States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample. Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona , Indiana and Missouri. In Florida , people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession. The law, the most far-reaching in the nation, provoked a lawsuit last month from the American Civil Liberties Union , arguing that the requirement represents an unreasonable search and seizure . The flood of proposals across the country, enabled by the strength of Republicans in many statehouses and driven by a desire to cut government spending, recall the politics of the ’80s and ’90s, when higher rates of drug abuse and references to “welfare queens” led to policies aimed at ensuring that public benefits were not spent to support addiction. Supporters of the policies note that public assistance is meant to be transitional and that drug tests are increasingly common requirements for getting jobs. “Working people today work very hard to make ends meet, and it just doesn’t seem fair to them that their tax dollars go to support illegal things,” said Ellen Brandom , a Republican state representative in Missouri. The last three years, she sponsored legislation requiring testing of welfare recipients, and her bill was signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, in July. Advocates for the poor say the testing policies single out and vilify victims of the recession, disputing the idea that people on public assistance are more likely to use drugs. They also warn that to the extent that testing programs were successful in blocking some people from receiving benefits, the inability to get money for basic needs would aggravate drug addictions and increase demand for treatment. At Operation Breakthrough , which provides day care services to low-income women here in Kansas City, Nicole, 22, who asked to be identified only by her first name, began to cry as she described trying to provide for her three children on a monthly welfare check of $342, plus $642 in food stamps. Her electricity was cut off that morning, she said, which meant she could be evicted from her subsidized housing. The struggle to make ends meet while pursuing a health care degree was so consuming that the idea of taking drugs seemed ridiculous, she added. Kimberley Davis, the director of social services for Operation Breakthrough, said the legislation sent a bad message. “All this does is perpetuate the stereotype that low-income people are lazy, shiftless drug addicts and if all they did was pick themselves up from the bootstraps then the country wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in,” Ms. Davis said. Many states have already established ways to prevent people with known drug problems from receiving benefits — about 20 states prohibit unemployment payments for anyone who lost a job because of drug use, and more than a dozen states refuse welfare payments to anyone convicted of a drug felony. But, as tight state budgets have raised concern about government spending and fostered an impatience with aid to the poor, these efforts have gone further. Some point to federal statistics showing that unemployed adults are about twice as likely as employed adults to have used drugs in the previous month. This year, 36 states considered drug testing for recipients of cash assistance from the major welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; 12 states proposed it for unemployment insurance ; and some also considered making it a requirement for food stamps, home heating assistance and other programs. At the same time, a number of cities, including Chicago and Flint, Mich., considered drug testing public housing residents. There have also been proposals in Congress for nationwide testing of welfare recipients. To date, most of the proposals have failed to win support because of concerns about legality, stemming from a decade-old federal court ruling. That ruling struck down a Michigan law that mandated testing for all welfare recipients as a violation of the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Money has also been an issue — the sides dispute whether the savings in unpaid benefits will eclipse the spending on administration, including the cost of testing. “It really speaks to how the politics of the moment are dominating the policy conversation in the virtual absence of any evidence,” said Harold Pollack , a professor at the University of Chicago whose research has indicated that people on welfare used drugs at rates similar to the general population. In Arizona, under a 2009 program reauthorized this year, applicants are tested if they answer yes to a question about recent drug use. Only 16 out of 64,000 answered yes; 931 did not submit the form. The state estimated the savings on benefits had totaled $116,000. The law in Florida, where the average recipient receives $253 a month for less than five months, is more expansive. It requires applicants to pay for their own drug tests, which the state says costs up to $40, and the state will reimburse those who pass. People who fail the test are disqualified for one year — six months if they receive treatment — and are reported to the Florida abuse hot line. Payments to children can continue through another person, like a grandparent. Since July, 7,030 passed, 32 failed and 1,597 did not provide results, according to the state. The state said it does not track what drugs caused failures, but elsewhere the vast majority of cases involved marijuana . Both sides have seized on the early results. Opponents argue that they suggest the number of drug users among people who receive public benefits is lower than the general population, and proponents say that it suggests that drug users are being deterred from taking the test. A decline in the number of applicants appears to have accelerated since the testing started, according to a spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. State leaders have defended the program as “nothing more than an additional eligibility criteria,” noting that applicants are free to decline benefits if they do not want to be tested. “To me it’s real simple: money is going to go to the benefit of children, not to a parent using drugs,” said Gov. Rick Scott , a Republican who campaigned on the proposal. Arthenia L. Joyner , a Democratic leader in the State Senate who introduced a bill to repeal the law, said that now was not the right time for such policies. “There are millions of people seeking aid from the state for the first time because they have lost their jobs and they still have children to feed and bills to pay,” she said. “These people now are having to suffer the indignity of having to undergo a drug test.”

Drug test
Drug Abuse
Legislation
Welfare in the US
Unemployment benefits
US states


Trust Holds the Key to Whether a Bid for Hershey Succeeds This Time

Abstract: For the better part of the last century, there has been one major hurdle whenever Hershey Company was on the verge of a major deal: a charitable trust that controls about 81 percent of the voting power. When Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company wanted to buy the company at a 42 percent premium in 2002, the trust called off the sale at the last minute. When the trust became unhappy with Hershey’s performance and its deal talks with Cadbury in 2007, it asked for the resignation of six directors. When Hershey wanted to buy Cadbury in 2010, a rift between the American company and the trust allowed a rival, Kraft Foods, to prevail in the $19 billion acquisition of the British candy maker. Now, all eyes will be on the Hershey Trust Company again after Mondelez International (which was spun off from Kraft in 2012) made a $23 billion takeover offer for Hershey. On Thursday, Hershey rejected the $107-per-share offer — representing a 10 percent premium — saying in a statement that it “provided no basis for further discussion.” The question many observers are asking is whether this time will be different if Mondelez comes back with a higher price. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which has raised concerns over the trust’s deployment of funds, is seeking an overhaul of its board. If that were to happen, some believe Hershey’s largest shareholder would more apt to sell. In some ways, the trust is clinging to a storied history. Milton S. Hershey and his wife, Catherine Sweeney, known as Kitty, never had children. So in 1909, they set up a boarding school for needy boys and deeded 486 acres of land to an entity called the Hershey Trust Company, which was created to fund the school. There are two other charitable entities associated with Hershey, one of which is the nonprofit Milton Hershey School and the other a more plain-vanilla foundation, the M. S. Hershey Foundation, which supports the local museum and park. In 1918, Mr. Hershey gave all of his Hershey company stock to the trust. At the end of March, the Hershey Trust held 12.7 million common shares of the company. The Hershey Trust exerts control over the company because of its control of B shares, each one of which has votes equaling 10 shares of common stock. It thus controls roughly 80 percent of the total votes of all classes of the company’s stock. Eric Henry has been chief executive and chief investment officer of the trust since 2012. Mondelez has pledged to keep jobs and the company’s headquarters in Pennsylvania, and retain the Hershey name. Those details — and concern for the public benefit — may be critical as the largest shareholder, which arguably has never acted like a typical shareholder, mulls over this latest potential tie-up.

