Verizon’s iPhone Doesn’t Drop Calls

Abstract: It’s here. After almost four years of speculation, the iPhone will finally come to Verizon ’s network on Feb. 10. And to answer everyone’s question, the Verizon iPhone is nearly the same as AT&T ’s iPhone 4 — but it doesn’t drop calls. For several million Americans, that makes it the holy grail. I took the Verizon iPhone to five cities, including the two Bermuda Triangles of AT&T reception: San Francisco and New York. Holding AT&T and Verizon iPhones side by side in the passenger seat of a car, I dialed 777-FILM simultaneously, and then rode around until a call dropped. (Why that number? Because I wanted to call a landline, eliminating the other person’s cell reception from the equation. Also, Mr. Moviefone can carry the entire conversation by himself, so I could concentrate on the testing.) In San Francisco, the AT&T phone dropped the call four times in 30 minutes of driving; the Verizon phone never did. The Verizon iPhone also held its line in several Manhattan intersections where the AT&T call died. At a Kennedy airport gate, the AT&T phone couldn’t even find a signal; the Verizon dialed with a smug yawn. Most impressively, the Verizon iPhone effortlessly made calls in the Cellphone Signal Torture Chamber of Doom: my house. The Verizon iPhone did drop one call — in baggage claim at the Los Angeles airport. And, of course, there are regions where AT&T coverage is better than Verizon’s. But in general, my testing matches the conclusions of Consumer Reports and RootMetrics.com : the Verizon iPhone has more bars in more places. (Hey, that might make a good slogan! Oh, wait...) In general, the Verizon and AT&T iPhones are identical. Same sleek, thin, satisfying, plastic-free body — all glass and metal. Same gorgeous, high-resolution screen — 960 by 640 pixels. Same battery life — you’ll need a recharge every night. Same camera on the back, which can take 5-megapixel stills or excellent hi-def video — the flash doubles as a video light. Same low-resolution camera on the front, suitable for Wi-Fi videochats, using Apple ’s FaceTime software for iPhone or Mac. Even the prices are about the same. The 16-gigabyte phone costs $200 with two-year contract. The monthly service costs, for example, $70 for unlimited voice calls, plus $20 for 5,000 text messages , plus $30 a month for unlimited Internet use. (Verizon says that it will soon eliminate that unlimited plan, just as AT&T recently did. Instead, you’ll pay something like $25 a month for 2 gigabytes of Internet data. Good luck figuring out how much that is.) The single new feature in Verizon’s iPhone is Personal Hotspot, where the iPhone becomes a Wi-Fi base station. Up to five laptops, iPod Touches or other gadgets can get online, using the phone as a glorified Internet antenna. That’s incredibly convenient. Many other app phones have it — AT&T says its iPhone will get it soon — but Apple’s execution is especially nice. For example, the hot spot shuts itself off 90 seconds after the last laptop disconnects. That’s hugely important, because these personal hot spot features are merciless battery drains. The hot spot feature costs $20 a month extra, and buys only 2 gigabytes of data for all of those laptops. Think e-mail, not YouTube . (AT&T will charge $45 a month for 4 gigabytes of data.) Now, there are two kinds of cellphone networks in this country. They’re known as C.D.M.A. (Verizon and Sprint use this technology) and G.S.M. (the system for AT&T and T-Mobile). Making an iPhone that works on a C.D.M.A. network entailed four adjustments, some of which you won’t like. First, Apple moved the volume and Ringer Off switches a fraction of an inch to accommodate the C.D.M.A. antenna inside. It’s not a big deal, but those buttons no longer fit existing AT&T iPhone cases. (Contrary to blogger belief, the redesign doesn’t help with the famous Death Grip issue, in which holding the phone in a certain way makes your signal bars drop. Then again, the problem emerges only when you’re in a very weak signal area, so you’ll see it less often on Verizon. I couldn’t reproduce it at all.) A second C.D.M.A. difference: When you exchange long text messages with non-Verizon phones, they get split up into 160-character chunks. G.S.M. phones are smart enough to reconstitute those chunks into one more readable, consolidated message. Third: You can’t talk on an C.D.M.A. phone while you’re online. That is, if you’re on a call, you can’t simultaneously check a Web site or send e-mail over the cellular network — and, annoyingly, the Personal Hotspot feature cuts off. (It reconnects when you hang up.) If the top of your screen says “3G,” an indication that you’re in a high-speed Internet area of Verizon’s network, incoming calls take priority and interrupt your online connection. If you’re online in an older, 2G area, you stay online and the call goes directly to voice mail. It’s not such a big deal. Continuing processes like downloads, Personal Hotspot and GPS navigation resume automatically when you end your call. You can still send text and get messages when you’re on a call. And none of this applies when you’re in a Wi-Fi hot spot; in that case, you can call and surf simultaneously, no problem. For business travelers , the fourth C.D.M.A. difference is the most disappointing: not many other countries use C.D.M.A. The Verizon iPhone works in about 40 countries, including Mexico , Canada and China ; AT&T phones, on the other hand, work in 220 countries. (In both cases, you pay through the nose if you use them overseas.) Still interested? Here are a few final points to ponder before you plunge. Even if Verizon’s network is the best in America, its policies and prices are still among the worst. This is the company, after all, that admitted to billing $2 every time you accidentally hit the up-arrow button. (Verizon refunded $52 million and paid the Federal Communications Commission a record $25 million fine.) This is the company that just eliminated its “new phone every two years” discount policy, that just cut its new-phone return policy to 14 days from 30, that doubled its early-termination fee (to $350 if you cancel your two-year contract before it’s up). Consider, too, that if surveys are any indication, Verizon can expect an enormous stampede of new iPhone customers. Last time this happened — to AT&T — the weight of all those bandwidth-sucking iPhones swamped the network, causing interruptions that persist to this day. The same thing might happen to Verizon. Verizon swears that it’s prepared for the onslaught. Then again, that’s what AT&T said, too. Remember, too, that so far, Apple has released a new iPhone model every July. Apple won’t say if there will be an iPhone 5 for Verizon this summer. (“Let’s put it this way: We’re not stupid,” is all an Apple rep would say.) But if it does, and you buy an iPhone 4 now, you’ll be stuck with an outdated phone in only five months. Finally, a lot has changed in the years it’s taken the iPhone to come to Verizon. Phones that run Google ’s Android software have eaten a lot of the iPhone’s lunch. A huge part of that, of course, was the AT&T factor; people bought Android phones so they could be on Verizon’s network. Even now, though, Android phones are superior in some ways. For example, they offer amazingly good spoken GPS navigation, you can dictate text into any text box, and you can get one with a bigger screen. Of course, the iPhone still wins on battery life, simplicity and both the quality and quantity of the app store. (Google doesn’t screen or supervise what’s on the Android store, as Apple does. Some call that a blessing, others a curse.) Yes, that’s a lot of footnotes and “yes, buts.” Even so, most people don’t care about overseas compatibility or simultaneous calling and surfing or Verizon’s tactics. They want an iPhone — an iconic, beautiful, fast, elegant iPhone — that doesn’t drop calls. Now, after years of pining, they have it at last.

