Antidoping Officials Give Baseball Leaders Failing Grade

Abstract: Leaders of two major Olympic antidoping agencies criticized Major League Baseball on Wednesday for what they termed “baffling” and “frustrating” responses to recommendations by George J. Mitchell in testimony before a House oversight committee. John Fahey, the new president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, issued a statement criticizing Commissioner Bud Selig and Donald Fehr, the executive director of the players union, “for continued evasion of antidoping reform” and “blatant disregard for the truth” in their testimony Tuesday on testing for the presence of human growth hormone. Fahey said some of Selig’s and Fehr’s statements — about the availability of a reliable test for H.G.H., the practicality of freezing blood samples for later testing, and the independence of baseball’s testing program — were “fiction.” In a telephone interview, Travis T. Tygart, the executive director of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, agreed with Fahey. “I guess for those of us who have been in the trenches on these issues for almost the last eight years, to hear the lack of understanding of complex topics yesterday out of the league and union was frustrating,” Tygart said. “But I guess it’s not unexpected, given the history of this issue in baseball.” Tygart added, “The only logical conclusion is they don’t truly want effective drug testing.” Major League Baseball responded with a news release accusing Fahey of making false public statements. “These continuing, unprovoked, inaccurate publicity stunts by WADA have created an unwillingness to become more involved with WADA and its affiliates,” Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president, said in the release. Baseball’s statement compared Fahey’s remarks to those of his predecessor, the outspoken Canadian lawyer Dick Pound, with whom baseball officials had a contentious relationship. In baseball’s statement, Selig said he would support H.G.H. testing when it was commercially available, as he told Congress. Selig also said that many experts believed there were scientific concerns about blood storage, and that he and the union would achieve “true independence” in the near future with refinements in the drug-testing program.“WADA does not have a monopoly in the world of drug testing,” Selig added. The players union declined to comment. Fehr said he had not read the WADA statement. On Tuesday, the testimonies by Selig and Fehr seemed to satisfy the leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. After the four-hour hearing, Chairman Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, and Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee’s ranking Republican, said they expected Selig and Fehr to implement Mitchell’s recommendations. On Wednesday, Philip M. Schiliro, the chief of staff for Waxman and the committee’s Democrats, said in an e-mail message, “WADA makes good points, and we expect them to be reflected in the new modifications to the existing policy.” Keith Ausbrook, the chief counsel for the committee’s Republicans, said he expected Selig and Fehr to report back to the panel. In a telephone interview, Ausbrook said: “I’m not sure we took Major League Baseball’s views at face value, or WADA’s views at face value. I think we will want to know if this can be done, and if it can, Congress will expect them to do so.” Fahey, a former Australian finance minister elected president of WADA in November, termed baseball’s refusal to follow WADA guidelines “almost unimaginable.” “If you are not prepared to put forth testing that gives credibility to your sport, with time, the fans will start to disappear,” Fahey said in a telephone interview. “I believe that baseball will see this.” Fahey attacked Selig’s and Fehr’s concerns about the lack of a reliable test for H.G.H. and practical difficulties in freezing and storing blood samples for later testing. He said a reliable and scientifically valid test exists, although it is not yet in commercial distribution. Gary I. Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University and a member of a WADA committee, said the H.G.H. test was “already in the kit form for distribution this year.” “It’s in the final phases of validation,” Wadler said. “They’re thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing samples to make sure the specimen holds up.” The H.G.H. test is expected to be ready for the Bejing Olympics in August. Fahey said concerns about freezing blood samples were ill-founded and that H.G.H. is stable in frozen blood. Some blood and urine samples from Olympic athletes have been frozen for possible retesting at later dates. “It’s a massive deterrent,” Fahey said. “If there is a feeling that what you do today might be the subject of research down the road, or what you do today might actually sink you in the context of being a cheat in 5 or 10 years, then there is absolutely no doubt that it is a deterrent.” Fahey also criticized statements by Selig and Fehr that baseball’s drug-testing administrator was independent. “Independence can only be achieved through outsourcing the program to a third party,” the WADA statement said. WADA specifically criticized a “therapeutic use exemption” in baseball’s drug-testing program that allowed 103 players last year to legally use stimulants to treat what their doctors said were attention deficit disorders, compared with 28 players the year before. WADA has much stricter rules for granting standard therapeutic-use exemptions. Under its code, international sports federations and national antidoping agencies grant standard exemptions to athletes only after the request meets three criteria: that the athlete would experience major health problems without the drug; that the substance would not significantly enhance performance; and that there is no alternative for the drug. David Howman, the director general of WADA, said he was disappointed that baseball officials had not asked WADA for more assistance. “This seemed to be a total rejection of what we thought was heading in the direction of common sense,” Howman said in a telephone interview. “It would probably be best to invite those in Major League Baseball to come visit with us and to learn from the experience which we have gained, which we are quite willing to pass on. Then you don’t end up having a debate in the media.”

Baseball
Steroids
Tests and Testing
Major League Baseball
House of Representatives
World Anti-Doping Agency
Senate
Mitchell George J
Selig Bud
Macur Juliet


Angelique Kerber Reaches the U.S. Open Final

Abstract: Angelique Kerber could not have asked for a better start to her tenure atop the women’s tennis ladder. Kerber, who will become the WTA’s No. 1-ranked player next week because of Serena Williams’s loss on Thursday, won 17 of the first 20 points and then dug in for a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Caroline Wozniacki to reach her first final at the United States Open. Kerber, who won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January and reached the final of Wimbledon, will face Karolina Pliskova in the final. “I was trying to not think too much the whole last few weeks about this, and now I reach it,” Kerber said of the No. 1 ranking. “So it’s something really special for me, because, yeah, I was dreaming for this No. 1.” Her coach, Torben Beltz, was impressed by how his player managed the occasion. “A perfect day today,” he said. “First she got the No. 1 spot, which is perfect. I think it was tough for her to keep her focus and momentum on the court, but she did very good, and she started the match like a No. 1.” Kerber is the 22nd woman to hold the No. 1 spot since the WTA rankings began in 1975. Her ascendancy ends a record-tying 186-week reign by Williams. The 74th-ranked Wozniacki held the No. 1 ranking for 67 weeks from 2010 to 2012. “She’s had a great year,” Wozniacki said of Kerber. “She gets a lot of balls back; she also knows how to change the pace. She gets good angles. And, yeah, she’s playing really well. You know, it’s not a lot of people who have been No. 1. It’s a huge thing.” Known more for her backboard-like defense, Wozniacki often went for first strikes in rallies. The tactic did not win out; she ended with 26 unforced errors to Kerber’s 16. Kerber, also known for her excellent counterpunching, has evolved into a more aggressive player over the course of this season, which has paid dividends. “I was trying to be improving my game, being more aggressive, and not just playing from the defensive end,” Kerber said. “Yeah, when I won my first Grand Slam in Australia and we came back I had much more confidence. I had much more belief in my game, about my improvement. And then I was just trying to get used to this pressure, all the stuff, what’s happened after Australia. “I don’t know if I was prepared for this, but I think I played an amazing year.” One of the few low points in Kerber’s year came two weeks ago, when Pliskova thumped her, 6-3, 6-1, in the final at the Cincinnati tournament. Beltz said he would review footage of that match before the final. Wozniacki, in contrast, would hope to never rewatch the final point of Thursday’s semifinal, a 16-shot rally that included moonballs, drawing giggles from the crowd. Wozniacki seemed to be waiting for an out call on Kerber’s final shot and pulled up on her forehand, but a call never came. Wozniacki did not challenge the call, and Kerber raised her fist in celebration of her victory. Television broadcasts showed that Kerber’s shot had, in fact, landed out, which would have brought the score to deuce. A group of former players, including Martina Navratilova, encountered Wozniacki in the bowels of Arthur Ashe Stadium and questioned her decision not to challenge, but also offered consolation. Wozniacki had already heard that she had erred, saying glumly that she “got a few texts,” but had thought the ball landed on the line. The ending also left Wozniacki’s coach and father, Piotr, baffled. “For me it was out,” Piotr Wozniacki said, adding that he did not understand why his daughter did not challenge the call.

