Red Tape on Spanish Visa Leaves Syrian Girl’s Surgery in Limbo

Abstract: MADRID — Sham Aldaher came into the world in Jordan last July, safe from the horrors of the Syrian war that her family had fled, but born with a disfigured face and missing an eye. Doctors said she required urgent and complex surgery. A children’s hospital in Barcelona has offered her free emergency care. But bureaucratic obstacles have left her stranded among other Syrian refugees in Jordan . She has been unable to obtain a Spanish visa, despite the support of a team of international lawyers. The kind of red tape that risks leaving Sham with permanent disfiguration underlines the shortcomings of the efforts of Western governments to provide a coordinated and efficient response to a mass influx of Syrians and other refugees, according to lawyers. “I’m seeing a lot of cases of children with critical needs who can’t move anywhere because of political roadblocks,” said Jayne Fleming, the pro bono counsel and the leader of the human rights team at Reed Smith, an American law firm. “I don’t want to demonize Spain, but there is certainly a need for more cooperation between governments.” Spain’s Foreign Ministry said that Sham’s visa application had not been processed because it did not meet the required application criteria. A spokeswoman said the ministry could re-evaluate the infant’s case. Spain, like other European countries, has been heavily criticized by humanitarian organizations for taking in far fewer migrants than it had said it would accept. Under a European Union agreement last year, Spain pledged to admit 16,000 migrants from refugee camps in Italy and Greece. It has also agreed to receive a smaller number of refugees from Syria’s neighboring countries. Spain’s interior minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, said this month that the country planned to welcome 1,000 migrants by the end of the summer. However, Spain has fast-tracked some special cases. Last month, the foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, announced that the government was processing the application of Osman Ahmed, a 7-year-old Afghan who has cerebral palsy and who was in a refugee camp in Greece. However, Jörn Halling, a German lawyer with Reed Smith also working on Sham’s case, said that the Spanish Embassy in Amman, Jordan’s capital, had advised him that Spain’s resettlement program did not cover Jordan, which meant that the embassy could not process her visa. Sham and the rest of her family — her parents and three siblings — have received conditional approval to resettle in the United States. But their American applications are subject to background checks, with no date set for their completion. Furthermore, no American hospital has so far offered the free treatment that would now be available to Sham in Barcelona, Ms. Fleming said. Rubén Díaz, one of the directors of the Sant Joan de Déu hospital in Barcelona, said that in late March his doctors offered to perform the surgery Sham needed and provide six months of free treatment, but that the hospital was not involved in resolving the visa issue. “Part of the reasoning to use our center is that it would be easier to get here” from Jordan, Dr. Díaz said. “As it turned out, it has not, because of the visa problem.” The initial treatment in Barcelona would leave Sham needing more operations into her adult years, as her face continues to grow. But the first surgery is crucial “to prevent permanent disfigurement,” Ms. Fleming said. The city of Barcelona has also offered to cover all of the family’s expenses while Sham is in the hospital, she said. The advanced surgery Sham needs cannot be performed in Jordan, but she was examined there by doctors, including a visiting American craniofacial surgeon, David Matthews, to establish the urgency of her case. Ms. Fleming said that she and her colleagues were still studying alternatives to resolve the visa problem. The child’s family, she said, would be willing to relocate to any European country that could both guarantee their safety and provide Sham with the care she needs, even as they remain on the resettlement track for the United States. The family fled Syria for Jordan in 2013. “We understand every country is overwhelmed and lacking resources, but this is one case where we have identified resources, and it is just a problem of a visa and administrative roadblocks,” Ms. Fleming said.

Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis


O’Bannon Ruling Stands, but N.C.A.A.’s Status Quo May Yet Collapse

Abstract: The chances that the United States Supreme Court would ever agree to hear the O’Bannon case were always low. O’Bannon — named for the lead plaintiff, the former U.C.L.A. basketball star Ed O’Bannon — was the lawsuit brought in 2009 and tried in 2014 that offered the first serious legal challenge to the N.C.A.A.’s amateurism rules. The year after it was tried, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made a ruling that left neither side happy . On one hand, the appeals court panel agreed with Judge Claudia Wilken of the Federal District Court that “the N.C.A.A.’s compensation rules were an unlawful restraint of trade.” Yet, paradoxically, two of the three judges also concluded that preserving amateurism was an important goal and that any compensation athletes might receive had to be related to education. In effect, the court upheld the very compensation rules that it earlier described as a restraint of trade — just a slightly tweaked version. Both sides eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court agrees to hear only around 1 percent of petitioned cases. Add in the facts that O’Bannon presented issues the Supreme Court had never before considered, that the court is short a justice because of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and that there are several other big N.C.A.A. cases coming up the legal pipeline — and, well, it was hardly a surprise that the Supreme Court turned down the case on Monday morning . Nor was it a surprise that both sides were quick to claim victory. The N.C.A.A.’s general counsel, Donald Remy, said in a statement, “We remain pleased that the Ninth Circuit agrees with us that amateurism is an essential component of college sports and that N.C.A.A. members should not be forced by the courts to provide benefits untethered to education.” The lead lawyer for O’Bannon, Michael Hausfeld, noted in his statement that the court’s finding that the N.C.A.A.’s rules violated antitrust laws remained in force. Image An image of O’Bannon from the video game NCAA Basketball 09. Credit EA Sports Now that the case is finally over, though, two questions still hang in the air. The first is: After six years of legal machinations and millions of dollars spent in legal fees, what did the O’Bannon case really accomplish? At first glance, it might not seem like all that much. But I would argue that O’Bannon has had an enormous effect; indeed, the legal rulings are the least of it. As the first case involving athletes fighting the N.C.A.A. to gain any traction in court, O’Bannon reaped an enormous amount of publicity. (It didn’t hurt that the lead plaintiff was a high-profile former N.C.A.A. champion who was eloquent and highly credible.) Reporters and others began to take a closer look at the N.C.A.A.’s rules and discovered what a small group of critics had been saying for years: Many of the rules were unfair, trivial and, in some cases, idiotic. This increased scrutiny put the college sports establishment on the defensive. And it began to make changes, at least on the margins, to improve the lot of college athletes. Some schools began offering four-year scholarships, instead of one-year scholarships that could be renewed annually (or not) at coaches’ discretion. There was increased focus on health concerns and the amount of time athletes had to spend on their sport. Even before the courts ruled in favor of increasing benefits to cover the “full cost of attendance,” the five major conferences had begun moving in that direction. When Kevin Ware, the Louisville basketball player, suffered a gruesome leg injury during an N.C.A.A. tournament game in 2013, a number of sports columns were published asking whether the school would take care of Ware even if he couldn’t play again. It is unlikely that such questions would have been asked a decade ago. The next year, at the Final Four, Shabazz Napier, a star guard for Connecticut, complained that he often went to bed hungry because of N.C.A.A. rules. The rules were almost immediately rescinded. Would Napier have been willing to raise that complaint before O’Bannon? Maybe — but more likely not. Would Kain Colter, the Northwestern quarterback, have tried to unionize the Northwestern football team a few years ago without O’Bannon? That seems unlikely, too. Thanks to O’Bannon, the college sports establishment was forced to make life a little better for athletes. But it also raised the consciousness of many athletes, causing them to realize that the deal they had struck with the universities they played for was pretty one-sided. Finally, the fact that the N.C.A.A. has been labeled an antitrust violator, thanks to O’Bannon, is no small thing. That leads to the second question: What comes now? The answer is that two more cases , which are both being heard by Judge Wilken, are also aimed at overturning the N.C.A.A.’s amateurism rules. One is known as the Jenkins case; it argues that the N.C.A.A.’s compensation limits have no justification under antitrust law. The other is the Alston case, which seeks damages for all the years in which athletes weren’t compensated for the full cost of attendance, even though they were entitled to it, according to the O’Bannon ruling. The fact that the N.C.A.A. has been branded an antitrust violator is hugely advantageous to the plaintiffs. The N.C.A.A. knows it, too, which is why it wanted the Supreme Court to take the O’Bannon case: in the hope that the court would overturn that antitrust label. “I’ve always thought the O’Bannon result was more advantageous to us than it was to them,” Jeffrey Kessler, the lead lawyer in the Jenkins case, said on Monday. “Ultimately, unless the N.C.A.A. gets an antitrust exemption, competition is going to win out.” In August, Judge Wilken declined the N.C.A.A.’s motion to dismiss the cases. Although she is constrained by the Ninth Circuit’s ruling on compensation, she has also sounded sympathetic to the idea that athletes should receive more benefits than they do now. If she rules for the plaintiffs, it is likely that she will search for remedies that put more in players’ pockets. O’Bannon may be over, but the legal fight it began — over amateurism and player compensation — remains a long way from being finished.

