Czech Skater Wins in 3,000 Meters

Abstract: Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic beat the defending champion, Ireen Wust of the host country, to win the women’s 3,000 meters on the first day of the world single-distance speedskating championships in Heerenveen, the Netherlands. Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands extended his reign as the men’s 10,000-meter champion, winning by nearly eight seconds. ■ The Olympic bronze medalist, Denis Ten of Kazakhstan, took a commanding lead after the men’s short program at the Four Continents figure skating competition in Seoul. Shoma Uno, a Japanese 17-year-old who was making his debut at a senior international championship, was second. ■ The American bobsledder and sprinter Lauryn Williams, one of five people to medal in different sports at the Summer and Winter Olympics, is retiring. Williams won a silver medal at the Sochi Games in bobsledding with the driver Elana Meyers Taylor, and also won the 2004 silver medal in the 100 meters and the 2012 gold in the 4x100-meter relay.

Speed skating
Martina Sablikova
Figure skating
Bobsleigh


$1.7 Billion Deal for Hotels

Abstract: The founder of Black Entertainment Television, Robert L. Johnson, said yesterday that his investment company would pay $1.7 billion to buy 100 hotels from the White Lodging Services Corporation. The sale of the hotels, mostly under the Marriott name and located in Illinois, Indiana and Texas, would be staggered, with deals for 87 closing in the second quarter and the remainder within the next two years, Mr. Johnson's company, RLJ Development, said in a statement. After a sharp drop in demand for hotel rooms after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, business and leisure travel is surging, attracting investors to the industry. The 13 hotels that are subject to a later closing are under construction or have recently been completed, the statement said. Under the agreement, White Lodging would continue to manage the hotels, operating under their current brand names.

BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION
RLJ DEVELOPMENT
WHITE LODGING SERVICES CORP
JOHNSON ROBERT L
MERGERS ACQUISITIONS AND DIVESTITURES
HOTELS AND MOTELS


$25 Billion Investment Fund Is Formed to Protect French Industry

Abstract: PARIS — Vowing to protect French industry from foreign predators and a worsening economic slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced a strategic investment fund of 20 billion euros ($25 billion) on Thursday. He also announced its first investment and promised a stimulus package in coming weeks with the aim of investing extensively in infrastructure, education and research, and hinted that the auto industry might get a helping hand. The European Commission is likely to scrutinize the fund’s investments to ensure they do not restrict the free flow of capital, a violation that could lead to legal action by the commission. Mr. Sarkozy said the first investment would be made in Daher, an aeronautics supplier located near Tours, in central France. Speaking at Daher, Mr. Sarkozy said the fund stood ready to take stakes in large and strategically important companies vulnerable to takeovers because of falling stock prices. “I won’t let foreign funds get bargains thanks to the current levels of the stock market,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “I won’t let French industry move out.” The fund will also invest in smaller companies that have high growth potential but are having trouble getting loans from fearful banks, the president said, a gesture that officials hope will appease the competition authorities in Brussels. Daher, a family-owned business that makes parts for the nuclear, defense and car industries, plans about 250 million euros in investments over the next five years and will obtain 75 million euros from the new government fund. The fund will be run by the French government and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a state bank that has long invested on behalf of the public sector and will own slightly more than 50 percent of the fund. The state and the bank will jointly borrow 6 billion euros. They will also each contribute 7 billion euros in stakes, including the government’s 15 percent holding in the carmaker Renault and its stakes in Air France and the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard. The fund could grow, Mr. Sarkozy said, inviting foreign investors and even sovereign wealth funds to join. But he also said that the fund’s investments were not indefinite. “We won’t keep the stakes that we purchase forever,” Mr. Sarkozy said. The fund’s executive board will be headed by the chief of Caisse des Dépôts, Augustin de Romanet de Beaune, officials said. Patricia Barbizet, a senior executive of Artemis, the holding company of the billionaire investor François-Henri Pinault, will lead the investment committee.

France
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Sovereign Wealth Funds
Stocks and Bonds


Thai Crisis Shifts to Political Bargaining

Abstract: BANGKOK — Thai politics was consumed by hard political bargaining Wednesday, a day after Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was convicted in court and removed from office after receiving money for televised cooking demonstrations. His party immediately said it would nominate him to succeed himself in office when a new prime minister is chosen Friday. But that support has been weakening and other contenders have emerged from both within and outside the ruling six-party coalition. Whatever the outcome, there was no sign that a damaging anti-government protest that has spread to students and labor unions was ending. More than an attack on the sitting government, the protests grow out of deep political and social divides that have hardened over the past three years and threaten the stability of Thailand . The protesters who are now camped in the mud at Government House represent the latest turn in a long-running struggle between democratic ideals and a traditional, hierarchical society that feels disenfranchised by democratic change. This time, whatever the outcome of the confrontation, analysts say democracy is likely to suffer. Mr. Samak’s government was elected last December and asserts that democracy is on its side. But it is an extension of the authoritarian model of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who worked to weaken democratic checks and balances during his five-year tenure. Mr. Thaksin was ousted in a coup in September 2006 and is now in London, where he is seeking political asylum to evade corruption cases here that he says are politically motivated. His personality and his money still dominate Thai politics, even from exile, and much of the anger of the protesters is directed at him. The protesters call themselves the People’s Alliance for Democracy, or P.A.D. But in fact they are raising a cry that goes back more than a century that Thailand is not “ready for democracy.” They want to replace the country’s elected Parliament with a mostly appointed body in which power would run top-down, as it does in traditional Thai society. “The P.A.D. is a variation of the deep-rooted hierarchical society,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “In a nutshell it’s a kind of distrust of the people.” He added: “You can find this idea beginning in the late 19th century, when King Chulalongkorn said Thai people do not want democracy, that Thai people trust the king. “Throughout all the years that kind of idea remained,” Mr. Thongchai said. “‘People are not ready.’” The protests began in late 2005 as anti-Thaksin demonstrations that paved the way for the coup that ousted him two years ago. They resumed in May after the current pro-Thaksin government took office, and escalated on Aug. 26 with a takeover of the grounds of the prime minister’s office. They have been largely non-violent and the military has pledged not to use force to disperse them, even after Mr. Samak declared a state of emergency early last week. In an editorial Wednesday, Matichon, one of Thailand’s leading dailies, warned that returning Mr. Samak to office could touch off a new wave of anger. “Reappointing Samak will only widen the rift in society and risk leading the country into chaos and a bloodbath,” it said. The protesters are a mix of royalist elites, generals and businessmen with some liberal democrats, students and trade unionists, some of whom are united only by their opposition to the pro-Thaksin government. At its core, the People’s Alliance would move Thailand away from the basic democratic principle of one man, one vote, said Prajak Kongkeerati, a leading political scientist at Thammasat University. “Many Thai elite don’t believe in that,” he said. “We are really a hierarchical society.” The People’s Alliance would return the country to a 20-year-old model of “semi-democracy” in which the bureaucracy and the military have a role in politics and businessmen share a voice with elected representatives, Mr. Prajak said. This political structure has deepened the divide in Thailand between those who have and those who do not, he said. “We can say that every government has a policy platform that has an urban bias,” Mr. Prajak said. “So when elections come, they court the support of the rural vote. But when they are in power they formulate policy that favors the urban and industrial sector.” As Thailand has surged forward economically over the past two decades, many of the fruits of growth and globalization have not reached beyond Bangkok, perpetuating the disparity. Mr. Thaksin placed the poor at the center of his electoral strategy with populist policies like low-cost health care and debt forgiveness. The under-represented poor found their voice in voting for him, creating an overwhelming electoral majority that threatened the primacy of the Bangkok-based establishment. This is one reason the anti-government forces are finding that democracy no longer works for them and are seeking other routes to power. Their movement amounts to “a retreat from the trajectory of change of the past 15 years,” said Chris Baker, a British historian and author of books on Thailand. Almost absent from today’s debate, he said, is a strong liberal tradition that has been the driving force for democratic change for the past century. The difference now is that this protest movement does not seek to improve the democratic system but to replace it. “We used to chant the mantra of elections all the time,” said Sondhi Limthongkul, a publisher who is one of the leaders of the protests. “Now elections in Thailand lead to a very shabby democracy.” Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932 but democracy has ridden a roller coaster of 18 coups and 18 constitutions. Elected governments were mostly unstable coalitions of feuding parties, and until Mr. Thaksin’s five-year tenure, none had been elected to a second term. As the current confrontation continues, a central question is whether the military will stage another coup with a claim that it is restoring order, despite a promise by the army chief, Gen. Anupong Paochinda, that this would not happen. If the situation becomes critical, many Thais hope King Bhumibol Adulyadej will intervene as he has several times over the years to defuse confrontations. The king stands above the fray of politics, but he is deeply revered and his word is the authority of last resort in a country that has still not found its political footing. His personality is the unifying force of Thai society and the core of Thai identity. No successor will be able to command the devotion and moral influence that he has built up over 62 years on the throne. The king is 80 years old and in poor health, and one issue that hovers over Thai politics is what will happen once he is gone.

