In Matchup of Star Quarterbacks, Florida’s Tebow Steals the Spotlight

Abstract: MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — After last month’s Heisman Trophy ceremony, Tim Tebow smiled when asked about failing to repeat as the award winner. Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford had won the Heisman, but Tebow hardly seemed to care. He was already focused on the Bowl Championship Series title game between his No. 2 Gators and top-ranked Oklahoma. “We still get to play on Jan. 8 and decide something a little bit bigger,” Tebow said at the time. On college football’s grandest stage Thursday night, Tebow put an exclamation on his original subtle point by outdueling Bradford in the Gators’ 24-14 victory, their second national championship of his three-year career. He was named the game’s most outstanding player. “This is an unbelievable night,” Tebow said. After a forgettable first half in which he threw two interceptions — as many as he had thrown the entire season — Tebow wound up with a total of 341 yards (231 passing, 109 rushing). He also had two touchdown passes. Bradford was 26 of 41 passing for 256 yards with 2 touchdown passes and 2 interceptions in perhaps his last collegiate game. Tebow fittingly threw a 4-yard jump-pass to wide receiver David Nelson with 3 minutes 7 seconds left to seal what might also have been his last college game. “Our guy had tight coverage,” the Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables said of the jump-pass play. “He makes a great throw. We were an inch away from knocking it down. They hadn’t done it out of that set the whole year.” After the game, Tebow said he was unsure whether he would return to play for the Gators next season. “I’m going to have to sit down and look at it,” he said. During the game, Tebow carried his team physically and emotionally. After a 12-yard run to near midfield on his team’s opening possession of the second half, he got up and sprinted toward the Florida sideline. He pumped a fist before excitedly raising both hands in an effort to motivate his teammates and Florida fans. It was part of a 75-yard drive that was capped by wide receiver Percy Harvin’s 2-yard touchdown run for a 14-7 lead. Tebow accounted for 59 of those yards. “He just made a ton of plays all night,” the outgoing Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen said. “He’s probably had sharper games in his career, but when you watch, that was vintage Tim Tebow. He was going to will himself and will our team to a victory tonight and he did.” Bradford didn’t back down and threw his 50th touchdown pass of the season early in the fourth quarter. But he could not keep up after a 27-yard field goal by Florida kicker Jonathan Phillips. Florida safety Ahmad Black made an impressive interception of a Bradford pass at the Florida 24, leaving Bradford with his mouth open and his eyes wide. “More than what they did, we hurt ourselves tonight with what we did,” Bradford said. Leading up to the game, the matchup between Tebow and Bradford was billed as the epitome of star power for college football. The last time two Heisman Trophy winners had played for the national title came at the end of the 2004 season, when Southern California’s Matt Leinart and Oklahoma’s Jason White met. Yet neither Tebow nor Bradford was particularly impressive in the first half. On Oklahoma’s opening possession, Bradford endured a rare sack by linebacker Brandon Hicks. It was just the 10th time he had been sacked this season. Florida’s first possession ended when Tebow was intercepted by the Oklahoma senior strong safety Nic Harris. Earlier in the week, he said Tebow would have been the fourth-best quarterback in the Big 12. “He’s one of those guys that you give him your best shot, he’s going to get back up,” Harris said. Tebow righted himself on Florida’s second series. He completed back-to-back passes and delivered a blow to the Sooners junior cornerback Brian Jackson during a 10-yard run near the left sideline. As he got up, he briefly pumped one of his fists. He then accounted for Florida’s next 54 yards, which included his 20-yard touchdown pass to the senior wide receiver Louis Murphy for a 7-0 lead with 14:02 left in the second quarter. “He played with great toughness and played hard until the end,” Venables said of Tebow. “He made the plays he had to make. He’s a great player with really good poise.” Bradford’s first touchdown throw on Oklahoma’s ensuing possession demonstrated his poise. He held the ball for as long as he could before being hit by defensive end Jermaine Cunningham, but still found Gresham in the back of the end zone on a 6-yard pass. Both Bradford and Tebow stumbled late in the first half with interceptions. Tebow’s occurred when it appeared he did not see the Oklahoma redshirt sophomore Gerald McCoy and threw the ball directly to him at the Gators’ 38-yard line. “I was off rhythm a little bit early,” Tebow said. “They were doing some really good things and some things that I personally didn’t anticipate they were going to do.” Bradford’s first interception was critical. It went off the hands of wide receiver Manuel Johnson at the Florida 3-yard line and bounced off several Florida defenders before being intercepted by safety Major Wright with three seconds left in the half. “I tried to force one in there, but I probably should have just thrown it in the back of the end zone and taken the 3 points,” Bradford said. After trotting back to the Oklahoma sideline, Bradford spoke briefly with Josh Heupel, the quarterbacks coach, and shook his head. With good reason, because this was not his night. It seemed it was meant for Tebow to shine. “Tim is a great player,” Bradford said. “He did a great job tonight when his team needed him.” That’s something measured by championships, not awards.

Tebow Tim
Bradford Sam
University of Florida
University of Oklahoma
Bowl Championship Series
Heisman Trophy
Football
College Athletics


James H. Quello, 95; Ex-F.C.C. Commissioner Who Championed the Industry

Abstract: James H. Quello, who as a generally pro-business member of the Federal Communications Commission from the 1970s to the 1990s helped propel the drive to deregulate broadcasting, died on Jan. 24 at his home in Alexandria, Va. He was 95. The cause was heart and kidney failure, the National Association of Broadcasters said. President Richard M. Nixon appointed Mr. Quello, a former broadcaster, to the commission in 1974. The president, a Republican, was required to appoint a Democrat to the commission in order to maintain a required one-vote majority for the incumbent party. Mr. Quello was indeed a Democrat, but critics complained that he had given $1,100 to Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign and that he was too close to other Republican leaders, like Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, who later became president. Ralph Nader and other consumer advocates called Mr. Quello a pawn of the radio and television industry. Nicholas Johnson, an outspoken critic of broadcasters whom Mr. Quello had replaced as commissioner, called his appointment “abysmal and preposterous.” Mr. Quello did not disappoint his critics or his backers. Charles Firestone, executive director of the communications and society program at the Aspen Institute, said in an interview that “if there was an issue that involved the broadcast industry,” its supporters “could look to him as the most likely champion of their cause.” In 1981, after the F.C.C. freed the nation’s 8,900 radio stations from several major regulations, including limits on commercials, Mr. Quello said, “The marketplace does take care of it, and it’s a different ballgame out there now.” For years Mr. Quello supported the television networks in their battle against programming requirements for children, arguing that such rules infringe on First Amendment guarantees of free speech. He reversed this position in 1996 after many congressmen and senators demanded it. In 1993, while Mr. Quello was the F.C.C.’s acting chairman, the agency issued regulations for the first auction of the nation’s airwaves, wrote rules to govern the quality of cable television service and vastly expanded opportunities for new wireless phone services. He later worked with commissioners to write many new rules after Congress passed the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996, which fostered more competition in the marketplace and also led to a concentration of media ownership. Mr. Quello waged a long battle against Howard Stern’s radio commentary. Many reports cited him as the chief instigator of fines for indecency against Mr. Stern in the 1990s. In 1995, the F.C.C. agreed to wipe the slate clean if Mr. Stern’s employer, Infinity Broadcasting, paid a one-time fine of $1.7 million. It did. Known for freewheeling talk, Mr. Quello disagreed when the F.C.C. ruled that no employee could accept a free meal from a lobbyist. “I’ve always had the attitude that if you can’t eat their food, drink their booze and still vote against them, then you don’t belong in this job,” he said. James Henry Quello was born on April 21, 1914, in Laurium, Mich., graduated from Michigan State University and saw combat as an Army officer in World War II in Europe, earning several decorations. After the war, he worked for Detroit radio stations, becoming station manager of WJR and vice president of Capital Cities Communications after it acquired WJR. In 1998, Michigan State started the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center for Telecommunications Management and Law to honor Mr. Quello and his wife, the former Mary Butler. Mrs. Quello, Mr. Quello’s wife of 60 years, died in 1999. He is survived by his sons, James and Richard; two granddaughters; and a great-granddaughter.

