Claim Over Red Cross Symbol Is Settled

Abstract: The American Red Cross and Johnson & Johnson , the health care conglomerate, announced Tuesday that they had settled a longstanding dispute over use of the Red Cross trademark. The two sides announced the settlement a month after Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan threw out much of J.& J.’s trademark claim against the relief organization. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but according to a statement, it includes an agreement that both parties will continue to use the symbol — a Greek red cross on a white background. Johnson & Johnson sued the Red Cross last August, claiming that the organization’s decision to use the Red Cross symbol on products sold in stores was a violation of a longstanding arrangement. Under that arrangement, the company had used the trademark commercially on products like Band-Aids while the Red Cross used it as a symbol of its disaster relief mission. But beginning in 2004, the Red Cross started licensing the symbol to other companies for use on commercial items sold in stores as part of the organization’s fund-raising program. J.& J. argued that the organization had promised not to engage in certain commercial activity, according to court papers. Judge Rakoff, however, ruled that a Congressional charter gave the Red Cross the right to use the symbol even for business purposes. In a statement, J.& J.’s chief executive, William C. Weldon, said the company “brought the lawsuit very reluctantly only to protect what we believed are important trademark issues.”

American Red Cross
Federal District Courts
Johnson & Johnson Inc
Suits and Litigation
Rakoff Jed S


Thieves Take $280,000 From Brooklyn Bank After Carving Hole in Roof

Abstract: In a scene more often seen in a Hollywood caper than in Borough Park, Brooklyn’s sedate shopping district, employees arrived for work at a bank on Monday morning to find a tunnel through the ceiling straight into the vault, with hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, the police said. The crime was discovered at the bank, a branch of HSBC on 13th Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets, that morning, but the break-in probably happened sometime over the weekend, the police said. The bank is closed on Saturday and Sunday, according to its website. When exactly the theft took place and how many people were involved was not known. Using a preliminary report, the police initially said $280,000 had been stolen, but officials later said that the number would probably change. No arrests have been made. Spectators who had climbed to the roofs of nearby buildings to see the hole on Monday afternoon were disappointed: It was hidden from view behind an air-conditioning unit. Police officers walked the roof and through a small yard behind the bank with their notebooks out, near where an opening appeared to have been neatly sliced in a chain-link fence. Image The police blocked the public’s access to the bank, but onlookers gathered nearby and discussed the robbery. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times Outside the bank’s front entrance, crime scene tape cordoned off the street and onlookers from the community gathered around, discussing the crime. Some expressed displeasure, while others said they were almost impressed with the thieves’ audacity. “You give them credit for chutzpah,” Yaakov Tapechi, 22, said as he stood beside the yellow tape, while investigators darted in and out of the building. “Then again, they stole $280,000.” The money is insured, according to the bank; customers’ deposits will not be affected. A spokesman for HSBC, which is based in London and has over 200 branches in the United States, would confirm only that the incident occurred, and that the bank was cooperating with authorities.

Robbery
Bank Robberies
Borough Park Brooklyn


Peterson and Watt Chosen Unanimously as All-Pros

Abstract: The Minnesota Vikings’ 2,000-yard rusher, Adrian Peterson, and Houston Texans defensive end J. J. Watt were unanimous choices for the Associated Press All-Pro team, announced Saturday. All 50 members of a nationwide panel of news media members selected Peterson, who was 9 yards from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record, and Watt, who led the N.F.L. with 20 ½ sacks. Peterson is a three-time All-Pro; Watt, a second-year player, is among 17 players who made the team for the first time. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning made his sixth team; the previous five were with Indianapolis. Also chosen for the sixth time was Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez, who this season moved into second place on the career receptions list. ¶ The Kansas City Chiefs have hired John Dorsey, the Packers’ director of football operations, to replace the fired Scott Pioli as their general manager. Dorsey helped build Green Bay into a perennial contender as the team’s director of college scouting. ¶ Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly will be back for a fourth season after leading the Fighting Irish to the Bowl Championship Series title game. Kelly issued a statement saying that after interviewing with the Philadelphia Eagles, he would remain as the coach of the Irish. ¶ The Indianapolis Colts special-teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf will not be back on Coach Chuck Pagano’s staff next season. The team said Maalouf and the Colts mutually agreed to part ways. In Maalouf’s one season with the Colts, punter Pat McAfee averaged 48.2 yards a punt, and the punt and kickoff coverage units improved. (AP)

Minnesota Vikings
Adrian Peterson
Houston Texans
Football
J J Watt


Second Sedition Arrest in India as Former Lecturer Is Held

Abstract: NEW DELHI — The police in New Delhi arrested a former university lecturer on suspicion of sedition early Tuesday, the second arrest in a week on the colonial-era charge, as student and teacher protests against the government continued. The arrest of the lecturer, S.A.R. Geelani, came just days after the police arrested the student union president of Jawaharlal Nehru University , Kanhaiya Kumar, on a sedition charge. India’s sedition laws, which date back to the British Raj, mandate prison terms ranging from three years to life. Though the Supreme Court has ruled that sedition charges apply only to speech that incites violence, the law has been used in recent years on apparently political targets: a cartoonist in Mumbai, or a group of Kashmiri students cheering the Pakistani cricket team, among others. The police did not specify the exact grounds for Mr. Kumar’s arrest, though it seems to involve an event on Feb. 9 on the third anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri militant, Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, for his involvement in an attack on Parliament in 2001 that left nine dead. Mr. Kumar was present at a protest surrounding the anniversary where the participants chanted slogans police described as “anti-national,” said the Delhi police commissioner, B.S. Bassi . Though the university called off the event, videos circulated on television and online afterward showing people shouting slogans condemning Mr. Afzal’s execution and calling for India to be “split into pieces.” After the protest, a speech by Mr. Kumar was circulated online condemning a right-wing group and presenting himself and fellow students as the true defenders of the Constitution. Legal experts said it would be difficult to prove sedition based on the content of the speech, which did not call for violence, but some said that the authorities were not concerned about making the charge stick. “If it is brought to the court, in my view there is no case against him,” said Raju Ramachandran, a Supreme Court lawyer. But, he said, “in the meantime you’ve intimidated and harassed.” He added: “It has a chilling effect, in a sense, because people would tend to think twice before expressing their views on sensitive subjects.” A police official, Jatin Narwal, said that Mr. Geelani, formerly of Delhi University, has been arrested on the same charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy after organizing an event at the Press Club of India, where a group of people shouted slogans hailing Mr. Afzal, the Press Trust of India reported. It was not clear whether Mr. Geelani had shouted the slogans, and Mr. Narwal declined to give details about the case. Mr. Geelani had been charged with involvement in the 2001 Parliament attack, but the Delhi High Court overturned his conviction in 2003, citing a lack of evidence. Mr. Kumar’s arrest led to chaos on Monday at a Delhi court, where he was to appear at a hearing on whether to extend his detention. He never got there as a mob scene developed, with a number of men wearing black lawyers’ coats forcibly evicting reporters and attacking students and professors from Jawaharlal Nehru University who had come to support Mr. Kumar, reporters present said. Eventually, the hearing was held elsewhere, and Mr. Kumar was remanded to two more days of police custody. Om Prakash Sharma, an assemblyman in Delhi from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was seen beating a man outside the court in a video that circulated widely online. In a televised interview with India Today, Mr. Sharma said that he had been attacked by the man, who had been shouting anti-India slogans and was fighting back. “They will hit you, abuse Mother India and then what will you do? Will you pray to him?” he said. On the sprawling campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, a wellspring for generations of left-leaning academics and politicians, students gathered on Tuesday to protest Mr. Kumar’s arrest. As the students held a sign reading “Release Comrade Kanhaiya,” teachers formed a human chain around them to protect them from assault, though there were no clashes. “Who are these people to teach nationalism to this progressive university?” asked Bikash Mishra, a 30-year-old Ph.D. candidate in environmental science. “In a university, students should be free to discuss anything.”

India
S.A.R. Geelani
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Treason,Sedition
Civil Unrest


An Improved Offer by Oracle Captures BEA Systems

Abstract: Oracle has finally won its prize, the rival BEA Systems, after sweetening the offer by 14 percent, just three months after BEA soundly rejected its original bid. The deal, announced on Wednesday morning, makes Oracle the undisputed leader in the market for what is known as middleware: business software that operates between a company’s database system and its payroll, human resources and inventory systems that use the data. “For Oracle, this deal is a very big step toward completing our vision of becoming a strategic enterprise software of choice for our customers,” Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, said in a conference call. “It reflects the exceptional strategic stake between our two companies in terms of our complementary product strategies, geographic strengths and industry strengths.” The deal, valued at $8.5 billion, or $19.38 a share, is a significant step back from the BEA board’s position in November that it would not accept an offer below $21 a share. Mr. Ellison told analysts then that Oracle had decided to pursue other takeover targets, although BEA executives expressed doubt that he was moving on. Oracle’s offer represents a 24 percent premium over Tuesday’s closing share price of $15.58. The deal, expected to close by October, was valued at $7.2 billion, not counting the $1.3 billion in cash that BEA has on hand. Oracle executives said the acquisition would increase its adjusted earnings by at least 1 to 2 cents a share in the first full year. BEA’s stock rose more than 18 percent Wednesday, or $2.88, to close at $18.46; Oracle advanced 61 cents, to $21.92. BEA, based in San Jose, Calif., was facing considerable pressure from Carl C. Icahn, its largest shareholder. In insisting that BEA find a buyer, he has said that it is difficult for a small independent company to thrive amid the rapid consolidation of the business software industry. Mr. Icahn began buying BEA shares last summer and today owns 13 percent of the company. In its most recent quarter, BEA generated sales of $384.4 million, compared with Oracle’s sales of $5.3 billion in its recent quarter. Alfred Chuang, BEA’s chairman and chief executive, said the board spent several months reviewing options. "This transaction is the culmination of that diligent and thoughtful process,” Mr. Chuang said in a statement, “and we believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders.” Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., has spent more than $30 billion buying competitors over the last three years, including PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems and Hyperion Solutions. Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, commented: “Oracle’s strategy is to provide a complete enterprise solution, and customers want one source. This is a good deal for Oracle because it gets a lot of good technology and good people, and a firm anchorage in China.” Mr. Icahn took some credit for the deal, which came months after he filed a lawsuit against BEA to force it to the bargaining table. "This transaction is an excellent example of the great results that can be achieved for all constituencies when the shareholder activist is able to work cooperatively with management," Mr. Icahn said in a statement.

