2 Americans Are Killed as Afghan Unrest Enters Fifth Day

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Two American officers were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry building here on Saturday, and NATO responded by immediately pulling all its advisers out of Afghan ministries in Kabul, in a deepening of the crisis over the American military’s burning of Korans at a NATO military base. The order by the NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen , came on the fifth day of virulent anti-American demonstrations across the country, and it was a clear sign of concern that the fury had reached deeply into even the Afghan security forces and ministries working most closely with the coalition. On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that it had identified a suspect who had fled and was “believed to be an employee of one of the departments of the Interior Ministry.” President Hamid Karzai called for calm during a televised news conference Sunday from the presidential palace. It was a time for self-restraint, he said, “so that it does not provide an opportunity for the enemy to take advantage.” In his address, President Karzai said he understood the decision by NATO to withdraw its advisers but said it could be temporary. He did not comment on the shooting of the two officers. The killings, which happened within one of the most tightly secured areas of the ministry, add to the drumbeat of concern about a deepening animosity between civilians and militaries on both sides that have led to American and coalition forces being killed in increasing numbers even before the Koran burning ignited nationwide rioting. And the decision to withdraw from the Afghan ministries suddenly called into question the coalition’s entire strategy of joint operations with Afghan forces across the country, although General Allen said NATO was still committed to fighting the war in Afghanistan. “I condemn today’s attack at the Afghan Ministry of Interior that killed two of our coalition officers,” General Allen said in a statement. The military had not yet found the person who carried out the shooting, he said, adding: “The perpetrator of this attack is a coward whose actions will not go unanswered. We are committed to our partnership with the government of Afghanistan to reach our common goal of a peaceful, stable and secure Afghanistan in the near future.” An American defense official who served in Afghanistan said NATO forces around the country had been told in recent days to keep their distance from their Afghan counterparts on shared bases out of concern that there could be more attacks on them by Afghan soldiers. The killings on Saturday are only the latest chapter in the deteriorating relations between the Afghans and NATO. Among the recent events that have heightened tensions are an Afghan soldier’s recent killing of French troops that led the French to move up their withdrawal date, and outrage over a video that showed four American Marines urinating on bodies that were said to be those of Taliban fighters. The Koran burning, however, has taken the animosity to a new level, eroding further the weakened trust between the Afghans and Americans. On Thursday, two American soldiers were shot to death by a member of the Afghan Army at a base in eastern Afghanistan as protests about the Koran burning raged outside. “We’ve got this happening at the highest level of the ministry and at the boots-on-the-ground level,” said John Nagl, a fellow at the United States Naval Academy and a former Army officer who served in Iraq . “The American strategy is to hand over responsibility as rapidly as we can to the Afghans, and this is going to require enormous trust between the Afghans and the Americans. And that’s now been violated on both sides, and we did it first.” The intensifying enmity toward the American presence a decade into the war is casting doubt on a central plank of the Obama administration’s strategy to end the United States ’ involvement in the war: a close working relationship between Afghan forces and advisers and trainers who are trying to make the Afghans ready to defend and police the country on their own. It is also likely to have an immediate bearing on several critical negotiations with Afghan officials. An American official in Washington said the unrest and shootings of American personnel by their Afghan counterparts would have a “huge” impact on discussions planned for the coming weeks among officials from the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and other agencies. On the agenda of the various interagency meetings is the future of the main American prison in Afghanistan, the detention facility in Parwan, which President Hamid Karzai wants handed to Afghan control in less than a month; how to proceed with stalled negotiations over the Strategic Partnership Document that is intended to map out relations between the United States and Afghanistan after 2014; and how large a pullout President Obama will announce at a NATO meeting planned for May in Chicago . The official cautioned that no one was “panicking,” but that the initial reaction to the growing hostility from Afghans was to convince more officials that the pace of the American withdrawal needed to quicken, and that the sooner the mission became one of training and counterterrorism, the better. “You look at this as clearly and objectively as you can; what you see is that we’re in a weaker position than we were maybe two or three or four weeks ago,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing internal deliberations. “I’m not sure anyone knows the clear way forward. It’s gotten more and more complicated. It’s fraught.” The shootings came on another violent day, as thousands of Afghans incensed by the American military’s burning of Korans once again took to the streets in running clashes with the police that claimed the lives of another five Afghan protesters, officials said, while many more were wounded. Chanting anti-American slogans calling for an end to NATO’s presence, the protesters also vented broader fury, storming offices of the Afghan government and the United Nations , leading to violent standoffs. Officials said that four protesters were shot by the Afghan police after a crowd of thousands attacked the United Nations headquarters in Kunduz Province in the north, wrecking public buildings and stores. Those shootings left 51 others wounded, hospital officials said. In Kunduz Province, as in Herat on Friday, the crowds were reportedly stirred by provocateurs. Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, the deputy police chief of Kunduz, said he believed “there were some people who tried to sabotage the demonstration and turn it to violence.” In the east, 2,000 protesters, mainly students from one of the main high schools, marched on the governor’s residence in Laghman Province, and 21 Afghans were wounded when the police opened fire. The shooting of the two American officers took place in the Interior Ministry’s command and control center, a highly restricted area where officials monitor conditions around the country, according to an Afghan official in the ministry who was not authorized to comment publicly. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta condemned the “murder of two U.S. military officers,” and said that the Afghan defense minister had called to offer his condolences. He also said that the interior minister had apologized to General Allen and promised to cooperate fully in the investigation. General Allen’s order to withdraw military advisers includes both those service members operating under the NATO flag, including members of the 49 coalition countries operating here, and other American military personnel who are separate from the NATO chain of command. There are at least several hundred advisers embedded in almost every department of the security ministries, but a NATO spokesman would not give a number. They work on everything from logistics and weapons training to strategic planning. NATO is still investigating what led to the decision to burn Korans and other religious texts, an act that led President Obama to issue a public apology on Thursday. Early reports said that the books had messages written in them from detained Taliban suspects. Most of the Korans that were rescued from the flames are still at Bagram Air Base in a locked container, kept as evidence. The Taliban were quick to claim responsibility for the shooting, saying one of their members had infiltrated the ministry. The Taliban regularly claim responsibility for NATO deaths. A Taliban spokesman also claimed the attacker was carrying a suicide vest, but that detail did not agree with any other reports.

Afghanistan
Afghanistan War
Quran,Koran
Islam
NATO
Taliban
Military
US Military
International relations


El Capitan’s Dawn Wall Climbers Reach Summit at Yosemite

Abstract: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — On the 19th day of their climb, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson, both now bearded, reached the summit of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall, completing a quest that included years of planning and that many considered the most challenging rock climb in the world. Dozens of family members and friends greeted the climbers when they reached the top at 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, a cloudless day. After Caldwell hugged his wife and Jorgeson hugged his girlfriend, they were given sparkling wine. Jorgeson sprayed his. “That’s the first shower you’ve had in a while,” Caldwell’s wife, Rebecca, said. Jorgeson said of their feat: “I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We’ve been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day, and maybe they can put this project in their own context.” It was the first ascent of the 3,000-foot Dawn Wall in a single expedition with the use of only hands and feet to pull climbers up — a challenge long considered impossible. Ropes were merely safety devices to break the occasional fall. Video Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson spoke after their 19-day climb of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Credit Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times The sunset view at the top was stunning. What was less clear was just what Caldwell and Jorgeson had achieved. El Capitan is hardly unassailable. Its face was first rock-climbed in 1958, and it has been crisscrossed by countless climbers using roughly 100 known routes. With its summit a mere 7,569 feet above sea level, it is no Everest or McKinley. Thousands of visitors from around the world hike the eight steep miles to its top each year, including several who left before daybreak Wednesday to greet the climbers. But that was part of what made this expedition monumental — El Capitan’s familiarity. It is one of the best-known pieces of granite in the world, majestic and monolithic, causing crane-necked, open-mouthed gawkers to stand at its base and drivers in Yosemite Valley to veer off the road. That accessibility was key to building fascination with the quest . “I think the larger audience’s conception is that we’re thrill seekers out there for an adrenaline rush,” Caldwell said. “We really aren’t at all. It’s about spending our lives in these beautiful places and forming these incredible bonds.” Image Caldwell, in green, with his wife, Rebecca, and Jorgeson embracing his girlfriend, Jacqui Becker, at the top of the cliff. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times The entire climb was visible to anyone who wanted to watch through binoculars or long camera lenses while standing in a nearby meadow. And in recent days the assembly grew, some bringing camp chairs and nibbling on meats and cheeses, as history unfolded high above. From the wall, the climbers communicated through text messages and social media. Fans cheered success, and the climbers could hear it a moment later. That was the magic that turned the quiet quest of two quiet men into a worldwide spectacle — an event both unimaginable and watchable. There was no mystery, but there was plenty of suspense. “This is just amazing, really beautifully amazing, like a four-minute mile or a sub-two-hour marathon or Tiger Woods destroying every single major for a year or something, just off the charts awesome,” Will Gadd, an elite mountain sports athlete, said in an email message Tuesday. For Caldwell , a 36-year-old from Estes Park, Colo., it was a goal that he could not shake since he first seriously conjured the idea a decade ago. It became his life-bending quest, a personal Moby Dick. Could every inch of the blank, vertical face of the Dawn Wall be climbed with nothing more than bare hands and rubber-soled shoes? He was not sure. He never was, really, until Wednesday. Image Caldwell led the last pitch of the Dawn Wall as Jorgeson belayed. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times “From the outside it was starting to look like a Hemingway novel or something, an unresolvable quest,” said Gadd, who has known Caldwell for many years. Jorgeson , 30, from Santa Rosa, Calif., learned about Caldwell’s vision in 2009 and asked if he wanted a partner. Each year since, the two have spent weeks and months, mostly in the fall and winter, attached to the Dawn Wall, scouting holds, practicing pitches, imagining how to do it all in one push from the valley floor. El Capitan is the height of three Empire State Buildings stacked atop one another, but with many fewer, and smaller, things to hold on to on the way up. The climb was divided into 31 pitches, or sections, like way points on a dot-to-dot drawing. When one pitch was successfully navigated, the climbers stopped and prepared for the next. Much of the work was done in the cool of the evening, when hands would sweat less and the soles of their shoes had better grip. Some pitches were well over 100 feet straight up the rock, while others were sideways shuffles to connect two vertical pitches. One required a dyno, a jump from one precarious hold to another. Falls were not unusual; Jorgeson needed seven days and 10 attempts to navigate the horizontal traverse of Pitch 15, unexpectedly slowing the expedition, which was blessed by an uncharacteristic stretch of dry weather. The Dawn Wall, Up Close Where’s Kevin? Zoom in to find Kevin Jorgeson perched on the face of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall. Two pitches were rated at 5.14d on climbing’s scale of difficulty, making them among the hardest sections of rock ever climbed. Nearly all were rated at least 5.12. To many rock climbers, completing one such pitch would be a career highlight. Few can fathom the difficulty of stringing together nearly three dozen of them without returning to the ground. The Dawn Wall, sometimes called the Wall of the Early Morning Light, was first climbed in 1970 by Warren Harding and Dean Caldwell (no relation to Tommy). But their ascent was a virtual siege, using more than 300 bolts and hundreds of feet of rope to pull themselves up over 27 days. Storms pinned them to the wall for long stretches, but the men refused rescue attempts, dropping notes to the valley floor and, at one point, greeting would-be rescuers on the wall with an offer of wine. When the men reached the top, they were greeted by a crowd of 70 and enjoyed champagne and fried chicken. Their assault was widely criticized by those in the climbing community who preferred a quieter, more minimalist ascent. Royal Robbins, a rival of Harding’s, went up the Dawn Wall and cut many of the bolts sprinkled up the rock. Image Jorgeson removed tape from his battered hands. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times Few, if any, thought the Dawn Wall could be free-climbed, using just strength and guile — not ropes and equipment — for upward propulsion. Earlier attempts by Caldwell and Jorgeson had been aborted by bad weather, injuries and an inability to get past certain pitches. Not this time. When Harding reached the top of the Dawn Wall in 1970, he was asked why he had done it and said, “Because we’re insane!” Why did Caldwell and Jorgeson do it? “For me, I love to dream big, and I love to find ways to be a bit of an explorer,” Caldwell said. “These days it seems like everything is padded and comes with warning labels. This just lights a fire under me, and that’s a really exciting way to live.” Jorgeson said the Dawn Wall “was the biggest canvas and the most audacious project I could join and see to the finish.” “Like Tommy,” he added, “I don’t know what is next.” After a summit celebration, they were eager to return to the valley floor for a bigger celebration, and the chance to soak in both a warm shower and whatever adulation awaited once they returned to the view of anyone who wanted to watch. Soon, they would be back over the edge, headed down, and the top of El Capitan was alone and quiet again.

