A Review of Rose Mediterranean Restaurant, in Caldwell

Abstract: JOE ALBERGO spent most of his career cooking for hire, beginning at 15 in a Brooklyn luncheonette. Along the way — with stops in England, Spain, Jakarta and the restaurant of the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in New York — he quizzed his co-workers about their favorite native dishes. When he was finally ready to open his own place, Mr. Albergo drew on that accumulated lore, as well as on the lessons he had learned at the knee of his Neapolitan grandmother. His restaurant, Rose Mediterranean , which opened in November 2010, is named for that grandmother, whose influence shows up in just about anything Italian on the menu. But there are many other sources, too, and Caldwell is the richer for it. “The food that I try to do here is about what the people of the region actually eat,” Mr. Albergo said in a telephone interview after my visits. “The biggest compliment I can get as a chef is when a guest tells me, ‘This is like how my mother makes.’ ” Nostalgia is right at home in the cozy space. The restaurant’s wood-burning oven is a warm and diverting focal point where Mr. Albergo warms and sometimes bakes the focaccia that arrives when diners are seated. But be warned: the bread is so good it could be dessert. We loved the briouats, a Moroccan specialty of phyllo dough stuffed with braised chicken, raisins and a souk’s worth of spices: coriander, cumin, cardamom, caraway, cinnamon and cayenne. The dish was originally an excuse to make the sauce that accompanies it, Mr. Albergo said, a chermoula, of cilantro, lemon, ginger, garlic and cayenne. A platter of bruschetta and pita with spreads was jazzed up by Dijon in the olive tapenade, cayenne in the hummus and a balsamic reduction in the caponata. The grilled, herbed octopus appetizer was tender and delicious. The lightly fried artichoke hearts, still on the stems, benefited from days of marinating and a fresh, tasty marinara. A beet, apple and walnut salad was straightforward and good, enhanced ever so subtly by a dressing of balsamic vinaigrette infused with sweet red apple. And the bastoni della mozzarella, a grown-up twist on a cheese stick, was Mr. Albergo’s way of getting his children to eat their spinach when they were young: wrapped in pasta dough with mozzarella and pesto sauce. A word on portions: The word is “huge.” Come hungry, plan to share, and expect to take home leftovers anyway. The bouillabaisse, for one thing, looks as if it’s enough to feed a small fishing village, with mussels, scallops, shrimp, clams, calamari and the catch of the day piled high atop a bowl of fish stock made with San Marzano tomatoes and flavored with star anise. The simple but elegant scallops were knockouts, and not just for their size and number; seared on one side, then flipped as they were removed from the flame, they were juicy and tender inside, and served on a bed of couscous and spinach in a Greek-style sauce of oregano, lemon and butter. We were just as impressed by the seared tuna in a robust Romesco sauce; the salmon in a Champagne mustard sauce, served with lentils and spinach; and the pato con higos, duck breast cooked with garlic, shallots and mushrooms, in a house-made duck stock, and finished with dried figs. It’s served with saffron-flavored Calasparra rice, a Spanish cousin of arborio, and simply sautéed spinach. There were misfires: a burrata appetizer was too firm for my taste, though it looked lovely on the plate; the lobster risotto paired overcooked lobster meat with undercooked rice. And I loved the chicken tagine — white meat sautéed in a saffron broth, then finished with apricots, raisins and almonds — the first time I tried it. But there was just too much chicken in proportion to the flavorings the second time around. Mr. Albergo’s young pastry chef, Katy Sheehan, is a keeper. Her blueberry cobbler is as decadent as a long weekend in bed; the chocolate lava cake is the best I’ve tried in years. I was not wowed by the ricotta cheesecake, but I’ll give it another chance. Rose Mediterranean was a delightful place to wrap up a two-year assignment reviewing New Jersey restaurants. I’m looking forward to returning as an amateur. Rose Mediterranean 435 Bloomfield Avenue Caldwell (973) 403-7673 rosemediterranean.com WORTH IT THE SPACE Two loud but cozy rooms, one built around a wood-burning oven, seating a total of 100; outdoor patio with a pergola and seating for about 60. Wheelchair accessible. THE CROWD Grown-ups, in their 40s and up, enjoying themselves, the food and the excellent service. Live music on Thursdays beginning at 7. THE BAR Bring your own wine. THE BILL Appetizers, $9 to $15; entrees, $14 to $29. Additional tapas menu on Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, $6 to $9. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted. WHAT WE LIKE Grilled octopus, Mediterranean platter, bastoni della mozzarella, Moroccan chicken briouats, artichoke hearts, beet and apple salad, chicken tagine, seared sea scallops, pato con higos, seared salmon, bouillabaisse, seared tuna, chocolate lava cake, blueberry cobbler. IF YOU GO Lunch: Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Dinner, Tuesday to Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 8 p.m. Closed on Mondays. Reservations recommended on weekends. Parking on the street or in two municipal lots nearby. RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t Bother.

Rose Mediterranean (Caldwell NJ Restaurant)


Norm Van Lier, Chicago Bulls Player and Broadcaster, Dies at 61

Abstract: CHICAGO (AP) — Norm Van Lier, an All-Star guard and standout defensive player for the Chicago Bulls in the 1970s and later a sports broadcaster in the city, was found dead on Thursday in his home in Chicago. He was 61. Firefighters went to his home, just blocks from United Center, the Bulls’ arena, in response to a request for a well-being check. They found him unresponsive and pronounced him dead shortly before 1 p.m., a Chicago Fire Department spokesman said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed his death. No cause was given. Van Lier, who grew up in Midland, Pa., was drafted by the Bulls in 1969 out of St. Francis College in Pennsylvania but was immediately traded to the Cincinnati Royals. In 1971 he led the league in assists. After three years with Cincinnati, he joined the Bulls and spent more than six seasons with them, becoming a fan favorite and gaining the nickname Stormin’ Norman for his fiery, tenacious play alongside teammates like Jerry Sloan and Chet Walker. A memorable moment came Jan. 19, 1977, when he made a full-court shot against the San Antonio Spurs. A three-time All-Star, Van Lier played on five playoff teams and was named to eight National Basketball Association all-defensive teams in his 10-year career. He finished his career with Milwaukee in 1979, retiring with career totals of 8,770 points and 5,217 assists. Among Bulls, he ranks third only to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in career assists and steals, the team said. After retiring, he covered the Bulls as a television and radio analyst in the Chicago area and had a supporting role in the 2002 movie “Barbershop,” playing a customer. Information on survivors was not available, but an oral history project in 2003 referred to his having a wife, Susan, and two daughters at the time.

Van Lier Norm
Basketball
Deaths (Obituaries)
National Basketball Assn
Chicago Bulls


Judge Rules That a Jury Should Hear A.I.G. Stock Case

Abstract: A federal judge ruled on Thursday that a jury should hear the claims in a case between the American International Group and Starr International, the company controlled by Maurice R. Greenberg. Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan said the trial would go ahead as scheduled on June 15 after a disagreement between the parties over whether some claims should be heard by a jury or the judge alone. A.I.G. had asked the judge to exclude evidence about its controversial bonuses for employees, which drew public ire. The court battle is one of numerous lawsuits outstanding between A.I.G. and Mr. Greenberg, the former chief executive of A.I.G., and the entities he controls. The insurer, which was bailed out by the government last year after it nearly collapsed because of bad mortgage bets, is seeking the return of the A.I.G. stock still held by Starr, as well as the proceeds from sales of A.I.G. stock in the intervening years.

American International Group
Stocks and Bonds
Federal District Courts


Khizr Khan Revs Up Rally Before Introducing Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

Abstract: MANCHESTER, N.H. — In a call and response with voters here on Sunday night, Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, portrayed a dark vision of the country if Donald J. Trump were to win Tuesday’s presidential election. “I have a few questions for you, Donald Trump,” Mr. Khan said as he introduced Hillary Clinton. “Donald Trump, would my son Captain Humayun Khan have a place in your America?” A scattering of attendees responded, “No.” “Would Muslims have a place in your America?” The answer grew louder: “No.” “Would Latinos have a place in your America?” “No,” the audience erupted. “Would African-Americans have a place in your America?” “No,” they said, growing louder. “Would anyone who is not like you have a place in your America?” an animated Mr. Khan concluded. The crowd now yelled in unison, some thrusting fits and Clinton-Kaine signs in the air: “No!” “Well, thankfully, Mr. Trump, this isn’t your America,” Mr. Khan said. For the past two days, Mrs. Clinton has tried to make a closing argument focused on urging voters to reject what she called Mr. Trump’s “dark and divisive vision of America” and instead choose her “hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted, united America.” But it took Mr. Khan, who delivered a showstopper of a speech in July at the Democratic National Convention when he pulled a copy of the Constitution out of his jacket pocket and waved it as he talked about Mr. Trump, to bring an emotional core to the message. He talked about the outpouring of support he and his wife, Ghazala Khan, had received after Mr. Trump took aim at them, saying Mrs. Khan did not speak at the convention because she was not “allowed” to. A mother told Mr. Khan that her 10-year-old son, who had been bullied at school, had watched his speech daily to remind himself that he could get through it. The teacher eventually showed Mr. Khan’s speech to the entire class. The bullying stopped, Mr. Khan said. The campaign has used Mr. Khan sparingly but effectively. He spoke in an advertisement aired in battleground states and held events last month with veterans in Virginia at which he presented Mrs. Clinton as a force for tolerance in a divisive election season. Mrs. Clinton took the stage here and said the scars from this election season would endure. “We will have some work to do to bring healing and reconciliation after this election,” she said. “We haven’t been listening to one another and respecting one another.” New Hampshire does not hold happy memories for Mrs. Clinton, who lost the state’s primary to Senator Bernie Sanders, of neighboring Vermont, by more than 20 points. But compared with sparring with Mr. Trump, even that loss does not seem so bad, she said. “I have to say, you all cleaned my clock in the primary,” Mrs. Clinton told voters here. “But it was a great primary because it was about issues, not insults.”

