New Subway Map to Help Riders With Weekend Service Changes

Abstract: Have trouble figuring out the subways on weekends? Get ready for a little help from an old friend. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will unveil on Friday an online-only map that portrays the subway as it actually appears on the next tangled, jumbled weekend. And in a retro twist, the map is modeled on the 1970s-era guide by Massimo Vignelli , a much-missed city icon that now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art . The stylish digital map will be customized each weekend to reflect the myriad service changes that regularly bedevil straphangers on Saturdays and Sundays. Currently, rerouted lines and shut stations are noted only in stiffly written prose that sometimes compounds riders’ confusion. The interactive map is searchable by line, borough and station, and it flags trouble spots with blinking lights. Click, and the site will reveal a rundown of what woe awaits, whether a closed platform or an unexpected station stop. Named The Weekender, the map will dominate the front page of the agency’s Web site each week from Friday afternoon until early Monday morning. “The idea here was: ‘How do you show people at a glance what’s really happening?’ ” said Margaret Coffey, a marketing executive at New York City Transit, an arm of the transportation authority. Right now, she said, “you’ve got this comprehensive poster that says all that is happening this weekend, but you still have to stand there with a map to be able to figure it out.” The Weekender does not redraw the usual map so much as annotate it. The A train, for instance, has an irritating habit of running along part of the F line on weekends. But the map, rather than repositioning the A’s blue trail onto the orange F route, simply flags the bypassed stations and offers a written explanation. (Officials said a more dynamic map would be logistically difficult to execute.) Still, the online map has appealing features, including a line-by-line view, which highlights, in vibrant colors, the entire length of an individual subway route while fading out the others, like pulling a strand of spaghetti from a knotty pasta. Riders can quickly find out about changes on their own route while ignoring the rest. The site also allows users to toggle between the subway diagram and detailed neighborhood maps, which list local attractions. Nostalgists and art enthusiasts may be most excited, however, by the triumphant return of Mr. Vignelli’s design, long considered the most artful guide to the New York system. When the Vignelli map made its debut in 1972, critics maligned it for a lack of geographic verisimilitude : Central Park was portrayed as a gray, squarish blob, and stations were placed misleadingly close to one another, leaving some riders disoriented upon ascending to the street. But its abstract design, similar to the subway maps of London and Paris, has a streamlined beauty, and its yielding to the current, more literal map (blue rivers, green parks) has long been lamented by purists. Mr. Vignelli’s atelier, which also designed the subway’s signature signage system, had already been in talks with the transportation authority about developing a 40th-anniversary edition of his map. The Weekender is a tweaked version of Mr. Vignelli’s original, with updated colors and routes and some small corrections, like restoring the 50th Street C stop to the west of its neighboring No. 1 stop. (Notoriously, the 1972 version had the two reversed.) Kennedy Airport is denoted by a perfect circle, representing the AirTrain. Weekend ridership is at its highest level in decades, but transit workers still perform most maintenance and repair work on Saturdays and Sundays; the L train, for instance, has been entirely canceled along much of its route on two weekends this month. Subway officials spent about six months designing the digital weekend guide, a recognition, they say, of riders’ increasing reliance on the Web and smartphones to navigate the city. The Weekender is not a panacea. Its landing page is not quite intuitive, and some users may at first have difficulty navigating it. But officials say that The Weekender is a work in progress, and that they will integrate users’ comments as they make adjustments. By coincidence, a preview of the site this week showed most subway lines looking relatively undisturbed for the coming weekend. That is likely to change. Referring to the blinking trouble lights, Paul Fleuranges, the head of the authority’s corporate communications division, said that on some weekends, the map might be “lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Subways
Maps
Vignelli Massimo
Metropolitan Transportation Authority


Ready to Snap at Work? Get in Touch With Your Inner Animal

Abstract: Ever experienced a bout of anxiety at work? I just did. One day last week I had several assignments to finish in quick succession. I could feel thoughts pinging around in my brain as I tried and failed to decide what to focus on first. Once I was able to get the pandemonium under control, my brain felt like mush. So what did I do? I breathed deeply from the middle of my body. I imagined the top of my head, and pictured arrows coming out the sides of my shoulders. I stood up for a while and then walked around the newsroom. And went back to work. These simple solutions to anxiety are not so easy to practice in an era of multitasking, multiple screens and mindless distractions. I learned them only after signing a contract to write a book — and becoming so anxious about it that I developed back and stomach pains. Unable to score a prescription for Klonopin (it’s addictive, my doctor said), I was reduced to seeking out natural methods to relieve my anxiety. The methods I learned helped me write the book. But they also made me realize that workers of all stripes could use them to reduce stress, and to think more clearly and creatively. My first stop was Belisa Vranich , a clinical psychologist who teaches — or rather reteaches — people how to breathe. Dimly I sensed that the way I was inhaling and exhaling was out of whack, and she confirmed it by giving me some tests. First off, like most people, I was a “vertical” breather, meaning my shoulders moved upward when I inhaled. Second, I was breathing from my upper chest, where the lungs don’t have much presence. In her Manhattan studio, Dr. Vranich taught me the right way to breathe: horizontally and from the middle of the body, where the diaphragm is. You should expand your belly while inhaling through your nose, she said, and squeeze your belly inward while exhaling. At first, this seemed counterintuitive. And yet it is the natural way to breathe — the way children and animals do it, Dr. Vranich said. It’s when society begins to exert its merciless pressure on us that we start doing things the wrong way. When we are under stress at work, we tend to brace and compress ourselves, and our field of vision becomes narrow, Dr. Vranich said in a recent interview. This causes us to breathe more quickly and shallowly. The brain needs oxygen to function, of course, and breathing this way reduces the supply, causing muddled thinking. Also, the digestive system doesn’t receive the movement and massage it needs from the diaphragm, and that can lead to problems like bloating and acid reflux, she said. Stress can send people into fight-or-flight mode, which can lead them to brace their bellies to appear strong. This is exactly the stance that interferes with calm, alert thinking, Dr. Vranich said. The fight-or-flight response means business. It developed early when our ancestors needed it as protection from predators. It was so crucial to survival that it has stuck around to this day, as a response to stress. Just enough stress (such as the kind provided by a realistic deadline) gets your adrenaline going and pushes you through to the finish line. But too much (the kind you feel when you have too many deadlines you know you can’t meet) can push you into fight or flight, causing you to crouch, clench and tense. I was also feeling pain and tension in my back and shoulders as I started to write my book — as if my body were trying to hide from a lion. So I took posture lessons. When I told people I was working on my posture, they tended to feel ashamed of their slouchiness and lifted their chins, pulled their shoulder blades together and stiffened their necks and shoulders. But that is exactly what you don’t want to do, said my posture teacher, Lindsay Newitter, who runs a company in New York called the Posture Police . Rather, you want to gently release the tension that you may not even be aware is compressing your body. Ms. Newitter helped me undo habits that had been tensing me up for years. Having an expert try to correct your unique postural peculiarities can be a help, but even without lessons, a few basic principles can help you get through the workday. First, as mentioned, simply imagine the top of your head. At the risk of looking like a monkey, you can even touch the top of your head to get a sense of where it is in space (you may be surprised at how off you were). This act of imagination gently guides you into better alignment. Imagining horizontal arrows moving in opposite directions from the sides of your shoulders expands your chest area and allows you to breathe more freely. Try to be aware of any part of the body where you are exerting more tension than you need. For example, the effort of operating your mouse should come more from your fingers than from gripping it with your hand, your wrist and your whole arm, Ms. Newitter said. The same principle applies to typing. Good posture helps you feel “spready instead of squished,” Ms. Newitter said recently, quoting her 9-year-old daughter. Ms. Newitter teaches a method known as the Alexander Technique, which was developed in the 19th century by Frederick Matthias Alexander, an Australian actor who invented it to cure his career-killing hoarseness. He came up with a concept known as “end gaining,” which has arguably only worsened as computers and smartphones have come on the scene. It means trying to get somewhere before you are actually there, so you are not inhabiting your own body in the present. Screens aggravate end-gaining because they cause people to curl forward to meet them, which compresses the spine, Ms. Newitter said. Let the screen come to you rather than lurch out toward it, she said. Another important point I learned in my quest to calm down is that to do our best work, we need to move around. People mistakenly think that being in one position for a long period will improve concentration, but the body needs to move and take regular breaks to focus, said Alan Hedge , an ergonomics professor at Cornell University. We’ve all heard that sitting for long periods is bad for you, but standing for a long time isn’t good either, Professor Hedge said. You need to mix it up. He has done research showing that workers should sit for roughly 20 minutes, stand for about eight minutes and move around for two minutes. This formula does not have to be exact. And once in a while, when you are in the magical state known as “flow,” where you are completely absorbed in your task and lose track of time, it doesn’t apply. But as a rule, getting up and moving around is beneficial. And if you’re stuck on an assignment, moving from one room to another can actually help recalibrate the brain, Professor Hedge said. A chair is essentially an antigravity device, he said, and “gravitational stimulation is really important for the body.” Research from NASA has shown that you need to have a regular sense of yourself in gravity to work effectively. “You need to get at least 16 of those signals a day,” he said, by standing up, sitting down or moving around. These basic lessons about the body can be hard to remember in the heat of a stressful moment. Even now, I still catch myself freezing in my chair like a cornered animal when I feel overwhelmed at work. But now I know I have the power to arise, expand and unscrunch, and to banish that imaginary lion from my cubicle.

