and focus on those, a challenge that the study called “dispatch prescience.” Some firefighting assets, including helicopters, move so slowly that positioning them in places where they are most likely to be needed is an important step. Firefighting strategy has other complications. Some environmental experts worry that scooper planes, or helicopters that lower buckets to collect water, could spread exotic mussels that contaminate rivers or lakes. And in some places, planes dump saltwater on the soil. The Forest Service contracts for a variety of aircraft, mostly converted antisubmarine warplanes from the middle of the last century. At times it has used the Bombardier 415 , a Canadian plane designed to fight fires. The plane can land on water, but refills its tanks, totaling 1,600 gallons, by skimming water off the surface in a fast pass. A California company, International Emergency Services, has been trying to market a Russian plane that holds 3,000 gallons. This year, the company flew two Forest Service engineers to Russia to evaluate the plane, the BE-200. David Baskett, the president of International Emergency Services, offered to bring the plane to the United States for a “flyoff,” but, he said, the Forest Service has not responded. Mr. Tidwell said the Federal Aviation Administration had not certified the Russian plane for commercial use. F.A.A. rules would allow the Forest Service to use the plane if it wanted to, but government agencies without extensive in-house expertise in aviation often defer to the F.A.A. One drawback is price. The Canadian plane’s list price is about $35 million. The Russian plane’s is about $50 million. Discounts are common, though, for volume purchases. | RAND Corp;Forest Service;Forest and Brush Fires;Research;Fires and Firefighters;Water;United States;Airlines and Airplanes;Western States (US);Tidwell Thomas L |
ny0166372 | [
"technology"
]
| 2006/08/30 | Hackers Gain Data on AT&T Shoppers | SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 29 (AP) — Hackers gained access to a computer system and obtained credit card information and other personal data from several thousand customers who purchased digital subscriber line equipment from AT&T’s online store, the company said Tuesday. AT&T said the system was hacked into over the weekend. The data of “fewer than 19,000 customers” were affected, the company said. AT&T, based in San Antonio, said it closed the online store and would pay for credit monitoring services for the people whose files were broken into. The company notified the major credit card companies whose customer accounts were affected. It also sent notification to customers involved via e-mail messages, phone and letter. The company said the unauthorized access was found within hours of the breach. | AT&T Corp;Computers and the Internet;Computer Security;Privacy |
ny0147872 | [
"sports",
"olympics"
]
| 2008/07/13 | Grevers Could Not Bring Himself to Go Dutch | Matt Grevers was struggling to keep his head above water in a deep pool of backstrokers when a coach from the Netherlands offered him a preserver. It was a plane ticket to Amsterdam, with a connection to the Olympics in 2004 or 2008. All Grevers had to do was reach out and grab it. Grevers, who was born outside of Chicago, was eligible to compete for the Netherlands because his parents are Dutch. He thought long and hard about it, imagining himself draped in the blue and orange of his parents’ homeland and competing on swimming’s grandest stage for a country not really his own. “I talked about it with my parents,” Grevers said recently while relaxing after a meal with his mother, Anja; father, Ed; and two older siblings, Andy and Carolyn. “We almost got in contact with a coach over there.” His mother, a swim coach, interjected. “The Dutch team really invited him over,” she said. “They were offering him airfare and a four-star hotel.” How tempting it was. Especially after 2004, when Grevers placed seventh in the 100-meter backstroke at the United States Olympic trials in Long Beach, Calif., with a time that turned out to be faster than the seventh-place swim in the preliminaries at the Games in Athens. At the Olympics, each country is limited to two swimmers in the 100 backstroke. With four Americans — Aaron Peirsol, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Randall Bal — ranked among the top seven in the event’s history, Grevers’s road to Beijing was all uphill. Still, he could not bring himself to go Dutch. Grevers, 23, has always been one to stay close to home. Coming out of high school in 2003, he chose Northwestern over the traditional swimming powerhouses. He left Chicago this year for Tucson with great reluctance, and then only because he knew he needed to race alongside world-class swimmers every day if he wanted to fulfill his Olympic dream. In the end, it was not hard for Grevers to reject the route taken by others like the N.B.A. center Chris Kaman, who was born in Michigan but will compete in Beijing for Germany, the ancestral home of his great-grandparents, after recently gaining his German citizenship. “I sometimes like easy routes,” Grevers said. “But this is one challenge that I did want to undertake. I wanted it to mean something if I swam in the Olympics. I didn’t want to just get handed a spot. A lot of people I’ve known will just try to represent a country they’re barely related to. I don’t think that’s the true spirit of what the Olympics are all about.” Instead of changing allegiances, Grevers switched events. After 2005, he channeled most of his energies into the 100 freestyle, where the top six finishers at the trials earn Olympic berths for relay purposes. “I kind of wanted to give up the backstroke,” Grevers said. He was indignant when his coach at Tucson Aquatics, Frank Busch, entered him in the 100 backstroke at this year’s United States trials in Omaha. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Grevers recalled. “I didn’t want to swim it. He told me to use it as a warm-up for the 100 free.” Everybody at the family table chuckled. The idea of the 100 backstroke being a throwaway event was funny, given what happened next. Grevers, racing in the TYR Tracer Rise instead of the more acclaimed Speedo LZR Racer favored by Peirsol and Lochte, advanced to the final and touched out Lochte for second, finishing in a personal-best 53.19 seconds to Lochte’s 53.37. At 6 feet 8 inches, Grevers has 6 inches on Lochte, and ultimately his longer reach proved the difference. “I like touching people out and laughing about how their head might be ahead of mine and my arms still get them,” Grevers said. Peirsol won and lowered his year-old world record to 52.89. Bal finished fourth. Phelps was entered in the event but scratched to conserve his energy for the freestyles, individual medleys and butterflies. “When I touched the wall, I looked straight at my family, and they were going nuts,” Grevers said. “That image will be in my head forever. It’s probably one of the happiest moments of my life.” It surpassed by a mile the memory of the day he broke his first national age-group record, in the 50-yard backstroke at a meet in Chicago when he was 10, and received a standing ovation from the crowd. In a recorded interview that appeared on the giant scoreboard at the Qwest Center during breaks in the trials, Grevers described that as his best moment in swimming. He was not through updating his highlight reel. Two nights later, Grevers placed fifth in the 100 freestyle to earn a spot as an alternate on the 4x100 freestyle relay. Even after earning a second berth on the team for Beijing, Grevers was having a hard time processing that he will be known forevermore as a United States Olympian. “It still hasn’t sunk in,” Grevers said. It boggles his mind to think that in 2004, he sat with friends and watched the Netherlands beat out the United States for the silver medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay in Athens and daydreamed about how that maybe could have been him on the medals podium, representing the Netherlands. And now here he is, four years later, a member of the relay team that will try to bring the gold back to the United States. “I’m proud of him,” Anja said. “We are Dutch-born and raised, but he chose the U.S. and we are behind him all the way.” | Olympic Games (2008);Swimming;Grevers Matt;Netherlands;United States |
ny0217840 | [
"business"
]
| 2010/05/02 | Letters: The Invisible Tax? | The Invisible Tax? To the Editor: In “The Tax That Hides in Your Paycheck” (Economic View, April 25), Robert H. Frank proposes that private pay patterns are a progressive tax in themselves, by paying nonproductive workers more than their actual worth to a business and paying the most productive less than their value. The argument, made with static examples of workplace compensation, fails because no one lives a static life. True, the employee who is twice as productive as a co-worker doing the same job may not enjoy twice the salary today, but will be more likely to survive an economic downturn without unemployment and get the promotions that eventually lead to much higher pay. Measured not by a freeze frame but over a lifetime, the most productive workers in our society tend to earn more than the least productive in proportion to their economic value. This is the root incentive in our society — to be as productive as our talents allow and to avoid the trap of “they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.” John Miller Houston, April 25 • To the Editor: Robert H. Frank develops an interesting argument to explain how private pay systems constitute a progressive tax. But it isn’t so easy to evaluate workers’ relative value to their companies, because that value has so many dimensions. One of those dimensions is the quality of a worker’s output, not just its quantity. Another is the degree to which a worker contributes to colleagues’ productivity. The column’s example of a carpenter’s output is simple to calculate. But others would be more complicated — for instance, the value of a younger teacher vs. an older, more mature one. The productivity of workers is also strongly dependent on the efficiency of the management above them. Perhaps executives should consider layoffs from the top downward, not the bottom up. Richard Attanasio Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., April 25 | Letters;Wages and Salaries |
ny0248880 | [
"world",
"americas"
]
| 2011/05/24 | Guatemala to Restore Legacy of President U.S. Helped Depose | MEXICO CITY — After President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in a C.I.A. -backed coup in 1954, the Guatemalan government reversed his policies and branded him a Communist, all but erasing his brief presidency from history. Nearly six decades later, a democratic Guatemala has promised to restore his legacy and treat him as a statesman. In an agreement signed with Mr. Arbenz’s descendants last week, the government promised to revise the school curriculum and grant Mr. Arbenz the treatment afforded to historical heroes. It will name a main highway and a museum wing after the ousted president, prepare a biography of him, publish his widow’s memoir and mount an exhibition about him and his legacy in the National History Museum. The post office will even issue a series of stamps in his honor. “When you say his name, my generation and older generations automatically pick sides,” said Dr. Erick Arbenz, Mr. Arbenz’s grandson, an anesthesiologist in Boston. “The younger generation don’t know who he was or how he shaped history. Part of that is the culture of silence created by the C.I.A. and the perpetrators.” After winning the presidency in a landslide election in 1950, Mr. Arbenz began an effort to modernize the economy, including a land-redistribution program that angered American corporations and the United States government. President Eisenhower , convinced that Mr. Arbenz was giving the Communists a foothold in the Americas, authorized a coup that ousted the Guatemalan president in nine days. The deposed president died in 1971 at the age of 57, a broken man in Mexico, leaving his widow, children and, later, grandchildren to fight unsuccessfully in the Guatemalan courts for his reputation and their confiscated property. In 1999, the family went to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington. It accepted the complaint in 2006, leading to five years of stop-and-start negotiations. The agreement, signed last Thursday, includes monetary reparations, which were not disclosed. The Guatemalan government will also hold a public ceremony to admit the state’s past role in the coup and send a letter apologizing to the family. The government has “acknowledged its responsibility for wrongdoing and its desire to make it right and restore this man to his place in Guatemalan history,” said Richard J. Wilson, a law professor at American University and the director of the law school’s human rights clinic, which argued the Arbenz family’s case. President Álvaro Colom, Guatemala’s first left-leaning president since Mr. Arbenz held office, has given human rights organizations a freer hand in demanding an accounting of the crimes committed during the brutal 36-year civil war that began a few years after the coup. “We’re working for the historical memory of our country,” Ruth del Valle, president of Guatemala’s presidential human rights commission, wrote in an e-mail. Ms. del Valle acted as her government’s negotiator. “It’s important to guarantee that events such as these are never repeated,” she said. As part of the agreement, the family insisted on measures it believes can promote change in Guatemala, where, Dr. Arbenz said, the social chasm that lay behind the coup and its aftermath still persists. The government agreed to set up a degree program in human rights for public officials and indigenous leaders. Dr. Arbenz said the agreement finally corrects the historical record, even if neither the president nor his wife, María Cristina Vilanova, who died at 93 in 2009, lived to see it. “Justice does take time, even if it skips a generation,” Dr. Arbenz said. “My grandmother taught us to be tenacious, to be courageous, to be brave, and eventually there will be a solution.” | Arbenz Jacobo;Guatemala;Central Intelligence Agency;Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat;Eisenhower Dwight David |
ny0068277 | [
"business"
]
| 2014/12/10 | BMW Chief Norbert Reithofer to Step Down Earlier Than Expected | FRANKFURT — BMW said on Tuesday that Norbert Reithofer would step down in May as chief executive of the German luxury carmaker a year earlier than expected, and that he would be replaced by Harald Krüger, the head of production. Mr. Reithofer, 58, who oversaw a push into lower price categories for BMW and the introduction of a line of electric cars, will probably become chairman of the supervisory board and thus remain a powerful, if less visible, force in the company’s management. Like Mr. Reithofer, Mr. Krüger, who is 49, has spent his career at BMW, which is based in Munich. Mr. Krüger has served in a variety of positions, as has Mr. Reithofer, that give him broad experience with company operations. Mr. Krüger has been the head of personnel, the head of sales for the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, and the manager of a BMW engine factory in Hams Hall, near Birmingham, England. In the 1990s, he was an engineer involved in the construction of the BMW factory in Spartanburg, S.C. He has been a member of BMW’s management board since 2008. Mr. Krüger also continues a tradition at BMW and at other carmakers of placing in the top post engineers who have experience in other disciplines. Mr. Krüger studied in Germany at technical colleges in Braunschweig and in Aachen, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. He joined BMW as a trainee in 1992. “He has worked in a lot of different positions and knows the company very well,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen. “That’s typical BMW.” Mr. Krüger has attended conferences organized by the university, Mr. Dudenhöffer said, and came across as likable and down to earth. “As we say in Germany, he’s someone you can drink a beer with,” Mr. Dudenhöffer said. Joachim Milberg, a former BMW chief executive who is regarded as Mr. Reithofer’s mentor, will resign as chairman of the supervisory board to allow Mr. Reithofer to be considered for the post. Mr. Reithofer must be elected by other members of the board, but that is considered a formality. “The BMW Group plans to maintain its leading role in the premium segment,” Mr. Milberg said in a statement. “To achieve this, we have to hand over responsibility to the next generation at an appropriate time.” Image Harald Krüger, who will succeed Mr. Reithofer, has has served in a variety of positions at BMW. Credit Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters Mr. Reithofer has generally been held in high esteem in the industry. He foresaw the effect that the financial crisis in 2008 would have on sales and cut back production in time largely to avoid the losses suffered by competitors including the Mercedes-Benz division of Daimler. With the Mini brand and 1 Series cars, BMW effectively invented the luxury small-car segment. Under Mr. Reithofer, BMW greatly expanded both brand lines and fared better than most rivals after the European market for lower-priced cars began to plunge in 2009. BMW car sales have risen from less than 1.4 million when Mr. Reithofer took over in 2006 and are expected to top two million this year. However, BMW’s net profit dipped in the third quarter, falling 1 percent to 1.3 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion, because of higher taxes and the effect of currency fluctuations. Mr. Reithofer also oversaw the development and unveiling of the BMW i3, a battery-powered car with a body made largely of carbon fiber and aluminum. The car won praise for its unconventional design, but sales so far have been modest. Sales of the i3 and i8, a plug-in hybrid sports coupe, amounted to only about 10,500 in the first nine months of 2014, the first year the cars were on sale worldwide. But Mr. Dudenhöffer said he did not think that the early sales figures would discourage BMW from continuing to expand the i Series model line. “It’s always a risk to do something new,” Mr. Dudenhöffer said. “But I am sure that they will have more rather than fewer i models.” As chairman of the supervisory board, Mr. Reithofer would continue to exert considerable power behind the scenes. In German corporations, the supervisory board approves major strategic decisions and appoints the top managers, while the management board is responsible for day-to-day operations. In line with German corporate law, half of the members of the supervisory board are worker representatives. BMW also said on Tuesday that its supervisory board had named Klaus Fröhlich to the management board as head of development. Mr. Fröhlich, 54, had been in charge of small and midsize cars at BMW. He replaces Herbert Diess, who BMW said “has left the company of his own accord.” | BMW;Norbert Reithofer;Harald Kruger;Cars;Appointments and Executive Changes;Board of directors;Joachim Milberg;Germany |
ny0076924 | [
"sports",
"football"
]
| 2015/05/21 | The Giants’ Will Beatty Is Sidelined With a Muscle Tear | For the last two years, with top draft picks and high-priced free-agent signings, the Giants worked desperately to rebuild an offensive line that had once been a team strength. The process suffered from injuries to aging bodies and outright failure during two disastrous seasons, but when the college draft ended earlier this month, the Giants offensive line finally appeared to have legitimate promise. But on Wednesday, the Giants learned that Will Beatty, who plays the pivotal left tackle position and was one of the team’s most experienced linemen, tore a pectoral muscle during weight training and will be sidelined five to six months, according to people with knowledge of Beatty’s injury and treatment. The injury, which requires surgery, throws the Giants’ line into disarray. With their first selection in the college draft on April 29, the Giants took tackle Ereck Flowers from Miami. While Flowers could move into Beatty’s spot, it would be asking a lot of a rookie. On passing plays, the Giants’ left tackle is charged with protected the blind side of quarterback Eli Manning. Because of that, opponents usually put their best pass rusher against the left tackle. Flowers has played left tackle and the Giants have viewed him as the team’s potential left tackle of the future. But this season he was more likely to be part of a reconfigured line that had Flowers at right tackle and last year’s right tackle, Justin Pugh, moving inside to right guard. The second-year player Weston Richburg is the expected center with Geoff Schwartz, injured most of last season after signing as a free agent in 2014, penciled in as the left guard next to Beatty. Now the Giants may have to shift multiple players into new roles, and Flowers will probably have to start somewhere. Just last week, Ben McAdoo, the offensive coordinator, was not overly eager to push Flowers into any role. “We believe that he has a skill set to play left tackle in this league,” McAdoo said of Flowers. “We are going to give him opportunities to train out there. We will give him opportunities to train at multiple spots. That doesn’t mean we are going to pencil him in to one spot right now.” Schwartz has also played tackle. And the Giants used their seventh pick of this year’s draft on tackle Bobby Hart from Florida State. But the Giants have talked about converting Hart into a guard. The torn pectoral muscle injury, especially if it lingers into late November or December, could contribute to the end of Beatty’s Giants career. Beatty, 30, has a contract that runs through the 2017 season, but cutting Beatty before the end of that contract could save the Giants more than $4 million against the salary cap. | Football;Will Beatty;Sports injury;Giants |
ny0010153 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2013/02/10 | 2 American Mothers Gain Custody of Adopted Russian Children | MOSCOW (AP) — After weeks of plodding through the opaque Russian legal system, two American women now have custody of their adopted Russian children and are preparing to take them home to start a new life together. The two women — Jeana Bonner of South Jordan, Utah, and Rebecca Preece from Nampa, Idaho — and their husbands had spent about a year, including multiple trips to Russia, to arrange for the adoption of a 5-year-old girl and a 4 ½-year-old boy. By late last year, the adoptions had received court approval and they thought all they had to do was wait out the 30-day period in which such rulings can be challenged. But in those 30 days, a ban on Americans adopting Russian children sped through Parliament and into law, part of a hastily developed package of measures retaliating against a new American law allowing sanctions on Russians identified as human-rights violators. When Ms. Bonner and the Preeces arrived in Moscow in mid-January, they found themselves caught in a legalistic blind alley. Although officials said adoptions approved before the ban would go through, the judge who was to issue the decree formally granting custody said the ban meant there was now no mechanism for him to do so. Help came from a surprising quarter — the office of Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, who has been one of the strongest critics of American adoptions. The office appointed a lawyer for the couples, who obtained a Supreme Court order directing the lower court to immediately issue the decree, Ms. Bonner said. “We were really excited and thought, ‘Let’s go pick up our children,’ ” Ms. Bonner said. But the lower court waited another 15 days. “That was really frustrating and disheartening” especially because some other American adoptive parents had received quick action from courts in other regions of Moscow, she said. The further delay meant that Brian Preece was forced to go back home to attend to the family’s fireplace business, while the two women stayed, racking up what Ms. Preece said were “a couple thousand dollars” in costs for food, accommodation and canceled flights. The decree came through on Tuesday, and the women rushed to the orphanages. “It was an amazing day, just so special, what we’d hoped and dreamed it would be,” Ms. Bonner said. Both aim to leave Tuesday. Meanwhile, they have been doting on the children, both of whom have Down syndrome. (The Bonners and Preeces each have another child with the syndrome.) The children are keeping their Russian names as middle names and getting new first names — Jaymi Viktoria Bonner and Gabriel Artur Preece. In light of Mr. Astakhov’s criticism of American adoptions and frequent complaints that adopted Russian children face abuse and even death at the hands of their new parents, “We were very surprised that he had appointed that attorney for us,” Ms. Preece said. “It makes us hopeful for the other families that have met their children and really would like to finish their adoptions,” she said. “It makes us hopeful that they will do the right thing for these families as well.” At the time the ban went into effect, 46 adoption cases went into the legal limbo. American officials have not said how many cases have been resolved. | Russia;US;Adoption;Children;Child Custody and Child Support;Legislation |
ny0253756 | [
"us"
]
| 2011/10/14 | Names of the Dead | The Department of Defense has identified 4,470 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war and 1,789 who have died as part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans this week: Iraq WILKE, James B., 38, Chief Warrant Officer, Army; Ione, Calif.; 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. Afghanistan WYRICK, Nathan L., 34, Sergeant, Army; Enumclaw, Wash.; 10th Mountain Division. | United States Defense and Military Forces;Iraq War (2003- );Afghanistan War (2001- );Deaths (Fatalities) |
ny0123323 | [
"sports",
"cycling"
]
| 2012/09/08 | Contador Returns to His Winning Ways | MADRID — When Alberto Contador used to win cycling races, the Spanish rider known as El Pistolero (The Gunman) would cross the finish line with one arm drawn out, pretending to take aim with a revolver and shoot. But on Wednesday, when Contador won his first stage on the Vuelta a España this year — giving him what appears to be a comfortable lead before the finish of the race Sunday in Madrid — his celebrations were more akin to those of a rookie tasting victory for the first time. As he completed a stunning breakaway mountain climb, Contador put both arms up, clenched his fists and let out two large shouts. Later on, an emotional Contador seemed to struggle to choke back tears, as he dedicated his victory to his family and friends and the supporters who helped put him back in the lead of a major race, only a month after his return from a doping ban. Still, he also insisted that even his surprise attack Wednesday in the mountains of northern Spain, which he began about 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, from the finish line in Fuente Dé, had been more a crazy gamble that had paid off rather than an example of perfect racing tactics. “I am not in my best moment, but I had a really strong desire to win,” he said after his stage victory. As to whether his attack had been carefully planned, Contador described it as a kamikaze decision, which he made despite being riddled with doubt: “I had a devil who encouraged me to jump ahead, and on the other side an angel telling me to preserve strength.” He held on to the overall lead on Thursday. But before the closing stage Sunday in Madrid, Contador will face a tough test Saturday, with the climb to the Bola del Mundo, in the Guadarrama mountain range on the outskirts of the Spanish capital. Whatever the outcome, however, this Vuelta has helped strengthen the popularity in this sports-mad country of a cycling champion who never really fell from his pedestal, despite his recent doping ban. The drug scandal has somehow even added to his commercial clout. Contador recently appeared in a nationwide advertising campaign for a mattress company, in which he is seen training and warning: “If they thought I would stay in bed, that’s because they don’t know me.” Contador tested positive for clenbuterol, a banned weight-loss and muscle-building drug, in July 2010, during the Tour de France . The Spanish cycling authorities eventually cleared Contador of any wrongdoing. Their decision was then overruled last February by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found Contador guilty of doping and stripped him of his victory in the 2010 Tour, as well as 12 other victories. The court also gave Contador a two-year ban from racing, applied retroactively, which deprived him of the Tour this year, as well as the Olympics in London. Contador, however, denied ever doping, saying instead that the positive clenbuterol test had been the result of his accidentally eating some tainted meat. Until his victory Wednesday in Fuente Dé, Contador had been repeatedly thwarted in his attacks, leading even some of his closest rivals to suggest that he was paying the price for his enforced absence from professional cycling and making some poor tactical decisions. “We’re all seeing that he appears a bit nervous and is attacking where he should not be attacking,” Alejandro Valverde, another Spanish rider, said when asked to assess Contador’s performance in the first part of the race. Still, Valverde warned that Contador had the potential to raise his performance and “make it difficult for all of us.” In fact, Contador himself helped fuel the doubts about his fitness before the Vuelta and during the first part of the race. He insisted that he was not yet back to the kind of level that had helped him win the Vuelta in 2008, thereby becoming the only Spaniard to win Europe’s three major tours (he also won the Giro d’Italia that year). Contador even suggested this past Monday that the racing conditions were not playing in his favor, since the Vuelta was taking place in blistering heat, “without the rain that serves as my ally.” Meanwhile, Joaquim “Purito” Rodríguez, a fellow Spaniard and mountain specialist, seemed to have done the hard part after holding on to the leader’s red jersey in a time trial. “The way Purito is going, it will be difficult for Contador to beat him,” Valverde forecast at the start of the final week of racing. But on Wednesday, Rodríguez suddenly looked as if he were going nowhere, almost glued to the road as Contador sped away. By the end of the grueling mountain stage, Rodríguez had been relegated to third in the standings, almost two-and-a-half minutes behind Contador. Valverde was second. While the Vuelta has proved an exciting and open race this year, it was also in part overshadowed by news that the U.S. anti-doping agency had stripped Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles, after the American rider dropped his legal fight against doping charges. However, Contador avoided displaying any schadenfreude when asked to comment about Armstrong’s demise. “All I know is that Lance as a cyclist had a formidable amount of strength, intelligence and a strong head,” he said. These are qualities that Contador has also shown this past week, before what could prove one of cycling’s great comeback victories Sunday. | Contador Alberto;Vuelta a Espana (Bicycle Race);Cycling Road |
ny0081578 | [
"sports",
"football"
]
| 2015/11/02 | Broncos Outclass the Packers in a Battle of 6-0 Teams | The Denver Broncos found some offense to go with their dominant defense, powering their way past the visiting Green Bay Packers, 29-10, on Sunday night. In only the fourth meeting of N.F.L. teams with records of 6-0 or better, Peyton Manning tied Brett Favre’s record with his 186th regular-season win, and Denver’s defense rattled Aaron Rodgers into one of the worst games of his career. The Broncos piled it on in the fourth quarter, when DeMarcus Ware sacked Rodgers and the ball went into the end zone for a safety. The Broncos improved to 7-0 for the first time since the 1998 season, when they won the Super Bowl after finishing 14-2. Although neither quarterback threw for a touchdown, Manning threw for 340 yards and completed 21 of 29 passes. Rodgers was of 14 of 22 for just 77 yards — the fewest of his career for a game in which he was not knocked out by injury. Rodgers was sacked three times, and the Packers had just 140 yards of total offense to Denver’s 500. BENGALS 16, STEELERS 10 Andy Dalton passed for Cincinnati’s only touchdown with 2 minutes 57 seconds to play, and the Bengals intercepted Ben Roethlisberger twice in the fourth quarter in rallying for a victory in Pittsburgh. At 7-0, the Bengals are off to their best start in franchise history and are in command of the A.F.C. North. Roethlisberger, who was making his return after missing four games with a sprained knee, completed four of five passes during an opening 80-yard touchdown drive. But he and the Steelers faded late. Roethlisberger’s final interception, caught by Reggie Nelson, set up a Bengals field goal with 1:47 to go, which meant that Pittsburgh would need a touchdown. The Steelers drove to the Cincinnati 16 with four seconds left, but a Roethlisberger pass went out of the end zone to end the game. Image Pittsburgh lost running back Le’Veon Bell when his right knee twisted beneath him as he was tackled in the second quarter. Cincinnati went on to win, 16-10. Credit Jared Wickerham/Getty Images RAVENS 29, CHARGERS 26 Justin Tucker kicked a 39-yard field goal on the game’s final play to help host Baltimore end a three-game skid and hand San Diego its fourth straight loss. The Ravens went ahead, 26-23, with 4:34 to play as Joe Flacco scored on a quarterback sneak. But the Chargers pulled even on a 49-yard field goal from Josh Lambo with 2:07 remaining. Tucker’s winning kick, his fifth field goal of the game, came three plays after a third-down pass interference call against Chargers cornerback Steve Williams moved the ball 21 yards to the San Diego 22. TEXANS 20, TITANS 6 A 21-yard touchdown reception by DeAndre Hopkins put host Houston on top in the second quarter, and the Texans did not trail after that. They will be tied for the A.F.C. South lead, at 3-5, if the Indianapolis Colts lose to the Carolina Panthers on Monday night. Tennessee’s Zach Mettenberger threw for 171 yards with an interception in his second straight start in place of the injured Marcus Mariota. Houston’s Alfred Blue, starting in place of Arian Foster, had 40 yards rushing and 33 receiving. CHIEFS 45, LIONS 10 Quarterback Alex Smith gained 78 yards on five carries, including a career-high 49-yard scramble in the second quarter that set up his 12-yard touchdown run, as Kansas City routed Detroit in the last of this season’s three regular-season games in London. With a comfortable lead in hand, the Chiefs did not need more big plays from Smith, who threw for 145 yards and two touchdowns. For the first time since 1960, the Chiefs had four players run for a score in the same game: De’Anthony Thomas, Smith, Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware. CARDINALS 34, BROWNS 20 Michael Floyd had a 60-yard touchdown catch, and tight end Troy Niklas had two short scoring receptions to help the Cardinals overcome four turnovers and win at Cleveland for the first time since 1985 (before they had moved to Arizona). SEAHAWKS 13, COWBOYS 12 Seattle’s Russell Wilson had a scoring pass for the game’s only touchdown and directed a drive for a decisive field goal with 1:06 remaining. The visiting Seahawks, the defending N.F.C. champions, moved to 4-4, improving to .500 after an 0-2 start. Dallas got back Dez Bryant after he missed five games with a broken right foot — he finished with two catches for 12 yards — but the Cowboys still lost their fifth straight with Tony Romo sidelined. Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockette sustained a concussion in scary fashion, running into a vicious block on a punt return. He appeared to be unconscious and was carted off the field after a lengthy delay. Lockette could be seen talking while moving both hands. BUCCANEERS 23, FALCONS 20 Tampa Bay blew a 17-point lead but bounced back, beating host Atlanta with a 31-yard field goal from Connor Barth in overtime. Having benefited from a questionable decision by Buccaneers Coach Lovie Smith to go for it on a fourth-and-1 at the Tampa Bay 40 with two minutes to go, the Falcons tied the score with 17 seconds left in regulation as Matt Ryan hit Julio Jones for an 8-yard touchdown. The Buccaneers, who had squandered a 24-point lead the previous week at Washington, looked to be in trouble again. Instead, Jameis Winston led an impressive drive on the first possession of overtime, with Tampa Bay converting three third downs. After Winston short-hopped a pass in the end zone, Barth came on to make his third field goal. Atlanta, which had rallied from a 20-3 deficit despite four turnovers, got the ball again but did not even make it to midfield. On a fourth down, Ryan was heavily pressured, forcing a desperation pass that was not close to anyone. VIKINGS 23, BEARS 20 Adrian Peterson ran for 103 yards, and Blair Walsh kicked a 36-yard field goal as time expired to lift Minnesota to a win at Chicago. The Vikings had dropped seven straight at Soldier Field, and it looked as if the streak would reach eight when Bears quarterback Jay Cutler plowed over Minnesota’s Harrison Smith for a 4-yard score with just under five minutes left. But two late scores lifted the Vikings to their third straight win. Stefon Diggs turned a short pass into a 40-yard touchdown when he spun around Sherrick McManis and went up the left side, tying the score with 1:49 left. After Chicago punted, Teddy Bridgewater completed a 35-yard pass, and two plays later, Walsh booted the winner. RAMS 27, 49ERS 6 St. Louis’s defense did not allow a touchdown for a second straight game, racking up three sacks and a safety in a home victory over San Francisco. Tavon Austin outran the 49ers to the pylon for a 2-yard score, and he later had a 66-yard touchdown reception, compensating for an early lost fumble. At 4-3, the Rams are above .500 this late in a season for the first time since 2006. | Football;Bengals;Steelers;Broncos;Packers |
ny0077341 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
]
| 2015/05/30 | Sepp Blatter Withstands Scandal and Criticism to Secure a Fifth Term | ZURICH — The week began with Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s longtime president, acting anxious. Normally gregarious and chirping, Mr. Blatter greeted arriving members of the executive committee of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, on Monday with an uncharacteristic reserve. He was, according to several officials who met with him, strangely quiet and introspective. He even talked about the possibility of losing the presidential election. On Wednesday, Mr. Blatter’s mood had darkened further. A dawn police raid at a luxury hotel here was at the heart of a sweeping indictment against 14 soccer officials and marketing executives who were charged with staggering levels of corruption, a development that deepened the shadow hanging over Mr. Blatter and his organization. In the end, however, Mr. Blatter somehow finished the week with the broadest of smiles. Despite the lingering controversy and a strong campaign by a determined opponent, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, Mr. Blatter won a fifth consecutive term as FIFA’s president on Friday. On the first ballot, Mr. Blatter received 133 votes, just short of the two-thirds majority required for the victory; Prince Ali received 73. A second ballot would have required only a simple majority, making Prince Ali a long shot, and he withdrew from the race. Image Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, above left, conceded the presidential election to Sepp Blatter, above right, after a round of voting. Credit Walter Bieri/Keystone, via Associated Press “I want to thank, in particular, all of you who were brave enough to support me,” Prince Ali said in his concession. As he stepped away from the podium, he was greeted with a hug by Sunil Gulati, the president of U.S. Soccer, who had been one of his earliest supporters . Mr. Blatter congratulated Prince Ali for what he said was “a very good result,” then told the delegates, “I like you,” adding: “For the next four years, I will be in command of this boat called FIFA. And we will bring it back on shore.” The margin of victory was smaller than expected. Although the voting was conducted in secret — each of the 209 member nations sent a delegate, one by one, to a booth to fill out a paper ballot — Mr. Blatter has long had the support of many smaller or developing countries, to whom he has delivered consistent funding. While Europe and some countries in the Americas supported Prince Ali, Mr. Blatter banked widespread support from the Asian and African confederations, which account for 100 votes. (FIFA officials said three of the ballots had been ruled invalid.) Image Prince Ali before the vote, which took place only miles from the hotel where several FIFA officials were arrested Wednesday on corruption charges brought by the United States. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Given the stakes — the FIFA president oversees a global organization with billions in revenue — the vote itself had a charming simplicity. After each country was called to the front of the arena and cast its ballot, the folded paper slips were unceremoniously dumped out of two boxes onto a conference table for the count in a scene more reminiscent of the election of a student council president than one of the most powerful executives in sports. With his victory, Mr. Blatter, 79, continues his 40-year career with FIFA; he has served as president since 1998. His accomplishments are significant; under his watch, FIFA has overseen considerable growth in soccer’s popularity and has drastically increased its commitment to women’s soccer, youth soccer and aid for developing countries through sports. Although Mr. Blatter has never been directly implicated, FIFA has been dogged by scandal during his tenure. The latest arrests of several top soccer officials, which occurred Wednesday on behalf of the United States authorities, and a separate investigation by the Swiss police into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights have extended the long list of corruption allegations, which includes money laundering, blatant conflicts of interest and outright bribery. Video FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, spoke after being elected to a fifth term on Friday. His only rival, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, withdrew his candidacy after the first round of voting. Credit Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images That reality, as well as a glaring lack of transparency, led some officials, including Mr. Gulati, to push for a reform candidate who could challenge Mr. Blatter in this election. (Mr. Blatter had run unopposed in his last two elections.) In a statement, Mr. Gulati said: “While we are disappointed in the result of the election, we will continue to push for meaningful change within FIFA. Our goal is for governance of FIFA that is responsible, accountable, transparent and focused solely on the best interests of the game. This is what FIFA needs and deserves, and what the people who love our game around the world demand. We congratulate President Blatter and it is our hope he will make reform his No. 1 priority to ensure the integrity of the sport across the world.” Initially, four candidates were nominated to challenge Mr. Blatter: Prince Ali, Michael van Praag of the Netherlands, the former Portuguese player Luís Figo and the former French player David Ginola. Image After the vote concluded, the paper ballots were dumped on a table and counted by hand. The entire process took about two hours. Credit Michael Buholzer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Ginola’s campaign was largely a sham — it was backed by an online sports-betting company seeking publicity — and he withdrew early, but it was only last week that Mr. van Praag and Mr. Figo stepped out and put their support behind Prince Ali, who campaigned on a platform that emphasized changing what he called a broken culture in FIFA. “We have heard, in recent days, voices which described our FIFA as an avaricious body which feeds off the game it loves,” Prince Ali said in his speech to the delegates before the election. “We have heard questions about whether our family is morally bankrupt.” Speaking in a measured tone, Prince Ali continued: “Friends and colleagues: If you give me your backing, we can win the right to a new beginning.” Image On the first ballot of FIFA’s member federations in Zurich, Mr. Blatter got 133 votes, just short of the two-thirds majority required. Credit Walter Bieri/European Pressphoto Agency It was a powerful speech from Prince Ali, but it did not sway enough of the delegates to dethrone Mr. Blatter, who in his own remarks joked, “I don’t need to introduce myself to you.” Mr. Blatter also repeatedly highlighted his long record with FIFA and announced that he planned to create a new department within FIFA dedicated to serving the needs of professional players and clubs. For the first time since the arrests of several of his colleagues , Mr. Blatter took some measure of responsibility for the problems that have plagued FIFA during his reign, saying in his speech, “I will shoulder it.” He added, “I just want to fix FIFA together with you.” That language from Mr. Blatter, however, was different from his comments earlier in the day, when he largely deflected the notion that he could monitor the behavior of his colleagues around the world. He told the Congress, “You can’t just ask people to behave ethically just like that.” Mr. Blatter’s new term — he has said, as he did after his last victory, that this will be a final mandate — begins beneath a substantial cloud. The two investigations, one by the United States Department of Justice and one by the Swiss authorities, figure to provide even more “bad news,” as Mr. Blatter described it, in the coming weeks and months. There are likely to be further arrests, depositions, extraditions and, perhaps, trials — all of which will extend the “current storm,” as Mr. Blatter said. Video Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine Football Association, told delegates at FIFA’s annual congress on Friday that the group was ending its efforts to have Israel excluded from FIFA. Credit Credit Michael Buholzer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Further concerns for FIFA include human-rights violations involving the construction workers building stadiums and other infrastructure for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup, a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and an ever-worsening relationship between Mr. Blatter and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body. Michel Platini, UEFA’s president, called for Mr. Blatter to resign before the election and had said that UEFA would consider all options if Mr. Blatter won the election, including a World Cup boycott and a complete withdrawal from FIFA. Mr. Platini said that UEFA associations would meet next week in Berlin, adding, “We will be open to all options.” If UEFA does seek some sort of significant move, it is unlikely to be much more than another bump in the road for Mr. Blatter, who has endured through seemingly everything. While many in soccer’s larger community have continually clamored for a change, Mr. Blatter said that, in many ways, he felt as though his career were just beginning. “We don’t need revolutions, but we always need evolutions,” he said, before adding: “Time is a flat circle. I am with you. Some will say a long time; some will say too long. But what is time?” Mr. Blatter shrugged. “I say my time at FIFA has been too short,” he said. | Soccer;Sepp Blatter;FIFA;Corruption;Ali bin al-Hussein;Bribery and Kickbacks |
