200 Years After Waterloo, Napoleon Still Wins by Losing

Abstract: LIGNY, Belgium — Napoleon Bonaparte , also known as Frank Samson, a pudgy Paris lawyer who likes wearing gold braided uniforms and a black bicorne hat, won his last battle on Sunday in southern Belgium. Feting the “glorious performance” of French troops in a field of thigh-high wheat, rented for the day from a farmer for a mock showdown between the armies of France and Prussia, he predicted that whatever the outcome of a coming confrontation with the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo this week, he had already won the war. “In terms of glory and of history, it is Napoleon who stays in people’s minds, not Wellington,” said Mr. Samson, relishing cries of “Long Live the Emperor” as he dismounted from his white horse after a restaging of Napoleon’s triumphant last day in the sun on June 16, 1815. The re-enactment of the Battle of Ligny, a picturesque French-speaking village south of Brussels, opened a weeklong series of events to commemorate Napoleon’s ultimate defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. But while Britain and its victorious allies remember Waterloo as a decisive triumph that reshaped Europe in their favor, Mr. Samson and other, mostly French, fans of the defeated emperor instead celebrate the enduring celebrity and allure of their routed hero. In the case of Napoleon, losers, not victors, have managed to write much of the history. “Napoleon, without a shadow of doubt, won the postwar publicity and PR campaign,” said Alasdair White, a British expert on the period and author of books on the 1815 struggle between France and a British-led alliance. “This was where Wellington fell flat on his face.” In Ligny over the weekend, stalls set up near the battlefield were filled with tributes to Napoleon — statues, busts, books and death masks, as well as T-shirts, posters and knickknacks all bearing his image. Wellington was nowhere to be seen. A Franco-Belgian company hawked a book titled “The French Victory at Waterloo,” a study of a little known battle fought in 1794. That battle had nothing to do with Napoleon but still cheers the spirits of fans for whom Waterloo is a place usually associated with French ignominy. Eager to revive memories of how, for a time, it looked as if France could win in 1815, Mr. Samson rode off the battlefield here on Sunday and declared that defeating Wellington would be a “picnic” after the slaughter at Ligny, a gruesome battle that left around 20,000 French and Prussian soldiers dead or wounded. In reality, the Battle of Ligny, re-enacted by Mr. Samson and around 1,500 other history enthusiasts dressed in period costumes, was the final spasm of French military pride before a catastrophic fall at Waterloo that put an end to all French hopes of hegemony in Europe and led to Napoleon’s banishment to St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic. For a day, however, a 47-year-old lawyer dressed up as Napoleon — and bearing a striking resemblance to the real thing — and fans of the Corsican-born soldier who declared himself emperor and turned France into the superpower of his day savored their hero’s final day of glory. “We won today, and we are going to win again,” Mr. Samson said in his role as Napoleon. Speaking as himself, after hours racing across a wheat field on a horse in the sun, he said: “What I really want now is a cold beer.” With a touch of melancholy, he added that he would not try to rewrite history and would accept whatever fate awaited him at Waterloo. There, he and more than 5,000 war re-enactors and 300 horses will, on Friday and Saturday, restage the climactic battle, an event billed as the biggest re-enactment ever held in Europe. The defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, was so calamitous for France’s ambitions to implant the goals of the 1789 French Revolution across Europe that the 19th-century writer Victor Hugo said it “wasn’t a battle.” “It was a change of direction in the universe,” he wrote. Hugo blamed God, or at least the heavens, for Napoleon’s defeat, complaining that heavy rain the night before made it difficult for Napoleon to maneuver his artillery and tilted the conflict unfairly Wellington’s way. Other Frenchmen have insisted that Napoleon actually won. “This defeat shimmers with an aura of victory,” former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin wrote in an admiring book about Napoleon. Claudine Coulon, a resident of Ligny, once part of Napoleon’s empire but part of Belgium for nearly 200 years, hoisted a French flag outside her home to show whose side her family was on during the mock battle taking place on the wheat field across the road. “I am so happy,” she said. “This is a big win for Napoleon.” She also put out pots planted with what she had hoped would be flowers in the colors of France — blue, white and red — but which turned out to be purple, white and brown. Napoleon, she said, should have stayed put in Ligny, where he defeated a Prussian Army under Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, instead of marching north to confront Wellington at Waterloo. “It would have turned out better if he had just stayed here,” Ms. Coulon said. The French government has shown no interest in the events this week to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat. While Britain and the Netherlands, two of the principal victors in 1815, are sending members of their royal families to Belgium for the Waterloo commemorations, France is sending only its ambassador in Brussels. Germany, heir to Prussia’s share of the Waterloo victory honors, is also staying away aside from its ambassador, wary of celebrating a Prussian military tradition that post-Nazi Germany has worked hard to forget. “The French are not keen on celebrating Waterloo for obvious reasons,” Robert Tombs, a history professor at the University of Cambridge, said. “It ended a whole phase of European history, one of French predominance which had lasted more than a century, and started a period of British and Russian predominance.” Many of Napoleon’s fans, past and present, have sought to recast the debacle as a moral triumph or found ways to exculpate the emperor, claiming that he suffered from a painful bout of hemorrhoids that knocked him off his winning stride, and from treachery within his own command. Mr. Samson said after his victory on Sunday that he was feeling well but did “have some bother in the posterior.” Mr. White, the British expert on the Battle of Waterloo, dismissed the hemorrhoid story as “an absolute myth” invented by French supporters of Napoleon who “cannot believe that the great man lost, so there must have been something wrong with him.” The real reason for his defeat, Mr. White said, was that Napoleon was far past his prime and “was no longer the great military leader he had been in 1805,” when he routed far bigger Russian and Austrian forces at Austerlitz. He had “not won a major battle since 1812,” he said. “He was tired and made too many mistakes.” Once the battle was over, however, Napoleon quickly got the upper hand in rewriting history. While Wellington went into politics, becoming a deeply conservative and highly unpopular prime minister in London, Napoleon used his exile on St. Helena to work on his memoir with a French historian, a vast self-serving work that became an international best seller. It cemented Napoleon’s status, presenting him as a servant to the ideals, but not the brutality, of the French Revolution and blaming his failures on disloyal subordinates and plain bad luck. “His version of events is fundamentally wrong, but it became the version of events,” Mr. White said. Mr. Samson, who has been playing Napoleon for more than 10 years in battle re-enactments around Europe, said he planned to retire from his role as emperor after Waterloo. “I am much better known than Wellington,” Mr. Samson said, speaking for Napoleon. “Wellington won the battle. But I won the war.”

Historical Re-enactments
Napoleon Bonaparte
Belgium
France
Great Britain
Brussels
Waterloo (Belgium)
Ligny


Review: In ‘By the Water,’ a Search for Calm After the Storm

Abstract: In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which is when “By the Water” opens, a blue-collar couple returns to a ravaged home on Staten Island and starts to clean up the mess. As Sharyn Rothstein’s family drama unfolds in this fine production at Premiere Stages at Kean University in Union, it becomes apparent that this home was damaged in a different way long before the storm hit. Marty Murphy (Brian O’Neill) and Mary (Jo Twiss), his wife, have lived for more than 30 years in their modest house, where they raised their sons Sal (Mike DiSalvo) and Brian (Billy Finn). Image From left, Sheila Stasack, Jo Twiss and Deanna McGovern. Credit Mike Peters Sal is a successful businessman, but Brian had a drug habit that put him in prison for several years. Now sober and working as a short-order cook, Brian remains his parents’ favorite. The judgmental Sal is not so fondly regarded by his father, who snipes at his “uppity” ways. Although Brian and Sal are not completely estranged, some friction between them becomes evident. Most critically, the brothers have different attitudes regarding their parents’ rebuilding of the house. Sal urgently prods Marty and Mary to move away from the flood plain, while the easygoing Brian feels they should do whatever makes them happy. Marty is so stubbornly intent upon remaining there that he organizes a local campaign to oppose a federal buyout plan that would level the entire community for wetlands. It is finally revealed, however, that Marty harbors a shady ulterior motive for hanging on to his property that has little to do with his much-professed love for the neighborhood. This 90-minute story regarding a troubled man, his clashing sons and the conciliatory wife and mother who loves them in spite of their flaws might suggest an Arthur Miller-like tragedy in the making. Instead, Ms. Rothstein offers a sympathetic study of people who must start over. Image Mr. Finn and Ms. McGovern. Credit Mike Peters Other poignant victims of the storm are the Murphys’ best friends, Philip (Damian Buzzerio) and Andrea (Sheila Stasack), yet another older couple coping with devastation, whose daughter, Emily (Deanna McGovern), happens to be Brian’s ex-girlfriend. The rekindling of Brian and Emily’s relationship and the compassion that Sal ultimately shows for his father, along with the strength of Mary’s devotion, all contribute to ending the story on an upbeat note. A relative newcomer as a playwright, Ms. Rothstein structures her touching drama in brief scenes composed in conversational language that is affecting in its mostly understated emotions. Speaking in slightly urban accents that complement the everyday dialogue, the actors provide well-grounded performances under Adam Immerwahr’s thoughtful direction. Mr. O’Neill’s forceful Marty is a silvery lion who literally gets backed up against a wall. Ms. Twiss is a cozy presence as Mary, whose eventual confrontation with Marty mingles deep hurt and anger. The sleek Mr. DiSalvo and the scruffy Mr. Finn still somehow share fraternal looks, and Mr. Finn’s growing affinity for Ms. McGovern’s Emily is expressed by the actors with a playful physicality. Making smart use of varied sound effects designed by Karin Graybash — subsiding thunder and rain, later the distant sound of waves and sea gulls, and brisk acoustic guitar music between the scenes — Mr. Immerwahr enhances these solid performances and the play’s changing moods. This New Jersey premiere is visually superior to Manhattan Theater Club’s original staging in 2014. A dirty high-water mark left by Hurricane Sandy smudges the white vinyl background of the expansive setting designed by Anya Klepikov, which otherwise purposefully looks barren. A portion of water-stained wall that is later stripped to its studs aptly suggests the wrecked house. A few pieces of grubby patio furniture indicate what little the Murphys have salvaged from a lifetime’s belongings. And the autumnal lighting designed by Brant Thomas Murray is streaked in lovely blues and purples, as an ironic comment, perhaps, upon the natural beauty of living by the water.