Quello James H
Federal Communications Commission
Television
Deaths (Obituaries)


Facing the Taliban and His Past, an Afghan Leader Aims for a Different Ending

Abstract: LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — When mujahedeen guerrillas captured this southern provincial capital in 1993, Gen. Abdul Jabar Qahraman was the Afghan government commander on the last flight out, surrendering the city. In a resonant twist more than two decades later, Mr. Qahraman is again the face of the Afghan government here as an insurgency threatens to overrun his post. This time, it is the Taliban at the city gates. The insurgents are firmly entrenched in a suburb of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, and separated from the seat of government by only the calm waters of the Helmand River. They control or contest at least 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand Province, Afghanistan ’s largest in both size and opium production. Mr. Qahraman came to Helmand last month as President Ashraf Ghani’s representative, taking charge of efforts to hold the province against the Taliban. But insisting that military measures alone are not the government’s best chance, the former general has also been trying to engage Taliban commanders in negotiations. “Back then, too, I believed that the solution to the problem of this nation is not in fighting, and I believe that today,” Mr. Qahraman said in an interview last week at his command center here, in between aides’ frequently handing him the phone with military commanders, local officials and elders on the line. “Artillery, tanks and warplanes are failed instruments and should only be used very rarely, only when you think you will be destroyed.” “Our first attempt is to slow the fighting, to quiet the fighting,” he added. In some places, however, that has looked like retreat. The army recently abandoned its last bases in the districts of Musa Qala and Now Zad , pulling out as many as 1,500 soldiers in an apparent move to strengthen a security belt around Lashkar Gah. American Special Operations forces have been drawn into the fight , recently moving to help clear roads to the provincial capital and getting involved in planning its defense. Mr. Qahraman, 58, has been here before. His command was the last bastion of the Russian-backed Communist government in southern Afghanistan, and he became personally identified with its collapse here in 1993, when he withdrew his forces and turned Lashkar Gah over to the C.I.A.-backed mujahedeen. He went into exile in Moscow for a decade afterward. He returned to Afghanistan after the United States invasion in 2001 and the fall of the Taliban, and became a member of Parliament. His views on how to engage the resurgent Taliban are a sympathetic fit with those of Mr. Ghani, who has tried to open talks with the insurgency’s leaders in an effort to reach a political end to the long war. But in the immediate crisis, tribal elders here see his efforts as impractical and hopeless — the desperate acts of a nostalgic commander. The Taliban, instead of responding to his peace calls, have challenged him to a “face-to-face” fight, and they do not like the government’s chances. “I think Mr. Qahraman is in daydreaming mode,” said Hajji Mohammad Tahir, an elder from Sangin District who recently attended discussions with Mr. Qahraman. “Right now, the Taliban have the upper hand, the government is beneath. Once you bring them down militarily, then it would be possible for local Taliban to put their weapons down and join the peace process — not now.” Mullah Abdul Rahman Ehsan, a Taliban commander in Sangin, said Mr. Qahraman had clearly returned to Helmand to make up for past humiliations. “Let’s fight first, and forget about peace and laying weapons down,” Mullah Ehsan said. “First we need to fight, then work on the peace process.” Others even saw cynical motives in the recent events in Helmand, particularly after the surrender of the army bases. After a disastrous year militarily, the government might be striking deals with the Taliban in the districts to keep them away from the city, just as the Communist government did in its final days in southern Afghanistan. The suspicion is furthered by the fact that the man in charge of Helmand operations is talking peace, and that the minister at the helm of national defense, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, was until last year effectively in charge of the national peace process. “The question that is going through my head, after they just retreated from Musa Qala, is what if they are saying we won’t resist in the districts and you don’t attack the city?” said Abdul Majid Akhundzada, the deputy head of Helmand’s provincial council, whose father was a leading rebel commander against Mr. Qahraman in the 1980s. “If that is not the case, why are they leaving without a fight?” Mr. Qahraman, who said the recent retreats were necessary and not part of any deal, admitted to facing an uphill task. In Helmand, the government has lost to the Taliban not just most of its districts, but also, over the course of the past few years, much of its public support and any semblance of corruption fighting. The allure of opium profits has ensnared Taliban and government officials alike . Deep in the deserts that are supposedly Taliban territory, officials and local elders report nighttime drug raids by security forces. Bodies are left behind, but lucrative bags of opium end up disappearing. “If you send me out in the whole of Helmand right now and say, ‘Jabar, find me a couple good district governors, a few good district police chiefs, a few good directors,’ I can’t find you one in the whole of Helmand. I absolutely can’t,” Mr. Qahraman said. “Even if you appoint these men closest to me, they will turn into wolves — the mentality has turned like that. The bad has become good in the perceptions.” More Than 14 Years After U.S. Invasion, the Taliban Control Large Parts of Afghanistan At least one-fifth of the country is controlled or contested by the Taliban. After a few disastrous months of fighting in Helmand, with the government territory shrinking, a delegation of senior officials recently dispatched by Mr. Ghani found that only about half of the Afghan Army force there on paper was actually on duty. Many troops were missing because of desertion, casualties or corruption, one member of the delegation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate information. While acknowledging such problems, Mr. Qahraman said there should be enough forces in Helmand to fight an insurgency that he believes does not number more than 2,000 fighters. The Afghan forces are well supplied, he insisted, calling the modern army’s NATO support “a genetically modified cow that gives good milk” compared with the Soviet support a generation ago, which he called “a skinny cow.” The problems lie in how the forces are managed, he said, and in corrupt leadership eating up supplies before they reach the units. “Their only art is that they are mobile,” Mr. Qahraman said about the Taliban. “For us, on the other hand, even preparing the convoys takes days. They have an upper hand — they are locals, they know the terrain, and their load is smaller.” Still, Mr. Qahraman said he hoped to make a difference in Helmand. He recited a Pashto poem: “If you keep swimming after it, it will come to your hand / Who says there are no pearls in the sea?” But Hajji Sharafuddin, 53, a mujahedeen fighter who battled Mr. Qahraman in the 1980s, fears that the former general’s history in Lashkar Gah will continue to repeat itself. “Tomorrow, you will have another plane come for you,” Hajji Sharafuddin said, “and we will be left here watching.”

Afghanistan
Abdul Jabar Qahraman
Taliban
Helmand Province
Opium
Lashkar Gah Afghanistan
Ashraf Ghani


Acorn Can Be Paid, Justice Dept. Says

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group Acorn for services provided under contracts signed before Congress banned the government from providing money to the group. The department’s conclusion, laid out in a recently disclosed five-page memorandum from David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, adds a new wrinkle to a sharp political debate over the antipoverty group’s activities and recent efforts to distance the government from it. Since 1994, Acorn, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has received about $53 million in federal aid, much of it grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for providing various services related to affordable housing. But the group has become a prime target for conservative critics, and on Oct. 1, President Obama signed into law a spending bill that included a provision that said no taxpayer money — including money authorized by previous legislation — could be “provided to” the group or its affiliates. A Housing and Urban Development Department lawyer asked the Justice Department whether the new law meant that pre-existing contracts with Acorn should be broken. And in a memorandum signed Oct. 23 and posted online this week, Mr. Barron said the government should continue to make payments to Acorn as required by such contracts. The new law “should not be read as directing or authorizing HUD to breach a pre-existing binding contractual obligation to make payments to Acorn or its affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations where doing so would give rise to contractual liability,” Mr. Barron wrote. The deputy director of national operations for Acorn, Brian Kettenring, praised Mr. Barron’s decision. “We are pleased that commitments will be honored relative to Acorn’s work to help keep America’s working families facing foreclosure in their homes,” Mr. Kettenring said. Mr. Barron said he had based his conclusion on the statute’s phrase “provided to.” This phrase, he said, has no clearly defined meaning in the realm of government spending — unlike words like “obligate” and “expend.” Citing dictionary and thesaurus entries, he said “provided to” could be interpreted as meaning only instances in which an official was making “discretionary choices” about whether to give the group money, rather than instances in which the transfer of money to Acorn was required to satisfy contractual obligations. Since there are two possible ways to construe the term “provided to,” Mr. Barron wrote, it makes sense to pick the interpretation that allows the government to avoid breaching contracts. Moreover, he argued, requiring the government to cancel contracts with a specifically named entity — “including even in cases where performance has already been completed but payment has not been rendered” — would raise constitutional concerns best avoided by interpreting the law differently. The Constitution prohibits “bills of attainder” — legislation intended to punish specific people or groups. Acorn has filed a lawsuit arguing that the statute banning the government from providing it money amounts to a bill of attainder. Founded in Arkansas in 1970, Acorn describes itself as the nation’s largest grass-roots community organizing group. It provides financial services to poor and middle-income families, conducts voter registration drives, and advocates for higher minimum wages and more affordable housing. Conservatives have long complained about Acorn’s voter drives in poor neighborhoods, citing instances in which workers fraudulently registered imaginary voters like Mickey Mouse . Acorn has argued that it is the real victim of such incidents, which its employees have often brought to the attention of the authorities. Criticism of Acorn escalated in September, when two conservative activists released videos they had recorded using secret cameras of Acorn workers in several cities. The activists had posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice. Instead of raising objections, the Acorn employees counseled the couple on how to hide their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes. Conservatives seized on the videos to criticize the group further, highlighting that the Obama campaign had paid an Acorn affiliate for get-out-the-vote efforts. Congress then enacted the ban on providing money to it. Acorn has fired several of the employees depicted in the videos.

Assn of Community Organizations for Reform Now


In New York, Wind Is Blamed for Falling Trees, Power Failures and Traffic Delays

Abstract: Wind gusting up to 50 miles per hour on Wednesday knocked over trees onto power lines, cars and houses, caused power failures and tangled up traffic in neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, officials said. The weather created significant complications for homeowners and motorists. Parts of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, experienced sporadic power failures — more than 3,500 Con Edison customers were affected — because of the high winds, and similar power failures were reported in the Huguenot and Huguenot Beach sections of Staten Island. And after wind apparently blew debris off the roof of a building at 580 Broadway in SoHo, the street was closed to vehicles and pedestrians between Spring and Houston Streets. Several bus lines, including the M1 and M6, had to be rerouted, and there were extensive traffic delays. The parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, said field workers had confirmed that at least 11 trees had fallen on houses. A woman in the Bronx was taken to a hospital after receiving a minor injury to the head when she was struck by a branch, Mr. Benepe said. “The high winds, particularly the gusts, appear to have done quite a bit of damage,” he said. “This is like a storm.” At 116-02 91st Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, a large sycamore collapsed onto a three-story colonial-style house and split in two. Nadajah B. Ramos, 14, who lives across the street from the house, said she was walking home from school when the tree toppled about 3 p.m. “I was with my grandma,” she said. “I heard a big crack. I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ We turned around and we just saw the tree fall.” No one was injured. There were reports of toppled trees in the Briarwood, South Jamaica and Rockaway neighborhoods in Queens, as well as in the Williamsburg and Gravesend sections of Brooklyn. The National Weather Service, which issued a wind advisory for the New York area just before noon on Wednesday, said the gusts were caused by a low-pressure air mass that passed north of New York City, with a cold front trailing it. The advisory was in effect until midnight. “It had some strong, gusty winds behind it, and we’re still feeling the effects of those gusty winds,” said Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist for the weather service’s office in Upton, N.Y. “It’s one of the more windy days we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks.” Mr. Ciemnecki said he had heard of downed trees in New Jersey and power failures on Long Island and in Connecticut. “The whole Northeast is feeling these gusty winds,” he said. Frank Dwyer, a New York Fire Department spokesman, said authorities had received reports of at least a dozen cases of trees toppling onto power lines or other public infrastructure. The city’s 311 line had received more than 700 calls reporting fallen trees or limbs, a vast majority in Queens and Brooklyn, Mr. Benepe said. He added that the city would not have an accurate assessment of the damage until Thursday, though he said the number of damaged trees could be in the hundreds.