ny0004354 | [
"technology"
]
| 2013/04/19 | I.B.M. Shares Fall After Earnings Miss Estimates | I.B.M. stumbled in the first quarter, as economic uncertainty and a falloff in its hardware business pulled both profits and revenue down. In the past, the company’s cost-cutting discipline and a steady shift toward higher-profit offerings have enabled it to keep earnings steaming ahead, surpassing Wall Street’s forecasts, even during the recession. Revenue growth has long been modest, but nothing like the falloff in the first quarter , down 5 percent, to $23.4 billion compared with the year-ago period. Net income was off 1 percent, to $3 billion. “This is very uncharacteristic,” said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “We’re seeing I.B.M. struggle.” The question, analysts say, is whether the company is facing a temporary setback or whether its hardware business might be a drag on revenue and profits for a while. In a conference call, Mark Loughridge, I.B.M.’s chief financial officer, said that the quarter ended far weaker than it began, and that some anticipated mainframe and software deals failed to close. “We’re not immune from the global economy,” he said, but largely attributed the slump to a sales “execution problem.” I.B.M. is the largest supplier of information technology — hardware, software and services — to corporations and government agencies worldwide, and its results are watched as a guide to broader trends in business technology spending. The once-hot China market, Mr. Loughridge said, grew by “a disappointing 1 percent.” The recent change in Chinese leadership, he said, may have brought an investment pause as national and local plans are fine-tuned. But he said parts of the hardware business are facing a longer transition. The mainframe division, he said, is healthy. The troubles seem to be in units that sell industry-standard data center computers, typically powered by Intel chips, and larger data center computers that use I.B.M.’s Power chips. To cut costs, he said, I.B.M. planned to take most of $1 billion yearly in charges to trim the payroll in the current quarter. He said most of the affected workers would be outside the United States. I.B.M.’s earnings results fell short of analysts’ estimates, for the first time since 2005. The profit performance was 5 cents below expectations of $3.05 a share, as compiled by Thomson Reuters. Operating earnings rose 8 percent to $3 a share, compared with $2.78 a share last year; these earnings typically surpass the net income results because I.B.M. spends billions each year buying its own shares, so there are fewer. Revenue for the quarter declined to $23.4 billion, held down by the continuing economic weakness in some markets and a stronger dollar. Its revenue fell below the Wall Street forecast of $24.7 billion. In after-hours trading, I.B.M. shares were down 4.2 percent to $198.45 a share. During the regular session, when stock prices fell in general and before I.B.M. reported earnings, its shares closed at $207.15, off $2.52, or 1.2 percent. Businesses that I.B.M. has earmarked for growth performed robustly. For example, its so-called Smarter Planet division, which sells mainly software and services to governments and companies to streamline product distribution, reduce energy consumption and manage traffic, rose more than 25 percent. But growth units could not offset weak demand elsewhere. Revenue for its big services business, which accounts for half of I.B.M.’s revenue, was down 4 percent. Its software business was flat for the quarter, while hardware sales fell 17 percent. Analysts say the hardware problem could point to a structural shift as companies tap computing resources from remote data centers run by others — so-called cloud computing — instead of building out their own data centers. Still, I.B.M. reported that its own cloud computing unit grew more than 70 percent. | IBM;Earnings Reports;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Stocks,Bonds |
ny0192315 | [
"world",
"asia"
]
| 2009/02/21 | After Fleeing North Korea, an Artist Parodies Its Propaganda | SEOUL, South Korea IN one of Sun Mu’s best-known paintings from his “Happy Children” series, uniformed North Korean kindergartners sing like birds huddled together on a clothesline, their beaming faces so alike they could be clones. At the bottom of the posterlike image, a red slogan leaps out against a yellow background: “We are all happy children!” When Sun Mu, an artist from North Korea who uses a pseudonym for security reasons, first exhibited paintings like this in Seoul two years ago, the police showed up to investigate. They had been tipped off by viewers who, missing the intended irony, were upset by what they took to be Communist propaganda — a possible crime under South Korea’s national security laws. After all, rapturously smiling child performers are a familiar feature of North Korean pageants, and the style mimics posters celebrating the North’s authoritarian regime. “I’m not pro-Communist, far from it,” said Sun Mu, 36, who fled North Korea in 1998 to escape famine and arrived in the South in 2001. “When people look at my paintings, I hope they can hear the children asking, ‘Do you really think we’re happy?’ ” Sun Mu, who was trained to create posters and murals for the Communist government, is the first defector from the North to have won fame as a painter in the South by applying that same propagandistic style to biting parodies of the North Korean regime. His renown, however, is shaded by political concerns. In addition to adopting a pseudonym, he refuses to allow his face to be photographed, afraid that the family he left behind might face reprisals for his art. South Korean news outlets often refer to him as the “faceless” or “nameless” artist from North Korea. His work has not always been well received. Soon after his arrival in 2001 he enrolled at Hongik University, a leading arts institution in Seoul, where his socialist-realist technique put him at odds with prevailing notions of what constituted art. One of his professors called his political imagery “cheap, fit for old barbershops” — a reference to the cold war years when South Korean barbershops often were decorated with crude propaganda posters with slogans like “Let’s exterminate Communists!” Now, many here say that imagery, with its subverted content, addresses issues central to Korean identity. “His work touches the national trauma of the divided Korea,” said Kim Dong-il, a visual arts critic and lecturer at Sogang University in Seoul. “His style is North Korean, but when he brought it to South Korea it became something completely different. The children’s smiles in his paintings become too idealized to be real. A smile is not always an expression of happiness, and can even mean the opposite.” Sun Mu’s paintings have also depicted his own fearful journey across the river border into China in 1998, and the plight of a shackled North Korean defector who was repatriated to North Korea from the same Laotian prison where he himself was detained before proceeding on to Thailand and eventually to South Korea. So far, however, his signature work has been the “Happy Children” series, with its relentlessly smiling North Korean youngsters. The smile has been variously interpreted by commentators as grotesque, a joke on the collectivism of North Korea, or a mask to hide the helplessness many North Koreans feel. SUN MU said he used to wear that smile himself. In North Korea, he and his classmates smilingly sang hymns to Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, and would march out to perform for soldiers and farmers toiling in the fields. “They teach you how to smile that regimented smile — there’s a certain way to shape your mouth,” he said. “We children thought we were happy. We didn’t realize that our smile was fabricated and manufactured.” Later, while serving in the North Korean Army, Sun Mu was assigned to create propaganda paintings. He produced images of North Korean soldiers cutting the throats of American soldiers or crushing Japanese invaders. “One of the rules was that South Korean puppet soldiers be depicted as small and inconsequential at the corner of the canvas and running away from North Korean soldiers,” he said with a chuckle. “We’d finish off our paintings by adding slogans like ‘Let’s defend our revolutionary leadership with our lives!’ ” He was an art student in college when he decided to flee North Korea, during a famine in the late 1990s that is thought to have killed two million people. SOME of the political satire in his current output is hard to miss. In one painting, a woman raising her middle finger is naked except for the North Korean flag slipping off her body. Nudity is strictly forbidden in the North, denounced as capitalist decadence. Sun Mu paints something else he could never have dared to depict in the North: portraits of Mr. Kim and his father, North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung. In the North, portraits of the Kims are considered sacred, and only a few artists are authorized to paint them. In any case, the official portraits would never look like these. In one, Kim Jong-il is dressed not in his trademark Mao-style suit but in a pink Nike sports jacket, red Adidas pants and mismatched running shoes. Mr. Kim is transformed from supreme leader to bourgeois loafer. Nonetheless, displaying the Kims’ images has also proved controversial. When Sun Mu presented a portrait of Kim Il-sung titled “Sun of Korea” at an international biennale last September in Pusan, the South Korean organizers removed it at the last minute, saying they wanted to avoid potential problems with a “pro-Communist” painting. At an exhibition in 2007, South Korean viewers objected to a Sun Mu portrait of Kim Jong-il that carried the title “God of Korea.” They apparently did not notice that the North Korean flag in the background had been hung upside down. Sun Mu is undeterred. “I cannot help being political,” he said. “How can I ignore the reality of the North, where my parents are still suffering? I would like to believe that art can change the world in whatever little way it can.” | North Korea;Propaganda;Art;Sun Mu |
ny0109334 | [
"sports",
"hockey"
]
| 2012/05/26 | N.H.L. Playoffs — Martin Brodeur, With Revenge Served Cold | NEWARK — Balloting for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the N.H.L.’s best rookie, ended at the conclusion of the regular season, which is a shame for a 22-year-old member of the Devils who has scored not one but two series-clinching goals this postseason. The latest stroke of opportunism by that rookie, Adam Henrique, set off a celebration that echoed throughout Prudential Center on Friday night and a euphoric scrum to the left of the Rangers ’ net, in which the puck that he nudged past Henrik Lundqvist at 1 minute 3 seconds of overtime had settled moments earlier, launching the Devils into the Stanley Cup finals with a 3-2 victory. “There are still more things to accomplish,” said Henrique, having shed his uniform (for a suit), but not his smile. And indeed, there are. Having escaped a stressful first-round matchup against Florida that required a double-overtime score by Henrique in Game 7, the sixth-seeded Devils have conquered their two biggest rivals, Philadelphia and the Rangers. Up next are the Los Angeles Kings, an even greater underdog when the playoffs began. “They’ve been good on the road,” Kovalchuk said of the Kings, “but I don’t think they’ve faced a team like this.” In all fairness, the Kings dispatched the Western Conference’s top seeds in succession, and have lost only twice in 14 games. But the point was made. It was Kovalchuk who scored the Devils’ second goal, on a beautiful one-timer in the first period, and it was Kovalchuk who lingered around the Rangers’ net in overtime, taking two swipes at the puck as it hovered by the crease. “I couldn’t see the puck,” Henrique said, and then he did, when it slipped by Lundqvist — but not far enough to cross the goal line. Henrique went from praying that the puck would slide under Lundqvist’s pads to making sure that it did. When it did, Ryan Carter said, “I just felt like screaming like a little kid.” In this series, Carter was as resourceful as Henrique. Carter scored the go-ahead goal in Game 5 and the first goal on Friday night. But even he had to marvel at his teammate’s sense for the dramatic, saying, “I’m going to have to ask him, because whatever his secret is, I want to know.” The Devils had come a long way since Friday morning, when it took willpower for Zach Parise to avoid reflecting on how they were only a victory away from reaching the finals. His coach, Peter DeBoer, had no such difficulty. “I don’t really buy into that, that it’s the hardest to win,” DeBoer said. Yet the Devils blew a two-goal lead. They committed what could have been a costly penalty midway through third period. They were outshot and, at times, outplayed. But in the end, Martin Brodeur , 17 years after guiding his team to the finals for the first time, did it again, saving 33 of 35 shots in a masterly performance that erased some memories of his last Eastern Conference finals matchup against the Rangers, in 1994. That series ended with a close-in goal by Stephane Matteau that somewhat resembled Henrique’s in that, at first, it was difficult to tell that the puck had gone in. Henrique watched a replay of that goal the day before scoring his double-overtime winner against Florida. Now Henrique has created a Matteau moment of his own. | Brodeur Martin;New Jersey Devils;New York Rangers;Lundqvist Henrik;DeBoer Peter;Hockey Ice;Stanley Cup;Henrique Adam |
ny0006188 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2013/05/05 | Books Examine Outlook for New York and L.A., and Lorca’s Legacy | One in eight Americans lives in metropolitan New York or Los Angeles, so exploring and comparing the regions is an instructive exercise in where the nation is heading. And in “New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future” (Oxford University Press, $34.95), Andrew A. Beveridge and David Halle, sociology professors at Queens College and the University of California, Los Angeles, enlist experts from the social sciences to do just that. Supplemented with comparative graphics, this comprehensive volume may be academic in tone but is informative and accessible to the lay reader. One section asks provocatively whether New York’s plummeting crime rate over two decades was unique, and precisely what caused the staggering decline. One common thread with Los Angeles was William J. Bratton, who ran the police departments in both cities. The authors credit him with improved relations between local communities and the police. Another section focuses on why race, more than class or income, is still the chief barrier to housing integration. The geographic divide between blacks and non-Hispanic whites in New York City and Nassau County remains among the starkest in the nation. Some lessons apply everywhere. The authors agree on a variable to consider in this year’s mayoral elections in New York and Los Angeles: “the difference that positive political leadership and innovation can make to a city’s future.” ● Federico García Lorca wrote “Poet in New York” while studying at Columbia University in 1929-30, although it was not published until 1940 — after his 1936 execution at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. A new bilingual edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17) includes letters from Lorca, photographs, notes and an interpretive lecture by the poet. It is timed to a Manhattan festival organized by Lorca’s namesake foundation, which has preserved and burnished his literary credentials as a major artistic force in Spain’s prewar avant-garde. Christopher Maurer of Boston University, the editor, explains that the title of the collection (“both a condemnation of modern urban civilization — the spiritual emptiness epitomized by New York — and a dark cry of metaphysical loneliness”) was meant to be paradoxical: How could a poet survive in New York? By now, though, he writes, “the title has all but lost its paradox, and the evils of the city seem no more characteristic of Manhattan than of Madrid or, for that matter, of Granada” — near where Lorca was put to death. | Books;Poetry;NYC;Federico Garcia Lorca;Andrew A Beveridge |
ny0264950 | [
"business"
]
| 2011/12/22 | $335 Million Settlement on Countrywide Lending Bias | WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history , saying that Bank of America had agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom. A department investigation concluded that Countrywide loan officers and brokers charged higher fees and rates to more than 200,000 minority borrowers across the country than to white borrowers who posed the same credit risk. Countrywide also steered more than 10,000 minority borrowers into costly subprime mortgages when white borrowers with similar credit profiles received regular loans, it found. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the settlement showed that the Justice Department would “vigorously pursue those who would take advantage of certain Americans because of their race, national origin, gender or disability,” adding: “Such conduct undercuts the notion of a level playing field for all consumers. It betrays the promise of equal opportunity that is enshrined in our Constitution and our legal framework.” The settlement is subject to approval by a federal judge in California ; according to the proposed consent order filed Wednesday, Countrywide denied all of the department’s allegations. Dan Frahm, a Bank of America spokesman, stressed that the allegations were focused on Countrywide’s conduct from the years 2004 to 2008, before Bank of America purchased it. “We are committed to fair and equal treatment of all our customers, and will continue to focus on doing what’s right for our customers, clients and communities,” he said. “We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment and will continue to resolve and put behind us the remaining Countrywide issues.” The problems stemmed from a Countrywide policy that gave loan officers and brokers the discretion to alter the terms for which a particular applicant qualified without setting up any system to comply with fair-lending rules, the department said. Lending data showed that Countrywide ended up charging Hispanics and African-Americans more, on average, than white applicants with similar credit histories. In 2007, for example, Countrywide employees charged Hispanic applicants in Los Angeles an average of $545 more in fees for a $200,000 loan than they charged non-Hispanic white applicants with similar credit histories. Independent brokers processing applications for a Countrywide loan charged Hispanics $1,195 more, the department said. Lisa Madigan , the attorney general of Illinois , which in 2010 had sued Bank of America over Countrywide’s lending practices, also settled that case on Wednesday as part of the deal. “Chances are, the victims had no idea they were being victimized,” said Thomas E. Perez, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights. “It was discrimination with a smile.” In addition, from 2004 to 2007 — the peak of Wall Street firms’ demand for subprime loans that they purchased, bundled and resold as securities, a major cause of the ensuing financial crisis — Countrywide allowed its brokers and employees to steer applicants who qualified for regular mortgages into a riskier and more expensive subprime loan. The odds of a minority applicant being steered into such a loan were more than twice as high as those for a non-Hispanic white borrower with a similar credit rating, the department said. About two-thirds of the victims were Hispanic and one-third were black, the department said. If a judge approves the settlement, victims will receive between several hundred and several thousand dollars, with larger amounts going to those who were steered into subprime mortgages despite qualifying for regular loans. The settlement dwarfed previous fair-lending cases. The largest on record until Wednesday, Mr. Perez said, was a $6.1 million settlement in March 2010 related to two subsidiaries of A.I.G. Under federal civil rights laws — including the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity acts — a lending practice is illegal if it has a disparate impact on minority borrowers. Against the backdrop of the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has made a major effort to step up the laws’ enforcement. In early 2010, the division created a unit to focus exclusively on banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority mortgage applicants, a type of litigation that requires extensive and complex analysis of data. Working with bank regulatory agencies and the Department of Housing and Urban Development , the unit has reached settlements or filed complaints in 10 cases accusing a lender of engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination. The Federal Reserve first detected statistical discrepancies in the loans Countrywide was making and referred the matter to the Justice Department in early 2007, according to a court filing disclosed in 2010 as part of a civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Angelo R. Mozilo , the former chief executive of Countrywide. With its aggressive pursuit of growth in the home lending market, Countrywide became a symbol of the excesses and collapse of the housing boom. After accumulating $200 billion in assets, it nearly fell into bankruptcy. As the financial crisis began to mount, it was taken over by Bank of America for $2.8 billion. The acquisition, regarded as one of the worst deals ever, has already cost the bank tens of billions of dollars in losses. Investor uncertainty about future losses is a prime reason that its stock has lost roughly two-thirds of its value over the last two years. While Wednesday’s settlement put one legal headache behind the bank, the second-largest in the United States by assets, it still faces legal challenges on a host of other fronts. Besides an effort by investors to force it to buy back billions of dollars in defaulted mortgages, Bank of America and other large servicers are negotiating with state attorneys general to settle an investigation into improper foreclosure practices. That settlement could cost the largest servicers more than $20 billion. The remnants of Countrywide and its mortgage servicing unit agreed in June 2010 to pay $108 million to settle federal charges that the company charged highly inflated sums to customers struggling to hang on to their homes. The settlement resolved the biggest mortgage-servicing case ever brought by the Federal Trade Commission with one of its largest overall judgments. The money was to be used to reimburse homeowners who were charged excessive fees. In August 2010, the company agreed to pay $600 million to settle shareholder lawsuits over its mortgage losses. | Bank of America Home Loans;Bank of America;Justice Department;Subprime Mortgage Crisis,2008 Financial Crisis;Discrimination;Mortgage loan;Banking and Finance;Blacks,African-Americans;Hispanic Americans |
ny0032632 | [
"sports",
"ncaafootball"
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| 2013/12/20 | Alabama Players Suspended | Alabama suspended linebacker Xzavier Dickson and the freshman tailback Alvin Kamara. Coach Nick Saban said that neither would play for the third-ranked Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl against No. 11 Oklahoma on Jan. 2. Saban did not disclose a reason for the suspensions. | Sugar Bowl;University of Alabama;College football;Xzavier Dickson;Alvin Kamara |
ny0250008 | [
"world",
"asia"
]
| 2011/02/18 | China Rail Chief’s Firing Hints at Deeper Problems | BEIJING — In his seven years as chief of the Chinese Railways Ministry , Liu Zhijun built a commercial and political colossus that spanned continents and elevated the lowly train to a national symbol of pride and technological prowess. His abrupt sacking by the Communist Party is casting that empire in a decidedly different light, raising doubts not only about Mr. Liu’s stewardship and the corruption that dogs China ’s vast public-works projects, but also, perhaps, the safety, financial soundness and long-term viability of a rail system that has captured the world’s attention. Mr. Liu, 58, was fired Saturday and is being investigated by the party’s disciplinary committee for “severe violations of discipline,” a euphemism for corruption. His high government rank — minister-level officials are rarely fired under such a cloud — hints at far deeper dissatisfaction with one of China’s most publicized and sweeping domestic initiatives. Until last week, Mr. Liu had led China’s program to lace the nation with nearly 8,100 miles of high-speed rail lines and to build more than 11,000 miles of traditional railroad lines. The sheer size and cost of the endeavor — the investment has been estimated at $750 billion, some $395 billion for high-speed rail alone — has led experts to compare it to the transcontinental railroad that opened the American West. President Obama hailed China’s program in his State of the Union address and called for the United States to move quickly on high-speed rail plans that had been repeatedly delayed by budget concerns and political infighting. Whatever their problems with Mr. Liu, Chinese officials indicated this week that the high-speed rail project would proceed with the government’s full support. But they have not explained why they summarily fired the leader of one of their signature projects. There are some clues in top officials’ public statements since the scandal broke. Speaking on Monday in Beijing, the official who is believed to be the country’s new railways chief, Sheng Guangzu , said the ministry would “place quality and safety at the center of construction projects.” For good measure, he added that safety was his highest priority. The statement underscored concerns in some quarters that Mr. Liu cut corners in his all-out push to extend the rail system and to keep the project on schedule and within its budget. No accidents have been reported on the high-speed rail network, but reports suggest that construction quality may at times have been shoddy. A person with ties to the ministry said that the concrete bases for the system’s tracks were so cheaply made, with inadequate use of chemical hardening agents, that trains would be unable to maintain their current speeds of about 217 miles per hour for more than a few years. In as little as five years, lower speeds, possibly below about 186 miles per hour, could be required as the rails become less straight, the expert said. Strong concrete pillars require a large dose of high-quality fly ash , the byproduct of burning coal . But the speed of construction has far exceeded the available supply , according to a 2008 study by a Chinese railway design institute. Such problems, the expert said, are caused by a combination of tight controls that have kept China’s costs far below Western levels and a strong aversion to buying higher-quality but more expensive equipment from foreign suppliers. As expensive as it is, China’s high-speed rail network has been built far more cheaply than similar projects in the West and in Japan. A mile of rail here costs roughly $15 million; in the United States, estimates peg the price at anywhere between $40 million to $80 million . Japanese officials have already made an issue of the potential safety problems in the Chinese high-speed rail network. Yoshiyuki Kasai, the chairman of the Central Japan Railway Company, which runs Japan’s fastest bullet train, told The Financial Times last year that the Chinese were running trains based on Japan’s designs, but at speeds 25 percent faster. “I don’t think they are paying the same attention to safety that we are,” he said. “Pushing it that close to the limit is something we would absolutely never do.” Some of the criticism may be signs of envy that China has achieved so much at a speed and cost that other countries cannot match. Many multinational companies also resent China for tweaking foreign designs and building the equipment itself rather than importing it. China’s high-speed rail network is already the world’s largest and among its fastest, and more lines are being built. Passenger rail traffic leapt to 1.68 billion trips last year, up 9.9 percent from 2009. A new line from Beijing to Shanghai is scheduled to be finished by year’s end. It will whisk passengers across a distance equal to a trip between New York and Atlanta in less than five hours. Amtrak trains require 18 hours for the journey. The effort’s success has earned admiration worldwide and had turned Mr. Liu into a global salesman for Chinese rail technology. In recent years he and others have sealed deals or opened talks for rail projects in Iran, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and elsewhere, including in California. But projects of this scale in China inevitably involve corruption, and Mr. Liu’s downfall suggests that the Railways Ministry is by no means an exception. Reports in the Chinese press suggest that a broad inquiry into ministry corruption is under way. The business journal Caixin reported that Ding Shumiao, who leads a conglomerate in Shanxi Province, was being investigated in connection with a contract to supply noise barriers along high-speed rail lines. The Economic Observer reported last month that Communist Party disciplinary officials had detained Luo Jinbao, a former Railways Ministry official who also had led two state-controlled companies involved in rail logistics. The ministry is building 18 modern rail-shipping centers across China. Neither case has been officially linked to Mr. Liu’s dismissal. But The Economic Observer, citing an unnamed Shanxi coal-mining executive, said that Mr. Luo had brought Ms. Ding and Mr. Liu together in 2000. Two people with ties to the ministry said this week that the inquiry into Mr. Liu involved the ministry’s purchase of noise-reduction barriers for high-speed rail, which could point to Ms. Ding’s company. Both people refused to be identified out of fear that they would damage their access to ministry officials. Railroad finances are yet another worry. Analysts have warned that the construction schedule ordered by Mr. Liu threatens to push the ministry’s debt — already $170 billion last fall — to an unsustainable level. A 2010 analysis by China Minsheng Bank, reported this week by Caijing , found that the ministry’s debts equaled 56 percent of its assets and could reach $455 billion, or 70 percent of its assets, by 2020. In his last months on the job, Mr. Liu had begun an aggressive program to deal with the debt by selling stakes in the railway to investors like large state-controlled banks. The Minsheng report suggested that the high-speed network may remain a money-loser for the next 20 years, despite heavy use. Ticket prices — several times those for a conventional train — have led to a backlash among some Chinese. The timing of Mr. Liu’s dismissal may be significant: He was fired at the end of China’s Lunar New Year holiday, when trains are jammed, tickets are scalped at exorbitant prices and passengers are angriest. The Communist Party has long worried that corruption may undermine its credibility with the public. But outside analysts agree that high-level officials are seldom sacked for corruption alone, in part because kickbacks, favoritism and other below-board activities are so common. Russell Leigh Moses, a scholar of the Chinese leadership, said that Mr. Liu’s dismissal could signal disquiet over whether expansion of the rail system had gone too far, too fast. “You don’t take someone down at that level of status unless they’ve done something really egregious,” said Mr. Moses, who works in Beijing. “I don’t know whether it’s politics or policy. But I wouldn’t rule out the second.” | Railroads;China;Liu Zhijun |
ny0257592 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2011/01/11 | Wal-Mart Will Skip Hearing on New York City Impact | As Wal-Mart battles to open its first stores in New York City, the City Council will hold a hearing on Wednesday on the possible impact to local businesses and communities. Wal-Mart will not participate. Instead, the retail giant has kicked off an intense media campaign, with direct mail, advertisements and a Web site , to get its message to New Yorkers. “What should be clear, especially in this week’s activities, is that we are not going to be idle while others try to tell our story for us, and build that story on misinformation,” said Steven Restivo, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “We know we have a good story to tell. And quite frankly, we owe it to New Yorkers to be proactive in telling it.” In many ways, Wal-Mart’s New York City Web site reads more like that of a political campaign than that of a retail chain encouraging shoppers to sample its wares. There is a photo gallery, a newsroom and a “what others are saying” section with comments that resemble endorsements, including ones from a construction union; a spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; and a Fairfield, N.J., man named John Bond. Wal-Mart, which was unsuccessful several years ago in its bid to open stores in Queens and Staten Island, said it had also bought airtime on over a dozen radio stations and advertising space in 30 local papers over the next two weeks, including The New York Post, The Daily News, The Staten Island Advance, The Haitian Times and Korea Daily. The company said it had sent fliers to residents of 10 City Council districts — none in Manhattan. Many of the districts have primarily low-income residents, and most are represented by council members who will take part in the hearings. Councilman Albert Vann, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn and who will be co-chairman of Wednesday’s hearing, said he was not surprised to hear that Wal-Mart planned to skip it. “They’ve made a decision to take it to the people,” said Mr. Vann, who said that he had not taken a stand on whether he would support any Wal-Mart stores in the city. “But I would’ve liked a bit more respect for city government.” Other council members were more skeptical of Wal-Mart’s decision. City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said: “If you’re proud of who you are, if you’re proud of your product, if you think you’re the best thing since sliced bread, why wouldn’t you come and tout it? They’re not showing up because they don’t have the stuff they say they have. They don’t have the data to refute what myself and others are saying.” A letter to council members from Philip H. Serghini, a senior manager of community affairs for the company, asked why Wal-Mart was the only big-box store being singled out to testify, saying that the major national retailers Target, Costco, Kmart and Lowe’s all have New York locations. “I respectfully suggest,” the letter said, “the committee first conduct a thoughtful examination of the existing impact of large grocers and retailers on small business in New York City before embarking on a hypothetical exercise.” Some local store managers, including Mark Tanis, who runs a Shoppers World in East New York, Brooklyn, say that Wal-Mart’s media push might present a threat to small businesses that cannot buy advertisements on such an enormous scale. Other Wal-Mart opponents continue to express confidence that they can beat the company back. “Wal-Mart can’t buy a fig leaf large enough to hide all the harm they would do to our communities and workers if they were to open here,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “New York is not for sale.” | Wal-Mart Stores Inc;City Council (NYC);New York City;Shopping and Retail;Small Business;Advertising and Marketing |
ny0174342 | [
"us"
]
| 2007/10/17 | Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance | BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter. Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14. Mary Nalls, an 81-year-old retired social worker here, has some thoughts about the matter. Her granddaughter Ashley Jones was 14 when she helped her boyfriend kill her grandfather and aunt — Mrs. Nalls’s husband and daughter — by stabbing and shooting them and then setting them on fire. Ms. Jones also tried to kill her 10-year-old sister. Mrs. Nalls, who was badly injured in the rampage, showed a visitor to her home a white scar on her forehead, a reminder of the burns that put her into a coma for 30 days. She had also been shot in the shoulder and stabbed in the chest. “I forgot,” she said later. “They stabbed me in the jaw, too.” But Mrs. Nalls thinks her granddaughter, now 22, deserves the possibility of a second chance. “I believe that she should have gotten 15 or 20 years,” Mrs. Nalls said. “If children are under age, sometimes they’re not responsible for what they do.” The group that plans to release the report on Oct. 17, the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., is one of several human rights organizations that say states should be required to review sentences of juvenile offenders as the decades go by, looking for cases where parole might be warranted. But prosecutors and victims’ rights groups say there are crimes so terrible and people so dangerous that only life sentences without the possibility of release are a fit moral and practical response. “I don’t think every 14-year-old who killed someone deserves life without parole,” said Laura Poston, who prosecuted Ms. Jones. “But Ashley planned to kill four people. I don’t think there is a conscience in Ashley, and I certainly think she is a threat to do something similar.” Specialists in comparative law acknowledge that there have been occasions when young murderers who would have served life terms in the United States were released from prison in Europe and went on to kill again. But comparing legal systems is difficult, in part because the United States is a more violent society and in part because many other nations imprison relatively few people and often only for repeat violent offenses. “I know of no systematic studies of comparative recidivism rates,” said James Q. Whitman, who teaches comparative criminal law at Yale. “I believe there are recidivism problems in countries like Germany and France, since those are countries that ordinarily incarcerate only dangerous offenders, but at some point they let them out and bad things can happen.” The differences in the two approaches, legal experts said, are rooted in politics and culture. The European systems emphasize rehabilitation, while the American one stresses individual responsibility and punishment. Corrections professionals and criminologists here and abroad tend to agree that violent crime is usually a young person’s activity, suggesting that eventual parole could be considered in most cases. But the American legal system is more responsive to popular concerns about crime and attitudes about punishment, while justice systems abroad tend to be administered by career civil servants rather than elected legislators, prosecutors and judges. In its sentencing of juveniles, as in many other areas, the legal system in the United States goes it alone. American law is, by international standards, a series of innovations and exceptions. From the central role played by juries in civil cases to the election of judges to punitive damages to the disproportionate number of people in prison, the United States is an island in the sea of international law. And the very issue of whether American judges should ever take account of foreign law is hotly disputed. At the hearings on their Supreme Court nominations, both John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they thought it a mistake to consider foreign law in constitutional cases. But the international consensus against life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders may nonetheless help Ms. Jones. In about a dozen cases recently filed around the country on behalf of 13- and 14-year-olds sentenced to life in prison, lawyers for the inmates relied on a 2005 Supreme Court decision that banned the execution of people who committed crimes when they were younger than 18. That decision, Roper v. Simmons, was based in part on international law. Noting that the United States was the only nation in the world to sanction the juvenile death penalty, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said it was appropriate to look to “the laws of other countries and to international authorities as instructive” in interpreting the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. He added that teenagers were different from older criminals — less mature, more susceptible to peer pressure and more likely to change for the better. Those findings, lawyers for the juvenile lifers say, should apply to their clients, too. “Thirteen- and 14-year-old children should not be condemned to death in prison because there is always hope for a child,” said Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which represents Ms. Jones and several other juvenile lifers. The 2005 death penalty ruling applied to 72 death-row inmates, almost precisely the same number as the 73 prisoners serving life without parole for crimes committed at 13 or 14. The Supreme Court did not abolish the juvenile death penalty in a single stroke. The 2005 decision followed one in 1988 that held the death penalty unconstitutional for those who had committed crimes under 16. The new lawsuits, filed in Alabama, California, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Wisconsin, seek to follow a similar progression. “We’re not demanding that all these kids be released tomorrow,” Mr. Stevenson said. “I’m not even prepared to say that all of them will get to the point where they should be released. We’re asking for some review.” In defending American policy in this area in 2006, the State Department told the United Nations that sentencing is usually a matter of state law. “As a general matter,” the department added, juvenile offenders serving life-without-parole terms “were hardened criminals who had committed gravely serious crimes.” Human rights groups have disputed that. According to a 2005 report from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, 59 percent of the more than 2,200 prisoners serving life without parole for crimes they committed at 17 or younger had never been convicted of a previous crime. And 26 percent were in for felony murder, meaning they participated in a crime that led to a murder but did not themselves kill anyone. The new report focuses on the youngest offenders, locating 73 juvenile lifers in 19 states who were 13 and 14 when they committed their crimes. Pennsylvania has the most, with 19, and Florida is next, with 15. In those states and Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina and Washington, 13-year-olds have been sentenced to die in prison. In most of the cases, the sentences were mandatory, an automatic consequence of a murder conviction after being tried as an adult. A federal judge here will soon rule on Ms. Jones’s challenge to her sentence. Ms. Poston, who prosecuted her, said Ms. Jones was beyond redemption. “Between the ages of 2 and 3, you develop a conscience,” Ms. Poston said. “She never got the voice that says, ‘This is bad, Ashley.’ ” “It was a blood bath in there,” Ms. Poston said of the night of the murders here, in 1999. “Ashley Jones is not the poster child for the argument that life without parole is too long.” In a telephone interview from the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala., Ms. Jones said she did not recognize the girl who committed her crimes. According to court filings, her mother was a drug addict and her stepfather had sexually molested her. “Everybody I loved, everybody I trusted, I was betrayed by,” Ms. Jones said. “I’m very remorseful about what happened,” she said. “I should be punished. I don’t feel like I should spend the rest of my life in prison.” Mrs. Nalls, her grandmother, had been married for 53 years when she and her husband, Deroy Nalls, agreed to take Ashley in. She was “a problem child,” and Mr. Nalls was a tough man who took a dislike to Ashley’s boyfriend, Geramie Hart. Mr. Hart, who was 16 at the time of the murders, is also serving a life term. Mrs. Nalls said he deserved a shot at parole someday as well. | Children and Youth;Decisions and Verdicts;Human Rights Watch;Jones Ashley;Birmingham (Ala) |
