Hackers Use Old Lure on Web to Help Syrian Government

Abstract: WASHINGTON — To the young Syrian rebel fighter, the Skype message in early December 2013 appeared to come from a woman in Lebanon, named Iman Almasri, interested in his cause. Her picture, in a small icon alongside her name, showed a fair-skinned 20-something in a black head covering, wearing sunglasses. They chatted online for nearly two hours, seemingly united in their opposition to the rule of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader still in power after a civil war that has taken more than 200,000 lives. Eventually saying she worked “in a programing company in Beirut,” the woman asked the fighter whether he was talking from his computer or his smartphone. He sent her a photo of himself and asked for another of her in return. She sent one immediately, apologizing that it was a few years old. “Angel like,” he responded. “You drive me crazy.” What the fighter did not know was that buried in the code of the second photo was a particularly potent piece of malware that copied files from his computer, including tactical battle plans and troves of information about him, his friends and fellow fighters. The woman was not a friendly chat partner, but a pro-Assad hacker — the photos all appear to have been plucked from the web. The Syrian conflict has been marked by a very active, if only sporadically visible, cyberbattle that has engulfed all sides, one that is less dramatic than the barrel bombs, snipers and chemical weapons — but perhaps just as effective. The United States had deeply penetrated the web and phone systems in Syria a year before the Arab Spring uprisings spread throughout the country. And once it began, Mr. Assad’s digital warriors have been out in force, looking for any advantage that could keep him in power. In this case, the fighter had fallen for the oldest scam on the Internet, one that helped Mr. Assad’s allies. The chat is drawn from a new study by the intelligence-gathering division of FireEye , a computer security firm, which has delved into the hidden corners of the Syrian conflict — one in which even a low-tech fighting force has figured out a way to use cyberespionage to its advantage. FireEye researchers found a collection of chats and documents while researching malware hidden in PDF documents, which are commonly used to share letters, books or other images. That quickly took them to the servers where the stolen data was stored. Like the hackers who the United States says were working for North Korea when they attacked Sony Pictures in November, the assailants aiding Mr. Assad’s forces in this case took steps to hide their true identities. The report says the pro-Assad hackers stole large caches of critical documents revealing the Syrian opposition’s strategy, tactical battle plans, supply requirements and data about the forces themselves — which could be used to track them down. But it is not evident how or whether this battlefield information was used. “You’ve got a conflict with a lot of young, male fighters who keep their contacts and their operations on phones in their back pockets,” said one senior American intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss espionage matters. “And it’s clear Assad’s forces have the capability to drain all that out.” Mr. Assad was also the victim of cyberattacks, but of a far more advanced nature. A National Security Agency document dated June 2010 , written by the agency’s chief of “Access and Target Development,” describes how the shipment of “computer network devices (servers, routers, etc.) being delivered to our targets throughout the world are intercepted” by the agency. The document, published recently by Der Spiegel, the German magazine, came from the huge trove taken by Edward J. Snowden; this one shows a photograph of N.S.A. workers slicing open a box of equipment from Cisco Systems, a major manufacturer of network equipment. After being opened, electronic “beacon implants” were placed in the circuitry. One set of devices was “bound for the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment to be used as part of their Internet backbone,” the document reveals. To the delight of American intelligence agencies, they soon discovered they had access to the country’s cellphone network — enabling American officials to figure out who was calling whom, and from where. Such interceptions are still highly classified; the United States government has never discussed its access to the Assad communications network. But the FireEye report, which will be released on Monday, makes it clear that such “network exploitation” is now a routine part of even the most low-tech if brutal civil wars, and available to those operating on a shoestring budget. And that is a new development. The theft of the rebel battle plans stands in contrast to the cybervandalism carried out in recent years by the Syrian Electronic Army , which American intelligence officials suspect is actually Iranian, and has conducted strikes against targets in the United States, including the website of The New York Times . But mostly these have been denial-of-service attacks, which are annoying but not potential game-changers on the battlefield. Exactly who conducted the hacking on behalf of Mr. Assad’s forces remains a mystery, as does whether the stolen data was ever used by the Syrian military. One of the authors of the report, Nart Villeneuve, a threat intelligence analyst for the company, said that it was likely that the hackers were based in Lebanon — which would be the only true statement in the chat with the Syrian fighter. They used a computer server in Germany, where FireEye found many of their chats in unprotected directories. A handful of the targets of the Syrian operation were contacted in recent months by FireEye researchers. “They really didn’t understand what had happened,” Mr. Villeneuve said. “They didn’t know their computers and phones had been compromised.” But if information was forwarded to Mr. Assad’s forces, it would have provided his troops or their allies with important intelligence and a critical battlefield advantage, according to analysts and Syrian military specialists. “This activity, which takes place in the heat of a conflict, provides actionable military intelligence for an immediate battlefield advantage,” the FireEye report concluded. “It provides the type of insight that can thwart a vital supply route, reveal a planned ambush, and identify and track key individuals.” By mid-2013, according to the information that FireEye recovered, 10 rebel groups fighting Mr. Assad’s regime were planning a major operation intended to reclaim from Syrian government forces a key portion of territory along a strategic north-south highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Jordan. The plans called for retaking the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh, a strategic gateway to the major city of Daraa. In May 2013, Syrian troops had seized control of the town near the highway. “The Assad regime’s biggest vulnerabilities over the last year have been in south Syria, so disrupting that operation would be key to the regime fending off an attack on Damascus from the south — the traditional route for invading armies,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Tabler said he was not aware of the stolen information. According to FireEye, which merged last year with the Mandiant Corporation, the company that has tracked Unit 61398 , the Chinese Army’s hacking operation, the rebels shared photocopied battle plans, and in red ballpoint pen added defensive embankments, storing their plans electronically as pictures taken with their cellphones. They prepared for a battle involving 700 to 800 men, who were divided into groups to launch separate attacks, including an ambush. They used Google Earth to map their defensive lines and communicate grid coordinates. They mapped locations for reserve fighters, staging areas and support personnel; settled on a field operations area; and planned supply routes for their forces, according to FireEye. Commanders received stern instructions not to make any “individual” decisions without approval from rebel superiors. The battle details that the security service recovered are impressive. The rebels, who are not identified, would begin the attack with 120-millimeter mortar fire, followed by an assault against key Syrian Army locations. They drew up lists of men from each unit, with names, birth dates and other identifying information. But they stored them on their phones and laptops, and they were vulnerable to slightly customized versions of commercially available malware. “It’s the democratization of intelligence,” said Laura Galante, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who now works for FireEye and oversaw the Syria work. “We in the private sector can see some of this, and adversaries can steal it in a wholesale way and understand the full picture of an operation.” And perhaps they can even stop an operation. The retaking of Khirbet Ghazaleh never materialized, Syria analysts say. It is unclear whether Syrian authorities thwarted the plot before it could be carried out, or if the rebels aborted the plan, perhaps suspecting the hacking or for some other reason.