Rock climbing
Tommy Caldwell
Kevin Jorgeson
Yosemite


Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Deadlocked in New Ohio Poll

Abstract: Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton are deadlocked in Ohio, according to a new poll that shows the crucial state very much in play as Mr. Trump prepares to accept the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in Cleveland on Thursday night. A new survey from Suffolk University finds that Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton each have the support of 44 percent of likely voters, with 11 percent still undecided. When third-party candidates such as Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein are included, Mrs. Clinton holds a four-point lead. “It’s absolutely up for grabs,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. Image Hillary Clinton campaigned in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The poll is in line with other surveys of Ohio voters that show the race being very close. Ohio is a critical battleground that could dictate the outcome of the election, and both candidates are expected to campaign aggressively across the state. Mr. Paleologos noted that there is a sharp contrast between how the candidates perform in urban centers such as Cleveland, which favors Mrs. Clinton, and the outer counties that lean toward Mr. Trump. Although the addition of Gov. Mike Pence as Mr. Trump’s running mate has not had an immediate impact, Mr. Paleologos suggests that it could help him in areas that border Mr. Pence’s home state of Indiana. Terrorism and the economy, which are seen as strong areas for Mr. Trump, remain the most important issues to voters in Ohio. Mr. Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslim migration has not turned off voters, as 48 percent support the idea and 45 percent oppose it. Third-party candidates could end up being the deciding factor in the race in Ohio, as the 5 percent of the vote that Mr. Johnson is getting is siphoning more support away from Mr. Trump than it is from Mrs. Clinton. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

2016 Presidential Election
Polls
Ohio
Suffolk University
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Mike Pence
Third Party Politics


Serena Williams Romps at U.S. Open and Will Face Ekaterina Makarova in the Semifinals

Abstract: Three games into her match against Flavia Pennetta on Wednesday night, Serena Williams had been broken twice and trailed by 3-0. So relieved and excited to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time this year, Williams seemed to be facing the ghosts of her lost majors again. But she did not see it that way. “I felt like it’s not the end of the world,” Williams said. “You can just win one game at a time.” Williams did that six times in a row to take the first set and dominated the second for a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the 11th-seeded Pennetta. Williams, the two-time defending United States Open champion, has a 19-match winning streak in Flushing Meadows. Rather than adding pressure, lackluster losses at the previous three majors have helped Williams relax. “It’s so easy now because it’s almost a joke for me because I have done little to no winning in the majors,” she said, adding: “I don’t have to win anymore. Everything now is just extra.” Image Ekaterina Makarova, who was 0-4 in her previous Grand Slam quarterfinals, has not dropped a set in the U.S. Open. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times The top-seeded Williams is the only woman among the top nine seeds to reach the semifinals, but having lost to opponents ranked 14th, 24th and 35th at Grand Slam events this year, she is not taking her favorite status for granted. “I’ve had a tough year in majors,” Williams said. “You can never underestimate anyone.” Williams will face No. 17 seed Ekaterina Makarova on Friday. The other semifinal pits unseeded Peng Shuai of China against No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. Williams is 3-1 against Makarova, with the loss coming in the fourth round of the 2012 Australian Open. Before the tournament, the victory had been among Makarova’s career highlights in singles at a major. But after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 16 Victoria Azarenka, Makarova is in her first Grand Slam semifinal. She has not dropped a set in the tournament. “Before maybe I didn’t believe that much that I can come through,” she said. “Today definitely was a different feeling, and I really believed to myself that I’m ready to go forward, you know, and to be in the semis.” A left-hander with a great serve, Makarova has long been in the shadow of more prominent Russian players, particularly Maria Sharapova. But quietly, Makarova has worked her way up the rankings, where she sits at a career-high 18th. She had been better known in doubles — she and her partner Elena Vesnina won the French Open last year and are in the doubles semifinals at the U.S. Open. “I think I’m trying to stay in the shade, you know, a little bit, to be in my world,” Makarova said. “I’m not using that much like social networks. Yeah, I can say that I’m maybe closed a little bit. But I’m really enjoying to play on the big stage, the big courts with all this crowd. I’m feeling differently than in other places.” Williams did not think Makarova would stay in the shade for long. “She’s beaten so many top 10 players, she’s definitely not low profile for us,” Williams said. “So once we step on that court, we just know that she’s a player, you know, that you cannot take lightly.” It seemed Azarenka was in position to end her season-long slide. The upset-ridden women’s draw meant she would not have to face many of the top players. But Makarova proved more than formidable enough to leave Azarenka to contemplate how far she has fallen since reaching the U.S. Open final last year. Azarenka was feeling anything but good in this match after dealing with food poisoning Tuesday. She lost the first set on her serve despite being up by 40-15 in that game, and when she had her serve broken again in the sixth game of the second set, she slammed her racket onto the court. She would not blame any of that on her illness, although her manager said she spent much of Tuesday vomiting. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” Azarenka said. “I just, you know, want to give credit to my opponent. She played really well today. Am I disappointed? Yes, I’m disappointed. But I feel like I tried my best with whatever I had.” Azarenka started the year ranked No. 2, but a steady slide was kicked off when she lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to Agnieszka Radwanska. Her season went from bad to worse as a recurring foot injury forced her to withdraw from six tournaments, including the French Open. At Wimbledon, she lost in the second round. “Of course it is disappointing,” Azarenka said. “It just is what it is today. It’s not the end of the world. It’s something I can take positive from this tournament, you know. Two months ago I didn’t even think that I was going to be able to play today.”