ny0195181 | [
"us"
]
| 2009/11/13 | New Turn in Debate Over Law on Marriage | WASHINGTON — The fight over a proposed same-sex marriage law here heated up this week as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said that if the law passed, the church would cut its social service programs that help residents with adoption, homelessness and health care. Under the bill, which has the mayor’s support and is expected to pass next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform same-sex weddings or make space available for them. But officials from the archdiocese said they feared the law might require them to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples. As a result, they said, the archdiocese would have to abandon its contracts with the city if the law passed. The church’s social services arm, known as Catholic Charities, serves 68,000 local residents, including about a third of the city’s homeless people, who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church, city officials said. The threat is not the first time a religion-based provider of social services has said it would stop providing services in response to a same-sex marriage law, gay rights advocates say. In 2006, Boston’s archbishop, Sean P. O’Malley, said that Catholic Charities there would stop its adoption-related work rather than comply with a state law requiring that gay men and lesbians be allowed to adopt children. On Wednesday, the Washington Archdiocese said it had no choice. “Religious organizations and individuals are at risk of legal action for refusing to promote and support same-sex marriages in a host of settings where it would compromise their religious beliefs,” Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said in a statement. “This includes employee benefits, adoption services and even the use of a church hall for non-wedding events for same-sex married couples.” Ms. Gibbs added that religious organizations like Catholic Charities could be denied licenses or certification by the government, denied the right to offer adoption and foster care services, or could no longer partner with the city to provide social services. In the last three years, Catholic Charities has received more than $8.2 million in city contracts, according to the City Council. “This is a decision that the archdiocese will make on its own, and the city will be prepared to respond accordingly,” said Councilman David A. Catania, the sponsor of the bill. Councilman Phil Mendelson, a Democrat, said the city would not, based on threats, broaden the exemptions the law offers to religious groups. “Allowing individual exemptions opens the door for anyone to discriminate based on assertions of religious principle,” Mr. Mendelson said. “Let’s not forget that during the civil rights era, many claimed separation of the races was ordained by God.” Some religious groups in Washington echoed Mr. Mendelson’s sentiment. “The Catholic Church hierarchy is at a crossroads,” said the Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, the co-chairman of Clergy United for Marriage Equality and the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church. “They must decide whether they are in the charity business for charity’s sake, or if imposing their will on the D.C. City Council and the citizens of the district is their primary interest.” But in a letter sent this week to Mr. Mendelson, Jane G. Belford, the chancellor of the archdiocese, said the debate over the proposed legislation must be seen in the context of balancing competing interests, and, specifically between “the interest of the homosexual community to be able to marry freely and the interests of the religious community to be able to practice religion freely.” | Homosexuality;Roman Catholic Church;Christians and Christianity;Religion and Belief;Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships;Philanthropy;Washington (DC) |
ny0048456 | [
"business",
"international"
]
| 2014/11/01 | Japan Abruptly Acts to Stimulate Economy | TOKYO — Japan is opting for another round of shock treatment, in a stark admission that the country’s economic revival plan is faltering. After insisting for more than a year that its aggressive monetary action was sufficient, the Bank of Japan on Friday unexpectedly announced that it would buy larger quantities of government debt. By injecting more money into the economy, the central bank is trying keep borrowing costs low, encourage spending and, ultimately, stoke inflation and growth. The bold move helped push stocks higher around the world. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 1.1 percent on Friday, and European equities ended the day up more than 2.5 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei 225-stock index average hit fresh highs, jumping almost 5 percent for the day. The yen fell to its weakest level against the dollar in a month. The central bank’s stimulus has been the cornerstone of a nearly two-year effort by Shinzo Abe , Japan’s prime minister, to reinvigorate the economy and end the persistent consumer price declines that have weighed on growth since the 1990s. But that plan, collectively known as Abenomics , has shown signs of strain lately, as economic output contracted sharply in the second quarter. Image Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan, giving details of a plan to inject more money into the nation’s economy in an effort to spur inflation and growth. Credit Issei Kato/Reuters With pressure mounting, the central bank said it wanted to act pre-emptively, rather than risk eroding the progress the country has made in changing the public’s deflationary mind-set. The Bank of Japan said it would target asset purchases of 80 trillion yen a year, or $734 billion, up from a previous range of ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion. The decision underscores Japan’s divergent path with the United States. Citing the strength in the American economy, the Federal Reserve ended its six-year bond-buying campaign this week, an important milestone in the country’s recovery. The Bank of Japan is hardly alone in struggling to keep consumer prices rising at a rate considered desirable by central bankers — typically about 2 percent, a level where increases are mild but still comfortably above deflation. Prices have been falling in parts of crisis-stricken Europe. Even in the United States, where the economy is stronger and the Fed’s bond-buying program had been criticized by some inflation hawks, the rate remains below the official 2 percent objective. In the last week, Sweden’s central bank, considered one of the most inflation-phobic, cut its benchmark short-term interest rate to zero in an effort to ward off falling prices. Japan’s rate has been at zero for years, prompting it to explore such experimental measures as quantitative easing , in which the central bank buys huge quantities of government debt and other assets in an effort to hold down longer-term rates, lowering borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. Mr. Abe’s handpicked central bank governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, greatly expanded an existing bond-buying program at the central bank in April 2013. Mr. Kuroda has maintained that the new monetary settings would be enough to lift inflation to 2 percent by about mid-2015. The strategy has provided a much-needed jolt to the economy, albeit one whose effects have been unevenly distributed. Cheap money and the depreciating effect it has had on the yen have encouraged investors to pile into shares of big manufacturing companies like Toyota and Hitachi. Those companies’ profits have risen with the currency’s fall because they do much of their business outside Japan in currencies like the dollar and the euro. The markets are likely to get another lift next year, as the government’s giant pension fund moves more aggressively into stocks. The Government Pension Investment Fund said on Friday that it would aim to hold 50 percent of its assets in stocks, up from 24 percent now. The announcement by the central bank amounted to an acknowledgment that the economy needed even more help. Consumer spending has slipped since the sales tax increase of three percentage points in April. Falling oil prices, too, have had an inflation-dampening effect. While prices have been rising, the Bank of Japan’s favored measure of consumer inflation, which excludes the price of fresh food, has been stuck at just over 1 percent for months. The bank also said that its stimulus measures had had a smaller-than-expected effect on growth, cutting in half its estimate for expansion in gross domestic product in the fiscal year ending in April, to 0.5 percent. Image Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week at his residence in Tokyo. Credit Jiji Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Uncomfortably for policy makers, the recent bout of mild inflation has also been uneven. Exacerbated by the sales tax increase, prices have been going up faster than incomes, in effect making many people poorer. Adjusted for inflation, average incomes for working households were down 6 percent in September, according to government data released on Friday. “If you’re a small business, or if you’re working a part-time job, you feel that nothing has come your way,” Kathy M. Matsui, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, said, though she added that she supported Mr. Abe’s fight against deflation, as well as other goals like deregulation and corporate governance reform. Beating deflation has long been a goal in Japan, one that has eluded successive prime ministers and central bank chiefs. Mr. Kuroda’s efforts have been the most successful so far, yet not everyone is comfortable with his headlong approach to creating money. As in the United States and elsewhere, critics in Japan have warned that quantitative easing encourages the government to pile up debt and could one day lead to runaway inflation. And in a country that still feels the effects of a disastrous land and stock bubble that burst more than 20 years ago, fears of undue asset-price surges remain. The central bank’s decision to ramp up its bond purchases was contentious. Four out of nine of the policy board members voted against it — a far closer margin than for any other decision by the central bank since Mr. Kuroda took over. But Mr. Kuroda, at a news conference, said that the central bank had an “unwavering commitment to escaping deflation.” In addition to increasing the scale of its bond market intervention, the central bank backed away from its previously specific timetable. It said simply that it would keep its easing measures in place “as long as it is necessary to maintain that target” of 2 percent inflation “in a stable manner.” “We will do whatever it takes to achieve our price target,” Mr. Kuroda said. | Japan;Bank of Japan;Deflation;Shinzo Abe;Haruhiko Kuroda |
ny0045920 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2014/02/23 | Lviv, in Western Ukraine, Mourns One of Its Own Killed in Kiev | LVIV, Ukraine — Under a leaden sky that wept intermittent rain, this fiercely proud city bade farewell on Saturday to one of its sons, a 28-year-old university lecturer killed by a bullet on Thursday in Kiev in the carnage on and around Independence Square. More than 1,000 people crowded into one of this town’s many imposing Baroque-era churches to bid an emotional farewell to the man, Bohdan Solchanyk, a lecturer of modern history mourned by hundreds of weeping students and other young people, by elderly women, trimly dressed academics and intellectuals. The polyphonic chants of six black-robed choristers, a small mountain of flowers, a brief address by the president of the university where Mr. Solchanyk taught and, above all, patriotic and partisan songs in the street outside after the funeral rendered the Ukrainian Greek Catholic service a display of the spirit that has long sustained the distinct nature of western Ukraine. Lviv, with a population of 800,000 and its cobblestoned streets and rich array of architecture reflecting centuries of Polish, Hapsburg or Russian rule, has long been a center for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic rite, which is central to the National Catholic University here, where Mr. Solchanyk taught modern history. “He wasn’t really a political activist,” said Pavlo Salo, 27, a graduate of the university who now works at an academic publishing house in Lviv. “He was of a high intellect with a higher education, the sort of person who asks, fundamentally, ‘Who are we, and what are we doing here?’ ” Mr. Salo and Mr. Solchanyk were together just off Independence Square, called Maidan here, on Thursday when they became separated. Mr. Salo called his friend’s cellphone repeatedly. There was no answer. Eventually he and a third friend found Mr. Solchanyk’s body, one of 11 or 12 piled near a McDonald’s on Maidan. Mr. Salo said he could see that Mr. Solchanyk’s fiancée, Marysha, had called the cellphone 17 times. He braced himself before calling Mr. Solchanyk’s parents, and then Marysha, “who is like a sister to me,” Mr. Salo said. “I want to emphasize: he had only a shield,” Mr. Salo said in an interview hours after the funeral. “He was trying to defend others. He had on a ski helmet and nothing in his hands.” Mr. Salo had returned to Lviv on Saturday morning, accompanying buses with the bodies of the 13 people from this region who had been in the Kiev mayhem. About 2,000 residents of Lviv gathered late Friday and into the early hours of Saturday to mourn the dead. Mr. Solchanyk will be buried near his parents’ home, about 75 miles outside Lviv, on Sunday, Mr. Salo said. The two friends were among hundreds, if not thousands, of people from this region who have constantly answered the call to the Maidan. Mr. Solchanyk was on at least his third trip in the past 10 weeks, said Mr. Salo, who was on his fifth. A distant cousin of Mr. Solchanyk’s, who identified herself as Natalia Ignatieva, 50, said they were all seeking what she called “a normal life in a democratic country.” “The thought of leaving here, that is not even an option for us,” Mr. Salo said of himself and his friends. And he insistently denied any suggestion that Mr. Solchanyk — or his friends — were aggressive. “We didn’t sign up for any ‘hundreds,’ ” he said, referring to the units organized by some of the more militant protesters on Maidan. As Mr. Salo spoke in a cafe, Ukraine’s various television channels were giving the latest in a confusing series of reports about the possible whereabouts and status of President Victor F. Yanukovych. Although Lviv and western Ukraine have a long history highly distinct from the eastern parts of this large country of 46 million, very few people here are calling openly for Ukraine to split. Instead, they emphasize, the country must stick together, but as a beacon of democracy that adheres to the rule of law, not under the kind of corrupt government they say they have endured under various presidents since independence in 1991. The bloodshed of the past week has deeply shocked Ukrainians, who are experiencing wild mood swings amid a torrent of contradictory reports and emotions. Yuri Matsoula, 28, works at a local television station and knew Mr. Solchanyk as a fascinating lecturer who delved into the Stalinist period but was also an expert on local voting patterns. When first interviewed on Friday evening, Mr. Matsoula was talkative and expressed confidence that the violence of the previous days would not resume. By Saturday, at the service, he simply turned away in grief when approached. Tears rolled down the cheeks of many, their sorrow spliced only with defiant applause for the dead man as his coffin was loaded into a van and his parents, Zinoviy and Oksana, and younger brother Stepan followed the cortege. “Glory to Ukraine!” the crowd shouted, repeating the now familiar refrain. “To the heroes, glory! Heroes don’t die!” | Funerals;Lviv Ukraine;Kiev |
ny0043931 | [
"sports",
"baseball"
]
| 2014/05/12 | Mets Finally Bring a Runner Home and End a Five-Game Skid | The only encouraging thing about the Mets’ play recently was that they had been able to put runners on base, which had somewhat tempered the panic of their losing ways. “Just a hit away” became a common refrain in the Mets’ clubhouse. But it hardly mattered how many runners the Mets put on base, because they could not find a way to bring them to home. The Mets finally got that hit — and the run — they needed in the 11th inning Sunday when Ruben Tejada singled to score Chris Young and send the Mets to a 5-4 comeback victory against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field. The win ended the Mets’ five-game losing streak. Before Tejada’s hit, the Mets had stranded 36 runners over all and were 6 for 36 with runners in scoring position in the three-game series against the Phillies. The Mets now head into Monday’s Subway Series opener against the Yankees on a positive note. “This may be the win that gets us going,” Manager Terry Collins said of his team, which had lost eight of nine games entering Sunday. After the game, Collins said his team celebrated loudly in the clubhouse. “The energy level is unbelievable,” Collins said. “It hasn’t been that high in a long time.” The Mets entered the ninth inning trailing, 4-1, and having stranded 11 runners through the first eight innings. But Eric Young Jr. began a ninth-inning rally against Philadelphia reliever Antonio Bastardo — Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable — with a double to left field. Daniel Murphy followed with a two-run homer that cut the deficit to one run. Murphy finished the day with three hits and reached base five times. Two batters later, Chris Young hit a double off the left-field wall, snapping an 0-for-18 streak, to put the tying run in scoring position and prompt the Phillies to replace Bastardo with Roberto Hernandez, who had started Friday’s game. For a second, Young thought he had ended the game with a home run, but the ball landed a few feet under the top of the fence. “I knew I hit it low, but I thought it would sneak out,” Young said. Bobby Abreu then singled to send Young to third, and Juan Lagares’s groundout scored Young to tie the game at 4-4. The 11th-inning rally began with Young’s infield single. The Mets eventually loaded the bases, which brought up Tejada, who entered Sunday’s game in an 0-for-16 slump. Last week, Tejada lost his starting shortstop role to Wilmer Flores. The only reason Tejada was in Sunday’s lineup was that Flores had flulike symptoms. Tejada smacked a single to left field against Phillies reliever Jeff Manship for the win. “It was really good for me after a tough week for me and the team,” he said. The Mets seemed more relieved than anything after the game. The losses had begun to bring frustration. Most maddening was how close they had come to winning each game during their five-game skid. Four of the five losses had been decided by one run. “In those close games, you always find something you did wrong,” Chris Young said. The Mets had numerous opportunities to break through Sunday. They had runners on base in every inning but the second and fifth. They quickly gave back a 1-0 first-inning lead after starter Jon Niese issued back-to-back doubles to Wil Nieves and Cody Asche in the second inning. The Phillies took the lead in the fourth on a botched throw at home. The inning began with Ryan Howard’s infield single. Marlon Byrd followed with a double to put runners on second and third. The next batter, Domonic Brown, hit a ground ball to the rookie first baseman Eric Campbell, who tried to nab Howard at home. The throw arrived in plenty of time but was up the third-base line. Howard was able to elude the tag by catcher Anthony Recker to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Nieves’s groundout to shortstop scored Byrd to stretch the lead to 3-1. The Mets were also running out of players. Reliever Gonzalez Germen was unavailable because of the stomach flu. The only pitcher they had remaining was reliever Carlos Torres. The Mets had no more position players available. But the Mets overcame all their shortcomings Sunday. “Obviously, that was much needed,” Niese said of the win. All they needed was a hit at the right time. | Baseball;Mets;Phillies;Ruben Tejada |
ny0136859 | [
"world",
"americas"
]
| 2008/05/20 | Venezuela Denounces U.S. After an Airspace Violation | CARACAS, Venezuela — The defense minister said Monday that an American fighter plane violated Venezuelan airspace over the weekend, prompting the government here to summon the United States ambassador to explain the incident and other recent statements about Venezuela by senior American officials. The denunciation, issued on state television Monday morning, suggests that political relations between Venezuela and the United States may be set to deteriorate further after Washington explicitly sided with Colombia in a dispute over a trove of computer files that tie Colombia’s largest guerrilla group to Venezuela’s government. Gen. Gustavo Rangel, the Venezuelan defense minister, said the authorities on Saturday detected an S-3B Viking aircraft piloted by United States Navy personnel over La Orchila, a Caribbean island with a Venezuelan military base. An exchange of words ensued, General Rangel said, and the plane departed in the direction of Curaçao, in the Dutch Antilles. “We believe this action to be deliberate on the part of the North American Navy,” General Rangel said. “At this moment in time, it is nothing but another link in the chain of provocations in which they are trying to involve our country.” Speaking alongside General Rangel, Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro said Patrick Duddy, the United States ambassador, would be summoned to explain the matter. Mr. Maduro did not specify what statements Mr. Duddy would be asked to explain, but there has been recent criticism from the White House over Venezuela’s possible role in Colombia’s internal fighting. Speaking in Washington, Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, acknowledged Monday that an American military aircraft based in Curaçao strayed inadvertently into Venezuelan airspace on Saturday. “While conducting a counternarcotics mission in international airspace, the pilot realized that a navigation error had occurred,” Mr. McCormack said. “He contacted a Venezuelan tower to report the error, stating that he would immediately return to international airspace. The exchange was polite and professional.” Tension persists between Venezuela and Colombia after Interpol verified last week that Colombian antiterrorism forces had not tampered with computer archives referring to financial and military support given by Venezuela to Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia , or FARC. While independent proof of such Venezuelan support for the FARC has yet to emerge, American officials like John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, have criticized Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez , over the suspected links to the FARC, which finances itself through cocaine trafficking and abductions for ransom. Such criticism is taking place amid a wider debate in Washington over adding Venezuela to the United States’ list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Such a move remains unlikely because of resilient trade relations between the countries. But Mr. Chávez claims the debate is part of an American strategy to destabilize his government. | Venezuela;United States Armament and Defense;United States Navy;Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia;Chavez Hugo;United States;Military Bases and Installations;International Relations |
ny0145231 | [
"sports",
"football"
]
| 2008/10/06 | Redskins Continue Their Surprising Start | PHILADELPHIA — When Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis got a look at his team’s schedule, with three road games in the first five weeks against division opponents, he had one thought. “I think the N.F.L. was trying to get us out of this division quick, so you didn’t have to worry about the Redskins,” he said. Everybody has to worry about the Redskins now. One week after they stunned the Cowboys in Dallas, the Redskins served notice with a 23-17 victory over the Eagles that the brutal National Football Conference East may still send three teams to the playoffs — just not the Philadelphia Eagles, whom many had expected would win the division. The loss, the Eagles’ second in a row, sent them to 2-3, with two losses in the division. The only loss for the 4-1 Redskins came in the season opener, against the Giants, a game in which the Redskins’ offense, with a new coach and a new system, looked as if it could barely function. Goodbye to all that. The Redskins’ next three games are against the floundering Rams, Browns and Lions, and that could set up Washington for a prime spot near the top of the division going into the second half of the season. On Sunday, Philadelphia took an early 14-0 lead before the Redskins had accumulated even a yard. But the Redskins surged back, and with spectacular blocking, particularly on the edges, they pounded out 203 rushing yards against a defense that had been allowing an average of 53.8 in the first month. Portis, who finished with 145 yards on 29 carries, had a 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter on which he was not touched. But if there was a play that defined this game — and defines why the Redskins have been one of the surprise teams of the season — it came on fourth-and-1 from the Eagles’ 38 with 2 minutes 48 seconds remaining. The Redskins had failed to convert on third down with an incomplete pass from Jason Campbell. The rookie coach Jim Zorn — whose candor would seem an immediate disqualifier for his job — said he took a timeout after that play so he could regain his composure and get out of his mind how the third down had failed. The safe thing to do would have been to punt and make the Eagles march the length of the field to try for the winning score. But during the timeout, Portis went to Zorn and asked him to call his number. Zorn did, and Portis muscled his way for 3 yards and a first down, allowing the Redskins to run out the clock. “You don’t know what we’re going to do,” Portis said. “We don’t even know what we’re going to do. You get in the huddle and Jason calls the play and I’m saying, ‘We just put that in this morning.’ ” Almost everything the Redskins tried seemed to work. After ceding a touchdown on the Eagles’ opening drive — and then giving up another on a 68-yard punt return by DeSean Jackson — the Redskins, with their defense playing without three starters, barely budged. The standoff began at the end of the first quarter. After the Eagles’ David Akers, who has struggled with long kicks this season but looked strong in warm-ups, missed a 50-yard field goal, Philadelphia went almost two quarters without a first down. In the third quarter, the Eagles gained only 17 yards. The result: the Eagles’ defense, renowned for its intensity and ability to harass the quarterback, grew weary, allowing the Redskins to go on clock-chewing drives even though the Eagles had effectively taken the deep threat Santana Moss out of the game. The Eagles’ defense was on the field for 75 plays (compared with 47 for the Eagles’ offense), and the Redskins held the ball for nearly 10 minutes longer than the Eagles, all without committing a turnover. “It’s tiring, obviously,” Eagles cornerback Lito Sheppard said. “We need to get off the field and get our offense the ball.” While the Eagles were standing still, the Redskins raced past them in the third quarter. On first down from the Eagles’ 18, Campbell handed the ball to Antwaan Randle El on a reverse. Randle El, a former college quarterback at Indiana, ran toward the right sideline, stopped in his tracks, then launched a perfect touchdown strike to tight end Chris Cooley. Just a few minutes earlier, at the end of the second quarter, Cooley had told his coaches that the Eagles were covering him with a linebacker nearly every play — a gross mismatch. Still, the trick play caught almost everyone — including the Redskins — by surprise. It was part of their red-zone package, but the Redskins devoted little time to it last week. “It worked out awesome,” Zorn said. “You know how many times we practiced that play? Once.” No wonder Zorn was jumping up and down just before the Redskins’ offense took the field Sunday. Campbell jokingly asked his coach, a former quarterback, if he wanted to take Campbell’s pads and go into the game. Zorn replied, “I’ve got to get ready, too.” So should the rest of the N.F.L. | Washington Redskins;Eagles The;National Football League;Football |
ny0271666 | [
"world",
"africa"
]
| 2016/05/20 | Another Chibok Schoolgirl Kidnapped by Boko Haram Is Found, Nigeria Says | ABUJA, Nigeria — Hours after the president of Nigeria met with a schoolgirl rescued this week after more than two years in Boko Haram captivity, government officials announced Thursday that another of the missing girls had been found. Soldiers and vigilante forces found the girl, Serah Luka, during an operation Thursday that killed 35 Boko Haram fighters and rescued 97 women and children, according to the military. Ms. Luka, who the military said was receiving medical attention, had been at the boarding school in the village of Chibok just over two months when fighters raided and kidnapped the nearly 300 girls there during exam week in April 2014. Earlier Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari whisked Amina Ali, who was found Tuesday roaming a forest laden with Boko Haram fighters, to Abuja, the capital, in a presidential jet. She sat in a plush leather chair in the presidential villa before the country’s dignitaries. Ms. Ali shook hands with the president, who held her sobbing baby, a 4-month-old girl, Safiya, as he showed mother and child to a crowd of journalists. Local vigilante fighters found a malnourished Ms. Ali two days earlier as they were scouring the area for Boko Haram militants. She was with the baby and a man claiming to be her husband. Government officials said the man was really a Boko Haram fighter. Her rescue was the first since a few dozen of the girls escaped in the days after the kidnapping in Chibok — just 30 miles away from where she was found this week. Now, 218 girls remain missing, believed to be somewhere in the Sambisa forest where Boko Haram members have been hiding out. On Thursday, Mr. Buhari renewed a pledge to find them all. “Rest assured that this administration will continue to do all it can to rescue the remaining Chibok girls who are still in Boko Haram captivity,” Mr. Buhari said. “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity for vital information.” The abduction of the girls has been a political embarrassment for Mr. Buhari. He took office last year after campaign pledges to find all the girls and stamp out Boko Haram. Neither has happened. On Thursday, before news of another girl’s being found was made public, officials were quick to credit Mr. Buhari with Ms. Ali’s rescue. Image Serah Luka in Damboa, Nigeria, after she became the second abducted girl from the Chibok school to be found this week. Credit Nigerian Armed Forces “Sir, what we are celebrating today is your political commitment and support which has given major push to the successes recorded in the fight against terrorism,” said the defense minister, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, who was at the news conference to meet Ms. Ali. Hadiza Bala Usman, a leader of a group that campaigns for the girls’ release, said Ms. Ali had told her that at least six of her classmates died while being held by Boko Haram, some in childbirth and others in clashes between Boko Haram and the military. Government and military officials could not confirm the account. Through the years that Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigeria and its neighboring countries, militants have killed many children in attacks on schools. But the abduction of the girls from Chibok gained worldwide notoriety, motivating a global social media campaign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. On Thursday, Ms. Ali stepped, crying infant in her arms, from a black S.U.V. as security guards kept back a surging crowd of cameramen. Accompanying her were her mother and brother, a nurse and Ms. Usman, the activist. Ms. Ali waited in a conference room, her face covered by a black sequined shawl as journalists scrambled to get photos of her and her family. Government officials and relatives occasionally huddled with her, talking in inaudible tones. At one point, Ms. Ali put her head down on the table. Mr. Buhari eventually emerged to greet her. She removed the shawl from her face and handed her crying infant to him. “The continuation of Amina’s education, so abruptly disrupted, will definitely be a priority of the federal government,” he said. “Amina must be enabled to go back to school. No girl in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has the right to an education and a life choice.” Mr. Buhari said that Ms. Ali had met with trauma experts and that the Nigerian government would “do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.” Abuja was just one stop for Ms. Ali. She met with villagers in Chibok, and with officials and aid workers in Maiduguri. Her busy circuit was criticized by Mausi Segun, a Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch. “She’s not had a moment to herself,” she said. “She’s not had time to sit down with her family.” Binta Ali, Ms. Ali’s mother, said she had almost given up hope that her daughter would be found. She is her 13th child, but most of her children, she said, died before they were 4 years old. At the news conference, Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno State, where Chibok is, called Ms. Ali “the daughter of the world” and said her rescue was an omen. “It’s a sign of greater things to come,” Mr. Shettima said. | Nigeria;Boko Haram;Kidnapping and Hostages;Women and Girls;Serah Luka;Amina Ali;Muhammadu Buhari;Chibok Nigeria;Rape |
ny0267400 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2016/03/06 | Review: 2 Sisters Navigate 100 Years of Black History in ‘Having Our Say’ | Don’t call them old maids. Don’t call them African-Americans. Sadie and Bessie Delany, holding forth at Long Wharf Theater in Emily Mann’s Tony-nominated 1995 play, “ Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years ,” are very particular about things, whether the exact placement of a spotlessly white cutwork tablecloth, the precise thickness of an orange slice for ambrosia, or the careful arrangement of sparkling goblets and candlesticks. And when you have lived past the century mark, you are entitled to have things just as you want them. And husbands were not among the things they wanted. They were “too smart, too independent for most men,” Bessie says. So when Sarah Louise Delany, known as Sadie, and Dr. Annie Elizabeth Delany, called Bessie, tell you that they want to be described as maiden ladies who are colored , it would be churlish to disregard their wishes. And, as implied by the title of the play, Sadie and Bessie do get their say, addressing the audience as if we happened by their house in Westchester County and settled into their comfortably old-fashioned parlor, designed for this coproduction with Hartford Stage by Alexis Distler. Acted by Olivia Cole (Sadie) and Brenda Pressley (Bessie), under the direction of Jade King Carroll, these Delanys are great company, just as the extraordinary sisters must have been in real life. Introduced to the public in the best-selling memoir they wrote with Amy Hill Hearth, who first interviewed them in 1991 for The New York Times, Sadie and Bessie were the daughters of Henry Beard Delany, a school administrator who had been born into slavery, and Nanny Logan, the descendant of a white woman and a slave. The Delany girls grew up on the campus of the North Carolina school where their parents both worked. They attended college in New York and settled in Harlem after graduating. Bessie became a dentist and Sadie a high school teacher. In 1957, they moved north to Mount Vernon, N.Y., which was predominantly white. They lived there until their deaths, Sadie’s in 1999 at 109, Bessie’s in 1995 at 104. Their long lives overlapped the imposition of Jim Crow laws in the South, the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights era, and they came into contact with a who’s who of black America: Booker T. Washington , Paul Robeson , W.E.B. Du Bois , Lena Horne . Set in 1993, “Having Our Say ” looks in on the sisters as they are preparing a feast in memory of their father, whose intelligence, stern dignity and loving solicitude permeate the play, as it did their lives. There is a working kitchen onstage, and they make good use of it. A word to the wise: Don’t go to this play on an empty stomach. Sadie and Bessie keep busy, roasting a chicken, baking a ham, chopping vegetables and mixing the batter for a poundcake. The aroma spreads through the theater as our visit with the Delanys comes to an end. Punctuated by Ms. Distler’s projections of Delany family photographs and images that conjure the worlds Sadie and Bessie knew, “ Having Our Say ” is equal parts a portrait of these two disparate personalities — Bessie ornery and headstrong and Sadie diffident and sweet — and a chronicle of the century they lived through. Subtly interwoven in these two grand subjects is another story, about how a single lifetime can erase whole decades, so that in two scintillating hours, the Delany sisters inhabit the woods where their grandfather shot squirrels for breakfast; the Raleigh, N.C., park where Bessie sneaked a drink from a water fountain restricted to whites; the London theater where Paul Robeson played Othello; the street protest when a Manhattan movie house showed the racist film “Birth of a Nation”; the polling place where Sadie and Bessie cast their ballots right after women won the right to vote. As they reminisce, their pet pig and their early boyfriends and the churlish “rebby boys” who tormented them seem to take shape in the living room, among the dainty teacups, lace doilies and knitted afghans. As the Delany sisters roam freely in time and space, Ms. Distler’s genteel set, Nicole Pearce’s evocative lighting and Karen Perry’s tasteful, muted costumes anchor them firmly in Mount Vernon in the 1990s. As Sadie recalls the flickering light of Halley’s Comet, Ms. Cole’s flickering fingers let us see it, too. When Bessie relates the time she nearly was lynched, Ms. Pressley’s clenched fist betrays her fury at the injustice she fought all her life. “Having Our Say ” artfully melds all the elements of theater into a satisfying whole, and 100 years seem to go by in a wondrous flash. | Theater;Long Wharf Theatre;Hartford Stage;Jade King Carroll;Brenda Pressley;Annie Elizabeth Delany;Sarah Louise Delany;Amy Hill Hearth;New Haven CT |
ny0096499 | [
"science"
]
| 2015/01/13 | Best Selling Science Books | 1 WHAT IF? by Randall Munroe. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Scientific (but often humorous) answers to hypothetical questions , based in part on the author’s website, xkcd.com . (Last month’s ranking: 2) 2 BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan/Holt. The surgeon and New Yorker writer considers how doctors fail patients at the end of life, and how they can do better. (1) 3 THE INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson. Simon & Schuster. Studies of the people who created computers and the Internet, beginning in the 1840s. (3) 4 IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE by Hampton Sides. Doubleday. How a polar voyage in 1879 went terribly wrong. (12) 5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen Hawking. Random House. The classic primer for nonscientists on the origins of the universe. 6 QUIET by Susan Cain Crown. Introverts — one-third of the population — are undervalued in American society. (4) 7 THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The winner of a Nobel in economic science discusses how we make choices in business and personal life and when we can and cannot trust our intuitions. (6) 8 THE POWER OF HABIT by Charles Duhigg. Random House. An examination of the science behind habits, how we form them and break them. (7) 9 HOW WE GOT TO NOW by Steven Johnson. Riverhead. A history of innovation focused on six key technologies; the companion volume to a PBS series . 10 UNDENIABLE by Bill Nye. St. Martin’s. The “Science Guy” explains how evolution shapes our lives. (5) 11 YOU ARE HERE by Chris Hadfield. Little, Brown. Photographs from the International Space Station by a former astronaut. 12 THE SCIENCE OF INTERSTELLAR by Kip Thorne. W. W. Norton. A physicist explains the science behind the movie. (9) 13 THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING by Naomi Klein. Simon & Schuster. How the free market created and is worsening the climate crisis. (15) 14 ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA by Andrew Hodges. Princeton University Press. A biography of the mathematician who cracked the German Enigma code during World War II. 15 DAVID AND GOLIATH by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown. Underdogs often prevail against enemies with great advantages. 16 ONE NATION UNDER TAUGHT by Vince M. Bertram. Beaufort Books. How to help American students who are falling behind in science, technology, engineering and math education. (8) 17 STUFF MATTERS by Mark Miodownik. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. From concrete to porcelain: the myriad materials that shape the man-made world. 18 THE SENSE OF STYLE by Steven Pinker. Viking. The Harvard psychologist and linguist updates the rules of writing with a more relaxed approach to grammar. 19 THE SIXTH EXTINCTION by Elizabeth Kolbert. Holt. The New Yorker writer examines human influences causing plant and animal loss. 20 THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot. Crown. The story of an African-American woman whose cancerous cells were extensively cultured without her permission in 1951. | Books;Science and Technology;Mathematics |
