Colombian army killed civilians to fake battlefield success, rights group says

Soldiers take part in a ceremony at the Jose Maria Cordoba military school in Bogota on June 3. (Guillermo Legaria/AFP/Getty Images) In a twisted attempt to show battlefield success against FARC rebels, the Colombian military killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians between 2002 and 2008, falsely depicting them as slain combatants, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The killings, known as “false positives,” were the source of a huge scandal in 2008, but the new report alleges that the practice was far more extensive and systematic than previously known. Many of Colombia's highest-ranking military officials either condoned the practice or did nothing to stop it, according to the rights group. “Under pressure from superiors to show ‘positive’ results and boost body counts in their war against guerrillas, soldiers and officers abducted victims or lured them to remote locations under false pretenses — such as with promises of work — killed them, placed weapons on their lifeless bodies, and then reported them as enemy combatants killed in action,” the report states. The killings amount to “one of the worst episodes of mass atrocity in the Western Hemisphere in recent decades,” according to the group. An advance copy of the report was provided to The Washington Post. Human Rights Watch investigators said they would announce their findings Wednesday in Bogota and present them to President Juan Manuel Santos, who is attempting to negotiate a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to end the hemisphere’s longest-running civil conflict. Members of the FARC-EP leftist guerrilla delegation arrive at the Convention Palace in Havana on Tuesday for peace talks with the Colombian government. (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images) The report comes at a time of flagging public support for the peace negotiations, now in their third year, taking place in Havana. The talks have made more progress than any previous attempt at armistice, but the two sides have yet to resolve key issues related to troop demobilization and what punishment, if any, the insurgents will face. False-positive killings allegedly peaked during the period described in the report, when then-President Álvaro Uribe escalated the fight against FARC and took back large swaths of rebel-held territory. Santos served as defense secretary under Uribe between 2006 and 2009, but the two men are now political archrivals. During that time, commanding officers placed heavy emphasis on “combat kills” as a measure of military


success, the report says, in some cases rewarding troops with cash payments and vacation time. Soldiers abducted rural peasants, drug addicts, the homeless and petty criminals, killing them and dressing them in combat fatigues, then filling out bogus battlefield reports to pad fatality numbers. “What makes these crimes unique is that they were not about eliminating political opponents or supposed guerrilla sympathizers; they were basically about killing civilians just to boost body count stats in the war on guerrillas,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch. “What this says about the conflict is that impunity has become so cemented in Colombia that the army believed it could get away with flagrant and systematic murder on a large scale,” he said. “Army officers clearly felt emboldened to kill civilians without any consequences.” The killings have subsided since 2008, when the false-positives scandal erupted after the abduction and killing of 19 young men from a Bogota slum. The army’s top commander was forced to resign, and three army generals and nearly a dozen officers were fired. Santos, then defense secretary, pledged to investigate. But the Human Rights Watch report says other military officers have been promoted since, despite evidence of extrajudicial killings under their command. Colombian prosecutors are investigating more than 3,000 allegations of false-positive killings, the report said. Although about 800 soldiers have been charged, most of them are lower-ranking. The report notes that the current head of Colombia’s armed forces and the top army official formerly led brigades that are alleged to have committed dozens of extrajudicial killings. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), a longtime critic of U.S. military aid flowing to Colombia despite evidence of rights violations, said that he was “deeply troubled” by the report and that it should force a new look at U.S. security assistance. “As we provided billions of dollars in aid to the Colombian army over many years, its troops systematically executed civilians,” Leahy said in a statement to The Post. “We have supported the Colombian military because the country has been threatened by an insurgency,” he said. “But unless Colombia’s military leaders are people of integrity, it will be difficult to continue to support an institution that engaged with impunity in a pattern of gross violations of human rights.” The report urges Santos and his government to do more to protect witnesses testifying in false positive cases, assign more prosecutors


D.C. news in brief

D.C. housing expo is Saturday at convention center The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development has scheduled a housing expo for homeowners, renters and small businesses from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Pl. NW. Highlights include foreclosure counseling; youth financial literacy training; workshops on financial fitness, aging in place, energy efficiency, decluttering and the home-buying process; and exhibits from community and government organizations, lenders, and real estate agents. For information or to register, go to dhcd.dc.gov. Martha’s Table to hold 11 food markets for schools Martha’s Table, a nonprofit provider of food, clothing and shelter for low-income residents, is hosting 11 food markets in July and August for families with children enrolled at selected schools. The markets will include seasonal fruit, vegetables and grains. A chef will cook and give out samples. The schools are Amidon-Bowen, Anne Beers, Hendley, Moten, Neval Thomas, Powell, D.C. Scholars Stanton, Smothers and Thomas Stone elementary schools; Cesar Chavez Public Charter School; and the Browne and John Burroughs education campuses. The group supports each school with monthly free food markets during the school year. Volunteers are needed to staff the markets and to prepare food for nightly meal distribution. Help is also needed in the thrift store, Martha’s Outfitters, at 2122 14th St. NW. For information, including market times and locations, go to marthastable.org. Signs required at construction sites with soil erosion Beginning next month, the D.C. Department of the Environment will require signs at construction sites that are under soil erosion and sediment control plans. The signs, which must be readable from a distance of 12 feet at each entrance, will tell people how to contact the agency if they see pollution from the site. The Consumer and Regulatory Affairs department will issue a limited number of pre-printed signs for approved erosion and sediment plans on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, go to ddoe.dc.gov. DDOE to hold open house on river restoration The D.C. Department of the Environment is having a free open house on the restoration of the District’s rivers from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School, 2427 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE. A 7 p.m. staff presentation will offer information on sources of pollution, cleanup programs and ways that the community can help. For information, go to ddoe.dc.gov. Day to foster respect


Montgomery County Animal Watch

These cases were received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Husky mix attacks poodle Chickens killed, dog shot to death “Citizen Pet of the Year” photo contest Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Dogs from the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation are available at the following location. To view dogs or for information on adopting or fostering cats, call 703-295-DOGS (3647) or see www.lostdogrescue.org. Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit www.awlmc.org. Gaithersburg — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Teardowns: Tearing apart or building up the neighborhood?

the Battery Park neighborhood in Bethesda. (Jan McNamara) Developers have every reason to come to Battery Park — the Zip code’s median 2014 sales price of $447,000 has increased more than 17 percent in 2015 to $525,000. (Jan McNamara) Glenn Carle, who sold his 1,800-square-foot Dutch Colonial in Battery Park to owners who knocked it down, is clearly on the side of these original homes. After a bidding war, the former CIA officer sold the three-bedroom house in 2013 for $895,000 and was furious to see it razed. He says he had no idea that was the buyer’s intention and would have sold to the second-highest bidder had he known their plan was to tear down the house he had bought in 2006 and brought up his two children from their middle school to high school years. He fondly recalls how almost every winter night he would build fires in his living room fireplace and how he and his family grew vegetables in their back yard. That garden is now largely swallowed up by a much larger house, and he argues that some builders are “lacking in soul.” “The houses in Battery Park are almost all pre-World War II construction, which is more solid and has a historical aesthetic and harmony and integrity to it which is different from a modern house that is designed first to provide a parking garage for the cars,” he says, still exasperated by the ordeal. “Then you design a living space around that garage, so you have these philistine cultural encrustations that have no taste whatsoever.” Carle has since moved to Boston, but he worries that the uniqueness of his old neighborhood is being destroyed one house at a time. “It’s the closest thing to a New England town in the Washington area,” he says. His house, he says, was “one of the original homes in the development of Battery Park. It had character; it was approaching 100 years old. You come in with a McMansion, and these things are just boils. It’s nice to have a big chair and an IMAX screen in your den, but, nonetheless, it’s tasteless.” He concedes that his beloved Battery Park doesn’t deserve special historic designation, it merely needs to stay the same or as close to the same as possible. The quirks of these older homes give Battery Park its charm, Carle argues, and the uniformity of


How to lift — and reimpose — sanctions key to Iran nuclear deal

official said. “We’re not talking about or putting on the table sanctions with respect to human rights, censorship, support for terrorism, or any of the sanctions that relate to Iran’s malign interventions in regions in Syria, Iraq or Yemen more recently.” President Obama can waive certain sanctions or issue broad licenses (as was done with Burma) without seeking legislative changes from a Congress skeptical about a nuclear deal with Iran. That will avoid a confrontation now and enable the administration to quickly reimpose sanctions if necessary. Still, there are limits to what the United States is willing to do. Reaching a deal, the senior administration official said, will be “not a moment for major sanctions relief. It will be a moment for preparatory steps to begin.” He said that in many respects, the speed with which it implements the agreement will dictate the pace of sanctions relief. The administration is writing language for a new U.N. Security Council resolution in such a way that the United States or its European allies could later reimpose sanctions by exercising an effective veto over suspending sanctions if violations take place rather than giving Russia or China veto power over reimposing sanctions, said sources familiar with the efforts. The United Nations will continue sanctions for certain Iranian entities to restrict sales of ballistic missiles and certain conventional weapons and will create a procurement channel for sensitive dual-use technologies, the sources said. A new U.N. resolution could enable Iran to say that sanctions were lifted immediately even if the terms of the resolution do not take effect immediately. Some experts worry that the administration will not make those partial snap-back measures strong enough. “The reimposition of sanctions by the U.N., by the U.S. and E.U. must be broad, comprehensive and forceful in order to be a powerful deterrent to Iran,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former Treasury official dealing with sanctions. “Half measures provide half the incentive to comply — or less,” she said. “Certainly a good agreement will have layers of consequences for different violations,” said Kelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, an independent group. “You certainly don’t want to end up in a death-by-paper-cut situation where violations go unpunished. But you shouldn’t go in other directions where you end up reimposing sanctions with severe economic consequences for something