Hershey
Mondelez International
Mergers and Acquisitions
Kraft Foods Group
Philanthropy
Milton Snavely Hershey
Hershey Foods


Byliner Takes Bissinger’s E-Book Off Amazon

Abstract: Last Tuesday, Buzz Bissinger hopped the Amtrak train to Philadelphia from New York, where he had done a bit of publicity for “After Friday Night Lights,” a 12,000-word e-book that had been performing nicely since its release. But when he opened his laptop to check his ranking on Amazon , he found the book was no longer for sale there. “I was stunned,” he said in a phone interview on Friday. “I thought it was some kind of technical difficulty.” (I had noticed a lot of people on Twitter shared his confusion.) Depending on how you define it, he was right. Mr. Bissinger, the best-selling author of multiple books, including “Friday Night Lights,” had written the e-book as a postscript for the popular book about high school football in Texas . “After Friday Night Lights” traces his relationship with Boobie Miles, a running back whose football career was derailed by an injury and who has been on a hard road ever since. Mr. Bissinger wrote the e-book for Byliner.com , one of a number of fledgling companies trying to make a go of it by publishing long-form works — not as long as a traditional book, but longer than most magazine articles — for digital readers. Mr. Bissinger thought the e-book, priced at $2.99, would be a great way to pay tribute to the relationship while also helping Mr. Miles, by giving him a third of the proceeds. But the plan hit a pothole after Apple , which had been looking to get into shorter works in a digital format, decided to include e-books in a promotion that it does with Starbucks . It selected Mr. Bissinger’s digital sequel as a Pick of the Week, giving customers a code they could redeem online for the book. (Mr. Bissinger said he still received a royalty of $1.50 for each copy sold.) Amazon interpreted the promotion as a price drop and lowered its price for “After Friday Night Lights” to exactly zero. Byliner withdrew the book from Amazon’s shelves, saying it did so to “protect our authors’ interest.” Mr. Bissinger, who has built a franchise on journalistic excellence and rhetorical intemperance — see his Twitter account — managed to choose his words carefully when talking about how his e-book ended up as a bug on the windshield of Amazon’s relentlessness on pricing. That may have a little something to do with the fact that he has a great big book, “Father’s Day,” being released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in just two weeks. It would be a bad time to stick his finger in the eye of a company that sells more books — including his — than any other company in the world. “It’s a shame that the e-book was not on sale at Amazon,” he said. “Amazon is a crucial outlet for any author, and when you lose them, it’s terrifying. It’s a killer for ‘After Friday Night Lights’ because it was just gaining momentum and books have a very small window of opportunity.” In a statement, Byliner said the company had no choice in withdrawing the book. “While we greatly value Amazon as a partner in this new category, we need to protect our authors’ interests,” the statement said. “As such, we had to remove the title from Amazon until May 1. We’re disappointed that Amazon customers won’t have access to this wonderful story, but we’re pleased that readers still have other options to purchase and enjoy Buzz’s powerful sequel.” I reached Mark Bryant, one of the founders of Byliner and its editorial director, who was also careful when talking about Amazon’s role in the episode. “We were very surprised,” he said. “Amazon has been a terrific partner. I don’t have any reason to think that they won’t be in the future.” Mr. Bryant, who formerly edited a sports magazine for The New York Times , said that Amazon’s “price bot” had picked up the fact that the book was being given away as part of a weeklong promotion and responded by dropping its price to zero. (In an e-mail later, Mr. Bryant said that when the company told Amazon about the promotion, before it began, Byliner was warned the price might drop to zero. But, he said, “we hoped that wouldn’t happen.” It did.) A spokeswoman for Amazon said that whether the book went back on sale at its regular price when the promotion ended was up to Byliner, not Amazon. “We expect and hope to be able to sell the single again next week,” she said. Apple declined to comment on decisions made by another company. Founded in 2011, Byliner is a digital publishing company that features fiction and nonfiction at lengths from 5,000 words to 30,000 words. The company commissions works and then splits any royalties down the middle with the authors. The company has had some success. One of its books, “Lifeboat No. 8,” was No. 1 on the New York Times e-books best-seller list, and “After Friday Night Lights” hit No. 19 on the list in its first week in circulation. Given that Amazon is the biggest seller of digital books by a wide margin, it probably won’t be on the list next week. Amazon was a big beneficiary of the Justice Department’s recent decision to pursue price-fixing charges against Apple and book publishers, which had been fighting to gain control of e-book pricing and were working with Apple to push back against Amazon’s deep discounts. Mr. Bissinger now finds himself caught between Amazon and Apple, a situation that pretty much defines a rock and a hard place. With the business performance of Amazon, it’s hard to suggest that the company does not know what it is doing, even when it “sells” a book at a price of zero. Last week, Amazon announced that it had blown away analysts’ expectations , with $13.8 billion in revenue for the first three months of the year. Its stock went up 13 percent. Like Wal-Mart , Amazon is big enough to set prices in certain categories. Suppliers are left to scramble to meet those objectives or pass up the opportunity to work with the largest retailers in the world. Amazon’s might when it comes to pricing will only grow as the impact of the Justice Department’s lawsuit begins to emerge. But sometimes the company’s tactical aggression lands hard on the people who supply it. Mr. Miles not only received a third of the commission for “After Friday Night Lights,” but also was sharing royalties with Mr. Bissinger as well. “It’s too bad, because Boobie needs the money,” Mr. Bissinger said. “Hell, I need the money. Authors need everyone — Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble , Byliner — to make a go of it and to continue to do what we do.”

Byliner
Books
Amazon
Buzz Bissinger
Publishing
Price
Starbucks
Mark Bryant
EBooks EReaders


Palmer Content to Be Honorary Starter at Masters

Abstract: AUGUSTA, Ga., April 3 — Three years after Arnold Palmer retired from playing the Masters, he will stand on the first tee Thursday and hit a drive as the tournament’s honorary starter. Palmer, a four-time champion, played in 50 consecutive tournaments after making his first appearance in 1955. “I think the time has come,” Palmer, 77, said. “My competitive golf is done. I have no intentions of playing competitively on the Tour. I hope in some way I can show my gratitude to the fans who have followed and supported me these many years.” Billy Payne, the Augusta chairman, said, “We are absolutely delighted that Arnold Palmer will once again be on the first tee at Augusta, a place where he belongs, and among thousands that traced their love of the game to his inspiration.” The tradition of an honorary starter began in 1963 and has been performed by six players — Jock Hutchison, Fred McLeod, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Ken Venturi and Sam Snead. Asked if he might be tempted to hit his tee shot and keep on playing, Palmer said: “You know, I’m not too smart, but I’m not stupid. I think I’ll just let it go wherever it goes.”

Golf
Palmer Arnold
Masters Golf Tournament


Teenager Killed in Shooting Near Brooklyn Schools

Abstract: An 18-year-old man was killed and a second teenager was wounded on Wednesday in a shooting on a Brooklyn street busy with students who had just been dismissed for the day from a nearby high school campus, the authorities said. The police said the shooting took place just before 3 p.m., near the intersection of Livonia and Pennsylvania Avenues in the East New York neighborhood. The area, which is crowded with delis and fast-food restaurants where students congregate after class, lies between an elementary school and the campus of the former Thomas Jefferson High School, which now houses several high schools. The circumstances of the shooting were still being investigated Wednesday night, but the police said the 18-year-old had been shot in the head and taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. His name had not been released by the authorities, but friends who gathered at the hospital said he was a recent graduate of the High School for Civil Rights, one of the schools based on the campus. A 17-year-old was shot in the right shoulder; he was hospitalized and was in stable condition, the authorities said. The police said that three people were taken into custody on Wednesday, and that a weapon was recovered. No other information about the suspects was immediately released. Alexus Lapomarede, a 10th grader, was at a fried chicken restaurant, waiting for her order and hanging out with friends before dance practice, when she heard the shooting. Students in the area screamed, she said, and some ran away. She recalled seeing a car speeding away and a young man on the pavement, blood streaming from his head. “I was so scared,” said Ms. Lapomarede, 15, who raced back to school. “I’ve never seen anyone shot before.” Surveillance video from a convenience store showed young people ambling on the sidewalk before a burst of panic at the sound of gunfire. The teenager who was shot in the shoulder made his way into the store with his friends. The surveillance footage shows him stumbling inside, doubled over in pain. “It was chaos,” Concepcion Chavez, the store’s owner, said. Omar Diaz, an 11th grader, was at a store across the street when he heard the shooting. “I just stood there in shock for a minute,” he said. Mr. Diaz, 16, said he hid in the back of the store and emerged after an ambulance came and carried off one of the shooting victims. “It made me realize it’s not really safe in the streets,” he said.