US Open Tennis
Tennis
Angelique Kerber
Caroline Wozniacki
Serena Williams


Eyeing a Raise, Albany Lawmakers Are Negotiating Reforms With Cuomo

Abstract: New York’s top lawmakers are negotiating an ambitious package of ethics reforms that could pave the way for a raise for state politicians. A pay increase would be the first for members of the Legislature since 1999, but if it happens — which is far from assured — it could come at a steep price. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo , who was widely criticized for shutting down an anticorruption commission that was pressing for sweeping state ethics reforms, would have to agree to a raise and says that will not happen without “significant” new ethics measures. Among other things, the governor has told leaders of the State Senate and Assembly that he would like new restrictions on legislators’ personal use of their campaign funds and on the $172-per-day stipends they receive when they are in Albany. Mr. Cuomo is proposing that lawmakers be required to submit supporting documents for many expenses, particularly on days when the Legislature is not in session. The governor’s office has also proposed increasing the number of legislators who can be stripped of their pensions. An ethics bill passed in 2011 made the pensions of officials convicted of public corruption subject to forfeiture, but excluded lawmakers already in office. Mr. Cuomo would like to include them. This change would require a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by two successive Legislatures and then by referendum. Mr. Cuomo has even floated a proposal that would require the Legislature to subject itself to broader disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, much like what the law now requires of the executive branch. People briefed on the talks but not authorized to speak on the record said that legislators could live with many of the reforms the governor has suggested but that others were less palatable, like a limit on the amount that lawmakers can earn from outside jobs. Many legislators earn sizable paychecks working at law firms, and an agreement could become impossible if they resist such a limit, which appears likely. Some people briefed on discussions questioned Mr. Cuomo’s commitment to achieving an agreement, saying his list of demands kept growing — including some unrelated to ethics reform — with no deal in sight. “He is running down the clock,” one of the people said. But a Cuomo administration official, who insisted on anonymity out of a desire to avoid negotiating in public, said legislative leaders had offered only one proposal — to reduce what they receive in travel stipends — in exchange for an increase in their salaries. In a statement, Melissa DeRosa, a spokeswoman for the governor, said, “The governor will not entertain a legislative pay raise without a significant reform package, and the Legislature has refused to accept one.” The Short Life of an Anticorruption Commission Established to investigate corruption in the state’s scandal-plagued government, the Moreland Commission developed a long list of promising investigative targets before it was abruptly disbanded by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The discussions for a raise began in earnest after the November election. Legislators receive a base salary of $79,500 a year. The current discussions have a sense of urgency to them: Under the State Constitution, lawmakers cannot raise their own salaries in the term in which they are elected, but they can vote for an increase for politicians heading to Albany for a new term. So, if they do not approve a raise this month, they will have to wait another two years. Leaders from the State Senate and Assembly will be in Albany on Wednesday, and a meeting with the governor could happen then. The two leaders of the State Senate both support a raise, as does the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, who faces pressure from his caucus, with its many members from the New York City area, where the current legislative salary does not go very far. “If you really want good people in government, you have to offer something of a competitive salary,” said State Senator Tony Avella, a Democrat from Queens. “If my wife wasn’t working, I’d have a tough time carrying the mortgage on my one-family house on this salary.” New York is one of a small number of states whose legislatures resemble a full-time body, with large staffs and longer sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only California and Pennsylvania pay their legislators a higher base salary. But legislators face a public-relations predicament in advocating a raise. When pollsters at Siena College asked likely voters in July whether they believed legislators were honest and hard-working, or self-serving and prone to being indicted, two-thirds chose the latter option. “Given all the scandals over the last several years, there is certainly no groundswell of support for the Legislature to raise its own pay,” said Steven A. Greenberg, a Siena pollster. Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said a deal on a raise had to include something substantial, like closing a loophole that lets corporations funnel donations through limited-liability companies and putting in place tougher standards forbidding the use of campaign funds on personal expenses. “It hinges entirely on the governor,” Mr. Horner said. “What does Governor Cuomo really want out of this process? If he wants meaningful reform, he has huge leverage to do it.”

New York
Andrew Cuomo
Ethics Misconduct Malfeasance
Wages and salaries
State legislature
Politics
Wages and salaries


Iraq Seeks Long-Term U.S. Security Pact

Abstract: BAGHDAD, Sept. 29 (AP) — Iraq wants the United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008, then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, Foreign Ministry officials said Saturday. Aides to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the mandate extension for the 160,000-strong force, scheduled to be discussed at the end of this year, would be the last. Iraq would then seek an agreement with the United States like the ones Washington has with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt, they said. “Iraq needs a new resolution to determine the shape of the relationship between the two countries and how to cooperate with the U.S. forces,” said Labid Abawi, deputy foreign minister. Mr. Zebari first disclosed the plan in an interview with the London-based, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al Awsat that was published Saturday. “We will ask the Council to include an article that allows Iraq to enter into negotiations with the United States to reach long-term security agreements to meet Iraq’s security needs bilaterally,” Mr. Zebari was quoted as saying in the article. He said the bilateral agreement would “not set a timetable” for the withdrawal of United States forces, but that it “could include an article that calls for decreasing their numbers.” A resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council on June 8, 2004, decreed that the multinational force would remain in Iraq at the request of the interim government that was about to assume control of the country from the United States and Britain. The resolution, drafted by the United States, authorized a review of the mandate at the request of the Iraqi government every six months. The mandate was last extended for one year on Dec. 31 and expires at end of this year. A United States military panel in Baghdad on Saturday sentenced an Army sniper to five months in prison, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay for planting evidence in the death of an Iraqi civilian. Specialist Jorge G. Sandoval Jr., 22, was acquitted of murder charges in the April and May deaths of two unidentified men. The panel decided he was guilty of a lesser charge of placing detonation wire on one of the bodies to make it look as if the man were an insurgent. “I feel fortunate that I have been served this sentence,” Specialist Sandoval said. “I’m grateful that I’m able to continue to be in the Army.” The prosecution had argued that Mr. Sandoval should be sentenced to five years in prison. In Iraq on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated himself near a Humvee filled with Iraqi soldiers near Mosul, killing three soldiers and three civilians, an Iraqi officer said. Late on Friday, Iraq’s prime minister told The Associated Press that a Senate proposal to divide Iraq into federal regions according to religious or ethnic divisions would be a “catastrophe.” “It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis,” Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki told The A.P. on a return flight to Baghdad from New York, where he had appeared at the United Nations General Assembly. “Iraqis are eager for Iraq’s unity,” he said. “Dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would be a catastrophe.” The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions under control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Democrat from Delaware, was a prime sponsor of the measure. The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually independent country within Iraq, while nominally maintaining relations with Baghdad. They support a formal division, but both Sunni and Shiite Arabs have denounced the proposal. The majority Shiites oppose the measure because it would diminish the territorial integrity of Iraq, which they now control. Sunnis would control an area with few if any oil resources. Kurds have major oil reserves in their territory.

Iraq
United States Armament and Defense
Security Council
Maliki Nuri Kamal al-


Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, Shiite Cleric, Dies at 75

Abstract: Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the top Shiite cleric in Lebanon , whose writings and preachings inspired the Dawa Party of Iraq and a generation of militants, including the founders of Hezbollah , died Sunday morning in Beirut. He was 75. Ayatollah Fadlallah suffered a liver hemorrhage at Bahman Hospital, run by Al Mabarrat Charity Association, which he founded, his adviser Hani Adbdallah said. Hezbollah called for three days of mourning, while clerics and political figures from Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states, Lebanon and around the Middle East issued condolences. “Today we lost a merciful father and a wise guide,” the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement . Ayatollah Fadlallah was one of the most learned and influential Shiite “spiritual references,” or marjas. All Shiites must choose a marja, whose teachings they follow and to whom they give alms. Ayatollah Fadlallah was a marja to Shiites across the Islamic world, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, as well as in Arab nations. He spent his entire career arguing that after centuries of passivity, Shiite Muslims should become involved in politics and organize militias. He famously justified suicide bombings and other tactics of asymmetrical warfare by arguing that if Israel and its allies used advanced weaponry, Islam permitted the use of any weapons in retaliation. In a 2002 interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, he was quoted as saying of the Palestinians : “They have had their land stolen, their families killed, their homes destroyed, and the Israelis are using weapons, such as the F16 aircraft, which are meant only for major wars. There is no other way for the Palestinians to push back those mountains, apart from martyrdom operations.” Paradoxically, Ayatollah Fadlallah was also distinguished by his comparatively progressive positions on women’s rights and family law. Among his many fatwas, or religious edicts, on family law, he argued that women had the right to defend themselves from domestic violence. On Sunday, women wept openly on the streets of Shiite south Beirut as word of his death spread. Ayatollah Fadlallah was often mistakenly identified by Western governments as the spiritual guide of Hezbollah, the militant Islamist organization that was founded in 1982 with Iranian help and that spearheaded a violent campaign against Western and Israeli targets in Lebanon. But his relationship with Hezbollah was much more complicated and far-reaching. He never considered himself to have any authority over the group and denied any operational links to it. Western intelligence services, however, held the ayatollah responsible for attacks against Western targets, including the 1983 bombings of two barracks in Beirut in which 241 United States Marines and 58 French paratroopers were killed. The C.I.A. is thought to have carried out an assassination attempt against the ayatollah in 1985, in which a 440-pound car bomb was placed along the short route between his apartment and mosque. Ayatollah Fadlallah narrowly escaped the explosion, but 80 other people were killed. The administration of President Bill Clinton froze the ayatollah’s assets in 1995 because of his suspected involvement with terrorists. And in 2006, Israel bombed his house in south Beirut, but he was not there at the time. Born in 1935 in Najaf, Iraq, a major center of Shiite learning, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah was a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He relocated to his ancestral village in southern Lebanon in the 1960s and quickly amassed thousands of followers. An early supporter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Fadlallah grew to be a quiet critic of the revolution’s ideology, which placed all political power in the hands of clerics. He said he thought that Islamic clerics drew their authority from their followers as well as from God, and that while they should possess wide influence, they should not govern directly. In 1989, Ayatollah Fadlallah distanced himself from Hezbollah, when it named as its new marja the Iranian successor to Ayatollah Khomeini. He is survived by his wife, Najat Noureddin, and 11 children. Until his recent illness, Ayatollah Fadlallah regularly preached to tens of thousands of followers at his Friday Prayer services in south Beirut, and published his sermons and clerical writings on the Internet , in Arabic, English and French. Since the early 1990s, he adopted a more pragmatic tone, preaching against the division between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. He raised money for a sprawling international network of charities and willingly met with prominent Americans, including critics of his beliefs, and considered dialogue with the enemy an Islamic imperative. But he never shed his fiery pedigree. He railed against the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and against United States policy in the Middle East. He never missed an opportunity to criticize Israel, denouncing Arab governments for what he said was a lack of organized opposition to and military confrontation of the Jewish state. When he was admitted to the hospital on Friday, Reuters reported, a nurse asked Ayatollah Fadlallah what he needed. Without hesitation, he replied, “For the Zionist entity to cease to exist.”

