U.S. Is Closer to Deciding Cuba’s Status on Terror List

Abstract: PANAMA — President Obama is nearing a decision on removing Cuba’s three-decade-old designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, citing progress in his push to normalize relations with the island nation as he arrived here on Thursday night for a summit meeting of Latin American leaders. On the eve of the gathering, where he will come face to face with the Cuban president, Raul Castro, for the first time since he announced in December that he would seek to normalize relations with the country, Mr. Obama said the State Department had completed a review that he had ordered of Cuba’s status on the list of states that sponsor terrorism. “Our emphasis has been on the facts,” Mr. Obama said earlier on Thursday in Kingston, Jamaica, where he met with Caribbean leaders on energy and security cooperation and started a young leaders’ initiative. “We want to make sure that given that this is a powerful tool to isolate those countries that genuinely do support terrorism, that when we make those designations we’ve got strong evidence that, in fact, that’s the case.” “As circumstances change, then that list will change as well,” he said, adding that he would not make a formal announcement until he had received a final recommendation from his advisers. In a sign of progress in the thaw between Cuba and the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry met here on Thursday night with Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez. It was the highest level session between representatives of the two governments in more than 50 years. Mr. Obama’s comments left open the possibility that he could announce the move at the Summit of the Americas opening here on Friday, where he hopes to highlight momentum in the diplomatic opening with Cuba. At the meeting, any interactions between Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro will be scrutinized for their symbolic significance. Cuba is attending the summit meeting for the first time since its inception in 1994, creating the first publicly planned encounter of the American and Cuban presidents since 1958, though Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro shook hands in greeting at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa in December 2013 and President Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro shook hands and chatted briefly at a United Nations meeting in 2000. As he basked in the balmy Jamaican temperatures and the adulation of Caribbean leaders and young people visibly thrilled to welcome him, Mr. Obama cast his decision to seek normal relations with Cuba as a way of reordering relationships in the hemisphere and pushing forward on a season of outreach over antagonism. “We will continue to have differences with the Cuban government, but we don’t want to be imprisoned by the past,” Mr. Obama told young leaders in a town-hall meeting at the University of the West Indies. “Engagement is a more powerful force than isolation. I believe that we can move past some of the old debates that so often define the region, and move forward.” The president appeared energized by his Jamaican visit, which included a tour of a museum dedicated to the reggae legend Bob Marley — which he later called “one of the more fun meetings that I’ve had since I’ve been president” — and a lengthy question-and-answer session with young people to kick off a $70 million youth initiative his administration is starting in the region. “Greetings, massive,” he told the 350 attendees, using local vernacular and getting loud cheers in return. “I just like the vibe here,” the president added. Leaders of the Caribbean countries returned the sentiment in strikingly personal terms. Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica, who exchanged hugs throughout the day with Mr. Obama as they cycled through official events, said he was “very loved” by Jamaicans. “You’re on the right side of history,” Ms. Simpson-Miller told the president of his effort to establish normal relations with Cuba, calling it “a bold and courageous move.” In Panama, a fistfight broke out on Thursday between dissident groups and supporters of the Cuban government. The melee began after members of the dissident groups attempted to lay flowers at a monument to José Marti, a Cuban nationalist hero. Mr. Obama is also likely to face other strains at the gathering here. President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has vowed to use the summit meeting to rail against the United States.

Cuba
Terrorism
Barack Obama
Summits of the Americas
US Foreign Policy


Coming to the Rescue for Riders Who Drop Treasures on the Tracks

Abstract: The requests trickle through the bowels of the New York City subway system, funneled to workers more accustomed to calls about tunnel fires or ceiling leaks. A problem is reported at Columbus Circle one recent afternoon. A passenger could be in great distress. Delays are minimal, but movement on the tracks has perhaps never been slower. So would a crew mind collecting its helmets and hauling its mechanical claw to rescue the turtle — fumbled by a rider — currently plotting its very methodical getaway from Midtown train traffic? “It’s a big city,” a transit worker, Vinny Mangia, had said a day earlier, reciting a mantra of his office. “Somebody’s going to drop something.” And somebody, if the item is sufficiently treasured, is going to try to pick it up. These are the fishermen of the subway system, cobbling together homemade instruments to pluck items from the tracks and release them to a grateful city. Workers have returned a bag of hospital-bound blood and corralled a collection of artificial body parts, scooped engagement rings from the rails and reunited children with stuffed animals. They have lifted bikes and basketballs. One worker, Bob Devine, recently recovered the detritus of a lover’s quarrel: a bag of clothes hurled beside a third rail in the Bronx during an argument. “We’re O.K. now,” the man told Mr. Devine, repacking his jeans. For as long as there have been subway tracks, New Yorkers — haggard, perpetually busy and forever jostling for space — have been dropping things on them. Image Leonard Geraghty, center, and Mr. Devine ride an A train en route to 168th Street to retrieve an item from the tracks. Credit Sally Ryan for The New York Times But in recent years, the workers say, the rigors of the job have multiplied, with smartphone proliferation and in-station Wi-Fi producing a more distracted ridership and sending more phones tumbling to the tracks. “That’s job security,” said Mr. Devine, a 30-year veteran of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Indeed, the pickup crews, which also perform track work and respond to emergencies when necessary, are afforded a unique window on consumer behavior. Workers can trace trends in accessories — changes in the price of gold have coincided with a decrease in calls about jewelry, they say — and gauge the relative popularity of new authors. They can pinpoint the moment the iPhone surpassed the BlackBerry, and they predict, by now with near certainty, that travelers are most likely to drop either device on a Monday. “People are going back to work, they’re annoyed, they’re fumbling around,” Mr. Mangia said, by way of explanation. Other transit agencies appear less zealous in their approach. In Boston’s transit system, there is no team dedicated to retrieving dropped objects, though crews who walk the tracks overnight often pick up items on their own. In Chicago — where workers “do not use any device” like the mechanical claw, a spokeswoman said — operators on stopped trains occasionally descend from their posts to retrieve wallets or phones. Most New York travelers appear pleased with the vigilance and, often, enthralled by the claw: the long-limbed fusion of an extendable paint stick, a grocery grabber and, in Mr. Devine’s case, an old token bag to protect the gadget from the elements. On a recent weekday at the West Fourth Street station, Mr. Devine and his team partner for the day, Leonard Geraghty, tracked down the wheel of a sliding door, which Bart Platteau, from Harlem, had fumbled on the way to a hardware store for repairs. “Yes!” the rider shouted, as Mr. Devine lifted his tool from the tracks. Mr. Platteau inspected the wheel for a moment. “Great service,” he said before leaving. Image Mr. Geraghty checks where an object was lost. Credit Sally Ryan for The New York Times Next, the team traveled to 34th Street, where a book was propped against a rail. “ ‘War and Peace,’ ” Mr. Geraghty guessed, training his flashlight below. In fact, it was a novel called “Gunz and Roses.” In some cases, including the turtle rescue, other transit personnel help recover items before workers like Mr. Devine and Mr. Geraghty arrive. (The transportation authority described the reptile as “large,” reporting that it fell out of a brown paper bag. The woman carrying the bag stayed behind until the turtle was lifted to safety.) A recent change by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, charging $1 for new MetroCards, has made the workers’ searches more manageable, coaxing many riders to refill their cards rather than piling them on the tracks. But scheming travelers, spotting a pickup crew, occasionally claim cards or other items that are not theirs. “I have a game I play with them,” Mr. Geraghty said. “I tell them, ‘You drop a watch or something?’ They say, ‘No, it’s a phone.’ It’s just a test.” Sometimes, ownership is more obvious. Travelers balancing on one leg, for instance, tend to be responsible for reports about lost shoes. Then there was the No. 6 rider who lost both at East 59th Street, Mr. Devine recalled, and $40, too. When the bills landed on the tracks, she tossed a flip-flop in their direction, hoping to pin them down. She missed. But her second attempt landed. “I thought it was pretty smart,” Mr. Devine said. Mr. Geraghty cited a run-in at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, about four years ago, as his most memorable. He recovered a glass eye — “brown,” he said — and returned it to its owner. The man wiped it off and pressed it back into place. Upon hearing this tale, Mr. Devine countered with a memory about a set of false teeth. There is the occasional aggrieved passenger, chafing at the response time if a crew is traveling from another call at a far-off station. But almost universally, riders are appreciative. A few have tried to tip the workers, though they say they have never accepted. “A little hug, we take,” Mr. Geraghty said. “I usually tell them, if it’s a man: ‘Take your wife out. Have a good time on us.’ ”