Thailand
Samak Sundaravej
Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations
People's Alliance for Democracy
Demonstrations and Riots
Politics and Government


Romo Shows Resiliency to Overcome Mistakes and Criticism

Abstract: DALLAS, Oct. 9 — As if he were a teenager alone in his bedroom, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo stands at his locker and belts out his signature tune, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” one of several 1980s pop songs in his off-key repertory. Could this be the same Tony Romo who was last seen throwing five interceptions against Buffalo, or who bobbled a snap in the playoffs, ending his team’s 2006 season and his coach’s career? Romo, who has a dimple in his left cheek that makes him appear younger than 27, said, “Yep, that’s me.” “When things don’t go your way, you just have to come right back and say: ‘Let’s try this again. Let’s have some fun,’” he said. “That’s just the way I live my life.” Romo’s teammates have learned to expect that kind of offbeat attitude from their leader, who is confident enough to be goofy and nonchalant, though he has become a celebrity here. The Cowboys are 5-0 for the first time in 24 years, and Sunday’s game against the undefeated New England Patriots will be Romo’s 16th consecutive regular-season start. In compiling an 11-4 record, he has shown streaks of brilliance, as well as disastrous spells, which often occurred in prime time, for all to see. Against the Patriots and his counterpart Tom Brady, a three-time Super Bowl winner, Romo will be out to prove that he can bounce back from adversity — yet again — and develop into a franchise quarterback. Eight other starters tried and failed to replace the Cowboys legend Troy Aikman, who retired in 2001. Many around Romo think he will be the one to succeed. What he has going for him, they say, is his consistency off the field. There, he is always the same guy, steady, with no surprises. He continues to be Antonio Ramiro Romo, the lover of karaoke despite his vocal shortcomings, the geek who devours motivational books, the son of strict but loving parents, the bachelor who lives with a high school buddy and still eats at the deli down the street. Romo sees himself as the undrafted third-string quarterback pushing for that chance to play, with everything to prove. “He does silly little things like sing Journey all the time, or a little ‘Jessie’s Girl,’ ” tight end Jason Witten said. “But he works hard, draws people in and makes you attached to him. He always expects good things to happen, and he gets his confidence from that. His attitude makes his teammates want to follow him.” Sometimes, though, they are forced to follow him straight into a ditch, the way they did against Buffalo on Monday, when his six turnovers — five interceptions and a fumble — nearly cost the Cowboys the game. In the end, when all seemed lost, he led a final drive to set up the 25-24 win. “I don’t know why Tony is as resilient as he is, but I do know that’s the mark of a great competitor,” said Jason Garrett, the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator. “The Michael Jordans, the Tiger Woodses, guys like that all have that trait. Whether they make the shot or make the putt, or miss the shot or the putt, they are always the same. They have this tremendous belief in themselves. That’s what Tony has. “There are a lot of physical traits that people can get enamored with, but the psychological part is hard to see.” Now, the entire Cowboys organization is in awe. Terrell Owens, the feisty receiver who has criticized his teams’ quarterbacks throughout his career, said that Romo had “that special swagger and fire.” Defensive end Chris Canty said: “You can’t describe it, or see it, it’s just It. Tony can do unbelievable things.” Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner, said he considered Romo the quarterback for the long term. Fans have also clamored for Romo. His No. 9 jersey is the second-best seller in the N.F.L. to LaDainian Tomlinson’s and is the top seller among children. Wade Phillips, who replaced Bill Parcells as coach this year, said that Romo reminded him of Doug Flutie because of the way the fans have taken to him. Like Flutie, labeled as too short to make it as a quarterback, Romo gives wannabe athletes hope. No Division I-A programs offered Romo an athletic scholarship out of Burlington High School in Wisconsin. He earned a partial ride to Eastern Illinois, where he won the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in Division I-AA. N.F.L. teams still overlooked him in the 2003 draft. But the former Cowboys offensive coordinator Sean Payton, another Eastern Illinois graduate, saw something special in Romo and persuaded him to sign with Dallas. There, Romo was groomed and educated by a long line of people, including Payton, Parcells and quarterbacks for whom he played understudy, like Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe. Romo sat on the bench for three years, watching and learning. And he read books. During downtime, he curled up on a blue leather couch in the locker room and studied motivational books about sports. He read about Larry Bird and Pat Riley and Jordan. He read about Johnny Unitas and Vince Lombardi, and twice read the same book about Secretariat. “I just tried to learn little things that helped me out as a player,” Romo said. “All those little things really do help you, just like I might put on ‘Rocky’ music because it makes you say, ‘Now I want to go out and run.’ That stuff gets you going.” At 6 feet 2 inches, Romo was short for a Parcells quarterback. Parcells also worried that Romo released the ball too low, which would allow defensive linemen to easily swat down his passes. After Romo moved to Dallas, the assistant coach David Lee, now the offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas, worked on elevating Romo’s release point. At odd hours, in daylight and darkness, Romo threw about 10,000 passes over a net to Lee, who wound up with broken blood vessels in his hands. Upon arrival at training camp, Romo began to show Parcells what he was made of. “He would get intercepted, and Bill Parcells would undress him,” Lee said. “Man, he’d kill him and yell at him, but Tony wouldn’t be fazed by it. He would come back and throw an 18-yard dig route that hit the guy right in the chest. I mean, what is it about that kid? You can’t keep him down. You can’t break his spirit.” At times, it was Romo’s boldness that drove the defensive coaches crazy. While running the scout team, Romo was supposed to mimic the offense of the next opponent. Instead, he would improvise, making up plays to beat the Cowboys’ defense. Romo soon became known for his ability to make something happen when the planned play breaks down. The Cowboys’ job then became to temper that spontaneity and persuade Romo to stick with the program more often than not. Part of Parcells’s job, as he said recently, was to teach Romo about reality. During last season’s run to the playoffs, Parcells said he told Romo about an N.F.L. quarterback who did well quickly, but declined just as fast. “You’re just trying to tell him that some people don’t go on to sustain the success, and what separates the real great players from the others is that some guys can keep going at that level, but not everybody,” Parcells said by telephone from his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “I was trying to tell him that this might not be forever here, and that he shouldn’t be satisfied with just being pretty good. It was more like fatherly advice, trying to maximize his potential.” Then came Romo’s dropped snap on a last-minute field-goal attempt in that playoff game against Seattle, which was Parcells’s final game. It left Romo in tears, he said, because he could not bear letting down the team and his coach, who, he said, was robbed of “that one final moment of greatness.” Romo said he moped on the couch for the next two weeks. Owens called nearly every day to give him a pep talk. His parents, Ramiro and Joan, called to tell him that everything would be all right. One day, Romo simply got off his couch and decided he needed to work harder, so he could make things right. He said Parcells had taught him “not to be a yo-yo” and to always be the same guy, day after day. He wanted to live up to that. So far Romo has coped with the distractions that have come with success. As quarterback of America’s Team, he is suddenly a celebrity, in Texas and beyond. He taped television commercials and judged the Miss Universe pageant. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch of a Cubs-White Sox game. He showed up at the Country Music Awards as the date of an “American Idol” winner, Carrie Underwood. At a club in Los Angeles, he was invited onstage to sing “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” with an ’80s cover band, which soared to YouTube popularity. But Romo said he was still a Midwestern guy who remained close to his family. His paternal grandparents, Ramiro and Felicita, live in East Texas and attend every Cowboys home game. Romo, true to his Mexican roots, knows all the verses of “La Bamba,” which he sings while his grandfather strums a guitar. His grandmother leaves Bible verses on his voice mail before games. Romo’s parents still live in Burlington, a town of 10,000 in southeastern Wisconsin, in the same 1,100-square-foot house where Tony grew up. Ramiro Romo Jr., 50, a Navy veteran, works as a construction supervisor. Joan Romo, also 50, worked in a supermarket but now helps to manage her son’s finances. Romo has two older sisters: Jossalyn, 29, a nursing student, and Danielle, 31, a teacher. Romo’s father said he often reminded his son to remember where he came from. Yet his parents never worry that fame will change him. “Money and becoming a celebrity come with his job, but I know Tony realizes that your relationship with other people, especially your family, is the most important thing in life,” Romo’s father said. “If you are a bad person, I don’t see how you can say that you are a winner. When he comes home, he jumps right into his old life.” Two weeks ago, Tony Romo learned that his father had prostate cancer. Interceptions, fumbles and botched snaps no longer seemed so important. A week later, father and son were asked about life’s tougher moments. Both gave the same answer: If a mistake on the football field is the worst thing that happens to you, you have had a pretty good life.