Ex-Big Board Chairman Wins Round in Pay Fight

Abstract: On Wall Street, there are stars that fade and stars that fight. Richard A. Grasso is one of the latter. On Wednesday, Mr. Grasso, the former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange , won another round in his almost five-year battle to keep the $187.5 million of pay he amassed during his eight years at the helm of the Big Board. The New York State Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling dismissing four of six counts originally brought by Eliot Spitzer , then New York’s attorney general, against Mr. Grasso. The decision leaves Mr. Spitzer’s successor, Andrew M. Cuomo, two claims to pursue. Since 2004, the attorney general’s office has argued that Mr. Grasso’s pay was unreasonable under New York’s nonprofit laws and that his compensation was not properly disclosed to the exchange’s board. (The exchange became a public, profit-making corporation in 2006, after Mr. Grasso had been awarded his pay.) But the Court of Appeals ruled that state law did not give the attorney general the authority to bring major parts of the case. “Mr. Grasso is gratified by the court’s decision,” said Gerson A. Zweifach, one of Mr. Grasso’s lawyers along with Mark C. Zauderer. “He always had faith in the justice system.” A spokesman for the attorney general did not return calls for comment. While the decision is certainly a win for Mr. Grasso, the war is not over. In 2006, Justice Charles E. Ramos of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Grasso had breached his fiduciary duty to keep the board informed about his pay and ordered Mr. Grasso to pay back at least $100 million. “Mr. Grasso’s duty is to be fully informed and to see to it that the board was fully informed,” Justice Ramos wrote. “He failed in this duty.” Mr. Grasso is appealing that decision. “Both sides have something to look forward to,” said Richard J. Schulman, a securities lawyer for Bryan Cave. “The attorney general has a decision from the lowest court saying there has been a breach of fiduciary duty. But Grasso has slimmed down the case against him.” Mr. Grasso’s fight to keep his pay has drawn widespread attention, partly because of his rags-to-riches story. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Queens, dropped out of Pace University and started his career as a clerk at the exchange. But he rose through the ranks, ultimately securing the chairman’s title and ringing the exchange’s famous bell with business and political luminaries. He was even featured on an episode of “Sex and the City,” ringing the bell with Sarah Jessica Parker. He protected the exchange’s open-cry auction system, which many deemed outdated and rife with human error, against the near universal move to all-electronic trading. After the terrorist attacks in September 2001, Mr. Grasso helped get the exchange open again and reveled in his role as a high-profile cheerleader for the United States economy and its markets. As his star rose, so did his pay. His annual compensation, including special payments, bonuses and base salary, soared from $3 million in 1996 to more than $30 million in 2001, when he was awarded a hefty bonus for his stewardship of the exchange through Sept. 11, according to an internal report conducted by the exchange’s lawyers and Winston & Strawn. In 2003, in a move that would lead to his undoing, Mr. Grasso sought to cash out some of his retirement benefits. Some directors say he expressed concern that a future board would be less willing to give him the money, a charge he contests. The compensation committee devised a contract to award him an immediate lump sum payment of $139.5 million and an additional $48 million to be paid over four years for past and future work. A storm of controversy followed. Some directors, including Henry M. Paulson Jr., then the head of Goldman Sachs, argued against paying out Mr. Grasso’s retirement benefits before retirement. Others said Mr. Grasso was entitled to money he had earned. By Aug. 7, 2003, when the board was scheduled to meet, some directors seemed to believe the lump sum payment would not be awarded since it was not on the agenda for a board meeting. But the issue was presented and after a debate, those present voted to pay Mr. Grasso the lump sum. The amount was disclosed to the public. Two days later, the exchange revealed that Mr. Grasso was owed an additional $48 million. As the uproar over his pay continued to ripple around the world, the board voted 13 to 7 in favor of asking Mr. Grasso to resign. Mr. Grasso will now wait to see what happens with his appeal of the two remaining charges, while Mr. Cuomo will have to decide how to proceed with the remaining claims. According to the appellate court’s ruling, the attorney general must prove that Mr. Grasso knew the compensation was unreasonable and that he “violated his fiduciary duties to the New York Stock Exchange by accepting awards of excessive compensation” while in the job. Mr. Grasso’s recent victory could push the attorney general to seek a settlement. “The dismissal of these claims may ignite renewed talks of settlement,” said Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor and a lawyer at McCarter & English. “It’s a win for Grasso but the war is far from over.”

Grasso Richard A
Decisions and Verdicts
New York Stock Exchange
Spitzer Eliot L
Executives and Management


5 Shot, 1 Fatally, Near Seton Hall

Abstract: A Seton Hall University honors student was fatally wounded and four other people, including two fellow students, were injured early Saturday when a gunman walked into a house party about a mile from the campus and opened fire, the authorities said. The violence began around 12:20 a.m. on the first floor of 564 South Clinton Street, a two-story house in East Orange, N.J., where about 50 young people had gathered, said Sgt. Andrew M. Di Elmo, a spokesman for the East Orange Police Department. When the gunfire ceased, three 19-year-old women, all Seton Hall students, had been hit. One of them, identified as Jessica A. Moore, a sophomore, was shot in the head and died Saturday afternoon, Sergeant Di Elmo said. One of the other women was hit in the arm and grazed in the face, and the third woman was struck in the foot, he said. A fourth victim, a 25-year-old man who the police said attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology, was hit in the left thigh. In addition, a New York man, 20, was struck in the back, the police said. All of the victims were taken to University Hospital in Newark. Sergeant Di Elmo said events earlier in the night might have prompted the assault. He said the gunman had tried to “crash the party” but was denied entry and “physically removed.” The man returned a short time later. “He came in with a gun,” the sergeant said. “He made his way through and started opening fire.” Sergeant Di Elmo said the gunman “fled on foot,” and by Saturday night, no one had been arrested. Jessica Townsend, 19, who was at the party, said that Ms. Moore was her roommate and that she had died while trying to help another of the victims, who she said was named Nakeisha. “Everyone was running out; everyone was watching out for themselves,” Ms. Townsend said. “She said, ‘I’m going to protect Nakeisha.’ ” Ms. Townsend said she was one of the last to leave the room, and on her way out saw a woman lying facedown. Turning her over, she said, she was shocked to learn that it was Ms. Moore. The university’s vice president of student affairs, Laura A. Wankel, said Ms. Moore was studying psychology and lived in a campus dormitory. Ms. Moore wrote in a blog post that she hoped to eventually work for the Department of Veterans Affairs “so I can talk to soldiers about war.” A friend of Ms. Moore’s, Delores Sarfo-Darko, 19, said that Ms. Moore’s father was in the military and that she had family in Virginia and Tennessee. Ms. Sarfo-Darko said her friend had dreamed of being a singer. A prayer service for Ms. Moore was held on the campus on Saturday, and the university made counselors available to students. Some neighbors said the house where the shooting occurred was notorious for loud parties. A neighbor, who would identify himself only by his first name, Kay, said he was sitting on his front stoop about a block away when the shots rang out. “I heard two shots, then a pause, then four more shots,” he said. “Then I heard a bunch of people screaming.”

