Pension Deal in Rhode Island Could Set a Trend

Abstract: Retired police and firefighters from Central Falls, R.I., have agreed to sharp pension cuts, a step thought to be unprecedented in municipal bankruptcy and one that could prompt similar attempts by other distressed governments. If approved by the bankruptcy court, the agreement could be groundbreaking, said Matthew J. McGowan, the lawyer representing the retirees. “This is the first time there’s been an agreement of the police and firefighters of any city or town to take the cut,” he said, referring to those already retired, who are typically spared when union contracts change. “I’ve told these guys they’re like the canary in the coal mine. I know that there are other places watching this.” As cities, towns and counties struggle with fiscal pain, there has been speculation that they could shed their pension obligations in bankruptcy. Some have said it might, in fact, be easier for local governments to drop those obligations than it is for companies, which use a different chapter of the bankruptcy code. Large steel companies, airlines and auto suppliers like Delphi have terminated pension plans in bankruptcy. “But it’s a fight that municipalities haven’t been willing to fight,” said David Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who writes frequently on bankruptcy. Municipalities have been reluctant because public pensions are protected by statutes and constitutional provisions meant to make them nearly airtight. And even if the rules could be broken in bankruptcy, that would present a different problem. Local officials who want to cut pensions do not, as a rule, want to shortchange their bondholders for fear of not being able to borrow in the future — yet bankruptcy law requires that both types of creditors be treated equitably. Rhode Island sought to sidestep the issue with a law that gave bondholders more protections than retirees. Central Falls’s retirees used that issue to gain some bargaining power, extracting a commitment from the state to seek extra money for the next five years. The extra money is not a sure thing, though, and would not cover all the cuts to the retirees over those years. The last American city to work its way through Chapter 9 bankruptcy was Vallejo, Calif., which finished the process this year. It had to navigate similar stumbling blocks. Initially, it planned to cut its workers’ and retirees’ pensions, but it changed course when California’s giant state pension system, which administered Vallejo’s plan, threatened a costly and debilitating court battle. Vallejo instead cut pay, health care and other benefits, as well as city services and payments to its bondholders, and left the pensions intact. Even though the bondholders faced a loss, all parties eventually agreed they had been treated equitably, and the state passed a law making it easier for Vallejo to continue borrowing. The episode strengthened the perception that public retirement plans were unalterable, even in bankruptcy. “Central Falls is undermining that,” said Mr. Skeel, who wrote about Vallejo’s bankruptcy for a coming issue of The University of Chicago Law Review. Central Falls had little choice. For years, its government failed to contribute enough to its police and firefighters’ pension fund, and the fund effectively ran out of money this fall. The city, which had also promised the retirees comprehensive health benefits, could not cover the pension and health payments out of its general revenue. The police and firefighters have known for months that drastic cuts were looming. Last month, the unions representing active workers negotiated new contracts, which called for workers to complete at least 25 years to receive pensions, instead of 20. Workers will also have to meet much more rigorous standards to qualify for disability pensions. Until now, 60 percent of Central Falls police officers and firefighters have retired on full disability pensions, drawing the inflation-protected and tax-free payments even when they embarked on new careers. One of them, at 43, has become a prominent personal-injury lawyer and can be seen in television ads shooting baskets and pretending to fall down a manhole. That retiree, Robert Levine, a former police officer, said his disability was the result of an on-duty car crash where he was not at fault, and that his pension had been granted lawfully after his condition was certified by three different doctors. The retirees, who are not represented by the unions, voted in favor of their pension reductions last week. The cuts would be up to 55 percent of each retiree’s benefits, which now vary widely, from about $4,000 to $46,000 a year, depending on final salary, years of service and other factors. A few retirees would give up more than $25,000 a year. Central Falls’s police and firefighters do not participate in Social Security . The new agreement also reduces the annual cost-of-living adjustments and requires retirees to start contributing toward the cost of their health benefits. But it does not take disability pensions away from retirees — something that could become a sticking point. In the negotiations, the state’s revenue director promised to seek money from the state — enough to pay most retirees a supplement of several thousand dollars a year for five years. Having recently enacted a big and painful package of pension cuts for state workers and teachers, Rhode Island legislators say they are in no mood to help a city’s retirees who stripped their own pension fund, often collecting disability pensions when they were well enough to work. The retirees’ lawyer, Mr. McGowan, won support for the state money by threatening to challenge a state law enacted just before Central Falls declared bankruptcy last summer. The law protects holders of general-obligation bonds issued by Rhode Island and its municipalities by giving them priority in bankruptcy. Without the law, investors could find themselves subject to the same losses as the retirees. The state law was intended to prevent a contagion effect, in which Central Falls’s bankruptcy would frighten investors away from other cities’ bonds, driving up borrowing costs across the state. The idea of shielding municipal bondholders during bankruptcy is controversial, however. “It’s not clear to me that you ought to be protecting bondholders,” said Mr. Skeel. “It seems unfair to me that you’re singling out one type of creditor to bear the burden, and another type not to.” Mr. McGowan, the retirees’ lawyer, said he had threatened to sue Central Falls’s bondholders on the argument that the state law had given them a “voidable fraudulent transfer”— an abusive deal that could be undone by a bankruptcy court. He said the state did not want such a challenge, so it agreed to push for pension supplements. Theodore Orson, who represents Central Falls’s state-appointed receiver in the bankruptcy, said negotiations would have been impossible without the law. He said he thought Chapter 9 should be amended to give cities the ability to shield their bondholders if they could show a compelling need to do so. But that would take an act of Congress, and federal lawmakers, at odds over their own debt and deficit, show no interest in taking on the cities’ fiscal woes. “One thing I think we’ve demonstrated in Rhode Island is, we really have a functional state government,” Mr. Orson said. “We are pulling together and making what we believe to be difficult decisions that you don’t see Congress making right now.”

Pensions and Retirement Plans
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Bankruptcies
Central Falls (RI)
Local Government


Video Shows Suspect Laughing 19 Minutes After Fatal Beating

Abstract: The man pulled into a tollbooth on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and reached his hand out the window to pay the attendant. He was smiling and appeared to be laughing with the other occupants of the car, so heartily that his body shook. He passed some change to someone in the back seat, then drove off. It was Dec. 7, 2008, at 3:47 a.m., exactly 19 minutes after the police say that the man, Keith Phoenix, 28, was involved in the beating death of a man named Jose O. Sucuzhanay on a Brooklyn street. Mr. Phoenix has not been found. The police have offered a $22,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. The images at the tollbooth at the Kennedy bridge, formerly called the Triborough Bridge, were captured by a video camera and released by the police on Thursday. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced the night before that the authorities were looking for him. Mr. Phoenix, who lives in the Bronx, and another man, Hakim Scott, 25, are suspected in the attack on Mr. Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel, who were walking arm-in-arm on a Bushwick street after a church party. The authorities said that Mr. Phoenix and Mr. Scott stopped their vehicle at a red light and attacked the brothers, using racial and homophobic slurs. Mr. Scott hit Mr. Sucuzhanay over the head with a bottle, according to the criminal complaint, and another man who acted “in concert” with Mr. Scott, identified by the authorities as Mr. Phoenix, repeatedly beat Mr. Sucuzhanay about the head and body with a bat. Mr. Scott, who was arrested on Wednesday, confessed to the attack, Mr. Kelly has said. He appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday to face a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime. A judge ruled that Mr. Scott would remain in custody after hearing recommendations from Josh Hanshaft, the prosecutor in the case, that he be held due to the “extreme viciousness of this crime.” If convicted, Mr. Scott could face a life sentence. He will enter a plea to any charge issued in an indictment when he is arraigned next month. His lawyer, Craig Newman, said outside the courtroom after the hearing on Thursday that “the plea is not guilty right now.” Mr. Newman said that he had no comment when asked about the mind-set of his client. “As to what evidence there is, I have got more information from the press than from the district attorney’s office,” he said. State parole officers swarmed Mr. Phoenix’s apartment building on Andrews Avenue in the University Heights neighborhood of the Bronx on Thursday looking for him. A parole officer who declined to be identified said Mr. Phoenix had been “doing well.” No one answered at the apartment where Mr. Phoenix lived with his mother; a dozen residents who were interviewed said they did not know him.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Hate Crimes
Sucuzhanay Jose O
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Phoenix Keith