Mariano Rivera: A Zen Master With a Mean Cutter

Abstract: In a game in which perfection is elusive, he was reliably sublime. In the high-stress vocation of ninth-inning pitching dominated by theatrical personalities, he was the embodiment of Zen calm — a cool Jedi master among the hotheads, and an almost extraplanetary source of composure and grace in the gritty, often chaotic world of Major League Baseball. He was the reliever who arrived to the strains of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” a closer who dependably delivered closure — turning out the lights on the league’s best hitters, shutting almost every door. He was feared as the Yankees’ silent killer, their one infallible weapon — Mr. Automatic. But he was also the one member of the Evil Empire so respected by enemy fans that he was feted, in this, his final year, in other ballparks across the country, including Fenway Park in Boston , where he was hailed as “a real gentleman, a fierce competitor and a most worthy opponent.” Mariano Rivera understood what Steve Jobs, Lao Tzu and Bruce Lee understood: that simplicity is an art and a strength, a source of joy and beauty and power. The greatest closer of all time, who could become the first player to win unanimous election to the Hall of Fame, did it all with basically one pitch: the cut fastball . It moved with such velocity and wizardry that it seemed to defy the laws of physics, breaking hundreds of bats and shattering many more dreams. It was a pitch delivered with easy elegance and brutal economy, a pitch Rivera could tailor with such precision and infinitude of detail that it flummoxed even the most canny and experienced batters. It was also a pitch that underscored an almost perfect fusion of character and style. As Yankees Manager Joe Girardi has pointed out, baseball is what the deeply religious Rivera does, it’s not who he is. But who Rivera is — a consummate professional, stoic, focused, dedicated and at peace with himself — has indelibly imprinted the way he has gone about the job: his unparalleled consistency and longevity, his grace under pressure, and his ability to come back from adversity, be it a blown save or his potentially devastating ligament tear in 2012. Over the years, the arithmetic of Rivera’s career has been dazzling: 652 regular-season saves, including 44 this season through Friday at age 43. His postseason numbers have been even more stunning: 42 saves, with a mind-boggling 0.70 earned run average in 141 innings. The Yankees would not have won five championships from 1996 to 2009 without him; he got the final outs in the last four of those World Series. But math alone cannot communicate Mariano’s achievement, his almost otherworldly control of the ball, or his aura as a great warrior, gentleman and mensch. Colleagues, fans and journalists have struggled to find words to convey his accomplishments, and his heart and soul and will — his steely determination on the mound and his humor and charm off the field. ABC’s Robin Roberts observed that it was rarer to score an earned run off Rivera in the postseason than to walk on the moon. The former Mets manager Bobby Valentine once said: “No one else throws a 94-mile-an-hour cutter. It’s like bird watching in a foreign land. You can’t understand it.” Rivera’s teammate David Robertson, who may inherit his job, called him “the most consistent human being to ever play the game of baseball.” One baseball analyst attributed Rivera’s success to the “three C’s” — “control, control, control.” Another attributed it to the “four C’s” — “confidence, concentration, control and competitiveness.” To which a Yankees fan might add even more alliteration: constancy, calm, class, composure, continuity and complete command of craft. Singular Career Comes to a Close 30 Photos View Slide Show › Image Barton Silverman/The New York Times People have compared Rivera to Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky to convey his soaring talent and just how indispensable he has been to his team. Explaining Rivera’s mystique goads others to reach for analogies outside sports to describe the indescribable, comparing his artistry to that of famous musicians and painters, his tenacity and mental toughness to that of Navy SEALs, his sleight of hand to the legerdemain of a Harry Potter or Houdini. Rivera himself was succinct and to the point about his job : “I get the ball, I throw the ball, and then I take a shower.” For fans who grew up watching No. 42 or have followed him for the last 19 seasons, he has become the embodiment of the Yankees at their very best: not the big-spending, patched-together All-Star team that chased after the likes of Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown, but the team that Rivera, along with Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams, defined. The team always came first for these homegrown Yankees, and they played with brotherly dedication and collective pride. Rivera’s retirement is a melancholy moment for the Yankees and their fans. Williams retired in 2006, Posada last played in 2011, and Pettitte was scheduled to pitch his final game Saturday. Jeter will be the only one to return next year — and to a team in need of reimagining and rebuilding, and possibly fated to some long years in the baseball wilderness. That the beloved and seemingly ageless Sandman is exiting this year not only means the end of a golden era, but also reminds us of the swift and unrelenting passage of time. The perfect ending everyone yearned for after the Rivera tribute last Sunday at Yankee Stadium was a win for Andy and a save for Mariano, but that was not to be. And yet, the larger narrative of Rivera’s career remains a storybook one. The son of a fisherman, he grows up playing baseball on a beach in Panama with a milk carton for a glove, a stick for a bat and whatever was available for a ball; after being signed by a Yankees scout for $3,500, he does his apprenticeship in the minors, joins the Yankees and struggles at first, and then suddenly hits his stride. He wins a championship in 1996 as the setup man for John Wetteland and, soon, leaps into hyperspace as the closer, becoming such a feared adversary that opponents will talk about needing to win games against the Yankees in seven or eight innings before he takes the mound. In the last month or so, the pace of Rivera tributes has accelerated, within baseball and the news media, and also among fans on Twitter and Facebook, on radio call-in shows, and even in an AT&T-sponsored “ Thanks for the Mo-Ments ” promotion. They recite Rivera’s luminous stats, cite songs (like Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” or Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye”) they would dedicate to him, and trade memories of his clutch performances: those emotional World Series wins; Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series against the Red Sox (won in 11 innings by Aaron Boone’s home run); his record- setting 602nd save with a perfect ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins in September 2011. Such outpourings of love are a testament to the intimate and deeply felt karmic relationship that has developed over two decades between Rivera and Yankee fans, and New York City — a relationship that has been heightened, perhaps, by his job as the closer. No one has been more of a team player than the humble and loyal Rivera, and yet his was a strangely solitary job: taking the field not alongside his teammates but alone, at the end, with the heavy responsibility of saving the game for them all. The photographs and videos of Rivera running toward the mound from the bullpen — shot from behind, No. 42 starkly outlined on his impeccably crisp pinstripes — have given way to similar images (in newspapers, and on T-shirts and souvenir pins) showing him striding not into the electric blur of Yankee Stadium but into some less immediately recognizable realm. Jogging into the future and retirement. And through the gates of Cooperstown and into the forever of history.


At the British Open, Where the Path to a Grand Slam Has Been Lost

Abstract: The footprints were there for Jordan Spieth to follow — the footprints of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in their pursuit of golf’s most elusive prize, a calendar-year Grand Slam. Spieth has followed those footprints through the towering pines of the Masters and the tangled rough of the United States Open at Chambers Bay to the British Open, which starts Thursday on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. But the British Open is where those previous footprints disappeared — Palmer in 1960 at St. Andrews, and Nicklaus in 1972 and Woods in 2002, both at Muirfield. If Spieth is to arrive at the P.G.A. Championship at Whistling Straits on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan on Aug. 13 with a chance for the Grand Slam, his footprints at St. Andrews must lead to his raising the claret jug. Second place, even by only one stroke, is worthless; Palmer and Nicklaus could tell him that. Shooting a third-round 81 in rain and wind is useless; Woods could tell him that. Palmer also could tell him how all this Grand Slam talk started. He and his Pittsburgh Press pal, Bob Drum, were high over the Atlantic on the way to St. Andrews in 1960, when Palmer mentioned that a win there would keep alive his opportunity to win the “pro Grand Slam,” as opposed to Bobby Jones’s 1930 Grand Slam of the United States Open and Amateur, and the British Open and Amateur. “Bob picked up on that and wrote that story,” Palmer has often said. “We started what is known as the pro Grand Slam.” Palmer had emerged as America’s pro. He had won a second Masters that year with birdies on the last two holes; he had won the Open at Cherry Hills near Denver with a final-round 65. He had put the word “charge” into golf’s vocabulary. After 54 holes at St. Andrews, he was four strokes behind the leader, Kel Nagle, a little-known Australian, and when Palmer began the final round with two birdies, the Scots in his gallery were yelling, “Charge!” But as he teed off on the 17th, he still trailed by two. In that era of persimmon drivers and less-than-nuclear golf balls, the 17th, the infamous Road Hole, was a par 5 at 483 yards. In each of the first three rounds, Palmer was on in two, then three-putted for par. But now he had a birdie 4. When a roar went up for Palmer’s birdie 3 on the 18th for 68 and 279, Nagle was hunched over a birdie putt on the 17th. He holed it to maintain his one-stroke lead, then parred the 18th to win. Image Arnold Palmer competing in the second round of the 1960 British Open at St. Andrews, where he lost by one shot to Kel Nagle. He won the event the following two years. Credit Associated Press “It was putting that killed me,” Palmer told reporters later. “Putting and that doggone 17th. I never got my putter working.” Palmer lost, but he didn’t lose his sense of humor. Tip Anderson, the renowned St. Andrews caddie he had hired, later told how Palmer had hit a 6-iron to the 17th green the first three rounds. In his desperation to catch Nagle in the final round, Palmer hit a 5-iron onto the edge of the road behind the green. “He made a great recovery and finally got a 4,” Anderson said. “Walking to the 18th tee, he says to me, ‘Tip, you’ve cost me the Open championship.’ Of course I’m stunned. ‘What have I done?’ I asked. He looked at me sternly for a moment and then he starts to laugh. ‘You gave me the wrong club all week.’ ” The next two years, with Anderson on his bag, Palmer won the British Open at Royal Birkdale and at Royal Troon. He would win two more Masters, in 1962 and 1964, but not another United States Open, losing an 18-hole playoff in 1962 and 1963. He never put together another Grand Slam bid. Nicklaus, who conquered Palmer in their 1962 Open playoff at Oakmont, had his Grand Slam opportunity in 1972 when he won the Masters, then the Open at Pebble Beach, each by three strokes. For him, Muirfield was familiar, as he had won the British Open there in 1966; he also won the tournament at St. Andrews in 1970. “The course is hard and fast and will continue to get faster, particularly with the cut greens,” he said after his final practice round. “I look for a lot of irons off the tee.” But after three rounds, those irons off most of the tees left Nicklaus six strokes behind Lee Trevino, the defending champion, and five behind Tony Jacklin, the Englishman who had won the British Open in 1969 and the United States Open at Hazeltine in 1970. As Nicklaus strode onto the first tee in the fourth round, he took the club-head cover off his driver. Image Jack Nicklaus sinking a putt in the first round of the 1972 British Open at Muirfield, where he had won in 1966. In 1972, he shot a final-round 66 but finished a shot behind Lee Trevino. Credit Central Press/Getty Images Big drive at the first, easy par. Big drive to the apron of the 349-yard second, birdie. He quickly had two more birdies. When a chip to three feet led to another at the ninth, he suddenly tied Trevino for the lead. With another birdie at the 10th, he led by one. At the 11th, he was hunched over a four-foot birdie putt when a roar erupted. Trevino had eagled the ninth. Nicklaus backed off, then another roar. Jacklin had eagled the ninth. When Nicklaus holed that four-footer, he was six under for the round. Pars on the last seven holes would give him a 65, maybe enough to win or at least to create a playoff. Nicklaus parred the next four and was tied for the lead. On the 188-yard 16th hole, his ball soared left, skidding into low rough halfway down a slope next to the green. “Another few feet in the air,” he said later, “and it would have stayed on the green, about 25 feet from the cup.” From the rough, Nicklaus chipped to about five feet above the hole. As he hunched over his putt, bagpipes near the distant clubhouse could be heard. His putt missed. Bogey. After Nicklaus parred the 17th and 18th for 66, the yellow scoreboard showed Trevino and Jacklin ahead by a stroke as they played the 17th. Nicklaus disappeared into the scorer’s shed. Suddenly, somebody shouted, “Trevino’s blown!” On the par-5 17th, Trevino’s fourth shot had hopped over the green into low rough about 15 feet from the cup. As Nicklaus emerged from the scorer’s shed, the same voice yelled, “He holed his chip!” Trevino’s fast-moving chip had clunked into the flagstick and disappeared for a par. Jacklin had a 15-foot putt for a birdie and the lead. He missed, then missed a comeback three-footer and bogeyed. Trevino led Nicklaus and Jacklin by one. When Trevino’s 8-iron to the 18th green floated close to the cup, Henry Longhurst intoned into his BBC microphone, “At long last, we have seen the shot that has won the Open.” Image Tiger Woods playing from the rough on the first hole in a rainy, windy third round of the 2002 British Open at Muirfield. He shot an 81. Credit Adam Butler/Associated Press The shot that also smothered Nicklaus’s footprints in his Grand Slam bid. “I felt a 65 would do it,” he said in the interview tent. “I had a 65 and let it get away. Lee Trevino is some good player. If I had to lose, I’m glad it was to him.” Thirty years later, Tiger Woods arrived at Muirfield as a 7-to-4 favorite in the British betting shops. He had won six of the previous nine majors, and seven of the previous 11, including the 2002 Masters and the United States Open at Bethpage Black, each by three strokes. Opening with 70 and 68, Woods trailed the five co-leaders by only two strokes after 36 holes. But as he played his third round on Saturday afternoon, a wild windblown rainstorm from the nearby North Sea howled across Muirfield’s moors. In a wind chill that dropped to 39 degrees, Woods shot 81: seven bogeys, two double-bogeys, one birdie, eight pars. At the time, it was his highest round as a pro. “It was just blowing so hard out there, it was just difficult to stand,” he said later. “The ball is oscillating. The rain is blowing. But I tried on every shot. I didn’t bag it.” Woods also didn’t bag it in Sunday’s final round. Although he trailed 65 other golfers when he teed off, he shot a six-under-par 65. On the 16th tee, he even dared to think he “might have had a chance” to win if he finished birdie-eagle-birdie for a 61, which would have been a record in a major. Instead, he finished with three pars. He was 16 strokes better than the day before, only six out of the four-man playoff that Ernie Els won. Woods’s footprints were washed away in that rain-soaked 81, and he has not been able to create another Grand Slam bid. Now a fourth golfer, the 21-year-old Spieth, has a chance at St. Andrews to extend his Grand Slam footprints beyond the British Open in the Auld Grey Toon, not too far from the Firth of Forth. Yes, the fourth and the Forth. Is that an omen?

