Revealing Schedule, N.F.L. Gives Ravens an Early Challenge

Abstract: The fingerprints on the Lombardi Trophy’s silver were still fresh when the Baltimore Ravens learned they would not receive one of the usual perks for winning the Super Bowl, an opener at home. On Thursday, when the N.F.L. revealed its 2013 regular-season schedule, the Ravens learned just how badly sharing parking lots with the Baltimore Orioles may hurt them. The Orioles, whose stadium is next door to the Ravens’, have a home game on Sept. 5, the day the N.F.L. opens. That condition made playing both games on the same day a logistical nightmare. So the N.F.L. sent the Ravens on the road to begin their title defense with what will probably be one of their toughest games of the season. The Ravens will play the Denver Broncos, whom they beat in double overtime in a divisional playoff game last season after the Broncos gave up a game-tying 70-yard touchdown pass near the end of regulation. Rex Ryan, the Jets’ coach and a former Ravens assistant, said in a conference call after the schedule was released that the Orioles should have given up the date to let the Ravens open at home. “Who really cares? You have 81 of those things,” Ryan said. The Ravens’ opener is one of five prime-time games scheduled for the Broncos and Peyton Manning, who will return to Indianapolis to face the Colts for the first time on Oct. 20 and will have his nearly annual showdown with Tom Brady at New England on Nov. 24. Those are two of just five games the Broncos will play against 2012 playoff teams, giving them — on paper, at least — the easiest schedule entering 2013. Image With or without Robert Griffin III, who injured his knee in the playoffs, the Redskins will play the Eagles in the first Monday night game. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press The Giants-Cowboys rivalry will be showcased when Dallas hosts the first Sunday night game of the season. This will be the second year in a row those teams open against each other. The next week, the Giants will host the Broncos, setting up another Manning Bowl. The Giants will end the season hosting the Washington Redskins in what the league undoubtedly hopes will be a play-in game for a playoff spot. The N.F.L. is clearly hoping that Robert Griffin III is recovered from the knee injury he sustained during the playoffs, because the Redskins will play the Philadelphia Eagles in the first Monday night game of the season. Even if Griffin is not back by then, the game will feature the intrigue surrounding the impact that Chip Kelly, the Eagles’ new coach, and his high-speed offense will have on the traditional N.F.C. East rivalries. The Eagles and Kelly will be tested quickly — they play their first three games in a span of 11 days before going on a three-game trip. Philadelphia is one of only two teams — the Titans are the other — that have a three-game trip. During the Ryan era, the Jets have been prime-time darlings. But with the team clearly rebuilding, the Jets are scheduled for just two prime-time games, one of them at New England in Week 2 on Thursday. That means the Jets play their first two games in the space of five days. The schedulers also may have showed a sense of humor, having the Jets open the season hosting Tampa Bay, the team that has spent months engaged in trade talks for Darrelle Revis. “I don’t know about that,” Ryan said when asked why the N.F.L. might have the Jets playing the Buccaneers in the opener. “But I will say this: I’m happy to be playing at home.”

Football
Ravens
Broncos
Giants
Dallas Cowboys
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015


Ugandans Watch Little League World Series From Home

Abstract: KAMPALA, Uganda — Forty people — coaches, well-wishers and players past, present and future — gathered Friday in a dark video hall in Nsambya, a poor working-class neighborhood here to watch the Little League World Series game between Canada and Saudi Arabia. It was a game that, three weeks earlier, appeared to be the likely destination of the city’s Rev. John Foundation Little League team. But there were problems with visa applications, and the State Department denied the players travel documents to the United States. Saudi Arabia, the team they had beaten to advance to the World Series, took their place in the tournament at South Williamsport, Pa. “I want the Saudi Arabia team to win,” said Felix Barugahare, 11, a member of the Ugandan team. “They are in our league, and they represent us.” Felix and his teammates Augustus Owinyi, 12, and David Arago, 13, were among those who jammed into the hall — a small structure reinforced by wooden poles, sheet metal and cardboard boxes on an unpaved street lined by open gutters. It is one of the few places in Nsambya with electricity, and its 17-inch television provides the only sports entertainment. The players sat without a trace of tension, occasionally smiling and cheering as the Saudis rallied to take the lead in a game they went on to lose, 6-5. “It hurts knowing that should have been us,” Kirya Arone Jacob, a coach with the team, said as he watched. “But I know we’ll have another chance.” Coach George Mukhobe took it harder. “I keep wondering why things are happening to us this way,” he said. “Is it because we are black? Is it because we are poor?” He added: “You know, some people told me: ‘Let’s take the gloves, the bats, and burn them. The Americans brought the game to us and now they’re stopping us.’ ” But Mukhobe let cooler heads prevail. He said he went on a mission to motivate his players. In the days after they were denied visas, some of the children were too distraught to practice. Augustus, a first baseman, was among them. “I felt very bad,” he said. “Some of us cried. I cried. I wanted to go and represent Uganda.” Augustus returned after a week, motivated by soothing words from his coaches. David said he returned to practice immediately, at the urging of his family. “They said to keep playing, that there would be another chance,” he said. Richard Stanley of Staten Island, a part-owner of the Yankee’s Class AAA Trenton Thunder, introduced Little League to Uganda eight years ago and has continued to lend financial support to the growth of baseball. He said success by Saudi Arabia would reflect well on Uganda. “I would wish that they do put on a good performance, because it will also give Uganda credibility regarding its talent level,” Stanley said in an e-mail. Jacob, meanwhile, predicted before the game that the Ugandan team would yet reach the World Series. “Right now we are practicing and preparing kids for next year,” he said. “We won’t give up.”

Baseball
Little League World Series
Uganda
Saudi Arabia
Canada


Kansas: Pilot Lands Jumbo Jet at Wrong Airport

Abstract: The pilot of a Boeing 747 mistakenly landed at a small Kansas airport instead of McConnell Air Force Base eight miles away. The jet, carrying cargo and a two-person crew, found itself at the smaller Col. James Jabara Airport northeast of Wichita. The plane was operated by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, a New York cargo hauler. Once on the ground, the pilot sounded confused in his exchanges with air traffic control, confusing “east” and “west,” according to audio provided by LiveATC.net. Hours later, the jet took off again and within minutes landed at its destination. Jabara’s 6,100-foot runway is toward the low end of what Boeing recommends for the 747.

Pilots Airport Kansas Airlines,airplanes


U.S. Official Ordered Out of Bahrain After Meeting

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Bahrain on Monday ordered the senior United States official on human rights to cut short his visit and leave the country after he met with the nation’s main Shiite opposition group. Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said that Tom Malinowski, the assistant secretary of state for human rights, had violated “conventional diplomatic norms” and had interfered in the country’s internal affairs by meeting with “one side and not others.” The statement did not specify what meeting Mr. Malinowski had attended. But a member of al-Wefaq, the country’s largest opposition party, said he had attended a reception at its headquarters on Sunday night. The action appeared to catch the State Department by surprise, and American officials sought on Monday to persuade Bahrain to reverse it. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement Monday night that the United States was “deeply concerned” by Bahrain’s decision. Ms. Psaki also complained that Bahrain had insisted that a Foreign Ministry official attend all of Mr. Malinowski’s meetings with “individuals and groups representing a broad spectrum of Bahraini society, including those held at the U.S. Embassy.” That demand, she said, was a “violation of international diplomatic protocol.” Bahrain has posed a vexing situation for the Obama administration, which has tried to maintain a strong alliance with the Sunni monarchy despite concerns about human rights. The Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which operates in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, is headquartered there, and Western officials have had concerns about Iranian meddling. But the State Department’s 2013 report on human rights also cited a litany of abuses in Bahrain, including “citizens’ inability to change their government peacefully; arrest and detention of protesters on vague charges, in some cases leading to their torture in detention; and lack of due process in trials of political and human rights activists, medical personnel, teachers, and students, with some trials resulting in harsh sentences.” Bahrain’s sharp response to Mr. Malinowski’s meeting was a measure of the deep polarization in the country, which has been shaken by unrest since the 2011 uprising by a Shiite-led opposition movement demanding greater political rights from the Sunni monarchy. With negotiations over a political settlement stalled for years, street confrontations between protesters and the state security’s services have become increasingly violent. Even so, Mr. Malinowski, who began what was supposed to be four-day trip to the country on Sunday, had told friends that he was “optimistic about the visit and the prospects for reconciliation,” one acquaintance recounted. American officials said that the Bahraini authorities had been informed of Mr. Malinowski’s schedule and that American diplomats had previously met with al-Wefaq members without incident. Ms. Psaki said on Monday that the purpose of Mr. Malinowski’s visit had been to strengthen ties with King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa and support “reform and reconciliation efforts at an important time.” Hadi Hasan al-Mosawi, a member of al-Wefaq, said he was shocked by the government’s announcement on Monday. The reception Mr. Malinowski attended on Sunday was a weekly social event that al-Wefaq holds during the holy month of Ramadan. Mr. Malinowski arrived with several others, and stayed for at least a half-hour, speaking for a time with Sheikh Ali Salman, the group’s general secretary. “This was not a closed meeting,” Mr. Mosawi said. Mr. Mosawi said there were no great expectations from Mr. Malinowski’s trip, which appeared intended, at best, to restart serious dialogue between the government and the opposition. “With this unfortunate event, I fear things are ruined,” he said. Mr. Malinowski was briefly detained in Bahrain in 2012 and pepper-sprayed by the police when he observed a protest there as the director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, an episode he recounted in an article in Foreign Policy.com. In an appearance that year before a congressional human rights commission, Mr. Malinowski warned that Bahrain risked upheaval if it resisted demands for reform.