Oracle Corp
BEA Systems Incorporated
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Stocks and Bonds
Computers and the Internet
Company Reports


Battle for Mosul Tests Obama Strategy to Shift Fight’s Burden From U.S.

Abstract: WASHINGTON — As Iraqi forces launch their long-awaited campaign to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State, President Obama’s doctrine of aiding other countries militarily rather than leading every fight is facing its greatest test yet. How well the Mosul campaign goes, not just the fighting over the coming days and weeks but the rebuilding of the city in the months after that, will help define Mr. Obama’s legacy as a wartime leader who sought to take the United States off the front lines of the counterterrorism war. On Monday, in keeping with the president’s insistence that the Iraqis take the lead, the White House said that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was “calling the shots.” But the reality is that roughly half of the 5,000 American troops now in Iraq are likely to be involved in the operation, which could eventually require 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops. About 200 to 300 of the Americans are Special Operations commandos advising Iraqi and Kurdish troops — a mission that will put them a few miles behind the front lines, communicating with Iraqi soldiers via radio. A few dozen are forward air controllers, who are already calling in airstrikes against Islamic State targets, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the American commander in charge of the coalition in Iraq and Syria, said on Monday. The other Americans range from Apache helicopter pilots to intelligence analysts at Iraq’s military headquarters. “Our men and women in uniform, who are serving in Iraq, are putting themselves in harm’s way,” said the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest. “There’s no one, including the commander in chief, who would downplay the risks that they are taking on our behalf.” For the White House, there were other tensions, including the need both here and in Iraq to cast the United States in a supporting rather than a central role. At one point, Mr. Earnest noted that the United States had helped the Iraqis stabilize two other smaller Iraqi cities, Ramadi and Tikrit. “We’ve done this,” Mr. Earnest said, before catching himself. “I should say, the Iraqis have done this — on a smaller scale.” Mosul is the largest example of a counterterrorism model that the Obama administration has put in place from Afghanistan to Libya. In Somalia, Special Forces troops are training Somali and other African troops to combat the militants of the Shabab. In Syria, about 300 Special Forces troops are aiding Syrian Kurdish and Arab militias with training and air support in the battle against the Islamic State. “We need partners to fight terrorists alongside us,” Mr. Obama said at West Point in 2014, when he laid out the counterterrorism strategy to cadets graduating from the United States Military Academy. But these partnerships have a mixed record. In Iraq, troops have successfully driven the Islamic State out of every major city except Mosul. But in Afghanistan, the Taliban have made steady gains in seizing territory from the American-trained Afghan security forces. They now control at least 30 percent of Afghanistan, and threaten the northern city of Kunduz. The United States has already failed once in training Iraqi troops. After $25 billion in aid and nearly a decade of training, the Iraqis melted before the advancing militants of the Islamic State in 2014. Critics have derided Mr. Obama’s approach as an example of “leading from behind.” But other officials said that if the Mosul operation were successful, it would vindicate Mr. Obama. The Battle for Mosul: Iraqi Forces Enter the City Iraqi forces have entered Mosul after two weeks of fighting. “The bottom line is the result,” said Philip H. Gordon, a former coordinator of Middle East policy in the National Security Council. “When he leaves office, is ISIS failing? Is it defeated, if not destroyed? That more than anything will determine how the strategy is ultimately judged.’’ “There is a decent chance that judgment will be positive,” he added. First, however, the Iraqis have to take Mosul, a campaign the White House acknowledged would be protracted and difficult, and might not be completed by the time Mr. Obama leaves office in January. As recently as Sunday, the objectives of American airstrikes included a range of Islamic State targets near the city, including tunnels, weapon caches, mortars and vehicles, according to the military command in Baghdad. Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said it was too soon to tell whether American forces would accompany Iraqi and Kurdish troops into Mosul itself. “There are Americans on the outskirts of the city,” Mr. Cook told reporters, saying they were currently behind the front lines. Leading up to this latest phase of the campaign, Apache attack helicopters equipped with Hellfire missiles have been striking targets in northern Iraq. They were not used in the early hours of Monday’s battle, the Pentagon said. American pilots are also flying surveillance missions and operating armed drones in the combat zone, officials said. American commanders have warned that Iraqi and Kurdish forces will face a city laced with explosive booby traps, oil-filled trenches and underground tunnels to allow Islamic State fighters to pop up and carry out guerrilla-style attacks against the government forces. Some Islamic State combatants, including foreign fighters, are expected to fight to the death. But others are likely to fall back and try to slip away to the west and the Syrian border. After weeks or months of fierce urban combat, a critical question for the Iraqi government and the Obama administration is who will secure and eventually govern the city once the Islamic State is driven out. The Kurds have assured American officials that they will not send their forces into Mosul once it has been secured. Nor does the United States want Iraq to keep its largely Shiite army inside the predominantly Sunni city any longer than it needs to. Iranian-backed Shiite militias, which are a politically powerful movement in Iraq, have been accused of detaining and killing hundreds of men who fled the fighting in and around Falluja this year. Thus, American officials said, security will largely rest in the hands of newly trained local police officials. More than 20,000 Sunni tribal fighters, whom the Iraqis and Kurds are vetting, will also help with security. While this plan puts local security forces in the lead, it also means that one of the most complicated and high-risk phases of the overall operation will be entrusted to lightly armed fighters whom the United States does not directly advise. Another big worry for administration officials is the lack of a detailed plan to govern Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which had two million residents before the Islamic State’s takeover in 2014. Outside the city, competing groups of Kurds, Shiites and others are already counting their political spoils, raising fears that retaking the city could aggravate tensions between Sunnis in Mosul and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad that fueled the Islamic State’s rise in the first place. While some Pentagon aides pressed for more definitive plans, other administration officials say that American diplomats will help broker political power-sharing arrangements between Iraqis, Kurds and various other groups in Nineveh as the campaign unfolds. “Everyone will want a piece of the pie,” said Matthew Henman, managing editor of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. “A lot of actors want to be calling the shots.”

Mosul
Iraq
US Military
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Iraqi Army
Barack Obama
Iran


At UConn, Calhoun’s Recruiting Universe Included Israel

Abstract: As Israel tries to qualify for next year’s World Baseball Classic, it has turned to a team of predominantly American players . It recalls the time when Jim Calhoun did just the opposite, looking to Israel for talent as he was building a men’s basketball powerhouse at Connecticut. The arrival of its first Israeli player, forward Nadav Henefeld, helped UConn reach national prominence after years as the Big East’s doormat. In Henefeld’s only season, 1989-90, the Huskies won their first regular-season conference and Big East tournament titles, and came a last-second shot by Duke’s Christian Laettner short of reaching their first Final Four. The Israeli pipeline delivered additional players to UConn, with guard Gilad Katz joining for the next two seasons. Point guard Doron Sheffer played three seasons for the Huskies, beginning in 1993-94. Sheffer and several teammates in those years — including Kevin Ollie, Ray Allen and Travis Knight — were drafted by N.B.A. teams, although Sheffer opted to join Henefeld on Israel’s top professional club, Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 1994-95, Sheffer and the backup center Uri Cohen-Mintz became the first Israelis to play together at UConn. When the Huskies finally reached the Final Four in 1999, they won the first of three N.C.A.A. titles. Reached by telephone last week, Henefeld and Sheffer reflected on Calhoun’s retirement this month after 26 years at UConn. “It’s something everyone knew would come one day, but when the day comes, it’s a surprise,” Henefeld said. He added that when Calhoun thought of “where UConn is compared with where it was, he can be satisfied and can retire with no regrets.” Henefeld and Sheffer recalled Calhoun’s demanding nature, saying that he pushed them as players and effectively set the expectations for the team. Indeed, they pointed to Calhoun as the greatest factor in UConn’s extended run of success. “He was the person, more than anybody else, responsible for a victory,” said Sheffer, who lives on a communal farm in northern Israel and runs basketball clinics. “It was all the preparation, getting ready, the attitude. It was the whole picture.” Calhoun apparently did not develop the plan to mine an undiscovered source of basketball talent. Henefeld said that he chose to attend UConn only after discovering on a visit to his first choice, St. John’s in Jamaica, Queens, that it did not offer on-campus housing, which he was seeking to help acclimate to college life. But his relationship with Calhoun started poorly, Henefeld said, when he arrived 10 minutes late to the first practice. Calhoun punished him by motioning with his fingers that he wanted Henefeld to circle the track surrounding the court at Greer Field House, the Huskies’ home at the time. “I spent one and a half hours just running around the track,” Henefeld said. “He wouldn’t talk to me.” “During games, he would scream at you if you made a mistake, and he’d turn his back to the court to explain it to you,” said Henefeld, a real estate developer near Tel Aviv. “But if you took it right, if you didn’t take it personally,” he said, a player would benefit from Calhoun’s criticism because “he wanted to get the most out of you.” Sheffer and Henefeld said that they also appreciated Calhoun’s interest in their welfare beyond basketball. Henefeld mentioned the Jewish families in Hartford and in Boston whom Calhoun lined up as surrogates because he was living so far from home. UConn continues to mean a lot to Sheffer and Henefeld, and they have flown in over the years to appear at alumni games. During their respective bouts with cancer, Sheffer said he and Calhoun each called the other to extend best wishes. “It’s the end of an era, no question,” Henefeld said of Calhoun’s retirement. “In a way, that’s life. I think that everyone would wish to have a career as full, with titles and achievements, as he did.”