Anxiety and Stress
Ergonomics
Workplace
Human back


Colombia: Rebels Free General

Abstract: Colombia’s largest rebel group has freed an army general and two others whose capture led President Juan Manuel Santos to break off peace talks with the rebels, the president said Sunday. Mr. Santos said in a message posted on Twitter that Gen. Rubén Darío Alzate and two others taken captive two weeks ago by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC, had been handed over to a humanitarian mission led by the International Committee of the Red Cross. He said the three were in good health and would be reunited with their families soon.

Colombia
FARC
Ruben Dario Alzate Mora
Juan Manuel Santos


In Animal Shelters, Reminders of the Economy

Abstract: ON Valentine’s Day, a loved one named Riley found himself being led back into the same noisy institutional building where he was also known as No. 08-447. The floppy-eared 2 ½-year-old Rottweiler-Doberman pinscher mix had been adopted as a puppy a year earlier from the Stamford Animal Care and Control municipal shelter. Riley’s return wasn’t a behavioral issue; according to Linda Hollywood, Stamford’s animal control officer, he is a sweet, easygoing dog who gets along well with other animals and children. “He was clearly well cared for and loved by this family,” Ms. Hollywood said. “But their home had just gone into foreclosure, and they were unable to find an apartment that would permit pets. In general, only the more expensive rentals allow them.” Riley could be a poster pup for a growing problem at animal shelters nationwide and in Connecticut: pets given up for adoption or abandoned when their owners lose homes owing to foreclosure or tough economic times. The extent of the problem is impossible to quantify, because some people merely abandon pets on the street or decline to give reasons for surrendering them to shelters. But pets left homeless are putting such a strain on shelters that the Humane Society of the United States has begun a nationwide Foreclosure Pets Grant Program to help animal control agencies, shelters and pet owners cope. “We find kittens in the mailbox, dogs tied to our dumpster,” Ms. Hollywood said. “Some people find it too upsetting to come in. But for care and adoption purposes, we’d at least like to know the animal’s age and vaccination history — whether it gets along with other dogs or cats.” The more a shelter knows about an animal, Ms. Hollywood, the easier it is to find a home for it. Adrienne Stafford, shelter director at PAWS, a privately run shelter in Norwalk, said it has noticed a slight increase in people giving loss of home as a reason for giving up a pet. “We’re also getting more calls from folks worried that they can’t afford to keep their pets.” Ms. Stafford and the volunteers at PAWS collect donations of food and supplies to help, along with information on financial options, such as no-interest medical care credit cards that can help owners pay veterinary bills over time. Municipal shelters must accept surrendered pets, whenever they arrive. “It’s just horrible now — every day,” said Jimmy Gonzalez, animal control officer for Bridgeport. “But honestly, it’s always bad here.” He said that his shelter is the busiest in the state, averaging 5 to 10 “owner releases” a day, and that those numbers have stayed fairly steady over the last few years. Mr. Gonzalez said that half of his shelter’s population was abandoned cruelly and indifferently, on the streets or in vacated dwellings. But lately, during his intake interviews with people bringing in their pets, he has seen more signs of owners feeling guilty about releases attributed to economic problems. “People are coming out and saying that they’re losing their homes and can’t keep the pet,” he said. “It’s such a big problem now, they seem to feel able to tell you the exact reason, beyond a simple ‘I’m moving.’ ” Even the owners showing the steeliest resolve as they fill out the paperwork have difficulty with the questions Mr. Gonzalez gently asks to make sure they want to leave the pet behind. “Usually, they break down,” he said. “Or I find them outside in the back afterward, crying. Really, they’ve just given up a child. I hate to see that pain. I hate to lead the pet away. You can’t imagine the stress in this job.” Mr. Gonzalez and his staff of three must manage adoptions, intake and care for a capacity of 40 dogs and 25 cats (soon to be increased to 80 dogs and 52 cats in a new facility, without any growth in the staff). He said that nearly every day, his team arrives at work to find dogs tied to the fence outside. They field constant calls from panicked landlords and real estate agents. “They’ll send someone in to clean a just-vacated apartment or home and find five cats or three pit bulls inside.” Hope does spring eternal, yipping and purring, within the cages. “Adoptions are high here,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Yesterday, 62 people came in to look, and we had 13 adoptions.” Still, as the animals continue to arrive, he feels as if he’s trying to plug an ever-weakening dike. “It’s an awful thing to see. I’ve had tough gang bangers come in to look around and go, ‘Man, is it that bad out there?’ ” The Internet has been a boon to shelters and rescue groups trying to place animals. And it was a mouse click that changed Riley’s luck. In Wethersfield, Michael Morreale, the owner of a floor covering company, found Riley’s photo and description on Petfinder.com . He drove to Stamford with Max, the family Doberman, to see how the two might get along. “I paid $1,000 for Max,” Mr. Morreale said. “He’s a great dog. But I’ve always felt that guys like Riley should have a chance, too.” Max and Riley hit it off, and off they went to a comfortable home with a big fenced yard; two eager children, Alexa, 9, and Nicholas, 15; and Mr. Morreale and his wife, Annamarie. “Riley has been a total gentleman from day one,” Mr. Morreale said. “He’s great with the kids, and we often find him in my daughter’s room. He seems to find a lot of comfort there. It makes me think there was another little girl who loved him.” The name and cellphone number of Riley’s former family cannot be disclosed by the shelter. The family did not respond to an interview request, relayed to them by Ms. Hollywood. “I think they’re still in Stamford,” she said. “We know Riley’s had a very happy landing. I wish we could be as certain about that family.”

Economic Conditions and Trends
Pets
Hirshey Gerri


Sun’s Loss Reflects Revamping Costs

Abstract: Sun Microsystems swung to a loss of $209 million in its latest quarter as the company absorbed a big restructuring charge for job cuts and grappled with falling demand for its servers and data-storage machines. Shares rose 5 percent in extended trading, however, on better-than-expected sales. The company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said after the market closed Tuesday that its loss amounted to 28 cents a share. In the comparable period a year earlier Sun had a profit of $260 million, or 31 cents a share. The latest figures were weighed down by a $222 million restructuring charge. Sun, a provider of hardware and services for computer networks, revealed in November that it was cutting as many as 6,000 of its 33,000 workers over the next year. Sun said the cuts would save up to $800 million a year. Without one-time charges, Sun said it earned $114 million, or 15 cents a share, down from $409 million, or 50 cents a share, in the second quarter a year ago. Sales in the period, which ended Dec. 28 and was the second quarter of Sun’s fiscal year, fell nearly 11 percent, to $3.22 billion, from $3.62 billion, but that was better than analysts’ estimates. Sun’s server revenue fell 14 percent, to $1.37 billion. Storage revenue fell 13 percent, to $570 million. Stock in Sun finished the regular trading session up 21 cents, or 5.6 percent, at $3.99 a share. The shares jumped to $4.20 in extended trading.

