How Small Forests Can Help Save the Planet

Abstract: BIRKENFELD, Ore. — Eve Lonnquist’s family has owned a forest in the mountains of northwest Oregon since her grandmother bought the land in 1919. Her 95-year-old father still lives on the 157-acre property. And she and her wife often drive up from their home just outside Portland. But lately, Ms. Lonnquist, 59 and recently retired, has been thinking about the future of her family’s land. Like many small-forest owners, they draw some income from logging and would like to keep doing so. But they would also like to see the forest, with its stands of Douglas fir , alder and cherry , protected from clear-cutting or being sold off to developers. “For us, the property is our family’s history,” she said. More than half of the 751 million acres of forestland in the United States are privately owned , most by people like Ms. Lonnquist, with holdings of 1,000 acres or less. These family forests, environmental groups argue, represent a large, untapped resource for combating the effects of climate change. Image Using a smartphone app by ecoPartners to help inventory Cedar Row Farms, a small family-owned 160-acre forested property. Credit Leah Nash for The New York Times Conserving the trees and profiting from them might seem incompatible. But Ms. Lonnquist is hoping to do both by capitalizing on the forest’s ability to clean the air, turning the carbon stored in the forest into credits that can then be sold to polluters who want or need to offset their carbon footprints. “Trees are the No. 1 way in which carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation over the long term,” said Brian Kittler, the western regional office director for the Pinchot Institute for Conservation , which has a program in Oregon to help the owners of family forests develop potentially profitable carbon projects . Larger forests around the world have already been enlisted as carbon storehouses, through programs like the United Nations initiative for Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation , or REDD, that encourage forest conservation worldwide in exchange for credits that can be sold on the global carbon markets. Some large timber companies, including Potlatch, have also entered the markets , reducing their logging to levels below legal limits in order to receive millions of dollars in credits. But so far, small-forest owners, even conservation-minded ones like Ms. Lonnquist, have not rushed to embrace market-based carbon storage. Many do not even know it exists, and those who do often find the complexities bewildering. Some owners believe, wrongly, that to enter the carbon markets they must forgo all income from logging. And some, reluctant to forfeit the ability to quickly turn their trees into cash, have balked at signing a contract to keep a forest standing for 15 to 125 years. Even more daunting, the expense of bringing a forest to the carbon market — a process that involves taking an inventory of the trees, assessing the forest’s carbon content, estimating future growth, and submitting to several levels of auditing — has been so high that it would eliminate any profit for most small landholders. Environmental organizations like the Pinchot Institute and the Nature Conservancy have for years been searching for a way around these hurdles by educating landowners about the markets’ potential for generating income and finding ways to decrease the costs. Image A thinning of fir trees at Cedar Row Farm this summer. Credit Leah Nash for The New York Times “Traditionally, your only tool to generate revenues has been periodic timber harvest,” said Josh Parrish, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodlands program , which is working with the owners of private forests in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. “The nice thing about carbon is essentially people are being paid to improve forest management.” In fact, if small-forest owners can get past the barriers, the carbon markets can be profitable, providing an initial flush of money and then regular yearly payments in much smaller amounts. The carbon credits from Ms. Lonnquist’s forest could bring an estimated $235,000 over the first six years, and about $6,000 a year after that, said Kyle Holland, the managing director of Ecological Carbon Offset Partners , a California firm that helps small-forest owners enter the carbon markets. Ms. Lonnquist and her family could still log on a limited basis, as long as they stuck to a plan for managing the forest and maintained a steady level of carbon storage through the forest’s continued growth. Image Clearcut forests visible along Highway 30 in Oregon. Credit Leah Nash for The New York Times The economic case for private owners entering the carbon markets is likely to get stronger. Forests, especially in areas like the Northwest, where trees grow tall and thick, tend to draw higher prices than many other conservation measures. And with last year’s Paris climate pact , some analysts expect carbon prices, now about $3 to $12 per ton in the United States, to rise. Mr. Kittler said the conservation institute, which is subsidizing the preparation of Ms. Lonnquist’s forest with the help of a grant from the Department of Agriculture and has partnered with Mr. Holland’s firm for the Oregon project, hoped it would encourage more private owners to enter the markets. Ms. Lonnquist and other owners will be given a choice of selling credits on the global market or on California’s market , created under the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act . Recent developments in forestry may help make the prospect more appealing by lowering the initial costs to landholders. Mr. Holland’s company, for example, has developed a digital tool — a smartphone equipped with a laser to measure distance and an inclinometer to measure height — that he believes will greatly reduce the expense of conducting a forest inventory, which typically costs $40,000 to $100,000 or more, depending about the amount of land. With the specialized smartphone, landholders can take an inventory themselves, photographing and measuring the diameters and heights of their trees. The photos and data are sent to the company’s office in California, where an expert forester goes through the images, identifying the species and checking for damage to the branches or crowns, among other things. Probability models are used to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the forest. The mathematical proofs developed by the company have been submitted to a scientific journal, Mr. Holland said. Using traditional methods, a forester conducting an inventory averages three or four forest plots per day and can spend months completing an assessment at a cost of $350 a plot, he said. But Logan Sander, a forester who used the smartphone to inventory Ms. Lonnquist’s forest and recently demonstrated it for two visitors, said he was averaging 30 to 35 plots a day, with the entire job taking only a week to complete. Individual forest owners who sign up for Mr. Holland’s service pay a $75 application fee and receive the smartphone. If, after conducting an inventory, they choose to move forward with the carbon project, they pay the company $1,350 to complete the process. Some small properties do not store enough carbon to make even that effort worthwhile. The price of carbon, Mr. Holland said, has to be $10 or more per ton “to make it pencil out” for the owner. And novel methods like Mr. Holland’s still need approval from the companies that verify forest inventories or serve as official market registries. Image Lynn Baker walking though part of a 160-acre, family-owned, forested property in Oregon. Credit Leah Nash for The New York Times But Jessica Orrego, the director of forestry for the American Carbon Registry , said such advances might be the key to bringing in small-forest owners. “We’re fully supportive,” she said. “We’re advocates of innovation. We think it’s extremely important in the carbon market.” Ms. Lonnquist, who owns the forest here with two brothers and her wife, Lynn Baker, is still considering whether entering the carbon markets would make sense for her family. The commitment — 125 years if the credits are sold in the California market — gives her some pause, she said. “That’s well beyond our lifetime, and that’s a commitment that goes with the property,” she said. She can imagine, though, what she might be doing 20 years from now. “Maybe I’d just be at home growing carbon,” she said. “And maybe that’s the best thing.”

Forests
Logging
Climate Change
Global Warming
Carbon Capture
Greenhouse gas


With Huge Sums in Play, FIFA Sponsors Are Reluctant to Push Reforms

Abstract: FRANKFURT — Sponsors were unusually vocal after the latest accusations of corruption at FIFA, the organizer of the World Cup, surfaced just before the soccer tournament began in June. Sony, the electronics and entertainment giant, called for an investigation of possible irregularities in choosing a site for the 2022 World Cup. Adidas, the German sportswear manufacturer, warned that “the negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.” Their sentiments were echoed by others, including Coca-Cola, Visa, Hyundai and Budweiser. But now that the matches in Brazil are over, it is unlikely that sponsors will pound their fists and demand reforms. FIFA’s corporate partners have a long history of enduring serial FIFA controversies in silence, and that is unlikely to change. There is just too much money at stake. “These sponsorships don’t come cheap,” said Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports business strategy at Coventry University Business School in Britain. He estimated that companies spend up to $100 million for sponsorship rights and a similar sum on related advertising and merchandising. “The last thing you are going to do is say things that are going to undermine this multimillion-dollar investment.” It was unusual for sponsors to say anything at all when, in the months before World Cup play began in Brazil, longstanding accusations resurfaced that bribes had influenced the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The country was seen as an odd choice for a soccer tournament because of its scorching summer heat and dearth of world-class players. FIFA has long faced controversy, for the purported sins of sexism, homophobia, lack of transparency, insensitivity to player safety and outright corruption. The bribery charges are not the first in recent FIFA history. Another well-known example involved a Swiss company that sold World Cup marketing rights and collapsed in 2001, leaving tens of millions of dollars of unpaid debt to FIFA. The company, ISL, paid bribes to several top FIFA officials, the organization’s own ethics committee concluded last year, though it said that Sepp Blatter , the longtime FIFA president, was not among the bribe takers. Such scandals present sponsors with a dilemma. Any comments they make only generate more negative publicity and risk souring their relationships with FIFA. But silence looks like complacency. Jan Simon, an assistant professor at the IESE Business School in Spain, said sponsors could turn the situation to their advantage by taking a stand. “That is a great opportunity from a brand point of view to say, ‘We are the company that wants change to happen,’ ” said Mr. Simon, who teaches sports management. “If that change doesn’t happen, we will take our money and put it in places where those beliefs are really put into action.” But it is not clear that sponsors get much credit from fans for being principled. In that regard, the German sportswear maker Puma offers a cautionary tale. Puma terminated its sponsorship of the South African Football Association last year after accusations of widespread match fixing. (FIFA was accused of knowing about the match fixing but taking little action.) “Puma abides by an inflexible code of ethics in all areas of its business operations and expects its partners to adhere to the same values,” Puma, which is not a FIFA sponsor, said at the time. But the decision to take the high road may have simply opened up space for a competitor. Within months, Nike stepped in as uniform and equipment supplier for the South African national team. Nike’s statement in January announcing the sponsorship made no mention of the match-fixing scandal. Nike, which is also not a FIFA partner, declined to comment. FIFA maintains that it has taken corrective action. The organization has hired Michael J. Garcia, a former United States prosecutor in New York, to conduct an independent investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were bid and awarded. The 2018 tournament will be played in Russia. “FIFA just underwent an extensive governance reform process following the principles of good governance, transparency and zero tolerance toward any wrongdoing,” the organization said in an email response to questions. The tone of the statements by sponsors has been several notches below outrage, raising questions about how aggressively they will push for change. “Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the FIFA World Cup is a concern to us,” Coca-Cola said in a statement, “but we are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations very seriously and is investigating them thoroughly.” Neither Coca-Cola nor any of the other sponsors contacted would comment on what action they might take to prevent future scandals at FIFA. If any sponsor has the ear of FIFA grandees, it is Adidas. The relationship between Adidas and FIFA goes back decades and has been profitable for both. During the World Cup in Brazil, every match began with a referee plucking a special edition Adidas ball from a pedestal. The product placement helped sell 14 million of the so-called Brazuca balls, part of what the company estimated would be 2 billion euros in soccer-related revenue this year. Jan Runau, an Adidas spokesman, said the company was concerned about the Qatar accusations but also “very happy” with its FIFA partnership. Mr. Runau pointed out that FIFA had been successful in building the World Cup into the global phenomenon that it has become. “When you look at FIFA, you have to see these two sides of the coin,” he said. “On the one hand, there are these allegations, which are not good, but also the development of the World Cup.” For now, sponsors are awaiting the results of the investigation led by Mr. Garcia, the former prosecutor. The report is expected to be completed in September and submitted to FIFA’s internal adjudicatory committee. Despite insisting that it is committed to transparency, FIFA does not plan to publicly release the independent investigator’s report. “Only the final decision of the adjudicatory chamber may be made public,” FIFA said this month.