Theater
Sharyn Rothstein
Premiere Stages
Kean University
Adam Immerwahr
New Jersey
By the Water


Ending Tradition, NBC Dismisses Fall Debuts

Abstract: It soon may be time to retire the phrase “fall television season.” NBC Universal took a big step toward undoing one of the television industry’s oldest traditions by announcing Tuesday that it would move to a year-round schedule of staggered program introductions. The move is intended to appeal to advertisers, who crave fresh content to keep viewers tuned in. And if it succeeds — and leads other broadcast networks to shift from their focus on a mass introduction of new shows — it could alter an American cultural cycle that extends all the way back to the days of radio, when families gathered around the Philco every September, as the school year began, to sample the new entertainment choices. NBC plans to announce a 52-week schedule in April, a month before ABC and CBS will unveil their fall lineups at splashy presentations known as upfronts. The decision means that NBC will be committing to a new lineup of shows earlier than any of its competitors, while also inviting advertisers to build marketing plans around specific shows and perhaps to integrate brands and products into the plots of the shows themselves. “We absolutely think this is going to change the industry,” said Michael Pilot, the head of sales for NBC. That was one of the goals cited by Jeff Zucker, the president and chief executive of NBC Universal, in comments he has made recently about how the strike by Hollywood writers could create opportunities to change some of the ways networks do business. The fall television season has been under assault on many fronts, from the many cable channels that introduce new shows whenever they find it convenient, to individual series like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” that made their debuts in odd months like March. Viewers have already become accustomed to a spring lineup from Fox, for instance, and for fresh slates of reality shows during the summer. But the move by NBC Universal, a property of General Electric and Vivendi, represents a particularly bold stroke by a network with the size and clout to move markets. After it announces a list of programs in April, NBC plans to meet with big advertising clients in several cities, followed by a different sort of presentation in May that will encompass all the NBC Universal properties, including cable channels like Bravo, USA and CNBC. What that event will not include is a special introduction of the fall prime-time schedule, which NBC has held for years in Radio City Music Hall and as its broadcast network competitors still intend to do this year. NBC is looking for a different site for the presentation because the Music Hall is not appropriate for the plans it has for that day. But the day will include an introduction of the yearlong programming plans for the press as well as a party for advertising clients that will include some NBC stars. “We still want to keep some of that sizzle,” Mr. Pilot said. Marc Graboff, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, said, “This is all about creating a two-way conversation with advertisers.” Senior executives at media agencies greeted the NBC decision with mild to enthusiastic praise. “It’s a step in the right direction,” said Aaron Cohen, executive vice president at Horizon Media in New York. “Something like this was bound to happen.” “I applaud it,” said Charlie Rutman, chief executive for North American operations at MPG in New York, a media agency owned by Havas, because “the idea of a constant stream of new programming is good.” Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president and director for programming at another New York media agency, Carat, described the NBC plan as “a smart idea,” likening it to steps that Fox Broadcasting has tried in the past, announcing several schedules for a season, with new shows coming on the air in September, November and January and in the spring. Asked whether the other broadcast networks may adopt a year-round programming schedule, Mr. Cohen replied: “NBC is the test bed. If buyer reaction is good, it will get considered by the others.” The idea of a 52-week schedule is not really new. Most networks now have programming scattered throughout the year with specific shows set aside for summer, like “Big Brother” on CBS (though it was used in the regular season this year because of the strike) and others for midyear like “24” and “American Idol” on Fox and “Lost” on ABC. But NBC intends to give advertisers a much earlier look at its plans for the entire year. That will presumably make it easier to match advertisers to specific shows, an idea that is growing in popularity. Networks are looking for ways to keep clients paying, even as ratings diminish and programs are replayed on digital recorders with commercials skipped. Ben Silverman, the other co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, who will travel the country with Mr. Graboff making the presentations to advertisers, has been an advocate of linking advertisers to shows. He made a deal with Ford Motor Company, for example, to supply the car used in a remake of the 1980s series “Knight Rider.” A version of that aired Sunday night on NBC as a made-for-TV movie, and Mr. Silverman said Tuesday that its ratings success makes it a likely addition to NBC’s schedule when it is announced in April. As a result of the new plan, Mr. Silverman said, “NBC will have more original programming year-round than anyone else.” The lineup also may receive early input from advertisers who are given an earlier look at it. That may help both parties, Mr. Graboff said. He cited as a cautionary tale the network’s experience with “Kidnapped,” a show from a season ago. “That’s a perfect example,” Mr. Graboff said. “The pilot cost $7 million to produce. We put it on sale to advertisers in May, and they ran for the hills. If we had been able to sit down and have a two-way conversation about them and we told they we had a show about a 13-year-old boy who is kidnapped for the entire season, they would have told us, ‘Good for you, but we’re not putting our clients in it.’ ” But Mr. Graboff said this did not mean NBC would base its programming on input from advertisers. “The ultimate decision is going to be made by program executives who believe in the shows,” he said. One potential benefit of the change, according to Gene DeWitt, chairman of DeWitt Media in New York, is a solution to advertisers’ annual quandary. The last three months of the year are the most important for many marketers — particularly retailers and automakers — but under the current system many of the broadcast shows they are offered then are new and untested. If more shows are brought out earlier in the calendar year, he said, “you’d have a track record of their performance.” “We’d have more reliable rating information,” he added, “so we won’t be going into the fourth quarter blind.” A 52-week broadcast schedule may make it more difficult to track the hits and flops, Mr. DeWitt said, but “it’s the way of the world today — things move faster, and we all have to keep up.”

NBC Universal
Advertising and Marketing
Television
National Broadcasting Co


Hopes Fade for Success of Commonwealth Games in India

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Skepticism about India ’s preparedness for the Commonwealth Games deepened Tuesday after a partly constructed footbridge collapsed outside the main arena for competition, injuring dozens. The collapse coincided with angry words from visiting officials who described the accommodations for athletes as uninhabitable. One visitor, the head of the New Zealand delegation, even raised the possibility that the games might be delayed or canceled. India’s failure to complete the work for the games, which are to begin Oct. 3 and last for two weeks, has become a major embarrassment for the country instead of a showcase for its rising economic might. The unspoken comparison to India’s rival China, which won widespread acclaim from its preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics, are a further source of humiliation. Representatives of the dozens of countries participating in the Commonwealth Games, a quadrennial competition among the nations of the former British Empire, started arriving here in recent days to inspect facilities and conduct security checks. The athletes’ village, built for the games, is not ready, they say, and questions linger about security after an attack on tourists in Delhi on Sunday. On Tuesday afternoon, a bridge next to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue, fell apart. The footbridge collapsed into three pieces, taking several workers with it and uprooting one side of the arch that supported it. A police officer at the scene said that 27 people had been injured, 4 seriously. “This will not affect the games,” said Raj Kumar Chauhan, a Delhi minister for development, who spoke at the scene. “We can put the bridge up again, or make a new one.” The accident occurred when workers were trying to pour concrete into a clip at the base of the bridge, he said, and the clip was loosened. Games officials had lodged formal complaints about the preparations with India’s government even before the accident. “The condition of the residential zone has shocked the majority,” the Commonwealth Games Federation president, Michael Fennel, said in a statement Monday evening. Mr. Fennel said he had sent a letter to India’s union cabinet secretary. The athletes’ village is “seriously compromised,” he said. “The problems are arising because deadlines for the completion of the village have been consistently pushed out,” Mr. Fennell said. The village is “uninhabitable,” the Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive, Mike Hooper, told the local television channel CNN-IBN on Tuesday. “There is dust everywhere,” he said. “The flats are dirty and filthy. Toilets are unclean.” Construction of the village, built alongside the Yamuna River on Delhi’s eastern border, is severely behind schedule. Delhi built a series of apartment towers to house about 7,000 athletes and their families, a 2,300-seat cafeteria, and practice areas on land that was originally an empty plain. Officials from the Ministry of Sports promised last year that the village would be ready in March 2010, but finishing touches were still being done outside buildings during a media tour last week. And the interiors of the buildings are still not completed, some say. Dave Currie, the head of New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games team, said Tuesday in an interview with Newstalk ZB, a New Zealand radio station, that the condition of the athletes’ village was “pretty grim.” Showers and toilets in the accommodations the New Zealand team was given are not working, and post-construction cleanup has not been done, he said. “It is certainly disappointing considering the amount of time they have had,” he said. Athletes are scheduled to start arriving in Delhi on Thursday, but that date may need to be pushed back, Mr. Currie said, which could ultimately result in the competition being canceled. “If the village is not ready, the athletes cannot arrive,” he said. “There is a real mountain to climb” before the village can be completed, Mr. Currie said. It will be a “real challenge at this point to make it happen,” he said. Security at the games has also become a major concern after two tourists were shot outside the Jama Masjid, a mosque that is one of Delhi’s major attractions, on Sunday. Neither tourist was fatally injured, and the mosque is far from the venues or the athletes’ village, but the attack prompted new fears about Delhi’s ability to keep athletes and visitors safe during the games. An e-mail sent to news outlets soon after the attack said the Indian Mujahedeen, a group the Indian government considers a terrorist organization, would single out the games. “Had it not happened against the almost complete disarray of the Commonwealth Games preparations, it would not have raised much excitement,” said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management, a group that studies terrorist activity. Athletes are worried that if construction and planning are in disarray, security may be too, he said. Most venues were supposed to be completed in 2007, but workers were still putting finishing touches on many of them as well.