Murders and Attempted Murders
Seton Hall University
East Orange (NJ)


Promoting ‘Transition,’ by Iain Banks, on a Serial Podcast

Abstract: Back in the 1990s, abridged audio books were as popular as the full-length versions. They were cheaper and required toting fewer CDs or cassettes. But as enthusiasts increasingly listen on iPods, and Web sites like Audible.com and iTunes make downloading unabridged books more affordable, the popularity of abridgments has waned, shrinking to 13 percent of total audio book sales in 2008, from 36 percent in 2005, according to the Audio Publishers Association. Now, in what it is calling an industry first, a publisher is giving away an abridged version of an audio book in the hope that listeners become so enamored with what they hear that they will pay for more. On Tuesday, Hachette Audio will begin releasing on iTunes a serialized version of “Transition” by Iain M. Banks, a British author, a day before the hardcover release. The abridgment will be divided into 23 episodes, uploaded Tuesdays and Fridays for 12 weeks. Listeners dying to know how it unfolds can plop down $19.95 for the full download or $25.99 for the hardcover (published by a Hachette imprint, Orbit). “This is a free podcast of the abridged edition of ‘Transition,’ with a total run time of six and a half hours,” listeners will hear at the beginning of each episode. “Get more Banks for your buck with the full 13-hour unabridged edition, and don’t miss a word.” (Hardcover and e-book editions are advertised at the end.) Anthony Goff, publisher and director of Hachette Audio and Digital Media, said the idea came from the company’s division in Britain, where the promotion began with the book’s publication there on Sept. 3, and where the free episodes are the eighth-most downloaded podcast on iTunes; the full-length version is the 11th best-selling audio book. ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Books and Literature
Recordings and Downloads (Audio)
Podcasts
Audiobooks
Sales
Banks Iain M


Review: Marley’s Cafe Is a Sweet Spot With a Reggae Soundtrack

Abstract: I’ll wager that most of us have enjoyed at least one memorable meal in our lives that had very little to do with food. I know I’ve been lucky enough to attend several such occasions — all of which left me with only a vague recollection of what I ate, but an indelible impression of the experience: the company I kept, the environment we shared. For 12 years, Marley’s Cafe, in Essex, has been delivering just this sort of meal to locals and summer visitors. Fine dining it ain’t, but the restaurant, — which Jeff Odekerken, a co-owner, named after the reggae icon Bob Marley — is, as the musician himself might say, a uniquely wonderful place to get together and feel all right . Image Prince Edward Island mussels, steamed with lemon, garlic and white wine. Credit Jessica Hill for The New York Times The magic of Marley’s has much to do with its singular location. Occupying part of a 13-acre, man-made island in the middle of the Connecticut River, the restaurant (which operates between Memorial and Columbus Day) can only be reached by taking a six-passenger boat from a dock at the foot of Ferry Street in downtown Essex. The crossing to the island lasts less than a minute, but in that brief chug, something enchanting happens, and, arriving on the other side of the river, you may feel as though you’ve been transported to some sort of idyllic tropical resort (or perhaps back in time, to sleep-away camp). Following a boardwalk (and the wafting music of Jimmy Cliff or Peter Tosh ) to a grassy hillside, you’ll find a hodgepodge of umbrella-shaded outdoor tables scattered around a cheery bungalow, its deck adorned with cascading plants and a painted surfboard. Just beyond, you might spot a crowd of teenagers playing volleyball on the sunlit lawn, or couples strolling along the river to watch motorboats — and sometimes a wee sightseeing schooner — drift by. “I’ve had people say, ‘Wow, you just saved me four thousand dollars on a vacation,’” Mr. Odekerken told me. “Even though we’re right in town, we still give people that island-getaway feeling.” The easygoing, welcoming style of Mr. Odekerken and his wife, Claudia, who run Marley’s together, also enhances the restaurant’s summer-camp vibe. (The couple also owned a popular deli in town, Village Provisions; it closed in March.) The place is a family affair: Mr. and Mrs. Odekerken oversee both the kitchen and front of house, and she also provides many of the menu’s bakery and pastry items, while he often wanders among the tables, chatting with diners. Their son Dylan is the head chef, and their daughter Michelle manages the dining tables. The staff also includes many friends of the family, including two charming high-school-aged servers who waited on me during my visits. Image The Jamaican Burger, with smoked ghost-pepper cheese, guacamole and a Scotch-bonnet aioli on coco bread. Credit Jessica Hill for The New York Times Oh, and the food? It’s fine, if not especially remarkable. During an early afternoon sojourn with my father, both of us were very happy with our choices from the casual lunch menu. My dad’s Cubano sandwich, a ciabatta roll stuffed with layers of pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, red onion, and dill pickle slices, hit all the right notes of salt, smoke, and pungency. My Jamaican burger (the best thing I ate at Marley’s) was assertively spicy, with a beef patty topped by both smoked ghost-pepper cheese and a Scotch-bonnet aioli, on slightly sweet, coconut-milk-infused “coco bread.” Both were accompanied by snappy house-made coleslaw. I found myself much less enamored of the dinner fare, however — a more formal, staid lineup of appetizers and entrees, offered only on weekends. (To adjust the mood, the Odekerkens switch both the menu and the music, from reggae to jazz, in the evening.) Though my companions and I liked a shared starter of Prince Edward Island mussels, simply steamed with lemon, garlic and white wine, we found two main courses uninspiring — grilled salmon, heavily sauced with a shallot-dill hollandaise; and a roasted rack of lamb, in a red-wine-peppercorn demi-glace. Two other choices, a special of crabmeat-stuffed flounder, and an appetizer of fried calamari (paired with a dipping sauce that tasted like straight mayo), were unfortunately soggy. If our dinner dishes were somewhat forgettable, though, the conclusion to our meal certainly wasn’t. As we finished our postprandial coffee, a tremendous bank of charcoal-hued storm clouds suddenly rolled overhead, rumbling with thunder and setting the nautical flags on a nearby pier flapping. Quickly, we gathered up our cups and saucers and hurried to the bungalow, where other diners had already pushed into the five tiny (hardly ever used) indoor booths. We spent the next almost-half-hour huddled together inside, waiting out the deluge. We chatted with local families, made bets on how long the storm would last, and even were offered cups of chardonnay from another patron’s BYO bottle. By the time we left, we felt like we’d made a crop of new friends, ones whom we’d be happy to see the next time our paths crossed — even if that had to wait until next summer.

Restaurant
Essex Connecticut
Marley's Cafe


When Those Who Know Won’t Share

Abstract: There is no “I” in team, we are told. It’s important for workers to share information and collaborate. So why would employees deliberately hide knowledge from their colleagues? And yet they do, all the time. Knowledge-hiding in the workplace is common and takes different forms, some more harmful than others, according to new research by Catherine E. Connelly , an associate business professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and David Zweig , an associate management professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Theirs was not a study of inadvertent communication failures. (That’s a research topic in itself.) Rather, the professors examined the deliberate attempt “to withhold or conceal knowledge that has been requested by another member of the organization.” Based on surveys at a range of workplaces, they were able to trace a “continuum of deception” among knowledge hiders, Professor Zweig said in an interview. On the least-damaging end of the spectrum, employees felt that they were justified in concealing information when, for example, it was deemed confidential. (Indeed, revealing a piece of juicy confidential gossip could be grounds for dismissal in some cases.) Further along on the spectrum, the researchers found that workers might withhold knowledge that a colleague legitimately needs by “playing dumb” — saying they will provide the information later and never following through — or by giving incorrect or incomplete information. Why would people act in a way so contrary to their employer’s interests? Because the cliché that knowledge is power holds some truth, Professor Zweig said. “Even though every organization touts the benefits of teams,” he said, “we’re often rewarded individually for our performance.” But as knowledge hiders guard their individual interests, they may fail to anticipate the negative consequences of their actions. People are often aware that their colleagues are hiding information from them, Professor Zweig said. This may be interpreted as a “rejection episode” in the target’s eyes and result in retaliation against the perpetrator, creating a vicious cycle of concealment, he said. According to a 2013 study led by Matej Cerne of the Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control in Slovenia, knowledge-hiding “prevents colleagues from generating creative ideas, but it may also have negative consequences for the creativity of the knowledge hider.” In other words, you can’t generate new ideas if you’re suspiciously guarding your territory. Many people try to rationalize their withholding ways. They may tell themselves that they are thinking of the greater good of the organization, or that they are in danger of losing their jobs if they don’t keep their superior knowledge status intact. “Knowledge-hiding is not necessarily intended to harm an individual or the organization,” according to the study by Professors Connelly and Zweig. But in some cases the practice sounds downright Machiavellian, where, as Professor Zweig put it, people look at others as pawns and consider themselves experts in self-serving manipulation. That is something he would like to investigate, he said. How can organizations stop the damaging effects of knowledge-hiding? “Put in incentives to reward people on team outcomes versus solely on individual outcomes,” Professor Zweig said. He noted that many companies devote considerable resources to systems that encourage the transfer of knowledge. But if managers continue to reward individual achievement over group efforts, all that expense may well be for naught.

Workplace
Catherine E. Connelly
Research
McMaster University
University of Toronto
David Zweig


Judge Orders Release of Gawker-Hulk Hogan Trial Documents

Abstract: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A judge agreed on Monday to release a trove of previously sealed documents related to the Hulk Hogan sex tape trial against Gawker Media, which concluded in March with a jury awarding the former wrestler $140.1 million in damages after three and a half years of litigation. Judge Pamela A. M. Campbell of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Pinellas County, who called the trial and its follow-up motions “unusual” and “crazy” during Monday’s proceedings, ordered the release of dozens of documents that were sealed during the trial. They were sought by a legal team representing a group of news media outlets that have covered the case. Gawker Media’s flagship website, Gawker.com, posted a nearly two-minute excerpt from a secretly recorded video of Mr. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, having sex with a friend’s wife in 2007. Mr. Bollea had sued for $100 million, claiming invasion of privacy. Alison Steele, a lawyer for the media organizations and lead counsel for The Tampa Bay Times, said it normally took one to two days for records to be unsealed and made public. In addition to the Tampa paper, The Associated Press, CNN, First Look Media Journal Broadcast Group and Scripps Media fought to have the documents released.