FIFA
Soccer
Sony
adidas
Qatar
Puma
Bribery and Kickbacks
advertising,marketing
2022 FIFA World Cup
2018 FIFA World Cup


Immigration Hearings Set to Open in the House

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, said on Monday that a series of hearings he will schedule in the coming months would examine different pieces of a possible overhaul of the immigration system, including proposals for a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. On Tuesday the committee will hold the first of those hearings, formally opening what Mr. Goodlatte, a Republican, called a “momentous debate on immigration” in Congress. While attention has been focused on the immigration proposals unveiled last week by President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators, Mr. Goodlatte is moving quickly to stake out a position for the Republican-controlled House on the issue. In an interview, Mr. Goodlatte said he expected that the hearings would result in one or more bills that reflect the House position on the overhaul. Mr. Goodlatte, 60, has established a solid record of opposition to any measures he regarded as amnesty for illegal immigrants. But he said the Judiciary hearings would include scrutiny of proposals to offer legal status to most of the immigrants living illegally in the country. Image As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte will lead hearings on immigration. Credit Christopher Gregory/The New York Times Calling legalization of those immigrants “the most difficult side” of the immigration issue, Mr. Goodlatte said the committee would consider options to give “some kind of legal status to bring people out of the shadows,” offering them a chance at “being a fuller part of our society.” He said the committee would examine proposals that would allow most of the 11 million illegal immigrants to become citizens relatively quickly, as well as plans that would only offer limited legal status to far fewer people. “We don’t want to prejudge anything,” he said. Mr. Goodlatte’s plans for the hearings were a new sign of how far the center of gravity on immigration has shifted since the November elections, when Mr. Obama’s support for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants helped secure his re-election. Many Republican leaders have been calling for the party to find a new approach that plays down strident rhetoric against illegal immigrants and instead offers solutions to Latinos, high-tech businesses, farmers and many other groups frustrated with the system’s failures. Mr. Goodlatte’s game plan for the hearings contrasts with his predecessor as House judiciary chairman, Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas. Mr. Smith, who, like Mr. Goodlatte, has special expertise on immigration issues, has been resolutely opposed to most measures offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. Hearings held by Mr. Smith often focused on what he saw as serious and sometimes dangerous lapses in the Obama administration’s enforcement of immigration laws. Mr. Goodlatte, who practiced immigration law for a number of years before he was elected to Congress in 1992, said the hearings would educate House lawmakers on the complexities of the issue, and air thorny subjects so that they could find out what voters at home are thinking. Even though the mood in Washington has changed since November, resistance to those measures remains strong in many conservative Republican districts. Video TimesCast Politics: Activists speak out in Arizona. | An interview with a conservative voice. | Can legislation actually pass the House? Mr. Goodlatte said that assessing the status of the Obama administration’s enforcement efforts would be a critical part of the hearings, which will be held in the full committee and in a subcommittee led by Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, also a Republican conservative. Referring to an amnesty in 1986, which was followed by a renewed wave of illegal immigration, Mr. Goodlatte said, “What assurances will we have that the federal government is going to enforce the law this time?” A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has also been meeting, but they have made few public comments about their proposals. Those lawmakers and immigration advocates on both sides of the debate are looking to Tuesday’s hearing as an early glimpse of how an immigration overhaul could play out in the House. The tone the members take in their questioning — particularly the Republicans — will likely offer a sense of where they stand on the issue going forward. Proponents of an overhaul are watching Mr. Goodlatte with cautious optimism, viewing him as less of a hard-liner than Mr. Smith. Similarly, the witness list posted on the committee’s Web site has come under intense scrutiny, as much for who is listed as who is not. The emphasis now, advocates said, seems to be on high-skilled workers and enforcement, two themes popular with Republicans. The list also includes Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, a Democrat who had a star turn at his party’s national convention last summer. White House officials said Mr. Obama would press the issue this week, meeting on Tuesday with immigrant advocates, labor leaders and business leaders from industries that have been clamoring for easier access to foreign workers.

Immigration
Citizenship
Illegal immigration
Robert W Goodlatte
US Politics
House Committee on the Judiciary


5 Former Officials Are Sentenced for Apartheid-Era Crime

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 17 — Five security officials who confessed to the attempted murder of a black activist in the dying days of South Africa ’s apartheid government received suspended sentences on Friday, ending a case that reopened a national debate about forgiveness for racial crimes. It was less clear whether the sentencing would end the debate, however, as whites and blacks at opposite extremes of the issue expressed doubts about the justice of the court’s decision. The most senior of the officials, Adriaan Vlok, caused a sensation last year after he publicly begged for forgiveness for trying to murder the activist, the Rev. Frank Chikane, in 1989. Mr. Vlok sought to atone by washing the feet of Mr. Chikane, now an aide to President Thabo Mbeki. As part of a plea bargain, a Pretoria court gave suspended 10-year sentences on Friday to Mr. Vlok and Johan van der Merwe, then the national police chief. Three lower-ranking police officers received five-year suspended sentences. Mr. Vlok was the feared minister of law and order in the government of P. W. Botha, the South African president who commanded a campaign of murder and oppression as efforts to overthrow apartheid gained steam in the late 1980s. Part of the campaign was a series of bombings and other acts against the South African Council of Churches, a crucial link in anti-apartheid activities. Mr. Chikane was secretary general of the council in 1989, when Mr. Vlok approved a plan to kill him during a business trip by planting underwear laced with a nerve poison in his suitcase. He became violently ill but survived. Mr. Vlok has said that he always presumed that the order to kill Mr. Chikane had come from Mr. Botha, but that he had no proof. Since Mr. Vlok confessed his crime last year, Mr. Chikane has said that he believed that the act of repentance was genuine and that he forgave him. He had said that he did not want Mr. Vlok and the others accused to be sent to prison, and that he hoped their confessions would help heal national divisions. A government prosecutor, Anton Ackerman, echoed that, telling journalists that the case was neither about revenge nor retribution. Outside the courtroom demonstrators representing black victims of apartheid crimes protested that the suspended sentences were too lenient. In e-mail messages to journalists preceding Friday’s ruling, some whites argued that prosecutors were ignoring crimes by liberation activists while focusing on violations by whites like Mr. Vlok. A central issue in the Vlok case was how the government should treat criminals who did not seek amnesty for racial crimes in the mid-1990s, when South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission offered them immunity from prosecution in an effort to short-circuit a cycle of revenge between the races. In fact, Mr. Vlok appeared before the commission and sought amnesty for a series of acts. But he did not mention the attempted murder of Mr. Chikane, he argued in a statement on Friday, because military officers in the new majority government refused to cooperate in supplying information that was vital to an amnesty request. One longtime student of the reconciliation debate, Paul Graham, an analyst at the nonpartisan Institute for Democracy in South Africa, said the sentences largely followed government guidelines on how such cases should be handled.

