China Defers Death Sentence for Disgraced Official’s Wife

Abstract: BEIJING — A Chinese court on Monday handed Gu Kailai, the wife of a disgraced Communist Party leader, a suspended death sentence for killing a British business associate who she reportedly feared was plotting to harm her son. In the Chinese legal system, such a sentence is tantamount to life in prison. Ms. Gu could have been executed soon after the guilty verdict was announced, although most analysts had thought such a punishment unlikely. The sentence was announced with a two-year reprieve, meaning that the threat of execution would be lifted after two years, contingent upon her good behavior. The verdict and sentence appear to wrap up one of the more lurid chapters of a sweeping scandal that brought down Ms. Gu’s husband, Bo Xilai , and challenged the Communist Party during a politically delicate, once-a-decade leadership transition that is set to culminate in the fall. Tang Yigan, deputy director of the Hefei Intermediate People’s Court in Anhui Province, announced the sentence. He Zhengsheng, the lawyer for the family of the Briton, Neil Heywood, said, “We respect the court’s decision.” Ms. Gu’s main accomplice, Zhang Xiaojun, a household employee, was sentenced to nine years in prison. The government said the verdict had been reached after investigators interviewed nearly 400 witnesses and pored over more than 200 documents. Although few questioned Ms. Gu’s role in the murder, rights advocates criticized her prosecution as driven more by politics than by exacting legal procedure. Relatives say she was forced to accept government-appointed lawyers, who did not have access to case files before the trial began. Communist Party leaders will now turn their attention to Mr. Bo, once an aspirant to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee and the party boss of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing. Mr. Bo incurred the wrath of many party leaders who were unnerved by his brash, populist style and his revival of revolutionary songs and sloganeering during his time in Chongqing. He was deposed last spring after a trusted aide entered the United States Consulate in a nearby city and reportedly revealed details of the murder and subsequent cover-up to American officials. Mr. Bo and his former aide, Wang Lijun, have been detained and are awaiting their fate. Four Chongqing police officials who confessed to helping cover up the murder would be sentenced later Monday, said Mr. He, the Heywood family lawyer. Legal analysts and political experts said Ms. Gu’s suspended death sentence was most likely calibrated to satisfy the Chinese public and the British government, but also supporters of Mr. Bo, who remains a darling among leftists and certain factions of the leadership enamored of his zealous campaign against organized crime and his efforts to address some of the income disparities that have accompanied three decades of free-market reform. Although China ’s propaganda officials have restricted media coverage of the case, the murder of Mr. Heywood and prosecution of Ms. Gu have riveted a nation unaccustomed to seeing members of the political elite so publicly exposed. Some historians have likened Ms. Gu’s downfall to that of Jiang Qing, the wife of Mao Zedong who was accused of counterrevolutionary crimes after his death but whose televised trial in 1980 was far more accessible to the Chinese people. Ms. Gu’s trial on Aug. 9 was declared “public,” although foreign reporters were blocked from attending. Two British diplomats were allowed in the courtroom, but barred from recording the proceedings or taking notes. After the verdict, the British Embassy said it welcomed “the fact that the Chinese authorities have investigated the death of Neil Heywood, and tried those they identified as responsible,” adding that it had made clear to Chinese officials that it did not want the death penalty to be applied. The daughter of a revolutionary luminary, Ms. Gu, 53, was among the first generation of lawyers educated after the Cultural Revolution, the decade of social chaos during which schools were closed. As her husband rose through the party hierarchy, she ran a law practice and wrote a book on the foibles of American courts — and what she described as the ruthless efficiency of China’s legal system. More recently, the state media have portrayed her as a mentally unstable woman addled by antidepressants and “sedative hypnotic drugs.” According to the official Xinhua news agency, the murder plot was hatched after Mr. Heywood threatened Ms. Gu’s son, Bo Guagua, and demanded the return of $22 million he claimed was owed to him after a real estate venture failed. The official accounts of the crime also sought to place some of the blame on the victim, painting him as a craven businessman who at one point “detained” the son at a residence in Britain, although it provided no details. Bo Guagua, 24, a recent graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government who is still in the United States, declined to comment on the verdict. After Mr. Heywood’s threats were revealed, reportedly in an e-mail he sent to the family, Ms. Gu devised a scheme to kill him with cyanide-based animal poison procured from a public market, according to an account of the trial issued by Xinhua. In November, Mr. Heywood, 41, was lured to a hotel room in Chongqing, where Ms. Gu plied him with whiskey and tea. When he became drunk and began to vomit, Mr. Zhang, the family employee, helped him into bed, prosecutors said. Ms. Gu then took the deadly concoction that Mr. Zhang had been carrying and dripped it into Mr. Heywood’s mouth after he asked for water. She then scattered pills around the room to make it appear that Mr. Heywood had died of a drug overdose. Two days later, workers at the Lucky Holiday Hotel discovered Mr. Heywood’s body; the police quickly ruled his death the result of excessive drinking and cremated his remains. Mr. Zhang’s relatively light sentence reflected his limited role; prosecutors said he had participated in the scheme, after initially declining, because of his loyalty to a family that had employed him since 2005. Both defendants reportedly confessed. According to the account provided by Xinhua and confirmed by several people who sat through the trial, Ms. Gu apologized to the court, saying she had caused “great losses to the party and the country, for which I ought to shoulder the responsibility.” She also described the case as “a huge stone weighing on me for more than half a year.” Still, the court did not absolve her, saying she meticulously planned the murder, mixing the poison with water, feeding it to Mr. Heywood and then planning an elaborate cover-up. He Weifang, a legal scholar, said a suspended death sentence with two-year reprieve was rooted in imperial law. “A suspended death penalty is something that only exists in China,” he said. “Mao thought it was a good idea and wrote it into China’s modern criminal law in the 1950s because he believed that anyone can be educated and reformed.”

Decisions and Verdicts
Sentences (Criminal)
Gu Kailai
China
Murders and Attempted Murders
Heywood Neil
Bo Xilai


Citigroup Is Soon to Be the Last Wall St. Bank Held by the U.S.

Abstract: Life just got harder for Vikram S. Pandit. A day after Bank of America announced that it would repay its federal bailout money, Citigroup and Mr. Pandit, its chief executive, were left in the uncomfortable position of being the last of the Wall Street giants to remain tethered to the state. That will put the struggling bank at a further disadvantage as Bank of America and other rivals that have shed the stigma of government support become freer to raise compensation to attract talent and improve their standing with investors. Citigroup’s fortunes have slipped recently as rising consumer losses overshadow gains from its trading activity, a business that has helped banks like Goldman Sachs return to record profits this year as the stock market rebounded. Mr. Pandit has made clear that repaying money the bank received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program is a priority. But it may be difficult for the bank to reimburse the government anytime soon, given continuing problems with troubled assets and loan losses. It also must navigate some tricky tax issues that would accompany any repayment. Citigroup has been pummeled in all parts of its financial empire, from credit cards and complex mortgage bonds in the United States to exposure to soured bonds in Dubai. Its problems have resulted in a unique relationship with the government: In addition to providing $45 billion in TARP money, the federal government has agreed to back billions of dollars in soured assets that the bank is trying to sell. In addition, Citigroup was the only TARP recipient, aside from GMAC, to convert government-issued shares into common stock to raise equity capital, giving the government a one-third stake in the bank. Stuart Plesser, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor’s, said Bank of America had a major incentive to pay off its government aid, since it is searching for a new chief executive. Government restrictions on compensation made the position far less desirable — restrictions that will disappear once the money is repaid. But Citigroup is not searching for new leadership, and its underlying problems are worse than Bank of America’s, he said. “I don’t think the government is going to be as eager to let them out,” Mr. Plesser said. And it is not clear that Citigroup should be in a hurry to repay the government as it grapples for ways to resolve its financial problems. While the bank probably has enough cash reserves and a clear strategic direction, it may need to demonstrate its ability to tap the capital markets before the government relents, analysts said. “Citi needs to focus on solvency and asset sales,” said Chris Whalen, editor of The Institutional Risk Analyst. “They shouldn’t even worry about repaying TARP.” The benefits of shedding government support were immediate for Bank of America. On Wednesday, the bank raised $19.3 billion in a sale of securities at $15 apiece, less than a year after its financial troubles made it virtually impossible to raise new money. Still, Mr. Whalen questioned whether Bank of America’s efforts to repay the government were premature at a time when the Federal Reserve was also withdrawing supplemental support for many of the nation’s largest banks. Any effort by Citigroup to get out from under the government’s thumb will probably require a complex, multistep transaction. Citigroup will need to buy back the $20 billion in preferred shares that the government still holds. It also may have to raise additional capital to replace what it paid and to prove its financial strength. Even then, it must persuade the government to unload its roughly 7.2 billion shares in the company — sales that, given their vast size, might be completed in several stages. Without certain waivers, such moves could imperil the company’s capital position by causing it to lose billions of dollars in tax benefits. Inside Citigroup’s Lower Manhattan offices, traders were resigned to the idea that Citigroup remained tied to the government, but they acknowledged the intense pressure on Mr. Pandit to pay back the bailout money quickly. Citigroup board members have moved TARP repayment to the top of the bank’s priority list. But time is running out. Several Citigroup traders, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said they expected most of their colleagues to remain at Citi until they received their bonuses early next year. If a TARP payback plan is not place by March, some predicted an exodus to rival banks where pay is not subject to government restrictions. While all the nation’s largest banks participated in the TARP program, only a handful needed to go back for a second helping of government money, including Citigroup and Bank of America. Both received a total of $45 billion. The federal government is reviewing compensation practices at hundreds of banks, but for now, it has the authority to require changes only for executives at companies that have received “exceptional” amounts of aid, including the American International Group, General Motors and Citigroup. GMAC, which converted to a bank holding company last year, is the only other bank. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the TARP program was winding down and close to the point where the government would not make new commitments. The $700 billion program is set to expire at the end of the year, and Treasury officials have not said whether they plan to seek an extension. It also remains unclear what, if any, timeline the government has negotiated with Citigroup. Treasury officials declined to comment, saying the agency did not talk about market-sensitive matters pertaining to individual institutions. A decade ago, after a blockbuster merger with the Travelers Group, Citigroup was hailed as a banking colossus, a financial supermarket that would turn the staid financial world upside down. But the bank’s huge push into consumer lending, particularly in mortgages that were often repackaged into complex financial instruments, proved disastrous. The bank lost $28 billion in 2008 and has only recently started making slight quarterly gains. In addition to providing Citigroup with $45 billion in TARP money, the federal government has also agreed to back roughly $300 billion in soured assets that remain on Citi’s books. Mr. Pandit is trying to dig the bank slowly out of its hole, in part by dismantling its financial supermarket structure and focusing on becoming a more bread-and-butter banking institution. Citigroup is now worth less than either Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo. The stock market applauded Bank of America’s announcement to repay the government on Thursday, with its shares closing up slightly at $15.76. Shares of other major financial institutions, including Citigroup, closed down slightly.