iPhone
Verizon Communications
Apple
Smartphone


New Efforts on Iran Sanctions Run Into Familiar Snags

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who, nearly a year ago, fired the Obama administration’s first warning shots about imposing “crippling sanctions” against Iran . Then came President Obama ’s declaration that if Iran did not respond to his overtures for a negotiated end to its production of nuclear fuel by the end of 2009, he would quickly add a “pressure track” to his diplomacy. At the beginning of this year, American and European officials predicted a sanctions resolution at the United Nations Security Council — the fourth in four years — by February to pave the way for much stronger crackdowns by individual countries. Now, all those projections look optimistic. The French are predicting no action until June. Many other Western allies agree. No one in the Obama administration has used the word “crippling” in public in a long while; instead, the new line is that taking time and maintaining unity — code words for Chinese and Russian cooperation — are more important than rushing ahead amid international divisions over how best to convince Iran that the cost of continuing uranium enrichment will be prohibitive. The delays and the potential for a substantially watered-down resolution, Mr. Obama’s allies say, have put the administration’s credibility on the line in one of its biggest foreign policy challenges. But it also highlights the difficulty he has encountered demonstrating results from the underlying argument of his engagement with Iran: that if he made a bona fide effort to negotiate and was rebuffed, it would be a lot easier to win meaningful sanctions. Mr. Obama has stopped talking about timing, but he insists that he is driving toward sanctions far tougher than anything the Bush administration won. “We’re going to go after aggressive sanctions,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. “We haven’t taken any options off the table,” he said, repeating the line that presidents use to hint that military options are still possible, though the Pentagon leadership has often said it believed that option could start a cascade of events that could spill out of control. When they are speaking with the cover of anonymity, though, some senior administration officials acknowledge that if there are sanctions, they may take months to enact, while Iran steadily adds to its stockpile of fuel. That certainly was not the plan. When Mr. Obama revealed in September that Iran had been caught building a secret nuclear enrichment plant, deep inside a mountain on a military base near Qum, many officials thought the revelation would have severe diplomatic effects. But the discovery did not have the galvanizing effect many in the administration hoped it would. Now the administration is discovering what President George W. Bush discovered: winning each successive round of sanctions against Iran is harder and harder, and takes considerably longer than anyone predicted at the outset. The dance is familiar. The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Iran in December 2006. Since then every successive resolution has barred more Iranian generals and scientists from travel, and called on countries to cut off many kinds of trade with the nation, including weapons. One Iranian bank failed as a result. But the last resolution, in 2008, was watered down, partly because of Chinese objections and partly because of a 2007 American intelligence report that cast doubt on whether Iran’s weapons activities had been halted. The Obama administration is slowly walking back the conclusions of that intelligence report, and it has talked about focusing new sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which runs the military side of the nuclear program and has cracked down on antigovernment protesters. The hope is that Iranian citizens, millions of whom detest the guard, might cheer anything that weakens the institution. White House officials have dropped, at least for now, talk of cutting off refined gasoline products to Iran, for fear that would hurt the people more than the government. But even that formula has failed to move the Chinese, at least so far. “The Chinese just keep saying that sanctions won’t work, they just get vague about why it won’t work,” said one official who has engaged in the argument with them. Nations opposing a quick move to sanctions also cite evidence that Iran has run into troubles in its enrichment program, meaning there may be more time available to stop the country before it reaches the ability to produce nuclear weapons . But past experience — from fanciful estimates of Iraq’s program to underestimates of North Korea’s and Pakistan’s — suggests that intelligence on those issues is not always reliable in either direction. As time has dragged on, the objectives of the sanctions have become a bit fuzzy. The first three sets of sanctions imposed by the Security Council were tightly linked to the objective of enforcing the United Nation’s demand that Iran halt enrichment, the process of purifying fuel. Officially, that is still the objective. But clearly sanctions aimed at the Revolutionary Guards have a second objective: striking at the heart of power within the Iranian government. Mrs. Clinton recently charged that the Guards were silently taking over the country. The State and Treasury Departments have loosened restrictions on some free Internet services to Iran , like instant messaging, chat and photo sharing, in clear hopes of keeping the opposition movement alive. No one knows if those methods will keep the opposition alive. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, said in an appearance in Oklahoma last week that it was “our analysis that the regime is not in immediate danger of collapsing.” The right path, he said, was “to keep the pressure on” with sanctions. But to accomplish that, the administration needs to decide whether it is better to wait a few months for yet another United Nations blessing, or to move ahead with actions by Washington and its allies.

Iran
United States
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
United States International Relations
United States Politics and Government
State Department
Security Council (UN)
Clinton Hillary Rodham
Obama Barack
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps


F.B.I. Investigates Rockies’ Claims

Abstract: DENVER, Oct. 26 (AP) — The F.B.I. has opened an investigation into the Colorado Rockies ’ claim that an “external, malicious attack” on their computer system halted the team’s first attempt to sell World Series tickets. Computer servers handling the online-only sale were overwhelmed by 8.5 million hits in the first 90 minutes Monday, crashing the system and suspending sales. On Tuesday, fans snapped up more than 50,000 tickets in two and a half hours. “We are going to be opening up a case looking into the possible compromise of the Web server in Irvine,” said Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Los Angeles. The Irvine, Calif., Web servers are operated by Paciolan Inc., which handled the ticket sale. Games 3 and 4 of the Series will be played in Denver on Saturday and Sunday. Game 5, if necessary, will be Monday in Denver.

Baseball
Computers and the Internet
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Colorado Rockies


Tuning in to Cultural Nuances

Abstract: Ward Platt is president for Asia-Pacfic and the Middle East at Fox International Channels, a unit of News Corp. Q. Do you remember the first time you moved abroad professionally? A. In 1994 I was working for a cable television company in Boston, and they were doing a joint venture in Singapore. I asked whether there was an opportunity to be involved. After not hearing back for several weeks, one day the general manager of the joint venture called up and offered me a job, but I was told I only had 24 hours to make up my mind. I had never been to Asia; nevertheless, I took a leap of faith and packed my bags. Q. What do you remember of those early days? A. It was less of a culture shock than I expected, without really knowing what to expect. Singapore was already pretty vibrant and I suppose I found it somewhat exhilarating. It was pretty clear upon arrival there were going to be a lot of opportunities in Asia. Q. Had you been a manager before? A. Not really. This was really the first managerial opportunity. Q. How steep was the learning curve? A. I don’t think I was a very good manager when I started. I made plenty of mistakes during those early days. Over time I learned to manage more than one country —at Fox we’re in over 14 markets. The styles of doing business, managing people and leading teams can be dramatically different between the various markets. At least when you go to Latin America there are some similarities between the countries, there are only two languages and there is a Latin culture, but Asia is far from a single culture and there are far fewer similarities from one country to the next. Q. What were some of those early mistakes? A. I guess pretty typical: being a rash American, and maybe less sensitive to the cultural issues. It’s hard to pinpoint, but certain aspects of communication. For certain things Asians can be incredibly direct, even more so than Americans, but for others, they are far more reserved. Q. What have you learned managing across cultures? A. I’m not particularly good at foreign languages, although I’ve learned a bit of Japanese and Mandarin. But I’ve invested my energy in trying to learn the cultures of the countries and the different nuances between them. For instance, some people think Japan and Korea are alike, but in reality they’re almost at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how local executives think about and go about business. Q. Can you give an example? A. In Korea, I find our team and the business people we interact with to be very intense about doing business, incredibly hard-working and committed to the cause on a daily basis. The Japanese are equally successful and committed, but they try hard to find the consensus before moving forward. As a result, they come across less aggressive day to day, even if they are committed over the long haul to getting to the goal line. Q. Your company has focused on decentralizing power and finding local managers. How do you find that this works? A. In the early days we didn’t have a lot of money or resources, so some of this was made out of necessity. It was less expensive to hire someone locally based than bring someone over from the U.S. or Europe. But soon we realized that if we found locally based talent with the right skills and mind-set and who were hard-working, and we gave them a real sense of ownership over the business, that they could move at a much faster speed than even a very talented expatriate. In the media industry, many still believe they’re building a regional business, but we don’t see it like that. We’re building local businesses. Culturally and business-wise it’s hard to get people up to speed quickly. It doesn’t mean we don’t bring expats in, but they have usually already lived in Asia. Q. So what qualities are you looking for when you are hiring? A. We’re looking for people who can build and lead the organization, as we’re still in the development stage. It’s about inspiring a strong level of performance and instilling positive values. You need genuine people with a strong grounding. I’ve been involved in a lot of hiring, directly or indirectly, and I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by talented people who can do the same. So you have a multiplying effect. Q. What have you learned over the years in terms of leadership? A. I’m a very hands-on person, but it’s impossible in my role to be hands-on completely every day. What I’ve learned is that it’s better to come in and focus fully on one thing, whether for half a day or a day, than try to juggle 50 balls. It’s more efficient to be that way. I also like to encourage direct interaction between different parts of the business. If you have a great team in Malaysia and a great team in Taiwan, you should encourage direct interaction between these teams, instead of coming through a central clearinghouse.