2011 U.S. Open: Stosur Defeats Serena Williams for Title

Abstract: Samantha Stosur endured the longest women’s match in tournament history in one round and the longest tie breaker in another on her way to the United States Open final. When the rain came in the second week, she endured being moved like a pawn around the National Tennis Center. All the adversity — the tough opponents and Tropical Storms Irene and Lee — steeled Stosur for the worst storm she would have to weather on the way to her first Grand Slam title: another Open outburst by the three-time champion Serena Williams . For the second time in three years, Williams’s menacing behavior toward an official at Arthur Ashe Stadium overshadowed her opponent’s brilliance. In 2009, Williams lashed out at a lineswoman who called her for a foot fault and lost her semifinal to the unseeded Kim Clijsters when she was given a point penalty on match point. In Sunday’s final, Stosur defeated Williams, 6-2, 6-3, for her first major championship. She became the first Australian woman to win a major title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980. “I can’t actually believe I won this tournament,” said Stosur, 27. “To go out there and play the way I did is obviously just an unbelievable feeling.” Her feathery backhand slices and ferocious forehands will not soon be forgotten, nor will Williams’s outburst directed at the chair umpire Eva Asderaki, which changed the tenor, if not the thrust, of the match. It happened in the opening game of the second set. Williams had served miserably in the first set, putting 35 percent of her first attempts into play on her way to being broken twice. And shewas facing another break point, at 30-40. Stosur had reeled off 12 consecutive points to secure the first set, so when Williams ripped a forehand to Stosur’s backhand for an apparent winner to stave off another break, she could not contain her glee. “Come on!” she screamed. But Stosur stuck out her racket and got a piece of the ball, and when she made contact, it brought into play the hindrance rule. That rule also cost Marion Bartoli a point under similar circumstances in her second-round match against Christina McHale. The Ashe scoreboard initially flashed 40-40. Asderaki was slow to inform the crowd that the point and the game had gone to Stosur because Williams had verbally hindered her opponent’s ability to complete the point. The confusion whipped the crowd into a frenzy, the boos and catcalls becoming so voracious that Stosur waited to deliver her first serve of the second game until the noise died down. She bounced a ball on her racket while a defiant Williams stood on the baseline, her left hand on her hip. After Williams won the first point with another stinging forehand, she walked toward Asderaki and, pointing her racket as if it were an extension of her index finger, said something that drew her a code violation from Asderaki. During the changeover two games later, Williams continued to take Asderaki to task, and she got personal. “If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way,” Williams said. “You’re out of control. You’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside.” Williams continued: “Code violation for this? I expressed who I am. We’re in America last time I checked.” The U.S.T.A. said it was reviewing the incident. Asked about it in her postmatch news conference, Williams said she was “just in the zone” at the time and did not remember what she had said. “It was just so intense out there,” she said, adding that she misunderstood the rule. “I thought it was the hat-drop rule, where if you drop a hat you kind of replay the point,” she said. The fans fed off Williams’s ire, their decorum disintegrating after she lost her composure. Spectators started applauding Stosur’s faults and shouting during points. The crowd’s fury seemed to take Stosur out of her comfort zone, something that Williams, to that point, had been unable to do. Stosur had not faced a break point in the first set, but she was broken in her first service game after the controversial call. After Williams held, Stosur faced two break points in the next game. Until recently, Stosur had a reputation for being physically fit and mentally fragile. Williams, a 13-time Grand Slam singles champion, had won four of their six previous meetings, with one of her victories coming in Sydney in 2009 when Stosur held four match points. Would Williams’s outburst have the dual effect of lighting her fire and dousing Stosur’s? Serving at 15-40 in the critical fourth game, Stosur climbed back to deuce by producing a 111-mile-per-hour ace and a forehand that Williams could not pick up. Four points later, Stosur served a 108-m.p.h. ace to hold. “For sure, it was difficult to stay focused,” Stosur said, “and then obviously the crowd got heavily involved. You know, it was probably the loudest I ever felt a crowd in my whole entire life. It was definitely an overwhelming feeling. But once I hit that next ball in the court and started playing again, I felt settled.” After Stosur held for 2-2, Williams’s fury dissipated and an air of resignation settled over the crowd. Williams saved two match points on her serve, but Stosur earned a third and struck a forehand winner off a 71-m.p.h. serve. When Williams lunged for the backhand and missed, Stosur dropped her racket and fell to her knees. Williams came around the net to wrap her in a congratulatory hug but did not shake Asderaki’s hand. Williams sat staring into the distance as Stosur climbed into her guest box to embrace her relatives and friends. As the court was being prepared for the awards ceremony, Williams plopped down on the seat next to Stosur and, according to Stosur, said: “How do you feel? Are you really excited?” Williams, 29, later spoke of how simply making it to the final felt like a great gift after what she had endured since her last Grand Slam championship appearance, her 2010 victory at Wimbledon. Over the next nine months, she had two foot operations and was hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism. The Open was only her sixth tournament of the year. Stosur has had her own health issues. She was slowed to a crawl by Lyme’s disease in 2007 and 2008. It could have killed her career; instead, she came back mentally stronger. “It kind of made me open my eyes more that you don’t necessarily always get a second chance,” Stosur said. “I wanted to take every opportunity I had, and I have now been able to fulfill that.”

Tennis
United States Open (Tennis)
Stosur Samantha
Williams Serena


Penguin and Random House Merge, Saying Change Will Come Slowly

Abstract: Receptionists cheerfully answered the phones with a new greeting: “Good morning, Penguin Random House.” E-mails were sent to nervous employees assuring them that their health plans would not change. And a new temporary logo — with a penguin in profile next to a tidy house — was released until a permanent one could be designed. On Monday, the newly formed company of Penguin Random House began to take shape, only hours after a middle-of-the-night announcement that the long-planned merger had been completed. Together, Penguin and Random House will make up the biggest and most dominant publisher in the business, one that has unmatched leverage against Amazon.com and the potential to inspire other mergers in the industry. Markus Dohle, the chairman and chief executive of Random House, who will take on the role of chief executive of the new company, announced the completion of the merger in an e-mail to employees on Monday. “Today, we are Penguin Random House,” he wrote. “You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished and what we are all now a part of: the first truly global trade book publishing company. Together, we are even better positioned to fulfill our core purpose: to bridge authors and readers by publishing the very best books.” Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House, and Pearson, the owner of Penguin, disclosed the merger in October , saying that Bertelsmann would control 53 percent of the company and Pearson 47 percent. Since then, the merger has sailed through regulatory approvals in the United States and Europe, as well as China, Canada and other countries. The combined companies will control more than 25 percent of the book business, with more than 10,000 employees, 250 independent publishing imprints and about $3.9 billion in annual revenues. Mr. Dohle, in a telephone interview from London, where he was about to embark on a three-week tour around the globe to meet with employees, said that part of his message is simple: there will not be much change at first. There are no immediate plans for laying off employees or closing imprints. Both Penguin and Random House have long leases on their buildings in Manhattan, so they will not work from the same building anytime soon — maybe not for at least a decade, Mr. Dohle said. “The continuity will far outweigh the change,” said Mr. Dohle, who has a reputation for deliberate moves. “We have the luxury to take the time before we make any strategic decisions. There is no need to rush.” Image Markus Dohle Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images One goal of the merger, he said, is to “crack the code of discoverability” — of how to put books in front of potential buyers — “in a world with fewer bookstores.” Several important leadership changes for the new company were announced Monday. David Shanks, the chief executive of the Penguin Group USA, has stepped down and will be a senior adviser to Mr. Dohle and the executive team. John Makinson, the head of Penguin Group since 2002, will be the chairman of Penguin Random House. Executives sought to reassure anxious employees, authors and agents that there was nothing to worry about. In a letter to authors, Mr. Dohle said that the new company would invest in distribution and marketing, maximizing potential readers. The authors’ relationship with their editors and publishing teams, he said, “will remain untouched.” Executives at Penguin and Random House said the initial focus would be on unifying the infrastructure of the companies, including establishing pay scales, health benefits and new e-mail addresses. But there will also be an effort to sort out redundancies, a process that typically involves a reduction in employee count. As physical book sales decrease, so does the need for gigantic warehouses to store and ship books; the newly combined company is likely to find ways to trim printing, distribution and storage costs. “There’s positives and negatives,” said Elyse Cheney, a literary agent. “The positive is that I hope they will be able to have greater leverage with companies like Amazon. But more importantly, that they figure out new and innovative ways to reach consumers, now that the marketplace is changing so rapidly.” Analysts said it was too early to predict the consumer impact of the merger. Mike Shatzkin, the founder and chief executive of Idea Logical, a consultant to publishers, speculated that Penguin Random House would eventually use its large list of books to create a digital subscription offer, much like a book-of-the-month club for e-books, or build minibookstores within retailers like clothing stores. For authors, the suddenly larger presence of Penguin Random House will make it a more attractive prospect, Mr. Shatzkin said. “If you’re a Penguin author or a Random House author, you should be pretty happy today,” he said. “If you’re another publisher or an author with another publisher, you should be watching this with a wary eye.” But authors and agents also quietly voiced concern that there would be fewer major publishing houses competing for their work. Harlan Coben, the best-selling novelist who is published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin, said that “the one thing that worries every writer is that there is going to be fewer houses and less competition.” But, he added, “this business so constantly changes that whatever we’re talking about now will be nonsense a few years from now.”

Publishing
Random House
Bertelsmann
Penguin Group
Pearson
Markus Dohle
John Makinson


Yanks Have Only Praise for Cano Before His First Return

Abstract: In the course of his 20-year career, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has seen many players come and go. He is no longer surprised at the business of baseball. But Jeter joked that he had one regret about Robinson Cano’s departure from the Bronx over the off-season. “Considering I paid for him to eat for however many years he was here, he owes me a lot,” Jeter said Sunday before the Yankees hosted the Los Angeles Angels. “I’m upset I don’t get to collect.” Cano, a second baseman who signed a 10-year, $240 million with the Seattle Mariners, returns to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for a three-game series. But there appear to be no hard feelings among Cano’s former teammates. “People move all the time in this game now,” said C. C. Sabathia, Cano’s close friend. “He moved on to a better situation for him, and we moved on. Obviously it’s another game on Tuesday night.” In his nine seasons with the Yankees, which included a World Series victory in 2009, Cano had a .309 batting average, hit 204 home runs and drove in 822 runs. Those accomplishments should be enough to earn Cano some cheers from the Yankee Stadium crowd, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said, although he acknowledged it might not work out that way. “I really think the fans really loved what Robbie Cano did for us,” Girardi said, adding: “Sometimes seeing a player in another uniform, you’re going to get some people that are upset. But over all, I think people were happy with what he did in a Yankee uniform, which would make me believe you’re going to hear some clapping.” Girardi spoke glowingly of Cano’s time with the Yankees. “He was a great player here,” Girardi said. “He was a champion. He was a guy that played every day. He came to work every day, and he expected to be in the lineup every day. “I’ve often said that the one thing that maybe was overlooked about him a little bit was his toughness. We saw plenty of times he’d get hit by a pitch and you didn’t think he’d play the next day, and he would. That was Robbie. Robbie loved to play, and he had a great smile and a lot of times made it look really easy. He was a really, really good Yankee.” Jeter said: “It’s very rare for him not to play in a game. He was a guy that you could count on being in the lineup. He was very successful, and he helped us win. Yankee fans are big on their history, so I’m pretty sure most fans will be happy to see him but not happy to see him in another uniform.” Cano has gotten off to a somewhat slow start with Seattle, with a .301 batting average but only one home run and a .387 slugging percentage, although a trip to Yankee Stadium may reinvigorate him. “I think it will be odd playing against him,” Jeter said, adding, “It’s always a little awkward when you see guys who spent a lot of time here come back with other teams.” At the very least, Cano’s return will give Jeter a chance to claim some of those free meals. “I’ll get him one day,” he joked. PINEDA KEEPING ACTIVE Joe Girardi said the Yankees were trying to take every precaution to keep pitcher Michael Pineda in form during his 10-game suspension for using pine tar during a start last week. Pineda, who is 2-2 with a 1.83 earned run average, threw a bullpen session Sunday. He will pitch a simulated game Tuesday and will throw another bullpen session Friday before making his return on May 5 against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. “We should be able to keep him sharp — I hope,” Girardi said. Pineda declined to talk about his routine during the suspension. “The truth is that I really don’t want to talk much about this topic,” Pineda said in Spanish. “I want to wait until I get activated, and then I’ll talk and say everything I want to say about this.” YANKEES HOLD OUT TWO Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner was held out of Sunday’s lineup because of soreness in his left foot, which Angels pitcher Ernesto Frieri struck with a pitch during Saturday’s 4-3 win . Precautionary X-rays on Saturday night were negative. “He did talk about how it felt better than he anticipated this morning, which is a good thing, but it’s still sore,” Joe Girardi said. Yangervis Solarte, who was scheduled to play second base, was a late scratch with a sore right shoulder. Brian Roberts took his place in the lineup.