Israel
Basketball
University of Connecticut
College Athletics
Calhoun Jim


As Germany Welcomes Migrants, Some Wonder How to Make Acceptance Last

Abstract: BERLIN — As tens of thousands of asylum seekers now pour into Germany, their desired destination, they will be met here by bowls of steaming soup and bread rolls, working bathrooms and an efficient bureaucracy to move them to temporary housing and, possibly, legal immigration status. The arrival in August of more than 104,400 people seeking asylum has strained resources and challenged authorities from Bavaria to Berlin. Yet such logistical problems are manageable for the Germans, who pride themselves on the country’s order and adherence to established rules. But the long-term integration of a group of people expected to reach 1 percent of the overall population, most of whom practice a different religion and often hold profoundly different world views, is another question altogether. While the prospect of accepting an expected 800,000 new residents this year offers Germany an opportunity to rejuvenate its aging demographics and ensure its economic prosperity, it also challenges a prevailing cultural consensus of what it means to be German. “The refugees are synonymous with formidable change,” Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister, said recently in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit. “We must get used to the thought that our country is changing.” That change is at the doorstep. When thousands of migrants were allowed to leave Hungary late Friday and were put on buses to the Austrian border, many were brandishing posters of Chancellor Angela Merkel. In their days of near internment in the inhospitable Hungarian capital, some of the exhausted and desperate travelers broke into chants of “Germany, Germany” and “Merkel, Merkel,” demanding to be allowed to continue their journey west. Migrants’ Journey 12 Photos View Slide Show › Image Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters Germans have met previous waves — and a steady tide — of these newcomers with an outpouring of generosity and support. Thousands of volunteers have shown up in camps to feed the migrants. Others have delivered water and fruit to refugees to ease their long, hot waits as they register their arrival. And some Germans have even risked arrest to circumvent the immigration bureaucracy and shelter some of the most vulnerable in their churches. Munich police overseeing the arrival on Monday of trains from Budapest, packed with some 1,300 migrants, were so overwhelmed with public donations that they had to cut off the flow by the next afternoon. As the city prepared for the latest wave on Saturday, those volunteers were incorporated into the authorities’ official response plans. But some fear the outpouring of generosity will not last. The Social Ministry expects the German government to spend 1.8 billion to 3.3 billion euros, about $2 billion to $3.7 billion, in 2016 to cover the refugees’ basic needs, language lessons and job training. As those costs mount, so might resentment. Already Germany has experienced a formidable backlash against the migrants — the worst in Europe. Although the country does not have an influential far-right political party, such as France’s National Front or the Freedom Party of Austria, smaller neo-Nazi and right-wing groups have seized on the issue, organizing demonstrations outside homes for asylum seekers. In the first six months of this year, there were more than 200 arson and other attacks on facilities for migrants, and on migrants themselves. “This massive immigration is increasingly seen in the growing worries of Germans,” said Ronny Zasowk of the far-right National Democratic Party, known by its German initials N.P.D. He warned that social structures would be overwhelmed and said that many of the party’s followers feared that an open-door policy could make Germany more vulnerable to Islamic extremism and terrorism. Mr. de Maizière, whose office is responsible for coordinating the response to the newcomers, has called for more police, but also for more teachers and social workers to help with, for example, the mounds of paperwork necessary to enter into the bureaucratic system. But in the long-term, he warned, more resources will be needed to help the asylum seekers, many of whom fled chaotic and largely dysfunctional states, to adapt to a new way of life. Video More refugees are seeking asylum in Germany than in any other country, straining Germans’ tolerance for foreigners and taxing the government’s ability to find housing for them. Credit Credit Milan Bures for The New York Times Among the strongest voices urging tolerance toward immigrants have been the German news media, from the mass-circulation Bild to the public television stations. Experts point to the news media’s positive stance as crucial in helping the public shift its perception of more foreigners coming to the country. Recalling Nazi racial laws that singled out the Germanic, or Aryan, people as superior to other ethnicities, leading to the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II , President Joachim Gauck recently urged Germans to embrace the diversity that has since grown up around them. Until “even more people can part with the image of a nation that is very homogeneous and in which nearly all people speak German as their mother tongue, are fair-skinned and largely Christian,” he said, their perception of German society will not reflect the reality of who lives here. “In reality, life as we live it here is already far more diverse,” Mr. Gauck said. “In our heads we know this, but the spirit sometimes lags behind. We as a nation must redefine ourselves, as a collective of different people, but who all accept common values.” Many, including Ms. Merkel, have compared the challenge facing Germany to the historic decisions after the breach of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, when the leaders of West Germany swiftly enacted measures aimed at ensuring the peaceful merger of what for decades had been two separate states. Even as the country prepares to mark a quarter-century of German reunification this fall, a spate of violent anti-immigrant protests in the eastern state of Saxony has led to accusations that differences between the two regions still exist, revealing just how difficult it can be even for two peoples who share a language and heritage to feel as one. Experts also point to the former West Germany’s far less successful experiment of integration in the 1960s, when that country invited men, most of them from Turkey, to fill the industrial jobs in its post-World War II factories. But they were viewed as “guests,” who would eventually return home, not as future citizens. “For a long time, we made the mistake of considering migrant workers ‘guest workers,’ ” Ms. Merkel recently told reporters, “an idea that we have recently come to abandon, faced with the reality they are our fellow citizens, no matter what their ancestry.” The descendants of those “guest workers” who remained in the country now make up the nearly four million Muslims in Germany’s population of almost 82 million. But failure to address the workers’ initial needs, and later those of their families, still reverberate. Only this year did the German Parliament pass legislation that would allow children of migrants who were raised or educated in the country to adopt German citizenship, while keeping their own. “Had we worked to integrate them from the beginning, there would be a lot fewer problems today,” said Claudia Walther, a senior project manager with the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany who has worked on integration. German leaders see that experience as a moment from which lawmakers can draw valuable lessons as they look ahead to a political summit meeting on Sept. 24 aimed at adopting legal and, possibly, constitutional changes to help the country adapt to the latest influx. But the Turkish experience is apparently very much on the mind of Mr. de Maizière, who brought it up during the interview with Die Zeit and perhaps provided the starkest insight into the concerns of German leaders as they prepare to accept the thousands heading their way. “Now we will get hundreds of thousands of Muslims more formed by Arabic background,” he told the weekly. “According to all that I am told by my French colleague, that is a big difference, as far as integration is concerned.”

Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis


Man Arrested in Fatal Stabbing at Bronx Party

Abstract: After a brief chase outside a South Bronx housing project, the police arrested a 35-year-old man early Sunday morning and charged him with fatally stabbing another man during a house party. Investigators believe an argument over a dance contest erupted into a brawl between several men and women in an apartment on the 15th floor of the St. Mary’s Park Houses, at 645 Westchester Avenue, the police said. Julian Washington, 30, stepped into the middle of the fight to try to break it up and pushed his friends to safety, witnesses said, before the other man, Vernon Hubbard, stabbed him several times in the neck and torso around midnight. Friends of Mr. Washington’s tried to stop the bleeding, and a police officer administered first aid, but Mr. Washington lost consciousness in the hallway and was pronounced dead at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center. Mr. Hubbard, who has a string of previous arrests, was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, the police said. Outside the East Harlem apartment building where Mr. Washington lived, votive candles flickered in the breeze as people went in and out of the brick building. Neighbors recalled his interest in acting, and friends said he was an outgoing presence in any room. “He was always respectful,” said Doris Lopez, a neighbor, adding that he was “real soft-spoken, gentle.” A friend who was at the party with Mr. Washington, Tawana Vargas, credited him with saving her life by pushing her out of the way. Officers from Police Service Area 7, which patrols public housing buildings in the area, arrested Mr. Hubbard as he headed in the direction of a nearby subway station. Mr. Hubbard appeared in Bronx Criminal Court early Monday morning and was ordered to remain in custody. His next court appearance was scheduled for April 15.