College Sports
NCAA
Supreme Court,SCOTUS
Lawsuits
Decisions and Verdicts
Competition law
Ed O'Bannon
College basketball


Syria Rushes to Scrub Signs of Assault on Homs

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — With the Syrian military’s wholesale assault on the central city of Homs over, antigovernment protests descended into skirmishing in several towns and cities across the country on Tuesday, while opponents and supporters of President Bashar al-Assad traded barbed remarks about ending the violence. Mr. Assad’s government seemed determined to scrub as many signs of its monthlong assault as possible from Homs before showing it to the world. But reports of violent mopping-up operations continued to filter out from the city, especially widespread arrests and periodic executions, mostly of young men. “The government has control over Homs again,” said a 50-year-old Homs resident who had managed to flee to safety in Beirut. “They are arresting many people.” Empty buses were seen moving into neighborhoods, then leaving filled with young men and boys, she said. A grainy, shaky video of soldiers walloping young men as they pushed them onto what appeared to be a green military bus was shown on Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, but it was not clear where or when the footage had been taken. The mopping-up operations also seemed aimed at clearing up pockets of resistance; the Homs resident said helicopters had been seen flying low over the city, followed by explosions. The government and the opposition accused each other over a massacre whose 18 victims were shown on Addounia, a Syrian satellite television station, with gruesome details of the fatal gunshot wounds. On the wall behind the men a message in pale script, purportedly signed by the Free Syrian Army, an anti-Assad resistance force, said that the deaths were the fate of all collaborators. But the opposition said the victims, named in a press release from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, had been killed by the government and were all members of at least three families in the Sabuh clan. A convoy bearing aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross was blocked from entering the embattled Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs for a fifth day, while Syrian state television boasted about the immense cleanup operation. Bulldozers were shown pushing aside piles of rubble from heavily pockmarked buildings while residents were filmed sweeping the streets. “Thank God the Syrian Army came so we can return to our homes,” crowed one woman, while most of the interviews that were shown featured people making disparaging remarks about the “armed terrorist gangs” that they said held them hostage during the siege. Residents who fled in recent days spoke of the smell of death and piles of garbage drifting like snowbanks, casting a pall over the city. “When we fled there were still dead bodies on the floor,” said a 62-year-old great-grandmother who fled Homs for Tripoli, Lebanon. “We had to leave them all,” she added. “It smelled of blood, destroyed houses and ruins. There were dead people under the ruins of buildings.” Elsewhere in Syria , fatal clashes were reported in neighborhoods in the southern city of Dara’a, the font of the year-old Syrian uprising, where tanks and other heavy weaponry firing into a residential neighborhood had killed five members of one family and grievously wounded a sixth, opposition activists said. They said that the Syrian Army had also shelled a 12-foot-wide concrete bridge over the Orontes River into Lebanon that had been used to ferry out the wounded, including foreign journalists, from the fighting around Homs. The shelling made the bridge impassable, the activists said. In Washington, President Obama said at a televised news conference that “what is happening in Syria is heartbreaking and outrageous.” He repeated previous statements that the question of Mr. Assad’s leaving was only a matter of time, but again dispelled the notion that there would be any quick military solution, calling Syria a “much more complicated situation” than Libya. There the West intervened militarily and contributed to the downfall of its autocratic ruler, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, last October. “For us to take military action unilaterally or to think there is some simple solution, I think, is a mistake,” Mr. Obama said, noting that military intervention must both be effective and address problems that are essential for United States security. “This notion that the way to solve every one of these problems is to deploy our military — that has not been true in the past, and it won’t be true now.” In Damascus, Mr. Assad told a visiting delegation from the Ukrainian Parliament that his government’s power stemmed from the support of the Syrian people, the official Syria Arab News Agency reported. As he has many times, Mr. Assad described fomenters of the uprising against him as foreign-backed terrorists. In a further sign of Mr. Assad’s isolation, members of the European Union were weighing expelling all Syrian ambassadors from their capitals, news reports said. At the United Nations, the five permanent members of the Security Council and its Arab member, Morocco, began consultations on a new resolution on Syria even as Valerie Amos, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, was scheduled to arrive in Damascus on Wednesday. Russia and China, Mr. Assad’s most important foreign supporters, vetoed two previous Security Council resolutions, saying they were imbalanced in blaming only the government for the violence, and they were already rumbling in discontent about the new effort. The obstacle to getting a resolution passed is the difficulty in how it frames the violence leading to the humanitarian crisis, diplomats involved in the negotiations said. China sent an envoy to Syria, while in Moscow the Foreign Ministry issued a statement warning that the end of the Russian election would not bring any change in the country’s support for Syria. “Russia’s position on a Syrian settlement was never subject to political considerations and is not formed under the influence of electoral cycles,” the ministry’s statement said. “Our approaches to a resolution of internal conflicts are based on international law and the United Nations Charter,” it said. “We are talking primarily about strict adherence to the principle of inadmissibility of interference from outside.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Canada: Family Lived With Body

Abstract: Members of an Ontario family lived with a corpse in a bedroom for six months because they believed the dead man would be resurrected if they prayed. The body was discovered in September 2013 when the family was evicted for not paying the mortgage. Peter Wald, 52, died in March 2013 of what the authorities believe were natural causes linked to diabetes, a defense lawyer, Peter Boushy, said. Kaling Wald, 50, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the police that her husband had died, and was sentenced Monday to probation and counseling, Mr. Boushy said Tuesday. Ms. Wald had left the body in a bed and sealed up the bedroom in the Hamilton, Ontario, home where the two lived with their six children and other adults. “There clearly was an overexuberance of one’s faith,” Mr. Boushy said.


Canada: 5 Cuban Dancers Stay on After Performances

Abstract: Five members of the Cuban National Ballet remained in Canada after performances in Montreal last month. Catherine Chang, a spokeswoman for the National Ballet of Canada, said on Thursday that some of the Cubans are now taking classes with that company in Toronto. She declined to give any information about the dancers’ plans. The Montreal Gazette reported that only one of the dancers remained in Montreal. The federal government, citing privacy rules regarding immigration matters, declined to comment. The Cuban government, however, has confirmed that five members of the company have not returned to Cuba . In 2007, three dancers from the Cuban National Ballet defected to the United States after performing in Ontario.

Cuba
Dancing
Immigration and Emigration
Canada


An American Grand Prix Racing Dream Come True

Abstract: Mario Andretti, 73, raced in Formula One from 1968 to 1982, winning 12 Grands Prix and in 1978 becoming only the second American world drivers’ champion in the history of the series, after Phil Hill in 1961. Voted Driver of the Quarter Century in 1992 by peers and journalists, Andretti also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1969 and the Daytona 500 in 1967 and he captured the IndyCar title four times. In 1993, he became the oldest winner of an IndyCar race, at 53 years and 34 days. He raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans into his 60s, and won a class victory there in 1995. His son, Michael, won the IndyCar title in 1991 and raced one season in Formula One, in 1993. His grandson, Marco, races in IndyCar. Andretti is the official ambassador for the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, site of the U.S. Grand Prix this weekend. He spoke with Brad Spurgeon of The International New York Times. Q. Few drivers in the world have raced in as many different series as you did. Yet you have continued to promote Formula One and to be a staunch supporter of the series. Why? A. That’s very easy. When I became really enamored, when I became fascinated with motor sports, it was with Formula One. I was born and raised in Italy, and that was my first love. And as my career developed, I always had an eye to Formula One. And I love motor sports in general, all the different disciplines, including MotoGP. But to me, Formula One has always been pretty much at the forefront of my thoughts. And having participated as part of my career and having had my success there, I created another home. I just feel so much at home with everyone in Formula One and I always stayed in touch. I still continue to just love that series because it is still the pinnacle of technology and hasn’t lost any of that, and I hope it doesn’t. So it’s got the ingredients that I love. And some of the other forms are just losing that, going to the spec series situation and all of that. I mean the racing is fabulous, but I like the technical side as well — so that’s my draw right there. Q. Did the first U.S. Grand Prix in Austin last year help change attitudes toward Formula One in the United States? A. The way I see it, I think the facility itself in Austin really made a significant impression, not only locally, but also internationally. And I think the international buzz is much more important, because that is where you are measuring up to. And finally, I think here in the United States we have a facility that can rival some of the Taj Mahals that have been popping up all over the world. And quite honestly I think it established itself with a stellar reputation immediately, and not only now because the Grand Prix is coming up. That venue has been talked about throughout the season because of activities from other disciplines — MotoGP is another huge international event that was highly successful. Every event that they have staged there with other series seemed like it was a bigger event than wherever else they go. As far as rekindling a lot of interest here in the United States for Formula One, I think this was really the pill that was needed. It takes longer to get the national media interested because there are so many other distractions here: You have the other major motor sport disciplines — you have Nascar, you have IndyCar, and so forth. So as a motor-sport event, sometimes Formula One doesn’t really prioritize here as in other countries. I see that changing dramatically. I think a lot of good work has happened since the event last year. Q. New Jersey is on the calendar for a Grand Prix in 2014 and there is talk of adding a third race in the United States. Is that overkill, or could it change the attitude toward the sport to have up to three races in the United States? A. This is a vast territory, North America, and I think the more the merrier. I think just to have two U.S. events, you have Canada and now I don’t know if it is going to happen next year, but for sure there’s going to be Mexico, so technically they have four races in the North American continent. It can only help one another, it can only help the interest in the series itself here. And in the North American continent, where you have so much other motor racing, so many other activities, big-time activities, I think it can only be good. Image Mario Andretti is the official ambassador for the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Credit Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune Q. People say it will take an American driver to make Formula One popular in the United States. But there was already Mario Andretti — and you were not just winning races, you were world champion — and before you there was Phil Hill. How much effect did your period have on increasing the popularity? A. I think the popularity grew because of the success of Long Beach in the ’70s, which was a very unlikely event to succeed, mainly because most of the street-racing events were pretty much becoming things of the past in Europe, except for Monte Carlo. And yet all of a sudden, here one was coming up in the United States in an unlikely place for it to happen. But it was an instant success. And for me, it was somewhat tragic for Formula One to lose Watkins Glen because the crowds were always immense there, unbelievable. And because it had such a long run and it was established. But unfortunately, with the safety aspect and all of that, no one really reinvested in the Glen like they should have to keep the venue. And so it had to migrate somewhere else. Unfortunately that migration was, everything was temporary — Long Beach was a temporary course, and then Phoenix was temporary and then Dallas. They were bouncing around like a circus that had no stability. But O.K., I was driving and there was a U.S. element involved, but quite honestly it didn’t have the widespread television coverage that it has today. But my activities were reported in The New York Times and all of that, so we were definitely mainstream — “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” had us as part of the winning side, not “the agony of defeat.” So I think it was a positive moment, but to get back to what you’re trying to say, would it be really the ticket to be represented by an American driver? You’re damned right. And the fact that we have a home base now, a solid home base, I think it could be the beginning of that, potentially. It could be something that some of our best talents might have reason to want to navigate toward. All these things will not happen overnight. Q. What are Marco’s chances? A. I’d love to see that. God, I’d love to see that. But I think the key message here is that you can’t have someone just going there and joining a third-, fourth-category team. It’s not just being there; you’ve got to be there and bring results. Otherwise you’re just there. It’s all about winning, it’s all about being at the top of the step. But you’ve got to have the ingredients behind you and you’ve got to have someone behind you to embrace you and give you this opportunity. Q. It seems Americans now come to Europe to learn the ropes in European formulas and they are forgotten or unknown at home as a result. But would winning make up for that? A. Yes, I hear this all the time, that you have to go there, you can’t just stay here. You know something? There is no system. There is nothing. I mean if there was a specific formula that you had to follow, they would get you there. I hear that all the time. No, they are just different paths to trying to reach the same thing. It is all about having the talent, and being able to take advantage of opportunities at the right time, and shining when you need to shine. I don’t care where you’re coming from. If there was really a formula to be followed then you would follow it and then they would get you. But there are no guarantees no matter what you do, no matter where you live, or where your apartment is, whether it is in Paris or in New Jersey. Q. But does Formula One really want an American driver? Can an American really fit in? There is a very British side… A. To be honest with you, there is a degree of snobbishness there, in my opinion, but it is all about proving yourself. Even myself when I delved into it there were the sceptics: “Oh, you can’t drive that way… Americans can’t do this, they can’t do that.” When Kenny Roberts went to Europe they said there’s no way an American can drive a wet race, but he blew them away. You’ve just got to prove yourself. It’s all about results. You can talk until the cows come home. But the bottom line is if you bring the results, you do your job, then you’ve earned their respect. This is the only country in the world that can provide a racing driver with a really brilliant career without having a passport, with the disciplines that exist here, when you think about it.

