Home Prices in South Korea Stalling at a High Point

Abstract: SEOUL — In 30 years as a real estate broker, Chung Doo-hyun says, he has never seen a market behave the way South Korea’s is. First, there was the wave of feverish buying that drove up housing prices across South Korea, including in Seoul’s skyscraper-studded financial district, Yoido (pronounced YUH-wee-doe), where Mr. Chung’s tiny office is. Then, about a year ago, buyers and sellers became scarce, he says. Real estate prices stopped moving. The market came to a near halt. “The whole real estate market is frozen,” said Mr. Chung, 65. “Everyone is just waiting.” It is an unusual predicament, at a time when increasing volatility in real estate markets elsewhere has emerged as one of the biggest challenges to global growth. In the United States, a housing market slowdown has strained the economy, shaken Wall Street and spread to Europe; while in fast-emerging China and India, runaway property values threaten to spur inflation or, worse yet, plummet. Across South Korea, prices are just standing still. In the last year or so, there has been a steep drop in the number of housing transactions, particularly in Seoul, the nation’s political and commercial capital. According to the construction ministry, the number of apartments sold in Seoul fell to 8,680 in October, down almost two-thirds from a year ago. During the same period, transactions nationwide fell by almost half. Since December, apartment prices in Seoul have risen just 3 percent, after increasing 93 percent over the preceding five years, according to data from Kookmin Bank. Nationwide, apartment prices have risen just 2.1 percent this year. Real estate agents, developers and economists here all agree that the frozen market is the work of the current president, Roh Moo-hyun. Mr. Roh imposed new taxes and restrictions on real estate deals, in an effort to deter speculators, whom he blamed for stoking the overheating housing market. But many agents, developers and economists say Mr. Roh overshot his mark, making it prohibitively expensive for anyone to buy or sell. Now, the market seems to be waiting for Wednesday’s, presidential election. Many here hope a successor will restart the housing market by reversing the policies of Mr. Roh, who is not seeking re-election. Real estate prices have emerged as a leading campaign issue, with the current front-runner, the conservative Grand National Party’s Lee Myung-bak, a former chief executive of Hyundai Construction, promising to lower capital gains taxes and other taxes. But, many economists warn that by idling the market and giving investors time to reconsider their enthusiasm for high prices, Mr. Roh may have created a different problem. They say that even if a new president reverses Mr. Roh’s antispeculative measures, prices are just as likely to fall or even collapse as they are to resume climbing. “The policies have ended up raising doubts about whether the crazy gains can continue,” said Kim Kwang-soo, head of KS Economic Research Institute. “This is a tremendous bubble, which must burst sooner or later.” If there is a bubble, it was created by economic growth and higher living standards fueling a half-decade construction frenzy that continues to chug along, even amid the drop in real estate sales. Across the country, dominolike rows of identical high-rise apartments have sprung up, while armies of bulldozers and cranes transform farmland into dozens of “New Towns” and “Innovative Cities.” Development helped cause a land grab that drove real estate values to such heights that middle-class buyers felt increasingly priced out of the market, prompting concerns of a possible asset bubble. In Seoul’s most popular neighborhoods, three-bedroom apartments now routinely cost $2 million, about 100 times the average national income. Unlike its Asian neighbors, as prices rose, South Korea intervened forcefully. Initially, Mr. Roh, a populist who took power in 2002 on a left-leaning platform, appeared powerless. But late last year, his increasingly restrictive measures slowed price gains. Among the most potent of Mr. Roh’s steps were raising the capital gains tax by as much as 60 percent and limiting the size of some bank loans so that monthly payments did not surpass 40 percent of monthly income. But the moves have been widely criticized for spreading pain too broadly. Industries from realty to construction and even trucking say they have lost business. Retiring workers, many who want to sell homes bought three or four decades ago, complain that the steeper capital gains taxes will wipe out profits that they had been counting on to finance their retirements. But even if a new president can rekindle the boom, it may prove short-lived. Some experts warn that South Korea faces a severe glut in new housing over the next five years, as large developments begun during the early 2000s, when the market was soaring, reach completion. Shim Gyo-eon, a real estate professor at Konkuk University, predicts that some one million new units will come on the market by 2013. “I have never seen so much supply coming at once,” said Dr. Shim, who has been unable to find buyers for his own house in Seoul. One of the developments soon to come online is in the twin cities of Cheonan and Asan, a 40-minute ride from Seoul on South Korea’s new high-speed train. On what is now a huge stretch of excavated red earth, developers are building the Cheonan-Asan New Town, a corporate park and high-rise community meant to house some 4,000 families. Along the development’s outskirts, more than 100 additional apartment towers, with space for 20,000 more families, have already begun rising. Large glass-fronted showrooms in Cheonan, display full-size models of the uncompleted units available for order. But while construction continues, developers say that orders have been disappointingly low, with most showrooms sitting empty. “Buyers just aren’t coming,” said Shin Dong-hyun, a director at Daewoo Engineering and Construction, which is building three apartment complexes with 2,100 units in Cheonan. Mr. Shin says part of the problem is a “short-term oversupply of apartments.” Still, he says he is confident that they can all be sold eventually — if the current government policies are changed. “People are interested in buying,” he said. “But they can’t under these conditions.” Mr. Chung, a real estate agent in Yoido, says he is lucky now if a single customer calls or shows up each day at his office, Kukdo Real Estate Agency. That compares with 10 or more queries he received daily until last year. His business has plunged into the red. Mr. Chung said business is even tougher now than it was during South Korea’s financial crisis a decade ago, when the economy nearly collapsed. “At least during the crisis, people were selling,” he said. “Now, they’re doing nothing.” “Roh Moo-hyun dropped a bomb on us,” said Mr. Chung. South Korea’s new leader will face the tricky task of mopping up the aftermath.

Housing
Seoul (South Korea)
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)


China: 2 Tibetans Reported Killed in Self-Immolation Protest

Abstract: Chinese security forces shot and killed two Tibetans on Thursday who had been involved in antigovernment protests, the American broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported. Yeshe Rigsal, a 40-year-old monk, and his brother, Yeshe Samdrub, 38, had been pursued by the authorities since they participated in protests against Chinese rule on Jan. 23, the report said. They were killed in Luhuo County in Sichuan Province. Tibetan independence advocates said Thursday that a monk in Chenduo County, in Qinghai Province, set himself on fire on Wednesday to protest Chinese rule. Free Tibet, a London-based group, said the monk, in his 30s, was alive but in serious condition. More than 20 Tibetans, most of them monks or former monks, have died from self-immolations in the past three years, protesting what they say is China ’s repression of Tibetan culture and religion. The state-run Tibet Daily said Thursday that Tibet’s Communist Party secretary had dismissed three subordinates for failing to crack down on a recent wave of Tibetan unrest, which China says was caused by subversion by disciples of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader in exile.

Immolation
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Monasteries and Monks
China
Tibet
Politics and Government
Sichuan Province (China)
Yeshe Rigsal
Yeshe Samdrub


Puerto Rico Utility’s Debt Plan Still Fragile, Lawmakers Are Told

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Puerto Rico’s troubled electric monopoly, mired in about $9 billion of debt, stands to run out of money by midsummer if its hard-won plans to restructure fall through — something that could happen this month, a top official of the utility told a congressional panel on Tuesday. Before all that debt can be restructured, the Puerto Rican legislature must first pass an enabling law — a law that, among other things, would lead to the island’s first increase in the base rate for electricity since 1989. The legislature has about 10 more days to do that, according to the restructuring schedule. But already some lawmakers in San Juan are saying they will oppose the bill. “I like to be an optimist, but it will be a challenge,” said Lisa J. Donahue, the AlixPartners managing director who is working as the chief restructuring officer of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as Prepa. Asked what would happen to the deal without legislative approval, Ms. Donahue said: “It would fall apart.” “There are contingencies that must be met, and if they are not met, we’ll be back at the table,” she added, after explaining that getting the deal even this far took negotiators 15 months. It involves an exchange of debt, with creditors accepting new bonds with an investment-grade rating and a face value 15 percent less than the junk-rated Prepa bonds they now hold. The new bonds would also have a slower payment schedule and a lower interest rate. “Like Lisa said today, this is a good deal,” said Stephen Spencer, a financial adviser to Prepa’s bondholders, who monitored the hearing Tuesday. “There is always a point when it’s time to stop hemming and hawing and act — and at this point it’s up to the Puerto Rico legislature whether they want to pass the legislation and get this done.” On its existing debt, Prepa has a little more than $1 billion in principal and interest due before June 30. Without the increase in electricity rates, and other provisions of the restructuring plan, it will not have enough cash to pay. Puerto Rico just passed a critical debt-payment deadline on Jan. 1, and it managed to make some of the payments due only by defaulting on others. The defaults then prompted two bond insurers to file suit. The governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, has warned of a “race to the courthouse” in which more such creditors would sue to enforce their competing claims, leading to “litigation pandemonium.” Prepa also owed debt payments on Jan. 1, but a group of its creditors helped, in effect, to finance the payments in an effort to keep the fragile restructuring plan in play while waiting for the enabling law to be enacted. Ms. Donahue was responding to questions from a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. It held the hearing Tuesday in response to a directive from the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who said in December that he wanted the House committees with jurisdiction over Puerto Rico’s affairs to come up with an appropriate solution by the end of March. The island as a whole has roughly $72 billion of debt, most of it in the form of municipal bonds ; Prepa is one of the largest single issuers. In the past, Prepa had the authority to set its own rates for electricity. The law required it to set rates high enough to cover its costs, including borrowing costs. But that did not happen. Instead, Prepa has held its base rate fixed since 1989, with an adjustment added on that rose and fell in tandem with the price of the fuel — mostly oil — that Prepa used to generate power. “Because Prepa’s profit increases are linked to fuel cost increases, becoming more efficient would result in decreased profitability,” said Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Republican who headed the hearing. He said Prepa, therefore, had no incentive to shift to clean, efficient generation technology. Its plants are antiquated and do not comply with either federal or local clean-air laws. To make matters worse, Prepa has a longstanding practice of bartering with municipalities on the island. In effect, it has gone for years without paying property taxes for its easements on municipal land, and in exchange has given the municipalities free electricity. The practice costs Prepa hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Members of the subcommittee wanted to know, among other things, whether the prospects for restructuring Prepa might be better if it had the standing to declare bankruptcy. Currently, the bankruptcy code specifically excludes Puerto Rico from Chapter 9, the chapter that governments use to reduce debt. Ms. Donahue said she believed access to bankruptcy would simplify the restructuring, because bankruptcy has tools for forcing holdout creditors to accept deals. She said all but 30 percent of Prepa’s creditors, with $2.7 billion of bonds, have agreed to the planned restructuring deal. Prepa does not have to get all of those holdouts on board for the restructuring to succeed, she said — but it needs many of them, the holders of $2 billion worth of bonds. But one of the other witnesses, Jorge L. San Miguel, said he thought “delinking” the restructuring from Chapter 9 bankruptcy was critical, because the deal was already fragile, and the possibility of bankruptcy was introducing too much uncertainty. Mr. San Miguel, a partner in the law firm of Ferraiuoli L.L.C. in San Juan, instead called on Congress to provide external oversight to the utility.