Syria
Cyberwarfare
FireEye
Bashar al-Assad


Business to Play Key Role as Georgia Weighs Bill on Religion and Gay Rights

Abstract: ATLANTA — The Georgia General Assembly’s approval of a proposal to strengthen legal protections for opponents of same-sex marriage has set in motion a high-stakes showdown that has drawn some of the nation’s most influential companies into a battle between gay rights activists and religious conservatives. The bill, which lawmakers approved on Wednesday, now faces the scrutiny of Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican. But it is clear that companies and sports organizations, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and the National Football League, will have a significant effect on public debate and the governor’s decision to sign or veto the measure. The face-off playing out here in the Deep South’s most visible city, where residents are often at odds with a largely rural state, is poised to emerge as one of the most consequential tests of political power on gay rights issues since the United States Supreme Court decision last summer that recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Supporters of the bill, which Georgia lawmakers named the Free Exercise Protection Act, say it is a bulwark against pressure for people of many religious faiths to endorse, or at least accept, same-sex marriage. “The leadership that’s been shown by the Georgia General Assembly leads the nation in dealing with the definition of marriage,” State Senator Greg Kirk, a Republican and a sponsor of the bill, said before the Senate’s final vote last week. “When the Supreme Court changed the definition of marriage, dynamics changed. There was a need for a law — for this law.” But to the proposal’s opponents, the bill is a toxic mix of intolerant ideas that was fueled by resistance to the Supreme Court’s decision. “It’s being motivated by a desire to discriminate,” said Sarah Warbelow, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group that is pressing Mr. Deal to veto the legislation. “It’s going to result in discrimination.” Groups like Ms. Warbelow’s won a significant victory in the South on Tuesday, when Tennessee lawmakers effectively killed a measure that would have forbidden transgender students from choosing which school restroom they preferred to use. On Wednesday, North Carolina lawmakers will meet in special session and could block a Charlotte ordinance that offered significant safeguards to gay and transgender people. But much of the recent pressure has been concentrated in Georgia, where the pending bill would offer protections to faith-based groups if they, absent certain conditions, refused to provide “social, educational or charitable services that violate” the organization’s religious beliefs. Such a group could also choose, without legal repercussions, not to employ someone whose religious beliefs conflicted with the organization’s. The measure would also mostly prohibit the state government from taking action to curb a person’s exercise of religion. Although a similar provision was included in a 1993 federal law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, gay rights groups say state versions of that law amount to invitations to infringe on the rights of same-sex couples. Supporters of the state laws, which more than 20 states have adopted, argue that they are crucial shields for religious liberty. It is not clear how Mr. Deal will assess the bill, which does not include some of the most contentious wording that appeared in a previous draft. He was unavailable for comment. The governor, who previously expressed doubts about proposals that might appear to tolerate discrimination, has until May 3 to reach a decision. Image Gov. Nathan Deal, who has expressed doubts about proposals that might appear to tolerate discrimination, has until May 3 to reach a decision on what lawmakers named the Free Exercise Protection Act. Credit David Goldman/Associated Press He will have to weigh, on the one hand, the guidance of the Legislature, representing a conservative state, and on the other hand, the instincts of Atlanta’s corporate leaders who say the legislation would hurt recruitment and the city’s reputation for tolerance. Groups on both sides have been encouraging their supporters to press their case to Mr. Deal. Strategists are weighing campaigns that could ultimately include advertisements and protests. Some groups have turned to automated calls and text messages to rally support. That Mr. Deal will consider the bill is a significant victory for critics of same-sex marriage, who saw business interests scuttle their efforts as recently as last year. But this month, with the General Assembly session drawing to a close and legislative primary elections looming in May, senior lawmakers negotiated a bill whose scope astonished even some of its supporters. “I read over it, and read over it a second time to make sure I was actually seeing what was in front of me, because I was stunned,” said State Senator Josh McKoon, a Republican who last year sponsored a Georgia-specific version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. “Even with the concessions that were made, I never believed that we would pass anything beyond a clean federal R.F.R.A.,” Mr. McKoon said, using an abbreviation to refer to the federal law. Although Mr. McKoon and other Republican lawmakers were heartened by the General Assembly’s decision last week, the focus has already turned to whether companies might curtail their operations in Georgia if Mr. Deal signs the measure into law. Georgia Prospers, a coalition of corporations based in Georgia or with deep ties to the state, said more than 480 companies agreed that the bill “could harm our ability to create and keep jobs that Georgia families depend upon.” The N.F.L. has also signaled that the bill could undermine Atlanta’s bid to host the Super Bowl as early as 2019. “N.F.L. policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or any other improper standard,” Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, said in a statement. Corporate opposition, strategists said, will be central to the efforts to defeat the bill with Mr. Deal, who is known for his careful cultivation of the business community. Supporters of the law said corporate involvement would be meddling. “We’re asking our people to pray for the governor that he will make a good decision that will be based on principle, not necessarily persuasion,” said the Rev. Michael R. Griffin, a lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “We’re also asking them to call and let him know what people out here, the average state citizen, believe about the bill.” A veto by Mr. Deal might spur a heated legislative battle, especially in the House, where the bill’s supporters would need to attract more than a dozen representatives if they were to defy the governor. But Mr. McKoon predicted that even a sustained veto would not end a battle that has raged for years. “If the governor did make the decision to veto the bill, that most definitely does not end the debate,” he said. “The faith community is not just going to say: ‘Oh well. He vetoed the bill. Let’s pack up and go home.’ It becomes more intense in 2017.”

Georgia
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Separation of church and state
Freedom of religion
Nathan Deal
Religion and Belief
Legislation


Merkel Urges Treaty Changes to Fix Euro Crisis

Abstract: BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday called for swift action to amend European treaties to address the underlying causes of the debt crisis that has shaken Europe and jeopardized the future of the common currency. Mrs. Merkel, a central player in efforts to rescue Europe’s single currency, was addressing the German Parliament before a meeting next week in Brussels , when Europe’s leaders will try again to find a politically palatable solution to the crisis. Threats of a credit squeeze and default by deeply indebted countries have roiled global markets and brought down governments, most notably in Greece and Italy . While Mrs. Merkel called for quick changes, “if possible by the end of the year,” historically there has been nothing speedy about the remedy she proposed: fixing the “mistakes of construction” in the euro zone by altering the treaties that govern the European Union . It took years to negotiate and ratify the last major change, the Lisbon Treaty , after the failure of the previous effort to write a European constitution. But Europe’s leaders are evidently hoping to use the shadow of impending crisis to speed the process. Mrs. Merkel’s call for a new treaty tracked with a speech made Thursday by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France , with whom Mrs. Merkel has been negotiating. Some experts say there are more expeditious ways to effect treaty changes than the traditional path followed by the Lisbon Treaty. Mrs. Merkel’s assessment of what was needed appeared to be well received by European financial markets, which had been strengthening this week anyway, partly on hopes that European leaders would address the crisis. The Stoxx 600 index, a broad barometer, rose 1.2 percent for the day and 9 percent for the week, its biggest gain in three years, Bloomberg News reported. The euro was trading at $1.348, up from $1.346 on Thursday. Mrs. Merkel continued to oppose so-called euro bonds backed by all 17 members of the existing currency union, which embraces many different levels of economic strength ranging from struggling Greece to the export-driven German economy, which is seen as the powerhouse of Europe. She called the idea of euro bonds “unthinkable.” Her comments with regard to the European Central Bank were more ambiguous. She defended the independence of the bank and said she would not comment on its decisions. A report on Friday in the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said she was prepared to tolerate more aggressive action by the bank to steady the most indebted nations. Some financial experts have also speculated that Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy are trying to create the impression of irresistible momentum toward structural change in Europe as political cover for the central bank. If the public and the bank believe that steps are being taken to rein in irresponsible governments, the experts say, then the bank’s German-influenced leadership is more likely to act decisively. The president of Germany ’s powerful central bank, Jens Weidmann, said Friday that the long-term solution to the euro crisis was the responsibility of governments, rather than of the central banks . Countries must be willing to cede some control over their spending policies, he said, for example by agreeing to automatic tax increases if their budget deficits rise above limits agreed to by treaty. If political leaders announce a credible plan this coming week, he said, “calm could quickly return to markets.” The urgency of the crisis, which has forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to take bailouts and has driven up borrowing costs for Italy to unsustainable levels, is apparent in the flurry of meetings between European leaders. On Friday, Mrs. Merkel sat down with Chancellor Werner Faymann of Austria , and Mr. Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain held talks in Paris . Mr. Sarkozy tried to reassure Mr. Cameron about French and German plans to promote a new European Union treaty to enforce budget discipline. Britain, which is part of the European Union but not the euro zone, is worried about the creation of a “two-speed Europe” if the euro zone countries make agreements just among themselves. While France and Germany see closer European oversight of national budgets as the key to calming the storm on the bond markets, Mr. Cameron is under pressure from his Conservative supporters at home to protect British interests and sovereignty. “We’ll see what happens next Friday, but I’m absolutely convinced the bottom line for me is always what is in the best interests of the U.K. and how I can promote and defend that,” he said, referring to the summit meeting next week. Mr. Sarkozy gave his own speech about Europe the night before Mrs. Merkel’s, emphasizing the importance of French-German leadership and the need to restructure the euro zone to promote more fiscal discipline and convergence of economies. “Europe will have to make crucial choices in the weeks to come,” Mr. Sarkozy said, adding, “Europe is not a choice, it is a necessity, but it needs to be rethought, refounded.” “France is fighting alongside Germany for a new treaty,” he said. Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy plan to meet Monday in Paris for further discussions. In her speech to Parliament, Mrs. Merkel tried to dispel speculation that closer cooperation within the euro zone would mean greater division within the European Union, evoking the spirit of German leaders past, from Konrad Adenauer to Helmut Kohl . She also addressed concerns that German power and influence had grown too great within the euro zone, a topic of rampant speculation in the British press. Germany, she said, did not wish to dominate Europe. “That is far-fetched,” she said. “German and European unity were, and are, two sides of the same coin. That is something we will never forget.” Mrs. Merkel’s speech drew sustained if not overly enthusiastic applause from lawmakers. While her address was short on new proposals, her remarks pointed decisively toward deeper integration and more powers for institutions in Brussels. “The future of the euro is inseparable from European unity,” she said. “The journey before us is long and will be anything but easy. But I am convinced that we are on the right path. It is the right path to take to reach our common goal: a strong Germany in a strong European Union that will benefit the people in Germany, in Europe.” Mrs. Merkel mixed her appraisal of the challenges with words of encouragement, sounding like the European stateswoman her position as the leader of the largest economy in the bloc makes her, and not just the German chancellor. She touched on the sacrifices made in Spain , Portugal and “above all in Greece,” and their contributions to the stability of the euro. After the address, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the parliamentary leader of the opposition Social Democrats, accused Mrs. Merkel of “talking past the heart of the matter” and said her “tactical approach was not making things stable.” But the German commitment to Europe was evident in the fact that the largest opposition party was advocating faster and deeper integration rather than a turn away from Europe. Rainer Brüderle, the leader of the parliamentary group of Mrs. Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats, offered an important token of support. Several leading lawmakers from the Free Democrats have opposed the bailouts, and back in September there was even talk that Mrs. Merkel’s coalition might break apart over the efforts to rescue the euro. Mrs. Merkel was “fighting for the future of Europe, and we stand behind her,” Mr. Brüderle said Friday.