Golf
Tiger Woods
Jack Nicklaus
Arnold Palmer
Jordan Spieth
British Open


ISIS Threatens Al Qaeda as Flagship Movement of Extremists

Abstract: AMMAN, Jordan — As Syria’s civil war raged, a Kuwaiti Islamist, Ghanim al-Mteiri, funneled cash from wealthy donors in the Persian Gulf to Syria’s affiliate of Al Qaeda in hopes that it would overthrow the government and lay the foundations of an Islamic state. So Mr. Mteiri watched in dismay as another, even more violent jihadist organization, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, seized a chunk of Syria, stormed into Iraq and not only declared itself an Islamic state, but also demanded that all Muslims swear allegiance to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. For the first time since its emergence more than two decades ago, the Qaeda of Osama bin Laden finds itself facing a rival jihadist organization with the resources and influence to threaten its status as the flagship movement of violent extremism. For the moment, Al Qaeda has lost ground, but the question remains: Will this new group, which now calls itself simply the Islamic State, endure? Those still allied with Al Qaeda think the new group will fall victim to the same tactics that somehow have simultaneously made it an enemy of the West and of Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda. “We all dream of an Islamic state, but we want a political Islam that is able to stand up and not be erased from the map,” Mr. Mteiri said. “The great powers will never accept this, and they are bigger and stronger than ISIS.” Although many dismissed as propaganda ISIS’ announcement on Sunday that it had established a caliphate — or global Islamic state — the group’s out-of-nowhere rise in just over one year has created a clash over ideology and tactics between partisans of the world’s two leading jihadist organizations. It also has created a generational split as ISIS has electrified a new group of radical jihadists with its emphasis on sectarian warfare and founding an Islamic state. Image On Monday, members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria paraded through Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, in a show of success and mystique. Credit Reuters On Monday, ISIS members paraded through Raqqa in Syria, demonstrating the kind of success that has won it a growing following and outsize mystique: It showed off what appeared to be a Scud missile and other heavy weapons apparently looted from Iraqi military bases. “It is clear that the first and second generation that started Al Qaeda, most of them are supporting Zawahri, but the new generation is more radical and closer to ISIS,” said Hassan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian expert on Islamist movements. While Al Qaeda remains committed to using terrorist tactics against the West and Arab governments, it has criticized ISIS for killing civilians and for waging war on other Muslims. This rivalry has disrupted the jihadist landscape across the Middle East and spurred new debates about how to fight jihad and what, exactly, an Islamic state is supposed to look like. “People don’t have to like it, but they have to respond to it,” said Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, of the group’s declaration of an Islamic state. “Now that there is an actual caliphate with a caliph, a lot of Muslims are going to have to talk about what that means, and there is going to be some sympathy.” The successes of ISIS owe much to the failures of other Islamist movements and the group’s ability to take advantage of local circumstances, including Sunni anger in Iraq at the Shiite-controlled government, experts say. The Egyptian military’s ouster one year ago of the country’s elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, dealt a harsh blow to the Muslim Brotherhood’s philosophy of gradual change through electoral politics and societal reform. Al Qaeda’s central leadership has been waning in power and influence for years. American drone strikes have limited the ability of its leaders to manage their far-flung affiliates, and Mr. Zawahri, who took over after the death of Bin Laden, is widely seen as out of touch and lacking the charisma to inspire young militants. Image The parade included weapons apparently looted from Iraq. Credit Reuters This younger generation has been wooed through ISIS’ social media campaigns and finds its activist approach to statehood more inspiring than Al Qaeda’s long-term vision. “Al Qaeda is an organization and we are a state,” said an ISIS fighter who gave his name as Abu Omar in an online chat. “Osama bin Laden, God have mercy on him, was fighting to establish the Islamic state to rule the world, and — praise God — we have achieved his dream.” The global ambitions of ISIS were clear in the audio recording, read by the group’s spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announcing the caliphate that it released Sunday when it changed its name and emphasized that it did not recognize any geographic limit to its authority. Reactions from other militants around the region were split. Small groups in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere lauded the declaration, while hundreds of men waved black flags and fired their guns in the air in celebration in Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital. Others mocked the move as little more than bravado. “Now while I am preparing my meal to break the Ramadan fast, news is breaking that al-Adnani has announced the caliphate!” Hani al-Sibai, a jihadist preacher in London, wrote on Twitter . “Either you pledge allegiance or return to Saturn!” ISIS grew out of the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which took advantage of the vacuum caused by Syria’s civil war to reorganize, gather resources and recruit new fighters. It developed a reputation for ruthlessness after launching car bomb attacks on rebel bases, executing minorities and forcing its puritan views on civilians. Its lightning surge into Iraq last month rode a wave of widespread anger among the country’s Sunnis at the discriminatory policies of Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. That advance posed a dilemma for some Islamists who had criticized ISIS’ violence toward rebel groups in Syria but now saw it as standing up for Iraq’s Sunnis. Image Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Credit Iraqi Interior Ministry, via Associated Press Abu Mohammed al-Maqdissi, a radical cleric who recently condemned ISIS as a “deviant organization,” has remained silent on the group’s advances since being released from prison in Jordan this month. But Munif Samara, an Islamist doctor who knows him well, said the cleric was studying the new developments and that ISIS had behaved well in Iraq. “The Iraqi situation is very different from the Syrian situation,” Mr. Samara said. “ISIS has not had any problems with the Sunnis in Iraq, so there is no reason for any Islamic group to be against it.” While most expect ISIS to remain on the scene, many suspect that it has overreached and will not be able to sustain its recent advances. Others note that many of its current allies in Iraq appreciate its help in fighting a common enemy but reject its ideology, meaning the group could face stiff resistance if it tries to assert its authority. Reflecting those latent tensions, Sheikh Zaydan al-Jabiri, the head of the political wing of Iraq’s Tribal Revolutionaries Council, praised ISIS in an interview here for helping Iraqi’s Sunnis stand up to Mr. Maliki’s government, which he saw as a proxy for Shiite Iran. “As long as the Islamic State is standing for the same principles as the tribes, we are together,” he said. But when a visitor played the recording of the ISIS spokesman announcing the caliphate, Sheikh Jabiri called the speaker a “son of a dog” and said that tribes were already Muslim and would not let anyone rule them in the name of Islam. “That project won’t work for us,” he said. “No way.”

ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Terrorism
Iraq
Syria
Islam
Sunnis
Al Qaeda
Ayman Al- Zawahri
Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi


A Skyscraper in Brooklyn Tantalizes With Time

Abstract: Brooklyn glimpsed a familiar face yesterday. Four of them, actually. They grace the borough’s very own Big Ben: the clock atop the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, Brooklyn’s tallest skyscraper. Unseen beneath black veils for more than a year while undergoing a makeover, the clock was partly revealed. The building’s owners, the Dermot Company, took some of the netting down yesterday. But not all of it. Like the hidden assets of a chorus girl in fishnet stockings, the rounded bottoms of the dials can be seen only through a scrim of black mesh. The Dermot Company, which is converting the building, now known as 1 Hanson Place, into condos, said that it was not sure when the clock would work again. The hands do not appear to be working yet — not that they ever reliably did even before the renovation. Though the clock has been one of the borough’s most visible landmarks since the tower was completed in 1929, its four faces often showed different times. Dermot officials have said that they hope the spiffed-up clock will be better synchronized with itself. Robert Goldstrom, an artist who has painted the clock’s likeness more than 80 times (15 since the netting went up), said he could already tell that the clock was a lot cleaner. But he was not sure that that was an entirely good thing. “It’s like the Sistine Chapel,” he said. “Some people got very upset when it was cleaned. You’ve got to get used to it not looking sooty. I’m sure I will miss the subtler, dimmer clock tower.” Still, Mr. Goldstrom said, “It’s good to have it back.”