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (2008)


Lloyds Banking Group Returns to Profit and Resumes Dividend Payments

Abstract: LONDON — The Lloyds Banking Group said on Friday that it returned to a profit in 2014 as it prepared to pay its first dividend since the lender was bailed out by the British government during the financial crisis. The return to paying a dividend, while mostly symbolic, is an important milestone for the bank, which received 17 billion pounds, or about $26 billion, from the British government in 2008. Lloyds said that it would pay a dividend of 0.75 pence a share, returning about £535 million to investors. The last full-year dividend it paid was 35.9 pence a share for the 2007 fiscal year. The revival of the shareholder payout comes as the British government continues to reduce its stake in the bank after having held as much as 40 percent. After a sale announced on Monday , the British government now has a 23.9 percent stake in the bank. “While we recognize we have more to do, we enter the next phase of our strategy from a position of strength,” António Horta-Osório, the Lloyds chief executive, said in a news release . “We will remain focused on our customers, embrace the digital age throughout the whole group, continue our support for the U.K. economy and aim to deliver strong and sustainable returns for our shareholders.” Going forward, the bank said it intended to pay out at least 50 percent of its sustainable earnings in the medium term and expected to pay a dividend for the 2015 fiscal year. Since joining the lender from Banco Santander in 2011 , Mr. Horta-Osório has aggressively reduced costs, shrunk the bank’s ambitions outside Britain and sold off a variety of businesses. Mr. Horta-Osório’s total compensation for 2014 was £10.8 million, including the vesting of more than £7 million in shares from a long-term incentive program. On a conference call with journalists, Mr. Horta-Osório said he would hold on to those shares “until the government’s stake is significantly reduced.” News that Lloyds will resume paying dividend comes at the end of what has been a difficult week for British banking leaders. HSBC reported a 15 percent drop in annual profit on Monday, and its leaders were forced to apologize again as they faced tough questioning from a parliamentary committee over the prior activities of its Swiss private banking unit , which included helping clients evade taxes as recently as 2007. Image António Horta-Osório, the Lloyds Banking Group's chief executive. Credit Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images On Thursday, the Royal Bank of Scotland reported its seventh-straight annual loss and said it would dismantle its global investment bank, potentially affecting thousands of jobs. And Standard Chartered said it was shaking up its leadership , including replacing its longtime chief executive, Peter Sands, with the American banker William T. Winters. The bank, which reports its annual results next week, has faced pressure from shareholders amid a slowing of its core business in Asia and increased regulatory scrutiny. At Lloyds, for the year ended Dec. 31, the bank posted a profit of £1.49 billion pounds, compared with a loss of £802 million in 2013. The bank said underlying profit, which excludes asset sales and some costs, rose 26 percent to £7.76 billion in 2014, from £6.17 billion in the prior year. The result exceeded analysts’ expectations, according to Reuters. Lloyds posted a pretax statutory profit of £1.76 billion, an important measure for the bank. Net interest income, the measure of what a bank earns on its lending after deducting what it pays out on deposits and other liabilities, rose 8 percent to £11.8 billion for the year, from £10.9 billion in 2013. But, like many of its peers, it continued to deal with legacy issues related to prior conduct by its employees. The bank said it had set aside another £700 million in the fourth quarter for potential compensation of customers who were improperly sold payment protection insurance, a product that has cost British banks billions of pounds to make restitution. For the year, the bank set aside £2.2 million for payment protection insurance claims. The pace of new payment protection insurance complaints was down 22 percent from 2013, but Lloyds said it was expecting the volume of complaints to decline at a slower rate than it previously forecast. Lloyds said it also set aside another £925 million for other regulatory matters during the year, including £217 million in July to resolve investigations by British and United States authorities into the manipulation of benchmark interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. For 2014, the bank said that it would give discretionary annual bonus awards of £369.5 million, down 3.6 percent from 2013 after adjusting for the spinoff of TSB. The bank’s core Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of its ability to weather financial disturbances, rose to 12.8 percent at the end of December from 10.3 percent at the end of 2013. European banks are required to have a minimum of 4 percent common equity Tier 1 capital under European rules, but larger banks are required to maintain a higher minimum capital level, which is set by their local regulators.

Lloyds Banking Group
Banking and Finance
Earnings Reports
Antonio Horta-Osorio
TSB Bank
Great Britain


Belgian Minister Tries to Calm Fears Over Dexia

Abstract: LUXEMBOURG — Belgium’s finance minister, Didier Reynders, on Monday sought to calm fears about the fate of the Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia amid concerns over its exposure to Greek debt and reports that the bank could be broken up. Dexia called an emergency board meeting late Monday after a 10 percent drop in its stock price prompted by news that the Greek government would not meet its financial plans this year. In addition, the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service warned that Dexia’s main operating businesses were on review for downgrade. French and Belgian media reports suggested that Dexia was considering selling some of its profitable assets and creating a bad bank to house its more troubled assets. After the meeting, Dexia said its board asked Pierre Mariani, its chief executive, to prepare “necessary measures” to solve the bank’s “structural problems,” according to a statement cited by Bloomberg News. Both the French and Belgian governments own a substantial part of Dexia, which received a 6 billion euro joint bailout when the financial crisis struck in 2008. “Whether it is Dexia or another, we are following the situation day by day,” Mr. Reynders said in Luxembourg, where he was meeting with other finance ministers. He suggested the best way to help banks was to resolve the sovereign debt crisis that has engulfed the Greek government. Dexia held 3.8 billion euros of Greek sovereign bonds at the end of June and had a credit risk exposure to the country of 4.8 billion euros, Reuters reported.

European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Politics and Government
Dexia


Jets’ Ryan Says He Missed Signs of Dissension

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — On the first morning of the Jets ’ off-season, Darrelle Revis refused to speak with reporters, barking, “Leave me alone,” as he left the locker room. Santonio Holmes, who failed as a team captain but thrived as a disruptive force , carried his helmet while being escorted away by a member of the Jets’ public-relations staff. Bart Scott chose to unload his frustrations on a photographer, spouting expletives and extending his middle finger. By Monday afternoon, Coach Rex Ryan and General Manager Mike Tannenbaum vowed that a team that finished 8-8 — that lost three consecutive games to miss the playoffs, that was undercut by dissension and strife, that combusted in a spectacular meltdown Sunday against the Miami Dolphins — would look different next season. But not at quarterback, where Mark Sanchez will remain the Jets’ starter. Or at offensive coordinator, unless Brian Schottenheimer receives a promotion by filling a head-coaching vacancy, perhaps after he is interviewed soon in Jacksonville. No, their immediate response to an epic failure of a season consisted of Ryan’s announcement that he would not select captains for next season. Otherwise, the Jets will just try to do better. The surreal scene at Jets headquarters Monday seemed fitting for a team that had peddled its inflated beliefs: in the end, all that noise produced nothing. Nowhere was that more apparent than in Ryan’s answer to a question about Holmes. Ryan spent 36 seconds discussing what he perceives as Holmes’s assets, uttering the phrases “good teammate” and “a lot of positive things,” before mentioning that the Jets in general have to “change some things.” Ryan lumped Holmes in with everyone else on the team, as if 52 other players had failed to show up to a wide receiver meeting called by Sanchez on Thursday or pouted in a huddle Sunday, leading to a skirmish that resulted in his benching. “I don’t think I had the pulse of our team the way I’ve done in the past,” said Ryan, who said that “became clear” during individual meetings with players Monday. When he met with the team as a whole, Ryan blistered the Jets with an impassioned speech that left him in tears. He pleaded for unity, beseeching the Jets several times to “get back to being a team and not a bunch of individuals,” as guard Brandon Moore put it. It was harsh and unforgiving, but in their minds, players nodded along. “The truth hurts sometimes,” Moore said. In reshaping the Jets’ roster, Tannenbaum jettisoned many of their true leaders — Jerricho Cotchery, Tony Richardson and Thomas Jones — in favor of those with comparable ability but minimal locker-room presence, players like John Conner or Nick Folk. On Monday, Tannenbaum said he always considered whether the Jets were mortgaging character for talent but did not answer when asked whether he had made mistakes in assembling the roster. “Any guy that’s a Jet is someone that we feel good about on all levels,” said Tannenbaum, who added that he was confident in the team’s nucleus. The Jets’ formula for success had been so simple. They could afford to acquire players with questionable pasts, like Holmes and Antonio Cromartie, because of confidence that Ryan would form a cohesive group through sheer force of personality. As one off-season acquisition, Derrick Mason, evolved into a disaster and was traded to Houston, Holmes’s fusillade of critical comments toward Sanchez and the offensive line reinforced Ryan’s miscalculation of Holmes as captain material. When Holmes and Moore met with him in his office leading to their Oct. 17 game against Miami, Ryan was satisfied. “I thought that we were past all that,” he said, adding later, but “we were not as close of a football team as I thought we were.” Of Holmes, guard Matt Slauson said: “That kind of stuff destroys teams. That’s Football 101: you don’t call out your teammates. You do, but not like that. You don’t call them out publicly. If you’ve got a problem, you go up to them and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got an issue.’ You don’t go to the press and blast them like that. But that’s something that will be fixed.” It will be done internally, and not at the behest of a captain. Ryan called that experiment “a huge mistake,” even though the Jets’ five other captains — Moore, Sione Pouha, Revis, Sanchez and Eric Smith — were well respected in the locker room. “I want to have 53 of the same type of guys,” Ryan said.