Baseball
Yankees
Mariners
Robinson Cano
Joe Girardi
Derek Jeter


Technology’s Toll: Impatience and Forgetfulness

Abstract: Are your Facebook friends more interesting than those you have in real life? Has high-speed Internet made you impatient with slow-speed children? Do you sometimes think about reaching for the fast-forward button, only to realize that life does not come with a remote control? If you answered yes to any of those questions, exposure to technology may be slowly reshaping your personality. Some experts believe excessive use of the Internet, cellphones and other technologies can cause us to become more impatient, impulsive, forgetful and even more narcissistic. “More and more, life is resembling the chat room,” says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford. “We’re paying a price in terms of our cognitive life because of this virtual lifestyle.” We do spend a lot of time with our devices, and some studies have suggested that excessive dependence on cellphones and the Internet is akin to an addiction. Web sites like NetAddiction.com offer self-assessment tests to determine if technology has become a drug. Among the questions used to identify those at risk: Do you neglect housework to spend more time online? Are you frequently checking your e-mail? Do you often lose sleep because you log in late at night? If you answered “often” or “always,” technology may be taking a toll on you. In a study to be published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia subjected 173 college students to tests measuring risk for problematic Internet and gambling behaviors. About 5 percent of the students showed signs of gambling problems, but 10 percent of the students posted scores high enough to put them in the at-risk category for Internet “addiction.” Technology use was clearly interfering with the students’ daily lives, but it may be going too far to call it an addiction, says Nicki Dowling, a clinical psychologist who led the study. Ms. Dowling prefers to call it “Internet dependence.” Typically, the concern about our dependence on technology is that it detracts from our time with family and friends in the real world. But psychologists have become intrigued by a more subtle and insidious effect of our online interactions. It may be that the immediacy of the Internet, the efficiency of the iPhone and the anonymity of the chat room change the core of who we are, issues that Dr. Aboujaoude explores in a book, “Virtually You: The Internet and the Fracturing of the Self,” to be released next year. Dr. Aboujaoude also asks whether the vast storage available in e-mail and on the Internet is preventing many of us from letting go, causing us to retain many old and unnecessary memories at the expense of making new ones. Everything is saved these days, he notes, from the meaningless e-mail sent after a work lunch to the angry online exchange with a spouse. “If you can’t forget because all this stuff is staring at you, what does that do to your ability to lay down new memories and remember things that you should be remembering?” Dr. Aboujaoude said. “When you have 500 pictures from your vacation in your Flickr account, as opposed to five pictures that are really meaningful, does that change your ability to recall the moments that you really want to recall?” There is also no easy way to conquer a dependence on technology. Nicholas Carr, author of the new book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” says that social and family responsibilities, work and other pressures influence our use of technology. “The deeper a technology is woven into the patterns of everyday life, the less choice we have about whether and how we use that technology,” Mr. Carr wrote in a recent blog post on the topic. Some experts suggest simply trying to curtail the amount of time you spend online. Set limits for how often you check e-mail or force yourself to leave your cellphone at home occasionally. The problem is similar to an eating disorder, says Dr. Kimberly Young, a professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York who has led research on the addictive nature of online technology. Technology, like food, is an essential part of daily life, and those suffering from disordered online behavior cannot give it up entirely and instead have to learn moderation and controlled use. She suggests therapy to determine the underlying issues that set off a person’s need to use the Internet “as a way of escape.” The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to refrain from using electronic media for a day. The reports from students after the study suggest that giving up technology cold turkey not only makes life logistically difficult, but also changes our ability to connect with others. “Texting and I.M.’ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” wrote one student. “When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.”

Computers and the Internet
Brain
Social Conditions and Trends
Psychology and Psychologists


New York City Board Is Jeered as It Approves Rent Increases

Abstract: A panel voted on Tuesday to recommend raising rents on rent-stabilized apartments in New York City by amounts comparable to those approved last year. By a vote of 5 to 4 at Cooper Union’s Great Hall, the Rent Guidelines Board approved increases of 1.75 percent to 4 percent on one-year leases, and 3.5 percent to 6.75 percent increases on two-year leases. The actual increases will be narrowed to a single percentage when the board votes again on June 21, after hearings on June 13 and 18, at which members of the public can testify. Last year, the nine-member board, which is appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg , approved increases of up to 3.75 percent on one-year leases and 7.25 percent on two-year leases. About one million apartments in the city are rent stabilized. As in the past, protesters jeered from their seats during the vote, under the watchful eyes of police officers, who set up metal detectors at the front doors. The meeting coincided with May Day protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Helicopters buzzed, nearby streets were closed, and a band with a tuba and drum played outside. Some protesters at the board meeting carried a banner reading, “Tenants are the 99 percent,” while others shouted, “Greed” and “Shame on Bloomberg” while the board members spoke. But the protesters’ ranks were thinner this year because of an Occupy march scheduled for around the same time on Broadway, said Larry Wood, a housing advocate. Still, he promised, they would turn out in droves in June. “There will be a lot more theater for the next vote,” Mr. Wood said.

Rent Control and Stabilization
Renting and Leasing (Real Estate)
Real Estate and Housing (Residential)
Bloomberg Michael R
New York City


Chris Long Depends on Hard Work More Than Famous Name

Abstract: CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 20 — Virginia defensive end Chris Long sat on a trainer’s table with an intravenous drip stuck in his left forearm. He had strep throat as well as a hesitancy to scale back, as evidenced by the 45-minute weightlifting session he had just completed. After a few minutes, a team doctor fiddled with the nearly empty IV bag. He asked Long if he wanted another one. “Did I suck that down already?” Long said. “Yeah, two sounds cool.” While he waited, Long talked about the postseason award ceremonies he planned to attend. He is a finalist for the Lombardi Award, which will be presented in Houston to the best lineman or linebacker, and the Nagurski Trophy, which will be awarded in Charlotte to the best defensive player. He was asked if a trip to New York, where the Heisman Trophy will be presented, might join the list. Long’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head dismissively. He is not a touchdown factory, and he does not play for a national-title contender. He is best known as the son of Howie Long, a Hall of Fame defensive end for the Raiders and now an N.F.L. analyst for Fox. But with each dominant performance, Chris Long is making it increasingly difficult to be overlooked. Despite facing constant double teams, the 6-foot-4, 284-pound Long has 12 sacks, the fifth most in college football’s top division. He will lead No. 16 Virginia into Saturday’s game against No. 8 Virginia Tech, with the winner advancing to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship against Boston College. If Long, a senior, is not invited to New York in December, he probably will be in April, when he is expected to be one of the first five players selected in the N.F.L. draft. “Howie will be angry with me, but I think Chris is the better football player,” said Gil Brandt, who was the Dallas Cowboys’ vice president for player personnel from 1960-89, and is now an analyst for NFL.com . “He’s everything you want.” When Long was 7, his mother, Diane, sometimes took him to the Los Angeles Coliseum to see his father play for the Raiders. But Howie did not think it was a good setting for a young boy. He would ask the police officers who guarded the section where his wife and children sat to watch his family during games. After Howie retired, the family moved to Charlottesville, Va., where Chris joined the junior varsity team at St. Anne’s-Belfield School when he was in seventh grade. “He was a big gangly kid who had yet to grow into his body,” said John Blake, the St. Anne’s-Belfield coach. “But he jumped in with both feet. When he played tackle, he would drive kids 10 or 15 yards down the field, like he was steering a car.” Long was aware of his father’s success, but he did not appear overwhelmed by it. He did not watch Howie’s old game films or attempt to mimic his style. Still, the comparisons were inevitable, especially when Chris became a defensive end and Howie became a volunteer assistant coach at the high school. Chris played football, basketball, baseball and lacrosse. After basketball games on Fridays, he would often lift weights alone. His truck would be the last to leave the school parking lot. “When you’re becoming a great player, you feel like you’re being chased,” Howie Long said. “Chris does everything he possibly can to perform at a high level. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard.” When Chris was a junior in high school, he committed to the University of Virginia , which is just a few miles from his parents’ house. He returns for the occasional home-cooked meal or laundry session, but mostly, he says, he enjoys being able to see his family. His two younger brothers, Kyle and Howie Jr., still attend St. Anne’s-Belfield. Before their football state championship game last week, Chris spoke at their pep rally. At Virginia, Long has blossomed in the Cavaliers’ 3-4 defense, the same system Howie lined up in when he was a Raider. “Chris can play low to the ground the whole game, and that’s rare for a guy his size,” said Temple Coach Al Golden, who was Virginia’s defensive coordinator from 2001-5. “He just wears people out. The N.F.L. is going to seem like nothing to him as far as the preparation goes.” Howie attended most of Chris’s home games, and he said he planned to be in the stands Saturday. But his television duties kept him from attending many road games. Last season, when the Fox crew traveled from stadium to stadium for its N.F.L. shows, Howie would sit alone in the satellite truck on Saturdays and watch his son play. This season, he has gone to a green room at Fox’s Hollywood studio, where there are about 15 televisions on a wall. Chris has an even easier time watching his father perform. He said he normally wakes up around noon on Sundays. “I roll out of bed, rub my eyes, and there’s my dad on TV,” Chris said. At the television studio, a bank of televisions is wheeled in so Howie and the other analysts can watch the N.F.L. games. Next season it will be difficult for Howie to pay attention to more than one. “Obviously,” he said, “I’m going to keep an eye out for my son.”