Chrysler and Nissan in Production Deal

Abstract: DETROIT — Chrysler and Nissan of Japan took the first step toward a possible broader alliance on Friday, reaching agreement for Nissan to supply Chrysler with a small car to be sold in South America. The car, based on the Nissan Versa, a subcompact, would be sold under “limited distribution” beginning in 2009, the companies said in a statement. And the companies said they agreed to “maintain an open dialogue” to discuss other opportunities. The modest agreement resulted from discussions that have been under way for months, even before Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, in August. Still, it was a step forward for Chrysler’s new chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli, who has named two top executives to explore business ventures since he joined the company on Aug. 6. Joint supply and production deals are common across the automobile industry, and both automakers have taken part in others. Nissan and Ford Motor once built minivans together at a plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, while Chrysler has had a long relationship with Mitsubishi, with the two building vehicles together in Normal, Ill., at a plant now owned by Mitsubishi. Beyond that, Chrysler and Volkswagen have developed a minivan for VW to sell in the United States, beginning this year. Chrysler also signed an agreement last year with the Chery Automobile Company of China to make cars for Chrysler to sell starting in 2009. On Friday, Chrysler’s co-president, Thomas W. LaSorda, said Chrysler could sell both Chery-produced cars and Nissan models in South America. The Nissan models will be built at a plant in Mexico that Mr. LaSorda said had extra production capacity. The deal saves Chrysler the expense of developing the vehicles on its own. “We didn’t have to put new plants up, they had available capacity, and it just worked out well for both parties,” Mr. LaSorda said in a conference call. He said Chrysler had not decided on a brand name for the Nissan model, nor would he say how many Chrysler planned to sell. He also would not specify the countries where it would be sold. Nissan and Chrysler already have another joint relationship. In 2004, the companies agreed that a Nissan subsidiary would provide transmissions for Chrysler vehicles. “Nissan has a successful track record of win-win product exchanges, and we are pleased to be entering into this second agreement with Chrysler,” said Carlos Tavares, an executive vice president at Nissan. Analysts say the Nissan-Chrysler arrangement could become much bigger, eventually including cars that Nissan could provide Chrysler to sell in the United States, while Chrysler could provide Nissan with pickup trucks. Nissan already sells the Titan pickup, built outside Jackson, Miss., but its sales pale next to those of the Dodge Ram, the country’s third best-selling truck behind the Ford F-series and Chevrolet Silverado. Chrysler, whose lineup is dominated by sport utilities, pickups and minivans, could use more fuel-efficient small cars, analysts said. “We’re maintaining an open dialogue for further opportunities.” Dominique Thormann, a senior vice president at Nissan North America, said in an interview Friday.

Nissan Motor Co
Automobiles
Chrysler LLC
Cerberus Capital Management
Detroit (Mich)
Japan
South America


Big 12 to Consider Possible Replacements

Abstract: The Big 12 board of directors formed a committee to look at possible replacements for Texas A&M if the Aggies leave the conference, as expected. Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton, the board chairman, said the committee could also address expanding the league even if Texas A&M stayed. So far, the only university to publicly express interest in moving to the Big 12 is Southern Methodist, now in Conference USA.


Yemen: New Prime Minister Emerges From Turmoil

Abstract: Yemen’s president on Monday appointed a diplomat, Khaled Bahah, as prime minister after securing the backing of Islamists as well as Shiite rebels who control the capital, raising hopes that a political deadlock will ease. Mr. Bahah, Yemen’s ambassador to the United Nations, will have 30 days to form a government after his selection by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, state media reported. In a statement, the Shiite Houthi rebels who have controlled the capital, Sana, for weeks said they welcomed the appointment of Mr. Bahah. Last week, the Houthis rejected Mr. Hani’s previous choice for the post. The appointment is part of a peace deal brokered by the United Nations after Houthis swept through Sana and took over army barracks, ministries and vital state institutions last month.

Yemen
Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi
Diplomats Embassies and Consulates
UN
Khaled Bahah


A Balanced Pittsburgh Grinds Out a Victory Over West Virginia

Abstract: Separated by about 70 miles of rough road, West Virginia's and Pittsburgh's men's basketball teams are familiar, bitter rivals. In their first Big East tournament matchup last night, they showcased the distinct styles that have come to define their programs. In the end, Pitt's bullish New York style won out over the fluid offense and zone defense of West Virginia. The sixth-seeded Panthers upset the third-seeded Mountaineers, 68-57, to advance to a semifinals date tonight with second-seeded Villanova. "I know they didn't pack for a day," Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon said of his players. "They brought a lot of clothes." Pitt overcame a 12-point first-half deficit with balanced scoring, as five players finished in double figures. The Panthers made seven straight free throws during one stretch and 9 of 10 in the final two minutes. Pitt plays a heady but tough style predicated on grinding down teams with its man-to-man defense and efficient offense. The Panthers have five players from the New York City area, led by the fiery Bronx native Carl Krauser. He finished with 10 points against West Virginia and capped the victory with a lob to Aaron Gray in the waning seconds. Gray's 19 points led the Panthers. The loss continued a downward spiral for West Virginia, which will enter the N.C.A.A. tournament with five losses in its past seven games. "It's not like we came in here and lost to Cupcake U.," Mountaineers Coach John Beilein said. Pitt continued a trend of playing well in the Garden and will attempt to make the final for the third time in four years. West Virginia controlled the game early by creating open looks. Kevin Pittsnogle scored 10 of his 22 points in the first half. But as the game wore on, the Mountaineers' Mike Gansey experienced cramping and abdominal pain. Without Gansey, who averages 17.4 points a game, West Virginia looked a bit lost on offense.

BIG EAST CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
BASKETBALL


Belgian Police Charge 3 in Investigation of ISIS Network

Abstract: PARIS — The Belgian police raided nine homes and arrested 10 people in Brussels as part of an investigation into an Islamic State recruitment network, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Three of the 10 were charged with terrorism-related offenses, while the rest were questioned and released without charge, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement Tuesday evening. The arrests were made in the Brussels neighborhoods of Etterbeek, Koekelberg, Molenbeek and Schaerbeek. Molenbeek was a base for several men involved in the Paris terrorist attacks of Nov. 13 that killed 130 people, and dozens of people have been arrested in Molenbeek in the past three months as the authorities investigate that assault, the deadliest in Western Europe since 2004. But the spokesman, Thierry Werts, said the recruitment network targeted in the new raids was not directly connected to the Paris attacks. “The majority of the persons arrested are suspected of having sent people to Syria,” Mr. Werts said in a telephone interview. “Some of them have gone to Syria themselves to fight under ISIS and have returned,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL. During the raids, cellphones, computers and other hardware were seized for examination, but no weapons or explosives were found, he said. Molenbeek has become the focus of intense scrutiny since the Belgian government, which had been faulted for failing to prevent terrorism, announced an ambitious antiterrorism plan this month and assigned hundreds of additional police officers to monitor neighborhoods with large immigrant populations and to crack down on radical activity and the illegal trafficking of arms, drugs and people. The investigation is being carried out by a judge from the city of Liège who specializes in terrorism. The three suspects who were charged are men between the ages of 20 and 35 who live in Brussels, prosecutors said; one is a French citizen and the others are Belgian. They were identified in the statement only by given names and initials. The network they are suspected of being part of is active in and around Molenbeek. One of the attackers in the 2004 train bombing in Madrid lived in Molenbeek, as did a man accused of shooting four people dead at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May 2014. In January 2015, the Belgian police killed two men from the neighborhood whom they suspected were plotting to assassinate police officers in the town of Verviers. The gunman who tried to kill passengers on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris in August 2015 also lived in Molenbeek.

Brussels
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Belgium
Terrorism
Police
Paris Attacks