Tom Malinowski
Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society
Bahrain
US Foreign Policy
Human Rights
US
State Department


Sister Nirmala Joshi, Successor to Mother Teresa, Dies at 81

Abstract: Sister Nirmala Joshi, who succeeded Mother Teresa as head of the Roman Catholic order Missionaries of Charity, died Tuesday in Kolkata, India, where the organization is based. She was 81. Her health had been declining, the order said, but it did not specify the cause of death. In its obituary, the Vatican newspaper, l’Osservatore Romano, said she had been elected superior of the order even though she had an incurable form of malaria that gave her constant fevers. Sister Nirmala was selected to lead the charity six months before the death of Mother Teresa, its founder, in 1997. Mother Teresa received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her charity work. Image Sister Nirmala Joshi was selected to lead the Roman Catholic order Missionaries of Charity six months before the death of Mother Teresa, right. Credit Saurabh Das/Associated Press “I never try to fill her shoes,” Sister Nirmala said in an interview in 1998. “I have to wear my own small shoes. I don’t have to be Mother Teresa, just Sister Nirmala, and being Sister Nirmala isn’t so difficult. If I had to be Mother Teresa, I would have collapsed.” Sister Nirmala joined the order in 1958 after converting to Catholicism. She helped open the order’s first home outside India, in Venezuela, and helped open and run a house in the South Bronx for contemplative nuns who tended to the spiritual rather than the material needs of the poor. She stepped down as the order’s leader in 2009. Indian politicians praised her work for the poor in Kolkata, in eastern India. “Sister Nirmala’s life was devoted to service, caring for the poor and underprivileged,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement.

Obituary
Missionaries of Charity
Nun
Mother Teresa
Kolkata India,Calcutta
Nirmala Joshi


Lawyer Drops Kane Case

Abstract: The lawyer for a woman accusing the Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane of sexual assault abruptly quit the case, saying he was no longer comfortable representing the woman because of how her mother had reported finding an evidence bag they believed once held the woman’s rape kit. The lawyer, Thomas Eoannou, said he did not believe the story he was told about how the bag was found. But he said he was still confident in the woman’s allegations against Kane. District Attorney Frank Sedita of Erie County planned a news conference Friday to talk about the case. ■ Brad Marchand scored in the sixth round of a shootout to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 home victory over the Rangers in exhibition play.

Ice hockey
Patrick Kane
Rape
Thomas Eoannou


More Shonda Rhimes for ABC, Plus a Partnership With ESPN

Abstract: AS the 2014-15 television upfront week continued on Tuesday, the presentations ran the gamut from A, for ABC, to U, for Univision, with some notable crossovers in between. ABC, in announcing a fall schedule with shows about singing knights, a modern-day Eliza Doolittle and a medical examiner who appears immortal, used words like “daring” and “bold.” But for the sake of its bottom line, the boldest news at the network, a division of the Walt Disney Company, is that it will have more Shonda Rhimes. In fact, ABC will have a whole night of series from its most successful creator, Ms. Rhimes, who is responsible for hit dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.” Those shows will return to the Thursday prime-time lineup and lead into another Rhimes brainchild, “How to Get Away With Murder,” a sexy mystery show about a law-school professor and her crime-solving class. The star of “Murder” will be Viola Davis, who has appeared in films like “The Help.” To accommodate “Murder” at 10 p.m., “Scandal” will slide down an hour, to 9 p.m., and “Grey’s Anatomy” will do the same, settling in at 8 p.m. Those moves mean that in February, when NBC shifts its hit freshman drama , “The Blacklist,” to 9 p.m. Thursday from 10 p.m. Monday, “Scandal” and “The Blacklist” will face off for fans of over-the-top drama. The eternal coroner is the subject of “Forever,” a drama set for 10 p.m. Tuesday with the Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, who became known to American audiences through television films in which he played the seafaring Horatio Hornblower. The remake of “Pygmalion” is a comedy called “Selfie,” slated for 8 p.m. Tuesday, about a young woman named Eliza Dooley — yes, the echo is deliberate — seeking to re-brand herself after being self-obsessed with her persona in social media. And yes, the name of her teacher is Henry. As for the singing knights, they are in “Galavant,” a medieval comedy with music from Alan Menken, the composer of blockbuster animated movies for Disney like “Beauty and the Beast.” The other clear trend at ABC is shows that examine the diversity of American life. The network has a comedy with an Asian-American family, “Fresh Off the Boat”; another with a Hispanic-American family, “Cristela”; and a third, “Black-ish,” getting the best comedy spot on ABC, after “Modern Family” on Wednesday. Also, Ms. Davis, who is black, will be the star of the network’s most prominent new drama. Paul Lee, the president of entertainment for ABC, said of the network’s emphasis on diversity, “I think it’s the right thing to do now.” ABC will add a second comic-book show, “Marvel’s Agent Carter,” set in the 1940s, as a spinoff of its current entry in the genre, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” In other examples of doubling up, or doubling down, the network will add a soapy mystery, “Secrets and Lies,” while renewing “Revenge,” and add a drama in the supernatural vein, “The Whispers,” while renewing “Resurrection.” At its upfront presentation, ESPN discussed details of a collaboration with ABC, its corporate sibling, which is planned for next year in the form of a promotional initiative, “Fan for Life,” that advertisers will be encouraged to sponsor. The effort — scheduled to start on Mother’s Day 2015 and run through Father’s Day — is intended to celebrate parents and the roles they play as their offspring take part in sports. The venture was announced by Ed Erhardt, president for global customer marketing and sales at ESPN, and Geri Wang, president for ABC Sales, making an unusual appearance at an upfront event that was not hers. (After completing her remarks, she left for the ABC event, where she announced a summer test of new ways to use data to sell commercial time in online video.) “Fan for Life” will include a series of video vignettes, bearing the ABC and ESPN brands and featuring on-air personalities from both Disney divisions; the vignettes are to appear on ABC shows like “Good Morning America” and ESPN programs like “SportsCenter.” Elements also will extend beyond broadcast and cable television into digital, print and social media. ABC and ESPN will join forces for coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, in realms like the WatchESPN and Watch ABC apps. There will also be soccer coverage in venues like ESPN Deportes, ESPN2, various ESPN websites and ESPN Radio. Univision Communications, which specializes in programming aimed at Hispanics, played up its Spanish-language World Cup coverage , through properties like the Univision Deportes Network cable channel, during a presentation that took place after ESPN’s and before ABC’s. “I freaking love sports,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, president for sports at Univision Communications. “I am a fanatico.” He demonstrated that with a clock counting down the minutes, hours and days until the World Cup begins on June 12. The biggest news came at the end of the presentation: Executives announced a partnership with Simon Cowell, the reality television impresario, and his firm, Syco Entertainment, to present on the Univision broadcast network in 2015 a singing competition series, “La Banda,” seeking to assemble a Latino boy band that will win a recording contract with Syco Music and Sony Music Latin. “When we had the opportunity of creating a show to find the biggest band in the world, there was only one destination, and it was Univision,” said Mr. Cowell, echoing the name of the famous boy band he helped put together, One Direction. Steve Mandala, executive vice president for ad sales at Univision Communications, said he would immediately “begin developing integrations and special sponsorship opportunities” in “La Banda” to offer marketers. The upfront week is to continue Wednesday with events for Adult Swim, CBS, ESPN Deportes, Fox Hispanic Media, NCM Media Networks, TBS and TNT.

Upfront
ABC
Shonda Rhimes
advertising,marketing
TV


Nets’ Williams Sprains Ankle in Workout

Abstract: Nets point guard Deron Williams sprained his right ankle and bruised a bone while working out in Utah, the team said Wednesday, hardly the kind of news the Nets wanted to announce with the start of training camp on Oct. 1. The 29-year-old Williams, who suffered with ankle problems last season, is now in a walking boot, the team said, but is expected to be ready to participate when training camp begins at Duke University. Or at least the Nets hope he will be. Last season, ankle problems definitely impacted Williams’s performance on the court. “I can’t dunk, I can’t jump,” he said at one point. He had a series of cortisone shots to address his ankle issues, as well as plasma therapy, and he did play significantly better in the latter part of the season, when he more closely resembled the point guard considered one of the best in the league. Over all, he averaged 18.9 points and 7.7 assists in 78 games.


Officials Heed Call to Stop Slide in Science and Math

Abstract: Gov. George E. Pataki's call, in his State of the State address on Wednesday, for new math and science high schools and scholarships for future math and science teachers, puts New York into the center of a national quest to reverse decades of decline in the study of science and engineering, officials say. Four state education leaders said this week that they would propose other initiatives at a hearing of the State Senate's Higher Education Committee on Monday. "The challenge this country has always met before is innovation," said Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, the Long Island Republican who is the committee's chairman. "But India and China are going to take it away from us." Twenty years ago, nearly 10,000 New York college students earned bachelor's degrees in mathematics, engineering or the physical sciences. By last year, the figure had fallen by about one-third, even as total bachelor's degrees rose. The decline, which many policy experts say threatens America's prosperity, is being played out across the country. The education proposals are coming from political leaders, the private sector and the state's public and private colleges. "There is a sudden awakening that this is a critical problem," said Richard P. Mills, New York's education commissioner, "and people in a position to do something are developing related strategies. It does not matter so much whose strategy is adopted." Mr. Mills, who said he had been struck by the high level of math and science training in China on a recent trip, called the State Board of Regents' emphasis on more rigorous math and science standards an important foundation for increasing the number of graduates. Abraham M. Lackman, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, an association of private institutions, said his group will call for the state to spend an additional $100 million a year in these fields. "I don't think there is any more important issue to the competitiveness of New York State and this country," he said. Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor of the City University of New York, is pressing for $1 billion in capital investment in science and several hundred more professors as part of a new "Decade of Science." CUNY's plan also includes scholarships for students who plan to teach math or the physical sciences, new science programs for high school students and a review of CUNY's doctoral programs by an outside panel led by the science dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although the plan will require more money from the state, tuition increases and fund-raising, Dr. Goldstein said he was optimistic. The proliferation of proposals this week suggests a new seriousness about attacking a problem most experts say will not be simple to solve. A report released last summer by the National Academies in Washington said programs like the ones being suggested were critical for science and technology and American prosperity. At SUNY, Chancellor John R. Ryan says the university cannot handle all the students it would like in science and engineering and he would like to change that. University officials said that both Stony Brook University and the University at Buffalo have had to turn away many qualified engineering applicants. One official also said the university is exploring ways to attract more women and minorities into these fields, and to move more science and math majors into teaching. Mr. Lackman said his group of independent colleges will call for the creation of eight new math and science high schools, some operated by colleges, at a cost to the state of about $8 million a year. He is also seeking a $50 million annual loan-forgiveness program for engineering graduates who stay in New York ($10,000 a year for up to five years) and $10 million a year in scholarships for students who agree to teach math or science in New York (up to $10,000 a year for five years). The Business Council of New York State, which has proposed $20,000 annual scholarships to lure the best students to teach science and math, applauded the new emphasis and said it planned to work with the governor and the Legislature to reach the goal. "This is a long-term perspective that has to begin now," Edward Reinfurt, a council official, said yesterday.