ny0278213 | [
"business",
"media"
]
| 2016/11/07 | Ads Focus on Relief From the Presidential Campaign | HEFTY is “trashing” the campaign, Excedrin is curing headaches caused by the caustic debates, and Ringling Brothers wants to remind the public that it is the real circus, despite what the last few months may have seemed like. In previous election years, it was not unusual for brands to create ads that lightly poked fun at the political process or went heavy on patriotism and optimism. Now, marketers have a new focus when connecting with voters: fatigue and disillusionment. “Whether you’re completely conservative or more liberal, it’s kind of like everybody’s sick of this conversation and the low trashy depths that this election has gone to,” said Jason Peterson, chief creative officer of Havas North America, which oversees Hefty’s advertising. People visiting the CNN and Fox News websites in the last few days may have noticed stark black banner ads with white letters declaring, “This political ad has been trashed thanks to Hefty.” Hefty, the trash bag maker, seized on the five days leading up to Election Day to run such ads across several major political news sites and politics-related videos on YouTube. Its hope is to curry favor with Americans by shielding them from additional political messaging after a long, vitriolic presidential race. “People are almost demanding this kind of relief,” Mr. Peterson said. It is perhaps harder now to make light of the election as businesses have during previous campaigns, as when JetBlue offered international trips to voters whose candidate lost, Pizza Hut stitched together debate clips to highlight how cheap its pizza was or Snickers ran cheeky “Don’t Vote Hungry” ads. Tecate, the Mexican beer label, was seen as poking fun at Donald J. Trump with its recent commercial featuring a “Tecate beer wall,” a knee-high ledge to rest beers on, even though the brand said the ad was nonpartisan. Indeed, the appetite for humor seems low in an environment where both Skittles and Tic Tac had to issue formal statements within weeks of each another distancing themselves from untoward mentions by the Trump campaign. So come the new tactics. Hefty said its digital campaign, which started on Thursday and will run through Tuesday, was built on the belief that “Americans hate political ads.” Just last month , the American Psychological Association said that 52 percent of American adults cited the presidential election as a “very or somewhat significant source of stress” in a survey conducted by Harris Poll. And the final pre-election New York Times/CBS News Poll released late last week showed that more than eight in 10 voters said the campaign had left them repulsed rather than excited . Excedrin, on the day of the third and final presidential debate last month, promoted the hashtag #DebateHeadache on Twitter, saying, “Debates bring headaches; Excedrin brings fast headache relief.” The brand tweeted out statistics from a survey it conducted throughout the day, including one that said 73 percent of Americans would experience election-related headaches this year. The product, given its focus on relieving head pain, doesn’t generally have the opportunity to “speak on a larger scale,” especially during a presidential election, said Scott Yacovino, a senior brand manager for Excedrin and the United States pain business at GlaxoSmithKline. This situation was a “perfect storm,” he said. “Even during the first debate, there was a lot of organic chatter around people getting headaches and the election causing headaches,” Mr. Yacovino said. “We thought we could bring our benefit to folks no matter what their political affiliations are.” Another ad campaign born out of election fatigue came from Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey last month, which officially denounced the use of the term circus to refer to this year’s presidential race. Its social media tracking tool showed that between Oct. 15 and Oct. 24, the terms “circus” or “clowns” were used to describe the election or candidates an average of almost 4,000 times a day. As part of its effort to “Take Back the Circus,” the company made a humorous video featuring several performers expressing their indignation over misuse of the terms. In one scene, a ringmaster turned to the camera and said, “People keep calling candidates clowns.” A clown by his side responded, “But we’re real clowns, and we take clowning seriously.” Hefty’s banner ads have appeared on CNN, Fox News, AOL, and the Huffington Post’s politics page. Hefty’s YouTube ads will be aimed at people tracking the election, especially in swing states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The company’s agency said its purchase guaranteed at least 40 million page views across the sites. “We did pick out media buys based upon where more of the trashy politics are going on and more in the swing states where it’s getting heated,” Mr. Peterson said. He added: “What I really love about it and what I think consumers appreciate in advertising is when you’re able to offer them a utility to what they’re feeling. And to me, people are sick and tired.” | advertising,marketing;2016 Presidential Election;Campaign advertising |
ny0285134 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2016/09/28 | Hillary Clinton, at Ease Onstage, Seems Utterly Herself | HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — I’ve heard Hillary Clinton tell the story about her father and his drapery business so many times now that I can mouth the word “squeegee” at the exact second it comes out of her mouth. “He went down with a silk-screen and dumped the paint in and took the squeegee and kept going,” she always says. So I had a feeling that on Monday night she could not wait to drag that squeegee all over Donald J. Trump. In the first minutes of the first presidential debate, Mrs. Clinton mentioned her father, contrasting her middle-class upbringing with Mr. Trump’s gilded childhood and implying that he would have fleeced small-business owners like her dad. “I can only say that I’m certainly relieved that my late father never did business with you,” Mrs. Clinton said. She has been mocked as awkward when dancing the “Whip/Nae Nae” on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”; as icy when fielding punches from Zach Galifianakis while sitting “Between Two Ferns”; and as cloaked in staff and security when visiting the Iowa State Fair. But on the debate stage, Mrs. Clinton seems utterly herself. In the years I’ve covered Mrs. Clinton, I’ve examined her every word in nearly 30 debates and candidate forums, and it’s in these formats that she has often shown, sometimes unintentionally, the most genuine glimpses of who she really is. She’s shown her biting wit (joking in 2008 that she was wearing an “asbestos” suit) and displayed a sympathetic, self-deprecating side. (In a memorable 2008 debate before the New Hampshire primary, the moderator asked Mrs. Clinton about her likability problem and she replied, “Well, that hurts my feelings,” to which Senator Barack Obama quipped, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.”) And she has perfected the art of playing the victim. (“Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow,” she said in another 2008 primary debate, referring to a “Saturday Night Live” skit in which the debate moderators coddled Mr. Obama.) All of those debates led to this one: Mrs. Clinton’s first foray onto the general election stage. The evening did not give Mrs. Clinton the zinger that enters the history books or the emotional, unplannable moment that would convince a skeptical electorate that she can be trusted, but it did give her the biggest venue yet to show her personality. She displayed her preparedness and her quick-footedness, her grasp (and affection) for granular policy detail and her eagerness to throw flames and flip the script on her famously combative opponent. “I have a feeling that by the end of this evening, I’m going to be blamed for everything that’s ever happened,” Mrs. Clinton said dryly Monday night after Mr. Trump said she had been fighting the Islamic State her entire adult life. “Why not?” Mr. Trump replied tersely. She showed a pugnacious side. “Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality,” Mrs. Clinton said early on. And she espoused detailed policy with the ease of a Pez dispenser. When Mr. Trump delivered an impassioned, if unspecific, pitch to bring jobs back from Mexico and China, Mrs. Clinton explained her profit-sharing plan. When the conversation turned to foreign policy, she easily slipped into diplomat talk, vowing to “take out ISIS in Raqqa” to “end their claim of being a caliphate.” Mrs. Clinton provided only passing references to herself, opening the evening by mentioning the second birthday of her granddaughter, Charlotte. When Mr. Trump interrupted her, she showed flashes of the steely calm she displayed during more than eight hours of testimony to a Republican-led House panel. As Mr. Trump spoke, she perched a leg in a subtle curtsy and calmly looked on. When it was her turn, she needled Mr. Trump by calling him “Donald.” Campaign aides told me the debate was one of the only formats that would allow voters — and the reporters who cover her — to catch an unfiltered glimpse of Mrs. Clinton, a candidate so cautious that even the most innocuous personal details (her favorite TV shows, for example) can seem overthought, and, as a result, come off as overwrought. On Monday afternoon, as characteristically anxious campaign aides milled around the Hofstra University campus, I tried to pry out details of what Mrs. Clinton did the morning of the debate to deal with the stress. For instance, I told Clinton aides that I did yoga to hip-hop music in a 90-degree room and drank two iced Red Eyes (cold brew with a shot of espresso). “Did Hillary walk her dogs? Did she do yoga? Do she and Bill binge on blueberry pancakes as a debate-morning tradition?” I asked. “We’re not that kind of campaign,” a spokesman told me. That makes the unfettered moments on the debate stage — a late return from the bathroom; a quick-witted response; a rare moment of self-reflection — important in trying to understand Mrs. Clinton. She has said she does not have the retail political skills of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who sat in the audience Monday night. And she does not deliver speeches with the sweeping oratory of President Obama. But ever since Hillary Rodham played a star role on her high school debate team, she has exceeded at the formal confrontation of the debate stage. “Secretary Clinton, is that O.K.?” Mr. Trump asked Mrs. Clinton at the start of the debate. “I want you to be happy, that’s very important to me.” And, Mrs. Clinton, flashing a wry grin, did look genuinely happy. Her first general election debate, and the first with a female nominee of a major party onstage, provided Mrs. Clinton 90 minutes with no commercial breaks. That meant Mrs. Clinton, who had prepared for weeks, was on her own, without the advice of aides or time to ponder how a response would play with her widest audience yet. On Monday, she tried to help an enormous TV audience better understand who she is, owning her image as the straight-A student who pulled an all-nighter at the library. “I think Donald Trump just criticized me for preparing for this debate,” she said. “And yes, I did. You know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president, and that’s a good thing.” I’ve watched for years as Mrs. Clinton has walked the line between presenting herself as a public servant driven by her Methodist faith and the shrewd political maneuvering required to become the first woman to capture the Democratic nomination for president. On Monday, Mrs. Clinton tried to make an affirmative case for her candidacy even as she displayed ease, and even enjoyment, referring to a vault of research on Mr. Trump that she had cemented to memory in weeks of practice sessions. Mrs. Clinton told of people who said they had been bamboozled by Mr. Trump, pointing to an architect in the audience who said he never got paid for designing a clubhouse on Mr. Trump’s property. And when the topic of race came up, Mrs. Clinton seemed eager to cite an article she had read. “Remember, Donald started his career back in 1973 being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans,” Mrs. Clinton said. Mr. Trump did not sweat the details. “We’ve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, according to a report I just saw,” he said at one point. “Whether it’s six or five, but it looks like six, $6 trillion, in the Middle East.” By the end of the debate, when Mr. Trump attacked Mrs. Clinton’s stamina, she seemed more energetic than ever, digging into the opposition research trove one last time. “This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs,” Mrs. Clinton said. With her opponent on the ropes, she smirked. She was just getting started. | 2016 Presidential Election;Political Debates;US Politics;Democrats;Republicans;Hempstead NY;US |
ny0099052 | [
"sports",
"soccer"
]
| 2015/06/06 | Women’s World Cup 2015: Door Opens for 24 Teams | Opening Day Canada plays China in Edmonton, Alberta, to kick off the tournament at 6 p.m. Saturday as the first game of a doubleheader, with New Zealand against the Netherlands to follow. Fox Sports will broadcast each of the tournament’s 52 games live. How It Works The Women’s World Cup has been expanded to 24 teams from 16 for the first time, and this year there are eight first-time entrants. The top two finishers in each of the six groups, as well as four third-place finishers, will advance to the knockout rounds. Image Abby Wambach, right, has high hopes for the United States, saying, “We’ll be fine.” Credit Joe Scarnici/Getty Images The Favorites Germany has won two of the past three World Cups and the last six European championships, so it is first among equals until someone proves otherwise. The United States is a natural rival, but the teams have kept their distance since the last World Cup, meeting twice in 2012 and twice more in 2013. (Three of those games ended in ties.) But the days of one or two dominant teams are long gone. France has beaten several serious contenders in the past year; Japan is the defending champion; Sweden, Norway and Brazil figure to be tough outs; and it is high time a newcomer broke into the top tier. United States Schedule The United States opens the World Cup on Monday against Australia in Winnipeg, Manitoba, then plays Sweden (Friday) and Nigeria (June 16). If the Americans win their group — not a certainty with Sweden in it — they will play a round of 16 match on June 22 against a third-place group finisher, and will probably avoid France and Germany until the semifinals. If they finish second, however, they may face Brazil in their first knockout-round game. Is This the Year? The United States’ quest for its first World Cup title since 1999 will hover over the team for as long as it is in the tournament, and there is optimism that it will make a strong run at the trophy. Why not? The United States has never failed to reach the semifinals, and it lost on penalties in 2011. But its midfield struggles to dominate games, and its best player, Alex Morgan, will be — where exactly? Nursing a bone bruise, Morgan has not played in eight weeks. The good news is the United States has the deepest roster in the tournament, and thus the option to rest, replace or rotate any number of players in any number of ways. “Don’t freak out,” forward Abby Wambach has been telling anyone who will listen. “We’ll be fine.” ANDREW DAS | Soccer;Canada;FIFA Women's World Cup |
ny0283723 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2016/07/23 | Investigations Into Tappan Zee Crane Collapse Ask How a Routine Job Went Awry | Three days after the 25-story boom of a crane toppled onto the Tappan Zee Bridge , creating havoc and a huge traffic jam but killing no one, three separate investigations were proceeding on Friday into what caused the accident. The sequence of events surrounding the collapse remain uncertain. Officials have interviewed the operator of the crane and have examined the equipment’s black box, which records data like the angle of the boom and the distribution of weight along the machinery. The agencies involved in the inquiries include the New York State Police, the State Labor Department and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Jeff J. Loughlin, the business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 137, said he had spoken to the crane operator on duty that day. Mr. Loughlin said the crane operator, a union member who has not been identified, had told him “he knows what caused the problem.” “It’s absolutely not an error by him,” Mr. Loughlin said, adding that he had promised investigators he would not publicly reveal what the operator said. But Mr. Loughlin said he had his own theories, which involve the kind of crane being used. At about noon on Tuesday, with barely a breeze in the air, the operator of the 25-story tall crane and the operator of a remote-controlled piece of machinery known as a vibrating hammer were performing in tandem, driving a tubelike pile into the Hudson River’s muddy bottom. A 60-ton hammer dangles from a hook on the crane’s boom, with its jaws gripping the pile and pounding it into the riverbed. Image Traffic moved slowly across the Tappan Zee Bridge, right, on Wednesday while construction continued on the new one. Credit Seth Wenig/Associated Press The task had become routine as the four-year job of building a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge reached its halfway point. Roughly 1,000 piles — steel tubes up to six feet in diameter and up to 300 feet long — have been planted to form the cores of the concrete piers that will hold up the new twin-span replacement bridge. The pile in question was being installed just off the Rockland County shore of the river in a narrow stretch of water between the existing bridge and the southernmost of the new spans. Something went wrong. The crane operator, positioned in a cab mounted on the deck of the new bridge, felt the 256-foot boom suddenly descend and then buckle, Mr. Loughlin said. It smashed into the existing bridge, blocking all seven lanes of traffic, forcing drivers to slam on their brakes, piercing a hole in the road deck of the southernmost lane of traffic big enough to expose the river below, and hacking off part of the waist-high guard rail. One theory, Mr. Loughlin said, was that the pile had struck a very soft spot of river mud and had begun to sink rapidly, jolting the 60-ton hammer into a rapid drop and putting a particular strain on the boom, which buckled. Mr. Loughlin, emphasizing that he could only speculate about what had happened until the investigations were complete, said that an operator on an old-fashioned crane with a foot-operated brake might have taken his foot off the brake and allowed the load of the hammer to go into a free fall, relieving the strain before the buckling occurred. But the state-of-the-art Manitowoc MLC 300 lattice-boom crawler crane, like most newer cranes, has a hydraulic braking system that lowers the boom at a steady rate of about 800 feet per minute, said Mr. Loughlin, who has more than 40 years of experience operating cranes. “If you’re in trouble, and you have to get a load down quickly you can’t do it with this model,” Mr. Loughlin said. Image Three separate investigations are examining what caused the crane boom to fall onto the Tappan Zee Bridge. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times Nevertheless, he said, sometimes, “if the boom is going to buckle, it’s going to buckle no matter what.” The accident caused gridlock on the bridge, the New York State Thruway and on feeder roads. Two drivers were hurt trying to avoid the crane, according to Mr. Loughlin. One worker injured his knee. By 8 p.m. Tuesday, workers had cut up and removed pieces of the boom, allowing six of the bridge’s seven lanes to reopen. The seventh lane was still shut on Friday afternoon, slowing traffic. An average of 138,000 vehicles use the bridge each day. In the hours after the crane collapsed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, said there were 28 cranes working on the bridge the day of the accident, including a super-crane that can lift the equivalent of 12 Statues of Liberty. Many of the cranes are hydraulic, though the Manitowoc 300, which has been involved in the bridge project since April, may be the only one of its kind on the river, Mr. Loughlin said. Ion Warner, vice president of marketing and investor relations for Manitowoc Cranes in Wisconsin, did not return several calls for comment. Officials of the New York State Thruway Authority, the agency overseeing the $4 billion project, and Tappan Zee Constructors, the consortium of bridge-building companies that was awarded the contract, said they could not discuss the accident’s cause until the investigations were complete. Tiffany Portzer, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, also declined to comment. A crane operator must be licensed by the Labor Department. Typically, a license requires three years of experience working in and around cranes, a written test and a practical test. The man who operated the crane on Tuesday had 30 years of experience manipulating cranes, Mr. Loughlin said. | Tappan Zee Bridge;Accidents and Safety;Derricks and Cranes;Bridges,Tunnels;Labor Department NYS;OSHA |
ny0223242 | [
"world",
"middleeast"
]
| 2010/11/19 | Worm in Iran Can Wreck Nuclear Centrifuges | Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control. Their conclusion, while not definitive, begins to clear some of the fog around the Stuxnet worm, a malicious program detected earlier this year on computers, primarily in Iran but also India, Indonesia and other countries. The paternity of the worm is still in dispute, but in recent weeks officials from Israel have broken into wide smiles when asked whether Israel was behind the attack, or knew who was. American officials have suggested it originated abroad. The new forensic work narrows the range of targets and deciphers the worm’s plan of attack. Computer analysts say Stuxnet does its damage by making quick changes in the rotational speed of motors, shifting them rapidly up and down. Changing the speed “sabotages the normal operation of the industrial control process,” Eric Chien, a researcher at the computer security company Symantec, wrote in a blog post. Those fluctuations, nuclear analysts said in response to the report, are a recipe for disaster among the thousands of centrifuges spinning in Iran to enrich uranium, which can fuel reactors or bombs. Rapid changes can cause them to blow apart. Reports issued by international inspectors reveal that Iran has experienced many problems keeping its centrifuges running, with hundreds removed from active service since summer 2009. “We don’t see direct confirmation” that the attack was meant to slow Iran’s nuclear work, David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation, said in an interview Thursday. “But it sure is a plausible interpretation of the available facts.” Intelligence officials have said they believe that a series of covert programs are responsible for at least some of that decline. So when Iran reported earlier this year that it was battling the Stuxnet worm, many experts immediately suspected that it was a state-sponsored cyberattack. Until last week, analysts had said only that Stuxnet was designed to infect certain kinds of Siemens equipment used in a wide variety of industrial sites around the world. But a study released Friday by Mr. Chien, Nicolas Falliere and Liam O. Murchu at Symantec, concluded that the program’s real target was to take over frequency converters, a type of power supply that changes its output frequency to control the speed of a motor. The worm’s code was found to attack converters made by two companies, Fararo Paya in Iran and Vacon in Finland. A separate study conducted by the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that finding, a senior government official said in an interview on Thursday. Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Albright and a colleague, Andrea Stricker, released a report saying that when the worm ramped up the frequency of the electrical current supplying the centrifuges, they would spin faster and faster. The worm eventually makes the current hit 1,410 Hertz, or cycles per second — just enough, they reported, to send the centrifuges flying apart. In a spooky flourish, Mr. Albright said in the interview, the worm ends the attack with a command to restore the current to the perfect operating frequency for the centrifuges — which, by that time, would presumably be destroyed. “It’s striking how close it is to the standard value,” he said. The computer analysis, his Wednesday report concluded, “makes a legitimate case that Stuxnet could indeed disrupt or destroy” Iranian centrifuge plants. The latest evidence does not prove Iran was the target, and there have been no confirmed reports of industrial damage linked to Stuxnet. Converters are used to control a number of different machines, including lathes, saws and turbines, and they can be found in gas pipelines and chemical plants. But converters are also essential for nuclear centrifuges. On Wednesday, the chief of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity center in Virginia, Sean McGurk, told a Senate committee that the worm was a “game changer” because of the skill with which it was composed and the care with which it was geared toward attacking specific types of equipment. Meanwhile, the search for other clues in the Stuxnet program continues — and so do the theories about its origins. Ralph Langner, a German expert in industrial control systems who has examined the program and who was the first to suggest that the Stuxnet worm may have been aimed at Iran, noted in late September that a file inside the code was named “Myrtus.” That could be read as an allusion to Esther, and he and others speculated it was a reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them. Writing on his Web site last week, Mr. Langner noted that a number of the data modules inside the program contained the date “Sept. 24, 2001,” clearly long before the program was written. He wrote that he believed the date was a message from the authors of the program, but did not know what it might mean. Last month, researchers at Symantec also speculated that a string of numbers found in the program — 19790509 — while seeming random, might actually be significant. They speculated that it might refer to May 9, 1979, the day that Jewish-Iranian businessman Habib Elghanian was executed in Iran after being convicted of spying for Israel. Interpreting what the clues might mean is a fascinating exercise for computer experts and conspiracy theorists, but it could also be a way to mislead investigators. Indeed, according to one investigator, the creation date of the data modules might instead suggest that the original attack code in Stuxnet was written long before the program was actually distributed. According to Tom Parker, a computer security specialist at Securicon LLC, a security consulting firm based in Washington, the Stuxnet payload appeared to have been written by a team of highly skilled programmers, while the “dropper” program that delivered the program reflected an amateur level of expertise. He said the fact that Stuxnet was detected and had spread widely in a number of countries was an indicator that it was a failed operation. “The end target is going to be able to know they were the target, and the attacker won’t be able to use this technique again,” he said. | Stuxnet;Computer Security;Iran;Albright David;Cyberattacks and Cyberwarfare;Nuclear Energy |
ny0242036 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2011/03/29 | Judicial Branch Loses Out in Albany Budget Deal | ALBANY — As the state’s budget deadline approached, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo held firm on his position that the state must reduce its spending and reject any major new taxes, while leaders of the State Legislature continued to insist on hundreds of millions of dollars in relief from the governor’s proposed budget cuts. In the end, both Mr. Cuomo and the Legislature got what they wanted — in part, at least, at the expense of the branch of government that was not in the room. The budget deal that Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers announced on Sunday restored about $480 million that the governor proposed two months ago to cut from areas like education and human services. But the budget’s total spending increased by only $250 million, thanks in large part to a $170 million cut to the state’s court system. The state’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman , said on Monday that the reduction in financing would require hundreds of layoffs — at least — and would include courthouse personnel, not only back-office staff, though court officials would not be specific about the kinds of workers who might be let go. “It will have a tremendous impact on the system,” Judge Lippman said in a telephone interview. “At a minimum, you’re going to see delays in the administration of justice, without question.” Judge Lippman was one of many officials around the state, in government and elsewhere, who scrambled to take stock of the state’s budget deal, which Mr. Cuomo announced in a triumphant ceremony at the Capitol on Sunday that was filled with grinning faces but was sparse on details. The cuts to the court system, which has about 15,500 employees, came two months after Mr. Cuomo chastised the judicial branch for not agreeing to a 10 percent reduction in spending that he imposed on state agencies. (Mr. Cuomo also cut his own budget 10 percent, as did the state comptroller and the attorney general.) A month ago, Judge Lippman submitted a revised budget that would cut $100 million in spending, or about 4 percent, from the $2.7 billion he had requested, an amount roughly unchanged from the past year’s budget. The $170 million cut will equal about 6 percent. Mr. Cuomo and the legislative leaders settled on the larger figure so that the court system would shoulder “a more proportionate share of the state’s reductions,” Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for the governor, said. Judge Lippman said he did not know whether the additional cut would force the closing of any courthouses. He also was not sure whether he would still be able to increase state financing for lawyers to represent the poor in cases dealing with foreclosures, child support and other civil matters. At the Capitol, meanwhile, lawmakers continued on Monday to negotiate on the finer points of the budget, including the portions of the spending plan dealing with health care and education. It remained unclear how most of about $270 million in restored education financing would be distributed around the state. Officials said it might not be until Thursday — the deadline for the Legislature to approve the budget — that a breakdown of which districts would get how much aid would be available. Lawmakers would say only that the added school financing would be spread around the state and would go in large part to what are considered to be the neediest districts. “It’s a work in progress,” said Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, a Democrat from Queens and the chairwoman of the Assembly’s Education Committee. Lawmakers also faced criticism from other corners over the budget deal. The Medical Society of the State of New York rescinded its endorsement of Mr. Cuomo’s plan to overhaul Medicaid because a provision to limit so-called pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice cases was removed from the budget as part of the deal announced on Sunday. The society’s president, Dr. Leah S. McCormack, said that doctors felt “betrayed” by the removal of the malpractice cap. Mr. Cuomo also faced criticism from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who called the budget deal an “outrage” and said its cuts would disproportionately fall on the city, even though the city serves as an economic catalyst for the rest of the state. “We are the jewel of the financial crown, if you will, in New York State,” Mr. Bloomberg said after a City Hall news conference. “We’re the one that’s generating the money.” | Budgets and Budgeting;Politics and Government;Legal Aid for the Poor;Lippman Jonathan;Cuomo Andrew M;New York State;State Legislatures |
ny0084091 | [
"us"
]
| 2015/10/01 | Lemony Snicket, the Author, and His Wife Donate $1 Million to Planned Parenthood | Daniel Handler , the author of children's books under the pen name Lemony Snicket, announced with his wife, Lisa Brown, an author and illustrator, that they are donating $1 million to Planned Parenthood. The couple made their announcement on Twitter. . @lisabrowndraws & I are giving 1 million dollars to @PPFA . We’ve been very fortunate, and good fortune should be shared with noble causes. — Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) September 28, 2015 Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of health services, including abortions, through clinics and affiliates, has been embroiled in a fierce fight with Congressional Republicans who want to cut off federal funding to the organization. Some lawmakers threatened to shut down the federal government to do so. Some legislators have also accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling fetuses for profit, an allegation that arose in July when abortion opponents released clandestine videos that the organization said were manipulated. Mr. Handler and Ms. Brown posted the announcement the day before the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, testified on Capitol Hill over what she called “outrageous accusations” by Republicans who said that her organization profits from the sale of fetal tissue. In the hearing on Tuesday, she called the charges “offensive and categorically untrue.” Mr. Handler is the author of “The Dark” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” Ms. Brown is an illustrator and educator and the author of books including “How To Be.” Two days after the announcement was posted on social media, it was shared widely by readers who supported the donation. It also drew the attention of abortion opponents. | Daniel Handler;Planned Parenthood;Lemony Snicket;Abortion |
ny0214101 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2010/03/21 | Meetinghouse Restaurant Undergoes Transformation | The Meetinghouse, a fixture in this trim hamlet, long took advantage of its status as the only game in town — with lackluster fare and breezy service. But a recent visit revealed a welcome transformation. Clutter was out (few will miss the overhead grapevines strung with twinkly lights) in favor of cool neutrals of coal black and cream. The menu hews to the sorts of things people love to eat — Cobb salad , crab cakes, sweet potato fries — and throws in a few surprises, like warm lamb salad ($20) and super-thin-crust pizzas ($15 to $17). The new owner, Kevin Robinson, a former chief operating officer with Cafe Concepts (whose populist Manhattan properties include Trattoria Dell’Arte , Cafe Fiorello and the Brooklyn Diner ), said he wanted to make his often privileged clientele feel at ease. “At one point the other night there were five Amex black cards waiting to be put through,” he said. “But, you know, people just want to be normal. Sometimes they just want a salad or a hamburger, and they want to feel comfortable having just that.” As for that burger ($15, with cheddar and bacon), Mr. Robinson cuts no corners. “The meat is chopped by the same family in Hunts Point that I’ve been buying chopped meat from for almost 27 years,” he said. Cooked to a perfect medium rare and crowded by stacks of crisp hand-cut fries and frizzled onions, it put my teenage guest, in his words, in the zone. As the weather warms and daffodils flood the historic green, a glass of wine from the much-improved list will ease the wait for a coveted outdoor table. Meetinghouse Food and Spirits, 635 Old Post Road (Route 22), Bedford Village. bedfordmeetinghouse.com ; (914) 234-5656. Reservations for parties of six or more only. | Restaurants;Cooking and Cookbooks;Westchester County (NY) |
ny0034747 | [
"world",
"americas"
]
| 2013/12/13 | Obama Panel Said to Urge N.S.A. Curbs | WASHINGTON — A presidential advisory committee charged with examining the operations of the National Security Agency has concluded that a program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue, though under broad new restraints that would be intended to increase privacy protections, according to officials with knowledge of the report’s contents. The committee’s report, the officials said, also argues in favor of codifying and publicly announcing the steps the United States will take to protect the privacy of foreign citizens whose telephone records, Internet communications or movements are collected by the N.S.A. But it is unclear how far that effort would go, and intelligence officials have argued strenuously that they should be under few restrictions when tapping the communications of non-Americans abroad, who do not have constitutional protections under the Fourth Amendment. The advisory group is also expected to recommend that senior White House officials, including the president, directly review the list of foreign leaders whose communications are routinely monitored by the N.S.A. President Obama recently apologized to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany for the N.S.A.’s monitoring of her calls over the past decade, promising that the actions had been halted and would not resume. But he refused to make the same promise to the leaders of Mexico and Brazil. Administration officials say the White House has already taken over supervision of that program. “We’re not leaving it to Jim Clapper anymore,” said one official, referring to the director of national intelligence, who appears to have been the highest official to review the programs regularly. But resistance from the intelligence agencies is likely. In an interview two months ago, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the soon-to-retire director of the N.S.A. and the commander of the military’s Cyber Command, suggested that a major cutback in American spying on foreign nationals would be naïve. And officials who have examined the N.S.A.’s programs say they have been surprised at how infrequently the agency has been challenged to weigh the intelligence benefits of its foreign collection operations against the damage that could be done if the programs were exposed. One of the expected recommendations is that the White House conduct a regular review of those collection activities, the way covert action by the C.I.A. is reviewed annually. Another likely recommendation, officials say, is the creation of an organization of legal advocates who, like public defenders, would argue against lawyers for the N.S.A. and other government organizations in front of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the nation’s secret court that oversees the collection of telephone and Internet “metadata” and of wiretapping aimed at terrorism and espionage suspects. Mr. Obama has already hinted that he objects to the absence of any adversarial procedures in front of the court’s judges. But even if the N.S.A.’s activities are curtailed, it may be hard to convince Americans — or Germans, Mexicans and Brazilians — that the agency’s practices had changed. In part, that may depend on how much public transparency is built into programs that the government has spent years cloaking. The advisory report offers the first signs that the revelations by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who took thousands of documents from the agency’s archives and has given some of them to news organizations, may lead to changes in the programs he exposed. While Mr. Snowden has been widely condemned in Washington for violating his oaths to protect secrets, and for taking up asylum in Russia instead of facing prosecution, it now appears likely that his disclosures will lead to the result he told interviewers he was seeking. Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, declined to discuss any specific recommendations of the panel. “Our review is looking across the board at our intelligence gathering to ensure that as we gather intelligence, we are properly accounting for both the security of our citizens and our allies, and the privacy concerns shared by Americans and citizens around the world,” she said. “We need to ensure that our intelligence resources are most effectively supporting our foreign policy and national security objectives — that we are more effectively weighing the risks and rewards of our activities.” Video One of the most extraordinary things revealed in the documents disclosed by Edward J. Snowden is the surveillance of video games like World of Warcraft by Western spy agencies. Credit Credit The Guardian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images She added that the review was especially focused on “examining whether we have the appropriate posture when it comes to heads of state; how we coordinate with our closest allies and partners; and what further guiding principles or constraints might be appropriate for our efforts.” The five-person advisory group of intelligence and legal experts, several of whom have long connections to Mr. Obama, is expected to deliver its lengthy, unclassified report to the White House by this weekend. Among its members are Richard A. Clarke, who served in the Clinton administration and both Bush administrations and has become an expert on digital conflict; Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the C.I.A.; and Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who served in the Obama White House and is married to Samantha Power, the ambassador to the United Nations. Two leading legal academics are also members: Peter Swire, an expert in privacy law, and Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional law expert and a former dean of the University of Chicago Law School, where Mr. Obama once taught. Members of the advisory group have declined to talk about their recommendations until the report is published. But fragmentary accounts of their main conclusions have begun to seep out, as word has spread of a preliminary briefing they gave to Mr. Obama’s top advisers. Two officials said that the advisers had gone further to challenge the intelligence agencies’ ways of doing business than they had expected. “There’s going to be a lot of pushback to some of their ideas,” said one person familiar with the contents, who declined to go into detail. Another said that the report was “still being fine-tuned,” and that elements of the recommendations may change. As a senator, Mr. Obama was critical of the Bush administration’s efforts to extend the N.S.A.’s surveillance powers, but as president he has embraced most of the programs begun during Mr. Bush’s time, including the bulk collection of telephone metadata. Only one major N.S.A. program, involving the bulk collection of metadata from about 1 percent of all emails sent inside the United States, is known to have been ended during Mr. Obama’s presidency. Once it is delivered to the White House, the report is expected to feed into another review being conducted by national security officials across the administration. Mr. Obama has indicated that he plans to announce a range of changes, though officials say that is not likely to happen until early next year. At some point, officials say, the advisory group’s entire report will be made public. In an interview last week on MSNBC, Mr. Obama said, “I’ll be proposing some self-restraint on the N.S.A., and, you know, to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence.” But he gave no details. Mr. Obama asked the advisory group to determine whether the N.S.A. had overreached, putting new programs in place because it had the technological capability, rather than weighing the costs to privacy. “What’s coming back is a report that says we can’t dismantle these programs, but we need to change the way almost all of them operate,” said one official familiar with the advisory group’s instructions. So far, the intelligence agencies have largely opposed most proposals for major changes in the programs that they developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. For example, General Alexander has told Congress that it would not be possible to dismantle the bulk collection of data about American telephone calls until there was an efficient way to search quickly for data held by communications companies like AT&T and Verizon. Many of those companies do not retain the information for more than 18 months, and say they do not want to take on the burden and legal liabilities of holding it longer. But General Alexander suggested in the interview two months ago that it may be several years before the United States can develop technology that would make it unnecessary for the government to amass that data in its own storage sites. | NSA;Government Surveillance;Barack Obama;US Foreign Policy;US;Spying and Intelligence Agencies;Keith B Alexander;Privacy |