South Africa
Plea Bargaining
Sentences (Criminal)
Murders and Attempted Murders


China’s First Lady Won’t See U.S. Counterpart on Visit

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Whatever President Obama and China’s president, Xi Jinping, do this weekend to make their highly anticipated meeting in California as informal, even intimate, as both sides profess to want, there is one thing they will not do: double date. Mr. Xi will arrive Friday at the famed Annenberg estate near Palm Springs with his wife, Peng Liyuan, a glamorous singer and military general who in just months as China’s first lady has elevated that role to a prominence and popularity unknown in the Communist era. But Mr. Obama will be stag: Michelle Obama plans to remain in Washington with their daughters, who finish the school year this week, her office confirmed on Tuesday. For a presidential meeting that is intended not so much for substantive agreements as for relationship-building between Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi, Mrs. Obama’s absence will rule out some extra dollops of personal diplomacy. And according to China experts in both countries, it is certain to be noticed by a Chinese public eager for the sight of their first lady joining America’s own groundbreaking presidential spouse on the global stage. The Chinese “will be disappointed,” said Cheng Li, a senior fellow on China policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research organization. “They certainly have very high expectations for this meeting.” “There will be more coverage in China than in the United States” of the Obama-Xi visit, Mr. Li predicted, and since the Chinese are “extremely sensitive,” Mrs. Obama’s absence “certainly needs some explanation.” But, he added, the Chinese will readily accept family obligations as the reason for Mrs. Obama’s absence. The two women are about the same age: Ms. Peng is 50, Mrs. Obama, 49. Both recently made the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women and Time’s list of the 100 most influential people. Both are mothers as well as professionals. Ms. Peng and Mr. Xi’s daughter attends Harvard, and apparently also has a mind of her own: She reportedly resisted her father’s attempts to get her to return to China and a college there once he took power. On Thursday evening, as Mr. Obama flies toward California, Mrs. Obama will attend a fund-raiser in Washington for Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic Party chairman and Clinton confidant who is running for governor of Virginia. Her office would not provide further information about her weekend plans. As for Ms. Peng, Americans are not likely to see much of her or her husband. The arrangements for the get-together at Sunnylands, the 200-acre estate built a half-century ago by the publishing billionaire Walter H. Annenberg, who died in 2002, are intended to provide comfortable seclusion as the two leaders discuss issues that challenge and divide them, like nuclear proliferation, cybersecurity and trade. But in Ms. Peng’s travels elsewhere with Mr. Xi — in Russia and Africa in March, and this week in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico — she has been anything but the traditional, retiring Chinese first lady. To find a spouse of similar prominence, China hands say, one has to reach past the Communist takeover in 1949 to Madame Chiang Kai-shek, who unsuccessfully worked alongside her husband to hold on to power and then to get it back, even addressing a joint session of Congress and three times making the cover of Time. “This is a new kind of first lady,” Mr. Li said of Ms. Peng. In Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, an elegant Ms. Peng, who wears clothing only by Chinese designers, took her turn banging drums with a steel band. The newspaper China Daily reported that the musicians were playing two of the folk singer’s “signature” songs when she joined in — one about farmers’ happiness with China’s economic policies in the 1970s and a patriotic tune about a Communist Army unit during China’s civil war. The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago was quoted as saying that he chatted with Ms. Peng in English, though it is unclear how fluent she is. Like American first ladies, but unlike spouses of past Chinese leaders, Ms. Peng has taken a high-profile role in promoting social causes — against tuberculosis, AIDS and tobacco use — as an ambassador for the United Nations and the World Health Organization. When President François Hollande of France went to Beijing in late April, the French were astounded that Mr. Xi hosted a foursome for lunch: the two presidents and their wives, a tableau that will not be repeated at Sunnylands. Ms. Peng’s history holds one discordant note as she seeks to represent a softer side of China to the world: A photo widely circulated on the Internet, but hastily pulled in China, is said to show a young Ms. Peng, in army uniform, serenading troops in Tiananmen Square in 1989, after the bloody crackdown on dissenters there. The woman looks to be ardently belting out a tune as rows of soldiers look on.

China
Xi Jinping
Peng Liyuan
Michelle Obama
Barack Obama
US Foreign Policy


Rodriguez Is Back at Home (Boooo!)

Abstract: To boo or not to boo? To howl and shake your $10 brew as you chant something edifying and borderline obscene when the Chemical Man comes strolling to the plate? Or to sit stolidly and glower? Alex Rodriguez, the not-yet-suspended-for-211-games man, returns for the first time this season to Yankee Stadium on Friday night, ready to trot out to third base with that I’m-an-eager-Little-Leaguer affect of his. To listen to the ESPN/WFAN radio hosts these days is to hear so many Robespierres oiling their guillotines. To listen to Yankee fans is to imagine them standing in showers testing their vocal cords. I assume Rodriguez will hear a vast, swelling Bronx cheer. I am a New Yorker, born and bred, and I know we cling to our right to boo as fervently as Arkansans cling to their right to shoot at squirrels with AK-47s. But really, I’ve not entirely bought into the routine. Here I should offer a confession for Yankees fans: I’m a lifelong Mets guy. This is like a member of a rival tribe lecturing you on proper spear-throwing technique. I’ve set foot in Yankee Stadium only to root for anyone who might beat the Yankees. I’ve chanted for the Red Sox’ Boomer Scott to take Ron Guidry long. I loved watching Pedro Martinez throw chin music. I was rarely successful — on one trip I saw Dave Righetti toss a no-hitter against the Red Sox. Oh, the pain. ... I digress. I see little percentage in booing our own. What’s the point of hooting at Carlos Beltran, the most elegant center fielder to ever play for the Mets, because he did not hit an unhittable Adam Wainwright curveball in 2006? I am supposed to scream at Kaz Matsui for the criminal act of not being nearly as talented as the Mets hoped? O.K., in the dim recesses of my mind, I recall booing Bobby Bonilla, that deeply underperforming, not so friendly, kind of fat outfielder. Bonilla got the last laugh as the Mets will continue to pay his contract until rising sea levels submerge Citi Field forever. And I probably booed Kevin McReynolds, a deeply underperforming, not so friendly, kind of fat outfielder who was paid too much. As I type these words, I see a pattern forming. But back to Alex Rodriguez. I don’t doubt, as baseball asserts, that he is a plastic, built-by-steroids-and-H.G.H. man. Still, the Devil Theory of A-Rod falls short. In Major League Baseball’s long experiment in the joys of chemistry, what makes this particular third baseman so supremely despicable? To do an archaeological dive into the newspaper clippings is to be reminded that intentional, willful stupidity descended like a vaporous cloud on everyone, from owners to union mates to sportswriters, to all of us fans. “All I’m saying is, you still have to hit the home runs,” Joe Torre said of one ’roidal creature or another some years back. “It’s certainly quite an accomplishment.” Right-o, Joe. I suppose we could go ask the Dodgers’ hitting coach, Mark McGwire, about that. (McGwire, for reasons known only to Bud Selig, has been allowed back into the game.) Ryan Braun lied and lied again, and last year tried to ruin the career of the man charged with collecting urine specimens from these walking chemistry sets. Then his luck ran out. Major League Baseball gave him a 65-game suspension and a pat on the back. “We commend Ryan Braun for taking responsibility for his past actions,” said Rob Manfred, an M.L.B. executive vice president. For real? We fans played our part; we cohabit easily with our contradictions. Before we watched Popeyes in cleats stride to the plate and whack balls far into the periwinkle night, there was the age of cocaine. I recall being at Shea — or watching on television — as fans cheered Keith Hernandez after he testified at a trial about his cocaine use with the St. Louis Cardinals. Why cheer him? I’d like to think that it was because he came clean before his nasal passages collapsed. But I suppose it also had something to do with the fact that he played a beautiful first base. Yankees fans cheered Andy Pettitte, who confessed to using H.G.H., and Jason Giambi, who swelled to the size of the Incredible Hulk before his body said no más. In 2007 the fans cheered madly for the 44-year-old Roger Clemens when he returned for the last of his mega-million seasons, even though he had already been implicated in various reports as a steroid abuser. It is possible my favorite Mets of the 1990s and 2000s were vegan, clean-life yogis who dined on green tea, seaweed and tossed tofu salad. But probably not. So here’s my suggestion. Howl, as Rodriguez really doesn’t deserve better. But keep in mind your scream is not just for Alex Rodriguez but for the owners, the union, the ESPN commentators, the marketers and everyone else who embraced this low, dishonest age of fraud and get-rich-now. Maybe that even includes us fans.


Drug Cartel Gunmen Kill a Mexican Mayor

Abstract: MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) — Gunmen working for a drug cartel assassinated the mayor of a small town in northern Mexico on Sunday, the local attorney general’s office reported. The assassination was in the same region where another small-town mayor was recently killed, two car bombs exploded and the bodies of 72 migrant workers were found on a ranch. The mayor killed on Sunday, Marco Antonio Leal, was shot by gunmen in S.U.V.’s as he drove through his rural municipality of Hidalgo, near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas State. Officials said the mayor’s 4-year-old daughter was slightly wounded. It was not immediately clear why the mayor was a target, but Tamaulipas has become one of Mexico’s most violent drug flashpoints since the start of the year, as rivals from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States. President Felipe Calderón, who is facing rising demands for a change in strategy in his war against drug cartels, condemned the attack and vowed to continue his effort to suppress them. “This cowardly crime and the reprehensible violent events recently in the region strengthen our commitment to continue fighting the criminal groups that seek to terrify families” in Tamaulipas, Mr. Calderón said in a statement. In another sign of escalating violence, men threw three grenades in the center of the manufacturing city of Reynosa, also in Tamaulipas, across from McAllen, Tex., on Saturday, wounding 15 people, Reynosa officials said. Gunmen killed a popular candidate for Tamaulipas governor in June in Mexico’s worst political killing in 16 years.

Cartels
Mexico
Murders and Attempted Murders
Politics and Government
Drug Abuse and Traffic