European owners of Giant, Food Lion plan to combine

Dutch retailer Royal Ahold NV, which operates U.S. supermarket chains Stop & Shop and Giant, has agreed to merge with its Belgian counterpart Delhaize Group, which operates the Hannaford and Food Lion stores in the eastern United States. (Steve Helber/AP) The European owners of grocery stores Giant, Stop & Shop and Food Lion said Wednesday they plan to combine, creating what would be one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States. Ahold, based in the Netherlands, will acquire Belgium-based Delhaize to become the fifth-largest chain of U.S. grocery stores, according to retail research firm Conlumino. The companies run more than 2,000 grocery stores in the United States, stretching from Georgia to Maine. The deal comes as sales growth at many supermarkets has slowed or flat-lined and margins have slimmed. Grocery stores are increasingly pitted against growing discount chains such as Aldi, Web-based delivery services and retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart that are expanding their grocery businesses. Industry analysts say the deal isn’t likely to do much to boost the companies’ sales, but it should cut costs. Ahold CEO Dick Boer, right, and Delhaize CEO Frans Muller, center, arrive at the Ahold headquarters in Zaandam, the Netherlands, 24 June 2015. (Evert Elzinga/EPA) Ahold and Delhaize are valued at a combined $29 billion, based on their stock prices at the end of trading Tuesday. They expect the deal to be finished in the middle of 2016, pending regulatory approval, and they will take the name Ahold Delhaize. Between the United States and Europe, the two have 375,000 employees in 6,500 stores that attract 50 million customers per week. In the United States, Ahold owns Giant, Stop & Shop and the online grocery service Peapod. Delhaize owns Hannaford and Food Lion. Those stores are expected to keep their names. Executives at Ahold and Delhaize said on a conference call with investors Wednesday that it was too soon to say if they would close stores, but Frans Muller, chief executive of Delhaize, said the two companies don’t have much overlap in the United States. Ahold’s stores are clustered in the Mid-Atlantic, while Delhaize’s are farther north and south. The companies estimate that they will be able to save about $560 million a year once they’ve been together three years, mostly by having more leverage with suppliers and slimming their overhead. In a flat market, the companies say that should help them


How to figure out the value of your home

valuation data treasure trove. It is available online at http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/otr/publication/attachments/Binder2016finaldraftnumbered.pdf. The report is broken down into sub-neighborhoods and provides guidance to the District’s appraisers on how to value literally all the factors which determine the assessed value. Assessed value is determined by the District on an annual basis in order to assess and collect real property taxes. This approach takes vast amounts of data into account and assigns values to all major housing elements. For example, it values the second full bath at $12,500; each additional half bath at $8,125; a fireplace at $8,000; a finished basement will be valued at $55 per square foot; an open porch increases your home’s value by $22 per square foot, whereas a fully enclosed porch fetches $55 per square foot in additional assessed value. Even floor coverings can cause your assessed value to vary widely. Carpet adds $2.17 per square foot to your home’s base value, whereas ceramic tile adds a whopping $8.53 per square foot, even more than hardwood, which the District values at $7.17 per square foot. The main drawback to relying on assessed value to determine fair market value is that the data used by assessors for taxation purposes can be somewhat dated. The 2016 ARM data is based on closed sales through year-end 2014. The other drawback is the fact that District assessors do not field inspect every property every year. If the scientific approach appeals to you, but you do not want to do your own number crunching, you can always hire an independent appraiser to do that for you. The costs are nominal at about $450. Most appraisals can be completed in a week or so. Your independent appraiser will have the market data, and your cooperation in allowing him to carefully inspect all the interior improvements that you have made over the years. No home pricing discussion is complete without addressing online valuation Web sites such as Trulia or Zillow. These sites historically have had an abysmal error rate (between 18 and 32 percent) for their online, computer-generated valuation. Recently, they have taken steps to increase their accuracy by entering into agreements which allow them to get near real-time data directly from the various multiple listing services. As recently as June 10, they were still reporting an overall 8.3 percent median error rate nationwide. As Zillow’s own site says “the Zestimate isn’t intended to replace a


Mr. Obama’s visit to Ethiopia sends the wrong message on democracy

National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) Chairman Prof. Merga Bekana announces preliminary results to the media in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, May 27, 2015. (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) “AFRICA DOESN’T need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.” Those were President Obama’s words when he addressed Ghana’s parliament in July 2009, during his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president. The historic speech, watched around the globe, was an optimistic clarion call to the leaders on the continent from the son of a Kenyan. “First, we must support strong and sustainable democratic governments,” Mr. Obama said. The president seems to have forgotten that speech. Last week, the White House announced that, while traveling to Kenya next month, Mr. Obama also will stop in Ethiopia, the first such visit by a sitting U.S. president to the country of 94 million. It’s almost unfathomable that he would make time for an entrenched human rights abuser such as Ethiopia while cold-shouldering the nation that just witnessed a historic, peaceful, democratic change of power: Nigeria. Administration officials justify the trip by citing the United States’ long-standing cooperation with Ethiopia on issues of regional security and the country’s accelerating economic growth. Ethiopia is a major recipient of U.S. development assistance, and the African Union has its headquarters there. But it also stands out in Africa for its increasingly harsh repression and its escalating chokehold on independent media and political dissent. Since June 2014, 34 journalists have been forced to flee the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Ethiopia is also one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists. The administration already undermined Ethiopia’s struggling journalists and democracy advocates in April, when Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said Ethiopia has “moved forward in strengthening its democracy. Every time there is an election, it gets better and better.” Shortly after her statement, the ruling party held an election in which it secured 100 percent of the parliamentary seats. That was indeed an improvement upon its 2010 performance, when it won 99.6 percent of seats. In the months ahead of the May 24 polls, opposition party members and leaders were harassed and arrested. The Ethiopian government refused to allow independent election observers, except from the African Union. Since the election, two opposition members and one candidate have been murdered. The government has denied any responsibility for the killings. Meanwhile, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation and Read more: The Post’s


Hearings offer some answers, raise new questions on Metro smoke incident

I think that adversely affects the safety of the whole system,” Hart said. “Who’s in charge here is not clear. Who can do what is not clear. . . . I think that lack of clarity exacerbates the problem.” As for contradictions, James Curley, the operator of the train that encountered the tunnel smoke, told investigators that the train eventually lost power after stopping in the tunnel, according to a transcript of his debriefing by investigators. But before the train lost power, Curley said, there was a period of several minutes during which he could have returned to the L’Enfant station had train controllers been able to make room in the station by moving a train occupying platform space. However, during Tuesday’s hearing, Hercules Ballard, a top Metro rail official, told investigators that Curley’s train lacked sufficient power to return to the station. The investigation into the deadly Jan. 12 smoke incident near L’Enfant Plaza Metro station is still underway. Wednesday's National Transportation Safety Board hearing centered on employees' comfort with reporting safety concerns. “I did not get clarity on that in the course of the hearings,” Hart said. “And so our investigators will have to dig deeper on that one.” The most contentious exchange Wednesday — between an NTSB member and a Metro union official — concerned Metro’s “Close Call” reporting program, which allows transit workers to anonymously report safety concerns without fear of anyone being disciplined, except in certain situations. The close-call program, a product of negotiations between Metro and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, was set up so that Metro could identify and correct safety problems that might go undetected by automated monitoring systems. Except for cases involving criminal behavior, injuries, drug use, intentional property damage and other exceptions, no disciplinary action results from the reports, Metro said. But James M. Madaras, a member of the union’s executive board, said during the hearing that some Metro employees are leery of the program, worried that supervisors or fellow workers might retaliate if they learn about a report. “That’s the biggest battle that we fight every day. . . . People don’t want to talk to each other because of the fear of retribution,” Madaras said. He said the situation became worse this year when Metro introduced a “discipline matrix,” or formal punishment guidelines for work infractions, which the union opposed. “I just don’t think you can tell me


You’re going where? Kalamazoo is tired of your Creedence Clearwater jokes

showing of the 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco picture “Xanadu.” Its menu of gourmet snacks includes cinema-inspired cocktails like The Dude’s White Russian, plus a large selection of craft beers from nationally recognized local breweries. Foremost among those breweries is Bell’s, which has been rated one of the best in the country by RateBeer and Beer Advocate despite being distributed in only 20 states. A regular stop on Midwest beer-tourist itineraries, the Bell’s taproom, called the Eccentric Cafe, is just a few blocks from the Drafthouse. The place is decked out in an eclectic mix of exotic masks, quirky stained-glass artworks and vintage beer ads. Its chalkboard menu lists dozens of experimental brews, including wild-fermented brown ales and an entire series inspired by an orchestral suite by composer Gustav Holst. “We always wanted to be that other place that you can go that’s not home or work or church, where you can hang out and be comfortable and socialize,” says owner Larry Bell, who adds that his first wife named the Eccentric Cafe after his personality. I’ve heard stories about Bell’s idiosyncratic “holidays,” like Adult Prom and Eccentric Day, when regulars compete to see who can dress in the most bizarre costume. In March, David and I lined up outside the brewery at 9 a.m., joining dozens of Bell’s die-hards who took the day off work to celebrate the long-awaited release of the summer beer Oberon. Every time I visit, the number of breweries here seems to multiply, each one hoping to capitalize on what Larry Bell started. Craft beer is now such big business that both Western Michigan University and the local community college recently announced degree programs in sustainable brewing, beginning this fall. A vibrant foodie movement blooms alongside the beer scene — not surprising, given Kalamazoo’s location in the heart of Michigan’s agricultural belt, which is one of the most diverse growing regions in the country. At the Saturday farmers market, which dates to the 1940s, local produce runs the gamut from kale to heirloom tomatoes to Honeycrisp apples. This bounty makes its way from the farm to the kitchens of locavore eateries such as Food Dance, where nearly everything comes from small-scale Michigan suppliers, be it the pastured chicken or the maple syrup that’s poured over the house-baked brioche French toast. It’ll get some competition this summer with the opening of Principle, a new locally sourced, seasonal-menu