2016 Presidential Election
US Politics
Hillary Clinton
Khizr Khan
Donald Trump
Manchester NH
New Hampshire


How Google Is Evolving Into a Media Company

Abstract: Today’s quiz: What company derives 96 percent of its revenue from advertising, has a video platform that is currently negotiating with the National Basketball Association , a movie studio and various celebrities, and is developing a subscription service that would be plug-and-play for publishers and consumers the world over. Time Warner ? News Corporation ? Viacom ? Nope. Google . Up and down its ranks, Google executives will tell you without fail that Google is not a media company, that its organizes and manages content, but stays away from producing it. It’s an article of faith at the Internet giant. But it’s also beginning to show strain as Google moves into new territory. In February, Google announced a subscription service called One Pass to enable consumers to buy professionally produced news and information across the Web with a single click. And a great many new-media consuming devices featuring Google software called Honeycomb are about to come into the market, making that information all the more attractive and mobile. Nowhere has Google’s growing media proficiency been more apparent than on YouTube , which is a platform that is looking more and more like a network for a postbroadcast world. YouTube’s home page, which used to be a user-generated free-for-all, now has a clear hierarchy of channels, with an array of topics — “Entertainment,” “News and Politics” and “ Sports ” — that doesn’t look that different from the menu guide on my cable set-top box. Al Jazeera English, which can’t seem to find carriage in the broadcast and cable universe, has found a home on YouTube, where it has become the No. 3 news channel. The company is also putting time and effort into expanding deals with the N.B.A. and the National Hockey League, because as everyone — including Rupert Murdoch — will tell you, sports are a great way to build a network for the long term. And as part of a deal that the company has with Lionsgate , clips from the company’s library could start showing up on YouTube with a split of advertising revenue and, eventually, a way to buy the movie or television show featured. There have also been reports that Google has set aside $100 million for incentives for well-known celebrities to program their own “channels” on YouTube to increase the amount of high-profile content on the platform. And the media initiatives are not entirely new: Britain ’s Channel 4 signed a three-year deal back in 2009 to make entire programs available for streaming on YouTube. “There is no doubt in my mind they are becoming a media company,” said Mike Vorhaus, the president of the media consulting firm Magid Advisors. “They are providing content to consumers and selling ads against it — sounds like a media company to me.” So what, you might ask. What difference does it make what occupation Google writes down on its driver’s license? For starters, being in the media business means looking at media a little differently. Google has been spending a lot of time and some significant money trying to help traditional media businesses stay in business, in part because Google does not want its search engines to crawl across a wasteland of machine-generated info-spam and amateur content with limited allure. With that objective in mind, the company has also tweaked its vaunted search algorithm to point toward new, real, trusted content and away from link-bait generic content cranked out by so-called content farms. Even if it is a machine doing the executing, the company’s push for one kind of link over another is fundamentally an editorial exercise. In essence, Google, which has cracked the code on the Web advertising model, has come to realize that if content becomes just a commodity, then advertising will follow suit. “Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful Web sites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy Web ecosystem,” the company said, sounding more like the pronouncement of a media executive than a statement from a tech company. Jonathan Glick, chief executive of Sulia, a media company that filters and publishes real-time content from Twitter , said that Google is in a new land. “They are moving down a road where they are now thinking of the motivation of people who produce content in addition to the content itself,” he said. When big companies bump into a ceiling in an area they have dominated, they tend to shift into new pursuits that may help their core business. RCA commercialized a spectacular invention called radio, but by the mid-1920s the company realized its new wonder needed great content, so it bought and merged several radio stations to form a media company called NBC . Later, RCA did the same trick with another catchy invention: television. As content bolts across both platforms and technology, doing taxonomy on media and technology companies is more complicated than it used to be. Apple is spending an enormous amount of effort to enroll media companies in its subscription plan for the iPad . I was on the phone with a very senior official at Apple a few weeks ago for half an hour, and we talked about new subscription models, the prospects for newspapers, and the pros and cons of various media apps. The new iPad that was about to be unveiled hardly came up. Netflix may be in the business of dishing up movies and television programming, but the company triumphed through technology, pivoting over the course of a few short years from being the biggest user of the postal service to the largest source of broadband traffic. And Netflix is not satisfied to just negotiate access to content produced by others: Last week, Netflix announced that it had obtained the rights to an original television series starring Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher . Other than Apple’s Steve Jobs — who seems to have a knack for the content business, if Pixar is any indication — this is unfamiliar and foreboding territory for technology companies. Making content is kind of a software business, but a very unruly one known for fickle talent and fickle audiences. The story of the last decade or so has been a huge shift in value from the media companies, which produced the content, to Silicon Valley, where companies like Google and Netflix came up with newer, more convenient and far less lucrative — at least for the media companies — ways to distribute it. Before Google gets in too deep, the company may want to compare its valuation over the past decade with that of, say, Time Warner or just about any newspaper company in the country. “We are in the business of media distribution, but I don’t think that we would be very good at media creation,” Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, said in a phone call. “I think it’s one thing that we have astutely avoided in the last 12 years,” he said, adding, “the media business is a tough business.” Tell me about it.

Google
Computers and the Internet
Online advertising
Mass media


Consider the Dray Horse (1 Letter)

Abstract: To the Editor: “A Fight to Win the Future: Computers vs. Humans” (Essay, Feb. 15) notes that “over the past century and a half the shift from being a largely agrarian society to one in which less than 1 percent of the United States labor force is in agriculture is frequently cited as evidence of the economy’s ability to reinvent itself.” My late colleague and Nobel economics laureate Wassily Leontief used to say that this reassuring paradigm should also be considered from the point of view of the dray horse — for which there was never a comeback. Sylvain Cappell New York The writer is a professor of mathematics at New York University.

Science and Technology
Computers and the Internet


China and Vietnam to Talk on Sea Dispute

Abstract: Nguyen Van Tho, the Vietnamese ambassador to China, told Chinese reporters on Thursday that China and Vietnam would hold a new round of talks on their territorial dispute in the South China Sea this year, Chinese news organizations reported Friday. He declined to name a specific date, but said, “I am optimistic about this issue,” the reports said. Both countries and other Asian nations claim parts of the South China Sea, which has potentially large oil and natural gas deposits. The territorial dispute is one of the thorniest diplomatic issues between China and Vietnam. They also take different approaches to trying to resolve the dispute: Vietnam prefers multilateral negotiations, with all the countries at the table, while China prefers bilateral talks. Last July, the United States surprised China when it said it had “national interests” in the area and wanted China to abide by a declaration of conduct that China had reached in 2002 with other Asian nations.


Florida Hires Texas’ Muschamp as Coach

Abstract: As the Heisman Trophy ceremony began in New York on Saturday night, the college football world suddenly got whiplash from looking down to Gainesville, Fla. That is where Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley had deftly executed one of the most stealth big-time coaching searches in recent memory, as the Gators named the Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp as their new head coach. Muschamp was the designated coach in waiting at Texas, a job that, along with coaching Florida, is among the sport’s elite. Muschamp takes over for Urban Meyer, who raised the already crazed expectations in Gainesville by winning two national titles during his six seasons. “Coach Muschamp is a great hire for the University of Florida ,” Meyer said. “He is a relentless recruiter and brings a tremendous amount of energy and passion to the game. I would run into him on the road often on the recruiting trail and have always been impressed with him as a coach and a person.” Muschamp spent 10 years of his childhood in Gainesville, dreaming of playing for the Gators. He ended up playing at Georgia, where he went from being a walk-on to a captain. “I grew up watching the Gators and whatever other SEC team was on television,” Muschamp said. “I have great memories watching SEC football with my father on Saturdays and playing football in the backyard with my two brothers right here in Gainesville.” As Florida’s search began, top names were tossed around in the news media like those of Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Boise State’s Chris Petersen and the former N.F.L. coach Jon Gruden. But the team settled on Muschamp, who is known for innovative defenses and relentless enthusiasm. Muschamp also has experience in the Southeastern Conference. He was the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2006 and 2007 before leaving for Texas for the 2008 season. By the end of that season, Texas announced that Muschamp would replace Coach Mack Brown whenever he stepped down. The loss of Muschamp is a huge blow to a Texas program on a downward spiral. The Longhorns have lost the offensive coordinator Greg Davis and two other coaches in the wake of a 5-7 season in which they did not go to a bowl for the first time since 1997. Even amid the misery, Muschamp’s unit shone. Texas finished the season ranked seventh nationally in total defense. (The Longhorns finished No. 51 in scoring defense.) “Coach Muschamp is someone we targeted from the beginning, and he is the guy we wanted,” Foley said.