Formula One
Car Racing
Indy 500
Le Mans Race


Egypt’s Unrest Prompts Worry and Planning

Abstract: JERUSALEM — The street revolt in Egypt has thrown the Israeli government and military into turmoil, with top officials closeted in round-the-clock strategy sessions aimed at rethinking their most significant regional relationship. Israel ’s military planning relies on peace with Egypt; nearly half the natural gas it uses is imported from Egypt; and the principle of trading conquered land for diplomatic ties began with its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt more than with any other foreign leader, except President Obama. If Mr. Mubarak were driven from power, the effect on Israel could be profound. “For the United States, Egypt is the keystone of its Middle East policy,” a senior official said. “For Israel, it’s the whole arch.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mr. Netanyahu has ordered his ministers and their officials to stay publicly silent on Egypt while events there play out. Many analysts here said that even if Mr. Mubarak were forced to leave office, those who replaced him could maintain Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, since it is the basis for more than $1 billion in annual aid to Cairo from Washington and much foreign investment. But others noted that the best-organized political force in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is hostile to Israel and close to Hamas, the Palestinian rulers in Gaza whose weapons-smuggling the Egyptian government works to block. As the government evacuated the families of envoys from Egypt over the weekend, public affairs broadcasts and newspapers in Israel focused on the unfolding events there. Most of the predictions were dire. Two of three newspapers with the largest circulations, Yediot Aharonot and Maariv, had identical front-page headlines: “A New Middle East.” It was an ironic reference to the phrase used frequently in the 1990s by President Shimon Peres and other advocates of coexistence who argued that if Israel made peace with its neighbors, a more prosperous and enlightened region would bloom. Events of the past five years — the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran’s influence in Iraq and the shift by Turkey toward Iran and Syria — have turned many Israelis rightward, fearing that the more time passes the more the region is against them. Israelis worry that Jordan is in a precarious state and a successful overthrow in Egypt could spread there. And if the Muslim Brotherhood were to gain power in Egypt, that would probably mean not only a stronger Islamist force in Gaza but also in the West Bank, currently run by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, as well as in Jordan, meaning Israel would feel surrounded in a way it has not in decades. If Egypt also turned unfriendly, that would quite likely stop in its tracks any further Israeli talk of peace negotiations with the Palestinians, officials and analysts said. A peace treaty with the West Bank would involve yielding territory and military control to a relatively weak Palestinian Authority. Trading land for peace with autocrats like Mr. Mubarak, some analysts say, is not a sound basis for enduring treaties. There has long been concern that popular sentiment in Egypt is anti-Israel. Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Cairo, wrote in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, “The only people in Egypt who are committed to peace are the people in Mubarak’s inner circle, and if the next president is not one of them, we are going to be in trouble.” Mr. Mubarak has just named Omar Suleiman, his right-hand man and the country’s intelligence chief, as his vice president; Israelis would be reassured if he were to inherit power. Other establishment figures, while less friendly to Israel, would most likely maintain some kind of continuity. But Israelis feared that nothing was certain. They noted that if Mr. Mubarak were to go, Mr. Netanyahu could be left without an ally in the region. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has been highly critical of Israel since the Gaza war two years ago and even more so after Israeli commandos killed nine Turks aboard a flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza last May. King Abdullah II of Jordan, while honoring his country’s peaceful relations with Israel, has been critical of Mr. Netanyahu since he took office two years ago and has declined to meet with him as well. For the military here, a serious change in Egypt means a strategic shift in planning. Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser and a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said even if Egypt did not cancel its peace treaty with Israel tomorrow or in five years, a government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood would mean “you can’t exclude the possibility of a war with Egypt.” “During the last 30 years,” he said, “when we had any military confrontation, whether in the first or second Lebanon wars, the intifadas, in all those events we could be confident that Egypt would not try to intervene militarily.” Dan Schueftan, director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, said thanks to its treaty with Egypt, Israel had reduced its defense expenditure from 23 percent of its gross national product in the 1970s to 9 percent today and made serious cuts in its army. The relationship with Egypt also allowed Israel to withdraw from Gaza in 2005, since Egypt covered Gaza from the south. Despite Mr. Mubarak’s supportive relations with Israel, many Israelis on both the left and right are sympathetic to the Egyptians’ desire to rid themselves of his autocracy and build a democracy. But they fear what will follow if things move too quickly. “We know this has to do with the desire for freedom, prosperity and opportunity, and we support people who don’t want to live under tyranny, but who will take advantage of what is happening in its wake?” a top official said. “The prevailing sense here is that you need a certain stability followed by reform. Snap elections are likely to bring a very different outcome.” Israeli analysts also noted that Egypt had worked hard to oppose Iranian ambitions, and the loss of Egypt as a counterweight would have consequences. Mr. Schueftan of the University of Haifa made this point, saying, “If this cornerstone is removed or even in doubt, the overall picture for Israel changes and the threats become much more realistic than before.”