Bronx
Julian Washington
Vernon Hubbard
Murders and Homicides
St Mary's Park
NYC


Saudi Arabia Executes a Prince Convicted in a Fatal Shooting

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a member of the royal family for murder, the first time in four decades it had done so, after he was convicted of shooting another man to death during a brawl. Prince Turki bin Saud bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabeer was put to death in the capital, Riyadh, according to a report by the Saudi state news service. While the report did not detail the method used, most death penalties in Saudi Arabia are carried out by beheading in a public square. The rare event rocketed around the kingdom’s social media networks, with some Saudis saying they never imagined such a thing would happen and others arguing that it showed the quality of their justice system, which follows a strict interpretation of Shariah law and is often criticized by human rights groups and Western governments for what they consider harsh and arbitrary punishments. “The greatest thing is that the citizen sees the law applied to everyone, and that there are not big people and other small people,” Abdul-Rahman al-Lahim, a prominent Saudi lawyer, wrote on Twitter . Other Saudis lauded the monarch, King Salman , on Twitter under an Arabic hashtag that translated as, “Decisive Salman orders retribution for the prince.” Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s few remaining absolute monarchies. The thousands of members of the royal family enjoy perks not available to the rest of the country’s 20 million citizens. Tuesday’s execution was the first time that a member of the royal family had been put to death for murder by the state since 1975, when Prince Faisal bin Musaid was beheaded in Riyadh for assassinating King Faisal. A New York Times article about that event said that some 10,000 people “watched silently as the executioner swung a sword with a golden hilt, but then thousands broke into chants of ‘God is great!’ and ‘Justice is done!’” A couple of years later, a princess and her husband were accused of adultery and executed after the princess refused to marry a man selected by the family. The princess, Mishael, was shot as her husband, Khalid Muhallal, watched. He was then beheaded, according to a New York Times obituary of her grandfather, Prince Mohammed Ibn Abdel-Aziz. It was unclear how many people watched the execution of Prince Turki on Tuesday or what their immediate reaction was. The state news media report did not release his age or provide any other biographical information. Another member of the royal family, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, said by telephone from Riyadh that Prince Turki was from one of the most prominent branches of the royal family after that of the direct descendants of King Abdulaziz, who founded the modern Saudi state in 1932. That genealogy earned Prince Turki no extra credit with the courts or with the king, Prince Faisal said. “The king has always said that there is no difference in the law between princes and others, and I think that this is clear manifestation of the reality of that fact,” he said. According to Saudi reports, Prince Turki shot a man during “a group fight” that occurred a few years ago. Adam Coogle, a researcher at Human Rights Watch who tracks Saudi Arabia, said the execution of the prince did not affect his organization’s criticisms of the country. Saudi Arabia has executed 134 people so far this year, according to a count by the group, which opposes the death penalty in all cases.

King of Saudi Arabia Salman,Salman bin Abdul-Aziz


British Airways Expanding N.Y. Business Service

Abstract: British Airways, which is starting a business-class-only service from London to New York on Tuesday, may eliminate some short-haul flights to restore earnings. “This is an airline that really has to bite the bullet on short-haul, looking long and hard at what it’s costing and whether they can ever get a decent margin out of it,” said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London. “Some U.K. and European routes have a very limited future.” Fares between European countries have declined as discount carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet grab market share. Routes like London to Paris, where British Airways pioneered the first international air service in 1919, may be among the first to go because of the shrinking profit margins and the effect of the competing Eurostar high-speed rail service, Mr. Wheeldon said. British Airways is already the biggest carrier between Europe and the United States. The business-class-only experiment from London City airport will help Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, determine whether the company can fill planes with people flying to and from London alone or whether it still needs a substantial European network to feed passengers from around the region onto long-haul flights. The carrier, Europe’s third-largest, has historically made almost all of its profit from first- and business-class travel and last year derived 45 percent of revenue from premium tickets that accounted for only 13 percent of seat sales. The company’s revenue fell 12 percent in the three months through June as it had a £106 million ($169 million) net loss, the carrier said July 31. The recession has led to a 12-month decline in bookings that has left premium seats sparsely populated as people avoid flying or trade down to economy class. Premium traffic at the carrier fell 12 percent last month, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in coach, and Mr. Walsh told shareholders on July 14 that demand might never fully recover. The declines have prompted British Airways, which is based in London, to review its model for short-haul services and the Club Europe business-class brand, Peter Simpson, managing director of the CityFlyer regional unit, said in an interview. His division is responsible for European and domestic routes already served from London City. “We have looked at Club Europe within the current environment and our customers are telling us that yes, there is a demand,” he said. “The market will dictate whether it’s still around in five years’ time.” Richard Tams, the British Airways sales chief for Britain and Ireland, said in an interview that the carrier still needed European feeder traffic to help sustain longer routes and that, for business travelers, offering daily flights was a minimum requirement. The London-New York service beginning on Tuesday will provide evidence of the carrier’s ability to lure bankers, lawyers and other professionals with a premium-only product costing £1,900, or $3,032.25, for a round-trip ticket. Financial institutions accounted for 13 of the airline’s top 50 clients last year.

British Airways Plc
Airlines and Airplanes


Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic Aim for ATP Title and No. 1

Abstract: LONDON — Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will have a season-ending showdown for the ATP World Tour Finals title and the No. 1 ranking. Murray and Djokovic, the world’s top two players, reached the final, to be played Sunday at O2 Arena, with victories on Saturday that could not have been more different. Murray survived a match point to beat Milos Raonic in 3 hours 38 minutes — the longest three-set match in ATP finals history — and Djokovic needed just 66 minutes to dispatch Kei Nishikori. Murray arrived at the tournament needing only to do better than Djokovic to finish the year ranked No. 1, a spot he took over from Djokovic after winning the Paris Masters two weeks ago. Image Djokovic will face Murray for the ATP World Tour Finals title on Sunday, with a chance to reclaim the No. 1 ranking. Credit Will Oliver/European Pressphoto Agency Now, they will meet in Sunday’s final. It will be a fitting end to a season that began with Djokovic’s quest to hold all four major titles at once — which he completed by beating Murray in the French Open final — and ended with Murray’s remarkable run and his ascent to the top of the rankings. “This has never happened in the history of tennis,” Djokovic said. “I’m privileged to be part of the history. This is one of the biggest matches we will ever play against each other.” Djokovic may be in better shape for Sunday, having overwhelmed Nishikori, 6-1, 6-1. Nishikori held his serve just once in the match. “I pretty much executed everything I tactically planned to do,” Djokovic said. “My level had been going in the right direction. I’m very glad I get to experience this feeling on the court. Now it’s coming up to the last match of the year, the match everybody anticipated.” Murray, who had won all six of his meetings with Raonic this year, including a straight-sets victory in the Wimbledon final, twice squandered chances while serving for the match in the third set. But he converted on his fourth match point during a tiebreaker to win, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9). “It was unbelievably tough,” Murray said. “I had to fight very, very hard. Being broken twice serving for the match was frustrating. It was one of the harder matches I’ve played indoors. They are never this long.” Murray needs one last push to cap his stunning second half to 2016, in which he won at Wimbledon and the Olympics before topping the rankings for the first time. “I’m tired,” Murray said. “I’ve played so much tennis the last few months. I’ll just give my best effort tomorrow. It’s going to be tough, obviously, but I’ll give my best shot.”

Andy Murray
Novak Djokovic
London
Tennis
Assn of Tennis Professionals


NASA Solves Helmet Leak With Makeshift Snorkels

Abstract: NASA, in preparation for a spacewalk on Saturday, has devised makeshift snorkels that would allow an astronaut in a spacesuit to continue breathing even if a sudden water leak should fill the helmet, as happened to an Italian astronaut who almost drowned in July. Two astronauts, Col. Michael S. Hopkins of the Air Force and Richard A. Mastracchio, are to step out of an air lock on the International Space Station at 7:10 a.m. Eastern time in the first of at least two spacewalks aimed at replacing a malfunctioning pump module that is part of the space station’s cooling system. Koichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut, will be operating a robotic arm from inside the station to assist with the repairs. Colonel Hopkins will be wearing the same spacesuit — No. 3011 — that leaked in July. During that spacewalk, water partly filled the helmet. The astronaut in the suit then, Luca Parmitano, was able to hurry back to safety, but not before water covered his eyes and blocked his nostrils. Engineers found that contamination had clogged one of the suit’s filters, causing water from the suit’s cooling system to back up. Those parts have been replaced, and tests have indicated no lingering problems. Officials admit to some uneasiness, however, because the source and cause of the contamination remain unknown. NASA had planned to send a replacement spacesuit to the station. But on Dec. 11, a valve controlling one of two loops of circulating ammonia that cool equipment on the space station malfunctioned. When attempts to control the ammonia flow using a different valve proved inadequate, space station managers decided to send the astronauts out on the spacewalks. Engineers have devised low-tech countermeasures in case water again floods into a helmet. An absorbent pad installed in the back of the helmet can hold 20 to 27 ounces, or about 600 to 800 grams, of water. The astronauts will periodically tilt their heads back to check if the pads have become “squishy.” In addition, station crew members made improvised snorkels out of available materials: plastic tubing and Velcro. The tubes will extend from the helmet down into the chest area of the spacesuit. If water is encroaching on the astronaut’s face, “this is your last resort,” said Allison Bolinger, the lead spacewalk officer. “The crew member can lean down and use this to breathe, to receive fresh oxygen down near his midsection.” During Saturday’s spacewalk, which is expected to last about six and a half hours, Colonel Hopkins and Mr. Mastracchio will disconnect cables to the pump module and open up the insulation that covers it. The ammonia pump itself is operating normally, but the ammonia has been too cold because of the problem with the valve, which controls the temperature. That led to the shutdown of an internal cooling loop of circulating water, to stop the cold ammonia from freezing the water.There is no immediate danger to the station’s six crew members, but the station would be in more serious trouble if the other ammonia loop malfunctioned. On the second spacewalk, planned for Monday, the astronauts will replace the 780-pound pump module with a spare one. If necessary, a third spacewalk would take place on Wednesday.