Football
Oakland Raiders
National Football League
National Collegiate Athletic Assn
Atlantic Coast Conference
University of Virginia
Long Howie
Charlottesville (Va)


Guinness Is Going Vegan

Abstract: Guinness, the Irish stout that once famously advertised itself under the slogan “Guinness is good for you,” took a step this week to inject 21st - century food culture into its 256-year-old product. Guinness is going vegan. The company announced on Monday that starting at the end of 2016, its beer will no longer contain trace amounts of fish bladder, an integral part of its filtration process. Few customers — except perhaps vegans and vegetarians who enjoy a pint — were probably even aware that the famous inky-black drink contained any fish parts at all. But it is actually quite common for cask beers to be filtered using isinglass, a gelatinlike substance derived from the dried swim bladders of fish that is used to separate out unwanted solids like yeast particles from a brew, the company said. “Isinglass has been used widely within the brewing industry as a means of filtration for decades,” the company said in a statement on Monday after a report in The Times of London . “However, because of its use we could not label Guinness as suitable for vegetarians and have been looking for an alternative solution for some time.” The substance is removed from the beer after it has fulfilled its filtration role. Zsoka McDonald, a spokeswoman for the company, said that only “trace amounts” ever make it into the final product. That has been enough, however, to keep most vegan drinkers away. Ms. McDonald said the company has used isinglass since at least the 19th century, “but it is likely it was used prior to that as well.” She said its products would be fish-bladder free when the new system is implemented by the end of 2016, but declined to describe how its new vegan-friendly process would work. Guinness said that it had arrived at a solution to its vegan problem through “investment in a state-of-the-art filtration system” at its St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin, where its beverages have been brewed since the company’s founder, Arthur Guinness, signed a 9,000-year lease on the site in 1759. Edmund Long, the spokesman for Vegan Ireland, an advocacy group, said that vegans there had been complaining to the company, writing letters and signing petitions for as long as he could remember, and they were delighted by the decision. “We are always happy to see another product become suitable for vegans, especially because this one is very iconic here in Ireland,” he said. “It’s one of the products you associate with Ireland; Guinness is usually up there.” Ireland can be a tough place for a vegan. While fresh produce is a cornerstone of its traditional cuisine, so are animal products like butter, cream, lamb and pork. In recent months, an online feud between Irish vegans and one Dublin cafe lead to street protests after it banned vegans from entering and threatened them if they did. “Any vegans attempting to enter the cafe will be shot dead at point blank range,” the White Moose Cafe wrote on its Facebook page . “While we wouldn’t usually kill any of our customers, as you say yourselves ‘meat is murder,’ so it’s fair game if we murder humans as well as animals. There is clearly no difference.” Mr. Long said that the country has begun to warm up to the vegan way of life. The city of Dublin saw its first vegan festival recently (“It was very well attended,” Mr. Long said), and more companies and brands are starting to woo the vegan market. Few would follow the White Moose’s lead and tell potential customers, “we look forward to never welcoming you vegans to our cafe ever again.” “It is getting easier to be a vegan in Ireland,” he said. “Even businesses are marketing toward vegans, and there have been new vegan businesses set up as well. There are a lot of vegans out there; it has become a lot more popular.” And soon they’ll be able to have a pint of the national drink.


Sudan: Police Fire Tear Gas After Funeral in Khartoum

Abstract: Riot police officers on Wednesday fired tear gas on protesters after the funeral of a student at the University of Khartoum. The student, Ali Abaker Musa Idris, was shot to death on Tuesday, when student activists from Darfur who were demonstrating against an escalation of violence in Darfur attempted to march on the streets of Khartoum. They were met with riot police officers.

Khartoum
Police
Fatalities,casualties
University of Khartoum
Sudan
Arab Spring
Ali Abaker Musa Idris


A New Tactic for Youthful Defendants

Abstract: What if Michael Brown’s story had ended differently? A teenager. A misdemeanor. A cop. But then, instead of bullets, what if Mr. Brown had received a granola bar, a “safe space” to discuss concepts like choice, and an invitation to make a collage as part of a deal to erase the arrest from his record? In Mr. Brown’s hometown of Ferguson, Mo., and beyond, American teenagers who are born poor and dark are routinely arrested for things that others get away with. Sometimes, guns fire and lives disappear. More often, the encounter can risk destroying a life more slowly. But in Brooklyn — which was infamous for crime before becoming known for artisanal whiskey — an experiment is testing whether these early police encounters can be reinvented as an opportunity: to reach out to troubled youth, get them help and bend their perception of the law. Terrell, 17, was an apt candidate for bending. A high school graduate bound for community college, he had already endured two rounds of “stop-and-frisk,” a pre-emptive police tactic that a judge eventually found unconstitutional. Then this summer he was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. When he arrived for his court date, his public defender informed him of a new program for 16- and 17-year-old defendants: Instead of pleading guilty, performing community service, having a criminal record and being supervised for up to a year by probation officers, he could participate in something called Young New Yorkers that afternoon. If he did, his case would be dismissed and sealed — erased from public records. (The Times agreed not to publish his last name and details of his arrest in exchange for his cooperation.) Surprised, Terrell took the deal. The United States, which accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of its prisoners, is in the midst of a great rethinking of its criminal justice system, including changes in sentencing laws, more lenient marijuana policies and so-called restorative justice efforts. The Brooklyn program is part of these changes. It is rooted in the belief that the criminal justice system often takes decent but mildly troubled young people and, instead of reforming them, turns an ephemeral circumstance — a crime — into an enduring identity: criminal. “Theoretically, it’s supposed to be correctional,” said Judge George A. Grasso, who supervises the Brooklyn program. “But most people going through, it’s not correcting.” Judge Grasso calls the program “collaborative justice.” Various parties — the judge, prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers, even the city’s Department of Education — work together to decide which program each defendant should enter (Young New Yorkers is one of a handful). Though the program is new, pilot data suggests that it drastically reduces the chance that a young person will be arrested a second time. Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, which represents indigent clients, interprets that data this way: The program is bringing in young defendants for the right amount of time — long enough to rattle them, but not so long as to give them the self-perception of a criminal. “We’re showing that the smaller the intervention, the better the outcome,” she said. Rachel Barnard, an Australian architect who founded Young New Yorkers, says she is “trying to pour beauty into the criminal justice system.” So Terrell and a handful of other young arrestees went on an artsy, new-age journey. Ms. Barnard led them in taking pictures of one another, interviewing one another about their crimes and talents, and making collages about themselves. They talked about the marijuana they had bought, the subway cars they had illegally crossed between. At first, many refused to cooperate. A few hours in, deep at work on collages, the pursuit of art had entranced them. They returned to court four days later, stood before Judge Grasso and had their cases “dismissed and sealed.” “What is happening today doesn’t usually happen,” Judge Grasso told them. Then, for a few moments, American justice turned upside down, because the judge congratulated his defendants, stood up and gave them a standing ovation. Join an online conversation at http://anand.ly and follow on Twitter.com/anandwrites