Brooklyn
Murders and Homicides
East New York Brooklyn


Life on Mars? Funds for NASA to Find the Answer Fade

Abstract: Just as NASA is on the cusp of answering the most fascinating questions about Mars — is there, was there or could there be life there? — the money needed to provide the answers is about to be abruptly withdrawn, a victim of President Obama’s budget request for 2013, scientists say. Two ambitious missions that NASA had hoped to launch to Mars, in 2016 and 2018, will be canceled. The first would have sent an orbiter to measure gases in the Martian atmosphere — methane in particular, since methane does not last long. Its presence could suggest that Martian microbes are busy at work emitting the gas (though other explanations are also possible). The second, in 2018, would have set the stage to fulfill the longstanding desire of scientists to bring pieces of Mars back to Earth for close-up study with the full arsenal of instruments available in their laboratories. Now the prospect of bringing Martian rocks to Earth is likely pushed to the mid- or late 2020s, all because of budget cuts. “The pipeline is being shut off, and that’s not what anyone wants,” said Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit group founded by Carl Sagan and others who wanted to foster interest in outer space. “We are closer than anyone has ever been to discovering life on another world.” President Obama’s budget request for 2013 calls for cutting NASA’s robotic exploration of the solar system by 20 percent, to $1.2 billion, and the Mars program would be particularly hard hit. Already, NASA has withdrawn from a collaboration with the European Space Agency that would have launched the missions in 2016 and 2018, angering the Europeans and disappointing astrobiologists and planetary scientists. “We seem to have gotten the drastic cuts relative to other parts of NASA,” said Raymond E. Arvidson, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why?” There are still a few tidbits left. A NASA rover called Curiosity is to land in August and look in ancient sediments for carbon-based molecules that could serve as the building blocks of life. Its instruments could also confirm the controversial claim that Mars’ atmosphere contains methane. But Curiosity will not be able to provide definitive answers to the question of “Could there have been life on Mars?” And a modest orbiter mission called Maven, to study Mars’ upper atmosphere, remains on track for launching next year. By measuring the escape of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapor to space, scientists hope to gain insight into the past climate of Mars. But scientists are dismayed that they are being hamstrung on the brink of major breakthroughs. The problem, they say, stems from NASA trying to cram too many big-ticket items into a $17.7 billion budget — $1.75 billion less than what Congress had promised a couple of years ago. “Right now NASA’s Mars science exploration budget is being decimated,” Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “We’re not going back to the moon. Plans for astronauts to visit Mars or anywhere beyond low-Earth orbit are delayed until the 2030s on funding not yet allocated, overseen by a Congress and a president to be named later.” Dr. Tyson implored Congress to look beyond the near-term budget travails, noting that of each dollar in taxes sent to Washington, only half a cent is spent on NASA. He told the senators they should double NASA’s budget. “The moment the culture wants to innovate, that penny on a dollar becomes an investment,” Dr. Tyson said, arguing that the nation had benefited greatly from the halo effects of the space program in the 1960s and 1970s and has been coasting since. The sidelining of the Mars program is one of several depressing developments at NASA. The space shuttles will never fly again, and the agency’s reliance on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station is likely to be extended, because financing of commercial companies to take over that task has been limited. The James Webb Space Telescope, meant as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope , is delayed and over budget, now at least six years from being ready. The new heavy-lift rocket that is to take astronauts on faraway missions will not carry any astronauts until 2021. All of the big projects are slipping into the distant future. In a letter sent March 5, a group of Mars scientists that provides feedback to NASA said it was “appalled” by the proposed budget cuts. “Among the many dire impacts, the cuts threaten the very existence of the Mars exploration program which has been one of the crown jewels of the agency’s planetary exploration,” wrote David J. Des Marais, a scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in California and chairman of the group. Because the Curiosity is already finished and launched, “from this point now forward, there is nothing active in the queue,” Dr. Des Marais said in an interview. “The gap begins now.” Agency officials strongly dispute the notion that NASA is being idled. “We still have very exciting things to do in science,” said John M. Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science. While NASA will not have anything to launch to Mars in 2016, Dr. Grunsfeld said the agency was aiming to come up with a new mission to fill the 2018 slot. A planning group appointed by Dr. Grunsfeld is to provide a draft framework for a revised, cheaper Mars program this month. The Europeans could possibly turn to Russia as a new partner for the Mars missions that NASA will no longer pursue. While NASA has laid the groundwork of Mars exploration for the past 15 years, other nations could conceivably swoop in for the most significant discoveries. But only NASA has had any success at landing on Mars, and more likely, whatever mysteries Mars holds will remain mysteries for years longer.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A New Casualty of Syria’s War: Drinking Water in Damascus

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — For millions of Damascus residents, long-term concerns about the direction of the war in Syria have been replaced by worries about where to get enough water to do the dishes, wash clothes or take a shower. For nearly two weeks, the Syrian capital and its vicinity have been afflicted by a water crisis that has left taps dry, caused long lines at wells and forced people to stretch whatever thin resources they can find. “When the world gets hard for us, we work something out,” said a woman in a video posted on Facebook showing how she used a jury-rigged cola bottle to wash teacups. “When you cut off the water, we dig for water. When you cut off the tap, we make a tap.” Like most of Syria’s problems, the Damascus water crisis is a symptom of the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced about half the country’s prewar population of 22 million and left its territory divided into zones controlled by the government, armed rebels and jihadist groups. While a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey and announced last week has reduced overall violence across the country, it has not stopped the fighting everywhere, nor has it resolved what happens when resources needed by one side are controlled by its enemies, as appears to be the case with Damascus’s water. Historically, most of the water for the capital, which is controlled by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, has come from the Barada Valley north of the city, which is controlled by rebels who want to oust Mr. Assad. The crisis began on Dec. 22, when the water stopped flowing. Each side has accused the other of damaging infrastructure near the spring, halting the flow. Antigovernment activists have posted photos online , purporting to show structures around the spring that they say were damaged by exploding barrels dropped from government helicopters. The government first accused the rebels of polluting the water, then of damaging the infrastructure. Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office in Geneva, said by email Tuesday that the “deliberate targeting of the water infrastructure” had caused the shut-off. “But we are not in a position to say by whom,” he said. “The area has been the scene of much fighting, so we have not been able to access it.” Now, 5.5 million people in Damascus and the vicinity lack water, which has raised the risk of waterborne disease, especially among children, he said. Fighting near the Barada Valley has continued despite the cease-fire. Antigovernment activists say that government forces, and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization, have continued to attack the area in an apparent attempt to take it over. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts in Syria, said the government launched 15 airstrikes on the area Monday amid clashes between rebels and pro-government forces. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, accused the Syrian government and its allies on Wednesday of violating the cease-fire, saying that the new violence could derail peace talks meant to be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Jan. 23. Rebel groups have threatened to boycott the talks if government attacks do not stop. Few Damascus residents expect much from the talks or have time to think about them. While generally safe from the violence that had reduced other parts of the country to rubble, they were struggling through a cold winter of high prices and scarce commodities before the water crisis, making things worse. The Syrian government has sought to ease the crisis by trucking water from wells around the city, and the United Nations has rehabilitated 120 wells to cover about one-third of the city’s daily needs, Mr. Laerke, the spokesman, said. But many residents said they had received nothing. Some were buying water from men with private tankers, while others took advantage of whatever they could get. A 50-year-old shopkeeper said he had not had a shower in 10 days but that he and his sons went to the mosque every day to wash their hands, feet and faces, an option not available to the women of the house. At home, he said, they used plastic utensils because they could not wash dishes. One 60-year-old woman said she had not had running water in her home for 10 days. Her two sons have spent hours each day lining up to fill jugs from the well at their mosque. They use that to drink and to wash dishes, collecting the runoff to flush the toilet. “My family’s dream is to get a warm shower,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions for communicating with a foreign news outlet without government permission. “It has become our ultimate hope in Damascus to have enough water to take showers and wash clothes in the automatic washing machine.” She expressed anger that Syria’s state-run news media had said little about the water crisis, instead focusing on the military’s battles with rebels. “We are fed up with the news of military operations,” she said. “We want news about water and water supply schedules.” Despite the water crisis, conditions in Damascus are far better than those in Aleppo, the northern city and former commercial epicenter of the country, where Syrian and Russian forces prevailed last month after prolonged bombardments of its eastern side. While the cease-fire appears to be holding there, the formerly rebel-held eastern quarters are abandoned wastelands, United Nations relief officials said. “Nothing prepared us for what we saw,” Sajjad Malik, the United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator for Syria, told reporters Wednesday in a telephone briefing from Aleppo. “The infrastructure was destroyed in almost every neighborhood.” Mr. Malik said more than 100 United Nations relief workers from several agencies were helping civil defense teams remove debris and provide emergency food, water, shelter and medical care in the city, where four million people once lived. He estimated that 1.5 million people remain in Aleppo, mostly on the western side, including roughly 400,000 Syrians displaced from other areas. He also said thousands of displaced residents from the eastern side were starting to return, even if their homes and businesses were badly damaged or destroyed. “They’re beginning to talk about rebuilding their lives and livelihoods,” Mr. Malik said. But he cautioned that “Aleppo’s reconstruction is going to take a much longer time and way more resources than we have right now.”