Israel
Egypt
Netanyahu Benjamin
Mubarak Hosni
International Relations
Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt)
Middle East
Demonstrations Protests and Riots


With Fewer Terror Trials, Manhattan Court Quiets Down

Abstract: The courtroom was packed. Sketch artists were in place. Journalists and other spectators squeezed into seats. Marshals kept a watchful eye. The place was Federal District Court in Manhattan, where a Pakistani neuroscientist was to be arraigned on criminal charges on Tuesday. Government officials have said that the scientist, Aafia Siddiqui , was a Qaeda operative. But that day, as it turned out, most in the crowd were apparently interested in seeing another defendant, John A. Gotti, whose murder conspiracy case was being called first. When Mr. Gotti’s hearing ended, spectators began to stream out of court. If the scene at first suggested another era, the 1990s, when a number of major international terrorism prosecutions ended up in New York and drew widespread attention, the more muted hearing for Ms. Siddiqui this week underscored the reality that New York has largely lost its title as the terrorism-trial capital. Indeed, that title is now held by another forum, run by the military, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where the trial of Osama bin Laden’s former driver came to an end this week. But there was once a time — before Sept. 11, 2001 — when the federal court in Lower Manhattan was the center of the action. There were trials stemming from the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 and in the bombings of two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 10 years ago, Aug. 7, 1998. There were also trials in the foiled plots to blow up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and other landmarks in New York City; and to blast apart as many as a dozen American commercial airliners as they flew over the Pacific Ocean. Among those convicted were terrorists like Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman; and later, several Qaeda operatives, including Wadih el-Hage, who prosecutors said was a close aide to Mr. bin Laden. While not all of the cases involved New York City-based terrorism, there were logical reasons to try the defendants in Manhattan. The airliner plot was linked to Mr. Yousef, who was behind the first trade center attack; and the embassy bombings were carried out by Al Qaeda, which federal prosecutors in Manhattan had been investigating. After 9/11, the federal government indicted Zacarias Moussaoui, in the attacks, in federal court in Alexandria, Va., where jurors were considered to be more pro-death penalty than in New York. The jury there gave Mr. Moussaoui a life sentence. Other high-level suspects ended up in the military-run system. “The bottom line is that they are just not being brought here anymore,” said Anthony L. Ricco, a lawyer who represented defendants in two 1990s trials and also in one of the few cases tried after 2001. Mr. Ricco said he believed that the fact that a federal jury in Manhattan did not impose the death penalty on two bombers convicted in the 1998 embassy attacks influenced government officials in deciding to charge Mr. Moussaoui in Virginia. To be sure, there have been terrorism prosecutions in Manhattan federal court since the 9/11 attacks, including a number in which defendants were charged with providing support to Al Qaeda. But the era of large trials growing out of the blockbuster attacks that characterized the 1990s cases seems to have moved on. Prosecutors have not explained why they charged Ms. Siddiqui in Manhattan, given the accusation against her: that she tried to kill F.B.I. agents and military personnel in Afghanistan. Her name did surface in one of the recent terrorism trials in Manhattan, suggesting that the authorities had an interest in her before her recent arrest. After her arraignment this week, Ms. Siddiqui’s lawyers, Elizabeth M. Fink and Elaine Whitfield Sharp, held a press conference in which they declared her innocence and made clear that they intended to fight her case outside the courthouse as well as inside. Such a highly public strategy also recalled the approach taken by some lawyers in the 1990s trials. “We’re going to bring whatever we can to the court here — and the court of public opinion,” Ms. Fink declared. The decision to prosecute Ms. Siddiqui in New York spurred discussion this week among some terrorism experts about the significance of the move. Andrew C. McCarthy, a former assistant United States attorney who helped to prosecute the landmarks bomb plot, said the Siddiqui case demonstrated that “we’re actually starting to get to a place where we’re developing some coherent principles about which cases ought to go into which system.” But Joshua L. Dratel, a lawyer who has handled terrorism cases in federal court and at Guantánamo Bay, disagreed, saying the case underscored how arbitrary the decisions had become. “What are the distinguishing criteria?” he asked. “Why does one end up as a criminal defendant and another as an enemy combatant?” Government officials had linked Ms. Siddiqui, who studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to terrorists before her recent arrest. In 2004, the F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller, described her as “an Al Qaeda operative and facilitator.” But the charges filed this week were more narrowly drawn. A complaint says that as she was about to be questioned in an Afghan police station last month, she picked up an M-4 rifle and fired twice in the direction of an American soldier who was part of a team of F.B.I. agents and military personnel who had come to interrogate her. None of the Americans in the police station were hurt; another soldier fired at her with a pistol, wounding her in the torso. So what might have been a potentially complex terrorism matter turned into a more straightforward case, Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University, said. “You’ve got someone, a wanted Al Qaeda operative, who materializes in an Afghan police station, grabs a weapon, and tries to shoot U.S. officers,” Professor Hoffman said, summarizing the government’s claim. “There’s no intelligence data that needs to be introduced, no sources and methods that need to be risked” in the relatively open forum of the Manhattan federal courthouse, Professor Hoffman said. “It’s a good old-fashioned crime; it’s the equivalent of a 1920s gangster with a tommy gun.”

Siddiqui Aafia
Terrorism
Federal District Courts
Manhattan (NYC)


What Happened to the Craftsmanship Spirit? — Essay

Abstract: NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. THE scene inside the Home Depot on Weyman Avenue here would give the old-time American craftsman pause. In Aisle 34 is precut vinyl flooring, the glue already in place. In Aisle 26 are prefab windows. Stacked near the checkout counters, and as colorful as a Fisher-Price toy, is a not-so-serious-looking power tool: a battery-operated saw-and-drill combo. And if you don’t want to be your own handyman, head to Aisle 23 or Aisle 35, where a help desk will arrange for an installer. It’s all very handy stuff, I guess, a convenient way to be a do-it-yourselfer without being all that good with tools. But at a time when the American factory seems to be a shrinking presence, and when good manufacturing jobs have vanished, perhaps never to return, there is something deeply troubling about this dilution of American craftsmanship. This isn’t a lament — or not merely a lament — for bygone times. It’s a social and cultural issue, as well as an economic one. The Home Depot approach to craftsmanship — simplify it, dumb it down, hire a contractor — is one signal that mastering tools and working with one’s hands is receding in America as a hobby, as a valued skill, as a cultural influence that shaped thinking and behavior in vast sections of the country. That should be a matter of concern in a presidential election year. Yet neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney promotes himself as tool-savvy presidential timber, in the mold of a Jimmy Carter, a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker. The Obama administration does worry publicly about manufacturing, a first cousin of craftsmanship. When the Ford Motor Company, for example, recently announced that it was bringing some production home, the White House cheered. “When you see things like Ford moving new production from Mexico to Detroit, instead of the other way around, you know things are changing,” says Gene B. Sperling , director of the National Economic Council. Ask the administration or the Republicans or most academics why America needs more manufacturing, and they respond that manufacturing spawns innovation, brings down the trade deficit, strengthens the dollar, generates jobs, arms the military and kindles a recovery from recession . But rarely, if ever, do they publicly take the argument a step further, asserting that a growing manufacturing sector encourages craftsmanship and that craftsmanship is, if not a birthright, then a vital ingredient of the American self-image as a can-do, inventive, we-can-make-anything people. That self-image is deteriorating. And the symptoms go far beyond Home Depot. They show up in the wistful popularity of books like “Shop Class as Soulcraft,” by Matthew B. Crawford, in TV cooking classes featuring the craftsmanship of celebrity chefs, and in shows like “This Old House.” Traditional vocational training in public high schools is gradually declining, stranding thousands of young people who seek training for a craft without going to college. Colleges, for their part, have since 1985 graduated fewer chemical, mechanical, industrial and metallurgical engineers, partly in response to the reduced role of manufacturing, a big employer of them. The decline started in the 1950s, when manufacturing generated a hefty 28 percent of the national income, or gross domestic product, and employed one-third of the work force. Today, factory output generates just 12 percent of G.D.P. and employs barely 9 percent of the nation’s workers. Mass layoffs and plant closings have drawn plenty of headlines and public debate over the years, and they still occasionally do. But the damage to skill and craftsmanship — what’s needed to build a complex airliner or a tractor, or for a worker to move up from assembler to machinist to supervisor — went largely unnoticed. “In an earlier generation, we lost our connection to the land, and now we are losing our connection to the machinery we depend on,” says Michael Hout, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley . “People who work with their hands,” he went on, “are doing things today that we call service jobs, in restaurants and laundries, or in medical technology and the like.” That’s one explanation for the decline in traditional craftsmanship. Lack of interest is another. The big money is in fields like finance. Starting in the 1980s, skill in finance grew in stature, and, as depicted in the news media and the movies, became a more appealing source of income. By last year, Wall Street traders, bankers and those who deal in real estate generated 21 percent of the national income, double their share in the 1950s. And Warren E. Buffett, the amiable financier, became a homespun folk hero, without the tools and overalls. “Young people grow up without developing the skills to fix things around the house,” says Richard T. Curtin, director of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers . “They know about computers, of course, but they don’t know how to build them.” Manufacturing’s shrinking presence undoubtedly helps explain the decline in craftsmanship, if only because many of the nation’s assembly line workers were skilled in craft work, if not on the job then in their spare time. In a late 1990s study of blue-collar employees at a General Motors plant (now closed) in Linden, N.J., the sociologist Ruth Milkman of City University of New York found that many line workers, in their off-hours, did home renovation and other skilled work. “I have often thought,” Ms. Milkman says, “that these extracurricular jobs were an effort on the part of the workers to regain their dignity after suffering the degradation of repetitive assembly line work in the factory.” Craft work has higher status in nations like Germany, which invests in apprenticeship programs for high school students. “Corporations in Germany realized that there was an interest to be served economically and patriotically in building up a skilled labor force at home; we never had that ethos,” says Richard Sennett, a New York University sociologist who has written about the connection of craft and culture. The damage to American craftsmanship seems to parallel the precipitous slide in manufacturing employment. Though the decline started in the 1970s, it became much steeper beginning in 2000. Since then, some 5.3 million jobs, or one-third of the work force in manufacturing, have been lost. A stated goal of the Obama administration is to restore a big chunk of this employment, along with the multitude of skills that many of the jobs required. And there is an incipient upturn in the monthly employment data, although the president will almost certainly finish his first term with the manufacturing work force well below the 12.6 million it was when his administration began. (It was nearly 11.9 million last month.) “We sit in rooms with manufacturers who tell us that location decisions to move overseas that were previously automatic are now a close call, and that the right policies can make a difference,” Mr. Sperling says. THAT is particularly the case if federal, state and local governments intervene with generous subsidies, like those seen in China, Germany, Japan, France, India and other countries eager to sustain manufacturing. Government subsidies are helping to make manufacturing in America more attractive, but the turnaround may be hard to sustain. And it may be too late. Big multinationals already operate factory networks in Europe and Asia, as well as in the United States. Stepping up exports to those markets from the United States, rather than producing in them, is becoming less of an option — short of an international agreement like the Plaza Accord of 1985, which realigned currencies and gave American manufacturers a temporary boost. As for craftsmanship itself, the issue is how to preserve it as a valued skill in the general population. Ms. Milkman, the sociologist, argues that American craftsmanship isn’t disappearing as quickly as some would argue — that it has instead shifted to immigrants. “Pride in craft, it is alive in the immigrant world,” she says. Sol Axelrod, 37, the manager of the Home Depot here, fittingly learned to fix his own car as a teenager, even changing the brakes. Now he finds immigrant craftsmen gathered in abundance outside his store in the early morning, waiting for it to open so they can buy supplies for the day’s work as contractors. Skilled day laborers , also mostly immigrants, wait quietly in hopes of being hired by the contractors. Mr. Axelrod also says the recession and persistently high unemployment have forced many people to try to save money by doing more themselves, and Home Depot in response offers classes in fixing faucets and other simple repairs. The teachers are store employees, many of them older and semiretired from a skilled trade, or laid off. “Our customers may not be building cabinets or outdoor decks; we try to do that for them,” Mr. Axelrod says, “but some are trying to build up skill so they can do more for themselves in these hard times.”