For First Time, E.P.A. Proposes Reducing Ethanol Requirement for Gas Mix

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed reducing the amount of ethanol that is required to be mixed with the gasoline supply, the first time it has taken steps to slow down the drive to replace fossil fuels with renewable forms of energy. The move was expected, but it drew bitter complaints from advocates of ethanol, including some environmentalists, who see the corn-based fuel blend as a weapon to fight climate change. It was also unwelcome news to farmers, who noted that the decision came at a time when a record corn crop is expected, and the price of a bushel has fallen almost to the cost of production. “We’re all just sort of scratching our heads here today and wondering why this administration is telling us to burn less of a clean-burning American fuel,” said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association . Farmers, ethanol producers and high-tech companies trying to make renewable fuels from wastes have all invested heavily in the ethanol industry, with an expectation of a heavy demand, advocates said. But the E.P.A. said that a big part of the problem was that automobile fuel systems and service stations were not set up to absorb more than about 10 percent ethanol. Most cars on the road, according to the automakers, and most fuel pumps, according to service station groups, are limited to the current mixture, called E10, and there has been little demand by consumers for more. Charles Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers , said that the ethanol interests were relying on “a continual government program that is an anachronism in 2013, that is seriously flawed, that puts consumers at risk, that consumers don’t want.” The timeline for phasing in enormous volumes of renewable fuel is laid out in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, but the schedule has turned out to be impractical, forcing year-by-year adjustments. In the years since the law was passed, imports of oil have declined sharply and domestic production has risen. Image Most fuel pumps and vehicles are not equipped to handle more than 10 percent ethanol, the E.P.A. said, and there has been little demand for more. Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images Meanwhile, American oil production has increased in ways not expected in 2007, because of a new drilling technique, horizontal drilling in shale combined with fracking, the same technique that has flooded the market with natural gas. Last month, domestic oil production exceeded oil imports for the first time in years. That has led the oil refiners to argue that requiring ethanol use to displace oil imports is no longer so important, and that the whole system of mandates should be dropped. At the same time, there has also been a decline in the overall demand for motor fuel, and it is poised to go yet lower. Demand had been growing, year by year, and Congress expected it to continue to do so. The 2007 law set ethanol quotas that would have meant a modest percentage increase in the amount of ethanol used in the mix. Instead, ethanol became an unexpectedly large percentage of total fuel supply, and began to push up against the barrier of 10 percent, the maximum ethanol fraction allowable in most gasoline. Millions of cars can handle blends of up to 85 percent ethanol, “flex fuel” vehicles, but few consumers like that fuel so few filling stations sell it. Those that do are struggling. For example, on Nov. 6, a Sunoco station at a suburban mall in Potomac, Md., about 15 miles northwest of the E.P.A. headquarters, opened an E85 pump, with a formal ribbon-cutting and speeches by Maryland officials. But the manager, Amit Sharma, said Friday that the pump was selling only 60 to 70 gallons a day. “It’s nothing,” he said. One problem, according to Mr. Sharma and others, is that many people drive the flex fuel vehicles, but do not understand that means they can accept up to 85 percent ethanol. In another strategy to dispose of rising volumes of ethanol, the producers have pushed the E.P.A. into allowing a blend that is 15 percent ethanol rather than 10, but few gas stations are equipped to sell that, and since it is approved only for newer cars, few stations have spent the money to refit their pumps to handle it. In addition, trade associations for companies that make power garden equipment and boat engines complain that that fuel will cause breakdowns. The E.P.A. will now take public comment, which is certain to be voluminous, as the issue is crucial not only to corn farmers, who produce most of the feedstock for ethanol, and for oil companies, whose product can be displaced by the fuel, but also to all other corn customers, including livestock producers, grocers and restaurant chains. Ethanol, the most prominent of the renewable fuels, divides environmentalists. It may involve modestly lower carbon production, but the increased market for it may also have increased farmers’ use of fragile, marginal land. Its effect on fuel prices at the pump is disputed.

Ethanol
Renewable energy
EPA
Oil and Gasoline


With TV Deals Ahead, Players Reject Salary Cap Limits

Abstract: The players’ union formally rejected an N.B.A. proposal to artificially limit increases to the salary cap once lucrative new national television deals begin next year, the league said in a statement Wednesday. The N.B.A.’s salary cap, the amount each team can spend on players, is tied to league revenue, which is set to grow significantly once the television contracts, worth more than $2.6 billion a year, begin before the 2016-17 season. The league hoped to phase in gradual increases to the salary cap — a process it called smoothing — to avoid a single dramatic spike in free-agent contract amounts that season. Michele A. Roberts, the executive director of the union, had said that she and the players were against the idea. The N.B.A. on Wednesday emphasized that the players, as a group, would not have lost any money in the proposal, and that the difference could have been paid out. “Smoothing would have avoided a substantial salary cap spike in 2016-17,” Mike Bass, a league spokesman, said in the statement. “Under the league’s smoothing approach, the salary shortfall resulting from more gradual cap increases would have been paid directly to the players’ association for distribution to all players, and thus the total compensation paid to players in any given season would not have been impacted.” The move could lead to players becoming free agents this summer to push for one-year contracts, so they could negotiate new deals after more money was available. The salary cap in the 2016-17 season could jump by more than $20 million from the 2015-16 cap. HEAT 104, NETS 98 Dwyane Wade scored 28 points and added nine assists, Chris Andersen tied a career high with 18 points and set a season high with 14 rebounds, and Miami finished off a season sweep of the visiting Nets. The Heat moved back into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. (AP) CLIPPERS 120, THUNDER 108 Chris Paul had 33 points and 9 assists, J. J. Redick added 25 points, and Los Angeles ending Oklahoma City’s seven-game home winning streak. DeAndre Jordan had 18 points and 17 rebounds for the Clippers, who are fighting for a top-four seed in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City fell a half-game behind New Orleans in the race for the conference’s final playoff spot. (AP)

Basketball
Labor Unions
NBA
Wages and salaries
Michele Roberts


Midtown Street Transformed Into Tennis Court to Promote Wimbledon

Abstract: This started as an “if you build it they will come” story about a tennis court in Midtown Manhattan, not a baseball field on a movie set in Iowa. But now, there is the “if you build it it will rain” element. Rick Capecelatro, who installs and maintains athletic fields, built the court over the weekend on a closed-off street between 45 and 50 Rockefeller Plaza as part of a stunt for the British banking company HSBC to coincide with the 2009 Wimbledon championships, which get under way in England on Monday. Two former top-ranked tennis players, Jennifer Capriati and Jim Courier, will christen the Midtown court at noon on Monday. The “they will come” part is this: HSBC took reservations from people who wanted to play there and scheduled them for court time starting as early as 7 a.m. each day through Friday. They will discover that the Midtown court is a few feet narrower than Centre Court at Wimbledon. Mr. Capecelatro had to shrink the dimensions to fit it in the street. The “it will rain” part is the rainy forecast for the next few days. That was enough to have Mr. Capecelatro shaking his head and his assistants joking that Wimbledon had exported its weather to New York — because this year for the first time, Centre Court at Wimbledon has a retractable roof to keep everything dry. The grass on Mr. Capecelatro’s court is imported, not from Britain but from somewhere on this side of the Atlantic. First, he went to South Carolina to scout grass recommended by a professor of turf grass science whose nicknames, according to USA Today, include “Sultan of Sod.” “He mentioned to us about this super-duper grass,” Mr. Capecelatro said. “Diamond zoysia. It’s so tough and wiry and hard. We went down there and bounced a tennis ball on it, and everything seemed first class.” But Mr. Capecelatro changed his mind after he had two big rolls shipped north and he spread them out — one on a bed of plywood, the other directly on the parking lot behind his office in Orange, Conn. “We didn’t get a consistent ball bounce” from the sod with the plywood underneath, and he was not thrilled about the sod with nothing underneath, either. “We would have looked like jerks if we had put that in,” he said. So he headed to Woodstown, N.J., where a 300-acre farm specializes in bentgrass, which is often used on putting greens. “We could get a real true ball bounce every time,” said Mr. Capecelatro, who added that he used to play tennis “a long time ago.” He said he is “past 60” now, sidestepping a question about how far past by saying, “I don’t even have time for golf.” To keep the court playable all week, he has a machine that is like a Zamboni for grass courts. “It compacts the grass down nice and tight,” Mr. Capecelatro said. “All your better golf courses, that’s what they use to keep it really hard and smooth.” He has also brought in fans to dry the surface between showers, and he has installed tubes in the gutters to handle thousands of gallons of runoff. He also sprayed the grass with growth retardant to keep it from trying to root in the street. “I hope we don’t have to mow,” he said. “Where do I throw the clippings?”


Start the Clock on Assessing Congress

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The 100-day evaluation is a marker in United States politics — superficial sometimes, though often a leading indicator. By April 15, 2015, the tone and motivation of the new Republican Congress may be apparent. Those first 100 days won’t make clear which measures will or won’t pass the 114th Congress; no one can anticipate intervening events over the next 600-plus days. By Tax Day, however, there will be a good sense of whether the year will be shaped only by partisan confrontations or if it will feature a decent dose of principled compromises, too. The last two months offer no clear guideposts. The Republicans won smashing victories in the midterm elections and moved to dominate the dialogue. Then, with a series of executive actions on immigration, climate change and Cuba, along with a surprisingly productive lame-duck congressional session, President Obama put Republicans on the defensive. Further damage occurred last week when it was revealed that Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 House Republican, spoke to a blatantly racist group in 2002. Here are some signs to look for over these next 100 days: The president’s approach Pennsylvania Avenue is a two-way street. Mr. Obama’s general view of compromise is to seek areas of common ground; there are a few, including trade, but not many. In divided government, compromise works when both sides surrender things they don’t want to give up in return for something they want. Although the products were flawed, these sorts of compromises occurred in the lame-duck session. The Democratic-controlled Senate is gone, the dynamics are different — can the White House adjust? Homeland security showdown Republicans, especially in the House, will face a crucial test: All of government is funded through September, except for the Department of Homeland Security, which conservative Republicans insisted on carving out as a way to go after Mr. Obama’s executive actions shielding as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. This will be a real test of Speaker John A. Boehner’s control. Republicans won’t succeed in killing the immigration action, and they could further alienate Hispanic voters and force a confrontation over funding homeland security. All are political losers. Just say no or craft alternatives Demands for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act or the withdrawal of the immigration order are empty gestures to satisfy the Republican Party’s base. Eventually, pressure to offer credible alternatives will build. There is a deal waiting to be had on infrastructure, and maybe on corporate tax reform. Immigration may be impossible. On health care, Republicans could enact some conservative-leaning modifications to the law that the White House might accept. Can this partnership endure? Mr. Boehner and his Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, have as good a relationship as any recent House and Senate leaders. They are pragmatic, deal-making conservatives who believe some achievements are in their self-interest. Yet the interests of their party caucuses could diverge. Mr. McConnell has to worry about the 24 Republican Senate incumbents up for re-election in 2016, almost half in blue or Democratic states or battlegrounds in the presidential race. Among House Republicans, a greater fear is alienating the right-wing base. There is a possibility that this year could produce some substantive legislative measures signed by the president and a number of other issues vetoed or sidetracked by Senate Democrats; these would frame issues for the presidential race. It’s an outcome that could benefit both sides. As likely is that House Republicans, stung by being called obstructionists, will try to force the president into that role. Mr. McConnell wants to get things done, though at a recent private dinner with top party strategists, there was a glaring omission: no mention of Mr. Obama, without whom little will be achieved.