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority,PREPA


Yankees’ Romine Boosted by Pep Talk and Homemade Hitting Cage

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — One of the first earnest one-on-one conversations Joe Girardi had with a player in spring training this week was with Austin Romine, the catching prospect whose future with the Yankees took a step forward when fellow catcher Jesus Montero was traded in the off-season. During pitcher bullpen sessions Wednesday, Girardi practically got down into something resembling his old catcher’s crouch alongside Romine, and for almost 15 minutes told him that he does not realize how good he can be. Girardi took a larger theme, telling Romine that he has the ability and the savvy to be the starting catcher for the Yankees eventually, and that he should seize the opportunity. “I think he can be the whole package,” Girardi explained a day later, “and I told him, ‘Your job is to fight to be the whole package, not a backup.’ ” For Romine, who spent his first five years in the Yankee organization behind Montero until Montero was traded to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Michael Pineda, it was a conversation that seemed to strike a nerve. “It’s very cool,” Romine said. “As a manager and a catcher, for him to take the time to tell me that is something I really appreciate.” But Romine, aware that his chances with the team had been enhanced with the trade of Montero, had already begun the process of vaulting his development to the next stage by focusing on the area of his game that needs the most work, his offense. The process began with the purchase of roughly $800 worth of netting, an artificial turf mat with home plate and the batters’ boxes painted on it, and a heavy metal tow chain. A native of Southern California, Romine, 23, moved to Northern Kentucky last fall to be with his longtime girlfriend, Alex Butler, who is in college there. Finding the weather colder than he is used to, Romine decided to build a batting cage in their rented garage. It was his first do-it-yourself project, but he had seen many batting cages, including one at home. His father, the former Boston Red Sox outfielder Kevin Romine, had built a batting cage in the backyard for Austin and his older brother, Andrew, a member of the Los Angeles Angels. So Austin set down the mat on the garage floor, strung up the netting in a U-shape around the interior of the garage, placed the chain at the bottom to keep the netting from popping up every time the ball struck it, placed the tee over home plate, and voilà, he had his own cage. But before he began hitting in earnest, Romine had Butler stand outside on the street to tell him just how loud and potentially annoying the sound of repeated cracks of bat on ball would be. “She said she could definitely hear it, but it wasn’t too loud,” he said. “And I made sure to mostly hit in the afternoon when people are at work, and maybe just a little bit after dinner.” He checked in with his next-door neighbors, telling them what he did for a living and why he needed to be hitting balls against a net for two or three hours a day. “They were really nice about it,” he said. At first Butler served as hitting coach, gently tossing balls to Romine from the side, but the explosion of the ball off his bat was too jarring, so she soon retired from that duty. Romine just kept hitting balls off the tee anyway. “I had a lot of work to do,” he said. “I had just reinvented my entire swing.” Once last season ended, Romine went to Arizona to work with Kevin Long, the Yankees’ hitting instructor. Long told Romine to simplify his approach, stop as much extraneous movement as possible and get rid of his leg kick. The work has been progressing well, although Romine sustained a slight back strain Thursday (it is not expected to keep him out of action for long). After spring training, Romine is scheduled to head for Class AAA, where he will catch every day and get plenty of at-bats, rather than stagnating on the bench behind Russell Martin and Francisco Cervelli. Because of Montero, Romine had only 15 at-bats at Class AAA. But the Yankees are already impressed. Girardi was particularly struck by Romine’s presence when he was summoned to Anaheim on Sept. 11 after Cervelli and Martin were injured. He made his major league debut, at age 22, in his hometown in front of his parents and his brother, who watched from the Angels’ dugout. He arrived at the park in time for a pregame ceremony, then went into the game in the seventh inning, and caught Mariano Rivera’s 599th career save. “I was extremely pleased what he did for us last year,” Girardi said. “There’s a lot to like when he catches. He takes charge, and he’s an outstanding receiver. He blocks, he throws, he reads swings. And I believe he’s going to hit.” His neighbors in Kentucky probably do, too.

Baseball
New York Yankees
Romine Austin
Girardi Joe


E.U. and France on Collision Course Over Budget

Abstract: LUXEMBOURG — The eurozone’s finance ministers began making last-ditch efforts on Monday to avoid a clash with France, which must formally submit its budget for scrutiny by the European Union authorities by the middle of the week. The French government recently announced a “no austerity” budget for 2015, saying it would miss its European Union-mandated deficit target for the second time since 2012 — and by a wide margin. If France makes no modifications before formally submitting the budget on Wednesday, the government could find itself in a standoff with European officials that they assert could threaten the unity of the euro currency bloc. “The figures we’re hearing from Paris are not very hopeful,” Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of eurozone finance ministers, told reporters on Monday as he arrived at the monthly meeting. Recent declarations by the government in Paris were cause for “some worry,” he added. Ministers agreed on Monday that bloc’s fiscal rule book was “an anchor of confidence in the E.U.” that needed to be preserved, Mr. Dijsselbloem told a news conference after the meeting. There are concerns, however, that by pushing France too hard the European Union authorities could further weaken President François Hollande and his efforts to revive the French economy, and could strengthen the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen. Forcing France to prune further also could hurt the economies of its big trading partners, like Germany. Wolfgang Schäuble, the normally hard-charging German finance minister and deficit-discipline taskmaster, was among those who suggested on Monday afternoon that priority should be given to avoiding a prolonged confrontation with Paris. “We will wait until France has presented its budget and structural reforms,” Mr. Schäuble said on his way into the meeting. “The European rules are there to be stuck to.” But he added that he was “confident that a solution can be found in the case of France.” The pressure is on Paris to make cuts or face censure by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union. The penalties could include fines, although no eurozone country has ever been sanctioned for missing its deficit targets — as even Germany has done in the past. Smaller eurozone members that were forced by the commission and their international lenders during the lengthy sovereign debt crisis to make painful spending cuts to meet budgeting goals want to see the rules applied fairly and equally to large states like France. The European Commission, moreover, does not want to see a rerun of what happened during the middle of the last decade when large countries like Germany flouted the rules, which are meant to ensure that disparate economies can operate on a single currency by having all governments adhere to basic debt and deficit guidelines. Michel Sapin, the French finance minister, said after the meeting that he expected plenty of exchanges with European authorities about the French budget during the coming weeks. He hinted that the position of other member countries could evolve as they came to understand the risks created by the current economic situation. Image Jeroen Dijsselbloem, left, the president of the group of eurozone finance ministers, before Monday's meeting: “The figures we’re hearing from Paris are not very hopeful.” Credit Nicolas Bouvy/European Pressphoto Agency “There will be time for discussion and for thoughts on the situation on the eurozone to ripen,” Mr. Sapin told reporters. Mr. Sapin also said that French members of parliament could introduce changes to the budget during the coming months. If the commission is unhappy with the budget that France submits on Wednesday, officials would have two weeks to ask Paris to submit a new one. If that happened and France failed to make an improved offer, the commission could recommend that member states impose the strongest penalty in the pact — a fine of up to 0.2 percent of its gross domestic product, in theory as soon as November. But France would still have plenty of room to avoid a fine by making a case that a weak economy, including the threat of deflation, is creating exceptional challenges, and by moving ahead with promised economic reforms. “No decisions have been taken at this stage,” Jyrki Katainen, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, told a news conference after the meeting. He was referring to whether the commission would accept, or reject, budgets for the 18 euro-area member states required to submit them by Wednesday. “It’s a purely arithmetic exercise,” said Mr. Katainen, who explained that his department could ask governments for more information during the second half of October to help with the assessment. The meeting in Luxembourg follows a weekend of discussions at the International Monetary Fund’s semiannual meetings in Washington, where much of the concern about the slowing world economy focused on Europe and on the eurozone in particular. After surviving the sovereign debt crisis that began with the revelation of a huge hole in Greek government finances in 2009, the eurozone as recently as late summer had appeared to be on the mend. But France, the currency union’s second largest economy, has failed to grow as hoped, while Italy is still trying to reduce its towering debt and Germany, the bloc’s economic engine, is at risk of stalling. One way out of the impasse might be a bargain in which the German government would pledge to spend more to rejuvenate demand in the eurozone and more widely, while France would do some additional, painful belt-tightening. But Mr. Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of eurozone finance ministers, bluntly stated that France first had to make an offer that would keep it within the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, the European Union agreement mandating that member countries keep their budget deficits to within 3 percent of gross domestic product. The 2015 budget as recently announced by Paris would have a deficit of more than 4 percent next year, and would not meet the 3 percent target before 2017. “No deals outside the pact,” Mr. Dijsselbloem said on Monday.