Restoration and Rehabilitation
Brooklyn (NYC)
Buildings (Structures)


In Pyongyang, Bluster, Fakery And Real Risks

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — This week, North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, ordered his underlings to prepare for a missile attack on the United States. He appeared at a command center in front of a wall map with the bold, unlikely title, “Plans to Attack the Mainland U.S.” Earlier in the month, his generals boasted of developing a “Korean-style” nuclear warhead that could be fitted atop a long-range missile. But the missile systems that figure in Mr. Kim’s blitz of threats and orders do not yet have the range to approach American shores. There is no evidence his nuclear weapons can be shrunk to fit atop a missile. And a prominent photograph showing Mr. Kim’s military making a Normandy-style beach landing appears to have been manufactured, raising questions about whether his forces could possibly repeat the feat his grandfather pulled off in 1950, ordering a ground attack to open the Korean War. On top of all that, most countries on the verge of a major military assault do not broadcast their battle plans to the world. “You would expect such a military order to be issued in secret,” said Kim Min-seok, spokesman of the South Korean Defense Ministry. “We believe that by revealing it to the media and publicizing it to the world, North Korea is playing psychology.” In fact, it is the abilities that Mr. Kim is not showing off that have the Obama administration most worried. The cyberattacks on South Korea’s banking system and television broadcasters two weeks ago were surprisingly successful, as was the torpedo attack three years ago this week on the Cheonan, a naval corvette, that killed 46 South Korean sailors. The North has never acknowledged involvement in either — though the South believes it was responsible for both and so do American experts. “We’re convinced this is about Kim solidifying his place with his own people and his own military, who still don’t know him,” one senior administration official said Friday. He added, “We’re worried about what he’s going to do next, but we’re not worried about what he seems to be threatening to do next.” The cyberattacks and torpedo attack have something in common: Unlike the missile attacks and beach landings that Mr. Kim seems to be suggesting are imminent, they are hard to trace to North Korea, at least immediately. As a result, they are hard to retaliate against, and in fact the South never struck back militarily for the sinking of the Cheonan, even after a commission of inquiry, with experts from outside South Korea, concluded it was the work of a submarine-launched torpedo. To North Korea experts in Washington and Seoul, there is something familiar in the country’s threats to “keep the White House in the cross hairs of our long-range missiles.” Such threat of armed brinkmanship — the catchphrase in the 1990s was that Seoul would become a “sea of fire,” a term recently revived by North Korea’s news agencies — has in the past drawn its adversaries to the bargaining table with economic concessions. But at the same time, the tensions with the outside world provide the government with opportunities to elevate its leader’s status among his people — which might be more important to a young, untested leader than it was to his father and grandfather. Image Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, met with military leaders in Pyongyang on Friday. Some of the photos of military preparedness released by Korea appear to be digitally manipulated. Credit Korean Central News Agency According to the view that North Korea’s propaganda machine pounds into its citizens’ minds, the North is a tiny nation besieged by hostile outside forces, one that survived despite decades of sanctions and can finally stand up to both its longtime Chinese ally and American enemy — all thanks to the strong “military-first” leadership of the Kim family and the country’s nuclear arsenal. In such a setting, Mr. Kim’s trip to a border island on a wooden boat — it almost seemed designed to create a “Washington crossing the Delaware” motif — is proof of his “daring and pluck,” as the country’s main party newspaper, Rodong, explained. Rodong also declared about North Korea’s nuclear weapons: “Let the American imperialists and their followers know! We are not a pushover like Iraq or Libya.” The first, famously, had no nuclear weapons; the second gave up its nascent nuclear program in late 2003, a move North Korea describes as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s greatest mistake. In the propaganda world that the three generations of the Kim dynasty has created, Mr. Kim is “a great iron-willed general admired by all of his people, including real generals who have actually served in the military,” said Lee Sung-yoon, North Korea specialist at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “For the Kim III, fantasy is reality.” Keeping the fantasy up has required a lot of work in the past month, with many visits to military units on both of the country’s coasts, and a lot of conferences at midnight with generals. Yet in each of these scenes, North Korea’s propagandists sometimes made Mr. Kim look as much a clumsy actor as a new leader of one of the world’s most belligerent governments. For one, North Korean state-run media on March 12 released a photo showing Mr. Kim arriving at an island within the gun range of South Korean marines and quoted him as threatening to “cut the windpipes of the enemies.” But it strained credibility that he traveled to a region he called a powder keg on a small unarmed wooden boat, as shown in the photo. On Tuesday, North Korea released a photo showing Mr. Kim watching hovercrafts storm a snow-covered beach in eastern North Korea. But it did not take long for journalists and analysts to conclude that the picture was clumsily doctored to add more amphibious landing vehicles and make the drill look far more imposing than it really was. Then on Friday, photos released by the North’s state media, which also showed signs of digital manipulation, featured Mr. Kim huddling with his top generals during a midnight meeting to approve “plans to strike the mainland U.S.” A military chart behind them showed a series of lines shooting out of North Korea and hitting major cities in the United States, including those on the East Coast. Even if the North Koreans had such missiles — most analysts doubt it does — would they really intend to launch them at the United States in what would be a suicidal action for the Pyongyang government? “We’re all trying to put him on the couch,” said Jonathan D. Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Brookings Institution. “A year ago the U.S. and the Chinese saw at least the possibility that you could do business with him. But he has steadily reverted to form,” adopting the approach of his father and grandfather in using the perception of an external threat to solidify support at home. On Saturday those threats were South Korea and “the Americans and their puppets,” a statement from the North said. The two Koreas “were back to a state of war,” it said, and the North’s foes “should know that everything is different under our peerless general and dear Marshal Kim Jong-un.” While many fear that Mr. Kim’s rhetoric is building up toward some action, Mr. Pollack held out the hope that the threats could abate as United States and South Korean military exercises, which infuriate the North, wind up at the end of April.

North Korea
Kim Jong-un
Cyberwarfare
South Korea
US Foreign Policy
Nuclear weapon
Cheonan Ship


U.S. Warns of Attack in Turkey

Abstract: ISTANBUL — American officials in Turkey are warning that extremist groups may be planning an attack on the offices of the Western-backed Syrian opposition group in Gaziantep, a city near the border with Syria. The statement , issued Wednesday by the United States Embassy in Ankara, did not name the supposed planners of the attack, including the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which has been active recently along Turkey’s 560-mile border with Syria. But it did specify the building that might be the target. “The U.S. Embassy has received reports that extremist groups may be planning an attack against the Syrian Interim Government building” in Gaziantep, the statement said. “We remind U.S. citizens that the situation in southeast Turkey, while usually calm, can change without warning and U.S. citizens should avoid traveling in areas close to the Syrian border.” The Syrian Interim Government represents the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces , an umbrella opposition group with international recognition. It also receives logistical support from Turkey’s governing, pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party in coordinating efforts to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The warning came as journalists and members of international organizations in southeastern Turkey were on alert after reports claimed that Islamic State militants would try to kidnap foreigners and take them into Syria. “Our country-specific information sheet notes that U.S. citizens should take precautions in any meetings with individuals claiming to represent or be affiliated with anyone involved in the Syrian conflict,” the statement said. For some analysts, the warning highlighted the gravity of the threat posed by the Islamic State. “The U.S. has an active intelligence operation along Turkey’s borders,” said Nihat Ali Ozcan, with the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey in Ankara, “and they must have gathered information that pointed at risks that are impossible to dismiss.”

National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces


It’s Hard to Get Noticed Without a Scandal in Your Past

Abstract: Gale A. Brewer, a Democratic councilwoman running for Manhattan borough president, was holding court at a sleepy meeting on housing policy the other day when she heard shouts. Confused, she looked up to see a stampede of television cameras trying to get in the door. Anthony D. Weiner, a scandal-tainted Democratic candidate for mayor whose notoriety has made him a news media magnet, had arrived. “I was a little jealous, I’ll be honest with you,” Ms. Brewer said in an interview. “I can’t be that flashy.” Campaigning can be a struggle this election season for politicians who have not been involved in scandals. Policy papers are released into online oblivion, lucky to get a few clicks. Debates are sparsely attended. And the news media? Forget about it, unless the topic is sin or redemption. It is enough to turn a candidate sour. “Everybody talks about the red pants ,” Ms. Brewer said, referring to a much-analyzed wardrobe choice by Mr. Weiner. “When I’m out and about, people are constantly whispering about these other candidates.” Some contenders have tried to take advantage of the buzz about Mr. Weiner, who resigned from Congress after sending sexually explicit images to women he knew only online, and Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor over his patronage of prostitutes. Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, is now running for city comptroller. State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat running for public advocate, sent out a fund-raising message on Wednesday with the subject line “Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer.” In the body of the e-mail, he continued: “… are not running for Public Advocate. But this election still matters.” Mr. Squadron said his supporters responded positively to the e-mail. “These personal stories are sometimes fun to read about, but issues of vision for the city’s future can’t be lost,” he said in an interview. Mr. Weiner seems to have benefited from the round-the-clock media attention. While he initially had modest support, polls suggest he is now a leading contender for the Democratic nomination. Mr. Spitzer, who just announced his bid for city comptroller on Sunday, is also apparently benefiting from his high visibility. In a poll released on Wednesday, two-thirds of Democratic voters said he should be given a second chance in politics, and he was polling ahead of the other major Democratic candidate, Scott M. Stringer, who is the Manhattan borough president. The challenge for other candidates is to remind voters of their ideas, or in some cases, their mere existence. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a Democratic candidate for mayor, had been out of the media spotlight for some time. But on Wednesday, he shot back into the headlines when he was arrested at a protest outside the offices of the chancellor of the State University of New York, an outcome he had carefully planned. (“Out of jail. Back on the trail,” he posted later on Twitter .) Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president running for mayor as a candidate of the Independence Party, has tried to turn questions on the campaign trail about Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Weiner into opportunities to remind voters that he is a family man, with a wife and four children supporting him. Mr. Carrión said he was disappointed that the news media devoted so much attention to Mr. Weiner and Mr. Spitzer, rather than addressing issues of poverty and education. The press has sparingly covered multiple City Council seats that are up for grabs, not to mention the presidencies of the five boroughs. “The press is complicit in this culture of following the shiny object of the moment,” he said. “At some point the circus has to stop.” Christina Greer, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, said the focus on Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Weiner had transformed the municipal elections, making it more difficult for lesser-known candidates to rally their bases. “What they really must do is continue to work hard to get the message out,” Professor Greer said. “Up is down and down is up right now.”