ny0072734 | [
"business"
]
| 2015/03/12 | I.M.F. Plans $10 Billion in New Aid to Ukraine | WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund has agreed to pump $10 billion into Ukraine’s troubled economy over the next year, providing swift assistance as part of a larger four-year bailout. The fund’s board on Wednesday approved a loan of $17.5 billion, with $5 billion likely by the end of this week and another $5 billion in coming months, officials said. That will be combined with $7.5 billion in loans from other international organizations and an expected $15.4 billion in debt relief that Ukrainian officials hope to negotiate with bondholders. The program “is very strongly front-loaded during the first year,” Christine Lagarde, the fund’s managing director, said in Berlin. “We are off to a good start.” After a year of political upheaval and war, Ukraine’s economy is in a tailspin with a currency that pulled back from record lows, the highest interest rates in 15 years and central bank reserves of just $6.4 billion, barely enough to cover five weeks of imports. The I.M.F. said the Ukrainian economy should grow 2 percent in 2016 after a contraction of about 5.5 percent this year and that by end-2015, the government should have enough reserves to cover about three months of imports. Last year, the fund approved a $17 billion, two-year loan, but it deemed the effort insufficient to support the government while it battled pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine. The fighting follows months of upheaval from anti-government protests and Russia’s subsequent annexation of the Crimea region. Ukraine’s parliament last week approved a raft of I.M.F.-backed amendments to a draft budget, which were key preconditions for the bailout. | IMF;Ukraine;Foreign Aid;Economy;Debt |
ny0237064 | [
"business"
]
| 2010/06/16 | Toys ‘R’ Us Offers a Savers Club for Holidays | Toys “R” Us is counting on an Eisenhower-era tactic to get consumers to spend this Christmas. The toy retailer will begin offering a “Christmas Savers Club” on Wednesday that allows shoppers to put money away with the company for holiday gifts. Participants will receive a card similar to a gift card, and can contribute funds to it through cash or credit card payments. As an incentive Toys “R” Us will add 3 percent interest on the balance. The program is a throwback to what banks and credit unions offered in the 1950s and 1960s before credit cards allowed people to spend money they did not have. In the so-called holiday clubs, prudent consumers would set aside shopping money in advance (“Plan now for a carefree Christmas next year,” one Wells Fargo ad from that period read). “They’re trying to bring back the tried and true, pay for things before you buy them concept,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, an advocacy organization. The program is another example of how the recession has forced retailers to come up with creative ways to promote sales. Gerrick Johnson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said the program echoed another old tactic, promoting layaway plans for shoppers, that Toys “R” Us and other retailers like Kmart revived during the 2008 and 2009 holiday seasons. “It says the economy’s still operating at a subpar level,” Mr. Johnson said. Shoppers can sign up for the program in Toys “R” Us stores, either at the cash register or the customer service stand. The company will add the interest on the balance as of Oct. 16, and the funds will be available Oct. 31 for purchases at Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores and Web sites. “Given the type of economy that we’re in, we wanted to give them as much time as possible to start planning for their budgets,” said Greg Ahearn, senior vice president for marketing and e-commerce for Toys “R” Us. Like gift cards, the money is not meant to be refundable, though Mr. Ahearn said the stores would consider requests on a case-by-case basis. “If they feel a need that they’ve got to be able to remove the funds and do something else, all they need to do is call our customer service number,” he said. Sherif Mityas, a partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, said he thought the program was a smart move for Toys “R” Us. “Basically, what Toys “R” Us is trying to do is lock some of that spending up from their loyal shopper,” he said. But Mr. Mierzwinski said it was not necessarily smart for consumers. “Consumers would be better off putting the money in a regular savings account at a regular bank or credit union,” he said. “They can use the money for any purpose when the holidays come around.” | Toys 'R' Us Inc;Shopping and Retail;Consumer Behavior |
ny0007441 | [
"us"
]
| 2013/05/21 | Barbara Brenner, Breast Cancer Iconoclast, Dies at 61 | Barbara Brenner, who led the group Breast Cancer Action and shaped it in her own combative image, pillorying the medical establishment, industrial polluters and even other cancer research advocates, died on May 10 at her home in San Francisco. She was 61. Suzanne Lampert, her partner of 38 years, confirmed the death, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Ms. Brenner also had breast cancer, though it had been in remission. Ms. Brenner championed causes for most of her adult life, protesting the Vietnam War as a college student and working on women’s rights, civil rights and employment discrimination as a lawyer. She became Breast Cancer Action’s first executive director in 1995, two years after undergoing treatment for the disease and a year before it recurred. Ms. Brenner led the group until 2010, when illness forced her to retire. During the 15 years of her leadership, the group increased its membership to 50,000 from 3,500 and intensified its focus on demanding research into the causes of breast cancer, particularly links to environmental pollutants like chemicals in food and the water supply, an area of research rife with unreliable data. Ms. Brenner was among the first to question what she called the “pinkwashing” of America: the proliferation of pink ribbons and products carrying labels stating that part of the purchase price would go to breast cancer research. Her group started a campaign, “Think Before You Pink,” urging consumers to look into how much money was donated and where it went. In one of many fiery posts on her blog, Healthy Barbs , she attacked another breast cancer group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure , for teaming up with KFC to produce pink buckets of chicken. Fried chicken, she said, promotes obesity, which is a risk factor for breast cancer. Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society , called Ms. Brenner “a dear friend,” but added, “I didn’t agree with her, probably 40 or 50 percent of the time.” One point of difference was over whether environmental factors play a major role in cancer. Ms. Brenner thought they did; Dr. Brawley is skeptical. Breast Cancer Action gained respect for its policy , developed by Ms. Brenner, of not accepting donations from companies that make money from diagnosing or treating cancer, or whose products or processes might cause cancer. That meant no money from drug, oil, tobacco or chemical companies, or from cancer treatment centers or health insurers. That policy freed the group to hold such companies accountable. Image Barbara Brenner in 2010. Credit Anita Bowen Photography Breast Cancer Action is now among the plaintiffs in a case being considered by the Supreme Court that challenges the right of Myriad Genetics Inc. to patent genes to maintain a monopoly on a blood test used to look for mutations that greatly increase the risk of cancer. The policy also let Ms. Brenner speak her mind, which she often did. At a medical conference, she stood up and scolded a researcher who had described patients as failing a treatment. Patients do not fail treatments, she told him — treatments fail patients. Ms. Brenner was unapologetic about being so blunt. She told Ms. magazine in 2005 , “We serve no purpose in being nice.” Barbara Ann Brenner was born on Oct. 7, 1951, in Baltimore, the third of seven children. Her father, Morton, worked in finance in the clothing industry, and her mother, Bettie, was a librarian. Besides Ms. Lampert, her survivors include five siblings, Joseph, Mark, Richard, Lawrence and Nanci Grail. A sister, Ruth Newman, also died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (Ms. Brenner refused to subscribe to the popular term for the illness — Lou Gehrig’s disease — saying the image of a hale and hearty athlete that the name evokes is wrong for so devastating an affliction.) Ms. Brenner graduated from Smith College and attended law school at Georgetown but left after a year, having decided, she said, that the law had little to do with justice. She enrolled in graduate school at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, where she met Ms. Lampert. After working for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, Ms. Brenner resumed her law studies, earning a degree from the University of California, Berkeley. As tart as Ms. Brenner was with opponents, she was compassionate with women seeking information about breast cancer. Angela Wall, Breast Cancer Action’s communications director, said Ms. Brenner would often tell callers who had just received a cancer diagnosis, “I’m sorry to say, welcome to the sisterhood.” As her neurological disease worsened, Ms. Brenner lost the ability to speak, eat or walk and wore a neck brace. But she continued to blog until a few days before her death. Her final post ended with a blessing from the Jewish tradition, wishing her readers peace. Ms. Lampert said, “I always told her that I would make sure her obituary said she died after a long battle with the breast cancer industry.” | Barbara A Brenner;Breast Cancer Action;Obituary |
ny0026652 | [
"world",
"africa"
]
| 2013/01/20 | Africa Must Take Lead in Mali, France Says | PARIS — With French officials saying confidently on Saturday that an advance by Islamist militants on Bamako, Mali’s capital, had been halted, France’s foreign minister told African leaders that “our African friends need to take the lead” in a multilateral military intervention in Mali. The foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, spoke in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at a summit meeting to discuss how to accelerate the involvement of West African troops in Mali, although he acknowledged that it could be weeks before they were there in force. “Step by step, I think it’s a question from what I heard this morning of some days, some weeks,” said Mr. Fabius, referring to the time frame when the bulk of troops from the Economic Community of West African States, the regional group known as Ecowas , would arrive. France intervened militarily on Jan. 11 after the Malian government said it was afraid that Islamist militants, who control the north, could continue their push south and take over Bamako with little opposition from a dispirited army. Once the situation is more stable, France wants African troops to do most of the work to wrest the north from the Islamists, as called for under a United Nations Security Council resolution passed in December. French officials conceded, however, that there were disputes over how African participation would be financed and about the best way to transport troops to Mali. In Paris, French officials said the United States, while willing to help ferry African troops, wanted to bill France for the use of transport aircraft, which officials said would not go down well with the French. The Pentagon favors providing rapid help with transport and even with air-to-air refueling, but the White House is more reluctant, the officials said. But the officials said France and that the United States were sharing intelligence about Mali and the Sahel region of North Africa that was garnered from drones and other means, and that discussions with Washington continued amicably. The African troops also need equipment and training, and Mr. Fabius pointed to a donors’ meeting in Ethiopia scheduled for Jan. 29 as “a key moment.” The French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Saturday that France now had 2,000 troops in Mali, with more in the region, and that France was likely to add to its forces there. He said the Mali operation could involve at least 4,000 soldiers in the region, and French officials said they would put no fixed limit on the number of troops that might be required to restore the territorial integrity of Mali and drive back the Islamist fighters, who have ties to Al Qaeda. The French officials emphasized that the targets of the mission were the Islamists, not the Tuaregs or other Malians fighting for more autonomy or independence in the north. They also said Islamist terrorists in Mali had made four or five efforts to carry out operations in France in the last few years. Despite reports of French forces fighting on the ground in and around the village of Diabaly, Mr. Le Drian said that “there has been no ground combat” there, only airstrikes. He dismissed reports from Malian Army sources that French troops were fighting or even in the town. “I think someone is hallucinating,” he said. Residents have told local news agencies that the Islamists have left Diabaly, which they seized as an important way station on the road to the administrative capital, Ségou, north of Bamako. In the Islamist-controlled northern town of Gao on Saturday, young residents lynched an Islamist police commissioner in retaliation for the killing of a local radio journalist earlier in the day, according to a Twitter post from the office of Mali’s president , Dioncounda Traoré. The journalist had been suspected of working with foreign radio stations, Reuters reported. French airstrikes have halted the Islamist advance toward Mopti and nearby Sévaré, French officials said, while they confirmed that the village of Konna, north of Mopti, was now back in the hands of Mali’s government. Also on Saturday, Human Rights Watch said it had received what it called credible reports of abuses being committed by Malian security forces against Tuareg and Arab civilians. | Military;International relations;Mali;France;UN Security Council |
ny0058109 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2014/09/14 | Building Legacy, Obama Reshapes Appellate Bench | WASHINGTON — Democrats have reversed the partisan imbalance on the federal appeals courts that long favored conservatives, a little-noticed shift with far-reaching consequences for the law and President Obama’s legacy. For the first time in more than a decade, judges appointed by Democratic presidents considerably outnumber judges appointed by Republican presidents. The Democrats’ advantage has only grown since late last year when they stripped Republicans of their ability to filibuster the president’s nominees. Democratic appointees who hear cases full time now hold a majority of seats on nine of the 13 United States Courts of Appeals. When Mr. Obama took office, only one of those courts had more full-time judges nominated by a Democrat. The shift, one of the most significant but unheralded accomplishments of the Obama era, is likely to have ramifications for how the courts decide the legality of some of the president’s most controversial actions on health care, immigration and clean air. Since today’s Congress has been a graveyard for legislative accomplishment, these judicial confirmations are likely to be among its most enduring acts. “With all the gridlock, it is forgotten that one of the most profound changes this Congress made was filling the bench,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who led the push with the White House last summer to force the confirmation of three nominees to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after Republicans blocked them. “This will affect America for a generation, long after the internecine battles on legislative issues are forgotten.” With so many of the administration’s policies facing legal challenges, the increased likelihood that those cases could end up before more ideologically sympathetic judges is a reassuring development to the White House. Nowhere has this dynamic been more evident than at the District of Columbia court, which is considered the second most important appeals court in the nation, after the Supreme Court. The full appeals court agreed this month to hear Halbig v. Burwell, a case that could unravel the system of federal insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. Before Democrats curtailed Republicans’ right to use filibusters, which they accomplished by rewriting Senate rules through a maneuver known as “the nuclear option,” the District of Columbia court was dominated by judges who were appointed by Republican presidents. Today it has four Republican appointees and seven Democratic appointees, four of whom Mr. Obama picked. With control of the Senate at stake in November’s midterm elections, the success of Democrats in reshaping the courts is a reminder of the subtle power that the majority party has even in a moribund Congress. Republicans, who have watched with growing alarm as the Obama nominees passed through the Senate, have begun raising the issue as they try to win six seats they need to take the majority. “It’s no surprise that President Obama has been able to transform the ideological makeup of the courts — that happens when you have six years to pick judges and your party controls the Senate,” said Edward Whelan, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who was a senior official in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. “The best way for conservative voters to prevent further damage to the courts is to swing the Senate to Republican control in the elections this November.” Though the Obama administration was well on its way to leaving a lasting liberal legacy on the federal bench before Senate Democrats curbed the filibuster’s power, the rules change sped up the confirmation process. Today, the number of circuit judges appointed by Republican presidents is 77, compared with 95 by Democratic presidents, according to statistics kept by Russell R. Wheeler of the Brookings Institution. At the beginning of Mr. Obama’s first term, the picture was reversed: 99 appointed by Republicans and 65 by Democrats. Of course, a president’s political affiliation ultimately has no bearing on how a judge decides cases. History is full of examples when partisans were disappointed by a judge who turned out not to be the loyal ally they expected, like David H. Souter, the liberal-leaning former Supreme Court justice nominated by the first President George Bush. The Supreme Court remains the only court that Republicans can still try to shape through using the filibuster. When Democrats changed the Senate rules to lower the threshold for most confirmations, they left one exception: The minority party still can require a 60-vote majority to confirm a justice. The quickening pace of judicial confirmations is all the more surprising considering that at the end of his first term Mr. Obama was lagging well behind his two most immediate predecessors, Mr. Bush and Bill Clinton, in leaving an imprint on the courts. In part because his administration placed a higher priority on passing legislation like the Affordable Care Act than on confirming judges, Mr. Obama was slow to make nominations. And early in his first term, the president purposely stayed away from nominating people who could be pilloried in the confirmation process as overly ideological and further strain partisan tensions in the Senate. Image Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. Mr. Schumer, center, pushed to limit Republicans’ use of filibusters. Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times But as Senate Republicans started routinely using the filibuster to thwart Obama nominees as part of their broader strategy to stymie the president’s agenda, the White House and Senate Democrats shifted tactics. The result was not just to strong-arm nominations through the filibuster rules change that infuriated Republicans, but also to make sure left-leaning judges, some of them young and who could serve for decades, were nominated. “There were always politics in court appointments and in the functioning of the judiciary,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Judiciary Committee. “But the rawness and the starkness of the political clashes in the courts has highlighted the need to have people there that are of an ideological like mind.” Kathryn Ruemmler, Mr. Obama’s White House counsel until last spring, said Republicans, to their credit, had always been strategic about judicial appointments and the confirmation process. “Mitch McConnell cares about judges, and for good reason,” she said, referring to the Senate Republican leader. “Everybody understands how important the Supreme Court is. They don’t always understand how important the lower courts are.” Major pieces of Mr. Obama’s agenda are all but certain to face legal tests in the months and years to come. Among the most important to the administration are proposed climate change regulations to cut pollution from power plants, a matter that could end up before the District of Columbia court. A dozen states have already filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to block some of the new proposals. House Republicans have also filed a lawsuit contending that the president exceeded the limits of his authority when he delayed putting into place certain parts of the Affordable Care Act. That case, too, could end up at the District of Columbia court. The imprint of the Obama judges is already being felt. In July, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an opinion declaring Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, the author was an Obama appointee, Henry F. Floyd. That court now has 10 full-time judges appointed by Democratic presidents and five who are Republican appointees. When Mr. Obama took office, the court had a majority of Republican appointees. | United States courts of appeals;Barack Obama;US Politics;Appointments and Executive Changes |
ny0104029 | [
"sports",
"skiing"
]
| 2012/03/10 | Vonn Caps Dominating World Cup Title Run by Mastering Weakness | That Lindsey Vonn won her fourth World Cup overall championship on Friday was not surprising. The victory was historic — she is now second in overall titles among female skiers — but Vonn this year has so dominated her competition that the race has been anticlimactic for months. What was surprising is that Vonn earned her latest championship by winning a giant slalom race, the event that had once been her biggest weakness. In 10 previous World Cup seasons, Vonn had never been on a giant slalom podium. This season, she has won twice in the event and finished in the top five three other times. Which means that at age 27, and after 52 World Cup victories and two Olympic medals, Vonn is getting better. She has remained an overpowering force in the speed events of downhill and super-G and is fast becoming formidable in the technical disciplines of giant slalom and slalom as well. It does not bode well for the World Cup record book. “It’s by far more than I could have expected,” Vonn said Friday. “I’ve gotten on a roll, and it hasn’t stopped.” After Friday’s victory in Are, Sweden, Vonn is positioned to make a serious run at the record for most points in a season, held by Hermann Maier, who recorded 2,000 points in 2000. Vonn has 1,808 points heading into a slalom race on Saturday, with four more races next week. A victory in each race is worth 100 points. Vonn has a 554-point lead over her closest competition. Vonn conceded Friday that she had been thinking about Maier’s 2,000 points for more than a month. “Trying to beat the 2,000 barrier is extremely significant,” Vonn said. “The opportunity may never happen again in my career.” The women’s point record is held by Janica Kostelic with 1,970. The overall championship is Vonn’s 15th career World Cup title, counting season-long titles handed out in the five race disciplines. This season, Vonn, who has won 11 times, has already locked up championships in downhill and super-combined. She also has the chance to win the super-G and giant slalom titles with one race remaining in each discipline. The next record in jeopardy, even if it may take years, is Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s record of six overall titles — the most by any racer, male or female. It has been a season of change for Vonn. In November, she announced she was divorcing her husband, Thomas, who had also acted as a coach and manager. She also switched to using longer, more rigid but faster men’s skis in every race, a daring change. Vonn had been skiing on men’s skis in the speed events, but to do so in the more turn-filled, precise technical events took courage and a resolve to always ski aggressively. Vonn called that decision the most significant reason for her success in races like Friday’s. “The men’s skis force me to take a straighter line,” she said. “It forces me to ski more like a man.” There is added risk in that approach, but as Vonn said: “The men’s skis are also more stable in icy or rough conditions. That’s where they stand out. It gives me that little extra.” There were other changes evident while listening to Vonn on Friday. “I’m having more fun with my life,” she said. “The whole season in general has been more fun. I’ve been able to spend more time with my teammates.” As an example, Vonn on Friday night was heading to a party commemorating the 28th birthday of her teammate Julia Mancuso. While the two have been friends since they were young teens, their relationship had some strained moments during the 2010 Winter Olympics. If there was a rift, it has obviously healed. On Friday, Mancuso, who finished eighth, joked that a good birthday present would be if Vonn handed over her prize money for winning the race. Laughing, Vonn answered: “I bought her a nice present. Maybe next time.” | World Cup (Skiing);Vonn Lindsey;Skiing;Alpine Skiing |
ny0286537 | [
"business"
]
| 2016/09/14 | Care.com Creates a $500 Limited Benefit for Gig-Economy Workers | In one of the earliest moves to bring employee benefits to workers in the so-called gig economy, an online marketplace that connects millions of families with babysitters, nannies and caregivers announced on Wednesday that it would provide up to $500 a year for workers to use for health care, transportation or education expenses. The new benefit will be offered by Care.com to the caregivers who provide its services. It represents a concrete, if limited, approach to a problem that has long bedeviled workers who receive income from multiple sources: Employers or clients — often individuals or families — rarely have deep enough pockets to fund the employee benefits that larger companies typically offer. The Care.com solution to this problem is to earmark a small portion of the transaction fee it charges many families toward the caregiver benefit and allow the contributions to accrue across jobs. “As freelance labor moves to work for different people, their benefits should move with them,” said Sheila Marcelo, the founder and chief executive of Care.com. “We haven’t seen anyone do what we’re doing. We think it’s groundbreaking.” The issue has gained increasing attention with the growth in recent years of platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which allow workers to complete jobs on an episodic basis. Last November, a group of prominent business leaders, worker advocates and policy specialists, including several tech executives, signed a document proclaiming the need for a system of portable benefits for gig-economy workers. Ms. Marcelo was among the executives who signed the document. Despite the rising interest, however, there have been strikingly few accomplishments to date. In 2012, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a labor organization representing cabdrivers, persuaded the Taxi and Limousine Commission to require taxi medallion owners to deduct 6 cents per fare from the driver’s credit card receipts to fund portable benefits for drivers, like health care services and disability coverage. The New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan struck down the regulation in 2014. (Corey Johnson, a member of the New York City Council, has said he plans to introduce legislation aimed at creating a similar fund.) Earlier this year, Uber reached an agreement with the regional branch of a prominent union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, to create an association to represent roughly 35,000 Uber drivers in New York City. The drivers association could eventually set up and administer a fund for benefits like paid time off. Some worker advocates said the Care.com development could help generate momentum on the issue. “We’re starting to see the first signs of life, where companies see it as in their interest to collect money for workers to get benefits,” said Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of the Freelancers Union , which promotes the interests of independent workers. “It’s a really important first step.” The new Care.com benefit will be funded by diverting two percentage points of the 12 percent transaction fee that it charges families who use its platform to pay their caregivers. The caregivers can accrue an unlimited amount of benefit money in a given year, but can spend only up to $500. The company said it arrived at this figure because it is equivalent to what a typical employee pays over six months for pharmacy benefits or vision insurance. Any amount the caregivers do not spend will be rolled over to the following year. Ms. Marcelo conceded that a large percentage of families do not use the Care.com platform to pay the more than nine million caregivers they find there, noting that the payment option is very recent. But she said she expected families to rely more on the company’s payments feature in the future because their caregivers, mindful of the new benefit, would nudge them in that direction. Sherwin Sheik, the chief executive of CareLinx , a smaller service that focuses more narrowly on providing in-home care to older adults and patients with chronic conditions, applauded the move and said his company was also considering ways to bring more benefits to the caregivers on its platforms. CareLinx already provides professional liability, auto accident and property damage insurance for most of its roughly 160,000 caregivers. “These workers a lot of times are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “We all need to do what we can do to help these caregivers earn more and save.” Still, some worker advocates were concerned by the development, arguing that any success in creating portable benefits for gig-economy workers could implicitly concede the fight over whether such workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors. Employees receive a variety of rights and protections, including minimum wage, overtime pay and a federally backed right to organize; contractors have very few. “Benefits can make you a little less helpless,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, “but it doesn’t fill that void.” | Freelancer;Employee Benefits;E Commerce;Freelancers Union;Uber |
ny0144758 | [
"business"
]
| 2008/10/09 | Pending Home Sales Rise 7.4% | WASHINGTON (AP) — Pending home sales rose 7.4 percent from July to August, an industry group said Wednesday in an unexpected piece of positive news for the battered housing market. The group, the National Association of Realtors, said its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 93.4 from an upwardly revised July reading of 87. The reading was the highest since June 2007. Home sales are considered pending when the seller has accepted an offer but the deal has not yet closed. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag before a sale is completed. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson IFR had predicted the index would fall to 84.9. The index, which sunk to a record low of 83 in March, stood at 85.8 in August 2007. Sales are picking up in places where housing prices have declined severely, including Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and Rhode Island and the Washington, D.C., area, said Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist. Still, Mr. Yun does not expect home prices to rebound until next year and expects only a modest gain — 2 to 3 percent — in 2009. | Housing;Sales;United States Economy;Subprime Mortgage Crisis |
ny0087192 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2015/07/01 | Average Home Price in Manhattan Reaches $1.87 Million, a New High | After flirting with records for more than a year, the average sales price of a Manhattan apartment hit a new high in the second quarter, according to at least two reports to be released on Wednesday by major real estate brokerage firms. A strong local economy, combined with high demand and not enough listings, pushed the average sales price up 11 percent, to $1.87 million, compared with the same period in 2014, surpassing the previous peak of $1.77 million reached in the first quarter of last year, according to Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the author of a report for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The median sales price, which measures the middle of the market and is less affected by high-end sales, was $980,000, just behind the record of $1.025 million set in the second quarter of 2008, before the financial crisis hit, according to Miller Samuel. “It’s like everyone revved up their engines again,” said Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of the Corcoran Group, which put the record average sales price at $1.81 million and the median at $960,000. “We saw continuous demand across all price points, buoyed by some exciting new developments that have come on the market and a continued influx of buyers from China.” “In all my years of doing this,” she added, “I have never seen such a hunger for New York City real estate.” Other market reports using different numbers and methodologies put the overall average price just shy of previous records, but a number of reports posted records in a variety of categories. The average price of new development and resale condos reached a new high of $2.41 million in the second quarter, according to Douglas Elliman. Reports by Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens noted that prices of resale apartments broke new barriers for the same period, and put the average price of resale apartments at $1.57 million and the median price at $920,700. The higher prices were driven by two key factors. Inventory growth has begun to stall, especially in the resale market, where potential sellers are reluctant to list their properties as they are often outbid, turned down for loans or simply cannot find what they are looking for. The number of available listings barely budged, up 1.3 percent in the second quarter to 5,730, compared with a year ago, according to Douglas Elliman. At the same time, most of the fresh listings making their way onto the market are coming from new developments, which have primarily offered larger residences at higher prices. “Many of the developers were very smart in the type of product they brought to the market,” Ms. Leibman said. “Developers helped to create and fuel the demand by offering these high-end luxury condos with views and amenities, and foreign buyers in particular have really responded. Everybody keeps raising the bar.” The rising prices have also contributed to a drop in sales, said Diane M. Ramirez, chief executive of Halstead Property, which found that the number of reported closings declined 10 percent to 2,430 in the second quarter from the same period last year. “Sellers are holding firm in their price, and buyers are only going forward if the price makes sense to them,” Ms. Ramirez said. “So you are seeing fewer closings.” Ms. Ramirez said if buyers can’t find what they are looking for or sellers refuse to price appropriately, the lack of inventory is exacerbated. “It is a vicious cycle, and buyers are continuing to be frustrated,” she added. Mr. Miller, who authored the Douglas Elliman report, pointed out that the number of sales fell year-over-year for the fourth consecutive quarter, but noted that those decreases were coming off a flurry of sales activity in 2013. “It’s a reset from the record sales we had in 2013 and early 2014 that were a result of pent-up demand,” he said. Value, however, is a relative term when it comes to Manhattan real estate. “We look at the prices and we don’t even blink, because we’re so used to them,” said Dottie Herman, the chief executive of Douglas Elliman. “But anyplace else, they’re outrageous.” | Real Estate; Housing;Price;Manhattan;NYC |
ny0091729 | [
"us"
]
| 2015/08/27 | Documents Show Vester Lee Flanagan’s Turbulent Tenure at TV Station Before Virginia Shooting | In March 2012, Vester Lee Flanagan II achieved what he had been seeking: a return to television news after a long hiatus. But documents filed in a civil court case showed that soon after Mr. Flanagan’s arrival at WDBJ, a television station in Roanoke, Va., station executives and rank-and-file employees were deeply concerned about his conduct. The documents were exhibits in a lawsuit that Mr. Flanagan pursued against WDBJ after he was fired by the station, which was grieving on Wednesday after the authorities said Mr. Flanagan killed two of its employees , Alison Parker and Adam Ward. There was “a heated confrontation” with another reporter on April 28, 2012. Less than a month later, Mr. Flanagan, who used the name Bryce Williams while on the air, clashed with a photographer. And six days after that, there was another dispute between Mr. Flanagan and a photographer. The conduct, a station executive told Mr. Flanagan in a memorandum, “resulted in one or more of your co-workers feeling threatened or uncomfortable,” the documents showed. “We want you to work on the tone of your interpersonal relationships and exercise great care in dealing with stressful situations or disagreements and your response to them,” the executive, Dan Dennison, wrote. “You need to always work as a member of a collaborative team and allow your teammates to do their jobs and not assume that you alone are concerned with high quality standards.” At the time, Mr. Dennison, who declined an interview request on Wednesday, cautioned Mr. Flanagan that further trouble could lead to dismissal. But station records showed that Mr. Flanagan’s tenure became no less turbulent. About two months after his initial missive to Mr. Flanagan, Mr. Dennison wrote that Mr. Flanagan’s “behaviors continue to cause a great deal of friction” and that the new multimedia journalist’s job was in jeopardy. Mr. Dennison ordered Mr. Flanagan to contact the company’s employee assistance program. “We will continue assisting you with your professional growth and development,” Mr. Dennison wrote, “but we can no longer afford to have you engage in behaviors that constitute creation of a hostile work environment.” Mr. Flanagan, however, continued to draw criticism. In November 2012, Mr. Dennison said Mr. Flanagan had breached the company’s journalism standards when he wore a sticker supporting President Obama. And that December, Mr. Dennison wrote a memorandum that detailed what he described as “recent examples of lack of thorough reporting, poor on-air performance or time management issues.” As the winter wore on, station officials decided to fire Mr. Flanagan. When they told him, an internal memorandum recounted, he responded, “You better call police because I’m going to make a big stink. This is not right.” Station officials chose to contact the police, and officers physically removed Mr. Flanagan. In one instance, one document said, Mr. Flanagan tossed a baseball cap at one executive. Another memo said Mr. Flanagan handed over a wooden cross to an executive, saying, “You’ll need this.” As Mr. Flanagan left, the records showed, he complained to an officer. “You know what they did?” one memorandum quoted Mr. Flanagan as saying, “They had a watermelon back there for a week and basically” used a racial epithet to refer to him. Mr. Ward, a cameraman with WDBJ who was killed on Wednesday, recorded the dismissal, and records showed that Mr. Flanagan briefly turned his attention toward Mr. Ward on the day of his firing and told him to “lose your big gut.” Mr. Flanagan later sued the station for, among other complaints, retaliation, wrongful termination and racial discrimination. In May 2014, Mr. Flanagan wrote to a judge in Roanoke and said that his experiences at the station were “nothing short of vile, disgusting and inexcusable,” and he demanded that a jury of African-American women hear a civil lawsuit against the station. The case was dismissed in 2014 after a judge found that the matters had been “fully and completely resolved and compromised.” | Vester Lee Flanagan,Bryce Williams;WDBJ-TV;Adam Ward;Alison Parker;Roanoke VA;Lawsuits;Virginia;Murders and Homicides;News media,journalism |
ny0221985 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2010/11/03 | Kurile Islands Dispute Between Japan and Russia Intensifies | TOKYO — A diplomatic clash between Japan and Russia over disputed islands intensified on Tuesday when Japan summoned home its ambassador to Moscow, a day after President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia angered Tokyo by visiting one of the islands. Russian officials said they were perplexed by Japan’s response and upped the ante by saying that Mr. Medvedev was planning a return trip to the islands. “This morning, I spoke to Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev, who expressed his satisfaction with his trip to Kunashir,” said Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, during a news conference in Oslo, referring to the island called Kunashiri by Japan. “President Medvedev also said that he plans to visit the other islands.” Mr. Medvedev’s trip to the island, which sits at the southern end of the Russian-controlled Kurile Islands chain, was seen as a diplomatic snub in Tokyo, coming just weeks after Japan seemed to suffer a setback in a territorial dispute with another neighbor , China. In that standoff, Japanese prosecutors released a Chinese trawler captain who had been arrested near a different group of disputed islands after Beijing raised the pressure by detaining four Japanese businessmen and cutting off high-level talks. Japan’s foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, said the nation’s ambassador to Russia would return to Tokyo to brief officials on Mr. Medvedev’s visit on Monday to one of the disputed islands, which were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Russia will not recall its ambassador in Japan to Moscow. Both sides confirmed that Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Mr. Medvedev would still meet, as planned, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama, Japan, next week. “We will say what we ought to say,” Mr. Maehara said, “but our intention to aim for settling the territorial dispute with Russia and conclude a bilateral peace treaty to boost our two nations’ economic ties remains unchanged.” Mr. Kan has tried unsuccessfully to hold a formal meeting with Chinese leaders since the standoff over the trawler captain in September. The arrest set off anti-Japanese protests in China, while Beijing’s strong response prompted Japanese leaders to reassess their nation’s growing economic dependence on China. On Tuesday in Beijing, a Chinese spokesman rebuffed an offer by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to mediate the dispute. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, also criticized Mrs. Clinton for saying that the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, fall under the protection of Washington’s security pact with Tokyo. “The dispute over the islands with Japan is a matter between China and Japan,” Mr. Ma said in a statement, and the United States should “correct its wrongful stance immediately.” Japan’s dispute with Russia has divided the two countries for more than half a century, preventing them from signing a formal peace treaty to conclude World War II. Russia refers to the disputed islands as the Southern Kuriles, while Japan calls them the Northern Territories. Mr. Medvedev is the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit the disputed islands, and he made it clear that despite Japan’s demands, Russia had no plans to cede the territory, which is rich with minerals and fish. “There are so many beautiful places in Russia!” wrote Mr. Medvedev on his TwitPic page , under a photograph he had taken during his visit to the island the Russians call Kunashir. The visit clearly shored up Mr. Medvedev’s popularity at home, at a moment when his approval ratings are — for the first time in his presidency — equal to those of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin. As soon as Japan’s prime minister warned Mr. Medvedev against making the trip, in September, he had to go through with it, said Konstantin V. Remchukov, editor of the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, in a radio commentary. “If President Medvedev wants to be president after 2012, then he should show the domestic conservative electorate that he makes up his own mind about where he flies,” Mr. Remchukov said. | Japan;Russia;International Relations;Kurile Islands |