Far East South and Southeast Asia and Pacific Areas


Charter Companies Flying to Cuba Thrive Despite Complaints

Abstract: MIAMI — The crowd of Cuban-Americans pressing against the airport ticket counter scorned those on the other side. Only a handful of American charter companies have landing rights in Cuba , and with the new White House policy letting Cuban-Americans visit relatives there as often as they want, ticket prices have become political. “I paid $600 for a 45-minute flight,” said Carelis Sabatela, in loud Spanish, before checking in with a cart of heavy luggage. “It’s very high, super excessive.” Like many in line, she called for more competition, but as the current boom in reservations shows, this is not a normal business. Who flies and how much they charge is intimately tied to the 50-year feud between Cuba and the United States. Experts describe these charter companies as byproducts of a dysfunctional back-and-forth that has not ended — and that now promises to provide millions of dollars in profit to a politically savvy few. “The system exists solely because the relationship between Cuba and the United States doesn’t exist in its normal form,” said John S. Kavulich II, a senior policy adviser for the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council , a nonpartisan group that tracks trade activity in Cuba. “You have an abnormal service environment directly because of abnormal relations.” Today’s charter companies began in the late 1970s during a period of warming relations, and most owners figured that their role would be temporary. The companies survived not just because Fidel Castro and the American embargo kept larger carriers out; many of the owners have also played both sides, deploying money and favors under the cover of dual identities that let them connect with Cuban leaders one minute, Americans the next. John Cabanas, of C&T Charters, is perhaps the least known but the most powerful owner in a group that includes Vivian Mannerud, who followed her father into the business after he was convicted in the 1980s of “trading with the enemy,” in part for taking four Pepsi machines to Cuba; and Francisco Aruca, owner of Marazul Charters, who sneaked out of a Castro-run prison dressed as a child, but now praises Cuba on his Miami radio show. A large man, quick to laugh and partial to linen Guayaberas with a gold plane pinned to the collar, Mr. Cabanas, 66, grew up in Key West, Fla., but spent 28 years in Cuba. He says his company is the largest of the seven or eight that fly there regularly. Certainly since the new White House policy was announced last month, business is booming. “We used to send 15,000, 16,000 people a year,” Mr. Cabanas said. “Now I’ll probably handle 40,000 or 50,000.” He insists that his prices — though at least double the cost of flying to the Bahamas — are fair when seen in context. In his view, customers like Ms. Sabatela, who was traveling on a C&T flight to Camagüey, fail to appreciate the industry’s challenges. The past decade has been especially tough. The cost of fuel and jet rentals have increased while the Bush administration’s tighter travel restrictions in 2004 halved the number of legal American visitors from a peak of 135,000 in 2000, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. The government has also demanded reams of paperwork from the charter operators, proving that they have complied with various rules — which led in part to a $125,000 penalty settlement that C&T paid in 1999. The Cuban government has demands as well: it prohibits the charters from hiring in Cuba, and charges $100 to $133 per passenger for landing rights, baggage claim and other services. Mr. Cabanas admits that the industry is “very controlled.” “My business is business,” he said. “But it depends on politics.” His office illustrates the point. In a back conference room, photographs on the walls show him with four very different leaders: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Fidel Castro and Álvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia. Since returning to Florida in the late ’90s, Mr. Cabanas has also spread more than $145,000 in campaign donations across the political spectrum. “Right now, I support Barack Obama,” he said, “even though I’m a Republican.” Mr. Cabanas had just come from a Cinco de Mayo party at the White House, but his connections and charm have done nothing to alter the controversial basics of his business. The industry “is in essence a protected monopoly,” Mr. Kavulich said. “There are a finite number of people in the marketplace, and you have to have the Cuban government’s authorization.” Cuban officials, he said, want as few companies as possible, and “if they can’t Google you and find you’ve opposed the commercial, economic or political position of the United States, you’re not likely to do any business.” That means approved operators earn a lot during open moments. A recent poll by Bendixen and Associates found that about 240,000 Cuban-Americans plan to travel to Cuba by the end of 2010. If round-trip tickets continue to hover around $500, with a 10 percent markup, that would be around $12 million in profit. In interviews, several charter operators described their flights as humanitarian and insisted that politics did not enter into conversations with Cuban officials. They all oppose the embargo, which puts them squarely in line with the stated desire of Cuban officials, but also with a growing swath of the 1.2 million Cuban-Americans in the United States. And yet, many here see the companies’ owners as relics of a past they would like to get beyond. For Cubans, the charters’ prices and profits are pinpricks in a wound that has not healed. Conservatives still accuse the charters of being collaborators. “They are a virtual cartel that control the travel sector from the U.S. to Cuba, charging egregious fees in collusion with Cuban authorities,” said Mauricio Claver Carone, director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC in Washington. More moderate Cuban-Americans are only slightly kinder. “Do they charge more than they should? They do,” said Andy S. Gomez, a senior fellow at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. “Are there any other alternatives? None.” Well, not yet, but momentum for broader changes in Cuba policy has been building. Last week, Orbitz, the online travel company, began offering a $100 coupon for a vacation in Cuba to everyone who signed an online petition urging leaders in the United States to give all Americans the freedom to visit. Jose Fernandez, one of the dozens waiting here to board a C&T flight to Cuba, said he would welcome new alternatives. “The prices,” Mr. Fernandez said, “are out of balance with the moment.”

Cuba
Travel Restrictions
Airlines and Airplanes
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)


Keeping the Upsets Coming, Butler Beats Syracuse

Abstract: SALT LAKE CITY — When Syracuse took its place along the free-throw line for the national anthem, half the Orange players were facing toward the flag in a corner of the arena. The other half — along with Coach Jim Boeheim — were facing the opposite direction. As it turned out, the Orange players were no more in sync when it came to playing basketball Thursday night, top-seeded Syracuse losing to No. 5 Butler, 63-59 , in a West Regional semifinal. Butler, will play in the regional final against Kansas State, which beat Xavier, 101-96, in double overtime. After looking like a national championship contender for the last four months, the Orange spent the night reminding the nation that this was a team that lost an exhibition game to Division II Le Moyne. Syracuse (30-5) turned the ball over 18 times, and once the Orange finally gained a lead late in the game, it turned that over, too. “To lose like this is very hurtful,” said Syracuse forward Wes Johnson, the Big East Conference player of the year. “We had expectations.” In an upside-down N.C.A.A. tournament, maybe it should be expected that down the stretch, every key play would be made by the underdogs — and a pair of unlikely heroes. After Syracuse, which trailed by as many as 12 points, surged to a 54-50 lead — its largest of the game — the ball found its way to Ronald Nored, a Butler guard known more for his defense than his jump shot. “That’s when the No. 1 seed pulls it out,” said Gordon Hayward, who led Butler with 17 points. “Everyone was probably thinking we would fold.” But Nored, a 17 percent 3-point shooter, stepped confidently into a shot behind the arc and launched Butler’s comeback. Then Willie Veasley, a scrappy 6-foot-3 forward, knocked away an inbounds pass, tipped in a missed shot and, with the shot clock winding down, sank a 3-pointer from the corner that rattled around the rim, kissed off the backboard and fell through for a 58-54 lead. He then reached through a thicket of Syracuse arms to tip in a shot with 59 seconds left for a 60-54 lead. “Those people that have been around our program a lot know that Willie has been our rock,” Butler Coach Brad Stevens said. “He’s a big-time winner.” Butler (31-4), which won its 23rd consecutive game — the longest streak in Division I — was in the Round of 16 for the third time in eight seasons. But the Bulldogs had lost convincingly in their other two trips. This time, they came in with confidence and a game plan. With Syracuse playing again without the injured center Arinze Onuaku, who was injured in the Big East tournament, Butler wanted to blanket the sharp-shooting Andy Rautins and limit the Orange’s transition opportunities. Though Butler is a midmajor team, it wanted to turn the game into a Big East affair. In large part, the Bulldogs did. Rautins scored 15 points but had to work hard to shake Nored. Syracuse, which did not make a basket until the game was seven minutes old, had few fast-break chances. “Syracuse likes to play in transition,” Nored said. “When it’s fast and easy for them, they’re very good. We wanted to make it tough and ugly.” Not as ugly, though, as the way Syracuse handled the ball. Most of the turnovers came in the halfcourt with Butler defending in straight-up man-to-man. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, who stood with his arms crossed and shaking his head after several turnovers, was baffled afterward to explain how the problems could be so widespread. Rautins turned the ball over five times, but five other players had at least two turnovers. “I’m really at a loss,” Boeheim said. “We haven’t done that. A couple games throughout the whole year maybe where we’ve turned it over, but not like that.” Johnson did have an idea. “It was us being careless with the ball,” he said. “It was us not being poised.” On this night, the poise belonged to Butler, which will head home Saturday night after playing Kansas State. The Bulldogs, win or lose, will stay there. The Final Four is in Indianapolis, and they believe they will not be spectators.

NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
Butler University
Syracuse University
College Athletics
Basketball
Boeheim Jim
Johnson Wes


Late Score Helps Georgia Tech Overcomes Spiller’s 4 Touchdowns

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Georgia Tech ’s swift turnaround under Paul Johnson now includes its first Atlantic Coast Conference title in more than a decade. Jonathan Dwyer’s 15-yard touchdown run with 1 minute 20 seconds remaining gave the 12th-ranked Yellow Jackets a 39-34 victory over No. 25 Clemson in Saturday night’s A.C.C. championship game. Josh Nesbitt threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to DeMaryius Thomas and Scott Blair kicked four field goals, a title game record, to help the Yellow Jackets (11-2) win the crown in their second season under Johnson. It was the Yellow Jackets’ first conference title since they shared it with Florida State in 1998. C. J. Spiller, the A.C.C. player of the year, rushed for 233 yards and 4 touchdowns for Clemson (8-5), which has lost two straight after a six-game winning streak that revived its season. Baker, the star of Georgia Tech’s 3-point victory over Clemson during the regular season, kicked field goals of 48, 49, 28 and 40 yards. Dwyer ran for two scores and Nesbitt ran for one for the Yellow Jackets, who rushed for 333 yards. Spiller’s scoring plays covered 3, 41, 36 and 9 yards, the final one trimming a 13-point deficit to 33-27 with 12 minutes remaining. His longest run of the night, a 54-yarder to the Georgia Tech 9, put him over 200 yards and set up Andre Ellington’s 1-yard run that put the Tigers ahead by 34-33 with 6:11 to go. Georgia Tech drove 86 yards in 13 plays to regain the lead. Dwyer finished with 110 yards on 24 carries. Nesbitt, a distant second to Spiller for conference player of the year, rushed for 103 yards on 22 attempts. Spiller, an all-purpose threat from Lake Butler, Fla., raised his season rushing total to 1,145 yards. He has scored a Clemson single-season record 20 touchdowns — 11 rushing, 4 receiving and 5 on kick returns. The title game appearance was the second for Georgia Tech, which failed to score a touchdown in a 9-6 loss to Wake Forest in 2006, and now has its first outright A.C.C. championship since 1990 — the year before Clemson won the most recent of its league-record 13 crowns. Spiller broke a 40-yard run on his second carry of the night. He went over 100 yards for the night and 1,000 for the season when he took a quick pitch and burst through an opening before racing 41 yards for his second touchdown. Blair bailed Georgia Tech out twice after promising drives stalled in Clemson territory, both times with career-long field goals. He booted a 48-yarder after Roddy Jones dropped a deep pass on third down, then made a 49-yarder for a 13-7 lead after two false starts and a holding penalty pushed the Yellow Jackets back to the Clemson 27 from the 7. Blair kicked three field goals and also threw a touchdown pass during Tech’s 30-27 victory over Clemson on Sept. 10 in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets squandered a 24-0 lead that night before winning on Blair’s 36-yarder in the final minute. Spiller’s third touchdown cut Clemson’s deficit to 23-20. But Georgia Tech quickly rebuilt the lead to 10 points when Nesbitt — facing third-and-10 from his 30 — found Thomas up the left sideline, Thomas outran the pursuit to finish his fourth reception of 70 or more yards this season.