NASA
Space
International Space Station
Michael S Hopkins
Rick Mastracchio


Unable to Marry Gay Couples, Some Italian Mayors Rebel

Abstract: ROME — The crowd at an ornate room in Rome’s City Hall erupted in applause as the mayor entered, wearing his formal green, white and red sash, and clapped in turn. The brides and grooms bent forward to sign an official registry. Guests hoisted babies, snapped pictures and dabbed away tears. While the ceremony on Saturday had all the trappings of a traditional civil wedding, it was a wedding in spirit only. All the couples had previously been legally married before, though not in Italy, where same-sex marriage is not recognized. By registering the marriages, Rome’s mayor, Ignazio Marino, joined a budding political rebellion by a growing number of mayors around Italy. With such registrations, the mayors hope to force the hand of national legislators to clarify a deepening legal muddle around gay unions, particularly for gay Italians married abroad. “Today is a special day, but we still have a long way to go so that this may become a normal day,” Mr. Marino said. “Because of the unfortunate lack of a national law, I can only register it” — an act with more symbolism than legal impact. Even if same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in Italy, local officials have increasingly been confronted with requests by gay couples to at least recognize the legal standing of unions officiated in places where same-sex marriage is allowed, like the fellow European Union countries Belgium and Spain, Canada and a growing number of American states. Such registrations can help gay couples navigate Italy’s labyrinthine bureaucracy around a range of everyday problems, such as taking parental leave or allowing a non-European spouse to live in Italy. But it still leaves them far short of the full rights of married couples. The small — and still contested — concession to gay couples began only in the spring, when a court ordered a Tuscan mayor to register a marriage that was joined in New York. Afterward, mayors in various parts of the country started doing the same, upon request. In early October, however, Italy’s interior minister, Angelino Alfano, from the New Center-Right, issued an order for all prefects to annul such registrations, dismissing the documents as mere “autographs.” Many local government offices urged city officials to cancel the registrations. Mr. Marino and many others refused, on the grounds that only magistrates can annul mayoral acts. “It’s the first time that politics clashes with politics on these issues,” said Gianfranco Goretti, 49, who along with his husband, Tommaso Giartosio, 51, was among 16 couples who registered their marriages in Rome on Saturday. “It’s the administration, a mayor, who says that Parliament has to regulate the situation of gay couples with or without children,” added Mr. Goretti, a longtime gay-rights activist. “It used to be that we challenged the institution.” In the jurisdictional and political chaos that has ensued, the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi recently proposed a national law to allow civil partnerships and stepchild adoption, but not same-sex marriage. Mr. Renzi has vowed to pass a law before the end of the year, soon after the approval of the constitutional and electoral changes that have been in the works since he took power in February. “The position of the Italian government is advanced because it would include us among the advanced countries, but prudent,” said Ivan Scalfarotto, an activist and an under secretary in Mr. Renzi’s government. “None of this changes the fact that a G-7 country” — the Group of 7 industrialized democracies — “among the founders of the E.U., doesn’t have a law on same-sex marriage,” he added. While others argue for the government to go further, many observers say that Italy is slowly becoming more attuned to gay rights, despite some vocal opponents. In recent weeks, the former conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi hosted a dinner with a famous transgender former member of Parliament, Vladimir Luxuria, and has come out in favor of civil partnerships, saying he was persuaded by his young girlfriend. Pope Francis , too, has led the Roman Catholic Church to openly discuss gay couples and their problems as part of the Catholic community, while not endorsing same-sex marriage. “Civil society, the people we work with every day, is way more progressive than politicians,” said Laura Terrasi, the 39-year-old wife of Marilena Grassadonia. They, too, had their marriage, conducted in Spain, registered Saturday by Rome’s mayor. “We lead normal lives, but we do need same-sex marriage in Italy,” she said, explaining that together the couple have three children — a 7-year-old boy who is biologically her son, and twins who are Ms. Grassadonia’s — who must live in a kind of legal limbo. “The worst is that our children are de facto siblings,” she said. “But by last name and by law, they are not. It’s so unjust.” Mr. Giartosio’s and Mr. Goretti’s children — Andrea, 6, and Lia, 8, who strolled around the ceremony room that day — face similar hurdles. The couple first symbolically married in a seaside house near Rome in 1998, then in California in 2008 after same-sex marriage became legal there. In recent years, they registered their names as a couple in the civil unions’ list in two different districts of Rome, as that option became available. “You know, marriage, like parenthood, is not easy for anyone,” Mr. Giartosio confessed. “When Andrea was about 1, one day he just said, ‘Mom.’ I froze with the fork in my hand. It’s the utmost expression of affection, I was later told.” Mr. Giartosio mused over whether they would marry a sixth time, if same-sex marriage became legal in Italy. “Will we then get married again, or just register our American wedding?” Mr. Giartosio asked. “Maybe it will happen in time to celebrate our silver or golden anniversary.”

Italy
Mayor
Ignazio Marino
Legislation
Matteo Renzi
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage


E.P.A.’s Proposed Rules on Water Worry Farmers

Abstract: Water rarely flows in one of the streambeds — it really seems to be little more than a small ditch — that Dean Lemke points out to a visitor on his 800-acre farm in Dows, Iowa. “I wouldn’t even call it a stream,” he said. “There is only water flow in it when it rains.” Mr. Lemke is a former Iowa state government official who supervised water-quality programs. He is also a fifth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans on his acreage, about 75 miles north of Des Moines, and he has never worried that the government would be concerned about that small ditch. But that may soon change. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to issue regulations that farmers like Mr. Lemke say may require them to get permits for work for which they have long been exempt. The E.P.A. says the new rules are needed to clarify which bodies of water it must oversee under the federal Clean Water Act , an issue of jurisdiction that the agency says has been muddled by recent court rulings. Opponents say the rules are a power grab that could stifle economic growth and intrude on property owners’ rights. There is no timetable for when the rules will be released. But if the agency expands its jurisdiction over streams like the one on Mr. Lemke’s farm, he and other farmers say, the move could prove costly by requiring farmers to pay fees for environmental assessments and to get permits just to till the soil near gullies, ditches or dry streambeds where water only flows when it rains. A permit is required for any activity, like farming or construction, that creates a discharge into a body of water covered under the Clean Water Act or affects the health of it, like filling in a wetland or blocking a stream. The proposed regulations have also raised concerns among industries beyond agriculture, and objections have been filed by several groups. To coordinate the opposition efforts, those groups joined forces nearly three years ago with several agriculture trade organizations, like the American Farm Bureau Federation , to create the Waters Advocacy Coalition to lobby against increased environmental regulation. In a letter last month to the White House and members of Congress, the coalition said the agency’s decision to move forward on the new rules failed to comply with regulatory requirements and relied on a flawed economic analysis concerning its effect on industry. The coalition also said the scientific report the agency and the Army Corps of Engineers relied on to justify the new rules had not been reviewed by other scientists. Several members of Congress have also weighed in. Representative Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a March 6 letter to the White House and Gina McCarthy, the E.P.A. administrator, that the new water regulations were part of a “pattern of an imperial presidency that seeks to use brute force and executive action while ignoring Congress.” Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, said the regulations “could be the largest expansion of E.P.A. regulatory authority ever.” Conservation groups, which have pushed for the regulations, say farmers’ concerns are overblown. Jan Goldman-Carter, a lawyer who works with the National Wildlife Federation on water issues, said the proposals outlined regulatory exemptions that have been in place for decades for plowing, planting, harvesting and maintaining drainage ditches. She said a copy of the draft regulations that was leaked last year clearly shows that to be the case. “The draft guidance is clear that irrigation ditches, drainage ponds and even groundwater are not considered waters of the U.S. Nor are gullies, rills, swales and other erosional features,” she said. “This has been explained over and over again.” Industry claims that ditches or groundwater might be covered under the new regulations are “just wrong,” she said. Mrs. Goldman-Carter said the draft copy showed that the regulations would increase the E.P.A.’s jurisdiction over streams by about 3 percent. That is hardly a power grab, she said. Nancy Stoner, the E.P.A.’s acting assistant administrator for water, said the agency had been working with the agriculture industry to make sure its concerns about the proposed rules were addressed. “Our goal is to clarify the types of waters that are covered by the Clean Water Act, offer increased certainty to regulated entities, and keep in place exemptions and exclusions for farming, ranching and forestry,” Ms. Stoner said. Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation, acknowledges that the draft regulations do detail exemptions for agriculture. But he said the E.P.A. and the Army Corps of Engineers have a lot of authority to interpret the rules as they choose, despite reassurances from Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, and agency officials that farm work will not be curtailed. Mr. Parrish said studies financed by the American Farm Bureau Federation showed that the agency’s estimate of its new jurisdiction was flawed because it was based on the current number of landowners who are required to get permits to operate near streams and did not examine those who might be affected in the future. “They can say farmers won’t be impacted by this expansion of authority, but the truth is we just don’t know,” he said. “And from what we have seen from the draft of the regulations, it’s really hard to tell.” That is what worries farmers like Mr. Lemke. He said there were dozens of streams and ditches on his farm that carried water only certain times of the year or when it rains, and it is not clear from the draft copy whether they would be covered by the new regulations. And, Mr. Lemke added, planting seasons could be delayed while the agency goes through the lengthy process to decide if a permit is needed to plow or plant near those usually dry water beds. “Everything we do as farmers is based on timing,” he said. “If I have to go to the E.P.A. to figure out if I need a permit because a ditch I’m planting next to sometimes has water in it, that’s time I’m not planting. And if I’m not planting, I’m not making money.”