Euro Crisis
Budget
EU
France
Europe
European Commission


In Reversal, Myanmar Agrees to Attend Meeting on Migrant Crisis

Abstract: JAKARTA, Indonesia — After a flurry of diplomatic activity, the government of Myanmar said on Thursday that it would send representatives to a regional meeting in Bangkok next week aimed at resolving the continuing humanitarian crisis of migrants stranded at sea in Southeast Asia and addressing the larger issue of human trafficking. Myanmar, which has previously refused to attend any conference that specifically mentions the plight of ethnic Rohingya migrants fleeing the western part of the country, softened its stance after officials held separate talks on Thursday with the visiting foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia. In addition, Antony J. Blinken, the United States deputy secretary of state, discussed the migrant crisis in a meeting on Thursday with President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital, said U Zaw Htay, deputy director general of the president’s office. On Wednesday, Malaysia and Indonesia announced that they would temporarily shelter an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh languishing aboard rickety wooden boats in the Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca, until they are either resettled in a third country or repatriated within a year. Tens of thousands of Rohingya, members of a Muslim ethnic group who live primarily in Rakhine State in Myanmar, have fled ethnic violence and persecution there during the last several years, with most going to Malaysia or Bangladesh. The government in Myanmar, formerly Burma, does not recognize the one million Rohingya inside its borders as citizens, referring to them as “Bengalis,” and implying they are from neighboring Bangladesh, and refusing to accept any migrants back. Thailand, which will host the May 29 meeting, agreed to help address the migrant crisis, which is well into its second week, after talks with Malaysia and Indonesia on Wednesday, but it did not pledge to take in any more migrants. Understanding Southeast Asia’s Migrant Crisis About 25,000 migrants left Myanmar and Bangladesh on rickety smugglers’ boats in the first three months of 2015, according to a United Nations estimate. Mr. Htay, of the president’s office, said that Myanmar had agreed to attend the Bangkok meeting only after being assured that the term “Rohingya” would not be used. “The term ‘irregular migrant’ will be used instead,” he said. “They can’t pressure us. We won’t accept any pressure. We need the right approach to resolve the problem.” Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Myanmar had also confirmed its willingness to support regional efforts to resolve the migrant issue , including tightening its borders “so there’s no outflux of migrants.” Mr. Nasir also said that Myanmar would send officials to the Indonesian island of Sumatra to verify the identities of Rohingya currently being cared for in four migrant camps there. U Yan Myo Thein, a Burmese political commentator, said the country’s pledge to attend the meeting next week was particularly significant given that in the past, its military government refused to cooperate with its neighbors on the Rohingya migrant issue, most notably at a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Thailand in 2009 during a separate migrant crisis. “It is time Myanmar accepts this problem,” he said. “They can’t reject cooperation with the international community.” The United States has offered to help finance international humanitarian aid efforts already underway for an estimated 3,500 migrants who have reached Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as those still out at sea. Washington has indicated that it would be willing to permanently take in some of the Rohingya migrants, in addition to helping others resettle in a third country. There was also a report in The Dhaka Tribune , in the Bangladeshi capital, that the small West African nation of Gambia, which is predominantly Muslim, has offered to take in all the Rohingya migrants, with international assistance. While the Rohingya at the center of the current migrant crisis are likely to receive official United Nations refugee status, the Bangladeshis are considered economic migrants and will be repatriated, according to officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Organization for Migration. How Myanmar and Its Neighbors Are Responding to the Rohingya Crisis Myanmar and its neighbors see the people of the Rohingya ethnic group and the seaborne trafficking of migrants in the region very differently, complicating the refugees’ plight. After two consecutive days of ships packed with migrants landing or being rescued off the coast of Sumatra, no boats were reported to have landed or been rescued at sea in Southeast Asia as of Thursday night. However, The Associated Press reported that Malaysia had said that four of its navy ships were actively searching for stranded vessels. Migrants who landed in Indonesia in recent days have told stories of horror and ill treatment at the hands of their smugglers, who abandoned many of them on the high seas to evade a crackdown on smuggling networks by Thailand. Some have described passengers dying of starvation and their bodies being thrown overboard. Joe Lowry, a spokesman in Bangkok for the International Organization for Migration, said aid agencies were increasingly worried about the health of the several thousand migrants still on boats given the condition of those who arrived ashore in Indonesia — including women and children — on Tuesday and Wednesday. “They were beyond the point of suffering,” he said of the arrivals. “They are suffering from exhaustion, lack of food, dehydration, psychological devastation, diarrheal diseases, and are badly malnourished.” Mr. Lowry said he estimated that 40 percent of migrants still at sea were suffering from malnutrition, considering that some had been held on boats by smugglers for up to four months or longer with little food and water. First Adm. Amarulla Octavian, chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy’s Western Fleet command, said on Thursday that its vessels were patrolling in and around the Strait of Malacca and would help any migrant boats they found in distress, in coordination with the Malaysian and Thai navies, if needed. Before Wednesday, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand’s navies had pushed back migrant boats from their territorial waters. Admiral Octavian said that Indonesia and Malaysia now had to determine how many migrants each would take in, and suggested that they each accept an equal share. “ There must be crucial talks to have a balance between the two countries, based on our territory and responsibilities,” he said.

Myanmar,Burma
Rohingya
Immigration
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
Bangkok


Tarrytown Schools Face More Fiscal Pressure

Abstract: The property tax cap proposed by Governor-elect Andrew M. Cuomo would leave most school districts in the state unable to cover increases in salaries, pensions and health care, the New York State School Boards Association concluded in a report to be released soon. The report projected that with a cap, property taxes could rise by an average of $229 million a year through the 2013-14 school year, even as personnel costs alone would grow by more than $1 billion a year, leaving an average annual shortfall of $814 million. In one Westchester County district, the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns, the 2 percent cap on the tax levy, along with other fiscal pressures, would force cuts of about $5 million from existing programs and services, Howard W. Smith, the Tarrytown schools superintendent, said. This year, the district, which serves Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, raised its local tax levy by 3.9 percent, a typical rate of increase, or $1.8 million, to help finance a $63.4 million budget. Even so, the district has had to eliminate 46 staff positions, mostly through layoffs; increase class sizes; close an elementary school building; and take away Spanish instruction from lower grades and electives in fine arts from the high school. Enrollment has grown to 2,720 students, up 19 percent from 2001, Dr. Smith said. In that time, the district’s staff has shrunk 4.3 percent to 445. Next year, the district is expecting a $3.9 million rise in personnel costs. That figure includes $1.8 million more for salary increases in existing contracts, even after the teachers’ union agreed to take only a 1 percent annual increase, rather than a raise in the 3 percent range of recent years. The district also faces paying out $1.3 million more for pensions (the rates are set by the state) and $637,000 more for health insurance. At the same time, district officials expect a reduction in the $8.2 million in state aid received this year, given the state’s fiscal crisis, as well as the loss of nearly $1 million in federal stimulus money. Dr. Smith said the tax cap could mean again having to increase class sizes and reduce electives; shortening kindergarten instruction to a half-day schedule; decreasing the number of teaching assistants, guidance counselors, psychologists, social workers, librarians and nurses; cutting music, art, sports and gifted programs; and reducing the frequency of cleanings of hallways and classrooms. But the district could go over the limit set by the cap with the approval of 60 percent of voters. “If we could cut it — and justify cutting it — we already have,” Dr. Smith said, adding, “You can’t just nibble around the edges anymore.”