For California, El Niño’s Dark Clouds Could Mean Rain but Also Trouble

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — A soaking El Niño weather system is in the forecast, promising to pummel California with torrents of rain by the end of the year. That would seem like Champagne-popping news as this state suffers through its worst drought in a millennium. But in the latest sign of the meteorological, behavioral and political challenges that California leaders face in managing this crisis, the prospect of months of heavy rain has become a cause for concern as well as celebration — a cloud on the horizon that could bring this state more than just moisture. It is forcing state emergency officials to turn from trying to manage water rationing and forest fires to preparing for floods, mudslides and debris flows that follow extended dry periods, made worse by the fact that forests have been denuded by drought-fueled blazes. And after months of success at persuading Californians to conserve water — the most recent figures show that residents pared back their water use 31 percent in July, compared with July 2013 — the prospect of El Niño-as-savior threatens to lull Californians back to long showers and daily dousings of lawns. And it is emerging, officials said, as a decided disincentive to the crisis-inspired attempts by state regulators to try to change entrenched rules on how water is distributed to farms and communities. “California has really stepped up,” said Bill Croyle, the drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources. “Our concern is that this takes people off their conservation game.” Image Firefighters battled a fire near Clearlake, one of dozens that raged in drought-parched Northern California in early August. Credit Noah Berger/European Pressphoto Agency In some ways, this might be a case of looking for a dark lining on a silver cloud. Better rain than not in this time of fallow fields, dying trees and reservoirs shrinking into puddles. And in interviews, some Californians — whose conservation in July exceeded the 25 percent mandatory water conservation order issued by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year — said they would continue to save water, El Niño or not. “I haven’t heard people talking about changing their drought mentality because of El Niño, and I certainly don’t plan on it,” said Antonio Pacheco, 27, an architect who lives in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz. But water has always been a fraught topic in California, and after a drought like this, there is understandable concern that some people will revert to water-wasting habits in response to the “Godzilla El Niño” — with rivers of rain — that is being forecast . The rainy season starts in October; the heaviest months for precipitation generally are December, January and February. “As soon as folks say, ‘El Niño is going to save us,’ I’m like, ‘No!’ ” said Felicia Marcus, the chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board. “I don’t hate El Niño. I hate Niño hype.” Still, she said, “When it comes to El Niño, we’ll take all the rain and snow that we can safely handle.” Meteorologists say a single winter of rain will not end a drought of this severity. “El Niño is of limited effectiveness in ending droughts in places like California,” said Kevin Werner, the western regional climate services director of the National Centers for Environmental Information. And if it comes, the form it takes is crucial: The ideal El Niño would drop snow over the mountains in the north and rain over the reservoirs in Central California, moistening the state where it needs it most. But El Niño could just as easily end up over Southern California, flooding rivers and streets without making an appreciable difference in the state’s long-term water shortage — an unhappy possibility that might not come across amid the celebratory reports of water on the way. And it is always possible there will not be a wet El Niño at all. “We are a long way from December,” said Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist. “It could go either way.” One reason officials are so concerned is that incorrect forecasts of an El Niño last year appeared to contribute to people ignoring the voluntary water-reduction guidelines set by Mr. Brown. “We saw people actually go on TV and say, ‘We are good; it’s going to rain,’ ” Mr. Croyle recalled. “We were like ‘What the heck? Are you kidding me?’ We were like, ‘We are in trouble.’ ” And be it earthquakes or drought, as a rule, people tend to change their behavior only when the memory of the crisis is fresh. By that measure, conservation habits could certainly evaporate with the rain. “There was a behavior change by individual water users, particularly urban water users” in response to the drought, said Michael W. Hanemann, a professor of environmental and resource economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “The empirical evidence in the past is that when the emergency passes, the behavior shifts back to what it was before the drought — not overnight and not 100 percent.” Image A sprinkler in North Tustin, Calif. The state has made gains in water conservation, but officials fear El Niño could reverse that. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times Yet there are signs this time around that Californians have a greater understanding of the limitations of an El Niño — and a stronger commitment to saving water. The statewide conservation figure of 31 percent for the month of July was one sign, and it came on the heels of a stronger-than-expected figure for June, too: 27 percent. And in interviews, Californians spoke little of changing conservation habits. “I don’t think that I’m going to stop conserving water because of El Niño, because I don’t think the snowpack is going to be there as a result,” said Nicky Perry, 36, a legal secretary from Santa Clarita. “And that’s what is really going to help California. We’re going to be in a drought for a long time.” Of more pressing concern are the severe floods and mudslides that almost invariably follow a drought. State officials said they were concerned that many communities were unprepared for what might happen — without stockpiles of sandbags, for example, or established emergency procedures. “Our worry is that people in drought don’t spend the kind of money needed preparing for a flood,” Mr. Croyle said. “We have to make sure the public and our agencies freshen up their flood game.” El Niño or not, the response to the drought so far has brought adjustments that should result in a long-term reduction in the amount of water used here, from homeowners who took advantage of rebates to rip up their lawns to state regulations requiring that new housing developments use water-saving toilets and showers and far less grass. “I’ve been around California water for a long time, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this level of focus and attention,” said Lester Snow, the executive director of the California Water Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports water research. “We are seeing some permanent changes. There might be some slowing of that trend, but I don’t see a reversal of that trend at all.”

California
Weather
Drought
Flood
Water
Conservation of Resources
El Nino
Jerry Brown
Landslides,Mudslides


Ex-Official Is Charged After Deaths at Coal Mine

Abstract: Federal prosecutors in West Virginia charged the highest-ranking executive to date on Wednesday in a broad investigation stemming from the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners, a move that suggests more senior executives at Massey Energy , the mine’s operator, are likely to be prosecuted. The official, David C. Hughart, the former president of the Green Valley Coal Company, a division of Massey, will plead guilty and is cooperating with the investigation, said R. Booth Goodwin II, the United States attorney. “He was obviously a highly placed individual, and he gives us a fairly unique perspective,” Mr. Goodwin said. Mr. Hughart was charged with one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and a second misdemeanor conspiracy count. Prosecutors say that he and others knowingly conspired to violate safety laws at Massey’s mines and worked to hide those violations by giving advance warnings of surprise inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The charges do not relate directly to the Upper Big Branch mine, indicating that prosecutors have widened their investigation to include a broader culture of suspected violations that is believed to have played a role in the 2010 explosion. Investigators say the blast was caused by explosive gases and coal dust that had built up in the mine. “The conspiracy charge permits us to look more deeply at the conduct and all of the players involved in perpetuating this conduct in the corporate entity,” Mr. Goodwin said. The use of conspiracy charges is unusual in the history of investigations of mining accidents, which typically have been prosecuted under the federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. That legislation can punish the actions of lower-level mining operators, like shift foremen, but has a limited scope for prosecuting high-level company officials, said Tony Oppegard, a Kentucky lawyer who represents miners and a former prosecutor of mine-safety violations for the state. “It’s an unusual approach, and that’s why I think it signals some restless nights for other officials at Massey,” Mr. Oppegard said of the continuing inquiry. “I think it’s an indication that they’re aiming higher in the chain of command.” Prosecutors also used conspiracy charges against Gary May, a superintendent of the Upper Big Branch mine who pleaded guilty this year to a fraud charge that accused him of manipulating a ventilation system to fool inspectors and disabling a methane monitor, among other violations. Last year, Hughie Elbert Stover, a former security chief at Massey, was convicted of impeding the investigation into the blast by lying to federal investigators. In June 2011 Massey Energy was acquired by Alpha Natural Resources, which late last year agreed to pay $209 million in restitution and civil and criminal penalties over the explosion, the worst American mining disaster in nearly 40 years. Samantha Davison, a company spokeswoman, said that Massey had fired Mr. Hughart in 2010, before that acquisition, but said the company was “committed to working fully” with the agencies investigating the disaster.