ny0098172 | [
"business",
"dealbook"
]
| 2015/06/10 | Wall St. Courts Start-Ups It Once May Have Ignored | On the first day of a hackathon at the Manhattan headquarters of Goldman Sachs, participants from the Wall Street bank showed up in suits. The programmers from Kensho, a start-up that had recently gotten money from Goldman, were there in jeans and ripped shirts. The next day, many of the Goldman employees took off their jackets and ties. And the day after that, many of the Goldman employees were wearing the gray hoodies and Beats headphones that had been made especially for the event. (This being Goldman Sachs, the headphones were custom engraved — “GS Kensho Hackathon 2015” — to commemorate the occasion.) The evolution of the dress code during the hackathon was one indication of the changing relationship between Wall Street banks like Goldman and start-ups like Kensho, a data analytics company, which received a $15 million investment late last year in a financing round led by Goldman. In the past, Goldman and its big competitors kept their distance from start-ups like Kensho that were trying to disrupt the Wall Street business model — especially start-ups as young as Kensho, which was founded in 2013. Goldman and many other Wall Street banks have historically done most of their significant technological developments in-house, viewing their business as the product of decades of experience. Now, though, there is a growing recognition across Wall Street that the old habit of ignoring the upstarts may be foolhardy in an era when many of the best young talents are going to Silicon Valley and not New York City. “There’s a certain cultural moment now that is quite palpable,” Daniel J. Nadler, the 32-year-old chief executive of Kensho, said about the hackathon and the broader engagement with start-ups like his. Wall Street’s recent cooperation with financially minded start-ups has taken many forms. Citi, like several other banks, has established its own venture capital fund, which it has used to invest in the wealth management start-up Betterment and the payment company Square — both of which are developing entirely outside Citi’s walls. Goldman has been particularly active, putting money into Kensho and the machine-learning company Context Relevant, alongside Bank of America and Bloomberg. Goldman has also teamed up with other banks to invest in companies like Perzo, a messaging start-up that has been acquired by a broader venture, known as Symphony, in cooperation with the banks. Symphony will provide instant messaging and access to research and is aimed, in part, at challenging Bloomberg’s dominant role in providing financial technology to banks. These investments in outside technology companies are not entirely new. At the beginning of the last decade, banks jointly financed new stock trading platforms like Direct Edge. But in the past, banks tended to wait until technology companies were well developed before making an investment or trying out the services. When possible, banks tried to build technology themselves. “Historically, banks have looked at the ‘build versus buy’ decision and have focused on ‘build,’ ” said Stu Taylor, a former banker who co-founded the start-up Algomi, which provides trading tools for banks. Now, Mr. Taylor said, “Not only are there lots of different new entrants in the tech space, the banks are very, very open. You will generally get meetings if you ask for them.” Bankers and start-ups give several reasons for the changing attitudes. Perhaps the most important is that there are simply more start-ups working on financial problems — and banks do not want to miss out. The pace of venture capital investing in financial technology, or fintech, has grown three times as fast as the overall growth rate of start-up investing over the last three years, according to a study released by Accenture last year. At the same time, the banks need to spend most of their technology budget on improving the enormous compliance systems that have become necessary since the financial crisis. “You are seeing less budget for innovation,” said David Easthope, a financial technology analyst at Celent. “That’s why it’s much easier to co-opt it or invest in it or bring it in.” Banks are also recognizing that they are no longer the first choice of recent college graduates, because of the recent successes of Silicon Valley. Wall Street, for its part, is looking less attractive after the financial crisis, especially as the big salaries available in finance have shrunk somewhat. “There is a recognition that the world has changed and some of the best engineering talent doesn’t automatically go to Wall Street,” Mr. Easthope said. “It’s important to harness that talent.” Most banks have decided to go after this talent through investments rather than by purchasing the new technology companies outright. In some cases, the banks are even spinning out promising technology that they have in-house. Redi, a trading software company, was previously inside Goldman Sachs, but is now an independent company with investors from several banks. The company’s chief executive, Rishi Nangalia, said the independent structure was more attractive because clients had grown wary of using software that was operated by a single bank. For potential employees, Redi provides a workplace that has the freedom of a start-up with some of the old perks of the financial industry. “The talent we have been able to bring in is because we have this structure that is very unlike a bank, but they are not willing to completely leave caution behind,” Mr. Nangalia said. Dress codes on Wall Street are often cited as a symbol of what turns off young recruits. At Kensho, Mr. Nadler said that he had several conversations with Goldman executives about whether Kensho’s employees would adapt to Goldman’s more formal standards when visiting the Goldman headquarters. The bank’s executives told Mr. Nadler that they did not want his employees to bend to Goldman’s mores. “Why do you have to mold to our conventions?” Mr. Nadler remembers a Goldman trading executive asking him. | Banking and Finance;Goldman Sachs Group;Kensho;Entrepreneurship;Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Startup;Citigroup |
ny0093208 | [
"sports"
]
| 2015/08/06 | Bob Timmons, 91, a Demanding Coach Who Developed a Star Runner, Is Dead | Bob Timmons, a former wartime Marine whose rugged brand of coaching helped Jim Ryun become America’s most celebrated mile runner of the 1960s, died on Tuesday in Lawrence, Kan. He was 91. The University of Kansas announced his death on its website. Timmons was the university’s track and cross-country head coach from 1965 to 1988, winning four N.C.A.A. titles and 15 Big Eight titles and nurturing a stellar roster of athletes who broke 16 world records and won seven Olympic berths. None of his charges were as celebrated as Ryun, a tall, gangly Kansan who loomed over his 5-foot-4 coach. Ryun ran in three Olympics and became a world-record holder in the 880-yard and 1,500-meter events. Timmons had earlier coached him at Wichita East High School in Kansas, where, in 1963, Ryun made the team as a 16-year-old sophomore after failing to make his junior high school track squad. In his first meet, Ryun ran the mile in 4 minutes 32 seconds. By his fourth, his time was down to 4:21, and Timmons told him he had the potential to become the first high school runner to better the magic goal of four minutes. A year later Ryun did just that, running the mile in 3:59.0. A year after that, he won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship in 3:55.3. The fastest time of his career was 3:51.1, in 1967, a world record that lasted almost nine years. Timmons practiced a kind of tough but exuberant discipline that harked back to his three years in the Marines, when he fought in the South Pacific during World War II. “Bob Timmons was probably the most demanding track coach of all time, pushing his runners to the brink — propelling some to greatness and others to the scrap heap,” the magazine Runner’s World wrote in 2009 . The article went on to say, “To succeed in his program, you had to trust that the upbeat drill sergeant knew your body better than you did.” Image Coach Timmons won four N.C.A.A. titles and 15 Big Eight titles while at the University of Kansas. Credit William P. Straeter/Associated Press Timmons once dropped an athlete from his college team for drinking beer in the off-season. He once sent a team captain home from a national championship meet because he had not shaved. But in midcareer Timmons relaxed the reins, concluding that he had been using outdated standards. “I used a sport to sell a way of life,” he told Track & Field News in 1973. “I’m feeling I can’t make a contribution to the life of the athlete anymore, that I can’t change them; they’re too old and mature. So we’re winning, but I feel like a failure. I can’t cope with what I see. “But when you come down to it, the problem was me. I had to get out of coaching or change.” He told his athletes of his problem, and he changed. Robert Leroy Timmons was born on June 20, 1924, in Joplin, Mo., and raised in Pittsburg, Kan. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from Kansas. He coached Kansas high school teams in track, cross-country and swimming for 14 years. One high school swimmer, Jeff Farrell, went on to win two gold medals in the 1960 Olympics. Timmons became the University of Kansas’ freshman track coach in 1964, and a year later, after a brief stint as Oregon State’s coach, he returned to Kansas as head coach. In addition to Ryun, he coached such outstanding athletes as the sprinters Cliff Wiley and Mark Lutz, the Olympic javelin thrower Sam Colson, the Olympic pole-vaulters Jan Johnson and Terry Porter, and the high jumper Tyke Peacock. Seventy-seven of his athletes were N.C.A.A. all-Americans. After retiring from Kansas, Timmons became an artist, a sculptor and a high school track and volleyball coach. He gave the University of Kansas his 96-acre farm outside Lawrence, Rim Rock Farm, as its cross-country course. (Ryun went on to serve in Congress, from 1996 to 2007, as a Republican representing a Kansas district.) Timmons is survived by his wife, Pat; a son, Dan; three daughters, Rebecca, Priscilla and Susan, known as Tammie; and two grandchildren, the university said. Timmons felt he might be remembered as a hard-line coach. But Candace Dunback, who oversees the University of Kansas Hall of Fame, once said: “He’s expressed regret to me about being too hard. He felt Jim Ryun could handle it, but not everyone was Jim.” Ryun had no regrets. “There were those who didn’t make it under the Timmons program,” he said, “but the larger number of us did and became not just better athletes but, more importantly, better human beings.” | Obituary;Running;Jim Ryun;University of Kansas;Bob Timmons |
ny0036041 | [
"sports",
"tennis"
]
| 2014/03/16 | Simona Halep Nabs Romania’s First Top-5 WTA Ranking | INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — With light, springy footwork and a combination of defensive speed and offensive power, Simona Halep has been moving through courts and draws on the women’s tennis tour with considerable ease in recent months. On Monday, Halep will spring forward further, into the top five of the WTA rankings. “It’s very special because I will be the first Romanian in history,” Halep said of reaching the No. 5 ranking. “That’s amazing for me.” The previous best by a Romanian woman was No. 7 by Irina Spirlea in 1997. Among Romanian men, Ilie Nastase was ranked No. 1 in the mid-1970s. What is most remarkable is not Halep’s ranking itself, but her dizzying climb. Just 10 months ago, she was ranked 64th and was required to play in the qualifying draw of the WTA tournament in Rome. Since May, Halep, 22, has won 57 matches, the most on the WTA Tour during that stretch, ahead of the 51 by top-ranked Serena Williams. Halep’s seven titles in that period are also a tour high. The tournaments she has won have been successively more prestigious and have come on clay, grass, and outdoor and indoor hardcourts in Europe, North America and Asia. At the Australian Open in January, she made her debut in the top 10 by reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time. While Halep’s career accelerates, one thing she has come to appreciate with her winning ways is her increased ability to stay put, no longer repacking and flying to the next tournament quickly after an early-round loss. Image Halep returns a shot during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Credit Stephen Dunn/Getty Images “The rhythm, now it’s different, because before, I could play just a few matches, one or two, and I had to change the place,” Halep said. “But now, I stay longer and I’m enjoying every time.” Halep’s recently hired coach, Wim Fissette, credits her improved play to increased aggressiveness. Fissette, a Belgian who worked with Kim Clijsters during her successful comeback, said Halep told him that before her results improved, she was scared to play assertively. “She told me she put too much pressure on herself and, therefore, she was always starting with the plan of making no mistakes, no unforced errors,” Fissette said. “The focus was too much on that, and she was too defensive. At one moment, she really told herself to be more offensive, to play more aggressive. And that’s what she did, and she gained confidence by winning matches and she became more and more aggressive.” Third-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska, who ousted Halep in the semifinals on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open here in this desert resort town, had lost to Halep in the semifinals at Doha, Qatar, last month, where Halep won her biggest title to date. Radwanska took note of her opponent’s prowess on offense and defense. “She was playing unbelievable that day,” Radwanska said. “Well, I didn’t play bad. I really didn’t. I wasn’t even mad after the match because I was really doing everything right but just everything was coming back, and most of the time, it was for winners.” Halep grew up in Constanta on the Black Sea and began to play when she was 4, following in her older brother’s footsteps. She found success in the junior ranks, winning the junior title at the French Open when she was 16. Halep credits much of her success to her first childhood coach, Ene Nicusor, who, she said, taught her discipline and professionalism. As Halep and her success continue to arrive ahead of schedule, her manager, the 1978 French Open women’s champion Virginia Ruzici, says Halep can emerge as one of the best clay-court players in an era in which few of the top contenders have shown a natural affinity for the surface. “Being a very good, typical clay-court player with movement, perfect movement on clay, sliding, I think she has a good chance,” Ruzici said by phone from her home in Paris. “I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year, or if it is going to happen in the next two years or so, but I really think she has a good chance to really win a Grand Slam tournament.” | Tennis;Simona Halep;Women's Tennis Assn;Romania |
ny0072742 | [
"business"
]
| 2015/03/12 | Odds of Being a Champ at 95? Pretty Good | Larry Johnson keeps himself busy in his retirement — 90-minute indoor cycling classes three times a week and upper-body workouts on the alternate days, taking Saturdays off. In the winter, he goes into the mountains above his Albuquerque home to ski at least once a week. Sometimes those Saturdays bring 35-mile bike rides along Albuquerque’s trails, the better to keep in practice for his cycling competitions. Mr. Johnson, who will turn 95 on April 5, hopes to sweep four cycling events — the 5K, 10K, 20K and 40K — at the National Senior Games in Minneapolis this summer. Make that expects to win: He may well be the only person in the 95-and-over group. “Unless some stranger comes up, I don’t have any competition,” said Mr. Johnson, who retired only 10 years ago from the ski patrol and before that had worked in the nuclear industry. “All I have to do is finish, and that won’t be a problem.” Generations ago, there may have been a few older people participating in sports — “older” meaning maybe age 40 — but now there are age-group sports for almost everything. Age categorization is no longer limited to 40 and up; it extends to 60 and above, 70 and above, even 95 and above, as in Mr. Johnson’s case. And the sports with age-group competitions are not always those typically associated with retirement. Rodeo, for example. Jack Hicken was 35 when some younger friends of his, with whom he rode horses in rural Alberta, told him they competed in the cowboy sport. “It was ego,” said Mr. Hicken, a former teacher who lives in Stirling, Alberta. “If those young guys could rope calves, then I would learn and beat them.” He is now 78 and still ropes calves, in the senior rodeo 68-and-over category. That means jumping off a moving horse after roping a calf, then tying the calf up — a sequence that results in a lot of bruises in a half-minute ride. “I don’t win much anymore because of the younger guys — the 68-year-olds — but it is still just fun,” Mr. Hicken said. Image Ethel Lehmann, 85, with Joe Lisanti, a member of her softball team in Florida. Credit Eve Edelheit for The New York Times He also teams up with a friend, Effie Simpson, in a mixed event called ribbon-rope, in which he ropes the calf, then she grabs a ribbon attached to the calf squirming on the ground. Ms. Simpson is 80 and “tough as nails,” Mr. Hicken said. They compete in the 60-and-over group at rodeos all over Western Canada, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. “My kids don’t complain,” Mr. Hicken said. “In fact, my son in Colorado always tells his friends I am his hero just for doing it.” According to Emilio Pardo, president of Life Reimagined, a division of AARP, 38 percent of men 55 and older and 33 percent of women in the same age group exercise or play sports regularly, up from 33 percent of men and 31 percent of women three years ago. Census figures suggest that the number in older sports age categories will grow. The number of Americans 70 to 74 is expected to rise to 14.7 million by 2020, up from 10 million in 2012, and the number over 85 is forecast to rise to 6.7 million, from 5.9 million over the same period. Sports are adapting to the demographic changes. “You have more opportunities these days for organized play,” Mr. Pardo said. “The quality of play in these leagues is awesome. It is a new curve of life. There is an aspiration of an extra nine or 10 years our parents didn’t have and we want to do the most we can with them.” Ethel Lehmann played softball when she was young and just decided not to stop. Now, at 85, retired in Largo, Fla., she plays infield for the coyly named Kids and Cubs team — the only woman on an elite 75-and-older men’s team. She gets — and takes — no guff from male opponents and teammates. “They had not expected to have a woman be good, but now they like me to play,” said Mrs. Lehmann, who also does age-group track events in the Senior Games. For this year’s 85-and-older category, she is trying the triple jump for the first time. “The games are fun and the camaraderie is great. For the time we are out there, we aren’t just grandmas, but athletes,” she said. Ruby Rott, 81, doesn’t mind being a grandma when it comes to watching her grandchildren play — several are college athletes in volleyball, baseball or gymnastics. She did not do anything on her own until age 55, when she started taking tennis lessons. Now Ms. Rott of St. Paul is looking forward this year to her 12th semiannual National Senior Games. She is also looking forward to watching her inspiration, her daughter, Katy Call, compete at her first Senior Games, as a 51-year-old volleyball player. “I used to watch her play in college and be amazed, so I knew I had to try something and tennis seemed easy,” Ms. Rott said. “That we will be together as seniors is just the cap.” Isabelle Daniels Holston had a real moment in the sun, placing fourth in the 100-meter dash and getting a bronze medal in the sprint relay in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Most of her friends in the elite running world stopped competing, but she never did, and she will be out there again, doing sprints, the shot put and discus as a 77-year-old in the 75-to-79 age group this summer. “God gave me a gift, so I try to use it,” said Ms. Holston, who grew up, she said, chasing pigs on a Georgia farm. “My brothers couldn’t catch the pigs, but I could, so my daddy convinced me to run.” She now lives in Decatur, just outside Atlanta. “Now it doesn’t matter whether I win,” she said. “Just to compete and meet other people who have outlasted time, that is what is rewarding.” | Old age,elderly,senior citizens;Sports;Retirement;AARP;Albuquerque;Alberta;Florida;Georgia;Minneapolis |
ny0196775 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2009/10/31 | French Ideal of Bicycle-Sharing Meets Reality | PARIS — Just as Le Corbusier ’s white cruciform towers once excited visions of the industrial-age city of the future, so Vélib’, Paris ’s bicycle rental system, inspired a new urban ethos for the era of climate change . Residents here can rent a sturdy bicycle from hundreds of public stations and pedal to their destinations, an inexpensive, healthy and low-carbon alternative to hopping in a car or bus. But this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes , which, when the system’s startup and maintenance expenses are included, cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa . Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped. With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them. And along with the dent in the city-subsidized budget has been a blow to the Parisian psyche. “The symbol of a fixed-up, eco-friendly city has become a new source for criminality,” Le Monde mourned in an editorial over the summer. “The Vélib’ was aimed at civilizing city travel. It has increased incivilities.” The heavy, sandy-bronze Vélib’ bicycles are seen as an accoutrement of the “bobos,” or “bourgeois-bohèmes,” the trendy urban middle class, and they stir resentment and covetousness. They are often being vandalized in a socially divided Paris by resentful, angry or anarchic youth, the police and sociologists say. Bruno Marzloff, a sociologist who specializes in transportation , said, “One must relate this to other incivilities, and especially the burning of cars,” referring to gangs of immigrant youths burning cars during riots in the suburbs in 2005. He said he believed there was social revolt behind Vélib’ vandalism, especially for suburban residents, many of them poor immigrants who feel excluded from the glamorous side of Paris. “It is an outcry, a form of rebellion; this violence is not gratuitous,” Mr. Marzloff said. “There is an element of negligence that means, ‘We don’t have the right to mobility like other people, to get to Paris it’s a huge pain, we don’t have cars, and when we do, it’s too expensive and too far.’ ” Used mainly for commuting in the urban core of the city, the Vélib’ program is by many measures a success. After swiping a credit card for a deposit at an electronic docking station, a rider pays one euro per day, or 29 euros (about $43) for an annual pass, for unlimited access to the bikes for 30-minute periods that can be extended for a small fee. Daily use averages 50,000 to 150,000 trips, depending on the season, and the bicycles have proved to be a hit with tourists, who help power the economy. But the extra-solid construction and electronic docks mean the bikes, made in Hungary , are expensive, and not everyone shares the spirit of joint public property promoted by Paris’s Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoë. “We miscalculated the damage and the theft,” said Albert Asséraf, director of strategy, research and marketing at JCDecaux , the outdoor-advertising company that is a major financer and organizer of the project. “But we had no reference point in the world for this kind of initiative.” At least 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 8,000 damaged so badly that they had to be replaced — nearly 80 percent of the initial stock, Mr. Asséraf said. JCDecaux must repair some 1,500 bicycles a day. The company maintains 10 repair shops and a workshop on a boat that moves up and down the Seine. JCDecaux reinforced the bicycles’ chains and baskets and added better theft protection, strengthening the mechanisms that attach them to the electronic parking docks, since an incompletely secured bike is much easier to steal. But the damage and theft continued. “We made the bike stronger, ran ad campaigns against vandalism and tried to better inform people on the Web,” Mr. Asséraf said. But “the real solution is just individual respect.” In 2008 , the number of infractions related to Vélib’ vandalism rose 54 percent, according to the Paris police. “We found many stolen Vélib’s in Paris’s troubled neighborhoods,” said Marie Lajus, a spokeswoman for the police. “It’s not profit-making delinquency, but rather young boys, especially from the suburbs, consider the Vélib’ an object that has no value.” Sometimes the bikes are also victims of good old adolescent anarchic fun. These attitudes are expressed by the “ freeriders ,” and a bicycle forum , where a mock poll asks riders whether the Vélib’ can do wheelies, go down stairs and make decent skid marks. It is commonplace now to see the bikes at docking stations in Paris with flat tires, punctured wheels or missing baskets. Some Vélib’s have been found hanging from lampposts, dumped in the Seine, used on the streets of Bucharest or resting in shipping containers on their way to North Africa. Some are simply appropriated and repainted. Finding a decent one is now something of an urban treasure hunt. Géraldine Bernard, 31, of Paris rides a Vélib’ to work every day but admits having difficulties lately finding functioning bikes. “It’s a very clever initiative to improve people’s lives, but it’s not a complete success,” she said. “For a regular user like me, it generates a lot of frustration,” she said. “It’s a reflection of the violence of our society and it’s outrageous: the Vélib’ is a public good but there is no civic feeling related to it.” Still, with more than 63 million rentals since the program was begun in mid-2007, the Vélib’ is an established part of Parisian life, and the program has been extended to provide 4,000 Vélib’s in 29 towns on the city’s edges. So despite the increasing costs, Paris and JCDecaux are pressing on. The company invested about $140 million to set up the system and provides a yearly fee of about $5.5 million to Paris, which also gets rental fees for the bikes. In return, the company’s 10-year contract allows it to put up 1,628 billboards that it can rent. Although JCDecaux will not discuss money figures, the expected date for profitability has been set back. But the City of Paris has agreed to pay JCDecaux about $600 for each stolen or irreparably damaged bike if the number exceeds 4 percent of the fleet, which it clearly does. In an unsuccessful effort to stop vandalism, Paris began an advertising campaign this summer. Posters showed a cartoon Vélib’ being roughed up by a thug. The caption read: “It’s easy to beat up a Vélib’, it can’t defend itself. Vélib’ belongs to you, protect it!” | Paris France;Biking;Vandalism;Robbery;Sociology |
ny0166933 | [
"nyregion"
]
| 2006/01/27 | Taking Down Colonial Walls Only to Build Them Up | A LITTLE bit giddy and extremely muddy, Joan C. Berkowitz, an architectural conservator with a jolly sense of mission, has just returned from another bonding session with the two Colonial-era walls -- a slumbering subterranean assemblage of rock, rubble and mortar beneath Battery Park -- discovered by accident when they turned up in the path of the new South Ferry subway tunnel. Rather inconvenient for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's construction timetable, but a historic find nonetheless, which means the walls are being documented and disassembled (her role), not dynamited. It is, she says, the dirtiest job she's ever done. But posterity is at stake. These are consequential walls, possibly dating from the 17th century, possibly battery walls or part of a fort, making them the oldest military fortifications known to exist in Manhattan. And making preservation mandatory. "To think of finding a wall in New York City that might be from the 17th century, that in and of itself is rather amazing," she says, brandishing two handfuls of Battery Park wall samples in her testing lab at Jablonski Berkowitz Conservation Inc. "They do tell us something about Manhattan's past; they are a nice example of something, it's just too soon to tell what." The stray Dutch brick she found on the site makes a fabulous conversation piece as an office paperweight. "It's about as cute as a brick could be," says Ms. Berkowitz, whose fixation on gritty building materials extends to downloading a game called "Building Materials Bingo" from the Internet. Goofy. Beautiful walls they are not: Ms. Berkowitz, who has a thing for old mortar, cannot tell a lie, especially not after spending her day ankle deep in mud in a claustrophobic subway trench scrubbing and cataloging the stonework, rock by rock. Granite, brownstone, sandstone, schist. Her work boots are filthy. Her feet are cold. Yes, the smiley face decals on her hard hat and official construction vest are there for artificial levity. "Just try going down into a construction site and fussing over a dirty old wall while 50 stone-faced guys are giving you this look that says, 'Lady, you're slowing me down: I want to blow up this pit and put my tunnel through,' " says Ms. Berkowitz, whose cherubic presence means they can't do that. Not until she has diagramed a safe way to disassemble the walls and spirit them away for storage so they can be rebuilt and displayed, probably in Battery Park as a companion piece to Castle Clinton, a reconstructed fort built right before the War of 1812. The designated moving day for the first wall, about 40 feet long by 8 feet thick, was Wednesday. Excited, she bought herself a pair of work boots for the occasion: "state-of-the-art waterproof clodhoppers." When moving day was postponed pending approval from the Federal Transit Administration, which is paying for the $420 million subway project, Ms. Berkowitz, hired by the transportation authority to get the walls out of its subway's way, took it in stride. "My focus isn't to figure out how old the wall is, it's documenting it to make sure we understand it really well so we can put it back together again," she says. "Heigh-ho, it's off to the muddy pit we go," was the message in a follow-up e-mail update she sent yesterday after her project was officially greenlighted. Every stone will be labeled so that the walls can be rebuilt, like giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles, aboveground. The original mortar will be, she says, "sacrificed" in the process of digging out the stones, but she hopes to reproduce a modern version of it in her lab. Mortar-matching is one of Ms. Berkowitz's specialties, her counterintuitive take on her mother's vocation, interior design; Dad was a dentist, perhaps explaining her ease with picks, chisels and other assorted sharp tools. "Disassembly is about as aggressive as it gets," she says. "I've lost some sleep over this job; I mean, suppose we can't get the wall back together?" As for a preservationist's recurring nightmare, she says it boils down to this: "How do you keep a ruin a ruin without people ruining it?" MS. BERKOWITZ, 45, is no stranger to old walls: In 1986 she spent five weeks in Pompeii restoring walls dating from before A.D. 79. Antiquity gives her chills: "You don't go into architectural conservation unless you get that little charge out of it. To me it's kind of art meets science. You need to have somewhat of an artistic eye in order to replicate things." She worked on Fort Ticonderoga and spent two years reroofing Grant's Tomb and removing the graffiti. Her firm is analyzing paint samples for the restoration of the landmark interior sections of the Plaza Hotel, and has assisted since 1997 in the renovation of landmark bridges on the Merritt Parkway. The disassembly and rejuvenation of the fountain in Washington Square is on her to-do list. She grew up in Glen Cove, on Long Island; graduated from Vassar with a degree in environmental science; and attended the historic preservation program at Columbia. Before opening her firm in 1995, she spent seven years with the National Park Service. Ms. Berkowitz lives with a French bulldog, Charlie, and two cats in a not-terribly-historic co-op on the Upper West Side, but owns an 1870's relic (a former hog farm) in Ulster County. Her next project is tearing vinyl siding off the farmhouse's 1950's addition. No T.L.C. necessary. Vinyl does not have artifact status. Yet. | HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND SITES;TRANSIT SYSTEMS |
ny0039537 | [
"technology"
]
| 2014/04/19 | Heartbleed Highlights a Contradiction in the Web | SAN FRANCISCO — The Heartbleed bug that made news last week drew attention to one of the least understood elements of the Internet: Much of the invisible backbone of websites from Google to Amazon to the Federal Bureau of Investigation was built by volunteer programmers in what is known as the open-source community. Heartbleed originated in this community, in which these volunteers, connected over the Internet, work together to build free software, to maintain and improve it and to look for bugs. Ideally, they check one another’s work in a peer review system similar to that found in science, or at least on the nonprofit Wikipedia, where motivated volunteers regularly add new information and fix others’ mistakes. This process, advocates say, ensures trustworthy computer code. But since the Heartbleed flaw got through, causing fears — as yet unproved — of widespread damage, members of that world are questioning whether the system is working the way it should. “This bug was introduced two years ago, and yet nobody took the time to notice it,” said Steven M. Bellovin, a computer science professor at Columbia University. “Everybody’s job is not anybody’s job.” Once Heartbleed was revealed, nearly two weeks ago, companies raced to put patches in place to fix it. But security researchers say more than one million web servers could still be vulnerable to attack. Mandiant, a cyberattack response firm, said on Friday that it had found evidence that attackers used Heartbleed to breach a major corporation’s computer system, although it was still assessing whether damage was done. What makes Heartbleed so dangerous, security experts say, is the so-called OpenSSL code it compromised. That code is just one of many maintained by the open-source community. But it plays a critical role in making our computers and mobile devices safe to use. OpenSSL code was developed by the OpenSSL Project, which has its roots in efforts in the 1990s to make the Internet safe from eavesdropping. “SSL” refers to “secure sockets layer,” a kind of encryption. Those who use this code do not have to pay for it as long as they credit the OpenSSL Project. Over time, OpenSSL code has been picked up by companies like Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Yahoo and used to secure the websites of government agencies like the F.B.I. and Canada’s tax agency. It is baked into Pentagon weapons systems, devices like Android smartphones, Cisco desktop phones and home Wi-Fi routers. Companies and government agencies could have used proprietary schemes to secure their systems, but OpenSSL gave them a free and, at least in theory, more secure option. Unlike proprietary software, which is built and maintained by only a few employees, open-source code like OpenSSL can be vetted by programmers the world over, advocates say. Image Eric S. Raymond said that the code-checking system had failed in the case of Heartbleed. Credit Laura Pedrick for The New York Times “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” is how Eric S. Raymond, one of the elders of the open-source movement, put it in his 1997 book, “The Cathedral & the Bazaar,” a kind of manifesto for open-source philosophy. In the case of Heartbleed, though, “there weren’t any eyeballs,” Mr. Raymond said in an interview this week. Although any programmer may work on OpenSSL code, only a few regularly do, said Ben Laurie, a Google engineer based in Britain who donates time to OpenSSL on nights and weekends. This is a problem, he said, adding that the companies and government agencies that use OpenSSL code have benefited from it but give back little in return. “OpenSSL is completely unfunded,” Mr. Laurie said. “It’s used by companies who make a lot of money, but almost none of the companies who use it contribute anything at all.” According to the project’s website, OpenSSL has one full-time developer — Dr. Stephen N. Henson, a British programmer — and three so-called core volunteer programmers, including Mr. Laurie, in Europe. Logged records on the OpenSSL site show that Dr. Henson vetted the code containing the Heartbleed bug after it was mistakenly included in a graduate student’s code update on New Year’s Eve 2011, and the bug was inadvertently included in an OpenSSL software release three months later. Neither Dr. Henson nor the other two volunteers responded to requests for an interview. But open-source coders hardly blame Dr. Henson, considering that the OpenSSL project has operated on a shoestring annual budget of $2,000 in donations — most from individuals — which is just enough for volunteers to cover their electric bills. Five years ago, Steve Marquess, then a technology consultant for the Defense Department, was struck by the contradiction that OpenSSL was “ubiquitous,” yet no one working on the code was making any money. When he met Dr. Henson, Mr. Marquess said, Dr. Henson was working on OpenSSL code full time and “starving.” So Mr. Marquess started the OpenSSL Software Foundation to help programmers like Dr. Henson make money by consulting for government agencies and companies that were using the code. It also takes in some minimal donations, he said. Over the last five years, the foundation has never made more than $1 million in commercial contracting revenue a year. This does not go very far in paying for the programmers’ work, Mr. Marquess said. Most corporate OpenSSL users do not contribute money to the group, Mr. Marquess said. Google and Cisco say they contribute by encouraging their own engineers to look for bugs in the code while they are on the clock. The OpenSSL website shows that a Cisco engineer and several Google engineers have discovered bugs and created fixes over the years. Image Steven M. Bellovin, a Columbia professor, also questioned the system for vetting code. Credit Eileen Barroso/Columbia Engineering A Google engineer, Neel Mehta, discovered the Heartbleed bug earlier this month, and two other Google engineers came up with the fix. Likewise, Microsoft and Facebook created the Internet Bug Bounty initiative, which pays engineers who responsibly disclose bugs in widely used systems like OpenSSL. The group paid Mr. Mehta $15,000 for his discovery — a windfall he donated to the Freedom of the Press Foundation. But open-source advocates say organizations that rely on the code should do more to help. “Open source is not magic fairy dust” that happens automatically, said Tim O’Reilly, an early advocate of open source and the founder of O’Reilly Media. “It happens because people work at it.” At the least, security experts say, companies and governments should pay for regular code audits, particularly when the security of their own products depends on the trustworthiness of the code. “They should be taking more responsibility for everything they ship in their product,” said Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science at Princeton University. Ten years ago, Mr. Laurie, then a freelancer, performed an audit of OpenSSL for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as Darpa. It took an entire year. Today, Mr. Laurie said, volunteers simply do not have the time to run that kind of audit. The problem, Mr. Raymond and other open-source advocates say, boils down to mismatched incentives. Mr. Raymond said firms don’t maintain OpenSSL code because they don’t profit directly from it, even though it is integrated into their products, and governments don’t feel political pain when the code has problems. With OpenSSL, by contrast, “for those that do work on this, there’s no financial support, no salaries, no health insurance,” Mr. Raymond said. “They either have to live like monks or work nights and weekends. That is a recipe for serious trouble down the road.” He and other elders of the open-source movement say they want to create a nonprofit group to solicit donations from governments and companies and on Kickstarter that will be used to pay for audits of OpenSSL and other crucial open-source projects. There was some good news this week. Mr. Marquess said that after Heartbleed helped expose the OpenSSL project’s meager resources, the group received $17,000 in donations, almost entirely from individuals outside the United States. The highest individual donation was $300; the lowest was 2 cents. But there was a hitch, he said: “Unfortunately, the 2 cents were donated through PayPal, and PayPal took both.” | Computers and the Internet;Tech Industry;Open-Source Software;Computer security;Hacker (computer security) |