Education (K-12)
Property Taxes
Tarrytown (NY)
Sleepy Hollow (NY)
New York State


Drug Makers Sidestep Barriers on Pricing

Abstract: The pain reliever Duexis is a combination of two old drugs, the generic equivalents of Motrin and Pepcid. If prescribed separately, the two drugs together would cost no more than $20 or $40 a month. By contrast, Duexis, which contains both in a single pill, costs about $1,500 a month. Needless to say, many insurers do not want to pay for Duexis. Yet sales of the drug are growing rapidly, in large part because its manufacturer, Horizon Pharma, has figured out a way to circumvent efforts of insurers and pharmacists to switch patients to the generic components, or even to the over-the-counter versions. It is called “Prescriptions Made Easy.” Instead of sending their patients to the drugstore with a prescription, doctors are urged by Horizon to submit prescriptions directly to a mail-order specialty pharmacy affiliated with the drug company. The pharmacy mails the drug to the patient and deals with the insurance companies, relieving the doctor of the reimbursement hassle that might otherwise discourage them from prescribing such an expensive drug. Horizon is not alone. Use of specialty pharmacies seems to have become a new way of trying to keep the health system paying for high-priced drugs. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, which has attracted government and media scrutiny for its huge price increases, does much the same thing for its dermatology products with a specialty pharmacy called Philidor Rx Services. “They are all trying to get rid of the sticker shock of using their drugs,” said Dr. Kenneth Beer, a dermatologist in West Palm Beach, Fla. “They become the drugstore now,” he said. He said Valeant’s program, which he had used, buffered physicians from insurers and complaints from their patients about high prices. “It lowers one barrier to using their products,” he said. Valeant revealed last week that it had received subpoenas from federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Massachusetts seeking information about its financial assistance programs for patients, pricing decisions and the distribution of its products. It is not clear if the probes are related in any way to Valeant’s relationship with Philidor. Philidor, based in Hatboro, Pa., reveals little about itself on its website. It was denied a license in California in 2014 because, the state said, its application had not truthfully identified its owners and financial officers. Calls on Monday asking to speak to Philidor executives were not returned. Valeant had said little about Philidor until Monday, when J. Michael Pearson, Valeant’s chief executive, revealed on his company’s quarterly earnings call that Valeant had purchased an option to acquire Philidor late last year. He said that Valeant consolidated Philidor’s results in its own financial reports. Mr. Pearson also said on the call that the pricing environment had changed, and that the industry was “being aggressively sort of attacked for past pricing actions.” He said that Valeant was considering divesting the division selling neurological drugs where, he said, the biggest price increases had occurred. He also said that in the future, price increases would be “more modest,” probably not more than 10 percent a year. Last year, he said, increases in list prices averaged 36 percent for the branded drugs sold by Valeant in the United States. Specialty pharmacies are most known for providing patients with assistance with complex drugs, many of them requiring refrigeration and injections, for diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and rare genetic disorders. But the drugs dispensed through the specialty pharmacies used by Horizon and Valeant are for common ailments like arthritis pain, acne and toenail fungus. “What was started as administering complex, costly drugs has been co-opted as a sales/marketing tool to drive the growth of minor differentiation standard retail drugs,” Ronny Gal, a pharmaceutical analyst at Bernstein, said in a note on Friday. The programs do offer advantages to patients. The drugs are delivered quickly and co-pays are subsidized. Horizon said 98 percent of patients getting Duexis have co-payments of no more than $10, less than the co-pays would be for generics in many cases. Moreover, if the insurer refuses to pay, the patient already has the drug and the manufacturer absorbs the cost. A spokesman for Horizon said that happened for a large number of Duexis prescriptions. Still, Horizon and Valeant apparently come out ahead because enough insurers do pay. The practice is legal, said Mr. Gal, the analyst, providing that co-pay assistance is not used for patients covered by Medicare or other federal programs. For federal programs, co-pay assistance is considered an illegal inducement to get someone to use a drug. Both Horizon and Valeant say they confine their programs to commercially insured patients. On Horizon’s second-quarter earnings conference call in August, one analyst asked the company to discuss the positive points of the Prescriptions Made Easy program. “I think simply, the positive is we drove over $100 million in net revenue in the second quarter, rapidly increased prescriptions,” Timothy P. Walbert, the chief executive, replied. He then said the program was “doing the right thing for patients.” Duexis is a combination of ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug, and famotidine, the ingredient in Pepcid, which is supposed to prevent the serious and even lethal gastrointestinal problems that can result from chronic use of ibuprofen or similar drugs. Both drugs are available as generics, and over the counter. Horizon says that by combining the two drugs into one pill that is taken three times a day, that makes it more likely that patients will get the benefit of the stomach protection. Horizon has increased the price of Duexis about tenfold since the drug was introduced in late 2011. In 2013, it acquired the main competitor to Duexis, a drug called Vimovo, which is a combination of the pain reliever naproxen and the stomach protector Nexium. Horizon immediately raised the price of Vimovo about 600 percent, and has roughly doubled it again since then, so both drugs now cost about the same amount per month. Geoff Curtis, a spokesman for Horizon, said the company needed to recoup the $100 million it invested to develop and manufacture Duexis and the $35 million it paid to acquire Vimovo. He noted the low out-of-pocket payments for patients. Deepak Jindal, a pharmacist in Netcong, N.J., said his wife was prescribed Vimovo and he could not fill the prescription in his own store because his insurance would not cover it. But when the doctor submitted the prescription to Horizon’s program, a specialty pharmacy called Linden Care sent the drug to her for a $10 co-payment. He said he later learned that his insurance was not billed for the drug. It has become common in the last several years for pharmaceutical companies to offer co-payment assistance to make sure patients are not deterred from using a drug by out-of-pocket costs. Once the patient uses the drug, the pharmaceutical company is paid by the insurance company. Insurers say co-pay assistance circumvents their efforts to encourage the use of cheaper drugs by setting lower co-pays for them, thereby driving up overall medical spending. Starting this year, the nation’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers, Express Scripts and CVS Health, said they would not pay for Duexis and Vimovo. Despite that, Horizon said in its regulatory filing for the second quarter, “with the successful adoption of our PME program by physicians,” sales volumes for Duexis increased by 72 percent in the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2014. In dollars, sales of Duexis rose 131 percent in the first half to $73.1 million. In the second quarter, 71 percent of Duexis prescriptions and 61 percent of those for Vimovo went through the Prescriptions Made Easy program. “Horizon has perfected an innovative program to distribute its high-priced pain medications that have been actively excluded from reimbursement by a number of large payers,” Irina R. Koffler, an analyst at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a report earlier this month recommending the company’s stock. The report was titled “Outrunning Payers & Not Standing Still.” Ms. Koffler said Horizon targeted physicians whose patients had strong commercial coverage. “Patients whose insurance covers Horizon’s medications serve to support co-pay buy-downs for patients with less generous coverage,” she wrote. Horizon said in its regulatory filing that prescriptions filled through the program “are less likely to be subject to the efforts of traditional pharmacies to switch a physician’s intended prescription of our products to a generic or over-the-counter brand.” It said that if it were unable to get physicians to direct prescriptions to Prescriptions Made Easy, “We may experience a significant decline in Duexis and Vimovo prescriptions as a result of formulary exclusions.”

Pharmaceuticals
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International
Health Insurance
Price


Preparing to Create the Sims of the Future

Abstract: IF you own a Ph.D. in Donkey Kong or have solid references from the Super Mario Brothers, you might be in line for a job at Bloomfield College, which is seeking applicants for a tenure-track position for someone to teach game design. “The individual hired will spearhead research in cutting-edge areas: interactive graphics and animation, interactive visual narrative, visual displays for everyday systems, gaming systems,” reads the job posting on the school’s Web site. “The candidate will have a demonstrated record of experience in game design or interaction design through projects and/or research. Doctoral or master’s degree in a relevant discipline and/or equivalent professional standing and industry experience in media and/or gaming and a creative and/or scholarly record with emphasis on visuals for digital media.” Lynne Oddo, the chairman of the creative arts and technology division at Bloomfield, where game design is being offered at the undergraduate level, said that although the college still offers instruction in traditional arts like painting, “We’re always looking at new trends in education for the most cutting-edge arts, and gaming is one of those areas.” Game design, which was added to Bloomfield’s curriculum in 2004 at the undergraduate level, is becoming increasingly popular around the country. Southern Methodist University, Carnegie Mellon, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York University, the University of Southern California and Georgia Tech now offer similar programs. “We believe that in 5 to 10 years, every university will have some form of interactive media or gaming education program in their curriculum,” said Ron Jenkins, the deputy director of external affairs and development at Southern Methodist University, where students can earn a master’s degree in interactive technology and video game development. “This is the 21st century’s new media of expression. It’s like making movies or writing books, but done now with pixels.” Bloomfield, a small college with an enrollment of 2,000, currently has 57 students majoring in game development, all of whom are on a design or programming track. So Professor Oddo, an admitted newbie, decided that the time is right for hiring a master of the video universe. The job search, she said, ends on Monday. “This whole gaming thing has really exploded here the past few years,” she said. “And though I’m not a part of that world, I know there is a need for it to be taught to our students. It would be good to hire a really creative person, maybe someone who has invented a video game, but certainly someone with industry experience.” Brian Haykin, a senior from Edison who majors in game development, transferred to Bloomfield in September 2005 from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, where he had been studying mechanical engineering. That field “was a bit too sterile for me,” he said. “I was looking for a more creative program to join, and when a friend of mine told me that game design was being offered at Bloomfield, well, here I am,” he said. Mr. Haykin, who will graduate in May from the game design track, is now part of a group of students that is producing a video game called Salvage. “It’s a role-playing game,” he said. Players control one or more characters who earn points and become increasingly powerful by navigating courses, winning battles and completing other tasks. “It’s been quite a learning experience, and we’ve all been having a lot of fun with it,” he said. On April 30, Mr. Haykin and the rest of his team — a video programmer, artist, producer and audio engineer — will present Salvage as their final project at the Van Fossen Theater on campus. Thirty other students will be doing the same. “It should be an interesting night,” he said. “There will be a lot of creative projects on display.” Mr. Haykin, who is also an intern at Arkadium Inc., a game designer in New York, is not too worried about job prospects in the real world. “When I transferred to Bloomfield, my parents were a little taken aback,” he said. “They asked if I would be able to find a job when I graduated, and I said definitely, because game design is a growing field.”