Fadlallah Mohammed Hussein
Lebanon
Deaths (Obituaries)
Hezbollah
Shiite Muslims


At Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, Going Solar for ‘Net Zero’ Energy Production

Abstract: EL PASO — Outside a building that provides medical care for wounded soldiers at Fort Bliss, two long, dark lines of hundreds of solar panels stand on supports over the parking lot, moving to follow the sun. “Everybody wants to park under the solar panels,” said B. J. Tomlinson, the renewable energy and sustainable engineering program manager at Fort Bliss. The roughly $1 million system, paid for by the Army, began producing power this year. Solar panels are popping up across Fort Bliss, which is the nation’s largest Army post by physical size, covering an area slightly larger than Rhode Island. The panels are part of the base’s effort to cut its net energy and water use, reduce waste and thus demonstrate self-sufficiency, a concept that can have a large impact on operations abroad. The military refers to it as “net zero,” and bases like Fort Bliss and Fort Hood have embraced it, but high upfront costs pose challenges. In Central Texas, Fort Hood has a goal of net zero waste by 2020. The base, second to Fort Bragg in total number of soldiers, will claim success if about 90 percent of its trash avoids a landfill, according to Brian Dosa, Fort Hood’s director of public works. Right now, more than half goes into the base’s landfill. Achieving these goals will be tough, officials at both bases said. “It’s really as much about behavior change as it is about technology,” said Mr. Dosa. Recycling rates at soldiers’ housing complexes, for example, are low, he said. In addition to recycling, Fort Hood wants to reduce packaging and encourage reuse of materials like household goods. Fort Bliss’s plans are especially ambitious. It is the only base besides Fort Carson in Colorado selected by the Army to achieve net zero in three categories — energy, water and waste. And it must do this by 2018 despite a huge increase in size. Because of the First Armored Division’s return from Germany, the number of soldiers assigned to Fort Bliss is more than tripling, to about 30,000. Electricity use, for example, could jump by up to 60 percent between fiscal 2010 and 2015. Solar power is a logical choice for Fort Bliss, which extends from relentlessly sunny El Paso into New Mexico. A large field of solar panels, which will more than double the existing solar capacity, should be producing power by the end of the year, bringing the base up to 1 percent solar electricity. The new panels will be adjacent to the headquarters of the First Armored Division, where the base’s commanding general has an office. “He’s going to be able to look out the window and see all of that,” Mr. Tomlinson said. Prices for solar power remain expensive, and cost-cutting has become a watchword for the government. Mr. Tomlinson hopes that construction will start next year on a 20-megawatt solar project that would be two-thirds the size of the largest existing solar array in Texas. The Army is trying to arrange private financing for the multimillion-dollar project. Solar power alone will not take the base to net zero energy, Mr. Tomlinson said, so he is considering a range of other technologies, including wind turbines , geothermal wells and a plant that would convert garbage into energy. But those projects would have to go through multilayered permit processes. Some outside experts are impressed with the Army’s efforts. “When the military makes up its mind to do something, I think they can get it done,” said Doug Lewin, executive director of the South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource, who visited Fort Hood in February. The projects at Fort Bliss, he added, are “really exciting.” Cutting water use will be a particular challenge for Fort Bliss. El Paso is the driest big city in Texas, and the drought resulted in just 5 inches of rain last year compared with the normal 10 inches. Water-efficient fixtures like low-flow showerheads are being installed in soldiers’ quarters, according to Mr. Tomlinson, although the Army is wary of associated costs and water is already inexpensive. Many buildings on the base use xeriscaping outdoors, with small rocks and desert shrubs. Yet the older part of the base, the site of expansive parade grounds and housing for some top commanders, still has plenty of grass. On a recent day, dozens of sprinklers sprayed water across some of the grounds at 10 a.m., when losses to evaporation in the sunlight are high. The Army is trying to change its watering schedules, and a plan also calls for bringing reclaimed — or nonpotable — water to the base, but that project would cost at least $17 million and would not be complete for several years, Mr. Tomlinson said. The base’s net zero goals do not include areas related to military training operations, like the fuel used in the tanks on the base. But the military is working on these lines as well. On May 18, Fort Bliss soldiers will demonstrate the use of solar panels for small patrol bases, efficient batteries and other technologies to an audience that will include the assistant secretary of defense for operational energy. Reducing the amount of energy used by such army equipment translates to smaller loads for supply convoys, a favorite target for insurgents in places like Afghanistan. At Fort Hood, going greener has meant some major shifts. Three or four years ago, Mr. Dosa said, the entire base had one electric meter. Back then, “you had no idea and you didn’t care about how much electricity you were using,” he said. Now the base is putting meters on virtually every building and using behavioral techniques to reduce use. For example, the bill for every brigade is now sent to its commander and is discussed in the presence of the commanding general of the base. “Now we’re getting units to be interested, just like they would be if they were in their own home,” Mr. Dosa said. Last month Fort Hood turned on a one-megawatt solar installation, its largest, to provide power for a housing village. The army paid none of the $3 million cost; instead, the private housing company shouldered it and will recoup the cost through reduced electric bills. Still, Mr. Dosa said, “the challenge, to be honest, is the economics.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


Carnival Ship Triumph’s Passengers Departed, It Heads Toward Inspection

Abstract: MOBILE, Ala. — After five days aboard the lifeless cruise ship Triumph, most of the 4,200 passengers and crew members finally reached their homes on Friday as Carnival Cruise Lines hauled the Triumph to a shipyard for inspection and repairs. Despite one last delay — a bus rented by Carnival broke down on the way to New Orleans and had to be replaced — passengers said they were relieved to make the final leg of the journey by land and air, not sea. “Dry land. Clean air. Working bathrooms. You take these simple things for granted, but they never felt so good,” said Julie Hair, 36, of Lake Charles, La., after hugging her husband, Jon. He had a sign printed that read, “Thank God it’s over!” Image Passengers after disembarking the disabled Carnival cruise ship on Thursday in Mobile, Ala. Credit Meggan Haller for The New York Times Now begins a mechanical investigation by the Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Bahamas Maritime Authority that experts say could last months. It will focus on the engine fire on Sunday that knocked out power and plumbing, leaving the Mexico-bound ship bobbing like a cork and stranding passengers with too little food and sewage-flooded rooms. Even as passengers praised the crew for patience, some scoffed at the $500 they were given by Carnival for their ordeal, saying it hardly compensated for days of missed work. Several passengers were taken to hospitals in ambulances; two had been evacuated before the ship docked here late on Thursday. Whether the Triumph will ever return to sea is unknown. Carnival has canceled its next 14 voyages, until April. But cruise industry experts said it would be less expensive to repair the 14-year-old ship than replace it, which would probably cost more than $500 million. A name change, they said, is not out of the question. “They can rename it and move it to another part of the company and another part of the world,” said Andrew O. Coggins Jr., a leading expert on the cruise industry, at Pace University’s School of Business in New York. “The bad publicity will eventually fade away.” Still, departing passengers were eager to complain. They waited in one last line — to be interviewed live on CNN — where they shared cellphone photographs of feces-stained hallways and tent cities made of bedsheets. Crippled Ship Makes Port 7 Photos View Slide Show › Image Lyle Ratliff/Reuters The degree of suffering, they said, was unequal. Passengers with balconies and rooms on higher floors, which generally cost more money, had running water and the relief of a sea breeze. “It was a tale of two ships,” said Windell Gill, a Baptist minister from LaPorte, Tex. “If you had a balcony, it was not as miserable. If you were stuck indoors, on the lower floors, it was terrible. The floors squished with liquid.” Some minor decisions made before the trip had big consequences during it. Parisa Safarzadeh, 26, a recent college graduate from Houston, packed mostly bikinis and sarongs, anticipating sunny Cozumel, Mexico. Instead, she found herself wrapped tightly in a bathrobe as night temperatures dropped below 40 degrees. Along with their memories, passengers learned via Twitter on Friday that they had one more souvenir of the trip. “Of course the bathrobes for the Carnival Triumph are complimentary,” the company posted.