Factories and Manufacturing
Home Repairs and Improvements
United States Economy
Vocational Training
Do It Yourself
Home Depot Inc
Carpentry and Carpenters
Social Conditions and Trends


Cubs’ Geovany Soto Steps Out of Crouch and Into Spotlight

Abstract: MESA, Ariz. — Geovany Soto went to high school in Puerto Rico, has lived in San Juan most of his life, and will play his next significant game this weekend for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. As for his first significant game, at age 5, Soto remembers it very clearly. It might have been just below the reservoir. Or maybe down near that ice rink. But it was definitely in Manhattan’s Central Park. “It was awesome,” said Soto, now an All-Star for the Chicago Cubs and one of the best young catchers in baseball. “You go with your dad to the practice field, but never in my life I’d ever put a uniform on and played with other kids. I felt like, ‘Wow, it’s really happening — I’m going to play baseball.’ ” Soto burst upon the major leagues last year, batting .285 with 23 home runs and 86 runs batted in and winning rookie of the year honors for the 97-win Cubs. He did so with many fans figuring he was yet another in the long line of top catchers with pure Puerto Rican pedigrees: from Benito Santiago and Javy López to Ivan Rodríguez and the three Molina brothers. But Soto’s first years playing baseball came in New York City. Practice Tuesdays and Thursdays, doubleheaders on Saturdays. His parents, Antonio and Norma, had moved the Soto family from San Juan to the Bronx so that Antonio could learn the auto-body trade and Norma could train as an insurance agent. But one parent always found time to take Geovany on the 6 train down to Central Park so that his dreams could be as sprawling as the fields. “I didn’t strike out once,” Soto said. Then again, he added with a smile, “the ball was on a tee.” Soto spent ages 4 through 8 in a fourth-floor apartment near Westchester and Boynton Avenues, before the family moved to Florida for a year and then back to San Juan for good. Now 26 and a solid 6 feet 1 and 225 pounds, Soto has made a home at another intersection: Clark and Addison in Chicago, otherwise known as Wrigley Field. Soto thrilled the Cubs last year, not only with his outstanding performance at the plate but with his maturity behind it. In part because of his excellent English, Soto handled the veteran pitching staff with such aplomb that many Cubs considered him the team’s backbone and most valuable player — despite the presence of established stars like Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramírez and Alfonso Soriano. Soto knew when to talk and when not to. Particularly one day when the staff ace, Carlos Zambrano, was struggling. Zambrano expected platitudes from an impertinent rookie. But after marching out to the mound, Soto started moving his lips — with no sound, no message. Nothing. Other than the subliminal, “Loosen up, Z; this is fun.” “Sometimes I just don’t have anything to say,” Soto said. “What am I going to say? Just throw strikes and get out of this inning? I just tried to get him to relax and get the pressure out of himself.” Added Zambrano: “He doesn’t do the same things that everybody else does. He was just giving me a breather.” Zambrano said that during his no-hitter against Houston in September, he shook off only about a dozen pitches called by Soto. Actually, Soto exuded a confidence that he did not always have. He had broken out in 2007 with a stunning .353-26-109 stat line in his third full season at Class AAA Iowa, but Soto had been decidedly mediocre in his six previous seasons. So even when he was hitting .352 for the Cubs in late April, he questioned his ability when he then struck out in eight straight at-bats. “I didn’t know what to expect from a full season in the big leagues,” said Soto, who had been called up in September the previous three years. “I started out good and all of a sudden went bad. I was like, Oh my God, they got me already. There were some games where I felt lost. It was just a matter of making adjustments every single day.” The adjustments Soto made during his long minor league struggles came both above and below the shoulders. After starring in high school, he wondered if he was washing out. He also ballooned to as much as 250 pounds. It was only after losing weight that he began to emerge, leading to his breakout season for Iowa. “Nobody was high on him after 2006, myself included,” said Gary Hughes, a special assistant to the Cubs’ general manager, Jim Hendry. “But there was a different Geovany Soto out there.” The new Soto had more flexibility through his midsection, allowing him to turn on pitches, and the stamina to keep calling them deep into games and seasons. (He caught 140 games last season, including the All-Star Game and the Cubs’ short three-game appearance in the playoffs.) Ryan Dempster, who won 17 games throwing to Soto, praised him for his astute pitch-calling and game preparation, even as the young catcher was one of the team’s best offensive players. Soto will still bat sixth or seventh this season, because the Cubs added Milton Bradley to the threesome of Soriano, Lee and Ramírez. But if Soto repeats his performance or takes another step forward, he will emerge as the Cubs’ best all-around catcher since Jody Davis, and perhaps even Gabby Hartnett. An awful lot has happened since Soto would lug his bicycle up those four flights in the Bronx, grab his little mitt, and hustle down to Central Park. He might strike out occasionally, but the tee is long gone.

Baseball
World Baseball Classic
Athletics and Sports
Soto Geovany
Chicago Cubs
Puerto Rico


News From the Advertising Industry

Abstract: Accounts ¶Nestlé USA, part of Nestlé, expanded its relationship with JWT New York by awarding the agency the creative duties for its Lean Cuisine line of frozen foods, which had been handled by Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York, part of Havas. Spending was estimated at $30 million in 2009 and totaled more than $40 million through the first nine months of 2010, according to Kantar Media. JWT New York, part of the JWT unit of WPP, already creates campaigns for Nestlé USA brands like Carnation, Libby’s, Toll House and Skinny Cow. ¶Prestige Brands Holdings, Irvington, N.Y., expanded its relationship with the Via Group, Portland, Me., by naming the agency to handle marketing for Chloraseptic, Clear Eyes, Comet, Compound W, Efferdent, Little Remedies and Luden’s. Billings for the assignment, which had been handled by Carrafiello Diehl & Associates, Irvington. Via already creates campaigns for the PediaCare product line sold by Prestige Brands. ¶The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, expanded its relationship with Ammirati, New York, by naming Ammirati as the global agency for Burn, an energy drink that is sold in more than 90 countries outside the United States. Billings were not disclosed. Ammirati already creates campaigns for Coca-Cola beverages like Powerade and VitaminWater. People ¶Beth Rilee-Kelley, partner and director for human resources at the Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., was named chief operating officer, succeeding Paul McKee, who is retiring, the agency said. Martin is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. ¶Scott Neslund joined Moxie Interactive, Atlanta, as president, a new post. He had most recently been chief executive at Red Bricks Media, San Francisco, and before that held posts with media agencies like Mindshare and the Starcom MediaVest Group. Moxie is part of the Zenith Media Services unit of the Publicis Groupe. ¶Joe Kayser joined Y&R as chief creative officer for Y&R West Coast, a new post, based in San Francisco and overseeing the creative output of the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. He had been a group creative director at Cutwater, San Francisco, part of the Omnicom Group. Also, John Berg, president at Y&R West Coast, is leaving, the agency said; a successor is being sought. Y&R is part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of WPP. ¶Jonathan Sackett joined the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, as chief digital officer and managing director, a new post. He had been executive vice president and chief digital officer at the Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. ¶Craig Atkinson, who had been managing director for the United States McDonald’s account at OMD, part of the Omnicom Media Group unit of the Omnicom Group, joined a sibling agency, PHD, in a new post, as president and chief digital officer. Michael Solomon, Midwest digital director at the Chicago office of OMD, will succeed Mr. Atkinson. ¶John Anagnost joined Reprise Media, New York, as United States president, a new post. He had been head of audience marketing for Bloomberg.com and Businessweek.com at Bloomberg L.P., New York. Reprise is part of the Mediabrands unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies. ¶Nicholas Lehman joined NBC Universal, New York, in a new post, as president for digital at the entertainment and digital networks and integrated media division. He had most recently been chief executive at Plum TV. NBC Universal is majority owned by the Comcast Corporation. ¶Rebecca Van Dyck joined Levi Strauss & Company, San Francisco, as global chief marketing officer, a post that had been vacant. She had most recently been senior director for worldwide marketing and communications at Apple, Cupertino, Calif. ¶Jim Millman, programming acquisition director at National CineMedia, New York, was named to lead a new sponsorship and properties division, NCM Properties, as vice president. ¶Eugenie N. Barton joined the Council of Better Business Bureaus, New York, as director for its new online Internet-based advertising accountability program, part of a self-regulatory program for online behavioral advertising being adopted by the advertising, marketing and media industries. Ms. Barton has held posts with, among others, the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission. Miscellany ¶Advertisers spent $27.1 billion last year on commercials on local and national cable television, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, New York, reported, up 12.1 percent from $24.2 billion spent in 2009. ¶LevLane, Philadelphia, is opening a satellite office in Atlanta, to work on the Atlanta KFC Advertising Co-op account. The office will be managed by Laura Reese, who had been a regional broadcast manager at the Atlanta office of RPA. ¶Video clips produced to encourage the New York State legislature to approve same-sex marriage are appearing for the first time in offline media. The videos are scheduled to run for two weeks on the screens in New York City taxi cabs that are operated by Taxi TV. The videos feature celebrities like Moby, Julianne Moore, Joan Rivers, Russell Simmons and John Slattery and are sponsored by the H.R.C. Campaign for New York Marriage, part of the gay rights organization known as the Human Rights Campaign. The budget for the Taxi TV initiative is estimated at $18,000.