Tennis
Serena Williams
Ekaterina Makarova
Flavia Penetta
Victoria Azarenka
US Open Tennis


Malala Yousafzai Shows Early Signs of Recovery

Abstract: LONDON — The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan is out of a medically induced coma and has recovered enough to stand with assistance and communicate by writing, a doctor at the British hospital where she is being treated said Friday. A hospital bulletin issued a few hours later, apparently aimed at discouraging premature optimism in a case that has drawn a wave of sympathy around the world, said that the girl, Malala Yousafzai , 15, was “still very ill,” and that a full evaluation of her brain injury had not been possible because her brain was still swollen. The statement added: “This is still a fluid situation, and she sustained very grave injury. She’s not out of the woods yet, but we are hopeful she will make a good recovery.” In an earlier statement to reporters, Dr. David Rosser, medical director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham , said that Ms. Yousafzai had the “potential” for a full recovery. But he said the “key source of concern” for the medical team looking after her was an infection in the path traveled by the bullet. Dr. Rosser said the medical team’s assessment was that there was “some damage to the brain” but “no deficit in terms of function,” and that there was “no good reason to think that she wouldn’t be able to talk” once a tube was removed from her throat. “She seems able to understand. She’s got motor control. She’s able to write,” Dr. Rosser said, adding that Ms. Yousafzai had been able to give doctors written approval to make details of her condition public. “Whether there’s any subtle intellectual or memory deficits down the line is too early to say,” he said. Had the bullet that hit her been “a couple of inches more central,” he said, her injury would have been “unsurvivable.” Although Ms. Yousafzai can speak English, Dr. Rosser said, she was writing her responses to doctors in Urdu, the principal language of Pakistan. He said that one question she asked her doctors after recovering consciousness on Tuesday was what country she was in. Dr. Rosser said the hospital would try to link her by telephone with her father, so she could hear his voice. He has remained in Pakistan awaiting a valid passport. The hospital bulletin said the girl had been shot “at point-blank range” on the upper left side of her head, with the bullet traveling under her skin without penetrating the skull as it coursed the length of her head, through her neck and into her left shoulder. The shock wave from the bullet “shattered the thinnest bone of the skull,” it said, “and fragments were driven into the brain.” She is not expected to undergo reconstructive surgery for “weeks to months down the line,” the bulletin said. Ms. Yousafzai was shot while riding a school bus on Oct. 9 in the Swat Valley . She had become a symbol of resistance against the Taliban, advocating access to education for girls in an area that has been one of the Taliban’s main strongholds in Pakistan. The Taliban have vowed to continue to try to kill Ms. Yousafzai, who was flown to the hospital in central England aboard an air ambulance after officials in Pakistan chose Britain ’s offer of specialized care over an array of offers from other countries, including the United States . The British police said Tuesday that they had questioned and turned away two people who tried to visit Ms. Yousafzai by claiming falsely that they were members of her family, but had concluded that there was no threat to the schoolgirl. In Pakistan, security forces have detained relatives of a man accused of attacking Ms. Yousafzai, neighbors of the man’s family said Thursday. The authorities in the Swat Valley said they were still searching for the man who shot her and wounded two other girls on the bus, as well as an accomplice. The man suspected of being the gunman has been identified as a member of the Pakistani Taliban named Attaullah.

Malala Yousafzai
Taliban
Great Britain
Swat
Murders


Whirlwind of a Day for the Mets, Not Just on the Field

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The Japanese pitcher Hisanori Takahashi walked into the Mets ’ clubhouse at 8:01 a.m. Thursday after a two-day adventure in the Dominican Republic and initiated the longest and most noteworthy day in spring training. A few minutes after Takahashi regaled a reporter with his tale of playing catch with a borrowed, ill-fitting mitt at the Mets’ Dominican baseball academy, the Dominican shortstop Jose Reyes bounced through the clubhouse. Reyes wore his trademark smile, even though he had been scratched from Thursday’s game when team doctors sent him to the hospital for a follow-up blood test. But several hours later, after visiting a specialist, Reyes was told that the test was negative, that he was fine and that he could play on Friday against the Florida Marlins. Although he said in the morning before seeing the specialist that he was not worried, Reyes did seem somewhat relieved afterward. “Everything is normal,” he said, and looked up at the ceiling. “Thanks to God.” Reyes said that an initial blood test yielded unspecified measurements that were not consistent with what they had been in the past, prompting another test. The Mets declined to say exactly what doctors were concerned about, and Reyes claimed that he never really knew. As for the exhibition game, it did not end until 4:37 p.m., when the Mets finished off a 17-11 slugfest victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. And by the time the game concluded, the Mets had also signed a relief pitcher, watched the Grapefruit League debut of their big off-season acquisition, reveled in a home run from the player they would most want to see hit one in his first at-bat of spring training and witnessed their top hitting prospect hit a towering grand slam. There was even the encouraging sight of Johan Santana throwing a 40-pitch simulated game and looking as sharp as ever. Santana said that his surgically repaired left elbow felt fine and that he was on schedule to make his spring debut on March 9. The first-at-bat home run came from David Wright , who hit a career-low 10 home runs last season and, in this instance, smashed a wind-aided, two-run drive over the fence in right. Wright had spent the winter working with the hitting instructor Howard Johnson and lifting weights, and now he had an immediate payoff, but he advised everyone to calm down. “Let’s not get crazy,” he said. “The wind was blowing to right.” Meanwhile, Jason Bay made a rather bland debut, going 0 for 2 with a walk, but he received a warm welcome from the 4,388 fans who endured chilly temperatures, blustery winds and an interminable game. During the middle of it, the Mets announced they had signed the right-handed reliever Kiko Calero to a minor league contract. Calero was so eager to join the Mets that he was seen walking through the clubhouse before the team had a chance to announce the signing. Calero, 35, was 2-2 with a 1.95 earned run average in 67 games for the Marlins last season and will earn $850,000 if he makes the roster. Calero will add some depth to the bullpen, which has been depleted in spring training because Kelvim Escobar has a sore shoulder and closer Francisco Rodriguez has been told to stay away from the complex because of a maddeningly persistent case of conjunctivitis . But the Mets did get Takahashi back, and he is scheduled to pitch for the first time Sunday. To do that, he had to leave the country to get a work permit, so without much warning he was sent to the United States embassy in Santo Domingo. He did not make it in time for his appointment on Tuesday, so he went out to dinner with his trainer, who, like Takahashi, does not speak Spanish, and a bilingual Mets official, who guided them through the entire process. The next day they went to the embassy, filled out paperwork and were told to return at 3 p.m. In the interim they drove to the Mets’ complex in Boca Chica to play catch. But Takahasi could not find a glove for a left-hander, so he grabbed a right-hander’s mitt and made do. From there it was a flight back to Miami, then a two-hour cab ride to Port St. Lucie on Wednesday night. Takahashi said the trip was stressful, but that once he got his visa his mood lightened. “It was a good experience,” he said through an interpreter. “It was very interesting to be in another country. It is beautiful there. Now I can talk to Jose about it.” Or at least after Reyes returned from the doctor. The exclamation point on the eventful day came when Ike Davis, the Mets’ future first baseman, launched an eighth-inning, bases-loaded home run that landed way up on the hill beyond the right-field fence. Manager Jerry Manuel said it might have been the longest home run he had seen at Tradition Field. Would it change the Mets’ plan to have Davis start the season in Class AAA? “When you see that kind of power, it makes you think,” Manuel said. On Thursday, there was plenty to think about.

Baseball
New York Mets
Reyes Jose
Santana Johan
Wright David
Takahashi Hisanori


Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw to Unveil Core Exhibition

Abstract: WARSAW — With anti-Semitism having become more prominent again across Europe, something quite different is growing in a huge, translucent building at the center of a vanished neighborhood in Warsaw. After several days of concerts, seminars, festivals and hoopla, the core exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews — the most ambitious cultural institution to rise in Poland since the fall of Communism — will be unveiled on Tuesday. Poland’s top political leaders will be there, as will the president of Israel and other international dignitaries. The institution has been embraced across the political spectrum and has drawn only scattered, mild protest. In eight sprawling galleries, packed with multimedia exhibitions and artifacts, the museum traces the history of Jews from their first appearance in Poland in the Middle Ages to the present day. The Holocaust, the part of the story that is most often remembered, fills only one of the eight galleries. “I would see these young people from America and Israel making their visits to Poland,” said Sigmund A. Rolat, a labor camp survivor who grew rich in New York and became one of three American entrepreneurs to finance the project in its early years. “And what would they see? Death camps and cemeteries and empty places where synagogues used to be. Ours is not another museum of the Holocaust. We are more than victims. Ours is a museum of life.” To a large extent, it is mere coincidence that the exhibition is gaining prominence at the same time anti-Jewish sentiment is rising in other parts of Europe. The museum has been in the works for more than two decades and is already opening later than its founders originally hoped. But some experts say there is more at work, something revealing about the different path Poland has taken since the fall of Communism, and a kind of national yearning to reclaim a half-forgotten past when Jews and Jewish culture were a dominant part of Polish life. Image "The Poland you see today is a complete anomaly,” said Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, for many years a professor of Eastern European Jewish culture at New York University, who has become the director of the museum’s core exhibition. “Never was Poland as homogeneous, linguistically and ethnically, as it is today.” Credit Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times “The Poland you see today is a complete anomaly,” said Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, for many years a professor of Eastern European Jewish culture at New York University, who has become the director of the museum’s core exhibition. “Never was Poland as homogeneous, linguistically and ethnically, as it is today.” For most of its history, Poland was the most diverse country in Europe. In 1939, there were 3.5 million Jews here. In many towns, they were a majority. In Warsaw, they accounted for more than 30 percent of the population. About 300,000 Polish Jews survived the war, but more than 90 percent of those emigrated, largely to America and Israel. Now, the number of Jews living in Poland, with a population of 38 million, is believed to be around 25,000. At the same time, young people in Poland have been actively reclaiming the nation’s Jewish past. Annual festivals in Krakow and Warsaw regularly draw tens of thousands of people dancing to klezmer bands and eating kugel and gefilte fish, almost all of them Polish Catholics. “Young Poles want to have a very strong identity,” said Dariusz Stola, a historian who was named director of the new museum. “Being Jewish, being interested in things Jewish, is something special, a little different.” Perhaps because the remaining Jews in Poland are so few and so assimilated, Jewishness is not a factor in most Poles’ daily lives, said Piotr Wislicki, a 62-year-old atheist and entrepreneur who embraced his Jewish ethnicity only after the fall of Communism in 1989. As president of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, he has overseen the completion of the museum’s programs and exhibitions. Image Its eight galleries include a replica of the ceiling of the destroyed Gwozdziec Synagogue. Credit Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times “There is anti-Semitism in Poland, of course,” Mr. Wislicki said. “But it is like all over the world, no more, no less.” Michael Schudrich, a New Yorker who moved to Poland in 1990, has become the country’s chief rabbi, operating from one of the last remaining prewar synagogues, tucked behind blocks of apartments near the center of Warsaw. “There have always been two streams of thought in Poland,” he said. “A xenophobic stream, in which Poland is for the Poles and that is that, and a more multicultural stream that argues that Poland becomes stronger when it embraces pluralism. After 1989, it was not clear which way Poland would go. But multiculturalism has maintained its dominance, and the museum is a result of that.” Warsaw’s lost Jewish community sprawled across most of the northern and western parts of the city. During World War II, Germans reduced the city to rubble, and nothing remains of the old Jewish neighborhood, once the largest in the world. The museum rests in the center of a large rectangular park at the heart of that neighborhood, overlooked by stern apartment blocks with few, if any, Jewish residents. It is made of gleaming, greenish glass, reflecting the surrounding trees and the nearby Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. A new monument, to honor Poles who helped save Jews during the war, will also be built on the grounds. The idea for such a museum was first proposed in the early 1990s, but it was no more than an idea. Not until three wealthy Americans — Victor Markowicz, a software entrepreneur in New York; Tad Taube, a real estate and sportswear executive in the Bay Area; and Mr. Rolat — came aboard more than a decade ago was there enough seed money to move the project forward. Image "Young Poles want to have a very strong identity,” said Dariusz Stola, a historian who was named director of the new museum. “Being Jewish, being interested in things Jewish, is something special, a little different.” Credit Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times The biggest breakthrough came in 2005, when the mayor of Warsaw — Lech Kaczynski, who later became president of Poland — and the minister of culture, Waldemar Dabrowski, agreed to provide the museum’s site and pay for its construction. The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland would oversee the design of the building and both the design of and the fund-raising for its core exhibition. The building was originally estimated to cost $27 million. It ended up costing $67 million. The core exhibition, initially budgeted at $7 million, ultimately cost about $55 million. But slowly, the money came together, sometimes from non-Jews who believed it was important for Poles to learn about their country’s Jewish heritage. Jan Kulczyk, for instance, a well-known beer magnate with multiple business interests who is often referred to as the richest man in Poland, gave $6.5 million, making him the largest individual donor. The building opened in April of last year and has been the site of temporary exhibitions, concerts, seminars and theatrical events. It is the 43,000-square-foot core exhibition, the heart of the museum, that will be unveiled on Tuesday. Highlights include early Jewish manuscripts, re-creations of Jewish town life (including a scale replica of an actual synagogue with its colorful painted interior), vintage photographs and films, histories of Polish-born movements from Hasidism to Zionism, and a vast multimedia network encompassing more than 250 computer terminals powered by two servers in a backstage control room. The museum attracted about 300,000 visitors in its first year, and museum officials said they expected that number to swell to at least 500,000. Most will come from Poland, but a sizable chunk, it is hoped, will come from abroad. Many of the Jews living in America, for instance, can trace ancestors back to Poland. “There is no history of Jews without Poland,” Mr. Wislicki said. “And there is no history of Poland without Jews.”

Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Judaism
Poland
Museum
Antisemitism
Holocaust and Nazis
Warsaw


Afghan Who Killed 6 Americans Was Trusted Police Officer

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Fellow villagers claimed he was just a poor kid who had taken a police job to help his family get by. Superiors saw him as a reliable foot soldier in the Afghan Border Police who had inexplicably snapped. The Taliban claimed he was a sleeper agent they had planted to kill NATO soldiers. What is known for sure about the police officer, who shot and killed six American soldiers on Monday in one of the worst attacks by an Afghan service member on NATO forces in nine years of war, is that his name was Ezzatullah and that he had been in the border police since 2008. “We cannot rule out that he was used by the enemy, but he has been a border policeman for three years, and had been a good boy,” said Gen. Mohammed Zaman Mamozai, a senior member of the Interior Ministry, who until a month ago was in charge of the border police in Afghanistan ’s eastern zone, where the killings took place. “I am really puzzled about why this happened,” the general said. The Americans and their NATO allies have made the training of the Afghan security forces a centerpiece of their strategy to hand over security to the Afghans and enable the troops to go home. Over the past 12 months there has been an intensified effort to train the security forces, including a big reduction in the instructor-to-trainee ratio and a more comprehensive effort to have Afghan and NATO units work as partners in the field. At the same time, the intensified training has been marred by at least six cases in the past 13 months in which soldiers or police officers have turned their guns on their Western partners. “Incidents of this nature are a tragic reality of this kind of effort,” said Lt. Col. John L. Dorrian, a NATO spokesman. “Although we do everything we can to prevent them.” All that is known about Ezzatullah’s state of mind on Monday is that in the morning his father visited him at his post and asked him to accept a marriage contract with a young girl. He rejected the request, telling his father that the girl was under age. After an argument, both men “were very upset,” according to Ezzatullah’s border police colleagues, who mentioned the incident to senior officers after the shootings of the six Americans. Those shootings occurred in the early afternoon at a border police outpost high in the mountains in the Pachir-Wa-Agam District of Nangarhar Province, on the Pakistan border. The Americans had gone to the remote site for mortar practice, according to the Afghan Border Police in Nangarhar. When Ezzatullah came to the site, the Americans were not suspicious, most likely because he was a familiar face, General Mamozai said. What happened next is not entirely clear, said a senior border police official who described two versions. In one, the Americans were alone at the site; in the other, there were other American soldiers and Afghan National Army soldiers and border police officers nearby. What does seem clear is that no one expected Ezzatullah to start shooting, and that it took a little time before he was killed. It is unclear whether he was killed by American or Afghan return fire. Both Ezzatullah and his younger brother were members of the border police, said Tahir Khan, a tribal elder from Wazir Pir-a-Khail, Ezzatullah’s home village in the Khogyani District, in western Nangarhar. “The father is a poor man, and that’s why both his sons were working for the government,” Mr. Khan said. Khogyani, although largely peaceful, is known to be a heavily infiltrated transit point for Afghan and foreign insurgents coming from Pakistan. The Taliban have considerable influence in the village where Ezzatullah’s family lives, said several local residents and General Mamozai. Afghans have taken the father and brother into custody for questioning, the general said. Mr. Khan said he did not think that Ezzatullah was under the sway of the Taliban. “I think it was just an accident,” he said. The Taliban, however, rushed to take credit for the killings, which brought the number of NATO soldiers killed in November to 57, nearly twice the number killed in the same period a year ago. The Afghan police and army have exceeded their recruitment goals even as NATO struggles to hire enough trainers, according to the Pentagon’s latest report to Congress on Afghanistan. The report said the NATO training mission faced a shortfall of trainers and mentors “that will grow more acute” because several countries had failed to send the promised numbers of trainers.

United States Defense and Military Forces


I.R.S. Auditing Fewer Big Companies, Report Says

Abstract: Despite the federal government’s repeated pledges to crack down on big businesses that underpay their taxes, the Internal Revenue Service has decreased in recent years the time it spends auditing the returns of the nation’s largest corporations, according to a new study. And in 2009, the government audited just one in four of the largest corporations, lower than any rate in more than 20 years, according to the analysis, released Sunday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse , a nonpartisan research group affiliated with Syracuse University. Researchers said the audit data and other memos, which had both been obtained from the government under the Freedom of Information Act, suggested that a “perverse quota system” within the I.R.S. may be pressuring auditors to focus on small and medium-size businesses and give less scrutiny to the largest corporations — those with $250 million or more in assets. “The decision to audit the smaller companies does not help the government collect more taxes,” the study concluded. “This is because the data indicate that the larger the business, the larger the dollar amounts of tax underreporting and back taxes on average that they may owe.” I.R.S. officials, who have for years disputed the methodology used by TRAC, were quick to rebut the study’s findings. Steven T. Miller, the I.R.S. director of enforcement, said the study was skewed because it failed to take into account a surge in hours that I.R.S. agents spent working with businesses before they filed their returns to prevent errors or underpayments. He asserted that the data actually showed that the agency had become more efficient in recovering unpaid taxes from the largest corporations because the average amount of money the auditors recovered per hour had risen to $9,704 in 2009 from $6,928 in 2005. “We believe we’re looking at the right cases, we’re looking at the largest cases, we’re adding folks to these programs and have worked to really focus on the largest corporations,” Mr. Miller said. “This issue is about more than just the number of feet on the beat.” The nation’s tax gap — the amount of taxes underpaid by businesses and individuals — is more than $345 billion, according to the most recent estimates formulated by the I.R.S. The I.R.S. collected $48.9 billion in underpaid taxes last year through audits and other collection actions, including $28.5 billion from large companies and $1.8 billion from small and medium-size businesses. In much of the last decade, as corporate profits soared and the number of wealthy Americans increased sharply, the I.R.S. periodically decreased the level of scrutiny it directed at individual taxpayers at the top of the income scale. But the I.R.S. reversed that trend in the last two years, giving increased attention to the wealthiest individuals: in 2009, the agency audited 6.5 percent of those who declared income of $1 million or more; 2.9 percent of taxpayers with income of $200,000 to $1 million; and about 1 percent of those whose income was below $200,000. But the TRAC study said the I.R.S. had not followed through on federal officials’ promises to help reduce the soaring budget deficit by aggressively recovering underpayments by large corporations. Since 2005, the study reports, the number of hours devoted to audits of the largest companies fell 33 percent, while the hours spent auditing small businesses increased 30.4 percent and rose 12.6 percent for midsize businesses. In the same period, the number of I.R.S. audits of large corporations fell to 3,675 from 4,693, a decrease of 21.7 percent. Terry Lemons, an I.R.S. spokesman, said it was misleading to use 2005 as a basis for comparison because the I.R.S. had conducted a major drive to close old cases that year, and thus completed an unusually high number of audits carried forward from previous years. Mr. Miller, the enforcement chief, said the I.R.S. audited 100 percent of those corporations with assets over $20 billion and 50 percent of those with assets of $5 billion to $20 billion in 2009. In January, Commissioner Douglas Shulman announced that all major businesses would be required to include a detailed statement in their tax return that described any potentially questionable deductions. That new plan, which will be fully put into effect later this year, will allow auditors to concentrate their efforts on areas where they are most likely to recover any underpayment, Mr. Miller said. “Enforcement is a function of looking at the right cases and the right issues,” he said.