Syria
Water
Damascus
Shortages
Aleppo Syria
UN


Mets Stand Pat, Play Hard and Fall to the Marlins

Abstract: MIAMI — In the absence of any transactions, baseball’s nonwaiver trade deadline Wednesday afternoon became little more than a chance for the Mets to consider their present state and to reiterate their organizational mind-set. From one perspective, it seemed curious that a team that had made so many moves based on its future outlook would stand idle, declining to deal away players so it could protect the current fourth-place group. But this, too, reflected the Mets’ long-held plan: a buildup toward 2014, which would include a competitive showing as this season came to a close. Hours after General Manager Sandy Alderson finished explaining as much to reporters in a conference call, the Mets fell, 3-2, to the Miami Marlins before an announced crowd of 18,714 at Marlins Park. The team he envisions will revolve around young starting pitching, and Wednesday’s game represented the next audition round for Jenrry Mejia, the enigmatic 23-year-old right-hander who made a scintillating season debut last week. Mejia, a former top prospect sidetracked by injuries, did not match his last outing, when he pitched seven shutout innings against the Washington Nationals, displaying electric stuff. But in the place of that raw quality, he displayed some grittiness. He lasted six innings — giving up three runs, six hits and one walk, while striking out four — and each one seemed a grind as he battled elbow discomfort from lingering bone spurs. Manager Terry Collins said he was pleased. “I liked what I saw, for sure,” he said. Mejia gave up a bases-empty home run to Jake Marisnick in the second inning. In the third, he gave up consecutive sacrifice flies to Placido Polanco and Giancarlo Stanton, allowing the Marlins to take a 3-0 lead. When it was over, Mejia seemed slightly less than satisfied. “That’s not a bad job, six innings, three runs,” he said. “But we can get better.” Ike Davis’s sixth-inning double to right drove in the Mets’ first run. In the eighth, Eric Young Jr. walked to start the inning, went from first to third on a ground-ball out and scored on a passed ball, cutting the Marlins’ lead to 3-2. David Wright reached second base with only one out, but Marlon Byrd and Josh Satin each flied out to end the scoring chance. Image Jenrry Mejia, left, with John Buck, gave up three runs, six hits and one walk while striking out four. Credit Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images During that inning, Collins ran out to check on Wright, who was gingerly grabbing his right hamstring after stealing second. But he stayed in the game and revealed little about the problem afterward. “You either play through it or you can’t,” he said, “and I can play through this.” Over all, it was a disappointing end to a day when staying competitive was the theme. There was little fanfare around the Mets’ clubhouse before the game as the clock ticked to 4 o’clock. The players who were present were mostly huddled around a PlayStation 3 video game system. Some delivered small quips to Byrd, a possible trade candidate, who smiled as he checked the lineup card an extra time or two. Alderson said the club did have “extensive and substantive” discussions about potential trades, but deemed it more worthwhile to remain as competitive as possible through season’s end. “If we can create some momentum this season — whether that results in a playoff appearance or not — that will have a more positive effect on the organization and our fans than acquiring a few additional midlevel prospects,” Alderson said, repeating a philosophy he had expressed earlier this season. Teams inquired about Byrd — who has performed well while playing under a reasonable contract for the Mets — but none could match the team’s asking price. Alderson said closer Bobby Parnell, rumored to be sought by some teams, was never a candidate to be moved. The Mets spent two years looking for a closer like Parnell, Alderson reasoned, so it made little sense to try to trade him. “Over the last two and a half years, we’ve been trying to accrue talent, and I think we are on the threshold of improving performance and record,” Alderson said. He added, “Some positive things have happened, and we want to let that play out.” It is a project that will resume Thursday — when Matt Harvey pitches — and extend into the coming months. “I’m just hoping next year at this time we’re in the hunt and our names are being mentioned as guys who are trying to get somebody who can help us win,” Collins said.

Mets
Baseball
Sandy Alderson
Miami Marlins
Jenrry Mejia


800,000 More Workers Needed in Africa to Meet Health Goals by 2015

Abstract: To meet ambitious goals in improving maternal and child health and reducing AIDS deaths by 2015, Africa needs an additional 800,000 health care workers, a new study has concluded. Africa has about 30 percent of the 1.16 million doctors, nurses and midwives it needs, according to a study published Aug. 6 in the journal Health Affairs. Researchers estimate it would cost $2.6 billion to pay the additional workers, if they were available. The estimates are based on the World Health Organization’s recommendation that each African country should have at least 2.28 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1,000 people to care for the population and reach the Millennium Development Goals. The authors recommend that policymakers improve productivity by using more community health workers, providing incentives to motivate and retain workers and increasing training capacity. Another Health Affairs study says that in a recent survey the majority of Ugandan health workers reported low morale and dissatisfaction with their working conditions and wages. Half of the doctors surveyed said they wanted to leave the country to improve their situations. Brain drain — when trained professionals emigrate to work in higher-income countries — plagues poor countries. Researchers report that there is not an immediate fear of a “broad-scale exodus” of health workers, but say that decreasing workload and increasing salaries are necessary to motivate Ugandan doctors and nurses to stay.

Africa
Doctors
Nursing and Nurses
Medicine and Health


Gallardo Strikes Out 14 in Win Over Pirates

Abstract: Yovani Gallardo gave the Milwaukee Brewers what they needed heading into a big week of games against National League Central rivals. Gallardo struck out a career-high 14 in seven innings, and the Brewers used a four-run sixth to beat the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates , 4-1, on Sunday. “It’s really like win or go home every game,” Gallardo said. “We all know the nine games we have here, the next series with the Cardinals, then the Reds. They’re very important.” Gallardo (8-6) gave up four hits, including Andrew McCutchen’s homer in the fourth. Milwaukee took two of three from the Pirates. St. Louis comes in for three games, then the homestand ends with three games against the Reds. Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle felt that the team took itself out of the game against Gallardo. “Gallardo was very good today,” Hurdle said. “We were susceptible to a lot of things he was doing. He had a very sharp breaking ball.” Gallardo won consecutive starts for the second time this season. McCutchen, who had three of the Pirates’ five hits, hit his 21st home run and fifth in the past four games. He also had two singles. He is batting .560 (28 for 50) with 7 homers, 19 runs and 16 runs batted in over his past 12 games, and he leads the majors with a .371 average. “He is as good a player as there is in the league,” Hurdle said of McCutchen. “He is playing at an elite level, all across the board.” A. J. Burnett (10-3) had his career-high nine-game winning streak ended. “Things happen; it’s baseball,” Burnett said. “It’s not from a lack of effort. These guys try as hard as they can out there. It just didn’t go our way.” GIANTS 3, ASTROS 2 Buster Posey had three hits and two R.B.I. to back Matt Cain, and host San Francisco beat Houston to complete a three-game sweep. The Giants won without Melky Cabrera, who took a temporary leave to attend the birth of his child in Florida. REDS 4, CARDINALS 2 Scott Rolen hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning, sending host Cincinnati to a three-game sweep. PADRES 7, DODGERS 2 Chase Headley homered for the second straight game, and San Diego used six unearned runs to beat host Los Angeles. PHILLIES 5, ROCKIES 1 Cole Hamels pitched eight innings of one-run ball and Hunter Pence hit a three-run homer in Philadelphia’s first series victory in nearly a month. Hamels had seven strikeouts in his first win in three career outings at Coors Field. NATIONALS 4, MARLINS 0 Stephen Strasburg pitched six scoreless innings and drove in a run in Washington’s win over host Miami. CUBS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 1 Darwin Barney homered and Matt Garza threw seven shutout innings to lift host Chicago to a three-game sweep of Arizona. ATHLETICS 9, TWINS 4 Yoenis Cespedes had his first career four-hit game, including a home run and three R.B.I., as Oakland beat host Minnesota. RED SOX 7, RAYS 3 Josh Beckett overcame early struggles on the road to pitch six effective innings, and Will Middlebrooks drove in a pair during a tiebreaking three-run fifth for Boston. WHITE SOX 2, ROYALS 1 Chris Sale won his eighth straight decision, Adam Dunn homered in his third straight game and Chicago beat host Kansas City. BLUE JAYS 3, INDIANS 0 Carlos Villanueva struck out a career-best eight in six scoreless innings, and Jose Bautista had two hits for host Toronto. TIGERS 4, ORIOLES 0 Justin Verlander returned to form after his uncharacteristic start in the All-Star Game, allowing three hits in eight innings to carry Detroit over host Baltimore. RANGERS 4, MARINERS 0 Matt Harrison tossed a five-hitter for his 12th victory, Adrian Beltre had three hits and two R.B.I., and Texas beat host Seattle. HAMMEL OUT The Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel will have arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and is expected to be out for at least three to four weeks.

Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Baseball
Gallardo Yovani


Butler Earns Second Chance

Abstract: HOUSTON — Back in the practice gym at Hinkle Field House, during Butler’s sweaty summer pickup games, the seeds for the Bulldogs’ latest run to the national title game were planted. Guard Shelvin Mack said that the Bulldogs used to play games to 12 points, but switched to 8 this summer as a way to ensure that players valued every possession. As eighth-seeded Butler pulled away in the final five minutes against No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth to win, 70-62, and secure a spot in the national title game for the second straight year, the Bulldogs showcased that every-possession-is-a-jewel judiciousness. Butler will play Connecticut on Monday night for a shot at the program’s first national title. It has gotten to this point because of a blend of composure and experience that has become a hallmark in these two sun-kissed seasons. The Bulldogs turned the ball over only nine times against V.C.U.’s swarming pressure, made clutch shots as the clock dwindled and won their fourth game during a dizzying N.C.A.A. tournament run in which they trailed during the second half. The Butler star Matt Howard said that the Bulldogs “almost expected to win.” He added: “That’s the way our team had prepared. Tonight, it’s just like any game, weirdly enough.” But it is not just another story; the thought of Butler’s winning the national title surely raises goose bumps across the country. Butler will be the lowest-seeded team to play in the national title game since another No. 8 seed, Villanova, pulled off one of the tournament’s most shocking upsets by beating Georgetown in 1985. The difference is, if Butler wins Monday, few will be surprised. With its back-to-back runs to the national title game, Butler has evolved from a darling to a juggernaut, turning the improbable to the conventional. Butler, of the Horizon League, has won so many games in so many different ways in the N.C.A.A. tournament the past two seasons, the question of whether the Bulldogs will win has seemingly been replaced by wondering how they will win. Mack’s 24 points on a remarkably efficient 11 shots led the Bulldogs. But his biggest play of the night was a skip pass in the corner to Shawn Vanzant, who swished a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 3 minutes 4 seconds left. That gave Butler a 61-54 lead, which put the Bulldogs in control and cemented a night for the ages for Mack. “He was a killer tonight,” V.C.U. Coach Shaka Smart said. Howard sealed the game as the public-address announcer said, “One minute remaining,” scrapping for an offensive rebound and scoring a garbage bucket to give the Bulldogs a 63-57 lead. “Those are older guys that have been there, done that and doing it again,” said Butler Coach Brad Stevens, who at 34 will be coaching in his second national title game. Can the Bulldogs pull off the improbable one more time? Butler’s loss to Duke in the national title game last year went down to the final buzzer, with a halfcourt heave by Gordon Hayward bouncing off the rim and giving Duke the national title. Perhaps the most telling detail from Saturday was Stevens’s withholding from his traditional post-N.C.A.A. tournament victory chest bump with forward Emerson Kampen. “I told them I’m not doing the flying chest bump until we get through the weekend,” Stevens said. “In part because I’m getting older and it hurt the last time.” The victory ended a remarkable run by V.C.U., which tied a record as the lowest seed to reach the Final Four. George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga, whose Patriots play in the Colonial Athletic Association with V.C.U. and were seeded 11th when they made the Final Four in 2006, wished the Rams luck as they gathered to walk to the court. But after hitting three 3-pointers in an 11-point spurt early in the game, V.C.U. went cold from behind the arc and failed to control the tempo. The Rams flourish with a frenetic style that rattles opponents. Their problem was that Butler does not rattle easily. The Rams found themselves having feelings similar to those that No. 9 Old Dominion, No. 1 Pittsburgh and No. 2 Florida had in tight games with Butler. As the clock ran down, V.C.U.’s shots rolled out, its decision-making went awry and the Rams walked off the court wondering how it all happened. “I almost felt like it wasn’t supposed to happen or something,” V.C.U. guard Joey Rodriguez said. Smart said the college basketball landscape has changed to the point where it was not a huge deal if a team from a midmajor conference reached the Final Four. “I wouldn’t be surprised either way,” Smart said of Butler winning Monday. The biggest surprise left came from the Butler reserve guard Zach Hahn, who scored 8 straight points during a back-and-forth second half. Hahn swished two 3-pointers from the right wing and also drove for a spinning layup. Hahn’s punch off the bench was as unexpected as it was necessary. But that is how Butler has rolled through this tournament, a different member of the supporting cast complementing Howard and Mack, its two stars. And as the Bulldogs prepare to play for the national title for the second consecutive season, do not be surprised if Stevens chests-bumps Kampen sometime around midnight. A run born from stingy possessions at Hinkle Field House — the basketball palace where “Hoosiers” was filmed — may get the storybook ending this year.

Basketball
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
Butler University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Mack Shelvin
Howard Matt
Skeen Jamie
College Athletics
Basketball (College)
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)


Afghan Court Confirms Reduced Sentences in Mob Killing of Farkhunda

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — One defendant was the custodian of a holy shrine who trafficked in Viagra, condoms and pagan amulets, and who, when exposed, falsely accused a young woman named Farkhunda of burning a Quran. Another was an employee from an optician’s shop who joined a growing mob at the shrine and pummeled Farkhunda with a rock the size of a watermelon. Another was an Afghan intelligence agent who bragged on Facebook that he had the honor of striking the fatal blow against her. Another man drove his car over her, twice. Those men were sentenced to death last year in what briefly looked like a rare moment of justice for Afghan women, and other convictions seemed imminent. But in the months afterward, as detailed last year in an investigation by The New York Times , failures at every stage of the justice process surfaced. Clear leads did not turn into arrests, and tough sentences were drastically reduced — including for those four men identified at the center of the violence, who had their death sentences turned into as little as 10 years in prison. Now, Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has confirmed the decision to vacate those four death sentences, and nine other defendants also had their sentences reduced. Word of that decision came late Monday in a restrained announcement by the attorney general, and all day Tuesday it became the inescapable backdrop for International Women’s Day observations in Kabul. The country’s first lady, Rula Ghani, making the keynote address for the occasion before a gathering including many women’s leaders, acknowledged the disappointment and tried to assure the audience that the Supreme Court decision in “the case of our dear martyred Farkhunda” would be reconsidered. And she drew attention to progress for Afghan women under the government of her husband, President Ashraf Ghani. “The reforms brought in the judiciary system are in favor of women,” she said. Still, there was a growing sense of outrage among the women who had gathered to observe the day. “Even if all those involved would be executed, it is still not enough,” said Maryam, a police colonel who leads a human rights office in an elite unit, and who uses just one name. Of 49 men originally arrested in Farkhunda’s killing, only 13 have so far been given serious penalties — nearly all of them greatly reduced on appeal. All the death sentences were vacated. In addition, many activists claim that some of those most responsible — and identified in cellphone video of the killing — have still not been arrested. “I believe the main perpetrators of this case, those who were behind it, are still not brought to justice,” said a female senator, Anarkali Honaryar. The mob murder of Farkhunda on March 19 last year was initially greeted with public jubilation here, even among many government officials, until evidence mounted that she had been falsely accused. Rather than burning the Quran, she had been working to defend it: She was an Islamic scholar who was upset by the shady goings-on at the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, one of Kabul’s most popular shrines. Those included un-Islamic practices like fortunetelling and selling amulets, as well as allegations of pimping and prostitution. Video Farkhunda Malikzada, a 27-year-old Muslim woman falsely accused of burning a Quran, was killed by a mob in central Kabul as hundreds watched and filmed. This video contains scenes of graphic violence. Credit Credit Lynsey Addario for The New York Times Nineteen of the people arrested in connection with Farkhunda’s death were police officers accused of failing to intervene to save her; most of the policemen were given token penalties, such as pay reductions or cancellation of leave time while on duty. Thirty other cases were prosecuted, but 17 of those were dismissed by an appeals court. In the remaining 13 cases, the appeals court recommended the reduction of sentences, leading lawyers representing the victim’s family to appeal to the Supreme Court. While the court’s decision was made a month ago, according to lawyers for Farkhunda’s family, it was kept secret until a brief announcement late on Monday by the attorney general’s office. Yalda Nasimi, one of the family’s lawyers, said the family would ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision, which was apparently what Mrs. Ghani was referring to. Ms. Nasimi said a petition would be lodged with the court within two months. The controversy surrounding the case led Farkhunda’s family to flee to neighboring Tajikistan, where they remain. “Not only do we oppose the decision of the Supreme Court, but the entire nation is dissatisfied,” said Farkhunda’s brother, Mujibullah Malikzada, reached by telephone in Dushanbe. “I’m not saying that the perpetrators must be lynched the way they lynched my sister. But all I want is fairness and justice, which has not been done.” Hasina Safi, the director of the Afghan Women’s Network, a coalition of advocacy groups, said the court’s decision would not lessen the determination of activists to pursue the case. “We are going to begin again tomorrow to organize on social media, and we are trying to take this case up internationally,” she said. “Justice for Farkhunda is justice for all of Afghanistan’s women.” A coalition of women’s groups organized under the Justice for Farkhunda banner planned to meet late Tuesday to decide how to respond to the Supreme Court decision, according to Nargis Azaryon, an activist with the coalition. “It is obvious that justice has not been done fairly, and we are not satisfied at all,” she said. Many women in government were more circumspect, possibly because of the embarrassment the case has brought to the country at a time when its leaders are emphasizing gains in women’s rights. Five officials of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs who were at Mrs. Ghani’s speech Tuesday were contacted and refused to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision. Of the four men formerly sentenced to death in the case, three had their sentences reduced to 20 years, including the custodian of the shrine, Zainuddin; the intelligence agent, Sharaf Baghlani; and the defendant who drove his car over Farkhunda’s body, Abdul Basheer. Muhammad Yaqoub, the optician’s employee, had his death sentence reduced to 10 years in prison because the appeals court said he was 17 at the time of the crime. Some activists have disputed that he was underage, however, and the original trial court said his age had been determined from faked documents. Baseer Azizi, the spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said that while the reduced sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court’s decision, the court had also ordered a review of the other cases that had been dismissed earlier. Most of those cases — believed to number 17, although accounts vary — involved much lesser penalties.