Congress
Congress
Republicans
Senate
Mitch McConnell
US Politics
House of Representatives
Barack Obama
John Boehner


Mexico: Crime Reporter Is Killed

Abstract: Assailants kidnapped and killed a reporter who covered crime news in Veracruz State, officials said Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on journalists in a relentless drug war across the country. The reporter, Víctor Báez, who worked for the Mexican daily newspaper Milenio , was abducted as he was leaving his office in the town of Xalapa late Wednesday. The police found his body on Thursday morning in the city center, said Gina Domínguez, a spokeswoman for the Veracruz State government. Several journalists have left Veracruz State in recent months, fearing for their lives, but Mr. Báez had insisted on staying to continue his work. He is at least the sixth journalist to have been killed in Mexico in the past two months.

Mexico
Xalapa (Mexico)
Murders and Attempted Murders
News and News Media
Drug Abuse and Traffic
Baez Victor
Veracruz (Mexico)
Freedom of the Press


Election Ban on Sharif Is Upheld

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s election commission has upheld an earlier ruling barring the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from running in general elections scheduled for next month. The commission rejected Mr. Sharif’s appeal on Monday, as well as one by his brother Shahbaz Sharif, who was also barred from running in elections set for Jan. 8, government officials and opposition politicians confirmed Tuesday. Leaders of the former prime minister’s political party criticized the decisions as politically motivated. Nawaz Sharif is a bitter opponent of Pervez Musharraf , Pakistan’s president. Mr. Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government in a bloodless coup in 1999, after Mr. Sharif tried to stop his plane from landing. The next year, Mr. Sharif was convicted of terrorism and hijacking and was sentenced to life in prison. But the sentence was commuted in an agreement under which he was exiled to Saudi Arabia. He tried to return in September, only to be deported back to Saudi Arabia. But he was allowed to return in November. Mr. Sharif is visiting different parts of Punjab, the most populous of the nation’s four provinces, to shore up support for his political party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Pakistan
Sharif Nawaz
Politics and Government
Decisions and Verdicts
Musharraf Pervez


Google in Shift on ‘Abortion’ as Keyword

Abstract: After a lawsuit from a Christian anti-abortion group, Google is allowing religious organizations to take out ads using the keyword “abortion,” a rare case of the search giant admitting it was wrong. In March, Google rejected an ad from the Christian Institute, a British organization, that read, in part, “UK abortion law: Key news and views on abortion law from The Christian Institute.” The group, which wanted to advertise because the House of Commons was considering a bill involving abortion issues, filed a lawsuit against Google in April, saying the company was discriminating on religious grounds. Google has limits on what can and cannot be advertised; it will not allow ads for products derived from endangered species, for example, nor will it allow ads promoting violence. In the past, Google would not sell the “abortion” keyword to religious groups, but did sell it to other groups, including secular groups, doctors offering abortions and resource sites like Our Bodies, Ourselves. Google’s policies are based on a number of factors. “We build out our policies based upon local customs and business practices and, as any sensible business would do, review them from time to time to make sure they are up to date and current,” said Ben Novick, a London-based Google spokesman. Google reviewed its policy, and announced last Wednesday it had reached a settlement with the Christian Institute. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Google immediately began allowing ads linked to abortion from religious groups as long as they were determined to be factual, and not graphic or emotional ads. Google uses a combination of automated and manual processes to detect advertising violations. The change in policy applies worldwide. “We are pleased with Google’s constructive response to this matter,” the Christian Institute said in a statement. STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Abortion
Google Inc
Computers and the Internet
Suits and Litigation
Christians and Christianity


Psychiatrist, Also a Victim, Recalls David Tarloff’s Actions on Night of Therapist’s Murder

Abstract: At the murder trial of a man accused of killing an Upper East Side psychologist, several mental health experts are expected to testify about the defendant’s state of mind on the night of the slaying. But one of those experts, Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, did not come to his conclusions from the comfort of his desk. Dr. Shinbach’s appraisal came to him as he was lying not far from a dead or dying colleague, looking up at a former patient, David Tarloff, who was wielding a bloody meat cleaver. “He was entirely focused on the task at hand,” Dr. Shinbach, a psychiatrist, testified on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan . Dr. Shinbach, 75, shared an office suite with the dead psychologist, Kathryn Faughey. Mr. Tarloff’s lawyers are not contesting that he stabbed and slashed Ms. Faughey, 56, to death on Feb. 12, 2008. They are seeking to prove he was not responsible because of his mental illness. His lawyers have said Mr. Tarloff came to the office intending to rob Dr. Shinbach, who had arranged for Mr. Tarloff to be hospitalized against his will 17 years earlier, so he could afford to take his mother from what he thought was an abusive hospital and care for her in Hawaii. Dr. Shinbach recounted a harrowing 10-minute fight for his life. As he completed his last appointment of the day, he heard unfamiliar noises — “a low rumble” and “sharp, higher-pitched noises” — coming from Ms. Faughey’s office. He left his office and knocked on her door several times. When she did not answer, he opened the door. “From what I could see, the office was in tremendous disarray,” he said. “I went in, turned to the left, and saw her body crumpled on the floor.” The doctor stood there for a moment, stunned. “And then someone came up behind me and said, ‘She’s dead,’ and shoved me to the floor,” he said. “Then I was confronted by a very tall man and he was shouting, screaming, ‘I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!’ ” Dr. Shinbach said he did not recognize his former patient. He then saw him pull the bloody meat cleaver, with the handle already broken off, from his pocket. “I realized I had to do something or I was going to be slaughtered right there,” he said. A soft-spoken man who stands about 5 feet 8 inches tall, and was then 70 years old, Dr. Shinbach lunged at Mr. Tarloff, who was then 39 and stood 6 feet 1 inch. The doctor grabbed at the cleaver. His fingers were slashed. Mr. Tarloff cut him several more times, knocked him to the floor again, and then lifted up a chair and pinned the doctor under the chair’s legs. Dr. Shinbach got up again, only to be overpowered once more. Mr. Tarloff began demanding money. First $1,000, then $500, and finally $250. Dr. Shinbach told him: “I don’t have $250. I just have what’s in my wallet.” When he found that Dr. Shinbach had only $90, Mr. Tarloff began grilling Dr. Shinbach for his PIN. The doctor testified he did not use ATMs, but Mr. Tarloff would not believe him. He made up a PIN, but Mr. Tarloff saw that it had too many digits. “He then said, ‘I’m going to the bank on the corner, and if that’s not your PIN number I’m coming back and I’m going to kill you,’ ” Dr. Shinbach said. Mr. Tarloff, as he looked at the pictures from the doctor’s wallet and his home address, added another threat: “I’m going to stick this knife into your wife.” Some time passed. Mr. Tarloff said he wanted something to eat. “I said to him, ‘Haven’t you done enough harm this evening? Why don’t you just leave,’ ” Dr. Shinbach said. “And at that point I was surprised that he just whirled around and he left.” Dr. Shinbach was covered in blood. A portion of his right cheek was hanging off his face. He required surgery to repair the cheek and to reconnect the severed tendons in his left arm. Dr. Shinbach, who has treated mentally ill people for decades, did not waver in his assessment of Mr. Tarloff’s sanity on that night in 2008. Asked by a prosecutor whether Mr. Tarloff showed any sign of psychosis, the doctor answered with certainty. “No,” Dr. Shinbach said.

David Tarloff
Murders
Mental Health
Kathryn Faughey
Kent D Shinbach


Led by Brittney Griner, No. 3 Baylor Closes Big 12 Play in Rout of Colorado

Abstract: Brittney Griner’s 26 points, 13 rebounds and ceaseless shot-altering defense helped third-ranked Baylor overcome a first-half letdown to rout visiting Colorado, 81-59, on Saturday. Odyssey Sims added 16 points and 8 rebounds for the Bears (28-2), who finished 15-1 in Big 12 play, a win better than their 2005 national championship team. Brittany Spears scored 23 points for Colorado (15-14, 6-10), which trimmed an early 20-point deficit to 34-28 at the half but could not make another run. U.C.L.A. 66, WASH. STATE 48 Jasmine Dixon scored 17 points for No. 9 U.C.L.A. in the final game at Pauley Pavilion before it closes for a renovation project. With the win, the Bruins (26-3, 16-2 Pacific-10) set university records for total victories and conference wins. BIG EAST TOURNAMENT Paige Fiedorowicz scored 14 points to help No. 20 Marquette (23-7) to a 65-61 victory against Pittsburgh in second-round play in Hartford. ... No. 17 Georgetown edged Syracuse, 61-60, sending the Hoyas (22-9) into a meeting with top-ranked Connecticut. ... Da’Shena Stevens scored 14 points to help St. John’s beat West Virginia, 59-51, helping bolster the résumé of the Red Storm (21-9) for the N.C.A.A. tournament. ... Monique Reid had 12 points and 13 rebounds to help Louisville (20-11) beat Villanova, 69-47, setting up a meeting with Notre Dame. A.C.C. SEMIFINALS Jessica Breland had a season-high 28 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 19 North Carolina routed No. 10 Miami, 83-57, in Greensboro, N.C. The Tar Heels (25-7) shot nearly 47 percent to win the day’s only matchup of ranked women’s teams. ... Karima Christmas had 20 points and No. 8 Duke (28-3) held off Georgia Tech, 74-66, sending the Blue Devils back to the final for the 10th time in 12 seasons. SEC SEMIFINALS Meighan Simmons scored 18 points and No. 4 Tennessee beat Georgia, 82-58, in Nashville, sending the Lady Volunteers (30-2) to their 20th conference final. They will face No. 16 Kentucky (24-7), which got 22 points from Victoria Dunlap and withstood a late rally by Vanderbilt in a 69-56 win. BIG TEN SEMIFINALS Jantel Lavender had 37 points and 9 rebounds to lead Ohio State (21-9) to a 72-57 win over No. 11 Michigan State in Indianapolis. ...Maggie Lucas scored 23 points to lead Penn State past Illinois, 79-64. Lucas, the Big Ten freshman of the year, hit five 3-pointers for the Lady Lions (24-8). MAAC SEMIFINALS The senior guard Erica Allenspach scored a game-high 34 points as No. 18 Marist defeated Siena, 60-45, in Bridgeport, Conn. The Red Foxes (28-2) will face Loyola of Maryland, a 50-47 winner over Manhattan. PRINCETON WINS IVY LEAGUE Lauren Edwards scored 11 of her 15 points in the second half to lead Princeton past visiting Harvard, 68-59, clinching a second consecutive Ivy League title and an automatic N.C.A.A. tournament bid for the Tigers (22-4). TENN.-MARTIN WINS O.V.C Jasmine Newsome scored 24 points to lead five players in double figures and Tennessee-Martin (21-10) won its first Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship, clinching its first trip to the N.C.A.A. tournament with an 82-76 victory over the regular-season champion Tennessee Tech. STETSON WINS ATLANTIC SUN A day after Victoria McGowan put Stetson in the title game with a 50-foot shot at the buzzer, the Lady Hatters punched their ticket to the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 69-50 victory over Jacksonville in Macon, Ga. IN OTHER GAMES Danielle Adams had 23 points and 8 rebounds as No. 5 Texas A&M (25-4, 13-3 Big 12) coasted to an 84-49 win over visiting Nebraska. ... RaeShara Brown scored 14 points to reach 1,000 for her career and help Missouri (13-17, 5-11 Big 12) to a 49-48 win over No. 23 Iowa State. ... Monique Smalls scored 13 points and host Texas Tech (21-9, 8-8 Big 12) beat No. 18 Oklahoma (20-10, 10-6) by 61-56.