Water
Iowa
Clean Water Act
Agriculture
EPA


‘Fargo’ on FX Debuts to an Audience of More Than 4 Million

Abstract: The new FX drama “Fargo” got off to a promising start on Tuesday, with ratings across several broadcasts that added up to more than four million viewers. A loose adaptation of the critically acclaimed film by the Coen brothers, the show received some of the strongest reviews of the television season. Its initial episode, which ran at an unusual length, from 10 p.m. to 11:37 p.m., attracted 2.65 million viewers, about half of them in the category the FX network sells to advertisers — viewers between ages 18 and 49. The network repeated the show two more times Tuesday night, for a total audience of 4.1 million for the night, with about 1.8 million in the 18-49 group. As with most TV shows now, the audience is expected to increase substantially when delayed viewing is counted. FX is labeling “Fargo” a mini-series because it will end this story after 10 episodes; but if the show is considered a success a new version with different characters is likely to be ordered. FX has had success in recent years with another series using that mini-series format, “American Horror Story.” The network also announced Tuesday that it had ordered a third season of another critically praised drama, “The Americans.”

FX TV Network
Fargo TV
The Americans TV Program


Catfish Whiskers, pH Detectors, Help Track Prey

Abstract: Japanese sea catfish have an unusual advantage when hunting in pitch-dark waters, a new study reports: Their whiskers can detect minute changes in the water’s acidity. John T. Caprio , a physiologist at Louisiana State University, was studying how chemical stimuli were encoded by a catfish’s taste system when he noticed a strong reaction from the whiskers. Further study revealed that previously undetected sensors on the whiskers were responding not to the chemical itself, but rather to the effect it was having on the water. “It was changing the pH of the water,” he said, “and not by much.” The researchers then placed the catfish in aquariums with hidden polychaete worms, their preferred prey. The worms release tiny amounts of carbon dioxide and hydrogen when they breathe, raising the water’s acidity (and thereby lowering its pH). Even in the dark, the catfish were drawn to the area with the worms. The researchers, who published their work in the journal Science , also observed that the fish located the decreased pH areas even when no worms were present. “This fish is a swimming pH meter, and its accuracy was as good as pH meters I was using in the lab,” Dr. Caprio said. “If you drop the pH less than one-tenth of a pH unit,” he added, the fish’s sensors “start firing like machine guns.” The sensors worked best in seawater with a pH of 8.1 or 8.2, the researchers said, suggesting they may become ineffective as levels fall with ocean acidification. DOUGLAS QUENQUA


League-Leading Pacers Rally to Win

Abstract: Roy Hibbert had 24 points and 12 rebounds to help the Indiana Pacers rally for a 101-96 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night. Paul George and Lance Stephenson each scored 18 points for N.B.A.-leading Indiana. The Pacers (44-13), a league-best 28-3 at home, rallied after blowing a 17-point lead in the first half.


Eurowings, Lufthansa’s Budget Service, Is Off to a Rocky Start

Abstract: Jürgen Haug’s suntan from his vacation in Cuba in January has long faded. But his anger over his first experience flying across the Atlantic on Eurowings, Lufthansa’s new budget airline, remains as vivid as it was on the day he and 300 fellow passengers landed back in Germany — 68 hours late. “It was an end-to-end disaster,” Mr. Haug, 53, said of the two-week trip to Varadero, on Cuba’s northern coast. The trip was also delayed by a full day at the beginning, when Eurowings canceled his outbound flight to Cuba from Cologne. “I was told this was a new Lufthansa airline, so I expected it to at least be reliable,” said Mr. Haug, a steel salesman from Lauffen am Neckar, near Stuttgart. “Instead it was just cheap, cheap, cheap.” Eurowings, which analysts say still has too few planes to support its overseas ambitions, cited technical problems with its aircraft. But the extreme delays Mr. Haug experienced were not an isolated case. In January alone, up to one-third of Eurowings’ flights outside Europe were delayed or canceled, affecting hundreds of passengers and generating weeks of bad publicity. It was an inauspicious beginning for the airline, which rolled out Germany’s first no-frills long-haul air service in November, offering one-way fares to destinations in the Caribbean and Thailand for as little as 99 euros, or $110. Image Lufthansa started Eurowings, Germany’s first budget long-haul air service, in November. Analysts say it has too few planes for its ambitions. Credit Federico Gambarini/European Pressphoto Agency For Lufthansa, which made expansion of its low-fare operations a pillar of its long-term strategy , unhappy Eurowings customers are part of a long list of headaches as the German airline group confronts competition from leaner rivals like Ryanair and EasyJet in the lucrative market serving German air travelers. A decision in 2012 to shift most of Lufthansa’s domestic German flights to another discount brand, Germanwings — where employee salaries and benefits were lower — has contributed around €1.5 billion in cost savings since then. But it met stiff resistance from pilots and other labor unions. Strikes over the last two years have shaved about €500 million from Lufthansa’s operating profit during that span and have inconvenienced tens of thousands of travelers. The crash in March 2015 of a Germanwings jet by the plane’s suicidal co-pilot prompted Lufthansa to accelerate a planned rebranding of Germanwings under the Eurowings name — a move that coincided with the start of Eurowings’ new long-haul services. “The perception is that Lufthansa is trying to juggle too many balls at the same time,” said John Strickland, an aviation industry consultant in London. Lufthansa said on Thursday that its Eurowings business made an adjusted operating profit of €8 million in 2015, on revenue of €1.9 billion. That contributed to an overall 55 percent improvement in the Lufthansa Group’s operating profit, to €1.8 billion, about $2 billion, from €1.2 billion in 2014, an increase driven mainly by lower fuel costs. Annual group sales rose by 6.8 percent to €32 billion, about $36 billion. Still, the Lufthansa Group’s shares closed down more than 4 percent on Thursday, as investors worried that its continued push into the no-frills market would drain revenue from Lufthansa and the group’s other full-service brands: Austrian Airlines and Swiss. Image A Eurowings check-in line at Cologne-Bonn airport, Germany. In January alone, up to one-third of Eurowings’ flights outside Europe were delayed or canceled. Credit Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Lufthansa aims to build Eurowings, based in Düsseldorf, into Europe’s third-largest budget airline by number of passengers in the coming years, after Ryanair and EasyJet. It is a goal that analysts said would be easily achieved as Lufthansa eventually makes Eurowings the carrier for all flights that do not originate or land in its main Frankfurt and Munich hubs. But it remains unclear whether Eurowings will be able to bring its operating costs down by the 40 percent needed to make its services competitive with its European rivals, analysts said. Lufthansa projected on Thursday that Eurowings’ average cost per seat, already 30 percent below that of its full-service business, would fall 10 percent a year through 2018. Although fuel prices have fallen substantially over the last two years, the group’s labor costs have remained stubbornly high as unions fight to slow the pace of transition. By the end of next year, for example, Lufthansa expects the Eurowings European fleet to triple in size, to 91 aircraft. But only one-fifth of those planes will be flown by pilots working under newer, more flexible contracts, while a majority continue to work under their Lufthansa contracts until retirement. “Lufthansa is a large group with tremendous network coverage,” said Chris Tarry, an analyst at Ctaira , a British aviation consulting firm. “But at the end of the day, it has got to be profitable” over the long term, he said of Eurowings. “Can they bring their costs down low enough, and fast enough, to make it work?” Europe’s established low-cost rivals are keeping up the pressure. Last month, Ryanair, which holds just 5 percent of the market in Germany, announced plans for aggressive expansion there, doubling the size of its operations at Schönefeld Airport outside Berlin, and adding new bases near Hamburg and Nuremberg. EasyJet, too, has recently added flights to Berlin and Stuttgart. Transavia, a budget unit of Air France-KLM, opened its first German base in Munich this month. Beyond Europe, the troubled debut of Eurowings long-haul services raised questions about whether cost concerns may have led Lufthansa to underinvest in the start-up, analysts said. Image A bag promoting Eurowings at a tourism fair in Berlin. It has left many passengers unimpressed. Credit Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A decision to serve eight far-flung destinations with just two leased Airbus A330 aircraft quickly proved unwieldy, for example. Technical problems grounded one of the planes on multiple occasions, resulting in repeated delays and cancellations, including the one that left Mr. Haug stranded in Cuba for three days. Under European passenger-rights rules, affected travelers were eligible for compensation of up to €600 each. “Given that this is the creation of a major airline group known for its German style of reliability, it is surprising that they would have started off a seemingly ambitious project with such a small fleet,” said Mr. Strickland, the consultant in London. “It’s as if Lufthansa wants to prove they’re prepared to let this fledgling fend for itself.” Although Eurowings plans to add two more jets to its wide-body fleet by the summer — and to reach seven planes by the end of 2017 — the stumbling start has slowed its long-haul expansion. Flights to Las Vegas and Boston from Cologne, originally planned to begin in May, have been postponed until June. A much-promoted service to Tehran that was to begin this month has been postponed indefinitely. Carsten Spohr, chief executive and chairman of Lufthansa, said on Thursday that the service problems on Eurowings’ long-haul routes had been resolved and described the airline’s current punctuality rates as “excellent.” He added that the company was moving forward with plans for a “substantial” new expansion of the Eurowings fleet and network in 2016 — investments that would lead to a modest loss for Eurowings this year and slightly lower group profit in the short term. But Mr. Haug said he was uncertain whether he would fly again with Eurowings after the Cuba fiasco. He said he was holding onto the €250 flight voucher that he and other passengers received, together with an apology, from the airline. “I sometimes tell my wife that we could use it for a long weekend in Rome,” Mr. Haug said. “But I worry that it might turn out to be a very long weekend.”