Heisman Trophy
Newton Cameron J
Luck Andrew
Auburn University
College Athletics
Coaches and Managers
University of Florida
Muschamp Will
Football
Meyer Urban


As Cities Trim Fire Dept. Staffing, Chicago Stands Pat

Abstract: In 1976, the year that Robert Hoff became a Chicago firefighter, 156 people died in fires in the city. By 2010, when Mr. Hoff became the department’s commissioner, that figure had plummeted to 27. The number of fires that the department was called to put out also dropped dramatically in recent decades. What has hardly changed is the staffing level of the Chicago Fire Department, even as mayors from New York to Los Angeles are trying to combat the recession with reductions in fire-protection spending. A Chicago News Cooperative survey of the country’s 10 largest cities found that Chicago ranks near the top in the resources devoted to its fire department. With one firefighter for every 637 residents, Chicago has more firefighters per capita than every other large United States city except Houston, the C.N.C.’s analysis found. And, taking into account its coverage area of about 230 square miles and more than 90 firehouses, Chicago’s department ranked third among the 10 largest cities in the density of firehouses, behind only New York and Philadelphia. Rahm Emanuel has quietly visited many of Chicago’s firehouses since winning the February election to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley. But Mr. Emanuel’s campaign platform for dealing with the city’s perennial budget deficits made no mention of any proposals that would affect staffing in the fire department. Asked this week to specify Mr. Emanuel’s position on fire department staff levels, a spokeswoman, Chris Mather, issued a one-sentence statement: “We have serious fiscal issues ahead of us, but we also understand how critical the dedicated firefighters in Chicago are to ensuring the safety of our city.” Daley administration officials have rejected suggestions from the city’s inspector general that the department reduce staffing from five firefighters to four in each crew, as is the norm in most other cities. “The decline in fire deaths and fires over the years is not reason to think about cutting back the number of firefighters or firehouses,” the fire department spokesman, Larry Langford, said in a statement this week. Still, with the city’s budget deficits exceeding $500 million every year, some fiscal experts questioned whether Mr. Emanuel could afford to avoid the politically touchy issue of fire department staffing. Police and fire costs are to the city budget as defense spending is to the federal budget , not only in the sense that police and fire forces provide core public safety functions, but also because they make up a huge chunk of the payroll. Of the city’s almost 33,000 full-time workers, roughly two-thirds are police or fire department employees. The city allocated almost $2 billion in its $6.15 billion spending plan for 2011 to public safety. “Firefighters and other public safety personnel will have to be included in the efficiencies and possible reductions,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a local budget watchdog group that is financed largely by business interests. “We recognize the political sensitivity, but staffing for public safety must match the actual needs rather than relying on traditional levels of staffing,” Mr. Msall added. Financial pressures have led to a decrease in the number of police officers (a trend that Mr. Emanuel has vowed to reverse), but the fire department has the same number of budgeted positions in Mr. Daley’s 2011 budget as it did last year. There are almost 5,200 employees in the fire department, including about 4,300 firefighters, according to city budget documents. In the last five years, the budget of the fire department has grown more than 12 percent, to $509.4 million this year. Officials of Chicago’s firefighters’ union did not return calls for this article. The union, which led a 23-day strike in 1980, had endorsed Gery Chico to succeed Mr. Daley as mayor. Mr. Hoff, who will remain as fire commissioner after Mr. Emanuel’s inauguration on Monday, declined an interview request. Mr. Langford, the department spokesman, said the lower fire death rate is due in part to the department’s having “enough manpower to conduct searches while simultaneously” fighting fires and keeping flames from spreading to other buildings. The decline in the number of fire deaths in Chicago was part of a national trend attributed to a variety of factors, including sprinkler systems, fire alarms and smoke detectors. City statistics for structure fires show a drop from almost 5,700 in 1996 to less than 2,500 in 2008. But the number of medical calls to the fire department increased at the same time that the number of fires dropped, Mr. Langford noted. Nicholas Sposato, a 17-year firefighter who won election last month to a City Council seat, said he favored maintaining fire staffing levels. After winning the aldermanic race in the 36th Ward, Mr. Sposato gave up his job at the firehouse on Cumberland Avenue, on the far Northwest Side. “We would get a lot of runs they call ‘assist the invalid,’ ” Mr. Sposato said. “I’m all for doing stuff like that for the citizens. Some people may think it’s silly, but you have seniors with one kid in Naperville and the other in Lake Zurich. When something happens, we need to be there, even if you just pick them up and sit them in a chair, or get them in their bed.” Providing that level of service is particularly expensive because the city’s contract with the firefighters union requires five firefighters on every apparatus. In a report issued in October, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson estimated that shifting to four firefighters per piece of equipment could save the city more than $63 million a year. Personnel costs, including benefits, for each firefighter are more than $100,000 a year, according to the report. The inspector general noted that the National Fire Protection Association recommends a minimum of four fighters in each crew. Of the 10 largest cities, only New York and Los Angeles regularly staff both engines and trucks with at least five firefighters, the C.N.C.’s survey found. But other factors, such as density of development, could require greater staffing levels than the four-firefighter minimum, said Ken Willette, the public fire protection division manager for the national association, which is based in Quincy, Mass. “We would defer to the commissioner to apply our standard” to Chicago, Mr. Willette said. Mr. Langford said Chicago needs larger crews because it has many apartment buildings and multistory public schools and nursing homes. Even in largely residential areas of the city’s bungalow belt, Mr. Langford said, homes “are often very close together,” requiring more firefighters than the minimum standard. He pointed to studies showing that four-person crews were only 65 percent as efficient as having five firefighters in a team. “That translates into minutes saved,” Mr. Langford said, “which is lives and property saved.”

Fires and Firefighters
Chicago (Ill)
Recession and Depression
Labor and Jobs
Budgets and Budgeting


Al Qaeda Calls for Rebel Unity in Syria

Abstract: In an audio recording released Thursday, the leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on Islamist brigades in northern Syria to stop fighting one another, to focus on toppling President Bashar al-Assad and to form an Islamic court to arbitrate disputes. Fifteen days of infighting between rebel brigades and fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which is inspired by Al Qaeda, had killed nearly 1,400 people as of Wednesday, according to a count kept by the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Mr. Zawahri has little sway over most of the groups fighting in Syria.

Al Qaeda
Ayman Al- Zawahri
Syria
Arab Spring


Sex Toy Shops Prepare for Tie-Ins to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Abstract: When toys are made for movies, they are usually intended for children. But with the Valentine’s Day weekend premiere of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” many of the tie-ins to the film are for adults only. The sex toy industry is banking on the hope that the Universal Pictures film will generate soaring sales, much the way the blockbuster erotic novel of the same name created thousands of new customers from the female readers who passed the book around their suburban culs-de-sac. In anticipation of such keen interest, mainstream retailers are stocking up on the pleasure industry’s blindfolds, whips, handcuffs and masks. Manufacturers have designed new packaging and products to fit the kinky tone and theme of the film, which is based on E. L. James’s story about a naïve young woman’s introduction to games of sexual bondage. Even Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, recently began selling an official “Fifty Shades of Grey” “ vibrating love ring ,” an item intended for wear by men, but not on the finger. “It is the biggest moment for our industry in popular culture pretty much ever,” said Claire Cavanah, a co-founder of Babeland , an adult novelty retailer. “We’re all sort of preparing for what could be another wave of toys.” Ms. James’s sexually charged trilogy — two followed “Fifty Shades of Grey” — became a cultural phenomenon, and turned Ms. James into something of a legend. She sold the publishing rights to Vintage Books, a division of Random House, and soon reached even more readers who may never have normally read erotic fiction. Image Anastasia Steele, played by Dakota Johnson, and Christian Grey, played by Jamie Dornan. Credit Universal Pictures and Focus Features Last year, Vintage Books announced that it had sold 100 million copies of the series. Ms. James, a middle-aged British mother and former television producer, was credited with introducing the concept of BDSM (standing for, loosely: bondage/discipline, domination/submission, sadism/masochism) into the mainstream vernacular. She also ignited a huge bidding war in Hollywood. Executives vied for a chance to pitch Ms. James and her literary agent, Valerie Hoskins, on how best to tell the story of Anastasia Steele, a virginal 21-year-old student who becomes the submissive sexual partner to Christian Grey, a successful 27-year-old businessman. Universal Studios and Focus Features eventually won, and agreed to pay $5 million for the rights to make the film. The studio wanted to capitalize on the same readers — and others — who sent sales of adult products skyrocketing after “Fifty Shades of Grey” had its debut as an e-book in 2011. Suddenly, retailers had trouble keeping once-obscure products in stock. The novel spurred a 7.5 percent jump in sales of sex-themed products, including toys, videos and books, in 2013, according to a report from the research firm IBISWorld. “We were kind of taken by surprise when the book came out,” Ms. Cavanah said. “But we’re much more prepared for the movie.” The movie will not be as graphic as the book. Neal Slateford, a co-founder of Lovehoney , the only company that has the rights to make the official “Fifty Shades of Grey” adult products sold in Target and elsewhere, does not expect certain toys used in the book’s steamiest scenes to appear in the movie. In an interview, Mr. Slateford said that his brand would not be featured in the film either, although some of the tamer products themselves could be. “I think that the movie will reignite sales of the book, which could boost sales,” he said. Adult-toy experts say it’s difficult to provide an accurate estimate of sales or specific items inspired by the book. But they do point to a few things. Image At the Babeland store in SoHo, merchandise playing to the movie “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The novels were huge hits and likewise introduced new customers to sex toys. Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times The novel includes one particularly graphic scene involving Ben Wa Balls, also known as Kegel balls, an item that retailers had for years largely promoted as a sexual health product for women, especially after giving birth. Sales of the balls immediately spiked. The large sex product manufacturer California Exotic Novelties , which used to sell 80,000 to 90,000 each year, sold one million in the six months after the book’s debut, according to its president and chief executive, Susan Colvin. “There was a worldwide shortage of pleasure balls, literally,” said Mr. Slateford, the co-founder of Lovehoney. “Knowing that those aren’t going to be in the movie, I wouldn’t expect to be selling a huge amount of those.” The sex toy industry is largely private, and not just culturally. Financial data is difficult to find because so few companies are publicly held. Some experts, like Sara Ramirez, the associate publisher for retailing for the adult entertainment trade publication XBIZ, agree that Americans buy somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion worth of pleasure products annually. A more conservative estimate from IBISWorld pegged that number at $610 million in 2013 and projected it to grow to $792 million by 2018. Since only Lovehoney can officially use the “Fifty Shades of Grey” name, others have been forced to get creative. Pipedream Products , which makes sex toys and novelties, redesigned some of its packaging with a gray-and-black color scheme from the movie. California Exotic Novelties broadened its line of “Scandal” restraints when the movie’s trailer came out in July. And Jimmyjane , known for its vibrators, is taking its first foray into “soft goods” with a new set of fetish kits inspired by the film that include items like blindfolds and silk ties. Image More merchandise at Babeland. Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times “I would say that every single person has jumped on the bandwagon in terms of making toys around ‘Fifty Shades,’ ” Ms. Ramirez, the XBIZ publisher, said. Babeland has added 20 new items in anticipation of the movie’s release on Feb. 13. Lovehoney’s “Grey”-themed vibrator is among the best sellers. California Exotic Novelties ordered 10 times its normal amount of inventory for the six months surrounding the film. Lovehoney products even made their way into Target in December, where its line of “Fifty Shades of Grey” candles, lubricant and blindfolds upset some parents a few weeks ago at a store where some items were stocked right next to Captain America toothbrushes. But while these companies do not want to miss an opportunity to capitalize on the film, they don’t want to overestimate demand, either. Babeland still has some items left over from when it rushed to increase supplies in 2012. The company has been a bit more conservative this time around, and says that the items tied to the movie represent about 5 percent of all new products. “My personal opinion is that there’s going to be a sharp spike and then it’s going to tail off rather quickly,” said Nick Orlandino, the chief executive of Pipedream Products. There are cultural concerns, too. The book may have drawn a niche erotic practice into the spotlight, but some critics also saw a male protagonist who pressured his lover in a way BDSM enthusiasts say is antithetical to what should be a consensual relationship. Those misconceptions, some say, could also extend to sex toys. And manufacturers don’t want customers with unrealistic expectations to be disappointed with their products. “A lot of the ways they describe the toys and the products in the book, E.L. James didn’t get quite right,” Ms. Colvin said. “Using kegel balls is not too much fun, it’s actually hard work to do it right.”