Gawker
Lawsuits
News media,journalism
Hulk Hogan


In Nice, a Vibrant Celebration Gives Way to a Trail of Death

Abstract: NICE, France — A red ambulance, its lights flashing, sped down the road and jerked to a stop. The driver jumped out, asking, “Where are the wounded?” “We only have dead here,” replied two men, trying to comfort a young man who was weeping over the body of his mother and imploring Allah to accept her into heaven. An eerie tableau of death and dying extended along a mile-long stretch of the graceful, crescent-shaped Promenade des Anglais on Thursday night, running from Nice’s airport to the oldest part of the coastal city. One moment, there was a great street celebration for France’s Bastille Day holiday — and the next, a truck came barreling through at high speed, leaving a trail of bodies , shock and despair through a French Riviera fiesta. Among the first people killed by the speeding truck on the sidewalk next to Lenval Beach was the middle-aged Muslim woman. Two of her sons and other family members stood, weeping or frozen in stunned silence, around her body, which was covered in a pale blue tartan blanket. A Trail of Terror in Nice, Block by Block Documenting devastation along a one-mile stretch of waterfront. Nearby there was another victim, an unidentified man sprawled on the sidewalk next to the beach beneath a bloodied sheet. So numerous were the bodies that to protect their dignity, people had covered some of them with tablecloths snatched from the restaurants lining the Promenade des Anglais. It was windy, with a slight, sporadic drizzle, and the celebration of just a few moments earlier was already a distant memory. Crowds had gathered to celebrate Bastille Day, France’s most popular holiday. The woman and the man had been there, with so many others, along the broad seafront promenade, as Nice’s annual fireworks display lit up the night sky. Image A woman received help after being injured Thursday night by a truck that plowed into a crowd in Nice, France, killing dozens. Credit Antoine Chauvel They were all easy prey — or, in the parlance of an era when this kind of killing has become all too common, they were soft targets. The evening had been filled with bangs and flashes of light as fireworks displays rolled along France’s southern coast, drawing cheers from delighted families whose main worry for much of the day had been whether rain might force the cancellation of the celebration. This was not a military base, or a guarded government building. It was simply a crowd celebrating in the street. Like the fans at the Bataclan, gunned down in Paris during a concert; or the newspaper staff of Charlie Hebdo; or the people blown up outside the airport in Turkey. Video A truck drove into a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, sending hundreds running for safety. Credit Credit Eric Gaillard/Reuters This time, all it took was a murderous driver and a massive truck. Witnesses said the truck had entered the Promenade des Anglais from a side street near the Foundation Lenval children’s hospital, turned left and mounted the sidewalk opposite a row of balconied seaside villas and apartment buildings. The driver then drove deeper into the city, mowing down victim after victim as the truck plowed through increasingly dense crowds of revelers. Pierre Roux, whose apartment faces the sea, said he had first thought that the truck was simply out of control. But then he noticed that the lights were off and there was no honking. Video A bystander captured footage of the police shooting at the truck that plowed through a crowd in Nice, France, on Thursday after it appeared to have stopped. “Nobody in the way stood a chance,” he said. He had come out of his apartment early Friday to place a burning candle on a white sheet covering a body that was unattended. As he spoke, heavily armed police officers sealed off a widening perimeter of the city. Simon Cotteridge, who also lives along the promenade, said he had been watching the fireworks. Just after the display ended, he said, there was “a tremendous thud.” He wondered if it had been some sort of coda to the fireworks show, or perhaps an accident. But then, he said, he saw a dozen bodies on the pavement — and a big crowd of people “running and screaming.” “It was horrific,” Mr. Cotteridge said.

Nice Attack
Terrorism
Fatalities,casualties
Bastille Day
Nice


In a High-Tech Era, Baseball Teams Still Talk With Their Hands

Abstract: In the moment of pause between pitches, a batter steps back and takes a peek at the third-base coach. The coach executes a series of taps on his body and the batter turns back and prepares for the next pitch. But only a handful of people in the stadium know the message that was sent, or whether there was one at all. A touch to the ear. A sharp clap of hands. The flash of a few fingers. Such is the world of nonverbal communication in baseball. And even in today’s game — where video and virtual reality are study tools, where bat sensors can analyze swings and where a tracking system can monitor the movement of every player and every hit or thrown ball — one concept that has not grown overly complex is the signs passed from coach to hitter, and between catcher and pitcher, before every pitch. If some teams have reinvented the system in the era of advanced technology, they are keeping quiet about it. For the most part — according to managers, coaches and players from several teams — the goal of signs is not to deceive an opponent, but rather to make sure a team’s own players understand what they are supposed to do. “I don’t know if they’re any more complex,” said Gene Glynn, the Minnesota Twins’ third-base coach. “It’s just trying to hide your signs the best you can without hiding them from your own players.” According to the website of Paul Dickson , the author of “The Hidden Language of Baseball,” signs in baseball date to the Civil War, inspired by signals used in battle. Teams can signal for plays like hit-and-runs, bunts and steals during the course of a game. Pitches are called, shaken off, rethought. Offensively, Glynn said, signs are used mostly to relay the thoughts of the manager, who is running the game based on how to best use players in certain situations. Joe Espada, the Yankees’ third-base coach, said he keeps the complexity of his signs to a minimum, preferring to change the sequence or touches in his progressions rather than to add new ones. “Little bit more complicated for the opponents, not so much for my guys,” Espada said. Simplicity can be an effective deception, said Gary Jones, the Chicago Cubs’ third-base coach. “They’re looking for something that’s really not there,” he said. But Texas Rangers Manager Jeff Banister is among those who argue that signs need to evolve. “I think there are teams that are really good, that if you got a very simple set of signs, it’s very easy to pick signs up,” he said. But reading signs is one thing; decoding them is another. One of the common tricks teams use is an indicator touch that alerts players of when a certain play is on. For instance, touching a certain spot before continuing with a sign progression — or forgoing that spot — can tell a player whether the sign is real or a decoy. Other teams use someone in the dugout to send the signs, rather than a coach on the field. But Jones said decoy signs are a common tool of deception. “I would say 80 percent of the time we’re giving dummy signs, nothing is on,” Jones said. “And I think I can say that leaguewide.” Signs can be reviewed in team meetings and changed at any time, even during a game. Glynn said doing so could be accomplished with something as subtle as a walk through the dugout. “It can be that simple,” he said. “And you could still use the same signs and just go in a different order.” Simple or complex, though, signs are still missed. Banister said that could be the result of hitters’ thinking more about hitting than about looking for a sign, or merely of the ability of a player to separate the two and focus. That ability can go back to player development, when minor league teams put young players in a variety of situations so they understand what managers might ask them to do. A player who has little experience with being asked to bunt because he batted cleanup in the minors might not be accustomed to the maneuver when asked to bunt as a seventh- or eighth-place hitter in the majors. “You have to make sure guys are not just one-dimensional when they get to the major leagues,” Jones said. “They have to kind of fine-tune their whole game in the minor leagues, which is actually what it’s for, what player development is for.” Yankees third baseman Chase Headley said that he had trained himself to look for signs before nearly every pitch. “Now, 97 percent of the time there’s nothing on,” Headley said. “But you’re checking to make sure that they’re not putting anything on. Obviously, if there’s nobody on base, there’s nothing they’re going to give you. But there’s guys on base, you have to look over there and see what’s going on.” At the same time, the opposing pitcher is working through his own set of signs, each of them rehearsed with the catcher beforehand. “I think the first thought has to be, ‘What is pleasing to myself as a pitcher?’” Dallas Braden, a former major league pitcher who now works as an analyst for ESPN, said of establishing a system of signs with a teammate. “And then we go to the catcher and we talk about what he is comfortable with, because ultimately you’re a battery; you work together. So we’ve got to meet somewhere in the middle.” Yankees pitcher C. C. Sabathia goes over his signs in a meeting with his catcher before each start. There, too, the signs can vary by whim, or by a change in catcher — and with the knowledge that they can be changed at any moment. They get even more complicated when there is a runner on second base. While Headley said some teams were better at picking up signs than others, Jones contended that the practice of stealing signs was not as common, or as successful, as most might think. “Lot of people look, they try to steal,” Jones said. “But I think most of the time, they think they might have them, but they normally don’t have them.” In practice, the difficulty of stealing signs, and then getting them to a hitter in time to take advantage of the stolen knowledge, can be problematic. There is also the idea that baseball is a reactionary sport, and a batter at the plate staring down a major league pitcher might not be interested in knowing what his teammate on second thinks is coming. “You’d love to have the answers to the test,” Braden said, “but, I mean, you’ve also gotten wrong directions before, too, right? “How’d you feel when you ended up 15 miles in the wrong direction? Well, that’s what it feels like when you miss a pitch by two feet in front of 40,000 people.”