Taxation
Corporations
Internal Revenue Service
Federal Taxes (US)
Small Business


Aide to Christie is Named to Lead N.J. Development Agency

Abstract: A former federal prosecutor who resigned her post in 2009 amid controversy over a loan of $46,000 from her former boss, Chris Christie , now the governor of New Jersey, has been named to lead the state’s economic development agency. The former prosecutor, Michele A. Brown, who is now a top aide to Mr. Christie, will become chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in October. She will succeed Caren S. Franzini , who announced her resignation on Wednesday after 18 years in that job. Ms. Brown’s appointment was recommended by the chairman of the authority’s board, Alfred C. Koeppe, an appointee of Mr. Christie, and was approved unanimously by board members on Wednesday. She will make $225,000 in her new post — a raise from the $140,000 she earns as the governor’s aide. Ms. Brown currently serves as appointments counsel for Mr. Christie, a job that includes recruiting judicial nominees and guiding them through the confirmation process. That has been a major headache for Mr. Christie, a Republican. Two of his State Supreme Court nominees this year were rejected by the Democrat-controlled State Senate. Opponents said that one had inadequate legal experience and that the other had a family with questionable business dealings . It was not clear what background Ms. Brown has in economic development. She spent 18 years in the United States attorney’s office and then worked as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer. In a memo to other board members, Mr. Koeppe described Ms. Brown’s position as being strategic in its focus. The board also created a new post of president and chief operating officer and appointed Timothy J. Lizura, a senior vice president of the economic development authority, to it. The organization is often described as one of the largest state-sponsored development banks in the country. Ms. Franzini, who served under governors from both political parties, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that she wanted “to do something else.” But State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, a Democrat from Union County, said he was worried that Ms. Franzini might have been forced out. “It’s the first time in the history of the Economic Development Authority,” Mr. Lesniak said, “that an obvious political appointee with no experience in economic development is going to be appointed to this agency — at the expense of decades of great work done by Caren Franzini and others before her.” Mr. Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said Mr. Christie twice asked Ms. Franzini to reconsider her plans after she had informed his office that she intended to resign. Mr. Drewniak also defended Ms. Brown’s qualifications for the job. “We’ve heard this refrain about this administration from the day we arrived,” Mr. Drewniak said, “that you’re packed full of former prosecutors and other such professionals, and that our knowledge and experience would somehow be limited, and that we wouldn’t be an effective government. I think it’s safe to say that that’s been proven to be false.” The financial tie between Mr. Christie and Ms. Brown became public when Mr. Christie was running for governor in 2009, and it threatened to undermine Mr. Christie’s campaign platform of uprooting corruption and improving ethics in a state known for political scandals. Mr. Christie lent $46,000 to Ms. Brown in 2007, when he was United States attorney and she was one of his top aides. Ms. Brown’s husband had lost his job, and Mr. Christie later explained that he and his wife had offered to help them financially. After the loan became public, Mr. Christie apologized for not having reported it, as required, on his tax returns and financial-disclosure forms. Though he said the omission had been accidental he was assailed by Democrats, who suggested that Ms. Brown’s financial ties to Mr. Christie raised questions about her ability to be impartial in her job. Ms. Brown, then the No. 2 official in the United State’s attorney’s office, resigned days later, saying she did not want the matter to become a distraction to the office. Ms. Brown paid back the loan before Mr. Christie was elected governor in 2009, Mr. Drewniak said.

Christie Christopher J
Brown Michele A
New Jersey
Appointments and Executive Changes
Economic Development Authority


Departing Rights Official Raised Volume on Issues

Abstract: GENEVA — She has been doing a job with a mandate that many would call impossible: to safeguard human rights around the globe. Yet as Louise Arbour steps down after four years as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, she is not entirely pessimistic. True, she has no illusions that human rights abuses are on the wane. She also says plainly that the 47 members of the United Nations Human Rights Council often use it as a forum for pushing national or regional interests rather than defending people against assorted horrors. Nonetheless, Ms. Arbour, 61, a former Supreme Court judge in Canada and, before that, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations tribunals for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, said she saw some progress. “It’s a small miracle to see how far we have come since the 50 years of silence after Nuremberg,” she said, referring to the trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II. “All things considered, in human rights law we have achieved more in the past 15 years than in the previous 50 in taking personal criminal accountability to where it is now.” In the view of some human rights groups, Ms. Arbour can share credit for this. Although she had no powers to punish abusers, she sharpened the profile of the high commissioner’s office, not only by almost doubling its annual budget to nearly $100 million and widening its presence in the field, but also by persistently raising her own voice. Amnesty International said that Ms. Arbour, who formally left the job on Monday, had been a champion for human rights and that replacing her would not be easy. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, is expected to announce her successor shortly. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Ms. Arbour had been principled and outspoken. In a telephone interview from New York, he added, “Our hope is that the next commissioner not be excessively inclined to practice quiet diplomacy when outspokenness is called for.” That said, Ms. Arbour’s forthright views have angered many governments and interest groups. This year, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said Ms. Arbour had turned her office into a “deified oracle which spews out edicts we all must follow.” Some supporters of Israel have called her an idiot. The Bush administration, too, has objected to her frequent complaints about its use of torture, secret arrests and disregard of international law as part of the campaign against terrorism. Yet Ms. Arbour herself does not regard naming-and-shaming as the high commissioner’s most effective tool. On one of the last days in her office on the banks of Lake Geneva, Ms. Arbour sounded almost defensive about sometimes using quiet diplomacy. “On my travels, I can see presidents and prime ministers and foreign ministers,” she said. “A lot of nongovernmental organizations don’t have this kind of access. But that calls for a different tone of interaction. There’s no point in screaming if you cannot compel anything.” She has, however, pressed her way into places like refugee camps and prisons, to the discomfort of her official hosts. “She’d ask to see political prisoners or rape victims,” said Scott Campbell, an aide who has often traveled with her. “It’s difficult to say no to Louise Arbour.” Some have said no. North Korea and Myanmar refused to let her in. China said she was always welcome, but recently, when she wanted to travel to Tibet, she was told it was not the right time. She visited Sri Lanka, but the government would not let her open a field office there. Pakistan kept postponing her trip, finally offering her a date three days before she was to leave office. She accepted. Last week, she admonished the country’s president, Pervez Musharraf, and other high-ranking officials about human rights issues, including “disappearances” and the lack of judiciary independence. But it is what she calls “a very serious erosion” of safeguards against human rights abuses in the United States that has haunted her work. In many countries, Ms. Arbour said, when she raises human rights concerns with a president or prime minister: “I can write the script. The first response I get is, ‘Why aren’t you in Guantánamo? Why are you coming here?’ ” But, she added, when she had admonished the United States, she had heard the opposing view. “I recently had a meeting with a group of Congressional aides,” she said, “and they complained, ‘Why aren’t you criticizing Myanmar instead of spending your time criticizing the United States?’ ” In Geneva itself, pure politics often seem to dominate the Human Rights Council, which in 2006 replaced the politicized United Nations Commission on Human Rights . Ms. Arbour said she welcomed the council’s new policy under which every country’s human rights record would be examined every four years, but she lamented regular attempts in the council to gain control of her office. The council’s work has often been paralyzed and distorted by regional groups, notably the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the African group, which not only have focused overwhelmingly on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians but also have blocked discussion of such topics as sexual identity, female genital cutting and so-called honor killings. “It seems to me that anything that is related to full gender equality is a fundamental human right,” Ms. Arbour said. “But the dictates of culture or religion or tradition are often put forward as clashing with that. It’s the wrong debate.”

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Both Sides Invoke Obama in Climax of Virginia Governor’s Race