Advertising and Marketing
Appointments and Executive Changes
JWT
Martin Agency
Interpublic Group of Companies Inc
Publicis Groupe SA
Omnicom Group Incorporated
DDB Worldwide
Young & Rubicam


Alcatel-Lucent Plans 1,000 Job Cuts

Abstract: Alcatel-Lucent , the struggling telecommunications equipment maker, said Friday that it would cut 1,000 jobs as part of a plan announced by its new chief executive to save 750 million euros, or $991 million. The job cuts will affect 1.3 percent of Alcatel-Lucent’s 77,000 global work force, disappointing some analysts who had been expecting a more fundamental reorganization from Ben Verwaayen, a former chief executive of the BT Group who took the helm of Alcatel-Lucent in September. In addition to the 1,000 cuts, the company will trim 5,000 contract workers. Shares of Alcatel-Lucent fell 9.6 percent in early Paris trading. “Frankly, this is much less than what the market was expecting the new management,” said Roland Pitz, an analyst at HVB Bank in Munich. “Most of these very modest cost and personnel reductions announced today were already in the pipeline. The market was expecting more structural changes from the new chief executive.” The company, a trans-Atlantic telecommunications equipment maker, was created in November 2006 with the merger of Lucent Technologies and Alcatel and has struggled since its inception, losing about 5.4 billion euros, or $7 billion, through September. In taking office, Mr. Verwaayen acknowledged that Alcatel-Lucent had yet to truly merge, with United States and French counterparts resisting needed cost savings. Also weighing on Alcatel-Lucent is Lucent’s reliance on the American market, where it makes equipment for the prevailing CDMA standard that is a distant second to the GSM standard on 85 percent of the world’s phone networks. A wave of consolidation among operators in the United States has also reduced Alcatel-Lucent’s customers and raised price competition. Meanwhile in France, where Alcatel has close ties to the French government and holds a stake in Thales, the military contractor, rigid labor laws have hampered efforts to rapidly streamline operations. Since the merger, Alcatel-Lucent has laid off about 9,000 workers globally and has begun to eliminate overlapping product lines. But the pace of change was too slow and investor dissatisfaction coupled with weakening demand led to the ouster in September of the merger’s architects, the former Lucent chief executive, Patricia F. Russo, who had been Alcatel-Lucent’s first chief, and the chairman, Serge Tchuruk, a longtime Alcatel executive. Shareholders turned to Mr. Verwaayen, who led BT from February 2002 through May and is credited with a successful turnaround of the former British monopoly after the British government forced it to functionally separate from its landline network in a bid to increase competition. During his tenure at BT, Mr. Verwaayen focused on improving customer service and expanding the company into new businesses like managing corporate networks. Since coming to Alcatel-Lucent, he has appointed new managers to almost all crucial board and sales positions in Asia, Europe and the United States, drawing from outside the company for about a third of senior positions, said Camille Mendler, an analyst at the Yankee Group in London. “I think what you are seeing today is not the end but the beginning of a long, fundamental turnaround at Alcatel-Lucent,” Ms. Mendler said. “Ben Verwaayen is a very no-nonsense individual. He completely transformed BT and is the right person to do the same at Alcatel-Lucent.” In a statement before a conference call, Mr. Verwaayen, 56, announced what he described as a “major strategic reorganization,” refocusing the company into three divisions serving telephone network carriers, businesses and vertical industries supplying the latest network technology based on Internet Protocol, wireless, optical fiber, fixed-line broadband and software applications for operators. At the same time, Alcatel-Lucent will begin reducing its activity in older-generation networks based on legacy standards like CDMA, the first generation of GSM, WiMax and ADSL, Mr. Verwaayen said. In addition, Mr. Verwaayen said the company would reduce discretionary spending, refocus its research and development activities and reduce operating costs. Alcatel-Lucent will reach “about break-even” at the operating level in 2009, Mr. Verwaayen said, amid what he forecast would be an 8 to 12 percent decline in demand for products next year. In 2010, he said, Alcatel-Lucent will generate an operating profit margin of about 5 percent, rising in 2011 to closer to 10 percent.

Layoffs and Job Reductions
Alcatel-Lucent


Rare Earth Trade Needs Global Cooperation, Officials Say

Abstract: BERLIN — The United States and Europe should work together with industry to reduce dependence on China for crucial minerals because global trade bodies are ill-equipped to solve the problem of withheld supplies, officials and executives said Tuesday at a high-level conference. Germany has been the most vocal country in Europe in raising concerns about the potential economic impact of shortfalls of rare earth and other metals, and its economy minister was a featured speaker at the conference, organized by the Federation of German Industries. The consensus among attendees, who included representatives from industry as well as the European Union, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, was that trade rules were inadequate when it came to responding to China’s decision to cut back export quotas of such materials. China dominates the mining of these metals, which are crucial for high-tech industries. “The fact is that the existing rules do not appear to be commensurate to the problem we face,” said Frank Hoffmeister, deputy chief of cabinet for the European trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht. Pascal Lamy, general secretary of the World Trade Organization, said the W.T.O. had no authority to deal with raw materials as such. However, many broadly written international trade rules can be construed as applying to raw materials. The United States, the European Union and Mexico brought a W.T.O. case against China last year asserting that it had violated a ban on export restrictions by limiting exports of bauxite and a half-dozen other industrial minerals; an initial W.T.O. decision is expected next April. An American executive at the conference suggested that the United States and Europe work together. “It is up to us to solve the problem,” said Gary Litman, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for Europe and Eurasia. “The U.S. has the resources and together with our E.U. partners we can produce anything we want.” German companies complained that the lack of rules gave China free rein to do what it liked with its rare earth minerals. At the same time, flush with cash, China faces few constraints in access to other raw materials to feed its expanding economy. The case of iron ore was cited by Edwin Eichler, chief executive of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe, one of the Continent’s biggest steel producers. “Iron ore prices today have risen 100 percent compared to last April. Why? The 50-year-old benchmark that fixed prices for one year at a time has now been changed to a quarterly basis based on the Chinese index,” Mr. Eichler said. “So we face higher prices and reduced availability.” Other industry chiefs echoed complaints that China was hinting that if industries wanted access to its rare earth minerals, then they should invest in China. “Rare earth exports from China could fall even further, even by 30 percent next year,” said Ulrich Grillo, the chief executive of Grillo-Werke, a chemicals company. “So what the Chinese are telling us, directly or indirectly, is that if we want access to their rare earth material metals we should invest in China.” He added that Western companies like his were reluctant to do so for fear that they would lose control of their intellectual property rights. “China needs our know-how and machines, but we need protection for our technology,” he said. “We don’t want these problems to turn into China-bashing.” The German government has asked France, which takes over the Group of 20 presidency next month, to put raw materials at the top of its agenda. The economics minister, Rainer Brüderle, said he had received assurances from Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, that that would happen.

Rare Earths
Metals and Minerals
World Trade Organization
European Commission
Germany
International Trade and World Market


A Porpoise With a Big Chin

Abstract: A newly identified species of ancient porpoise had an unusually long lower jaw, analogous to the human chin. The extinct porpoise, known as Semirostrum ceruttii , lived 1.5 million to 5.3 million years ago along the California coast; its closest living relative is the crown porpoise. Researchers say the porpoise used its “chin” to probe the seabed for food.