NYC
Anthony Weiner
Eliot L Spitzer
Bill de Blasio
Adolfo Carrion Jr
Gale A Brewer
Daniel L Squadron
Scott M Stringer
Politics
Comptroller race


Merck Delays Osteoporosis Drug

Abstract: Merck said on Friday that it would delay seeking approval for an experimental osteoporosis drug, an announcement that helped send the company’s shares down 3 percent on the same day it announced its fourth-quarter earnings for 2012. Company executives told analysts in a conference call Friday morning that Merck was delaying its application for the drug, odanacatib, because it is seeking additional data from a clinical trial. But they said they remained confident in the drug’s ultimate chances for approval and would submit their application in 2014. Separately, Merck reported that it earned $1.4 billion, or 46 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $1.51 billion, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier, when it took charges for acquisition and restructuring expenses. Earnings excluding the special items were 83 cents a share in the fourth quarter, down from 97 cents a share the previous year. The company nevertheless beat analysts’ estimates of 81 cents a share for the quarter. Sales for the quarter fell 5 percent, to $11.74 billion. The company said strong sales of drugs like the diabetes medicine Januvia and sales of animal health and consumer products helped offset a 67 percent dip in revenue from the asthma drug Singulair, which lost its patent protection last year. The company suffered another setback in December when a combination drug , called Tredaptive, aimed at raising so-called good cholesterol, failed to protect against heart attacks and strokes in a large clinical trial. After the news, Merck announced it would not seek approval of Tredaptive, which contained the drug niacin, in the United States and withdrew it from the European market, where it had already been approved. A clinical trial of odanacatib, a once-weekly pill to treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, last July appeared to show benefits to patients, but the company continued a follow-up trial of 8,000 women to keep monitoring potential safety issues. Peter Kim, Merck’s head of research, told analysts that the company still did not have data from the continuing extension trial. The company had previously planned to submit it for approval in 2013. “We continue to believe in the potential of odanacatib to address unmet medical needs for patients with osteoporosis,” Mr. Kim said.

Pharmaceuticals
Clinical trial
Osteoporosis


Many Civilians Have Been Killed in Disputed Region of Sudan

Abstract: JUBA, Sudan — Officials from the disputed Abyei area of Sudan said Wednesday that 116 civilians, including many children, had been killed last month when the northern Sudanese army seized Abyei. The figures were the first attempt at calculating the death toll from the incursion, Abyei officials said, and did not include soldiers and policemen also killed in the fighting, which set off fears across Sudan that a larger conflict may be looming. Acuil Akol, the Abyei administration’s finance minister, said that the death toll was tabulated by surveying leaders of the area’s traditional Dinka chiefdoms, and that the number was most likely a low estimate. He said that the fighting also drove tens of thousands of people into the bush, with many now sleeping in the open, exposed to torrential downpours. “They are traumatized and terrified,” Mr. Akol said. United Nations officials said that several waves of looters had pillaged Abyei and that there was even a market in town now for looted goods. The northern Sudanese military sent thousands of troops and militiamen into Abyei on May 21 after repeated clashes between northern and southern Sudan forces. Both sides claim the area, and with southern Sudan gearing up to declare independence on July 9, military action around the contested border has intensified as the date draws near. The African Union said Tuesday that the north and south had struck a deal to defuse tensions along the border. But on Wednesday, northern Sudanese officials were backing away from the idea. “There is no comprehensive agreement about such case of the border,” said Rabie A. Atti, a Sudanese government spokesman. “Up to now, there is nothing agreed upon.” The Obama administration on Wednesday dispatched its top counterterrorism official, John O. Brennan, to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where he “underscored President Obama’s deep concern over the continued presence of Sudanese armed forces in Abyei and urged a rapid and peaceful resolution to the crisis,” the White House said in a statement. Also on Wednesday, United Nations officials said they were preparing withdrawal plans for hundreds of United Nations employees and millions of dollars of equipment from northern Sudan, because the government in Khartoum has demanded that the United Nations mission entrusted with monitoring Sudan’s border leave by July 9. According to one United Nations official, there is a plan to hire 250 barges to cart away United Nations equipment, which would be floated down the Nile River from Khartoum to Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, where the new United Nations mission is expected to be based. But there are complications to operating in southern Sudan. United Nations officials have complained that soldiers from southern Sudan’s armed forces routinely attack aid convoys traveling through rural areas. Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the southern forces, did not directly dispute this, saying, “if it has happened that is completely a wrong action,” and that it is “uncommon.” The southern military is under pressure on a number of fronts. The northern Sudan government had given southern-allied forces until Wednesday to pull out of all contested areas north of the internal border. On Wednesday, officials in Blue Nile state, home to several thousand heavily armed southern-allied soldiers, said there had been no clashes. “So far it is okay,” said Malik Agar, Blue Nile’s governor. But, he added, “there is a deaf dialogue” and “we are ready to defend ourselves.”

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Jamie Murray Wins in Doubles; Andy Murray Has a Long Night, Too

Abstract: MELBOURNE, Australia — It was after midnight, meaning it was officially Sunday, the day of his Australian Open singles final against Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray was in the audience at Rod Laver Arena shooting video with his smartphone. On the court, Murray’s older brother, Jamie , paused in mid-interview to scold him. “Andy, you should be in bed,” he said. A day earlier, the second-seeded Andy Murray had finished a four-hour, five-set semifinal victory against Milos Raonic. In 18 hours, he would meet Djokovic in a battle of No. 2 vs. No. 1. And yet, instead of resting in his hotel room or recharging in a hyperbaric chamber as Djokovic no doubt was doing, he watched the end of his brother’s tense victory with Bruno Soares in the doubles final. The pair came from behind for a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek. Andy Murray, 28, and his brother, Jamie, 29, were the first brothers to reach the finals in the men’s singles and doubles at a major in the Open era. The younger Murray, winless in four previous trips to the championship, needed to save his energy for Djokovic, who has beaten him three times for this title and 10 times in their past 11 meetings. Or so went the conventional wisdom. Murray believed otherwise, which is how he came to train his phone on Jamie, even as most of the other eyes in the stadium were focused on him. “It was funny to see Andy there at the end,” the older brother said. “He’d obviously been watching the match in the locker room. I didn’t know that. I thought he left to go back to the hotel, obviously. Maybe he came back when he thought we had a chance.” Jamie laughed. His partner, Soares, jokingly interjected, “He left after the first set, came back in the third.” With the victory, the elder Murray and Soares will climb to No. 2 when the new doubles rankings are released on Monday. With a loss in his final, Andy Murray could drop to No. 3 in singles, said Jamie, behind Djokovic and Roger Federer. So who will get to No. 1 first? “Yes, I guess the race is on,” Jamie joked. “Bring it on.” When their schedules were reversed, Jamie did not attend his brother’s match. He followed the semifinal on television from his hotel room. “I don’t like sitting in the box,” Jamie said. “Everyone knows that. It’s too intense in there. I was really stressed yesterday watching him play Raonic.” The advantage of not being in the box, he added, was as plain as the grimace on his face. “If I want to get up and walk away, I don’t have to worry about that, don’t have to worry about facial expressions or anything like that,” the elder Murray said, adding: “Obviously he’s looking to the box after every point. Can’t be there with my head in my hands.” Jamie said he would be in his brother’s box for the men’s evening final. Well, for the start, anyway. He could not guarantee he would be there for the finish as his younger brother was for him. He was scheduled to fly back to Britain at midnight. The men’s final was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. “As long as he can be done in three hours,” he said. “I’ll have to leave for the airport at some point.” It was well after 1 a.m. when Andy Murray made his way toward the exit. Fans stepped into his path to ask for his autograph, but he could not dawdle. His brother was done, which meant he was on deck.