Sun Microsystems Inc
Company Reports
Layoffs and Job Reductions


3.3 Million Were Expected at Trade Center Attraction; a Million Haven’t Shown Up

Abstract: In New York City, it seemed like you couldn’t go wrong getting tourists’ heads into the clouds. Especially if, like One World Observatory , you could boast the highest observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, atop the newly built 1 World Trade Center . When the observatory complex opened last year on the top three floors of the new Lower Manhattan building, its operator, Legends, predicted that it would draw 3.3 million visitors annually. That was optimistic by a million. This week, the video wall in the Global Welcome Center, which displays a running tally of visitors, put the total number at just 2.3 million since the observatory opened on May 29, 2015. And it appears that the river of tourists has slowed over time. One World celebrated its one-millionth visitor last September, four months after opening. But in the eight months since then, only 1.3 million have made their way to the attraction, perched 1,268 feet above city streets. With the standard ticket price set at $32, the shortfall in attendance is significant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building, together with the Durst Organization. The authority, which has spent tens of billions of dollars rebuilding the trade center, hoped the observatory would be a major revenue generator. In the past, the authority claimed that its lease with Legends would generate $875 million over 15 years. Legends pays the authority a flat rent of $14.6 million a year, and as much as 50 percent of the revenues above certain undisclosed thresholds. Legends and the authority insist that the observatory is a success, although they both refuse to release any rent or revenue numbers for the publicly owned property, citing a confidentiality agreement. They say the observatory hit its numbers for 2015. “Between revenue numbers and customer reviews, we couldn’t be more happy,” said Shervin Mirhashemi, president of Legends, which is owned by the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. “We look at our attraction as a premium experience.” Still, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum attracted 2.9 million visitors over the past year, 600,000 more than One World Observatory. Observatories have become a 21st-century craze, inspired in part by the profit-making operation at one of the world’s biggest tourist attractions: the Empire State Building , whose two observatories are a veritable cash machine, drawing more than 4 million tourists annually and producing nearly 40 percent of the tower’s total revenue in 2015 and $82 million in cash after expenses. Top of the Rock, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center, lures 2 million visitors a year. Both attractions raised their prices to match One World Observatory’s when that venue opened. Image Attendance at the observatory is below projections. At the entrance on Friday afternoon, there was no line to buy tickets, which go for $32. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Some new observatories are offering more than a view to attract tourists. At the Tilt thrill ride at the John Hancock Center in Chicago, visitors can step into a glass-and-steel enclosure as it rotates 30 degrees. In Los Angeles, when a four-story observatory at the U.S. Bank Tower is completed, visitors will be able to hurtle down a 45-foot-long glass-bottomed slide, 1,000 feet above the street. But in New York, the attraction has mostly been the view, whether from the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock or, until it was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, the Windows on the World complex atop the trade center’s North Tower, with its high-end restaurant, bars and party rooms offering sweeping vistas over the harbor and Lower Manhattan. Mr. Mirhashemi said that Legends was still building its business at the trade center. He said the company expected to draw 2.5 million tourists in 2016, and eventually, more than 3 million annually. In explaining the slowdown so far this year, Mr. Mirhashemi said that tourism typically dipped between January and May but came roaring back in the summer. But in the first quarter of 2016, the Empire State Building’s observatories saw a 15.6 percent increase in attendance over the same period a year earlier, according to S.E.C. filings. Legends, which spent almost $80 million building the complex atop 1 World Trade Center, provides marketing and food and beverage services for a number of large sports venues, including Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Angel Stadium and the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles area, Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium outside Dallas. One World Observatory is the company’s first observatory, though it will also operate the observation deck at the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles. The authority selected the company in 2013 to run the attraction at the trade center over more experienced operators. Barry Tenenbaum, president of New York City Vacation Packages, a tourism company, said the observatory’s problems might be rooted in Legends’ failure to court tour operators, which often buy tickets in bulk, at a significant discount. Tourists from other countries often purchase a package with tickets from museums and other attractions before they land in New York. The standard package for Mr. Tenenbaum’s company includes admission to either the Empire State Building or Top of the Rock, but not to One World Observatory. “Legends really doesn’t have a lot of experience in the tourism market,” Mr. Tenenbaum said. “I would like to think that’s why their volume is not up to snuff. I think they’re going after the corporate market as much as the tourist market.” Mr. Mirhashemi said that Legends was working with tour operators, “but on a very selective basis.” Soon visitors will have even more choices. On the West Side of Manhattan, a new competitor at 30 Hudson Yards, which claims it will have the highest outdoor deck, on the 89th floor, is scheduled to open in 2019, with another at 1 Vanderbilt, next to Grand Central Terminal, to follow. Analysts have wondered how many observatories are too many in New York. But some people think the sky is the limit. “The city could definitely accommodate three, if not more, observatories,” said Andrew Luan, owner of New York Tour1, a guided-tour operator.

1 World Trade Center
Port Authority
NYC
Legends Hospitality Management
World Trade Center


Mubarak Family Riches Attract New Focus

Abstract: After Hosni Mubarak ’s younger son, Gamal, left his job as an executive with Bank of America in London in the mid-1990s, he joined forces with Egypt ’s largest investment bank. Today he has a significant stake in a private equity company with interests throughout the Egyptian economy, from oil to agriculture to tourism, corporate records and interviews show. During President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule, he and his family were not flamboyant with their wealth, particularly by the standards of other leaders in the Middle East. While there is no indication that Gamal Mubarak or the bank were involved in illegal activity, his investments show how deeply the family is woven into Egypt’s economy. Now with Hosni Mubarak out of power, there are growing calls for an accounting to begin. Within hours of Mr. Mubarak’s resignation on Friday, Swiss officials ordered all banks in Switzerland to search for — and freeze — any assets of the former president, his family or close associates. In Egypt, opposition leaders vowed to press for a full investigation of Mr. Mubarak’s finances. Tracing the money is likely to be difficult because business in Egypt was largely conducted in secret among a small group connected to Mr. Mubarak. “Now we open all the files,” said George Ishak, head of the National Association for Change , an opposition umbrella group. “We will research everything, all of them: the families of the ministers, the family of the president, everyone.” Estimates of the Mubaraks’ fortune vary wildly, including a widespread rumor that they are worth as much as $70 billion. United States officials say that figure is vastly exaggerated and put the family’s wealth at $2 billion to $3 billion. Gamal Mubarak, who was being groomed to be the next president, and his older brother Ala’a, were considered major figures in the business elite. Gamal Mubarak’s private equity business came through his ties to EFG-Hermes , the largest investment bank in Egypt. EFG-Hermes, which listed assets of $8 billion on its 2010 financial statement, was pivotal in Egypt’s privatization program, in which state companies were sold to politically connected businessmen. The connection to EFG-Hermes reaches back to the mid-1990s. After Gamal Mubarak left Bank of America, he set up an investment firm called Medinvest Associates in London in 1996 with two partners. Medinvest, in turn, is owned by an international securities fund in Cyprus called Bullion Company Ltd. According to EFG-Hermes, Gamal Mubarak owns half of Bullion, and records in Cyprus show that his brother Ala’a is on the board. Bullion owns 35 percent of the private equity operation, which has $919 million under management, according to the chief executive of EFG-Hermes, Hassan Heikal. The equity fund invests in oil and gas, steel, cement, food and cattle. Mr. Heikal said that other than the private equity investment, Gamal Mubarak had no other ties “directly, indirectly, offshore or through family” to the bank. He said the fund constituted only 7 percent of the bank’s business. Questioned about the size of Gamal’s initial investment in the 1990s, Mr. Heikal declined to elaborate. A spokeswoman for EFG-Hermes said in a statement that the bank “has received no special privileges or consideration from the Egyptian government and has always operated under legal and transparent best-practices.” Calls to Medinvest’s office in London and Bullion’s office in Cyprus last week were not returned. In the past, Gamal Mubarak has denied any wrongdoing and said he was involved in legitimate business activities. For years, opposition groups have contended that since Egypt privatized its economy in the 1990s, the Mubaraks and a few dozen elite families have held stakes in the sale of state assets and in new business ventures. Later, some of these businessmen were appointed to government positions overseeing the very businesses they ran. Connections to the presidential palace brought benefits like the opportunity to develop government real estate and access to easy bank loans. “The corruption of the Mubarak family was not stealing from the budget, it was transforming political capital into private capital,” said Samer Soliman , a professor of political economy at American University in Cairo. Occasionally, members of the ruling elite who fell out of favor were suddenly convicted of financial corruption charges, but generally, the inner workings of the system have remained hidden. One businessman who won government approval for various major development projects is Magdi Rasekh, Ala’a Mubarak’s father-in-law. Mr. Rasekh is chairman of the board of Sixth of October Development & Investment Company, which built one of a series of sprawling new developments in the desert outside Cairo. The government-backed development, Sixth of October City, is home to 500,000 people, an entirely new satellite city with an industrial park, a hospital, villas and middle-class apartments. Efforts to reach Mr. Rasekh were not successful. As attention turns to tracking the Mubaraks’ purported wealth, rumors of vast real estate holdings by the family have swirled. But the only property outside of Egypt that has emerged is the London townhouse at 28 Wilton Place in Knightsbridge where Gamal Mubarak lived when he was an investment banker there. But determining the precise ownership of the house shows why investigating the family’s wealth is complicated. A woman answering the front door of the house said the Mubaraks had sold it, but property agents said there was no record of a sale, and neighbors said they had seen Gamal Mubarak and his family entering it several times recently. According to British records, the home is owned by a company called Ocral Enterprises of Panama. The registered agent for the company in Panama is a local law firm. A lawyer at the firm said that he could not reveal Ocral’s owner. The lawyer said his firm received its instructions regarding Ocral from a company in Muscat, Oman, which he declined to identify. Though Swiss banks have begun the search for Mubarak family assets, experts said any money would be returned to Egypt only if its new government formally demanded them. “Egypt has to run a criminal investigation,” said Daniel Thelesklaf, director of the International Center for Asset Recovery in Switzerland. “A lot will depend on the new Egyptian government.” As the protest intensified last week, government prosecutors froze the assets of five government ministers and imposed a travel ban on them. The move appeared to be an effort by Mr. Mubarak to distance himself from the wealthy businessmen who had become the focus of public ire over corruption. It is unclear whether the military, which now runs the government and has vast business holdings itself, will allow a full inquiry into the Mubarak family’s wealth. Perhaps the most difficult question to answer is the level of corruption involving Hosni Mubarak himself. Former American diplomats said he appeared to live relatively simply, particularly by the standards of rulers in the region. His main residence outside Cairo was a villa in a private compound in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheik, where he went after resigning the presidency on Friday. Diplomats said the villa was not particularly grand for the neighborhood, smaller than the nearby home of Bakr bin Laden, a member of the wealthy Saudi construction clan and a half-brother of Osama bin Laden. Mr. Mubarak’s villa is in a compound developed by Hussein Salem, an Egyptian businessman and close friend of the former president. Mr. Salem pleaded guilty in 1983 to overcharging the Pentagon $8 million for shipping military equipment to Egypt. Despite the conviction, he prospered in Mr. Mubarak’s Egypt and heads a lucrative business that ships natural gas to Israel.