Carnival Cruise Lines
Cruises
Boat Accidents


On Job With Empress of Celebrity Gossip

Abstract: Correction Appended Question for budding press agents and Hollywood handlers: Where does Cindy Adams, the razor-elbowed New York Post gossip slinger, stand during paparazzi-packed movie openings, the kind that include appearances by Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Russell Simmons and Willem Dafoe? The answer: Wherever she wants. Reporters from Variety, "Entertainment Tonight" and "A Current Affair" might be expected to remain corralled behind a length of velvet rope, but at a recent premiere for "Inside Man" at the Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown, Mrs. Adams curtly rebuffed a perky film publicist who had asked her to join the salivating pack. "I'm fine where I am," she said, turning away with a huff. Before the publicist could even whimper a word of protest, Mrs. Adams was stroking the cheek of Mr. Washington, who was gamely whispering in her ear. Mrs. Adams scribbled away in a playing-card-size notebook as the other reporters, jostling one another behind the rope, stewed with envy. After three decades in the gossip business, Mrs. Adams -- confidante to indicted judges, misunderstood dictators and run-of-the-mill movie moguls -- no longer needs to grovel for her daily bread. In a gossip world run amok with rumor-mongering bloggers and scandal-hungry glossies, Mrs. Adams gets her tidbits the old-fashioned way: She picks up the phone and a few hours later, Ivana, Leona or Liza will be crying on her shoulder over Chinese takeout in her kitchen. "I don't go to places where they hang their bras on a hook and dance on tabletops," Mrs. Adams said a few days after the opening, sitting in the chintzed-out, feather-filled crimson living room of her Park Avenue penthouse. "I hate to go out to parties and openings. I'd rather have a quiet dinner with the people who are making the news." Mrs. Adams, it should be said, rarely dines alone. During one recent week, she said, her dining companions included Joan Rivers, Barbara Walters, Judge Judy and an erstwhile jurist, Sol Wachtler, the former New York State Court of Appeals chief judge whose career ended with a prison term for harassing a former lover. Is Mr. Wachtler a friend? Mrs. Adams offered up an inscrutable shrug. Although she often writes with a jaundiced, tough-lady edge, Mrs. Adams, as anyone who follows her six-day-a-week column knows, is not one to flay a fallen soul -- and she never betrays a trusted source. "I don't judge," she said when asked about her close relationship to people like Leona Helmsley, Imelda Marcos and Dewi Sukarno, the tantrum-prone wife of the former Indonesian president. "I just report." Still, Mrs. Adams can be fiercely competitive, and she does not hide her penchant for seeking vengeance on those who cross her. Her home office, which doubles as a dressing room, is plastered with the Page One exclusives -- 500 of them, according to her press materials -- that have made Mrs. Adams an indispensable part of The New York Post's voluminous gossip package. "She breaks a lot of stories, and she never lets us forget that she does," said Col Allan, The Post's editor in chief. He described Mrs. Adams's writing style as "Park Avenue meets Coney Island," and said he admired her wry humor and her gutsiness. "Someone once told me that Donald Rumsfeld was a short man with sharp elbows," he said, "and I immediately thought of Cindy." Mrs. Adams, née Cindy Heller, was raised by a hard-charging mother who had divorced her father when she was a child. She was a 16-year-old model when she met and married Joey Adams, a borscht belt comedian the same age as her mother. "I basically married my mother," Mrs. Adams said. "My mother loved me more than anything else in the world, and so did my husband." Mr. Adams introduced her to the world of boldface names, and the teenage Mrs. Adams was soon clinking glasses with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason. Mrs. Adams credits her husband, who died in 1999, with giving her the sarcastic tone that peppers her writing. (She waves off questions about her age, but a little sleuthing shows she is 75.) Asked to reminisce about her most memorable interviews -- was it President Kennedy, the Shah of Iran, or perhaps Elizabeth Taylor? -- Mrs. Adams rolled her eyes. "Darling," she said touching the tornado of Marge Simpson-style hair that tops her head. "They all blend together." To spend an evening with Mrs. Adams is to glimpse a rarefied world of Champagne-splashed dinners, fawning starlets and assorted strangers who approach Mrs. Adams like long-lost friends. Often, Mrs. Adams will pour on the charm, and then turn away, mouthing the words, "I have no idea who that was." When Alan M. Dershowitz, the celebrity lawyer, flagged her down one night, Mrs. Adams was stumped for a few moments and then apologized, saying she had forgotten to put on her contact lenses. Most nights her only steady companions are her driver of 26 years, Reggie Ramkissoon, and the two outrageously pampered Yorkshire terriers that provided the inspiration for her latest book, "Living a Dog's Life: Jazzy, Juicy and Me." Mrs. Adams, who wrote an earlier installment about her weakness for spoiled dogs called "The Gift of Jazzy," published in 2003, grudgingly agreed to take a reporter on her evening rounds as a means of publicizing her latest book. After chatting up Ms. Foster, Mr. Lee and Mr. Dafoe ("Just the other day Willem and I were sharing runny eggs at the airport," she noted after the two exchanged kisses), Mrs. Adams was relieved when the parade of stars finally petered out and she was able to dash out to her ride waiting at the curb. Except that this particular ride, a canary-yellow Jeep -- a model on the low-end of the Jeep spectrum -- made her wince. As bad luck would have it, Mr. Ramkissoon had smashed up the Adams family Cadillac and the Jeep Wrangler, his personal car, was the only ride in town. "This is what we call a humbling experience," she said as she crawled into the front seat at great peril to her sequin-speckled Dennis Basso dress and a full-length St. John mink coat. As the car drove east, she ribbed Mr. Ramkissoon about the car and his blinding choice of color. "I'm so sorry to have to leave this Jeep," she said, stepping out. "It goes so well with my outfit." (Her dress, for the record, was blood-bath red.) On this particular night she was meeting Ms. Rivers for a quick bite at Bruno Jamais, a restaurant on East 81st Street that was serving a five-course, $225-a-head meal to the pinstriped set. The evening, sponsored by Champagne Taittinger, included a different magnum of bubbly to accompany each course, but since neither Mrs. Adams nor Ms. Rivers were doing much drinking, the flutes remained largely untouched. (Ms. Rivers, who rarely eats after dark, mostly consumed Altoids, lest she be tempted by the plates of crispy sweetbreads, the seared foie gras or the lobster brûlée.) Except for a few conversational detours about sex, celebrities and the perils of aging, the talk mostly centered on the dogs that seem to ride roughshod over the domestic lives of both Mrs. Adams and Ms. Rivers. Mrs. Adams noted with feigned disgust how Jazzy Jr. and Juicy wear custom-made Ralph Lauren outfits and Judith Ripka jeweled necklaces, and how they recently had their teeth cleaned for $900 a pop. "And that included a 15 percent discount," she said. Later, as she gave a tour of her penthouse, she protested about how her home had been taken over by all matter of doggy accouterment. "This is sick," she said, showing off the piles of luxury dog-related goods that she hawks on QVC. "I don't know how I became a card-carrying nut, but now I'm stuck," she said, bending down to plant a kiss on Jazzy Jr.'s maw. "I'm totally dogged out." Correction: April 10, 2006, Monday An article last Monday about Cindy Adams, the gossip columnist for The New York Post, reversed the identities of designers of the mink coat and red sequined dress she wore on a recent evening of meetings with celebrities. The coat was by Dennis Basso and the dress was by St. John.