Germany
Angela Merkel
Euro Crisis
International trade
EU
Euro


Dispute Over Pastor’s Pay at Riverside Church Goes to Court

Abstract: Longstanding tensions among parishioners at the renowned Riverside Church erupted again this week as a group of congregants went to court to stop the installation of a new senior pastor whose compensation package, they say, exceeds $600,000 a year. In a motion filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the group said that the new pastor, the Rev. Dr. Brad R. Braxton, and the church board that selected him last September after a yearlong search, had dismissed their calls for transparency in financial matters. They also complained that Dr. Braxton was moving Riverside away from its tradition of interracial progressivism and toward a conservative style of religious practice. On Tuesday, a Supreme Court judge, Lewis Bart Stone, effectively denied the motion by adjourning the case to the end of May, a month after Dr. Braxton’s installation, which is scheduled for Sunday . The judge urged both sides to reach an accommodation in the case, which was reported on Wednesday by The Daily News. The church , a Gothic cathedral built in 1930 by John D. Rockefeller at 120th Street and Riverside Drive in Manhattan, stood for many decades at the most heavily trafficked juncture of religious faith and social activism in the United States. Its pastors were early civil rights advocates who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and invited him to speak in the pulpit. Its best-known leader was the fervent civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activist, the Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin Jr. By the dissidents’ account, Dr. Braxton’s compensation package includes an annual base salary of $250,000; a monthly housing allowance of $11,500; pension and life insurance benefits; entertainment, travel and “professional development” expenses; an equity allowance for the future purchase of a home; money for a full-time maid; and private school tuition for his 3-year-old daughter. Rick Stone, a longtime parishioner who served as pro bono lawyer for the petitioners, said Dr. Braxton’s package was roughly twice what his predecessor received. “This is a huge amount of money to be paying at a time of such economic crisis,” said Diana Solomon-Glover, a 30-year parishioner, a member of the choir, and one of the plaintiffs. “But equally of concern is Dr. Braxton’s style of governance, which is highly secretive, and the direction he has been taking the church, toward a more fundamentalist brand of religion.” Through a spokesman, Dr. Braxton declined to be interviewed. Dr. Billy E. Jones, chairman of the Riverside Church Council, the executive board of congregants, said in a statement that the new pastor’s compensation was “in line with other religious leaders in Manhattan who minister to congregations of a similar size and scope.” Dr. Jones said the board had disclosed details of the pay package to the full congregation, but the dissidents dispute that. Dr. Jones also said that Dr. Braxton was not given money for a full-time maid, and that the “private school tuition” amounted to the pastor’s daughter attending the church’s day school tuition free. Experts on American churches said in interviews that Dr. Braxton’s compensation was well above average among pastors nationwide, but was within the range of packages for senior pastors of megachurches and what are known as mainline “tall steeple” churches in major cities. Scott L. Thumma, a sociology of religion professor at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research who has studied pastor compensation, said the average salary of 105 megachurch pastors surveyed in 2008 was about $150,000, with the highest-paid receiving about $300,000. “With 2,700 congregants, I would call Riverside a megachurch, and measure its pastor in that pool,” Mr. Thumma said. Discord about Riverside’s direction and priorities long preceded the arrival of Dr. Braxton. The tension between social activism and a more traditional church practice has paralleled a demographic shift in the congregation. For many years the church was predominantly white, a reflection of the Upper West Side population, but the church’s black membership grew to become a majority under Dr. Braxton’s predecessor, the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr., the church’s first black senior pastor, who served from 1989 to 2007. Among those who were dissatisfied by the shift, the selection of Dr. Braxton, a Baptist minister and former Rhodes scholar who described himself as “progressive evangelical,” was viewed as a confirmation of the conservative trend. In the months since his appointment, tensions have been high. “I came here looking for a church for spiritual reasons,” said Glenn Allen, a new member of the choir who was not party to the suit, “but it has really not been a very spiritual experience.”

Braxton Brad R
Riverside Church
Wages and Salaries
Christians and Christianity
Religion and Belief


Many Tune In to a Sad Night on ‘Glee’

Abstract: Though it was hardly what the show or the Fox network would ever have wanted, Thursday’s episode of “Glee” — which dealt with the death of the character played by Cory Monteith , the star who died of a drug overdose in July — lifted that series to its best ratings in a year. The show added three million viewers from the week before, for a total of 7.4 million viewers and an increase of 68 percent. Its rating among the viewers advertisers seek — those between the ages of 18 and 49 — was up 75 percent to a 2.8 from a 1.6 a week ago. That was the only example of networks bringing in additional viewers Thursday night. The most negative rating news — and it was stark — came at NBC where the comedy lineup plunged to the lowest numbers in the network’s storied history for Thursday night comedy. NBC’s four comedies put up numbers that were strikingly low in every category. None of the shows attracted even four million viewers. One new series, “Welcome to the Family,” averaged only 2.5 million viewers, and had a rating in the 18-49 category, a 0.8, that would be low for a show in midsummer. The two comedies featuring former NBC stars, Sean Hayes and Michael J. Fox, both plummeted to disastrously low ratings. “Sean Saves the World” scored only a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 category, with only 3.3 million total viewers. “The Michael J. Fox Show,” which is clearly hurt by following the “Sean” series, still had NBC’s best comedy number of the night; but it only drew 3.8 million viewers, and a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 group. The network’s one holdover comedy at 8, the much-admired “Parks and Recreation,” started off the night with just 3.2 million viewers and a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 category. The lineups on every network were hurt by a strong N.F.L. game on cable, because even “The Big Bang Theory” slid slightly, to a 4.9 rating from a 5.1 a week ago. The good news for CBS was that one new comedy, “The Millers,” held up well, retaining 94 percent of its 18-49 rating from a week ago (a 3.1 following a 3.3), which was the best retention of any new series thus far this season.

TV
Ratings
Fox Broadcasting
Cory Monteith


Pennsylvania Governor Won’t Fight Ruling That Allows Gay Marriage

Abstract: Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania said Wednesday that he would not appeal a judge’s ruling striking down Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage. With the decision , Pennsylvania became the 19th state, along with the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples are able to marry. Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court on Tuesday became the latest judge to throw out a series of state bans around the country, writing, “It is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.” Mr. Corbett, a Republican facing a difficult re-election this year, announced his decision the day after Democratic primary voters picked Tom Wolf , a wealthy businessman, to challenge him. Polls show a majority of Pennsylvanians favor legalizing same-sex marriage. Had the governor appealed the court’s decision, he risked handing his opponent a potent issue on which to drive Democrats to vote. After reviewing Tuesday’s opinion, Mr. Corbett, a former attorney general, said in a statement, “Given the high legal threshold set forth by Judge Jones in this case, the case is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal.” He added: “As a Roman Catholic, the traditional teaching of my faith has not wavered. I continue to maintain the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.” It is the second time this month Mr. Corbett chose not to appeal a court decision overturning a state law supported by conservatives. Earlier, he declined to challenge a state judge who threw out Pennsylvania’s voter ID law , one of the strictest in the nation. Both actions take divisive cultural issues off the table in the election, said G. Terry Madonna, a political scientist and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College. “He needs to expand his reach — 65 percent of independents support gay marriage and 68 percent of Democrats” support it, Mr. Madonna said of Mr. Corbett. With same-sex marriage no longer a political liability, “that gives him a chance to go after independents and Democrats on jobs and the economy.” Image Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday cited a “high legal threshold” set by a judge as the reason he would not file an appeal in the same-sex marriage case. Mr. Corbett said, however, that he continued to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. Credit Keith Srakocic/Associated Press Mr. Corbett has also recently softened his opposition to medical marijuana, another issue polls show appealing to a majority of voters. Pennsylvania lawmakers changed the state’s marriage statues in 1996 to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Last year, when Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, a Democrat, said she would not defend the ban in court , Mr. Corbett’s office picked up the case, a decision popular with the Republican base. As judges have struck down marriage limits in Arkansas , Idaho , Oklahoma , Texas , Virginia and, on Monday, Oregon , Mr. Corbett joined a very small club of Republican governors who decided not to appeal. Last year Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who opposes same-sex marriage, made a similar decision . Like Mr. Corbett, he cited the legal improbability of winning. James D. Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s gay-rights program, which brought the Pennsylvania suit with a private law firm, hailed Mr. Corbett’s decision as “a milestone for the movement.” “The political reality is the people of Pennsylvania and the people of the country as a whole support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, and that is what is making this decision happen,” Mr. Esseks said. The governor’s decision transformed wedding plans for Christine Donato and Sandy Ferlanie of Swarthmore, Pa., who are plaintiffs in the case, from a distant prospect into a near-term reality. “Are you kidding me?” Ms. Donato asked on Wednesday after being read part of the governor’s statement by one of her lawyers. “I’m just blown away.” “I think we’re getting married,” Ms. Donato said. “We thought it might be 30 days, and then if he does appeal it could be more months. We decided we were going to see this thing through and wait until the end, but we could walk right down the street right now and do it.” On Wednesday, same-sex couples lined up at the marriage license bureau in Philadelphia before it opened at 8 a.m., and clerks planned to stay until 7 p.m. instead of closing at 4:30.

Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Tom Corbett
Pennsylvania
Judge John Jones


G-8 Meeting Ends With Cordial Stalemate on Syria

Abstract: ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — The United States and leaders of other major industrialized nations on Tuesday papered over differences on Syria and the global economy in statements that summarized their two-day annual summit meeting at a secluded lakeside resort here. On the issue that dominated the private talks of the so-called Group of 8, the worsening regional war in Syria, the leaders averted a clash with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by avoiding mention in their declaration of the most contentious matters that divide him and them. Those include the fate of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia’s ally, in any peace settlement with the rebels. And despite persistent differences between the Obama administration and the Europeans over Europe’s insistence on continued budget cutting instead of stimulus measures in the face of Continentwide recession, the parties’ final communiqué suggested agreement on economic policies in language that either side could embrace. “Promoting growth and jobs is our top priority,” it said in a line that belied divisions between the Americans and European leaders over whether austerity or stimulus best achieves the goal. The issue will remain alive, however, as President Obama went to Berlin on Tuesday evening for a state visit with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who as the head of Europe’s major economy is most influential in determining the course of the 27-nation European Union. Ms. Merkel, who has lately eased just slightly Germany’s demands on other indebted neighbors, attended the Group of 8 meeting, along with Mr. Obama and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. While economic issues typically are the focus of these meetings, this two-day gathering was preoccupied by the spike in tensions over the two-year-old Syrian conflict. The war has so far killed about 93,000 people, including women and children, the United Nations recently estimated. After lengthy negotiations the leaders endorsed the idea of holding a new peace conference in Geneva “as soon as possible,” something that Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, the meeting’s host, said had been “slipping away” before the discussions. The Geneva meeting is now likely to be delayed until late August or September, according to one Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That has fueled fears that Mr. Putin is playing for time on Mr. Assad’s behalf, calculating that by late summer Syria’s fragmented opposition will be further weakened by military reverses. The leaders’ declaration gave a little more detail about how a transition to a new government in Syria would work. But its cautionary language and the absence of a call for Mr. Assad’s departure — as Mr. Obama and some European leaders demand — underscored the extent to which Mr. Putin supported the Syrian leader, despite being heavily outnumbered in discussions on Monday with the seven other heads of state. Though Russia is Syria’s principal arms supplier, Mr. Putin warned the others against United States plans to begin sending some light arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels; even before Mr. Obama’s decision, France and Britain supported an end to a European embargo on arms transfers to the opposition. Mr. Putin, playing on the others’ fears that the rebels include extremists allied with Al Qaeda, repeated his contention that the disparate opposition could not form an alternative government, according to another Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the discussions. Nevertheless, as those allied against Russia at the meeting noted, the summit declaration did include an implicit appeal to members of Mr. Assad’s government to abandon him, by suggesting that they could survive in a new government that excluded him. It said that public services in Syria must be preserved in a transition, and specified that “this includes the military forces and security services.” Mr. Cameron, in a post-summit news conference, said, “For those who have been loyal to Assad but who know he has to go and who want stability in their country, they should take note of this point.” The leaders condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria but, again in deference to Mr. Putin, did not blame Mr. Assad for using them against the rebels as the Americans, British and French allege. It called for an “objective investigation into reports of the use of chemical weapons,” though the United States, France and Britain all claim to have hard evidence of the lethal use of such weapons to take to the United Nations. “Both of our governments have strong evidence that in fact chemical weapons have been used in the past by the Assad regime,” Mr. Obama told reporters on Tuesday after a private meeting with President François Hollande of France. “But we are very comfortable with the approach taken by the G-8 that allows the U.N. the full powers it needs to investigate and establish these facts on the ground.” The communiqué also evenhandedly called on both the Syrian government and opposition “to commit to destroying and expelling from Syria all organizations and individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda and any other nonstate actors linked to terrorism.” Despite the clear divisions between Russia and everyone else — something that both Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin had archly acknowledged after a one-on-one meeting on Monday — the White House released a statement on the summit that applauded “the international consensus that was reached on Syria.” In support of that positive take, the administration cited the agreement on a political process in Geneva to resolve the conflict, investigation of chemical weapons use and $1.5 billion in additional humanitarian support for Syrians. The leaders, dressed casually throughout, met in a high-ceilinged room of a lodge at table small enough to reach across and shake hands, and near windows looking out at Lake Erne, for which the resort it is named. Of the economic issues, a prominent was one placed on the agenda by Mr. Cameron. He raised the question of cooperation against both illegal tax evasion and legal ruses that multinational companies use to reduce their tax liabilities. While much about the tax crackdown promise was left to each nation’s discretion and lawmaking, the leaders agreed to press for more openness to disclose who owns companies and to deepen information-sharing between tax authorities. On the broader issue of global economic policy, which often had dominated these meetings since the international financial crisis in late 2008, the leaders were equally vague and even self-congratulatory despite continued high unemployment, especially in much of Europe. The declaration claimed that economic risks internationally had been reduced partly by “significant policy actions taken in the U.S., euro area and Japan.” Without specifics, it said that “decisive action is needed to nurture a sustainable recovery and restore the resilience of the global economy” through a balance of stimulus, budget cuts and other measures. And in a nod to the divisions both between the United States and Europe, and between Germany and other European nations, the leaders concluded their statement by calling for reductions in national budget deficits and debt, saying in the declaration, “The pace of fiscal consolidation should be differentiated for our different national economic circumstances.”


Freed American Expected to Return to U.S. Soon

Abstract: BAGHDAD — An American civilian who had been kidnapped and held for more than two months by a Shiite militia group was released several days ago, and will return within a week to the United States, the American military said. Meanwhile, several attacks in Anbar Province killed a total of six people, including a politician affiliated with the winning political bloc in the recent Iraqi elections, adding to fears that disagreement over the election could lead to widespread sectarian violence. Anbar Province’s population is predominantly made up of Sunni Arabs, many of whom supported the winning political coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi , a secular Shiite. But the results of the vote, announced Friday, left much uncertain, including who will lead the next government. Because no group won a mandate, negotiations have begun to build an alliance with enough seats in Parliament to form a government. In that atmosphere, many are worried that militant groups will try to step up attacks and widen divisions between Sunnis and Shiites. In recent weeks, there have been nearly daily attacks, including roadside bomb attacks and assassinations, throughout the country. The Pentagon announced the release of the American, Issa T. Salomi, late Saturday, although he had been released two days before. In response, the Shiite militant group known as the League of the Righteous released a statement on the Internet saying the release had been in exchange for the Iraqi government agreeing to release four detained militants. The militant group also said in the statement that it had demanded that “Blackwater Mercenaries” — a reference to the private security company that operated in Iraq for years and was involved in a shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead — be prosecuted. These were the demands the group made in a video released at the time of the kidnapping. A Pentagon spokesman was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the Iraqi government was unavailable for comment. Mr. Salomi, an American citizen who grew up in Iraq before fleeing the country in 1991, had worked as a linguist for the United States Army since 2007. He disappeared in Baghdad on Jan. 23, and shortly after that the videotape surfaced. While the kidnapping of foreigners here was once a regular occurrence, Mr. Salomi’s abduction is believed to be the first of an American in over a year. Vivian Tilley, a niece of Mr. Salomi who was serving as a family spokeswoman, said her uncle would return to the United States in about a week. Ms. Tilley said the family was not given any details of how the American military and the F.B.I. arranged for her uncle’s release. “I would love to know,” she said. “None of that has been told to us.” It is believed that the League of the Righteous, also known as Asaib al-Haq, was behind the abduction of Peter Moore , a British hostage who was released in late December after being held for more than two years. Hours before he was released, a militant affiliated with the League of the Righteous was handed over by the American military to the Iraqi government. At the time, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said the transfer had been part of the Iraqi government’s efforts to bring the group into the political fold. The American military also denied a quid pro quo for Mr. Moore’s release.