Mubarak Hosni
Politics and Government
Egypt
Mubarak Gamal


I.M.F., Predicting Slower Growth for China, Urges Overhauls

Abstract: HONG KONG — The International Monetary Fund trimmed its growth forecast for China on Wednesday, flagged concerns about the rapid expansion in lending in the country’s vast economy and urged a “decisive” push for overhauls that it argues would put the economy on the path toward sustainable growth. The lowered forecast — the I.M.F. shaved a quarter of a percentage point off its previous projection for 8 percent growth in China, to 7.75 percent — was the latest in a string of similar reductions by analysts in recent weeks. And although the new projection remains higher than the Chinese government’s target of 7.5 percent growth, the I.M.F.’s revision and comments underlined the challenges facing policy makers as they try to revamp the Chinese economy, the world’s second-largest, after that of the United States. Chinese government data for the first quarter of the year showed that the pace of economic growth had slowed to 7.7 percent — markedly below what most analysts had expected. Economic indicators for April and May also have been lackluster. In the short term, recent credit expansion, combined with a mild pickup in the global economy, is expected to lift China’s growth rate in the second half of this year, the I.M.F. said, after concluding an annual review of the Chinese economy. But in the longer term, major efforts are needed to rebalance the economy and address problems like soaring income inequality and environmental degradation, which built up in the headlong expansion of the past few decades. The rapid growth in credit in recent years also has emerged as a major source of concern among analysts, who worry that the accumulation of debt brings substantial risks, including asset price bubbles and potentially destabilizing defaults. The I.M.F. added its voice to the chorus of warnings about the so-called shadow-banking system — lending outside the regulated banking system, which has been growing rapidly in the past few years. The growth in credit, the I.M.F. said, “raises concerns about the quality of investment and its impact on repayment capacity, especially since a fast-growing share of credit is flowing through less-well supervised parts of the financial system.” Growth, it added, has become “too dependent on the continued expansion of investment, much of it by the property sector and local governments whose financial position is being affected as a result.” Policy makers in Beijing are well aware of these issues and are aiming to bring about more balanced, higher-quality growth that will improve living standards and household incomes. The I.M.F. said it was “reassured” by the authorities’ focus on the financial sector and fiscal overhauls, adding that “reining in total social financing growth is a priority and will require further tightening of prudential oversight.” Such policies may slow activity in the short term, the I.M.F. said, but they would do so “in a way that supports the transition to a more sustainable growth path.” While China still has “significant policy space and financial capacity to maintain stability” the I.M.F. said, “the margins of safety are narrowing” and a “decisive impetus to reforms is needed to contain vulnerabilities and move the economy to a more sustainable growth path.”


Donald Trump, a Figure of Contention, Hosting a Golf Major

Abstract: TURNBERRY, Scotland — In the United States, Donald Trump is known as a tycoon, as an outspoken television personality and, now, as a presidential candidate. In Scotland, however, Trump is renowned primarily for his impact on the country’s golf scene — although here, too, he is a figure of contention. Trump’s interest in the sport’s homeland will fall under scrutiny this week as the Women’s British Open is held at his most recent purchase, Turnberry — or Trump Turnberry as it is now labeled on every resort courtesy car, uniform lapel, item of merchandise and flat surface. The event is a landmark for Trump, 69, who boasts an impressive portfolio of golf courses, mostly in the United States, but who has struggled to gain a foothold in Scottish golf’s links landscape. His plans to build, from scratch, a world-class course and resort in Aberdeenshire have been hampered by legal challenges. And he has prominent opponents, including a former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond. But in Turnberry, which he bought in April 2014, Trump owns a four-time host of the men’s British Open. The initial plans for Trump’s Aberdeenshire resort — near Balmedie, on the northeast coast of Scotland — called for the destruction of 4,000-year-old coastal sand dunes, leading to protests from local residents. An action group with the name Tripping Up Trump was even formed to prevent the construction of the 1-billion-pound (then about $2 billion) project, opposition that led to the documentary “You’ve Been Trumped.” Ultimately, Trump got his way, with ministers voting in 2008 in favor of the course’s construction, deeming the economic benefits to outweigh the environmental cost. His victory was not entirely sweet, though: The Scottish government approved plans for an offshore wind farm just a mile or two from the coast of his Aberdeenshire course. Image The Women’s British Open will be held at the Trump Turnberry Resort, which Donald Trump bought in 2014. Credit Graham Ruthven for The New York Times Thus began Trump’s running battle with Salmond, the most powerful Scottish parliamentary figure of his generation, who resigned his office in December. Appearing in front of a parliamentary committee, Trump labeled the wind turbines “one of the most serious problems Scotland will have or has had.” When asked to present evidence of his assertion, he replied, “I am the evidence.” Trump recently blamed Salmond personally for the proposals, saying last month, “I have not spoken to Alex Salmond in years, but I think it is a terrible thing he has done to Scotland.” In something of a sulk, Trump has vowed to halt any further development of his resort at Balmedie should the wind farm be built — and at present, it appears that it will. The purchase of Turnberry, already a world-renowned resort, for £35 million (then $59 million) suggests that Trump has effectively given up on his ambition of turning the Aberdeenshire course, which opened in 2012, into a destination of similar standard. Trump has pledged around $250 million in investment toward his Turnberry resort, and with gold fixtures, marble floors and shimmering glass now adorning the recently renovated clubhouse, it is easy to see how $10 million of that money has already been spent. Most locals seem hesitant to comment on Trump’s character, as if torn between wanting to voice their derision and express begrudging gratitude for the investment he has plowed into the region. “We try to ignore what he says in the media,” one man said. Another golfer — a tourist from Connecticut — quipped, “He’s better at owning golf courses than is he at being a politician.” One barman at a nearby pub explained that “golf people” saw Trump in a different way, adding that “we’d rather it was someone else’s name” attached to the resort but that “he’s put a lot of money in.” Professional players have found themselves in a similar predicament. When Rickie Fowler was recently pressed for his opinion on Trump — and more specifically Trump’s comments on the “great danger” of Mexican immigration to the United States — he was wary not to cross one of European golf’s biggest investors. “It’s not exactly my spot to comment in a way,” Fowler, who won the Scottish Open in Gullane this month, said. “We go and play the best tournaments in the world, wherever they may be.” Until Trump’s controversial comments, his course at Balmedie was rumored to be under consideration to host the Scottish Open in the future. Such speculation has now abated, given that the tournament is backed by the Scottish Parliament — of which Trump is a longtime critic. In addition, in the wake of Trump’s remarks, the P.G.A. of America pulled a tournament, the Grand Slam of Golf, from Trump National Golf Club near Los Angeles — the P.G.A. of America called it a mutual decision in a statement — and the L.P.G.A. distanced itself from Trump. Trump himself wrote to the British Women’s Open organizers, daring them to find a new venue for the competition if they had such objections. Regardless, a successful staging of the British Women’s Open this week would increase Turnberry’s chances of being awarded the men’s British Open at some point after 2018, the last year for which a course has been chosen already. (The R&A controls the rotation for that tournament.) Trump — a man who once invited the Scottish news media to his private hangar at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, holding a news conference in front of his sparkling jet and helicopter — knows how to put on a spectacle, and preparations for the Women’s British Open hint at a truly big-time event. Whether the man himself will attend is a matter of local speculation. “After all the noise he’s made, he has to be here,” one golfer said in front of the clubhouse that bears Trump’s name. “This will be a win for him — for a change.”