Proud Scots, Wherever They’re From

Abstract: EDINBURGH — Humza Yousaf says “aye” instead of “yes.” He wears a kilt on special occasions and is designing his own tartan: the Yousaf tartan, which will live alongside its MacDonald and MacDuff counterparts for all the Yousafs who will come after him — many, he hopes. “I’m as Glaswegian as they come,” he says in a proud, earthy lilt. A representative for Glasgow in the Scottish Parliament and external affairs minister, Mr. Yousaf is a member of the Scottish National Party and campaigning for Scottish independence from Britain ahead of a referendum in September. Scotland is a good fit for this descendant of Punjabi and Kenyan immigrants: A melting pot long before America was on the scene, owing to successive waves of invaders and migrants from Vikings to Saracens, it is also home to a growing community of more recent arrivals. Mr. Yousaf’s father, who came to Glasgow in 1964, became the first non-white member of the national party there. The Scottish brand of nationalism, on ample display ahead of the independence vote, looks very different from the far-right varieties blossoming across Europe — including in neighboring England, where the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, has been gaining ground. Rather than exclusiveness, nationalists in Scotland pride themselves on American-style hyphenated identities. “This is civic nationalism, not ethnic nationalism,” says Maciej Wiczynski, a hospital worker and one of over 1,000 volunteers in the Polish-for-Yes campaign. Mr. Wiczynski arrived in Scotland only six years ago, but, like any registered resident of Scotland, he gets to vote in September. Mr. Yousaf sums it up: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is where we’re going as a nation. You can be Pakistani-Scottish, Polish-Scottish, even English-Scottish.” Image The British Union Jack flag waved near Stirling Castle in Stirling, Scotland. Credit Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Surveys have consistently given unionists a lead, but that lead appears to be narrowing. And there is some evidence that minority groups are more enthusiastic about independence: A poll by Scotland’s leading Asian radio station, Awaz FM, found in February that nearly two in three listeners were in favor. Whoever wins, the referendum campaign seems to be strengthening the allegiance minority groups feel toward Scotland. There are Asian Scots and recent East European immigrants campaigning on both sides. “This is not our host country, it’s our home country. There is a big difference,” said Jan Krawiec, a 38-year-old father of two, who plans to vote no because he worries about the economic impact of independence. But he “feels Scottish” nonetheless. Aisha Khan, a 33-year-old nurse, was long skeptical of independence but is considering a yes vote, not least because the tone on immigration has hardened under a conservative-led coalition in Westminster that is trying to lure back voters tempted by UKIP. She finds the debate about whether Britain should leave the European Union “alienating.” “I’d rather live in an independent Scotland that’s part of the E.U. than in a Britain that is not,” Ms. Khan said. She is proud that UKIP has failed to gain traction in Scotland. Mr. Wiczynski tells of Polish friends in London who have been made to feel unwelcome by talk of “welfare tourism.” Mr. Yousaf was astonished to hear relatives in East London complain that they regularly face questions over whether they are Pakistani or British, Muslim or British. “I have never been asked to choose between my identities here,” he said. There is racism in Scotland, too, he said. But Scots are less hostile to immigration than other Britons, perhaps because a stagnating population means they need it more. In England and Wales, 75 percent of people want fewer migrants, compared with 58 percent in Scotland, a report by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests. That’s good enough for Mr. Wiczynski. He has been in Britain long enough to apply for British citizenship, but he won’t bother. “I’m going to wait for my opportunity to have a Scottish passport,” he says.

Scotland
Great Britain
Referendum
Scottish National Party
Immigration


In Possible Thaw, North Korea Invites South to Talk

Abstract: TOKYO — North Korea on Monday invited the South to talks on economic ties. It was the North’s first formal offer of dialogue with South Korea since its lethal artillery bombardment of a South Korean island in November. The South quickly rejected the offer, and made a counteroffer to meet first to discuss the artillery attack and the sinking earlier last year of a South Korean warship. The North’s invitation, made through its state-run media, came as the reclusive Communist state has repeatedly made general appeals for dialogue, easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula that had seemed to reach a dangerous level after the November shelling. However, Monday’s offer was the first one that offered a specific time and topic. That attack, on Yeonpyeong Island , killed four South Koreans and stirred intense public anger in the South against North Korea. The North proposed that the two Koreas hold working-level talks on Jan. 27 to prepare the way for a higher-level meeting on Feb. 1 to discuss economic ties. The South’s Unification Ministry, which manages inter-Korean ties, quickly rebuffed the offer as a ploy by the economically destitute North to win aid. It made a counteroffer for talks on the shelling of the island and the March sinking of the warship Cheonan , which killed 46 sailors. The ministry said it wanted first to confirm the North’s sincerity in taking responsibility for the attacks. It said it also wanted assurances that such attacks would not happen again.

North Korea
International Relations
South Korea
Cheonan (Ship)
Defense and Military Forces


South Lebanon Towns Reclaim Their Dead and Hold Funerals

Abstract: HALUSIEH, Lebanon , Aug. 16 — For weeks the bodies were symbols of the helplessness many felt in the face of Israel ’s bombs. But on Wednesday, Lebanon’s dead became symbols of closure as towns and villages throughout the south began burying their loved ones. Families mourned for relatives and towns honored the bodies of Hezbollah fighters in ceremonies in the rubble-strewn villages of the south, vowing never to forget the price they paid in the fight against Israel. In Halusieh, about a 30-minute drive east of Tyre, residents carried the coffins of 11 men, women and children through town before holding an emotional ceremony led by a prominent sheik whose relatives were among the dead. In Shabiye, hundreds marched behind the coffin of Mostafa Rakin, 16, a Hezbollah fighter who died in a firefight with Israeli soldiers on Sunday. In other towns and villages, bodies uncovered in the rubble were buried in solemn ceremonies. Health officials on Wednesday began releasing bodies from the main morgue in Tyre, calling on families to begin burying their loved ones in their home villages instead of a mass grave near the morgue, where more than 200 others have been buried until families can claim them. The bodies, some in pine coffins and others wrapped in blankets, were given their last respects and buried in open fields and cemeteries on Wednesday afternoon, some beside the graves of fighters from wars past, others beside relatives. The largest funeral was in Halusieh, where the bodies of five members of the Mouanes family and six members of the Hamed family were cleansed and wrapped for burial in a makeshift mortuary on Wednesday evening. All 11 were killed on July 24, when Israeli warplanes bombed two houses in which more than 40 people had taken refuge. When one of the houses was bombed, the families inside escaped into the one next door, residents said. But minutes later, bombs struck that home too, killing most of those who had run inside. Three generations of the Mouanes family were among the dead, including Kalthoum al-Haj Ali, 85, her daughter Nahya Mouanes, 65, and a granddaughter, Ibtisssam Khamees, 43, as well as Mrs. Khamees’s nephew and niece. The wife of Sheik Muhammad Hamed, a village leader, was also buried in the rubble, as well as two of his sons and three of his daughters. “We couldn’t save our children and we couldn’t feed our families,” cried Wansa Mouanes, 40, as she marched in a funeral procession. When the bombs went off she scrambled to try to save her sister and relatives, but she was no match for the weight of the rubble in which they were buried. “If the Israelis thought they could force us to flee this way, they failed,” she said defiantly. The bodies lay there for three weeks before they could be recovered, Ms. Mouanes said, serving as a constant reminder of the tragedy here. Five were removed Tuesday and taken to the morgue, she said, and another six were dug out Wednesday. All 11 were buried together on Wednesday in a grave that had 11 compartments, one for each body, fashioned out of cinder blocks. “Mama, listen to me!” Fatima Mouanes cried as several young men lowered her mother’s body before her in the mortuary. “We are thinking of you. We will never forget you. Your death will not be in vain.” The crowd lifted the bodies on stretchers and in coffins and marched through the town’s back streets as people looked on. A group of women who had gathered in a community center nearby threw rice at the bodies as they were carried past and soon fell into a loud wail. Minutes later Sheik Hamed, a portly man in his 50’s, stood stoically before the bodies of his wife and children and called on the men in the crowd to open their hearts and pray for the souls of the dead, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, as if praying for any other member of the community. Then, one by one, the bodies were carried to the grave site yards away and lowered into each compartment, as Sheik Hamed guided the young men carrying the bodies and led further prayers. “Bring me Abbas!” he said, speaking of the body of his 7-year-old son, which was lowered in. “Now Khadija!” he shouted, as the body of his 6-year-old daughter was lowered in, the crowd breaking out in calls of “God is Great!” “Now Zeinab here!” he exclaimed, speaking of his 22-year-old daughter. When all the bodies were in place, the crowd broke into a final wail as the sheik dipped down to each body to read a prayer. When he reached his wife’s body, he kissed the shroud wrapping her and stopped briefly, grimacing, then composing himself. A tractor began scraping mounds of dirt into the grave, and within minutes the burial was over. As Sheik Hamed greeted well-wishers, he blessed them. “The history of this town is built on resistance,” said Adil Mahmoud, Halusieh’s mayor. “Today we offered 11 martyrs, but we know we will continue to give more.”

Lebanon
Funerals
Death and Dying
Cemeteries
Hezbollah
Israel


Death Toll Rising, 2 Sides Sign Pact to End South Sudan War

Abstract: ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — President Salva Kiir of South Sudan and the leader of the rebellion against his government, Riek Machar, signed an agreement on Friday to resolve the war that has torn their young country apart. The two sides had already signed a cease-fire deal in January, under which they were to negotiate a permanent end to the conflict. But the agreement failed almost immediately. Since the war began almost five months ago, thousands of people have been killed, more than one million have been displaced, and now international officials warn that a famine may loom. The talks on Friday, which took place in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, brought the two men, whose political rivalry set off the war, face to face for the first time since the conflict erupted. The negotiations came at a time of growing international pressure on both sides. This week, the United Nations issued a report that documented atrocities by both parties, and the Obama administration imposed sanctions on two individuals, one from each side. “By me signing today this agreement, I’m sending a signal that this war must be ended peacefully,” Mr. Machar said. “I hope the other side will also be serious.” In his remarks, Mr. Kiir said, “We’re not here to bear witness of what we have done in our country, whether you’re on the wrong side or you are on the right side.” In the agreement signed on Friday, both sides recognized that “there is no military solution to the crisis in South Sudan and that sustainable peace can be achieved only through inclusive political dialogue,” the negotiators announced. The parties agreed “to immediately cease all hostile activities within 24 hours” of the signing of the agreement, and they committed themselves to refrain from any provocative action until the signing of a permanent cease-fire. The parties also agreed that a transitional government of national unity was the best way out of the crisis. However, the agreement made no comment about who would be part of it. The day before the talks, South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei, said that the government wanted an interim arrangement that would integrate the rebels but not allow them to share power. “If the rebels are genuine, they will agree with us on these issues,” Mr. Makuei said. Yohanis Musa Pouk, a spokesman for the rebels, said before the talks that their success would depend on Mr. Kiir’s willingness to give up power for now. “We need an arrangement that excludes Salva Kiir from being part of the interim governance arrangement,” he said. Observers hoped for real progress this time. Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College who has done extensive research on Sudan and South Sudan, called the talks “a last chance to halt the terrible ethnic violence that has ravaged South Sudan.” The humanitarian situation in South Sudan remains critical. Months of fighting has prevented people from farming. The number of refugees and internally displaced people is increasing rapidly. “The situation on the ground is terrible,” said Toby Lanzer, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan. “The fighting is ongoing, and heavier and heavier.” In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said the agreement could “mark a breakthrough.” “I saw with my own eyes last week the stakes and the struggles in a new nation we helped courageous people create,” Mr. Kerry added. “The people of South Sudan have suffered too much for far too long.” Ethiopia, which has been hosting talks since the beginning of the year, has a direct interest in solving the crisis. According to the United Nations, 315,000 people have fled South Sudan to neighboring countries. Of those, 110,000 have sought refuge in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government is struggling to accommodate the arriving masses. It built three new camps, but two of them have reached capacity, and the third one will soon. Another camp is in the making. “It’s very difficult, but we have to receive these people,” said Ayalew Aweke, the deputy director of the Ethiopian Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs. “We’re doing our best.” The border is porous, and weapons are rife on the South Sudanese side. Until recently, the International Organization for Migration had evacuated refugees by boat each day. But the violence that broke out last weekend led to interruptions of the mission. Most of the new refugees are women and children. Nyabile Nyuon, 28, escaped from the city of Malakal with her father. When she crossed the White Nile, her father was shot by government troops and died two weeks later, she said. “I don’t go back to South Sudan,” she said, crying.