Football
College Athletics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlantic Coast Conference
Clemson University


National Briefing

Abstract: WEST California: Parole Recommended for Manson Follower A parole panel on Thursday recommended parole to a former Charles Manson follower, Leslie Van Houten, more than four decades after she went to prison. The decision, on her 20th parole hearing, is subject to an administrative review by the board. If upheld it goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the final word on whether Ms. Van Houten, 66, will be released. Ms. Van Houten participated in the killings of Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary, a day after other so-called Manson family members murdered the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969. (AP) RELIGION Catholic Editor Forced Out Over Tweets on Bias Laws Tony Spence, the director and editor in chief of the Catholic News Service since 2004, was forced to resign on Wednesday by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops after he made posts on Twitter castigating religious freedom laws as “pro-discrimination” laws against gay people. The bishops’ conference acted after several conservative Roman Catholic groups posted articles calling attention to the comments. The Catholic News Service is owned by the bishops’ conference, but it functions like a relatively independent wire service, with coverage of church affairs in the United States and in Rome. Mr. Spence, who has worked in church communications for 25 years, said that he was a “casualty” of “the culture wars.” The news of his resignation was first reported by National Catholic Reporter. LAURIE GOODSTEIN

California
Charles Manson
Leslie Van Houten


Loyalist Forsakes Gandhis’ Fraying Party

Abstract: NEW DELHI — A longtime and prominent loyalist of the Indian National Congress party publicly broke with the party’s president, Sonia Gandhi, and her son, Rahul, on Friday. The loyalist accused the Gandhis of interfering with her decisions when she was environment minister, forcing her to resign without explanation, then making her a scapegoat for their government’s failings. The former minister, Jayanthi Natarajan, who is a former party spokeswoman, ended her 30-year association with the party in a news conference in Chennai during which she reiterated much of the content of a letter she wrote to Mrs. Gandhi in November. The letter was published Friday in The Hindu, a national newspaper. In the letter, Ms. Natarajan wrote that she had been “continuously attacked, wrongly vilified and defamed in the media and exposed to every possible humiliation in public life” and that she had suffered “the most excruciating mental agony.” The Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty 16 Photos View Slide Show › Image Associated Press The emotional and very public condemnation of the beleaguered Congress leadership was the latest indicator of how quickly the power of the long-dominant party has withered since it was routed in May’s election. After dominating the front pages of the country’s newspapers for years, news of the party has fallen deep inside the papers — though not on Friday, when the political scuffle was big news. Images of Mrs. Gandhi that once dominated the capital have now been replaced by those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the winning Bharatiya Janata Party. During his political campaign last year, Mr. Modi suggested that Ms. Natarajan was corrupt, speaking of a “Jayanthi tax” on those seeking clearances on projects, according to the Press Trust of India. Ms. Natarajan denied the claim. Ms. Natarajan’s tenure was a controversial one, marked by delays in environmental clearances for mining and other industrial projects, decisions that are typically mired in red tape in India. After her resignation, Mr. Gandhi gave a speech to industry leaders expressing his regret over “slow decision making” in environmental approvals of projects. Indian news outlets suggested that Ms. Natarajan had been removed for incompetence, though her letter said she had “never been told of any issues prior” to her resignation. Image Jayanthi Natarajan Credit Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “What followed was a hysterical vicious false and motivated campaign against me, in the media, orchestrated by particular chosen individuals in the party,” she wrote. She also said many of the project rejections had been at the behest of Mr. Gandhi, a member of Parliament and a top official of the Congress party, and she wrote that she had always taken care to honor what she referred to as Mr. Gandhi’s “requests.” Congress party leaders denied Ms. Natarajan’s accusations on Friday. Abhishek Singhvi, a Congress party spokesman, issued a statement saying that it was “saddening and deeply regrettable that someone who got four terms” as a member of Parliament and “remained party spokesperson for over a decade has chosen to unleash a diatribe which is entirely opportunistic and hypocritical apart from being factually untrue.” In an interview with the Indian news channel NDTV that aired on Friday, Ms. Natarajan denied that she was angling for a position in the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying she decided to speak out because her family’s reputation was being “maligned.” The current environment minister, Prakash Javadekar of the B.J.P., said in televised comments that he would review decisions made by Ms. Natarajan that had any markings of “extraneous influence.”

India
Sonia Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi
Jayanthi Natarajan
Legislature
Indian National Congress


Crime Boss Bulger Gets 2 Life Terms and Is Assailed by Judge for His ‘Depravity’

Abstract: BOSTON — James (Whitey) Bulger, Boston’s most notorious gangster, was condemned on Thursday to spend the rest of his life in prison, receiving two life sentences plus five years. Before announcing her sentence, Judge Denise J. Casper of Federal District Court told Mr. Bulger, 84, that the “scope, callousness and depravity of your crimes are almost unfathomable.” Image James (Whitey) Bulger stared straight ahead and showed no emotion. The judge ordered him to pay $19.5 million in restitution to his victims’ families and to forfeit $25.2 million to the government. Credit U.S. Marshals Service/U.S. Department of Justice, via Associated Press Mr. Bulger was convicted in August of a sweeping array of gangland crimes, including 11 murders and 31 counts of racketeering, extortion, money laundering, trafficking in cocaine and marijuana and weapons possession. The judge said his actions were made “all the more heinous because they were all about money.” “It takes no business acumen to take money from people at the end of a gun,” she said as she read the roll of the 11 people he was convicted of killing. Mr. Bulger, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and slumped impassively at the defense table, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion. Image A court artist with a sketch of the sentencing of Mr. Bulger. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times Judge Casper also spoke of Mr. Bulger’s notoriety and how he had dominated the news media here for so long. In an unusual addendum, she seemed to speak not as a judge but as a guardian of Boston’s civic image. “You have over time and in certain quarters become the face of this city, and that is regrettable,” she said. “You, sir, do not represent this city.” She ordered him to pay $19.5 million in restitution to his victims’ families and to forfeit $25.2 million to the government. While his lawyers have said that he made “millions and millions” of dollars during his three decades of controlling the South Boston underworld, it is not clear where that money is and whether it is retrievable. Mr. Bulger’s lawyers said he would appeal his conviction, arguing that the judge had not allowed Mr. Bulger to mount the defense he wanted: that he was given immunity by federal officials for his crimes — in essence, that he had a license to kill. Legal experts have said this argument would have little chance of success, especially since Mr. Bulger has maintained that he was never an informant. Image From left: Steve Davis, Karen Smith and her mother, Evelyn Connors, family members of victims, celebrated after the sentencing hearing. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times His logrolling relationship with corrupt F.B.I. agents was one aspect of Mr. Bulger’s reign of terror that the government did not vigorously pursue during his trial. But in the sentencing, Judge Casper referred to law enforcement officers who were “on your payroll and in your pocket.” And as federal officials emerged from the courthouse on Thursday to declare Mr. Bulger’s criminal reign extinct, one man, Vincent B. Lisi, the new special agent in charge of Boston’s F.B.I. field office, addressed the bureau’s sullied reputation. “I realize that the actions of a small percentage of law enforcement many years ago caused some people to lose faith and confidence in us,” Mr. Lisi said. “Our job now is to make sure that we can regain the faith and confidence of those people who may have lost it years ago.” Mr. Bulger could still be tried for murders he is charged with in Oklahoma and Florida, which allow the death penalty. For now, he will await assignment to a federal prison.