Farkhunda
Afghanistan
Rula Ghani
Islam
Murders and Homicides
Women's rights,Feminism
Criminal Sentence
Capital punishment


G.O.P. Ticket Is Picture of Health, Doctors Say

Abstract: Medical summaries by doctors who have regularly examined Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan were released Friday by the Romney campaign and show both men to be conspicuously healthy and fit. Both men, however, have significant family histories of heart disease and have been closely monitored for it. Mr. Romney, 65, is a “vigorous man who takes excellent care of his personal physical health” and who “appears years younger than his age,” Dr. Randall D. Gaz, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. Dr. Gaz, a specialist in thyroid surgery, said he had been Mr. Romney’s personal physician since June 1989. Mr. Romney takes a low-dose aspirin daily (81 milligrams, often called baby aspirin) to help prevent heart attacks, and a statin drug, Lipitor , to lower his cholesterol, which is 169 with the treatment, a level considered normal, Dr. Gaz said. Mr. Romney is also closely monitored for prostate cancer because of his family history, Dr. Gaz said, and has a mild elevation of his triglyceride, at 179, and “minimally symptomatic” benign enlargement of his prostate gland. Mr. Romney’s resting heart rate is in the 40s, well below average and a level often found in athletes and people who run regularly or do a lot of other aerobic exercise. Mr. Romney’s heart rate was 40 on his most recent medical checkup, on Aug. 9, which, Dr. Gaz said, was most likely related to Mr. Romney’s “past intensive exercise with regular running.” An unusually slow pulse can also be a sign of heart disease, but other experts agreed with Dr. Gaz’s assessment that in Mr. Romney’s case, it was more likely a sign of fitness. A slow heart rate is often seen in high-performance athletes, said Dr. Roman W. DeSanctis, emeritus chief of clinical cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has not been involved in Mr. Romney’s care. Dr. DeSanctis said he was “not bothered by the slow heart rate” because he “has seen many patients who have had it.” An exercise test showed that Mr. Romney’s heart rate rose to 107 with stress. A specialist in internal medicine at Massachusetts General, who asked not to be identified and was not involved in Mr. Romney’s care, said he found nothing to be concerned about in Mr. Romney’s medical report. Dr. Gaz’s statement indicated that Mr. Romney has never fainted. Mr. Romney has been advised to notify his doctors of symptoms that could reflect a heart problem like lightheadedness, frequent palpitations, shortness of breath or chest discomfort. Mr. Romney has undergone extensive testing including normal 24-hour monitoring of his heart rhythm, echocardiogram, colonoscopy and prostate-screening tests. Mr. Romney does not drink alcohol or smoke (his Mormon faith forbids both) and is allergic to penicillin. In 1965, he had his appendix removed, and in 1968, he sustained a concussion and broken bones in a car accident in France. He is 6 foot 1 and a half inches tall and weighs 184 pounds. His blood pressure is a healthy 130/80. “He has reserves of strength, energy and stamina that provide him with the ability to meet unexpected demands,” Dr. Gaz said, adding that he found “no physical impairments that should interfere with Mr. Romney serving as president, if elected.” Mr. Ryan, Mr. Romney’s running mate, has a strong family history of heart disease. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has quoted him as saying that his father “died of a heart attack at 55, my grandfather died of a heart attack at 57, my great-grandfather died of heart attack at 59, so I’m into the health thing.” Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician to Congress who has examined Mr. Ryan, 42, since he entered Congress at age 28, described Mr. Ryan’s health as “excellent.” He noted that Mr. Ryan regularly engages in “vigorous aerobic and strength-building exercises,” eats a “heart health diet,” and does not smoke or drink much alcohol. Mr. Ryan occasionally needs to use an inhaler for “airway hypersensitivity,” meaning wheezing or asthma attacks. He has had disc trouble in his back and torn cartilage in one knee. Mr. Ryan’s blood pressure is 121/62, his heart rate is 59, his cholesterol is 184 and his body mass index is 20.9, well below the average for men in the United States. In the past, Mr. Ryan has said that his proportion of body fat was 6 percent to 8 percent, but a level that low seems unlikely, said Dr. Michael J. Joyner, an exercise expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Joyner added that such a reading would be exceptional in any middle-age man and was more likely in a much younger, super-elite athlete.