Movies
Sex
Toy
Universal Pictures
Focus Features
Valentine's Day
Vintage Books


Names of the Dead

Abstract: The Department of Defense has identified 2,640 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday: ALEX, Eugene H. E., 32, Staff Sgt., Army; Bay City, Mich.; Fourth Squadron, 14th Cavalry, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. DEASON, Michael L., 28, Staff Sgt., Army; Farmington, Mo.; 101st Airborne Division. GOLLA, Cliff K., 21, Lance Cpl., Marines; Charlotte, N.C.; Second Marine Division. HARRIS, Shane P., 23, Lance Cpl., Marines; Las Vegas, N.M.; First Marine Division. JOHNSON, Philip A., 19, Lance Cpl., Marines; Hartford; Second Marine Division. MADARAS, Nicholas A., 19, Pfc., Army; Wilton, Conn.; Fourth Infantry. VALDEPENAS, Eric P., 21, Lance Cpl., Marines; Seekonk, Mass.; Fourth Marine Division.

Iraq
United States Armament and Defense
Defense Department


Frail Union Chief Adds Firm Voice in Drug Case

Abstract: Michael Weiner wanted no sympathy when he met with the All-Stars this week at Citi Field. Weiner, the executive director of the players’ association, has brain cancer, and his symptoms have worsened in recent weeks. He cannot walk. He has lost the use of his right arm. His speech is slower. But at a delicate moment for the union, which is facing a showdown with the commissioner’s office over discipline for players linked to the Biogenesis drug investigation, Weiner continues to work. “It’s just awful to have it happen to him,” said Joe Nathan, a veteran reliever for the Texas Rangers. “He’s such a good guy; he’s such a brilliant mind. Every time I think about it, it’s like, ugh. It’s amazing to me that, through all of this, his concern has been about us. His concern has been for other people. I think he just needs to almost take a step back, do some things for himself. Enjoy his time now.” Weiner met with members of the Baseball Writers’ Association at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, calmly explaining his condition and announcing that a succession plan is in place if his body continues to deteriorate. Weiner said he did not believe his predecessor, Donald Fehr, would work for the union again. In any case, replacing Weiner is a possibility none of the members wants to confront — especially, it seems, at a crucial moment for the players. “He’s going to fight for his guys,” said Torii Hunter, an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers. “He’s going to figure out what’s going on. You fight till the day you die, and that’s what he’s doing. I’m not saying he’s going to die, but as men, that’s something we all should do, we should work till the day we die. Michael Weiner, if something’s going on, he’s not going to back down.” Image Michael Weiner continues to work as the union faces a showdown with Major League Baseball over a drug investigation. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times The fight to defend players against possible drug suspensions might seem trivial, considering his health, but it is Weiner’s job. At the session with reporters, he talked about similar issues that arose in the 1980s, and the need to educate players on the role of the union. “Some players’ initial reaction is, just throw the book at them, I don’t care about these guys,” Weiner said. “You have to explain to all players what rights those players have, that we have an obligation to enforce those rights, and we will. At the same time, we’ve got a drug agreement to enforce, and we will.” Commissioner Bud Selig, who met with the writers before Weiner, called baseball’s continuing investigation of the Biogenesis clinic thorough, comprehensive and aggressive, and said it was essential to the integrity of the testing program. “It’s one thing to say you have a tough program,” Selig said. “If you really don’t enforce it well, what does that mean?” But while Selig offered no clues about the timing of possible suspensions, Weiner said it was unrealistic to think that players would begin serving suspensions this season if they decide to appeal the punishment. He said that possible hearings on appeals would not begin until September, at the earliest. “On players that deserve suspensions, we’ll try to come up with a fair suspension,” Weiner said. “On players that don’t deserve suspensions, we will argue that they don’t deserve suspensions, and I hope we have success. We may not have success on every single player, but I hope we have a fair amount of success.” Weiner and David Prouty, the union’s general counsel, said it was important that all appeals be heard before the same arbitrator, Fredric Horowitz. Each case could take weeks to untangle, and each would be heard individually. With many players possibly facing punishments, the full process could take months to resolve. Image The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera acknowledged a standing ovation in the eighth inning. 1 / 16 Under the agreement between Major League Baseball and the union, Weiner said, penalties for drug offenses are specified only for failed tests — 50 games for a first, 100 for a second and a lifetime ban for a third. But the investigation of the Biogenesis clinic case is different, with baseball proceeding with a strategy in which it would suspend players without any positive tests as evidence. “The players in Biogenesis are what we call nonanalytical positives, or positives based on evidence other than tests,” Weiner said. “In theory, they could be suspended for five games or 500 games. We could then choose to challenge or not. But the commissioner’s office is not bound by the 50-100-life scale.” Weiner said that some players favored tougher penalties for failed drug tests, as Selig does, adding that the topic would be broached with the union membership in December. He said that he expected the union leadership to discuss the Biogenesis investigation next month with Major League Baseball but that the commissioner’s office had not been as forthcoming as he would like. “In terms of what they’ve learned, we’ve had to fight them every step of the way,” Weiner said. “So it’s been a struggle.” Weiner, 51, said that he was taking a melanoma medication that had not yet been approved for brain cancer, but that doctors believed could help him. He could not yet gauge its effectiveness, he said. “What I look for each day is beauty, meaning and joy, and if I can find beauty, meaning and joy, that’s a good day,” Weiner said. Then he joked about finding beauty in grievance hearings with owners, smiling before reflecting again on his own mortality. “I live each day for those things and I wake up each day looking for those things,” Weiner said, “because I don’t know how much time I have left on this earth.”

Michael S Weiner
Biogenesis of America
Doping
Major League Baseball Players Assn
Baseball
MLB
Ryan Braun
Alex Rodriguez


Mother’s Killing of Children in Rural China Spurs Debate About Inequality

Abstract: BEIJING — The young mother lived in obscurity in a wobbly house at the end of a dusty road. She did not speak much with strangers, spending her days tending to rows of wheat, peas and potatoes. Then, one day in late August, everyone in Agu Shan Village in northwestern China seemed to know her name: Yang Gailan. Ms. Yang, 28, was found dead outdoors alongside her children, three girls and a boy, all under 7 years old. The authorities said Ms. Yang killed herself after poisoning her children with pesticides and attacking them with an ax. The gruesome story, which was widely shared across social media over the weekend, has ignited concerns across China about the grim realities facing many rural families , as more people leave the countryside for jobs in big cities. It has also prompted a debate about inequality in Chinese society and the effectiveness of government efforts to reduce poverty, which President Xi Jinping has vowed to eliminate over the next four years. Ms. Yang was struggling to support her children on the roughly $500 sent home each year by her husband, Li Keying, a migrant worker in a nearby city in Gansu Province, Chinese news reports said. (Mr. Li was found dead this month, apparently a suicide.) Adding to frustrations about the case, local officials reportedly stripped Ms. Yang of welfare benefits two years ago because she did not meet the official standard for poverty, which in China applies to people earning less than $350 per year. “When a person commits a crime for bread, then society is to blame,” one user wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. Others, though, said it was Ms. Yang’s responsibility to care for her family. “She was too cruel,” Luo Xiaohua, a 25-year-old courier who lives near Agu Shan Village, said in an interview. “It’s wrong to take away lives, let alone the lives of your own children.” After years of breakneck economic growth, China faces rampant inequality. Village life is rapidly deteriorating, and more than 82 million people, a vast majority of them in rural areas, still lived on less than $1 a day in 2014. Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said village officials often neglected needy families in doling out welfare benefits. “Sometimes people who deserve it don’t get it because the policy lacks transparency and justice,” Professor Hu said. Officials in Agu Shan Village, home to nearly 300 people, could not be reached for comment. Ms. Yang’s story gained prominence after a report last week by China Youth Daily, a state-run news outlet. The article said that on Aug. 26, Ms. Yang left home with her children, telling relatives she was going to check on the family’s sheep. Li Keyi, 21, a cousin of Ms. Yang’s husband, celebrated the Lunar New Year with the family in Agu Shan Village last year. In an interview on Monday, he said that even though the family did not live comfortably, Ms. Yang had encouraged him to stay and eat. “I couldn’t find a family that was poorer than they were,” he said.