Abstract: ARLINGTON, Va. — To motivate voters, Virginia’s bitter rivals for governor reached out to the same figure on the weekend before Election Day: President Obama. The president’s motorcade ferried him five miles from the White House on Sunday to a rally for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate, here in the Northern Virginia suburbs that are emblematic of the state’s shift from a Republican stronghold. Mr. Obama hit hard on the theme that Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Mr. McAuliffe’s Republican rival in Tuesday’s election, was an extremist who would not reach across the aisle to govern. “You’ve seen an extreme faction of the Republican Party that has shown again and again and again that they’re willing to hijack the entire party and the country and the economy and bring progress to an absolute halt if they don’t get 100 percent of what they want,” Mr. Obama said. At the same time, Mr. Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, sought to turn the race into a referendum on the disastrous rollout of the federal health care exchange, mockingly welcoming Mr. Obama to Virginia. “Come on in, Mr. President, we’re happy to see you,” Mr. Cuccinelli told supporters on Saturday. “You just bring everybody’s focus to Obamacare.” Outside of a high school here where Mr. Obama spoke, a sizable band of protesters waved signs reading “You Lie!” referring to the hundreds of thousands of people whose health insurance is being canceled under the overhaul law, despite Mr. Obama’s pledge that people who liked their plans could keep them. Strategists for Mr. McAuliffe dismissed Mr. Cuccinelli’s focus as an act of desperation with polls showing him behind. “Like a drowning man, he’s jumped onto this as his lifesaver,” said Geoff Garin, Mr. McAuliffe’s pollster. Image President Obama speaking on Sunday at a rally for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, at a high school in Arlington, Va. Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times But the fact that in a 20-minute speech Mr. Obama never directly mentioned the health care law seemed an omission reflecting some nervousness on the part of Democrats. Instead, Mr. Obama and Mr. McAuliffe reminded voters of the 16-day government shutdown in an attempt to link Mr. Cuccinelli to congressional hard-liners. “There aren’t a lot of states that felt more pain than folks right here in Virginia,” the president said. Citing an interview that Mr. Cuccinelli gave on Friday agreeing that the shutdown seemed to be in the rearview mirror, Mr. Obama said, “If you would embrace the very politics that led to this shutdown, then I guarantee it’s not in the rearview mirror of voters in Virginia.” Both candidates for governor are in the last stages of turning out supporters, pleading for volunteers to knock on doors and traversing the state with political celebrities to inspire their base. Mr. McAuliffe, who appeared with Bill Clinton last week, is scheduled to campaign on Monday with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Cuccinelli will appear with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and, in an election eve rally in Richmond, with Ron Paul, a former congressman and Republican presidential candidate. Stumping on Saturday with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an anti-union hero to many conservatives, Mr. Cuccinelli thanked an outdoor crowd on a lovely fall day “for coming out in this awesome door-knocking weather.” “We don’t need to convince one more Virginian,” Mr. Cuccinelli told about 150 supporters in Spotsylvania Courthouse. “We just have to get the ones who already agree with us to go to the polls.” Image Terry McAuliffe Since Day 1, the McAuliffe campaign has been acutely aware that the voters who turn out for off-year elections have historically been older, whiter and more conservative than those who vote in presidential years, a trend favoring Mr. Cuccinelli. To increase turnout by the coalition of young people, women and minorities that put Virginia in Mr. Obama’s column a year ago, McAuliffe strategists imported the playbook and some players from his re-election race. It has used its vaunted analytics to identify potential supporters, and it has turned to social science to get them to vote. Field staff members ask supporters how they plan to get to the polls — Before or after work? By car or public transit? — because data shows that having a plan to vote increases actual voting by 9 percent, said Michael Halle, a campaign organizer. The campaign and the state Democratic Party also asked supporters to sign a pledge card months ago and then mailed them back to voters last week. “If you say you’re going to do something, you’re more likely to actually do it,” Mr. Halle said. The McAuliffe campaign throws out big numbers about its get-out-the-vote effort: the 175,000 doors that were knocked on Saturday, the 13,500 volunteers who signed up for the final four days. The Cuccinelli campaign is matching those efforts “knock for knock,” said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. The national group, trying to make up for being outgunned in Virginia in the presidential race, has opened more field offices, has gathered more voter data and says it is talking to voters it never reached before. Still, Dan Braswell, a volunteer from Louisa County, northwest of Richmond, described a canvassing approach typical of a campaign’s early stages of persuading voters rather than late-stage efforts to turn out votes. “The only question I ask is, ‘Which issues matter to you the most, and who do you intend to vote for?’ ” said Mr. Braswell, a retired Navy captain. The No. 1 issue people mention, he added, is jobs and “moving the economy.” And yet if Mr. Cuccinelli’s campaign ultimately falters, post-mortems are likely to focus on why, despite voters overwhelming concern with jobs, he focused much of his message on noneconomic issues that motivate the Tea Party wing. Image Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II At his rally in Spotsylvania Courthouse, Mr. Cuccinelli attacked Mr. McAuliffe as being in the pocket of labor bosses, criticized gun control ads paid for by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and boasted of suing the federal government three times. His one foray into jobs was an assertion that he had a plan to aid the economy, whereas “my opponent’s plan is to say the word ‘jabs’ over and over,” a poke at Mr. McAuliffe’s upstate New York accent. He moved on to what he seeks to make the most damaging issue to Mr. McAuliffe, his support of the health care overhaul, including Mr. McAuliffe’s desire to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to cover more poor Virginians. “Virginia is the next battlefield in Obamacare, and it’s Tuesday,” Mr. Cuccinelli said. “Voters are upset.” “They were lied to by the president of the United States,” he added. “And by golly has he got an ally in Terry McAuliffe.” Although polls show that more Virginians have an unfavorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act than embrace it, the McAuliffe campaign says its internal polls show that problems with the website had not increased support for Mr. Cuccinelli. Instead, the McAuliffe campaign asserts, Mr. Cuccinelli’s focus on the law, including reminding voters that he was the first state attorney general to sue to overturn it, paints him as obsessed with it and unlikely to be a governor who will reach across the aisle to solve problems. “Virginia has always been a swing state, and this race will be close,” Mr. Obama said at Mr. McAuliffe’s rally. “Nothing makes me more nervous than when my supporters start feeling too confident. I want to put the fear of God into all of you.”

Terry McAuliffe
Kenneth T Cuccinelli II
Barack Obama
Virginia
Gubernatorial races
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Voting
Republicans
Democrats
Arlington Va


Moss Is More Than Sound Bites

Abstract: Glendale, Ariz. Randy Moss scored more points Tuesday. In a season in which he has already broken the single-season record for touchdown receptions and re-established himself as the league’s premier receiver, Moss — the individual — is being celebrated. Moss was in great form Tuesday: warm, expansive, even philosophical about his life and the game of football. He was asked about his early career, when he appeared to be playing with a chip on his shoulder. Moss said that it was not an appearance; he really did have a chip. “How I approached the game when I was younger, it was very angry,” he said. “Not at anyone in particular, just the game of football. Now, I still carry that same chip on my shoulder, but I do understand that I’m a little older.” Media day is the annual cavalcade of lights, camera, action that launches Super Bowl week. The fanfare of the week also often makes the championship game feel anticlimactic. That won’t happen this year. There’s too much at stake: each team is going after an element of glory that will be greatly diminished if it loses. The careers of every Patriot will be illuminated by being part of an undefeated championship team; every Giant will be enhanced by being part of a team that pulled off the upset of the century. For Moss, this game means validation. The story of Moss’s so-called rejuvenation is another example of perception overriding reality, of how we often allow perception to be the reality. I’m not calling Moss a saint, just pointing out that we have taken a deeper look at Moss and have been surprised at what we’ve found. As omnipresent as the news media are — just look at this carnival — and as suffocating and ever-present as the news media can be, we probably know less about the athletes we cover than ever before. We know them by sound bites and through deeds and misdeeds, through carefully orchestrated events sponsored by the team and the leagues. We don’t really know them. As Moss spoke, some members of the news media noted that they were impressed by what they heard. Most had only heard sound bites or read about his off-the-field problems, most recently the restraining order against him at the request of a Florida woman. Moss has been the N.F.L.’s shooting star, its bad boy, the sensitive player who couldn’t handle losing in Oakland. His performance this season has been one of the most amazing transformations in recent N.F.L. history, beginning with the Patriots ’ season opener against the Jets in the Meadowlands and continuing through the regular-season finale, on the same field, against the Giants. Sunday’s championship game can be the redefining moment of Moss’s career, and he knows it. I hear a lot of Giants fans talking — a little too much, by the way — about how quiet Moss has been in the playoffs. My sense is that he’s about to roar.  “You hear a lot of the greats making their name as Super Bowl M.V.P.’s and being able to win the big game,” he said. “I wanted to be on this stage to play in the big game, the last game of the season.” On Tuesday, Moss repeated his refrain that he could not care less about what people thought about him. I wondered if he cared about what history would think of him. Moss said that he cared what his family thought and that he hoped that his children would someday understand all the hard work and preparation that went into a career — and especially into this season. Sounding like a typical parent, Moss told of how he played catch with his youngest son, who says that before long he will be catching passes from Tom Brady. His son has no idea of the hard work and preparation that go into building a career. Someone asked Moss if he regretted anything he had said or done during his career. He said he did not. “What can I take back?” Moss said. “I am who I am. I am going to do what I want to do, and say what I want to say.” His final season in Minnesota and his entire stay in Oakland were nightmares. On Tuesday, Moss spoke about living a dream in New England, a franchise he never in his wildest imagination thought he would join. Many of us were surprised by the depth of gratitude Moss expressed as he spoke about the Patriots’ organization. “I’ve always said since the day I got here that I’m living the dream and I’m still happy,” he said. “To be part of something as special as this seems now, I’m still living the dream.” Indeed he is. Going through the season undefeated is a phenomenal accomplishment. “Now that I’m a little older and we’re on the verge of making history,” he said, “it’s something special and hopefully it’s something that my kids and generations to come will cherish.” Moss has four children who will be able to look back on this season and this moment with considerable pride. They’re seeing their father operate in championship mode.