Criminal Sentence
Whitey Bulger
Organized crime
Boston
Murders
Denise J Casper


Accordion Store’s Departure Signals End of Manhattan’s Music Row

Abstract: For decades, musicians from around the world flocked to a segment of West 48th Street in Manhattan that was known as Music Row. Both sides of the block, just off Times Square, were lined with shops that sold and repaired guitars, drums, keyboards and other instruments. But the music finally died there in December when the last holdout, Alex Carozza, packed up his accordion store and 50 years of memories and moved off the block. Now, all that is left of Music Row are the signs and awnings that beckoned to virtuosos and neophytes alike. The block is haunted by empty buildings and the occasional tourist straining for some echo of its harmonious past. Where once there were Manny’s and Rudy’s and New York Woodwind and Brass, Frank Wolf Drummers Supplies and We Buy Guitars, now there are demolition crews, “for rent” notices and a construction office for the glass tower going up around the corner. “Musically, it’s kind of depressing,” Mario Tacca, an accordion player and longtime patron of Music Row, said. “I guess it’s part of the new world that we’re living in. The old world is kind of disappearing slowly. It’s kind of sad to see.” Music Row’s demise was a long time in coming , brought on by the soaring value of real estate and the conveniences offered by the Internet — those modern forces that have reshaped so much of New York City’s commercial landscape. The earthbound merchants of musical instruments that have survived are scattered about the city now: Rudy’s guitar shop to SoHo, Sam Ash ’s superstore to 34th Street, Jon Baltimore ’s horn store to 46th Street. Mr. Tacca said he had not yet visited Mr. Carozza’s new location, tucked into an office building on a block of West 54th Street filled with the standard Midtown mix of restaurants, hotels, a bank branch and a gym. But when he does, he will not have to stand in line. Image Charles Ponte, left, at his store on Music Row in 1968, when music shops there first started closing. In a New York Times article from the time, he predicted that "every last one of them" would be gone within a year. Credit Patrick A. Burns/The New York Times In the middle of a weekday just before Christmas, there were no customers to interrupt Mr. Carozza, 88, as he reminisced about the heyday of Music Row, when his shop employed 30 people and took in as much as $40 million a year. “I used to sell 10, 15 accordions a week,” he said, adding that “my wife used to count the money all day.” But now, sitting in a cramped office wedged into the scaled-down version of Alex Musical Instruments , he said, “If you sell one, it’s like, hallelujah!” Mr. Carozza, who was born in Italy, moved from Argentina to New York in the 1960s to be part of the city’s thriving music scene. He went to work in an accordion store on 48th Street and eventually opened his own shop on the block. Not long after, Rudy Pensa left Argentina to pursue his dream of finding a place for himself on Music Row. “Everyone who was coming to America was coming to 48th Street,” he recalled. “Every band I was really watching and reading about, you found out they were coming to this place called 48th Street.” In 1972, he arrived and looked up Mr. Carozza, who hired him. “I came with a hundred bucks and a guitar,” Mr. Pensa said. Before long, Mr. Pensa was on his way to being a purveyor of guitars to the stars. He opened his own shop, which came to be known as Rudy’s, in the 1970s. He kept it going for four decades until rising rent and a growing downtown clientele spurred him to leave the block for good in August. Still, Mr. Pensa, 66, remains wistful about the object of his childhood daydreams. “It was a big family there,” he said. “I used to know everyone. It was really beautiful, man.” It took no prodding to get Mr. Pensa to wax nostalgic about Music Row. “It was an experience,” he said. “You would go store to store. It was beautiful because everybody had different things.” Image Credit Ramsay de Give for The New York Times Tourists and wide-eyed teenagers would wander the block hoping for a brush, or at least a glimpse, of a famous musician. They traded tales of spotting Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend and other rock stars ordering instruments for their next tours. But not everybody received a warm reception. Some New Yorkers remember how brusque the salesmen could be. “They used to be so rude, it was unbelievable,” Mr. Pensa said. Before they would let a customer handle a guitar, he recalled, “They would ask you, ‘Hey, do you have the money? Show me the money.’ ” He remembered going into Manny’s Music in the 1970s, when the Times Square area was a more treacherous place, with his money tucked into his belt, “basically in my underwear.” As soon as he inquired about a guitar, he said, he was immediately asked to prove he could afford to buy it. “It was rude,” he said. That attitude, he said, was one of the reasons he decided to open his own shop, which he originally called the Music Stop, then Rudy’s Music Stop, and eventually just Rudy’s. It thrived even though it practically faced Manny’s, an emporium of stringed instruments that was one of Music Row’s main draws. David Amlen, who loitered on Music Row in his youth and now operates a recording studio, MSR Studios , on the block, said even budding superstars could get a bum’s rush. He recounted a story about the jazz guitarist George Benson being told: “Dude, you have got to leave. Either buy something or get out.” MSR, a relative newcomer to Music Row when it arrived in 2005, is “the last man standing,” Scott Kubrin, who manages the studios, said. But it has no retail component. It provides space for performers of all sorts, including the casts of Broadway musicals, to record their work. “It’s definitely depressing” to be surrounded by the ghosts of Music Row, Mr. Amlen said. “What was nice was if somebody was working here and said, ‘Hey, I need a guitar string or a drum head,’ they could just literally run across the street and buy one.” Image The last instrument shop on Music Row relocated in December, due in part to rising rents. Credit Ramsay de Give for The New York Times Now, he said, he would send a runner as far as Sam Ash, about 15 blocks away. Developers have bought up most of the surrounding property with designs on building hotels and office buildings, but, Mr. Amlen said, “We’re not going anywhere.” Mr. Carozza capitalized on the demand for prime lots in Midtown years ago. After buying a building on Music Row for about $500,000 in the late 1970s, he sold it in 2008 for $33 million. Hoping for a similar score, Mr. Pensa repeatedly offered to buy the building that housed his shop, he said. But his former landlord rebuffed him, saying, “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, I don’t buy guitars, you don’t buy buildings.” Mr. Pensa and others pegged the decline of Music Row to the closing of Manny’s in 2009. Without Manny’s, Music Row was reduced to a half-block of stores, most of which had common ownership. In the end, Mr. Pensa’s new landlord wanted to double the rent on 48th Street. Mr. Pensa balked, telling him that “nobody comes here anymore.” “I would have loved to stay on 48th if more people had stayed,” he said. “What are you going to do? Nothing lasts forever.” Besides, Mr. Pensa said, in SoHo he is closer to the lofts occupied by many of the stars of both stage and screen who can afford the expensive guitars he specializes in. He rattled off a list of contemporary musicians and actors who he said have been customers. Then he added with obvious pride that one of his latest big sales was a jazz guitar to Mr. Benson.

Musical instrument
Midtown Area Manhattan
Accordion


Virgin Starting U.S. Lender Aimed at Family and Friends

Abstract: The Virgin Group, which has big aspirations in financial services, is starting small in the United States: today, it is scheduled to open a lending business, Virgin Money USA, intended to make loans easier among family members and friends. The business is built on a company in which Virgin USA purchased a majority stake in May, CircleLending of Waltham, Mass. It organizes and administers private loans. Virgin Money already runs sizable banking operations in Australia, South Africa and Britain, where it is leading a consortium that has made a bid for the troubled lender Northern Rock. In a letter on the British Virgin Money Web site, Richard Branson , the group’s founder, cites “our ambition for financial services” as the motive for the bid, which, if successful, would have Northern Rock renamed Virgin Money. For now, Virgin Money will offer limited services in the United States rather than the full range of banking products it has elsewhere. The company will set up repayment plans for lenders and borrowers, pay interest to the lender and provide the tax documentation that tends to be absent from handshake deals, said Asheesh Advani, who founded CircleLending and is now the chief executive of Virgin Money USA. “Your mom would give you the money, and we would document it and manage all the payments,” he said. “All the money would flow on a monthly or quarterly basis and be managed just like a car loan. It saves the borrower money, and keeps the money in the family.” Virgin Money earns revenue from the fees charged to borrowers. The company plans to have a coming-out party in Boston today, taking over Copley Square. Mr. Branson will be on hand as red dollar bills with a picture of him and his mother are distributed; according to Mr. Advani, Mr. Branson’s mother lent him “thousands of pounds” to help him start Virgin (and he repaid her). The dollar bills, directing people to a company Web site, will also be handed out in New York. Virgin Money USA will offer personal and business loans, mortgages and reverse mortgages. The average interest rate for loans is 6 percent, and for mortgages, 5 percent. Borrowers are charged a $9 per payment administrative fee and will pay an upfront charge ranging from $99 for unsecured loans to $2,000 for large mortgages. Borrowers can select terms of their loans, including the duration and rates. The bank will not retain any of the interest. Services will be available online and by phone. Customers will be able to spread missed payments over the life of the loan, restructure the loan and accept gift payments, Mr. Advani said. The company plans to expand its portfolio quickly, offering student loans in the next year and adding products like small business financing and larger-scale loans in the future. Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com , said that Virgin USA is entering relatively new territory. “It’s an untapped segment of the market, in the sense that lending money to family and friends carries that uncomfortable awkwardness of ‘what do you do when the other person doesn’t pay up?’ ” he said. Alenka Grealish, managing director of the banking group at Celent, a financial services research and consulting firm, said Virgin is entering the loan business at a time conventional banks are tightening their underwriting standards. Citing research by her firm, Ms. Grealish said that CircleLending tended to grant “an above-average loan amount.” “It’s a novel way of entering a market, around a whole different model of lending,” she said. “It’s a much smaller scale than Virgin typically enters into, but an interesting one.” Mr. Advani predicted that Virgin Money would appeal to anyone who has lent someone money. “One thing I’ve discovered in this market is that everyone owes money between family and friends,” he said.