Golf
Donald Trump
Women's British Open Golf
Turnberry,Trump Turnberry


For Jets, Abbreviated Turnaround May Help

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — It is good to have a short memory in the N.F.L. For the Jets , who play Thursday night against the Denver Broncos , their two-and-a-half-day turnaround is the quickest way to move beyond their sobering 37-16 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday night. “I wish we were playing today,” quarterback Mark Sanchez said Tuesday. “I wish we had played yesterday just to get it over with and move on.” Still, the Jets were restrained Tuesday in an extended walk-through, with players still recovering from the defeat. “The difference between playing New England and playing Denver, it’s so different that you have no choice,” Coach Rex Ryan said of the need to refocus before the team’s flight to Denver on Wednesday. The Jets also find themselves in a rare scheduling situation. In the past eight years, only two teams — the Miami Dolphins in 2003 and the Broncos in 2006 — have had a Thursday game after playing their previous game on the preceding Sunday night. The Jets will travel farther than those teams, with more than 1,700 miles between MetLife Stadium and the high-altitude Sports Authority Field in Denver. The abbreviated prep time compounds what would be a challenging transition in a normal week. Not only has running back LaDanian Tomlinson not practiced because of a sprained left knee, but after facing Tom Brady and the Patriots’ passing offense, the Jets will now have to defend Tim Tebow and his running ability. “That can kind of lull you to sleep if you see run after run,” Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said. The Broncos ran the ball 55 times and Tebow attempted only eight passes — completing just two — in a 17-10 win over Kansas City on Sunday. Tebow has more rushing attempts (48) than completions (47) in his two-year career. To prepare, the Jets have used the backup Mark Brunell, who was known as a scrambling quarterback earlier in his career, to simulate Tebow in practice. “I am left-handed, and he is left-handed,” Brunell said of his similarity to Tebow. “That’s about it.” Tomlinson has had great success against the Broncos in his career, with 19 touchdowns in 18 games while playing for San Diego. He also scored the winning touchdown in the Jets’ 24-20 victory over Denver last season. The Jets, however, could be without him on Thursday night. Ryan said he would use the rookie Bilal Powell and receiver Eron Riley to fill in if necessary. With or without Tomlinson, Sanchez will be attempting to move on from his blunders on Sunday. The most egregious came near the end of the first half, when Sanchez said he misheard the coaches talking over his headset and called timeout instead of letting the clock run down. That left Brady enough time to drive the Patriots 80 yards for a touchdown and a 13-9 halftime lead that they never relinquished. After the game, Ryan called Sanchez’s decision the “worst play in N.F.L. history.” “He’s dead on,” Sanchez said. He credited the Patriots for pressuring him into turnovers. They did so despite starting two undrafted rookies who had never played a single defensive snap in the N.F.L. before Sunday — safety Sterling Moore (who had never played safety) and linebacker Jeff Tarpinian. Patriots lineman Aaron Carter recorded a team-record four and a half sacks. “That puts our offense in a tough spot,” Sanchez said of the Patriots’ plan to pressure him. Sanchez said last year’s 45-3 loss to New England “hung over” the team and influenced his poor play in the next week’s 10-6 loss to Miami, in which he had a 38.6 completion percentage. He said he was grateful that there is less time to dwell on his performance this time. “We can turn right around, get the bad taste out of our mouths and play well on Thursday in a short week,” he said.

Football
New York Jets
Denver Broncos
Ryan Rex
Sanchez Mark


Anglo American Cuts 19,000 Jobs

Abstract: PARIS — Joining the global procession of companies cutting jobs as the economic crisis bites, the mining giant Anglo American , said on Friday that it would suspend dividend payments for 2008 and cut 19,000 jobs, a tenth of its work force. The company blamed shrinking auto production, reduced construction projects in emerging economies and a sharp fall in commodity prices. The announcement in London sent the company’s shares falling on exchanges in London and Johannesburg as the company posted a 1 percent fall in profits — a worse performance than investors had anticipated. The share price fell in early London trading by 12.5 percent. Anglo American mines minerals including platinum, iron ore, copper and diamonds. It is the world’s fourth-largest diversified mining company with operations centered in southern Africa. “The breadth and severity of the global economic downturn and its impact on growth rates in key sectors and economies are difficult to overstate,” the chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, said in a statement on Friday. “From global automotive production to construction activity in emerging markets, there was a marked contrast between the first and second halves of 2008, when commodity prices fell sharply,” she said. “As we begin 2009, the economic outlook remains weak, with limited visibility, and we are continuing to experience volatility and downward pressure on commodity prices.” The company said on Friday earnings before exceptional items in 2008 fell to $4.36 a share, from $4.40 in 2007, while operating profit fell 0.3 percent, to $10.09 billion. Anglo was expected to post a 13 percent rise in its per share earning, to $4.96, according to seven analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates, while operating profit was forecast to be flat at $10.1 billion.

Anglo American PLC
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Mines and Mining
Company Reports


AIDS Groups in India Sue to Halt Patent for U.S. Drug

Abstract: NEW DELHI, May 11 — AIDS groups this week brought an important test of India's new patent law, which restricts the ability of Indian companies to produce low-cost generic drugs. Two patients-rights groups asked Indian authorities to stop Gilead Sciences, a California biopharmaceutical company, from patenting the antiretroviral drug Viread — its brand-name version of tenofovir, which is available here as a generic drug. If it is patented, the groups contend, making the cheaper versions will become illegal, and the drug will become too costly for patients here and in other developing countries. "These generic drugs are not only consumed in India," said Leena Menghaney of Doctors Without Borders in New Delhi, which is working with the Indian groups on the issue. "People in Africa and the Caribbean are relying on India to produce these drugs," she said, later adding, "The quality matches that of U.S.-manufactured drugs, but the prices are affordable." The lawyers for the two groups — the Delhi Network of Positive People and the Indian Network for People Living with H.I.V./AIDS — presented arguments on Tuesday, contending that tenofovir is not a new drug, but a modified version of an earlier drug, and therefore not eligible for a new patent under India's new law. Those backing the legal challenge are hoping to gain a legal precedent for use in other patent applications. They say the recent rejection of a patent application by Novartis for a cancer drug, Gleevac, on the grounds of similar legal arguments, gave some cause for optimism. The World Health Organization recently recommended tenofovir for patients who are just starting treatment for AIDS and for those who have been receiving antiretroviral treatment therapy but who have become resistant to other treatments. In developed countries, Gilead's tenofovir costs $5,718 per patient per year. Cipla, one of the largest generic companies in India, is marketing a version called Tenvir, at a cost of $700 per person per year in India. Yusuf Hamied, chairman of Cipla, said the drug would eventually be made available in Africa for about half that price. But Tenvir would have to be withdrawn if Gilead were given a patent, which would be in effect for 12 years. Gilead Sciences said Thursday in an e-mail message, referring to its brand name for the drug: "We disagree with statements that Viread should not be patented; we believe that Viread represents innovation and is patentable under Indian law. We will use this patent responsibly, and will not block access to our medication in India or in other resource-limited countries where the H.I.V. epidemic has hit the hardest." The company, the message said, is "pursuing a broad policy of nonexclusive voluntary licensing under this patent to generic manufacturers in India for the local Indian market as well as provision for manufacturers to export product to the 97 developing-world countries included in Gilead's access program."

Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Gilead Sciences Incorporated
India