Hughart David C
Mines and Mining
Accidents and Safety
Upper Big Branch Mine
Massey Energy Co
Deaths (Fatalities)
West Virginia
Goodwin R Booth II


A No. 1 Who Wants to Stay on Top

Abstract: Victoria Azarenka has yet to take another look at the women’s tennis match of the year: The one in which she and Serena Williams imposed their volume and baseline power on each other deep into a third set; the one Azarenka lost despite serving for her first United States Open title. “It will take me a bit of time to go back and watch it, because the truth is, it still hurts,” Azarenka said in an interview this week. “But it definitely is something I would like to watch as a spectator someday and go through those emotions and those feelings once again.” Such a defeat might have dimmed the year-end zeal of a less-driven woman, but Azarenka still has bright and shiny goals to chase in the twilight of her finest season. Since that closing-night disappointment in New York, she has bounced way back by winning 13 straight matches without dropping a set and by strengthening her grip on the top ranking, which she has now held for 34 weeks. All that remains is the W.T.A. Championships, the elite eight-woman grand finale in Istanbul, and all Azarenka needs to assure herself of being No. 1 at season’s end are two victories in the round-robin phase of the competition. “Well, you don’t have a lot of options; either you go shoot yourself or you bounce back,” said Sam Sumyk, Azarenka’s coach, of the defeat in New York. “I don’t see a lot of gray area there. It hurts, no question about it. It did hurt. It still hurts, but it’s your choice if you want those experiences to make you better or not and, well, she decided that it would make her better.” In Azarenka’s current frame of mind and game, only Williams would be a favorite against her at the championships. But other threats lurk, including Petra Kvitova, who thrived on the quick indoor surface used last year in Istanbul, defeating Azarenka in the final. Many tennis observers thought Kvitova, an imposing Czech left-hander, would use that momentum and continue gathering speed in 2012. But it was Azarenka who caught the wave instead and her emergence as a consistent force at the highest level has been the biggest change in the women’s game. Williams, who swept all before her this summer, had won Grand Slam singles titles and dominated rivals in the past. Maria Sharapova, who won the French Open and briefly returned to No. 1 in June, had done the same. But Azarenka — combustible, cacophonous and unpredictable — only proved herself in earnest this year. She did it by her managing her emotions and winning a big one: the Australian Open in January. She did it by managing the rigors of a draining Olympic season, winning five other tournaments and more prize money — nearly $7 million and counting — than any woman has won in a single campaign. Now it’s time to find out whether she has the staying power that some recent No. 1s — like Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina — have lacked in what remains, after all, the Williams era. “Azarenka surprised me,” said Lindsay Davenport, the former world No. 1 who is now an analyst for Tennis Channel. “I was prematurely losing hope in her. It was kind of like Andy Murray. I kept expecting her to break through. “She’s a great athlete, and she truly believes she should be No. 1,” Davenport added. “And as much as the other ones tried to give that attitude off, it just wasn’t very natural.” Azarenka is defined by her ferocious low-to-the-court groundstrokes, her fast-twitch returns and, of course, her shrieks, which might be old news but still have fans of all ages imitating her in the stands and in front of the screen during matches. “She is sort of labeled with the noises,” said Nick Bollettieri, the 81-year-old American tennis coach. “However when you get down to it, if you can put that aside, the girl has improved her mentality and her temperament and that to me has been the big difference.” At 23, Azarenka still has the time and ambition to make other improvements: in transition in the forecourt and, above all, with her serve. At 6 feet, or about 182 centimeters, tall and with her elastic ability to generate intimidating pace with other strokes, it would appear she could do more with it. That would seem a fine idea if she is to improve on her 1-10 career record against Serena Williams. “I don’t think she gets enough racket-head speed,” Bollettieri said. “She almost muscles the serve.” Davenport believes Azarenka has sacrificed pace in favor of consistency in the last two years, perhaps to avoid being vulnerable off her second serve. “I don’t mind her motion,” Davenport said. “You can have kind of a funky motion, and you can still have a live arm. Andy Roddick taught everyone that, and for whatever reason, she doesn’t quite snap her wrist, doesn’t quite go for it. I’d love to see her in practice try and hit the 110- or 115-mile-an-hour serve because I think she could do it.” Neither Azarenka nor Sumyk, a California-based Frenchman, appear reticent about embracing change or outside influences. They brought in former French star Amélie Mauresmo briefly this year before Mauresmo was named Fed Cup captain and took on a bigger role with the French tennis federation. Sumyk has also sought inspiration and counsel from sources as diverse as the former Olympic sprint champion Maurice Greene and most recently, Olivier de Kersauson, the leading French sailor. “You can learn from everywhere but I really believe there are special people on the planet, and if I can meet a couple of them, a few of them or more than a few, well, it’s a privilege. If they accept, why miss that opportunity?” For Sumyk, the good news is that Azarenka has much room to improve and she is already No. 1 and a Grand Slam singles champion. That sounds like a logical combination until you remember that her friend and Monaco neighbor Caroline Wozniacki finished No. 1 in 2010 and 2011 without winning a major title. Wozniacki, who has dropped out of the top 10, is a reminder of the fragility of tennis success. Has Azarenka given her encouragement? “It’s hard to do that, because maybe she doesn’t want to hear it from me,” Azarenka said, adding that, “I always have only positive things for her, and I wish her all the best.” Azarenka sacrificed more than most to become a tennis star: leaving her family and her home in Minsk, Belarus, to train first in Spain and then in the United States. She recognizes now that the self-imposed pressures generated by those sacrifices were a big part of what once held her back. “I kind of made the transition really quick and success came fast to me, and maybe I was not sure how to handle it too well,” she said. “I feel like these days I do it much better, and I adapt to situations. I still go through a lot of things that I never have before, but I feel like I handle them with a cold mind.” She was, however, not quite cool enough in New York to collect her second Grand Slam singles title, but she did push Williams in a new and more convincing fashion. Perhaps she’ll get another chance in Istanbul. “I always like to let my racket talk and not really talk myself and to show who’s the best player or who deserves to be the best player in our game,” Azarenka said. “It’s not by discussing it in the interviews. I think it’s important to show it on the court, and that’s what I will try to do.”


Syrian Army Rocket Kills 19 and Levels Buildings in Aleppo, Rebels Say

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian antigovernment activists said on Tuesday that an army rocket had leveled several buildings in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo, killing at least 19 people and possibly leaving dozens more buried under rubble. The attack appeared to have caused one of the worst civilian tolls in the embattled city since its university was struck in a multiple bombing a month ago. Activists also reported that up to seven mortar rounds had been fired by fighters of the Free Syrian Army toward President Bashar al-Assad’s Tishreen Palace in Damascus. There were no immediate reports of casualties, and it was not known whether Mr. Assad was there at the time. The palace, surrounded by a park, is in a wealthy area that has largely been insulated from the insurgency. It is less than a mile from the main presidential palace, which is on a plateau overlooking the city. Suzan Ahmad, an activist in Damascus, said at least one of the mortar rounds had made a direct hit. Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said two mortar rounds had landed near two hospitals and the palace’s southern wall, resulting in “material damage only.” It did not provide further details. SANA said the rounds had been fired by terrorists, which is what the government calls armed insurgents. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group based in Britain that has a network of sources in Syria, described the Aleppo rocket as a “surface-to-surface missile” that slammed into the Jabal Badro neighborhood late Monday and said at least six children and three women were among the victims. A witness in Aleppo was quoted by Reuters as saying that the attack had felled three buildings, and that survivors were digging up bodies. Syria’s state-run news media did not immediately report on the rocket attack, and it was impossible to independently corroborate the details provided by the anti-Assad activists. But the attack appeared to be one of the deadliest in the city since more than 80 people were killed and hundreds wounded on Jan. 15 in a multiple bombing of Aleppo University as students were taking exams. Although rebels and the government accused each other of responsibility for the attack, video of the immediate aftermath suggested that it had involved a missile or missiles fired by the Syrian military. Image People searched for survivors among the rubble after a Syrian army rocket attack on the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo on Tuesday. Credit Reuters The United Nations has estimated that 70,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict, which began as a peaceful uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011. The alliance of rebel groups fighting to oust Mr. Assad has claimed a series of strategic advances in recent weeks, but Mr. Assad contends that his side is winning. In Geneva, where the United Nations has been coordinating a response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict, senior aid officials said on Tuesday that Syria’s government had allowed more international organizations to participate but had been impeding or preventing their efforts to deliver emergency supplies. “The Syrian government must stop obstructing the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Nancy Lindborg, the assistant administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, said at a meeting of aid officials, called the Syria Humanitarian Forum. United Nations agencies reported this week that the access across lines of conflict negotiated with government and opposition forces had enabled them to deliver relief supplies to 65,000 people since the end of January. But they estimated the number of people in desperate need of assistance at four million, four times as many as in mid-2012. “We are not reaching enough of those who need our help,” Valerie Amos, the United Nations humanitarian relief coordinator, told reporters in Geneva after the meeting. “We are watching a humanitarian tragedy unfold before our eyes.” Ms. Amos also told reporters that the United Nations was pressing donor nations to make good on their pledges of $1.5 billion announced at a conference in Kuwait last month. The United Nations has received only 20 percent of the $519 million it is seeking for Syria relief during the first half of 2013. The United States announced in Geneva that it would provide an additional $19 million in aid, mostly for medical assistance in Syria and food aid for refugees in neighboring countries, bringing total American assistance to more than $384 million, including $216 million for relief inside Syria and $168 million for refugees.