Baylor University
Texas Tech University
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Women)
College Athletics
Basketball
Basketball (College)
University of Colorado


A Weinstein Will Invest in Exclusivity

Abstract: Most popular Internet communities, like Facebook.com or MySpace .com, measure their success by their ability to attract new members. A notable exception to this rule is aSmallWorld.net , an exclusive online community that is about to get bigger. The Weinstein Company, the production business started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein after they left Miramax, has invested in aSmallWorld, the company will announce today. The Weinsteins, whose multimedia portfolio includes Miramax Books and a magazine publishing company, Niche Media, head a team of investors including Robert W. Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner. The company declined to put a dollar figure on its investment, describing it only as "significant." The Weinstein Company was attracted to aSmallWorld by the community's social networking and advertising opportunities, Harvey Weinstein said in an interview. This is the company's first investment in an online venture. ASmallWorld, a private company founded in 2004, has approximately 130,000 members, or about half the number who join MySpace each day. On its log-in page, it describes its members as "like-minded individuals" who share the "same circle of friends, interests and schedule." Invitations are difficult to come by: only some members have the right to invite friends to join. According to Erik Wachtmeister, the site's founder and the son of a former Swedish ambassador to the United States, a panel considers 12 to 15 variables before permitting certain users to issue invitations. "You don't want to let just anyone invite," Mr. Wachtmeister said. Asked what those variables were, he replied that it's a "secret sauce." Mr. Wachtmeister said he had the initial idea for the community in 1998, having lived in 10 cities. While traveling, "you see the same people over and over, gravitating toward each other," he said. Once admitted, members have access to "trusted and select information," the site says, like nightclub or restaurant recommendations from other members. Those who abuse the system by trying to network with celebrity members can quickly find themselves out of the club. "We keep track of people's behavior and we actually do kick people out," Mr. Wachtmeister said. Although he declined to identify celebrity members, media reports have named Quentin Tarantino, Ivanka Trump and Naomi Campbell. The Weinstein Company's investment may affect the community's size, if not its purpose and membership. According to Mr. Weinstein, his company will be expanding aSmallWorld, while maintaining its membership restrictions and its appeal to a "smaller, more select" audience. "I think we'll become very successful with one million people," he said, "but we have to find the right one million."

Facebook.com
aSmallWorld
The Weinstein Company
Celebrities
Computers and the Internet
MySpace.com


Ukraine May Finally Get Nod From NATO at Meeting in Estonia

Abstract: WASHINGTON — When the presidents and prime ministers of every NATO nation met in Bucharest, Romania, in April, they agreed unanimously that Ukraine and Georgia, two former Soviet republics, would someday, without a doubt, enter the Western alliance. But in the face of Russian resistance and even some recalcitrance within the alliance, the leaders could not agree to formally invite either Ukraine or Georgia to the ritual of requirements, reforms and deadlines. It was the diplomatic equivalent of proposing marriage without setting the wedding day. And it was a notable rejection of American policy, which had long sought to begin the formalities of the engagement, known in NATO parlance as a Membership Action Plan. Instead, an ad hoc coalition of longtime NATO members — Germany, France, Italy and Spain — continued to block the desires of Washington and the newer members of Central and Eastern Europe to bring the two countries into the fold. Not just alliance membership, but the tone of relations between Russia and the West will be on the table on Wednesday and Thursday when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates joins NATO defense ministers in Estonia, a tiny republic adjoining Russia’s Baltic coast, to discuss how to bring Ukraine, at least, rapidly into the alliance. Mr. Gates and allies pushing Ukraine’s membership agree that the war between Russia and Georgia in August gave them more evidence of the need for shoring up NATO’s commitments. “I’m not so sure this is a meeting the secretary would have attended had the Russians chosen not to invade Georgia,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “But in the aftermath of that, the secretary wanted to send a very strong signal of his support for Ukraine and the Baltic states and our other NATO allies from Eastern Europe that the United States stands firmly behind them.” At the same time, however, the debate over “Who shot first?” in the war between Russia and Georgia reaffirmed the views of those allies that want to slow membership, especially for Georgia. As details emerge that point to provocative, perhaps even foolhardy behavior by Georgia’s leadership, some NATO-nation diplomats are relieved that Georgia was not in the alliance. Under the NATO charter, an attack on one ally requires all to rise to its defense. In the case of the August conflict, had Georgia been a NATO member, the alliance could have been pulled into war with Russia. Only Ukraine’s membership is on the agenda this week at the special session of NATO defense ministers. To be sure, Ukraine is a special case, for the alliance and for Russia. With 46 million people and vast agricultural and industrial resources, Ukraine is set strategically between Russia and the newer NATO members that were separate nations under Moscow’s hegemony in the Warsaw Pact. Ukraine would be the largest and most important former Soviet republic to enter the alliance. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania never had such political, economic and cultural ties to Russia itself. That helps explain why Russia reluctantly accepted NATO membership for its former Warsaw Pact partners, and even for the Baltic states — but has drawn a line at Ukraine. “Russia has issued all kinds of threats and warnings,” said a senior administration official who, like other policy makers, agreed to discuss the NATO session in advance under customary diplomatic ground rules of anonymity. To counter those warnings, the Bush administration will make the case to the Kremlin that Ukraine’s entry into NATO is a decision to be made by Ukrainians, and is not a threat to Russia. “These are people making choices about their own future,” said another senior United States government official. “This is not encirclement of Russia. This is not a NATO strategy going against Russian interests.” While in Estonia, NATO defense ministers will discuss how to push Ukraine’s military toward requirements for membership, including transparency in budgeting and movement toward a professional military. “We have to take a ‘tough love’ approach with Ukraine,” said another senior official. “It is clear that they need to deliver on reforms — not just military reforms, but democratic reforms. Their government appears to be in a perpetual state of crisis.” A formal decision on offering a Membership Action Plan to Ukraine awaits an alliance meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels next month, and there is no evidence that allies wishing to slow Ukraine’s membership have altered their view. The issue will turn on politics in the United States as much as in Ukraine. The Bush administration has invested heavily in NATO membership for Ukraine. President Bush stopped there en route to the April alliance summit. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Georgia and Ukraine in September to express the administration’s support for the quick entry of both into the alliance. President-elect Barack Obama is not expected to make clear his official views on NATO expansion or Washington’s relations with Russia until after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. Election politics are adding uncertainty in Ukraine, as well. Yulia V. Tymoshenko, the prime minister, and Viktor A. Yushchenko, the president, are former allies now in a bitter power struggle, with new elections possible in mid-December — within days after the NATO foreign ministers’ session. Leadership during the financial crisis is central to the vote, but Mr. Yushchenko has adopted a tougher approach toward Russia than Ms. Tymoshenko. He is pushing for NATO membership, while Ukraine’s population, 17 percent ethnic Russian, is divided on the issue.