ny0099848 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2015/12/03 | Family of American Killed in Benghazi Awaits Promised Funds | WASHINGTON — Family members of Glen Doherty , a C.I.A. contractor and a former Navy SEAL who was among four Americans killed in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya , said they felt a sense of closure when they were told last December that the agency had finally agreed to pay Mr. Doherty’s death benefits. “It was such a great Christmas gift that all this hard work and time and energy that we put in was finally done,” said Kate Quigley, Mr. Doherty’s sister, of the family’s effort in fighting for the funds. “We felt like it was honoring his name and his legacy.” But a year later, the Doherty family has yet to see any federal money. Bureaucratic delays continue, even as the C.I.A. and Congress are now in agreement that paying the death benefit is the right thing to do. The family’s fight has been overshadowed by the politics and recriminations surrounding the House Select Committee on Benghazi, whose Republican members have sharply criticized Hillary Clinton for what they say was her failure as secretary of state to secure the diplomatic compound in which Mr. Doherty and the other Americans died. Mr. Doherty’s family members say he did not realize that the life insurance package he was legally required to buy from a private provider as a C.I.A. contractor would not pay death benefits — beyond funeral costs — if the deceased had no spouse or offspring. Mr. Doherty was single and did not have any children. “An injustice has been done in his name,” Mrs. Quigley said in a recent telephone interview. “Seventeen years, he devoted his life to protecting this country.” In response to the Doherty family’s efforts, the C.I.A. has proposed changing one of its administrative policies to allow it to pay up to $400,000 in death benefits to Mr. Doherty’s family and to families of terrorist attack victims in similar situations. The change would be retroactive to April 18, 1983, when suicide bombers killed dozens of people at the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon . The proposed policy, which is modeled after one adopted by the State Department for the 2014 fiscal year, would use C.I.A. funds rather than insurance money to pay the families, providing a stopgap for those otherwise unable to collect benefits. After months of debating the particulars of the proposal, four congressional committees responsible for approving it have done so, but the House defense appropriations subcommittee has told the C.I.A. it must find money for the death benefits in a different part of its budget than the agency initially proposed. The committees are now awaiting the C.I.A.’s response, which they must all approve. “We are involved in a little game of Ping-Pong here,” said Representative Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has pushed for the rule change on Capitol Hill. “And I feel like we’re getting close, but I don’t want to take an eye off the ball.” Mr. Lynch said that the rule change would most likely affect several dozen families. The C.I.A. declined to comment. Mr. Lynch, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight national security subcommittee, introduced legislation in January to go further than the internal C.I.A. change and update what he and others called an outmoded law. His measure would amend the 1941 Defense Base Act, which requires overseas contractors — including those working for the C.I.A. — to carry disability and life insurance. But it allows death benefits only to surviving spouses or children. Despite gaining the support of Senators John McCain of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, the legislation has found little traction on Capitol Hill, which Mr. Lynch said in an interview might be because of its relatively narrow focus. Jerry Komisar, the president of the C.I.A. Officers Memorial Foundation, which offers financial support to the families of officers killed in the line of duty, said that the death benefit of up to $400,000, while modest, would provide a much-needed lift to families. “The demands on C.I.A. officers to serve on some of these hazardous assignments is going up,” said Mr. Komisar, a former member of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service. “The more we do to help incentivize them the better.” Over the past three years, Mrs. Quigley, 42, said she has made dozens of phone calls and news media appearances, as well as trips from her home in Boston to lobby lawmakers in Washington. She has also met with members of the Benghazi committee, who she said pledged support. (Jamal Ware, a spokesman for the committee, said its chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, has worked behind the scenes to help the family.) At one point, the family had been considering bringing a $1 million wrongful death suit against the C.I.A. and the State Department. But it decided not to press the suit after the C.I.A. agreed to the policy change. The family settled a separate suit against Rutherfoord, the insurance firm that sold Mr. Doherty his policy. Mr. Doherty, who was 42 when he died, had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and had been hired by the C.I.A. to help with security and surveillance in Libya. According to Mrs. Quigley, her brother had designated a friend, Sean Lake, as the executor of his estate and did not know he would be unable to collect and distribute insurance benefits to the family as they had planned. “The basic impetus of this is that this young man, a former Navy SEAL, agreed to serve us in a very meaningful way, in several very dangerous theaters,” said Mr. Lynch, who does not represent the family’s home district, but became involved in its efforts early on. | Glen A Doherty;Libya;Defense contractor;Diplomats Embassies and Consulates;CIA;Benghazi Attack 2012;Life insurance;Stephen F Lynch |
ny0266852 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2016/03/09 | Bernie Sanders Wins Michigan Primary; Donald Trump Takes 3 States | Donald J. Trump easily dispatched his Republican rivals in the Michigan and Mississippi presidential primaries Tuesday and won the Hawaii caucuses, regaining momentum in the face of intensifying resistance to his campaign among party leaders. Senator Bernie Sanders scored an upset win in the Michigan Democratic primary, threatening to prolong a Democratic campaign that Hillary Clinton appeared to have all but locked up last week. Mrs. Clinton lost badly in Michigan among independents, showed continued weakness with working-class white Democrats, and was unable to count on as much of an advantage with black voters as she had in the South. Addressing reporters in Miami while the votes in Michigan were still being counted, Mr. Sanders said that his powerful showing indicated that “the political revolution that we’re talking about is strong in every part of the country.” “And frankly,” he added, “we believe that our strongest areas are yet to happen.” While bolstering Mr. Sanders’s hand as the race turns to a series of large states next week, his victory in Michigan did not dent Mrs. Clinton’s delegate lead as she won overwhelmingly in Mississippi, crushing Mr. Sanders among African-American voters, and netted more delegates over all. Video Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that his victory in the Michigan primary contest on Tuesday signified that a "political revolution" was "strong in every part of the country." Credit Credit Carlo Allegri/Reuters Senator Ted Cruz of Texas handily won the Idaho Republican primary, somewhat mitigating his second-place finishes in Michigan and Mississippi. After losing to Mr. Cruz on Saturday in Kansas and Maine, Mr. Trump needed one of his best performances of the campaign to tamp down doubts about his candidacy after a week of gaffes, missteps and questions about the strength of his political organization. And he got one, demonstrating his appeal with working-class white voters in Michigan, a state Mr. Trump has claimed he could win in the general election, while beating back especially stiff challenges from Gov. John Kasich of Ohio there and from Mr. Cruz in Mississippi. Mr. Trump, plugging several of his business interests in a victory speech that seemed straight out of QVC, crowed about having prevailed despite what he called millions of dollars’ worth of “horrible lies” in negative ads from his rivals. “There’s only one person who did well tonight: Donald Trump,” he said in Jupiter, Fla., at one of his golf resorts. He also mocked Mr. Cruz. “He’s always saying, ‘I’m the only one that can beat Trump,’ ” Mr. Trump said, imitating his rival, but adding: “He rarely beats me.” Mrs. Clinton, addressing supporters in Cleveland, did not mention the Mississippi or Michigan results, instead alluding to the vitriol in the Republican field. “As the rhetoric keeps sinking lower, the stakes in this election keep rising higher,” she said. Running for president, she said, “shouldn’t be about delivering insults; it should be about delivering results.” But none of the major cable news networks carried her remarks, which came as Mr. Trump was speaking. The emphatic victories by Mr. Trump were a sharp turnabout from his difficult weekend and suggested that his stumbles in recent days had not done substantial damage to his campaign. He continued his dominance among low-income voters in Michigan and Mississippi but, in a foreboding sign for Mr. Cruz, also narrowly won among white evangelicals in both states. If Tuesday offered a reminder of Mr. Trump’s enduring appeal, it was nothing short of devastating for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. After slipping to third or fourth place in the states that voted Saturday, Mr. Rubio collapsed on Tuesday, finishing well behind his three rivals in Michigan and Mississippi — he came away with no delegates in either state — and calling into question how much longer he will be able to stay in the race. Mrs. Clinton’s victory in Mississippi was the latest in a string across the South fueled by her overwhelming black support. But she had hoped that a win in Michigan would demoralize Mr. Sanders heading into the coming Rust Belt primaries and relegate him to a protest candidate rather than a real threat. Instead, Mr. Sanders can march into Illinois, Ohio and Missouri next Tuesday newly emboldened to lash Mrs. Clinton over her past support for free trade agreements, which he says have wiped out thousands of industrial jobs. How Trump Could Be Blocked at a Contested Republican Convention A coalition of Republicans is banking on a scenario in which Donald J. Trump fails to reach the 1,237 delegates required to secure the party’s nomination before its July convention, creating a potential opening for another nominee as the delegates vote on the convention floor. Mr. Sanders badly needed a victory heading into Ohio and Illinois next week, and to demonstrate that he is still viable even though he has fallen far behind Mrs. Clinton in the race to amass the 2,323 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. Mr. Sanders’s Michigan triumph also offered much-needed proof that he could win over voters in the populous, racially diverse swing states where the eventual Democratic nominee will need victories in November. Mr. Trump’s clear victories Tuesday, meanwhile, showed that he remains the Republican favorite for the nomination and enjoys a fiercely loyal core of support. His success in Michigan, which he won by 12 percent, was especially striking: not only did he easily carry Macomb County, original home of the fabled Reagan Democrats, he also won the more upscale Detroit suburbs of Oakland County. But the Republican opposition to his candidacy is just as sturdy, and there are signs that it is widening. Yet if the anti-Trump forces are to break his grip on the party, their last chance may be next week, when Ohio and Florida vote and Mr. Kasich and Mr. Rubio put their candidacies on the line in their home states. If Mr. Trump does not win those two states, it will be difficult for him, or any other candidate, to capture the nomination before Republicans gather for their convention in Cleveland this July. Video “There’s only one person who did well tonight,” Donald J. Trump said on a night with four Republican contests, of which he eventually won three. Credit Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times The results on Tuesday, including the Republican contests in Idaho and Hawaii, were bound to offer important insights about just how vulnerable Mr. Trump now is — and whether a Republican Party desperate to stop him can push the race to the floor of the party’s convention this summer. Even before the votes were counted Tuesday, there were new signs that resistance to Mr. Trump’s candidacy within his own party was growing. The number of Republicans viewing him unfavorably spiked to 46 percent in a Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday, the highest figure recorded in that survey since Mr. Trump entered the race last year. He has faced what has effectively been the first sustained assault from his rivals and third-party groups about his business dealings and committed self-inflicted wounds — notably his initial hesitation to disavow the support of a white supremacist figure, David Duke, and his boasting about his sexual endowment at last week’s debate. Mr. Trump, however, was competing on more favorable terms this week. Three of four states voting Tuesday held primaries, rather than caucuses, and the two biggest delegate prizes, Michigan and Mississippi, had open voting, meaning that the Republican contest was not limited only to Republicans. Mr. Kasich spent much of the last month with Michigan all to himself, as his rivals campaigned elsewhere. And Mr. Rubio’s fade benefited Mr. Kasich in Michigan, as mainstream Republicans there appeared to drift toward the Ohio governor. Video Hillary Clinton was projected to win the state’s primary by a significant margin but found herself in a close race with Senator Bernie Sanders in Michigan. Credit Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times There was less campaigning in Mississippi, but Mr. Cruz made a late push there by holding a rally in the Jackson area, and he picked up the endorsement of the state’s governor, Phil Bryant. Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally based on the candidates’ vote shares, and Democratic-leaning states and areas — like predominantly black cities and towns — tend to have the most delegates up for grabs. Advisers to both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders expected a fairly even split of delegates in Michigan but a big Clinton haul in Mississippi, which would expand the significant lead that Mrs. Clinton already had over Mr. Sanders. Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said that she would net more delegates than Mr. Sanders next Tuesday if she wins Florida and North Carolina but narrowly loses elsewhere, because her victories in predominantly black and Hispanic areas of the two states would probably yield disproportionately large numbers of delegates. “I’ve always said the currency of the nomination is delegates,” said Joel Benenson, Mrs. Clinton’s top strategist, after Michigan was called for Mr. Sanders. “It seems clear we will add to our pledged delegate lead by a dozen delegates or more. At the end of the night, you’ve had a good night when you win more delegates than your opponent, and Senator Sanders didn’t.” Mr. Benenson disputed the idea that the Michigan victory was a good sign for Mr. Sanders in Ohio and Illinois, saying there were no guarantees that young people — whom Mr. Sanders won by a stunning 63 percentage points in Michigan — would turn out in such droves in those states. “You need to put together a different coalition of voters in each state, and Senator Sanders is still having difficulty persuading different groups vital to the Democratic coalition,” Mr. Benenson said. | 2016 Presidential Election;Mississippi;Michigan;Donald Trump;Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders;Hillary Clinton;Primaries;Ted Cruz;Idaho;Hawaii |
ny0188670 | [
"technology",
"start-ups"
]
| 2009/04/13 | ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers | If your local newspaper shuts down, what will take the place of its coverage? Perhaps a package of information about your neighborhood, or even your block, assembled by a computer. A number of Web start-up companies are creating so-called hyperlocal news sites that let people zoom in on what is happening closest to them, often without involving traditional journalists. The sites, like EveryBlock , Outside.in , Placeblogger and Patch , collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources. They might let a visitor know about an arrest a block away, the sale of a home down the street and reviews of nearby restaurants. Internet companies have been trying to develop such sites for more than a decade, in part as a way to lure local advertisers to the Web. But the notion of customized news has taken on greater urgency as some newspapers, like The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer , have stopped printing. The news business “is in a difficult time period right now, between what was and what will be,” said Gary Kebbel, the journalism program director for the Knight Foundation, which has backed 35 local Web experiments. “Our democracy is based upon geography, and we believe local information is such a core need for our democracy to survive.” Of course, like traditional media, the hyperlocal sites have to find a way to bring in sufficient revenue to support their business. And so far, they have had only limited success selling ads. Some have shouldered the cost of fielding a sales force to reach mom-and-pop businesses that may know nothing about online advertising. One problem is that the number of readers for each neighborhood-focused news page is inherently small. “When you slice further and further down, you get smaller and smaller audiences,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst who has followed the hyperlocal market for a decade. “Advertisers want that kind of targeting, but they also want to reach more people, so there’s a paradox.” Still, said Peter Krasilovsky, a program director at the Kelsey Group, which studies local media, many small businesses have never advertised outside the local Yellow Pages and are an untapped online ad market whose worth his firm expects to double to $32 billion by 2013. One of the most ambitious hyperlocal sites is EveryBlock, a six-person start-up in an office building in Chicago overlooking noisy El tracks, which is stitching together this hyperlocal future one city at a time. Backed by a $1.1 million grant from the Knight Foundation, it has created sites for 11 American cities, including New York, Seattle , Chicago and San Francisco . It fills those sites with links to news articles and posts from local bloggers, along with data feeds from city governments, with crime reports, restaurant inspections, and notices of road construction and film shoots. (The New York Times has a partnership with EveryBlock to help New York City readers find news about their elected officials.) One day last week, the EveryBlock page for Adrian Holovaty, the company’s founder, showed that the police had answered a domestic battery call two blocks from his home and that a gourmet sandwich shop four blocks away had failed a city health inspection. “We have a very liberal definition of what is news. We think it’s something that happens in your neighborhood,” said Mr. Holovaty, 28, who worked at The Washington Post before creating EveryBlock two years ago. In some ways the environment is right for these start-ups. In the last several years, neighborhood blogs have sprouted across the country, providing the sites with free, ready-made content they can link to. And new tools, like advanced search techniques and cellphones with GPS capability, help the sites figure out which articles to show to which readers in which neighborhoods. Unlike most hyperlocal start-ups, Patch, based in New York, hires reporters. It was conceived of and bankrolled by Tim Armstrong, the new chief of AOL , after he found a dearth of information online about Riverside, Conn., where he lives. Patch has created sites for three towns in New Jersey and plans to be in dozens by the end of the year. One journalist in each town travels to school board meetings and coffee shops with a laptop and camera. Patch also solicits content from readers, pulls in articles from other sites and augments it all with event listings, volunteer opportunities, business directories and lists of local information like recycling laws. “We believe there’s currently a void in the amount, quality and access to information at the community level, a function, unfortunately, of all the major metros suffering and pulling back daily coverage of a lot of communities,” said Jon Brod, co-founder and chief executive of Patch. This month, the home page of The Star-Ledger’s Web site, based in Newark, twice referred to articles first reported by Patch. Outside.in publishes no original content. The company gathers articles and blog posts and scans them for geographical cues like the name of a restaurant or indicative words like “at” or “near.” An iPhone application lets users read articles about events within a thousand of feet of where they are standing. Outside.in, which is based in Brooklyn , licenses feeds of links to big news sites that want to deepen their local coverage, like that of NBC ’s Chicago affiliate. Venture capital firms have invested $7.5 million in the company, partly on the bet that it can cut deals with newspapers to have their sales forces sell neighborhood-focused ads for print and the Web. One hurdle is the need for reliable, quality content. The information on many of these sites can still appear woefully incomplete. Crime reports on EveryBlock, for example, are short on details of what happened. Links to professionally written news articles on Outside.in are mixed with trivial and sometimes irrelevant blog posts. That raises the question of what these hyperlocal sites will do if newspapers, a main source of credible information, go out of business. “They rely on pulling data from other sources, so they really can’t function if news organizations disappear,” said Steve Outing, who writes about online media for Editor & Publisher Online. But many hyperlocal entrepreneurs say they are counting on a proliferation of blogs and small local journalism start-ups to keep providing content. “In many cities, the local blog scene is so rich and deep that even if a newspaper goes away, there would be still be plenty of stuff for us to publish,” said Mr. Holovaty of EveryBlock. | News media,journalism;Computers and the Internet;Startup;Blog;Newspaper;EveryBlock |
ny0262348 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2011/06/22 | G.O.P. Presidential Candidates Round Up Donors | TAMPA, Fla. — With their first major fund-raising deadline nine days away, the Republican presidential candidates are in a cutthroat, coast-to-coast scramble to sign up top party donors to gain a financial edge — and, just as crucial, to block them from helping a rival campaign. Mitt Romney has raced through Florida , Georgia , Nevada , Idaho , Colorado and California in the last week, tapping into the widest fund-raising network of any Republican in hopes of creating a gold-plated sense of inevitability in the party’s nominating contest. But Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts , is not the only candidate pursuing people on that list, which he built four years ago. It contains targets of opportunity for Jon M. Huntsman Jr. , who declared his candidacy on Tuesday and is trying to poach former Romney contributors. The focus of the campaign — for the rest of June, at least — is on donors, not voters. As President Obama appeared this week at his 30th fund-raising event of the year, Republican contenders were more likely to cross paths in hotel ballrooms in Las Vegas or boardrooms on Wall Street than in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire . The contest is playing out with donors like Dr. Akshay Desai, who runs the Universal Health Care Group in Florida. Four years ago, he was a top Romney fund-raiser. This time, a 90-minute private meeting at Dr. Desai’s office was not enough for him to give an automatic commitment to Mr. Romney. “He’s a fantastic human being and a great candidate, but I have not made up my mind yet,” Dr. Desai said. “I’ve met with Tim Pawlenty , and we had a very good discussion. I’ve been talking to Jon Huntsman on the phone and look forward to meeting him.” Dr. Desai’s comments echoed a theme that came up in interviews with several contributors and fund-raisers who have been slow to pledge their loyalties in a campaign lacking a front-runner. By the end of the month, Mr. Romney hopes to have made the case that he deserves that distinction — if not to voters, than to donors. There is little doubt, even among his rivals, that Mr. Romney will raise more than any Republican candidate. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota , known for her fund-raising abilities, has just joined the race, and other candidates like Newt Gingrich have struggled. Mr. Romney collected $10 million during a one-day telethon last month in Las Vegas, and his goal is to collect three times that amount before the second quarter closes on June 30, when candidates are required to report their fund-raising to the Federal Election Commission . He is working to solidify the perception that he is the candidate who is best equipped to challenge Mr. Obama. He highlights his business experience and his strength as a general-election candidate during private meetings, whether they are with doctors and real estate developers here in Florida, Mormon business leaders in Idaho or the party’s reliable set of donors in Orange County, Calif. “They’re going to put up a big number for this quarter — considerably larger than anybody else in the field,” said Austin Barbour, a nephew of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and a member of Mr. Romney’s national finance committee. A strong performance at last week’s debate also helped. “Folks who were on the fence who watched that said, ‘Man, this is a good opportunity for us to get on board.’ ” Other contenders, particularly Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Pawlenty, are presenting themselves as alternatives to Mr. Romney and urging donors to disregard the juggernaut he is building. Mr. Huntsman and Mr. Pawlenty are also trying to tap into the network that helped financed President George W. Bush ’s campaigns. David F. Girard-diCarlo, a former ambassador to Austria in Mr. Bush’s administration, said he had been courted by all the major candidates. He signed with Mr. Huntsman last week. “It’s far too early to predict whether this president is really vulnerable,” Mr. Girard-diCarlo said. “But if Republicans put up someone who can appeal to independents, we can win.” Since leaving Beijing as ambassador in late April, Mr. Huntsman has spent much of his time meeting donors. The top echelon of Republican bundlers — people who raise money from others in a pyramid-type system — is close-knit, and news travels fast. In recent weeks, Mr. Huntsman has arrived on the doorstep of many donors who have seen Mr. Romney but not committed to him. William E. Ford, the chief executive of the General Atlantic investment firm, had not met Mr. Huntsman until he arrived in Mr. Ford’s Manhattan offices two weeks ago. For two hours, Mr. Huntsman, accompanied by his wife, Mary Kaye, answered questions from Mr. Ford and six colleagues. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Mitt, and I’ve met Mitt,” Mr. Ford said. “He has deep relationships with a lot of people from the financial and business world already. I think very highly of him, but I just believe that Huntsman’s more in tune with the American people.” For Mr. Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, raising money has been a steep challenge, according to his advisers. He continues to spend a considerable part of his time introducing himself rather than collecting checks. Mr. Pawlenty is likely to raise only a few million dollars in the second quarter, putting him at a considerable disadvantage. “We’re working hard to introduce him to folks around the state who are interested in him and who haven’t committed,” said Justin Sayfie, a Fort Lauderdale lobbyist and co-chairman of the Pawlenty campaign in Florida. “The friend-raising is something that is still going on.” A review shows that Mr. Romney’s strength is robust in all regions of the country. Each time he visits a city, he releases a long list of endorsements. His schedule in Florida late last week — marathon sessions of dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner and lunch — underscores his ability to raise money efficiently because he is known to most donors. “He’s never really stopped since 2007,” said Mel Sembler, a Florida developer and a former ambassador to Italy during the last Bush administration, who hosted an event that raised $250,000 for Mr. Romney. The pitch from Mr. Romney and the others includes forceful criticism of how Mr. Obama has handled the economy. The downturn, though, is making it more difficult to raise money. The checks are smaller, fund-raisers say, and slower to roll in. “Anybody that’s asking folks to write checks to a campaign knows that in lean times people have a harder time,” Mr. Romney said last week in Tampa . “We’re trying to raise enough money to run a campaign, but we’re not trying to overflow the coffers.” | 2012 Presidential Election;Republicans;Campaign finance;Mitt Romney |
ny0082606 | [
"science"
]
| 2015/10/11 | In California, Electric Cars Outpace Plugs, and Sparks Fly | SAN FRANCISCO — Of all the states, California has set the most ambitious targets for cutting emissions in coming decades, and an important pillar of its plan to reach those goals is encouraging the spread of electric vehicles . But the push to make the state greener is creating an unintended side effect: It is making some people meaner. The bad moods stem from the challenges drivers face finding recharging spots for their battery-powered cars. Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. Electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another’s cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars — will their owners have enough juice to make it home? — and manners often go out the window. In the moments after Don Han plugged in his Nissan Leaf at a public charging station near his Silicon Valley office one day this summer, he noticed another Leaf pull up as he was walking away. The driver got out and pulled the charger out of Mr. Han’s car and started to plug it into his own. Mr. Han stormed back. “I said, ‘Hey, buddy, what do you think you’re doing?’ And he said, ‘Well, your car is done charging,’ ” Mr. Han recalled. He told him that was not the case, put the charger back in his own car and left “after saying a couple of curse words, of course.” Such incidents are not uncommon, according to interviews with drivers and electric vehicle advocates, as well as posts from people sharing frustrations on social media. Tensions over getting a spot are “growing and growing,” said Maureen Blanc, the director of Charge Across Town , a San Francisco nonprofit that works to spread the adoption of electric vehicles. She owns an electric BMW and recently had a testy run-in over a charging station with a Tesla driver. Image Jack Brown replaces a charging cable at Google in Mountain View. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times “It’s high time,” she said, “for somebody to tackle the electric-vehicle etiquette problem.” Some people are working on short-term fixes. A Google computer manager said he had sold 9,000 of the EV Etiquette Survival Packs that he created. For $15.99, a pack includes hang tags for vehicles that urge fellow drivers not to unplug others’ cars while charging. More public chargers are the obvious long-term solution. About half of the 330,000 electric vehicles in this country are registered in California, and Gov. Jerry Brown wants to increase that number to 1.5 million by 2025. He has pledged a sharp increase in charging stations. Right now, there is roughly one public charger for every 10 electric vehicles — about 15,000 in California and 33,000 across the country, according to ChargePoint, one of the biggest charging-station companies. (There are thousands of other, unofficial charging spots that are essentially wall outlets that businesses or homeowners have made available for public plug-in). The larger public charging stations tend to look like high-tech gas pumps and often are in parking lots. But they can vary widely in cost and charging power. Some take half an hour for a charge and others four hours or more; many are free or subsidized, and others cost $1 an hour or more. Public charging stations and lights on many vehicles indicate when a car battery is full. Most people charge at home (using an electrical outlet) but also want to use public chargers, in part because the cars have a limited range — typically 80 miles. On top of this “range anxiety,” as it is called, drivers like the idea of getting a free or low-cost charge at a public station. “Imagine going to a gas station that says, ‘Here’s free gas.’ Who wouldn’t want to muscle in and say, ‘I’ll take some free gas’?” said Ollie Danner, the founder of EVPerks, a California company that works with local and national businesses to offer coupons and other incentives to electric vehicle drivers. The rudeness is not just among drivers of electric cars. By many accounts, owners of gas-powered cars often take up desirable parking and charging spots that companies and cities reserve for electric cars. This habit has inspired the spread of a nickname: ICE Holes. (ICE stands for internal combustion engine.) “Some people say, ‘I just wish I could key their cars,’ ” said Jack Brown, who created the EV Etiquette Survival Packs and a Facebook page devoted to complaining about the interlopers. Image Mr. Brown's EV Etiquette Survival Pack. For $15.99, a pack includes hang tags for vehicles that urge fellow drivers not to unplug others’ cars while charging. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times Mr. Brown, who works in Google’s driverless car division and used to work at Tesla, includes in his survival packs a notice to put on gasoline-engine cars. It reads, “EV charging spaces are functional reserve spaces, just like disabled drivers spaces.” The tag goes on to say that blocking the spaces “is not only inconsiderate, it is illegal in many areas.” But it also includes stickers that inform other drivers that it is all right to unplug a car if it is fully charged, and others that ask, “Can you plug me in when you’re done?” The competition has led people to judge one another’s cars and which ones deserve charging priority. Owners of all-electric cars see themselves as most entitled to the chargers, since they have no Plan B. One rung down are “plug-in hybrids,” which use electricity but also can use gas, followed by hybrids, and then two groups for which the owners of pure electric cars reserve particular disdain: gas cars and, perhaps surprisingly, Teslas. (The $100,000 Teslas, as much as three times the cost of other plug-ins, have a range of several hundred miles and so, theoretically, do not need the charge spots.) Jamie Hull, who drives an electric Fiat, grew apoplectic recently when she discovered herself nearly out of a charge, unable to get home to Palo Alto. She found a charging station, but a Tesla was parked in it and not charging. She ordered a coffee, waited for the driver to return and, when he did, asked why he was taking a spot when he was not charging. She said the man had told her that he was going to run one more errand and walked off. “I seriously considered keying his car,” she said. Among its own customers, Tesla has faced similar issues. In fact, some Tesla drivers reported having received a letter in August from the company saying that they were overusing its network of superfast charging stations — meant to aid long-distance travel — and that they should unplug once charged. Ms. Hull, an executive at Evernote, a software company where electric vehicles outnumber chargers 60 to 12, the scramble for chargers leads to curious behavior. The company does have a sign-up sheet for reserving charging time. But it is not uncommon for people to leave their cars too long, or for members of the public to take the spots or even, Ms. Hull said, for people to work outside deals. “There’s an entire black market for trading spots,” she said. For example, employees will give their spots to friends or managers as favors, Ms. Hull said. At some other Silicon Valley companies where workers own a lot of electric vehicles, employees will get a note from someone in their department when someone is about to unplug and open up a spot. The legal department might band together, for instance, or the communications department, creating little sharing fiefs. To Ms. Hull, the culture stems in part from the way electric car owners have grown used to perks, like getting state and federal subsidies for buying green cars, or permission to use the car pool lane. So when it comes to unplugging someone, well, they feel deserving. “They’re not bad people, necessarily,” she said. “They may have some amount of entitlement.” | Electric Cars and Hybrids;Gas Stations;California |
ny0105470 | [
"us",
"politics"
]
| 2012/03/25 | Dick Cheney Recovering After Getting a New Heart | Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant on Saturday after 20 months on a waiting list, and was recovering in a Virginia hospital, a statement from his office said. Mr. Cheney, 71, who has suffered five heart attacks and was in end-stage heart failure, was recovering in the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. “Although the former vice president and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift,” said the statement from an aide, Kara Ahern. Mr. Cheney and his family thanked doctors and staff at that hospital and at George Washington University Hospital in Washington for “their continued outstanding care,” the statement said. Mr. Cheney’s wait for a new heart was not unusual, though it appeared to be longer than the average wait, which has varied in recent years from six months to a year, according to several studies. In June 2010, 3,153 patients were on the waiting list for a heart transplant, and 80 were awaiting a heart-lung transplant, the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation reported last year. Patients on the list generally have to be ready to rush to the hospital when a suitable donor is found, so there is little notice before a transplant takes place. It is not unusual for recipients not to know the identity of their donor; notification is determined by the rules of organ donation networks and the wishes of the donor’s family. At 71, Mr. Cheney is near the upper age limit for such an operation, though that limit has been steadily rising. As recently as 2006, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation said that while patients recommended for a heart transplant should generally be 70 or under, “carefully selected patients” over 70 could be considered. In 2008, about 12 percent of heart transplant patients were 65 or older. In 2010, the former vice president had a left ventricular assist device, a battery-powered heart pump, implanted by surgeons . They pose significant risks and are a last resort, either for permanent use or as a bridge to transplant until a donor heart can be found. It was among a series of operations over several decades on Mr. Cheney’s heart and leg veins. He suffered his first heart attack at the age of 37 in 1978 as he was campaigning for Congress; a decade later, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. In appearances since he left office in 2009, Mr. Cheney has appeared gaunt and increasingly frail. Last August, he published an autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” written with his daughter Liz Cheney, in which he reported that a team of doctors assessed his heart condition before George W. Bush chose him as his vice-presidential running mate in 2000. He also described writing a letter of resignation shortly after taking office and giving it to his counsel, David S. Addington, to be delivered to President Bush if he were incapacitated. In a government career with few parallels, Mr. Cheney, who was vice president for all eight years of Mr. Bush’s presidency, has been chief of staff to President Gerald R. Ford, represented Wyoming in Congress and served as defense secretary under the first President George Bush. He is widely considered to have been among the most powerful vice presidents in American history, working behind the scenes on policies as varied as energy and counterterrorism and advocating an aggressive assertion of presidential power. He was a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration, and his influence as vice president during Mr. Bush’s second term was considerably diminished. But he remains revered on the political right and in the Republican Party and has been one of the Obama administration’s toughest critics, speaking out regularly despite his fragile health. There were no advance news reports of the transplant, but it did not come entirely as a surprise. On the “Today” show on NBC in January 2011, Mr. Cheney discussed his heart pump and said he might need a transplant. “I’ll have to make a decision at some point whether or not I want to go for a transplant,” Mr. Cheney said, “but we haven’t addressed that yet.” Since the first heart transplant was performed by the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard in 1967, the operation has become common, though it remains an arduous, risky and costly procedure. Most patients stay in the hospital for about a month after surgery, and recent studies estimate that first-year costs for a heart transplant and follow-up care are close to $1 million. According to a statistical review last year in Circulation , there were 2,211 heart transplants performed in the United States in 2009, 72 percent of them in men, who have a higher rate of heart disease than women. From transplants between 1997 and 2004, the survival rate at one year after surgery for men was 88 percent, and at five years it was 73 percent, the journal reported. A 2008 study in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery found that outcomes were significantly worse for older patients. For patients over 55, the study found, 63 percent were still alive five years after their transplant, 48 percent survived a decade and 35 percent were living 15 years later. | Cheney Dick;Transplants;Heart;Virginia;Inova Fairfax Hospital |
ny0135742 | [
"science"
]
| 2008/04/01 | The Ancient Mechanics and How They Thought | CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Consider the galley slave, clad in rags, chained to a hardwood bench and clinging to an oar as long as a three-story flagpole. A burly man with a whip walks back and forth shouting encouragement. You’ve seen the movie. That galley slave would have known that the rowing stations in the middle of the ship were best, although he might not have known why. That took scholars to figure out. “Think of the oar as a lever,” Prof. Mark Schiefsky of the Harvard classics department said. “Think of the oarlock as a fulcrum, and think of the sea as the weight.” The longer the lever arm on the rower’s side of the fulcrum, the easier to move the weight. In the middle of the ship, as the rowers knew, the distance from hands to oarlock was longest. This explanation is given in Problem 4 of the classical Greek treatise “Mechanical Problems,” from the third century B.C., the first known text on the science of mechanics and the first to explain how a lever works. It preceded, by at least a generation, Archimedes’ “On the Equilibrium of Plane Figures,” which presented the first formal proof of the law of the lever. Dr. Schiefsky teaches Greek and Latin as his day job and reads Thucydides and Sophocles in ancient Greek for fun. He also majored in astronomy as an undergraduate, and about nine years ago, feeling science-deprived, he joined a multinational research endeavor called the Archimedes Project, based at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The Archimedes team studies the history of mechanics, how people thought about simple machines like the lever, the wheel and axle, the balance, the pulley, the wedge and the screw and how they turned their thoughts into theories and principles. The textual record begins with “Mechanical Problems,” moves to Rome and then through the medieval Islamic world to the Renaissance. It ends, finally, with Newton, who described many of the basic laws of mechanics in the 18th century. There are a surprising number of old, and extremely old, scientific texts that have survived the ravages of time in one form or another. The Archimedes Web site lists far more than 100, including Euclid’s geometry, Hero of Alexandria’s Roman-era technical manual on crossbows and catapults, medieval treatises on algebra and mechanics by Jordanus de Nemore and Galileo’s 17th-century defense of a heliocentric solar system. The nice thing for Dr. Schiefsky is that hardly anyone reads the stuff. Scientists generally are not into ancient Greek or Latin, let alone Arabic, and most of Dr. Schiefsky’s colleagues work on literature, philosophy, philology or archaeology. In fact, Dr. Schiefsky suggests “about 100 people” worldwide work on both science and the classics. By following the historical record, the Archimedes researchers have discovered that the evolution of physics — or, at least, mechanics — is based on an interplay between practice and theory. The practical use comes first, theory second. Artisans build machines and use them but do not think about why they work. Theorists explain the machines and then derive principles that can be used to construct more complex machines. The Archimedes researchers say that by studying this dialectic they can better understand what people knew about the natural world at a given time and how that knowledge may have affected their lives. “What do you do when you want to weigh a 100-pound piece of meat and you don’t have a 100-pound counterweight?” Dr. Schiefsky asked. “You use an unequal-armed balance, with a small weight on the long arm and the meat on the short arm.” The uneven balance, known as a steelyard, is a kind of lever, and Dr. Schiefsky notes that it has a cameo in Aristophanes’ “Peace , ” a comic fantasy about ending the Peloponnesian War. When a furious arms dealer cannot figure out what to do with a surplus war trumpet, Trygaeus, the central character, suggests pouring lead in the bell to make a steelyard. Referring to the mouthpiece, Trygaeus says, “Attach at this end a scale-pan hung on cords, and you’ll have the very thing to weigh out figs to your servants out in the country.” One reason why Archimedes scholars find mechanics so attractive is that devices like the steelyard and lever have such long histories. “Practitioners knew about the lever long before the development of scientific theory, pretty much since the origin of civilization,” Dr. Schiefsky said. At some point, theorists decided that the phenomena had to be explained. “It was an accident,” Jurgen Renn, a lead investigator for the Archimedes Project, said in a telephone interview from Berlin. “In China and Greece, you get many urban centers with vigorous debate. In China, the tradition dies out with Confucianism and the formation of empires. It is legitimized in the West by Aristotle.” “Mechanical Problems” arrived in the modern world along with Aristotle’s works. In fact, it was thought for centuries that Aristotle wrote it. “Most scholars discount that now,” Dr. Schiefsky said. Aristotle cast wide theoretical nets, he added, while “Mechanical Problems” “is much more focused.” The author of “Mechanical Problems,” Dr. Schiefsky said, clearly knew about Aristotle and adopted his matter-of-factness to describe a seemingly intractable dilemma in neat, practical terms. Problem 3 describes the lever’s property. “For it seems strange that a great weight is moved by a small force,” the author wrote. “For the very same weight, which a man cannot move without a lever, he quickly moves by taking in addition the weight of the lever.” Problem 4 is the oarsmen, demonstrating the principle in a different context. The oarsmen sit in a row from stern to bow. The oars are the same length, but the distance between hands and oarlock, the lever arm, is longer amidships, because the ship is wider there. The midships oarsmen exert less force than their bow or stern co-rowers to move the same weight of water. Conversely, if the midships oarsmen row as hard as the others, they will move a greater weight of water and contribute more to the ship’s movement. Although the author of “Mechanical Problems” certainly understood how a lever worked, it was Archimedes who described the precise relationship between the weights and their distances from the fulcrum. “He made this into a fundamental principle of theoretical mechanical knowledge that could be used by practitioners,” Dr. Schiefsky said. Classical tradition credits Archimedes as having said, “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.” “And the principle,” Dr. Schiefsky added, “is that there is a proportionality between the force and the load, no matter how big the load. This is an intellectual transformation.” In the Middle Ages, the Arab world was a source for new scientific knowledge, as well as the custodian for much classical tradition, translated from Greek into Arabic beginning in the ninth century. By the 13th century, Western scholastics translated Aristotle from Arabic into Latin. “Mechanical Problems” arrived later in the Renaissance, along with Greek copies of Aristotle’s works, rediscovered in libraries, monasteries and other Middle East repositories. It inspired many commentaries by Renaissance scholars and was read by Galileo and other theorists. Indeed, “Mechanical Problems” is in many respects as useful today as it was 2,500 years ago, as anyone who has twiddled the weights on a health club scale can attest. Or consider the New York Athletic Club rowing coach, Vincent Ventura, a close student of Problem 4, even though he has never read it: “It’s different for our people, because the length of the oar to the oarlock is the same no matter where you sit in the boat. Everybody pulls the same weight,” he said in a telephone interview. Still, “once in a while we might shorten oar for a guy who’s not as big as the others.” | Science and Technology;Archives and Records;Greek Civilization;History;Archimedes |