Bill Lynch, 72, Democratic Strategist in New York, Dies

Abstract: Bill Lynch, the Long Island potato farmer’s son who became known as the “rumpled genius” behind David N. Dinkins’s victory in 1989 as the first black mayor of New York City, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 72. The cause was complications of kidney disease, his family said. Mr. Lynch masterminded Mr. Dinkins’s campaigns for Manhattan borough president and mayor and was, as deputy mayor for intergovernmental relations, his closest adviser. He was instrumental in bringing the Democratic National Convention to New York in 1992, ran Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in the state that year and later became a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In recent years, with diabetes and a kidney transplanted from his son, William Lynch III, a political consultant, Mr. Lynch faded from public view. But he remained engaged in the political process on the periphery as a consultant for labor unions, corporations and candidates, including the mayoral campaigns of Fernando Ferrer in 2001 and 2005 and Comptroller John C. Liu this year, and H. Carl McCall’s campaign for governor in 2002. He also worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, and was involved in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008. Early in his political career he was often underestimated because of his disarming aw-shucks demeanor. His scattered style as an administrator — he had a bad reputation for returning phone calls, refused to delegate and once boasted jokingly that “one of my strong suits has been the inability to do long-range planning” — masked his shrewd persistence in forging coalitions and delivering on the commitments that kept them together. Comparing Mr. Lynch to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Mr. Dinkins said, “He’s a country boy like Jesse is a country preacher.” Once, after the City Council approved a controversial mayoral initiative, Mr. Lynch was asked how he had persuaded council members to adopt a proposal that a month earlier was dead on arrival, but which passed with 10 votes to spare. “It’s not lobbying,” he said. “It’s education.” In 1989, Mr. Lynch ran Mr. Dinkins’s first mayoral campaign from a seedy Times Square building. Mr. Dinkins was elected, just barely, on a promise of racial healing, but race dogged him during his four-year term. Mr. Lynch played a crucial role in putting together the administration’s response to racially charged disturbances in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn and the Washington Heights area of Manhattan, in promoting calm after the verdict in the Rodney King case threatened to ignite tensions, and in leading the mayor’s support of the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Before Mr. Dinkins lost a re-election challenge in 1993 from Rudolph W. Giuliani, a state report criticized the administration’s handling of the 1991 riot in Crown Heights, when bands of young black men attacked Hasidic Jews, fatally stabbing one. The report concluded that the mayor and the Police Department responded too slowly and too ineptly to quell the violence. But it also found no evidence to support the accusation that Mr. Dinkins and his police commissioner at the time, Lee P. Brown, deliberately withheld police protection from the Hasidim to allow blacks to “vent their rage” over the episode that precipitated the violence: the death of a black child who was accidentally struck by a car driven by a Hasidic man. The commission expressed skepticism, though, at Mr. Lynch’s testimony that he had no recollection of being warned early on that the violence was out of control. He maintained that City Hall mediators were working independently of the police to end the disturbance. “My position was always, whether that was good or bad, was that we worked different sides of the street,” he said. William Lynch Jr. was born on July 21, 1941, in the farm country around Mattituck, on the North Fork of eastern Long Island, and grew up there. In high school, he later acknowledged, he performed better at football and basketball than in academic subjects. After serving in the Air Force, he moved to Harlem in the late 1960s to work for a job training and policy institute at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He demonstrated his political skills for the first time in 1975, when he successfully managed Diane Lacey’s insurgent campaign for Democratic district leader in Central Harlem and the Upper West Side. “I kind of got the bug from then on,” he said. He went on to work on the presidential campaigns of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1980 and Mr. Jackson in 1984 and 1988. Other candidates for whom he worked included Representative Major Owens of Brooklyn and State Senator David A. Paterson. “He impressed me because he was the first really dynamic political person I had met who wanted to be a mechanic, who wanted to be on the front line but who didn’t want to be a star,” said Mr. Paterson, who later served as governor of New York. After winning the borough presidency in 1985, Mr. Dinkins named Mr. Lynch his chief of staff. Four years later, Mr. Lynch engineered Mr. Dinkins’s mayoral primary campaign, in which he wrested the Democratic nomination from the three-term incumbent, Edward I. Koch. After leaving government, Mr. Lynch became a vice president at Ronald Perelman’s company, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, and later opened his own consulting firm, Bill Lynch Associates. He is survived by his wife, Mary; his son; his daughter, Stacy R. Lynch; and a grandson. Mr. Lynch was always self-effacing, accepting blame when he lost a campaign or debate and deflecting praise when he won. “I don’t think I’m any genius or guru,” he said after the mayoral primary in 1989. “I had a group of people around me who knew what they were doing, and my job was to keep them happy.”

David N Dinkins
NYC
Bill Lynch
Obituary
Politics


Small Fry Feed Off Merger of Big Fish

Abstract: SOME people love collecting sayings that seemingly contradict each other, like “Many hands make light work” versus “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” In the advertising business, those who believe that “Bigger is better” find themselves at odds with those who believe that “Small is beautiful.” The debate has been intensifying as the bigger on Madison Avenue get bigger — most notably the planned merger , announced in July, of the Omnicom Group and the Publicis Groupe to form what would be the world’s largest agency holding group. There is sure to be considerable discussion of the merger this week, during the Advertising Week 2013 conference in New York. In the vein of another saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” smaller, independent agencies are using the formation of what is to be known as the Publicis Omnicom Group as a catalyst for initiatives to promote themselves to potential clients and would-be employees. The smaller fry are extolling what they consider to be the benefits of being small, like nimbleness, and the drawbacks of being big, like high overhead. Or as Tim Brokaw, who with his brother, Gregg, owns Brokaw , an agency in Cleveland with 54 employees, put it, “Small is the new big.” Brokaw was completing work on a humorous employee recruitment campaign when “news came through of the merger,” Mr. Brokaw said, and it has served as additional grist for the campaign’s mill. “We heard from some refugees” of agencies owned by Omnicom and Publicis, he added, among the more than 200 résumés his company has received since the campaign began. Employing the theme “It’s time to take your talents to Cleveland,” the campaign includes online ads geographically targeted to marketing professionals in the Chicago and New York areas on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the AgencySpy blog. The ads offer prospective employees tongue-in-cheek contrasts between working in bigger and smaller markets. One ad depicts a mansion, declaring, “What you can afford on a media coordinator salary.” Another ad suggests how comfortable it could be to work in Cleveland, if not sartorially correct : “Trade in those skinny jeans for some jorts.” Although the self-deprecating humor of the campaign may appeal to those outside Cleveland, some eyebrows are rising in the home market. “They’re about to set our building on fire,” Mr. Brokaw joked about the reaction of critics who are, he said, “not the target audience; it was never meant to be a tourism campaign.” Image In a recruitment ad, Brokaw, a Cleveland agency, lightheartedly extolled the cost of living advantages of smaller cities. An initiative from Copacino & Fujikado , an independent agency in Seattle with 35 employees, took a similarly cheeky tack. A billboard that the agency had erected near the Space Needle offered “Congrats to Publicis and Omnicom” and portrayed them as gigantic creatures resembling Godzilla and King Kong, shaking hands (or paws). “It started with us winning the small agency of the year award for the Northwest region from Advertising Age,” said Mike Hayward, creative director at Copacino & Fujikado, adding: “Do you do a news release and put it on your Web site? That’s the standard way to do it.” Rather, the agency decided “to show people who we are by showing them who we aren’t,” Mr. Hayward said. “Juxtaposing us against the two giants shows how we think and what we do.” That was underlined by the fact it took only “three or four days from the time we came up with the idea to the time the billboard went up,” he added, as well as the small price tag, about $2,900. The response has exceeded what executives at Copacino & Fujikado expected. “We had a company from Beijing contact us to work with them,” said Brandy O’Briant, managing director, and potential employees have been reaching out. Ames Scullin O’Haire , a small, independent agency in Atlanta, is producing a three-part Web series, through its ASO Digital Films division, that mocks the Omnicom-Publicis merger. In the initial video clip , a smarmy account executive at a newly merged goliath named UniGlobalAdvertCom briefs a client on benefits that include an office in Antarctica. The dubious client keeps asking, to no satisfaction, “What does that mean for me?” The clip ends with the words “Bigger isn’t always better” on screen. “With Publicis and Omnicom coming together, independent agencies like ourselves are going to be the Davids going up against these Goliaths,” said Patrick Scullin, executive creative director at Ames Scullin O’Haire, which has 55 employees. “I’ve yet to see a ‘process’ result in a better idea.” The first part of the online series has generated “a big increase in traffic to our Web site,” he added; Part 2 is to be released on Tuesday and Part 3 in two or three weeks. Although “we’ve heard a lot of buzz in the agency community” about the video clip, Mr. Scullin said, “we haven’t heard anything from Maurice Lévy or John Wren.” Mr. Lévy is the chief executive of Publicis and Mr. Wren is his counterpart at Omnicom. What do those chiefs think about the pokes from the smaller agencies? A spokeswoman at Omnicom in New York declined to comment; a spokeswoman at Publicis in Paris did not respond to an e-mail. Martin Sorrell, chief executive of what is now the world’s largest agency holding group, WPP in London, which will remain No. 1 until the deal is completed, offered a reaction. “Humor is one way of expressing” opinions about the merger, Mr. Sorrell said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Publicis Groupe
Omnicom Group
Mergers and Acquisitions
advertising,marketing