Elon Musk’s SpaceX is on a roll, but here’s why the pressure is really on

to do it. United Launch Alliance’s new rocket, the Vulcan, is being designed so that its booster engines would be captured in midair and then reused, for example. The same tack is taken by Bezos’s Blue Origin space company. Its New Shepard vehicle would launch, then return to Earth, touching down vertically. While many will be watching the landing of SpaceX’s upcoming mission, the launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., will also be tense after the two recent failures. The Orbital ATK flight was carrying 1,650 pounds of crew supplies and food. The Progress 59 had 110 pounds of oxygen and 926 pounds of water. But Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman, said that the agency “is not worried” about the crew aboard the station, which includes American Scott Kelly, who is spending a year in space. “They supply the station with all these contingencies in mind,” Schierholz said. A NASA slide from an April presentation said that with current food levels, the space station would reach what NASA calls “reserve level” on July 24 and run out by Sept. 5, according to SpaceNews. Schierholz said, however, that the supplies would last until the fall, but she could not provide a precise date. Even if something were to go wrong with the SpaceX flight, there are eight more scheduled this year, including several this summer, “so there are plenty of ways to ensure the station continues to be well-supplied,” she said. On, July 3, the Russians are scheduled to fly another Progress 59 to the station before three more crew members arrive later in the month. Then, in August, a Japanese HTV-5 is scheduled to send more supplies, followed by another SpaceX launch in September. Orbital is also expected to fly sometime later this year in what would be the first flight since the explosion. SpaceX has surprised many industry officials with its quick and growing success. In addition to the NASA contracts, worth billions, it recently was certified by the Pentagon to deliver national security payloads to space. But it hasn’t been easy. Last summer, an unmanned test rocket blew up over Texas, and Musk acknowledged the risks inherent in spaceflight. “Rockets are tricky,” he tweeted at the time. And he still gets nervous every time one of his Falcon 9 rockets ignites. “Still so damn intense,” he tweeted after a recent launch. “Looking [forward] to it feeling normal one day.”


A Middle East on fire

Was French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius serious when he warned that the Middle East could be set “ablaze” if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved soon [“France seeks bigger role in Mideast,” news, June 22]? The Middle East is already ablaze. Over the past few years, more people have died in warfare and terrorist attacks in the Middle East than the total number of Israelis and Palestinians who died in all warfare and terrorist attacks during the past half-century. Relatively speaking, one can consider Israel and Palestinian territories an oasis of peace within a blazing regional conflict that is out of control and has nothing to do with Israel or the Palestinians. World leaders’ focus on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has led to the neglect of the more serious conflicts now raging in the Middle East. Albert Arking, Potomac


Kerry begins final round of Iran nuclear talks

The two top diplomats from the U.S. and Iran say hard work is still needed as they meet in Vienna for what could be their final negotiations toward an Iran nuclear agreement. VIENNA — The two men and their negotiating teams talked with one another for nearly three hours in a small meeting room at the posh Palais Coburg hotel. Asked whether they were optimistic that they would be successful this week, Kerry said, “Well, I think it’s fair to say that we’re hopeful. We have a lot of hard work to do. There are some very tough issues, and I think we all look forward to getting down to the final efforts here to see whether or not a deal is possible. I think everybody would like to see an agreement. But we have to work through some difficult issues.” Zarif concurred but made it clear that large differences remain on several issues, known to include the pace of sanctions relief and what kind of access will be provided to international inspectors monitoring Iranian compliance. “I agree,” Zarif said. “Maybe not on the issues. But on the fact that we need to work really hard in order to be able to make progress and move forward. We are determined to do everything we can to be able to make this important milestone. Of course, that depends on a lot of things, and we’re going to work on it.” After the meeting with Zarif, Kerry was to meet later in the day with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. The negotiators are facing a deadline Tuesday for a final deal that aims to limit Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons and to ease sanctions that have been in place for decades. A framework agreement, reached April 2, outlines the basic elements of a deal, and it was hailed as a breakthrough. Since then, though, negotiators have been stuck on the precise details. Complicating matters, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently listed seven “major red lines” that appear to backtrack on what Iran is willing to concede. Khamenei insists that economic and banking sanctions must be lifted the day an agreement is concluded, not in phases as Iran is seen as living up to its commitments. And he has said that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will not have access to Iran’s nuclear scientists or military sites, hindering investigation


Animal Watch: A tiny survivor of an arboreal blaze

GREENBELT Among cases received by the Prince George’s County Animal Management Division.


Communication breakdowns undercut response in deadly Metro incident

seen coming from the southbound tunnel for the Green and Yellow Lines. Olson recalled saying, “We have a train trapped down there with patrons on board and I’m very concerned about a self-evacuation. We need to get evacuation of those patrons started immediately,” according to the documents released by the board. Chapman, Olson said, “looked over at his driver and then he said something to the effect of, ‘Well, I have to get my personnel down there to assess where the smoke’s coming from first.’ I again stated to him, I said, ‘We have passengers on that train that we need to get evacuated.’ He rolled up his window.” Olson told investigators that he felt it was a “shunning.” Chapman, the documents show, had a different account. He remembered being told “ ‘Well, we have an unknown fire somewhere; it’s creating this smoke condition.’ At this point, I’m starting to realize that they have a train stopped in the tunnel. Now we’re talking about this train car and he said, ‘Well, there’s people on it and we would like to try and move it back to the station.’ ” Chapman said his mind turned to the power line in the tunnel where his crews were headed. And he wasn’t certain that Metro understood the status of its own train and “whether it could be moved or not.” Safety investigators did not ask Chapman whether he rolled up his window. But Chapman said that “you can imagine that the environment is a little tricky to work under. And at times I just have to sort of shut down and say, okay, I have to concentrate on what’s going on right here, right now. And I think that can be taken the wrong way, shall we say?” The investigation into the deadly Jan. 12 smoke incident near L’Enfant Plaza Metro station is still underway. Wednesday's National Transportation Safety Board hearing centered on employees' comfort with reporting safety concerns. Far from shunning, Chapman said he thought the agencies at the scene were “cooperating” and said that “if they had trouble communicating with me, I really wasn’t aware of it.” During the two days of hearings last week, NTSB officials seemed incredulous at first responders’ inability to communicate, let alone cooperate. “Is there any equipment or any reason why [Olson] could not have gotten into the back of the vehicle, because it’s pouring down


Prepare to do any blue moon tasks at end of July

mission’s principal investigator, in his June 25 blog. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., designed, built and manages New Horizons for NASA. The second full moon to occur within a month is a so-called “blue moon.” The first full moon occurs July 1 at 10:20 p.m. here in Washington, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, while the month’s second full moon — the blue moon — happens July 31 at 6:43 a.m. And to adjust for irregularities in Earth’s rotation, a leap second will be added June 30, says the U.S. Naval Observatory. Down-to-Earth Events: ● June 30 – “The Hubble Space Telescope: The Agony and the Ecstasy,” a lecture by historian Robert Smith of the University of Alberta, at the National Air and Space Museum. 8 p.m. Info: airandspace.si.edu. Webcast: www.tinyurl.com/qapklnp. ● July 5 – “Cosmic Crashes: The Many Facets of Neutron Star Collisions,” a talk by astronomer Eleonora Troja at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. Scan the night sky through telescopes afterward, weather permitting. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● July 11 – With Venus, Jupiter and Saturn vying for attention, enjoy “Exploring the Sky,” hosted by the National Capital Astronomers and the National Park Service, at Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 9 p.m. www.capitalastronomers.org. ● July 12 – “The Production and Effects of Gravitational Waves,” a talk by Philip Graff of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, at the regular meeting of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, 163 Research Hall, George Mason University. 7 p.m. www.novac.com. ● July 18 – The glory of a dark, night sky awaits your arrival, as local astronomers and Sean O’Brien of the National Air and Space Museum will show you. At Sky Meadows State Park near Paris, Va. Parking $5. Arrive before dark. 8-11 p.m. Park phone: 540-592-3556. www.tinyurl.com/q92udac. ● July 20 – “Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Frenemies Forever,” a talk by astronomer Laura Blecha at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 9 p.m. Weather permitting, view skies through telescopes afterward. www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse. ● July 24 – Mars Day! Celebrate our neighboring Red Planet with fun-for-the-whole-family activities. View the planet’s surface in 3-D, see a real Martian meteorite and get a hands-on sense of the planet’s geology. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. National Air and Space Museum, National Mall. airandspace.si.edu. Friedlander can be reached at postskywatch@yahoo.com.