Cameron Calls N. Ireland Killings ‘Unjustified’

Abstract: LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron offered an extraordinary apology on Tuesday for the 1972 killings of 14 unarmed demonstrators by British soldiers in Northern Ireland , saying that a long-awaited judicial inquiry had left no doubt that the “Bloody Sunday” shootings were “both unjustified and unjustifiable.” “What happened should never, ever have happened,” Mr. Cameron said in a House of Commons statement. “The families of those who died should not have had to live with the pain and hurt of that day, and a lifetime of loss. Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces. And for that, on behalf of the government — and indeed our country — I am deeply sorry.” While the inquiry seemed to settle the issue of responsibility for the killings, the government in London will still have to tackle the difficult question of whether any of the soldiers involved, or their commanders, should be exposed to the possibility of criminal prosecution, or be granted an indemnity, as the opposition Labour Party’s acting leader, Harriet Harman, urged in the Commons in her response to Mr. Cameron’s remarks. The publication of the 5,000-page report plunged Mr. Cameron, in office barely a month, into the heart of Northern Ireland’s still volatile sectarian politics. Like previous prime ministers going back decades, Mr. Cameron had to tread a wary path for fear of reigniting tensions among Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, who have endured nearly 40 years of bitter dispute over events in the city of Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972. On that Sunday, in events that were to generate an extensive archive of feature films, documentaries, investigative books, popular songs and poetry that helped build worldwide sympathy for Northern Ireland’s Catholics, a crowd of about 10,000 gathered to protest the practice of detention without trial, used frequently by the British authorities to curb those suspected of paramilitary extremism. The outburst of violence that followed effectively ended a nonviolent campaign for civil rights and led to three decades of sectarian strife that claimed more than 3,600 lives. Within weeks of the shootings, another Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath , suspended the Parliament in Belfast and imposed direct British rule, which lasted until the 1998 Good Friday peace pact ushered in the new era of power-sharing in Belfast. The previous British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown had delayed publication of the report until after the May 6 general election, fearing that the findings might stir political passions during the campaign and undermine the power-sharing government established in Belfast under the Good Friday agreement. One of the co-leaders of that government, Martin McGuinness , was present at the site of the 1972 killings as an Irish Republican Army commander. Mr. Cameron praised the overall performance of the 250,000 British troops who served in Northern Ireland during the 30 years of violence. He called their mission there “the longest continuous military operation in British military history,” and noted that about 1,000 soldiers and policemen had been killed. But he chose not to equivocate on the central issue of whether the troops of Britain ’s crack Parachute Regiment had any justification for opening fire with high-powered combat rifles on the Londonderry demonstrators. In effect, the prime minister endorsed almost every contention that the victims’ families had made over the decades: that the British commander should not have ordered the troops to open fire; that the army fired the first shots; that no warning was given before the army fusillade began; that “none of the casualties” were carrying a firearm; and that some soldiers had “knowingly put forward false accounts” of their actions. In addition, Mr. Cameron quoted approvingly from sections in which the high-ranking judge who led the inquiry, Lord Saville, 74, concluded that although there was “some firing” by republican paramilitaries mixed in with the protesters, “none of this firing provided any justification for the shooting of civilian casualties,” and that none of the soldiers fired “in response to attack or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers,” as the soldiers and their lawyers had maintained. Rather, the soldiers reacted to perceived threats from the protesters by “losing their self-control,” “forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training” and with a “serious and widespread loss of fire discipline,” the report said. The document described one of the victims as having been shot while “crawling away” from the soldiers, with another, “in all probability,” taking fire “while he was lying mortally wounded on the ground.” Mr. Cameron, calling sections of the report “shocking,” said: “You do not defend the British Army by defending the indefensible. We do not honor all those who have served with distinction in keeping the peace and upholding the rule of law in Northern Ireland by hiding from the truth.” On the role of Mr. McGuinness, a point of particular political sensitivity, the inquiry concluded that although he was present and probably armed with a “submachine gun,” he did not “engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.” Allegations to the contrary have fed years of vilification of Mr. McGuinness by Protestant politicians. The shootings have been angrily contested since the day they happened, and especially after a report completed within weeks by a top British judge, Lord Widgery, saying they had been provoked by demonstrators using nail bombs and other weapons. The Saville inquiry was commissioned in 1998 by Tony Blair , then prime minister, as part of the negotiations that brought about the Good Friday pact, and broke records for the 12 years it took to complete, the nearly 1,400 witnesses who gave evidence and the cost: $280 million. More than half of the money — government funds — went to the lawyers involved, two of whom earned nearly $6 million each. In Londonderry, thousands of people gathered at the shooting site and cheered as Mr. Cameron’s speech was broadcast live on giant screens. Repeated bursts of applause heralded sections of the report he read that declared that all of those killed were innocents, and copies of the Widgery report were shredded in front of the crowd by relatives of victims. One after another, relatives emphasized the youth of many of those killed — 7 of the 14 were teenagers — and their innocence of any wrongdoing. They used words like “murdered” and “assassinated.” “Thirty-eight years, four months, 15 days, almost to the minute — Kevin is innocent,” said the sister of one of the victims, Kevin McElhinney. Mr. McGuinness, who joined the crowd, denied that he was carrying a gun at the time of the shootings and said that the allegation originated with “British agents or with people who were very close to British agents.” He added, “I think that the key message out of this was the courage and heroism of the families who were prepared to stand for justice for their loved ones and for the citizens of this city, who for almost 40 years had been waiting for those who had been shot on that day to be vindicated.” Relatives of the victims left little doubt in their statements to the crowd that they would press for murder trials, or at least for prosecutions under an “unlawful killing” provision in British law — a step certain to provoke an angry reaction among the province’s Protestant politicians. Mr. Cameron said it was an issue for the independent prosecution service and made no mention of any government move to grant the soldiers indemnity. “These judgments are not matters for a tribunal — or for us as politicians — to decide,” he said.

Great Britain
Northern Ireland
David Cameron
Apologies
Civilian casualties
Military


Seedorf Heads Straight Into the Coaching Fire

Abstract: LONDON — Clarence Seedorf is the “Mister” in Milan now. A week ago, he was playing out his contract in Rio de Janeiro. Then, he took the call from Silvio Berlusconi’s people asking him to come “home” to rescue his former team, A.C. Milan — not as a player, but as the man in charge. It was like taking a worker from the factory floor and putting him in charge of the company. But soccer is no ordinary workplace, and Seedorf no ordinary employee. Forsaking the hot sunshine of Brazil for the cold and wet of Milan was clearly irresistible. Within 48 hours, and without ever qualifying as a professional coach (which is a prerequisite in Italian soccer), he had signed the contract. And within another day, he was calling out the cavalry of players, coaches, masseurs and medical staff members. He didn’t have to lay his medals on the table because they are there, written in stone. Clarence Seedorf, not yet 38, had won the Champions League four times, with three different clubs. He had played the best decade of his life on a Milan squad that was bankrolled by Berlusconi to be up there with the Real Madrids, the Manchester Uniteds, the Bayern Munichs. “My first words to the team,” he said, “were to bring back the joy and enthusiasm in playing football, show that we know we are lucky to have a job that is almost a hobby. We are at the start of an emotional journey.” There is a difference between saying it and meaning it. Everything about Seedorf’s story has been mind over matter. Obviously, he had the skill to play at the highest level. Clearly he learned how to adapt and rise, from lowly beginnings in Suriname, the former Dutch colony in South America, to be a big-time winner with Ajax of Amsterdam, Real Madrid, Milan and the Dutch national team. “I’d been preparing for my post-playing career mentally for a very long time,” he said over the weekend. “I believe I gave all I had in Brazil, and as soon as I got the call, I made myself available.” Without hesitation or thought for self-preservation? Seedorf collected an overcoat and marched boldly into Milan. By Sunday, he had picked his first lineup. It embraced every attacking talent on the club’s books: Mario Balotelli, Ricardo Kaká, Robinho and the new arrival from Moscow, the Japanese star Keisuke Honda. The word in Italy for the head coach is “Mister.” And, while questions were asked how Seedorf could walk right in as a “Mister” without training for the job, he was going to do this his way. It has happened abroad. Johan Cruyff and Kenny Dalglish are examples of famous players who converted instantly into winning managers. Image Clarence Seedorf as he led A.C. Milan to victory over Verona in his coaching debut. Credit Marco Bertorello/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But in Italy? In Milan, a club split by a long power struggle in the boardroom between Adriano Galliani, who has run the club for decades, and Barbara Berlusconi, who is the owner’s ambitious daughter? “President Berlusconi,” said Seedorf, “is a man who has done a lot for world football. I’m honored that he believes in me, just as I’m honored to have the faith of Adriano Galliani.” Galliani, at least, was in the stadium Sunday night when the Seedorf era began. The vice president sat stony and straight-faced as Milan went remorselessly forward, as Seedorf instructed. But sometimes it was a struggle against a resilient and defensively committed Verona squad. In a half-empty stadium, Kaká looked two-thirds of the play maker he was in 2007, when he was acclaimed as the world’s finest. He is only 31, and his new coach was still a player at 37. While Kaká’s knees have undergone many surgeries, his touch remains smooth and his passes inventive; what appears to be lacking in his umpteenth comeback is the quick acceleration to leave his many opponents behind him. “Kaká is a friend more than an ex-teammate,” Seedorf said. “I can count on him as a person above being a player. An extraordinary person, a reference point for everyone in terms of behavior and professionalism.” Of Balotelli, the volatile striker, Seedorf said “Mario is a sweet guy. I’m here to help him grow, and our attacking philosophy will be important for him.” Kaká and Balotelli became Seedorf’s first game-winners on Sunday. The contest between Milan’s attack and Verona’s defense was running out of time until Kaká made one last run and was felled by an injudicious tackle yards from the net. Balotelli took the ball and the responsibility, and he coldly let Verona’s keeper commit to his right before calmly side-footing the penalty kick into the other corner. The only goal, the winning goal, and a goal that the sweet young Balotelli dedicated to Mr. Seedorf. There will be tougher tasks ahead. Milan once sold Kaká to Madrid for 68.5 million euros and took him back this season for very little of that $93 million. Neither the club nor the star player are quite what they were, but that is why Milan lies 11th in Serie A. It is why the coach was fired in midseason, and why Seedorf was called in on a hunch. He will manage the team with the help of Mauro Tassotti, a former Milan defender who holds the requisite coaching credentials. Seedorf will draw fire because he is a black man, and proud of it, in a country whose soccer culture has a reputation for racial intolerance. If you know anything of Seedorf, you have to like him. The gamble will succeed or fail on his terms, but he cannot make Milan great again overnight simply by his presence and boldness. “You don’t lose that DNA,” he says. “You just catch viruses every so often.”