After a Notorious Hoax, Te’o Focuses on His Career With the Low-Key Chargers

Abstract: SAN DIEGO — When Manti Te’o arrived here last spring during one of his visits with N.F.L. teams before the draft, Chargers linebacker Donald Butler could not help chuckling with a few teammates. “We were like, Man, whatever team he goes to, he’s going to get so much,” Butler said of the grief Te’o might receive. “So it was like karma that he ends up coming here.” It may also have been a blessing. If Te’o was intent on embarking on his professional career while distancing himself from a bizarre hoax involving a fake dead girlfriend that had made him a national punch line, it would be hard to imagine a better place. Scrutiny by the news media is a shred of what it was for Te’o at Notre Dame, and interest in the Chargers, rebuilding under a new coach and general manager, is tepid, even locally. After a stirring upset at Kansas City on Nov. 24, they returned home last week to become the first team this season to have a game blacked out because not enough tickets had been sold, against the Cincinnati Bengals, the A.F.C. North leader. As for the locker room, where little is sacred, there does not appear to be a Richie Incognito in the bunch. Te’o said not a single player, coach or team official had made so much as a lighthearted wisecrack about what he endured earlier this year when the website Deadspin exposed as a hoax the story of Te’o’s girlfriend, who was supposed to have survived a car accident only to die of leukemia. “He didn’t get any hazing,” said Bront Bird, Te’o’s backup at middle linebacker. “I think a lot of us looked at it like he probably got enough of that before he got here.” When the subject was brought up after practice Wednesday, Te’o did not even look up as he sat at his locker untying his shoes, answering a question he had surely sensed was coming. “Everybody makes a big deal out of it,” Te’o said. “People who still go on about it, move on. I’ve moved on. For those who haven’t moved on, that’s their problem, not mine.” The reality is that moving on will probably require Te’o to establish himself as an N.F.L. player worthy of the attention he received at Notre Dame, where he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting and helped the Irish to the national championship game. While two other Chargers draft picks — offensive tackle D. J. Fluker and receiver Keenan Allen — have shown early promise, it is uncertain where Te’o’s career is headed. He sprained his foot in the Chargers’ first preseason game and did not return until the fourth game of the season. He has started each game since, but his performances have been uneven. Two things have held Te’o back, according to the TV analyst Mike Mayock, who worked on Notre Dame broadcasts in Te’o’s last three seasons: The injury robbed Te’o of preseason repetitions, and the absence of Butler, his partner in the middle of San Diego’s 3-4 defense, who missed three starts with an injury, meant more responsibility. “When you hesitate or you’re not sure, you play slow, especially at linebacker,” Mayock said. “He doesn’t have enough natural speed to afford playing slow.” When Te’o lines up Sunday against Giants quarterback Eli Manning, he expects it to be a more pleasant experience than it was last month against his brother Peyton. On the Broncos’ third snap, Te’o lost track of tight end Julius Thomas, who caught a short pass in the flat and raced up the sideline 74 yards for a touchdown. “Just bad eyes,” Te’o said. “It didn’t happen again after that. You live and learn — it’s the nature of football. If you see the past couple games, you see the improvement, more of a comfort level.” Mayock remains bullish on Te’o’s prospects, noting that his greatest assets — his passion and football acuity — will reveal themselves with a little more time. “The more reps he gets, the more impact he’ll make,” Mayock said. “My expectation, big picture, is that he’ll play faster and faster and be a very good linebacker in the N.F.L.” The 22-year-old Te’o said he lives alone and that nobody in his family, which lives in Hawaii, has moved near him. He has not had much involvement with the area’s sizable Pacific Islander community, which adored the Charger Junior Seau, who grew up just north of the city in Oceanside and whose parents were Samoan. For now, Te’o said he was trying to focus on football. As for another certain story line? “I’m going to worry about me, I’m going to worry about what I’ve got to do,” Te’o said. “Whether it stays with me or not, that’s not my problem. That’s other people’s problem. If they want to carry that, go right ahead. I’m going to continue what I’m doing, and that’s becoming the best player I can be. Live my life the way I want to live it. If people want to keep talking about it, that’s your problem, man.”

Football
Manti Te'o
Chargers
University of Notre Dame
Hoaxes and Pranks


Swimmer Aims for the Top, but Prefers the Slow Lane

Abstract: IRVINE, Calif. — In the middle of an interview at the USA Swimming national championships, Missy Franklin stopped and cocked her ears. After a beat, she squealed and started swaying to the music streaming from the pool deck’s speakers. With her eyes closed, she sang the opening lines of the teen pop star Justin Bieber’s “First Dance.” Until that moment, it had been possible to forget that Franklin is just 15. At 6 feet tall she towered over her competition at the biggest domestic competition of the summer, walking away with the women’s high-point award at nationals after posting top-10 finishes in all six of her individual events. Franklin’s youth is not lost on the adults entrusted with her development. As she fearlessly takes great leaps forward, her parents Dick and D. A., and her coach, Todd Schmitz of the Colorado Stars, are like circus performers scrambling underneath an acrobat with a safety net. “A lot of people ask are you worried about her burning out,” Dick Franklin said. “That would be the concern when you’re this hot this young.” Last summer, with the big picture in mind, her parents and Schmitz settled on a strategy that placed them at odds with the United States national team coach, Mark Schubert. They decided not to enter Franklin in the world championship trials, from which swimmers were selected to represent the United States in an Olympic-caliber competition in Rome. She competed instead at the junior national championships, a lesser domestic meet that featured more swimmers in Franklin’s age range. Schubert said he was initially upset that Franklin did not try out for the world championship team. Her parents and coach were resolute. Their reasoning was that Franklin would gain more confidence racing in preliminaries and finals in a full complement of events at the junior nationals than, at best, qualifying for one relay in Rome and spending her considerable down time in the company of older teammates. Never mind that it would have raised Schmitz’s profile if he had coached Franklin onto such a prestigious team. “The question at the end of the day,” Schmitz said, “was, ‘Is that going to help us on our journey to the 2012 Olympics?’ We thought she would benefit more from the experience of racing in a lot of events.” At the junior nationals, Franklin posted the sixth-fastest time by an American woman in the 100-meter freestyle on her way to the high-point trophy. Her time of 54.03 seconds would have tied for second at the world championship trials. “I think it was a really good idea to swim at junior nationals,” Franklin said. “We just didn’t want to skip any steps.” Franklin, a sophomore at Regis Jesuit High School near Denver, will miss her first few days of classes to compete for the United States this week at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine. The four-day meet, which begins Wednesday at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center, features the best swimmers from non-European countries. That includes Canada, the homeland of Franklin’s parents. Three years ago, in an effort to ease the pressure on Franklin to reach the elite level, her mother reminded her that she had the option, as a dual citizen, to represent Canada. Franklin was not interested. “I don’t think I could do that,” she said this month. “I’m just so connected with the U.S.A. When you walk out and you hear people chanting U.S.A., it’s one of the best feelings in the world.” Franklin’s connection with the water was evident at her first lesson, when she was 6 months old. She kept her eyes open when she was submerged, her mother recalled, and surfaced wearing an ear-to-ear grin. At 5, Franklin set her first record, in the 25-yard backstroke for girls 6-and-under in a summer league program. Then, as now, she was taller than her peers, with feet like flippers. Franklin, who wears a size 13 shoe, was so self-conscious about her feet, she would wear shoes after she had outgrown them rather than go to a bigger size. That all changed when she was 10 and a coach told her all his best swimmers had big feet. After that, Franklin’s mother said, she would beg for larger sizes. Franklin’s father was a football lineman who played offense and defense at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He eschewed a professional sports career for business school and worked as an executive in the United States for 7-Up, Head Sports, Reebok and Coors. In his work with Head Sports, he observed plenty of parents living vicariously through their children’s tennis careers. He vowed not to be that kind of parent or one like his own father, who he said rarely attended his games. Franklin described her father and mother, a doctor who works as a consultant for the state of Colorado for the developmentally disabled, as “the best parents in the whole world.” She added, “I never feel any pressure from them whatsoever. My dad makes me laugh before a race so I don’t get nervous.” On the final night of the national championships, the Franklins were in their seats 90 minutes before the first race. They were joined by D. A.’s sister, Cathy Campbell, who competed in track and field when she was Franklin’s age and said she became so nervous before her races that she vomited. They watched as Franklin bounded down the concrete stands opposite them and, shimmying to the music blaring from the loudspeaker, made her way to the starting blocks for her warm-up. “Look at her,” Campbell said. “She’s so loose. It blows me away.” At the end of the evening, Franklin stood on the awards podium alongside the men’s high point winner, the two-time Olympian Ryan Lochte. She said it was one of the best nights of her life, right up there with the Bieber concert she attended in Broomfield, Colo. in July. Earlier in the day, Franklin confessed, she burst into tears in her hotel room. Why? “Because I realized what I had accomplished,” she said, “and it’s just so incredible.”