Syria
Arab Spring
Military
Bashar al-Assad
Aleppo Syria
Damascus


Now, a Laptop You Can Hold in Your Hand

Abstract: HANOVER, Germany, March 8 - In a bid to crack the crowded market for hand-held computers and music players, Microsoft and two electronics companies, Samsung of Korea and Asus of Taiwan, plan to unveil an ultralight tablet computer on Thursday that melds a laptop and media player into a thin, new device. Samsung's device, the Q1, will use Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system. It is a product of Microsoft's so-called Origami project -- an effort to shrink and redefine the laptop, while bolstering the company's software sales for new hand-held devices. Asus will also produce a version. "This is basically a small but powerful laptop computer that is also a sophisticated entertainment device," said Patrick Pavel, a Samsung product manager for Germany, who showed a prototype of the Q1 on Wednesday at the Cebit technology fair in Hanover. The Samsung device is a flat black rectangle that weighs 1.7 pounds, has the dimensions of a DVD box (about 9 inches by 5 inches) and is 1 inch thick. The viewing screen is 7 inches diagonally, more than twice the size of most personal digital assistants or Internet-enabled smart phones. While Microsoft dominates the desktop and laptop markets with its Windows operating systems, it trails the Symbian group -- led by the mobile phone makers Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Siemens -- for software on smart phones. Despite the calculated secrecy surrounding Microsoft's Origami project -- the company has dribbled out bits of cryptic information on an obscure Web site for a month that suggest the debut of a new mobile device -- experts were skeptical that the new tablet computer would make inroads against devices like the BlackBerry and the iPod. Andy Brown, an analyst in London with IDC, a research firm, said "converged devices" like Samsung's Q1 faced an uphill battle to win over consumers, who are more likely to favor traditional laptops with keyboards or tiny MP3 players than dual-purpose machines. "The growth prospects are not really strong," he said. "The main problem for most is that they fall in between what consumers are looking for." Representatives of Microsoft, Samsung and Asus discussed the new devices but declined to release further details before a news conference to be held here on Thursday. An executive of one company involved in the project, who would not speak for attribution before the news conference, said the tablet computers would sell for $600 to $1,200 each. Like a personal digital assistant, the Q1 can be operated with a metal stylus by writing and clicking on the screen. The device, which comes with a 40-gigabyte hard drive, can also be operated with a wireless keyboard. The Samsung device has two wireless technologies built in: Wi-Fi for Internet access and Bluetooth for connecting with devices like keyboards, printers or mobile phones. The battery lasts about three and a half hours, the company said. Mr. Pavel of Samsung said the machines, powered by Intel's Celeron and Pentium Mobile processors, would go on sale this summer.

ASUS
MICROSOFT CORP
SAMSUNG CORP
MICROSOFT CORP
COMPUTER SOFTWARE
PRICES (FARES FEES AND RATES)
COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET


Jurors in Officers’ Trial Say Rape Claim Was Unproven

Abstract: To spectators in the Manhattan courtroom, it was a mundane moment: a court stenographer reading in a monotone voice the testimony of a woman who said she was raped by a police officer. But to Richard Schimenti, a juror in the trial, it was a crucial moment. “When her testimony was read back without her in the mix, it was much easier for us to see what she said,” Mr. Schimenti said. “And it sounded like a construct from the prosecution, which did not prove beyond any kind of reasonable doubt that there was a rape.” After just over a day of further deliberations, on their seventh day considering the case, the jurors returned on Thursday with a not-guilty verdict on the rape charge against the two police officers, Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno . While the officers were acquitted of most charges, including burglary and falsifying business records, the jurors did convict them on three misdemeanor counts of official misconduct. That was enough for the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, to strip them of their jobs. The verdict was a victory for the former officers, but they still walk away from the trial having left less-than-stellar impressions. Mr. Schimenti, 56, said he did not believe Mr. Moreno’s testimony alleging that the woman made advances at him in her bedroom while wearing nothing but a bra. “I’m no big fan of Officer Moreno, believe me,” Mr. Schimenti said, adding that he was glad the jury found him guilty of official misconduct. Over all, Mr. Schimenti said, it was hard to believe a lot of the testimony. “None of us believed anything that anyone said,” he said. “We have no proof. We’re talking about the letter of the law.” At one point it seemed the case would result in a hung jury, when three jurors said they believed the former officers were guilty of the rape, and nine did not. But Mr. Schimenti said the jury’s efforts to resolve that deadlock were “magnificently civilized.” “This jury was brilliant,” he said. “There was not one dud or bum person on the jury, even though we disagreed.” Another juror, Eric Casiano, 33, said a tape of Officer Moreno and the woman recorded a few days after the alleged rape played a big role in the jury’s deliberations. At a meeting between the two outside a police precinct house, known as a “control meet” in police parlance, the officer told the woman, who was wearing a recording device, that he had used a condom. “To me the ‘control meet’ played a main factor,” Mr. Casiano said. “You need to hear the ‘control meet.’ You need to read it. He wasn’t trying to confess anything. He was trying to get away from her outside his precinct. She was trying to attack him.” Mr. Casiano said that before Officer Moreno had said he had worn a condom, he had made statements that exonerated him. Still, Mr. Casiano said, neither Officer Moreno nor the woman were completely convincing: “Both his and her stories were full of holes. And the law says, our good government says, innocent until proven guilty.” Another juror, John Finck, 57, said in an e-mail: “This jury heard seven weeks of testimony and deliberated for seven days. We found that the evidence presented to us in the courtroom did not satisfy the standard of reasonable doubt required to convict the defendants in the major charges of rape and burglary.” One of the major stumbling blocks of the prosecution’s case may have been the accuser’s drunkenness the night she said the rape took place. “There’s no way in the world under the sun and the moon and the stars that you can come down guilty on a charge so heinous without proof,” Mr. Schimenti said. “The prosecution, they did an amazing job. They built a great case. But they never really crossed that line that would prove or help us to say guilty.” An alternate juror who saw most of the trial said by phone that he agreed with the rape acquittal, citing the lack of DNA evidence as a crucial point. He said that although the woman seemed sincere, he had questions about her spotty memory. He also said that the prosecutors, through no fault of their own, just did not have enough evidence to prove their case. “I definitely thought some funny business went on,” said the alternate juror, who insisted on anonymity. “Is it possible they raped her? Sure.”

Mata Franklin L
Moreno Kenneth
Police Department (NYC)
Decisions and Verdicts
Jury System
Sex Crimes