Eurowings
Germany
Delays
Germanwings
Airlines,airplanes
Deutsche Lufthansa


Man Dies in New York City Triathlon

Abstract: A 32-year-old man competing in the New York City Triathlon died Sunday after being pulled unconscious from the Hudson River on a day when competitors battled heat, humidity and stinging jellyfish along the course. Late Sunday, the police identified the man as Esteban Neira from Buenos Aires. Organizers had withheld his name because his family members, who live in Argentina, had not been notified. Bill Burke, the race director, said rescuers pulled Neira from the river about three-quarters of the way through the 1,500-meter swim portion, which ended near the 79th Street Boat Basin. The swim is the first of the event’s three phases and is followed by a 40-kilometer bicycle ride and a 10K run that finishes in Central Park. “Other swimmers noticed the gentleman in the water, and they were actually waving and signaling for the nearby jet boats to come assist them,” Burke said. He added: “We did have life support on the boats that were monitoring the swim course. There’s medical staff on those boats, so if the guy had a situation in the water, he’s getting the best medical care.” About 15 minutes elapsed between the time rescuers brought Neira to the dock and his placement in an ambulance. He was one of nearly 3,000 competitors in the nonprofessional divisions; the race also included about 40 professional triathletes. It was not known how long Neira was in the water before rescuers found him, but he was pulled from the river around 8 a.m., about a half-hour after the final wave of 30- to 34-year-olds left the dock at 98th Street. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said an autopsy would be performed Monday. At least three other people have died during the swim portion of United States triathlons since early May: a 38-year-old man in the Gulf Coast Triathlon in Florida, a 46-year-old man at the Hy-Vee Triathlon in Iowa and a 45-year-old man at the Pacific Crest Triathlon in Oregon. The death Sunday was the first in the eight-year history of the New York event. Burke said that at least four competitors were taken to local hospitals with heat-related illnesses, and that two others sustained broken bones. By 8 a.m., when most of the 3,000 competitors had begun the event, temperatures had reached 80 degrees, with high humidity in Central Park, according to the National Weather Service. By that time, the top competitors had just completed the race. Greg Bennett of Australia won his fourth consecutive New York City Triathlon, with a time of 1 hour 46 minutes 30.9 seconds. He finished 63 seconds ahead of Stuart Hayes of Iowa. An Australian also won the women’s race, with Liz Blatchford finishing in 1:58:34.9, nearly two minutes ahead of Becky Lavelle of California. Brent McMahon, a member of Canada’s 2004 Olympic triathlon team, was among those affected by the heat. He was in second place in the men’s professional category when he collapsed a few feet from the finish line. He was attended to by medical personnel, then crawled across the finish line, placing fifth, and fainted. Burke said he had since recovered. Burke said that competitors were required to attend a 30-minute safety briefing and must sign a waiver stating that they know how to swim, but they do not have to prove that they are physically fit in order to participate. Heat exhaustion or dehydration is always a risk for competitors on such a muggy day. “Was the medical team taxed today? Of course they were,” Burke said. “Athletes in this event push themselves, but athletes also have to understand that they need to be prudent and understand that on a day like this, they’re probably not going to get a personal record today.” Dozens of swimmers reported being stung by jellyfish. Swimmers said they were taken by surprise because they had not been warned about the jellyfish, which had not been a problem in past races. “I was in the middle of a stroke, and whammo, it bit me right in the face; the pain spread across the side of my face and down my neck,” said Charlie Redmond, 59, from Demarest, N.J. “Everyone was talking about the jellyfish after the race.” Jellyfish stings often result in minor allergic reactions; in rare cases, they can cause difficulty breathing, coma or death, according to the health Web site WebMD. Burke said he knew of no serious reactions and said the jellyfish appeared to be dissipating when the first wave of pro athletes entered the water at 5:50 a.m. He said the majority of the athletes were wearing wet suits. Still, Jennifer Shipley said she was so unnerved by the jellyfish that she picked up her pace to get out of the water quicker. “I totally panicked,” said Shipley, 39, from Washington, who was stung on the shoulder. “I think I had my total fastest time ever.” Other swimmers, she said, floated on their backs for a few minutes to calm down, and one woman called race organizers to pull her out of the water. Most people said that the pain went away after a few minutes, and that they showed no marks from the stings.

New York City Triathlon
New York City
Triathlon
Athletics and Sports


Beaming Good Cheer to a Norwegian Town’s Dark Days

Abstract: RJUKAN, Norway — Yearning for sunlight has been a part of life in this quaint old factory town in central Norway for as long as anyone can remember. Here, the sun disappears behind a mountain for six months of the year. It is worse for newcomers, of course, like Martin Andersen, a conceptual artist who arrived here 12 years ago and would find himself walking and walking, searching for any last puddle of sunshine to stand in. It was on one of these walks that he had the idea of slapping some huge mirrors up against the mountain to the north of town and bouncing some rays down on Rjukan. The town eventually agreed to try, and last fall, three solar- and wind-powered mirrors that move in concert with the sun started training a beam of sunlight into the town square. Thousands of people turned out for the opening event, wearing sunglasses and dragging out their beach chairs. And afterward, many residents say, life changed. The town became more social. Leaving church on Sundays, people would linger in the square, talking, laughing and drinking in the sun, trying not to look up directly into the mountain mirrors. On a recent morning, Anette Oien had taken a seat on newly installed benches in the square, her eyes closed, her face turned up. She was waiting for her partner to run an errand, and sitting in the light seemed much nicer than sitting in a car. “It’s been a great contribution to life here,” she said. But the sun, pale and weak, did not last long. In fact, during the almost three months from Dec. 25 to March 15, the skies were so cloudy that the mirrors produced just 17 hours of sunlight on the square, bolstering the arguments of those who call the project a waste of money. Most days, in fact, the square just looks like the parking lot it once was. A bone-chilling wind sweeps through it, and there is often the sting of swirling sand that was once put down on snowy roads, but which now drifts over the dreary blacktop. There has been so little sunlight, in fact, that the solar mechanisms that power the mirror stopped working and the beam disappeared completely for a while. A generator and fuel had to be hauled up the mountain by snowmobile to get things going again. But most residents do not seem to dwell on such setbacks. Certainly, the mayor, Steinar Bergsland, is not much concerned. Refusing to accept life in the shadows, he said, has brought all kinds of attention to Rjukan, a town built by an industrialist who opened the world’s first large-scale fertilizer plant here between 1905 and 1916. In the decades that followed, the industrialist, Samuel Eyde, known here as Uncle Sam, built just about everything that stands in Rjukan today. Managers got the houses with the most sunlight. Workers got apartments deeper in the valley. But all the housing was cutting edge for its day. There was indoor plumbing for everyone. Mr. Eyde understood the yearning for sun, too. Back in 1913, one of his bookkeepers wrote to the local paper suggesting that a giant mirror might work. But instead, Mr. Eyde, who settled here because a waterfall nearby provided an easy means of generating electricity, built a cable car so his employees could go up the mountain to get some sunshine in the winter. The cable car still exists. But the mirror enthusiasts wanted more. “We were a high-tech town 100 years ago,” Mr. Bergsland said, “and now we are using high tech to get some sun into our valley. “Of course there were people here who said this is crazy,” he continued, “but a lot of people really liked the idea.” And tourists have begun to trickle in, including from Oslo, about a three-hour drive away. Many of the businesses here report an uptick in income. If Rjukan becomes one of Unesco’s World Heritage sites next year, as it hopes, that should help, too. Still, not everyone has embraced the mirrors. In this town of about 6,000 people, some 1,300 signed a petition to block the project. Some opponents, like Robert Jenbergsen, who is studying to become a teacher, have changed their minds. “I thought it would be a waste because we have a lot of bad weather here,” he said. “But when we got the sun, you could see the happiness it brought. We had never seen anything like that before. So, now I think it is great.” Others, however, have not been impressed. Annar Torresvold, 77, and his wife, Anne-Lise Odegaard, 70, still think that the 5 million kroner, or roughly $840,000, spent on the mirrors might have been better spent elsewhere. They worry about a possible closing of the hospital, the quality of the schools and health care for seniors. Image A tanning salon in Rjukan, which spends six months of the year in winter darkness. Credit Kyrre Lien for The New York Times When they want sunshine, they drive to the next town. Or up the mountain to the ski resorts. “It’s a very costly little spot of sun,” said Mr. Torresvold, who moved to Rjukan after he retired from working in a paper producing plant. “It was very clear what common people thought, and they thought it was a waste of money.” And Mr. Torresvold thinks the town will end up spending more to keep the mirrors working. “I can’t see this having a long-term effect on things here,” he said. “It’s just a flash in the pan.” It took nearly a decade for the mirrors to go up. Mr. Andersen began the project, researching the technical aspects and drawing up projects that included rounded mirrors. But once he assured town officials that it could be done, they turned it over to engineers. Eventually, the mirrors, each measuring 17 square meters, or about 183 square feet, were flown in by helicopter and installed 450 meters, or about 492 yards, above the town square, where their movements are controlled by computers. These days Rjukan is focused on fixing up the town square. Perhaps a fountain is needed. “You can’t just have a sun mirror shining on a parking lot,” said Mr. Bergsland, the mayor. Mr. Andersen, who has generally made a living off odd jobs (he is currently a lifeguard at the municipal pool) grumbles a bit that the mirrors are square and that little was done to make the site aesthetically pleasing if someone were to walk into the area on the mountain, as he would have done. For his next project, he would like to paint a Jules Verne quote — “Look with all your eyes, look!” — in giant letters across the road leading into town. Mr. Verne once visited Rjukan in 1861, Mr. Andersen said. But he is not optimistic. “It is a simple project, cheap,” he said, sounding a bit annoyed. “But the town has already turned me down. They would not consider it.”