NEW YORK POST
ADAMS CINDY
CELEBRITIES
GOSSIP
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
NEWS AND NEWS MEDIA


Airlines Step Up Investment to Meet Passenger Growth

Abstract: The sky is an increasingly crowded place. But some airlines at least are trying, belatedly, to offer their passengers a little pampering to mitigate the sardine syndrome. With flat-bed seats for business class passengers, fancy entertainment systems that provide an endless stream of movies and the gradual adoption of onboard Wi-Fi, airlines are returning to their service roots to attract air travelers. It’s a welcome change, and nowhere more so than in the United States, where airlines have sharply reduced service in recent years. “There’s no doubt that the investments in the product have risen to new heights across the industry,” said Edward H. Bastian, the president of Delta Air Lines, which is installing new business seats on its international and intercontinental fleet. “This is not optional anymore. It’s a cost of doing business.” Lufthansa and Emirates offer broadband Internet access on many of their international flights. Air France is catching up with the rest of the industry and recently started installing new cabins in its fleet of long-range Boeing 777s, which includes a new first-class suite and new seats for business passengers, an investment of 500 million euros, or about $682 million. Etihad, the fast-growing carrier based in Abu Dhabi, has recently announced a three-room suite aboard its double-decker Airbus A380, which includes a private suite, a separate bedroom and a shower. Tickets will be priced at around $40,000 and come with a personal butler and a chef. The airline plans to start the service in December to London. “We have little choice,” said Alexandre de Juniac, the chief executive of Air France-KLM. “We are facing competition from Asian and airlines from the Gulf, whose quality of service is very high. What we need to do is fight over quality and service.” But even as carriers invest in their cabin amenities, airline executives remain mindful of the unpredictable nature of their business. The industry has been through much turmoil in the past decade, including high fuel prices, the global financial crisis, economic recession and widespread bankruptcies in the business. Against that backdrop, airline managers are unwilling to shed their caution too suddenly. Still, with passenger traffic doubling every 15 years, bringing more people to already congested airports, airlines need to keep pace. One way to deal with this increase in the number of passengers is to pack more people on flights and put larger planes on busy routes. In the past two decades, according to Airbus, the average number of seats per flight has increased 32 percent. Carriers are scaling up to larger models of the narrow-body, single-aisle Boeing and Airbus planes that they use for the domestic and regional travel markets, whether in Europe, Asia or the United States. The Airbus A321, which seats 180 to 220 passengers, and the Boeing 737-900, which seats 215, are the largest versions in their respective families of airplanes and among the best selling. The European plane maker has said that it expects the A321 to eventually represent half of its single-aisle manufacturing capacity. It recently unveiled a new cabin for the newest A321s that could fit a total of 240 seats, a number that rivals some wide-body airplanes. These single-aisle planes will account for more than 70 percent of new plane sales in the next two decades. According to its latest long-term forecast, Boeing expects that 35,000 new planes will be delivered from 2013 to 2032, including nearly 25,000 single-aisle models. With this growth in demand, plane makers are expanding their production capacity. Airbus is making plans to produce 46 single-aisle planes a month by 2016, up from 42 today, thanks in part to a new factory in the United States. Boeing, too, is seeing a higher level of demand and recently increased the production rate on its 737s to 42 planes a month. To accommodate more passengers in each plane, the makers are also considering widening the doors of their aircraft. This change would facilitate emergency evacuation and comply with safety rules that set a 90-second time limit for getting everybody out, regardless of how many passengers are aboard. Yet even as market demand remains robust, airplane manufacturers are becoming more prudent in their development programs. Boeing and Airbus have recently signaled that they do not plan to develop entirely new airplanes from scratch for the foreseeable future, after devoting huge financial and engineering resources to their billboard programs, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380. W. James McNerney Jr., chairman and chief executive of Boeing, said in May that it would not attempt any new “moonshot” planes, vowing to stay away from groundbreaking designs in favor of a more “evolutionary” approach for the next decade. “All of us have gotten religion,” he said at a conference of Wall Street analysts. At Airbus, a similar refrain can be heard. After spending over $25 billion on research and development in recent years to build the A380 and to match Boeing’s 787 with its own carbon-composite plane, the A350, Airbus is also signaling a retreat from groundbreaking designs. Airbus is in the final testing phase of the A350, which it plans to deliver to Qatar Airways in December. But its next program might be a more modest and far less costly refit of its existing A330 midsize aircraft, equipping it with more efficient engines. This new approach signals a convergence with airline customers who are looking for more efficiencies and ways to rein in costs. Already in the single-aisle market both Airbus and Boeing are working on replacing the current generation of engines on their planes with more efficient ones. These new engines promise fuel savings of 15 percent compared with current technology. Some engineering work on wings and pylons is needed to support the new engines, which are larger and have bigger fan blades, but substantial airframe changes are not required. Airbus has already taken more than 2,600 orders for its re-engined A320 Neo, and the first planes should be delivered at the end of next year. Boeing has also announced a re-engined version its 737, the 737 Max, and has already received 2,100 orders for it from 42 airlines. With this approach, plane makers now are “leveraging the past,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aviation industry consultant at the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. “There is a convergence of interest since the airlines are more focused on their bottom line,” he said. “This means being just as selective as the manufacturer in where to put their cash.” The same trend is now coming to the wide-body market as well. Boeing has outlined plans to update its flagship long-distance airplane, the B777, with new engines and a better-performing wing design. For Boeing, the new plane, the 777X, is a far cheaper choice than building a new plane from scratch. At the same time, the 777X, which is not expected to be delivered until 2020, is projected to be 12 percent more fuel-efficient than rivals, thanks to an all-new composite wing — derived from the wing developed for the 787 Dreamliner — and new turbofan engines from GE Aviation. Airbus is also expected to announce that it will refit a more efficient engine on one of its best-selling planes, the A330, a medium-range aircraft, according to analysts. That option might cost around $2 billion, the analysts say, which is a far cry from the cost of developing a completely new plane. Airbus may have little choice. While the A330 has been a best seller, the European plane maker does not have anything to compete with Boeing’s 787-800 in the 200-to-300 seat medium-size market, according to analysts. Both aircraft manufacturers also face considerable pressure to raise their production rates to meet the projected growth in traffic and the anticipated doubling of the number of airplanes in service in the next two decades. Much of the growth in demand will continue to come from the three big carriers in the Persian Gulf — Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways — that have taken a central role in the global aviation world and are increasingly critical to the manufacturing industry. These carriers now account for about half of all wide-body orders on the plane makers’ books. Recently, some analysts have speculated that the formidable growth of the Middle East carriers might be slowing after Emirates canceled an order for 70 A350 airplanes from Airbus, a sign perhaps that the airline, based in Dubai, had overestimated its capacity needs. Emirates, however, still expects to carry 70 million passengers by 2020, up from 43 million today. The reality could simply be that the A350 is just too small for Emirates as the carrier concentrates its fleet on Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s. “This decision has nothing to do with demand,” the airline’s top financial executive, Nigel Hopkins, said recently at an analysts’ conference in New York. “We are very comfortable with our growth predictions.”

Airlines,airplanes
Boeing
Airbus
Deutsche Lufthansa
Air France
Emirates Airlines


Dying Boy Who United Gypsum, Colo., Ends Up Being a Hoax

Abstract: GYPSUM, Colo. — For a brief, poignant stretch of autumn, people in this mountain town found inspiration in a dying boy named Alex Jordan. He could have been anyone’s little brother: A football-loving 9-year-old with a brave grin and a fatal case of leukemia. As his story percolated through the local news and radio station, it touched no one more than the football team at Eagle Valley High School . Players signed a football for Alex. They pasted A’s to their helmets. They donned orange knee socks to commemorate the cancer ravaging his body. A Facebook page in his honor collected hundreds of supporters. And when word spread late last month that Alex had died, the grief was real. Trouble was, Alex was not. It was all an inexplicable ruse, according to people who unraveled it, a fiction concocted by a 22-year-old woman who had worked with one of the football parents. There was no sick child. There had never been any Alex. The photo that had tugged at people’s hearts, of a bald boy with a shaky smile, had been pulled from the Web site of a cancer foundation. The police investigated, but are unlikely to press charges because the woman, Briana Augustenborg, never tried to raise money using Alex’s story. She could not be reached for comment on her Facebook page, and she has said nothing in public about the hoax, leaving a baffled and betrayed town to wonder at her motives. After disasters like Hurricane Sandy , scam artists invariably slink onto the scene to raise money for fake charities or bilk the government of disaster aid. But in this case, with money not a motive, people are asking, Was it all just cruel prank? Or a small, attention-seeking lie that simply spiraled out of control? “We all bought into it,” said John Ramunno, the team’s coach. “They asked me, ‘Why would somebody do this to us? Why would someone make this up?’ That’s a good question.” Walk into any lunch counter, church or small-town gas station, and you are likely to find donation jars and fliers describing similar stories of sick children, families displaced by fire and neighbors in need. And to many in this middle-class town a half-hour west of Vail’s ski condos and private jets, a story of a child at the end of a losing fight for his life had deep resonance. “It brought us together,” said Jordan Hudspeth, the team’s quarterback. “We know somebody’s hurt, and we want to help out.” The story went like this: Two years earlier, Alexander Jordan learned he had leukemia, then thought he had beaten it. But the disease roared back, and with his life fading, the boy asked to spend his last months in the mountains. He was a sports fan, and quickly grew to love the Eagle Valley Devils — a team that had lost all but one game last season, but was storming toward the playoffs this year. The story was told to parents, then local journalists, by a self-described family friend identified by people who spoke with her as Ms. Augustenborg. She layered it with vivid details: Alex had been treated in Memphis. He followed the high school’s games over the Internet. He made a calendar tracking the Eagle Valley High School games. “The team immediately took Alex into their fold,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise wrote in an Oct. 24 article describing the support. “Then the fold started enfolding other E.V.H.S. students, parents, teachers and the entire community.” The team and coaches gave Ms. Augustenborg a football, a helmet, shirts and sweatshirts for Alex. They stenciled his name onto the fence ringing the football field. During one home game, when they scored or made a great play, they raised their hands in a point above their heads, to make an A. “The whole community surrounded him and came forward,” said George Hudspeth, president of the school’s athletic booster group. “They were all so excited. It did show a side of the high school, that they’re willing to rally and support anything.” Some parents and coaches were troubled by it all. Nobody had ever met Alex or his parents, or talked to them on the phone. Ms. Augustenborg was the sole source of information about him. She promised that the boy would attend a practice or game, but at the last minute, a medical problem would intervene. “I should’ve looked into it deeper,” Mr. Ramunno said. On Oct. 25, Ms. Augustenborg, who lived in the area, informed Alex’s Facebook followers that he had died, and the newspaper published an obituary mourning “our beautiful angel.” But people in the community had grown suspicious, and alerted the police when they were unable to find a death certificate for anyone matching Alex’s description. The story crumbled like old parchment. The team was distraught. The newspaper published a long, apologetic account of the deception and the role it had played. School officials said they were trying to put the episode behind them. Football players tore the orange A’s off their helmets, and said they were done thinking about it, and were trying instead to focus on a playoff game this Saturday. The football parent who had helped bring Ms. Augustenborg’s story to the team hurried off the phone quickly, as though embarrassed. Mr. Ramunno said he wondered what happened to the new, signed football the team had donated. Someday, he said, he would like to have it back. “It would remind me I need to be a little bit more careful,” he said.