In Fairfax, police and firefighters meet for competition and camaraderie

In Fairfax, competition and camaraderie are on display among public safety workers from around the world. Richard Connell says he fights to win. But the New York corrections officer, ranked nationally in judo, also fights for another reason: honor. “It’s a very honorable sport, to come out and compete with honorable men,” he said. On Saturday, he joined thousands of fellow police officers, firefighters and public safety workers in Fairfax County in the first full day of competition at the World Police and Fire Games, an Olympics-like event featuring traditional sports as well as unconventional ones, such as stair-racing. The event has been welcomed with fanfare in Fairfax, where planning has been under way since 2009. Nearly 6,000 people, most from Northern Virginia, volunteered to check in spectators, guide athletes and set up games during the 10-day event. But the turnout — an estimated 9,600 competitors — is less than the 12,000 that had been expected. Officials now estimate the games will draw about $55 million in spending to the county, said Stephen Zack, a spokesman for Fairfax 2015, the nonprofit organization that is running the event. Previously, the estimated economic impact had been as high as $80 million. Grace Jividen-Truesdale, who competed for the U.S. in the 1992 Olympics, faces Rebeca-Lavinia Brata of Romania in women's judo at the Police and Fire World Games on Saturday in Fairfax. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) Saturday dawned dark and drizzly, forcing the postponement of outdoor sports such as baseball and tennis. But athletes showed up for nearly a dozen other sports, many juggling bulky gear bags and umbrellas. At George Mason University in Fairfax, volunteers repurposed the track and field building by rolling out thick mats for the Japanese martial art of judo. In the stands, competitors put on gis — uniforms resembling karate apparel — and wrapped their knuckles with athletic tape to protect ligaments from snapping. Several competitors said they were there for one reason: winning. “I didn’t get dressed up for nothing,” said Mark Montgomery, 41, of Northern Ireland. Montgomery, a firefighter who has practiced judo since he was 10, ran and lifted weights twice weekly for months to train for the Games. Connell, who trained Saturday with Montgomery, agreed. “If I win, I want to win with a big throw,” Connell said, imitating a move. “I’ve been practicing.” Within the first half hour of judo matches, a competitor


Man slain in Trinidad area of NE Washington

A man was found fatally shot a few minutes before midnight Friday in the Trinidad area of Northeast Washington, D.C. police said. They said Kevin Cortez Johnson, 23, of Southeast Washington was found about 11:45 p.m. in the 1200 block of Raum Street NE. It was not clear who shot him or why.


The Boland family has a pretty hot — and sticky — business

souped-up thermostat. Controls, like service, is a sticky business that is only going to get stickier because controlling energy costs has become a national obsession with the concern over climate change. “Millennials don’t want to be in a building that wastes energy,” Jim Boland said. “Wasting fossil fuels is not cool. This is a red, white and blue thing.” Boland is jumping on the power-saving craze with its new revenue stream called “intelligence services.” The division is plugged into 200 local buildings, monitoring minute fluctuations in temperature and energy use. Boland wants to expand the number of buildings using this technology. The company both helps buildings buy power more cheaply and use it more efficiently. There’s equipment that can create and store ice to cool things down during the hottest days of summer. Boland’s specialists can tell a building manager when to keep power low and when to ramp it up. If someone is turning up their heat or their air conditioning too early, for example, they are wasting energy — and money. “The physics of thermodynamics haven’t changed,” said Jim Boland. “But the control systems that make it more efficient have changed.” Boland said his energy experts save the company $40,000 a year by finding cheaper ways to buy energy. Energy has been on the Boland brain since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. Jim and Lou’s father, Louis J. Boland, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1948. With a family of three children, which would eventually grow to eight, he resigned from the service as a lieutenant commander in the early 1950s and set out to be a businessman. He had read an article in Time magazine about a LaCrosse, Wis., company called Trane, which manufactured giant, commercial air conditioning systems. Lou Boland, still known as “Big Lou” in the company halls in Gaithersburg, decided air conditioning was the future. He became a top salesman for Trane and in 1960 was offered the exclusive Washington region franchise for Trane equipment. “He changed this into a Trane town,” Boland said. “He was a real entrepreneur. A very aware person. He knew how things worked, and he knew how to step back and build.” The big transformation from salesman into head of a major company took place around 1960, when Boland, against the wishes of Trane headquarters, hired a technician and decided to service the equipment that he was selling.


5 all-American wines for the Fourth

Recommendations ★ ★ ★Exceptional ★ ★Excellent ★Very Good Availability information is based on distributor records. Wines might not be in stock at every listed store and might be sold at additional stores. Prices are approximate. Check Winesearcher.com to verify availability, or ask a favorite wine store to order through a distributor. For our Independence Day celebrations, here are a few all-American selections to demonstrate your independence from every day ordinary wines. — D.M. Cardinal Point Green 2014 ★ ★ 1 / 2 Monticello, Virginia, $17 Here’s something you are likely to find nowhere else in the world: A blend of chardonnay, the world’s favorite white wine, and petit manseng, an obscure, aromatic white from a small region in southwestern France that has become popular in Virginia and the southeastern United States. The chardonnay gives the wine body, while the petit manseng contributes tropical fruit notes and a touch of appealing sweetness. Alcohol by volume: 13.5 percent. Margaux & Co. Imports: Available in Virginia at Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market in Richmond; Foods of All Nations, Market Street Wineshop (Dowtown, Uptown) and Whole Foods Market in Charlottesville; Unwined (Alexandria, Belleview); the Vineyard in Vienna. Influence Wines Riesling 2013 ★ ★ New York State, $14 This off-dry Riesling is ideal for summer sipping. Its apricot and peach flavors are backed up by a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness, giving it great palate impact with lower-than-average alcohol. ABV: 11.5 percent. Siema: Available in the District at Cleveland Park Wine and Spirits, Glen’s Garden Market, New H Wine & Spirits; on the list at After Peacock Room, Chaplin’s, DC Harvest, Döner Bistro, EatsPlace, Eno Wine Bar, Farmers Fishers Bakers, Radius Pizza, Rasika West End, Sax, Table. Available in Maryland at Fenwick Beer & Wine in Silver Spring; Pinky & Pepe’s Grape Escape in Gaithersburg; on the list at The Daily Dish in Silver Spring. Available in Virginia at Little Washington Winery Tasting Room, Market Street Wineshop (Downtown) in Charlottesville, Planet Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, Wine Cabinet in Reston; on the list at Balliceaux in Richmond, Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner, Kapnos Taverna in Arlington. Foggy Ridge Cider First Fruit ★ ★ Virginia, $18 Foggy Ridge ignited the artisanal cider boom by demonstrating how good cider can be when made with traditional heirloom apple varieties. The trend has gone in several directions, with major beer companies producing popular brands and smaller producers infusing their


Book World: ‘Murder, D.C.’ by Neely Tucker

Neely Tucker’s new mystery features a battle-scarred reporter on the trail of a killer. (Viking/Viking) MURDER, D.C. By Neely Tucker Viking. 290 pp. $27.95 But Neely Tucker recently blew into town, and his series character Sully Carter is a Cajun bad boy who rides a Ducati. They’re both the type to park illegally, and Tucker’s new novel, “Murder, D.C.” proves there’s room for everybody. The test of a crime series is its main character, and Sully is someone we’ll want to read about again and again. Start with the similarities between Neely Tucker and his Sully Carter, down to the likeness in their names, because Tucker has assigned his own exotic résumé to his character, and it works. Tucker is a journalist who has reported from war zones in places such as Bosnia, Rwanda and Ethiopia, although he now writes for the Sunday Washington Post Magazine. Likewise,Sully has reported from the grisly front lines of foreign conflicts, but has returned home to work for a Washington newspaper. It’s a fertile back story for a character, and Sully’s reportage from war has left him one of the walking wounded, literally; he’s “gimp-legged” and has a shrapnel scar down his cheek from being “blown up in Bosnia.” He drinks too much, tosses back painkillers and cancels his HR-ordered therapy sessions,cracking wise: “Word is I got a drinking and attitude problem.” Sully’s difficulties arise not only from the horrors of war, but from the loss of the woman he loved, Nadia, killed in Sarajevo. “Murder, D.C.” is only the second installment in this series, so it finds Sully still grieving her and continuing to be disoriented in his job, struggling to transition from the battlefield to the newsroom. The story begins when he’s having a liquid lunch with his journo buddies and gets word that an unidentified African American man has been found shot in the head, the body floating off Hains Point. At the crime scene, Sully’s buzz wears off and he finds himself doubting the police theory that the death is a random drug shooting. He heads back to the newsroom, studies the file and plots on a map the city’s murders from the past five years. He discovers that the shooting was the 45th murder to take place in a single acre of land, Frenchman’s Bend, which he dubs the “murder capital of the murder capital.” Frenchman’s Bend is fictional,


Another major rocket failure for a space industry out to prove itself

An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket laden with 4,000 pounds of food and supplies exploded just minutes after launch after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was a beautiful day on the cape, sunny and hot with patchy clouds — good weather for rocketry. SpaceX’s unmanned Falcon 9 rocket looked great as it tore a hole in the sky, propelling 4,000 pounds of cargo in a Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station. NASA’s Twitter account offered the play-by-play: “And we have liftoff of @SpaceX #ISScargo resupply mission to the @Space_Station.” Two minutes later, Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 blew up like a bottle rocket. Food, supplies, hardware and dozens of student science experiments rained to the sea off the Florida coast. “Something went wrong with the launch,” NASA tweeted. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is spending a year in space, tweeted from orbit a universal truth: “Space is hard.” Rocket explosions are nothing new in the Space Age, but this one instantly reverberated across the U.S. space community Sunday. No one was aboard this time, but the privately owned and operated Dragon capsule is being designed so it can carry astronauts in the future. Moreover, this was the third cargo mission to the space station to have a catastrophic failure since October — and the second in a row. “Having three this close together is not what we had hoped for,” Michael Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager, said in a news conference. The timing of the latest explosion was terrible for SpaceX, NASA and the Obama administration more broadly. The administration has been counting on SpaceX, founded by the tech titan Musk, to play a key role in a new strategy that relies on commercial contracts to put cargo, and eventually astronauts, into orbit. Musk is the most prominent figure in the “New Space” movement, which seeks to make space travel cheaper and more accessible to ordinary people. New Space companies style themselves as entrepreneurial and innovative, in contrast to the plodding nature of the NASA bureaucracy and its traditional cost-plus contracts with huge aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. “This doesn’t change our plans. Our customers have always been loyal,” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer, said in the joint news conference with NASA. “It’s a hiccup. It’s certainly a time to pause and make sure we’re doing everything we need to do.” Until