Murders and Homicides
Suicide
Gansu Province China
China
Poverty
Income Inequality
Rural area


At Afghan Border, Graft Is Part of the Bargain

Abstract: TORKHAM, Afghanistan — Some call them “the men who sit on golden chairs” — Afghan customs officials who preside over a vast ecosystem of bribery that stretches from dusty border crossings to the capital. They have become fabulously wealthy by depriving their aid-dependent treasury of at least $500 million a year, according to the most conservative foreign estimates. Unseating those kings of customs, or at least stemming their thievery, is now a job for President Ashraf Ghani as he takes up his campaign promise of fighting graft. Customs is a central factor in rescuing the ailing economy, and accounted for 26 percent of government revenue last year. Yet in interviews with a wide array of Afghan and foreign officials who live with the issue, a picture emerges of such rampant bribery and extortion that corruption can no longer be described as a cancer on the system: It is the system, they say. And it is deeply enmeshed with Afghan politics. “The water is dirty from the source,” said Khan Jan Alokozai, deputy chairman of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, citing a Pashto proverb. “Governors and ministers, businessmen and bureaucrats — everyone is involved.” The scale of the problem is evident at Torkham, a major crossing point on Afghanistan’s southeastern border with Pakistan. Every day, up to 500 trucks trundle across the Khyber Pass, kicking up clouds of dust as they cross into Afghanistan and enter a customs apparatus that has been transformed by a decade of foreign assistance. The trucks pass a giant X-ray machine delivered by the United States military. Western-trained officials assess their cargo for import duties. The paperwork is entered into a computer system paid for by the World Bank. American-financed surveillance cameras monitor the crossing. Yet for Afghan officials, every truck represents a fresh opportunity for personal enrichment. Border guards pocket a small fee for opening the gate, but that is just the start. Businessmen and customs officials collude to fake invoices and manipulate packing lists. Quantity, weight, contents, country of origin — almost every piece of information can be altered to slash the customs bill, often by up to 70 percent. “The only thing you can’t change is the color of the truck,” said one customs official who agreed to meet after work to explain how the system operated. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared losing his job, said he had paid $5,000 to a customs administrator to secure his job, a low-level processing position, 10 years ago. It was a spectacularly good investment: He now makes up to $4,000 every month on top of his basic salary of $150. Similar positions now cost at least $15,000 and require political connections, he said. Every official at the customs post in Torkham and in nearby Jalalabad, where customs fees are paid, is complicit in the scheme, he said — even the office cleaners. A day earlier, for example, 85 trucks filled with garments had passed through customs, costing the importer $1,400 per truck in bribes: $900 to the customs chief, $250 to the customs broker, and $250 to be divided among various customs officials who facilitated the clearance. The official said he had chosen to speak out partly out of guilt, and partly because he had been inspired by Mr. Ghani’s election. “This system is why I have clean clothes and good shoes,” he said, pointing to himself. “But I know it is wrong, and I want to stop it. This money belongs to the martyrs, the disabled and the widows. But if I raise my voice, I will lose my job.” At the customs headquarters in Jalalabad, the deputy director, Haji Baryali Gardi Wal, dismissed claims of corruption as “exaggerated,” describing them as the calculated provocations of Pakistani, Iranian and Chinese intelligence agents. “Afghanistan has many enemies,” he said. “They want to embarrass us before the West to reduce the funds coming into our country.” Image For Afghan officials, every truck entering the country represents an opportunity for enrichment. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times In Kabul, the deputy finance minister for customs and revenue, Gul Maqsood Sabit, echoed that claim. “Ours is a world-class system,” he said. “I admit there are problems. But we have come a long way.” It is certainly true that, partly thanks to at least $290 million in foreign training and equipment, the system has made strong progress in the past decade. Processing times at customs have fallen sharply — to two days from 10 at Kabul’s airport, and to 90 minutes from 18 hours at Torkham. And revenue has soared to just over $1 billion in 2012 from a paltry $50 million in 2003 — although it slumped last year because of uncertainty over the American military drawdown. Yet the system still loses more money than it gains. American aid officials estimate that Afghanistan loses half of its customs revenue to corruption, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report published in April. One senior international official with long experience in customs reform said the figure was closer to two-thirds. “For every dollar that should be collected, the trader saves 33 cents, 33 cents goes to the officials, and 33 cents to government coffers,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under orders from his organization. In conversation, Afghan officials casually reel out accounts of the ostentatious wealth enjoyed by senior bureaucrats and politicians involved with customs, usually involving expensive properties in Kabul, Dubai, Europe or Canada. Less prominent officials are also doing well. According to American aid officials, some customs leaders are reluctant to visit Kabul for training because they would lose too much money in forgone bribes. Mr. Ghani, who vowed “strict legal action” against corruption officials in his Sept. 29 inauguration speech, is intimately familiar with the kleptocratic customs system — as minister of finance under President Hamid Karzai in 2004, he started the current modernization program. He will also be aware that previous attempts to clean it up have met with strong political resistance. Under Mr. Karzai, criminal investigations into corrupt officials and businessmen were repeatedly frustrated through direct interventions from parliamentarians, ministers and even Mr. Karzai’s office, according to several Western and Afghan officials. Not a single senior customs official has been prosecuted for graft. Other government departments view customs as a shakedown target, they said. Government auditors extort money from customs officials in return for a clean bill of health. Prosecutors accept cash payments to slow or derail corruption investigations. If Mr. Ghani is to truly attack this powerful web of interlocking interests, his main obstacle is political. A serious customs overhaul would hurt the interests of major tribal or regional power brokers with links to Mr. Ghani or the country’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah. The main border post in the north is controlled by Atta Muhammad Noor, the governor of Balkh Province and a prominent supporter of Mr. Abdullah. In the south, the powerful police chief of Kandahar, Gen. Abdul Raziq, has a tight grip on border posts at Spin Boldak, with Pakistan, and Nimroz, with Iran. Aside from its sheer cost, endemic corruption is also a sign of pessimism among Afghanistan’s elites, whose hoarding of assets has been widely interpreted as a sign of worry as Western aid slows down and Western combat troops pull out. Mr. Ghani will seek to allay some of those fears by securing promises of continuing international aid at a donor conference due to take place in London late this month or early the next. But he is also showing a steely hand on corruption. Just a few weeks into his tenure, he has already reinvigorated the stalled court investigation into the $900 million Kabul Bank fraud scandal. And he vowed to shake up the office of the attorney general, Mohammad Ishaq Aloko. “People must trust it,” he said in a Twitter message posted on Oct. 8. But with the political situation still fragile, some here worry that Mr. Ghani may be moving too quickly. “Corruption has become so interwoven with the political system in Afghanistan that it’s going to take years to undo,” one American official said. “And you can’t forget that Afghanistan is a treacherous place, where some actors are capable of anything.”


Egyptian Court Orders Retrial for Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood Members

Abstract: CAIRO — An Egyptian court ordered a retrial for 37 Muslim Brotherhood members sentenced to death and 115 others sentenced to life in a mass trial last year, judicial officials said on Saturday. The 152 people who will be retried were initially sentenced in March at a trial of more than 500 defendants, some tried in absentia. The proceedings lasted only a few days and were widely criticized by Western governments and human rights groups. They will face a retrial for carrying out attacks during clashes that erupted in the southern province of Minya after the forced dispersal of two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo on Aug. 14, 2013, when hundreds were killed. The Brotherhood was protesting the removal of President Mohamed Morsi , who was ousted by the military in the wake of mass demonstrations against his rule. The original trial last year in Minya also ended with 377 people sentenced in absentia. Those sentenced in absentia automatically receive retrials when they turn themselves in, according to Egyptian law.