Presidential Election of 2012
Romney Mitt
Ryan Paul D Jr


Cleveland Indians Can Use Logo and Name in Toronto, Canadian Judge Says

Abstract: TORONTO — An Ontario judge on Monday quashed a last-minute attempt to bar the Cleveland Indians from using their team name and their Chief Wahoo logo during a playoff game in Toronto that night. The legal challenge, by the activist Douglas Cardinal, came hours before the Indians were to play the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The longstanding logo, which appears on some team caps and jerseys, depicts a grinning, red-faced cartoon with a feather headband. Justice Tom McEwen of Ontario Superior Court dismissed Cardinal’s application on Monday and said he would give his reasons at a later date. Monique Jilesen, a lawyer for Cardinal, told McEwen that the game could be played with spring training uniforms that do not carry the name or the Chief Wahoo logo. “You could not call a team the New York Jews; why is it O.K. to call a team the Cleveland Indians?” Jilesen said to the judge, saying the team name and logo were racist and against Ontario’s human rights code. At least 27 lawyers representing the Cleveland Indians, Major League Baseball and others, including the plaintiffs, attended the hearing, which was moved to a larger courtroom to accommodate the crowd. Major League Baseball said in a statement that it “appreciates the concerns” of those who find the name and logo “offensive.” “We would welcome a thoughtful and inclusive dialogue to address these concerns outside the context of litigation,” the statement said. “Given the demands for completing the League Championship Series in a timely manner, M.L.B. will defend Cleveland’s right to use their name that has been in existence for more than 100 years.” The Indians dropped Chief Wahoo as their primary logo two years ago, switching to a block “C,” and reduced the logo’s visibility. However, one of the hats the Indians wear at home has the Chief Wahoo logo on its front, and Cleveland’s jerseys still have the Wahoo logo on one sleeve. Cardinal’s lawyers asked the court to bar the use of the name and logo by the team, by Major League Baseball and by Rogers Communications, which owns the Blue Jays and which was to rebroadcast the game in Canada. Cardinal suggested that the Indians be referred to as “the Cleveland team.” Jilesen said that the club was informed of the legal challenge on Sunday and that there was no attempt to stop the game. “It’s quite obviously a derogatory, cartoonish representation of an indigenous person,” Michael Swinwood, another of Cardinal’s lawyers, said in a phone interview. “The whole concept of how it demeans native people is essentially his concern.” Swinwood acknowledged that the legal challenge was a high-profile opportunity to bring awareness to the racism that indigenous people face in North America. Kent Thomson, a lawyer for Rogers Communications, told the judge that if the request was granted, Rogers would have to black out the game in Canada because it would not be able to control what TBS showed on the original broadcast. “It would punish millions and millions of Canadians, Blue Jays fans, and owners of bars and restaurants across the country,” Thomson said. He said the case was sprung on the company late Friday night and noted that Cardinal would not even be watching the game because he is in China. Markus Koehnen, a lawyer for Major League Baseball, said it would be absurd for an Ontario judge to order a major league team to alter its uniform. He noted that Andrew Miller, a star reliever for Cleveland, was acquired during the season and did not even have a spring training uniform. “This is very, very unusual: a Superior Court judge telling an M.L.B. team to find another uniform,” Koehnen said. The Indians spokesman Curtis Danburg said the team was focused on the playoffs and “will not comment any further on matters that distract from our pursuit on the field.” Mark Shapiro, a former Cleveland Indians president and the current Blue Jays president, has promoted the use of the other logo, the “C.” He said last week that the Chief Wahoo logo “personally bothered” him but said the people of Cleveland thought differently. Shapiro had been asked about the issue after the Blue Jays broadcaster Jerry Howarth said he refused to use the team name, having received a letter from an aboriginal person saying such terms were deeply offensive.

Cleveland Indians
Logo
Baseball
Organizational Names
MLB


Protesters Killed in Kashmir

Abstract: Government forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Thursday fatally shot four villagers and wounded 25 others who were protesting what they said was the desecration of the Koran by border guards, the police said. The protesters accused the Indian Border Security Force soldiers of entering a seminary on Wednesday night while looking for Kashmiri militants in Dharam, 140 miles south of Srinagar. The head of the seminary, Qari Shabir, said the guards tore several copies of the Koran after beating a school caretaker, prompting the protests. During the protests, government forces opened fire, Mr. Shabir said. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde ordered an inquiry into the episode.

Kashmir and Jammu
Fatalities,casualties
Islam
India


Libyan Officials’ Arrests Sought by Court in Hague

Abstract: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague said Wednesday that he would seek arrest warrants for three senior officials in Libya on charges of crimes against humanity, providing no names but saying that the three were “the most responsible” for the crimes committed. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor, appeared in a briefing before the United Nations Security Council, which had unanimously called for a criminal investigation of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s use of force against civilians. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said the evidence supporting charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity included the shooting of peaceful protesters, followed by weeks of systematic persecution, including murder, imprisonment and torture. “War crimes are apparently committed as a matter of policy,” the prosecutor said. He went on: “The evidence shows that events in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia prompted Libyan security forces to begin preparations for the possibility of demonstrations in Libya. As early as January, mercenaries were being hired and brought into Libya.” Other violations, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said, included preventing the wounded from receiving medical care; arresting, torturing and raping perceived opponents of the Qaddafi government; and the use of cluster bombs , mortars and other heavy weapons in crowded urban areas. The prosecutor said that “efforts to cover up the crimes” — removing bodies from hospitals and preventing doctors from documenting the dead and wounded — had made it difficult to establish the number of victims. But he said 500 to 700 died from shootings in February, before full-fledged fighting broke out between the government and hastily assembled rebel forces. “Shooting at protesters was systematic,” he said. Lawyers familiar with the investigation said that the first arrest warrants were likely to focus on the initial violent clampdown on protesters. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo would not comment on whether the indictments involved Colonel Qaddafi or any of his sons, at least three of whom hold military positions. The prosecutor said the Libyans had raised the issue of the killing of civilians by NATO air strikes since NATO began bombing in March. But he said he was still waiting for more information, including the results of a fact-finding mission by the Human Rights Council, before deciding whether to include NATO actions in the scope of his inquiry. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said his office was also looking into violence on the insurgent side, including the killing of prisoners. He cited violence by mobs in Benghazi and other rebel-held cities against sub-Saharan Africans, seen as pro-Qaddafi mercenaries, who had been “unlawfully arrested, mistreated and killed.” Some of them, he said, were said to have been arrested by “the new authorities in Benghazi,” and their fates were unclear. Fearful of being attacked, many migrants from nations like Chad, Niger and Sudan made a panicked exodus toward the Egyptian border. Angry crowds attacked housing complexes where sub-Saharan Africans lived, though other Libyans stepped in to shield the migrants from abuse. At the Security Council on Wednesday, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow was concerned by the mounting toll of civilians, which he described as the responsibility of all parties involved, including NATO. “Actions by NATO-led coalition forces also lead to civilian casualties,” he said. “It is clear that violence can only be halted through an immediate cease-fire and political settlement.” Other ambassadors said prosecuting war crimes in Libya would send a message to the rest of the region, particularly Syria, that attacks on civilians were unacceptable. Western diplomats have said it could lead to defections of Qaddafi officials and military personnel. In Misurata, Libya, the coastal city besieged by Qaddafi forces, an international aid ship risked attack by entering the port and evacuating migrant workers who had been trying to leave Libya. Colonel Qaddafi’s military has vowed to prevent ships from entering the port, and tried mining the harbor and shelling the port with artillery and ground-to-ground rocket barrages. As the ship arrived, more rockets struck near the port, hitting migrant workers waiting to board. The barrage killed a man, a woman, a small boy and a girl. Dr. Hassan Malitan, who worked at a clinic, vented his anger. The neighborhood has been struck repeatedly by rocket fire, and civilians have been killed. “This is the real Qaddafi,” he said. The ship departed quickly, taking hundreds of frightened workers out of the city on the beginning of the passage to the rebel capital, Benghazi. A chief opposition spokesman there, Abdul Hafidh Ghoga, said a large explosion on Wednesday night near the courthouse had been an accident, not a deliberate act, as previously suspected. Mr. Ghoga said a car owner had left a gelatin explosive in the vehicle, which detonated. The explosive is widely used for fishing and, increasingly, for the city’s frequent parades and celebrations. Ten people were wounded in the blast.

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Nestlé’s Profit Declines 2.7% in First 6 Months

Abstract: GENEVA (AP) — Nestlé, the world’s biggest food and drink maker, reported Wednesday that its net profit declined 2.7 percent over the first half of the year, as the recession hurt consumer demand and a stronger Swiss franc weighed on sales. The company said it earned 5.1 billion Swiss francs ($4.7 billion) in the January-June period, down slightly from 5.2 billion francs in the period a year ago. The result exceeded market expectations, although some analysts noted the company had dropped its full-year growth forecast. The chief executive, Paul Bulcke, said he was pleased that Nestlé had “delivered a combination of growth and increased profitability in the first half of the year, and this in a very challenging business environment.” Nestlé reports sales each quarter, but earnings only on the half-year and full-year. Sales through June fell 1.5 percent, to 52.3 billion francs. Food and beverages sales fell 2 percent, to 48.3 billion francs. Sales stagnated in the Americas, its biggest market, but fell 7.5 percent in Asia and Africa and 21.6 percent in Europe. Nestlé’s bottled water was the big loser as sales fell 4.7 percent on lower demand in Western Europe and North America. The company’s nutrition unit also reported a 3.5 percent decline in sales, even as its infant nutrition business showed some signs of gaining momentum in Europe and the United States. It said its cereals business and Nespresso coffee continued to perform well. Nestlé said the strength of the Swiss franc against other currencies brought overall sales down 4.3 percent.