Tennis
Jamie Murray
Andy Murray
Australian Open
Bruno Soares


Illinois District Violated Transgender Student’s Rights, U.S. Says

Abstract: CHICAGO — Federal education authorities, staking out their firmest position yet on an increasingly contentious issue, found Monday that an Illinois school district violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates on a girls’ sports team to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. Education officials said the decision was the first of its kind on the rights of transgender students, which are emerging as a new cultural battleground in public schools across the country. In previous cases, federal officials had been able to reach settlements giving access to transgender students in similar situations. But in this instance, the school district in Palatine, Ill., has not yet come to an agreement, prompting the federal government to threaten sanctions. The district, northwest of Chicago, has indicated a willingness to fight for its policy in court. The Education Department gave 30 days to the officials of Township High School District 211 to reach a solution or face enforcement, which could include administrative law proceedings or a Justice Department court action. The district could lose some or all of its Title IX funding. In a letter sent Monday , the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education told the Palatine district that requiring a transgender student to use private changing and showering facilities was a violation of that student’s rights under Title IX, a federal law that bans sex discrimination. The student, who identifies as female but was born male, should be given unfettered access to girls’ facilities, the letter said. “All students deserve the opportunity to participate equally in school programs and activities — this is a basic civil right,” Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Township High School District 211 is not following the law because the district continues to deny a female student the right to use the girls’ locker room.” Daniel Cates, the district superintendent, said in a statement Monday that he disagreed with the decision, which he described as “a serious overreach with precedent-setting implications.” In an interview, Dr. Cates said district officials had “worked long and hard” to develop a plan that the district believed would balance the rights of everyone involved. That plan entails having the student change beyond privacy curtains in the girls’ locker room. The rights of transgender students have become the focus of disputes in school districts in many states, leading to divergent approaches regarding which sports teams they can play on, bathrooms they can use and pronouns they are addressed by. In separate cases , two California school districts agreed to lift restrictions on transgender locker room and restroom access after federal officials intervened. Students at one Missouri high school protested a decision by the district to let a transgender girl use female locker rooms and restrooms. Officials in the Palatine district, which serves more than 12,000 students, have framed their position as a middle ground. The transgender student in question plays on a girls’ sports team, is called “she” by school staff and is referred to by a female name. But the district, citing privacy concerns, had required her to change clothes and shower separately. The district said she was allowed to change inside the girls’ locker room, but only behind a curtain. The student, who has not been publicly identified, has said she would probably use that curtain to change. But she and the federal government have insisted that she be allowed to make that decision voluntarily, and not because of requirements by the district. “What our client wants is not hard to understand: She wants to be accepted for who she is and to be treated with dignity and respect — like any other student,” said John Knight, the director of the L.G.B.T. and H.I.V. Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, who is representing the student. “The district’s insistence on separating my client from other students is blatant discrimination. Rather than approaching this issue with sensitivity and dignity, the district has attempted to justify its conduct by challenging my client’s identity as a girl.” In the 14-page letter outlining their findings, education officials said they remained open to negotiating a settlement with the school district but could take enforcement action if an agreement did not materialize. Dr. Cates, the superintendent, said parents had made it resoundingly clear that they favored “maintaining some measure of privacy expectation” in the locker rooms. He said the district would continue settlement negotiations with Education Department officials, but added, “We do stand on the position that we have not violated any laws.” The student, who has identified as a girl from a young age, has changed her name, received a passport as a female and is undergoing hormone therapy, the Education Department said. Though she plays sports on a girls’ team, she changes her clothes in a bathroom separate from her teammates, the department’s letter said. When she entered the girls’ locker room on a few occasions, the findings said, a few students and one parent complained about her presence. Lawyers from the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit religious liberty organization, praised the district for its position, and described a locker room as significantly different from, for instance, a bathroom with stalls. The Education Department, they said, seemed to take a hard line. “You have a higher degree of visual privacy when you’re talking about stalls,” Jocelyn Floyd, a lawyer from the Thomas More Society, said. “In this case, the school has shown that they are sensitive to the needs of this transgender student but also to the needs of all the other students. When you think about it, there are a lot of students in high school who are uncomfortable with disrobing in front of people.” Demoya Gordon, an attorney at Lambda Legal, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, said the Palatine case was unusual for how vocal the school district had been. The Department of Education’s findings, unlike the agreements it reached in earlier circumstances, send a message to other districts wrestling with similar questions, she said. “This is telling them that they have to respect all students’ gender identities,” Ms. Gordon said. The Obama administration in recent years has also pushed to expand transgender rights in prisons and workplaces, seeking to ensure transgender inmates’ access to medical care, including hormone therapy, and to provide legal recourse for people claiming discrimination by employers because of their gender identity.

Township High School District 211 (Palatine


Arrest Made in Arson at Mosque That Orlando Nightclub Gunman Attended

Abstract: A Florida man who espoused anti-Islamic views on social media was charged with arson on Wednesday in connection with a fire on Sunday that damaged a mosque in Fort Pierce, Fla., the authorities said. The fire broke out around 11:40 p.m. at the mosque, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce , where the gunman who attacked an Orlando, Fla., nightclub in June often prayed. Sunday was the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Officials of the St. Lucie County sheriff’s office said that Joseph M. Schreiber, 32, of Port St. Lucie, was arrested around 5 p.m. Wednesday as he was walking in Fort Pierce. Mr. Schreiber had “multiple anti-Islamic posts and comments” on his Facebook page, said Maj. David Thompson, the director of law enforcement at the sheriff’s office. Mr. Schreiber also wrote about the Sept. 11 attacks, but officials did not elaborate further on a possible motive for the fire. In a July 12 Facebook post, Mr. Schreiber, who grew up in Mastic, N.Y., on Long Island, according to his social media profile, wrote that Americans should view “all forms of Islam as radical” if they want peace and safety. “There is no such a thing as radical ISLAMIC extremism...ALL ISLAM IS RADICAL,” he wrote. Mr. Schreiber faces a charge of second-degree arson but a hate crime designation will raise the charge to first-degree arson, Major Thompson said. Image A law enforcement officer on Monday near the scene of a fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Fort Pierce, Fla. Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images The authorities did not directly address whether others were involved in the arson, saying only that the investigation was still in its early stages. Officials said tips from members of the community along with surveillance video from businesses and homes helped match Mr. Schreiber with footage of an individual on a motorcycle who was seen leaving the mosque after the fire started. A surveillance camera recorded a man who appeared to be carrying paper and a bottle as he approached the mosque. Then came a flash as flames damaged the house of worship. No one was injured. The fire burned a 10-by-10-foot hole in the roof at the back of the mosque’s main building and blackened its eaves with soot, The Associated Press reported. Rewards totaling $10,000 were offered for information leading to the arrest of the arsonist. With its painted star and crescent, and palm trees and an occasional protester outside, the Sunni mosque is central to Islamic life in Fort Pierce, a city of around 44,000 people about an hour’s drive north of Palm Beach. Yet it has also been a source of controversy, drawing attention twice in recent years as a place where young men who staged attacks had worshiped. In addition to Omar Mateen, the gunman who was killed during the June 12 siege at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 other people dead, the Islamic Center was a frequent stop for Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who carried out a 2014 suicide bombing in Syria . (The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said the men had known each other casually.) In June, the Islamic Center’s imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, distanced himself and the mosque from Mr. Mateen and, more generally, from extremist ideology. A representative of the mosque was not available to comment on Wednesday about the arrest of Mr. Schreiber.

Joseph M Schreiber
Arson
Mosque
Fort Pierce
Orlando Shooting
Omar Mateen
Orlando shooter
Islam
Fires


Rob Stringer Named Chief of Sony Music

Abstract: In a leadership transition at the top of the music industry, Sony Music announced on Tuesday that Rob Stringer would take over next year as chief executive, while Doug Morris, the company’s chief since 2011, would become chairman. Mr. Stringer, 54, is currently the head of Columbia Records, one of Sony’s flagship labels, and is known as a hands-on operator who pursues artist deals aggressively. During his tenure, Columbia has become the leading label by market share, with hit albums by Adele, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, One Direction and David Bowie. Mr. Stringer is the younger brother of Howard Stringer, the former chairman of the Sony Corporation . Sony said that the change would come in April, when Mr. Stringer would take on operational responsibility for Sony’s labels, which in addition to Columbia include RCA, Epic, Sony Classical, Legacy, Masterworks and many others. In his new position Mr. Stringer is to report to Michael Lynton, the chief executive of Sony Entertainment. The company did not say who would take over at Columbia. Sony is the world’s second-largest record company, after the Universal Music Group, with an estimated 23 percent of global market share, according to industry estimates . The change is a notably orderly one for Sony’s entertainment division, which two years ago was rocked by a computer breach that led to the departure of the head of the company’s film studio, Amy Pascal . Sony’s music division was largely spared in that cyberattack. Mr. Morris, 77, who started his career in the 1960s as a songwriter, has been one of the reigning dons of the record business for decades. He came to Sony after more than a decade at the helm of Universal; in the 1990s he also ran the Warner Music Group. As one of the most powerful figures on the corporate side of the music business, Mr. Morris has frequently been cast as a villain for the music industry’s slow response to the digital revolution of the 2000s. But while at Universal he was a co-founder of Vevo, the industry’s online home for music videos, which gets more than 400 million views each month. For the year that ended in March, Sony’s recorded music division had $5.5 billion in sales, and $773 million in operating income, according to company statements, and like other labels, it has had rapid growth in streaming income. In a statement, Mr. Lynton said that Mr. Morris “has expertly led Sony Music through some of the most transformative and challenging issues facing the music industry.”

Sony Music
Music
Doug Morris
Rob Stringer
Appointments and Executive Changes
Columbia Records


Cuban Athlete Is Barred for Kicking Referee in the Face

Abstract: BEIJING — A Cuban tae kwon do athlete committed one of the biggest breaches of sportsmanship at an Olympics, kicking a referee in the face in anger after he was disqualified from his match Saturday. Ángel Valodia Matos, 31, charged at the referee, Chakir Chelbat of Sweden, after Chelbat disqualified him for taking too long in an injury timeout. Matos angrily pushed another judge, ran at Chelbat and kicked him, and spit on the mat as he was grabbed and ushered out of the arena by security. The World Taekwondo Federation said after the match that Matos, along with his coach, Leodis González, would be banned from all its future sanctioned events and his records at the Beijing Games would be erased. The stadium announcer read a statement from the W.T.F., saying, “This is a strong violation of the spirit of tae kwon do and the Olympic Games. The sanctions are the following and are effective immediately: Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the World Taekwondo Federation and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased.” However, W.T.F. officials later said their ban of Matos was not official, and they would discuss the situation with the International Olympic Committee . Matos was winning his over-80 kilogram (176 pounds) match against Arman Chilmanov of Kazakhstan, 3-2, in the second round when Chilmanov struck Matos, who fell to the ground. More than a minute passed as he awaited medical attention, and he was disqualified by Chelbat because tae kwon do rules allow just a minute for an injury timeout. “To me it was obvious he was unable to continue,” said Chilmanov, the bronze medal winner. “His toe on his left foot was broken.” Matos won the gold medal in this division in the 2000 Olympics and finished 11th in 2004. After Matos’s disqualification, González angrily declared that Chelbat had fixed the match. That was not the only controversy Saturday: a women’s quarterfinal victory was overturned on appeal. China’s Chen Zhong won her match over Britain’s Sarah Stevenson, 1-0. But Stevenson protested that she was not given 2 points for a kick to Chen’s head late in the match. Officials decided in Stevenson’s favor and she was awarded the victory.