Hoaxes
Leukemia
Children and Childhood
Education (K-12)
Football
Colorado
Augustenborg Briana
Gypsum (Colo)


Indians Find Ways to See Rape Documentary Despite Ban

Abstract: NEW DELHI — A British-made documentary about a grisly gang rape in India spread throughout social media on Thursday, thwarting official efforts to block it and gaining a wide audience despite a government ban. A spokesman for YouTube in India, Gaurav Bhaskar, said that the company had agreed to a government request to block channels of multiple users who had uploaded the documentary. The original link on the BBC’s own website is still available, he said. By Thursday night, the film had been viewed more than 100,000 times from that link, not including viewings from other sources. For government regulators, the immediate challenge is to identify and remove links to the film, “India’s Daughter,” that were posted on social media, said Kuldeep Dhatwalia, a spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, adding that officials from four ministries — overseeing law, broadcasting, information technology and external affairs — “have put their best heads together to find out the best course of action.” The film set off a furor this week after publicity highlighted its most sensational element: a jailhouse interview with Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted of the 2012 crime, in which he callously described the rape and said the victim was to blame for being outside after dark with a male friend. Interview Renews Horror of New Delhi Gang Rape A new documentary that includes an interview with one of the men who raped and brutalized a woman aboard a private bus in New Delhi in 2012 has reignited passions about the case. Indian officials faulted the filmmaker, Leslee Udwin, for giving Mr. Singh, who is awaiting execution, a platform for his views. They said the interview was offensive to women and could incite a “law and order problem.” A court issued a restraining order that banned any broadcast of the documentary in India. “How can you show something so abusive?” Mr. Dhatwalia said. “Everyone knows that this kind of abuse exists, but to show it in such an explicit manner?” But critics of the decision pointed out that the government’s ban was backfiring, raising interest in the film rather than tamping it down. Nikhil Pahwa, the editor of MediaNama, a firm that analyzes digital and telecom businesses in India, said such efforts often did not work. When government censors similarly banned the broadcast of a crude comedy show, viewership spiked. This phenomenon, which he called “the Streisand effect” — named for Barbra Streisand’s failed effort to suppress an aerial photograph of her home for privacy reasons, which only seemed to stoke interest — was in full force on Thursday. The government of India is the “best promoter of the rape docu,” Shekhar Gupta, a journalist for India Today, wrote on Twitter . Video Leslee Udwin, a British filmmaker who interviewed one of the men convicted of raping and killing a woman in a brutal 2012 gang attack on a New Delhi bus, said Mukesh Singh blamed the victim. Credit Credit Associated Press The BBC showed the documentary Wednesday night despite an appeal from the minister of home affairs, Rajnath Singh. “We had asked not to release the documentary, but BBC still released it,” Mr. Singh told NDTV, a news channel. “We will investigate, and the M.H.A. will take action accordingly.” A spokesman for the BBC said that the network did not post the documentary on YouTube or make it available outside Britain, and that the independent production company that made the film was taking steps to remove illegal uploads. The last film to provoke a government reaction on this scale was about bloody religious riots in 2002, said Lawrence Liang, a lawyer based in Bangalore, India, who specializes in technology and copyright law. That ban required approval by a censorship board, making it a more straightforward task. Blocking websites is simpler than blocking countless links, Mr. Liang said. “How can they block YouTube?” he said.

Movies
Leslee Udwin
India
Rape
Documentaries
BBC
Mukesh Singh


Earbuds Built of Sterner Stuff, With a Few Quirks

Abstract: Everyone has had that sickening moment when you realize the crunch underfoot came from stepping on your earbuds. If you experience that moment frequently, you might consider the RHA 750i in-ear headphones — they are one durable set. Although not built specifically for abuse, the earbuds’ housings, fittings and plug are made from stainless steel, not plastic. And they come with heavier-than-average thermoplastic cables. At an intermediate price of $130, the RHA 750is include a wide selection of in-ear tips, in both silicone and memory foam, which is critical. The fit makes a remarkable difference in the quality of the sound. With tips that were too small, the sound was tinny. With the right tips, the earbuds had healthy bass, although not the whomping variety found in headphones made for listening to hip-hop. They were also somewhat lacking in detail and clarity — subtleties in some music didn’t come through — but maybe trying other ear tips would have helped. One peculiarity: A fair amount of static noise is generated when the cables rubbed against a sweater, but that wasn’t a problem with a cotton shirt. You may do better taking them on a vacation to Florida than on a skiing trip to Colorado. The 750i model includes a microphone and a control made to work with the iPhone. While RHA doesn’t promise that the earbuds will stand up to a stomping, it does offer a three-year guarantee against defects, which is more than most. ROY FURCHGOTT


After Iraqi Elections, Next Big Test Is Acceptance

Abstract: RAMADI, Iraq — The postelection curfew has been lifted, the threats of violence muted after the intervention of envoys from the Iraqi Army, the central government and the United States Marines. A cacophonous bustle has returned to the filthy, shattered streets of this provincial capital, once a base of the Sunni insurgency. And still Faris Taha, one of the election’s victors, according to preliminary results, is too fearful to return to the region he will soon represent. “I cannot go back,” he said, having retreated from his hometown east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, to a hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone. “I am afraid.” Iraq’s provincial elections on Jan. 31 passed with strikingly little mayhem, raising hopes that democracy might take hold. But in Anbar, as in other volatile provinces, the results that were supposed to augur peace have instead fueled tensions, raising the specter of violence among those vying for political power. The transition from insurgency to politics to governance — a key to stabilizing the country after six years of war — has proved to be anything but steady and sure. What Anbar has yet to experience is the foundation of any democracy: a peaceful transfer of power. Seating the new provincial governments, Iraqi and American officials fear, could be even more fraught with danger than the elections themselves. From Basra in the south to Mosul in the north, at least four candidates have faced assassination attempts since Election Day, while another disappeared on his way to work near Karbala. The divided results in Anbar, where no bloc won more than 17.6 percent of the vote, have led to conflicting accusations of intimidation, assault and fraud; a raft of complaints to the central election commission could take months to sort out. Efforts to forge a ruling coalition, already under way behind the scenes, are exposing tribal rivalries and personal feuds. Most of the incumbents have decamped from the region they have governed since 2005. “We were born yesterday when it comes to politics,” said Sheik Ali al-Hatem, who backed the Tribes of Iraq coalition, which is challenging its 4.5 percent showing in the vote. The outcome in Anbar, the vast Sunni-dominated region west of Baghdad, has enormous significance for Iraq’s political development. It was once the most dangerous province in Iraq, consumed by a bloody insurgency and terrorism, until tribal leaders joined the Americans and turned on Al Qaeda and other extremists in late 2006. They pacified the region and made plans to consolidate their power at the ballot box. What stunned Iraqi officials was how quickly after the vote some of the tribal leaders returned to the language of war when the elections’ outcome disappointed them. Even before the results were announced, the leader of the party now known as the Awakening, Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, threatened to turn his followers into an “armed wing” to overthrow the provincial government. The head of the Tribes of Iraq bloc, Sheik Hammid al-Hayes, threatened to set the streets of Ramadi ablaze and turn the province into a graveyard. Their fury stemmed from initial claims by the governing party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, to have swept Anbar’s election, as it did in 2005 when most Sunnis boycotted the vote. Instead, the Islamic Party stood accused of stuffing ballot boxes and reporting inflated results from some polling stations. Party leaders denied any fraud, though one foreign election observer said the complaints had some legitimacy. The central election commission rejected some ballots before announcing preliminary results in Baghdad last Thursday, party officials said. “The Islamic Party does not deserve even 1 percent of the vote in Anbar,” said another sheik, Aifan al-Issawi, who ran on the Awakening Party slate in the region’s other major city, Falluja. “They have blood on their hands, and they have plundered the province.” Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki swiftly sent one of his deputies, Rafie al-Issawi, a Sunni from the province, to defuse the crisis. The commander of Iraq’s army, Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan Majid, vowed to put down any violence. The envoys appeared to have secured a truce of sorts, but a final resolution remains out of reach. In Ramadi, the leader of the Awakening Party, Sheik Ahmed, now tempers his remarks. Sitting in his tribal guest house not far from the Euphrates River, surrounded by guards, police officers, soldiers, relatives, friends and other hangers-on, the sheik spoke confidently of forging a governing coalition that would exclude the Islamic Party. On the wall are photographs of him with President Bush at the White House and with the current president, Barack Obama, from his visit to the region as a candidate last year, evidence of the American sponsorship of the Awakening movement . As he spoke, his brother arrived, wearing a gun belt with cartridges and a gold-plated pistol. While Sheik Ahmed did not recant his earlier threats of violence, he vowed that their struggle would remain a political one. “We are armed by papers and evidence,” he said of his party’s official complaints, “and paper is the strongest weapon. That is the weapon we will use.” A new provincial council is supposed to be seated by April. Its leaders will have not only political power, but also control of the region’s finances, which many here believe to be the main motivation for the postelection infighting. “We have been able to rein in people so far, but anything could happen,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a member of the national Parliament, whose alliance won the highest percentage of votes in Anbar, 17.6 percent. The alliance, which includes tribal leaders and secular leaders known for sympathies for the former ruling Baath Party, is now positioned to play a major role in brokering a deal to lead the Provincial Council and elect a new governor. Mr. Taha, the winning candidate from Anbar, who was one of the front-runners on Mr. Mutlaq’s slate there, has served as a sports and youth adviser for the region’s governor and was, he claimed, a protégé of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday during the 1990s. (That the governor is affiliated to the Iraqi Islamic Party shows how convoluted politics have become in Anbar and elsewhere.) He said his supporters had been threatened and beaten by police officers loyal to the Islamic Party — before the election and after. “People will be eliminated,” Mr. Taha, 37, warned. Khalid al-Alwani, a senior official of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Anbar, called the accusations a smear campaign. He insisted that the party’s slate in Anbar won nearly 40 percent of the votes, not the 15.9 percent that was announced. The party issued a statement on Sunday accusing Sheik Ahmed and Mr. Mutlaq of practicing “intimidation and extortion” in order have the results declared in their favor. It vowed to “reclaim what is rightfully theirs.” Another of the party’s backers called for more drastic action. Sheik Hakem al-Saad, a leader of one of the largest tribes in Anbar, called for the firing of the police chief and army commander and the declaration of a state of emergency. He accused the Awakening leader of sowing discord and inciting violence. “Ahmed Abu Risha is a bandit and thief,” he said. The postelection jockeying has done little for Anbar’s residents, nurturing dismay and apathy instead. Ahmed Awad, who owns a grocery store in Falluja, spoiled his ballot on election day rather than choose among the quarreling parties. “We have become demoralized,” he said. Anbar’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Youssef, openly disparaged the governing Islamic Party for its rule, signaling the politicization of the security forces. Walking through one of the city’s narrow shopping streets, strewn with litter and wet with wastewater, he spoke of the lack of jobs, the dearth of rebuilding, the collapse of city services — the failure to turn the defeat of the insurgency into a better life in Anbar. Even so, wielding a silver-tipped black baton, or swagger stick, General Youssef said he would not allow any violence to settle what should remain political disputes. “The time of coups,” he said, “is over.”