Computer and Video Games
Education and Schools
Mallozzi Vincent M


Greece Hit by General Strike to Protest Austerity

Abstract: ATHENS — Thousands of Greeks walked off the job Tuesday in a 24-hour general strike called by unions opposing a new round of austerity measures that the government has vowed to enact at the urging of the country’s foreign creditors. The sorest point is a much-delayed overhaul of the Civil Service involving thousands of layoffs and wage cuts, which is set for a vote in Parliament on Wednesday night. The package must be passed if Athens is to secure the first installment of $9 billion in rescue loans approved last week by euro zone finance ministers. Despite strong objections by the political opposition, and by some deputies in the ruling coalition, the package is expected to squeak through the 300-seat Parliament where the government has a slim majority of five. Implementation of the contentious reforms will remain a tough challenge however in a volatile political climate. The nationwide walkout, called by the country’s two main labor unions, which represent some 2.5 million workers, shut tax offices and other government services, reduced hospitals to emergency staff and disrupted travel. Trains remained in depots and international flights were suspended between noon and 4 p.m. as air traffic controllers joined the action. Public transport workers were running a reduced service to allow Greeks to join protest rallies planned for Athens and other major cities. The unions’ appeal drew some 16,000 demonstrators onto the streets of the capital, according to a police spokesman who said the rally was “entirely peaceful.” Strikes have become a frequent occurrence as Greece’s economic crisis continues into its fourth year. The turnout Tuesday was moderate by Greek standards, in part because many people, particularly students and civil servants, have left Athens for their villages for the summer break. But civil servants who attended the rally expressed concerns about losing their jobs in the public sector overhaul, particularly those close to retirement. “I’ve been in this job for more than 20 years,” said Manos Stefanakis, a 53-year-old school janitor who was holding a banner reading “let’s lay off the government.” “Who’s going to employ me after this? No one will give me work and I can’t retire. I’m finished.” Greece’s troika of foreign lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — have agreed to extend the country two bailouts worth a little more than $300 billion since the spring of 2010 but are dispensing the aid in tranches to keep the pressure on authorities to adhere to commitments to change. The proposed changes that have most angered the unions are plans to put 25,000 civil servants, including teachers and municipal police officers, into a so-called mobility plan by the end of the year, docking their wages ahead of forced transfers or dismissals. An additional 15,000 workers are to be laid off by the end of 2014. Local government employees have been occupying city buildings this week to protest the changes which, the unions say, will aggravate a deepening recession and add to the ranks of the unemployed who already account for more than 27 percent of the population. “We will resist all those whose wrongheaded and dead-end choices have led the Greek people into poverty and wretchedness,” said the main private sector labor union, Gsee, which called the action with the civil servants’ union, Adedy. A unilateral decision last month by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to shut the state broadcaster ERT, putting some 2,700 employees out of work, nearly brought down his shaky coalition after the junior partner quit in protest. The debacle illustrated the difficulties the administration would have in honoring pledges to creditors to slash a Civil Service that has been cosseted for decades. Despite the vehement opposition of unions and workers, Greece’s lenders, prodded by Germany, have pressed authorities to stay the course of reform. Public anger at austerity is expected to flare again on Thursday when Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is to visit Athens.

Greece
Strikes Labor
Labor Unions
Wages and salaries
ERT Hellenic Broadcasting
Euro Crisis
Unemployment


The Giants’ Usually Reserved Manning Opens Up

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For a Super Bowl -winning quarterback in the country’s largest news media market, Eli Manning routinely tiptoes around the spotlight, rarely making headlines. It is not by accident. His public image is carefully managed, devoid of the irreverence and swagger that made his older brother, Peyton, one of the league’s most popular and marketable stars. Eli Manning’s interviews sound more like depositions: short, direct, lawyerly, with a hint of goofiness. Last week, Manning, the Giants’ captain, made a detour from his usual approach when he was asked during a radio interview whether he was a top-five quarterback alongside the likes of Tom Brady , considered to be one of the top quarterbacks in N.F.L. history. Manning could have gone two ways: settle on another safe response and skirt the question or provide a more pointed opinion. He chose the second. “Yeah, I consider myself in that class, and Tom Brady is a great quarterback,” he said. That single sentence sparked animated conversations about his place among N.F.L. quarterbacks — the consensus being that he is not among the elite — but it was an answer Manning’s teammates agree with, at least publicly. “I feel like he’s definitely in the top five as well,” receiver Hakeem Nicks said. “The way he can just dissect the defense by picking up on blitzes, catching things. I think he can break down a defense just as good as any quarterback in the league.” But the question remains: what exactly makes an elite quarterback? Is it, as Jets Coach Rex Ryan said on Wednesday in support of his quarterback Mark Sanchez, about playoff success more than statistics? If so, does that make Sanchez, who has won four road playoff games in two years, one of the league’s best? Is it more about statistics, which would catapult Philip Rivers to the top tier? Or is it a subjective combination, something Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees — three Super Bowl winners with impressive numbers — all share? The passer rating, created in 1971, was the first attempt to quantify quarterback play. The statistic is based on a complex formula that, inexplicably to a lot of fans, calculates 158.3 as the optimum. This year, ESPN introduced Total Quarterback Rating (Total Q.B.R.), which factors in game situations and the quarterback’s involvement in each play. A rating over 75 is deemed “M.V.P.-worthy,” and 65-75 deserves “Pro Bowl consideration.” Eli Manning ranked 17th in passer rating and 10 spots higher in Total Q.B.R. Brady was first on both lists, but the rest of the lists’ top 10 differed. For example, Rivers ranked second in passer rating but ninth in Total Q.B.R. According to Football Outsiders’ ranking system, Manning was 10th in the N.F.L. in 2009 and ninth in 2008, but fell to 15th last season behind players like Kyle Orton and Matt Cassel despite his throwing a career-high 31 touchdown passes. His ranking, however, was weighed down by a league-leading 25 interceptions. “I think everybody kind of has a different opinion on it,” receiver Domenik Hixon said. “A lot of people they go about passing yards and that could be a bad thing because you could be down in the game and always throwing the ball.” Is any one of the three ranking systems — or any other — correct? That depends on whom you ask. Most of the conversations after Manning’s proclamation began and ended with a discussion of the interceptions last season and then something along the lines of “he must be out of his mind.” But Manning is one of six active quarterbacks with a Super Bowl ring, and he beat Brady’s New England Patriots to win it. Manning will long be remembered for leading the Giants on a game-winning drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress. He is also reliable. Since becoming the starter during his rookie season in 2004, he has started every Giants game — 96 straight over the past six seasons. And he was also one of the toughest quarterbacks to sack last season: he was trapped only 16 times, which was tied with his brother for the fewest of a starter. Sack totals are usually attributed to offensive lines, but knowing when to get rid of the football is an attribute successful quarterbacks tend to have. In his typically reserved style, Manning later said he was not aware of the debates his statement provoked until his father, Archie, once a top N.F.L. quarterback in his own right, told him in a phone call. For a quarterback known for his bashfulness and avoiding the spotlight, there were no regrets. If anything, it was the only right answer. On Wednesday when asked if he agreed with Manning’s assessment of his elite status, Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said, “I do, but what would you expect him to say?” He then added, “He is for me.”

Football
New York Giants
Manning Eli
Brady Tom


Bowlers Steal Spotlight in South Africa-Pakistan Test

Abstract: In cricket, it is batsmen who are generally expected to bring glamour to the match and draw in the fans. And there is plenty of good batsmanship possible when South Africa plays Pakistan in the second of three five-day tests, starting Thursday at Newlands in Cape Town. Four of the world’s top 10 batters in tests will be playing, included the newly elevated No. 1, Hashim Amla of South Africa. Yet it is the bowling of the two teams that is most eye-catching, and fans at Newlands over the next few days will get to see brilliance in two contrasting styles — the pacemen of South Africa against Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, the greatest active bowler of spin. South Africa’s pace trio — Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander — are returning to the ground where they have made a habit of humiliating top-class opponents. In two of its last three Newlands tests — against Australia in late 2011 and against New Zealand this year — South Africa bowled its opponent out for less than 50. It repeated the feat in the first test against Pakistan this month, bowling it out for 49 at Johannesburg. To appreciate South Africa’s feat, consider that over the 136-year history of test cricket, teams have been bowled out for less than 50 on average less than once in every 100 matches, just 20 times in 2,072 tests. Most of those massacres occurred in the early days of the sport, when scoring was much lower. In recent times, the feat had gone from scarce to almost extinct. Before South Africa’s recent burst, it had happened only twice in the previous 1,250 tests. South Africa’s bowling coach, Allan Donald, a true great in his own time as a test paceman, said that his trio was “without a doubt the best I’ve seen,” but he saw no danger of success going to the players’ heads. “They’ve got their feet on the ground, they are humble and they know their games inside out.” Steyn towers over his contemporaries as few bowlers have done. Since the start of 2007, he has taken nearly 300 wickets in tests, more than any other player. They have cost him an average of 21.2 runs each. Not one of the other bowlers who have taken 100 test wickets over that time has averaged less than 28. South Africa has started scything through teams since the emergence of Philander, who made his debut in November 2011 in the Cape Town match against Australia. Steyn’s all-round brilliance was lethal enough when it was combined with the height, bounce and hostility of Morkel. But once South Africa added a third, contrasting, top-notch force — Philander’s control and ability to make the ball swerve through the air — it created a group that can be truly irresistible. Their effectiveness means that South Africa’s spin bowlers can be, as the incumbent Robin Petersen put it, “surplus to requirements.” No spin was needed in any of the under-50 massacres. “It is the best bowling attack I’ve ever played with, and it is something special to be part of,” said Petersen, who has had to content himself with “a front-row seat for awesome performances.” Petersen may, however, play a bigger role at Newlands. “It is probably the only surface we are going to play against Pakistan where a spinner could come into his own,” he said this week. That also means that it is Pakistan’s best chance of hitting back from the 1-0 deficit it incurred at Johannesburg. Ajmal, a 35-year-old veteran who did not play international cricket until he was 30, is to spin what Steyn is to pace — unquestionably the world’s best. He ranks fifth among bowlers in test matches and No. 1 in both one-day internationals and Twenty20, and draws on a mix of control and exceptional ability to deceive the batsman. He varies orthodox off-spin — spun with the fingers — with the doosra, a ball that appears to be delivered with the same motion, but turns in the opposite direction. “Ajmal is the hardest bowler to pick in world cricket. You’re never quite sure if it is an off-spinner,” England batsman Ravi Bopara, a good attacker of spin, said last year. “Sometimes you think it is an off-spinner and halfway down you think, ‘It’s not; it’s the doosra.”’ Ajmal, though, lacks the quality support that Steyn enjoys. Junaid Khan is a highly promising young left-arm paceman, and Umar Gul a smart and fast-medium veteran, but Pakistan still misses Mohammad Amir, the brilliant teenager who was drawn into match-fixing and banned in 2011. It could give a debut at Cape Town to the left-hander Mohammad Irfan, who at a reported 2.16 meters, or 7-foot-1, would be the tallest test cricketer of all time. He will certainly be noticed if he takes the field, but it probably takes something as different and original as a 2.16-meter bowler to stand out with all the other brilliant bowlers on display.