Championing Environment, Francis Takes Aim at Global Capitalism

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The encyclical on the environment that Pope Francis released on Thursday is as much an indictment of the global economic order as it is an argument for the world to confront climate change. It offers blistering criticism of 21st-century capitalism, expressing skepticism about market forces, criticizing consumerism and cautioning about the costs of growth. But where Francis’ environmental and economic agendas meet, he leaves something of a paradox, and ammunition potentially for both sides in the debate over how to address climate change. While urging swift action to curb the burning of fossil fuels that have powered economies since the Industrial Revolution, he also condemns the trading of carbon-emission credits, saying it merely creates new forms of financial speculation and does not bring about “radical change.” But carbon trading is the policy most widely adopted by governments to combat climate change, and it has been endorsed by leading economists as a way to cut carbon pollution while sustaining economic growth. On Planet in Distress, a Papal Call to Action Pope Francis is issuing an encyclical focusing on an issue of grand scope, the care of the planet. And though he sees the poor as most affected by the economic and political systems underlying the crisis, his 184-page document is an urgent call to action. The approach has taken on increased importance in the push for governments to sign a United Nations climate change accord in Paris in December that would commit every nation to enacting ambitious policies to cut their use of fossil fuels. Francis’ encyclical also amplifies the argument that rich countries should shoulder the economic burden of cutting emissions, an issue that has blocked progress in global climate change negotiations for years. While environmentalists around the world praised the document, some of its core messages could give pause to environmental economists and negotiators who have sought to find a path to a new United Nations accord that is politically palatable to major economies and corporations. In particular, environmental economists criticized the encyclical’s condemnation of carbon trading, seeing it as part of a radical critique of market economies. “I respect what the pope says about the need for action, but this is out of step with the thinking and the work of informed policy analysts around the world, who recognize that we can do more, faster, and better with the use of market-based policy instruments — carbon taxes and/or cap-and-trade systems,” Robert N. Stavins, the director of the environmental economics program at Harvard, said in an email. Video Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon says that the environmental crisis is a “spiritual problem,” during a news conference on Thursday about Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change. The approach by the pope, an Argentine who is the first pontiff from the developing world, is similar to that of a “small set of socialist Latin American countries that are opposed to the world economic order, fearful of free markets, and have been utterly dismissive and uncooperative in the international climate negotiations,” Dr. Stavins said. Francis’ embrace of the issue of climate change, and his broader critique of global capitalism, stem from his signature economic concern: eradicating poverty. He has won wide popularity, particularly on his home continent, for an economic agenda focused on the poor. Over the past two years, the global development institutions most focused on addressing poverty — including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank — have published economic research identifying climate change as a leading driver of poverty, contributing to rising sea levels that harm coastal areas in Southeast Asia, causing crop failure in Africa, and driving a slowdown in growth across the developing world. That research has informed the pope’s focus on climate change. In the encyclical, Francis writes of “the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet,” and says, “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest.” Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, praised the document. “Today’s release of Pope Francis’ first encyclical should serve as a stark reminder to all of us of the intrinsic link between climate change and poverty,” he said. Image A coal-fired power plant in St. Marys, Kan. The pope said the poor bore the brunt of climate change. Credit Charlie Riedel/Associated Press He added, “As the effects of climate change worsen, we know that escaping poverty will become even more difficult.” Francis has sought to use his moral authority to press for changes to economic policy, and environmentalists hope it will add weight to his push on climate change. But the encyclical’s criticism of market forces, and its references to sacrificing economic growth to protect the environment, could have the unintended consequence of strengthening the arguments of opponents of climate change policy. “Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it,” the pope wrote. “At one extreme, we find those who doggedly uphold the myth of progress and tell us that ecological problems will solve themselves simply with the application of new technology and without any need for ethical considerations or deep change.” For years, opponents of climate change policy have argued that a global push to cut fossil fuel pollution will impede economic growth, particularly in poor countries that are heavily dependent on cheap fossil fuels. Francis’ encyclical could give ammunition to that argument, which is being pressed by Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail. But some liberal policy experts say the document aims to weaken that case. “He’s rather brilliantly brought back a concept that has been lost for 30 years or so, since the beginning of the Reagan administration — he says profit-making can’t be the sole criteria for decision-making,” said Jay Hakes, a historian who focuses on energy issues and was a top energy official in the administration of Jimmy Carter. “The pope’s ideas will be jarring to a modern reader at first. He says that people should not ascribe to the market magical qualities that can solve all problems.” While the pope’s arguments against markets are likely to play poorly in Washington, they could play well in Latin American nations, especially Brazil. That nation, one of the world’s largest polluters, has a majority Roman Catholic population and has resisted devising an aggressive climate change policy, in part because of its struggles with poverty. Internationally, advocates of climate change policy, including many economists, have pushed government efforts to put a price on carbon pollution, either with a tax or a cap-and-trade program, in which governments charge a fee to carbon polluters, and industry and market players can buy and sell carbon credits among themselves. That system is in place in Europe, California, several Northeastern states, and some parts of Canada and China. The government of China, the world’s largest polluter, is moving toward a national cap-and-trade system. Advocates of a United Nations climate deal have encouraged governments to link their systems and bring others into the fold. But Francis’ critique of that system, if it resonates with governments, could hinder the efforts to expand cap-and-trade measures. The pope said several times that developed economies owed a debt to poor nations. “A true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global north and south, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time,” he said. That rich-poor divide has long stood in the way of successful climate change negotiations, with developing nations such as India refusing in the past to enact policies without promises of aid from wealthy nations. But the aim of the December summit meeting is to commit every country, rich and poor, to plans that cut emissions.

Climate Change
Global Warming
Pope Francis
Catholic Church
Greenhouse gas
Encyclical
Carbon dioxide
Environment
UN
Poverty


25 Years Ago, NASA Envisioned Its Own ‘Orient Express’

Abstract: This occasional column explores topics covered in Science Times 25 years ago to see what has changed, and what has not. The National Aero-Space Plane was to be a revolutionary advance beyond the space shuttle. In his 1986 State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan promised “a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport and accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low-earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within two hours.” On Oct. 3, 1989, an article in Science Times, “Designing a Plane for the Leap to Space (and Back),” reported frenetic activity at NASA and the Defense Department. “Scientists and engineers are making rapid progress in developing technologies needed to build a 17,000-mile-an-hour ‘space plane’ that could escape earth’s gravity and circle the globe in 90 minutes,” the article began. “Their goal,” it continued, “is a space plane that could take off and land from virtually any airport in the world, carry satellites and other space cargo into orbit cheaply, shuttle between the earth and an orbiting space station, or carry a load of bombs deep into enemy territory as fast as an intercontinental missile.” Proponents contended the space plane would be far cheaper to operate than the shuttle. Others were dubious. The Air Force, which was providing most of the financing, had already tried to back out, but the National Space Council, headed by Vice President Dan Quayle, recommended continuing work at a slower pace. The target for the first flight of the first experimental version, known as the X-30, was originally 1993 but was pushed back to 1997. 25 YEARS LATER The space plane, able to fly by itself to orbit, never took off. The X-30 died in 1994. Smaller-scale hypersonic programs came and went. Was the X-30 technologically feasible? “No, and it’s still not,” said Jess Sponable, a program manager in the tactical technology office at Darpa, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. For X-30 to succeed, infant ideas would have had to have been developed into robust, reliable technologies — materials that could survive intense temperatures, air-breathing engines that could fly faster and higher. Nonetheless, “absolutely, it was worthwhile,” Mr. Sponable said, although he added perhaps not worth the more than $1.6 billion spent. “We learned a lot.” The pendulum for spacecraft design has since swung away from the cutting edge to the tried and true. The Orion craft, which NASA is building for deep-space missions, is a capsule, just like the one used for the Apollo moon missions but bigger. The two private company designs that NASA chose to take future astronauts to the space station are also capsules. (The loser in that competition was a mini-shuttle offering.) But the dream of hypersonic space planes continues. At Darpa, Mr. Sponable heads the XS-1 space plane project. It is not a do-it-all-at-once effort like the 1980s space plane but a much simpler, unmanned vehicle that would serve as a reusable first stage. Mr. Sponable is eager to figure out how to send it up many times, quickly and cheaply; the goal is 10 flights in 10 days. “We want operability No. 1,” he said. With the quick launches, the issue of cost “just disappears, because we can’t spend a lot of money from Day 1 to Day 2 to Day 3.” Darpa has awarded contracts to three industry teams to develop preliminary designs. Mr. Sponable said the decision of a next step would come next spring. The space plane episode illustrates the recurring money woes that have bedeviled NASA for decades: A grandiose plan is announced with fanfare and a burst of financing that fades as delays and cost overruns undercut the optimistic plans. Then a new president or a new NASA administrator changes course. Most recently, the Obama administration canceled plans started under President George W. Bush to send astronauts back to the moon and told NASA to consider an asteroid instead. If the pattern continues, NASA priorities could zig again after the next president moves into the White House in 2017.

Airlines,airplanes
NASA
Space
DARPA
Military aircraft


Sixers Lose 21st Straight

Abstract: Lance Stephenson scored 25 points, and the host Indiana Pacers rallied from an early deficit to beat Philadelphia, 99-90, and hand the 76ers their franchise-record 21st straight loss. Thaddeus Young had 23 points to lead the Sixers, who tied the Detroit Pistons for the sixth-longest losing streak in N.B.A. history. ■ Paul Millsap scored 28 points, and the visiting Atlanta Hawks defeated the Charlotte Bobcats, 97-83, for their fourth consecutive victory. Kemba Walker led the Bobcats with 20 points. ■ Kyrie Irving, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ All-Star guard, will miss at least two weeks with an strained tendon in his left arm.

Basketball
76ers
Pacers
Lance Stephenson