Backlash Against Israel Boycott Throws Academic Association on Defensive

Abstract: NEW YORK — With its recent vote to boycott Israel’s higher-education institutions to protest the country’s treatment of Palestinians, the American Studies Association has itself become the target of widespread criticism and ostracism. It has gone from relative obscurity to prominence as a pariah of the United States higher-education establishment, its experience serving as a cautionary tale for other scholarly groups that might consider taking a similar stand on the Middle East. In sharp contrast to the international campaign for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, which had been slow to gain a foothold in the United States, the campaign to rebuke the American Studies Association has spread rapidly since the group’s mid-December boycott vote. The presidents of more than 80 United States colleges have condemned the vote. “Such boycotts threaten academic speech and exchange, which it is our solemn duty as academic institutions to protect,” Carolyn A. Martin, president of Amherst College, said in a statement posted on the university’s website. Nearly all of the presidents’ statements have similarly denounced the boycott as impeding the flow of ideas. Several have cited specific collaborations or exchanges with Israeli universities as evidence of their institutional commitment to maintaining strong relations with Israel. At least five institutions — Bard College, Brandeis University, Indiana University, Kenyon College and Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg — have withdrawn from A.S.A. membership. As of last week, the boycott also had been denounced by three of the United States’ most prominent higher-education organizations: the American Association of University Professors, the American Council on Education and the Association of American Universities. “Such actions are misguided and greatly troubling, as they strike at the heart of academic freedom,” said the American Council on Education’s president, Molly Corbett Broad. The scale and speed of the backlash against the boycott is striking, considering that the A.S.A. has only about 4,000 members and lacks any formal ties with Israeli institutions. “Why anyone should care what the A.S.A. thinks bewilders me. It is not a very large academic association, and it is not one that characteristically has a big impact in the academy,” said Stanley N. Katz, a higher-education policy expert at Princeton University and president emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies. Still, Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, wrote a Los Angeles Times op-ed calling the A.S.A. boycott “a repugnant attack on academic freedom.” William G. Bowen, a former president of Princeton University and president emeritus of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, said college presidents were opposing the A.S.A. boycott simply because they believe “boycotts are a bad idea.” “It is dangerous business, and basically unwise, for institutions to become embroiled in these kinds of debates,” Mr. Bowen said. “The consequences for institutions are just too serious.” Henry S. Bienen, president emeritus of Northwestern University, said the intricate ties between American and Israeli universities, especially in areas like scientific research, have also been a motivating factor. More broadly, he said, “Israel has a special place for lots of individuals in academic life,” including Jewish academics who are well represented on the faculties and in the administrations of United States higher-education institutions. Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and a boycott opponent, said calls from alumni to take a stand against the boycott had played a role. “As an active member of the Jewish community, I recognize that the American Jewish community is disproportionately generous to American higher education,” he said. “For the president of an institution to express his or her solidarity with Israel is welcomed by a very important part of their support base.” Mr. Botstein, who has faulted his fellow presidents for not speaking out more on issues like income inequality or declining government support for higher education, said the decision to oppose the A.S.A. boycott was easy because the group’s resolution was “clumsy and offensive.” Taking a position against the boycott, he added, “doesn’t show courage, it shows common sense.” Curtis F. Marez, president of the American Studies Association, said its critics’ assertions that the boycott threatened academic freedom were misplaced, because the boycott was directed at Israeli institutions and their representatives, not individual scholars or students, and would not affect routine scholarly collaborations and exchanges. In an email, Mr. Marez, who is chairman of the ethnic studies department at the University of California at San Diego, argued that, “if anything, the boycott will expand intellectual exchanges and shine a light on the limitations of academic freedom for Palestinians.” Other supporters of the boycott have argued that the campaign against it represents the real threat to academic freedom. Among them, Ashley J. Dawson, a professor of English at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and editor of the A.A.U.P.’s Journal of Academic Freedom, said that college presidents who had denounced the A.S.A. resolution were abrogating the academic freedom of faculty members who supported the boycott. “The backlash against American Studies,” he said, “is because it is daring to bring up the issue of what is happening in the Middle East.” Some college presidents have come under fire for their antiboycott stands. Among them, John E. Sexton, president of New York University, was accused of hypocrisy for speaking out against the A.S.A. boycott while failing to criticize the United Arab Emirates, where N.Y.U. operates a campus, for its repression of academics and restriction of the travel of Israeli scholars. Faculty members at Trinity College in Connecticut are fiercely divided over a statement by its president, James F. Jones Jr., denouncing the A.S.A. boycott as misguided and unprincipled. More than 20 faculty members there have signed a letter criticizing his statement while more than 30 other faculty members have signed a separate letter supporting Mr. Jones. The backlash against the boycott is being stoked by fears that other scholarly groups in the United States might follow the A.S.A.’s lead in joining the international boycott, divestment and sanctions, or B.D.S., movement to protest Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian who is one the movement’s founders, told The New York Times that the A.S.A.’s resolution represented “perhaps the strongest indicator yet that the B.D.S. movement is reaching a tipping point, even in the U.S.” The United States Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel hailed the A.S.A. vote as “a historic breakthrough among U.S.-based academics.” The American Studies Association is the second scholarly association in the United States to vote to boycott Israel’s academic institutions. A smaller group, the Association for Asian American Studies, approved a similar boycott resolution in April. A third organization, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, plans at its annual conference in May to vote on a pro-boycott statement that its leadership council approved last month. In her statement denouncing such boycotts, Ms. Broad of the American Council on Education said, “We hope the leadership of these organizations soon reconsiders their actions, and trust that other scholarly organizations will see the troubling implications of such boycotts and avoid similar votes.” In an interview this week, Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities, characterized his group’s recent denunciation of such boycotts as partly a response to the growth in the number of scholarly groups adopting them. Mr. Dawson, the A.A.U.P. journal editor whose support of the boycott puts him at odds with that organization’s leadership, alleged that “the A.S.A. is getting slammed by groups that are dedicated to keeping debate about Israeli settler colonialism in the occupied territories out of public view in the United States.” It remains unclear, however, whether the academic-boycott movement stands much chance of gaining enough ground in the United States to have a real impact. The only large scholarly organization to consider weighing in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the nearly 30,000-member Modern Language Association, is taking a much more tentative approach. Its annual conference this month will include a round-table discussion of boycotts in support of Palestinians, and its leadership will consider asking its members to vote on a resolution urging the U.S. State Department “to contest Israel’s arbitrary denials of entry to Gaza and the West Bank” by American academics invited to teach, confer, or do research at Palestinian universities. Although the American Studies Association has a substantial reach in academe, with more than 100 institutional members, some of its critics say it leans too far to the left for its actions to be seen as portending pro-boycott votes by other scholarly groups. Those deriding the A.S.A. as ideologically skewed include Alan Luxenberg, president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who in a recent op-ed in The American Interest accused the association’s National Council, which unanimously endorsed the boycott resolution, of having academic profiles that showed “a stunning lack of diversity of intellectual interests and perspectives.” The A.S.A.’s recent experience clearly shows that boycott resolutions carry a potential price. After the resolution passed last month, with the support of two-thirds of the 1,252 association members voting on it, the A.S.A.’s national office was too deluged with angry phone calls to carry on with business and ended up having to close for a day, according to John F. Stevens, the group’s executive director. Two New York State lawmakers, State Sen. Jeff Klein of the Bronx and State Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, said they planned to propose legislation that would cut off state support to any public or private college that participated in the A.S.A. or any other group involved in a boycott of Israel. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, an advocacy group devoted to fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses, has threatened to challenge the A.S.A.’s tax-exempt status. Among those who have spoken out against the A.S.A.’s boycott, Lawrence H. Summers, a former president of Harvard University, has called on college administrators to deny faculty members funds to attend A.S.A. meetings. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has sent the presidents of all universities with ties to the A.S.A. a letter similarly urging them to dissociate their institutions from the A.S.A. and deny faculty members funds to participate in the group or travel to its events. At least one college president, however, has publicly resisted calls to crack down on the A.S.A. Christopher L. Eisgruber, president of Princeton University, has responded to alumni inquiries about the boycott with a letter saying he opposes it but does “not intend to denounce the A.S.A., make it unwelcome on campus or inhibit the ability of faculty members to affiliate with it.” The better approach, he said, is to engage with the association and hope “more thoughtful and reasonable members will eventually bring the organization to its senses.”


W.H.O. Leader Describes the Agency’s Ebola Operations

Abstract: Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, flew to New York on Monday for several days of meetings in the United States focused on the international fight against the Ebola outbreak. Before walking to her first meeting and then tucking into her favorite East Side noodle dive , she sat down for an interview about Ebola. Questions have been edited, and answers have been condensed. Q. You managed the SARS emergency in your former position as the director of health of Hong Kong, so you’re obviously well acquainted with outbreaks. Can you lay out the chronology of the W.H.O.'s response to the current Ebola outbreak, once the W.H.O. was notified of it in March? A. First and foremost, people need to understand W.H.O. W.H.O. is the U.N. specialized agency in health. And we are not the first responder. You know, the government has first priority to take care of their people and provide health care. W.H.O. is a technical agency. Q. How do affected countries work with the W.H.O.? A. They will invite W.H.O. to provide technical advice and also technical support. Now, what does that mean? For example, if they have a cholera outbreak, if they have you know an Ebola outbreak, they would ask us: “What are the good practices to control the outbreak?” If the countries say, “Well, we may need an epidemiologist or we may need some laboratory support,” then W.H.O. will call on our partners, which would include countries or include scientific organizations, like the C.D.C., like the Institut Pasteur. Then people with the skills or the expertise, we will say [to them], “Would you be happy to go to this country and provide technical support?” And they go under the aegis of W.H.O. So this is how we provide services. We are not like international N.G.O.'s, for example M.S.F. [Doctors Without Borders], Red Cross, Red Crescent or local N.G.O.'s who are working on the ground to provide, you know, direct services. I met with the president of Guinea in April. He visited just before my World Health Assembly. I had a very good discussion with him. I told him, “This is not a disease you should take it lightly. We will support you, and reinforce you.” Q. How does funding play into the response of the W.H.O. to outbreaks? A. My budget [is] highly earmarked, so it is driven by what I call donor interests. When there’s an event, we have money. Then after that, the money stops coming in, then all the staff you recruited to do the response, you have to terminate their contracts. So I don’t like these kind of ups and downs and ups and downs. We need to even the fluctuations, so going forward, my view is that we need to have sufficient funding to have a core group of staff. When there is no war to fight, these staff would help countries to build preparedness, to build response systems. Just like a fire department. When there is no fire, you help countries to build capacity. When there is a fire, you fight the outbreak, but at same time you also build a network of GOARN [ Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network ] partners, so that you can mobilize them and surge them to provide the very much needed support. Q. What has made this outbreak different for Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia compared with outbreaks that have occurred in recent years such as MERS-CoV in the Middle East or H7N9 in China and haven’t spread as far? A. Those diseases happened in countries which had capacity, which had the leadership and which have the people. But [with Ebola] these three countries that we’re talking about are very, they have very challenging conditions. In those three countries, there is an area where they share a common border. I was educated by the people — they belong to the same tribe, but they may live in different countries. So they visit their friends, their relatives. So they give each other the disease. And of course, we must understand poverty in these countries. What does that mean? It means people don’t store food more than one day, and they have to go out to seek employment. They have to go out and seek food, and even if they have been exposed, they move around. So this can explain part of the reason why it was spreading so quickly. Q. Some responders, including even some within the W.H.O., have told me they wished the W.H.O. had done more sooner on this outbreak. Do you agree with that? A. The benefit of hindsight is always better. I have to say that all the agencies I talked to — including the governments — all of us underestimated this unprecedented, unusual outbreak. You know, part of the reason is we always look at history in some way. For almost 40 years, all outbreaks of Ebola were smothered. But they were in the villages. And this time, because the population now, compared with 40 years ago in these countries, is many times [greater] and more mobile and so forth, so there are multiple reasons. I don’t want to say that, you know, we blame the country, or we blame any agency, because it’s just too big for any country, or for any organization to deal with this. Q. In early August, you declared the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on the advice of a committee you convened. What does that designation mean, and how did you explain the decision when you met with the presidents of the three most affected countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia — prior to the declaration? A. I met them the first of August. I said I have already prepared for an emergency meeting of the International Health Regulations. I said to them, I am the director general of the W.H.O. My duty is to the world’s population as well. The announcement is important so that the whole world’s countries are informed: This is happening. You need to be prepared should there be a case arriving at your doorstep, whether or not you have the preparedness and response plan ready. So this is the established mechanism. Q. Dr. Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders, said she wanted you, as the director general of the W.H.O., to call the outbreak “out of control.” A. Well, we use different language to mean the same thing. I did say that the outbreak is running ahead of us. I don’t know if this is culture or whatever. I said the language I use — you use “out of control” — you see all my speeches. I always say that the outbreak is running ahead of our response. In all my life, when you deal with a major crisis, you do have ups and downs. I never allow ups and downs to demoralize. Because I need to see hope, and also motivate people. There is a window that we collectively can do something. Q. What are some of the important things the W.H.O. is planning to do? A. We need to look at the science of the virus, because it is spreading in such a way, you have never seen it before. We need to go back and look at the science. This week on Thursday and Friday, I’m going to have a meeting to look at what are the potential vaccines and medicines. How can W.H.O. coordinate all the scientists in the world? The U.S. has many people coming — N.I.H., C.D.C. and the F.D.A. And, of course, I have invited some 20 scientists from African countries and Canada. I want to have an open and transparent discussion, given such a very severe disease. The scientists, I did say to them I would like them to look at the potential of medications or vaccines and conduct clinical trials to get safety data. I don’t want to do any harm. You do no harm before you do good. So the scientists must agree under such a serious condition and on compassionate grounds. The ethicists already agreed it’s O.K. to use experimental treatments, as long as the person involved is fully informed, and has [given] informed consent, knowing the pros and cons. I want to move it one step further: What are the minimum safety data? The scientists would agree, O.K. let’s do a quick, clinical trial. It is good that based on our initial discussion we are bringing groups of people together, a consortium. You heard [ GlaxoSmithKline ] make an announcement, and N.I.H. And the Canadian government has invested in R and D in making a vaccine available to us. And so we want to test the safety and do some clinical trials and if they can be used to protect the groups of people who are providing service, then we’d be happy to do so. Q. There were some early tensions between agencies involved in the Ebola response. Can you address that? A. I’ve been through all these crises. In a way, I just feel myself as a bridge builder, bringing people together, making them feel comfortable. I have a famous song, do you know that? Getting to know you. Getting to know you. I always sing this song to the people who don’t know each other. I said you need to get to know each other, what each agency can do, and cannot do, before you understand why they are not doing the kind of things you want. Q. What’s next in the fight against Ebola? A. We have a road map. W.H.O. produced a road map on an Ebola response plan , on the public health response. [Dr.] David Nabarro will work with the U.N. family and come up with what are the food responses, what are the water and sanitation [responses], what are the air bridge and logistics [needed] to support the public health response. Countries of the world like a plan, costed so that they know how they can help. I’m optimistic in the sense that we use these plans to rally support from the countries, and I expect to see more and more countries come forward and say we want to help [with] this, because this is a global issue, is a global threat and we must have a global solution. I have managed so many outbreaks in my life. And new diseases. This is the most difficult. You know why? The fear factor. There’s no medicine for fear. Because people overreact, airlines… These people are at the lowest risk, and yet their fear is there.