SpaceX rocket explosion destroys students’ experiment

by a rocket failure on Sunday. The students from North Charleston, South Carolina, had come up with an intricate electronics circuitry experiment. It was supposed to fly last October to the International Space Station on an Antares rocket out of Wallops Island, Virginia. But it blew up as they watched from only 1.7 miles away. Joe Garvey was knocked over by the blast coming off the launch pad. Rachel Lindbergh felt the heat on her face. Eight months passed. Every other student team got to fly their experiments again, but finally Sunday was the turn for Joe, Rachel and Gabe Voigt, and their teacher, Gabe’s mother, Kellye. Space X's Falcon 9 rocket as it lifts off with a Dragon CRS7 spacecraft. The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Bruce Weaver/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) They drove down to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and joked about their luck. Then the unmanned SpaceX rocket launched Sunday carrying their experiment and those of several other student groups. It soared into the sky. High fives were exchanged. They started heading back for lunch. Then their phones started buzzing with text messages, condolences. Rachel’s was from her grandmother. “We thought grandma must have been watching the wrong channel,” Rachel recalled from her hotel. She wasn’t. The rocket broke apart. Their experiment was lost again. This one didn’t hit as hard or hurt as much, maybe because they really didn’t see it, Joe said. That’s rocket science. Failure happens, Rachel said. “There’s a lot of life lessons to take from this too,” Gabe said. “If something happens, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of that.” After their first launch, the students improved the experiment to include circuitry from the space shuttle Endeavour, which was better than what they tried at first. Next time, they’ll do even better, the three students vowed. Joe said all he wants to do is get this done before he graduates in two years — he and Gabe will be juniors in the fall. Within 10 minutes, teacher Voigt got a call from their mentors at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. They’re going to get more space shuttle circuitry to fly again. Rachel and Joe will be at a space conference next week in Boston to talk about their experiment. “Disappointing, sure,” Rachel said. “You can’t let things stop you.” — Associated Press


Solar-powered plane takes off on longest leg of around-the-world trip

Solar Impulse 2 prepares to take off from Nagoya, Japan, on Monday headed for Hawaii. The long trip is most ambitious leg of its quest to fly around the globe powered only by the sun. (Solar Impulse/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) A solar-powered plane attempting to travel around the globe without fuel took off from Japan early Monday after an unscheduled, month-long stop. The Solar Impulse 2 departed around 3 a.m. local time from an airport in Nagoya in central Japan. The plane with one pilot is attempting a 120-hour flight to Hawaii, the longest leg of its journey so far. The plane requires the right weather conditions, and organizers were withholding an official announcement of the takeoff until they are sure the flight can continue. “A formal communiqué will be issued once Solar Impulse has passed the Point of No Return and that we know that the pilot André Borschberg is on a safe track to reach Hawaii,” the media team said in an e-mail to journalists. Swiss pilot André Borschberg, 62, readies the single-seat airplane for takeoff in Japan. Borschberg takes turns flying legs of the trip with Bertrand Piccard. (Solar Impulse/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) The Solar Impulse originally left Nanjing, China, for Hawaii, but diverted to Japan on June 1 because of unfavorable weather ahead. It has been waiting for the right conditions to depart. The flight over the Pacific to Hawaii is risky because there is no place to land in an emergency. The Solar Impulse 2 is powered by more than 17,000 solar cells on its wings that recharge its batteries, enabling it to fly. The project is meant to demonstrate the potential of improved energy efficiency and clean power. — Associated Press


The heat and the hazard: 9 facts about summer health

from nail polish one week per month. Unlike athlete’s foot, toenail fungus is notoriously tough to treat once it has set in. Pribut says over-the-counter liquids and other remedies simply don’t work. Instead, go for a prescription treatment right from the start. (Some people resort to laser treatments, which can be pricey.) Coxsackie virus One of a number of viruses that live in healthy intestinal tracts, coxsackie is best known for causing hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in children. HFMD is most prevalent in the summer months, and it seems to love kids’ warm wading pools. (Dan Woodger for The Washington Post) Bonnie Maldonado, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Stanford University Medical School, explains that in HFMD, small blisters develop on the tongue and elsewhere in the mouth, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet; it can be somewhat painful, Maldonado says, and can cause fever, sometimes a high one. On rare occasions when an outbreak moves through a population, it can bring more-serious symptoms including asthma and neurological problems such as temporary infection of the brain. In very rare cases, the disease can cause heart infections and even heart failure. There is no treatment for HFMD beyond controlling fevers that develop. Also, it’s important to keep an infected child away from others. The virus is transmitted via close personal contact and what Maldonado calls the “fecal/oral route” — that is, when traces of stool find their way into mouths, as at kiddie pools. Diligence about washing hands after changing a diaper or using the bathroom is key. Because fecal matter can leak out of diapers and swimsuit bottoms and into swimming pools, Maldonado recommends making sure any pool you’re using is chlorinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tips for cleaning backyard wading pools, including emptying and cleaning them after use and letting them dry out in the sun for at least four hours. Food poisoning Illnesses caused by food-borne pathogens can be merely unpleasant but they also can be deadly, particularly to young children, whose immune systems are still developing, says Shelley Feist, executive director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education. Summer’s heat and humidity encourage the growth of bacteria in food and elsewhere. Add the fact that a lot of us cook and eat outdoors in the summer — at picnics, while camping — without safeguards


Man sues District for $30 million for wrongful 1982 murder conviction

Kevin Martin becomes emotional while talking to reporters last July after being exonerated for a murder he didn't commit. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) A former District man who spent 26 years in prison after being wrongly convicted in a 1982 murder filed a $30 million lawsuit against the District in D.C. Superior Court, nearly a year after he was exonerated in the crime. Kevin Martin Last July, a D.C. Superior Court judge exonerated Martin after the U.S. attorney’s office agreed with his attorney and called for the vacating of the conviction after a multi-year investigation into the case. On Monday, the court issued a summons to Karl Racine, the District’s attorney general. A hearing has been scheduled for September. Martin and his attorney, Bernie Grimm, filed the lawsuit last week. Martin, who had long professed his innocence in the killing, was paroled in 2009 and lives in San Francisco. WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 21: Kevin Martin becomes emotional while talking to reporters after leaving DC Superior courthouse after being exonerated for a crime he didn't commit. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 21: Phillip Martin, center, with his son Kevin, left, and other friends and family as they exit DC Superior courthouse after being exonerated for a crime he didn't commit. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) In February,


A Thurmond of the next generation seeks a new legacy in South Carolina

civil rights plank to their platform, then-Gov. Thurmond broke away and ran for president as a “Dixiecrat,” vowing, “There’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches.” As a U.S. senator, he stood and filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes, setting a record that still stands. And when he finally left his party to become a Republican in 1964 — a move that foreshadowed the realignment of politics in the South — Thurmond said it was in part because the Democrats had “forsaken the people to become the party of minority groups.” Public moments featuring the Confederate flag. An oil portrait of Strom dominates Paul’s law office in quaint downtown Charleston, and the walls are covered with photos and relics. They include framed tickets to the opening and closing of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in the Senate, where the third-longest-serving senator in history wielded the gavel. “I love my father. He was a wonderful role model for me,” Paul Thurmond said. But he added: “I’ve always wanted to kind of make my own way. I am my own person.” “I have tried to do what I think is right. I’m not ashamed of what he has done in the past. There are some amazing things that he has done,” he said. “There are certainly some things that I would not agree with, and his position in 1948, and his position in 1957, would certainly fall into that category.” It comes down to a paradox, he acknowledged. “I’m my own person, and yet I’m also his legacy.” Strom Thurmond reflected and drove the poisoned politics of his state in his time. The raising of the Confederate battle flag over the capitol in Columbia in 1961, ostensibly to commemorate the Civil War centennial, was widely seen as a middle finger to federal desegregation efforts. In the decades since, the banner has remained a raw wound in this increasingly diverse state, one that did not heal after a compromise was struck in 2000 to move the flag from atop the capitol dome to a pole near the street. The younger Thurmond does not recall ever being asked, either as a candidate or a public official, what he thought of


Greece fails to make key IMF debt payment

new bailout. It was addressed to Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the group of 19 finance ministers of euro-zone countries. Greeks are strongly in favor of remaining with the euro. But they have rebelled against the crushing austerity measures that Europe has demanded in exchange for bailing out the indebted government. Tsipras stunned E.U. leaders last weekend by calling for a July 5 referendum in which he intends to put the European demands to the voters’ test. He has campaigned for a “no” vote, which he says will strengthen his bargaining power with his E.U. counterparts. Those same leaders have said that such a vote would amount to a decision to leave the 19-nation euro-currency union. E.U. finance chiefs took a hard line on Tuesday’s new bailout request, saying that E.U. nations had the right to request assistance but that any request would be addressed through ordinary, slower channels. “Politically the situation hasn’t changed. There is no new ground,” Dijsselbloem said after the E.U. finance ministers consulted Tuesday. “The situation in Greece, in the Greek economy, in the Greek banks, has deteriorated even more, unfortunately.” The $1.67 billion missed payment to the IMF was unlikely by itself to spur immediate problems for the global economy, since it affected only a government-backed institution, not private investors. But if Greece is ultimately forced off the euro, other troubled euro-zone economies such as Portugal could be seen as more vulnerable. The exit could also weaken the goal of ever-closer European integration. In Washington, President Obama told reporters that the United States is watching the Greek debt crisis with “substantial concern” but that the fiscal woes should not bring “a major shock” to global financial networks. He spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend to urge that a way be found for Greece to remain in the euro zone. In Greece, meanwhile, the economy was near frozen. Fearing a panicked run to withdraw euros, the government has closed banks and set a withdrawal limit of 60 euros, about $67, per day at ATMs. Retirees, who usually withdraw their pensions in person at banks, have been particularly hard-struck by the restricted access to financial institutions. The government has said it would sharply limit their withdrawals but give them access to cash later in the week. Greece and Puerto Rico face economic disasters. Here's what you need to know about the defaults