Olympic Games (2008)
Taekwondo
Officiating (Sports)
Valodia Matos Ángel
International Olympic Committee
Cuba


Phillies Reliever Suspended for Failed Drug Test

Abstract: Each of the eight times that reliever J. C. Romero took the mound in the 2008 postseason for the Philadelphia Phillies — including the deciding game of the World Series — he was pitching under the shadow of a positive drug test that he knew might lead to a 50-game suspension. Members of the Phillies apparently did not know about the positive test because of the confidentiality agreement that governs the drug-testing of players. But officials in Commissioner Bud Selig’s office knew that Romero tested positive on Aug. 26. As the postseason progressed and the Phillies moved toward their first championship since 1980, those officials were left in an awkward and frustrating situation. Because Romero had the right to appeal his suspension, he could keep pitching until the appeal was resolved. He did, ending up with a 0.00 earned run average in October, and two victories in the Series, including the Game 5 clincher. Major League Baseball was forced to wait until Tuesday, when it announced that an arbitrator had upheld the suspension and Romero, a 32-year-old left-hander, would now miss the first 50 games of the 2009 season. Baseball also announced a 50-game suspension for the journeyman right-hander Sergio Mitre, 27, who signed a one-year contract with the Yankees in November. He had a positive drug test during the 2008 season. Of the roughly 30 major leaguers who have been suspended since punitive testing for performance-enhancing drugs began in 2004, Romero and Mitre are the first to cite tainted nutritional supplements as the cause of their positive tests. Both tested positive for androstenedione, a type of anabolic steroid that Mark McGwire used in 1998, when he set a record for home runs in a season. It has since been banned by baseball and been declared a controlled substance by the federal government. Romero was first informed on Sept. 23 that he had tested positive. The penalty for a first-time offender is 50 games. But Major League Baseball officials, with the consent of the players union, came to him with the equivalent of a plea bargain. In part because they were uneasy about Romero’s participation in the postseason, and in part because there were initial concerns about the substances Romero tested positive for, they offered him a 25-game suspension, provided he begin serving it immediately. Romero, not wanting to miss the postseason, declined the offer. But he said he also felt as if he were a victim, not a drug offender. He said he had used a tainted supplement, 6-OXO Extreme, that he had purchased in a nutrition store, not knowing that the product would result in a positive drug test. Major League Baseball said that it did not matter if Romero had unknowingly compromised himself. Under its agreement with the union, baseball players are responsible for substances in their body regardless of how they got there. Baseball also maintained that Romero had been told by the Phillies’ strength coach not to take the supplement in question, but he did so anyway. “Basically, I am being punished for not having a chemistry lab in my house to test everything I put in my body,” Romero said Tuesday in a statement issued through a public-relations firm. Romero’s positive test also revealed a new link between Patrick Arnold, a former chemist for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, and performance-enhancing drugs. Arnold, who was sentenced to three months in prison in 2006 for steroid distribution in connection with the Balco investigation, is the lead chemist for Ergopharm, the company that manufactures 6-OXO. On the company’s Web site, it calls 6-OXO the “most effective and safest testosterone booster ever.” In a telephone interview Tuesday, Arnold, who is still on probation, said that there was “no way we would sell a supplement with a banned substance in it.” He said that based on his own history, it would be a “stupid thing” for him to be involved with a tainted product. Mitre tested positive around the same time that Romero did, although it is not known what supplement he used. Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations, said that when baseball learned of the two positive tests, it contacted the federal authorities to inform them that there might be tainted supplements on the market. Under baseball’s drug-testing program, there is a list of supplements that baseball and the union certify as free of performance-enhancing drugs. For other supplements, players can consult a hot line. “If he had called, he would have found that 6-OXO has led to other athletes, who are wrestlers, testing positive,” Manfred said of Romero and the hot line. “In fact, in preparing for the arbitration hearing, we learned that a couple of other players had called the hot line this year inquiring about 6-OXO and were told not to take the substance.” Michael Weiner, the general counsel for the players union, said in a statement that the union strongly disagreed with the suspensions. “Mitre and Romero both legally purchased nutritional supplements from national chain stores,” Weiner said. “Nothing on the labels of those supplements indicated that they contained a trace amount” of a prohibited substance. To some extent, Romero’s case mimics that of Rafael Palmeiro, who collected his 3,000th hit in July 2005 while appealing a positive drug test. Fans and teammates did not know about the positive test, but Major League Baseball did. Palmeiro was suspended weeks later. Three thousand hits; championship reliever. In both cases, baseball knows, the timing could have been better.

Baseball
Steroids
Major League Baseball
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Yankees
Romero J C
Mitre Sergio
Arnold Patrick


In Appeal, Scrutiny on Not One but 3 Confessions

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Even Billy Wayne Cope’s supporters say the police had good reason to think he had committed a depraved murder. “He’s a strange dude,” John H. Blume , a law professor at Cornell, said of Mr. Cope, who lived in squalor with his family in Rock Hill, S.C. “His daughter is found dead. There’s no sign of forced entry.” And Mr. Cope confessed — three times. The Supreme Court has recognized that intense questioning by the police “can induce a frighteningly high percentage of people to confess to crimes they never committed.” It will soon decide whether to hear Mr. Cope’s appeal of his conviction, which certainly seems to present the possibility that he talked himself into a life sentence for someone else’s crime. Mr. Cope’s confessions were lurid and sordid and filled with disturbing details about the rape and murder of his daughter Amanda, who was 12 years old. But “they weren’t very good confessions, being inconsistent with one another and inconsistent with some of the known physical evidence,” Professor Blume wrote on behalf of a group of professors in a brief urging the Supreme Court to hear Mr. Cope’s case. One thing was consistent in all of the confessions, though: None of them mentioned an accomplice. Nine months later, the results of DNA tests came back. They identified a different man: James Sanders. There is no evidence the men knew each other, and they would have made an unlikely pair. Mr. Cope was, in his lawyers’ words , “a socially isolated 385-pound white man.” Mr. Sanders was a black career criminal and drug addict just out of prison. But prosecutors found a way to explain both Mr. Cope’s confessions and the new DNA evidence. “The only logical explanation,” one prosecutor told the jury, “is that Billy Cope served up his daughter for his and James Sanders’s own perverse pleasures and took her life. They did it together. There is no other reasonable explanation.” The two men were tried together. The case against Mr. Sanders was straightforward. His semen and saliva were found on Amanda’s body. “Mr. Sanders is guilty,” another prosecutor told the jury. “There is no question about that. That cannot be seriously disputed, not with a straight face.” Image Billy Wayne Cope, shown in 2003, is appealing a conviction in the rape and murder of his daughter. Credit Diedra Laird/Charlotte Observer The case against Mr. Cope was more challenging. But Judge John C. Hayes III eased the prosecution’s burdens by refusing to allow Mr. Cope to submit evidence on a point that at least some jurors might have thought significant: In the six weeks after Amanda’s death in November 2001, Mr. Sanders committed or attempted four more sexual assaults in the neighborhood. There was never a sign of forced entry. He always acted alone. Last week, prosecutors filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to deny review in the case, Cope v. South Carolina, No. 13-8427. Allowing jurors to hear about the other crimes, the brief said, might tempt them to indulge in the “logical fallacy” that Mr. Sanders had also acted alone in killing Amanda. Judge Hayes also excluded testimony from an inmate who said he had overheard Mr. Sanders say that he had raped and killed a “little girl in Rock Hill.” Courts allow such jailhouse testimony all the time when it helps prosecutors. Here it would have helped a defendant. It is of course not clear what the jury would have done had it heard the additional evidence. It is known that without it both defendants were convicted and sentenced to life without parole. The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled against Mr. Cope by a 3-to-2 vote. “We acknowledge there is no direct evidence that the two men agreed to commit this crime or that they even knew each other,” Justice Kaye G. Hearn wrote for the majority. Still, she said, Mr. Sanders’s other crimes, within weeks and in the same neighborhood, were not similar enough to allow the jury to hear about them. Justice John W. Kittredge dissented. “The relevance of this evidence is unmistakable,” he wrote. “Sanders, as a serial rapist, always acted alone.” The majority also ruled that the inmate’s testimony had been properly excluded because Mr. Sanders had said nothing about Mr. Cope. But that was the point, Justice Kittredge said. “This is especially evident,” he wrote, “where Cope expressly sought to refute the claim of conspiracy with Sanders.” In 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a South Carolina death row inmate convicted of rape and murder who had not been allowed to present evidence that someone else had committed the crimes. The court, quoting from an earlier ruling, said excluding the evidence had violated the inmate’s right to “a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense.” Judge Hayes was the judge in that case, too. In fairness, the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision, in Holmes v. South Carolina , came after the Cope trial, in 2004. But it came well before the South Carolina Supreme Court last year affirmed Mr. Cope’s conviction. Professor Blume said he hoped the United States Supreme Court would give Mr. Cope another chance. “The jury should be allowed to hear all of the evidence,” he said, “before Cope spends the rest of his life in prison.”

Confessions
Supreme Court,SCOTUS
Rape
Murders
Forensic science
South Carolina
DNA
James Sanders
Billy Wayne Cope