Salva Kiir Mayardit
Riek Machar
Fatalities,casualties
UN
South Sudan


Ban Lifted, Foie Gras Is Back on the Menu in Chicago

Abstract: CHICAGO — Foie gras, run out of town with great fanfare two years ago, is being allowed back. On Wednesday, Chicago’s aldermen voted, 37 to 6, to repeal their ban on sales of the controversial delicacy, the fattened livers of ducks and geese. Since 2006, when this became the first major city in the United States to enact such a ban, it had been mocked by critics, including Mayor Richard M. Daley, who wondered whether aldermen should really be devoting precious time to telling Chicagoans what to eat. The banning — and subsequent un-banning — of foie gras here seemed to say more about classic Chicago politics than it did about dinner. One alderman, Joe Moore, who has long fought to outlaw the sales, arguing that foie gras is a product of animal cruelty, angrily denounced what he said was the sudden use during Wednesday’s council meeting of an obscure political rule to dump the ban without debate. Mr. Moore said he tried, pleaded, yelled to be allowed to speak, but Mr. Daley did not call on him. “This is a sad day for good government in Chicago,” Mr. Moore said later, adding that he believed many of his colleagues had simply been embarrassed by the crush of national attention. “There was a feeling among many that they just didn’t want to deal with this anymore.” But another alderman, Tom Tunney, a restaurant owner who pressed for the repeal, accused supporters of the ban of some equally fancy political maneuvering. When the aldermen voted 48 to 1 to outlaw foie gras in April 2006, it was part of a larger package of items, Mr. Tunney said, and some aldermen (including, he said, himself) did not even realize that they were approving the ban until it was too late. In the end, some restaurateurs here agree, Chicago may have spent more time talking about foie gras than many of its residents ever did eating it.

Foie Gras
Chicago (Ill)
Restaurants
Cruelty to Animals
Recalls and Bans of Products


And the Final Four Is ... We Will Know Tonight

Abstract: The Round of 16 in the N.C.A.A. men's tournament featured a dazzling array of overtime thrillers, buzzer-beaters and mesmerizing plays. With four teams vying today for the remaining two spots in the Final Four, statistics from the kenpom.com Web site to can help determine what they do well, and what could come back to haunt them. VILLANOVA The Wildcats' speed on both sides of the ball has generated openings for their sharpshooters and wreaked havoc on opposing offenses. Having that many ball handlers on the floor (four guards at once for much of the season) has also enabled Villanova to take care of the ball and get the most out of every possession. It ranks fifth in Division I in offensive turnover percentage. Villanova also ranks 27th in 3-point field-goal percentage and 12th in free-throw shooting, hallmarks of a skilled, guard-oriented team. Kyle Lowry's speed allows him to blow past defenders, and his leaping ability lets him shoot over others. Randy Foye led the Wildcats with 29 points and played all 45 minutes Friday night against Boston College, and is a continual threat to score. Villanova's long-range shooting has been streaky. Mike Nardi, a 3-point marksman all season at 41 percent, has struggled with his shot in the tournament and has played little. Allan Ray bombed away early in the tournament, but not against the Eagles. The CBS analyst Billy Packer said that the first team to play a box and one or another specialty defense against Foye could take down the Wildcats. Their interior defense is a concern too. Though Lowry and his teammates play bigger than their size, Villanova is vulnerable to physical big men and has no one to intimidate opposing shooters as Florida does. The Wildcats need Nardi and Ray to produce, or Florida's size and athletic ability could cause headaches. FLORIDA The tournament has been a coming-out party for the rambunctious big man Joakim Noah. An athletic forward, he has been a force running the break and has been active blocking shots and rebounding. With Al Horford and Corey Brewer also capable of changing the game inside, Florida can match skill up front with anyone. The Gators ranked third in the nation in effective field-goal percentage this season, a sign of an intelligent club that looks for good shots. Florida was tops in the country in field-goal percentage, which tends to happen when a team dunks on everyone. There is little in the statistical record to suggest major weaknesses in Florida's game. Point guard Taurean Green runs the show and leads the team in minutes by a wide margin. An off game or foul trouble for Green would probably doom the Gators. If he plays well against Villanova, Florida's huge frontcourt edge could win the day. The sophomore-stuffed roster is inexperienced, but the Gators may be the most complete team left in the tournament, statistically speaking. CONNECTICUT The Huskies scare the pants off any team that dares venture into the lane. They led the nation in shot-blocking for the fourth consecutive season and also lead all Division I teams in defensive effective field-goal percentage. Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone and Rudy Gay also dominate inside, ranking third in offensive rebounding percentage. Rashad Anderson showed his touch from beyond the arc in Connecticut's dramatic overtime victory against Washington. Marcus Williams is the best point guard in college basketball. But Connecticut has a lackluster nature. In its first three tournament games, the Huskies have fallen asleep for long stretches, nearly handing victories to far less talented teams each time. Their frequent lack of intensity shows: They rank 315th among the 334 Division I teams in defensive turnover percentage. Connecticut has too much talent to force so few turnovers. This team has as many N.B.A. prospects as last year's championship North Carolina club. George Mason does not match up well skillwise, so Connecticut may be able to coast and still pull out another victory. GEORGE MASON The Patriots have balanced scoring from Folarin Campbell, Jai Lewis, Tony Skinn and others. They rank 22nd in Division I in offensive effective field-goal percentage and 11th in field-goal percentage. George Mason's trademark, though, is defense, placing eighth in defensive effective field-goal percentage. Lights-out 3-point shooting so far in the tournament has made the Patriots that much tougher to beat. George Mason's rebounding is suspect (221st in offensive rebounding percentage), as is its inability to draw fouls (239th in free-throw rate). If Mason keeps making 3-pointers , the home crowd in Washington could be an X factor. Keeping Score E-mail: keepingscore@nytimes.com

NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
BASKETBALL


Australia Raises Rates for a Third Time

Abstract: HONG KONG — Australia, whose economy has rebounded rapidly this year after the global financial turmoil, on Tuesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. It was the third hike in as many months, highlighting policy makers’ confidence that the economy will continue on its upward path. The move marked the first time ever that the Reserve Bank of Australia has raised the cost of borrowing three months in a row, and indicated that the central bank’s decision makers were undeterred by the global jitters set off by Dubai World’s decision last week to defer repayment of some debt. The increase Tuesday, which took the key cash rate to 3.75 percent, had been widely expected. But it nonetheless provided a fresh reminder of Australia’s resilience in the wake of the global crisis, the fallout of which continues to dog most other developed economies. While recovery in the United States, Japan and Europe remains feeble and unemployment rates high, Australia’s economy has rebounded rapidly, thanks largely to voracious Asian demand for its natural resources. As in other countries, government stimulus measures and a string of interest rate cuts — totaling 4.25 percentage points — in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ implosion last year also helped prop up the economy. But Australia was aided by the fact that its financial system avoided the dramatic collapses and bailouts seen in the United States and Europe, and by its proximity to Asia, whose developing nations have mostly seen robust growth this year. With gross domestic product growth widely expected to return to 3.25 percent next year, Australia has been able to start scaling back its economy-boosting measures — including its earlier rate cuts — more rapidly than most other nations. So far this year, only Norway, Israel and Vietnam have nudged up the cost of borrowing again. Interest rates in Japan, Europe and the United States are expected remain at their current low levels for many months to come. “In China and Asia generally, where financial sectors are not impaired, recovery has been much quicker to date and prospects appear to be for good growth in 2010,” Glenn Stevens, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s governor, said in a statement accompanying the rate decision. He added that in Australia, the “prospects for ongoing expansion of private demand, including business investment, have been strengthening. There have been some early signs of an improvement in labor market conditions. The rate of unemployment is now likely to peak at a considerably lower level than earlier expected.” Scott Haslem, an economist at UBS in Sydney, said he expected the R.B.A. to raise interest rates further, to 4.25 percent by the end of the first quarter of next year, and to 5.5 percent by 2011. The growth and interest rate expectations have helped the Australian dollar to surge 30 percent against the U.S. dollar this year. Rising commodity prices, stimulus measures and Australia’s links to Asia have so far offset the potentially damaging effects of the currency appreciation for the country’s exporters. Longer-term, however, Mr. Haslem said, the Australian dollar’s strength is likely to weigh on sectors such as inbound tourism and manufactured exports, creating a “two-speed economy” in which the buoyant mining sector growth will outstrip growth in most other sectors.