Japan’s stationmaster cat passes on, but becomes goddess

Tama, Japan’s feline star of a struggling local railway, receives a birthday cake on her 16th birthday in April. Tama died of heart failure June 22 and was elevated into a goddess at a funeral on Sunday. (Kyodo News /Via Associated Press) Tama the stationmaster, a Japanese cat who became a star of a struggling local railway, was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated into a goddess at a funeral Sunday. The calico cat was appointed stationmaster at the Kishi station in Kinokawa, Japan, in 2007. In her custom-made stationmaster’s cap and a jacket, Tama quietly sat at the ticket gate welcoming and seeing off passengers. The cat quickly attracted tourists and became world-famous, giving a boost to the railway company and local economy. Tama died of a heart failure on June 22. During Sunday’s Shinto-style funeral at the station where she served, Tama became a goddess. Shinto, which is Japan’s traditional religion, has a variety of gods and goddesses, including animals. Wakayama Electric Railway President Mitsunobu Kojima thanked the cat for her achievement and said Tama will go to a nearby cat shrine next month. Before Tama’s arrival, the local Kishigawa Line was near-bankrupt; and the station was unmanned as it had lost its last staff. A girl lays bouquets of flowers at an altar set up for the funeral of Tama, a cat stationmaster, in Kinokawa, Japan. Tama became famous for sitting at the ticket gate welcoming and seeing off passengers for the past eight years. (Chika Oshima/Kyodo News via Associated Press) Kojima said appointing Tama as stationmaster was initially an excuse to keep the cat at the station. “But she was really doing her job,” he said. The rest was a miracle, and his company’s success story also gave hope for dozens of other struggling tiny local train lines, he said. “Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess. It was truly my honor to have been able to work with her,” Kojima said in his speech. During her time as stationmaster, Tama contributed an estimated $8.9 million to the local economy, Kojima said. Kojima said that when he visited Tama at an animal hospital the day before she died, the cat woke up and reached out to him with her paws, as if asking for a hug, and looked straight into his eyes. He said he told Tama to get well so they can


With court approval, NSA resumes bulk collection of phone data

It provided, however, for a transition period to allow the NSA time to set up an alternative system in which the data is stored by the phone companies. After the law took effect, the government immediately applied to the surveillance court to restart its collection. Because Congress passed the bill a day after the underlying statute authorizing the NSA program had expired, there was a question as to whether lawmakers had authorized the government’s temporary harvesting of phone records. “In passing the USA Freedom Act, Congress clearly intended to end bulk data collection of business records and other tangible things,” Judge Michael W. Mosman wrote in his opinion. “But what it took away with one hand, it gave back — for a limited time — with the other. . . . It chose to allow a 180-day transitional period during which such [bulk] collection could continue.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he saw no reason to resume collection, even on a temporary basis. “This illegal dragnet surveillance violated Americans’ rights for 14 years without making our country any safer,” he said. Mosman also ruled that FreedomWorks, a grass-roots libertarian organization, and its attorney, Ken Cuccinelli II, could submit “friend of the court” briefs that argue against the lawfulness of the metadata program. In May, a federal appeals court in New York held that the program was unlawful. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the program stretched the meaning of the statute — Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act — to enable data collection in “staggering” volumes in the chance that “at some future point” there might be a need to search for terrorist links. Cuccinelli cited the 2nd Circuit opinion, but Mosman said he disagreed with the appeals court. “This description bears little resemblance to how the government actually uses the records,” he said. The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday said it planned to ask the appeals court to block the temporary collection. The USA Freedom Act amended Section 215 to require that the government use a “specific selection term,” such as a phone number, to request records from the phone companies. It bars the collection of “all call detail records” held by phone companies, as the court had authorized beginning in 2006. The program began in 2001, under executive authority alone, enabling the NSA to obtain tens of millions of records daily.


How does airlifting a dog from a Chinese meat farm help dogs in D.C.?

the country. “It’s because these guys had very interesting stories,” she said. But when those dogs were gone, some people said they had no interest in the shelter’s more pedestrian animals. Fortunately, not everyone feels that way. Megan said the attention such celebrity animals brings helps raise awareness of the other dogs and cats. It’s important to constantly remind people that shelters are great places to get pets, she said. Bob Ramin Think of Little Ricky as the new sports car that gets customers in the showroom, even if they leave with a $20,000 hatchback rather than a $60,000 convertible. Still, is there a downside to lavishing so much attention on dogs such as Little Ricky? “I’m not ignorant of the argument that people sometimes have against this sort of thing,” said Adam Parascandola, director of animal protection and crisis response at Humane Society International. Adam flew from China with Little Ricky and was involved in the South Korean meat farm rescue. It takes a lot of money to relocate a dog from Asia. But those involved say local dogs aren’t neglected. And celebrity dogs multiply the message. Who would have known there were dog meat farms in South Korea and China if not for the media attention the rescued pooches got? “All of the individuals who adopted those dogs have become huge advocates for ending the dog meat trade,” Adam said. “It really does change the lives of the people that are involved, as well as the animals. I truly believe it pushes the conversation forward. . . . The media attention would not be there were it not for the dogs being rescued.” I worried that the dire situations such animals are plucked from — hurricanes! dog farms! — might create a narrative arms race, with shelters continually having to one-up themselves. Megan, of the Alexandria shelter, said I needn’t be concerned. “That’s one of the great things about adopting from an animal shelter,” she said. “All of these animals have special, interesting backgrounds. Oftentimes, people think, ‘Oh, it’s a shelter dog. I won’t know anything about it.’ That’s not true. Often we can give very specific information.” The WARL staff thinks Little Ricky was a pet in China, not an animal bred for meat. He’s comfortable around humans and is fine on a leash. He has a prancing step and an inquisitive eye. He’s exactly the sort


The president’s visit to Ethiopia

Regarding the June 25 editorial “The wrong message on democracy”: President Obama should pass up Ethiopia and visit Nigeria. Nigeria plays a far more critical role in regional security and economic issues. Nigeria’s recent elections — open and peaceful, as opposed to Ethiopia’s — encourage hope for progress and security in the region. If Mr. Obama has to visit Ethiopia, however, he must press the parties involved in the South Sudan negotiations in Addis Ababa to settle the dispute, end the fighting and relieve the suffering of millions of hungry and homeless South Sudanese. The president would have a unique opportunity to directly affect the talks slated to convene in late July at the end of Ramadan. Virgil Bodeen, Falls Church ● It is odd to interpret President Obama’s upcoming visit to Ethiopia as “cold-shouldering” Nigeria. U.S. presidents go not only to countries whose policies they approve of but also to those they have business with. Having maintained diplomatic relations since the early 20th century , the United States and Ethiopia share an interest in fighting terrorism and securing stability in a troubling sub-region of Africa. When the president visits Kenya, it makes sense for him to go next door to meet with African Union and Ethiopian officials. Visiting African Union officials would be historic. Visiting Ethiopia would give Mr. Obama an opportunity to nudge Ethiopia’s officials to expand the political space and embark on an honest democratization process. Ethiopia’s ruling party won all the parliamentary seats through a plurality of votes because the country has a first-past-the-post (or, winner-take-all), not proportional representation, electoral system. The ruling party won all 23 parliamentary seats in Addis Ababa, for example, with only 64.5 percent of the vote; weak, fragmented opposition parties won the balance. Expanded political space is called for, but criticism of Mr. Obama for “snubbing Nigeria for a trip to Ethiopia” is not. It would be salutary for Mr. Obama to encourage Ethiopia’s officials to uphold transparency and human rights. Alem Habtu, New York


Arrest made in May murder in District

D.C. Police have made an arrest in the May murder of a 46-year-old woman. Delonta Jovon Wynn, 34, of Southeast Washington was arrested and charged Tuesday with murder in the death of Darlene Marie Bryant, 46, also of Southeast Washington. Around 6:30 p.m. on May 13, police said they received a call for a reported shooting. Officers found Bryant suffering from stab wounds. Bryant had been “viciously stabbed in the neck,” according to D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier. According to police charging documents, one witness told police they saw a man wearing a mask run from Bryant’s building and then saw Bryant come down the stairs holding her neck. Another witness reported seeing a man with a gray hood holding a butcher knife, the documents state. The second witness told police that at some point before the stabbing, the witness saw the man enter the building and make a call on speakerphone, according to the document. The man said he needed his car, and Bryant responded that she was sorry , shouldn’t have taken the car and would “pay any consequences.” In a press conference Wednesday, Lanier called Bryant’s death a “senseless loss of life.” “This young woman had children,” Lanier said. “She had family. She was stabbed to death along the street. And we were able to get people to cooperate with us, come forward and help us close this case.” In a press release earlier Wednesday, Lanier said, “Every homicide in our City impacts our community equally. The same is true when we make arrests and bring closure to a family.” “These investigations may take time, but our detectives remain fully committed to solving every case,” she said. “The arrest in this case provides yet another example of diligent investigative work, and our continued resolve to providing closure to the loved ones of homicide victims.”