Rjukan
Norway
Sunlight
Sun
Mirror
Science and Technology


Some Donald Trump Voters Warn of Revolution if Hillary Clinton Wins

Abstract: COLORADO SPRINGS — Big crowds still mob Donald J. Trump when he comes to town, with fans waiting in long lines to attend his rallies, where they eagerly jeer his Democratic rival and holler happily at his message. But beneath the cheering, a new emotion is taking hold among some Trump supporters as they grapple with reports predicting that he will lose the election: a dark fear about what will happen if their candidate is denied the White House. Some worry that they will be forgotten, along with their concerns and frustrations. Others believe the nation may be headed for violent conflict. Jared Halbrook, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., said that if Mr. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton, which he worried would happen through a stolen election, it could lead to “another Revolutionary War.” “People are going to march on the capitols,” said Mr. Halbrook, who works at a call center. “They’re going to do whatever needs to be done to get her out of office, because she does not belong there.” “If push comes to shove,” he added, and Mrs. Clinton “has to go by any means necessary, it will be done.” Interviews with more than 50 Trump supporters at campaign events in six states over the past week revealed a distinct change from the rollicking mood earlier this year, when Mr. Trump’s surprising primary successes and emergence as an unconventional Republican standard-bearer set off broad excitement. The crowds appeared on edge and quick to lash out. And while some voters emphatically disputed polls suggesting that Mrs. Clinton would win, others offered an apocalyptic vision of what life would be like if she did. “It’s not what I’m going to do, but I’m scared that the country is going to go into a riot,” said Roger Pillath, 75, a retired teacher from Coleman, Wis. “I’ve never seen the country so divided, just black and white — there’s no compromise whatsoever. The Clinton campaign says together we are stronger, but there’s no together. The country has never been so divided. I’m looking at revolution right now.” Image Roger Pillath, a Trump supporter, at his home in Coleman, Wis. “It’s not what I’m going to do,” he said of what might happen if Hillary Clinton wins, “but I’m scared that the country is going to go into a riot.” Credit Lauren Justice for The New York Times Julie Olson, a rancher who showed up for a rally in Colorado Springs, said that she and her husband had been through rough economic times in recent years, and that a Trump loss would worsen their burdens. “I’d probably go into a depression, because life is hard enough for us right now,” Ms. Olson, 69, said. “And if Hillary gets in, it’s going to be a whole lot worse — income, lack of income, small business, large businesses.” New York Times reporters spoke to people attending Trump rallies in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In every crowd, there were supporters who echoed Mr. Trump’s message that the polls did not reflect the “silent majority” who they said would turn out on Nov. 8 and elect him in a landslide. “You go through any neighborhood and see how many Trump signs there are and how many Hillary signs there are, and I guarantee you it’s not even going to be close,” said Bill Stelling, 44, of Jacksonville, Fla. “The only way they’ve done it is by rigging the election.” An information diet from Trump-friendly news media like Breitbart News and Infowars has led many to believe that there is no way Mr. Trump can lose, and that even contemplating the possibility is foolish. “I’d be shocked,” said Rick Hill, 58, of Fort Myers, Fla. Mr. Hill added, “If you get on social media, he’s got Hillary beat, 3 to 1.” But others expressed unease about what a Trump loss would bring. “Unfortunately, I’m not a man of vigilante violence,” said Richard Sabonjohn, 48, of Naples, Fla. “I’m more of a peaceful person. But I do think there will be a large amount of people that are terribly upset and may take matters into their own hands.” Mr. Trump has repeatedly called the election “rigged,” raised concerns about voter fraud and said that he might not accept the results if he lost, making Democrats and Republicans alike worry whether the transfer of power will be smooth. Even some of his supporters who say they would peacefully accept Mrs. Clinton as the next president fear that the nation will take a violent turn — especially if Mrs. Clinton tries to infringe on Second Amendment rights. Paul Swick, 42, who owns a moving business, went with his wife and daughter to see Mr. Trump speak in Green Bay last week. Mr. Swick considers himself a “Bible Christian” and “Thomas Jefferson liberal,” and said he hoped to beat Mrs. Clinton “at the ballot box.” But Mr. Swick, by his own estimation, also owns “north of 30 guns,” and he said Mrs. Clinton would have trouble if she tried to confiscate the nation’s constitutionally protected weapons. (Mrs. Clinton has said she supports the Second Amendment, but she favors certain restrictions, like tighter background checks for gun buyers.) “If she comes after the guns, it’s going to be a rough, bumpy road,” Mr. Swick said. “I hope to God I never have to fire a round, but I won’t hesitate to. As a Christian, I want reformation. But sometimes reformation comes through bloodshed.” Alan Weegens, 62, a retired truck driver in Colorado Springs, also wondered aloud how the country — with so many citizens who own guns and, he said, “are willing to trample a grandma on Black Friday at midnight to save $5 on a toaster” — would react if Mr. Trump lost. “I am not going to take my weapon to go out into the streets to protest an election I did not win,” Mr. Weegens said, “but I think that if certain events came about, a person would need to protect themselves, depending on where they lived, when your neighborhood goes up in flames.” Asked what might cause such a conflagration, he pointed to places like Ferguson, Mo. , and Charlotte, N.C. , which have been hit by unrest after police shootings of black men, and said, “Because hungry people get mean.” As Mrs. Clinton pulls away in many polls, some Trump voters found it difficult even to contemplate what a Clinton presidency would be like for them. “I’d go home and cry for four years,” said Ken Herrmann, 69, of Punta Gorda, Fla. Kathy Maney, 61, a hairstylist from Fletcher, N.C., used the language of love lost. “I won’t feel hatred or mad or anything like that, but my heart will be broken,” she said. And Vicki Sanger, 40, of Grand Junction, Colo., said she had more practical concerns. “I would just be scared that Hillary would be impeached before she finishes her term,” she said. But, Ms. Sanger added, she will accept the outcome on Election Day. “I would absolutely respect the result and support the next president,” she said. “Pray for the next president, whoever it is.”

Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton
2016 Presidential Election
Voting
Civil Unrest


An Initial Public Offering Will Test Nielsen

Abstract: Nielsen’s planned $1.75 billion initial public offering will be closely watched by its core demographic: buyout barons. No fewer than six private equity firms — including the industry leaders Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners — own the business, which dominates the market for tracking media viewership. The question is whether the new Nielsen can attract similar audience awareness from stock market investors. If it can, Nielsen, led by the former General Electric wunderkind David L. Calhoun, may provide decent returns for its current investors. They injected about $3 billion of equity into the $10 billion buyout of the business, formerly called VNU and listed in the Netherlands. An initial offering that comes close to doubling their money would also help dispel criticism that buyout firms are nothing more than undertaxed financial engineers. That may not be an unreasonable pitch. Under Mr. Calhoun, the company has disposed of ancillary assets, focused on its core ratings business and squeezed out costs. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose to around $1.3 billion last year from $879 million four years ago. Revenue has grown about 2 percent a year since 2007. Moreover, as the industry standard for television and cable ratings information, Nielsen has traditionally operated a business with high barriers to entry. And its penetration of developing markets is still small, accounting for just around 17 percent of revenue. But media habits are changing. ComScore, for instance, is better positioned to measure eyeballs gravitating to online media like YouTube and Facebook. In its prospectus, Nielsen also notes the risk that multiple competitors are looking to measure TV audiences digitally using new set-top boxes. Given these risks and opportunities, what is Nielsen worth? At 11 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization — a hefty 20 percent premium to its competitors, the GfK Group of Germany and Ipsos of France, to reflect Nielsen’s dominant position — the company would have a $14.3 billion enterprise value. Net of debt, that is just under $6 billion for the equity — nearly doubling the consortium’s original investment. That may not sound like a home run. But it would help validate the private equity industry. It would suggest leveraged buyout firms do more than just shift debt around, and that they can put large amounts of capital to work, make better-than-market returns and even cooperate with one another. For all these reasons, Nielsen should score big audience ratings on Wall Street. Exiting Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank is losing half of one of the few successful double acts in investment banking. Michael Cohrs, an American who has been co-head of the company’s investment bank for six years, is to set to retire and hand off to Anshu Jain. The departure of Mr. Cohrs — and the concentration of power with Mr. Jain, a market specialist — may unsettle investors. But while the transition has its challenges, this looks like a natural evolution. Mr. Cohrs is following on the heels of several top Deutsche bankers who have left this year. But the timing looks planned. It coincides with the original departure date scheduled for the group’s chief executive, Josef Ackermann, who deferred his own retirement to 2013. The advisory business Mr. Cohrs has run since 2001 has come far under his tenure, coming from nowhere to break into the top tier in American mergers. Still, that business has always been overshadowed by Mr. Jain’s market machine. Judged on his contribution to revenue, Mr. Jain has certainly earned the right to take over. And while the co-head structure has worked, it would be risky to wedge in a new leader at this stage. Mr. Jain is a candidate to replace Mr. Ackermann. He now has some big challenges to tackle. He must protect the position in the business that Mr. Cohrs has built up, and should consider appointing a new advisory champion to secure that legacy. Above all, Mr. Jain needs to defend investment banking within Deutsche Bank amid pressure to allocate capital to less risky businesses. Moody’s, the rating agency, recently criticized the bank’s dependence on capital markets, questioning its risk management capabilities. It is hard to think of a stronger advocate for capital markets than Mr. Jain. He will have to resolve tensions internally and with regulators. If he handles that well, his candidacy for the top job at the bank will be strengthened.

Initial Public Offerings
Nielsen Media Research
Stocks and Bonds
Deutsche Bank AG
Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations
Cohrs Michael