Iraq
Elections
Iraq War (2003- )
Politics and Government
Awakening Movement (Iraq)
Anbar Province (Iraq)
Maliki Nuri Kamal al-


Boeing Closer to Answer on 787s, but Not to Getting Them Back in Air

Abstract: With 787 Dreamliners grounded around the world, Boeing is scrambling to devise a technical fix that would allow the planes to fly again soon, even as investigators in the United States and Japan are trying to figure out what caused the plane’s lithium-ion batteries to overheat. Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, made it clear on Friday that a rapid outcome was unlikely, saying that 787s would not be allowed to fly until the authorities were “1,000 percent sure” they were safe. “Those planes aren’t flying now until we have a chance to examine the batteries,” Mr. LaHood told reporters. “That seems to be where the problem is.” The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday took the rare step of grounding Boeing’s technologically advanced 787s after a plane in Japan made an emergency landing when one of its two lithium-ion batteries set off a smoke alarm in the cockpit. Last week at Boston’s Logan Airport, a battery ignited in a parked 787. The last time the government grounded an entire fleet of airplanes was in 1979, after the crash of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The grounding comes as the United States is going through a record stretch of safe commercial jet flying: It has been nearly four years since a fatal airline crash, with nearly three billion passengers flying in that period. The last airliner crash, near Buffalo, came after a quiet period of two and a half years, which suggests a declining crash rate. Investigators in Japan said Friday that a possible explanation for the problems with the 787’s batteries was that they were overcharged — a hazard that has long been a concern for lithium-ion batteries. But how that could have happened to a plane that Boeing says has multiple systems to prevent such an event is still unclear. Given the uncertainty, it will be hard for federal regulators to approve any corrective measures proposed by Boeing. To lift the grounding order, Boeing must demonstrate that any fix it puts in place would prevent similar episodes from happening. The government’s approach, while prudent, worries industry officials who fear it does not provide a rapid exit for Boeing. The F.A.A. typically sets a course of corrective action for airlines when it issues a safety directive. But in the case of the 787, the government’s order, called an emergency airworthiness directive, required that Boeing demonstrate that the batteries were safe but did not specify how. While the government and the plane maker are cooperating, there are few precedents for the situation. “Everyone wants the airplane back in the air quickly and safely,” said Mark V. Rosenker, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “But I don’t believe there will be a corner cut to accomplish that. It will happen when all are confident they have a good solution that will contain a fire or a leak.” Image Investigators are nearing a solution to the Dreamliner’s problem, but safety officials are drawing a hard line. Credit Issei Kato/Reuters Boeing engineers, Mr. Rosenker said, are working around the clock. “I bet they have cots and food for the engineers who are working on this,” he said. “They have produced a reliable and safe aircraft and as advanced as it is, they don’t want to put airplanes in the air with the problems we have seen.” The government approved Boeing’s use of lithium-ion batteries to power some of the plane’s systems in 2007, but special conditions were imposed on the plane maker to ensure the batteries would not overheat or ignite. Government inspectors also approved Boeing’s testing plans for the batteries and were present when they were performed. Even so, after the episode in Boston, the federal agency said it would review the 787’s design and manufacturing with a focus on the electrical systems and batteries. The agency also said it would review the certification process. The 787 has more electrical systems than previous generations of airplanes. These systems operate hydraulic pumps, de-ice the wings, pressurize the cabin and handle other tasks. The plane also has electric brakes instead of hydraulic ones. To run these systems, the 787 has six generators with a capacity equivalent to the power needed by 400 homes. The 787’s two main batteries, each about twice the size of a car battery, serve several functions. One, in the front of the plane, provides power for the plane’s start-up and ground operations like refueling, and is a backup power for the electrical brakes. The second battery, in the back of the plane, is used to start the auxiliary power unit — a small engine that is used on the ground — and serves as a backup power source. Both batteries have had malfunctions. It is not uncommon, of course, for new aircraft types to encounter problems. Last year, small cracks were found in the wings of the double-decker Airbus A380, which entered service in 2007. Regulators required inspections and, later, fixes that Airbus ultimately devised. Airbus executives have expressed sympathy for their rival’s current woes and said they were confident Boeing would get to the bottom of the problem. But some acknowledged that an extensive review of the battery technology could set off costly delays in Airbus’s rival program, the A350-XWB, which uses the same type of batteries and is scheduled to enter service in late 2014. Problems with lithium-ion batteries in the aviation world are not new and have contributed to dozens of fires aboard airplanes in recent years. Cessna was forced to replace lithium-ion batteries on its CJ4 business jet with nickel-cadmium after a battery fire on the plane in 2011. The CJ4 was certified under special conditions similar to the 787’s. It is possible that regulators will allow flights to resume before the safety board completes its investigation, which could take months, experts said. “It’s a real conundrum,” said Kevin Hiatt, president and chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation, an aviation research firm. “The question is how amenable is the F.A.A. right now before we know all the details of what’s gone bad.” Experts said that regulators are ready to act more quickly, and that this has helped the industry’s safety record. “It took five major accidents before we grounded the de Havilland Comet,” said John Cox, a longtime safety expert. “It took four before they grounded the DC-10 , and with the Concorde , one before they grounded the airplane,” he said. “With the 787, even without a major accident, there was enough concern that they grounded the airplane.” Mr. Rosenker, the former safety board chairman, agreed that regulators had reacted more swiftly than they once might have. “Bad things can happen if you don’t operate out of an abundance of caution,” he said. “We’ve learned this over the years.”

Boeing
Plane Crashes and Missing Planes
Airlines,airplanes
Lithium Mental
Batteries
FAA