Ben Carson’s Campaign Beset With Frustration, Disappointment and Grief

Abstract: DES MOINES — As Ben Carson got ready for a television interview beside the pulpit of a Pentecostal church this week, campaign aides asked his supporters to move across the room and sit in the empty pews behind him. They wanted the campaign gathering to appear full, but few of the voters who had turned up for the event could hear the soft-spoken Mr. Carson explain how he is on the upswing in Iowa. Some wandered away in disappointment. “I thought he would be louder,” said Jody Kunanan, who drove from Ankeny, Iowa, to see Mr. Carson. Still, she remains hopeful that he will somehow pull out a victory in the state next week despite polling in the single digits. Such is life for the Carson campaign these days, where disappointment and frustration have overtaken last year’s sense of optimism. After surging to the top of the Iowa polls in the fall, Mr. Carson’s support has plummeted in recent months as scrutiny over his background and grasp of foreign policy intensified. The disarray was compounded by the sudden departures of his campaign leadership team and reports of misspent money. Then last week came the death of a campaign staff member, whose van flipped on an icy Iowa road, adding another layer of malaise to a once-promising presidential bid. For Mr. Carson, the retired neurosurgeon seeking the Republican nomination, it is a daily struggle to stay upbeat and remain true to himself. Who Is Leading the South Carolina Polls A look at the latest results for Iowa and New Hampshire, and how this year compares to previous election seasons. “It is much better to do what’s right and lose an election than to do what’s politically expedient and lose your soul,” Mr. Carson said with a sense of resignation during a Tuesday night event that mixed a campaign pitch with a Christian prayer service. Focusing his efforts on Iowa before Monday’s caucuses, Mr. Carson has been homing in on the evangelical Christians and social conservatives who propelled Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum to caucus victories in the state in the two previous presidential election cycles. Like many flagging candidates, Mr. Carson has started to discredit the polls as flawed surveys that fail to capture the excitement he sees on the campaign trail. Talk of a “surprise” has picked up considerably. While some Iowans say they remain inspired by Mr. Carson’s life story as a person who rose from a hardscrabble childhood to become a renowned physician, faith in his presidential prospects has dimmed. “Ben’s a good guy and he has guts, but I don’t think he has a chance to win,” said Larry Carder, an undecided voter from Des Moines. “I think out of the gate, he was just too soft-spoken. What he says is reasonable, but in your mind you’re saying, ‘Can he really lead the country?’” Many religious Iowans who trudged out on an icy night to hear Mr. Carson said they hoped divine intervention might help him beat the odds. “We Christians need to get on our knees and pray, and I mean, pray,” Marlene Stemler said. “My heart says, as a Christian, vote for Ben Carson.” Changing minds of undecided voters this late in the process will be challenging. Despite Mr. Carson’s ease talking to religious groups, endorsements from influential evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. of Liberty University and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council have gone to Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, the favorites to win Iowa. “I was surprised by that,” Robert Dees, the retired general who is the new chairman of Mr. Carson’s campaign, said of Mr. Falwell’s backing of Mr. Trump. “But the only endorsement we plug for is ‘We the people.’” In making that plug, the Carson team has tried to turn to substance this month, releasing a barrage of policy proposals on taxes, cybersecurity and how to defeat the Islamic State. But with little time left before voting begins and with bickering between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz dominating the spotlight, it has been difficult to persuade voters who gave Mr. Carson an early look to offer him a second chance. “I think Ben Carson would be a wonderful surgeon general,” Nancy Acheson, who admired Dr. Carson but has decided to caucus for Mr. Cruz, said at a campaign event for the Texas senator in Osceola, Iowa, this week. Mr. Carson has sought to keep a positive outlook about his candidacy, but his mounting frustration is clear. During a Wednesday breakfast with members of the news media hosted by Bloomberg Politics, he repeatedly characterized questions of his integrity as “crap” and accused other candidates of floating “subterranean missiles” to assail him. The campaign has a new leadership team in place and Mr. Carson claims to have learned from his hiring mistakes, but latent bitterness still bubbles up, even toward advisers. “Armstrong is not necessarily the epitome of truth, O.K?” Mr. Carson said of Armstrong Williams, an adviser who created dissension within the campaign. “He doesn’t speak all things that are correct, and he often speaks without thinking.” Faced with smaller crowds at his events and diminished fund-raising, Mr. Carson takes comfort in his humble beginnings to give perspective to his campaign’s fall from grace. “I have experienced every socioeconomic level there is in this country, from the bottom to the top, and I feel very comfortable at every socioeconomic level,” Mr. Carson said. “The trappings of wealth and power mean nothing.” He has also tried to find inspiration in tragedy. After pausing his campaign last week to mourn the death of one of his volunteers, Braden Joplin, Mr. Carson has been visiting his outposts in the state to lift the spirits of his grief-stricken team. “The death was hard on us,” Mr. Carson said in an interview after his rally at Heritage Assembly of God. “They’re determined to make sure that the death was not in vain.”

Ben Carson,Benjamin S. Carson
2016 Presidential Election
Iowa
Primaries
Polls
Donald Trump
Ted Cruz


Growing Mistrust Between U.S. and Turkey Is Played Out in Public

Abstract: ISTANBUL — Coming together over crisis has been a hallmark of the relationship between the United States and Turkey in recent years. So it was an especially troubling sign of degraded trust that a meeting between Turkish and American diplomats was canceled last week because it seemed more like an ambush than a consultation. A corruption inquiry of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s inner circle had been quickly intensifying, and late in the week, the Turkish foreign minister requested through an intermediary a meeting with the American ambassador, Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., to discuss the crisis, according to interviews with American and Turkish officials. For days, American diplomats had been privately pleading that the Turks resist trying to divert attention by playing off the investigation as part of a foreign plot. But on Saturday, before the scheduled meeting, the machinery was obviously spinning. Pro-government newspapers featured Mr. Ricciardone on their front pages, and later in the day the Turkish news media reported that the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was set to call Secretary of State John Kerry and banish the American ambassador over an unspecified American role in the corruption inquiry. And Mr. Erdogan embarked on a series of speeches in which he, too, hinted at American treachery and suggested Mr. Ricciardone might be expelled from the country. Mutual suspicion ruled the day, and the Americans called the meeting off. It was only a couple of years ago that President Obama, struggling for an American response to the uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, was said to be speaking with Mr. Erdogan more than the American president was to any world leader, with the exception of the British prime minister, David Cameron. And it was a source of pride for Turks: One newspaper at the time hailed the frequent conversations as a sign of Turkey’s “ascent in the international arena.” “There was a honeymoon from 2010 until the summer of 2013,” said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It was guided by the personal rapport Obama and Erdogan had established.” That now seems a long time ago here. The reality, say analysts, is that the two countries’ foreign policies have been notably diverging, and that the blowup over the corruption investigation and the American diplomatic contingent is being taken as the latest sign of a deepening distrust. They are at odds over Egypt, where Turkey had been a strong supporter of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, and where the United States has sought a relationship with Egypt’s new military rulers. In Syria, Turkey has aggressively backed and armed rebel fighters, and felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against the Syrian government in September. In Iraq, American officials believe the Turks, by signing oil contracts with the northern Kurdish region that cut out the central government in Baghdad, are pursuing a policy that could lead to the country’s breakup. And more recently, Turkey angered its NATO allies by signing a missile-defense system deal with a Chinese company that is under American sanctions for its dealings with Iran, North Korea and Syria. The United States Congress has threatened to cut off subsidies to Turkey for the purchase, and NATO has said it would never integrate Chinese technology into its own missile-defense system. At the same time, Turkey’s own domestic troubles — laid bare by the antigovernment protests in the summer set off by a government plan to raze Gezi Park in Istanbul, and now by the corruption inquiry — are coming under a harsh spotlight, with both crises now being linked by Mr. Erdogan to the United States. In the case of the corruption inquiry, he has been able to do so because two of its elements do obliquely point to the United States, even if there has been no explicit evidence of a link. Part of the inquiry is focusing on the state-owned Halkbank, whose chief executive has been arrested in the case on suspicion of bribery. The bank has also long been suspected by the United States of helping Iran evade sanctions over its nuclear program by using gold to purchase Iranian oil and gas. This year, 47 American lawmakers wrote a letter, which has been re-aired in the Turkish news media over the past week, to urge Mr. Kerry to push the Turks for closer monitoring of the relationship between Iran and Halkbank. “These guys were massive sanctions busters,” said Steven A. Cook, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on Turkey. “It’s been a sore point between Washington and Ankara.” The other element is that the inquiry, which has targeted several people in the prime minister’s circle, has been linked to Fethullah Gulen, a popular Muslim cleric who once was a close ally of the prime minister but is now a fierce political enemy. His life of exile in Pennsylvania has led to conspiracy theories here, and his followers are believed to occupy important positions within the police and judiciary, which are carrying out the corruption inquiry. The investigation into Halkbank, Mr. Cook said, might “be part of a Gulenist effort to demonstrate to the U.S. that maybe Erdogan is not a reliable partner.” It was just this May that Mr. Obama stood in the Rose Garden with Mr. Erdogan and said to reporters, “I value so much the partnership that I’ve been able to develop with Prime Minister Erdogan.” Now, when Mr. Erdogan speaks caustically about American scheming, officials are left to wonder if Mr. Erdogan really believes what he says, or whether he is using such talk as a populist ploy. Suspicion of foreign meddling is deeply ingrained here, running back to the last days of the Ottoman Empire, when the region was, Mr. Cagaptay said, “a playing field for various foreign actors.” Mr. Cook said that in Washington “there is an intellectual understanding” that Turkish officials fall back on such conspiracy theories at times of crisis. Yet, he said that among some American policy makers, “there has been a reassessment of Erdogan and his temperament.” As with most alliances, the relationship has had its ebbs and flows over the past generation. But the current tension has a facet that was missing even in some of the most fraught episodes between the two countries, such as in 2003 when Turkey refused permission for the American military to invade Iraq across its borders, and in 2010 when it voted against United Nations sanctions on Iran. “It’s the first time in memory that pro-government newspapers are calling for the American ambassador to leave,” Mr. Cagaptay said. “That’s unique.”

Turkey
US Foreign Policy
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Francis J Ricciardone Jr
Fethullah Gulen


Soldier Found Guilty of Premeditated Murder

Abstract: A military judge on Monday found Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder in the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq. He faces the sentencing phase of his court-martial to determine whether he will face life in prison with or without the possibility of release. Sergeant Russell, a 14-year Army veteran, had previously pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Under the deal, prosecutors were allowed to try to prove that the killings were premeditated. The shooting was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.

John M Russell
Murders
Iraq War
Decisions and Verdicts
Military
Iraq
US Military


Nets Outlast Kings in Beijing

Abstract: Mirza Teletovic scored 22 points to lead the Nets to a 129-117 overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday in an exhibition game in Beijing. Coach Lionel Hollins praised Deron Williams for “getting us revved up and in rhythm” after the Nets had fallen behind going into halftime. Mason Plumlee scored 18 points.