Australia
Interest Rates
Economic Conditions and Trends


For Ramadan, Mohammad Boota Plays Drums in Queens

Abstract: It was just past 4 the other morning when Mohammad Boota pulled his Lincoln Town Car into a service station on an industrial stretch in Long Island City, Queens, and bounded out — a typhoon of embroidered fabric, good cheer and unusual urgency. “I’m late today,” he explained as he popped the car trunk, hauled out a barrel drum, grabbed two rough-hewn wooden sticks and, as a few bewildered mechanics watched, pounded out a galloping rhythm. The clamor echoed off a nearby hotel. Mr. Boota, a limousine driver, has built a sideline as a ceremonial drummer for his fellow Pakistani immigrants. He is also New York City’s foremost — and perhaps only — Ramadan drummer. A few hours before dawn during the holy month of Ramadan, drummers throughout the Muslim world take to the streets to wake the faithful in time for a meal before the daytime fast. Mr. Boota, 54, introduced the ritual to the darkened streets of Brooklyn about eight years ago. But after his drumming roused a spate of noise complaints, he restricted himself to a few blocks along Coney Island Avenue, where many Muslims live. This year, however, he has decided to push back — gently. Ramadan began on Aug. 11 and ends on Thursday, and on this recent morning Mr. Boota was taking the tradition farther afield, pioneering new drumming territory in Queens. His plan was cautious. He intended to play only in front of Pakistani-owned businesses — gas stations, corner stores, restaurants — and never as loudly as he might were he in, say, Islamabad or Karachi. “I’m not going to play where people have a problem,” he said, wearing a shimmering orange shalwar kameez — a traditional two-piece outfit — and a matching turban. “We, the Muslim people, already have so many issues.” “I want people happy, dancing, eating,” he added. “I want to keep everybody happy.” He was responding to demand, he explained. Since The New York Times published an article about him last year , Pakistanis and other Muslims have asked him to come play on their blocks. “They say, ‘Why don’t you come to our place, too?’ ” said Mr. Boota, who immigrated in 1992 and lives with his wife and eight children in Coney Island. “They want me. Everybody happy!” But now time was of the essence: Only about half an hour remained before everyone would already be up and heading to morning prayer. In the history of Ramadan, countless drummers have been stayed from their rounds by war, flood and pestilence, but probably none by early-morning tie-ups on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. As Mr. Boota hammered at his drum in the service station, a Pakistani mechanic whooped, pulled out a cellphone and began dancing a jerky, head-wobbling two-step, holding his phone aloft, relaying the performance to a friend at the other end of the line. Less than a minute later, however, Mr. Boota abruptly stopped. “Ready to go?” he asked, before jumping into his car. Several blocks north, he pulled into another service station, Punjab Auto Repair, also Pakistani-owned. Same drill. As he plastered the walls of the mechanic’s bay with percussive sound, Imran, the manager, said Mr. Boota was maintaining an important custom, even if its usefulness had been eclipsed long ago by the alarm clock. “It’s Pakistani culture,” said Imran, who gave only his first name. Then he nodded at Mr. Boota. “He’s a very famous guy,” he said, proudly. Suddenly, Mr. Boota was back in his car. “Thank you, mister,” he called out the window to a mechanic. “God bless you, Monday-to-Friday guy!” And in short order, he had driven several more blocks north, played inside a nearly empty Pakistani restaurant in Astoria, and was barreling southeast on the B.Q.E. toward Jackson Heights. Even though the debate over a planned Islamic center near ground zero has made some Muslims in New York fearful of calling attention to themselves, Mr. Boota never considered suspending his street drumming. “This is America — America has a Constitution, freedom of religion,” he said. “We’re not doing anything wrong.” He blamed politicians for inflaming the issue. “The political people are just trying to make the big smoke,” he said. Arriving in Jackson Heights, he parked on Broadway, where two large Pakistani restaurants face each other from opposite sides of the street. Except for two men drinking coffee on the sidewalk, the block was empty. Mr. Boota shattered the quiet. “What is this?” one man asked. “Is this somebody’s birthday?” Several others came to the windows of Gourmet Sweets and Restaurant. The owner teased him about arriving so late. “Time is gone,” Mr. Boota sighed, stepping inside the restaurant and playing briefly. “It’s like my big family,” he said, then sat down for a cup of tea.

Ramadan
Islam
Boota Mohammad
Queens (NYC)


Ex-Promoter in Haiti Charged in Kidnapping Ring

Abstract: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A former music promoter with ties to the Haitian president, Michel Martelly , was indicted this week, accused of running a kidnapping ring said to be responsible in the killing of a police inspector and the abductions of 17 people. But the surrogate prosecutor overseeing the case disagreed with the investigation’s findings and recommended dropping the charges, according to a charging document made public Wednesday. Human rights activists in Haiti said the mixed message in the indictment of the promoter, Woodley Ethéart , underscored how prosecutors often represent the interests of the administration that appointed them — a particularly strong trend since Mr. Martelly took office in 2011. He has been running the country without a Parliament, and several people in his circle have arrest records. Mr. Ethéart was accused of leading the Galil Gang, which is accused of abducting businessmen for ransom. In a six-year period, the gang abducted 17 people, an investigating judge wrote. The judge issued a 30-page report that said Mr. Ethéart had made several calls to the kidnappers. He also owns six cars and has seven bank accounts, despite a Ministry of Interior salary of just under $1,500 a month. “The quickness of the transactions shows the acquisition of such property is of illicit origin,” the judge, Sonel Jean François, wrote. “Investments and movements of funds are only steps to disguise the nature and the origin.” Mr. Ethéart is good friends with Charles Saint-Rémy, the president’s brother-in-law, who acknowledged calling senior government officials after Mr. Ethéart’s arrest last year, urging that he be released from custody. The president often dines at a French restaurant operated by Mr. Ethéart’s family. In an interview last week, Mr. Saint-Rémy said a politically ambitious former prime minister, Laurent Lamothe, had set Mr. Ethéart up. He added that the case had dragged on for far longer than the law permitted, which proved that the administration did not control the case. Mr. Ethéart has denied all the charges, and at least one person agreed with him: the prosecutor. In Haiti, judges conduct investigations and recommend charges for trial. A prosecutor can appeal an investigative judge’s indictment. The prosecutor, Jean Roby Dimanche, argued that most of the other defendants in the case never mentioned Mr. Ethéart’s involvement, and no evidence linked him to the crimes. Only one suspected gang member, he added, implicated Mr. Ethéart. Mr. Dimanche recommended that Mr. Ethéart be released. A prominent human rights activist, Pierre Esperance, said prosecutors were controlled by the government because they were appointed by the administration. “It is very unfortunate because the government commissioner has the role to protect the society against acts of banditry; he’s the defender of society,” Mr. Esperance said. “While he’s acting like this, it shows you how the power is complicit with the Galil Gang. As this case is a very good one and those people are being charged, I do not see how they’re going to release them unless they do a shady deal.” One of Mr. Ethéart’s lawyers, Claudy Gassant, declined to comment.

Haiti
Kidnapping and Hostages
Michel Martelly


Bosh’s 31 Lead Heat Over Lakers

Abstract: Chris Bosh scored 31 points, LeBron James added 27 points and 13 rebounds, and the Miami Heat never trailed in a 109-102 home victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. ■ Stephen Curry and Kevin Love of the West and Paul George and Kyrie Irving of the East were voted N.B.A. All-Stars for the first time. Also voted in were Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin for the West and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony for the East.


Cowboys Seal Playoff Spot With an Exclamation Point

Abstract: Dallas ended a four-year playoff drought Sunday in a dominating 42-7 victory over the visiting Indianapolis Colts, with Tony Romo throwing four touchdown passes and breaking Troy Aikman’s franchise record for passing yards. The Cowboys scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and emphatically ended a three-game home losing streak to clinch the N.F.C. East. The Colts, who did not have much to play for with the A.F.C. South title already in hand, barely avoided their first shutout loss in 21 years. The 34-year-old Romo, who is in his eighth full N.F.L. season, was 18 for 20 for 218 yards to put him at 32,971 for his career, 29 more than Aikman, a three-time Super Bowl winner. STEELERS 20, CHIEFS 12 Ben Roethlisberger passed for 220 yards and a touchdown, Le’Veon Bell added a score, and Pittsburgh locked up a postseason berth with a win over visiting Kansas City. The Steelers face Cincinnati next week for the A.F.C. North title. No matter the outcome, they will be playing playoff football for the first time since Tim Tebow and the Broncos stunned them in the wild-card round three years ago. Antonio Brown caught seven passes and a touchdown for Pittsburgh, which has won seven of nine and can clinch a division title for the first time since 2010 by beating the Bengals. The Chiefs’ Alex Smith passed for a season-high 311 yards but was sacked six times. RAIDERS 26, BILLS 24 Derek Carr threw two touchdown passes and Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals to help host Oakland knock Buffalo from playoff contention. The Bills needed to win their final two games and get some help to end the N.F.L.’s longest active playoff drought, at 14 seasons. But they failed at the easiest part: beating the lowly Raiders. PANTHERS 17, BROWNS 13 Cam Newton threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and host Carolina defeated Cleveland to take sole possession of first place in the N.F.C. South. Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart rushed for 122 yards and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass. The victory sets up a winner-take-all showdown in Atlanta between the Panthers and the Falcons for the division title. PACKERS 20, BUCCANEERS 3 Visiting Green Bay knocked off Tampa Bay to clinch at least a wild-card berth. Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson had nine receptions for 113 yards and caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers, while his fellow wide receiver Randall Cobb finished with 11 catches for 131 yards. TEXANS 25, RAVENS 13 Houston’s defense dominated visiting Baltimore to keep the Texans’ slim playoff hopes alive, as Randy Bullock kicked a franchise-record six field goals. With three quarterbacks hurt, the Texans started Case Keenum, who got his first win in nine N.F.L. starts. FALCONS 30, SAINTS 14 Atlanta wide receiver Julio Jones returned from a hip injury to catch seven passes for 107 yards, and the Falcons remained in playoff contention with a win over host New Orleans. Devonta Freeman ran for a 31-yard score for Atlanta. The Saints, who committed three turnovers in the fourth quarter, lost their fifth straight at home and were eliminated from the postseason. DOLPHINS 37, VIKINGS 35 Ryan Tannehill threw four touchdown passes to help host Miami come from behind to edge Minnesota. The Dolphins overcame a 14-0 deficit to take the lead, but they trailed again after giving up 15 points in an 11-second span in the fourth quarter.