Ukraine
Russia
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
International Relations
Gates Robert M
Obama Barack


Syracuse-Duke Lacrosse Final Sets Stage for A.C.C. Rivalry

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — Syracuse had already said just about all its goodbyes to the Big East before Saturday’s N.C.A.A. semifinal lacrosse game against Denver, but Derek Maltz’s winning goal with 19.2 seconds left may have served as one last tug on the conference cord. It set up a title game matchup Monday with Duke, which, as of July 1, will no longer be some ethereal titan in basketball. The universities will be brethren in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And on Monday, the Orange will get an early crack at what the A.C.C. lifestyle might be like. “I think the A.C.C. flavor is kind of fun,” said Daryl Gross, Syracuse’s athletic director, standing outside the Orange’s locker room Saturday night. The significance of Monday’s championship, which will be played at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field, was certainly not lost on Gross, who steered Syracuse, one of the founding members of the Big East, into the A.C.C. in September 2011, knowing full well the enticement of playing Duke and North Carolina in basketball, and Florida State and Clemson in football. Snippets of the coming A.C.C. basketball schedule were released last month, highlighted by Duke’s visit to the Carrier Dome, and in a few weeks Syracuse will break ground on a $17 million indoor practice facility for football. The S.U. bookstore has been selling A.C.C.-branded T-shirts since December. And here, little more than a month away from officially joining its new conference, the lacrosse matchup provides another measure of what is to come. “It’s a perfect coincidence — a great entree into the A.C.C.,” Gross said. “It’s exciting for the conference.” No sport might benefit more from Syracuse’s inclusion than A.C.C. lacrosse, which will have five of the last six national champions, including Monday’s winner, and 24 national titles after Syracuse joins. Syracuse will see North Carolina and Duke regularly on its schedule. (The Orange have played Virginia every year since 1994). The path to the N.C.A.A. tournament will get cloudier, with potential new rivalries, like one with the Blue Devils, set to emerge. “It’s going to be cool for these younger guys to get into a new conference,” Syracuse defenseman Brian Megill said. “The A.C.C. is just going to be a powerhouse of teams. It’s a tremendous opportunity to start something new.” The Duke-Syracuse lacrosse matchup is not new — the teams have met five times in the postseason, including in the first round of last year’s N.C.A.A. tournament — but never has the stage been bigger than it is Monday. And never have the two programs met each other at such intriguing moments of their histories. Image Derek Maltz, whose goal with 19.2 seconds left sent Syracuse into Monday’s N.C.A.A. title game against Duke on Monday. Credit Michael Perez/Associated Press Duke, not Syracuse, is lacrosse’s current dynasty, having reached the Final Four in seven consecutive seasons and now with a chance to win its second title since 2010. The Blue Devils have been revived under Coach John Danowski, who improved to 18-5 in the postseason with Duke after a 16-14 semifinal victory against Cornell on Saturday. He has built a system that, though it begins slowly and takes time to mature — the Blue Devils have started 2-4, 3-3, 1-2 and 2-3 the last four seasons — normally finishes with a team playing around Memorial Day. “Yeah, why is that?” Danowski asked his goalie, Kyle Turri, at the postgame news conference Saturday. The room chuckled and neither person had a clear answer, but it hardly mattered Saturday. Nine different players scored goals and seven players tallied assists. “It was a team victory,” Danowski said. “That has been certainly our M.O. all year. It’s been a total team concept.” Last season, Duke knocked Syracuse out in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament, ending an uncharacteristically down year for the Orange, who finished 9-8. They had missed the Final Four for two consecutive seasons, despite being the top seed both times, and suddenly were in danger of missing the semifinals four straight years for the first time since 1979. The Orange began the year ranked in the teens, a slight that rankled the team’s veterans. “This senior group took it personally,” Syracuse Coach John Desko said. They have won 11 of their last 12, earning the No. 1 seed, and, after the 9-8 win over Denver, improving to 7-3 in one-goal games this season. Like Duke, they have done it with balanced scoring, strong depth and fantastic ball movement, along with one of the nation’s best defenses. Monday’s game could certify Duke’s reign atop the sport or bring a record 12th title to Central New York. Regardless, early bragging rights are on the line at the dawning of a new era for the A.C.C. “The national championship stage is set right here,” Syracuse midfielder JoJo Marasco said. “Hopefully we can come out on top tomorrow and have a big win and start off right for the Syracuse Orange in the A.C.C.” U.N.C. WINS WOMEN’S TITLE Sammy Jo Tracy scored 31 seconds into the third overtime Sunday to give North Carolina a 13-12 victory over No. 1 Maryland and the N.C.A.A. women’s lacrosse championship at Villanova, Pa. Brittney Coppa assisted on the goal that gave the Tar Heels (18-3) their first national title in their second championship game appearance. Katie Schwarzmann and Taylor Cummings each had three goals for the Terps (22-1), who were bidding for their 11th championship in 17 appearances. It was the longest game in championship history. (AP)

Lacrosse
Duke
Atlantic Coast Conference
NCAA Lacrosse
Syracuse University
College Sports


Texas Fires Charlie Strong, Replacing Him With Tom Herman

Abstract: AUSTIN, Tex. — Charlie Strong, the first black coach in the history of the University of Texas football program, was fired on Saturday with a 16-21 record in three seasons. Strong had two years left on a guaranteed contract paying more than $5 million a year, but he was the first coach in program history with three consecutive losing seasons. Tom Herman , a former graduate assistant coach at Texas, was announced as Strong’s replacement. Herman, 41, has been a head coach for only two seasons, both at Houston. His record there was 22-4. “Tom was the hottest young head coach in the country the past two seasons, and I am thrilled we are able to get him back to U.T. to lead Texas football,” Greg Fenves, the university president, said. The defensive coordinator Todd Orlando will serve as Houston’s interim head coach for its coming bowl game. Image Tom Herman, a head coach for only two seasons, both at Houston, will take over at Texas. Credit John Bazemore/Associated Press Reports that Strong would be fired swirled after a Nov. 19 loss to lowly Kansas, and Friday’s 31-9 loss to Texas Christian was too much for him to overcome. Texas finished the regular season 5-7 and will most likely miss a bowl game for a second straight year. “Charlie Strong is an outstanding leader and role model who worked hard with great integrity to move Longhorn football in the right direction,” Fenves said in a statement. “In the end, the results over three seasons were not there. It was not clear the future was going to be at the levels expected of Longhorn football.” Strong’s tenure was first notable for his disciplinarian style and code of conduct. But despite recruiting classes hailed as some of the nation’s best, the losses quickly mounted. Strong was a landmark hiring for Texas in 2014, an up-and-comer who had posted a four-year record of 37-15 at Louisville. His arrival was not only about football but also about confronting the university’s long history of segregation and racism. Until 2010, a campus dorm was named after a past leader of the Ku Klux Klan. A statue of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, stood near the central campus clock tower until student protests forced its removal in 2015. Strong’s short tenure, though, was marked by turmoil. That he lasted three years represented restraint for a university that forced out Mack Brown in 2013 — eight years after he won a national title — once the Longhorns had come up just short of sharing the Big 12 championship. Many of Strong’s players had hoped he would get another year. “We’ve been blessed to have him,” the freshman quarterback Shane Buechele said Friday night. “No one wants him to leave. Everybody wants him to stay.” Texas will now have Herman as the leader of a program that its supporters believe belongs among the nation’s elite, despite a long record of mediocrity. Since 1986, Texas has lost at least five games 16 times. Only Brown’s 10-year run of 10-win seasons, from 2000 to 2009 — which included two Big 12 championships and the 2005 national title — went against that tide of lackluster results. “Longhorn football has been, and always will be, a national power,” Herman said in a statement. Details of his contract were not immediately released, and it must still be approved by Texas’ Board of Regents. Herman said he had met with Fenves and Texas’ athletic director, Mike Perrin, in the predawn hours Saturday to reach an agreement. “I came away very impressed with their unified vision and commitment to football,” Herman said, adding, “I am eager to get to Austin as soon as possible, to spend time with our student-athletes and to get to work.” Strong produced four straight wins over teams ranked No. 12 or better. But that success only compounded the frustration over his losses. While some blamed Brown for leaving the program in shambles, Strong’s lineups still featured future N.F.L. talent. Ultimately, Strong made one promise he could not keep. In November 2014, when the Longhorns were 6-5, he swore that a five-loss season would “never happen again.” They finished that season at 6-7, and two 5-7 seasons followed. “I do understand that it comes down to wins and losses, and we have not done our job in that area yet,” Strong said. “I accept full responsibility for that but know in my heart that we accomplished our primary goal, which is the development of young men.”