Basketball
Brooklyn Nets
Sacramento Kings


From I.R.S. to Gay Couples, Headaches and Expenses

Abstract: Scott James writes a column for The Bay Citizen. The Internal Revenue Service , not exactly known as a bastion of compassion, had these words for gay and lesbian couples this week: we’re sorry. The public apology was in response to inquiries from The Bay Citizen about problems faced by same-sex couples, most in California, who are filing returns in compliance with new rules that recognized their relationships for the first time. The change to the tax code, put into effect for 2010, was supposed to be a step toward equal treatment by the I.R.S. Instead, couples have faced a litany of conflicts. The latest involves at least 300 taxpayers who have had their returns rejected with terse letters signed by an enigmatic I.R.S. employee named J. Bell from Fresno. “Your return includes income or tax liability for more than one taxpayer, other than husband and wife,” the letters read. Note: husband and wife. Not two husbands, or two wives. Couples who received the letters had to produce additional paperwork and faced delays in receiving refunds; most were forced to hire tax professionals. In a statement this week, the I.R.S. said that the letters had been “incorrectly sent” because of a processing error and that it “apologizes for this mistake and sincerely regrets any inconvenience to taxpayers.” The agency explained that J. Bell was a manager whose stamped signature was “system-generated.” Toni Broaddus and Janice Wells of Richmond, who wed while same-sex marriage was legal in California in 2008, received a J. Bell letter in April. “We were upset and we were angry when we got the letter,” Ms. Broaddus said. “I felt like we were being harassed by someone in the government who works for the I.R.S.” The couple’s case remains unresolved. How the errant letters started is unclear. Tax experts who brought the letters to the attention of the I.R.S. weeks ago had wondered if anti-gay I.R.S. employees were acting out of malice. “It’s either intentional or ignorance,” said Pan Haskins, an Oakland tax consultant who had been tracking the letters. J. Bell is just the latest headache for same-sex couples — 60,000 in California — trying to comply with a tax system that has become increasingly complicated because of inconsistencies between state and federal laws regarding their relationships. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act effectively bans federal recognition of gay couples, yet more than a third of states recognize some form of legal partnerships. To deal with one of these conflicts, the I.R.S. said last year that same-sex couples in states with community property laws (California, Nevada and Washington) should combine and then split their incomes for their federal returns. The motivation behind the change was fairness: heterosexual married couples can combine incomes, which can lower tax brackets and overall taxes paid if one spouse earns more. But the change has had mixed results. Interviews with more than a dozen Bay Area tax preparers and same-sex couples have revealed that the new rule has proved to be cumbersome and expensive. It is too complex for do-it-yourself tax filing computer software, and many couples were forced to hire tax professionals. That help came at a hefty price: accounting fees ranged from double past rates to as high as $4,000 for some returns. The returns have been so problematic that some tax preparers are specializing in them. Jeff Johnston, a tax accountant with expertise in same-sex returns, took out an advertisement in The Bay Area Reporter, a newspaper that covers the gay community. “It takes 5 or 10 times as long to do some of these returns,” Mr. Johnston said. It is not known how many couples have complied with the new rule, although experts say a significant number did not because of the expense and hassle. Still, for some affluent couples with disparate incomes, the extra paperwork has paid off. Shannon Schwartz, a stay-at-home father in Mountain View, and his husband, Calvin Kuan, a physician, have saved tens of thousands of dollars by applying the new rule to returns dating to 2007, which is legal, although after 10 months of working with the I.R.S., their case is still not completely resolved. “We’re thrilled about the money,” Mr. Schwartz said, “but the complexity of it seems unnecessary.” And that was before J. Bell tolled. “The rules were a mess anyway,” Ms. Broaddus said, “but then you do everything you can and you get this letter. It was a reminder that we’re second-class citizens.”

Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships


India: Protests Spread After an Arrest

Abstract: A protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week spread across India on Thursday, with students and teachers in at least 10 cities demanding the release of a student leader arrested on sedition charges and accused of being anti-Indian. The protesters were outraged by televised scenes of Kanhaiya Kumar, a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, being beaten as he was escorted to a court hearing on Wednesday. Mr. Kumar was arrested last Friday over his participation in events where anti-India slogans were said to have been shouted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu nationalist groups accuse left-wing student groups of being anti-Indian, citing a recent student protest in support of human rights in Kashmir and criticism of the 2013 execution of a Kashmiri separatist convicted of an attack on Parliament. Protesters say the government is using the cover of patriotism to crack down on political dissent.

India
Treason,Sedition
Civil Unrest
Narendra Modi
Bharatiya Janata Party
Hinduism


Spagnuolo’s Decision to Stay With Giants Is Rewarded

Abstract: Steve Spagnuolo, who helped shut down the highest-scoring offense in N.F.L. history in the Super Bowl , will remain with the Giants as defensive coordinator after spending days being interviewed by the Washington Redskins for their head-coaching position. The Giants gave Spagnuolo a new three-year contract, worth roughly $2 million a year, making him one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in the N.F.L. After Tuesday’s parade in Manhattan and pep rally at Giants Stadium to honor the new Super Bowl champion Giants, Spagnuolo was flown to the Washington area to meet with the Redskins’ owner, Daniel Snyder. They met for several hours Tuesday night and for most of the day Wednesday. On Thursday, the Giants announced that Spagnuolo decided to remain with the team, and the Redskins are still looking for a coach. “I appreciated Mr. Snyder giving me the opportunity to visit with him,” Spagnuolo said in a statement released by the Giants. “I have a great deal of respect for him and the Washington Redskins organization. I was happy to have the opportunity to explore that situation, but I am equally happy to be staying in New York and look forward to continued success with the Giants.” Spagnuolo, 48, became a hot coaching prospect in his first season as an N.F.L. coordinator, after his slow-starting defense evolved into one of the best. The Giants held the Patriots, who set a record for points in a season (589), to a season low during the Giants’ 17-14 victory in Super Bowl XLII on Sunday. “Steve is a hard worker who has quickly earned the respect of the players and coaches, and he has earned the consideration he is being given,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. “Needless to say, I am happy that he will be remaining here.” The decision means that Coughlin’s staff is likely to remain virtually unchanged heading into the 2008 season. The only major question remaining is the status of Coughlin, 61, who has one year remaining on his contract. The Giants will offer him a multiyear deal, but serious negotiations have not begun. It was a vastly different story a year ago. After an 8-8 season and a first-round playoff loss, the Giants hesitated before deciding to retain Coughlin, who had to fill all three coordinator positions — offense, defense and special teams. Kevin Gilbride was elevated to offensive coordinator from quarterbacks coach, and Tom Quinn was promoted to lead the special teams. Chris Palmer was hired to take Gilbride’s place with the quarterbacks. Spagnuolo was the one coordinator hired from outside. He had spent eight seasons as a defensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles, the final three leading the linebackers. He brought an aggressive style of defense to the Giants, featuring a broad mix of blitzes and a more physical approach from the cornerbacks. After the Giants allowed 80 points in the first two regular-season games, both losses, Spagnuolo’s defense solidified into one of the league’s best. It finished seventh in total defense (yards allowed), after finishing 25th among the 32 teams in 2006, with an unusual number of injuries to starting players, under Tim Lewis. The turnaround began in Week 3 against the Redskins. A goal-line stand in the final minute secured a 24-17 victory and might have received the attention of Snyder. The position with the Redskins comes with some unusual circumstances. After the resignation of Joe Gibbs in early January, the Redskins hired most of a coaching staff, short of the top position, meaning that the head coach will not choose his own assistants. And the Redskins are far above the salary cap, meaning they will have to trim a roster that went 9-7 and lost in the first round of the playoffs last season. The former Giants coach Jim Fassel is among a handful of candidates the Redskins are considering.