Air Force Sends Notre Dame to a Record Ninth Defeat

Abstract: Notre Dame keeps reaching new lows. Chad Hall rushed for 142 yards yesterday and Shaun Carney threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score to lead the Falcons to a 41-24 victory at Notre Dame Stadium, the largest victory by a service academy over the Irish in 44 years. It also was a program-record ninth loss for the Irish. The Falcons (8-3) scored three consecutive touchdowns after Notre Dame (1-9) tied the score at 10-10 with 2 minutes 32 seconds left in the second quarter. The Falcons needed only 83 seconds to regain the lead, driving 66 yards on seven plays and scoring on an 8-yard run by wide receiver Spencer Armstrong. “It’s happening, but I just think it’s a dream and I’m going to wake up some day,” Notre Dame linebacker Maurice Crum said of the season. Yesterday’s loss came a week after Navy’s 46-44 win in three overtimes, marking the first time since 1944 the Irish lost to two military academies in the same season. L.S.U. Rolls On ¶Matt Flynn passed for 237 and 3 touchdowns to lead No. 2 Louisiana State to a 58-10 victory over visiting Louisiana Tech that could lift the Tigers back to the top of the national rankings. Each of the Tigers’ three previous victories — against Florida, Auburn and Alabama — were marked by big plays late in the game that narrowly preserved the Tigers’ national championship hopes. ¶Sylvester Croom, a former assistant coach and player at Alabama, led Mississippi State to 17-12 upset of No. 21 Alabama, the Bulldogs’ second victory in a row over the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs (6-4, 3-3) are bowl eligible for the first time since 2000. ¶Tim Tebow accounted for all seven of Florida’s touchdowns, a team-record five rushing and two passing, as the 17th-ranked Gators beat host South Carolina, 51-31. Tebow was 22 for 32 for a career-best 304 yards and ran for 120 yards, accounting for more than three-quarters of Florida’s offense. ¶With No. 10 Georgia donning black jerseys for the first time in the modern era, Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes and Knowshon Moreno surpassed 100 yards rushing for the fourth game in a row, leading the host Bulldogs past 18th-ranked Auburn, 45-20. ¶Andre Woodson threw for 222 yards, Rafael Little had 70 yards rushing before being injured and No. 24 Kentucky beat host Vanderbilt, 27-20, to keep alive its slim hopes of a berth in the SEC title game. Nebraska Bounces Back ¶Joe Ganz threw for 510 yards and 7 touchdowns to set team records, and host Nebraska scored on 11 consecutive possessions on the way to a 73-31 win over Kansas State. The Cornhuskers (5-6, 2-5 Big 12) bounced back from last week’s 76-39 humiliation at Kansas with their highest point total since Tom Osborne’s unbeaten 1997 national championship team beat Iowa State, 77-14. They also snapped a five-game losing streak. ¶DeMarco Murray scored four touchdowns, including one on a 91-yard kickoff return, as No. 4 Oklahoma beat visiting Baylor, 52-21, the Sooners’ 17th consecutive victory against the Bears. ¶Chase Daniel threw for 352 yards and 3 touchdowns, and No. 7 Missouri pulled away from visiting Texas A&M for a 40-26 win. Missouri (9-1, 5-1 Big 12) reached nine victories for the first time since 1969 and for only the fourth time over all. ¶Colt McCoy passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more, and No. 15 Texas scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to hold on for a 59-43 win over visiting Texas Tech. Lights Out in Miami ¶With dozens of former star Miami players, including some wearing national championship and Super Bowl rings, on hand for the team’s final home game in the Orange Bowl, No. 23 Virginia beat the Hurricanes, 48-0. The Cavaliers ended Miami’s 70-year stay at the Orange Bowl in stunningly one-sided fashion, dealing the Hurricanes the biggest shutout loss in stadium history. ¶Playing against a team mired in a three-game losing streak, No. 8 Boston College allowed 472 yards and 5 touchdowns in a 42-35 loss at Maryland. It was the most points Boston College had given up in an Atlantic Coast Conference game since joining the league in 2005. ¶Tyrod Taylor returned from a sprained ankle that had kept him out for two and a half games and threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, lifting No. 11 Virginia Tech to a 40-21 victory against visiting Florida State. It was the first victory for Hokies Coach Frank Beamer in eight tries against Florida State, and it marked the first time Seminoles Coach Bobby Bowden has lost to Virginia Tech (8-2, 5-1 A.C.C.) in 16 career meetings. ¶Cullen Harper continued his record-setting season with three more touchdown passes to help No. 20 Clemson beat Wake Forest, 44-20. Around the Top 25 ¶Chauncey Washington ran for a career-high 220 yards and a touchdown, and No. 12 Southern California beat No. 24 California, 24-17, in Berkeley. ¶Keegan Herring rushed for 116 yards, including a 71-yard touchdown, and Rudy Carpenter threw for 200 yards and another score to lead No. 9 Arizona State to a 24-20 victory over host U.C.L.A. ¶Taylor Tharp threw for 283 yards and 2 touchdowns in only three quarters as No. 19 Boise State beat host Utah State, 52-0.

Football
Air Force
University of Notre Dame


House Featured in ‘Radio Days’ Survives Hurricane

Abstract: On Beach 115th Street in Rockaway Park, Queens, just around the corner from several crumpled buildings that were ripped apart by fire, and a short walk from the silent subway station at Beach 116th Street, which the trains cannot reach, there is a house that took on nearly five feet of water during Hurricane Sandy. The boiler is shot, the water heater, too, and the chilly air inside is thick with a musty smell. But this house is one of the lucky ones: It will survive. And while it is no more worthy than its more badly damaged neighbors, this home half a block from the ocean has felt the touch of immortality before — and to many New Yorkers, it just might look familiar. That house, said Lee Quinby, a co-owner, played the role of the family home in the Woody Allen movie “ Radio Days ,” a 1987 tribute to the glory days of radio and the delights of familial bickering, as well as a love song to the Rockaways of around the early 1940s. “The scene is Rockaway, the time is my childhood,” Mr. Allen’s familiar voice recounts in the early minutes of the film. “It’s my old neighborhood, and forgive me if I tend to romanticize the past. I mean, it wasn’t always as stormy and rain-swept as this, but I remember it that way, because that was it at its most beautiful.” (In another scene, Mia Farrow’s character asks: “Who is Pearl Harbor?”) “I think ‘Radio Days’ is one of his best films,” Ms. Quinby said of Mr. Allen. “And I thought that even before we bought the house. Jennifer Callahan, the director of a documentary called “ The Bungalows of Rockaway ,” said that in the early ‘40s the area was largely a summertime community, with enclaves dominated by particular groups: the Irish section, the Jewish section and the African-American section. But one thing that made the peninsula special then, and remains true today, she added, was that middle- and working-class people could afford a house right by the beach. “The Boardwalk was a promenade, and you met everyone there,” said Stanley Kreinik, 83, who started going to the Rockaways for the summer with his family in the 1930s and then lived there for most of his adult life. Today, he added, his voice lower, “it looks like a piece of paper that was all torn up.” Even the houses that dodged the worst of Hurricane Sandy, like Ms. Quinby’s, which she bought in 2005 for just over half a million dollars with her partner, Matt K. Matsuda, face stiff challenges. Ms. Quinby and Mr. Matsuda have done what they can, like pumping out the basement and removing its contents, even down to the flowered wallpaper, left over from previous owners. But they need a plumber to replace their boiler and a contractor to help them fend off mold. And these days, the waiting lists for those services are long. Ms. Quinby’s century-old house, now gray with white trim, looks much as the mint green house in the movie did. The front steps where Dianne Wiest, as little boys scooted past, sat smoking and listening to music on the radio are still far off to one side on a wide porch. The house was also used for at least some interior shots, Ms. Quinby said, including her wooden staircase by the front door, still rich with angular details, where Cousin Ruthie sat eavesdropping on the party line and learned that a neighbor needed to have her ovaries removed. Ms. Quinby and Mr. Matsuda keep some stills from the movie — shots of the block, the stairs, the porch — mounted in a frame. Both Ms. Quinby and Mr. Matsuda are academics, and while they are not very well qualified to deal with issues like mold remediation, they do have some relevant expertise. “Catastrophe is what I study,” Ms. Quinby said. “I specialize in doomsday belief in American culture.” Mr. Matsuda, a history professor and dean at Rutgers, published a book this year on the Pacific Ocean, about life on and near the sea. “We have noted the irony,” Ms. Quinby said. Among the tax returns and old love letters that were soaked last month in salt water, there was also what Ms. Quinby described as an “apocalyptic poster,” which displayed an image from The Book of Revelation. Upstairs in her study, another picture, this time in a golden frame, depicted John receiving the revelation about the end of the world. And in another room, a poster hanging on a pale blue wall showed the Statue of Liberty submerged in water to her wrist; it was an advertisement for the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” Ms. Quinby, who teaches at the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College on the Upper West Side, has also directed a documentary about the Rockaways called “Facing the Waves” and was co-director of another about the Blues tradition in Mississippi called “True Delta.” Three or four days a week, when she teaches, she stays in an apartment in Manhattan. As she rode back to her studio in Gramercy from the stricken house last week, she said now might be a good time to take a little break from the catastrophic plot lines, at least in some slices of her life, and go for something a touch lighter. “We all might need some escapism at this point,” she said. Unfortunately, the Netflix DVD she pulled out of her mailbox in Rockaway that day was “Take Shelter,” a recent film about a man who is haunted by nightmares of a terrifying, apocalyptic storm. Arena Leaves Its Mark Love it or hate it, the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn is open and here to stay. As supporters and detractors alike keep their eyes peeled for shifts in traffic patterns and the fabric of surrounding neighborhoods, one messy prospect has already come to pass. The deliberately rusted facade has dripped patches of bright orange onto some of the surrounding sidewalks, and left them looking as though a very tall and mischievous teenager had gone at them with a can of pumpkin-colored spray paint. The facade of the arena is made of 12,000 panels of a material called weathering steel, which is made to rust quickly and then, once a protective layer of rust has formed, to slow the rusting process almost to a stop. But while it may look rugged, the steel bleeds bits of fiery color onto the surrounding area, especially in its early life. The steel on the Barclays Center was weathered in advance of being mounted on the arena, spending about four months at a plant in Indianapolis being put through more than a dozen wet and dry cycles a day. In part, this was done to get some of the dripping out of the way elsewhere. Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for the Barclays Center, said in an e-mail that the arena staff had expected the discoloration and planned to clean the sidewalk with, essentially, a “sidewalk power wash,” sometime in the next few weeks and then again as needed.