New Guard Arrives at Tribune, a Developer Who Speaks His Mind

Abstract: On Thursday, after completing an $8.2 billion deal that turned the Tribune Company into a privately held operation, Samuel Zell made himself chief executive, announced a new set of directors and managers, and declared that the troubled company would look to raise revenue more than cut spending. At a news conference in Chicago, Mr. Zell, who has made billions in real estate, cheerfully upheld his reputation as a blunt, funny and thoroughly contrarian businessman. He disparaged the conventional wisdom that the newspaper industry — and the Tribune Company in particular — was suffering through a long, unavoidable contraction, and repeatedly stated that Tribune could increase its revenues. “I’m sick and tired of listening to everybody talk about and commiserate about the end of newspapers,” he said. “They ain’t ended. And they’re not going to be.” He said of Tribune, “I think it’s a very low-risk investment, but this wouldn’t be the first time that my opinion diverged from everybody else’s.” The transaction makes Tribune a nonprofit organization owned entirely by an employee stock ownership plan, but Mr. Zell, who invested $315 million in the deal, has the right to buy up to 40 percent of it in the future. Tribune owns The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and 23 television stations, among other properties. The company added five members to its board on Thursday, replacing four departing directors. Three others remain, including Mr. Zell, the new chairman. Most of the newcomers have long experience in communications, but not in Tribune’s core industries of television and newspapers. “This is not a board where we have to have people on it who are going to impress Wall Street,” Mr. Zell said. “They tend to be nonconventional thinkers.” One new director is Brian L. Greenspun, who heads his family’s investment company, the Greenspun Corporation, which made an unspecified investment in Tribune. The corporation owns several publications, including The Las Vegas Sun, where Mr. Greenspun is the editor. The others are Jeffrey S. Berg, who heads International Creative Management, the talent agency; William C. Pate, an executive of Mr. Zell’s investment firm; Maggie Wilderotter, chairman and chief executive of Citizens Communications, a telephone and Internet company; and Frank E. Wood, who has led a chain of radio stations, a venture capital firm and an Internet technology company. Mr. Zell also named two executive vice presidents: one of his former lieutenants in real estate, Gerald A. Spector, and Randy Michaels, a veteran television and radio executive. Mr. Zell took several swipes at the departing management of the Tribune Company, saying that the old guard ran a place where “decisions take a long time.” “I believe this company has spent a significant amount of time in the last five years on cutting costs, and maybe not enough time on growing revenues,” he said. “What this company needs is an owner,” he said later. “It needs someone who accepts the responsibility for what this company does.”

Zell Samuel
Tribune Company
Newspapers
Executives and Management


Terror Suspect Had Bomb Guide, Authorities Say

Abstract: The central figure in what authorities describe as a widening inquiry into a possible plot to detonate explosives in the United States had been trained in weapons and explosives in Pakistan and, according to court papers released Sunday, had made nine pages of handwritten notes on how to make and handle bombs. The court papers, released after the arrests in Colorado of Najibullah Zazi and his father, as well as that of an imam in Queens, showed that during a search in New York of the younger Mr. Zazi’s rental car on Sept. 11, agents found a laptop computer containing an image of the notes. According to a criminal complaint, the notes “contain formulations and instructions regarding the manufacture and handling of initiating explosives, main explosives charges, explosives detonators and components of a fusing system.” Court papers also show that in F.B.I. interviews, Mr. Zazi, 24, told agents that during a 2008 trip to Pakistan, he attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at a Qaeda training camp in a tribal area. The arrests late Saturday indicated the case was rapidly accelerating and provided for the first time — in a sometimes confusing week of events — an explanation of why authorities have focused on the men, even as it shed little light about the alleged plot still under investigation in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere. “It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack,” David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said early Sunday. Veteran counterterrorism officials said they were convinced the plot was potentially serious, based largely on their emerging suspicions about Mr. Zazi, his training in explosives, his travel to Pakistan tribal areas where Al Qaeda is influential and the apparent ease of his movements within the United States. But these officials, in Washington, New York and Denver, acknowledge that they could be overstating Mr. Zazi’s significance because they know little about his precise intentions and may never know completely what he might have been planning. But as the investigation has progressed there appear to be few doubters within the government. The criminal complaints filed by federal prosecutors in Denver and Brooklyn charge that Mr. Zazi and the two others arrested, his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and the imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali , who was said to have been a source for the New York police, lied during questioning in the terrorism investigation. On Wednesday, the complaints said, when agents interviewed Mr. Zazi in Denver, he falsely said he had never seen the handwritten notes and told agents that he had not written them. In the days leading up to his arrest, before he voluntarily underwent three marathon sessions of questioning by F.B.I. agents in Denver, Mr. Zazi, in interviews with reporters and through his lawyers, denied any links to Al Qaeda, any involvement in any plot and any wrongdoing whatsoever. On Sunday, after the announcement of the charges, neither his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, nor a public relations adviser whom Mr. Folsom had hired to field the seemingly endless barrage of calls from reporters, would comment. The complaints are said by authorities to be a preliminary step that enabled them to detain the men, who had known for more than a week that they were under investigation. What has troubled federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. is the belief that Mr. Zazi embodies what concerns them most: a Westernized militant, trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan, whose experience and legal resident status in the United States give him the freedom to operate freely, yet attract little attention. But the questions about Mr. Zazi’s significance continue to persist in part because the surveillance of him and others, including wiretaps and physical surveillance, was interrupted before authorities had obtained crucial information, like the intended target or the timing of any plot. Mr. Zazi and his father were scheduled to make an initial appearance on Monday in Federal District Court in Denver, and Mr. Afzali will make his appearance, also on Monday, in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Government officials said the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of eight years in prison, were preliminary and were likely to be followed by an indictment with more detailed accusations as the investigation continues. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, said in a telephone interview that the charges raised concerns about civil liberties. “It heightens our concerns about the case because you would expect that if the government’s allegations were based on strong evidence, that there would be charges brought based on terror-related evidence, not making false statements,” he said. Various court documents showed that investigators had removed what may be evidence from an apartment in Queens where Mr. Zazi stayed the night of Sept. 10, including backpacks, cellphones and a battery-powered scale that had Mr. Zazi’s fingerprints on it — suggestive of a possible bomb plot. At the apartment where the objects were removed, a tenant, Naiz Khan, said the F.B.I. had questioned him about the scale, but he said he told them that it did not belong to him or any of his roommates. “I don’t know who it belongs to,” he said. “This is not our scale. Maybe they got it from another apartment.” In a sense, the case reflects the tension that has grown between intelligence and law enforcement agencies since the September 2001 attacks. Some intelligence officials are prepared to disrupt a group as soon as its activities are discovered, while more case-oriented law enforcement agencies seek to surreptitiously track or infiltrate a suspect group, uncovering all of its members, until there is compelling evidence to charge the plotters with a crime. In this case, officials say, Mr. Zazi and his confederates were apparently deterred before any plot had a chance to take shape and before investigators were able to clearly understand what the men were planning. That left prosecutors to charge the three men with proxy offenses of making false statements rather than crimes directly involving terrorism. Some officials said they had moved quickly, fearing that Mr. Zazi’s plans might have been more advanced than they realized, at the same time counterterrorism officials in New York were preparing for major events like this week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, to be attended by President Obama and other leaders.

Terrorism
Zazi Najibullah
Bombs and Explosives
Queens (NYC)