Amid Setbacks, Greg Norman Focuses on Presidents Cup

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — As the two Presidents Cup captains took their seats on the dais for a news conference Tuesday, no interpreter was needed to read the early body language in the run-up to the biennial match-play event that starts Thursday. There was the United States captain, Fred Couples, who sauntered in with his usual aplomb, the very picture of jaunty insouciance. And then there was the International captain, Greg Norman , who has known how to make an entrance ever since bursting on to the stage in the early 1980s from Queensland, Australia. But even the superstar, known throughout his colorful career as the Great White Shark, could not gloss over the painful events of the past week. Just seven days after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder and a few days removed from the announcement that he and wife of 15 months, Chris Evert , had split up, Norman gingerly sat beside Couples wearing a sling on his right arm and having a slightly pained expression. Though Norman may now have some difficulty realizing his goal of making the experience at the Presidents Cup competition fun for everyone, he made it clear he would not be adding anything to the separation announcement issued jointly last week. “First of all, about that,” he said, when the separation question came up after five others had been asked, “I’m not going to make any comment on that.” The reply was jarring, especially because questions and answers about the celebrity couple have been de rigueur at every Norman tournament since he and Evert first appeared together at the 2008 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. And until the announcement landed with a thud on Friday, in the public mind, Norman was the ecstatic newlywed, nearly winning the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale at age 53; the contender at the United States Senior Open this summer; the fit and smiling man standing beside President Obama in the Oval Office in a Presidents Cup photo-op shot in early September. Suddenly, there is no more giggling teenage love story going on in his life, and he is out there alone in the lurid glare of the spotlight that accompanies a high-profile international event. The timing, on the announcement and on his surgery, could hardly have been worse. But the show must go on, and Norman has never been one to stay down after having fallen or been knocked there. The word from the members of his International team is that there has been nary a word spoken about the breakup nor any indication that Norman is anything different from what he has always been. “He’s in a good frame of mind,” said Adam Scott, the fellow Australian whom Norman made one of his two captains’ choices. “He’s got his arm in a sling, but it’s been really good. I think he’s genuinely enjoying the experience, which is great for us to see. “I think he’s bringing a lot of energy to the team as well. His approach to the game was always so aggressive, and he’s bringing that out in us. He’s here to win and he’s trying to get us to feel the exact same way.” Geoff Ogilvy — another Aussie on a 12-man International team comprising three Australians, three South Africans, one South Korean, two South Americans, one Japanese, a Canadian and a Fijian — at first seemed surprised when asked if Norman had said anything about the split. “To be honest, the first I’ve heard about it all day is your question,” he said. “So it hasn’t been a part of it — well that’s a lie. First time I heard of it was when he came out of here early on, was wondering why we were all talking about that and not the golf tournament.” Norman is determined to change the focus to the golf tournament, four days of match play for worldwide bragging rights. This is understandable. The stature of the Presidents Cup has increased with each playing, as has the domination of teams from the United States, which leads the series, 5-1-1. To take an underdog team and guide it to victory over a strong United States team on American soil — the first captain of the millennium to beat the United States and with one arm in a sling yet — is a challenge that appeals to Norman. As much as that, though, getting into the competition would be a way for him to change the channel from a story that suddenly switched from a heartwarmer to a heartbreaker. At least for a week. “The situation right now is we are here for the Presidents Cup, and it’s all about the Presidents Cup,” Norman said. “And my guys are in a great state of mind about being positive about getting out there and playing, and come Thursday, they are going to perform. I know they will perform in a positive fashion.”


A College Beach Party With a Twist, and More Than a Few Wrinkles

Abstract: Building a college directly atop its own beach does not at first glance seem to be a great formula for academic success. A beautiful, protected beach, no less, with gentle waters and a wide apron of sand. By the logic of 1960s cinema, a setting like that should make students drop their books, run outside and peel down to their bathing suits for a dance party and a bonfire. But on the only college beach in New York City, there are no dance parties. Even when summer classes are in session, there are barely any college-age students. About the only thing that rings true to the Southern California celluloid ideal are the lifeguards — a pair of buff, blond twins who grew up just down the way. The college in question is not one of the city’s elite private institutions, but Kingsborough Community College , an institution on the southeastern tip of Brooklyn that welcomes all comers. All of its 18,000 students get access to the beach, as do all faculty and staff members. So do the 2,000 or so civilians who apply for a permit each year. Yet on a recent afternoon, with a gentle breeze rolling in from New Jersey, the sand was only lightly dotted with towels and bodies. Kingsborough students — at least those in their late teens and 20s — were too busy working or studying for their summer classes, several said, to take advantage of the college’s most distinctive feature. Image Bob Frubell, 80, an alumnus of Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the beach. Credit Nancy Borowick for The New York Times As some neighborhood mothers waddled their toddlers down to the water, Zachary and Brett Berliner, the lifeguards, said the real action was under the leafy canopy at the back of the beach, where “the tree people,” as Zachary refers to them, gather. Brett had a different, but equally affectionate term for them: “They’re yentas.” Specifically, they are participants in the school’s My Turn program, which allows senior citizens to take up to six classes for $80 total. Beach included. Stanley Golubow, a custard-colored man hiding from the sun under a nylon awning, a hat, a shirt, long shorts and a heavily draped towel, and his wife, Sandy, a human stick figure who had roasted to a shade of dark teak, had found their usual spot near the cafeteria. So had Efraim and Harriet Lipnik, retired teachers who come every day. (In August, the beach is open Saturdays through Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.) And Jeffrey Schwarz, another retired teacher, who, like most of the others, declined to specify his age. “This school is like my summer country club,” he said. For a little light beach reading, he had hauled out a large paralegal textbook. Phyllis Fintz, a retired bookkeeper, has been coming for 30 years. “I started with the beach, then I started taking classes,” she said. “I graduated with a business degree. I still take classes.” Brooklyn’s other beaches can be crowded, they say, or noisy. Only Kingsborough combines a relaxed atmosphere, clean bathrooms, an additional measure of safety thanks to the college’s security guards and a cafeteria all within steps. “It’s more homey,” Mr. Lipnik said. “It’s more intimate than Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach. You know everyone here, mostly. Where else can you find a public beach where you know everyone?” Image Jasmine Smith, 26, studying for a chemistry final. Credit Nancy Borowick for The New York Times The area, like some of the beachgoers, has had many lives. In the 19th century, according to John B. Manbeck, a former Brooklyn borough historian and the founder of the Kingsborough Historical Society, it was the site of two magnificent resorts. The Oriental was an exclusive destination where guests, along with their staffs, arrived for the entire season. And at the Manhattan Beach, the beach dressing rooms were outfitted with canaries for musical accompaniment. The conductor and composer John Philip Sousa named a march after the place. Eventually the crowds moved on, and the hotels were torn down. In the 1920s and 1930s, the area was known for the Manhattan Beach baths. “I think it cost $25 for a season, and all the big-name bands came: Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Les Brown,” Mr. Manbeck said. “Danny Kaye got one of his starts here.” “December 1941, there was a band playing,” he added. “They announced World War II. By that January they told everyone to clear out their lockers.” Image Kingsborough's beach is less crowded than other Brooklyn beaches, even though all 18,000 students have access to it, as do all faculty and staff members, along with the 2,000 or so civilians who apply for a permit each year. Credit Nancy Borowick for The New York Times The area was repurposed as a base for the Coast Guard and the merchant marine, and so it remained for a couple of more decades. In 1962, the idea arose for a new community college in Brooklyn. Mr. Manbeck said Kingsborough’s first art studio was in the former brig. The beach, which Hurricane Sandy briefly deposited in the cafeteria, has been a part of the college ever since. A part of the college’s view, that is. Between long commutes, heavy workloads, part-time jobs and family obligations, faculty members and younger students just do not seem to have enough time to enjoy the surf, college officials say. Or perhaps it is just another case of what may be called the Statue of Liberty syndrome: New Yorkers often ignore the attractions in their own backyard. Sitting in the air-conditioned cafeteria while the cool breezes beckoned and the sea gulls gently cawed a few yards beyond, Josh Weintraub, 18, a film student, looked up from the laptop he was working on. “I haven’t actually been to the beach,” he admitted. The sight of the water just through the cafeteria’s floor-to-ceiling windows was pleasant, he allowed. But “it seems like it doesn’t have that much effect,” he said. “It doesn’t make us want to wear bathing suits under our clothes and run down to get a suntan.” Andrew Parra, a liberal arts student who was sitting at Mr. Weintraub’s table, agreed. “It’s a nice option to know it’s there,” he said, “but it just becomes like anything else.” And with that he and his friends turned away from the beach, and back to their laptops.

Beach
Kingsborough Community College
Brooklyn
Old age,elderly,senior citizens
College
John B Manbeck
Community college