Salomi Issa T
Kidnapping
Iraq War (2003- )
Defense Department
Terrorism
Anbar Province (Iraq)
Allawi Ayad


On the Unemployment Line, Unable to Move

Abstract: LONG-TERM unemployment in the United States has risen to its highest level since the Great Depression , as those who have lost jobs have found it difficult to find new ones. The government reported last week that the overall unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent of the labor force in June, the highest since 1982, when the rate peaked at 10.8 percent. The long-term unemployment rate — the proportion of the labor force that has been out of work for at least 15 weeks — climbed to 5.1 percent. Until this year, the post-Depression high for that rate had been 4.2 percent. June was also the first month since the government began collecting the data in 1948 that more than half of the unemployed people had been out of work for at least 15 weeks. The proportion of workers without jobs for at least 27 weeks rose to 2.8 percent, which is also the highest since World War II. The figures reflect an economy where the pace of layoffs and firings has slowed this year, so that fewer people are being added to the unemployment rolls. But the pace of new hiring is now even lower than it was when layoffs were peaking. A decline in labor mobility may help explain some of the failure of workers to find jobs even after they have been unemployed for months. In previous downturns, some regions remained relatively strong, and attracted workers from other areas. This time, the credit crisis has damaged job prospects almost everywhere, and plunging home prices mean that some who would like to move cannot afford to do so because they owe more than their house is worth. Another factor is that workers now are less likely to be able to return to their old employers when the economy recovers. At the height of unemployment in 1982, one of every five unemployed workers was on a temporary layoff, with the expectation they would be recalled, sooner or later. Today the comparable figure is 1 of 10. The average unemployed person now has been out of work for 24.5 weeks, or nearly half a year. That is also the longest period on record, and is a full six weeks longer than the average when total unemployment peaked in 1982. The final chart shows the number of people who have been unemployed for more than 15 weeks, a figure that is now up to 7.8 million. That figure has more than tripled over the last 24 months, a rate of increase that had not been seen since the severe downturn of the mid-1970s. There are limited signals that the deterioration in the labor market has slowed. The government estimates that there was a net loss of 1.3 million jobs in this year’s second quarter, compared with a loss of 2 million jobs in the previous quarter. If that continues, it will be taken as a sign that the economy is stabilizing, and will encourage economists who think the economy will turn up soon. But even if that happens, the challenge will be to find jobs for people who have been out of work the longest. So far, there is no indication that much progress has been made.

Unemployment
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Economic Conditions and Trends
Recession and Depression


U.S. Accuses Novartis of Providing Kickbacks

Abstract: Federal prosecutors in New York filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Novartis of providing illegal kickbacks to pharmacies, in the form of discounts and rebates, to promote use of one of the company’s drugs. “Using the lure of kickbacks disguised as rebates, Novartis co-opted the independence of certain pharmacists and turned them into salespeople for one of its drugs,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. The drug involved, Myfortic, is an immune suppressant used to help prevent rejection of transplanted kidneys. It competes with the Roche drug CellCept and, since 2009, with generic versions of CellCept. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contended that Novartis promised rebates and discounts to 20 or more pharmacies if they would persuade doctors to switch patients to Myfortic from CellCept, or to keep patients on Myfortic after the cheaper generic versions of CellCept reached the market. Novartis said in a statement that it disputed the government’s claim and would defend itself. In filing the suit, the federal government is intervening in a whistle-blower lawsuit that remains under seal, as does the identity of the whistle-blower. Pharmacies can profit if the amount they are paid for a drug by patients, or their insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, exceeds what they pay to buy the drug. Getting a discount on the drug from a manufacturer can increase a pharmacy’s profit. Prosecutors say in their lawsuit that Medicare and Medicaid paid tens of millions of dollars in claims for Myfortic that were “tainted” by the kickbacks. That does not mean, however, that Medicare and Medicaid lost that much. CellCept and Myfortic cost about the same, according to the lawsuit, so switches from the brand name CellCept to Myfortic would not have appreciably raised federal costs. Moreover, the suit notes, there are hundreds of pharmacies that prescribe Myfortic and the purported kickback scheme involved only about 20 of them, affecting just “hundreds, possibly thousands” of patients. The suit says, however, that Novartis chose particularly influential pharmacies which could earn tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in rebates. The suit says that pharmacies couched their advice to doctors to use Myfortic as professional recommendations, concealing any mention of the financial inducement the pharmacy was receiving from Novartis. While the contracts between Novartis and the pharmacies mentioned the discounts, the commitments Novartis received in return were left out of the contracts, the suit says. In one example, the suit says that Novartis directed more than $650,000 in kickbacks to Bryant’s Pharmacy in Batesville, Ark., which submitted 8,300 Myfortic claims to Medicare Part B alone, receiving more than $3.2 million in reimbursement. The suit, citing an internal memo by a Novartis account manager, says Bryant’s drove its annual Myfortic sales to more than $1 million a year from $100,000. And when the generic version of CellCept arrived in 2009, the pharmacy argued to doctors that patients doing well on Myfortic should not be switched. Steve Bryant, owner of Bryant’s Pharmacy, said doctors made the decisions on which drug to use. He said the discounts were given by Novartis to make it affordable for the pharmacy to dispense Myfortic without losing money from inadequate Medicare reimbursement. None of the pharmacies was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Myfortic is one of Novartis’s top 20 drugs, though not a star. Sales in the United States were $239 million in 2012, up 20 percent from 2011. Global sales were $579 million.

Pharmaceuticals
Novartis
Lawsuits
Drugstore
Kidney
Bribery and Kickbacks


At Mets Game, Burgers and Beer

Abstract: With culinary all-stars like Danny Meyer and David Pasternack in the kitchen, or at least behind it, it’s hard to think of the almost genteel dining plaza at Citi Field — the home of the Mets — as an ordinary food court. This spacious terrace behind left-center field not only offers Shake Shack burgers, Blue Smoke barbecue and pizza from the Original Cascarino’s of College Point; it does so, at certain tables, with a view of the field. At any given game, you are likely to find entranced Mets fans lining up for stadium grub that far surpasses the clichéd peanuts and Cracker Jack of song. If it happens to be a day game, you might even find a salesman and his customers playing hooky from work. IN THE SEATS A crew of office-avoiding businessmen. Their leader: Todd LeDoux, a salesman in the paper packaging business, who was in from Cincinnati. Mr. LeDoux had taken three customers in the sugar trade (they buy his paper bags) to the game: Jim O’Mealy, from Wayne, N.J.; Bob Zaccaro, from Howard Beach, Queens; and Tom Blackman, from Norwalk, Conn. ON THE PLATES Shake Shack burgers all around. For Mr. LeDoux and Mr. O’Mealy, it was the sauce-laden double burger ($9.25 each); for Mr. Zaccaro and Mr. Blackman, it was the classic single patty ($6.25). These, of course, were washed down by the requisite midday beer — in this case, Shackmeister Ale ($7.50 each). WHY THEY CAME Naturally, to discuss strategies for revenue enhancement in an atmosphere conducive to out-of-the-box thinking. If that atmosphere happened to include box seats, beers and burgers, well, everybody knows the best ideas are hatched away from the desk. Mr. O’Mealy, for one, was willing to pursue perfection, even at the expense of corporate formality. “They’re the best burgers you’ll ever eat,” he said. “I was saying, ‘If we have to go to Citi Field , we got to eat Shake Shack burgers.’ ” WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT For consumption at the home office: paper goods. The truth: baseball. “Starting off this year, I was pretty skeptical given what’s happened the last few seasons with the Mets,” Mr. Zaccaro said, “but right now, they’re looking pretty good.” Mr. O’Mealy concurred. Even Mr. LeDoux, the Ohioan, agreed. Mr. Blackman, however, fell silent. “Dare I say, I’m a Yankees fan?” he asked.