Spain: Citizenship Plan for Sephardic Jews

Abstract: Spain’s cabinet on Friday approved a bill allowing descendants of Jews forced into exile centuries ago the right to dual citizenship, but applicants will have to take a Spanish culture test in addition to having their ancient ties to the nation vetted by experts. The plan aims to fix what the government calls the “historic mistake” of sending Sephardic Jews into exile starting in 1492, forcing them to convert to Catholicism or burning them at the stake during the Inquisition. It is expected to pass easily in Parliament because the governing Popular Party has an absolute majority. The measure will allow dual nationality, enabling the newly minted Spaniards to retain their previous citizenship. The term Sephardic means Spanish in Hebrew, but the term has come also to apply to one of the two main variants of Jewish religious practice. The other — and globally dominant one — is Ashkenazic, which applies to Jews whose lineage, in recent times, is traced to Northern and Eastern Europe. There is no accepted figure for the global Sephardic population. Reasonable estimates would range between a fifth and a third of the world’s roughly 13 million Jews.


Kyrgyzstan Declares State of Emergency After Clashes

Abstract: MOSCOW — The government of Kyrgyzstan declared a state of emergency on Friday in a remote northern district after the police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters threatening to seize the country’s largest gold mine. Kyrgyz officials said in a statement that 55 people, including 13 police officers, were injured in the clashes, as villagers from the country’s Issyk-Kul region demanded the nationalization of the Kumtor gold mine, which is owned by Toronto-based Centerra Gold . Hundreds of villagers, some on horseback, had blocked the road to the Kumtor mine on Tuesday, the Kyrgyz news media reported. On Friday, the police cleared the road in violent clashes with protesters, and several hours later fought off villagers who had seized a power substation and cut electricity to the mine, the Interfax news service reported. The Interior Ministry said the police had arrested about 100 people. Kyrgyzstan’s government is acutely sensitive to economic protests, which have fueled political unrest in the country in the past. In October, several hundred demonstrators at a rally calling for the mine’s nationalization tried to storm the Parliament building in Bishkek, the capital, prompting a police crackdown and prison sentences for the protest’s leaders. In a statement on Friday, the Kyrgyz president, Almazbek Atambayev, said the protests “threatened the execution of the Kyrgyz budget,” including the payment of pensions and paychecks. The state of emergency, which includes a curfew, will be in place until June 10, he said. Also on Friday, protesters in the southern Kyrgyz city of Jalalabad took control of a government building and demanded the nationalization of the Kumtor mine.

Emergency Response and Preparedness
Centerra Gold
Almazbek Atambayev
Kyrgyzstan
Gold


Groceries on the Computer, and Immigrants in the Cold

Abstract: For New Yorkers who crave onion-rosemary marmalade with their crostini, loathe the narrow aisles of the nearest supermarket or simply have no time to shop, Fresh Direct has been like a high-tech fantasy come true. With the touch of a computer mouse, it conjures up fresh, sophisticated groceries at the customer’s doorstep. The company has grown in five years from a dot-com dream to a $200 million business, and its Web site features “celebrity shopping lists” from quintessentially New York figures like Spike Lee, Edward I. Koch and Cynthia Nixon, a star of “Sex and the City.” But now an eruption of low-tech troubles is drawing a spotlight to what lies behind the computer screen. Last week, the company abruptly lost more than 100 of the roughly 900 employees at its huge plant in Long Island City, Queens, including many of its most experienced workers, when they learned that federal officials planned to check their immigration status. It is battling not one, but two unions that want to represent the workers, with the election to be held this weekend. City labor leaders and several elected officials rallied at City Hall on Friday to accuse the company and immigration authorities of trying to block the union drive. And when Fresh Direct held a job fair this week, though hundreds of applicants lined up in the cold, many lost interest as soon as they learned about the low starting pay and low-temperature workplace: $7.85 an hour to pick and pack groceries at night, in 38-degree chill, often for more than eight hours at a stretch. “They said, ‘Dress as warm as you can,’” reported one disenchanted applicant, Joy Brewster, 22, as she emerged from a group job interview with a toss of her head. “I don’t think so. I’d be stiff as a board.” Another applicant, Eibar Amaya, 47, an immigrant from Colombia who is now a United States citizen, gave his verdict in succinct, if imperfect English: “Pay too little, no good.” He now makes $12 an hour cleaning office bathrooms at night, he added in Spanish, and considering his legal status and valid driver’s license, he expected something better. Such comments underscore what may not be evident to the online shopper: that Fresh Direct’s great successes — Internet efficiency, competitive prices, an array of locally grown produce and a loyal, well-heeled customer base — were built on a low-wage, transient work force that was anchored by illegal immigrants. And for all that, by its own account, the privately held company has yet to turn a profit for its investors. “It’s definitely a very competitive business,” said Michael Garry, technology and logistics editor for Supermarket News, which covers the industry. “They’re just one of many employers that are taking advantage of these people. But that certainly is going to clash with their P.R. image.” Jim Moore, the company’s senior vice president for business affairs, defended its record as an employer as well as its financial health. Fresh Direct has participated in a government Social Security verification system since 2004, he said, and had no idea that some employees’ documents were false. Those who have left for fear of deportation now number about 100, he maintained, not 300, as organizers with Local 348S of the United Food and Commercial Workers insist. He estimated the plant’s normal turnover at 45 to 50 percent each year, which he called “not particularly high.” And he said the job fair had produced more applicants than the company could possibly hire. But among two dozen applicants who spoke with a reporter, only those with very limited options seemed undaunted by the job description — plying frigid miles of conveyor belts carrying tubs of products from far-flung departments to a central packing area. One applicant hoping to be called back was Abdul Hakim, 33, who said he recently served four years in prison. Another, Nathaniel Griffins, 60, said he was living in a nearby veterans’ shelter and spent his mornings handing out free newspapers for $8.50 an hour. Like many other American-born and legal residents applying for work, they expressed sympathy for the illegal immigrants. “Legal or not,” Mr. Griffins said, “people got to find a way to feed their families.” Mr. Moore, the company vice president, acknowledged that many of the immigrant employees who fled, including butchers, kitchen workers and packers, had been with the company for three or four years and were among its most longstanding employees. Some had opposed unionization. “They are very loyal folks who have been instrumental in helping us build the company,” he said. “It’s been incredibly hard for them and very, very sad for us.” To union organizers, however, his expression of regret rang false. Both the food workers’ local and Teamsters Local 805, the unions vying to represent plant workers, called the timing of the immigration audit highly suspect, and contended that under the immigration agency’s own guidelines, it should have been delayed until after the vote on a union. Both accused the company of using the audit as its latest tactic in an aggressive campaign against the union drive, suggesting that management had called in the immigration authorities, in an effort to intimidate or drive away union supporters. Mr. Moore denied that accusation, and turned it around by saying that some unions unable to win over workers had been known to try to improve their odds by summoning immigration officials. But there was no lack of other theories for why Fresh Direct might have appeared on the radar of immigration officials: a call by a disgruntled native-born employee; retaliation by an angry competitor; or Fresh Direct’s high profile in the nation’s media capital, which might make it an appetizing target for the Bush administration, intent on publicizing more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. The accusations and confusion partly reflect the relative rarity of immigration enforcement in New York’s food industry. Illegal immigrant employees abound in New York City’s 11,662 registered food stores — not to mention on the farms increasingly tapped as local suppliers of the tenderest arugula and tangiest goat cheese. “On any given day, if immigration chose to, they could sweep into stores in any one of these five boroughs and literally take thousands and thousands of workers out,” said Pat Purcell, the director of special projects for the Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has 23,000 members in the New York area, including the employees at Fairway markets, which emphasize freshness and selection to please the most finicky shoppers. Full-time employees at Fairway, a family-run company with a long union history, earn at least $14.75 an hour, with generous benefits and time-and-a-half for overtime, Mr. Purcell said. But in contrast, dozens of upscale or specialty food stores are more obvious offenders than Fresh Direct, he added, because they pay their lowest-rung employees, often Mexicans, in cash, below minimum wage, without asking for any documents. Older supermarkets in the city, too, have had their share of scandals. Several years ago, Gristedes and Food Emporium agreed to $3 million settlements after the state attorney general accused them and their delivery companies of paying some deliverymen, many of them Africans, just over a dollar an hour. As for Fresh Direct’s future, forecasts are contradictory. Nationally, only 1 percent of groceries are bought online, and such transactions are expected to nearly double by 2011, to $10.5 billion. But Fresh Direct keeps losing money, said Lawrence Sarf, the president of F & D Reports, a retail consulting company in Great Neck, N.Y. “It has beautiful products, state-of-the-art equipment, and the best executives to raise money,” Mr. Sarf said. “But it doesn’t work.” In its campaign against the Teamsters this summer, the company stated in a flier, “We have yet to have a profitable year.” Mr. Moore now puts it differently. “We’ve taken the profits,” he said, “and we’ve plowed them into growing the company. Our investors are very bullish on what we’re doing.” Most customers seem bullish, too, despite expressions of remorse about the fate of illegal immigrant employees. “We’re all so liberal, but we’re really taking advantage of all these people,” said Betsy Jacobs, who described herself as a busy mother in her 40s who depends on Fresh Direct. “As a New Yorker, I really want to be helping these people, not hurting them.” Former Mayor Edward I. Koch, the company’s first commercial spokesman, took a tougher tone. “The law should be enforced,” he said. “If there are no jobs, the illegal aliens will go home.” “I am not for keeping prices down by underpaying the people who do the work,” he added. “Unions should be the norm.” Actually, Mr. Koch confessed, he shops at Fairway and Citarella for his everyday needs, and uses Fresh Direct for large holiday orders. “Their produce is superb,” he said. “But I think they have to pay going rates for labor.”