U.S. Court Overturns Calif. Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Saying that it discriminates against gay men and women, a federal judge in San Francisco struck down California ’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, handing supporters of such unions at least a temporary victory in a legal battle that seems all but certain to be settled by the Supreme Court . Wednesday’s decision is just the latest chapter in what is expected to be a long battle over the ban — Proposition 8 , which was passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote. Indeed, while striking down Proposition 8, the decision will not immediately lead to any new same-sex marriages being performed in California. Vaughn R. Walker , the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, immediately stayed his own decision, pending appeals by proponents of Proposition 8, who seem confident that higher courts would hear and favor their position. But on Wednesday the winds seemed to be at the back of those who feel that marriage is not, as the voters of California and many other states have said, solely the province of a man and a woman. “Proposition 8 cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,” wrote Judge Walker. “Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest.” Supporters of Proposition 8 said that the decision defied the will of the people of California, and could well be an issue in November’s midterm elections. “This is going to set off a groundswell of opposition,” said Jim Garlow, the pastor of Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif., and a prominent supporter of Proposition 8. “It’s going to rally people that might have been silent.” Wednesday’s decision applied only to California and not to the dozens of other states that have either constitutional bans or other prohibitions against same-sex marriage. Nor does it affect federal law, which does not recognize such unions. Still, the very existence of federal court ruling recognizing same-sex marriage in California, the nation’s most populous state, set off cheers of “We won!” from crowds assembled in front of the courthouse in San Francisco. Evening rallies and celebrations were planned in dozens of cities across the state and several across the nation. In West Hollywood, Ron Cook, 46, an accountant who is gay, said he was thrilled by the decision. “If the court had come back and upheld it,” he said. “I would have moved out of the state.” The plaintiffs’ case was argued by David Boies and Theodore B. Olson , ideological opposites who once famously sparred in the 2000 Supreme Court battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore over the Florida recount and the presidency. The lawyers brought the case — Perry v. Schwarzenegger — in May 2009 on behalf of two gay couples who said that Proposition 8 impinged on their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. On Wednesday, Mr. Olson called the decision a “victory for the American people,” and anyone who had been denied rights “because they are unpopular, because they are a minority, because they are viewed differently.” For advocates of gay rights, same-sex marriage has increasingly become a central issue in their battle for equality, seen as both an emotional indicator of legitimacy and as a practical way to lessen discrimination. “Being gay is about forming an adult family relationship with a person of the same sex,” said Jennifer Pizer, the marriage project director for Lambda Legal in Los Angeles , who filed two briefs in support of the plaintiffs. “So denying us equality within the family system is to deny respect for the essence of who we are as gay people.” But Andrew Pugno, a lawyer for the defense, said Proposition 8 had nothing to do with discrimination, but rather with the will of California voters who “simply wished to preserve the historic definition of marriage.” “The other side’s attack upon their good will and motives is lamentable and preposterous,” Mr. Pugno said in a statement. During the trial, which ended in June, plaintiffs offered evidence from experts on marriage, sociology and political science, and emotional testimony from the two couples who had brought the case. Proponents for Proposition 8 offered a much more straightforward defense of the measure, saying that same-sex marriage damaged traditional marriage as an institution and that marriage was historically rooted in the need to foster procreation, which same-sex unions cannot, and was thus fundamental to the existence and survival of the human race. But Judge Walker seemed skeptical of those claims. “Tradition alone, however,” he wrote, “cannot form the rational basis for a law.” Even before appeals to higher courts, Judge Walker seemed ready to continue to hear arguments, telling both sides to submit responses to his motion to stay the decision by Friday, at which point he could lift or extend it. How the decision might play politically was also still unclear. In 2004, same-sex marriage was seen as a wedge issue that helped draw conservatives to the polls, and Richard Socarides, who advised President Bill Clinton on gay rights issues, said that this decision could be used as a rallying cry for Republicans again. “But Democrats and most importantly President Obama will now have to take sides on whether gays deserve full equality,” Mr. Socarides wrote in an e-mail. In California, it could also affect the race for governor. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has been vocal in his support of same-sex marriage in his current role as California attorney general and hailed the decision on Wednesday. Meg Whitman , a Republican, has taken the position that marriage should be between a man and a woman — in line with the language of Proposition 8 — though she says that she strongly supports the state’s domestic partnership laws, which afford many of the same rights as marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a statement on Wednesday supported the ruling, saying it “affirms the full legal protections” for thousands of gay Californians. Some gay rights activists initially feared the case, believing that a loss at a federal level could set back their more measured efforts to gain wider recognition for same-sex marriage, which is legal in five states and the District of Columbia . But those concerns seemed to fade as the trial began, and on Wednesday, the mood was of elation and cautious optimism that Mr. Boies and Mr. Olson’s initial victory might change the debate. Kate Kendell, executive director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said that she believed that there were members of the Supreme Court who “have a very deep-seated bias against L.G.B.T. people,” meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. But, she added, “This legal victory profoundly changes the conversation” by involving “folks in the legal world and the policy world who were previously unmoved by this struggle.” For those who had actually filed the suit, Wednesday’s victory, while measured, also seemed sweet. “This decision says that we are Americans, too. We too should be treated equally,” said Kristin M. Perry, one of the plaintiffs. “Our family is just as loving, just as real and just valid as anyone else’s.”

Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
California
Referendum
Vaughn R Walker
David Boies
Theodore B Olson
Kristin M Perry


Publicity-Shy Giuliani Backer Is Thrust Into Spotlight

Abstract: Paul E. Singer is the founding partner of one of the oldest hedge funds around. And while he has become a major donor to Republican and conservative causes in recent years, he has largely managed to stay out of the limelight, even avoiding having his picture appear in newspapers. But this year Mr. Singer became one of the biggest supporters of Rudolph W. Giuliani ’s presidential campaign, making his jet available to Mr. Giuliani, while Mr. Singer and workers at his companies have donated $200,000 to the campaign. And he became the largest individual backer of a California ballot initiative that many Democrats believe could sink their chances of winning the presidency. Suddenly, the normally low-profile Mr. Singer, a New Yorker, found himself singled out by Democrats intent on beating back the California effort before it gained any steam. Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, questioned “Paul Singer’s involvement in this dirty trick aimed at stealing the White House.” A group of Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that Mr. Singer had been acting on behalf of Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to change the California law — which Mr. Singer and the campaign deny. And the Democratic National Committee drew attention to the part of Mr. Singer’s business that involves buying the debt of poor countries at a discount and then seeking repayment in full — prompting an article in The Times of London labeling his firm, Elliott Associates, a “vulture fund.” The vitriol directed at Mr. Singer reflects the intense passions being stirred by efforts to change the California law, which could alter the nation’s electoral map to favor Republicans and Mr. Giuliani, should he emerge as the party’s candidate. While Mr. Singer is now distancing himself from the effort, another Giuliani fund-raiser has since taken up the cause. Mr. Singer, 63, who was surprised to be photographed for this article on a Manhattan street, said in an e-mail interview that he had contributed to the California initiative on his own, and that he was not acting on behalf of the Giuliani campaign. He noted that buying what he called “sovereign distressed debt” represented only a tiny fraction of the $9 billion that is under management by his funds, but defended his decision to press for repayment, saying that countries must meet their obligations. And he lamented what he called “the name-calling against investors who do not just ‘go along’ with cents-on-the-dollar offers for valid sovereign debt,” saying it was primarily generated by ideological groups and debtors who do not want to pay. Mr. Singer, who has given millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes over the years, said that he met Mr. Giuliani in 2006 and decided to support him. He signed on as one of the campaign’s earliest major fund-raisers. For months, Mr. Singer made a jet leased by one of his companies available to Mr. Giuliani. This June, he said, he stepped down as the campaign’s Eastern finance chairman to become a policy adviser. The role of adviser is one that Mr. Singer unofficially took upon himself a decade ago, when he wrote a letter to Mr. Giuliani as a constituent, praising his work as New York’s mayor but urging him to crack down on excessive horn honking and dangerous bicycle riders. The following year, Mr. Giuliani did announce a crackdown on quality-of-life infractions, including on speeding cyclists and street noise. On Wall Street, Mr. Singer, a Harvard Law School graduate, has spent 30 years building up the Elliott funds, which have a reputation for strong-arm tactics in financial battles across the globe, but take a mostly conservative, risk-averse approach to investing that has produced steady returns. But it is a very small portion of his portfolio that has attracted the most attention recently: the part that invests in the discounted debt of poor countries. Mr. Singer is perhaps best known for the fight he put up — and the money he made — in his battle over Peruvian debt. In 1996, he paid $11.4 million for $20 million worth of discounted, government-backed Peruvian bank debt. Then, rather than joining with 180 other Peruvian creditors who agreed to a plan using bonds to forgive some of the impoverished country’s debt, Mr. Singer held out for bigger payments. He battled in the courts. At one point he hired an Albany lobbying firm and got New York State to change an obscure law to strengthen his position. When the dust had settled, Mr. Singer ended up getting $58 million for his Peruvian investment. Groups advocating debt relief — and higher-profile people like Bono — criticize such transactions, maintaining that they force poor countries to divert money from social and economic programs in order to pay back investors. The International Monetary Fund, where a top official once labeled Mr. Singer’s firm a “vulture company,” issued a report recently saying that such funds present a “major challenge” to the success of debt-relief programs in poor countries. Mr. Singer said that it was important for countries to comply with contracts. “We have never had a dispute with a sovereign which could not pay its debts,” he said. “Our few disputes have been with sovereigns who can pay but refuse.” At the moment, Mr. Singer is engaged in a similar battle involving Congo over $100 million in deeply discounted Congolese debt bought by an Elliott subsidiary a decade ago. He has hired lawyers to find Congolese assets, and even detectives, who discovered, among other things, a copy of an $82,000 bill run up by the Congolese president at the New York Palace Hotel during a visit to the United Nations. Mr. Singer describes himself as a libertarian conservative dating to the Barry Goldwater days. He is a trustee of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative research organization that provided Mr. Giuliani with a number of policy ideas when he was mayor, and has served on several boards, including the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, which advocates a close military alliance between the United States and Israel, and Commentary Magazine. He donated $250,000 to the Club for Growth, a group that promotes free-market policies and tax cuts, and which has praised Mr. Giuliani this year. Over the years, Mr. Singer has been a major donor to Republican causes. He gave $1.5 million to the Progress for America Voter Fund, an advocacy group set up in 2004 to advance the policies of the Bush administration. The group ran commercials during the 2004 presidential campaign in Midwestern battleground states featuring the smoky ruins of the World Trade Center, while portraying Senator John Kerry as weak on military budgets. Mr. Singer was also a donor to the Swift Vets and P.O.W.’s for Truth, which ran advertisements attacking Mr. Kerry’s Vietnam War record. But what has attracted notice recently is Mr. Singer’s September donation of $175,000 to a group called Take Initiative America — California, a corporation that had been set up in Missouri the day before, and which then donated the money to a group called Californians for Equal Representation. The California group wanted to change the way the state’s 55 electoral votes are apportioned, from winner-take-all, to one apportioning the votes according to Congressional district. Such a change could give Republicans as many as 20 more electoral votes, making it much easier for the party to win the White House. Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that said it was “reasonable to believe that Mr. Singer was acting as Mr. Giuliani’s agent in funding the California electoral college initiative,” which they said would have made his contribution over the limit for a federal candidate. The Giuliani campaign said it had no knowledge of the effort. “As far as I am concerned, you can leave it the way it is,” Mr. Giuliani said in September. After the group Mr. Singer supported had spent its money and become inactive, a new group was created to push for the ballot proposal, aided by Anne Dunsmore, who recently resigned as the Giuliani campaign’s chief fund-raiser. Mr. Singer, who said he supported the proposal because he believes in proportional voting in the Electoral College, said that he had no plans to contribute to the new committee pushing the initiative. “I have had no dealings with that committee and played no role in its formation,” he said.