Moss Randy
Football
New England Patriots
National Football League


Hostile Fans and Quiet Bat for Bonds

Abstract: LOS ANGELES, July 31 — Barry Bonds had five friends at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night. Actually, he had five protectors, the security officers who stood as rigid as marines in left field as Bonds warmed up between innings. They formed a loose wall near Bonds, just in case. Other than the derisive chants and persistent boos that battered Bonds'sears, nothing happened to Bonds. Nothing happened with Bonds's home runchase, either. Bonds went 0 for 2 with two walks as the San FranciscoGiants defeated the Dodgers, 3-1, without any contributions from him. Every time Bonds was about to hit and every time he touched the ball, the Dodgers’ fans buried him in boos. Bonds expected this harsh treatment. Even if he was not chasing history, the fans here would have berated him. They despise the Giants and their best and most polarizing player. The current circumstances only heightened their venom. For Bonds, the march to history will continue in hostile territory. Bonds has 754 home runs, two from breaking Hank Aaron’s career record, but he did not get much of a chance to go deep off Brad Penny. Bonds had three homers in 25 at-bats against Penny, one of the reasons he was eager to start the series opener. Penny struck out Bonds on three pitches in the first inning, getting Bonds to wave weakly at a split-finger fastball for the third strike. It looked as if Penny planned to challenge Bonds in much the same manner the Dodgers challenged him earlier this month. Bonds went 0 for 12 against the Dodgers in San Francisco and called himself “an embarrassment.” But Penny’s early gusto fizzled. The Dodgers intentionally walked Bonds with one out and a runner on third in the third, a decision that was heavily booed. But the strategy worked as Ryan Klesko hit into a double play. When Bonds opened the sixth, the sky around Dodger Stadium had turned black, so the hundreds of camera bulbs flashing were much more noticeable. Penny did not give Bonds a chance to create a historic picture, walking Bonds. In the seventh, Joe Beimel, a left-hander who has limited Bonds to one hit in 14 at-bats, induced him to hit a towering pop-up to left field. The ball hit off shortstop Rafael Furcal’s glove for an error, so Bonds eased into first. He was replaced by Fred Lewis, and his latest chance at making history ended. Bud and Barry are back together again, for better or worse. Commissioner Bud Selig rejoined Bonds’s pursuit Tuesday. Selig traveled here to witness Bonds’s run at history instead of remaining in Milwaukee, his hometown, where he could have seen the Mets ’ Tom Glavine attempt to win his 300th game. Glavine received a no-decision in the Mets’ 4-2 loss in 13 innings. Selig could have journeyed the four miles from his office to Miller Park to see if Glavine could become the 23rd pitcher to collect 300 victories. While Glavine’s milestone will be a superb achievement, 22 others have done it. No one has done what Bonds is about to do. Selig is fond of Glavine, a player who has a pristine reputation. Selig does not feel as warmly toward Bonds. Although Selig has not criticized Bonds, he waited for months before saying he would attend Bonds’s potential record-setting games. Bonds has been connected with investigations into the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Selig is expected to attend his eighth Giants game in their last 12 on Wednesday, but Aaron will not join the trail. Aaron said in April that he would not follow Bonds. He seemingly reiterated that Monday by refusing to discuss Bonds. “I am making a comment by not making a comment,” Aaron told The Associated Press.

Bonds Barry
Selig Bud
Baseball
Glavine Tom
New York Mets
San Francisco Giants


As North Korea Seals Border, U.S. Bolsters Defenses

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — The United States announced Wednesday that it was speeding the deployment of an advanced missile defense system to Guam in the next few weeks, two years ahead of schedule in what the Pentagon said was “a precautionary move” to protect American naval and air forces from the threat of a North Korean missile attack. The system — called Thaad, for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense — was scheduled for deployment around 2015. The decision to deploy it now was the latest in a series of steps intended to deter the North from either military action or new missile tests and came only hours after the latest North Korean provocation, with officials blocking South Koreans from crossing the border to enter a jointly operated industrial park. The North had threatened the move in reaction to taunts from the South Korean news media that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had cut hot lines and other communications across the border, but did not want to risk one of his most precious sources of hard currency. The border has been sealed before, but the move against the operations at the industrial park that employs roughly 53,000 North Koreans raised doubt about the future of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. In recent weeks, the North has repeatedly threatened that, if provoked, it could target United States forces in Guam and Hawaii as well as the mainland United States — a threat it repeated Thursday. Earlier this week, the Defense Department announced that two of the Navy’s Aegis-equipped missile defense warships were positioned in the Pacific to watch North Korea. Installing the land-based missile system in Guam will free up the ships, which have radar and interceptor missiles, to be repositioned closer to the North Korean coast. Image South Korean soldiers with tanks prepared for a drill on Wednesday at the Mugeon-ri drill field near Paju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Credit Jeon Heon-Kyun/European Pressphoto Agency That would give President Obama a wider range of options if the North Koreans fire their missiles in a test or at a target. “We haven’t made any decisions,” a senior administration official said. “But we want as many options as possible.” The last time the United States seriously prepared to shoot down North Korean missiles was the summer of 2006, when the defense secretary at the time, Donald H. Rumsfeld, ordered the Army to prepare to intercept a long-range Taepodong missile from its antiballistic missile base in Alaska during a North Korean test. But the North Korean missile broke up in flight. Last month, as the North escalated its threats, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the United States would bolster long-range ballistic missile defenses in Alaska and California. But that process will take several years; the Thaad is intended to deter a threat to Guam, which is considered to be on the outer edge of the North’s missile range. The system includes a truck-mounted launcher, interceptor missiles, an integrated fire control system and advanced tracking radar. Mr. Hagel, speaking at the National Defense University in Washington, referred to North Korea’s increased nuclear ability in response to a question from the audience. “They have a nuclear capacity now,” he said. “They have a missile delivery capacity now. And so, as they have ratcheted up their bellicose, dangerous rhetoric, and some of the actions they have taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger.” Mr. Hagel’s carefully worded comment about the North’s “nuclear capacity” was significant; on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that the United States would never recognize the North “as a nuclear state.” The difference pointed to the administration’s dilemma: after three nuclear tests, there is no doubt the country can trigger a nuclear explosion, but the United States is adamant that it will not reward the North by accepting its arsenal as a permanent reality. In recent days the North has said it would never negotiate away its nuclear weapons arsenal, and it has taken steps toward expanding it. It declared it would restart a nuclear reactor that gave it a small stockpile of plutonium. Photographs published Wednesday on the Web site 38 North , which follows North Korean developments, show new construction at the aging reactor, dating back several weeks. Video An analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the abrasive actions of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, are part of a game plan set by his father. The jointly run industrial complex, in the North Korean town of Kaesong , had continued to operate for days since the North threatened to shut it down. But on Wednesday, more than 480 South Koreans who showed up at a border crossing were denied permission to cross, said the Unification Ministry of South Korea, which is in charge of relations with the North. North Korea promised to allow 861 South Koreans currently staying in Kaesong to return home if they wished, the ministry said. But with no replacements arriving, only 33 immediately decided to return home. It was not the first time that North Korea had disrupted the park’s operation. It blocked cross-border traffic three times in 2009, once for three days, out of anger over joint military drills by South Korean and American troops. That blockade was lifted when the military exercises ended. The current American-South Korean military drills are to continue until the end of April. Meanwhile, the United States and South Korea are entering the final stretch of long-stalled negotiations over another highly delicate nuclear issue: South Korea’s own request for American permission to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel. Allowing South Korea to develop either the enrichment or reprocessing technologies would be a rare exception, one that nonproliferation advocates said would set a bad precedent. They said it would undermine not only Washington’s global efforts to curb the spread of such activities, but also American efforts to persuade North Korea and Iran to give up their nuclear programs. Mr. Kerry and his South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, discussed the long-running South Korean desire in Washington on Tuesday and said they would take it up again when Mr. Kerry visits Seoul next week. Both sides hope for a compromise before the meeting between Mr. Obama and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea that is scheduled for next month in Washington. Ms. Park, who was elected in December, made winning American concessions on the issue a top campaign pledge. In South Korea, where people remember their recent history of war and foreign occupation, popular support has often surged for arming the country with nuclear weapons — especially when people doubt the American commitment to defend their country or when the North’s threats intensify. “When the thug in the neighborhood has gotten himself a brand new machine gun, we can’t defend our home with a stone,” Chung Mong-joon, a ruling party leader and vocal champion of “nuclear sovereignty” for South Korea, recently said, referring to the North Korean nuclear threat. “At a time of crisis, we are not 100 percent sure whether the Americans will cover us with its nuclear umbrella.” But such a call, even if reflective of popular sentiments, has always been tamped down by unequivocal rebuttals from government policy makers. And the United States flew nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers in recent training sorties over the Korean Peninsula, demonstrating its commitment to a nuclear umbrella for the South Korean ally.

US Military
North Korea
Guam
South Korea
International relations
Missiles and Missile Defense
Kaesong


18 Revolutionary Guards Killed at Iran Base

Abstract: TEHRAN — An explosion on Tuesday at an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base in a remote area of southwestern Iran killed 18 members of the powerful military organization and wounded 14 more, Iranian state news media reported on Wednesday. In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards said the blast was caused by a fire spreading to an ammunition store at the base, which the research group Global Security says houses underground launching and storage facilities for Iran’s medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missiles. However, the base is near the city of Khorramabad, about 300 miles from Tehran and close to Iran’s restive Kurdistan region, the site in recent months of several attacks on Revolutionary Guards installations and personnel. Last week, two Guards soldiers and five Kurdish militants were killed in a gunfight in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province. In September, a bomb attack on a military parade in the ethnic Kurdish city of Mahabad killed 12 civilian spectators and wounded dozens more. Iranian officials accused “the Zionist regime and its allies” of masterminding the attack. State media said that Revolutionary Guards forces crossed into neighboring Iraq over the following days, killing 30 Kurdish fighters who were said to be involved in the bombing. Formed in the early years of the war with Iraq in the 1980s, the Revolutionary Guards has expanded under Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, into a vast military-economic conglomerate with growing political ambitions. It is widely thought to have been instrumental in the violent crackdown on Iran’s political opposition after last year’s disputed presidential election and to be leading Iran’s nuclear program . In June, the United Nations imposed sanctions aimed specifically at restricting the financial resources of the Revolutionary Guards and its affiliate companies.


Little Sympathy From Yanks’ Trost on Batting Practice

Abstract: This season has been bumpy for the Yankees, with many empty premium seats at the new stadium, an onslaught of home runs that has raised questions about the stadium’s design and complaints from fans who cannot get near the field during batting practice because they do not have tickets for those sections. The complaints about batting practice did not draw much sympathy on Tuesday from Lonn Trost, the club’s chief operating officer, who spoke after a news conference announcing the sale of mementos from the old stadium. Referring to the high-priced Legends Suite tickets clustered around home plate and the infield, Trost said that it was an area that fans without suite tickets would not be allowed to enter. “If you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite?” Trost said in remarks reported by The Associated Press. “If you purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?” Trost also said the Yankees would perform more wind studies to see if the weather was causing so many home runs, but added that “right now, I don’t know if I can do anything about the wind.”