Egypt
Criminal Sentence
Capital punishment
Muslim Brotherhood Egypt


With Homeless Issue, Christine Quinn Gets Back in the Conversation

Abstract: On Sept. 11, 2013, Christine C. Quinn, who had just suffered a rough and at one time entirely unimaginable defeat in New York City’s Democratic primary race for mayor, headed downtown to the National September 11 Memorial and turned off her phone. A few hours later, she realized she had missed several calls from Hillary Clinton’s office . Mrs. Clinton had phoned to extend her sympathies to a female candidate who had received only 16 percent of the vote among women, had been criticized for an abrasive demeanor, a grating voice, a poorly managed campaign and a failure to telegraph a resonant message that could speak to the fear and disgust surrounding the rise in economic inequality. Only in the rear view, of course, do we see this as preamble. In the three years since her retrenchment from politics, Ms. Quinn, the former City Council speaker, has cried, ridden horses, taken spin classes, looked after her father, taught at Harvard, lost weight, advised Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and most notably and perhaps even strategically served for the past 13 months as the chief executive of Win (formerly Women in Need), a social service and advocacy organization that is one of the city’s largest providers of shelter and aid for homeless families. At the time she came on board there was a sense, fostered largely by the tabloids, that the growing problem of homelessness was more an issue of inconvenience for the better-off than a crisis for those without a place to live. This demonization required a counternarrative, one that informed New Yorkers who the homeless actually are: 70 percent of those in the city’s shelters are families with children; 51 percent of Win’s clients are employed. To that end, the agency has produced an arresting advertising campaign — visible in recent weeks on buses and subways, via social media, on the Jumbotron in Times Square and the Oculus at the World Trade Center shopping mall — outlining how homeless working mothers spend their days, which is to say: not sitting in front of flat screens watching “The Price Is Right.” “I knew we had to do something to reframe the larger discussion,” Ms. Quinn told me recently in her office near Pennsylvania Station, “because the framework was villainizing, racist and wrong.” Win’s campaign has had the added effect of highlighting the absence of any similar effort on the part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration as it struggles to convince New Yorkers that they must accept shelters and supportive housing in their neighborhoods. Under Ms. Quinn’s direction, Win has initiated the development of three facilities for the homeless — one on East 91st Street in Manhattan was essentially given to the agency by a developer for a nominal leasing fee that makes it almost free. History has shown us that some politicians are at their most appealing after they lose. Al Gore seemed to be more fun after 2000, Mitt Romney less robotic and out of touch in the documentary “Mitt,” released two years after President Obama kept him from the White House. Ms. Quinn today seems to have pressed the release button, letting out the progressive that many people refused to believe she harbored inside during her attempt to become mayor. She is animated and impassioned when talking about the structural problems that have led to the city’s current record numbers of homeless people; it is easier to imagine her going to SoulCycle with Senator Elizabeth Warren than with former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose taint she was famously unable to shake during her own campaign. Whether Ms. Quinn will try to run for mayor again next year isn’t something anyone can tell us right now. When the question is posed, she offers a perfunctory “This” — meaning Win — “is my job,” which, it is worth pointing out, is hardly an insistent denial. By advocating around a problem that Mr. de Blasio has seemed so ineffective in mitigating, she has certainly put herself in a position, whether by accident or design, to mount a challenge. Though even she praises him for taking certain measures — reinstituting certain rent subsidies, for instance — without which homelessness would be even worse, it has been hard to ignore the near daily condemnation the mayor now seems to receive for all that has gone wrong. This week a report from Comptroller Scott M. Stringer’s office revealed that since Nov. 1, 2015, the city has spent an unprecedented $400,000 a day housing homeless people in hotels. Between April and October of this year, the city’s average monthly expenditure on hotel rooms rose steadily to $11.7 million, from $3.8 million. The report also disclosed that more than 800 of these bookings were for rooms that cost $400 a night or more, and that 60 of them were for $629. It is almost as if the de Blasio administration were hoping to hand Sean Hannity a whole new hour on the spending profligacy of liberals who had lost their minds. The city has also offered gift cards to the relatives of homeless people if they take them back in, and keep them out of the shelter system, during the holidays. Beyond the fact that she might be able to sell herself as a class warrior more successfully this time, Ms. Quinn would also benefit, above all, from the pervasive sense of grief many liberal women in New York feel over Mrs. Clinton’s loss. It is conceivable that those who didn’t vote for Ms. Quinn before, those who now find themselves disappointed in Mr. de Blasio, would come out for a woman, this woman, in the spirit of compensatory sisterhood. The intervening years have also put more distance between Ms. Quinn and Mr. Bloomberg. Bradley Tusk, an entrepreneur and former Bloomberg adviser who has been a strategist for Uber and founded a political action committee called NYC Deserves Better , told me he is encouraging Ms. Quinn to run. NYC Deserves Better is supported by the police union, and, crucially, by a consortium of hundreds of African-American clerics; increasing her numbers among black voters would be essential for her chances at a victory. Mr. Tusk points out that the last mayoral election had extremely low voter turnout, and that more voters could be persuaded to show up this time. He has a plan: offering free Uber rides to the polls. “There are three million Uber riders in New York City,” he said. “If 5 percent — 150,000 people — get out, you got to imagine 80,000 of them don’t like de Blasio.”

Homelessness
Christine C Quinn
NYC
Mayoral races
Win
Bill de Blasio


Aid to Poor Nations Rises, but Even More Is Asked

Abstract: Donor countries collectively increased development aid last year to the highest dollar level ever recorded, despite the onset of the economic crisis, but the O.E.C.D. on Monday urged rich nations to give even more. The 30-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday that assistance to the world’s poorest nations increased by 10.2 percent in 2008 to $119.8 billion, equivalent to 0.3 percent of donor nations’ gross national income. But, it said, shortfalls in some quarters meant that wealthy countries needed to find an additional $10 billion to $15 billion on top of their existing donation plans to achieve 2010 international development goals. “A collapse in the world trading system, the outbreak of protectionism, security problems in developing countries caused by famine and economic collapse will cost donor countries a lot more to fix than the gap between performance and promise,” Simon Scott, head of the O.E.C.D.’s statistics and monitoring division, said in an interview. “It is time for donors to make the extra effort to meet their commitments to avoid the potentially disastrous consequences that the crisis might have in developing countries,” Mr. Scott said. The O.E.C.D.’s Development Assistance Committee, in charge of cooperation with developing countries, cautioned that while international goals were within reach, slower economic growth and shortfalls by countries like Austria, Italy and Greece meant that only a special effort could ensure that the international target of $145.1 billion would be achieved by 2010. Developing nations from Africa to Latin America, their budgets already weakened by food and oil price rises over the past two years, are now suffering from falling commodity prices, waning foreign direct investment and the likelihood of a significant drop in remittances from migrant laborers in 2009. That makes it all the more crucial that donor countries honor their pledges, despite the pressures on their own economies, the O.E.C.D. said. Donations last year reached a record level after governments scaled up core aid programs significantly, especially to sub-Saharan Africa, the organization said. Yet contributions still fell below the 0.7 percent of gross national income agreed on by the United Nations in 1970, and below the European Union’s 0.56 percent collective target, it added. Last year, the United States, Germany, Britain, France and Japan were the biggest donors by volume, with the United States alone donating $26 billion — a 16.8 percent increase in real terms — in net overseas development aid. That help incorporates all forms of development assistance, including disaster and debt relief programs, given by the government to any entity in a developing country. Contributions from Austria fell, mainly because of a drop in debt relief grants. But they rose from the 14 other E.U. countries that are members of the O.E.C.D.’s Development Assistance Committee, taking their combined development assistance up 8.6 percent to $70.2 billion, or 4.2 percent of gross national income.


RushCard Prepaid Cards Get Closer to Resolving Problems

Abstract: Users of RushCard prepaid debit cards continued to report residual problems on Thursday, a week after thousands lost access to their accounts, though several posted on social media sites that their cards were again working. Earlier Thursday, Russell Simmons, one of the founders of RushCard, put a message on Twitter. We are still working through all of @RushCard 's problems. We have made progress, but see that there a number of people still affected. — Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) October 22, 2015 In a statement, RushCard’s chief executive, Rick Savard, said that while the “vast majority” of the customer issues had been resolved, “we have a handful of people left who are still not able to access correct information about their accounts.” “Their funds are there but their information is still inaccurate,” he said. A source close to the company who spoke on condition of anonymity said RushCard has been adjusting fees and offering courtesy credits on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Savard said the company was preparing to make “a significant announcement on how we plan to make this right with our customers who were severely inconvenienced and in some case suffered hardships.” Image The RushCard is a prepaid debit card. Credit Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times RushCard, which is based in Cincinnati, has been struggling to reconnect thousands of cardholders with access to their accounts. A technical malfunction during a processing system conversion on Columbus Day weekend left hundreds of thousands of customers unable to use their cards, in some cases for more than a week, prompting an outpouring of grievances on social media. Mr. Savard and Mr. Simmons have taken to Twitter and Facebook to try to respond to customer complaints. On Thursday, Mr. Simmons posted that the company had fixed inaccurate account information that had displayed transactions twice instead of once. The post said there had been an issue with the information but that account balances had not been affected. In a separate statement, Mr. Simmons said, “I am personally reaching out to hundreds of customers to help them resolve their issues. I want to make sure that every single RushCard customer today is able to use the card as I intended them to use it: to pay their bills, to get gas, to feed their families and help them manage their finances.” Some customer cards were wrongly rendered inactive during last week’s conversion. Also, in the last week, some customers found that their direct payroll deposits or government benefits linked to their cards had been returned. RushCard said it had new processes in place this week to ensure that deposits are posted in a timely manner. It directed cardholders who were affected to contact their employer or government benefits administrator to obtain the funds or have them resubmitted to RushCard. One customer who said she had a card for 11 years responded on Facebook that she would rather not do that. “I would rather wait a few days and get a paper check ... no thanks RushCard you’ve done enough.”

Customer service
Russell Simmons
RushCard
Rick Savard
Debit card


Does the Monument Measure Up?

Abstract: Surveyors are checking to make sure that the Washington Monument is still 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches tall. A review conducted last year at the base of the monument found that it had not sunk into the ground after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake damaged parts of it in August 2011. But surveyors want to make sure it is still the same height, and they can access the peak of the monument only when it is covered in scaffolding, as it is now. Dru Smith, a surveyor, said he had no reason to believe that the height of the monument had changed. Results of the new survey will not be available for several weeks. The measurement is being done by the National Geodetic Survey and is the first of its kind since 1999.