Chinese Fans Go Wild for Table Tennis Gold

Abstract: BEIJING — China won the first match of the men’s table tennis gold-medal contest, to no one’s surprise, and the fans at the packed Peking University Gymnasium were in full, flag-waving frenzy. The public-address announcer, the volume on his microphone set to shrill, wanted more. “Do you think today’s performance is great?” he shouted in Mandarin. Most of the 7,557 in attendance shouted “Yes!” “Do you think both players are doing their best?” “Yes!” “Let’s do the Mexican wave, shall we?” And to a techno-beat cover version of Queen’s taunting arena anthem — “... kicking your can all over the place, singing we will, we will, rock you ...” — people stood when it was their turn, and a wave rolled around a single Ping-Pong table. The hottest ticket for the Olympics on Monday night was for table tennis, where China beat Germany, 3-0, in the best-of-five format for the team competition that has replaced doubles at the Olympics. Before the contest, fans stopped outside the arena and took pictures of one another. They often proudly displayed a flag in one hand and their tickets in the other. A woman posed with her 2-year-old son, who carried two small flags, wore a red headband and sported several of the small and ubiquitous red-heart, yellow-star stickers seen on Chinese faces across the Olympic venues. The two had flown two hours from Hunan Province for the match. “I know we’re going to win the gold anyway,” the woman, Du Hong, said. “But I want to experience this for myself.” No one worried about losing. The women’s team won gold over Singapore the night before, playing in front an equally enthusiastic audience that included President Hu Jintao. Only once since table tennis was added to the Olympic program in 1988 have Chinese women not won a gold medal. The tally moved to 10 of 11 on Sunday in the first-ever team competition. The men have not been quite as dominant, winning 7 of 10 gold medals over the years. That might explain why their star political witness was one of the seven members of the Politburo. But the top four players in the world are Chinese, and they are as widely recognized as pop stars. The Chinese team was so deep that the coach left the No. 3 player in the world off of his three-man Olympic squad. Cheering during a match comes in quick and tidy bursts. It is bad form to make noise during play, and people hushed others for being impolite. Sometimes fans could not help themselves. Thrilling rallies were accompanied by a collective “Ho ... oh! Ho ... oh!” It was the sound of people catching their breath when a return looked impossible, and exhaling when it safely hit the table. And when the point finished, usually for the Chinese, they cheered with a triumphant “Oh!” Some shook rattles that looked like mini abacuses. People in the upper deck frequently started a chant that caught almost instantly. “Go,” they shouted, and everyone else would respond with the player’s name: Wang Hao, the top player in the world, with a shock of red-tinted hair; Ma Lin, who fanned himself with his paddle before points; or Wang Liqin, the tall and popular veteran. There was little suspense. Fans laughed at the slow and seductive service style of Germany’s Dmitrij Ovtcharov, who leaned his head low to the table, his knees bent almost to the floor, and stared longingly at the ball in his hand, as if he had just unearthed a precious gem. People also noticed the high-tech tables, far different than the concrete slabs and brick-net versions so many Chinese play on in their neighborhoods. The legs are arcing aluminum and acrylic. Blue and red lights glow eerily from underneath. They look like something designed for a hip Icelandic bar. During preliminary rounds, there are up to eight tables on the floor, which is about the size of a basketball court but was made for table tennis. It was built last year with an air-conditioning system that releases air no faster than 0.2 meters per second, so that circulating air does not affect ball flight. And the ducts are not overhead, but under each seat. But even table tennis at this level retains some of its at-home charm. The same ball is used through the match, so players chase errant shots. One of the German players had to step over two thigh-high barricades to retrieve the ball, the elite player’s equivalent of losing a ball into the cobwebs behind the basement divan. When the final shot by the Germans went long, the fans erupted in cheers. The players and Coach Liu Guoliang hugged, then held hands, raising them and bowing twice in all four directions. The public-address system played a song with the lyrics “Five-Star red flag, you are my pride,” and everyone clapped and sang along. Fans sang during the national anthem, and a few cried. They brought out their cameras again and posed for more pictures. This time, they did not want the arena in the background, but the champions. And, if it fit in the frame, the red flag with the five yellow stars that hung over a Ping-Pong table.

Tennis Table
Olympic Games (2008)
Liu Guoliang
Wang Hao
Ma Lin
Wang Liqin
Ovtcharov Dmitrij
Beijing (China)
China


Alibaba Joins Forces With Chinese Arms Maker

Abstract: HONG KONG — Alibaba , the Chinese e-commerce titan, has always had a capricious streak when it comes to strategic investments and acquisitions. In the last two years, it has put money into insurance and finance, motion pictures, brick-and-mortar retailing and even a soccer franchise. Now it is cooperating with yet another unlikely partner: a Chinese state-owned arms and machinery producer, the China North Industries Corporation, or Norinco. In a post on its website on Wednesday, Norinco said each of the two would hold a stake of 50 percent in Qianxun Weizhi Internet, a joint venture worth 2 billion renminbi, or about $310 million. Norinco — which has faced nonproliferation sanctions from the United States government over the last decade — appears to be an odd partner for Alibaba. But the cooperation shows how China’s largest Internet companies are trying to improve government relations by supporting state projects. In this case, the project is Beidou, a satellite navigation system that is China’s domestically developed answer to GPS. The new company, according to the post, will build applications and technology to support and work with the system. It will also show Alibaba’s support of broader Chinese industrial policy. Beidou has high-level government support and has attracted billions in investment, partly because of Beijing’s concerns that the United States could disable GPS signals in China, damaging the capabilities of its satellite-guided weapons . To ensure the viability of Beidou, the Chinese government has sought to increase the number of commercial users of the technology, even though the system is incomplete and GPS has a 95 percent share of the Chinese market. The Chinese authorities have been slowly rolling out new rules that mandate the system’s use. In 2013, China’s transportation authority ordered all long-distance buses and vehicles transporting “dangerous articles” in nine provinces to install the system. Heavy trucks must also have the system, and the government has installed it in more than 50,000 Chinese fishing boats. “Alibaba Group participated in this location-based services project in light of our strength in cloud computing and big data,” Alibaba’s spokeswoman, Melanie Lee, wrote in an email. “We hope to be able to provide businesses and developers with better location-based services.” In the early 2000s, Norinco was hit with sanctions by the Bush administration for the transfer of dual-use technologies to a company involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program. According to the State Department, the sanctions lapsed in the mid-2000s . Norinco is one of China’s largest arms exporters and more recently attracted headlines when it delivered the first part of an arms shipment to South Sudan last summer. The Chinese government halted the remainder of the order.


Power-Play Goals Give Sharks a Series Tie

Abstract: Brent Burns scored San Jose’s first two power-play goals of the Western Conference finals, and Martin Jones stopped 26 shots for his second shutout of the postseason as the Sharks beat the Blues, 4-0, Tuesday night in St. Louis to even the series at a game apiece. Tommy Wingels and Dainius Zubrus also scored, and Logan Couture had two assists to help the Sharks bounce back from a tight loss in the opener. Burns’s fifth and sixth goals of the postseason came on one-timers with Troy Brouwer in the penalty box, and were his only shots of the game. He made the score 2-0 in the second off a setup from Joe Pavelski only 16 seconds after Brouwer went off for slashing, and he made it a three-goal gap about 12 minutes into the third off a feed from Patrick Marleau 24 seconds after Brouwer was whistled for high-sticking. Image San Jose’s Nick Spaling watching as a shot eluded St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott in the first period Tuesday. Credit Jeff Roberson/Associated Press FINLAND ROUTS CANADA AT WORLDS Finland was the only unbeaten team left in the world championship after routing Canada, 4-0, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Finland finished at the top of Group B, setting up a quarterfinal against Denmark, while Canada must face Sweden in a rematch of the 2014 Olympic final. The Czech Republic topped Group A by beating Switzerland, 5-4, in Moscow. The Czechs learned they will play the United States in the quarterfinals, even though the Americans lost to Slovakia, 3-2, in overtime. BASEBALL Braves, Hitting Bottom, Fire Their Manager With the team bottoming out, the Atlanta Braves fired Manager Fredi Gonzalez. Atlanta is in the midst of a dismal start that failed to meet even the lowered expectations of a rebuilding year, so Gonzalez felt the brunt of the disappointment and was sent packing in his sixth season. The Braves had lost eight of their last 10 games entering Tuesday night’s game against Pittsburgh. Atlanta had baseball’s worst record at 9-28 and was already 13 ½ games out of first place in the National League East. Brian Snitker, who has been manager of the Braves’ Class AAA Gwinnett team, will move up as interim manager. The Braves also fired the bench coach Carlos Tosca. Terry Pendleton will move from first-base coach to bench coach. AROUND THE MAJORS Chase Anderson took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and finished with eight and two-thirds strong innings to lift the Brewers over the Chicago Cubs, 4-2, in Milwaukee. Tommy Joseph hit his first major league homer to lead the Phillies to a 3-1 win over the Miami Marlins in Philadelphia. COLLEGES Kansas Coach Gets a Tax Break Bill Self isn’t paying state taxes on the bulk of his income as men’s basketball coach at Kansas, and it’s all legal under 2012 tax changes pressed by Gov. Sam Brownback. KCUR Radio reported that while Self — the state’s highest-paid employee — earns a taxable salary of $230,000 a year, he also gets at least $2.75 million annually from the entity that runs the school’s intercollegiate sports. That money goes to Self’s limited liability company, which is among the nearly 334,000 Kansas businesses that owe no state income taxes under the 2012 tax cuts. KANSAS STATE HIRES KILL Kansas State has hired the former Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill as an associate athletic director. Kill led the Gophers back to respectability, but he decided to retire from coaching last October because of his health. ALABAMA PLAYERS ARRESTED Alabama offensive lineman Cam Robinson and defensive back Laurence Jones were arrested on drug and weapons charges in Louisiana. Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s records showed that Robinson and Jones were cited for the misdemeanor charge of carrying a weapon in the presence of narcotics. Robinson also faces a charge of felony possession of stolen firearms. SOCCER United Wins Rescheduled Game Manchester United beat visiting Bournemouth, 3-1, in a Premier League game hastily rearranged because of a bomb scare, sealing fifth place and a spot in the Europa League while gaining some momentum heading into the F.A. Cup final against Crystal Palace on Saturday. TENNIS Bencic and Wozniacki Out of French Open Eighth-ranked Belinda Bencic, who has been dealing with a back injury since March, has pulled out of the French Open, which begins Sunday. She will be replaced in the main draw by Lauren Davis. Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No. 1, also withdrew from Roland Garros because of an injured right ankle. Wozniacki has not played since the Miami Open in March. HORSE RACING Gun Runner Skipping the Preakness Gun Runner, third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, will skip the Preakness, leaving a likely field of 11 for the middle leg of the Triple Crown on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Gun Runner’s absence tightens the focus on Nyquist and Exaggerator, the top two finishers in the Derby. CYCLING Sky Leader Withdraws From Giro d’Italia Giulio Ciccone won the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia, which was marked by the withdrawal of the Sky team leader and race favorite Mikel Landa. Bob Jungels took the leader’s pink jersey from his teammate Gianluca Brambilla after the 136-mile stage between Campi Bisenzio and Sestola. Jungels holds a 26-second lead over Andrey Amador in the overall standings. (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) LATE BURST WINS STAGE Julian Alaphilippe won the third stage of the Tour of California, producing a perfectly timed late burst on a grueling final climb to overtake rider Peter Stetina in the final half-mile of the rugged 104.1-mile course from Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara. Alaphilippe’s victory catapulted him into the overall lead. (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)