New York Jets
Ryan Rex
Tannenbaum Mike
Holmes Santonio
Sanchez Mark
Football


Walmart U.S. Chief Leaving; Successor Headed Asian Unit

Abstract: The chief executive of Walmart’s United States division is leaving the company and will be replaced by the head of its Asian division, the company said on Thursday. The United States chief, Bill Simon, will leave the company next month and be replaced by Greg Foran. Mr. Simon’s name was on the short list to take over the retailer when its last chief executive, Michael Duke, retired. But that job went to C. Douglas McMillon, who took the reins this year. Since that move was announced, analysts have watched for Mr. Simon’s next move. “I think this is not unusual when companies go through these things,” said David Tovar, vice president for communications at Walmart. “They’ve talked over the last several months, and recently Bill and Doug agreed this was the right time for him to step down, to leave the company and look for his next opportunity.” Mr. Foran will assume his new role Aug. 9, and Mr. Simon will stay on as a consultant for six months to help with the transition. Image Mr. Simon will stay on as a consultant for six months to help with the transition. Credit Lucy Nicholson/Reuters “Being asked to lead the Walmart U.S. business is a privilege that I don’t take lightly,” Mr. Foran said in a statement. “I am excited to get started. The needs of our customers are changing dramatically, and we have an enormous opportunity to serve them in new and different ways.” Before he was promoted to the helm of Walmart Asia this year, Mr. Foran was head of Walmart China, a position he assumed in early 2012, just a few months after joining the company. Before that, Mr. Foran was an executive at Woolworths, a major retailer in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Foran steps into a difficult time for Walmart United States, which has had negative sales and weak traffic for several consecutive quarters as many of its core customers continue to struggle financially. But its challenges are deeper than that, with many of its partial competitors, like Kroger, doing well. Part of the problem, analysts say, is that much of the momentum in retail is moving toward smaller-format stores that offer customers quicker, more convenient trips, while the beating heart of Walmart remains the giant supercenter. “The company should have been building small-format stores rapidly over the last few years, instead of dabbling at it,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. “This is Doug putting his true imprimatur on the company,” he added of the transition.

Walmart Stores
Appointments and Executive Changes
Bill Simon
Greg Foran


Sun Has Profit for Third Straight Quarter

Abstract: Sun Microsystems solidly beat Wall Street’s estimates yesterday when it reported a profit for the fourth quarter, providing evidence that the company’s turnaround plan was working. The report sent shares of Sun up nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading, after they declined 3 cents to close at $4.89 earlier in the day. Profit at Sun, which makes computer servers, was $329 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $301 million, or a loss of 9 cents a share. Revenue rose to $3.84 billion from $3.83 billion. Analysts had expected, on average, earnings of 5 cents a share on $3.84 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Financial. It was the third consecutive quarter of profit for the company, which had endured a lengthy downturn and five consecutive quarters of losses. “This was a banner quarter in almost every regard,” Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s chief executive, said in an interview. “Growth is now the No. 1 priority for Sun.” For the full fiscal year, the company reported revenues of $13.87 billion, an increase of 6.2 percent over the 2006 fiscal year. The fourth-quarter report comes slightly more than a year after Sun announced a range of measures to reduce costs, including cutting 4,000 jobs. During the fourth quarter, Sun cut its overall operating expenses by almost $500 million, to $1.49 billion. Sun’s total gross margin — total sales minus the cost of goods sold — for the fourth quarter was 47.2 percent, and the gross margin for the full fiscal year was 45.2 percent, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over the 2006 fiscal year. Sun’s operating margin, another key measure of efficiency, for the fourth quarter was 8.5 percent, more than double what it had projected last year. Company executives said they were standing by their goal of an operating profit margin of at least 10 percent in the 2009 fiscal year. Sun executives said the company also benefited from lower prices for components like computer memory. The company’s executives said they were evaluating options for further cost cuts and might reveal more details of Sun’s strategy at its annual analyst meeting in September. Wall Street has consistently urged the company to be more aggressive in cutting expenses. “We recognize we have to continue to lower our cost structure,” Michael Lehman, Sun’s chief financial officer, told analysts. Sun executives told analysts that they expected full-year revenue growth in the low- to mid-single-digit percentage range for the 2008 fiscal year, but they declined to give estimates for the first quarter. “We are planning the business on an annual basis,” Mr. Lehman said. “We are looking at the U.S. economy and the impact on capital spending.” Mr. Schwartz said in the interview that the company saw strength in nearly every segment of the market, except for the United States consumer segment, where there was considerable weakness. Today, growth is Sun’s biggest challenge, analysts say. During the fourth quarter, revenue from products declined 1 percent, while revenue from services rose 3 percent. “While they certainly executed well on the cost side, there are questions on the growth side,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. Sun was a high-profile casualty of the dot-com collapse, after it enjoyed a long run as one of the fastest-growing Silicon Valley companies through most of the 1980s and 1990s. Until turning a profit in the second quarter, Sun had five consecutive quarters of losses and its market share had declined substantially compared with more nimble competitors like Dell and Hewlett-Packard. During the year, Sun has released a string of new technologies, increased its commitment to open-source software and adopted Advanced Micro Devices and Intel microprocessors for its servers, in addition to using its own. Next week, Sun is set to release its Niagara 2 chip, a high-performance processor that uses eight processing engines.

Company Reports
Sun Microsystems Inc
Computers and the Internet
Wall Street (NYC)


Cuomo to Get Executive Order Ideas From Reinvent Albany

Abstract: In cities and towns across New York and in hundreds of pages of policy documents, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo relished deconstructing the “dysfunction” of Albany during his campaign for governor. But the details of how he was actually going to tackle the state’s many problems were scant. So a government watchdog has come up with several ideas for Mr. Cuomo in an effort to hold him accountable to his campaign promise to restore integrity to the state capital. The group will release a report on Tuesday that offers 11 executive orders that Mr. Cuomo, now the governor-elect, could enact on his first day in office in January without having to negotiate with the Legislature. “This is a gift, as it were, to Andrew Cuomo, and it’s also a challenge to him: here are 11 things that you can do right now,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of the group, Reinvent Albany. “This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. We designed them to be politically possible, things that the governor can do within this fiscal environment and within his constitutional authority.” The report, called “Executive Orders,” deals with issues like ethics and voting rights, but its thrust is intended to put more government information online. One order would require all information that falls under the Freedom of Information Law to be posted online. Another order would apply the same principle to the notoriously opaque budget process and would require Mr. Cuomo to put budget documents online as the negotiation with the Legislature progresses. “People are willing to spend the money on state government if they think they’re getting their money’s worth,” said Blair Horner, legislative director at the New York Public Interest Research Group and one of the authors of the Reinvent Albany report. “But right now, there’s no way to know that.” One of the report’s proposed orders would require certain members of the governor’s executive staff, including his chief counsel, to put their full ethics disclosure forms online, including information about their investments. Mr. Cuomo himself has pledged greater transparency, promising during his campaign to post his schedule as governor online. Another recommendation aims to address a chronic criticism of state spending practices by prohibiting money dedicated for a particular program or agency to be used for another one. Mr. Cuomo’s office would not comment on the report’s proposals. But at a news conference on an unrelated topic last week, Mr. Cuomo did not seem enthusiastic about preventing money pledged to one agency from being diverted. When asked his view about revenue from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s being channeled last year to other areas, he said, “Money is fungible to a certain extent”; he would not commit to handling such money any differently. In an e-mail, Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said, “The governor-elect will consider executive orders at the appropriate time. The governor-elect’s policy views in many of these areas are quite clear from the policy books published during the campaign.” All the executive orders proposed in the report are constitutional and within the powers of New York’s governor, according to Reinvent Albany. “We might be coming up with new ideas, but we aren’t breaking new ground,” Mr. Horner said. Still, Mr. Cuomo might be hesitant to start putting executive orders into effect for fear of irritating state lawmakers with whom he will need to work on addressing the state’s major financial problems. But the report’s authors say the intention is to build momentum that could lead toward legislative successes. “Executive orders can’t be used to usurp legislative prerogatives,” said Lawrence Norden, a senior council at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and a contributor to the report. “So I don’t think it should serve to tick anybody off. It’s just making happen what everybody has already said they want to see happen.”