Earthquake
Washington DC
Monuments and Memorials


Feud Is Revived, as Spitzer Aides Wonder if Bruno Flights Should Be Taxed

Abstract: ALBANY, Oct. 11 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer plunged back into his political feud with the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno , on Thursday, as the governor’s aides suggested that Mr. Bruno could owe income taxes on flights he took on state-owned aircraft. Mr. Bruno and Mr. Spitzer have been at odds since July, when a report issued by the state attorney general faulted aides to Mr. Spitzer for their efforts to discredit Mr. Bruno over his use of state aircraft to attend political events. For weeks, though, Mr. Spitzer has implored his fellow political leaders to return to the business of governing. And the administration’s fresh public criticism of Mr. Bruno emerged somewhat haphazardly and — it would appear — not entirely by design. On Wednesday, Republicans obtained a copy of a letter to the I.R.S. drafted by aides to Malcolm A. Smith, a Queens Democrat and the Senate minority leader, in consultation with Spitzer administration officials. The letter urged the I.R.S. to look into whether Mr. Bruno should have paid taxes on the portions of the flights used for nonofficial business. The draft letter appeared over the names of three other Democratic senators — but not Mr. Smith’s — to whom it apparently circulated earlier this week. The letter, dated Oct. 9, was never sent. But a copy made its way to Senate Republicans, and then to The New York Post, which published a story about the letter on Thursday. Mr. Bruno denounced the draft letter on Thursday, saying in a statement that it was yet more evidence of “dirty tricks” by state Democrats. “It’s clear that the governor and his subordinates will continue to abuse government power and use these underhanded tactics against me,” Mr. Bruno added. The unwanted publicity appeared to catch Mr. Smith and his aides off guard. Neither the senator nor his spokesman responded to requests for an interview on the matter. In a statement, Mr. Smith said that he and his staff had decided not to send the letter because they felt it would be a “distraction” from governing. But he added, “If the facts show there is something there, it should be looked into by the appropriate authorities.” Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, confirmed the administration’s consultation with Mr. Smith and, likewise, suggested that Mr. Bruno’s flights deserved closer scrutiny by tax authorities. According to guidelines issued by the state comptroller’s office, she noted, officials are required to count the personal use of state vehicles as imputed income for tax purposes. “Senator Bruno is simply trying to divert attention by claiming that it was somehow improper for government employees to consider asking enforcement agencies to look into this matter,” Ms. Anderson said. “It is not. To the contrary, it is appropriate for relevant authorities to determine whether it warrants investigation.” But she said the governor would not “be personally referring” the issue to the authorities. State police records indicate that Mr. Bruno has used state aircraft for dozens of trips over the years, and that on many of them he mixed official legislative business and campaign fund-raising, a practice permitted by state ethics rules at the time of the trips. He has declined to say with whom he has met on the trips. Mr. Bruno’s aides have said that the trips were not personal and that he does not pay taxes on the use of the aircraft. Spitzer officials say that the state laws in question make no distinction between personal and campaign use of state vehicles, only between official and nonofficial use. But a spokesman for the comptroller referred a reporter to the I.R.S. on the question of whether the campaign-related portion of such trips would be considered a personal use for tax purposes. An I.R.S. spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Bruno’s situation.


U.S. Hunts for More Suspicious Packages

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Two packages containing explosives, shipped from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago , were intercepted in Britain and Dubai , setting off a broad terrorism scare on Friday that included the scrambling of fighter jets to accompany a passenger flight as it landed safely in New York. On Friday, President Obama said the explosives represented a “credible terrorist threat” to the United States while Janet Napolitano , secretary of the Homeland Security, said on Saturday morning that the plot “has the hallmarks of Al Qaeda .”The discovery of the explosives packed in toner cartridges for computer printers, based on a tip from Saudi intelligence officials, began an urgent hunt for other suspicious packages in the United States and other countries. The police in Dubai on Saturday confirmed that the bomb discovered in its country in cargo from Yemen bound for the United States contained the explosive PETN, the same chemical explosive in the bomb sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian man who tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit last Dec. 25. That plot, too, was hatched in Yemen, a country that is regarded as one of the most significant fronts in the battle with extremists. According to the Associated Press, the Dubai police said that tests showed the printer cartridge also contained lead azide, an explosive compound that can be used in bomb detonators. British forensic officials on Saturday were examining the device found in their country, Reuters reported. The Dubai police said that they were tipped off to the device by a call from abroad but did not name the country. The police said that the tip warned of the possibility of an explosive device hidden in postal packages onboard a FedEx flight originating from the Yemeni capital of Sana to Dubai, according to a statement released by the official state news agency WAM and reported by The Associated Press. “The plot style carries features similar to previous attacks carried out by terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda,” the Dubai police said. The white powder explosives were discovered in the printer’s ink cartridge, the statement continued, and were rigged to an electric circuit. “The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer,” the statement said. The statements released by the Dubai police followed information given by American officials on Friday, when Representative Jane Harman , a California Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, had said that the packages seized in Britain and Dubai contained PETN. Ms. Harman, who was briefed by John S. Pistole , administrator of the Transportation Security Administration , also said that both packages contained computer printer cartridges filled with the explosive, with one using a cellphone as a detonator and the other a timer. President Obama had been briefed on developments starting at 10:35 p.m. on Thursday. “The events of the past 24 hours underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism,” Mr. Obama said in a brief statement to reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon. He praised the work of intelligence and counterterrorism officials in foiling the plot. “The American people should be confident that we will not waver in our resolve to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates and to root out violent extremism in all its forms,” the president said. News of the terrorist plot came as Mr. Obama was barreling into the last four days of campaigning before midterm elections on Tuesday, and White House officials appeared determined to project the appearance of a commander in chief who was on top of the developments. Intelligence officials in Saudi Arabia tipped off the United States to the plot to ship explosives from Sana, the Yemeni capital, American officials said. Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen, closely monitors militants there, who have plotted against the Saudi monarchy and sent a suicide bomber last year in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Saudi counterterrorism chief. Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, whose office was briefed on the episode, said the tip about the explosives was precise. “We knew what we were looking for, and we knew where to look,” he said. Mr. King, who has often been a critic of the administration and intelligence agencies that have at times missed warning signs of attacks, said, “So far everything has worked the right way.” John O. Brennan , the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, said that the packages containing explosives, which he compared in size to a “breadbox,” were undergoing forensic analysis and that the inquiry was at an early stage. He said investigators did not yet know how the explosives were intended to be activated. He said the search for additional explosives was continuing. “We don’t want to presume we know the bounds of this plot, so we are looking at all packages,” Mr. Brennan said. The latest plot underscored once again the threat from Yemen and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the branch of the terrorism network based there. Mr. Brennan called it “the most active operational franchise of Al Qaeda.” Indeed, Yemen, once little known to most Americans, has been the source of some of the most dramatic terrorism attempts of recent years. American intelligence officials have said that Anwar al-Awlaki , an American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen, played a direct role in the Christmas Day airliner plot, and he has publicly called for more attacks on the United States. In addition, an Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood , Texas , a year ago had exchanged e-mails with Mr. Awlaki beforehand. Mr. Awlaki’s lectures and sermons have been linked to more than a dozen terrorist investigations in the United States, Britain and Canada , and Faisal Shahzad , who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in May, cited Mr. Awlaki as an inspiration. Yemeni raids and American missile strikes have repeatedly targeted Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula since December, and early this year Mr. Awlaki became the first American citizen to be placed on the Central Intelligence Agency ’s list of suspected terrorists to be captured or killed. So far no evidence has been made public linking Mr. Awlaki to the latest plot. A spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, Mohammed Albasha, said Yemen’s government “launched a full-scale investigation” and was working closely with the United States and other countries to assess the episode. Mr. Brennan, who spoke early Friday with the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh , said Yemen’s cooperation in the fight against terrorism had steadily improved. “We’re working very closely with them, and we have found that they are courageous partners,” he said. Mr. Brennan also praised the Saudis, saying, “Their quick action was responsible for preventing what might have been major terrorist attacks with significant loss of life.” The plot unfolded in dramatic fashion on international television, with scenes of security teams surrounding cargo planes in several countries, military fighters accompanying a passenger plane into New York and a grim-faced president and his aides, many of whom had spent a sleepless night. One of the packages was found aboard a U.P.S. cargo plane at East Midlands Airport near Nottingham, England , officials said. A second, similar package was removed from a FedEx flight in Dubai, they said. Neither company has flights into or out of Yemen, but they offer shipping from Yemen and contract with other companies to move freight from there to hubs in Europe and elsewhere in the Middle East . Cargo planes were moved to secure areas of airports in Philadelphia and Newark for searches, and a United Parcel Service truck in Brooklyn was stopped and inspected. No additional explosives had been discovered by late Friday. The episode is likely to reignite a long-running debate over the screening of freight aboard cargo planes. Only a small percentage of such freight is currently screened, though in 2007 Congress directed the Transportation Security Administration to screen all cargo carried on passenger flights starting this year. Administration officials said they had no reason to believe the Chicago addresses were connected to Mr. Obama’s plans to be in Chicago on Saturday night. They said the decision to have the president speak publicly about the plot was made partly because of confusing and contradictory reports on television on Friday. After a suspicious package was reported to be aboard a flight from the United Arab Emirates to New York, Canadian and American fighters were scrambled to accompany it. The flight landed in New York City on Friday afternoon without incident, and no explosives were found. David Packles, 23, a financial analyst from New York who was aboard the plane, Emirates Flight 201 from Dubai, said he did not spot any military aircraft or notice any unusual security precautions, except for a 20-minute delay before passengers were permitted to leave the plane. “To think there were fighter jets escorting the plane really, really blows my mind right now,” he said. Two U.P.S. cargo planes at the Philadelphia airport and another in Newark were moved to safe areas away from terminals and searched before being cleared. A U.P.S. truck in New York City was stopped and searched as well, and two items from Yemen were inspected, the police said. Counterterrorism officials declined to identify the synagogues to which the suspicious packages found in Dubai and Britain were addressed; they did say they did not include KAM Isaiah Israel , which is across the street from Mr. Obama’s Hyde Park home. Synagogues in Chicago were scheduled to hold regular services on Saturday, said Rabbi Michael Balinsky, executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. “It’s obviously disturbing,” he said of the news that Chicago might have been the focus of a plot, “but certainly the Jewish community will proceed as it proceeds. We’ll just exercise caution.”