Aereo Wins a Battle, and Broadcasters Are Distressed

Abstract: AEREO challenges one of the most basic tenets of the television business. Broadcasters have been trying to sue it out of existence for a year. But after suffering a big setback on Monday, the broadcast world may have to learn to live with it. A federal appeals court in New York on Monday upheld a ruling in favor of Aereo, the start-up Internet service that streams stations without compensating them. The decision set the stage for a full-blown trial. The broadcasters, surprised and disappointed, said they were confident they would prevail eventually. But as the legal battles continue, Aereo, for now available only in New York City, plans to offer its service in nearly two dozen more cities this year. The service’s triumphant backer, the media mogul Barry Diller, said of the ruling: “We always thought our Aereo platform was permissible and I’m glad the court has denied the injunction. Now we’ll build out the rest of the U.S.” Aereo is able to stream broadcast stations by operating an array of tiny antennas that pick up over-the-air signals. Subscribers paying about $8 a month receive control over one antenna and can select programming over the Internet. Aereo essentially turns the subscriber’s phone, computer or tablet into a small television set, but without the rabbit ears that would normally be needed. The array of antennas in Brooklyn allows Aereo to avoid paying the retransmission fees that operators like Time Warner Cable and DirecTV pay for access to stations. Those fees are an increasingly important revenue source for the stations, so it is not surprising their owners have sued to protect them. The broadcasters, including CBS Corporation, Comcast, News Corporation and the Walt Disney Company, filed two suits against Aereo more than a year ago, weeks before the service was made available in New York. But a district court judge denied the request for a preliminary injunction last summer. Image The founder of Aereo, Chet Kanojia, left, in 2012 with the company's chief technology officer, Joseph Lipowski, in a Brooklyn warehouse that hosts miniature antennas, each belonging to an Aereo subscriber. Credit Kirsten Luce for The New York Times The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the lower court ruling on Monday in a 2-to-1 decision, saying that Aereo’s streams of TV shows to individual subscribers did not constitute “public performances,” and thus the broadcasters’ copyright infringement lawsuits against the service “are not likely to prevail on the merits.” Aereo also includes a digital video recorder not unlike the remote digital video recorder system that was operated by Cablevision and was upheld in court several years ago. Judge Christopher F. Droney pointed to that decision as he affirmed the previous court ruling in favor of Aereo. Another appeals court judge, Denny Chin, dissented on Monday, calling Aereo’s antenna system “a Rube Goldberg-like contrivance, overengineered in an attempt to avoid the reach of the Copyright Act and to take advantage of a perceived loophole in the law.” He concluded that Aereo’s streams to subscribers were “public performances” and thus violations of copyright. But the majority opinion gave momentum to Aereo, which announced a plan to expand to 22 more cities in January. Broadcasters aren’t the only ones affected by the technology. While it doesn’t have many subscribers now, Aereo gives television viewers a new and relatively cheap way to subscribe to a limited diet of TV and gives advertisers yet another way to reach those viewers. Aereo’s wins in court may make other companies more comfortable in joining forces with the service; prospective partners include cable channels that want carriage (Bloomberg TV signed the first such deal with Aereo last year) and wireless providers. And the mere existence of the service may cause the broadcasters to speed up their own plans for streaming programming to phones and tablets. After the ruling on Monday, analysts suggested that some cable and satellite providers — those that pay billions of dollars in retransmission fees for the right to carry broadcasters’ signals — might start to mimic Aereo’s system to get around the fee requirements, or at least improve their position at the bargaining table. Others predicted that the broadcasters might lobby Congress to change the law. Undeterred, a group of the plaintiffs, including Fox and PBS, said they intended to move to trial. “Today’s decision is a loss for the entire creative community,” they said in a statement. “The court has ruled that it is O.K. to steal copyrighted material and retransmit it without compensation. While we are disappointed with this decision, we have and are considering our options to protect our programming.” The broadcasters say they are heartened by a victory in December in Federal District Court in Los Angeles against an Aereo-like service named Aereokiller, backed by the billionaire Alkiviades David. CBS alluded to that ruling when it said in a statement on Monday, “As the courts continue to consider this case and others like it, we are confident that the rights of content owners will be recognized, and that we will prevail.”

Copyrights
TV
Aereo
Christopher F Droney
Denny Chin
Barry Diller


Deutsche Bank to Settle Mortgage Inquiry for $7.2 Billion

Abstract: Deutsche Bank announced late on Thursday that it had reached a tentative $7.2 billion deal to resolve a federal investigation into its sale of toxic mortgage securities, capping months of negotiations that weighed heavily on the bank’s stock price and reputation. The civil settlement requires the bank, Germany’s largest, to pay a $3.1 billion penalty and provide relief to American consumers valued at $4.1 billion, the bank said in a statement that came ahead of a formal announcement in the case. The consumer portion of the settlement, the bank said, is expected to be “primarily in the form of loan modifications and other assistance to homeowners.” Still, the bank cautioned that the deal was not final, saying that “there can be no assurance that the U.S. Department of Justice and the bank will agree on the final documentation.” The payout would settle claims that the bank, like many other institutions during the financial crisis of 2008, sold investors mortgage securities that contributed to the crisis. Collectively, big banks have paid tens of billions of dollars over their sale of these securities. The announcement of the tentative deal with Deutsche Bank came on the same day that the Justice Department sued Barclays , the British bank, over similar accusations. In that case, negotiations broke down, leading the government to file a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The settlement for Deutsche Bank, abrupt as it was, comes after many months of uncertainty that cast a pall over the bank’s future after reports last fall that the government had asked the bank to pay $14 billion as negotiations got underway. That such an enormous number was even mentioned raised concerns not just about the bank’s business model in the years ahead, but its short-term prospects as well. This deal, while substantial, falls far short of that sum. Few analysts had expected Deutsche Bank to have to pay such an outsize amount, but the reports gave voice to longstanding fears that investors have had about the bank’s trading-driven business model and its ability to generate enough cash to pay for its past infractions. From the summer of 2015 to last summer, Deutsche’s stock more than halved, hitting a low of $11, as fears over the bank’s future mounted, prompting some hedge funds to withdraw cash they were holding at the bank. Since early November, however, shares of Deutsche Bank have taken part in a broad rally of bank stocks, on hopes that the election of Donald J. Trump, a longtime and substantial client of the bank, would mean a dialing back of bank regulations in the United States. The German bank has substantial operations in New York, as well as in London and Frankfurt. Problems with Deutsche Bank manipulating core lending and foreign exchange rates, pushing toxic mortgages, helping hedge funds lessen their tax bills and failing to put in place proper risk controls have persistently infuriated regulators. But not only the watchdogs were upset. Ultimately the bank’s shareholders supported a business model based on paying extremely large sums to some of the most brazen risk-takers Wall Street had ever produced. According to calculations by Berenberg Bank, since 1995, when Deutsche Bank’s global markets division was first set up, the bank has paid out 65 billion euros, about $68 billion, in bonuses. During this same period, the bank’s board in Frankfurt asked investors to come up with €23 billion to bolster its perpetually thin cushion of cash. For example, one midlevel trader in the Libor scandal, an attempted manipulation of benchmark interest rates, earned a bonus of $136 million in 2008. “Money went everywhere, except to the shareholders,” said Bernd Ondruch of Astellon Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in London. “Deutsche had to pay its way into investment banking, and during the boom years, the bankers took the balance sheet hostage. This was an issue for all the banks but Deutsche Bank was the most aggressive by far.” These outsize numbers highlight the herculean task before Deutsche Bank’s chief executive, John Cryan, who, has been trying to reinvent the bank and move it beyond its legal problems. In recent communications with his employees, he has highlighted ambitions for the bank to be less of a “flow monster,” trading large volumes of securities, and more of a tech-savvy, focused bank that aims to meet specialized client demands. It is a strategy that virtually all of Deutsche Bank’s peers have been following, and many of them are already years into a turnaround effort. And unlike peer institutions like Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup, Deutsche Bank cannot fall back on a dominant deposit-taking brand as it tries to move away from its reliance on trading activities. Germany’s banking market remains highly fragmented, and attempts by Deutsche Bank to build its domestic franchise via the purchase of the retail lender Postbank and merger talks with Commerzbank have not been successful. In recent weeks, Deutsche Bank, as part of its broader restructuring efforts, has cut ties with 3,400 trading clients, an extraordinary move for an institution that over a 20-year span has made its name by servicing sophisticated investors in London, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

Deutsche Bank
Justice Department
John Cryan
Mortgage Backed Securities
Mortgage loan


Britain Weighs a Tax on Bank Bonuses

Abstract: LONDON — The British government laid out more concrete steps for reducing the country’s budget deficit on Monday, but would not say whether its update on spending and borrowing plans due Wednesday would include a controversial tax on bonuses. Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday identified £3 billion, or $4.9 billion, worth of new savings, including cutting the overall outlay for senior civil servants by as much as 20 percent, reducing costs for mail and telephone services by using the Internet more, and halving the budget for outside consultants. The government left open the possibility of introducing a levy on some bankers’ bonuses, a suggestion aired Sunday that was immediately criticized by representatives of the banking industry. Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, told the BBC in an interview on Sunday that a levy was a possibility. “We are not going to be held at ransom by people who believe you can pay extremely large bonuses regardless of what’s going on,” he said. In the last two months, Mr. Brown considered ways to ask the financial services industry to set aside money to help the sector through any future banking crises instead of having to rely on a government bailout. But Mr. Brown failed to drum up support from all major economies. And a tax on bankers, financial transactions or bank earnings, if introduced unilaterally, would bring concerns about the attractiveness of London as a financial center. Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, called a possible levy on bonuses “populist, political and penal.” “It might be popular to put very high taxes on a few,” Ms. Knight told the BBC on Monday. “But we need to know how we would look internationally.” The debate about bonuses gained momentum last week when some newspapers reported that the board of Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now majority-owned by the British government, might quit en masse should the government veto its suggested bonus pool. Mr. Darling confirmed Sunday that as finance minister he had the power to veto any excessive bonus proposals, but he said he had not seen any plans for Royal Bank of Scotland’s bonuses. At the same time, the Labour Party is trying to calm voters’ fears about a ballooning deficit and to catch up with the opposition Conservative Party in opinion polls before an election next year. Mr. Darling will present an update Wednesday on the government’s spending and borrowing plans. The savings outlined Monday would be in addition to £35 billion by 2011 that had been pledged earlier. The government forecast in April that the deficit would be £175 billion in the year through the end of March 2010. That would be 12.4 percent of gross domestic product — the highest since World War II. But the government also pledged to cut it by as much as half over four years, and may present a new, lower forecast this week. The British economy remained in recession in the third quarter, even as the United States and the region that uses the euro began a recovery. Some economists argued that to plug the hole in the budget, the British government should cut spending rather than increase taxes, which would further hurt households and companies. “There now need to be cuts in investment and restraint in public sector pay,” Karen Ward, an economist in London for HSBC, said. “A rise in either income or corporation tax is likely to be a last resort. The household sector is already overburdened, and the corporate sector needs to flourish to fill the void left by fiscal withdrawal.”

Great Britain
Taxation
Bonuses
Executive Compensation