Cuomo Andrew M
New York State
Executive Orders
Reinvent Albany


Obama Joined by Jeb Bush on Miami Visit

Abstract: MIAMI — President Obama , road-testing his new message of bipartisan cooperation here on Friday, promoted his education agenda with Jeb Bush , the former Republican governor, and then used his first stump speech of the 2012 season to call on Democrats to “find common ground.” Florida will be a critical state for Mr. Obama in 2012, and Mr. Obama used his visit here to continue his effort to reposition himself toward the political center. But while he has tried to remain above the political fray in Washington, employing the classic Rose Garden strategy here in Florida seemed a bit trickier. His appearance with Mr. Bush seemed awkward at best. And his strikingly nonpartisan campaign speech, at back-to-back fund-raisers for Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, and other Democrats, left some in his party a bit puzzled. “There are times when we’re were among family, we’re among Democrats where we want to talk about being Democrats,” Mr. Obama began his speech at the first of the two fund-raisers, at the Fontainebleau hotel. “But today I want to talk to you a little about being an American, I want to talk about those things that bring us together as opposed to the things that drive us apart.” He went on to say that he had just visited a high school with Mr. Bush. The crowd booed and hissed. Mr. Obama pressed on, saying he knew that the name Bush was one that might not ordinarily be heard at a Democratic fund-raiser. “Even though Governor Bush and I disagree on a range of issues,” the president said, “we agree on the importance of education to America” The two men visited Miami Central High School; Mr. Bush had suggested the venue because the school, once failing, has made remarkable strides in test scores and graduation rates. Their joint appearance was intended to underscore what Mr. Obama hopes will be a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to reauthorize No Child Left Behind , the signature education bill signed into law by Mr. Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush. But Mr. Obama and Jeb Bush seemed to dance around each other. During a tour of a technology classroom, they did not speak, and barely made eye contact. Later, when Mr. Obama addressed an audience in the school auditorium, Mr. Bush gave a brief, careful introduction, saying, “As you have said, Mr. President, education achievement is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, it is an issue of national priority.” When Mr. Obama referred to Mr. Bush in his remarks at the school, there was one name that did not cross his lips: George. “Aside from being the former governor of the state, Jeb is best known as the brother of ... ” — and here, Mr. Obama stopped for an elongated pause, before adding, “Marvin Bush.” The president went on, “Apparently the rest of the family also did some work back in Washington — back in the day.” As Congress grapples with ways to cut the federal budget , Mr. Obama is also proposing to increase education spending by 11 percent — a proposal that is likely to run into significant opposition from Republicans who are intent on cutting the budget. Mr. Bush did not make his views on the budget known. But he sat expressionless on a stool behind Mr. Obama, his hands clasped tightly in his lap, as the president outlined his plans. “If we want more good news on the jobs front then we’ve got to make more investments in education,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “I want everybody to understand: Our job is not just to cut. Even as we find ways to cut spending what we can’t do is cut back on investments like education.” The Miami trip was the first time the president has mixed policy and politics since his party took a drubbing in the midterm elections. The two events — one at the Fontainebleau and another at the home of Michael Adler, a real estate mogul here — raised $1 million for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Mr. Nelson, according to a Democratic campaign official. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida said he also raised some money for her. At the Fontainebleau, Mr. Obama bounded onto the stage, roaring, “Fired Up!,” his old slogan from the 2008 presidential race. The crowd, still feeling bruised over the drubbing Democrats took in the midterms, seemed eager to see him, but grew more somber as the president shifted into a discussion of his day with the Republican governor, and recounted the story of Miami Central. Students, parents and teachers, business people and community leaders came together to remake the school, Mr. Obama said, noting that math scores at the school are up by more than 60 percent, and graduation rates have gone from 30 percent to 63 percent. He said he told the story as a reminder: “It’s still possible for us to tackle tough problems in a constructive way. We don’t have to be calling each other names. It doesn’t have to be an ideological battle.”

Presidential Election of 2012
Obama Barack
Bush Jeb
Florida
Education (K-12)


Doing Away With Far and Away

Abstract: I REMEMBER standing in line at the post office in Florence in 1982, waiting with my parents to get into a phone booth to call the United States. In 1990, I returned to Florence as a college junior and typed applications for journalism internships on an I.B.M. Selectric. I interviewed by phone from my dorm, bridging the 10-second delay with nervous babble. Two decades and many technological revolutions later, I took a trip for a book project through Latvia, Germany and South Africa, countries still forging identities as democracies. Technology, of course, has accelerated this development. As frequent international business travelers can attest, mobile phones have shrunk the distance between land masses, making it like prehistoric times when all the continents touched. Only, now there’s a better signal. My BlackBerry transformed the journey I took halfway around the world, making me feel completely connected. I bought it a week before, replacing a recalcitrant Treo that I cannot wait to feed to the dinosaurs. Verizon ’s local Vodafone partnership enabled me to conduct a 30-minute interview with a man from Staten Island in a busy pedestrian shopping street in Jurmala, the seaside resort outside Riga, Latvia. He sounded as if he were sitting on the bench next to me. In Tegel Airport in Berlin, I read on The Times’s Web site that my Philadelphia Phillies finally made the playoffs, and I whooped at the gate. Less than a week later in Johannesburg, I muttered a familiar hometown refrain when the Colorado Rockies swept the Phillies. For 18 days, I sent e-mail messages from trains, studied the history of my current country on street corners and used Google to find restaurants and weather forecasts in Fahrenheit. On a layover in Paris, I sent a dispatch from the famous cafe Angelina to a friend as I drank the incredibly decadent hot chocolate. I had to share, at least electronically. But joining the Republic of BlackBerry and gaining a passport to instant access had its price beyond the bill I fear. I am still receiving foreign spam. E-mail messages from N.B.A. teams I have covered sent me injury updates that seemed incongruous as I walked through the Occupation Museum in Riga that chronicled Soviet atrocities. Why did I respond to that buzz? Because it was there. Behold the addictive power of the “Crackberry.” The lure of the mobile phone is powerful in South Africa. My Soweto tour guide fielded at least four calls (while driving), three from service providers to upgrade to an Internet connection. For two days in Kruger National Park, I was blissfully able to escape service while on safari to see the “real South Africa” beyond the shopping malls of Johannesburg and even Soweto, which my guide pointed out. At my lodge, according to a guest from Dubai, one fig tree provided reception from certain providers if you stood at one spot. He claimed to have conducted an hourlong conference call under the tree. I took my Berry out of the room safe to test this and felt as if I were using a new divining rod. Here I thought water was sacred in Africa. There was plenty of water. No signal. To ease the withdrawal symptoms, the lodge supplied a computer. Which I checked twice daily. But it had dial-up — talk about primitive! As I turned on the Berry at the airstrip to return, the voice mail and e-mail messages started coming in like holiday gifts. For a moment, I put it aside and read the note from my safari ranger, who grew up in the nearby Shangan tribe herding cattle. He had given me his Hotmail address so I could keep in touch. Who needs the post office or, for that matter, a phone booth?

Wireless Communications
Electronic Mail
International Business Machines Corp
Verizon Communications
Vodafone Group Plc
Florence (Italy)


AirAsia Flight Said to Be Lost in Indonesia

Abstract: BANGKOK — Indonesian authorities were searching for an AirAsia aircraft with 155 passengers onboard Sunday after air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, the airline said. The plane, Flight QZ8501, left the Indonesian city of Surabaya and was bound for Singapore, officials said. Air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 at 7:24 a.m. Singapore time, the airline said in a statement on its Facebook page. Image An airport staff member held up a sign to direct relatives of passengers of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 at Changi Airport in Singapore on Sunday. Credit Edgar Su/Reuters “At this time, search-and-rescue operations are in progress, and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service,” the statement added. Singapore’s air force and navy were also assisting in the search, officials said. AirAsia, a budget operation, is based in Malaysia. Contact with the plane was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff, Hadi Mustofa, an Indonesian transportation ministry official, told Indonesia’s MetroTV, according to The Associated Press. The airline said the plane had requested a “deviation” from its usual flight path because of the weather. Image A flight information board showing the status of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia, at Changi Airport in Singapore on Sunday. Credit Edgar Su/Reuters In addition to the 155 passengers on the plane — including 16 children and one infant — two pilots and five cabin crew members were onboard, the airline said in the statement. Of the people on the plane, there were more than 150 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian and one French citizen, AirAsia said. Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said that President Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, had been briefed on the search for the plane, and that “White House officials will continue to monitor the situation.” Image AirAsia aircraft parked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. A plane similar to these is missing. Credit Ahmad Yusni/European Pressphoto Agency Flightradar24, a website that uses a global system of beacons to monitor air traffic, said the aircraft was flying at 32,000 feet over the Java Sea when the aircraft’s signal was lost. The Java Sea separates the islands of Borneo and Java. AirAsia , one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, competes with Malaysia Airlines, which lost contact with MH370 in March. That flight remains missing. On Sunday, Malaysia Airline posted a message on its Twitter account: “#staystrong @AirAsia — Our thoughts and prayers are with all family and friends of those onboard QZ8501.” The airline said in the statement that i

AirAsia
AirAsia Flight 8501
Plane Crash
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore


Brooklyn: Man Sentenced for Killings and Assault

Abstract: A man was sentenced yesterday to 25 years to life in prison for stabbing a woman to death, 2 more years for killing her dog and an additional year for slashing her niece in the face. The man, Pierre Carrenard, 36, was convicted of second-degree murder on Aug. 2 in State Supreme Court for killing Esperance Labidou, 53, the mother of his former companion, Macdaly François. Mr. Carrenard had stalked and threatened Ms. François, prosecutors said. On Aug. 9, 2005, he broke into Ms. Labidou’s apartment; stabbed her two dozen times; killed the family dog, Fou Fou; and slashed Ms. Labidou’s niece, Patricia Gaspard, 16, prosecutors said. Mr. Carrenard fled the city and was extradited from Florida. Mr. Carrenard was also convicted of animal cruelty and assault, and Justice Robert J. Collini ordered him to serve consecutive sentences for those crimes.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Brooklyn (NYC)
Sentences (Criminal)