Singer Paul
Giuliani Rudolph W
Presidential Election of 2008
United States Politics and Government
Finances
California
Voter Registration and Requirements


Trying to Save Connecticut’s Old Barns, Before They Vanish

Abstract: WASHINGTON DEPOT UNTIL recently, Samuel Averill never gave much thought to the historic significance of the weather-beaten dairy barn he keeps crammed with apple crates and farm machinery for his orchard. Barns were part and parcel of the rural landscape when Mr. Averill, 62, was growing up. But now, the faded structures — with collapsing cupolas, tilting eaves and sagging rooflines — are fast disappearing, despite the outcry of preservationists. “We’re losing our barns by the droves,” said Todd Levine, an architectural historian for the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the administrator of the Historic Barns of Connecticut grant project. Many tumbled down because of decay, or were torn down for new development. Others were simply too costly to maintain. And, as agriculture declined, barns no longer served a purpose. No one knows how many barns have been lost. Thomas Durant Visser, author of “Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings,” found that 25 percent of the structures he photographed for his 1997 book are no longer standing more than a decade later. Hoping to document what is left before it is gone, the trust has been conducting a census of sorts of Connecticut’s iconic historic barns. And to stem the decline of these outbuildings, it is offering grants to nonprofit organizations, municipalities and private property owners to encourage them to preserve them. So far, about 1,700 barns have been identified, from stylized Gothic Victorian carriage houses hidden in urban backyards to plain-and-simple tobacco sheds in the north central part of the state. Eventually, the list will include onion barns, sheep sheds, dairy barns, round and octagonal barns, bank barns, crib barns, English barns and those built with Yankee ingenuity that do not fit any category, except as quirky symbols of the state’s farming past. “Barns are one of the identifying features of our state because they reflect our agricultural origins,” said Mr. Levine. “If you live in the Midwest, and you think of Connecticut, you think of rolling hillsides and red barns.” And though they were built for utilitarian purposes, barns became objects of beauty to artists and architects. European architects of the early 20th century became enamored with the spare construction of American barns, said Sandy Isenstadt, a professor of modern architecture at Yale. “To them, barns and silos represented exactly the sort of strict functional thinking, without concern for aesthetics, that a new architecture might be founded upon,” he said. “So they saw such buildings as beautiful — a beauty that descends from attention to function rather than from concern for appearance.” Wendell Minor, an artist who lives in Washington, Conn., and has used many of Connecticut’s barns in his illustrations — including one in a United States Postal Service postcard series — compares barns to lighthouses. “They have the same strong visual elements,” he said. “People are nostalgic for them in the same way they are for lighthouses.” Most people recognize that barns are worth saving because they give the state part of its appeal, preservationists say. Kent Gilyard, 68, a barn restorer who owns two 19th-century barns in Litchfield, said there is something about them that just makes people feel good. “Maybe it reminds them of a simpler time, even though farming wasn’t simple,” he said. The grant project, funded through the Connecticut General Assembly, is intended to help property owners understand that “barns and outbuildings do not necessarily have to be torn down,” said Mr. Levine. Mr. Averill, a ninth-generation farmer, operates his apple orchard on land that his ancestors bought from the Indians in 1746. Even though he spent his childhood milking cows and building forts out of hay bales, he said, he sometimes wonders whether building a new barn would not be easier than fixing an old one. One side of his barn buckles out, possibly the result of a shifting stone foundation, he said. The grant Mr. Averill is applying for would help pay for a conditions assessment, a feasibility study to explore reuse options and stabilization for minor repairs, up to $5,000. To be eligible for a grant, a structure must meet at least three criteria set by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. Among barns that would meet some of them: structures that are at least 75 years old, are used for agriculture, and contain hand-hewn beams. The grants will not cover major restoration. But even small grants are important “because they provide a catalyst for preservation projects to move forward,” said Alicia Leuba, director of programs for the Northeast Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation . “You can easily spend a half million restoring a barn, or you can spend enough to get it to a point where it won’t get worse and save it,” said Eric Lundgren, a New Milford restoration contractor. Often, people simply do not know what to do with their barns, and the majority remain unused, which leads to decay, Mr. Lundgren said. Some structures have a renewed purpose as a result of the revival of small-scale agriculture. With the growing popularity of community-supported agriculture, eat-local campaigns and organic farming, “some historic barns are being put back into service,” said Rebecca Williams, a field representative for the National Trust. Others have been renovated as art galleries, wine bars, restaurants, antique shops, offices and any number of other businesses. But the most common reuse is housing. Typically, barns are not ideally located for homes. They are often too close to the road, so builders frequently dismantle them and use the materials to rebuild at a better setting, said Peter Klemm of Klemm Real Estate in Washington Depot. Plenty of converted barns in Connecticut were recycled from structures that came from upstate New York or elsewhere, he said. Since many barn owners inherit the structures when they buy property, and do not know how to date or identify them, the Connecticut Trust is conducting workshops to help them. Local historic commissions and barn enthusiasts have also volunteered for the barn census. “So far, we’ve come up with about 175 barns,” said Georgette Miller, a clerk with Roxbury Historic District Commission who has spent weekends canvassing the back roads of her town to document farm buildings. “We care immensely about our historic structures, but barns tend to get overlooked,” Ms. Miller said. To raise awareness, the commission published a calendar of its barns, and gave an award to a homeowner for his sensitive renovation of a dairy barn that was turned into a home and studio. Similar barn inventories and grant projects are under way throughout New England and the rest of the nation. Washington State distributed $500,000 in barns grants last year, largely to private property owners. In previous years, New York allocated $12 million toward preserving its barns. But considering Connecticut’s current fiscal crisis, Mr. Levine, the architectural historian, worries that this fledgling project, like the barns, is in jeopardy. “We’re under the gun with the budget cuts,” he said. “We’ve tried to show how important these structures are to our state’s heritage and to its future. Years hence, when all we have left to offer in Connecticut is sprawl, the barns will already be gone. It will be too late.”

Barns
Historic Buildings and Sites
Buildings (Structures)
History
Housing and Real Estate
Connecticut


Assets of Mubarak and Aides Are Frozen by Swiss

Abstract: Investigators have discovered tens of millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts belonging to the ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak , his family or five prominent associates, officials in Switzerland announced Friday. The officials said the accounts had been frozen, but declined to break down who controlled the vast sums. “What has been blocked is funds in the area of several dozen million Swiss francs,” said Adrian Sollberger, a spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry. “We are not specifying what their value is or whose money it is.” Mr. Sollberger said the search for funds would continue. After Mr. Mubarak’s resignation on Feb. 11, Swiss officials ordered all banks in the country to search for and freeze his assets and those of his family, four former ministers and a wealthy party insider. Egypt ’s new military-led government has asked countries across the Western and Arab world to freeze the assets of the four former ministers, the party insider and their families, American officials said. But it has not asked countries to freeze the assets of Mr. Mubarak and his relatives. Switzerland is acting on its own against the Mubarak family’s assets, under a new law that allows government officials to freeze accounts belonging to any former leader suspected of corruption. The law was enacted to change the country’s reputation as a haven for illegally acquired money. Egyptian opposition members said they feared that the country’s military-led government would shield Mr. Mubarak, a former Air Force chief, and his relatives from investigation. A senior official of the National Association for Change, an opposition group led by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called for an investigation into the Mubarak family and 200 other officials. “We don’t want to omit anybody from this regime,” said the official, George Ishak, “from Mubarak himself and his family to the people who are around them.” The Mubarak associates whose assets are being sought are Rachid Mohamed Rachid, a former minister of investment; Ahmed el-Maghrabi, a former housing minister; Zuhair Garana, a former tourism minister; and Habib el-Adly, a former interior minister. Ahmed Ezz , a steel tycoon and party insider, is also a focus. On Thursday, an Egyptian prosecutor ordered that all but Mr. Rachid be detained pending trial for corruption. Mr. Rachid, currently in Dubai, denied any wrongdoing in a telephone interview. Mr. Ezz did so this week on Al Arabiya television. The Mubarak family and the other three officials could not be reached for comment. On Thursday, the United States Treasury Department advised American banks to monitor movements of funds by former senior Egyptian political figures that “could potentially represent misappropriated or diverted state assets, proceeds of bribery or other illegal payments.” European foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting on Sunday and Monday. As of Friday, no reports had emerged that assets belonging to the Mubaraks or the five associates had been frozen in the United States or other countries in Europe. Egyptian anticorruption groups accused the United States and Europe of moving too cautiously. They warned that the Mubarak family — as well as the former officials — could be moving funds from the United States and Europe to offshore havens where the assets would be hard to recover. “It will give a chance to these officials involved in the corruption to hide their money even further,” said Omnia Hussien, program director in Egypt for Transparency International , a global anticorruption group. “Action should be taken immediately.”