Rockaway Peninsula (NYC)
Hurricane Sandy (2012)
Quinby Lee
Allen Woody
Radio Days (Movie)
Movies
Real Estate and Housing (Residential)
New York City


Intel Tries to Find a Foothold Beyond PCs

Abstract: SANTA CLARA, Calif. — For the last several months, Andy Bryant, the chairman of Intel, has been trying to put steel in the backs of the company’s employees. At meetings, he tells them that Intel must fundamentally change even though the computer chip maker still has what it takes to succeed in engineering and manufacturing. It is an extraordinary message at a company with the fiercely confident unofficial motto, “Only the paranoid survive.” Intel now finds itself faced with a fundamental question: Can the paranoid also evolve? Intel became the world’s largest semiconductor maker through a partnership with Microsoft that dominated the personal computer business for a quarter-century. PC sales are now collapsing, as users are relying more on mobile phones and tablets that rarely contain Intel chips. Intel’s other mainstay business, chips for computer servers, is also changing. Cloud computing is creating huge demand for basic servers, but its simpler and cheaper designs may drive down prices and profit margins and offer openings to new competitors. Amid all this turmoil in the industry, Intel is also scrambling to find a new leader. In November, Paul Otellini, who had been chief executive since 2005, unexpectedly announced his resignation. “It’s time to move on and transfer Intel’s helm to a new generation of leadership,” he said at the time, declining to elaborate on why he was leaving three years before reaching the company’s retirement age of 65. His decision left the company in limbo. “It looks like there was no succession plan in place, and that is troubling,” said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Raymond James. “They are probably a month away from Otellini leaving, and nothing is settled.” While the board has been looking at external candidates, the new chief will almost certainly come from within. In contrast to Silicon Valley’s culture of job-hopping, at Intel someone with 15 years’ experience can be called a newcomer. The company’s leaders believe that it is critical for the chief executive to be steeped in the company culture. “The job of the board is to pick the candidate who can best grow into the job,” said a person with knowledge of the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Intel has to define its next act.” In the meantime, Mr. Bryant, who has been at Intel for 32 years and served as its longtime chief financial officer, has been trying to prepare employees for a new era. “He says that the customers have changed, and we have to as well,” said a person attending one of Mr. Bryant’s meetings, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “Where the revenue is now is not where the revenue is coming from in the future.” Intel declined to make Mr. Otellini, Mr. Bryant or any other officials available for an interview, citing the quiet period before its first-quarter earnings report, due out on Tuesday. Those earnings, which will most likely reflect the collapsing demand for PCs, will follow the drops in revenue, operating margins and net income of 2012. Analysts say the two top contenders to be Intel’s next C.E.O. are Brian Krzanich and David Perlmutter, who are close to Intel’s core business. Mr. Krzanich, Intel’s chief operating officer, oversees its fabrication facilities. Mr. Perlmutter, the chief product officer, oversees chip design. Renee James, the head of Intel’s software group, is considered a more remote chance to run what has long been a hardware company. And Stacy Smith, Intel’s chief financial officer, is well liked inside and outside the company, but like Mr. Otellini, lacks an engineering background, which diminishes his prospects. Revealing just how hard it would be for an outsider to step into the top job at Intel, the newcomer of these four joined Intel in 1988. But close watchers of the company wonder whether its insular culture is up to the challenge of expanding to different kinds of customers and devices. “In this new world, with smartphones and tablets, and cloud computing, things are moving around fast,” said Hector Ruiz, the former chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices, Intel’s top competitor in making PC chips. “Intel has the talent, engineering, and resources, but they are their own worst enemy.” Mr. Ruiz recently published a book about his efforts to sue Intel for monopolistic practices, which he said were the natural result of its paranoia. Intel paid A.M.D. $1.25 billion to settle the case after he left the company, but Intel has consistently denied it engaged in monopolistic practices. The idea that Intel put the squeeze on its customers has been around Silicon Valley for years, but has never been proved. With Intel controlling 80 percent of the PC market at times, and PC makers facing low profit margins, any supply interruption from Intel could be disastrous. But any such threat may be less significant in the future. At a meeting last week in New York, Hewlett-Packard, a longtime buyer of Intel’s server chips, showed off a server built for the cloud that ran on a low-power Intel chip, called Atom. But sharing the limelight were representatives of four other companies that will sell chips to H.P. for other versions of the machine. Even Microsoft has been moving away from its longtime partner as it tries to adapt to the new, post-PC world. Last year, Microsoft built its own tablet, with versions carrying chips from Intel or Nvidia, another Intel rival. Its new Xbox game console will use chips made by A.M.D. And the company’s mobile version of Windows 8 is designed for smartphones that run on chips from Qualcomm. Microsoft declined to comment on its relationship with Intel. Intel figures its survival depends on preserving its leading position in cutting-edge semiconductors, despite the high design and manufacturing costs. Future generations of the Atom chip, which can also be used in tablets, phones and other devices, are expected to offer better performance, including a longer battery life. So will the next version of its chip for PCs, called Haswell, which will be used in products in the second half of 2013. “I contest that this market is in decline,” said Mark Bohr, a senior fellow in Intel’s technology and manufacturing group. “Today’s marketplace is a lot broader than 10 years ago. We have got to build for small tablets and big mainframe computers, build more flavors of each chip, and cover more bases.” Mr. Otellini has been criticized for responding slowly to the mobile challenge and cloud-based computing. His efforts have been modest, geared to learning how to listen and respond better to customers. The company has worked with wireless phone companies outside the United States to make smartphones and tablets, which the companies then label as their own. In its greatest departure, later this year Intel will sell a moderately priced television set-top box and subscription service, which it says will offer enough regular television content to serve as a substitute for a cable subscription. The effort involves just 300 of Intel’s 105,000 employees, most of them brought in from other companies, and has required cooperation with both Hollywood content companies and retailers. It is such a big change of direction that people following the company cannot tell if it is another effort to learn more about consumer tastes, a diversification into a whole new area or the old Intel deciding it has what it takes to face another rival, in the form of cable companies. For at least the next few years, it must rely on making chips for servers and PCs, which can still bring the company significant amounts of cash even as their popularity wanes. “Intel still has a lot of dough,” Mr. Mosesmann said, “but their old world is cracking.”

Intel
Computer Chip
Paul S Otellini
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry


Repsol in $5 Billion Settlement With Argentina

Abstract: LONDON — Repsol, the Spanish oil company, said Tuesday that it had agreed to a $5 billion compensation deal with Argentina for the seizure of the company’s operations in that country, ending a bitter two-year dispute. A settlement would ease serious tensions between Spain and Argentina, as well as concerns about Argentina’s ability to develop what is thought to be some of the world’s richest holdings of shale gas and oil. “To finally reach a friendly agreement on this contentious issue that has taken two years I would say is extremely positive, “said Repsol’s chairman, Antonio Brufau, in a statement on Tuesday. According to the agreement, Repsol would receive $5 billion worth of guaranteed Argentine government bonds for the 51 percent of the energy company YPF that Argentina expropriated. In return, it would drop its legal claims over the matter. The legal claims include lawsuits in the United States and Spain against Chevron, which invested in an Argentine shale gas joint venture with YPF in an area of Argentina called Vaca Muerta, or Dead Cow. A settlement could help open the way for investments by other international oil companies in Argentina, which needs financing and technical help to develop its vast energy assets. “Argentina still offers the majors access to one of the highest quality shale plays available globally,” said Oswald Clint, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London. Repsol’s board approved the deal on Tuesday. It still must be approved by Repsol shareholders, and it is subject to the approval of the Argentine Congress. The settlement would allow the Spanish company to move ahead with its own investment plans after the expropriation in Argentina took away about 60 percent of its oil and natural gas production worldwide and half of its reserves or resources in the ground. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets in London said in a note to clients that a deal with YPF would be “strongly positive” and would give Repsol cash to pursue potential acquisitions. Still, the $5 billion compensation from Argentina is only about half of the $10.5 billion Repsol was seeking in claims with a World Bank tribunal after the seizure by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in April 2012. She then called the move to take over YPF, which was founded by the Argentine government in the 1920s and privatized in the 1990s, a “recovery of sovereignty and control.” While Repsol appears to have decided that it would be better to settle now, for less money, than to face years of court actions, analysts suggested that it was under pressure to prevent further souring of relations between Madrid and Buenos Aires. Mexico has also been involved in the dispute, as its state-controlled oil giant, Pemex, is both a shareholder in Repsol and a possible investor in Argentina. Pemex is facing greater competition in its domestic market after Mexico’s Congress approved a bill in December to end its state oil monopoly and lure foreign investors to Mexico. Image Repsol’s gas plant in Campo Margarita, Bolivia. A deal with Argentina would compensate Repsol for property seized there. Credit Martin Alipaz/European Pressphoto Agency The search for a Repsol settlement was “clearly very influenced by political authorities” said Luis Padrón, an equity analyst who covers Repsol at the Ahorro Corporación Financiera in Madrid, adding that the authorities had pressured Repsol to agree to a lower amount than they had requested. Repsol representatives and Argentine officials have been working on the final terms of the agreement since reaching an agreement in principle in November. The central difficulty has been Repsol’s demands that any payment from the fiscally troubled Argentine government be guaranteed. Argentina, struggling to maintain its foreign currency reserves, announced in January its biggest currency devaluation in 12 years. To address Repsol’s concerns, Argentina agreed that the debt it owes for the YPF expropriation would not be extinguished until the bonds are paid off or Repsol makes $5 billion selling the bonds. “If the bonds default or if someone takes a haircut,” said Kristian Rix, Repsol’s deputy director of communications, Repsol would still be owed $5 billion. “The bonds are not payment but collateral for a $5 billion payment.” The payment will be in the form of a mixture of old and new bonds with a face value of about $6.5 billion and interest rates of about 8 percent. If the deal goes through, Repsol would still own about 12 percent of YPF, which it could sell, raising more cash to add to the $4.3 billion it received earlier this year from the sale of its liquefied natural gas business to Royal Dutch Shell. “The agreement is very positive for the country and YPF because it will permit improved investment in energy production in Argentina ,” said YPF’s chief executive, Miguel Galuccio, in a statement on Tuesday. The company registered strong success in exploration in 2012, adding to its reserves twice the amount of oil and gas that it extracted from its operations. The company said Tuesday that its reserves doubled in 2013. The Argentine government resisted compensation until last summer, but gradually shifted its position, partly influenced by the need for international capital to develop the Vaca Muerta field and other oil and gas fields. The country has begun to import liquefied natural gas at high market prices, giving the government an incentive to encourage domestic production. Argentina’s shale oil and gas resources could help turn things around. The United States Energy Information Administration estimates that Argentina ranks behind only the United States and China in shale gas reserves. Mr. Galuccio has been looking for international partners and has been lobbying behind-the-scenes for a settlement. Mr. Gallucio, a former senior executive at Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil services company, has set up a $1.2 billion joint venture with Chevron to develop a small portion of the Vaca Muerta. On Feb. 18, Mr. Galuccio signed an agreement with Malaysia’s national oil company, Petronas, on a another potential Vaca Muerta investment. But some oil companies may still need convincing that Argentina is one of the better destinations for their capital. Houston-based Apache recently said that it was selling its Argentine holdings to YPF for $800 million as part of an effort to focus on drilling in the United States and particularly lucrative international operations. “The deal may close the Repsol dispute, but it will not dispel concerns amongst foreign oil and gas companies about investments in Argentina, " said Richard Mallinson, an analyst at Energy Aspects, a London market research firm.