Ice hockey
Playoffs
St Louis Blues
San Jose Sharks
Braves
Fredi Gonzalez


Refugee Exodus Grows in Southern Philippines

Abstract: MANILA — The number of Filipinos displaced from their homes since fighting began late last week between government forces and Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines reached 130,000 on Monday, officials said. The military and the police sent more troops to fight the rebels. Social welfare officials warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as the fighting between troops and elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which had been confined to two provinces, threatened to spill over to other areas. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a separatist group that has been fighting for an Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao for several decades. Local media reported that thousands of residents, the majority of them Muslims, had been fleeing their homes since Friday, many in carts pulled by water buffaloes. Thousands of refugees are housed in more than 40 centers, officials said, but most refugees sought shelter with relatives in other provinces. As of Monday, officials said two soldiers and at least 15 rebels had been killed in the fighting, which erupted on Thursday after separatist forces refused to vacate nine villages in North Cotabato Province. The Supreme Court ruled last Tuesday in favor of a petition to prevent the government and the rebel group from signing an agreement that both sides had thought could help end the decades-old separatist war. The petition was filed by officials of North Cotabato, who feared that the agreement would allow the rebel group to encroach on Christian territories, a charge that the group and the government denied. The court is set to make a final decision this month on whether to allow the agreement to be signed. Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the rebels, blamed government-backed militias for the conflict. He said his group had wanted to “reposition its forces” but was attacked by militias opposed to the peace agreement. The administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been severely criticized for the way it handled the negotiations that led to the agreement. Many officials, including allies of the president as well as Filipino Muslims, have complained that they were not consulted and that details of the agreement were withheld from the public. “The renewed fighting in North Cotabato goes to show that when the government bungles the peace negotiation, it is the citizens who suffer,” Risa Hontiveros, a congresswoman, said Monday. “The peace process is turning into a humanitarian mess.” The renewed fighting coincided with elections on Monday in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which comprises seven predominantly Muslim provinces. Officials said the latest voting was largely peaceful, although there were reports of sporadic violence, including the bombing of electric towers in one province. People escaping the violence fled along a major highway that had been ordered closed to traffic on Sunday after separatists had commandeered a passenger bus. “We are tired, but we have to move on,” Farida Dimalangan, a 47-year-old refugee, told MindaNews, a Mindanao news agency.

Philippines
Civil War and Guerrilla Warfare
Immigration and Refugees


Markets, and Many Mutual Funds, Suffer Another Spring Swoon

Abstract: PEAKS in the stock market have become a sign of spring, just like robins and daffodils. For the third year in a row, the second quarter provided the start of a swift and nerve-racking plunge. If the pattern in prices seemed familiar, so did the economic and political backdrop: debt and politics in the United States and Europe sowed doubt among consumers, businesses and mutual fund investors. The prospect that Greece would renege on an austerity pledge, the condition for a huge international aid program, roused fear that the euro zone would fragment. A coalition in favor of keeping the euro triumphed in the Greek election late in the quarter, but doubts about the currency’s future remain. Elections are four months away in the United States, but a grim possibility weighed heavily on the markets: that unless there is political cooperation in Washington, the economy is headed off a fiscal cliff. Yet another concern was that strength was being sapped from emerging economies, especially China. With so many worries in so many places, the American economy suffered a marked loss of momentum. As job creation slowed and claims for unemployment benefits rose, unemployment edged up in May — and it remained at 8.2 percent in June. Michael Spangler, president of the Nationwide Investment Management Group, attributed the sluggishness partly to attitudes in the boardroom matching those in the living room. “Corporate earnings and balance sheets are stronger than they’ve ever been,” Mr. Spangler said, “but corporations are acting very much like individuals: very risk-averse and short term in their thinking.” The risk fear among individuals was evident in weaker readings of retail sales and consumer confidence. On the sparsely populated bright side, the housing market showed signs of life seldom seen in the last seven years. The preponderance of gloomy developments sent the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index down 10 percent in the quarter before it rebounded to narrow the three-month loss to 3.3 percent. In another sign of doubt about the global economy, the 10-year Treasury note yield fell as low as 1.44 percent, a record low. Strategists and fund managers differ on how much of the world’s woes are reflected in stock and bond prices, but there is little dispute that the trouble will continue into 2013. Still, they report a wary optimism toward stocks. Conditions have been so difficult for so long, they say, that investors are becoming used to it, as if they’re bringing a chronic illness under control and beginning to thrive in spite of it. In this view, sick is the new healthy. “The markets are basically saying, ‘I’m not scared,’ ” said Jonathan Golub, chief United States equity strategist at UBS. Investors have come to understand that “we’re going to have a meaningfully prolonged period of discomfort associated with macroeconomic events,” he said, “with lower-than-normal returns and 10 percent moves up and down.” After recouping most of one of those down moves, the average domestic equity fund in the database of Morningstar lost 4.2 percent in the quarter. International stock funds fared worse, falling 6.1 percent, dragged down by funds focused on Europe and emerging markets. Bond funds remained a haven, rising 1.3 percent, led by portfolios of American government issues. James T. Swanson, chief investment strategist at MFS Investment Management, contends that there is less for investors to fear in the United States than in other places. Unit labor costs — the cost to produce each dollar’s worth of goods — have declined for American manufacturers in the last decade, while they have risen almost everywhere else, especially in Europe, he said. As a result, he said, the United States is unusual among developed countries for having net economic growth since before the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Lower labor costs have allowed the United States to create more growth and to have more momentum than other countries, Mr. Swanson said. “You want to bet that U.S. companies, when we come out of this slow patch, will show profit resilience?” he asked. “They have already shown amazing resilience. Something’s going on here.” ANOTHER reason for American stocks’ relative strength is that sources of danger like the federal deficit and Europe’s indebtedness have been so well flagged for so long that the shock value has eroded, said William Riegel, head of global equities at TIAA-CREF. “One thing to remember is that a lot of uncertainties are already known, so the risk-reward balance is quite good from an equity market perspective,” Mr. Riegel said. “I’m not saying there’s not risk, but the focus and fear of a breakup” of the euro zone “have driven valuations down dramatically. The probability is that it will hold together.” Still, when it comes to year-end fiscal issues in the United States, there are many possible outcomes. Taxation and government spending could vary greatly, depending on who wins the White House and Congress in November, Mr. Golub said. Weaker economic growth between now and then could reduce tax receipts and raise government spending, forcing new debate about the debt ceiling and related issues between the November election and early January, when the new Congress takes over. And the problems confronting emerging economies may also be more intricate than many people realize, said Elizabeth Morrissey, managing partner at Kleiman International Consultants, a Washington firm specializing in developing markets. Their stocks and bonds have suffered from fear that a global recession , with its focal point in Europe, will curtail the exports on which many emerging economies depend. Weakness among European banks is a threat, too. “Across the emerging-market universe, they’re worried that European banks are not going to roll over loans anymore, they’re going to take the money home,” she said. “Emerging economies are going to suffer as badly as Western Europe.” Ms. Morrissey added that each of the BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — “is having its own domestic slowdown not necessarily attributed to global risk” aversion. Europe accounts for particularly large proportions of exports from Brazil and Russia. As for the other BRICs, India has disappointed Western investors who say it hasn’t delivered economic reform, while China is cooling down from a spending boom that left it with immense excesses of real estate and infrastructure projects. But Ms. Morrissey said smaller markets “have held up amazingly well, despite the potential contagion.” “If you’re a long-term investor,” she observed, “some of these markets look like fabulous bets.” But with fear of risk widespread and global growth iffy, she finds emerging-market debt denominated in hard currencies like dollars or euros more fabulous than equity. She said she most favors Mexico, which she said had been hurt by falling oil prices and concerns ahead of recent elections. Funds that hold bonds issued in the developing world rose 0.3 percent in the second quarter, according to Morningstar, while stock funds there were down 8 percent. MR. SPANGLER, at Nationwide, also advocates middling levels of risk. He recommends shares of “quality dividend-paying companies,” as well as tech stocks, which he expects to benefit when businesses start spending their hoards of cash, and commodity-related stocks as an inflation hedge. Funds in those sectors had a tough second quarter. Natural-resource funds fell 10.8 percent, on average, while energy funds were off 8.6 percent and tech funds were down 8.2 percent. The few winners included health, up 2.2 percent; utilities, up 2.6 percent, and consumer staples, up 1.3 percent. Mr. Swanson also favors tech stocks and high-quality dividend payers, adding that in China, a migration from rural to urban living is fueling demand for electronic devices. He also said that tech trades at a lower valuation than the broad market — and with less volatility. Mr. Riegel saw several types of investments that, in his view, could benefit from a revival in economic growth and investor sentiment and were reasonably priced, if not bargains. The mix includes Japanese exporters and European multinationals with non-European businesses. He finds companies in Spain and Italy particularly cheap. “If you’re a brave person, make your purchases and close your eyes,” he advised. “You could get very good returns.” Mr. Riegel would avoid government bonds after the run they have had, as would Mr. Golub. It is not their high prices that bother Mr. Golub as much as their paltry return. “If you want to put your money in a safe harbor, you need to be really scared or really rich,” Mr. Golub said. “Your chances of retiring on a 1.6 percent yield — if you can do that, then God bless you. Ultimately equities are the only game in town for most people.” He prefers energy and European multinationals, which are “global in nature and just happen to be in Europe,” he said. He finds the health sector particularly appealing. Mr. Golub expects the S.& P. 500 to reach 1,475 this year, an 8.3 percent gain from the end of June. He alluded to another pattern in the market that could be playing out for a third consecutive year: a rally to fresh highs after springtime declines. “Three months from now, the level of concern that investors have will be lower than today,” Mr. Golub predicted. Despite evidence of “tremendous risk in sovereign markets and Greece threatening the world order,” he said, investors are saying, “ ‘That’s par for the course; I’m in.’ Otherwise you’re leaving after the collapse and getting in after the rebound.”