Margaret Chan
WHO
Ebola
UN
Guinea
Sierra Leone
Liberia
US


Cano’s Six R.B.I. Helps Yankees Top Tigers in A.L.D.S. Opener

Abstract: Robinson Cano did not look particularly locked in when this game began Friday, grounding out in his only at-bat before rain began to fall. But when the game resumed, it was as if it were a whole new day. It was in fact a new day, and Cano was simply irrepressible. Cano, the star second baseman now batting third in the Yankees ’ playoff push, hit a grand slam, two doubles and knocked in six runs to put an indelible stamp on the team’s opening salvo of the 2011 playoffs. “He’s been doing that the whole year,” Mariano Rivera said of Cano. “For others, it’s impressive. For me, it’s routine.” In a game that ended 27 hours, 25 minutes after the first pitch, the Yankees, behind Cano’s remarkable night and a strong pitching performance by Ivan Nova, crushed the Detroit Tigers , 9-3, in Game 1 of their American League division series. Game 2 is set for 3:07 on Sunday afternoon. But the Yankees have seized control of the series, winning a game that the Tigers ace Justin Verlander started. Game 1 was suspended in the middle of the second inning after heavy and sustained rain fell Friday night. Play resumed Saturday night under dry conditions for a change, with Doug Fister and Nova the first pitchers to take the mound. But they were technically relief pitchers, subbing for Verlander and the Yankees’ ace, C. C. Sabathia. For most of the game — including the opening act Friday night — the Yankees seemed to do everything right. Sabathia and Nova pitched very well, the Yankees played superbly on defense, and Cano did his thing to lead a potent offense. Nova limited the Tigers to two runs — Detroit also scored on Delmon Young’s solo homer off Sabathia in the first inning Friday — and the Yankees took a 2-1 lead on Cano’s run-scoring double in the fifth. They broke it open with a six-run sixth in which Cano hit the Yankees’ first postseason grand slam since Ricky Ledee’s against the Red Sox in Game 4 of the 1999 American League Championship Series. This unusual game originally started at 8:37 Friday, but rain began to fall toward the end of the first inning. After Sabathia struck out Ryan Raburn to end the top of the second, the tarp was pulled on the field, and 1 hour, 17 minutes later, the game was suspended. When it resumed Saturday at 8:36, there was no rain, but the temperature was a crisp 55 degrees, 15 degrees cooler than the night before. Because it was the continuation of a suspended game, there was no pomp and circumstance beforehand, no national anthem or pregame introductions or ceremonial first pitches. The Tigers simply took the field first, and the Yankees, even as the home team, had the unusual experience of batting first on this night, with the No. 7 hitter Jorge Posada leading off. “It was odd,” said Derek Jeter, who made one of his typical October-infused defensive plays. “Especially with Jorge leading off.” The pitchers, Fister and Nova, had to adjust their warm-up times in the bullpen as if Fister were the home team starter and Nova the visitor, going out to the bullpen a few minutes later to begin his routine. Just before Fister threw the first pitch of the night — which was actually the 53rd pitch of the game — the announcement was made in the press box, “Now pitching for the Tigers, Doug Fister,” which is the protocol for when a relief pitcher enters the game. Both Nova and Fister looked strong early, pitching as if they were completely unfazed by the events since they had planned on pitching Saturday night anyway. And the Yankees’ defense was almost as good as the offense. While it was still tied, 1-1, Jeter veered into position to make a strong relay throw to catcher Russell Martin that caught Alex Avila at home plate. Jeter was not supposed to be the cutoff man on the play — that was first baseman Mark Teixeira’s role — but he found himself in the right place and turned it into an out. “His baseball I.Q. is through the roof,” Martin said. “We’ve seen it time and time again.” Then it was time for the Yankees to start accumulating runs. Fister had set down 10 Yankees in a row after giving up a couple of hits in the second inning (which was his first) before he ran into trouble in the fifth as Cano struck for the first time. With two outs, Granderson singled to right field and Cano, who batted ninth when these teams faced one another in the 2006 A.L.D.S., drove a pitch to left field and the ball hit off the front lip of the wall and bounced back onto the field. Granderson scored to make it 2-1, and Cano pulled into second base with a run-scoring double. Then in the sixth, he came to the plate with the bases loaded, and Tigers Manager Jim Leyland took out Fister in favor of the right-hander Al Alburquerque. It was an odd move on the surface, but one that Leyland said was the obvious choice because of Alburquerque’s ability to get out left-handed hitters. “To me, that’s one for everyone else to second guess,” Leyland said. “To me, that was a no-brainer.” Cano acknowledged that he was surprised to see a right-hander, and said he was not looking for a home run. But he found it, driving an 0-1 pitch into the first deck in right field. “I mean, obviously, I was surprised,” Cano said, adding that Leyland brought in the right-hander, “so it ended up in our favor.” Cano became the fourth Yankee to collect six runs batted in during one postseason game, joining Hideki Matsui, Bernie Williams and Bobby Richardson. Before Cano’s slam, Brett Gardner had a two-out, two-run double in the inning. It provided more than enough runs for the Yankees, who took Game 1 in convincing style, and even stayed dry in the process.

Baseball
Playoff Games
Detroit Tigers
New York Yankees
Gardner Brett
Nova Ivan
Cano Robinson


Live and Kicking: Soccer Games to Watch This Week

Abstract: Christmas has come and gone, but Louis van Gaal’s torment continues unabated. Premier League Britain binges on soccer in the week between Christmas and New Year’s like a couple with a new Netflix subscription, often to its detriment. Monday’s games start at 10 a.m., but the biggest matchup, at lunchtime in New York, is essentially a 90-minute, slow-motion train wreck: Manchester United-Chelsea (12:30 p.m. Eastern, NBCSN). Chelsea’s problems this season have been identified, documented and (the Blues hope) solved with a coaching change, but at Manchester United, the struggle is continuing and real. The Red Devils have lost four in a row and are winless in seven, and they have not scored two goals in a league game in more than a month. They also have been eliminated from the Champions League during the current dry spell, which is not exactly what fans were promised when Louis van Gaal was hired as manager after the 2014 World Cup. Now, a tired team on a day’s rest against a rival that would be delighted to embarrass it anew is probably not what the fans expected, either, but sometimes you do not get to pick your poisons. Sometimes you just get all of them at once. One other game of note Monday: Arsenal hosts Bournemouth (12:30 p.m., NBC Sports Extra) with a second chance to go past Leicester City atop the league. It surely cannot go worse than the Gunners’ first try did — a 4-0 loss at Southampton on Saturday. Of course, even if Arsenal does slide into first temporarily, Leicester can knock it right back down when it hosts Manchester City on Tuesday (2:45 p.m., NBCSN). Spain La Liga returns from its break on Wednesday, offering Real Madrid (vs. Real Sociedad, 10 a.m.) for breakfast and Barcelona (vs. Real Betis, 2:45 p.m.) after lunch. Both games are on beIN Sports. Looking Ahead England and Spain continue league play on the weekend while the rest of the continent’s leagues continue to sleep off the holidays. The highlights: United, perhaps under a new manager, hosts Swansea City (10 a.m., Saturday), and Espanyol and Barcelona meet in their lopsided but underappreciated city derby. Sam Borden of The Times wrote about the dynamics of that rivalry in 2013.