N.F.L. Culture May Be Difficult to Disengage at Lower Levels

Abstract: TUSTIN, Calif. — For years, as the National Football League steadfastly defended its policy of letting some players return to the field after concussions, independent medical experts warned that the league’s policy influenced the college and youth levels, which often take their cues from the professional ranks. So when the N.F.L. reversed course Wednesday and said that players who show anything more than the most fleeting and minor concussion symptoms must come off the field for the day, it seemed likely that high schools would take notice. Or not. If the attitudes of several Tustin High School players in Southern California are any indication, the culture the N.F.L. helped build will not be reformed overnight. Sitting outside their locker room Thursday, linebacker-fullback Wade Minshew and defensive end Kuresa Moaliitele both said they would not tell anyone if they sustained a concussion during Friday’s big state playoff game. They heard about the N.F.L.’s new rule. They have watched stars like Ben Roethlisberger, Kurt Warner and Brian Westbrook struggle with concussions in recent weeks, and have been taught by their athletic trainers that playing through a concussion, when you are a teenager, can be highly dangerous and even deadly. “It’s our mentality toward football — you put the team first,” Minshew said. Moaliitele added: “I’d keep playing. It’s the dedication I have to the team.” Just then their coach, Myron Miller, walked in. Informed of his players’ comments, he calmly explained that he would do the same if he was 16. “That doesn’t surprise me,” Miller said. “They shouldn’t do it, I’ve told them not to do it, but it takes a lot of maturity to put your health ahead of the team. If I was playing in the game tomorrow night and got a concussion, I don’t think I’d tell anyone either. I’m not a hypocrite.” The Tustin players’ candor indicates that the N.F.L.’s new commitment to better concussion management will take some time to filter down to lower levels of the sport. Colleges and high schools cannot be directed to handle concussions the way the N.F.L. now does. High schools generally answer to their state legislatures and athletic associations, and the N.C.A.A. has said it leaves medical protocol up to individual colleges. A prominent college-level physician, Dr. Peter Indelicato of the University of Florida, heard about the N.F.L. rule in a telephone interview Thursday and said he would support making it applicable across the N.C.A.A. “It takes away the gray zone and removes me from inadvertently or unwittingly making a poor decision,” he said, “and it protects kids at other schools who might not have the best medical care.” Dr. Robert Cantu , director of the Neurological Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, predicted that colleges and high schools would eventually decide or be coerced to follow an N.F.L.-like rule. The N.F.L. still allows independent experts to return concussed players to a game or practice if his headache or dizziness was both mild and transitory. Cantu said that amateur levels will almost certainly adopt tighter recommendations made by a worldwide panel of experts in Zurich earlier this year, which said that concussed teenagers should never be returned the same day because their underdeveloped brains are in greater danger. “This should be the standard at all levels, and I think it will be in time,” Cantu said of the N.F.L.’s rule with the Zurich addition. “Schools will put themselves at risk if they don’t follow this policy. I think when the next kid gets concussed, the media and maybe even lawyers are going to be on the medical teams for allowing the kid to go back in. Everyone knows about this now.” Particularly the athletes themselves, according to Brian Murphy, a senior defensive end for the New Jersey powerhouse Don Bosco Prep. He praised the N.F.L.’s tightened rules and said it would affect young players. “It’s the N.F.L. — everyone looks up to them, and we follow,” he said. John Papas, football coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, Mass., said that players cannot help but hear announcers and N.F.L. players talking about the foolishness of playing through concussions. High school players will keep hiding symptoms, Papas said, but it seems certain that those numbers will dwindle. “High-school-age players look up to the N.F.L. players — they all want to be tough guys,” Papas said. “The message the N.F.L. is sending now is the right message: If you think you suffered a concussion, there’s no way you’re going to get better without resting.” Some lawmakers have attempted to improve conditions since football brain injuries became a hot-button topic several years ago. Legislatures in Washington, Oregon and Texas passed laws that require certain medical personnel on sidelines, mandatory concussion training for players and staff, and baseline neuropsychological testing for players. A bill sponsored by Representative Bill Pascrell, Democrat of New Jersey, aims to give the secretary of Health and Human Services the power to establish concussion management guidelines, “including standards for student-athletes to return to play after a concussion.” That bill awaits discussion in committee. Messages left at several high school athletic associations on Thursday did not receive responses. A request to the N.C.A.A. to interview its director of health and safety, Dr. David Klossner, about the possibility of N.C.A.A.-mandated reform was not answered. Nationwide, 58 percent of high schools do not have a certified athletic trainer available for players, according to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Many sideline physicians have little experience in the subtleties of concussion management. College programs also have wide variations in care. On Monday, La Salle University paid $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving a player who was seriously injured after improper management of his concussion. “I think most schools are already not returning players with concussions to games; I know that’s what we do,” said Paul Berkner, team physician for Colby College, which plays in Division III. “But it’s inconsistent across the country. For those who don’t, the N.F.L. rule will empower the rest of the Division III schools to do the same.” Starting next week, the N.F.L., following a strong recommendation by members of the House Judiciary Committee during an Oct. 28 hearing on football brain injuries, will broadcast a public-service announcement on the seriousness of concussion. The league is working with USA Football and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve concussion awareness nationwide. Player education is vital, experts say, because athletes must be convinced that playing through concussions is too dangerous, even for fleeting glory. Otherwise a familiar paradox that has held back concussion reform will continue: that as strong as rules get, they are no match for the strength of players’ resolve to skirt them. “I just had a high school kid who told me he didn’t tell his coach when he couldn’t see for a few plays, and you hear those stories all the time,” said Gillian Hotz, the director of the concussion program at the University of Miami School of Medicine. “If there’s going to be a rule where they’re going to be pulled, they’re not going to say anything and then these kids will be at higher risk.” Indelicato admitted he has returned concussed players to games if their symptoms had subsided — a practice that an N.F.L.-like rule would not allow. He said he believed the practice was safe, but given recent reports of heightened rates of dementia and other cognitive decline in retired professional players, he also said he would give up some personal discretion for the possibility of greater safety. “We have cleared some because we think we know what we’re doing — I don’t mean to be glib, but that’s the truth,” Indelicato said. “If in fact, years from now, we learn that putting players back in that situation over time causes long-term damage that could have been avoided, then it’s worth it. There are too many smoke signals out there regarding repetitive brain trauma in sports.”


Europe to Seek Limits on Bankers’ Pay at G-20 Meeting

Abstract: European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to use the Group of 20 meeting next week in Pittsburgh to press for binding global rules on bankers’ pay and new controls on bonuses, but avoided any explicit call for a ceiling on remuneration. The agreement, reached at a three-hour meeting over dinner in Brussels, allows European nations to go to Pittsburgh united behind a call for new global rules “backed up by the threat of sanctions at a national level.” The accord, supported by all 27 European Union nations, called for the major part of bonuses to be deferred over time, ensuring that they “could be canceled in case of a negative development in the bank’s performance.” The meeting was the culmination of weeks of negotiation among European countries, with France and Germany determined to take a strong message to the G-20 to put pressure on President Obama. The leaders of both countries blame excessive risk-taking by bankers, motivated by the prospect of bonuses, for part of the economic crisis. “Europe is united on a strong political message,” Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said. The idea of a ceiling has been opposed in London and in Washington, where it was seen as unworkable. But, speaking before the summit meeting, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, endorsed the principle of extending payments over several years and clawing back bonuses “if they were not owned over a long period of time.” There was, he added, “no going back to the bonus structure of the past.” In a statement, the European leaders called on the G-20 to ensure that bonuses “be set at an appropriate level in relation to fixed remuneration and made dependent on performances of the bank, the business unit and individuals; taking due account of negative developments, so as to avoid guaranteed bonuses.” On climate change , Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, said that while the bloc welcomed draft climate change legislation by the United States Congress, more needed to be done “to reach the levels we have in Europe.” The European Union wants others to match its pledge to cut emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020. In their statement, European leaders called on the United States and others to “urgently make ambitious commitments” to deeper cuts. It said that the costs of helping poorer countries adapt to climate change and prevent the worse problems could amount to 100 billion euros annually by 2020.

Group of Twenty
Bonuses
Executive Compensation


Surge Seen in U.S. Oil Output, Lowering Gasoline Prices

Abstract: HOUSTON — Domestic oil production will continue to soar for years to come, the Energy Department predicted on Monday, scaling to levels not seen in nearly half a century by 2016. The annual outlook by the department’s Energy Information Administration was cited by experts as confirmation that the United States was well on its way — far faster than anticipated even a year ago — to achieving virtual energy independence. The report predicted that the increase in United States production would contribute to a decline in the world oil benchmark price over the next few years to $92 a barrel in 2017 from a 2012 average of $112 a barrel, which should translate into lower prices at the pump for consumers. It projected that domestic oil production would increase by an average of 800,000 barrels a day annually through 2016, nearly reaching the 1970 historic high of 9.6 million barrels a day. The increase in domestic oil production should bring the imported share of oil supplies down o 25 percent in 2016 from the current 37 percent t. Just a few years ago, the country imported half of its oil supplies. “The E.I.A. report confirms that the United States really is experiencing an energy revolution,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian and author of “The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.” Oil production in North Dakota and Texas is expanding so rapidly that a glut of certain higher grades of oil has already developed in the Midwest and Gulf States. That glut is beginning to stir a debate in Washington over whether the Obama administration should reverse a policy of banning most exports of oil that goes back to the 1970s. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last week suggested to reporters at an energy conference in New York that the time may have come to reassess a policy that was enacted when the American economy was put in jeopardy by oil embargoes from Arab states. Under current law, the Commerce Department grants licenses for exports, but Mr. Moniz said that the Energy Department, which normally directs energy policy, would be willing to conduct the technical analysis that would help shape a new policy. Today, American dependence on imported oil is declining month by month because of the expanded domestic production. And its exports, which are sent mostly to Canada, have increased substantially over the last two years, though they remain small. Oil companies have urged the administration to allow the exports of the higher-grade types of oil now being produced, saying that much American refining capacity is suited for lower-quality crudes imported from Mexico, Venezuela and the Middle East. The report projects increased exports of natural gas over the next few years. This represents a drastic change from just a few years ago, when the United States was planning to import more natural gas. The federal agency also concluded that natural gas would overtake coal as the most important source of domestic electric power generation in the years ahead. It predicted that by 2040, natural gas would account for 35 percent of total generation, while coal would account for 32 percent. At present, coal provides about 40 percent of electricity, while natural gas accounts for about 30 percent of electricity generation. Energy experts say it is unlikely the United States will ever be totally self-sufficient for its oil supplies. But expanding imports from Canada and other Western Hemisphere producers, coupled with growing domestic production and increasingly fuel efficient transportation, should mean declining dependence on countries that are either unfriendly or unstable. According to a separate report by the International Energy Agency , also released Monday, global consumption of coal, a major source of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising global temperatures and other pollutants, is likely to continue to grow at “a relentless pace” through 2018. The report, released in Paris, underscored the problem facing the world with regard to coal. Because coal is relatively inexpensive and abundant, it remains the dominant fuel for the generation of electricity, especially in developing countries like China. Yet burning coal is also highly polluting, both in producing smog and greenhouse gases that have been linked by many scientists to climate change. “Like it or not, coal is here to stay for a long time to come,” Maria van der Hoeven, the agency’s executive director, said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. The agency said that the consumption of coal for electricity generation and heat accounted for more than three-fifths of the rise in global carbon dioxide emissions since 2000. Coal use increased by an average of 3.4 percent per year from 2007 to 2012, faster than the increase in either oil or natural gas. Consumption through 2018 is expected to increase by 2.3 percent a year, the I.E.A. said. The agency, which represents 28 member countries, said that technology existed to make coal-fired power plants less polluting, but that a large proportion of the installations being built in emerging markets like India and Indonesia were inefficient. Using efficient technologies at these Asian plants would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as all the wind turbines in Europe, the agency said. In addition, progress has stalled on carbon capture and storage, a once-promising technology that strips out greenhouse gases from the emissions of power plants and other polluters and injects them into abandoned natural gas wells and other storage locations, the I.E.A. said.