2012 N.B.A. Playoffs - Thunder’s Derek Fisher Works His Way Into Another Finals

Abstract: Oklahoma City You knew it was coming. You knew that if he stayed on the court long enough in the fourth quarter there would have to be at least one Derek Fisher moment, a chance to uncoil that pedestrian-looking but still-dangerous southpaw jumper, to send a forget-me-not to old friends in Los Angeles. It is fair to say that no player has had a more tumultuous time of it this contracted N.B.A. season than the former Kobe Bryant running mate known as Fish. And that no one deserved to be fitted more for an N.B.A. finals cap late Wednesday night after the Thunder won the Western Conference title by rallying in the second half to defeat the San Antonio Spurs . Before a single ball was dribbled in December, Fisher was on the job as the president of the players union throughout tortuous lockout negotiations. For all the hours toiled, all the leadership exerted, he was thanked for his effort with an unsettling attempt to oust him after he challenged the work practices of the union’s executive director, Billy Hunter. Then the Lakers demonstrated their gratitude to Fisher for five championship rings and countless big shots, much like the two he drained down the stretch of Oklahoma City’s 107-99 Game 6 victory, by showing him the door. The implication was that if he was too old and slow to start, then he might as well be finished. But there he was late Wednesday night, helping the Thunder finish the job with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, burying a left-corner 3 ball that gave his team a 96-91 lead with just over four minutes left. Fisher added a 2-point banker off the dribble from the right side to make it 103-97. While playing every fourth-quarter minute, he fought through the Spurs’ trademark screens while chasing Tony Parker. He was the veteran on the floor as the Thunder’s core of kiddie stars ascended to the stage that Fisher knows his way around like the freeways of L.A. “It’s a lot of trust to put on a guy that’s only been around for a couple of months,” he said of Coach Scott Brooks’s decision to play him over the starter and defensive ace Thabo Sefolosha. “But at the same time, that’s what I was brought here for.” Too proud was Fisher to make this more about being sent away by the Lakers than being wanted by the Thunder. Too classy was he to gloat about how the Thunder ended the Lakers’ season in the second round. “I don’t ever get any happiness from seeing people that I was close to or worked with for a long time not to be successful,” he said. “All this is great, but life still comes back to family, friends and loved ones.” Rewards come in strange, mysterious ways, especially in the playoffs. As the Lakers, like the Spurs, face an uncertain future with an aging infrastructure, is the country ready for a long encampment in the spotlight by a team from a heartland outpost known as Tornado Alley? Can the hedonistic N.B.A. culture embrace a franchise that asks its crowd to participate in prayer to an authority much higher than its young multimillionaire dunkers? While Oklahoma City has no courtside celebrity conga line seats, Durant is not Tim Duncan and the Thunder are far from the second coming of the Spurs. Here there is enough star power to challenge the notion that supreme N.B.A. talent must invariably migrate to the vacationland hot spots like South Beach. Durant and Westbrook didn’t need to. They signed long-term deals, forgoing their first crack at free agency and establishing the Thunder as the anti-Heat. When asked if the Thunder could be the league’s premier franchise in the commercially potent way that Magic and Kobe’s Lakers and Jordan’s Bulls have been, Fisher called it “a loaded question.” But he proceeded to say: “I think our game has been and will always be built around stars. And when you have Kevin Durant, you have Russell Westbrook, James Harden, those types of players, I think you’re capable of drawing interest with people interested in seeing how far a team like that can go.” If that sounded like a bit of a hedge, remember that Fisher spent 12 ½ of his 16 seasons dribbling past the likes of Jack Nicholson at courtside. He was Phil Jackson’s coach on the court and Bryant’s confidant. As he dressed Wednesday night, he asked a reporter from Los Angeles for the outcome of the Kings-Devils Stanley Cup finals game and shook his head in disappointment when told New Jersey had won to stay alive. He hadn’t checked his phone to see if Bryant had checked in with a congratulatory text but that would have to wait until after an informal chat with a blond woman who was chatting up the Thunder’s joyous players before they departed the room. In how many markets would the state governor — in this case Mary Fallin — wait around until midnight for Fisher, who was the last to dress, in the stall next to center Kendrick Perkins, his old Celtics adversary. “I hope you like our fans and community support,” Fallin told Fisher as they shook hands. “The Thunder is America’s team.” Not quite yet, but perhaps soon enough, with the irrepressible Durant — who closed out the Spurs with 14 rebounds and 5 assists to go with 34 points while playing all 48 minutes of Game 6 — having taken the mythical baton from Bryant after it was messengered here by Fisher. Most dynamic player in the West on the conference’s best team with more room to grow, personally and collectively, beginning next week. There is a great Fish story to tell about the Thunder, but that isn’t it.

Fisher Derek
Oklahoma City Thunder
San Antonio Spurs
Basketball
Playoff Games
Los Angeles Lakers


Polish Plan on Pensions Arouses Sharp Criticism

Abstract: The Polish government is expected to release details of its plan to transfer back to the state $47.6 billion worth of government bonds held by privately managed funds that invest retirement money on behalf of Poles. Critics are calling it the most drastic nationalization of private assets since Soviet times. The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk counters that it is no more than a bookkeeping change in the way it will handle the public’s retirement money. It has also defended the move as simply an accounting change that will not harm retirees. Despite the government’s assurances that pensioners will eventually get their money, critics say that withdrawing the bonds, without compensating the fund managers, is tantamount to a seizure of assets. The private funds have managed the bonds essentially as contractors to the government. Those critics, which include leading economists, international fund managers, labor unions and senior members of Mr. Tusk’s own party, have slammed the proposal as bald populism and creative accounting. A majority of the funds are owned by big foreign money managers including ING, Aviva, Allianz, MetLife and Generali. Altogether, the private funds hold assets worth about 68 billion euros ($92 billion), or more than one-fifth of Poland’s gross domestic product, and are among the biggest investors on the Warsaw stock market. The pension fund managers say that removing government bonds — which represent about half the total value of the funds’ portfolios — will make them solely reliant on stocks. Critics say that will make it harder to ensure adequate returns on the funds and also call into question the safety of Poland as a place for investors to place their money. Image Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, in Warsaw. Credit Peter Andrews/Reuters “Poland has taken a significant step backward,” said David McMillan, chief executive of Aviva Europe in London, which manages a private pension fund in Poland with 17.5 billion euros in assets. “There is no doubt that the changes have increased the risk of investing in Poland.” The government has stressed the flexibility of the new program, noting that workers will have three months to declare whether they want to remain partly in the privately-run funds with their own personal contributions to their retirement accounts, or to have their contributions go entirely to the state system. On Wednesday, Mr. Tusk said final details of the pension proposal would be completed Thursday and a public debate on the matter would begin Friday. The Tusk proposal alarmed foreign investors and rattled the Warsaw stock market when it was first proposed in early September. They worry that it may threaten the future of private funds. “The trust between the citizen and the state is already fragile in the European Union, given the broader economic context, and these measures simply further undermine it,” said Mujtaba Rahman, director of European affairs at the Eurasia Group, a risk analysis research group. The Polish government, which has been the target of street protests over its austerity measures, is seeking to call in the bonds, cancel them and use the resulting reduction of the government’s 223 billion euro debt to bolster the economy. Critics contend it will give the state more scope to borrow and spend ahead of elections in 2015. Detractors of the move also say it could risk Poland’s reputation as one of the better-run economies of Eastern Europe and as a country that — in part because it is not yet part of the euro currency union but still uses the zloty — had sidestepped the worst problems of the euro zone financial crisis. Evgeny Deyanov, 27, a financial analyst and blogger , said he feared that under the new system he would lose control over his own money and would have to trust the government to eventually make good. “With private funds, I knew my money was being well invested for my retirement,” he said. “But with a public fund I have no such guarantee that the state has my best interests in mind, and that makes me very nervous.” Image Evgeny Deyanov, a financial analyst and blogger, is afraid he’ll lose control over his money. Credit Maciek Nabrdalik for The International Herald Tribune Until recently, Poland was the envy of its European Union peers because it was the only country to grow during the height of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis in 2009. At its most robust recently, in 2011, gross domestic product grew by 4.5 percent. But now, with Poland also buffeted by the financial crisis, many economists expect it to slow to about 1 percent, making 2013 one of its slowest years since the late 1990s. Poland’s economy still remains far more resilient than Europe’s laggards. But analysts said the pension revamp would be part of a worrying trend in which debt-ridden European Union countries like Hungary and Cyprus, stymied by austerity and demands for fiscal probity, were using the private assets of citizens to help shore up public finances. Three years ago, Hungary — following the example of Argentina in 2001 — gave its citizens the ultimatum of moving their private pension fund assets to the state or risking the loss of their pensions, as part of a government drive to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Analysts said the move had weakened the forint, the Hungarian currency, and undermined investor confidence. More recently, in March, Cyprus, facing the collapse of its banks, devised a plan to seize a portion of savers’ deposits above 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus, in a bid to raise money for an urgently needed bailout. But the center-right Tusk government, under fire for abandoning its business-friendly stance, has characterized the retirement shake-up as a necessary move that will produce a reduction in Poland’s debt by the equivalent of 8 percent of gross domestic product, while enabling it to avoid further tax increases. At the end of 2012, the government debt was about 53 percent of gross domestic product. Under Poland’s Constitution the state is forbidden to breach a threshold of 60 percent. Even the most affluent euro zone countries have much higher debt levels by that measure; Germany’s, for example, was nearly 82 percent last year. Poland began opening its pension system to private funds in the late 1990s. Mr. Tusk, in proposing to reverse course, has insisted that the changes fall short of nationalization, noting that the private funds would retain their equity holdings. Ryszard Petru, a leading economist who is president of the Association of Polish Economists, said he had deep doubts about the legality of the proposed changes. “We are having an economic slowdown, and this was the easiest way for an unpopular government to improve its room for maneuver,” he said by phone from Warsaw. “I think the government greatly underestimated the extent to which this would upset foreign investors.”