Immigration and Refugees
FreshDirect
Labor
Organized Labor
Food
Illegal Immigrants


Shell’s Profit Soars as High Oil Prices Offset a Decline in Output

Abstract: AMSTERDAM (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell , Europe’s largest oil company, reported Thursday that fourth-quarter profit rose 60 percent because of the sale of some assets and higher oil prices. Net income was $8.47 billion, up from $5.28 billion in the period a year ago. Sales rose to $107 billion from $75.5 billion despite a fall in oil production. For the year, profit was a record $31.3 billion, while sales rose 12 percent, to $356 billion. Despite the record earnings, which prompted calls for a windfall tax, Shell’s fourth-quarter numbers “did miss analysts expectations by a whisker,” Richard Hunter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said in a research note. Mr. Hunter said that in addition, Shell’s refusal to disclose its proven reserves — a sensitive topic since the company was forced to restate them downward in a 2004 accounting scandal — was weighing on shares. The shares fell less than 1 percent to close at 24.05 euros ($35.29) in Amsterdam. The chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, said the company would announce its proven reserves during its annual meeting in March. Mr. Hunter also said that “ongoing issues in Nigeria and Canada, along with uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the OPEC meeting tomorrow and weak refining margins, have also weighed on the shares.” Shell has shut operations in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta region because of kidnappings and attacks by groups seeking a larger share in the profit. At Shell’s production arm, profit rose 38 percent, to $4.87 billion. Production was 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down 5.5 percent in the quarter a year ago. At the refining business, profit was $2.56 billion, up from $791 million, reflecting higher prices at the pump. Stripping out the rise in oil prices, refining earnings would have fallen. Shell said refining profit margins improved in Europe and Asia, but declined in the United States.

Company Reports
Royal Dutch/Shell Group
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Europe


Panthers’ Cam Newton Released From Hospital

Abstract: Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was released from a Charlotte, N.C., hospital on Wednesday, the team said, a day after sustaining two fractures in his lower back in a car accident near the Panthers’ stadium . Panthers Coach Ron Rivera told reporters that Derek Anderson, Newton’s backup, would start Sunday against Tampa Bay and that Newton was unlikely to play. A team spokesman, Charlie Dayton, said that Newton was “in high sprits” and that he had sustained no other internal injuries from the crash. He was held at Carolinas Medical Center overnight for observation. The Charlotte police said Newton would not be charged in the accident. According to witnesses, the police said, Newton was traveling at the 35 m.p.h speed limit on the Church Street bridge when another vehicle swerved into his path. Newton’s truck turned over in the accident. He and the driver of the other car were treated at the scene and transported to the hospital, neither with serious injuries, the police said. Newton, 25, has missed only one game in his four-year N.F.L. career, sitting out the 2014 season opener with a rib injury. Anderson started in his place and led the Panthers to a victory over Tampa Bay, the division rival the Panthers will face again Sunday. “The most important thing about this whole week is the safety and health of one of my brothers,” Anderson told reporters Wednesday . “He’s been through a lot. If he could be out there, he’d be out there.” Newton’s injury was a fracture of two transverse processes — the bony protrusions off each vertebra that stabilize the spine — in his lower back. Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo sustained a similar injury in a game this season and missed one game before returning to play. Image Newton, 25, has missed only one game in his four-year N.F.L. career. Credit Andy Lyons/Getty Images Panthers Coach Ron Rivera said he thinks Newton will argue to play sooner rather than later. “We’re back to square one like we were this summer with the rib injury,” Rivera told reporters Wednesday. “It’s about what he tells the doctors, what the doctors observe. He’s very tough-minded, a very tough-willed young man.” With the Panthers struggling at 4-8-1 this season, even after a 41-10 victory over the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday, there seems to be little reason to rush Newton back to play. He was, however, named N.F.C. offensive player of the game for his performance in Sunday’s game. He threw 226 yards and three touchdowns against the Saints, and also rushed for 83 yards, including a spectacular leaping touchdown. LYNN ZINSER Eli Manning Plays Down Listing on Injury Report Giants quarterback Eli Manning was listed on the team’s injury report with a back injury Wednesday, which passed for news at the Giants’ practice complex since Manning has started 164 consecutive N.F.L. regular-season games. Manning had also taken an unusually long time in the trainer’s room after the Giants’ victory in Tennessee Sunday, which helped fuel the notion that he was somehow banged up from the game. But Wednesday, Coach Tom Coughlin and Manning played down the injury. Coughlin conceded that Manning would be limited in practice, but at the same time the coach said Manning would practice as he normally does. “For whatever reason, he’s on the injury list,” Coughlin said. At the portion of Giants practice open to the news media, Manning appeared to be doing all of the usual things he does in midweek workouts and did not seem inhibited. Afterward, Manning laughed when asked about his back. “It’s fine; I don’t consider myself injured right now,” he said. He then asked: “What did they end up calling it?” Told that he was listed as having a back injury, Manning grinned. “OK,” he said. “It’s a back. But it’s not going to change anything I do this week to get ready for the game.” The Giants host the Washington Redskins Sunday at MetLife Stadium. BILL PENNINGTON

Football
Cameron J Newton
Derek Anderson
Car Crash
Carolina Panthers
Buccaneers


Massachusetts: Gambling Agency Chairman Is Named

Abstract: Gov. Deval Patrick appointed Stephen Crosby on Tuesday to head the new Massachusetts Gaming Commission, a five-member body formed by the same legislation that legalized three resort-style casinos and one slots parlor in this state. Mr. Crosby, currently the dean of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, previously served as a senior aide to Paul Celucci and Jane Swift, both former Republican governors. The committee will give out licenses for the state’s new gambling spots and set some of the rules that will govern their operation.

Gambling
Patrick Deval L
Massachusetts
Casinos
Crosby Stephen


Banks’ Disarray Grows in Europe

Abstract: PARIS — Ireland moved toward greater government control of its financial system Wednesday by bailing out its two largest lenders, while shareholders in Fortis , once the biggest bank in Belgium, derailed state-led plans to sell the nationalized business to BNP Paribas of France. Together, the moves suggested that Europe — like the United States — was still struggling to find the right template for stabilizing its banks, one that could soothe jittery markets and an increasingly incensed public. The Irish government, meeting Wednesday night, approved capital injections of 3.5 billion euros each ($4.5 billion) for Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland , a Finance Ministry official said. That would make Ireland the first European Union country to take de facto control of all of its most important banks. Last month, the government stepped in to nationalize the teetering Anglo Irish Bank, which was No. 3. In Brussels, the vote by Fortis shareholders left the bank’s Belgian operations in government hands while BNP Paribas decided whether to go to court or take its money — nearly 7 billion euros — and walk away. Since the financial crisis deepened in September, policy makers in Europe and in the United States have tried various approaches to stabilize banks, including loan guarantees, capital injections, forced mergers and breakups, and most recently commitments to create institutions to acquire tainted assets. During the crisis, few banks have actually been fully nationalized outside of Iceland. Two examples are Northern Rock in Britain and Anglo Irish. Instead, governments have often sought to use capital injections using preferential shares, which still leaves private shareholder equity and operational control with a board. But some of those deals have collapsed. Last month, the British government revised the terms of its bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, exchanging its preference shares for common equity and raising its stake in the bank to 70 percent from 58 percent. At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s monetary affairs commissioner, said guidelines for government programs to reorganize banks would be produced soon. The document also suggested that governments might have to require banks to participate to avoid uncertainty in the markets. In the last five months, the Irish government has already staked a claim over most of the Irish banking territory. In late September, it advanced a state guarantee for all the 440 billion euros in liabilities of six banks based in Dublin after a run on deposits threatened the collapse of Anglo Irish. Last month, the government stepped in to nationalize Anglo Irish after disclosures that its former chairman and chief executive, Sean FitzPatrick, had hidden personal loans of over 120 million euros for the last eight years from regulators and auditors. Late Tuesday, the Irish financial regulatory agency disclosed it was also investigating huge deposits, including one of about 4 billion euros, moved into Anglo Irish by a rival bank, Irish Life & Permanent, last September, around the time that the Irish government announced its state guarantee of all Irish lenders. As Ireland was stepping in, Belgium was having trouble extricating itself from the nationalization of Fortis assets. Angry shareholders of Fortis, whose holdings were virtually wiped out in the nationalization moves last October, prevailed in court, forcing a vote on the Belgian and Dutch actions. On Wednesday they voted against the sale of the Dutch banking and insurance units to the Netherlands, and against Belgium’s move to take control of banking unit Fortis Bank. The Dutch government maintains that its move was legal and irrevocable, while Fortis Bank issued a statement noting the shareholder vote but deferring comment, Reuters reported. Further court action seeking damages for shareholders is likely. The acting Fortis chairman, Jan-Michiel Hessels, said that given the shareholder votes, it made no sense to proceed to the third and final part of the carve-up — BNP Paribas’s purchase of 75 percent of Fortis Bank and a stake in the Belgian insurance operations from Fortis. BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France, now faces a decision on whether to pursue the purchase in court or to abandon the acquisition. In a brief statement, BNP Paribas said that its original offer was valid through the end of the month, but did not elaborate on its next step. The chief executive of BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot, warned last weekend that he was ready to walk away if the sale was not wrapped up, adding that he was not prepared to make more concessions.

Fortis AG
BNP Paribas
Allied Irish Banks PLC
Bank of Ireland
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


Fired, but Firing Back Over Dealings in Washington

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Eric W. Payne’s world has shrunk. The man who oversaw millions of dollars in city contracts today watches every dime in his family budget. He has not worked full time since 2009. He and his family were evicted last summer, and now their lives spill from boxes in a cramped town house in suburban Virginia. But this is not a typical hard-luck story of setback amid a recession. Since he was fired almost four years ago, Mr. Payne, 41, has been locked in a bitter dispute with the city’s chief financial officer, Natwar M. Gandhi, his former boss and one of the most powerful unelected officials in Washington. Mr. Payne asserted in a lawsuit filed in 2010 that he was fired for drawing attention to misconduct in city contracting; Mr. Gandhi has countered by calling him a disgruntled employee. At least one federal criminal investigation has sprung directly from concerns that Mr. Payne says he raised when he was a contracting officer and included in a lawsuit over his dismissal. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Mr. Gandhi’s office as well. The legal feud has taken an unusually personal tone. In a second lawsuit, Mr. Payne accused Mr. Gandhi of defaming him in public statements and in private e-mail circulated to business leaders, preventing him from finding new work. “The uncomfortable questions I’ve raised have made it difficult for district officials to continue those practices,” Mr. Payne said. “This feels like a measure of retribution.” Mr. Payne was fired, he has said, for resisting efforts by city officials, including Mayor Vincent C. Gray and at least one City Council member, to scrap a $38 million lottery contract with the winning bidder. The fight has played out in the footlights of another scandal: an inquiry into Mr. Gray’s 2010 election, which has been tainted by revelations that a wealthy supporter bankrolled an off-the-books “shadow campaign.” In unrelated scandals, two City Council members resigned this year after one pleaded guilty to bank fraud and the other to theft. Mr. Payne has been something of a voice in the wilderness as intrigue has swirled around the mayor and the Council. But his accusations about misconduct in the lottery contracting process have gained attention recently as new controversies have emerged over Mr. Gandhi’s stewardship of his office. In October, his internal affairs chief, William J. DiVello, abruptly stepped down over what he said was pressure to shield internal audits from public view. The S.E.C. is investigating. Mr. Gandhi’s office denies that such a policy exists. In early December, Mr. Gandhi faced blunt questions at a tense City Council committee hearing that touched on his dispute with Mr. Payne. A former council member, William P. Lightfoot, called Mr. Payne’s account “a story about villains and a hero.” “I think Mr. Payne spoke truth to power, and power decided they were going to crush him,” he said. “It’s just that simple.” Council members who sought a public airing of the circumstances around Mr. Payne’s firing left disappointed. Mr. Gandhi sat silently as his lawyer told frustrated council members he could not discuss the case because of the litigation. Jack Evans, a council member and chairman of the finance committee, said: “Someone is going to explain to this committee what happened. We can do it today, we can do it next week, we can do it next month, but at some point, someone is going to explain.” A spokesman for Mr. Gandhi declined an interview request. Mr. Gandhi is considered the guardian of Washington’s treasury, a position created during the city’s near-insolvency in the 1990s. But his credibility was damaged several years ago after Harriette M. Walters, a manager in the city tax office, pleaded guilty to stealing $48 million, raising questions about oversight in his office. A former appointee in the Clinton White House, Mr. Payne was hired as a lawyer in Mr. Gandhi’s office before becoming chief contract officer in 2006. In 2008, Mr. Payne’s duties included the ticklish task of rebidding the city’s lottery contract. Elected officials sometimes exerted pressure on behalf of contractors, according to Mr. Payne’s predecessor, Mike Wooten. In early 2009, despite glowing performance reviews, Mr. Payne was dismissed. He filed suit, claiming that he had been pressured to remove a disfavored minority partner from the winning lottery consortium because of council members’ objections, and that he resisted that pressure. “If the chief procurement officer tries to act with integrity and it goes against the political interests of the district, that person’s out of a job,” Mr. Wooten said. “Ultimately Eric Payne was forced out, and I believe it was because he tried to hold with integrity to the lottery contract.” The case has proved to be a Pandora’s box of sorts, exposing what critics have called pay-to-play politics. In recent months, Mr. Gandhi’s office has attracted scrutiny as sealed court documents have trickled out to the news media. This month, The Washington Post and other newspapers published a draft of a report that exonerated Mr. Payne of wrongdoing while sharply criticizing a City Council member, Jim Graham, who has been in the lottery scandal’s spotlight because of his objections to the minority partner in the winning lottery bid. The document, which had been under seal, gave new credence to Mr. Payne’s assertions that Mr. Graham was among those who tried to improperly meddle with the lottery contract. Mr. Graham strongly denies that he did anything illegal. But the acrimony has taken a deeply personal turn. Mr. Gandhi subpoenaed businesses where Mr. Payne applied for jobs and his past employers, former President Bill Clinton among them. Lawyers for Mr. Gandhi also questioned Mr. Payne’s doctors about his medical history and tried to depose his pregnant wife. Over the summer, Mr. Gandhi forwarded a letter to the Chamber of Commerce saying Mr. Payne was fired because of “poor performance issues.” He was also sharply critical of Mr. Payne in an interview with The Washington Post, saying he was “nasty to people” and “rude to outsiders.” Mr. Payne sued for defamation. In an unusual move, the city invoked a law intended to shield defendants from frivolous lawsuits, calling Mr. Payne’s defamation lawsuit “an improper and meritless action to garner publicity.” Such laws are written to protect citizens from legal intimidation known as “Slapp suits” and are rare in employment cases, according to legal experts. If the city’s move is successful, Mr. Payne could be required to pay all of the city’s court costs. Mr. Payne jokes that even bill collectors have stopped calling. Still, he is undaunted, saying even as he faces the possibility of being forced to pay the city’s legal tab that “it’s worth it for me in order for the truth to prevail.” “As a parent, I tell my children that you always do the right thing in spite of the daunting odds or even the potential dire consequences,” he added. “There’s nothing more important to me than my integrity and my professional reputation.”

Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations
Suits and Litigation
Payne Eric W
Washington (DC)
Gandhi Natwar M


Swimmers Need Faster Times Earlier at World Championships

Abstract: ROME — The first two nights of the world swimming championships established two truths as incontrovertible: no world record is safe and no spot in the semifinals is guaranteed. The first dozen events — eight on Sunday and four on Monday — produced 10 world records. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who did not break 58 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly last year, nearly broke 56 seconds in the final Monday night. Her 56.06 time eclipsed her 24-hour-old world record by 38-hundredths of a second. The trend continued when Anastasia Zueva of Russia broke the world record in the 100-meter backstroke in her semifinal heat. Brenton Rickard of Australia (100-meter breaststroke) and Rebecca Soni (100-meter backstroke) also established world marks. One established world-record holder, the American Aaron Peirsol, miscalculated how fast he had to go in the 100-meter backstroke and finished fourth in his heat and failed to advance to the final. Peirsol, who broke the world record in the event five times since 2004, was ninth over all, with a time of 53.22. Before Monday, Peirsol was one of only 13 men to have gone that fast. He became the first man under 52 seconds in the event this month when he clocked 51.94. “It’s my own fault,” he said. “I thought I was in a much better place in that race than I was.” Because success in the backstroke is driven by the kick, it is the stroke in which swimmers benefit the most from the soon-to-be banned polyurethane suits that help tired hips and legs remain buoyant. Something has certainly enhanced the performances in the stroke. At the 2007 meet, Markus Rogan led all qualifiers in the men’s 100 backstroke with a 54.34. That would have been good for 21st on Monday. The fast morning swims did not escape the notice of Michael Phelps , who won a record eight gold medals in the Beijing Games . There was a time when someone as accomplished as Phelps, a 14-time Olympic gold medalist, could reserve his energy in his morning swims and easily advance. Not anymore. On Monday in the 200 freestyle, his first individual event of the meet, Phelps won his heat in 1:45.60 — two seconds faster than he swam in the preliminaries in 2007 — and placed second behind Paul Biedermann, who clocked a 1:45.30. On Sunday, Biedermann broke Ian Thorpe ’s world record in the 400 freestyle, an event in which Biedermann ranked outside of the top 20 in 2008. Phelps said after his heat that he had abandoned the straight-arm stroke he was experimenting with this year because it was not improving his speed, and going fast is imperative, now more than ever. “As you noticed yesterday,” Phelps said, “all the guys were swimming faster in the morning. So you have to step up kind of in the morning and put yourself in a good position.”

Swimming
Peirsol Aaron
Phelps Michael
Thorpe Ian


Lonesome George - A Renowned Bachelor, and a Search for a Mate

Abstract: It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least among humans, that a giant tortoise in the possession of the last sperm of his species must be in want of a wife. But what if the tortoise prefers a different lifestyle? When I met Lonesome George two decades ago, in his pen on the main island of the Galápagos, I had the usual impulse to fix up the world’s most famous bachelor. I chartered a fishing boat for a miserable trip out to Pinta Island, the wilderness 100 miles away where George had been discovered in 1971 living by himself. As I fought my way through Pinta’s overgrown vines and cactus pads, fervently hoping to spot a female Pinta tortoise behind a lava rock or a thorn bush, I was already working on her name. Georgette seemed too derivative. I liked the local evolutionary allusion of Darwinia, but finally settled on less of a mouthful: Eve. I didn’t find her, of course, so I went back to George’s pen to bid a sad farewell to him and his species. Then I penned a long — and quite moving, I thought — contemplation of the ethics of conservation, the destructiveness of man and the meaning of life. Now it seems the obituary was premature. I was looking on the wrong island. Last week, after sampling the genes of a few tortoises on Isabela Island, biologists announced that there is probably at least one Pinta tortoise somewhere among the thousands of tortoises there. Next year the researchers hope to find a female to take back to George’s pen. This is happy news for humanity, but not necessarily for George. We can shed a little of our collective guilt for nearly wiping out his species. George must deal with an identity crisis and performance anxiety. What happens to his status as conservation icon — and his title as the rarest living creature? He could lose it all: his record, his name, his brand. Until now he’s been the main tourist draw at the Darwin Research Station, the prime example of what fund-raisers call charismatic megafauna. Sans pathos, will he still be lucrative? His handlers hope that a new romance will inspire even more visitors and donations, but — and this is what really worries me — there might not be much romance when Eve arrives. George is not what you would call a stud. When I visited him in 1985, he was thought to be a relatively young adult, maybe 50 years old, but he was already a confirmed bachelor. He hadn’t shown any interest in two females of a similar species placed in his pen. One had flipped over and drowned in the wading pool. The keepers weren’t positive that George had driven this tortoise to her death, but he definitely hadn’t been doing any Barry White serenades. A few years later, in 1993, there was briefly a companion known as “Lonesome George’s girlfriend,” but she was not a tortoise. She was a 26-year-old graduate student in zoology from Switzerland named Sveva Grigioni. By coating her hands in the genital secretions of female tortoises and gently stroking him, she managed to demonstrate a couple of times (in the course of several months’ work) that George was capable of an erection. But whereas her touch could induce other male tortoises to reach orgasm within a few minutes, with George she never managed to collect any sperm. Her ministrations — or maybe it was the pheromones in the secretions — did seem to pique George’s interest in the female tortoises, as Ms. Grigioni reported to Henry Nicholls, the author of the definitive new biography, “Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon.” But George’s temporary interest did not translate into performance. “He started to try copulation,” Ms. Grigioni said, “but it was like he didn’t really know how to.” To be fair to George, he’s never been observed with a female of his race, Geochelone nigra abingdoni. (It has been traditionally classified a subspecies of giant tortoise, but many biologists now consider it a separate species.) After the news last week, I sought a prognosis from Ms. Grigioni on the prospects for abingdoni love. “No one knows how George would react,” she replied tactfully. “The only way to know is to try. It is possible that he would recognize abingdoni pheromones, but there is no evidence that different species have different pheromones.” That didn’t sound too promising, but Ms. Grigioni tried to be optimistic. If a Pinta female arrives in George’s pen, she said, “nature will do the best she can.” Bryan Milstead, the biologist who oversees the vertebrates at the Darwin Research Station, told me he had enough confidence in the abingdoni allure to bet me $20 on George’s going for it. I was tempted by the wager — my money would be on George retreating into a thornbush — but I couldn’t bring myself to bet in favor of extinction. No, I’m hoping George will help us expiate the sins of our species, particularly the ancestors calling themselves scientists. The tortoise populations in the Galápagos were devastated first by hungry whalers and pirates, and then by museum collectors who were far more energetic than the sailors in scouring the islands for the few remaining animals. Until George was discovered, the last tortoises seen alive on Pinta were the ones captured and killed a century ago by an expedition from the California Academy of Science. Now, though, it looks as if humans inadvertently helped save the species, too. The Pinta species was presumably transplanted to safety by a sailor, perhaps one who lightened his ship’s load by throwing tortoises overboard near Isabela. And without the Pinta DNA preserved in those museum specimens, biologists wouldn’t have enough genetic information from George alone to identify a Pinta tortoise on its new island. If Eve is found, humans just have to do a little more work. George needs to be primed. Sending Ms. Grigioni back to work would be a start, and George could also learn by watching other males in action, as some biologists have proposed. Dr. Nicholls even raises the possibility of showing instructive videos to George — and if tortoise porn is what it takes, I say go for it. But given George’s antisocial personality — he doesn’t like being around any other tortoises, male or female — we need to be considerate. If ultimately he’s just not that into Eve, then let Lonesome George be lonesome. We can’t expect him to save the species for our sake. It has to be good for him, too.

Turtles and Tortoises
Lonesome George
Genetics and Heredity
Biology and Biochemistry
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)
Galapagos Islands


70 Years On, Crowd Gets Close to the Birthplace of the Atomic Bomb

Abstract: WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — The stretch of New Mexico desert would seem endless if not for the mountain range looming high in the distance. It is the kind of place where drivers keep an extra close watch on their fuel gauge, and the closest neighbors are small towns, tiny specks of civilization, dozens of miles away. Yet on Saturday morning, the two-lane road winding toward the White Sands Missile Range was clogged with minivans, cars and motorcycles, a snake of vehicles stretching for miles, inching its way through a checkpoint. Decades ago, the remoteness of this area in south-central New Mexico attracted scientists looking to test the most destructive weapon mankind had ever created, sending up a radioactive cloud that blistered the sky. Trinity Site, as it became known, was where the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, just weeks before two atomic bombs were unleashed on Japan, effectively ending World War II. These days, the rehearsal stage for calamity has become a tourist attraction. Saturday was one of the rare days, typically twice a year, when the public is allowed onto the 55,000-acre site. The events can draw thousands; Saturday set a record with 5,534 visitors, including Boy Scout troops, classes on field trips and families. Admission came with rules: Visitors were allowed to explore and photograph only in cordoned areas. Beware of rattlesnakes, the rules also warned, but not so much the radiation, which had fallen to levels low enough to no longer be a cause of concern. Still, a line formed to take selfies with a sign posted on a fence: “Caution Radioactive Materials.” “This was on my bucket list,” said Robert Simpson, 65, a veteran of the Air Force, who came from Rio Rancho, outside Albuquerque, with his wife and friends. “It makes the story real. You can study the battles all you want — that doesn’t hit home. You have to go see the history.” Image Thousands of “nuclear tourists” made their way to a New Mexico desert during the weekend for a rare peek at the testing site of the first atomic bomb blast 70 years ago. Credit Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times As the 70th anniversary of the test approaches in July, interest in Trinity Site has surged, bringing more visitors to places — test sites, bunkers, museums — connected to the weapons. In Wyoming, state officials are proceeding with plans to turn a relic of the Cold War, a boarded-up missile facility, into a tourist attraction. “We’re in a period where it’s now becoming nostalgia,” said Sharon Weinberger, a co-author of “A Nuclear Family Vacation,” who has visited sites in the Marshall Islands and Iran. Trinity Site, declared a national historic landmark in 1975, has essentially become a monument. A black obelisk made of lava rock marks where the bomb was detonated. An old ranch house, about two miles away, is where scientists assembled the weapon. (The name Trinity Site is believed to be derived from a John Donne poem, delivered by J. Robert Oppenheimer, a leader of the Manhattan Project and a father of the atomic bomb.) The site bears few visible scars from the explosion: A glasslike material called trinitite, made by sand melted in the heat of the blast, is still scattered on the grounds (and was being sold by a vendor outside the gate for $20 a piece). But there is no crater to climb into or scorched earth visible. “You just see some good pasture,” said Merle Burton, 79, who drove up from Deming, N.M. “That’s not what you expect.” Image A visitor tested the ground for radiation. Credit Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times The appeal of the site is linked largely to its history as the birthplace of nuclear weapons and the debate generated by the technology. The nuclear hysteria of the Cold War and even the recent agreement over Iran’s nuclear program can be traced to Trinity Site. “The atomic age started right here,” Mr. Simpson said. “This is kind of the mecca,” said Cammy Montoya, a spokeswoman for the White Sands Missile Range. “This is the first. This is the marking point.” Many approached the site with a kind of reverence, acknowledging a conflict between being impressed by the ingenuity required to create the technology and the fear of its destructive power. As home to the testing site and the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico also takes considerable state pride in the nuclear program. “It felt, for me, like a pilgrimage,” said Janet Gagliano, 54, from Albuquerque. “It was the beginning of something that changed the history of mankind. It’s humbling, overwhelming, and the whole landscape is so amazing — the vastness of the space. I can see why they picked here.” Lon Burnam, who traveled from Fort Worth, Tex., is a different kind of nuclear tourist. Over the years, Mr. Burnam, an activist, has taken part in demonstrations at the Nevada test site, at a nuclear plant in Kansas and in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the home of a national laboratory. “We’ve certainly not been good stewards of what we’ve created,” said Mr. Burnam, 61, a former state legislator in Texas. Image Children played in a blast containment vessel. Credit Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times “You wonder how many people are out here out of curiosity,” he added, taking stock of the crowd, “and how many will internalize the fact we have the capability to destroy our species.” Outside the missile range, a group of local residents led a small protest, claiming they are living with, and dying from, the health effects of the tests decades later. Chris Morgan, who had traveled from San Luis Obispo, Calif., sat on the ground near the perimeter of the site, jotting down his observations in a notebook. From his vantage point, he took in the groups waiting for their turn for a picture next to the obelisk and the few who were roaming around, bent at the waist, scouring the ground for trinitite. “It’s young and old — all races and generations. It’s neat to see, really, a cross section come out,” he said. “They want to be here to experience the history.” He has visited hundreds of national parks, collecting stamps from each one and filling stacks of Moleskine notebooks, but this was more significant. Mr. Morgan, 42, has wanted to visit Trinity Site for 15 years. “It’s nice to sit back and let it sink in, and really get a sense of where you’re at — you get to feel the wind, feel the sun and see the mountains,” he said. “It’s so important for people to get here and touch and feel a place like this.”

Historic preservation
Nuclear weapon
White Sands Missile Range
Travel,Tourism


Coeuré of E.C.B. Says ‘Stars Are Aligned’ for Stimulus Measures

Abstract: DAVOS, Switzerland — A top official with the European Central Bank on Friday defended its long-awaited economic stimulus program, saying it would be more effective than critics say because it coincides with other favorable developments, like the plunge in oil prices. “The stars are aligned,” Benoît Cœuré, a member of the central bank’s executive board, said during an interview at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here. “We now have a situation where the environment is much more positive than a few months, or even a few weeks, ago.” Mr. Cœuré was responding to criticism that the large-scale bond-buying plan announced on Thursday was too late to lift the eurozone out of stagnation. The central bank will buy 60 billion euros, or about $69 billion, a month in government bonds, a form of money-printing intended to push down interest rates and restore the flow of credit to businesses and households. Skeptics have questioned whether the benefits of the so-called quantitative easing measures, which have been relatively successful in the United States, would reach countries like Italy, where most businesses get credit from banks. In the United States, companies usually get credit from the capital markets, by selling corporate bonds, which respond more readily to quantitative easing. Until recently, Mr. Cœuré said, low interest rates in the eurozone were not being passed on to bank customers, but that is changing. “That channel is gradually being unclogged” because banks are healthier, he said, citing recent data from the European Central Bank that shows improvements in conditions for lending. “We can see that easier funding conditions are now being passed to households and companies.” Quantitative easing will also make it easier for lower oil prices to have a positive effect on the eurozone economy, Mr. Cœuré said. The 60 percent drop in oil prices since June, to about $49 a barrel for Brent crude, the international benchmark, has been a double-edged sword for the eurozone. Cheaper oil means that companies and individuals have more money to spend on other things, which is good for growth. But there is also the risk that cheaper oil will contribute to very low inflation. If people delay purchases because they expected prices to fall further, lower sales would undercut company profits and prompt firms to dismiss workers or cut wages — a vicious circle known as deflation . “The lower oil price had potential to have negative collateral effects,” Mr. Cœuré said. “This has been taken care of yesterday. Now we are left with the positive effect of the low oil price.” There have been tentative signs of improvement in the eurozone economy, though not enough to erase fears of deflation and stagnant growth. Purchasing managers in the 19 countries of the eurozone reported modest improvements in indicators including output, new orders, backlogs and employment, according to a Markit Economics survey released on Friday. Markets continued their rally on Friday, with the yields on eurozone bonds falling, European stocks climbing more than 1.5 percent and the euro falling against the dollar to about $1.12. Mark J. Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said on Friday that the European Central Bank needed to put in place quantitative easing measures to push inflation toward the official target of just below 2 percent. “There is a risk of persistently low inflation in Europe,” Mr. Carney said in a separate interview, “and so additional stimulus was absolutely appropriate.”

European Central Bank
Quantitative easing
Government bond
Euro


Trojan Teams Up With MTV Again to Promote Condom Use, and the Brand

Abstract: LIKE a couple seeking to spend more time together, the Trojan condom brand and the MTV cable channel are extending a partnership with a campaign, created internally at MTV, that will run online as well as on MTV and several channels that are MTV siblings under the Viacom umbrella. The comparison of the partnership to an amorous relationship is apt because the goal of the campaign, which begins on Wednesday, is to encourage couples who see each other regularly to use condoms each time they have sex. The target for the campaign is the younger Americans who compose the so-called millennial generation that makes up so much of the MTV viewing audience. Trojan has “a long history of advertising on MTV” to reach younger adults, said Bruce Weiss, vice president of marketing for the Trojan brand at Church & Dwight in Ewing, N.J., and the channel carried Trojan spots when broadcast networks were reluctant to sell commercial time to condom makers. That hesitance has eased in recent years. “We’ve been on CBS,” Mr. Weiss said, “and NBC late night.” In addition to MTV, the campaign will appear on Viacom channels like BET, Comedy Central, MTV2, Spike TV and VH1. The central idea of the campaign is that a couple whose relationship has gone beyond the “friend zone” has entered a territory called the “co-zone,” short for “condom zone,” progressing to the point where they ought to consider using condoms regularly rather than occasionally or not at all. (If Rod Serling were around today, perhaps he would pitch CBS a series called “ The Twi-Zone .”) The centerpiece of the campaign is a series of three commercials, to be introduced one at a time on Wednesday, Saturday and Tuesday. Like a current series of commercials for AutoTrader.com , telling a continuing story about Bo and Luke Duke of “The Dukes of Hazzard” looking for a car to replace their 1969 Dodge Charger, the co-zone commercials also offer a continuing story, about a new relationship between a young man and a young woman. In the first commercial, the young man discusses the budding relationship — “We’re in the try-new-things-together zone” — with a male friend. In the second spot, the young woman discusses her status with two female friends; one asks if she is in the “reaching-into-the-bedside-drawer-at-11:30-at-night zone?” The third commercial brings the couple together for a chat about being in the “leaving-a-toothbrush-in-my-apartment zone.” That spot concludes with the young woman heading off to buy “a new toothbrush and some more condoms.” The young man says, “I love the condom zone,” to which she replies: “I heard that. I co-zone you, too.” All three commercials ends with an announcer declaring, “No matter what zone you’re in, use a condom every time” and a slide on screen describing the spots as being “in partnership with” MTV and Trojan. MTV will present the campaign as part of its public service efforts about sexual health, under the banner of “ It’s Your (Sex) Life ,” which offers information on subjects that include preventing pregnancy, condom use, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. The content of the campaign, including the commercials, will have its own web address, trojan.itsyoursexlife.com , and the campaign will also have a presence in social media like Twitter . According to the results of a new survey by Trojan of consumers 18 to 34, although 80 percent agree that condom use is important, only 35 percent say they always use one. “So we asked how we could extend the condom window,” Mr. Weiss said. The commercials “are fun and, most important, they normalize condoms” he added, which is necessary because “in this country, there are a lot of hang-ups about sex.” “Among the millennials we’ve shown them to, the feedback is that the ads seem very real, conversational,” Mr. Weiss said. While the commercials depict a heterosexual couple, if the campaign is successful, “we can see other versions,” he added, with a same-sex couple. The commercials were produced by the MTV promotions creative team, which works with marketers for campaigns that run on the channel. Ads for Trojan are typically created by Colangelo Synergy Marketing , an agency in Darien, Conn. The Trojan target “is our audience,” said Tina Exarhos, executive vice president for marketing and creative of MTV in New York. “When you’re 18 years old, you’re having sex, thinking about having sex or worried about having sex.” “We’ve been in a productive partnership with Trojan over the years,” Ms. Exarhos said, and the genesis for the campaign was the brand’s “interest in tackling a more pro-social message when it comes to condom use” rather than additional product ads. “One thing we were most concerned about was figuring out the right entry point” for the campaign, she added, so it would be focused on “being safe” during “the early stages of a relationship” but would not “be scary.” “The co-zone fits how people talk,” Ms. Exarhos said. “It’s a fun approach, but we hope it gets people to think about condom use.” To support the campaign, Trojan is increasing the amount of money it planned to spend with MTV. The budget is difficult to quantify because the commercials will run in time that MTV devotes to commercials and to public service messages. Trojan spent $10.2 million in the first quarter of 2014 to advertise in all major media, including MTV, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, compared with $5.9 million in the same period a year ago.

advertising,marketing
Viacom Media Networks
Church & Dwight
Condom
Birth control


Police Said to Have Assaulted Rights Lawyer in China

Abstract: SHANGHAI — One of China’s best-known human rights lawyers has been repeatedly beaten by police officers outside his home here in recent days, according to his wife and associates. The lawyer, Zheng Enchong, who has lived under house arrest for several months, has been seriously injured by plainclothes police officers who, in one attack, knocked him down, then repeatedly hoisted his body parallel to the ground and dropped him on the concrete, people who have visited him said. He has been seen walking with a limp. In a telephone interview, Mr. Zheng’s wife, Jiang Meili, described another beating, which she said took place as her husband tried to leave his house for church. “A guy stopped him and pushed him to the ground,” Ms. Jiang said. “One man held him by the neck, while another kneed him in the stomach. Then five or six men carried him back upstairs, beating him in the elevator, too.” Shanghai police officials declined to comment. Ms. Jiang said the beatings represented a sharp escalation of a recent campaign by the Shanghai authorities to silence Mr. Zheng. Associates who have spoken with him say the beatings started after he began advising residents who had organized a campaign against a high-tech railroad that would cut through middle-class areas of the city. Others said Mr. Zheng had also recently spoken of details of what he called evidence of high-level corruption in Shanghai involving real estate speculation and influence peddling. “They’ve been very annoyed by this,” Mr. Zheng’s wife said. The government is struggling with competing priorities as it works to put on its best face for the world as the host of the Olympic Games. It appears eager to eliminate dissent but would like to avoid being tagged as a gross violator of human rights. Mr. Zheng’s corruption allegations, according to other human rights lawyers, have focused on Huang Ju, a deputy prime minister who died last year, as well as sons of former President Jiang Zemin. Mr. Jiang, who was once Communist Party secretary for the city, developed Shanghai into a personal power base. For more than a year, Shanghai has been the scene of an embarrassing municipal corruption scandal. Its highest-ranked figure to fall is Chen Liangyu, a Communist Party secretary who has been in detention since September 2006.