Montgomery County Animal Watch

This case was received by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. Dog attacks guests “Citizen Pet of the Year” photo contest Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Cats and kittens will be available for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County no-kill shelter at the following location. For information, call 301-740-2511 or visit www.awlmc.org. Gaithersburg Adopt dogs and cats at MCHS no-kill rescue: Rockville — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


D.C. news in brief

Artwork in downtown parks is unveiled The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District recently unveiled two illuminated pieces by D.C.-based artist Duilio Passariello in downtown parks. “Murrow’s Mics,” in Edward R. Murrow Park, between 18th and 19th streets on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, adds color-changing LED patterns to the eight lanterns that surround the park. Although not audible to passersby, the colors shift to the sound of World War II broadcasts by journalist Murrow. “Tricorne,” in James Monroe Park, between 20th and 21st streets on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, uses a triangular prism to combine water, color and optical effects with year-round LED lighting. The name references Monroe, the last president to wear a tricorne (three-cornered) hat. For information, go to goldentriangledc.com. Design chosen for NoMa underpass The nonprofit NoMa Parks Foundation has selected “Lightware,” a sound-responsive light sculpture by San Francisco designer Future Cities Lab, as the winning concept for the L Street NE rail underpass. Construction by contractor M.C. Dean is slated to begin late this year. NoMa Parks began a project in April 2014 to add art and light to NoMa’s four rail underpasses (L, M and K streets and Florida Avenue NE) for pedestrians and bicyclists. An international design contest yielded 248 responses. An open house with the designers and construction team is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 13 at the Lobby Project, 1200 First St. NE. To register, go to noma-parks.ticketleap.com. For information, go to www.nomaparks.org. DMV makes disability placards available online D.C. motorists and visitors can now apply online with the District Department of Motor Vehicles for a disability placard. The placard and wallet card will be mailed about seven to 10 business days after the application is approved. Owners are required to carry the wallet certificate at all times while using the disability placard. The DMV has also recently added mail tracking of driver’s licenses and identification cards to its online services. To apply, go to dmv.dc.gov. — Compiled by Terence McArdle


Montgomery County street Bear’s Den Lane sees a real live bear

The bear that has been wandering Montgomery County probably can’t read street signs. Probably. It first turned up, with an injured paw, on Woodcutter Circle. Then four days later, the same bear was spotted again — this time on Bear’s Den Lane. The journey from the first spot, in Germantown, to the second, in Clarksburg, is more than five miles. Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson said the bear seems to have been traveling via a culvert under Interstate 270. Wildlife personnel are keeping an eye on the bear, which was spotted at 9:13 p.m. Tuesday. “He’s got a jump on us,” since he can maneuver easily through the woods, Thomson said. “He pops up whenever he wants.” What lures him to residential neighborhoods probably isn’t the street signs — it’s the food, available in homeowners’ bird feeders and open trash cans. To a bear, Thomson said, Bear’s Den Lane doesn’t look like a den. “It’s a smorgasbord.”


Russians boycott European meeting after Finland denies visas to 6 officials

Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has been refused entry to attend an OSCE meeting in Finland because he is on a sanctions blacklist for his role in the Ukraine crisis. (Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images) VIENNA — Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, was among those barred from traveling to Helsinki this weekend for a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He told reporters Thursday that the Kremlin considers it “unacceptable” to pare down its 15-member delegation and will boycott the meeting. The flap illustrates how Russia is trying to get around a punishing set of U.S. and European Union sanctions and entry bans targeting individuals and corporations. The measures were imposed in response to Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. OSCE monitors in Ukraine serve as the closest approximation to neutral arbiters there, and the organization has been involved in negotiations with the pro-Moscow rebels. The Russian delegation was slated to attend the OSCE parliamentary assembly session beginning Sunday. This year, the annual meeting commemorates the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords, which improved relations between Western and Eastern Europe and led to the creation of the OSCE. But the Finnish Foreign Ministry announced late Tuesday that it would not make exceptions to an E.U. travel ban on the six blacklisted Russians. It said the rest of the Russian delegation was welcome to come. In a letter to fellow members of the OSCE parliamentary assembly, the institution’s president and a prominent Finnish politician, Ilkka Kanerva, noted that adherence to the bans was decided by the Finnish government, not the OSCE. “On the other hand, the EU sanctions regime is in place because of the clear and gross violation of international norms . . . by the Russian Federation,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post. “Nevertheless, the decision is an unfortunate embodiment of the grave challenges the European security architecture is facing at the moment. The growing mistrust and lack of confidence between the east and the west calls for reversal of this trend, and the OSCE can play a central role in this process.” The Kremlin summoned the Finnish ambassador to lodge a formal complaint, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Finland’s decision “outrageous.” “Even given the illegal sanctions decisions of the E.U., exceptions from them


Jim Webb’s inner circle

Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb talks with employees during a tour of the Rippey Wind Farm on June 15 in Grand Junction, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP) Here’s who you need to know who’s close with Jim Webb, the latest presidential contender to enter the 2016 Democratic nomination race: ● David “Mudcat” Saunders: This veteran Virginia Democratic strategist has been with Webb since the beginning of his political career. Like Webb, he’s known for his affinity for rural voters. He also isn’t afraid to irritate his own party; he lost some friends by supporting Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the 2013 gubernatorial race. Democrat Terry McAuliffe, he said, was a “corporatist.” ● Craig Crawford: A journalist and political commentator, Crawford is serving as Webb’s communications director. In recent years he’s worked at MSNBC, CQ Roll Call and National Journal. He has worked on presidential campaigns many decades ago, supporting Jimmy Carter, John Glenn and Walter Mondale. ● Joe Stanley: A digital staffer with Webb’s 2006 campaign perhaps best known for uploading the infamous “macaca” video to YouTube. He started doing online and social-media work for Webb’s political committee and is now running his Iowa operation. ● Nelson Jones: A law school classmate and close friend, he helped organize veterans for Webb’s 2006 campaign. He went on to work in Webb’s Senate office for two years, before returning to his home in Houston to practice law. Former Navy secretary and Virginia senator Jim Webb is a Democratic contender for the White House in 2016. Here's his take on Obamacare, his issues with the Democratic party, and more, in his own words. ● Matt McGarvey: Wounded in Vietnam under Webb’s command, McGarvey served as the senator’s one-armed campaign driver and Capitol Hill body man. ● Bob Kerrey: The former Nebraska senator is a close friend and a fellow Vietnam veteran. He was an early confidante urging Webb to take on Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguing that the former secretary of state is vulnerable on her vote for the war in Iraq and support for the Obama administration’s strategy against the Islamic State. Former Virginia senator Jim Webb has announced he will make a bid for the White House in 2016, becoming the fourth Democrat to challenge front-runner Hillary Clinton.


Before carnage, Mexican army was told: ‘Take out’ criminals

from the human rights group called on the Mexican government to investigate the military’s chain of command to find out how the order originated and whether it applies in other parts of Mexico where aggressive military operations continue. “In this case, there was a clear order from higher up that the soldiers’ mission was to go out and take down, kill, people they considered criminals,” said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. “It was the first time you actually see a written document describing what a lot of people suspect happens in many cases.” A presidential spokesman said the Mexican government would not comment until the investigation into the case had been completed. The army initially said that a patrol had come under attack and that in the ensuing gun battle 22 people were killed. But subsequent investigations, prompted by witness testimony, have indicated that after a brief exchange of fire, several people who had surrendered or were unarmed were then executed by the soldiers. So far, the government has brought charges against seven soldiers in the deaths of eight of the people. Authorities have also charged seven police officers in the torture of three witnesses. No one has been convicted. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission concluded in its investigation that 12 to 15 of the people had been executed. Clara Gómez González, whose daughter was killed that day, spoke publicly for the first time on Thursday at a news conference in Mexico City. “I want justice to be done, justice for what they did to my daughter,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “God will not forgive them.” Since the Tlatlaya killings, other deadly incidents have drawn further criticism about the behavior of Mexican security forces. In the case of the teachers college students, the government has accused local police of working with a drug cartel to capture, kill and burn 43 people. Although independent investigators have challenged aspects of the government’s version of events, they have not questioned the role of police in the students’ disappearances. More recently, the deaths of 42 people on a ranch in the state of Michoacan, many of them suspected of having ties to drug cartels, has raised questions about whether the event was a shootout, as authorities insist, or a roundup in which some of the people were tortured and shot, as their families insist.