Soccer
Manchester United
Arsenal Soccer Team
Leicester City Soccer Team
Chelsea Soccer Team
Louis van Gaal


Bad Time to Face Yanks for the Mets

Abstract: Although the Yankees are the team that has been battered by injuries this season, the Mets are the ones who are hurting heading into this year’s revamped Subway Series, which starts Monday. It may turn out to be a bit of good fortune for the Mets that the series has been shortened to four games, from six. But the team may not be so lucky after all: the games will be played consecutively — the first two at Citi Field, the other two at Yankee Stadium — when the Mets are playing their worst baseball of the season. “I haven’t even thought about the Yankees,” third baseman David Wright said before Sunday’s nationally televised game against the Atlanta Braves. “We’re going through such a rough stretch that we need to worry about the Braves.” He added, “The last thing on our minds right now are the Yankees.” The Mets, at 17-29 entering Sunday’s game, had not been 12 games under .500 this early in the season since 1993. Entering Sunday, they had lost eight consecutive home games and five in a row over all. They were 3-14 in their last 17 games at Citi Field and 0-5-1 in their last six home series. “Everybody is upset at the way they’re playing,” Manager Terry Collins said. “You got guys that aren’t hitting, guys that aren’t pitching good. Everybody is frustrated. But I don’t think there’s any negativity. They know they just have to get better.” The list of Mets woes is daunting. Their relievers had the worst earned run average (4.84) in the National League heading into Sunday’s game. Their starters had the fourth-worst E.R.A. (4.43) in the league despite Matt Harvey’s stellar season. Their offense was the third-worst in the N.L. in on-base plus slugging percentage (.671) and second-worst in strikeouts (403). First baseman Ike Davis, considered a key cog in the franchise’s future, has hit so badly this year that his single Saturday night was considered progress. “We’re all frustrated,” General Manager Sandy Alderson said. “But we have to deal with the reality of where we are. That requires us to move forward and come up with the answers.” For now, Alderson insists that one of those answers is not demoting Davis, who was 2 for his last 44. “Whatever we do, it will be with the view of getting him back here or back to his level of performance as soon as we can, whether that’s here over the next few games, somewhere else if it comes to that,” Alderson said. “The goal is to get Ike to the player we know he can be.” The Mets are not looking at any particular time frame for Davis to improve. “I can honestly say there hasn’t been a deadline,” Alderson said. “Things can change from day to day. At some point they may not change enough, but there has never been a deadline as far as I’m concerned. This is not science.” It would not be so far-fetched to say that entering the season the Mets’ and the Yankees’ rosters were not so different. The Mets on paper could have claimed advantages with Davis at first over the replacement for the injured Mark Teixeira, Wright at third over Alex Rodriguez’s replacement, Tejada at shortstop over Derek Jeter’s replacement and John Buck at catcher over whoever was going to replace Russell Martin. But while many of those Mets have underachieved, the Yankees have had contributions from such unlikely players as Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells. Even Alderson said he admired what the Yankees had done with a cobbled-together team. “It has shone a different light on the Yankees and the Yankee franchise and what Brian Cashman has been able to do,” Alderson said. “What I’ve always said is that you have to put yourself in a position to get lucky. That’s what we try to do here. But they’ve done a very nice job and sorted through a few players, but they’ve definitely had a lot of keepers.” INSIDE PITCH Collins said reliever Scott Atchison, on the disabled list with inflammation in his right elbow, would most likely pitch one more time for Class AAA Las Vegas before being activated. Atchison has pitched a scoreless inning in his rehabilitation stint with Class A Port St. Lucie. ... Reliever Jeurys Familia, on the disabled list with biceps tendinitis, will probably be sent to Las Vegas to continue his rehabilitation, having thrown a scoreless inning for Port St. Lucie. Sandy Alderson said the Mets might let Familia stay in Las Vegas for a bit rather than activate him immediately. “Obviously, Familia is somebody we’re counting on long term, so we’ll have to decide what’s best for that long-term development, whether he pitches here or there for a while,” Alderson said.


Jack Dorsey and Other Twitter Insiders Make Show of Support

Abstract: Twitter has had a tough year. It has been slow to attract more users and has been battered on the public markets. Now executives at the highest levels of Twitter are trying to show that despite it all, they still believe in the company. Jack Dorsey, co-founder and interim chief executive, bought more than 31,000 shares of Twitter stock on Monday, amounting to roughly $875,000. “Investing in Twitter’s future,” Mr. Dorsey wrote in a tweet on Monday that included a link to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosing his purchase. For Mr. Dorsey, who owns nearly 22 million shares of Twitter stock, it was a small addition to his holdings. And it came at a relatively low price; shares of Twitter have fallen by nearly a third over the last year. The price of a Twitter share jumped 9 percent on the news Monday, to $29.50. The purchase is also a statement by Mr. Dorsey who, along with stepping in as the interim chief, has privately expressed considerable interest in becoming Twitter’s permanent leader, according to people familiar with his thinking who asked not to be identified because the conversations were private. The company has yet to name a permanent chief executive, and Mr. Dorsey has not said whether he would take the position were it offered to him. But any decision would come at a tricky time for Mr. Dorsey, whose other company, Square, is preparing an initial public offering. Twitter’s board has indicated that it wants its next chief executive to be at the company full time, putting pressure on Mr. Dorsey to decide between the tech companies he co-founded. That is, assuming he would be the board’s choice to run Twitter. “I think for another company, spending months on end to find the right C.E.O. is appropriate,” said Brian Blau, an Internet analyst with Gartner. “I’m not sure Twitter has that luxury, or that they should have even gone forward without a permanent C.E.O. already on board.” There also could be a shuffling of Twitter’s top ranks, according to people close to the company who requested anonymity because the board conversations were confidential. The shift would distribute power among Mr. Dorsey, Adam Bain, the company’s top advertising executive, and Evan Williams, a founder and board member of Twitter. “We see that as a triumvirate of power,” said Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “It brings a greater emphasis on the product, which is Twitter’s main problem, while also giving more power to the revenue side of the house.” Mr. Dorsey has been joined by several other board members in making stock purchases over the past few days. Among them, Peter Currie bought about 9,200 shares , roughly $250,000 in stock on Monday; on Friday, Peter Fenton, a venture capitalist and also a board member, purchased about $200,000 in stock. Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, bought roughly the same amount last week. The purchases by insiders are a showing of public support during one of the most difficult times in Twitter’s nine years. The embattled company faces intense criticism and weakening faith from investors, analysts and many employees. Twitter had its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013 to an optimistic Wall Street; the company’s shares surged to about $50 a share for a while on their first day of trading, and within two months reached a high of over $70. But some Twitter loyalists have lost faith in the company’s ability to grow into a large enough presence to fight off competitors like Instagram, Snapchat and, of course, Facebook, the still-growing, 1.5 billion-user behemoth that Twitter is constantly compared to. At the same time, Twitter’s top ranks have been unsettled. Before the departure of Dick Costolo as chief executive on July 1, Twitter reassigned a series of product managers as well as its chief operating officer and chief financial officer, all within a year. Mr. Costolo has told some people that he will step down from Twitter’s board when a new chief executive is appointed, according to people familiar with his plans who asked that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Also on Monday, Twitter announced a multiyear partnership with the National Football League, in which Twitter will feature and sell advertising against in-game video clips on Twitter. Certainly, the recent stock purchases are relatively small given the net worth of the buyers. And last year, Twitter insiders like Mr. Costolo, Mr. Bain, Mr. Dorsey and other top officials collectively sold more than $50 million of Twitter stock. The most conspicuous seller is Mr. Williams. Since May, he has sold more than one million Twitter shares, according to filings with the S.E.C., though this represents only a small amount of the over 50 million shares he owns. That has caused some concern among analysts, but Mr. Williams said in an email that they were automatic sales planned some time ago. “The vast majority of all my net worth is still in Twitter stock, and I expect that to be true for a long time,” he said. “These stock sales in no way reflect my confidence in the future of the company, which is high.” Mr. Peck, the financial analyst, said: “We would like to see the founder of the company stop selling shares.”

Jack Dorsey
Stocks,Bonds
Social Media
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Evan Williams