Poland
Pensions and Retirement Plans
Politics


A $10.5 Million Makeover for a Snuff Mill Turned Eatery in the Bronx

Abstract: If it weren’t for the low midwinter sunlight raking its ancient fieldstone walls, the 169-year-old snuff mill — now sitting quietly on a wide bend of the rapid river — just might disappear from view in the dun-colored camouflage of the sycamore and oak trees that surround it. This is not everyone’s image of the Bronx. But there it is: the Lorillard snuff mill, on the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden . Not just a civic landmark, it also holds national significance (for better or worse) as an early home of what is now Lorillard Inc. , makers of Newport, Kent, True and other cigarettes. After a half century of service as a cafeteria and a catering hall, the mill is undergoing a $10.5 million restoration and rehabilitation that is decades overdue. Truth to tell, garden officials would have preferred to start a bit earlier, when the tax-exempt bond market was still intact, or to wait a bit longer. This is not exactly an ideal moment to try to raise more than $5 million to supplement a $5.2 million commitment from the city and the state. However, the garden could not afford further delay that might jeopardize the public financing. “You concern yourself about that,” the president and chief executive, Gregory Long , said in an interview. “ ‘Jeopardy’ is a strong word. But we wanted to make sure we didn’t.” Mr. Long added: “It has been our policy not to go ahead with projects that are not fully funded. But the snuff mill is in such bad shape that it was a question of stewardship. Plus, it’s revenue-producing.” Weddings, banquets and parties at the mill, which overlooks a picturesque gorge in the Bronx River, bring in about $1 million annually for the nonprofit botanical garden. Garden officials plan to reopen the mill in the spring of 2010, with a new kitchen, new bathrooms and a modern elevator. Exterior walls will be repointed. Cedar shingles will be installed on the gabled roof. New offices for the horticultural staff will be built. The architects are Einhorn Yaffee Prescott ; Andron Construction is the general contractor. By installing storm windows behind replicas of the existing multipane windows and taking other conservation measures, garden officials hope the project will qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design status from the United States Green Building Council . Visitors may not notice, however. “We’re trying to restore the building to the way it would have appeared in the 19th century,” said Frank Genese, an architect who is the garden’s vice president for capital projects. That is, plus a bridal changing room or two. For the mill was not built as a social hall. It was a factory. Here, tobacco was ground into a smokeless, powdery form called snuff, which could be flavored and inhaled. The millstones used in the grinding were powered by two wheels, about 15 feet in diameter, in the basement. These were turned by sluices of water channeled into the building. No evidence remains of the wheels except for a shallow brick arch over what would have been the southern sluice, or millrace. In the attic, however, where one always finds the most interesting things, the original hoisting mechanism is still in place for a hand-pulled elevator. Its large iron pulley wheel turns easily to this day. “Isn’t that great?” asked Wayne Cahilly, the resident expert on the mill’s history and construction. “It’s a wonderful piece of workmanship.” The rehabilitation has revealed the timber framework and joinery methods by which it was assembled. Code numbers were incised into the wooden structural members — in Roman numerals, no less — to ensure that diagonal brace VIII would be inserted into column VIII. In 1870, the mill was closed. New York City acquired 661 acres of the Lorillard family’s Bronx River estate in 1884. The mill became a carpentry shop for the parks department. In 1915, the agency granted a 140-acre parcel, including the mill, to the botanical garden, which used the old building as a shop and a storehouse. Then, in the early ’50s, Harriet Barnes Pratt, a member of the botanical garden board, urged that the building be put to public use and offered $88,000 to make it happen. The city, the garden and the Lorillard company together chipped in $211,000 and the Snuff Mill Tea Room was born in 1954. In the old mill and out on a newly constructed riverside terrace, the cafeteria offered peanut butter and bacon sandwiches for 40 cents, lime rickeys for a quarter and bottles of Schaefer or Ballantine for 30 cents. Food service continued through 2007, though not at those prices. Some of that atomic-age cuisine may be revived to celebrate the mill’s reopening next year, if you can wait that long for cream cheese on date-nut bread.

New York Botanical Garden
Restoration and Renovation
Lorillard Tobacco Co
Bronx (NYC)


Gina Centrello, on Teamwork as Its Own Energy Source

Abstract: This interview with Gina Centrello, president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Were you in leadership roles growing up? A. No. I was pretty shy as a kid. I grew up in a very middle-class home. My dad was a really hard-working guy. He got up at 5 every morning and worked seven days a week as a conductor on the railroad. My mom was a really gutsy lady. She was born in Marseille, France; she came here in her early 20s and didn’t speak English. She taught herself by reading, and improved her vocabulary by doing crossword puzzles. Reading was always a big deal for us — “If you want to do well, read.” What about your career plans in college? I was going to be a teacher, but there were really no teaching jobs at that point. I just fell into publishing — I wrote a bunch of query letters, and I was hired to be a proofreader at a textbook company. Then Pocket Books hired me as a copy editor. Ten years later, I ran the company. How did you make that happen? I was just very curious. It’s an interesting industry, I did a variety of jobs and I was fortunate to work for a lot of smart people. It’s a mentorship business — there’s no manual on how to become a publisher. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a publisher, but when I saw the pieces come together as managing editor, I thought, “This is an amazing business to be in, because you’re dealing with such interesting people.” Authors are fascinating people, and as a publisher, your job is to make their work public. You’re kind of like the backup singer for them. I was also hard-working from the start. People often just want an answer to something, and there are so many things that fall between departments. So you try to become the person who can answer those questions. That’s what publishing is; there are a ton of details to make it work. And that’s why the team is so important, because each executive, in each area, owns their piece of it in a way that no one else can. My job now is to choreograph. Can you talk more about seeking out mentors? It wasn’t a conscious thing. I always wanted to learn something different, and people love to tell you what they do. They love to share their passion. It’s great when people come to you for the answers; it makes you feel important, and you feel like you’re contributing something to the greater process. And whenever I finished a task they had given me, I would ask for another one. You obviously had a lot of drive. Where does that come from? If I wanted to be successful, I needed to earn it, because that’s the only way I was going to get it. I also get a lot of energy from working with really smart people, and I’m acutely aware of what I know and really aware of what I don’t know. What are some leadership lessons you’ve learned? When I first got to Random, I thought the way to talk to everyone was to have a big meeting. I realized two things. I’m terrible talking in front of a big group, and nobody ever said anything because there were too many people around, and they were intimidated. So I started having smaller meetings with each department, and we would have more of a conversation. If you have only 10 or 15 people in the room, they do talk about their issues and problems. What else about culture? People actually like each other here. I know this sounds Pollyanna-ish, but there’s a magic that happens when everybody’s working together. So when I interview people, I always listen for “I” versus “we.” Our group is composed of a ton of stars, but they’re part of this bigger galaxy. If you want to be a solo artist, you’re probably not going to be happy in our group. If anyone doesn’t succeed here, that’s usually why. How do you hire? How would the conversation go if you were interviewing me? I’d probably know what you’ve done, because we’re a very small industry. So I’m going to attempt to woo you to come to Random. I’m going to ask you what your dream job is, and see if I have it for you. You’re going to tell me what you’re good at, and I’m just going to be listening carefully to your answer. The biggest thing for me is how you interact with others. And how do you get a better sense of that? Generally an off-key note is if you’re telling me why you’re leaving your last job. I want to know that you want another opportunity, but it can be a little like talking about your ex-wife. Anybody who needs to talk in a job interview about some horrible situation is probably someone who doesn’t deal well with conflict. I don’t like conflict in the office because we’ve got so much conflict with everything else. So if we’re fighting with each other, forget it; that’s just not going to work. I want this team to compete with teams on the outside. If you’re not comfortable with that, you’re really not going to be comfortable here, and I’m very honest about that, because I like long-term relationships. I like that we all finish each other’s sentences. That comes from a lot of years of being together; it’s not something that just happens overnight. If you were to write a leadership book, what would it be called? It would be about teamwork, because that’s really what makes everything work. What’s so inspiring to be a leader is the energy you get from the group, and to see how a germ of an idea can grow into something bigger. So I would probably call it, “It’s Not About Me.” It’s not very creative, but that’s what I would like to invoke, because “we” is just so much stronger than “I” or “me.”

Random House
Gina Centrello
Publishing
Job Recruiting and Hiring
Management


Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers Preview

Abstract: Buccaneers (6-9) at Panthers (14-1) 4:25 p.m. Line: Panthers by 10.5 It’s kind of remarkable that the Panthers, who were undefeated going into Week 16, now face the possibility of losing out on home-field advantage throughout the playoffs if they lose to the slumping but scrappy Buccaneers. It will be interesting to see how Carolina bounces back from its 20-13 loss to Atlanta. Will the end of the Panthers’ winning streak send them into a funk, or will having lost be a slap in the face that wakes them up from the lethargic state they appeared to be in last week? PICK: Panthers


Portland, Ore., Sheds Its Walmart Bonds

Abstract: The city of Portland, Ore., announced this week that it had begun divesting itself of its holdings in Walmart, citing concerns over the company’s ethics and labor practices. On Thursday, the first of Portland’s Walmart bonds matured, reducing its holdings in the country’s largest retailer by 25 percent. The move may make it the first municipality in the country to drop investments in the giant retailer. “We as a city talk a lot about our progressive values,” said Commissioner Steve Novick. “We care about working people, we care about the environment, we care about human health — and money talks. We don’t want our money to be saying things that are at cross purposes with values we profess every day.” In October, Portland’s City Council decided it would not buy more Walmart bonds after its existing holdings matured (state law prohibits the city from investing in stocks). The city is devising a process to evaluate other companies in its investment portfolio. So far, only Walmart has made the hands-off list. “Right off the bat, we knew we were comfortable putting them on the do-not-buy list based on information that is widely, publicly available,” Mr. Novick said. He said the company’s labor, wage and union practices were a concern, as well as a bribery scandal that erupted in 2012. When this policy was adopted, the city had five Walmart bonds totaling $36 million. which was 2.9 percent of its portfolio. As of Thursday, its bonds total $27 million. Some municipalities have policies against investing in certain industries, like fossil fuels. Amherst, Mass., for example, has a policy against investing in fossil fuels, according to the town’s financial director, Sandy Pooler, who added that it did not have any such holdings at the time the policy was approved. Amherst has no formal policy against investing in tobacco companies, but it has declined to invest in them for several years. Singling out a particular company appears to be much more unusual. Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman, said the company would not comment on investment decisions made by others. He said that Walmart employed 550 people in the Portland area and planned to hire 600 more at new supercenters. He said the average wage for full-time hourly employees in Oregon was $13.20 an hour. He also pointed to a report the company issued recently detailing changes made to its global compliance program.