Israeli Defense Minister to Stay in Olmert Coalition

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Ehud Barak , Israel ’s defense minister and the leader of the Labor Party, announced Sunday that he would remain in the government, stabilizing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ’s coalition despite last week’s harsh report on the political and military leaders’ handling of the Lebanon war in 2006. Also Sunday, Egyptian troops closed the border with the Gaza Strip, ending 11 days of free movement and frenzied buying by Palestinian residents of the blockaded territory — at least for the time being. Egyptian forces were allowing Gazans and Egyptians to cross the border to return home, but prevented any new cross-border movement. Egypt had made earlier unsuccessful attempts to close the border, but was thwarted by gunmen affiliated with Hamas, the militant Islamic group that took control of Gaza last summer. But after a visit to Cairo by senior Hamas officials, the Hamas gunmen apparently were cooperating with the Egyptians on Sunday. With regard to Mr. Olmert, Mr. Barak said during party primaries last May that he would seek to form a new government or to set a date for early elections if the prime minister did not resign by the time the government-appointed commission, looking into the conduct of the war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, issued its final report. A scathing preliminary report on April 30 assigned personal responsibility to the prime minister, the former defense minister and the former army chief of staff for flawed conduct during the war. Of the three, only Mr. Olmert did not resign. Mr. Barak replaced the wartime defense minister, Amir Peretz, in June. Explaining his decision to stay on, Mr. Barak cited the challenges facing Israel, among them the continued threat from Hezbollah, which, Israeli officials contend, has fully re-armed since the war. Mr. Barak also mentioned threats from the Gaza Strip, Syria and Iran, as well as the need to improve operations of the army and the negotiations, which the center-left Labor Party supports, with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas. “I promised I would do what I think is good and right for the country,” Mr. Barak told reporters before the weekly cabinet meeting, “And I think at this moment this it what is good for the country.” Analysts here had assumed that Mr. Barak, a former prime minister who is likely to run for the post again, would not want to leave government for the political wilderness right now. Polls over the weekend also suggested that a majority of Labor supporters did not want Mr. Barak to quit. Mr. Olmert’s term is supposed to end in November 2010, though few expect it to last that long. There are differences within the government over the peace talks with the Palestinians, and the prime minister — under criminal investigation for various possible violations — is generally unpopular. Mr. Barak said Sunday that he would deal with the harsh conclusions of the war report, named for the retired Judge Eliyahu Winograd, who headed the commission, “at the proper time and set a time for elections.” But he did not suggest a date. Members of the opposition excoriated Mr. Barak for propping up Mr. Olmert, who leads the centrist Kadima Party. There were some critics in Labor, too. “This was an opportunity for the Labor Party and its leader to rectify the situation in the eyes of the public, which expects leadership, morality and ethics,” Eitan Cabel, a member of Parliament and the party secretary, told Army Radio. Still, as a former army chief of staff and Israel’s most decorated soldier, Mr. Barak is considered by many here to be well equipped to fix problems in the country’s military. Though famed for past victories, the army was castigated by the Winograd Commission for its poor performance in the 2006 conflict. Yet Mr. Peretz, the former defense minister and trade union leader, said Thursday that figures who had served in major posts in the past, like Mr. Barak, were largely to blame “for policies and failures that had built up over years.” The political echelon also came in for criticism in the final Winograd report, though the most hotly debated wartime decision, regarding the start of a ground campaign in the last days of the war, was deemed “reasonable” by the commission, taking some of the heat off Mr. Olmert. Mr. Olmert said Sunday that the report was “not a source of joy; there was none anywhere, certainly not with me.” But there were “achievements alongside the failures,” he said, adding: “We must neither exaggerate the achievements nor understate the failures. Rather, we must treat them with all due seriousness and gravity.” Israel’s border with Lebanon has been mostly quiet since the monthlong war, but on Sunday evening Israeli soldiers exchanged fire with a number of people near the border who turned out to be Lebanese drug smugglers, an army spokesman said. Reports from Beirut said that one Lebanese man had been killed and another seriously wounded. In Gaza, Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to the Hamas administration, said that the breach of the border with Egypt on Jan. 23 was “a wake-up call to those avoiding listening to the people’s cry.” Hamas militants blew up sections of a wall along the Egyptian border days after Israel sealed its own border crossings with Gaza in response to intensified rocket fire from the strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are thought to have crossed into Egypt to stock up on supplies. In a veiled threat directed at Israel, Mr. Youssef said: “This time we moved toward Egypt. Next time we don’t know where to — maybe Erez, maybe Karni,” naming two of the closed crossings between Gaza and Israel.

Politics and Government
Israel
Barak Ehud
Olmert Ehud


Joint Chiefs Chairman Urges 21-Day Quarantine for Troops Working in Ebola Zone

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday that all members of the armed services working in Ebola-stricken West African countries undergo mandatory 21-day quarantines upon their return to the United States. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said that Mr. Hagel was expected to announce shortly that he would follow the recommendation. The recommendation follows a directive from Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, who has ordered a 21-day “controlled monitoring” period for Army personnel returning from the Ebola zone in West Africa. Army officials are not using the word “quarantine,” but they said that returning soldiers would be isolated in separate buildings on American bases and would not be allowed to see their families for 21 days. General Dempsey’s recommendation came a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance to states on how to treat civilian health workers when they return to the United States from West Africa. Officials recommended against automatic quarantines but said that health workers should be actively monitored for symptoms of Ebola. President Obama on Tuesday called the new guidelines “sensible, based in science” and said they would help keep Americans safe while not discouraging volunteers from traveling to West Africa to battle the disease at its source. “This disease can be contained,” Mr. Obama said in a brief statement at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in Milwaukee for Mary Burke, a candidate for governor in Wisconsin. “It will be defeated. Progress is possible, but we are going to have to stay vigilant.” Of the aid workers who are in Africa, Mr. Obama said: “They are doing God’s work.” Also on Tuesday, a Dallas nurse whose Ebola diagnosis and airline trips elevated public concerns that the virus could spread in the United States was discharged from a hospital in Atlanta. The nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, spent less than two weeks in a specialized ward at Emory University Hospital before doctors said she was free of the virus, which has infected more than 10,000 people, mostly in West Africa, in an outbreak this year. Ms. Vinson is one of four people to test positive for Ebola in the United States, although hospitals have treated others who got the virus while abroad. “I am so grateful to be well, and first and foremost, I want to thank God,” Ms. Vinson said at a news conference on Tuesday at Emory, which since August has successfully treated three other patients with Ebola. In recent weeks the Obama administration has struggled to present a unified approach to dealing with those who return to the United States from the Ebola hot spots. That issue was complicated over the weekend when the governors of New York and New Jersey called for quarantines that federal officials say are not medically necessary. On Tuesday, White House officials tried to explain why the military guidelines outlined by General Odierno are different from those for civilian health workers. Soldiers in West Africa, who are not directly providing health care to patients in those countries, have far less contact with Ebola patients than do civilian nurses and doctors in those countries who will not face quarantines under the C.D.C. guidelines. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said it would be more efficient for the Army to simply isolate all of its returning soldiers rather than trying to assess which ones present greater risks for contracting Ebola. “The men and women who are being deployed to West Africa are coming from military installations around the world,” Mr. Earnest said. “And so for the sake of efficiency, there’s an obvious benefit to restricting the movements of these individuals so that their health can be monitored consistent with scientific guidelines.” Defense officials said the large number of American military personnel deploying to West Africa, which could eventually reach 3,900 troops; anxiety among family members; and the relative ease of isolating returning service members on bases were all factors that had led to the decision to go further than the White House and the C.D.C. had recommended. In his remarks, Mr. Obama defended the C.D.C. guidelines for civilians, saying they protect Americans at home while not unduly burdening health workers in Africa. He called the situation with members of the military different, in part because they are not going to Africa voluntarily. “We don’t expect them to have similar rules, and by definition, they’re working under more circumscribed circumstances,” Mr. Obama said.