Charlie Strong
Coaches
College football
University of Texas at Austin


Aid Elusive, Crimea Farms Face Hurdles

Abstract: SIMFEROPOL, Crimea — Sergei V. Tur, a significant landowner, scowled beneath his desert camouflage cap as he watched a hulking combine chew through one of his golden barley fields, reaping part of what he predicts will be the best harvest in Crimea in three years. The weather may be cooperating, but since the Russian annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March, the political crisis has disrupted virtually every other aspect of farming — from irrigation to credit to exports. “On a scale of one to five, we are at negative three,” said Mr. Tur, the head of the Association of Farmers and Landowners of Crimea, with 300 members among the largest 1,700 farms. Despite Russian promises of support immediately after the annexation, help from Moscow has been spotty at best. “It would seem reasonable to get some help from the Russian government, but I don’t see that the government is helping,” said Mr. Tur. Recently he was called to a meeting with the deputy minister of agriculture, who praised the government’s pledge to fund 50 percent of a variety of new farm programs, Mr. Tur said. “Where are we supposed to get the other 50 percent that we cannot pay ourselves?” asked Mr. Tur. Given that the sector generated $660 million in output last year, just behind tourism and manufacturing, it deserves more help, he said. The problems are legion. Buyers from giant international grain trading firms like Cargill and Dreyfus avoid Crimea because of a Western boycott of its products. Ukraine closed the spigot for the main irrigation canal in April, starving the peninsula of essential water. No rice was cultivated, corn planted for feed was sharply curtailed and even widespread crops like wheat and barley were stunted, but generous rains helped bring them back. With Ukrainian banks now shuttered and Russian ones barely established, farmers have struggled to get credit for essentials like seed and fertilizer. And farmers and agricultural companies hoping to break into the Russian market have suddenly found themselves caught in a transportation labyrinth. Ferry service, the only link to mainland Russia, can involve a 15-hour wait on the best days. It often takes two or three days to clear the backlog when storms shut the service across the Kerch Strait, with vehicles backing up for miles. Image Fruit vendors in Koktebel, Crimea, in June. Farmers have struggled to get credit for essentials, with Ukrainian banks closed and Russian ones barely established. Credit James Hill for The New York Times Agriculture is not the only economic sector in disarray. Tourism, the foundation of the economy, is down by more than one-third this year, government officials and tour operators said, despite the Kremlin’s encouraging Crimean vacations, sometimes with reduced airfares. Many bank customers, not just farmers, face trouble getting money because few banks are operating. Hotels and restaurants generally refuse credit cards. Major banks fear Western sanctions for working in Crimea, so mostly only small regional Russian banks are opening. The legal system remains in limbo, since there is scant expertise in Russian law. Cellphone and wireless signals yo-yo up and down as the technology shifts from Ukrainian to Russian providers. Some Crimeans complain that they face repeated unpleasant surprises. Prices for basics like milk have doubled. Where television cable service once provided a full array of international and Ukrainian satellite channels, it now shows only Russian channels. The first concrete signs of blowback on the Russian economy are also emerging. The estimated cost of developing Crimea through 2020 ranges from $18 billion to more than $24 billion, according to various government projections. Moreover, the sanctions imposed for annexing Crimea have sapped confidence in the overall Russian economy. The annexation still retains broad support in Crimea, since the many Russians living there yearned to be part of the motherland. Echoing the constant refrain of government officials, enthusiasts said they accepted short-term problems and were confident that matters would improve. Crimea’s minister of agriculture, Nikolai P. Polyushkin, portrays his sector as robust. “Of course we have faced some very unusual problems that we have never faced before, but this transition is going pretty well,” he said in an interview. “We receive a lot of help from the Russian side.” The Kremlin will provide $110 million to farmers this year, with only the distribution mechanism needing to be established, Mr. Polyushkin said. The Russian market will take whatever Crimea has to offer, he said, asserting improbably that there were “no barriers” to the Ukrainian market. True, the European Union last month banned all imports from Crimea, but if international buyers do not come, he said, “that is their problem that they lost Crimea.” The lack of water from Ukraine? “It is a problem, but it is not a catastrophe,” said Mr. Polyushkin, who grew up on a collective farm here in Soviet times, when Crimea was an agricultural powerhouse. Transportation issues with the ferry? “This problem has been resolved,” he said. The minister’s assessment was so rosy, in fact, not to say remote from the reality farmers said they experienced, that it mostly provoked laughter from those outside government. They said they faced significant hurdles with both production and marketing. “Of course officials in their offices will say that all is well,” said Vitaly V. Polishuk, 42, the founder of Skvortsovo, one of Crimea’s largest food producers. When Mr. Polishuk, a former athletic trainer, started the company a decade ago, it was making a little more than 1,200 pounds of sausages a day in a small village factory; last year its sales hit about $55 million, the company said. Image The refrigerated storage hall of Skvortsovo, one of Crimea’s largest food producers, where sales are off by about 50 percent. Credit James Hill for The New York Times While Mr. Polishuk professed optimism about long-term prospects, both he and his managers said the company was trying to cope with the sudden loss of the Ukrainian market, where they were established players. Sales are off by about 50 percent and falling. Ukrainian companies have so far refused to pay roughly $2 million in outstanding bills, Mr. Polishuk said. Mr. Polishuk and his managers are also a bit daunted about how to compete against what they frequently refer to in conversation as the “sharks” and “monsters” of the Russian market. In Crimea itself, demand remains sturdy for Skvortsovo’s salami, hot dogs and other meat products like the football-size “Doctorskaya” sausage — modeled on a 1930s Soviet “health” product. But that demand pales in comparison to previous years when six million summer vacationers tripled Crimea’s 2.3 million population. “This year we are only working at 35 percent of capacity,” said Sergei A. Sazhienko, the director of the company’s spotless, energy-efficient meat processing plant. Skvortsovo also cultivates fruits and vegetables, particularly the cabbage, beets, onions and carrots needed for borscht. After Ukraine blocked the North Crimean Channel, the main irrigation vein off the Dnieper River, the company relied on reservoirs and a small local river for water. But if the canal remains blocked next year, Skvortsovo may not plant vegetables, field managers said. The harvest of wheat and barley was down by about one metric ton per 2.5 acres because of the irrigation shortfall, said Dmitri V. Mozhaev, one of the company’s senior farm managers. Growing produce is one thing. Getting it to Russia has become perhaps the bigger hurdle. It used to take trucks two days to cross eastern Ukraine to Moscow, but that highway runs through a combat zone. The ferry route and 1,250 miles of dubious highway beyond take a week to traverse. A costly bridge link to the mainland is at least four years away. Mr. Polyushkin, the agriculture minister, said produce trucks were waived right onto the ferry. Farm managers said that was news to them. Not only does the produce have to wait, but once the trucks get into Russia, Ukrainian license plates make them targets for constant stops, searches and shakedowns by the Russian police, producers said. A steady parade of senior Kremlin officials, including Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev and numerous ministers, have all promised help, farmers said. But little that is concrete has materialized. “Russia talks about patriotism all the time, but they do not seem to be taking the simplest steps to promote Crimean goods,” said Gennadi V. Potapenko, a publicist working for Skvortsovo.

Crimea
Russia
Irrigation
Agriculture
Cargill
Ukraine
Banking and Finance
Embargoes Sanctions
International trade
Travel,Tourism


2 Czech Tourists Abducted in 2013 Have Been Freed in Pakistan

Abstract: PRAGUE — Two Czech tourists who were abducted by gunmen two years ago as they were traveling on a bus through southwestern Pakistan have been released, the Czech government said Saturday. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in a statement that the two women, Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka, returned to the Czech Republic on Saturday. Mr. Sobotka said their release was negotiated by a Turkish nongovernmental organization, the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, but offered no further details. “I am very tired but I don’t want to sleep,” Ms. Chrastecka told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency before flying home. “I am afraid this may be a dream.” The women were on the road from Iran to Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in southwestern Pakistan, when they were seized in March 2013. They had been given a police guard in Pakistan to escort them on a passenger bus, but the police officer was no match for the eight to 10 gunmen who stopped them in the Chaghi district near the Iran and Afghanistan borders, officials said. The disarmed police officer was later released. Serkan Nergis, a spokesman for the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, said the women’s families had contacted his group two months ago, seeking help after other efforts to secure the women’s release had failed. “We used our sources in the region to find out where in Pakistan they were being held and then worked for their release,” Mr. Nergis said. “It was a long and detailed process.” He said the women were captured by a group linked to Al Qaeda. IHH staff members escorted them to the eastern Turkish city of Van by road, where they arrived Friday evening and were reunited with their families, Mr. Nergis said. “We didn’t know who was holding us, because they never told us or said why they were holding us,” Ms. Humpalova said. “When we came out, we were happy to see the sun after two years, to see happy, smiling people,” she said. “We were deprived of this.”

Pakistan
Bohuslav Sobotka
Czech Republic
Kidnapping and Hostages


Heart Disease Killed Micah True

Abstract: The ultramarathon runner Micah True, 58, died from heart disease while on a routine 12-mile run in late March in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico, authorities said. An autopsy report said that True, nicknamed Caballo Blanco, or White Horse, had cardiomyopathy and that there was some enlargement of his heart, which can cause an irregular heartbeat during exertion.


Bomber Strikes Near Jamaat-e-Islami Rally in Pakistan

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A teenage suicide bomber struck near a protest rally in the northwestern frontier city of Peshawar on Monday, killing a prominent police officer and as many as two dozen protesters, the police said. A bomb disposal official said the young bomber was wearing a vest with as many as 15 pounds of explosives. Television cameras showed a frenzied scene of Islamic youths from the protest helping people onto stretchers and clapping their heads in grief. Though no one claimed responsibility for the attack and it was not officially confirmed, the target appeared to be one of the city’s senior police officers, Gulfat Hussein, said his colleague, Karim Khan. Mr. Hussein, the deputy superintendent of the Peshawar police, may have been targeted because he is a Shiite who was known in the city and often helped arrange security for Shiite religious festivals, Mr. Khan said. If so, the attack would be the third against Shiites in four days. The blast, which took place in the Qisa Kawani market area, also killed more than 20 others, including Dost Muhammad, a local leader for the political party Jamaat-e-Islami, which had gathered to protest electricity cuts. The rally itself would be a highly unusual target, given the party’s history. Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan ’s oldest Islamic political party, is a hard-line group that until recently had publicly supported the Taliban . Its language sometimes echoes that of the Taliban: anti-West, anti-India and strongly against one of Pakistan’s tiny religious minorities, an Islamic sect called Ahmedis. But the party is also part of Pakistan’s state establishment and has been critical of any direct attack on Pakistan’s army or its people. Sectarian violence, though, has long tormented Pakistan, where Shiites are a sizable minority, and attacks on them have escalated in recent days. On Friday, militants shot a Shiite banker in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, and then, in a double attack that has become their signature, detonated a bomb in the hospital where he was taken, killing nine others, including a cameraman. The banned militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility, the Pakistani media said, though it was impossible to verify the claim. On Saturday, a double bombing in a village in the Kohat district in western Pakistan where Shiite refugees had taken shelter killed at least 38. Mr. Hussein, the police officer who was killed, had been active in protecting the Shiite procession of Muharram, which often draws militant attacks, Mr. Khan said. Sectarian militancy is so prevalent that Shiite police officers sometimes ask not to be posted in the field, out of fear that they will be targets because of their sect. Al Qaeda , which has become strong here in recent years, is virulently anti-Shiite. The bomb that killed Mr. Hussein was the second attack on Monday. In the first, a bomb exploded just seven hours earlier near a school, killing one student and wounding 10, the authorities said. The school, Police Public School Peshawar, caters to the children of police officials. The attacks have shattered the relative quiet of the last three months. Violence dropped off late last year, during the Pakistani military’s offensive in South Waziristan, an area in western Pakistan where the Taliban was strong. A senior intelligence official said the recent attacks seemed to emanate from the Orakzai tribal region, where Pakistan’s security forces have been fighting militants for weeks. “They are all coming from there,” the official said of the bombers. “They have taken shelters in the urban areas and are now targeting urban centers.”

Jamaat-e-Islami
Islam
Pakistan
Taliban
Al Qaeda
Peshawar (Pakistan)
Terrorism
Shiite Muslims
Demonstrations and Riots