Oil and Gasoline
YPF
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
Argentina
Repsol YPF
Spain


Egypt Rejects Criticism Over Airstrike That Killed Mexican Tourists

Abstract: CAIRO — Mexico’s foreign minister traveled to Egypt on Tuesday to demand answers about a mistaken military airstrike over the weekend that hit a picnic full of Mexican tourists, killing a dozen people, while her Egyptian counterpart defended the professionalism and sacrifice of the Egyptian security forces. The back and forth raised new doubts about the likelihood of a solution to the mystery of how an Apache military helicopter crew could have mistaken a midday picnic in the desert for a camp of heavily armed militants. Human rights advocates charged that the Egyptian Army had often failed to distinguish civilians from combatants and had seldom sought to investigate or punish those responsible. “We are dealing with a dreadful loss of life and an unjustified aggression,” the Mexican foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, said late Monday before boarding a plane with the families of those killed or injured for a hastily planned trip to Cairo. She vowed to press the Egyptian authorities “for firsthand information that clarifies the circumstances of this deplorable event that cost the lives of innocent Mexican tourists.” In “an open letter from Egypt to the people of Mexico,” Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, began by offering “deepest sympathy and condolences for the loss of innocent Mexican lives” and went on to say that his nation’s law enforcement personnel exercised caution and restraint even when their own lives were in peril. He said that an inquiry into “what happened on that fateful day” was still underway. “The emerging facts indicate that an operation was taking place against terrorists in that area at the time the convoy passed,” he said. “We still do not know if the convoy was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or if some error was involved.” “I am deeply troubled, he added, “that some people have chosen to exploit this tragic event to allege that Egyptian law enforcement officials have no strict rules of engagement, act indiscriminately, or do not take the necessary precautions during their operations.” The critics “forget that terrorism in Egypt has targeted tourists in the most despicable of ways,” he wrote, adding that years of militant violence had made Egyptians “closest to understanding just how deep this sorrow and grief may feel.” Earlier on Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico to express his condolences. In a statement, Mr. Peña Nieto said he had told Mr. Sisi that the episode had brought “pain and indignation” to Mexican society, and repeated his government’s call for a swift and thorough investigation. A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry did not return calls seeking comment. And although the helicopter that conducted the attack belonged to the military, a spokesman for the armed forces deflected responsibility on Monday. “When it comes to tourists, it is a Ministry of Interior issue, not ours,” the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Samir, said. Mexican officials said Tuesday that they had confirmed the deaths of eight of their citizens, up from two the previous day. For the 14 Mexican visitors, the trip was intended to be a spiritual quest, not just a tour of ancient monuments and temples. Among the dead was Rafael Bejarano, 41, a Reiki healer and musician, his relatives said. In images posted on Facebook before his death, he grinned into the camera, wearing a colorful, flowing outfit and holding a small child in his arms. In a post written about a trip to the Amazon, he struck a spiritual tone. “True power comes from the heart,” he wrote. “It simply feels different than the one we use to compensate for our insecurities and weaknesses.” Mr. Bejarano’s mother, Marisela Rangel Davalos, who was wounded, had made the trip several times with a Spanish-speaking guide, Nabil el-Tamawy, whom she had known for years, her daughter Gabriela Bejarano told the Mexican news media. Mr. Tamawy, who was in his 50s, was also killed. His family and friends said he had loved his work but had put his family, including a son who attends Cairo University and two teenage daughters, above all. He was a fan of Cairo’s Al-Ahly soccer club, and he took special pride in becoming an expert on Egypt’s history and sharing it with tourists. “Everybody loved him,” said his son, Islam Ali, an engineering student. The other three Egyptians who died in the airstrike appear to have been the full management of the small hotel, Qasr el Bawity, that organized the tour. One of them was Awad Fathy, a local Bedouin who had taught himself four languages, practiced pottery and painting, and learned to work underwater as a welder on ship repairs, according to a cousin, Amr Imam, a human rights lawyer. Mr. Fathy “loved traveling and the desert, so he decided he would work as a cook on long scuba diving trips, on safaris and on camping in natural reserves,” Mr. Imam wrote on Facebook. Human rights groups said the attack reinforced concerns about the rules of engagement used by Egyptian security forces in operations against insurgents. During a two-year campaign to crush an Islamist insurgency in the North Sinai, for example, residents and rights groups have often accused the security forces of destroying homes and killing civilians. Yet the Egyptian Army has acknowledged virtually no such collateral damage and releases only periodic tallies of the number of “terrorists” it has killed. “This is exactly what we have documented in Sinai, so it can send a message of how the Egyptian military is dealing with the situation in Sinai and now in the Western Desert,” said Mohamed Elmessiry, a researcher on Egypt at Amnesty International. In one case, Mr. Elmessiry said, an Apache helicopter fired three missiles at houses in Al Akour, a village in North Sinai. Two of the missiles hit houses, he said, killing at least 10 people, including a pregnant woman and children. “They use excessive lethal force against everyone in the spots where they expect there are armed groups,” he said. Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch, said, “The track record of the Egyptian authorities in investigating the killings of their own citizens is extremely poor, and there is absolutely no indication based on this past record that there will be any real accountability for this incident.”

Mexico
Egypt
Civilian casualties
Military


2 Baltimore School Officers Arrested in Assault on Teenager

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Two school police officers in Baltimore were charged with assault and misconduct on Wednesday in connection with a cellphone video that shows one of them slapping and kicking a teenage student while the other officer looks on. The Baltimore police said the two school officers, Anthony Spence, 44, and Saverna Bias, 53, turned themselves in Tuesday night and were released Wednesday after posting bond. Officer Spence, who is shown hitting and kicking the student, faces an additional charge of second-degree child abuse. The video, which surfaced last week and was apparently recorded by another teenager, shows Officer Spence slapping a young man three times across the face and then kicking him as Officer Bias watches. The four-second clip was widely circulated on television and social media, generating outrage in Baltimore and around the nation. “I was appalled,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who has a child enrolled in city schools. She said last week the video was “something you never want to see.” The officers are members of the Baltimore City School Police Department, which is separate from the city’s police force. The charges come as the behavior of the school police officers — also known as school resource officers — is under fresh scrutiny amid a broader national debate over race and policing. Like other law enforcement officers, the school police officers are increasingly finding their interactions captured on video. Experts say physical confrontations between school officers and students are not unusual . In Kentucky last August, the American Civil Liberties Union sued a school district over an officer who shackled children aged 8 and 9 . In South Carolina in October, a deputy’s rough takedown of a 16-year-old student was captured on video. In Pawtucket, R.I., an officer slammed a student to the floor. The Baltimore case took place March 1 at the Reach! Partnership School , a public middle school and high school operated by Civic Works, a nonprofit organization. City school officials said initially that the student in the video — who has not been identified — was not enrolled at the school, but later said he was listed on the school’s roster. The day after the episode, the school system said the officers would be placed on paid administrative leave. The chief of the Baltimore City School Police Department, Marshall T. Goodwin, was also placed on paid administrative leave. The city police stepped into investigate after the acting school police chief, Akil Hamm, requested help, said T. J. Smith, a spokesman for the city police. That investigation led to the criminal charges, though Mr. Smith referred further questions to the school police department, which is conducting its own inquiry. On Wednesday, Gregory Thornton, the chief executive of the Baltimore City Schools, wrote on Twitter : “I was appalled and disappointed by the video. Every emotion from outrage to disappointment went through me.”

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings