TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, generate a short title of the document. The title should convey the main idea/event/topic about which the document is being written. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller broke his own record this week for guilty pleas. On Tuesday  Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan appeared in federal court and admitted he had lied to investigators about his contacts with  Donald Trump's former campaign vice chairman  Rick Gates .
On Friday   Gates himself  appeared before a federal judge and confirmed that  he  is changing  his  plea to guilty.  He  had been fighting the case brought against  him  and the former Trump campaign chairman  Paul Manafort  which alleged they laundered millions of dollars and broke other laws related to their work for clients in Ukraine.
 Gates  and Manafort have not been charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by "impairing  obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes." That was the charge Mueller leveled at 13 Russians and three Russian companies he says did interfere with the election.
Or the special counsel's office could be laying down one brick in a larger structure. At the very least   Gates'  future testimony against  his  longtime business partner raises the likelihood that Manafort could be convicted of some or all of the charges  he  continues fighting.
Manafort and his lawyers know this. So one of Mueller's strategies in getting  Gates  to turn state's evidence might be to persuade Manafort to do the same and tell what he knows about other people in the Trump campaign orbit.
Or evidence from  Gates  might be what the special counsel's office needs to build a case against Manafort for conspiring in the 2016 Russian interference effort. Or  after years of working with Manafort   Gates  might have other evidence that would permit Mueller to bring new charges against Manafort.
Mueller announced a new indictment in Manafort's case on Friday evening. After  Gates  appeared in federal court Friday to enter his plea  Manafort continued to maintain his innocence and said he remained committed "to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me."

SOLUTION: The Russia Investigations: More Pleas More Charges â Any More Preparation? : NPR

PROBLEM: But no matter who wins the national election  few believe that Greece can go on without a major overhaul of its government. In Thessaloniki   Mr. Boutaris  has been trying to do that on a local scale for 18 months  bringing  his  experience as a businessman to bear on the bloated work force  the tangled regulations and the huge debt that afflicts the city  much as it does the country.
Many of  his  efforts have prompted city workers to strike and protest. But  he  is undeterred. Nor does  he  have any patience for the shop owners who have ignored  his  efforts to clean up the look of this gracious but somewhat shabby city by enforcing rules about modest signage.
âThere was one guy who said to me  he  wants Thessaloniki to be like Hong Kong â  Mr. Boutaris  said with a shake of  his  head and an expletive. âWell  I said  âI donât want to be like Hong Kong. You think your business will be destroyed because you donât have a sign on the fifth floor? I donât think so.â â
Thessaloniki was about $126 million in debt when  Mr. Boutaris  a successful winemaker   was sworn into office. ( His  predecessor has since been indicted  along with 17 others. They are accused of stealing almost $38 million.) The city was doing a poor job of delivering basic services  most importantly in garbage collection. It was losing manufacturing jobs to Bulgaria. And as far as  Mr. Boutaris  was concerned  Thessaloniki was far from meeting its potential as a tourist attraction and a port city that offers easy access to the Balkans.
 Mr. Boutaris  has hardly solved all the issues. But  he  is already widely credited with increasing tourism  which  he  sees as a way of generating revenues without the need for expensive investment. Brushing aside centuries of tense relations with Turkey   Mr. Boutaris  set off to Istanbul to initiate a campaign to attract tourists.
Shortly afterward  Turkish Airlines resumed flights here  and the number of Turks visiting the city â the birthplace of Turkeyâs first president  Mustafa Kemal Ataturk â doubled last year.  Mr. Boutaris  has also reached out to Israel because the Thessaloniki region  with a population of about one million  once had a large Jewish population. Cruise ships now stop here more frequently.
At the same time   Mr. Boutaris  has taken measures large and small to rein in the budget.  He  hired an auditor to get to the bottom of the cityâs finances  which until recently still involved cash transactions into city pension funds. (Employees were handed stacks of bills and told to make deposits. This is said to have played a large roll in the indictments.)  He  has forced workers to account for their overtime  started a recycling program and traded in  his  limousine for an economy model. So far   Mr. Boutaris  has reduced costs by 30 percent.
âWhat I am trying to do is to open all fronts and create a huge turbulence â  Mr. Boutaris  said. âWhen you propose the slightest change  people say no. If you do it all at once  it is a different thing. Something has to break through.â
âAnd you cannot step back â  he  added. âIf you step back  you lose.â
 Mr. Boutaris  is a rarity in Greece  where most people who seek higher office are career politicians.  He  won election by just 300 votes.  He  is unusually candid  by Greek standards  about  himself .  He  has admitted to being an alcoholic and no longer drinks. And  he  was divorced for seven years and then remarried  his  wife.
Residents here talk about how approachable  he  is compared with the usual politician.  He  rides a bicycle around town and sits in cafes like everyone else  debating the cityâs problems. In fact   Mr. Boutaris  denies  he  is a politician.  He  says running the city is just a project  something to keep  him  busy now that  he  has turned  his  wine business over to  his  three children.
âMy wife said  âYou need to find something else to do â â  Mr. Boutaris  says of  his  decision to go into politics.
 HE  initially joined the Communist Party  but soon resigned.  He  considers  himself  a socialist  but belongs to no party.  His  goal   he  said  is to make Thessaloniki a place where businesses can flourish. But  he  is not happy with the local merchants. The small shopkeepers   he  said  do not want to pay taxes and complain that the malls are undercutting their business.
 Mr. Boutaris  says they must stay open later to compete with the malls  which are open until 9 p.m. But the shop owners are not interested. Another expletive.
Before taking office   Mr. Boutaris  was known for  his  winery and for establishing a preserve to protect bears and wolves.  He  says  his  intent was to preserve the forest  but the bears were an easier selling point. âEverybody likes bears â  he  said. âThe forest would have been harder.â
The garbage trucks are also a problem. More than half are out for repairs at any given time. So  Mr. Boutaris  has decided to contract the maintenance to a private company. City workers promptly went on strike  fearing further privatization. âIt will be settled soon â  he  said. âIâm 70 years old  and I believe I know what I am doing.â

SOLUTION: Thessaloniki Tackles Greeceâs Problems in Miniature

PROBLEM: A Taliban-linked faction has freed American  Caitlan Coleman  and  her  Canadian husband  Joshua Boyle  who were abducted more than five years ago in Afghanistan and had three children in captivity. (Joyce Lee/The Washington Post)
It must have felt like such an exciting time:  Caitlan Coleman  and  her  husband  Joshua Boyle  were embarking on a six-month adventure through Central Asia.
But their exuberant trip ended in a nightmare: In the fall of 2012  they were kidnapped by Taliban fighters. Over the next five years  relatives and friends could do little but pray for the couple's well-being. Hope came in the form of short video clips released by the captors. It was through that footage that the couple's families got to glimpse  Coleman  and Boyle's three children  born in captivity.
Here's a look at how  Coleman  and Boyle's ordeal unfolded:
July 4  2012: Shortly before she hopped on a plane   Coleman  sent an email to her friends. “Our flight leaves at 4 p.m. " she wrote. “Only God knows exactly where it will lead or what all can be accomplished  seen  experienced or learned while we travel. So we put ourselves in His hands.”
Coleman and Boyle planned to spend several months hiking through Tajikistan  Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan  the “safe ’stans ”  Coleman  told  her  parents.  She  promised that  she  wouldn't go to Afghanistan  though Boyle was fascinated by the country.  Coleman  and Boyle had another secret  too —  Coleman  was pregnant.
September 2012:  Coleman  emailed with friends every several weeks. In one missive   she  wrote:
 Caitlan Coleman  and Joshua Boyle in an undated photo. (Coleman Family/AP)
Oct. 8  2012: Boyle sent an email to  Coleman 's parents  saying they were in an “unsafe” part of Afghanistan. The next day  the couple made their final withdrawal from their bank account. Soon after  they were abducted in Afghanistan's Wardak province  a Taliban stronghold southwest of the capital. Officials believe they were eventually moved to Pakistan.
June 4  2014: Coleman's family released the two videos it received in 2013 of the couple with their children. As The Washington Post reported at the time: “The videos offer the first and only clues about what happened to  Caitlan Coleman  and Joshua Boyle after  they  lost touch with  their  families 20 months ago while traveling in a mountainous region near the capital  Kabul.”
The video clips were emailed to  Coleman 's father in July and September by an Afghan man who said he had ties to the Taliban. In one  Coleman — her head covered — appeals to “my president  Barack Obama” for help. “I would ask that my family and my government do everything that they can to bring my husband  child and I to safety and freedom ”  Coleman   then 28  says.
November 2015:  Coleman 's family received a letter stating that she has given birth to a second child in captivity. “I pray to hear from you again  to hear how everybody is doing ” the letter said.
January 2016: Canadian officials brokered a deal to free Colin Rutherford  another Canadian held captive by militants  along with  Coleman  and Boyle. Rutherford was freed  but the couple and their children remained in custody.
This image from video provided by the  Coleman  family shows Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle. The videos offered the first clue about what happened to  Coleman  and Boyle after they lost touch with their family. ( Coleman  family/AP)
June 2016:  Coleman 's family sent a videotaped message to the Taliban during the holy month of Ramadan  thanking the militant group for keeping their daughter alive and pleading for her safe return. “We desperately want to be with and hold our daughter and grandsons ” James Coleman said in the video. “As a man  father and now grandfather  I am asking you to show mercy and release my daughter  her husband and their beautiful children.”
December 2016: The Taliban released a fourth video of the family. “We have waited since 2012 for someone to understand our problems  the Kafkaesque nightmare in which we find ourselves ”  Coleman  says in the video. “My children have seen their mother defiled. We ask  in our collective 14th year of prison  that the governments on both sides reach some agreement to allow us freedom.”

SOLUTION:
Inside Caitlin Coleman and Joshua Boyle's ordeal as Taliban prisoners