Ebola
US Military
Martin E Dempsey
Barack Obama
CDC


Jeb Bush’s New Show of Confidence Is Failing to Connect With Republicans

Abstract: WATERLOO, Iowa — This ought to be Jeb Bush ’s time. He laid out a detailed plan to crush the Islamic State three months before the Paris terrorist attacks. He gave a well-received speech on rebuilding America’s military at the Citadel two weeks ago. He has shown new confidence discussing terrorism, the Syrian refugee crisis and American values, and how they intertwine. But instead of winning a second look from voters, Mr. Bush continues to be ignored, and to languish in the polls, even as the nation contends with what he calls “serious times that require serious leadership.” In an appearance at an Iowa military museum here on Tuesday, where a World War II-era P-51 Mustang was suspended overhead, the stage was set for Mr. Bush, the former Florida governor, to highlight his credentials to be commander in chief. He detailed his positions on defeating the Islamic State , and invoked his father’s waging of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Yet the crowd of 150 mostly older voters was scarcely stirred to applaud. That has been typical of Mr. Bush’s rallies this year: His sober competence seems no match for the wild rhetorical excesses of Donald J. Trump , or for the base-stirring fervor of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, whose Iowa rallies this week drew larger, more enthusiastic crowds than Mr. Bush attracted. “He gets criticized for being low-key, but as a farmer I try to stay low-key and not get easily wound up,” said Gary Schroeder, who heard Mr. Bush speak on Monday night in Goose Lake, Iowa. “After 40 years of farming, I like that.” Mr. Schroeder shook his head at Mr. Bush’s predicament, saying: “You wouldn’t think with all the money, he’d be sitting at 4 percent.” Who’s Winning the Presidential Campaign? History suggests that each party’s eventual nominee will emerge from 2015 in one of the top two or three positions, as measured by endorsements, fund-raising and polling. Mr. Bush has been the beneficiary of $30 million in television ads in the early voting states, more than any other candidate. One commercial, “Leader,” featured footage from his speech at the Citadel military college in South Carolina calling for a United States-led coalition to destroy the Islamic State “with overwhelming force.” But the ads have not budged Mr. Bush’s low standing in polls. Of Republicans who named terrorism and foreign policy as their top concerns in a Quinnipiac University survey of Iowa last week, only 4 percent picked Mr. Bush as their top candidate. A national survey by the same pollster on Wednesday gave Mr. Bush 5 percent over all. Mr. Bush has tried to improve his performance: He recently hired a speech coach, and has seized on last month’s Paris attacks to portray himself as the best prepared to be commander in chief. “Who has the leadership skills, who has the proven record to be able to fix a few big, complex things?” he said during a recent South Carolina swing. “Who understands the importance of America’s leadership in the world? Who can win?” But his expressions of confidence can sound as though Mr. Bush is reassuring himself. “As people get closer, they’re going to want to know who has the leadership skills to actually be president, not to feed on people’s fears, not to turn a phrase in a way that gets people all riled up,” he said in Iowa, where the first votes in the nominating race will be cast in less than eight weeks. “We’re electing a president. And it’s a pretty serious job, and it requires serious leadership skills.” One reason for Mr. Bush’s lack of traction, polling suggests, is that immigration continues to be a deal-breaker with the Republican base. Large majorities in both Iowa and New Hampshire say they will only choose a candidate who agrees with them on the issue — and those majorities do not share Mr. Bush’s support for a path to legal status for people in the United States illegally. In contrast, Mr. Trump has broadened his anti-immigration hard line to assert, without evidence, that President Obama wants to admit 250,000 Syrian refugees — a “Trojan horse,” in his words — and with unfounded claims of seeing Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. Mr. Trump’s lead in the polls, which was softening, has solidified again. The publisher of New Hampshire’s most influential newspaper, The Union Leader, which endorsed the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, last week, praised Mr. Christie’s credentials to keep the nation safe, and, contrasting him with Mr. Bush, said he “speaks with the bark off, as we say in New Hampshire.” Mr. Bush’s team acknowledges that he has had a rough patch, but expects improvement. “Everybody will have their ups and downs,” said Al Cardenas, an adviser and friend of Mr. Bush’s. “Our hope is the governor has gotten pounded as hard as anybody has possibly gotten pounded.” Hopefully Mr. Bush’s narrative will improve, Mr. Cardenas added, and “a comeback story is pretty good.” “It worked for McCain in 2008, and I think the governor has the resources and talent to make it work for him,” he said. Mr. Bush’s sustained rough patch comes as his donors are set to gather in Miami this weekend for a quarterly retreat. Privately, donors and Bush supporters concede they are worried about Mr. Bush’s downward trajectory and had expected his numbers to start ticking up by now. But their public posture remains cautiously optimistic. Voters, especially those in Iowa and New Hampshire, decide late, they say, and Mr. Bush will get another chance to win them over early next year. David Oman, a senior Bush adviser in Iowa, said Republicans needed to come to grips with what it would mean for Mr. Trump to win the nomination, let alone a general election. “I hope during the holidays people will sit down and take a hard look at who is best able to win the election and able to govern,” Mr. Oman said, “and less about who can shout the loudest and throw rocks.”

2016 Presidential Election
Polls
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Jeb Bush
Terrorism
Republicans
Iowa
Ted Cruz
Donald Trump


In 3-Hour Show on Palmer, Golf Channel Joins His Army

Abstract: The opening words of “Arnie,” a three-part testimonial to Arnold Palmer on Golf Channel, set the direction of this extravaganza. “How do you tell the story of a life — that’s larger than life?” says Tom Selleck, the narrator, who adds: “Someday, years, even decades” — or centuries from now — “they’ll hear the name Arnold Palmer, and they’ll want to know everything. Where he came from. What he aspired to. How he built a legacy truly unlike any other.” “Arnie” is Golf Channel’s attempt at delivering everything, and it arrives with the archival film, video, photographs, letters and talking heads that are the trappings of documentaries. But this a tribute, not a documentary, if you think of documentaries as works that reveal, surprise or investigate. This is a television event, as Golf Channel describes it, one in which more than 100 admirers talk about the King. “Arnie” describes no conflicts or personal maelstroms. It is an upbeat yarn and leaves us with an ode that would fit nicely on Palmer’s website. Golf Channel is the natural and the wrong place to televise “Arnie.” Golf Channel seems an appropriate home for the story of Palmer, whose wealth, renown and image sprang from golf. No golfer has ever been more important even if he is, objectively, not the greatest one. When television sports was coming of age, he parlayed his emotional, colorful, blue-collar golfing style into a global image of manliness, neighbor-next-door amiability and sustained success. You sense that his appeal, now that he is 84, is undiminished. But Palmer is also a co-founder and original investor in Golf Channel. He has been enriched by it. And he is an adviser to the network. He delivers an annual state of the game message on golfchannel.com. A more nuanced, possibly more balanced documentary than the mega-“Arnie” would probably not be shown on Golf Channel. As the natural and wrong place for “Arnie,” the best way to watch it (on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern) is to recognize how subjective it is. You’ll probably enjoy it. The three-hour length makes “Arnie” an engaging, nostalgic load, mostly because of old Palmer family film, television footage and his commercials. As “Arnie” tracks the myriad parts of Palmer’s life and career — his roots in Latrobe, Pa.; his college years and early playing career; his marriage to Winnie Walzer; his relationship with his fans; his record in the majors; his failures; and his legacy as a sports marketer — one senses the magnificent scope of his story and the difficulty faced in taming “Arnie.” He seems to have lived several lifetimes; he maintains a shed in Latrobe, where he keeps old shoes, clubs, scorecards and every fan letter he has ever received. He is his own propman. How do you handle the fullness of Palmer? The producer, Israel DeHerrera, embraced it all, choosing to paint Palmer as broadly as possible, packing the series so full that it bursts with too many story lines: the golfer, the pilot, the humanitarian, the fan favorite, the pal, the course architect, the husband, the father, the commercial star, the corporate magnate and the overall wonderful guy. “Arnie” wants it all. And by trying to be definitive, “Arnie” uses too many voices. Among them are 33 current and former golfers, 14 working journalists, six biographers and seven relatives. The three-hour mandate seems to have prompted a casting call that could produce every living person who wanted to talk about Palmer, even if some, like Kurt Russell, Donald Trump and Joe Torre, need not have been invited. Had Golf Channel limited its ambitions to a standard 60- or 90-minute documentary length, “Arnie” might have been a more focused work that wasn’t so overtly hagiographic. ESPN took an efficient approach in its “30 for 30” short in 2012 about the creation and success of the Arnold Palmer iced-tea-and-lemonade drink. In about nine minutes, it told the story briskly and irreverently (and better than “Arnie” does). “Arnie” could have used less reverence and even more of Palmer himself; he is still a fine storyteller. I would have liked to have heard about the way he became such an aggressive golfer — we know from “Arnie” that he listened to what his father, Deacon, told him, and there is a clip of the elder Palmer instructing his son about his grip — as well as more insight into what how it felt to upend the golf world, and if he struggled emotionally when Nicklaus usurped his position. Yet Arnie’s Army will probably inhale every minute as if it were sanctified air from Bay Hill. Here he wins the 1960 United States Open; there he is flying his jet. He battles Nicklaus on the course, but Jack chokes up at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for Arnie. Palmer meets the Hollywood swimming beauty Esther Williams in the 1940s and the swimsuit model Kate Upton in the 21st century. Palmer tells fellow golfers to sign their autographs legibly and pays the postage for fans who send autograph requests but forget to add a stamp to their return envelopes. Palmer’s story is a memorable one, but “Arnie” tries too hard to tell it.


Buckeyes’ First Title

Abstract: Ohio State has won the N.C.A.A. men’s volleyball title for the first time. Shawn Sangrey had a game-high 30 kills to send the Buckeyes to a 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9 win over U.C. Santa Barbara in State College, Pa.

Volleyball
College Athletics
Ohio State University
Colleges and Universities
NCAA Volleyball Championships
University of California Santa Barbara


North Dakota: Judge Blocks Obama Rule on Waterways

Abstract: A federal judge on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some smaller waterways. The judge, Ralph R. Erickson, issued a temporary injunction one day before the rule was to take effect. “The risk of irreparable harm to the states is both imminent and likely,” Judge Erickson said in granting the request of 13 states to temporarily block the rule. The states asked the judge to suspend guidelines that they said were unnecessary and infringed on state sovereignty. The federal government says the rule clarifies ambiguity in the law and makes it easier for states to manage some waterways. “This is a victory in the first skirmish, but it is only the first,” state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem of North Dakota said in a statement.