Solar plane lands in Hawaii, breaks record for longest nonstop solo flight

Solar Impulse 2 approaches Kalaeloa Airport with André Borschberg at the controls on Friday. The solar-powered plane on a round-the-world journey landed in Hawaii after a record-breaking five-day flight from Japan. (Solar Impulse/Jean Revillard/Rezo/EPA) A plane powered by the sun’s rays landed in Hawaii on Friday after a record-breaking five-day journey across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. Pilot André Borschberg and his single-seat aircraft landed at Kalaeloa, a small airport outside Honolulu. His 120-hour voyage from Nagoya broke the record for the world’s longest nonstop solo flight, his team said. The late U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett set the previous record of 76 hours when he flew a specially-designed jet around the globe in 2006. But Borschberg flew the Solar Impulse 2 without fuel. Instead, its wings were equipped with 17,000 solar cells that charged batteries. The plane ran on stored energy at night. The plane’s ideal flight speed is about 28 miles per hour, though that can double during the day when sun’s rays are strongest. The carbon-fiber aircraft weighs more than 5,000 pounds or about as much as a minivan or mid-size truck. Borschberg and co-pilot Bertrand Piccard have been taking turns flying the plane on an around-the-world trip since taking off in March from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. After Hawaii, it will head to Phoenix, Arizona. Pilots Bertrand Piccard, left, and André Borschberg, celebrate after Borschberg landed at Kalaeloa Airport. The two have taken turns flying the single-seat plane. (Eugene Tanner/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) The project, which began in 2002 and is estimated to cost more than $100 million, is aimed at highlighting the importance of renewable energy and the spirit of innovation. Solar-powered air travel is not yet practical, however, given the slow travel time, weather and weight constraints of the aircraft. Borschberg took naps and practiced yoga to cope with the long hours. “Yoga is a huge support for this flight above the Pacific: it positively affects my mood and mindset,” he wrote in a tweet from the plane on Thursday. — Associated Press


D.C.-area Ethiopians say Obama trip will send wrong signal to repressive regime in homeland

oppose the ruling party, many who frequent similar District eateries, such as Axum, are minority ethnic Tigrayans who opposed Mengistu Haile Mariam’s regime, which was toppled in 1991. Since then, the government has been headed by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Alem Seged, 61, a retired teacher and a fixture at Axum, is a staunch defender of the current regime. He ticked off a long list of its accomplishments, including new universities, highways, hospitals, factories, dams and irrigation systems that have turned a famine-plagued country fertile. “Everything is going up, up, up,” the Northern Virginia resident said. “The people out protesting are only a tiny percent of our community. They are remnants of Mengistu and the communist junta. . . . They are not telling the truth.” Although the current system is not perfect, he said, “we are knocking on the doors of democracy.” But critics like Obang Metho of Silver Spring noted that Obama’s visit comes just weeks after a parliamentary election in which the ruling party claimed it had won 100 percent of the seats. “The president said Africa needs strong institutions and not strongmen, but now he is wining and dining the strongmen,” said Metho. “He should stick to his word.” Soliyana Gebremicheal, 40, a former dissident blogger who lives in the District, fled to the United States last year after several fellow bloggers were jailed and then became a cause celebre among the diaspora. She said that Obama’s trip would “send a bad message” to Ethiopia and the world. “My friends are still in prison,” she said. “He should call on them to be freed.” Several major human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have also been critical of the regime. Adotei Akwei, a representative of Amnesty in Washington, said the organization has long had a “very sharp difference of opinion” with the Obama administration on Ethiopia. “This executive branch has been looking for ways to burnish the relationship,” Akwei said, despite the regime’s “deepening authoritarianism” and use of anti-terror laws to stifle the press. Amnesty officials have suggested that Obama ask for Nega to be released or to visit him in prison. “We don’t see quiet diplomacy as having any impact,” he said. Selassie said her husband’s conviction for treason came largely as the result of articles he wrote during the Arab Spring of 2011, predicting that a popular uprising could come to Ethiopia if the


McCain warns against calendar-based troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

The Republican senator from Arizona was in the Afghan capital on Sunday. Sen. McCain is calling for the U.S. to scale back plans to leave Afghanistan. KABUL — As part of his effort to end the longest war in U.S. history, Obama has announced plans to close the remaining U.S. bases in Afghanistan and reduce troop strength from 9,800 to 1,000 by the end of 2016. But McCain says that with the rise and spread of Taliban attacks amid the drawdown of U.S. and NATO troops and the emergence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, Obama’s timetable will put at risk the gains that Western and Afghan troops had made since the fall of the Taliban government. “The most serious mistake the United States could make . . . will be to have a calendar-based withdrawal. That will be a tragedy,” McCain said in Kabul, adding that it opens the door “for the Taliban to gain great success in Afghanistan. “I am deeply concerned about western Afghanistan, where you see the Taliban in control of certain areas; where you see reports of Iranian arms being shipped. We are concerned about certain areas in eastern Afghanistan as well, and of course . . . the rise of ISIS.” McCain spoke at a news conference after holding discussions with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has been dealing with growing political and internal rivalries in the nearly 10 months since its creation. On Saturday, Ghani’s second nomination for the Defense Ministry was rejected by the parliament, where legislators close to Ghani’s first vice president and key regional strongmen decided to block the nomination. On the battlefield, the news hasn’t been good either as the Taliban carry out unprecedented attacks. At least two dozen local police were killed Saturday after Taliban forces attacked their posts along a major highway, some 45 miles to the west of Kabul. The clashes in Jalrez, the worst for months, began Thursday. Officials on Saturday said some of the victims were beheaded. This drew stern criticism from Ghani, who called it a war crime. “War is an unpleasant fact, but such behavior can never be tolerated,” he said. “This cowardly act of enemies of Afghanistan is against all principles of war and equals to war crime.” Earlier in the day, several rockets landed inside the main military academy in the western outskirts of Kabul, but they caused no


Why D.C.’s ‘gray market’ is a good thing for beer lovers

those self-imports as “a handful” of the 500 to 600 beers that his store sells. He says they’re acquired “whenever we come across them. If someone’s selling them, or if we’re traveling and I see them, then we can import them.” However 1 West Dupont gets its hands on the beers, they don’t stay on the shelves for long: A shipment of Russian River Pliny the Elder or Redemption sells out “in a day or two at most,” Saraff says, because some customers regularly stop by to look for new acquisitions. (1 West Dupont’s rarities aren’t limited to out-of-market products: The store also has bottles of Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, $29.99, and Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, $19.99, which make it to this area every year but quickly sell out through the usual channels.) Saraff said he wishes he could get beers like Pliny the Elder or Hill Farmstead more frequently, “but I don’t think these beers can be had regularly.” Alongside a reputation for rare beers, 1 West Dupont has a reputation for large markups, as that $70 for a bottle of Hill Farmstead would demonstrate. A quick online search shows liquor stores in Pennsylvania and New Jersey selling that Lost Abbey Devotion for half or a third of the 1 West Dupont price, for example. The store’s Beer Advocate and Yelp pages are full of people complaining about exorbitant prices for beers while grudgingly admitting you can’t find those beers anywhere else. Retailers taking advantage of secondary markets are nothing new in the worlds of bourbon and wine: Every other newspaper in America has written a story detailing the hunt for Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, breathlessly reporting that the 23-year-old expression, which has a suggested retail price of $249, can sell for up to $2,600. Better wine stores regularly buy entire wine cellars lock, stock and barrel before reselling the bottles. That phenomenon has been growing in the beer world for years: There is such demand for some beers, such as Cigar City Brewing’s Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout and Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Style Imperial Stout, that they’re sold for one day only at the breweries, with customers able to buy a limited number of bottles. And yet those seemingly controlled beers still make it to market: 1 West Dupont has bottles of both in stock for $129.99. For comparison, Dark Lord bottles sold for $15 each on


Small businesses need the Export-Import Bank

The June 30 news article “Conservatives win on Export-Import Bank. Will it last?” outlines the politics surrounding the expiration of the Export-Import Bank’s charter but failed to note the effect this will have on small businesses. Once the charter expired at midnight June 30, the bank could no longer provide new loans or make new transactions through its credit insurance program. This is devastating to small exporters and entrepreneurs looking to expand their businesses to international markets. The Export-Import Bank provides an important resource to small businesses by filling in the gaps in traditional financing and partnering with private-sector lenders to provide loans and credit that help foreign purchasers buy U.S.-made goods. The bank also offers credit insurance to cover nonpayment from foreign buyers. Many small businesses rely on the bank. In fact, nearly 90 percent of the Export-Import Bank’s transactions in 2014 helped U.S. small businesses. Ninety-eight percent of the United States’ almost 300,000 exporters are small and medium-size businesses. Lawmakers should reauthorize the Export-Import Bank’s charter now to ensure that our nation’s small exporters have the tools they need to thrive. John Arensmeyer, Washington The writer is the founder and chief executive of Small Business Majority.


Burma’s grim reality

President Obama and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi hold a news conference at her residence in Rangoon, Burma, last year. (Nyein Chan Naing/European Pressphoto Agency) JOURNALISTS IN Burma are “stifled” by a “climate of fear,” Amnesty International reported recently, finding “repression dressed up as progress.” The military government, after several years of pretend negotiations, recently vetoed constitutional changes that would have limited its power. Peace talks with ethnic groups have collapsed. Meanwhile, the Obama administration, in its annual human rights report released just over a week ago, cheers a “trend of progress since 2011.” Wai Wai Nu, a Burmese activist who recently visited Washington, is not surprised by the discrepancy. “The international perception is quite different from the reality,” she told us. “The human rights situation is deteriorating.” Conditions in Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of about 56 million people also known as Myanmar, did improve in 2012. Wai Wai Nu herself, imprisoned in 2005 at age 18 because her father was a pro-democracy politician, was released along with hundreds of other political prisoners. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader who had spent the better part of two decades under house arrest, also was freed and allowed to contest and win a by-election for parliament. The U.S. government, eager to pocket a foreign-policy success, eased its sanctions on the generals and former generals running the country. The administration’s hope, shared by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was that the regime would negotiate its own demise, in the fashion of South Africa’s apartheid government. Alas, the generals seem to be reading from a different script. They have eagerly shed their pariah status, welcoming an influx of investment, but they seem determined that there will be no Nelson Mandelas in their country. Elections are scheduled for the fall, but Aung San Suu Kyi will not be permitted to run for president, and one-quarter of parliament seats will be reserved for the military without election. Things are especially bad for the ethnic minority known as Rohingya, of which Wai Wai Nu is one, and for other Muslims. “People can demonstrate freely — against Muslims,” Wai Wai Nu noted. “But when people ask for their rights, or their education, or their land, they are arrested and charged.” And not only Muslims: Phyo Phyo Aung, another young former political prisoner, recently led a protest march —