Mubarak Hosni
Embezzlement
Switzerland
Egypt


General Puts Up a Fight in Sri Lanka’s Election

Abstract: COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — When President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced late last year that he would move the presidential election up by two years and seek a fresh mandate from Sri Lanka ’s war-weary electorate, he seemed like a shoo-in. Having vanquished the fearsome Tamil Tiger insurgency in May with a no-holds-barred assault on its last stronghold, Mr. Rajapaksa enjoyed widespread adulation. The opposition parties were fractured and in disarray. No one, it seemed, could match the president’s popularity, despite deep unease about what seemed to be the increasing concentration of power in the hands of his family and rising corruption. But to near-universal surprise, an alphabet soup of political parties has rallied around the retired general who led Sri Lanka’s army to victory against the Tamil Tigers, Sarath Fonseka . On Tuesday, voters here will go to the polls in what has been one of the most bitterly contested elections in Sri Lankan history. The winner will preside over the reconstruction and reconciliation of a country torn apart by more than a quarter-century of ethnic conflict. Mr. Rajapaksa has argued that he delivered on his election promise, made in 2005, to end the war, and that he can be relied upon to mend the country. But his popularity has waned in the months since the end of the war as Sri Lankans have grown impatient for prosperity. Mr. Rajapaksa has also given powerful positions in the government to relatives, rankling many Sri Lankans. “Sri Lanka has always been a democracy,” said Waskadwa Dhammarana, a Buddhist monk who supported the president in 2005 but is now planning to vote for General Fonseka. “I am against corruption, nepotism and the antidemocratic attitude prevalent in the Rajapaksa regime.” General Fonseka has pledged to reduce the powers of the presidency and give more authority to Parliament, a cherished goal of many parties in the fractious coalition backing him. But he is untested as a political leader, and many question his ability to lead beyond the regimented sphere of the military. Indeed, the alliance behind General Fonseka’s candidacy is a grudging coalition that includes more than one set of archenemies. It includes hard-line Marxists and laissez-faire capitalists, hard-core nationalists who argue that minorities should submit to majority rule as well as the main Tamil and Muslim parties. “The opposition parties have come together with the single purpose of effecting regime change,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives , a research and advocacy institute here. “Fonseka is the instrument of that change.” The campaign has unfolded in a tense but hopeful nation that seeks to put its violent past to rest. The Tamil Tigers took up arms to defend the Tamil minority from government discrimination, but eventually became a ruthless insurgency best known for its use of child soldiers and suicide bombers. Violence has punctuated the campaign. Election monitors have counted more than 100 episodes of violence involving firearms. At least five people have been killed. General Fonseka has struggled to find his footing as a politician. In speeches his clipped delivery is that of a man accustomed to giving orders, not asking for votes. “The country in the future will be free of corruption,” he commanded from the stage at a rally in the southern coastal town of Kalutara. “Democracy will be restored. Your children will have a bright future.” For many of the general’s supporters, the concern is more a matter of ousting Mr. Rajapaksa. “He has constructed a power center that is controlled only by his family,” said Japudaya Nagoda Kanutara, a 47-year-old supermarket clerk who voted for Mr. Rajapaksa in 2005. “At that time we only wanted to end the war, but after that sacrifice we feel we are getting nothing. Sri Lanka needs a change.” Mr. Rajapaksa, a flesh-pressing politician whose flashy rallies draw huge crowds, has found himself on the defensive, and his campaign has pulled out all the stops. His grinning face beams down from billboards and posters all across the country. The government has even added his portrait to a new 1,000-rupee note. Critics have accused him of using state resources, like helicopters to hop around the teardrop-shaped island, to wage his campaign, though his spokesman denied this. State-controlled media have heavily favored him. Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group, said in a report that the two main state-owned television channels devoted 98.5 percent of their news coverage to Mr. Rajapaksa. Mr. Rajapaksa’s rallies have been packed with fervent supporters who venerate him as a bringer of peace. “He ended the war,” said A. D. R. Premarathna, who owns a small printing shop. “Now we can live without fear.” Mr. Premarathna waited for five hours in the baking sun with his wife and children to secure a spot in the front row of Mr. Rajapaksa’s rally in Kalutara. “I know he will deliver on his promise to bring prosperity for my children,” he said. One issued that has hardly figured in the election campaign is the question of human rights violations that may have been committed by the military in the fight against the Tigers. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped on a small stretch of beach where they were held hostage as human shields by the ragged remains of the insurgency’s leadership. The United Nations counted 7,000 dead in the first phase of the final battle, but no reliable count exists for the last, deadliest weeks of the fighting. Sri Lanka has resisted calls for an international war crimes investigation. After the war, about 300,000 Tamils who had been trapped with the Tigers were detained in squalid, closed camps. No matter who wins, the competitiveness of the election has already had a profound effect on Sri Lanka, said Rukshana Nanayakkara, deputy executive director of Transparency International Sri Lanka , an anticorruption advocacy organization. The emergence of a credible opposition candidate pushed the government to speed the release of displaced Tamils held in camps, and ease restrictions on journalists, he said. “This was an opportunity through the campaign to challenge the government,” he said. “Regardless of who wins, that has been a very good thing.”

Sri Lanka
Elections
Fonseka Sarath
Rajapaksa Mahinda
Politics and Government


Yehuda Avner, Aide to Israeli Leaders and Memoirist, Dies at 86

Abstract: Yehuda Avner, a former diplomat and aide to a string of Israeli prime ministers who turned his insider stories about the country’s leaders into a well-received memoir, died on Tuesday at his home in Jerusalem. He was 86. The cause was cancer, his family said. The British-born Mr. Avner was an adviser and speechwriter to the country’s leaders for some three decades, beginning with Levi Eshkol in the 1960s through Shimon Peres in the early 1990s. He also served as Israel’s ambassador to Britain and Australia. In his book, “The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership,” published in 2010, Mr. Avner recounted working alongside Israeli leaders, including Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain; and the leader of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The book became the basis for a 2013 documentary film, “The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers,” with actors like Sandra Bullock (Golda Meir) and Leonard Nimoy (Eshkol) giving voice to Israeli leaders. Mr. Avner was born on Dec. 30, 1928, in Manchester, England, and he immigrated to Israel as a teenager. Survivors include his wife, Mimi; a son; and three daughters. In a 2010 interview with the online Jewish magazine Tablet, Mr. Avner said he had put his book together based on handwritten notes from the many meetings he attended. Mr. Avner said the notes were meant to be used for the official records of these meetings. “However, I never threw away those scribbles,” he said. “I confess I was naughty.”

Obituary
Yehuda Avner
Israel
Diplomats Embassies and Consulates


The Spotlight Arrives, to Some Unease, in a State That Savors Its Isolation

Abstract: ANCHORAGE — Cars here still have bumper stickers from the days when women dominated the grueling 1,100-mile Iditarod sled dog race. “Alaska,” they read. “Where men are men and women win the Iditarod.” And now, apparently, where women also run for vice president of the United States. As stunned Alaskans recover from the surprise announcement on Friday that Sarah Palin , their charming, gun-owning, two-year governor, is Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, they are beginning to realize, with some trepidation, that the state they love for its isolation, quirkiness and wacky politics is about to get its national close-up. “If you look at this as making Alaska’s image important in the nation’s consciousness, she’s a fairly problematic figure,” said Mike Doogan, a Democratic state legislator who for years was a columnist for The Anchorage Daily News. Ms. Palin, who served Mr. Doogan cupcakes on his birthday during the legislative session, is a self-described hockey mom who takes a biblical view on issues like gay marriage and abortion and is credited with standing up to Alaska’s entrenched Republican politicians and the oil companies that wield great influence. That has made her wildly popular in a state that, despite pockets of liberal thinking, is largely conservative. With five children, a husband who is part Yu’pik Eskimo and a family that fishes for salmon, eats moose meat and knows how to handle snow machines, Ms. Palin resonates with people who might not agree with all of her stands. And that matters in a state with a strong sense of identity. “She comes off like a real oil patch kind of Alaskan,” Mr. Doogan said. But the things that impress Alaskans are not things that necessarily will impress people in the rest of the country. “At least she can shoot better than Dick Cheney, I can tell you that for a fact,” said Nancy Gundlach, a university researcher from Fairbanks who raises racing dogs. “In a national forum, that might be a little difficult to appreciate, but she’s a woman who doesn’t back down.” Still, there is a sense among many Alaskans that the rest of the country might wind up not understanding their state, or worse — discovering how beautiful Alaska is and moving here. Alaska has long had that kind of duality. On one hand, the state takes great pride in not doing things the way they are done in the rest of the country. At the same time, there is a hunger to be part of the cultural and commercial flow of the rest of America. A Target store set to open this fall is generating much excitement. Singers on the downslide know they can breath new life into their careers at sold-out shows here. “Our governor is going to be vice president, and we still don’t have an Olive Garden,” said Keri Baranou, 30, who sells sewing machines. Already, Ms. Palin’s success is being considered Alaska’s success. Within a day, people in Anchorage were wearing T-shirts that said “Go Sarah!” — as if she were still playing point guard for the Wasilla High School basketball team. “Her success is all of ours in many ways,” said Jimmy Ng, a retired member of the Coast Guard who lives in Kodiak. “It shows the best thing about Alaska, which is that if you have any skill at all, you can rise up.” Alaskans also bristle at the suggestion that Ms. Palin might not have enough experience with international issues. What, they argue, could be more important internationally than fisheries or oil, the state’s predominant economic issues? And then there is the geography. “We are staring at Russia every day,” said Joy Ng, who has been married to Mr. Ng for 35 years. As a woman, she said she had a personal appreciation for Ms. Palin. “She’s a different kind of feminist,” Ms. Ng said. “She is a strong woman who can wear a skirt and be proud of it.” That is just the kind of thing that makes more liberal Alaskans cringe. “It’s a real embarrassment,” said River Bean, an organic farmer who works 20 acres outside of Anchorage. “Can you imagine having the mayor of Wasilla as the vice president?” Wasilla, the small town a little less than an hour’s drive from Anchorage where Ms. Palin became mayor and rose to political power, is considered by some to be, as Mr. Bean put it, “as ugly as sin.” Still, she is an Alaskan. So even some of her staunchest critics hope she does not crumble under the pressure of the presidential race for fear it will reflect badly on the state. Then again, there is the Alaskan approach. “I don’t care what the image of Alaska is to anyone else,” said Sharon Rooth, a longtime resident. “If I cared what America thought, I’d live there.”

Presidential Election of 2008
Palin Sarah
Anchorage (Alaska)