Federalism
US states
River
North Dakota
Ralph R. Erickson
US Politics
Barack Obama
Decisions and Verdicts


Iran’s President Flouts News Media Blackout Against a Predecessor

Abstract: TEHRAN — Just a week after his forces made significant gains in national elections, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has started a campaign to rescind a news media blackout against a former president, Mohammad Khatami. Mr. Rouhani’s calculated remarks broke a longstanding taboo and set the stage for a showdown between the president and the country’s hard-line dominated judiciary. The blackout had been in effect for some time before it was publicly acknowledged in February 2015. Since then, press officers for the judiciary have said that other institutions had ordered it, but it is the judiciary that has punished newspapers and websites that defied the ban. Mr. Rouhani’s comments on Mr. Khatami were for the most part ignored by the Iranian news media. The lone exception was the IRNA, a state-run news agency voicing the opinions of the Iranian government, which highlighted Mr. Rouhani’s remarks on its web page. Mr. Khatami, a reformist, led the country from 1997 to 2005, winning office twice by overwhelming margins. Under the ban issued by judiciary officials, no Iranian news outlet of any sort is permitted to mention his name or show his photograph. Mr. Rouhani, speaking during a live broadcast on Monday from the city of Yazd, made a point of explicitly mentioning Mr. Khatami’s name. Mr. Rouhani recalled how he had entered Parliament at the same time “as my dear brother Seyyed Mohammad Khatami,” who comes from the region of Yazd. As the audience cheered, state television quickly muted the sound. Mr. Rouhani continued defending Mr. Khatami, saying that “heroic Iran will never forget its servants; those who have made efforts for the greatness of Iran, no one can downgrade their names and greatness, those who today are the honors of the land of Iran.” During a news conference on Sunday, Mr. Rouhani also spoke out against the news media ban of Mr. Khatami, calling it “illegal” and a “jest.” The blackout is part of an effort by hard-liners to limit the influence of Mr. Khatami, who continues to be one of the most popular political figures in Iran. While he failed to put in place much of his reformist agenda, he continues to be viewed by many as a symbol of better times. Image Mohammad Khatami, above, was president from 1997 to 2005 and remains influential. No Iranian news outlet is permitted to mention Mr. Khatami’s name or show his photograph. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In last week’s elections , Mr. Khatami, in a video message widely shared on social media, called upon his followers to vote for the supporters of Mr. Rouhani’s government. During the campaign, his supporters taunted the judiciary by using pictures of Mr. Khatami’s hands on election posters. The coalition between reformists and moderates supportive of the government won all 30 seats in Tehran. While the results for the rest of the country are unclear , dozens of individual candidates supportive of the government seem to have gained a strong minority in Parliament, despite the disqualification of thousands of reform-minded candidates by a vetting council. Hard-liners lost some influence, but they continue to have a strong minority. Having succeeded despite the disqualifications, Mr. Rouhani seems determined to test his new political standing, as well as to pay a political debt. “The president knows that his victories are due to the support of Mr. Khatami, he is now acknowledging that,” said Mojgan Faraji, a reformist journalist and analyst. “I don’t believe the ban will be lifted, but we will increasingly hear Mr. Khatami’s name mentioned.” The restrictions on Mr. Khatami are the closest thing to house arrest in Iran. Two other reformist leaders and former presidential challengers, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hussein Moussavi, have been under house arrest since the disputed 2009 election, when they joined the opposition . Their release is also a central demand by the country’s reformists, but Mr. Rouhani has not commented on them. On Friday, Mr. Khatami had been planning to participate in the wedding ceremony for one of Mr. Moussavi’s daughters, but he was prevented by security agents from leaving his house. On Saturday, the spokesman of the judiciary, Gholamreza Mohseni-Ejei, confirmed that Mr. Khatami had been told to stay indoors on their orders, the semiofficial ILNA agency quoted him as saying. Mr. Mohseni-Ejei also confirmed that the news media ban on Mr. Khatami was still in place. In a letter published by the opposition and on social media after the elections, Mr. Khatami congratulated the supporters of Mr. Rouhani’s government. “Now, it is the turn for the government and other parts of the system to provide for the people’s requests,” Mr. Khatami wrote, “especially in creating an economic boom, opening the people’s livelihood and creating an open and healthy political environment.” A hard-line representative said he was not impressed with Mr. Rouhani’s defense of the former reformist president. “This is merely paying lip service because of Mr. Khatami’s electoral support,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a political analyst close to Iran’s leaders. “This will not lead to an end of the ban.”

Hassan Rouhani
Mohammad Khatami
Iran
News media,journalism
Censorship


California: Hospital Says ‘Superbug’ Infected 7

Abstract: A potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant “superbug” infected seven patients, including two who died, and more than 100 others were exposed at a hospital through contaminated medical instruments, the University of California, Los Angeles, reported on Wednesday. Patients at Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center were exposed to the bacteria during endoscopic procedures between October and January, the university said. It may have been a “contributing factor” in the deaths of two patients, the university said. Similar outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have been reported around the nation. They are difficult to treat because some varieties are resistant to most known antibiotics. The bacteria can cause infections of the bladder or lungs, leading to coughing, fever or chills. CRE infections have been reported in every state except Idaho, Alaska and Maine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.C.L.A. said infections may have been transmitted through endoscopes used during the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic and bile-duct problems.

Infection
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Hospital
Antibacterial
Bacteria
Fatalities,casualties
Medical device
University of California
Los Angeles


After Stunning Canada, U.S. Hockey Team Starts to Believe Again

Abstract: VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Americans skated onto the Canada Hockey Place ice on Sunday with a sense of purpose. They wore 1960 replica sweaters, commemorating the United States’ first gold medal in Olympic hockey, 50 years ago at Squaw Valley. They knew where they stood and what might come to be. When the Americans skated off the ice after an improbable 5-3 victory over Team Canada, they had claimed a spot in hockey lore. The last time the United States beat Canada in Olympic competition was in 1960. And Monday was the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. Good karma? For the United States, perhaps. For the Canadians, crises abound. On Monday, Canada Coach Mike Babcock announced that Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks would replace Martin Brodeur, who allowed four American goals on 22 shots, for the remainder of the tournament. It was the first time Brodeur had been demoted since he became a regular with the Devils 16 seasons ago. Babcock said there was poor coordination between Brodeur and his defensemen that led to turnovers — particularly in the first period — and a lack of big stops that prompted his decision. “We’re in the winning business,” Babcock said. “And to win at any level you need momentum-changing saves.” He said Luongo, unlike Brodeur, was a “great, big butterfly goalie,” who could provide important saves on screened shots. As Babcock shook up his team, the United States General Manager, Brian Burke, was in no mood for basking in the buzz that had roared across the United States. “I’m not happy with the way we’ve played to this point,” Burke said. “We have to play significantly better. We’re playing with about 10 guys carrying us. They don’t hand out any medals for finishing first in the preliminary round. Our center-ice play, we’ve made some glaring turnovers that have resulted in scoring chances. And our overall intensity for 60 minutes — for the first 10 minutes in the second period, I thought we were nonexistent.” By finishing No. 1 in the 12-team field, the Americans helped themselves immensely. Their next opponent, on Wednesday, will be the winner of the Switzerland-Belarus qualifying match on Tuesday. The Canadians are forced to play a qualifying game on Tuesday against Germany. Should they win, they will face a daunting task against Russia, a game many believed would be the gold medal final. “I’d still say we would be the underdogs on our lack of experience, certainly now that the tournament takes on a whole new meaning with single elimination,” Chris Drury said Monday. Drury scored his second goal of the Olympics against Canada and seems happier playing on this squad than with the Rangers. But, he conceded, “We do need to get a lot better.” One of the Canadians’ problems is the age-old North American philosophy that you need to hit an opponent, anytime, anywhere — despite statistical evidence that shows teams that hit a lot lose as often as they win. The edict of ”finishing your check” is what fueled Ryan Getzlaf, Rick Nash and several other Canadians to run at Americans after those players had passed the puck. They certainly hit the Americans hard, but by finishing their checks, they put themselves out of the play. That physicality, so full of sound and fury, signified nothing. The Russians do not engage in that kind of random pummeling. Their body checks are thrown with purpose: to dislodge the puck as Alex Ovechkin did when he flattened Jaromir Jagr on Sunday in what will go down as one of the most effective hits in Olympic play. It led to the third Russian goal in a 4-2 victory. Babcock will also have to do something about Sidney Crosby’s line. Crosby was dynamic, scoring once, but he was also minus 3. His linemate Nash spent a lot of time running down irrelevant Americans behind the play. The experiment of using Mike Richards on left wing did not yield results, and once again Babcock is casting about for a wing. One cannot help noticing that Crosby looks diminished. He does not have his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin with him, on the same line or waiting on the bench to provide the second half of that club’s one-two punch. Malkin looks powerful and dangerous for Russia, where he is paired with Ovechkin. But Crosby seems to be alone, and manageable. But perhaps the perfect distillation of the Americans’ success so far is the image of goaltender Ryan Miller repeatedly thwarting Canadian shooters — especially his lunging glove save that robbed Jarome Iginla of what would have been the tying goal in the third period. “That’s why we brought him,” Burke said. “We got outchanced, 2-1, last night. Our goaltender stole us a game. People can say that Canada didn’t play well. I don’t agree with that. They outchanced us. Except for the goaltending position, we didn’t deserve to win that game last night.”