Sharing Screens Between PCs Running Different Versions of Windows

Abstract: Q. Is it possible to use Remote Assistance to look at a Windows 10 computer from a PC running Windows 7? A. The Remote Assistance tool has been part of the Windows operating system for years, and you should be able to use it between computers running differing Windows versions . For those unfamiliar with it, Remote Assistance allows one computer user to connect to the computer of someone else, via an internet connection, to see that person’s screen or even take control of the system for technical support. It can be a very useful tool if one member of a family is more technically inclined than the others but lives far away. The Windows 7 computer should be able to view the screen or even temporarily assume control of the Windows 10 machine — as long as the Windows 10 PC is set up to allow remote-assistance connections. To check if it is set up, the Windows 10 user should go to the search box on the desktop, type in “remote assistance” and choose “Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer” from the results list. In the control panel that appears, check the box next to “Allow Remote Assistance invitations to be sent from this computer” and click the O.K. button to enable the feature. Next, press the Windows and R keys to call up the Run box, Type in “msra” (without quotation marks) and press the Enter key to open a box that gives you the choice of sending an invitation to someone asking for help, or responding to someone else’s request for you to help. Choose the “Invite someone you trust to help you” option and follow the directions on screen to email an invitation to whomever you want to grant access. Windows Remote Assistance also displays a password on the screen, which the person receiving the invitation will need to tap into the Windows 10 computer. (You should call the Windows 7 user and recite the password over the phone.) Once the person running Windows 7 responds to the help invitation and enters the password, he or she can see the screen of the Windows 10 computer. If guidance over the phone is not enough, the Windows 7 user can click the Request Control button on screen and ask to remotely take over the Windows 10 computer to speed up the troubleshooting. Once the technical-support session is finished, click the Stop Sharing button on screen and break the connection between the computers. Remote Assistance is a helpful tool for providing live help to Windows users who need it, but be careful when using it, as fake tech-support scammers calling randomly may try to talk you into a session. Always make sure you know exactly who is tapping into your PC.

Microsoft Windows
Software
Computer security
Microsoft
Computer monitor


Prosecutors State Case in First Guantánamo Trial

Abstract: GUANTÁNAMO BAY , Cuba — For years, as his case went from Guantánamo to the Supreme Court and back again, Salim Hamdan has been little more than “ Osama bin Laden ’s driver,” a Yemeni with a couple of daughters, caught in the netherworld of Guantánamo. But this week, as Mr. Hamdan’s war crimes trial opened to inaugurate the military commission system at the United States naval base here, the prosecution had its chance to explain what driving Mr. bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda , meant. Prosecution witnesses said it meant driving in armed caravans with tinted windows to secret destinations. It meant the man in the back seat did not have many secrets from the man at the wheel. After the Sept. 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, an F.B.I. agent testified, it meant that Mr. Hamdan heard Mr. bin Laden’s assessment: “He only thought about 1,000 to 1,500 people would perish, but he was happy with the results.” The trial is being held under a 2006 law enacted after the Supreme Court used prior charges against Mr. Hamdan to strike down the Bush administration’s first plan for trials here. The charges are a vast net asserting that the driver who was also a bodyguard played a part, however small, in a terror conspiracy beginning before the deadly 1998 United States Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. It continued, they say, to the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000, and on to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The prosecutors have let the military panel know the kinds of details that carry a punch. Like a lot of Al Qaeda’s operatives, Mr. Hamdan had an alias, “the Hawk.” Mr. bin Laden had a wedding party for him. There has been no testimony about shots fired or bombs detonated by Mr. Hamdan. Instead, the case is a mundane tour of terrorism, as seen from the driver’s seat. One sign that an act of terrorism was coming was that Mr. Hamdan would be told to get the truck ready, said the witnesses, most of whom were federal agents who had interrogated him. Mr. Hamdan’s offenses are not enumerated anywhere, but appear to include checking the oil and the tire pressure. The job — as the defense called it — meant knowing codes, carrying a machine gun and transporting weapons, the witnesses told a panel of military officers who will decide if Mr. Hamdan is guilty of material support for terrorism and conspiracy. It was not always exciting. Mr. Hamdan, the witnesses said, would take Mr. bin Laden to news conferences and speeches at the terror training camps. Mr. bin Laden would discuss the infidel Americans and the benefits of martyrdom. The driver heard the talking points many times. “Sometimes, the accused used to get bored,” said one of the witnesses, Ali Soufan, a former F.B.I. agent. But such tasks, the prosecutors showed, provided extraordinary access. Before the embassy bombings, Mr. bin Laden told Mr. Hamdan that they would soon have to leave Kandahar, Afghanistan. One of the agents, George M. Crouch Jr., recalled in testimony on Friday that Mr. Hamdan had described the 1998 conversation during interrogations at Guantánamo in 2002. “Mr. Hamdan describes,” Mr. Crouch said, “this is the first time Mr. bin Laden is going face to face with the United States, and he was unsure what the reaction was going to be.” The agents said Mr. Hamdan told them he was never in on the details of terrorist attacks in advance. But, like a lot of other drivers, he had his opinions. The agents said he remarked that the United States did not retaliate for years. “You did nothing,” Mr. Crouch quoted Mr. Hamdan as saying. “Bin Laden was emboldened. So it’s your fault.” Mr. Hamdan’s defense lawyers raised questions about whether their client had been held in solitary confinement and subjected to sleep deprivation before the interrogations in which he made the damaging admissions. They talked about guilt by association. But the defense’s main argument was that Mr. Hamdan was just a man who “had to earn a living,” as one of his lawyers, Harry H. Schneider Jr., said. Early in the week, the prosecutors appeared confident that the images of Mr. Hamdan next to the center of the plots would secure a conviction. But by week’s end, they appeared defensive. After years of planning, the first war crimes trial here was focused, not on a terrorism kingpin, but on his driver. “We never suggested he was higher than he was,” said the chief military prosecutor, Col. Lawrence J. Morris of the Army. A prosecutor, John Murphy, asked Mr. Crouch on Friday whether people like Mr. Hamdan made Mr. bin Laden possible. “Without people like Mr. Hamdan,” the agent answered, “bin Laden would enjoy no support, enjoy no protection, and would probably have been unable to elude capture up until this point.”

Hamdan Salim Ahmed
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Bin Laden Osama
Terrorism
Detainees
Al Qaeda
Military Commissions Act


Russian Mayor, an Opposition Figure, Is Arrested

Abstract: MOSCOW — The popular mayor of Yaroslavl, an anticorruption activist who is one of the few opposition figures in Russia to hold a major public office, was arrested late Tuesday and charged with bribery and extortion in a case that immediately set off accusations against the Kremlin of political intimidation. The mayor, Yevgeny R. Urlashov, scored a stunning landslide victory in April 2012 against a Kremlin-backed candidate and transformed Yaroslavl, a city of 600,000 about 165 miles northeast of Moscow, into a symbol of hope for Russia’s political opposition. At the time, the opposition was struggling to sustain its series of big street protests against Vladimir V. Putin. “We have something to say to Mr. Putin,” Mr. Urlashov said after his victory, standing outside a polling place. “Change is coming. Let democracy spring from the city of Yaroslavl.” But since then, Mr. Putin was elected to a third term as president, and opposition figures have come under a barrage of criminal prosecutions. The arrest of Mr. Urlashov along with several senior members of his administration came a day after an announcement that he would top the list of candidates for Civic Platform, a political party created by the billionaire Mikhail D. Prokhorov, in regional parliamentary elections in September. In a statement, Mr. Prokhorov, who owns the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, said, “The demonstrative seizure of the head of the city elected by the people is a blow to the human rights and freedoms of every citizen of Russia.” State-controlled television showed video of Mr. Urlashov, wearing a blue dress shirt open at the collar, being detained by armed security agents wearing green camouflage uniforms, bulletproof vests and black ski masks. Television also showed more than $420,000 in cash, being pulled from an attaché case — just a portion of more than $1.2 million in bribes that investigators said Mr. Urlashov and his aides had sought to extort from a contractor who provided cleaning and road repair services. Image Yevgeny R. Urlashov, the popular mayor of Yaroslavl. Credit Denis Sinyakov/Reuters The authorities deployed riot police officers throughout the city. But by evening the situation appeared calm, with only 150 to 200 people gathered in a square outside City Hall, shouting, “Free Urlashov!” Mr. Urlashov, speaking on television, denounced the corruption allegations as retribution. “Nothing has been confiscated,” he said. “They looked, made a search in practically all of my deputies’ offices, found nothing.” He said that he had been set up by a man who is a member of United Russia, the party that nominated Mr. Putin for president. “The man from whom I did not accept city cleaning, road repairs, wrote a report that I extorted bribes from him,” he said. “I was warned that I would be removed one way or another.” He added: “This is a political game, which is linked to the September 8th election. This is very unpleasant to me because I am a patriot of my country.” But even as Mr. Urlashov issued his forceful denials, federal officials were declaring his guilt. “Testimonies of some suspects confirm the suspicions of extortion and expose the mayor as the criminal mastermind,” Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the federal Investigative Committee, said. “Besides, one of the suspects has expressed his wish for a plea bargain, which implies the full acknowledgment of one’s guilt and active cooperation with the police.” Officials said that they had also seized $500,000 from Mr. Urlashov’s apartment, and an additional $200,000 from the office of Mr. Urlashov’s press secretary, Svetlana Yefimova. Mr. Urlashov was arrested along with a deputy mayor, Dmitry Donskov; the head of the city agency for municipal contracts, Maksim Poykalaynen; and a mayoral adviser, Aleksei Lopatin. They were charged with large-scale extortion and bribery — charges that carry a potential jail sentence of 8 to 15 years. Mr. Prokhorov, who ran for president last year, said that he would still make a planned trip to Yaroslavl on Saturday in support of Mr. Urlashov’s and Civic Platform’s other candidates in the coming regional parliamentary elections. In his statement, Mr. Prokhorov said the highly publicized detention of Mr. Urlashov “was staged with one purpose: to intimidate Yevgeny himself as well as all independent political figures and simply active citizens.”

Russia
Yevgeny R Urlashov
Mikhail D Prokhorov
Yaroslavl Russia
United Russia
Vladimir Putin
Corruption
Extortion and Blackmail