Football
New York Giants
Washington Redskins
National Football League
Spagnuolo Steve
Coughlin Tom


In Yoga Classes at Schools, Teachers Avoid the Spiritual

Abstract: TO “om” or not to “om”: For those who teach yoga in schools, that is a question that arises with regularity. The little syllable, often intoned by yoga students at the beginning and end of class, signifies different things to different people. But with its spiritual connotations, it is a potential tripwire for school administrators and parents, along with “namaste” and other Sanskrit words, chanting and hands in the prayer position. The om question ties into the wider debate over the extent to which yoga is entwined with religion. Yoga program directors, who train and place teachers in the schools and develop curriculums, try to avoid setting off a battle like the one that developed over the Lord’s Prayer. “Every school is different, and every one has their own permutations and parameters of what you can and can’t do,” said Shari Vilchez-Blatt, founder and director of Karma Kids Yoga on West 14th Street, which holds studio classes and sends teachers to private and public schools in New York. Bent on Learning , a 10-year-old program based on Grand Street that teaches 3,300 students a week in 16 public schools, is a namaste-free zone. “No namaste,” Jennifer Ford, the development director and one of the founders, said. “No om. No prayer position with the hands. Nothing that anyone could look in and think, this is religious.” The hard-line policy is stressed in the 100-hour Bent on Learning teacher training. Perhaps a teacher accustomed to working in other settings inadvertently puts hands together in a prayer position, for instance. “It is easily explained, and fixed,” Ms. Ford said. “We weed it out quickly.” Generally speaking, the money to support yoga programs comes from parent-teacher associations, grants, fund-raising and school budgets. Bent on Learning, which holds a glamorous annual benefit dinner with yoga enthusiasts including Gwyneth Paltrow and Russell Simmons, pays for classes at New Design High School , a public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Kate Johnson, a Bent on Learning instructor, teaches more than 100 students each week at the school, in a basement room set aside for yoga. She leads the classes — an elective for gym — through a series of stretches, standing poses and sun salutations. Sanskrit terms for poses are used, on the theory that they are akin to French-derived terms like plié in ballet. The class ends with students flat on their backs in corpse pose, savasana. Ms. Johnson tells the students to take a rare quiet moment to breathe. After class, Allyson Lobo, 15, said, “I love yoga,” adding: “It’s relaxing. It makes me feel calm and takes me to a happy place.” At Karma Kids, which works with more than 1,200 students in 16 schools, Ms. Vilchez-Blatt takes a more elastic position on “om.” “We om,” she said. “I don’t look at it as spiritual. When we say ‘om,’ it is all the sounds in the universe.” Still, she checks whether it is acceptable to school administrators before introducing it in class. If the answer is no, Ms. Vilchez-Blatt has creative remedies, leading chants of “peace” or, at Chabad programs in Manhattan for children from prekindergarten through age 12, “Shal-OM.” Jennifer Cohen Harper, director of Little Flower Yoga , which opened in 2006 and teaches about 700 students at 13 public and private schools, also discusses with administrators the content of classes. She may incorporate “om” and “namaste,” which she translates as “the light in me bows to the light in you.” The students do not do the prayer pose, instead placing their palms over their hearts. If any qualms are expressed, Ms. Harper edits the language or behavior in question. “Occasionally someone will ask, ‘Do you guys do a lot of chanting?’ and you get the idea to stay away from it,” she said. Jessica Soo, director of the after-school program at St. Luke’s School , an Episcopal elementary school in Greenwich Village where Little Flower teaches, has no objection to the use of “om” or “namaste.” She noted that in addition to the Little Flower classes, a staff foreign language teacher does yoga with students and discusses Sanskrit. “The kids are exposed to other cultures and religions in our school,” Ms. Soo said. At Achievement First Bushwick Elementary School , a charter school , an after-school elective class taught by Little Flower instructors recently started when a teacher, Lisa Vandegrift, rang a singing bowl. Such a bowl is sometimes used in religious ceremonies, but here it had the secular goal of quieting rambunctious children and focusing their attention. The students were led through energetic and playful sun salutations set to a song with Sanskrit lyrics describing a high to low push-up position. “What’s that funny word? Chaturanga!” Toward the end of the class, the students sat quietly in a cross-legged position, eyes closed, breathing in and out. One child made a ritual gesture called a mudra, with the backs of her hands resting on her knees and forefingers and thumbs forming O’s. “I have no idea where she learned a mudra,” Ms. Harper, Little Flower’s director, who was observing, said with a laugh. “We never teach mudras. Kids come with ideas from TV.”

Yoga
Education (K-12)
Prayers and Prayer Books


Colorado: Heavy Metals Spill Into River

Abstract: Environmental officials are working to clean up one million gallons of wastewater containing heavy metals that spilled from an abandoned mine, turning an adjoining river a mustard yellow. The Environmental Protection Agency caused the spill on Wednesday while it was investigating a leak at the Gold King Mine. The wastewater flowed into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River in southwestern Colorado, and snaked through the river toward New Mexico. E.P.A. officials said the wastewater included lead and arsenic, but said it was too early to know whether there was a health risk. The river was closed for recreational and other uses, but officials said water sources should be safe. “The orange color is alarming to people, but that is not an indication in any way of a health risk,” said Joan Card, an official with the E.P.A. Testing continues, she said.

Water pollution
Mining
Colorado
HazMat
EPA
Animas River
Gold


Kodak to Raise $700 Million, Most From K.K.R.

Abstract: ROCHESTER (AP) — Eastman Kodak said Wednesday that it expected to raise up to $700 million through a series of debt sales in a bid to shore up its balance sheet. Kodak, the photography products maker based here, said the private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had committed itself to purchase up to $400 million in senior secured notes due 2017, in exchange for two seats on Kodak’s board of directors. Kodak also agreed to issue warrants to K.K.R. to purchase up to 53 million Kodak common shares. “This investment reflects our belief in Kodak’s strategy and our confidence in the Kodak management team to deliver on that strategy,” the K.K.R. co-founders Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts said in a statement. Separately, Kodak plans to offer $300 million of convertible senior notes due 2017 in a private placement to institutional buyers. Kodak intends to use proceeds from both debt sales to buy back up to $575 million worth of its 3.375 percent convertible notes due 2033. In July, Eastman Kodak posted its third consecutive quarterly loss as the global economic downturn hurt sales of digital cameras, film and other photography products. On Wednesday, the company reiterated earlier financial guidance, saying it expects total sales to slide 12 percent to 18 percent this year because of the recession. Based on 2008 sales of $9.4 billion, Kodak’s estimate implies 2009 sales of $7.7 billion to $8.3 billion. Analysts, on average, have forecast sales of $7.43 billion for the year. Kodak expects its 2009 loss from continuing operations will come in at the low end of its forecast range of $200 million to $400 million. In the second half of 2009, it is targeting digital sales growth of 1 percent to 3 percent but has said overall revenue will decline by 4 percent to 6 percent. Shares of Kodak fell 26 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $6.42 in after-hours trading. During the regular session, they rose 29 cents, or 4.5 percent, to close at $6.68.

Eastman Kodak Co
Recession and Depression
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co
Private Equity