Stadiums and Arenas
Yankee Stadium (NYC)
New York Yankees


Tennessee Clinches Top Seed for A.F.C. Playoffs

Abstract: NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans wanted to head into the playoffs with a little momentum. Thanks to a dominating performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, they will have much more than that. Kerry Collins threw for a touchdown, Chris Johnson and LenDale White each ran for a score, and the Titans routed the Steelers, 31-14, in a showdown of the best teams in the American Football Conference. Tennessee clinched the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Coach Jeff Fisher called the victory the Titans’ best game this season. “This was not a statement game by no means,” he said. “It was a momentum game. “We needed to build momentum for the playoffs and the bye week by playing well and winning the game. The bonus is the second game here at home.” After the game, Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck celebrated by stomping on a Terrible Towel like those waved by Steelers fans. “It sets the tone for the playoffs in the A.F.C.,” Bulluck said. The Titans (13-2) were coming off a loss to Houston — the first game this season in which they failed to score a touchdown — and were up against the Steelers’ top-ranked defense. They bounced back well, ending the Steelers’ five-game winning streak and becoming the first team to top 300 yards of offense against Pittsburgh (11-4) this season. Tennessee finished with 323 yards. Tennessee played without two top defenders: the Pro Bowl defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and end Kyle Vanden Bosch, who were injured. Their replacements helped the Titans sack Ben Roethlisberger five times and force him into four turnovers. “The effort we got out of that group was nothing less than spectacular,” Fisher said. The rookie Jason Jones, who started for Haynesworth, had three and a half sacks and forced Roethlisberger into three fumbles. Safety Michael Griffin, a Pro Bowl alternate, had two interceptions. He returned the second 83 yards up the left sideline for a touchdown with 16 seconds left. “We’re not going to point fingers around here,” Roethlisberger said. “We’ve done a great job of that all year. We win as a team, we lose as a team.” The Steelers, who had to win out to earn the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2004, had plenty of fans waving Terrible Towels in the capacity crowd. “It was a little surprising to see that many in our stadium,” Collins said. But Tennessee had its fans chanting “Titans, Titans” early in the fourth quarter and celebrating at the end. In a game of streaks, the Titans scored the first 10 points, with Collins finding Justin Gage on a 34-yard touchdown pass after Roethlisberger’s second fumble of the game. Roethlisberger answered by driving the Steelers to two scores. He threw the 100th touchdown pass of his career, a 31-yarder to Santonio Holmes, in the second quarter. And Roethlisberger was 3 of 3 for 62 yards in the third quarter, when he capped a four-play touchdown drive with a 21-yard pass to Hines Ward for a 14-10 lead, Pittsburgh’s first of the game. But the Titans, who have now won eight of nine home games against the Steelers, scored the final 21 points. The Titans drove 79 yards in 11 plays after Roethlisberger put Pittsburgh ahead, the key play coming on fourth-and-inches at the Steelers’ 21. Tennessee, which failed to complete a pass on fourth-and-3 last Sunday at Houston, had Collins pitch out to Johnson, a rookie, who ran untouched 21 yards for a touchdown. Griffin intercepted Roethlisberger on the Steelers’ next drive by stepping in front of receiver Nate Washington, and he returned the ball 32 yards. White scored his 15th rushing touchdown of the season on a 1-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter. “That is not the way we are used to playing defense,” Steelers linebacker James Harrison said. “They did a good job. They came out and imposed their will.”

Tennessee Titans
Pittsburgh Steelers
Playoff Games
Football


Tour de France Showdown Never Materializes as Chris Froome Maintains Lead

Abstract: CULOZ, France — The stalemate between Chris Froome and his rivals at the Tour de France continued Sunday as the race returned to the mountains. This time, it was the Jura Mountains, and the roughly 99-mile stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Culoz had all the makings of a compelling showdown — at least on paper. The route concluded with a finishing circuit that sent the riders up the Grand Colombier mountain pass two ways, both highly unpleasant for nonclimbers. But the day left the top of the overall standings pretty much as they were, with Froome, who rides for Team Sky, followed by Bauke Mollema, a Dutch rider for the American Trek-Segafredo team, and Adam Yates of England, riding for the Australian Orica-BikeExchange team. The first two riders to finish Sunday’s stage, the 15th of the Tour, are no threat to Froome. The Colombian Jarlinson Pantano, who rides for a Swiss team with a vaguely existential name (IAM Cycling), outsprinted Rafal Majka of Poland, who rides for the Russian Tinkoff team, to win after a long breakaway. During the two ascents of the Grand Colombier, several of Froome’s rivals tried to take him on. All their efforts were in vain. Yates was not among the challengers. Saying he was not feeling fully in form, he remained content to sit behind Froome. Nevertheless, he expressed some frustration with what he had witnessed, saying that Froome’s Sky teammates “give you 10 or 15 seconds, then they bring you back, so what can you do?” Froome said he was surprised that other riders had not mounted more attacks against him but acknowledged the apparent superiority of Sky. “It must be quite demoralizing for others to think of attacking, knowing that this caliber of team is chasing after them,” he said. While Froome emerged from the stage unscathed, an attack by Romain Bardet of France on the final loop of the Grand Colombier caused the American Tejay van Garderen to lose contact with Froome’s group. Van Garderen lost 1 minute 28 seconds to Froome and fell to eighth place over all, from sixth. With van Garderen now 4:47 behind Froome, it seems unlikely he will find a place on the podium in Paris next Sunday. The stage had moments of excitement. The road down the Grand Colombier is serpentine, steep and narrow. Majka was among several riders who overshot corners and had to continue along a narrow grass shoulder. At one point, Froome seemed to be mounting an attack, but he immediately settled down again. He said later that he was just testing “the state of play” with his rivals. Froome also offered a bit more detail about Thursday’s chaotic stage up to Mont Ventoux, in which he ended up running without a bicycle after he and two rivals crashed into a television motorbike that spectators had forced to a stop. When a police motorcycle ran over his bike, Froome said, it broke both of his seat stays, the narrow tubes that run from under the saddle down to the rear wheel’s hub. That left the bike unable to be ridden, or even to be pushed because the wheel was jammed. With no spare bike in the immediate vicinity, Froome said, it seemed to make sense to “keep moving forward” on foot, given that there was less than a kilometer to the finish, if a steep uphill. (He was eventually given another bike to finish the stage.) Froome said the run had also gotten him away from the spectator-induced bottleneck that had caused the crash, making things easier for mechanics when they finally arrived. On Sunday, an unofficial but well-known rider of the Tour route also went on foot at the end of a stage: Oleg Tinkov, the owner of the Tinkoff team, who hobbled to the finish line with his left foot in a cast. Tinkov said he had broken his foot in a slow-speed bicycle crash. “It was just five kilometers an hour, and then bang,” said Tinkov, who was wearing knee-high compression socks in his team’s signature color, a vivid yellow-green, and matching sunglasses. Despite the injury, Tinkov said, he still managed to ride some of Sunday’s route.

Biking
Tour de France
Christopher Froome


Accountant Charged With Embezzling $2.8 Million From Construction Company

Abstract: When John Hoeffner, an accountant, filed papers to incorporate a company called Mr. John, he had no plans to specialize in the portable toilet business, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Instead, the fictitious company was part of Mr. Hoeffner’s plan to embezzle millions of dollars from his employer, Tishman Construction, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Mr. Hoeffner, 47, of Beechhurst, Queens, was charged on Wednesday with grand larceny in a ruse in which prosecutors said he stole $2.8 million. He faces 20 other charges and could spend up to 25 years in prison if convicted. On Jan. 30, Mr. Hoeffner was sentenced to community service and probation and ordered to pay restitution for a similar embezzlement plan in which he stole nearly $400,000 when he worked for a different construction company, Bovis Lend Lease. In the Tishman case, prosecutors accuse Mr. Hoeffner of creating fake invoices and checks from March 31, 2006, to May 13, 2008, for a Tishman construction project at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in the Bronx. He created the fake documents along with real ones that he used to pay the vendors that Tishman had hired, the prosecutors said. Some of the checks were made out to Mr. John, the prosecutors said. After a Tishman executive signed the checks, Mr. Hoeffner added his surname to the recipient line and deposited the money into a personal account, the district attorney’s office said. Mr. Hoeffner collected $60,000 through the Mr. John ruse, the prosecutors said. Mr. Hoeffner also created a fake company called A. J. Splescian Inc., whose name was similar to that of an actual surveying company, A. Splescia, that Tishman was using, the prosecutors said. By altering checks made out to A. Splescia, Mr. Hoeffner stole the remainder of the $2.8 million, the prosecutors said. A Tishman auditor discovered Mr. Hoeffner’s ruse and turned the case over to the district attorney’s office after an internal investigation, the prosecutors said. The authorities arrested Mr. Hoeffner on June 13 at a Tishman office in Manhattan. “The employee in question has been terminated,” a spokesman for Tishman said in a statement. “Our investigation indicates that this was an isolated incident involving only the one project on which the employee had been assigned.” Mr. Hoeffner pleaded not guilty on Wednesday at his arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. His lawyer, Stephan J. Siegel, told Justice Rena K. Uviller that his client would voluntarily hand over a gray plastic box containing $530,000 in cash that Mr. Hoeffner’s mother had been holding. Outside the courtroom, Mr. Siegel did not specify what his client’s defense would be. Prosecutors said Mr. Hoeffner used the money for several things, including sending $230,000 to a woman who lived in Colombia. About $105,000 went toward a down payment on a house in Queens, $9,000 toward closing costs and $53,000 to two plastic surgeons, the prosecutors said, adding that $1.3 million could not be traced.