Putin Talks to Ukrainian Leader as Videos Show Captured Russian Soldiers

Abstract: MINSK, Belarus — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held inconclusive talks late Tuesday with the president of Ukraine, extending a reluctant hand to a new leadership vilified in Russia’s state-run news media as the fruit of a fascist putsch. Hours earlier, Ukraine released videos of captured Russian soldiers that directly challenged Mr. Putin’s longstanding claim that his country has nothing to do with the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The videos, which featured men dressed in camouflage who identified themselves as members of a Russian airborne division who had been sent into Ukraine in unmarked vehicles, put new pressure on Mr. Putin to acknowledge and halt what Ukraine and its Western supporters say is an accelerating flow of military personnel and hardware into the country’s east. Analysis by Western officials indicates that Russia is orchestrating a multipronged offensive against Ukrainian forces. Russian forces have been trying to help separatists in eastern Ukraine break the siege of Luhansk, one of the main rebel-held cities, and open a corridor to another, Donetsk, from the Russian border, Western officials say. Despite this, Mr. Putin continued to cast himself as a bystander in the conflict, saying after he met with Ukraine’s president, Petro O. Poroshenko, that the rebellion was an internal matter whose solution depended on the Ukrainian government’s arranging a cease-fire. Image The Ukraine government released videos on Tuesday in which men identified themselves as captured Russian soldiers. Credit Security Service of Ukraine, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In his opening remarks at a meeting of a Moscow-led economic bloc in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which was also attended by senior officials from the European Union, Mr. Putin barely mentioned the war in eastern Ukraine, presenting himself as a pragmatic leader focused on the details of trade policy and economics. He eschewed the strident nationalism that has surged through Russia’s political elite since the March annexation of Crimea , seized from Ukraine after a covert Russian invasion, and instead returned to the issue that set off the current crisis: a sweeping trade and political deal that the European Union offered to Ukraine. Mr. Poroshenko’s predecessor as president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, rejected the deal last November under heavy pressure from Moscow, leading to months of protests that forced him to flee to Russia in February. Encouraged by Russia, Mr. Yanukovych’s political base in eastern Ukraine — notably his hometown, Donetsk — then became the center of an armed rebellion against the new authorities in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Mr. Putin, reviving the arguments he used to dissuade Mr. Yanukovych from tilting toward Europe, warned that the trade deal, which Mr. Poroshenko signed in June , would cost Ukraine billions of dollars and allow European companies to “grab everything that is still left and oust all the others” from the Ukrainian market. His shift from emotional exhortations about restoring Russian control over Ukrainian territory conquered in the 18th century by Catherine the Great to humdrum economic themes suggested that Mr. Putin might be recalibrating his strategy toward Ukraine in an effort to contain the damage caused by sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. Video At a summit in Minsk, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine shook hands with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and later said he is ready to discuss options to end the conflict in Ukraine. Credit Credit Grigory Dukor/Reuters Michael A. McFaul, President Obama’s former ambassador to Moscow who is now a professor at Stanford University, said Mr. Putin had frequently shifted between more pragmatic calculations and a nostalgia-tinged commitment to reviving Russian power, particularly over former Soviet territories like Ukraine. “Putin has always had dual impulses, lamenting the collapse of the Soviet Union but also recognizing that Russia has to integrate in the wider world,” Mr. McFaul said in a telephone interview. Russia has already cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, complaining that it has not been paid for previous deliveries, and energy shortages will grow increasingly painful for Ukraine with the approach of winter. Moscow’s long-term goal, analysts say, is not to force Ukraine to recognize the rebels’ self-declared states, which even Russia does not recognize, but to ensure that Ukraine never joins NATO or allows Western troops on its territory. But Western officials said that instead of pulling back from its military involvement, Russia had stepped up its activities to help pro-Russian rebels mount counterattacks and break the momentum of a Ukrainian offensive in the east. Ukraine greeted Tuesday’s meeting in Minsk, held in a marble-clad hall dripping with chandeliers, as a singular opportunity to end, or at least curtail, a conflict that has killed more than 2,000 people in eastern Ukraine, as well as nearly 300 people aboard a Malaysia Airlines jet shot down over rebel-held territory in July. “Today in Minsk, without any question, the fate of the world and the fate of Europe are being decided,” Mr. Poroshenko said in an opening speech to the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the three members of the Eurasian Customs Union, and officials from the European Union. Video Excerpts of an interrogation of Ivan V. Milchakov, a Russian soldier whom Ukraine said its security forces captured in the Donetsk region. Credit Credit Ukrainian Security Service But after group discussions ended and Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Putin retreated for a late-night private meeting, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus acknowledged that there had been no breakthrough, describing the talks as “very complicated” but nonetheless an important first step toward peace in Ukraine. He said lower-ranking officials would soon resume negotiations, possibly as early as Wednesday. “The positions of parties differed drastically, but we all agreed we must have a compromise,” Mr. Lukashenko told reporters. “Everyone agreed a de-escalation is needed.” Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, said that there had been no “direct discussion” of the video of captured Russian troops released early Tuesday, but that officials had talked about the need to secure the Russian-Ukrainian border, possibly with help from monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Any discussion of a cease-fire needs to ensure that Ukraine’s borders are secure,” she told reporters in Minsk. In earlier peace talks between lower-ranking Ukrainian and Russian officials, Moscow’s position on its role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine has prevented discussion of what Ukrainian officials regard as the key to stopping the conflict: a willingness from Russia to acknowledge and halt its support for the rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk. The release of the videos and the high-level talks came a day after Ukraine accused Russia of sending an armored column across the border toward the coastal city of Mariupol. That, along with other Russian moves, prompted Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the United States ambassador to Ukraine, to express alarm on Twitter. “The new columns of Russian tanks and armor crossing into Ukraine indicates a Russian-directed counteroffensive may be underway. #escalation,” he wrote. Western officials said the purpose of the push toward Mariupol, which is far from the main conflict zone, was to open a new front that would divert Ukrainian forces from Donetsk and Luhansk, and possibly to seize an outlet to the sea in the event that Russia tries to establish a permanent separatist enclave in eastern Ukraine. Two other Russian incursions, the officials said, were aimed at breaking the siege of Luhansk by Ukrainian forces and opening a supply corridor to Donetsk. To support the counteroffensive, Russia has deployed a sizable amount of artillery within range of Ukrainian forces near Luhansk. The Ukrainian forces were out of range of artillery based on Russian territory, so Moscow moved the units into Ukraine. “Russian military units with self-propelled artillery have entered eastern Ukraine and have established an operational presence in the Krasnodon area, an area controlled by Russian separatists,” a senior Obama administration official said. The videos released by Ukraine could make it more difficult for the Kremlin to stick to its approach of denying that it has any hand in the fighting, though a state-run Russian news agency cited an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying the soldiers had crossed into Ukraine by accident.

Petro Poroshenko
Vladimir Putin
Ukraine
Belarus
Russia


Making a Cake at 30,000 Feet

Abstract: WHEN I was starting out as a chef, flying anywhere was difficult. I had no money, so when I could fly someplace, it was always exciting. As I got further along in my career, I started traveling all the time. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some anxiety. It used to be all about the journey, now it’s about getting to the destination as quickly as possible. But on the other hand, I get to go to a lot of places I never thought I’d see. When we were shooting Bravo’s “Around the World in 80 Plates,” I got to go to Thailand and Uruguay, among other countries, and that’s really phenomenal for me. I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t fun being recognized. Some of the questions I get are kind of over the top. When I was on “Celebrity Apprentice,” people would want to know about Donald Trump’s hair and personality and whether some of the contestants I was pitted against were really as aggressive as they seemed on TV. The answer to that question was always “yes.” Sometimes I actually get to cook on board. I was traveling alone on my birthday a few years ago, and an attendant I was speaking with asked me if I wanted to make a cake for myself. She had a specialty chocolate cake box mix that she had just purchased during a layover in Germany, I believe. I wasn’t sure if the cake mix would actually work at 30,000 feet, and it would be pretty embarrassing if my cake came out flat. I was relieved when it actually came out looking like a cake. It was pretty good, too, no thanks to me. I did share. When you fly a lot, you learn to expect the unexpected. One flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne really took unexpected to a new level. About midway through the first movie, I heard an announcement asking if there was a doctor on board. That’s not something anyone really wants to hear. Surprisingly, no one rang the call bell. A few minutes later, they started asking for a midwife or nurse. I was thinking this can’t be good since again I didn’t hear any call bells go off. I started getting a little nervous. I’m qualified in first aid and I was thinking, “Man, do I need to do something?” The next thing I know an obviously pregnant young woman was taken to the galley area. The attendants closed the curtains. I was sitting just a few feet away, so I could hear everything. Apparently, the woman was just a few weeks away from the cutoff point where she was no longer allowed to fly during pregnancy. But she was experiencing labor pains and had all the signs of an imminent delivery. There’s a lot of water between Los Angeles and Melbourne, and the pilot said we were going to make an emergency landing in Hawaii. It was the first time I didn’t hear a lot of grumbling from passengers about a diversion. The woman was obviously in distress, and gave birth before we made that emergency landing. It was very quiet. Once we made it to Hawaii, a bunch of medics came on board and whisked her and the baby away. The pilot then made the announcement that the woman seemed fine and had given birth to a baby boy. The entire plane broke out into applause. I was happy for her, and relieved that I didn’t have to do anything. I’m much better in the kitchen than I am in the delivery room.

Around the World in 80 Plates (TV Program)