Captain and Two Crew Members Are Arrested in Korean Ferry Sinking

Abstract: JINDO, South Korea — The captain and two crew members of a ferry that capsized, leaving more than 270 people — most of them students — missing, were arrested early Saturday, the authorities said. The captain, Lee Jun-seok, 69, was charged with abandoning the boat and its passengers at a time of crisis, among other counts, according to prosecutors. Mr. Lee as well as the third mate, a 26-year-old woman who the authorities said was steering the ship at the time of accident on Wednesday, and another crew member were taken to jail with their hands cuffed after a judge approved their arrest warrants. The crew members also faced numerous charges. “I bow before the people and grieved families and apologize,” Mr. Lee told reporters as he was led to jail. He added that he “partly” accepted the charges against him. Not long after the arrests, officials said that divers had discovered three bodies inside the submerged vessel. Image A member of the crew was rescued from the sinking vessel on Wednesday. Credit South Korean Coast Guard, via European Pressphoto Agency As hope dwindled that any of the 236 missing students would be found alive, their high school was stunned Friday by more tragic news: the death of its vice principal in what was suspected to be a suicide. The vice principal, Kang Min-kyu, 52, of Danwon High School, who survived the ferry accident, was found hanging from a tree near a gymnasium where families of the missing had gathered. The police suspected Mr. Kang had hanged himself. “It’s too much, being alive alone while more than 200 of my students are missing,” he wrote in a note found in his wallet, according to the police. “Please place all the blame on me because I was in charge of the trip. Please cremate my body and scatter the ashes where the ship sank. Perhaps I should be a teacher for those missing children in the other world.” On Friday, investigators said that Mr. Lee, the ship’s captain, who has been criticized for being among the first to leave the sinking ship, was not at the steering house when the ferry, the Sewol, tilted and began sinking on Wednesday morning. Image As the captain and crew members of a capsized ferry were arrested, a relative of a missing passenger waited for news. Credit Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters “He temporarily left the steering command to his third shipmate,” said Park Jae-uk, a senior investigator. The captain returned to the bridge as soon as the ship began tilting, Mr. Park said. The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the third mate had a year of experience steering ships, five months of it on the 6,825-ton Sewol. The arrests came after more potential clues emerged as to how the ferry’s trip to the resort island of Jeju, which began Tuesday night in Incheon, a port west of Seoul, turned into one of South Korea’s worst disasters in decades. As of Friday afternoon, 29 deaths had been confirmed. Officials confirmed on Friday that they were investigating whether the ship, under the third mate’s command, made too sharp a turn on a curve in the sea route. They have raised the possibility that the vehicles and other heavy cargo on the ferry might not have been properly secured, in which case they could have slid to one side when the turn was made, causing the ship to tilt. Image Lee Jun-seok, the ferry's captain, was brought into court in Mokpo, South Korea, on Friday. Credit YONHAP, via Associated Press Also Friday, prosecutors raided the offices of the ship’s operator, the Cheonghaejin Marine Company, and a shipyard to investigate allegations that Cheonghaejin added more cabin rooms, probably making the ship top-heavy, to accommodate more passengers after buying the 20-year-old ferry from Japan in 2012. Although the Sewol passed balancing and other safety tests, officials were looking into whether the suspected structural change contributed to the accident. They were also investigating widespread accounts that the crew had urged passengers to stay in their quarters even as the ship was sinking, instructions that may have resulted in many people being trapped. Mr. Lee said that his ship broadcast instructions for passengers to stay put inside “because rescue boats had not arrived yet.” He said that he eventually advised passengers to evacuate, but he did not clarify when. He also did not say whether his evacuation order was properly delivered to passengers amid the chaos. Mr. Lee also said that he was visiting his bedroom cabin briefly when the accident happened. He denied he was intoxicated at the time. Image Students from Danwon High School in Ansan, South Korea, on Friday paid tribute to a friend who died in the ferry sinking. Credit Woohae Cho for The New York Times The captain said the ship began showing signs of trouble at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday. The ship sent its first distress signal eight minutes later. The third mate, who was in charge at the bridge while Mr. Lee was away, did not respond to reporters’ questions on Saturday as she was led out of the courtroom. But a 55-year-old coxswain, the third crew member arrested, said that the ship was attempting a usual turn on the shipping route when it swerved more rapidly than expected. On Friday evening, hundreds of students held a candlelight vigil for Mr. Kang, the vice principal, on the school grounds in Ansan, a city south of Seoul. One student held a message for the missing students that said: “We are waiting. Please come back alive.” On Thursday evening, families threw water bottles at fellow teachers who had visited the gymnasium and knelt before the families in apology. Mr. Kang was not there, and his colleagues had asked the police to find him. “He must have felt a terrible sense of guilt,” said Whang Sang-min, a professor of psychology at Yonsei University in Seoul. “He must have suffered unbearable regrets for not going against the ship’s instruction and immediately evacuating his students.” After two days of futile efforts, South Korean divers on Friday managed to enter the capsized ferry where many of the 273 missing people were feared to have been trapped when the ship sank. But officials warned Friday that the work would be painstaking and difficult. One of the leaders of the diving effort, Hwang Dae-sik, said Friday that underwater visibility at the site was so poor and currents so rapid that the work was “like moving against the wind of a typhoon while barely being able to see your palm.” Currents were moving diagonally across the hull, creating swirls and making it tricky for divers to enter the ship, he said. “We have been trying to put ropes into the ship so that we can use them as guides as we crawl into the ship in the darkness and hopefully bring out missing people,” Mr. Hwang, a senior official with the Maritime Rescue and Salvage Association, said in an interview. Using such ropes, two divers managed to enter the ship’s cargo deck but returned without finding anyone, officials said. Despite the slow pace of the work and the days that have passed since the sinking, the news that the divers had entered the ship raised hope among hundreds of parents who have been waiting on this nearby island that survivors might yet be found. Rescuers were also using high-pressure hoses to pump oxygen into the ship, which by Friday was completely underwater, a tiny tip of its hull occasionally appearing between the waves. The rescuers were hoping that the oxygen would reach people who might yet be alive in air pockets within the submerged vessel. Four cranes arrived on the scene on Friday as officials prepared for the eventual salvaging of the vessel. But experts said it would take days, if not weeks, to complete the difficult task of raising the ship.

South Korea
Boat Accidents
Lee Jun-seok
Danwon High School
Cheonghaejin Marine Company
Kang Min-kyu
Ferry


Uganda’s Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Presidential Election

Abstract: KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda’s Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the presidential election held in February, issuing a ruling on Thursday that secured President Yoweri Museveni a mandate for another five-year term. He has been in office since 1986. The vote last month, seen as a pivotal moment in Uganda’s democracy as the last time Mr. Museveni will be legally allowed to appear on a presidential ballot, was marred with irregularities and widespread criticism. The legal challenge by the third-place finisher, Amama Mbabazi, argued that Mr. Museveni was not validly elected and that Uganda’s electoral commission had disseminated false results, among other allegations. It requested a recount in more than 40 districts. Under Ugandan law, which bars presidential candidates over the age of 75, it was the last election in which Mr. Museveni, 71, will be allowed to run. The court said that there was not enough substantial evidence of irregularities in the election, or that the irregularities would have affected the result. Parties involved said that they were not surprised of the court’s decision. The Supreme Court’s decision comes after a volatile month in which the case was nearly thrown out and the offices of Mr. Mbabazi’s lawyers were ransacked and physical and digital files were stolen. Image President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda Credit Isaac Kasamani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Mbabazi’s legal challenge essentially represented the interests of the opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who received roughly 35 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission’s results, and who remains effectively under house arrest. Mr. Museveni received about 61 percent of the vote. On the day of the vote, polling places in Kampala, the populous capital, where the opposition had significant support, opened only hours before they were meant to close because ballot papers were missing. This meant that the polls were forced to reopen the next day, but that the electoral commission did not wait to begin announcing preliminary results. Critics have argued that this dissuaded some in the capital from voting. When the official results were released by the commission, the numbers did not include data from much of the Kampala metropolitan area, possibly representing hundreds of thousands of votes, according to electoral observers. Mr. Besigye was arrested on the first night of the vote, accused of trying to access a facility where ballot-stuffing is alleged to have taken place, and then released. He was arrested again the next day after tabulating and disseminating polling results himself. The United States and the European Union urged the opposition to challenge the election results in court. On Thursday, the United States called for calm after the ruling by Uganda’s Supreme Court. “We hope that the government will now address the grievances voiced by its own people in the wake of these elections,” a statement by the American Embassy in Kampala said. “Uganda’s future prosperity and democratic progress will depend on such actions.”

Uganda
Yoweri Museveni
Kizza Besigye
Kampala Uganda
Election


State Department Deletes Tweet Suggesting You’re Not a ‘10’

Abstract: It was just one message among many sent out in a social media campaign by an arm of the State Department, meant to warn people on spring break about the pitfalls of overseas travel. If grabbing people’s attention was its sole goal, it succeeded tremendously. “Not a ‘10’ in the US? Then not a 10 overseas. Beware of being lured into buying expensive drinks or worse—being robbed. #springbreakingbadly,” the Bureau of Consular Affairs posted on Twitter from its handle, @TravelGov, to its roughly 510,000 followers on Wednesday afternoon. The tweet, which was posted around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, was spread around the world, drawing offense and mockery. Yes, the federal government had just awkwardly referred to ranking attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10, while puncturing a fantasy of vacation travel: the possibility of romance. If you’re unattractive here, the tweet seemed to imply, you’re unattractive there. And you could be robbed. That’s apparently too cold even by the standards of the Internet. There was indignation and accusations that the tweet was sexist, a misfire in the pursuit of youthful appeal. There was a raft of humor and sarcasm . There were even a few who cheered it. And then, of course, came the parody accounts . The Bureau of Consular Affairs tried to engage a few people who commented at its account, only to draw more criticism. It deleted the tweet around 6 p.m, following up with a two - part apology posted to Twitter. But the damage had been done. There were screen-grabs of the tweet going around, and soon there were numerous stories with mocking headlines: “The U.S. State Department Warns Americans That No One Could Possibly Find You Attractive,” read one . One website published a discussion by its staff members trying to parse the tweet’s true meaning. The Bureau of Consular Affairs’ spring break campaign, which is conducted through news releases, blog posts and social media like Twitter and Facebook, takes place every year to promote safe travel practices, the State Department said in an emailed statement. The Twitter component, which employed the hashtag #springbreakingbadly, seemed to start innocuously in early March, when @TravelGov began posting tips for travelers with the sort of bland advice that one might expect from the federal government: what to do about a lost passport overseas and reminders to check the info pages on travel destinations. It also solicited stories about travel mishaps. But some admonitions drew double takes as people started searching through the campaign’s messages on Wednesday. The State Department said that it understood that the “10” tweet was “construed negatively.” “We see many U.S. citizens fall victim to scams each year, and we want to provide as much information as possible to keep them safe while traveling,” it said in an emailed statement.