Olympic Games (2010)
Hockey Ice
Miller Ryan


New York State Schools May Lose Aid Over Teacher Evaluations

Abstract: New York State’s education commissioner threatened on Tuesday to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to struggling schools in New York City and nine other districts statewide if they do not prove by Saturday that they will carry out new evaluation systems for teachers and principals. Officials and union leaders in each district must first agree on the details of the evaluation systems, like how much weight students’ standardized test scores will have on the annual ratings that teachers and principals receive. Compromise has thus far proved elusive. Of the 10 districts, which are the only recipients of the federal grants in New York, only Rochester and Syracuse as of Tuesday had submitted proposals for the state’s review, the commissioner, John B. King Jr., said in a statement. “When the ball drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve,” he said, “the money drops off the table, and it will be difficult to get it back.” For New York City, it would mean losing roughly $60 million for 33 schools whose graduation rates and test scores put them among the state’s worst. The money, known as school improvement grants, is supposed to help the schools lift their results through a series of changes, like replacing principals and at least half the staff members; giving teachers extra time for training and preparation; and extending the school day. In New York City, it offers, in essence, an alternative to the most common approach to dealing with failing schools, which has been to close them. And there might be more at stake. Dr. King said Tuesday that the 10 districts could also lose their shares of the $700 million in federal financing that New York State won through the Race to the Top competition, because carrying out an evaluation system in struggling schools is among its requirements. The Race to the Top program requires a new statewide teacher-evaluation system, and the methods used in the struggling schools could shape it, because districts are unlikely to want competing processes. The State Legislature passed a bill last year calling for new evaluation systems, but the unions and the Board of Regents have been battling in court over the role of standardized test scores. In response to Dr. King’s threat on Tuesday, New York City’s schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, released a statement saying that city and teachers’ union officials had been in discussions for months and were all “cognizant of the deadline.” The two sides are scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the evaluation system, and the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew, said Tuesday that there was still hope for a deal. The school improvement grants have been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent weeks, after Dr. King and the chancellor of the Board of Regents, Merryl H. Tisch, visited several of the beneficiary schools and then expressed their frustrations over the way the money was being used. In biting remarks, Dr. Tisch called the schools “warehouses” for struggling students, who were pushed there after the city shut the schools they used to attend.

Education Department (NYC)
New York State
Teachers and School Employees
Federal Aid (US)
King John B Jr
Performance Evaluations (Labor)
Education (K-12)
New York City


Ireland: Record Drop in Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Is Reported

Abstract: Emission of greenhouse gases in Ireland fell 8 percent last year, the greatest plunge in recorded history, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency said in a report Friday. The decrease, to 62.3 million tons, was the first decline since 1989, and researchers said it reflected the country’s economic slowdown. Irish businesses consumed less fossil fuel in 2009 and reduced emissions 20 percent. The cement industry, a reflection of Ireland’s boom-to-bust property market, experienced a 38 percent emissions drop. The environmental agency said Ireland would not have to buy carbon credits until 2013 to meet targets under the Kyoto global-warming pact.

Ireland
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Environment
Global Warming


French Soldiers Guarding Jewish Site Are Attacked

Abstract: PARIS — The French police on Tuesday arrested a man believed to have attacked and wounded three soldiers who were guarding a Jewish community center in the southern city of Nice, prosecutors said, heightening anxieties just weeks after terrorist attacks in Paris shook the country. The soldiers were patrolling in the city center, near a Jewish community center housing a Jewish radio station, when a knife-wielding attacker “rushed at the throat of one of the soldiers,” Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, said in a telephone interview. The soldier escaped with minor injuries to his face, he said. The same attacker, Mr. Estrosi added, cut the arm of another soldier. News reports said the attacker was arrested after trying to flee on foot. The attack coincided with the emergence of a video by the Islamic State militant group inciting French jihadists to carry out further terrorist acts. The video, which showed masked militants in a desert landscape, also urged sympathizers in France who cannot leave the country to take whatever action they can. “Explode France,” a masked man said in the footage. “Explode the head of these guilty people.” President François Hollande issued a statement condemning the Nice attack “with the greatest firmness.” Mr. Hollande said officials would “shed light on the motivations and circumstances of this criminal act.” The attacker, who was identified as Moussa Coulibaly, was known to the French police and “had been convicted for minor offenses,” said Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, the spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor. The suspect had the same surname as Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, but the authorities said it was unclear whether the two were related or whether they had known each other. On Tuesday, the newspaper Le Monde said Moussa Coulibaly had aroused the attention of the police after he flew to Turkey on Jan. 28. Turkey has been used as a gateway for people seeking to enter Syria. But the Turkish authorities sent him back to France at the request of French intelligence officials. In the aftermath of the attacks last month, the French government has increased security across the country, deploying thousands of soldiers and police officers to guard sites considered vulnerable, including Jewish schools, in what the Defense Ministry has called “the first mobilization on this scale on our territory.” The display of resolve by the government, still grappling with why it was unable to thwart January’s attacks, has been accompanied by tough measures against hate speech and an intensifying crackdown on the recruitment of French citizens, more than 1,000 of whom left or planned to leave last year to fight in Iraq or Syria. The new Islamic State video, which was verified by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist activity on the Internet, began with a sleekly produced series of television clips showing various attacks within France, including three that occurred late last year when men claiming to be militants drove cars into crowds. That effort to root out jihadist recruitment networks continued Tuesday when French counterterrorism officers arrested eight people in the northern suburbs of Paris and in the area of the city of Lyon. They were suspected of being part of a network recruiting people to fight in Syria, the Interior Ministry said. The arrests followed those of five people last week in the southern town of Lunel, where counterterrorism forces have been seeking to dismantle a network that has sent young people to Syria and Iraq. Over the past year, more than 10 young people have left Lunel for Syria to join the Islamic State, and several have died in Syria or Iraq, according to the Interior Ministry.

France
Terrorism
Charlie Hebdo
Paris France
Moussa Coulibaly


Dreary Tie Fails to Soothe Chelsea Fans

Abstract: The only winner after Chelsea and Manchester City slugged out a grim and scoreless game Sunday evening was the leading team in the English title race, Manchester United. Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in London was a desolate place. The home fans booed their new coach, Rafael Benítez, in the pouring rain. They sang for Roberto Di Matteo, the man fired to make way for Benítez. The paymaster up in the stands, the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, sat wearing that familiar remote half-smile that nobody can quite interpret. Two heavyweight sides, each costing a billion dollars to assemble, appeared from first to last to hold on to what they had at the start — a single point rather than a thirst for victory. In many respects, this is no longer English soccer. Chelsea is wholly owned by Abramovich, a Russian. He does what he wants with his money. City is bankrolled from Abu Dhabi, and the sheik who pays the bills is rarely seen in Britain. The players, too, are almost exclusively foreign. Chelsea lined up with seven nationalities in its blue jerseys — only one of them, Ashley Cole, a Briton. City took to London a team of eight nationalities, with three Englishmen on the field. In many ways, this is positive. The Premier League is now a world league. It sells to television broadcasters around the globe. The skill factor is immeasurably better than it was a decade ago. The inescapable fact is that England does not develop skills on a par with the Spaniards, the South Americans, even these days the Belgians, who migrate to City, Chelsea, United because they pay the best and because they might, as Chelsea did in May, win the Champions League. There lies the cause of the dismay around Stamford Bridge. Six months ago in Munich, Abramovich gave Di Matteo a bear hug and a big grin after Di Matteo oversaw Chelsea’s Champions League triumph. Di Matteo, a well-liked former Chelsea player, had rescued the season after players lost their unity over the team’s previous coach, Abramovich’s eighth in a decade, André Villas-Boas. Abramovich wanted, and still wants, another coach, Pep Guardiola, whose game was fostered in Barcelona, and whose style is so coveted. But Guardiola is in New York, determined to take time out with his family at least through Christmas. Chelsea and others who are courting him must wait. Chelsea won the Champions trophy with obduracy and never-say-die defense. Abramovich is right to want more, to hanker for entertainment. We assume, but no one knows because Abramovich is as silent as the sphinx, that he did not trust Di Matteo to carry through the transition he seeks. We assume that he believes the former Liverpool coach Benítez will make a better fist of driving the players to success. The immediate test is for Benítez to get out of Fernando Torres the goals that he seemed to score every other week at Liverpool. Torres scored 56 goals in 79 Premier League matches for Liverpool. At Chelsea, he has scored 19 goals in 88 appearances, and just one in his last nine. Torres appears to be trying. But he is isolated in this Chelsea team. He has visibly lost his greatest asset, the searing pace that would take him beyond the best of defenders, after knee surgery in 2010. If that isn’t coming back, then who at Chelsea other than its owner is responsible for spending millions of pounds on a busted flush? The turnover of coaches is such that it cannot be the fault of any of the last three fired men: Carlo Ancelotti, Villas-Boas and now Di Matteo. But the dismay around the Bridge runs deeper. Some lifelong Chelsea fans are embarrassed by the way their club made baseless claims against a referee last month, accusing him of making a racist insult to one of the players, John Obi Mikel. Chelsea has made no apology even though the police and the soccer authorities have dropped their investigations. So a club on the brink of losing its Champions League trophy, but still with a chance of the English title, is now at odds with some of its own supporters. Sunday was a stalemate because both sides chose to strangle the creative life out of the other. The Man City captain, the Belgian Vincent Kompany, won his personal dual with Torres, and afterward Kompany acknowledged, “I suppose, as a defender, I take out of this game that we got a clean sheet, we did not let Chelsea score on its own pitch.” Kompany, in fact, should perhaps have not even been in that defense. “I was on crutches 48 hours ago,” he said, referring to the knee he wrenched against Real Madrid in midweek. “I said I wouldn’t play unless I could give 100 percent for the team, but it was a hard, hard match.” Hard to play, hard to watch, and hard to see how the last week has helped Chelsea cast off its old, defensive approach and convert to what the owner apparently craves. That is for his Blues to entertain like Barcelona, but without Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, the geniuses who make it unique. The booing around the Bridge may not go away anytime soon.

Soccer
Chelsea (Soccer Team)
Manchester City (Soccer Team)
Benitez Rafa
Di Matteo Roberto
English Premier League
Abramovich Roman A