Coal
Greenhouse gas
Energy industry
International Energy Agency
Electric power
Oil and Gasoline
Energy Department


Survivors Tell of Kunduz Hospital in Flames

Abstract: KABUL — The lucky ones heard the first explosions and hobbled or were carried by doctors and nurses to one of the hospital bunkers. The less fortunate patients, some wounded and too feeble to move, along with the doctors and nurses who were treating them, had no time. “The patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds,” said Heman Nagarathnam, the head of programs for Doctors Without Borders in northern Afghanistan. Over the next hour, witnesses said, what unfolded was a relentless air assault that put patients, doctors and the Kunduz hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders at the center of a bull’s-eye, leaving no possibility of escape. The bombing began at 2:08 a.m. and continued until 3:15, Mr. Nagarathnam said. “The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle around,” he added. “There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. “The main hospital building was engulfed in flames,” he said. For Najeebullah, 38, a resident of Kunduz City, the bombing seemed part of a nightmare that would not end. It had started two days earlier when he attempted to move his family of five children, ages 3 to 12, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law from one side of the city to the other. An aircraft, apparently targeting some Taliban nearby, hit his vehicle. His 9-year-old son, Muheeb-ul-Rahman, and his 7-year-old son, Fawad, were killed instantly, his three other children were wounded and he took them to the Doctors Without Borders hospital. Two of his children were discharged, but his son Waheedullah, 4, had abdominal wounds as well as back injuries so Najeebullah stayed with him in a makeshift shipping container the hospital was using for the overflow of patients wounded in the fighting in Kunduz, which by Friday had been going on for five days. As he sat near his son who was being examined by medical staff, “there was a horrifying sound, then a massive explosion, that turned everyone fearful,” he said. “A war jet targeted the building close to us where the doctors perform surgeries. Everyone ran here and there without even knowing where they were going.” After the first blast, some 20 more followed, he said. “Everyone believed it was his last day on earth. There was blood and bodies scattered everywhere. Many of them were doctors, Afghans, whom I had seen in my last two days at the hospital.” Of the 19 killed in the attacks, 12 were hospital staff members, among them four Afghan doctors, according to eyewitnesses. One of the slain, Dr. Ehsan Usmani, seemed to have sensed things were getting worse, and on Friday evening posted a desperate message on his Facebook page, cursing Afghanistan’s leaders for allowing the security situation to deteriorate into a war. “A thousand curses on you Ashraf Ghani and Stanekzai that you bloodied and covered in dust the people of Kunduz with your blind bombings,” he wrote, referring to the Afghan president and Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the minister of defense. The Afghan military has also been using helicopter airstrikes to target the Taliban, but sometimes misses and hits civilians. “Spit, spit, spit, spit on your faces,” Dr. Usmani wrote and then, more desperately: “Hey people, share this message that since this afternoon the bombers of the dirty and unclean government have been killing, maiming and wounding the innocent people of Kunduz.” Eight hours later, he was dead, according to colleagues at Doctors Without Borders. The personnel who survived tried to help those wounded in the bombing, and set up a makeshift operating theater. Some patients were transferred to the regional hospital, others to a neighboring provincial hospital. By nightfall, though, there were hardly any medical workers left at the regional hospital; they had fled in fear. “The entire system has broken,” said Saad Mukhtar, director of public health for Kunduz Province. “Everyone tries to save himself or herself.” Mr. Mukhtar said medicines were on the way, but added, “Who can use them, when there is no system, no doctors, no nurses, what even can we do when the medicines get there? “There has been a tragedy, even worse than a tragedy, in Kunduz.”

Bombs
Hospital
Doctors Without Borders
Kunduz
Afghanistan


Amid Talk of White House Run, Texas Senator Targets Obama’s Health Plan

Abstract: DALLAS — Senator Ted Cruz, after two days of bedevilment over his birthplace and eligibility for the presidency, returned to form on Tuesday night with a rally here before the conservative faithful aimed at ginning up support to defund President Obama’s health care overhaul. “You’re here because now is the single best time we have to defund Obamacare,” Mr. Cruz said to raucous applause at a cavernous ballroom at the Hilton Anatole hotel. “This is a fight we can win.” The event was part of Heritage Action for America’s “Defund Obamacare” tour, which began Monday in Fayetteville, Ark., and will make stops in nine cities. But Mr. Cruz is only appearing at the Dallas rally, and he drew a standing ovation from a crowd of roughly a thousand people. The tour is timed to the expiration at the end of September of the continuing resolution that finances the government, and Mr. Cruz said Tuesday night that he would call on House members to approve “every penny of the federal government, everything in its entirety, except Obamacare.” “What has to happen after that is we’ve got to do something that conservatives haven’t done in a long time,” he said. “We’ve got to stand up and win the argument.” Speaking to reporters before the rally, Mr. Cruz, a Republican and the junior senator from Texas, said he did “not want to shut down the government — I want to defund Obamacare.” Image Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, in Iowa this month. The child of an American mother and a Cuban-born father, he was born in Calgary. Credit Justin Hayworth/Associated Press Jim DeMint, a former senator from South Carolina who is now the president of the Heritage Foundation, speaking to reporters before the event, echoed Mr. Cruz’s basic message. “This could be one of the most destructive laws that has ever been imposed on the American people, and now is probably the last best chance we have to actually stop it,” he said. He praised Mr. Cruz for taking the lead in the fight, even when victory was hardly assured. “All you have to do is mention Ted Cruz’s name in any forum — we did last night in Fayetteville — and the crowd is on their feet cheering, because they don’t necessarily expect him to win, but they do appreciate someone willing to stand up to the status quo in Washington to do what he promised,” Mr. DeMint said. Mr. Cruz was interrupted several times by angry protesters, but he was unfazed, saying that he would be happy to “visit” with them later. He closed his remarks by reappropriating Mr. Obama’s signature campaign refrain of “Yes We Can.” “Can we stop the I.R.S.?” he asked. “Can we mobilize grass-roots America? And can we defund Obamacare?” “Yes, we can!” came the eager reply, before Mr. Cruz concluded, “That, my friends, is change we can believe in.” But even in Dallas, Mr. Cruz could not escape questions stemming from a report in The Dallas Morning News on Monday that because he was born in Calgary, Alberta, he held both Canadian and American citizenship. He was forced before the rally to reiterate to reporters eager to discuss the matter that he had “been an American since birth.” On Monday, Mr. Cruz — the child of an American mother and a Cuban-born father who moved to Texas from Canada when he was 4 — renounced his Canadian citizenship. “Nothing against Canada,” he said. But as a United States senator, he added, “I believe I should be only an American.” It may not be quite the same as printing up signs or fashioning a presidential campaign Web site, but the announcement was widely seen by analysts as another step leading to his entry in the 2016 Republican primary race. Video Senator Ted Cruz faced criticism over his dual Canadian citizenship while campaigning against the Affordable Care Act in Texas. His birthplace calls into question his eligibility to run for president. It is a novel episode in the annals of presidential politics. Looming over his prospects are questions about his eligibility to run, given his place of birth. Mr. Cruz, 42, maintains that because his mother was born in Delaware, he is a natural-born citizen and has the constitutional right to serve as president, and few legal scholars believe his eligibility could be seriously challenged in court. But the issue has been raised before. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, was born in the Panama Canal Zone to American parents and faced a few questions about his birthplace when he was his party’s presidential nominee in 2008. But it is because of Mr. Obama that Mr. Cruz is confronting not just a constitutional issue but also a political one. Suspicions about Mr. Obama’s background have long flourished on the fringes of American politics, so much so that the so-called birthers who doubt he was born in Hawaii led the president to release his birth certificate in 2011. Mr. Cruz, wanting to pre-empt any such questions about his own origins, released his own birth certificate — dated Dec. 22, 1970. Mr. Cruz may have had another motivation in releasing his birth certificate and renouncing his foreign ties: Canada is not particularly beloved by American conservatives. National Review, the conservative magazine, memorably ran a cover in 2007 depicting a group of Mounties with the headline “Wimps!” The article inside complained about the country’s “whiny and weak anti-Americanism.”