Mutual Funds
United States Economy
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Government Bonds
Stocks and Bonds


Trade Is Falling Fast Around the Globe

Abstract: THE plunge in world economies that accelerated last fall is now reducing the volume of world trade at the fastest rate seen in decades. But February trade figures released this week by several countries provided tentative signs that the fall may be starting to slow. The total value of exports shipped by 15 large exporters in February was nearly a third lower than in the same month of 2008 — a rate of fall much faster than anything seen in recent recessions. “World trade is falling much faster now than in 1929-30,” two economists, Barry Eichengreen of the University of California and Kevin H. O’Rourke of Trinity College in Ireland, wrote in a paper released this week titled, “A Tale of Two Depressions.” “That is highly alarming,” they added, “given the prominence attached in the historical literature to trade destruction as a factor compounding the Great Depression .” As can be seen in the accompanying chart, the current decline came after a prolonged period of rapid growth. That growth was significantly fueled by the willingness of Americans to borrow and buy. Now, with credit harder to come by and unemployment rising, those consumers are cutting back. Economists see some evidence of rising demand in China , however. While its overall imports continued to weaken last month, China’s large fiscal stimulus program appears to be starting to bolster imports from some of its neighbors. Its imports from Australia, the only country in the group not experiencing a substantial drop in exports, have soared. “Korea and Taiwan also have rising exports to China,” Mr. Eichengreen said in an interview. “It does indicate there is at least one source of increased demand.” China’s own exports, however, fell 41 percent during the month, the most of any of the countries shown. In the United States, the February export figures showed a small increase from January, although they were 22 percent below the level of February 2008. That was the first month-over-month increase since July, when American exports, seasonally adjusted, peaked at $121.6 billion for the month. In February, the figure was $85.3 billion, a decline of 30 percent from the peak. Over that same period, China’s exports were down 47 percent. The fact that trade is now falling at a faster rate than in the Great Depression does not mean the world is destined to repeat that experience, Mr. Eichengreen said. “The policy response now is very different,” he said, pointing to the fiscal stimulus plans enacted in many countries, including the United States. If that stimulus works, he said, the current decline in trade could eventually appear as “a blip” in a picture of increasing world trade. The figures in the chart are in dollars, and are affected both by currency swings and by changing prices. With oil prices down sharply, the fall in exports from Mexico, for example, may be overstated. But there is no doubt that world trade has been collapsing, along with industrial production in nearly every country. So far, the countries that have experienced the largest declines are the export-oriented economies of Asia, which had become extraordinarily dependent on continued sales to the United States.

International Trade and World Market
Recession and Depression
Economics
China


Afghanistan Vice President Accused of Torturing Political Rival

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — A political rival of Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum of Afghanistan said on Tuesday that he had been tortured and raped with an assault rifle after being abducted by General Dostum last month . In an interview with The New York Times, the political rival, Ahmad Ishchi, said he was badly abused by the general, who was the acting president at the time because President Ashraf Ghani was out of the country, and by the general’s men. “I can kill you right now, and no one will ask,” Mr. Ishchi said General Dostum told him. He claimed the vice president stepped on his throat and pressed down after he had already been beaten and bloodied. General Dostum’s office, in a statement, called the accusation a conspiracy to defame the vice president. The statement said Mr. Ishchi had not been abducted, but rather had been arrested by security forces on charges of supporting the opposition, for which he remains under investigation. “It’s clear there are puppet elements that are trying to influence the international perceptions, and our advice to them is to avoid rushing and premature judgments,” the statement said. Multiple witnesses reported seeing General Dostum personally beating Mr. Ishchi and having his men drive away with him in a truck during a buzkashi match in northern Afghanistan last month. Despite repeated requests, General Dostum and his staff would not comment on the accusations at the time. “If he has animosity with me, I would have no problem if he had killed me with a bullet,” Mr. Ishchi said in the interview. “My character needs to be restored, my rights have been trampled. They should tell me the reasons. If he is the vice president, I am also a human, I have a right to live in this country.” Many of the Western embassies in Kabul expressed concern on Tuesday about Mr. Ishchi’s accusations, which he also made to other news organizations, and called for an investigation. “The E.U. and its member states present in Kabul, Australia, Canada and Norway, call for a fair and transparent official investigation as regards reports of gross human rights’ violations and abuses against Mr. Ahmad Ishchi as well as concerning the allegations made against the 1st Vice President, General Abdul Rashid Dostum,” the European Union said in a statement on Tuesday. Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for the president, said the government was committed to investigating the accusations. “For Afghan government, nobody is above the law,” Mr. Chakhansuri said. “We will fully investigate the allegation. Rule of law and accountability begins from government itself, and we are committed to it.” Image Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum of Afghanistan in 2013. His office called Mr. Ishchi’s charges a conspiracy to defame the vice president. Credit S. Sabawoon/European Pressphoto Agency General Dostum is a former warlord with a history of accusations of human rights violations and abuse, including physical acts of retaliation against allies and rivals . In the past, the United States government, despite counting General Dostum as one of its earliest allies in the war, had urged the former president, Hamid Karzai, against using the general as a campaign ally. When President Ghani, a Western-educated technocrat , selected General Dostum as his running mate two years ago in an effort to gain the support of his ethnic Uzbek constituency, it immediately raised concerns. Many feared that Mr. Ghani would struggle to contain a man he had once described as “ a known killer .” As part of a campaign to improve the general’s public image, Mr. Ghani’s aides convinced General Dostum to release a statement apologizing for past crimes and privately stressed that he would have limited authority as vice president. In the years since then, however, that sense of marginalization has sparked several outbursts by General Dostum in which he complained about not being trusted. And in a news conference in October, he issued a veiled threat that he might turn his anger against the government if disrespect of him continued. “When Ghani brought Dostum onto his ticket in 2014, he repeated the same mistake that has plagued Afghanistan since 2001: subordinating human rights and governance to political expediency,” said Patricia Gossman, senior researcher on Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch. “Ghani knew Dostum’s record, and he knew the risks — and wrangled an ‘apology.’ But the fact is warlords and strongmen throughout Afghanistan continue to operate with impunity, and that’s why the effort to build a stable Afghan state, one where there’s respect for the rule of law, has largely failed.” The rivalry between Mr. Ishchi and General Dostum dates back about three decades, to the final days of the Soviet-backed Communist government in Afghanistan. General Dostum outmaneuvered Mr. Ishchi to become the head of a regional paramilitary force, but Mr. Ishchi refused to serve as a subordinate of the general, remaining one of the political pockets that the general could not control in his northern stronghold. The recent hostility broke out on Nov. 25, in northern Jowzjan Province, during a game of buzkashi between horsemen belonging to Mr. Ishchi on one side and General Dostum on the opposite. Mr. Ishchi, 63, said that the vice president summoned him over and was already fuming when he met him. He said General Dostum started insulting him, and then had his bodyguards throw Mr. Ishchi to the ground and stepped on his throat. “He pressed for about two minutes like that,” Mr. Ishchi said. “There were around 2,000 people in the arena watching.” He said his hands were tied behind him, and he was driven to General Dostum’s home in the back of an armored vehicle. “They stuck to me like a wolf does to sheep - tearing my vest, taking off my cape, my boots, and my pants,” he said. In General Dostum’s private prison, he said he suffered intense abuse, including repeated beatings and being raped with the barrel of a Kalashnikov rifle by one of Mr. Dostum’s men, leaving him internally injured. His account could not be independently verified. Mr. Ishchi said he remained a prisoner of General Dostum for five days before being handed over to local intelligence officers. The agency kept him for 10 days, releasing him after his wounds – he said his face looked “like a liver” the first time he looked in a mirror – were mostly healed, under the care of a doctor at the intelligence agency. “What is my crime?” said Mr. Ishchi, showing a reporter bruises on his legs. “What right does he have to beat me up, to take me to his private prison? I will do anything I can to restore my honor, any door I can go to.”

Human Rights
US Foreign Policy
Abdul Rashid Dostum
Ashraf Ghani
Ahmad Ishchi
Afghanistan