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| 2013/01/30 | Mississippi: River Remains Closed as Oil Cleanup Continues | The Coast Guard said Tuesday that about 7,000 gallons of crude oil was unaccounted for after a barge crash on Sunday near Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, about 16 miles of which remained closed to traffic. Petty Officer Third Class Jonathan Lally said it was not clear that all 7,000 gallons had leaked into the river. Some of it, he said, could have seeped into other parts of the barge. Crews were preparing to pump the oil from the leaking barge to another vessel that was en route, and Petty Officer Lally said it was unclear how long that would take or when the river might reopen. At least 54 vessels were idled on Tuesday. The barge, which crashed into a railroad bridge while being pushing by a tug, was carrying 80,000 gallons of light crude in the tank that was damaged. | Vicksburg Mississippi;Mississippi River;Oil and Gasoline;Accidents and Safety;US Coast Guard;Boat Accidents;Oil spill |
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"business"
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| 2011/04/01 | Shares Close Strong Quarter | Stocks were mixed on Thursday as economic data failed to inspire new confidence in equities, but the Dow Jones industrial average closed its best start to the year in more than a decade, rising 6.4 percent in the first three months. The index of 30 large companies gained 742 points in that stretch. Measured against other first quarters, that is the largest point gain since 1998 and the second best on record. The price of oil rose to a 30-month high. Slightly disappointing reports on unemployment claims and factory orders also weighed on the market. Stocks rose in the first quarter despite uprisings in the Arab world, a jump in oil prices and the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan. “This is a market that has been defined by resilience in the face of uncertainty,” said Andrew D. Goldberg, a market strategist at J. P. Morgan Funds. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.88 points, or 0.25 percent, to 12,319.73. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 2.43 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,325.83. The Nasdaq composite index rose 4.28 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,781.07. The S.& P. 500 rose 5.4 percent during the first quarter and the Nasdaq gained 4.8 percent. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway lost 2.1 percent after the company said that David Sokol, once a candidate to succeed Warren E. Buffett as the head of the conglomerate, resigned. Stocks swung between small gains and losses on Thursday as the price of oil surged to settle at $106.72 a barrel. In Libya, troops loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi retook control of the crucial oil port of Ras Lanouf from rebel forces. The power shift threatens the quick restart of oil exports promised by a rebel victory. Oil prices have risen $20 a barrel since the Libyan uprising began in February. Higher oil prices can pinch spending by forcing consumers to pay more for gasoline and could cut into economic growth. Spot gold prices also rose $4.52 an ounce to $1,423.02. There were also slightly disappointing reports on new unemployment claims and factory orders. The Labor Department said fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, signaling that companies may be slowing layoffs. The number of new claims declined 6,000, to 388,000. Analysts expected a larger decline. The news comes a day before the Labor Department’s monthly employment report. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.9 percent. Banks in Ireland were also under pressure. The country’s central bank said Thursday that four of its banks needed another 24 billion euros in coming months to show that they will not collapse in the face of future crises. Ireland has already put 46 billion euros into the country’s banks since 2009. The four banks will need to draw on an emergency credit line from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Still, stocks in Europe broadly rose. The FTSE 100 in London closed up 16.13 point to 5,948.30 while the CAC-40 in Paris rose 36.64 points, to 4,024.44. Interest rates were a little higher on Thursday. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note fell 7/32, to 101 11/32, and the yield rose to 3.46 percent from 3.43 percent late Wednesday. | Stocks and Bonds;Labor and Jobs |
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| 2011/03/23 | Élysée Montmartre Concert Hall Gutted by Fire | An early-morning fire gutted the historic Élysée Montmartre concert hall in Paris on Tuesday, French officials said. The central stage was untouched, but the second floor partially collapsed, according to news reports. Police said they suspected that the fire was caused by faulty wiring. The hall opened in 1807. Toulouse-Lautrec is reported to have painted several works there, and it is said to have been the birthplace of the cancan. “It is a part of Paris’s identity that has been struck,” said Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who pledged that it would be rebuilt. No one was hurt in the fire, the authorities said. | Paris (France);Fires and Firefighters |
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"business"
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| 2006/09/21 | Bed Bath & Beyond Gains | Bed Bath & Beyond, the largest United States home furnishings retailer, posted higher second-quarter profit, helped by sales of back-to-college merchandise. Net income climbed 2.9 percent, to $145.5 million, or 51 cents a share, matching analyst estimates. Revenue in the three months that ended Aug. 26 increased 12 percent, to $1.61 billion, the company, based in Union, N.J., said yesterday. Sales at stores open at least a year gained 4.8 percent, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier and beating analysts’ estimates. The company also said that an independent board committee had begun a voluntary review of stock option grants and that it would report further on the review in its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Oct. 5. More than 130 companies have disclosed internal or federal investigations into possible irregularities in the way they paid executives with options. | Bed Bath & Beyond Incorporated;Company Reports;Sales;Retail Stores and Trade |
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| 2012/02/10 | Pentagon to Loosen Restrictions on Women in Combat | WASHINGTON — Reflecting the steady but glacial evolution of the role of American women in war, the Pentagon took a small step Thursday and announced that women would be formally permitted in crucial and dangerous jobs closer to the front lines. But it stopped short of officially allowing women to serve in combat. The decision, the result of a yearlong Pentagon review ordered by Congress, allows women to be permanently assigned to a battalion — a ground unit of some 800 personnel — as radio operators, medics, tank mechanics and other critical jobs. In actual practice, however, women already serve in many of those jobs, but as temporary “attachments” to battalions — a bureaucratic sidestep that has been necessary with the high demand for troops during the last decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s new rules largely formalize existing arrangements and in many ways are simply catching up with realities on the battlefield. The new rules keep in place a ban on women serving in the infantry, in combat tank units and in Special Operations commando units. Nonetheless, many women in Iraq and Afghanistan have served in combat as attachments to infantry foot patrols, and in many cases they have come under fire and fought back. More than 140 women in the American military have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Serving in jobs like the infantry remains crucial to career advancement in the military, and critics of the current policy say that by not recognizing women’s real role in combat, women are unfairly held back. Supporters of the policy say that infantrymen in the Army and Marine Corps are not ready to have women serve at their sides in combat, and that the physical demands are too onerous. Pentagon officials said at a news briefing Thursday that they continued to study whether women should be permitted in combat, despite the experiences of the last 10 years. They struggled at times to articulate the rationale for the current policy. For example, a 1994 Defense Department ruling holds that women may be restricted from positions like the infantry, “which include physically demanding tasks that would exclude the vast majority of women.” Asked how the department knew that the majority of women would not meet the physical standards if they did not give them the opportunity to try, Vee Penrod, the deputy assistant under secretary of defense for military personnel policy, told reporters that the ruling was “based on experience with the leadership and experience in combat.” Men in infantry patrols sometimes carry as much as 100 pounds of gear and have to be strong enough to carry a fellow soldier or Marine off the battlefield. The new rules are to take effect gradually and will be reviewed by members of Congress, who are not expected to object to them. But Congress has repeatedly balked at allowing women in combat and has in recent years asked the Pentagon sometimes sharp questions when it became obvious through news reports that women were serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the meantime, a number of advocates for women in the military reacted with dismay. “It’s a really, really tiny step forward,” said Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine Corps captain and the executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, an advocacy group for women in the military. “We were hoping for more.” Ms. Bhagwati added: “We’re not talking about opening up the infantry to every woman, but the women who do want to try these jobs, who are we to say that they can’t? A lot of women will leave service early when they know their career path is limited.” Representative Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat who has long urged that women be allowed in combat, said in a statement on Thursday that it was “ridiculous” to “open a few positions at the battalion level to basically create a pilot program.” Nearly 15 percent of the nation’s 1.5 million active duty military personnel are women, and more than 255,000 women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Nonetheless, even some male military officers who say that women might be strong enough for the infantry acknowledged some psychological barriers. “I think the infantry in me will have a very hard time ever accepting that I’m going to rush against the enemy and there’s going to be a female right next to me,” Capt. Scott A. Cuomo, a company commander of 270 Marines in Afghanistan and a strong supporter of women in the military, said in an interview in 2010 . “Can she do it? Some might. I don’t know if this sounds bad, but I kind of look at everything through my wife. Is that my wife’s job? No. My job is to make sure my wife is safe.” The Pentagon’s new rules do open up for the first time six job specialties previously closed to women. Women may now be tank mechanics and fire detection specialists, among other jobs. | United States Defense and Military Forces;Women and Girls |
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| 2007/10/11 | Safety Agents Are Defended After 2 Arrests at City School | Police and education officials fiercely defended school security officers yesterday, a day after a principal was arrested at a high school in the East Village for trying to intervene as officers arrested a student. The school safety agents, as the officers are called, have helped reduce violence significantly in the last several years and are the best monitor of crime in the city schools, officials said during a City Council hearing about safety agents’ conduct. “School safety agents are the backbone of school security,” said James Secreto, an assistant police chief and the commanding officer of the school safety division. “They take front-line responsibility for keeping schools safe.” On Tuesday, Isamar Gonzales, a 17-year-old senior at East Side Community High School, tried to enter the school, at 12th Street and First Avenue, just before 8 a.m. Security officers asked her to return later, prompting an argument that resulted in Isamar’s punching the officer in the face, the police said. Mark Federman, the school’s principal, then tried to prevent the officers from taking Isamar out the front door, and began arguing with another officer. The arrests spurred renewed complaints that school officers are often too aggressive and may foster a hostile atmosphere on campus, a complaint voiced for several years by civil liberties advocates. Nearly 5,000 officers are stationed at city schools. At the hearing, both Mr. Secreto and Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for operations, declined to comment directly on Tuesday’s arrests, despite continued questioning from council members. Still, much of the hearing focused on the line of authority between officers and principals. Peter F. Vallone Jr., the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, suggested that Tuesday’s arrests showed that arguments between school and the police were not unusual in the hallways of the schools. Echoing the questions of several other council members, Mr. Vallone asked Assistant Chief Secreto who had the ability to determine if an arrest was needed. “With fights between kids and no injuries, the principal can make that call,” he said. “Once you have an injury, you have a crime, and that is when we are going to make that call.” The Police Department took control over school safety officers under a memorandum of understanding signed by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in 1998. Robert Jackson, the chairman of the Council Education Committee, said that it was not clear if the agreement had been reviewed or renewed since then. Ms. Grimm said no formal agreement was necessary, since the Education Department was simply part of city government controlled by the mayor, like the Police or Fire Departments. According to a police patrol guide, officers are supposed to notify principals before an arrest happens, but a principal has no authority to determine whether that arrest should occur. “The principal is in charge of the building — she is in charge of making sure she creates a safe environment where children can learn,” Ms. Grimm said. “When a crime is committed, that is when law enforcement takes over. That happens in our schools, that happens in our hospitals, that happens in all our institutions.” Mr. Vallone said he was considering introducing legislation to set clear protocols between the Police and Education Departments. Outside the hearing, Gregory Floyd, president of Local 237 of the Teamsters union, which represents school safety agents, spoke on the steps of City Hall with the two officers who were injured in the dispute on Tuesday, Nadine Penniston and Mark Ruiz. Neither officer spoke, but Mr. Floyd held up a picture of Ms. Penniston’s hair, some of which was pulled out during the scuffle. “Safety agents have been wrongfully accused of criminalizing the schools, but they are the ones being treated like criminals,” Mr. Floyd said. “They are the ones being assaulted and degraded.” Hours later, several students showed up to testify about being arrested by school officers. One student said he was held for hours in a “holding room,” while another spoke of being screamed at by a 300-pound officer. A student from Aviation High School in Queens said his six-inch ruler was confiscated by an officer who called it a “hazard to society.” | City Councils;Education and Schools;Police |
ny0161113 | [
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| 2006/04/29 | Feeling Charitable and a Bit Badgered | MY mail now consists, as does most people's, of pleas for money. There are the regular bills, of course. And then there are the charities -- ones I've never given to and even more annoying, ones I have already sent a check that are hitting me up again. And again. And again. It's hard to raise money. I know nonprofits need to go back to the people who have already shown an interest. But it seems like every few weeks, I receive an urgent plea from a charity asking if I can increase the amount I've already given by $10, $25 or $50. I'm beginning to feel, well, used. My mother became so fed up, she refused to contribute more to a major aid organization because she felt her money was being used to send her a pamphlet asking for more money. A friend of mine said she told a national charity that if she was contacted one more time, she would stop sending money for the next 10 years. She got another appeal. The charity won't be receiving her contribution for another decade. She's not the only one. "We're hearing that more and more," said Sandra Miniutti, a spokeswoman for Charity Navigator, an organization that monitors nonprofit groups. "It's a commonly held belief that the more times you ask, the more times you'll get, but people are withdrawing their support." Then there are those free address labels or trinkets. I remember, oh so long ago, being pleased to receive a few labels, and even feeling obligated to send a contribution. But now most simply go into the trash along with the donation envelopes. So why do charities potentially alienate supporters by drowning them in solicitations and giveaways? The first thing I learned is that donors and charities have vastly different takes on the act of giving. We, as donors, usually look at giving money as a one-night stand. For the charity, hopefully, it's the beginning of a beautiful relationship. For example, my husband and I contribute to several charities regularly, but if another organization that I like asks for $25 or $50 for a cause that seems pressing, I may write a check and drop it in the mail or donate online -- and then pretty much forget about it. For the charity, that is only the beginning. I'm now on their list and as a first-time donor, the organization knows that I'm much more likely to donate a second time than someone who has never given before. Research shows that about 25 to 30 percent of people who contribute once to a charity give again and that percentage increases with each additional donation from the same person. In fact, according to a study by Craver, Matthews, Smith & Company, a direct-mail company in Arlington, Va., that works with nonprofits, charities must give "the highest priority to securing a second gift from new donors" before their interest wanes and they move on to something else. The 2006 study, called "Donor Loyalty: The Holy Grail of Fundraising," states that "the critical bonding window for a first-time donor is within one-three months of the initial gift." That means a charity should get in touch with you, after you gave the first time, within three months. Donors who contribute again within three months of the first donation give much more than those who send in money 12 months later, the study says. The next mailing may not necessarily be a direct solicitation for money, but a report on what the charity is doing -- a "reminder" that you may want to bequeath some more cash to this good cause. So what may seem like harassment to you is actually good business to the charity. But charities do need to work harder at figuring out ways to solicit people without alienating them, said Christopher Dann, president of DSD Management Fundraising Services in Marin County, Calif. "There's a lot of badgering going on," he said. One problem is that from 2000 to 2004, the number of nonprofits increased 23 percent, but the amount of money donated by individuals decreased 2 percent, Mr. Dann said. Baby boomers are partly to blame -- overall they donate less to charity than their parents. So more charities are scrambling for less money. While mailings bring in money, they're also expensive, said Eric Johnson, vice president for business development for ParadyszMatera, a New York company that assists nonprofits with direct mail and other services. If the charity could save money by mailing less and please the customer more, "it would be utopia," Mr. Johnson said. That's what Amy Golden, director for membership and advancement services at the Nature Conservancy, a national environmental advocacy group, thinks. She said her organization spent a great deal of time and energy doing statistical modeling on who to send solicitations to, how much to ask, how often to ask and what type of material to send. Nonprofits are just beginning to use the type of sophisticated analysis, she said, that is more common in the corporate world."It's still, 'you gave us last year, so we're asking again this year, and we'll just keep on asking,' " she said. "We do a lot of mail, but we do it in a smart way." Ms. Golden said that a first-time donor might receive a special appeal every month from her group. But, she said, a contributor can always contact her organization by writing, phone or e-mail and ask that the solicitations be done once or twice a year, or only online, if so desired. Other charities say consumers should always let them know if they want solicitations to be limited or stopped, although Ms. Miniutti said organizations are often so swamped they're hard pressed to respond. Requests to be contacted only once a year or so can also put the charity in a quandary. "What if it promised to solicit once a year and your mother may miss it or forget it?" said Richard McPherson, president and creative director of McPherson Associates, Inc., a marketing and communications company for nonprofits. "Should the organization send another solicitation saying, 'Let us know when you want to hear from us?' " he asked. Consumers can also put their name on a list compiled by the Direct Marketing Association, a trade association, asking not to be contacted by charities (and commercial organizations, otherwise you'll remain on a list of for-profits); however it's a voluntary list, which charities are under no obligation to follow. The association's Web site is www.dmaconsumers.org. Ms. Miniutti suggests consolidating your giving by donating larger amounts to fewer charities. It does more good, and charities are less likely to want to sell or share the names of their bigger donors -- meaning less mail for you -- than smaller givers. Charity Navigator, at their site www.charitynavigator.org, also offers suggestions on cutting down on mailings under its "Tips" category. And what about those premiums, or freemiums as they are known -- the address labels, the greeting cards, the occasional bits of inexpensive trinkets or pens that come unsolicited from about 40 percent of charities. Again, the first thought is, what a waste of money. But the fact is, they work. Charities have consistently discovered that solicitations coupled with freemiums bring in more donations than those sent without the freebies, Mr. Johnson said. Although it might be just an address label or greeting card to you and me, to the charity it's well-honed bait. Now that I understand the thought behind appeals, I'll probably be slightly more tolerant. Maybe I'll take the time to call or write and tell the charities that I promise to give more if they send me less. Or maybe I'll just donate anonymously. | PHILANTHROPY;ADVERTISING AND MARKETING |
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| 2006/10/19 | 8 to Face Courts-Martial | EVANSVILLE, Ind., Oct. 18 (AP) — Eight soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., were ordered Wednesday to face courts-martial in killings connected to their service in Iraq . Two of the soldiers, Sgt. Paul E. Cortez and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, could face the death penalty in the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing of her family in March. The military said it would not seek the death penalty for two other soldiers, Specialist James P. Barker and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard, who are also accused in the rape and killings. Four other soldiers, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Specialist William B. Hunsaker, Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard and Specialist Juston R. Graber, will face a separate court-martial in the killing of three Iraqi detainees during a raid in May. | Iraq;Courts-Martial;United States Armament and Defense |
ny0079411 | [
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| 2015/02/28 | Airbus Group Profit Rose 59% in 2014 on Demand for Commercial Jets | PARIS — Robust demand for new commercial jets lifted Airbus Group profit by 59 percent last year, despite continued underperformance at its military division, where delays to a new transport plane led to more than $600 million in additional costs, the company said on Friday. Airbus said that net income for the full year climbed to 2.34 billion euros, or $2.65 billion, from €1.47 billion in 2013 . Revenue, the bulk of which comes from the commercial aircraft unit, rose 5 percent from a year earlier, to a record €60.7 billion. Like Boeing, Airbus has watched demand for its passenger jets grow in recent years, thanks to rising demand for air travel, particularly in emerging markets. Until recently, high oil prices also created a strong incentive for airlines to replace older, fuel-guzzling planes with more efficient models. That has led to long waits for customers seeking to get hold of new planes — particularly single-aisle aircraft, which represent roughly three-quarters of the two companies’ growing order books. To help catch up with a backlog, Airbus said on Friday that it planned to further accelerate production of its most popular single-aisle series, the A320, to 50 a month beginning in 2017, from a previously planned increase to 46 a month early next year. Airbus currently produces around 42 of the 150-seat planes monthly. While underlying profit for the group’s main commercial aircraft business soared 68 percent to €2.67 billion, earnings at its military division faltered as the group pushed ahead with a restructuring of those operations. The military unit has struggled as its biggest customers — European governments — have reined in spending. Underlying profit for defense and space operations fell 38 percent last year, to €409 million, on sales that were nearly flat, at €13 billion, Airbus said. Among the military division’s largest challenges has been a series of production problems with its A400M Atlas cargo plane that pushed back delivery to several European countries, including Britain, France and Germany. On Friday, Airbus said it had booked new charges of €551 million related to the A400M, a program that is already billions of euros over budget. Once held up as a model of Pan-European arms procurement, the A400M — a 37-ton cargo and troop transporter with four turbo-propeller engines — was initially commissioned in 2003 by six European NATO member states and Turkey, to replace their aging fleets of Lockheed C-130s and Transall C-160s. But its development has been dogged for years by technical and production problems that have led to threats of order cancellations and postponements. Since 2006, Airbus has absorbed more than €4 billion in unanticipated charges for the A400M , equivalent to about one-fifth of its estimated €20 billion in development costs. Airbus executives acknowledged that production problems with the military cargo plane had become an unwelcome burden, even as the group’s passenger jet business showed enough strength to justify paying a record dividend of €1.20 per share, up from 75 cents a year earlier. “It could have been a crown of laurels,” the Airbus strategy chief, Marwan Lahoud, said in an interview on French radio, referring to the A400M Atlas. “It’s in the process of becoming a crown of thorns, and we are taking measures to rediscover the laurels.” European governments agreed in 2010 to a complex, €3.5 billion bailout of the A400M after Airbus Group, then known as European Aeronautic Defense and Space, threatened to abandon the project if its stakeholders did not assume a larger share of the plane’s upfront costs and a less ambitious delivery schedule. The first A400M was delivered four years late, in 2013, to France, which now has six of the planes and has already deployed them in West Africa and in Iraq. Britain has taken delivery of two of the 22 A400Ms it has on order, and Turkey has also received two. Germany has received one and is scheduled to receive five more A400Ms this year, out of 53 on order. Airbus has a total of 174 orders for the transporter and hopes to eventually sell as many as 400 of them worldwide over the next 30 years. However, the program’s rising costs have made the plane a tough sell for the export market. Airbus has so far secured only one A400M deal with a non-NATO customer: Malaysia, which ordered four of the planes in 2005 and is expected to receive its first delivery in March. Analysts said the A400M’s versatility — it can fly faster and farther than most existing transporters and can be converted into an airborne refueling tanker — would eventually attract more foreign buyers. A decision by Boeing to end production of its larger, C-17 cargo lifter this year is also likely to drive prospective customers to the Airbus plane. “Anybody who is going to want new airlift capability in the future is going to look at the A400M incredibly seriously,” said Sash Tusa, an aerospace and defense analyst at Edison Investment Research in London. Short of leasing aging Soviet-built military cargo planes like the Antonov-124, he said, “it will be the only game in town.” In presenting its earnings, Airbus said it would keep looking for ways to shore up the finances of its military business, in part through the sale of small, ancillary businesses and noncore financial assets. Last year, the group reaped €383 million in capital gains from the sale of nearly 10 percent of the French aerospace group Dassault Aviation — the maker of Rafale fighters and Falcon business jets — as well as a minority holding in Patria, a Finnish defense company. Mr. Lahoud told reporters on Friday that, market conditions permitting, Airbus hoped this year to sell another chunk of its remaining one-third stake in Dassault, with an eye to eventually disposing of the investment entirely. Alongside the military restructuring, Airbus said its biggest challenge in 2015 would be managing the significant production increases planned across its entire range of commercial jets. In addition to the A320, Airbus said on Friday that it aimed to step up the output of its latest long-range jet, the A350, which entered commercial service in January, as well as the twin-deck A380 “superjumbo.” The aim is to recoup tens of billions of euros in research and development costs on both planes. (Airbus said it expected the A380 would break even, on a per plane basis, for the first time this year.) “My target for this year is two words: Ramp up,” said Thomas Enders, the Airbus chief executive. Boeing, too, has sought to step up its production rates, with a goal of increasing production of its 737 cash cow to 52 planes a month by 2018. But some analysts worry that the sharp drop in oil prices that began last summer, combined with signs of mounting overcapacity in regions like Asia, could presage a slowdown in jet orders over the coming years, just as the planned production increases by Airbus and Boeing are reaching their peak. The two companies say their large backlogs — equivalent to more than eight years’ production at current rates — would soften the financial impact of falling demand. But analysts warn that raising production at the start of a downturn in orders could eventually weigh on future jet prices. Mr. Enders shrugged off such concerns on Friday, suggesting that there was room to ramp up production of the workhorse A320 beyond the planned 50 a month. “The demand is clearly there to move the rates to 60-plus,” Mr. Enders said. “There are studies underway.” | Airlines,airplanes;Earnings Reports |
ny0285910 | [
"world",
"europe"
]
| 2016/09/08 | Denmark Will Buy Leaked Panamanian Documents in Fight Against Tax Evasion | LONDON — Denmark will buy documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm at the heart of an offshore finance scandal, part of a growing global effort to clamp down on tax evasion by wealthy individuals, Denmark’s tax minister said on Wednesday. A Danish government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy, said the cost of the data was less than 10 million kroner, or $1.5 million, and the government hoped that the unpaid taxes recovered would more than offset the cost of the information. It was unclear whether the documents came from the trove known as the Panama Papers , published in April, which contained millions of leaked confidential documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama and ensnared politicians, business people and other prominent figures around the world. The move by the Danish authorities, believed to be the first time that a government has publicly acknowledged paying for access to the documents, seems likely to raise ethical questions about governments buying private material that the law firm says was stolen. The Danish tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen , a member of the center-right governing party, said he had every reason to believe that the data would prove useful. “For many years Denmark has been in the forefront internationally when fighting tax evasion,” he said in a statement. “We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes. We have to take the necessary measures to catch tax evaders hiding their fortunes in places like Panama, in order to avoid tax payments in Denmark. That’s why we agreed it was wise to buy this material.” The Danish government official who spoke anonymously said that the country’s Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer from a party willing to sell the data, and that the data involved 320 cases concerning up to 600 Danish taxpayers. He said that the purchase of the data would likely take place this month and that the move had received cross-party support. Speaking by telephone from Copenhagen, the official said the Customs and Tax Administration had been authorized to negotiate the purchase of the leaked material in order to help combat tax evasion. He said it was the first time, to his knowledge, that the government had sanctioned payment for material from a whistle-blower, although it was unclear whether the documents came from the same still-anonymous source who provided the Panama Papers to a German newspaper last year. Such transactions may have taken place secretly in the past, he said, and he suggested that other countries were likely to have paid for access to the documents. The Panama Papers constituted the largest leak of secret documents to journalists in history. The release of the data, in an effort organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , has spurred renewed efforts by countries to take a tougher stance on tax evasion. In recent months, countries including South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have been ratcheting up their efforts to uncover tax evaders, while the Group of 7 nations have also agreed to take a tougher stance on the issue. The documents cited transactions by associates of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, relatives of President Xi Jinping of China ; and the soccer star Lionel Messi, along with people in dozens of countries who may have used offshore bank accounts and shell companies to avoid paying taxes or to shield their wealth. | Panama Papers;Tax Evasion;International Consortium of Investigative Journalists;Denmark;Panama;Mossack Fonseca;Tax shelter |
ny0199043 | [
"business"
]
| 2009/07/31 | MedImmune’s Nasal Vaccine May Join War on Swine Flu | As the nation girds for a possible swine flu pandemic, one of the big weapons may come from an unexpected source — a vaccine squirted or dropped into the nose. MedImmune, which already makes the nasal spray vaccine FluMist for seasonal flu viruses, says it is on track to produce about five times as much swine flu vaccine as it had expected — so much, in fact, that it will run out of nasal spray devices and is looking to administer the vaccines with droppers instead. A nasal spray vaccine could be a strong weapon against swine flu because makers of conventional flu shots have reported problems producing their vaccines. If nasal spray vaccines emerge as a central player against swine flu, it would represent a reversal of fortune for MedImmune’s efforts in the field. As a vaccine for seasonal influenza , its FluMist has been a flop from a marketing standpoint, accounting for only a few percent of the inoculations Americans receive each year. But it appears to have a manufacturing edge. Because its vaccine uses a live but weakened virus, MedImmune uses a different viral strain than the makers of flu shots, which contain an inactivated virus. Each approach uses chicken eggs as the culture for growing its virus strain, but flu shot makers say the strain of swine flu virus they are using is growing more slowly than expected. MedImmune’s strain, meanwhile, is growing faster than expected. As a result, MedImmune, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca, says it can make 200 million doses by next March, about five times what it had expected. Robin Robinson, who heads procurement of the pandemic vaccine for the Department of Health and Human Services, said MedImmune alone accounted for 12 million of the 20 million doses already produced by the five companies under contract to the government. Dr. Robinson said that the other drug makers were resolving their production problems and would catch up. He said 120 million doses should be available by October, without counting on any extra production from MedImmune. But if the extra nasal spray doses can be used, Dr. Robinson said, “our supply could possibly increase by a very large amount.” The problem for MedImmune is that the unexpected production surge left the company short of the sprayers used to squirt the vaccine into the nose. It can supply only about 40 million doses in sprayers by March. “We now are sitting on a surplus of potentially 150 million bulk doses,” Bernardus N. M. Machielse, executive vice president for operations, said in an interview. BD, supplier of the sprayers, said Thursday that it was running its sprayer factory in Columbus, Neb., round the clock to increase annual capacity to 70 million sprayers — up from 20 million. But even that will not be enough. So MedImmune wants to use droppers in addition to sprayers. Some early clinical trials of the vaccine were conducted with droppers, so the company hopes to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use them. Pandemic vaccines could bolster the total sales of AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical giant based in London that acquired MedImmune, a Maryland biotechnology company, for $15.6 billion in 2007. The government has ordered 12.8 million doses of pandemic vaccine from MedImmune for $151 million, Dr. Robinson said. AstraZeneca might get many hundreds of millions more in sales if the government buys the rest of the 40 million or so doses in sprayers and potentially the some 150 million doses in droppers. Simon Lowth, AstraZeneca’s chief financial officer, told analysts on Thursday that FluMist had a lower-than-average profit margin and that the pandemic vaccine, being sold under government contract, had margins that are “lower still.” The pandemic might also allow AstraZeneca to achieve a foothold outside the United States, the only country that has approved FluMist. The company is applying for approval in other countries and is talking to the World Health Organization about supplying some pandemic vaccine to poorer countries, David Brennan, its chief executive, said Thursday. When MedImmune agreed to buy Aviron, the developer of FluMist, in 2001, executives predicted sales would grow to more than $1 billion a year. But in 2008, the best year yet for FluMist, sales reached only $104 million. Several missteps nullified any appeal a needle-less vaccine might have. When it was initially sold in 2003, FluMist was priced at about $50, two to six times as much as a flu shot. And FluMist had to be frozen, a problem for some doctors’ offices. Because of safety concerns FluMist was approved only for healthy people 5 to 49 years old. But those are not typically the people who get flu vaccines. FluMist is now approved for children as young as 2, it can be refrigerated instead of frozen and the wholesale price is down to $18.95. | Swine Influenza;Vaccination and Immunization;MedImmune Inc |
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