Ted Cruz
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
2016 Presidential Election
Citizenship
Canada


New Jersey Voter Crankiness Still Bedevils Candidates

Abstract: TRENTON AS one of just two states to hold a governor’s race during the low tide political year immediately after the presidential election, New Jersey once again finds itself under the careful scrutiny of pollsters and pundits trying to gauge the mood of the American electorate. The news from along the turnpike this year: voters are cranky. Very cranky. Poll after poll shows that state residents are anxious about the economy and angry about the Wall Street excesses that helped fuel the crisis. They are disillusioned at the performance of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, and his party colleagues who control the State Legislature. Judging from the tone of the first Republican gubernatorial primary debate Tuesday — a jibe fest in which Steven M. Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, archly pointed out that his rival, Christopher J. Christie, the former United States attorney for New Jersey, had been voted out of office after a single term as a Morris County freeholder — the candidates are getting testy, too. “I’m surprised with that record, Chris, you weren’t re-elected after that one term,” Mr. Lonegan said after Mr. Christie described his accomplishments. But however closely political scientists may read the state’s electoral entrails in search of national trends, the fact is that New Jersey’s cantankerous voters are a singularly quirky lot. At first glance, they can appear a classic example of the northeastern liberal — laissez-faire on social issues and, during the past decade, increasingly hospitable to Democrats. Scratch beneath that surface, however, and the voters here have an independent, ornery and unpredictable streak that has bedeviled candidates and provided a vexing training ground for some of the political world’s A-list consultants: from a Republican operative like Ed Rollins to Democrats like Paul Begala and James Carville. “They’re a tough sell,” said William Pascoe, a conservative strategist who has run races in nine states but gone 0-for-3 in representing New Jersey Republicans in statewide races during the past decade. “They’re difficult and expensive to reach, they’re inured to corruption and they’re more skeptical than voters elsewhere.” While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, unaffiliated voters outnumber both major parties combined and party loyalty is tenuous. New Jersey voters adhere to a stubborn practicality — usually allowing pocketbook issues to trump ideology, ethical purity or party identification — and are quick to lash out at candidates who seem out-of-touch with the financial worries of the middle-class family. When he was governor, Jim Florio’s tax increases touched off such a firestorm that he found his likeness emblazoned on bathroom tissue before being run from office. When Bill Bradley, United States senator at the time, refused to repudiate Florio tax increases, saying that state financial policy shouldn’t concern a member of Congress, his tone-deafness almost led to his defeat by a political newcomer named Christine Todd Whitman. And when Mrs. Whitman was later elected governor and ran for re-election, she was nearly toppled by James E. McGreevey because many voters thought she was oblivious to their financial pain, particularly in the state’s high auto insurance rates. Given the state’s recent run of criminal indictments against politicians, voters here also have complex, and at times cynical, attitudes toward political corruption. New Jersey’s electorate has been reluctant to pass harsh judgment on candidates for mistakes in their personal lives, and the frequently shrill tone of statewide elections has forced them to winnow out serious misconduct from innuendo. But once an officeholder has been found to have violated the public trust, the voters have shown little mercy — Senator Robert G. Torricelli, who was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee during his 2002 re-election campaign, had to withdraw from the race to avert an Election Day rout. “New Jerseyans are less trusting and more liable to turn on an officeholder,” said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll. “And given everything the elected officials have put them through, they certainly have justification for doing that.” Some of the idiosyncrasies are a function of its disjointed news media market: the state has no network television station of its own, forcing voters to rely on New York City and Philadelphia affiliates, which have limited interest in New Jersey political news and are an expensive way for candidates to broadcast a message. As a result, voters here tend to be slightly less informed than those elsewhere, according to pollsters, and it is harder for candidates to establish statewide name recognition. As for the legendary orneriness, some analysts say that it may be because life in New Jersey has turned out to be more crowded, hectic and expensive than the idyllic dream many people envisioned if they moved to the suburbs from a big city. “If anything makes people cranky, it’s that the quality of life has been chipped away by all of the development and increased density,” said Joel Benenson, a pollster for President Obama, who has done work in New Jersey for a variety of candidates. With the economy listing and the state’s finances in turmoil, even the most optimistic candidates expect more pain in the near future. One voter, Bill Samson, 36, of Hamilton, an IT engineer and a former Democrat who now calls himself an independent, said that residents won’t give up hope. “Most of the time — a lot of the time — the candidates let you down,” said Mr. Samson, who was interviewed at the Trenton train station. “But what are you going to do? If you don’t bother to vote, they’ll be even worse.”

Elections
Politics and Government
Trenton (NJ)


At Razi School in Queens, Concern as Building’s Owner Is Linked to Iran

Abstract: Outside the Razi School on Queens Boulevard, a television truck idled all day. Images of the ordinarily quiet school were beaming across the nation, spotlighting it as the tenant of a building that federal authorities were trying to seize because they believed the owner illegally funneled money to Iran . Inside, it was student government election day. Victory went to Aisha Sabar and Ahmed Elsamadisi, both 16, who ran on a platform of “realistic change” that included better lunches, better basketball equipment and a new science-fiction club. “We are just a regular school, and all of a sudden it’s in the news,” said Aisha, the president-elect, who added that her family immigrated to Bayside, Queens, from Pakistan when she was 3 and now runs the city’s only halal Kentucky Fried Chicken. “We are not terrorists. We are part of America.” In fact, no one has accused the school of terrorism. The school and the building’s other tenant — the Islamic Institute of New York and its Imam Ali Mosque — have not been accused of wrongdoing. Federal authorities accused the building’s owner, the Alavi Foundation , of violating federal laws that ban trade with Iran. But in post-9/11 New York, students, teachers and parents at the school worry that any time a Muslim institution draws attention, however tangential, from the authorities, people will perceive it as somehow being tainted by terrorism. “They’re worried that the school is going to get treated differently or that there are going to be hate crimes,” said Iyad Jaber, 21, a graduate of the school who studies public affairs at Baruch College and stopped by the building with his father, Hassan Jaber, for prayers on Friday, the holy day of the Muslim week. Hassan Jaber, 50, who teaches Arabic at the United Nations and at New York University and has a 14-year-old daughter attending the school, said he had never perceived any Iranian influence or connection to the Iranian government at the school. “It’s one of the most famous Islamic private schools,” known for solid math and science instruction in a traditional religious environment, he said. A more immediate concern for many parents was whether the school would have to shut down or move. Ghassan Elcheikhali , the school principal, said that after he learned of the property seizure on the news Thursday night he had his lawyer check with the authorities to make sure it was legal to open the school on Friday morning, then reassured parents. “I assure you the school will not close,” he said. “There is no need for that. This is a matter between the government and the owner of the building.” He added jovially, “If the government becomes the new owner, maybe we will rent from them.” Community affairs police officers stopped by the school on Friday to make sure all was well; Mr. Elcheikhali complained about the television cameras. A burly man pointed a lens at the closed blinds on a classroom window decorated with cutout elephants and giraffes. Mr. Elcheikhali, who emigrated from Lebanon, said the school received financing from the Alavi Foundation, which he described as supporting religious and cultural education. Although the school is run by Shiite Muslims, who are a minority in Islam but form the majority in Iran, more than 70 percent of the students are Sunni Muslims, parents and administrators said. Students hail from more than 25 countries, with the largest group coming from Bangladesh, Mr. Elcheikhali said. The two-story building is decorated with delicate Koranic calligraphy on blue and turquoise tiles. The school has about 450 students from prekindergarten through 12th grade. It teaches a typical Regents curriculum along with religious classes; parents compared it to Jewish or Catholic day schools. Dismissal time came on Friday with all the usual chaos of small children embracing parents and dragging wheeled schoolbags to school buses. Girls wore headscarves, required in the building. Campaign signs from the student government race still decorated the walls, along with charcoal portraits that the students had drawn of one another in art class — which teachers pointed to as evidence of the school’s moderation, since strict interpretations of Islam forbid artistic representations of people. Mr. Elcheikhali said he had focused on outreach, inviting priests and rabbis to speak at the school and holding health care, language and educational programs for the public. At an International Day at the school in April, students, including Muslims born in the United States, gave cultural presentations about their home countries in front of a display of the countries’ flags and enjoyed a pot-luck lunch of all their national dishes. Mashal Hamidi, 21, came with her mother, who works at an organization that promotes Afghan women’s rights, to pick up her younger sister. “We’re normal kids,” said Ms. Hamidi, who graduated from the school and now attends Adelphi University. “I felt very safe. I never had to encounter any of the problems you find in New York City schools, like drugs and peer pressure.” Much as the school community hurried to disclaim any deep connection to the Alavi Foundation, the foundation appeared eager to make the same point. A sign that has long hung inside the school lobby reads in English and Farsi: “This building has been rented out to the Islamic Institute of New York and the Razi School. The foundation has no involvement in the actions and programs of these tenants. The tenants are fully responsible for the affairs that take place in this facility.”

Muslim-Americans
Education and Schools
Terrorism
Alavi Foundation
Islamic Institute of New York
Queens (NYC)
Islam
Iran