Singapore Gets Wired for Speed

Abstract: SINGAPORE — This island city-state, thanks to its small size and a big public investment, could soon be the first country blanketed with a fiber optic infrastructure so fast that it would enable the contents of a DVD to be downloaded in only a few seconds. The new network is expected to give a strong boost to the growth of services like online video and Internet telephony. Pyramid Research, which analyzes the telecommunications business, expects the revenue of Singapore telecommunication operators to rise to $5.1 billion by 2014 from $3.8 billion in 2009. The new network, stimulated by an investment of 1 billion Singapore dollars, or about $700 million, from the government, will help the country leap ahead in an international race to roll out faster broadband speeds, a competition in which several Asian countries are in leading positions. While policy makers in many places are still debating their high-speed broadband strategies, considering, for example, whether development should be led by the public or private sector, broadband users in some parts of Asia already have access to the next generation of high-speed networks. Japan and Hong Kong have been leading the way, with private companies already offering speeds as high as one gigabit per second, or 1,000 megabits per second — many times as fast as the 35 megabits per second required for streaming high-definition video. But these networks do not cover every home. South Korea, one of the world’s most wired places, has also announced plans to complete a new broadband network offering one gigabit per second in all major cities by 2013. For the development of its network, Singapore is relying on a mixture of public subsidies and private-sector participation and separating three main functions: the building of the infrastructure, the operation of the network and the provision of retail services. OpenNet, the infrastructure builder is owned by a consortium formed by Axia of Canada and three Singaporean companies — SingTel, Singapore Press Holdings and SP Telecommunications — using existing parts of SingTel’s network. As part of the agreement, SingTel has agreed to transfer certain infrastructure assets to a separate entity, owned by SingTel, by 2011. It has agreed to reduce its stake in that entity to less than 25 percent by April 2014. The infrastructure operator, which received a grant of 750 million Singapore dollars from the government, is required to have the new network operating in Singapore by the end of 2012. So far, it has laid fiber optic connections to about 30 percent of all the buildings; it is aiming for 60 percent coverage by the end of this year. Khoong Hock Yun, an official in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said the government had seen an opportunity to introduce a next-generation fixed-line network, as well as to restructure its telecommunications sector. “If you look at history across many developed countries, after years of liberalizing their telecom sector, the essential part of their fixed-line network is still owned substantially by the incumbent,” he said, referring to former monopoly providers like SingTel. “Those who have the physical infrastructure have a huge competitive advantage, and every service company remains dependent on the incumbent for their fixed line network needs. “As a result, much of the pace of development, in terms of pricing and services offered, really depends on the investment decision of that incumbent and whether they want to partner with other people to create solutions they may not be prepared to offer at that point in time themselves.” By separating the infrastructure building from the running of the network, the authority believes it can create a more competitive environment with more effective open access to downstream operators, Mr. Khoong said. The Singaporean model draws its inspiration from several community broadband networks that can be found at the local level in countries like Britain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. “We noticed that in many of these cities that had rolled out their own network and made it open access, they had a huge growth in telecom service providers at the retail level,” Mr. Khoong said. “For small communities you have 20 to 30 retail service providers. This creates real competition.” Nucleus Connect, which will operate the network, has announced monthly wholesale prices starting at 21 Singapore dollars for speeds of 100 megabits per second for residential connections, and Malcolm Rodrigues, general manager of commercial services at the company, said about 90 companies had expressed interest in providing a retail service. He expects about 12 companies to sign up for the services. But analysts and market observers doubt whether new competition will really develop within the Singapore context, and whether prices of bandwidth for consumers will go down significantly for consumers as a result. Consumers now pay about 40 Singapore dollars per month for broadband access of six megabits per second, which is relatively high compared with Hong Kong, where some consumers pay about 200 Hong Kong dollars, or about 36 Singapore dollars, a month for service of one gigabit per second. “I don’t think it’s going to introduce new competition, at least in terms of delivering the basic service,” said Bryan Wang, an analyst at Springboard Research. “It’s a very small market. It’s still going to be the same game between the main three current players — SingTel, StarHub and M1,” He said retail service providers who were unable to offer the bundling of other services like television, mobile or fixed-line phone services, would have an uphill struggle to offer lower prices. “There is a very limited room for new players,” Mr. Wang said. “It’s very likely the fixed broadband business will only attract those customers that need the bandwidth. A lot of consumers don’t need one Gbps, especially when you’re getting cheaper wireless broadband access.”

Singapore
Fiber Optics
Wireless Communications
Computers and the Internet


Satirical Song Blocked in Pakistan, but No Reason Is Given

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani band with a reputation for satirizing the country’s military may have finally gone too far. About two weeks ago, the band, Beygairat Brigade, released a song that criticizes generals even more directly than their previous offering, which became a viral video hit when it was released two years ago. But over the past 10 days, the videoof the song, “ Dhinak Dhinak ,” has been mysteriously blocked in Pakistan on Vimeo, a video-sharing Web site. The band released the song on Vimeo because YouTube has been banned in Pakistan since September, when a video insulting the Prophet Muhammad caused riots across the Muslim world . No official explanation has been given for the apparent ban on the video of the song, which critics have praised for its sharp humor. As band members sway and dance, they sing of “the generals” who carry out coups and proxy wars, their corruption (“When pockets are full, all the strings are theirs to pull”) and their ability to eliminate critics (“If it’s one of them you give a naughty look to, very soon you will disappear from view”). The lead singer, Ali Aftab Saeed, suspects that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority blocked the video after a nod from the military. “The song was not against the military,” Mr. Saeed insisted in an interview. “We have nothing against the military. We were discussing generals, including General Musharraf, who had imposed coups and were not held accountable.” He was speaking of the former Pakistani leader,Pervez Musharraf. Last month, Capital TV, a new news network, briefly was taken off the air after a guest on a talk show used abusive language toward the army chief, Gen.Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Khurram Mehran, spokesman for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, denied that the government had blocked the video. “I am not aware of any directives to ban the video,” he said. Still, on Saturday, the video remained blocked on several Internet service providers in Pakistan. Some critics say the song is groundbreaking. “This is definitely something that was never done before,” said Nadeem Farooq Paracha, a culture critic and columnist. “They went a step further. It is a sarcastic take on the history of army’s role in politics and automatically stands out.” He said most of the satire in the country lampooned politicians but treated the military as a sacred cow. The military, once virtually immune to public criticism, has come under pressure from several sides in recent years. Some elements of the news media are increasingly critical, and the former military ruler, Mr. Musharraf, is facing several legal prosecutions that could result in jail time or even the death penalty, a predicament previously unimaginable. Recording and producing the song proved difficult, said Mr. Saeed, the singer. Several studio owners declined to record the song, deeming it too controversial. A studio owner who eventually agreed requested that his name not appear in the credits, Mr. Saeed said. Still, he said the apparent censorship of the song’s video caught him by surprise. The band’s earlier hit, “ Aalu Anday ,” had escaped that fate. He admits that the band was trying to “push a little, create more space,” but not to push too far. “I thought we had wittily discussed the issue,” he said. “We tried not to be offensive.”

Pakistan
Beygairat Brigade
Video
Censorship
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Music


Kochs No Longer Interested in Buying Tribune Papers

Abstract: Charles and David Koch are no longer contemplating a purchase of the Tribune Company’s chain of newspapers, a spokeswoman for the billionaire industrialists said on Thursday. The spokeswoman, Melissa Cohlmia, affirmed a report by the conservative news Web site The Daily Caller that said Koch Industries — where Charles is chairman and chief executive and David is an executive vice president — had concluded that the acquisition was “not economically viable.” But other acquisitions in the media industry might be: “Koch continues to have an interest in the media business, and we’re exploring a broad range of opportunities where we think we can add value,” Ms. Cohlmia said in a statement. She declined to elaborate. The notion that the Kochs could acquire Tribune’s newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, arose nearly six months ago. It was divisive at the time, prompting protests by liberal groups and media reform groups that cast the Kochs — who are prominent donors to libertarian causes and Republican politicians — as threats to independent journalism. The ensuing controversy drew unwanted attention to the Kochs, who had previously shown just a passing interest in media investments. Tribune declined to comment on the news reports about the Kochs on Thursday, but a spokesman said the company’s plan to spin off the newspapers was proceeding apace. That plan was announced in July as an alternative to selling the newspapers right away, though a sale of all or some of the papers could still happen. In the spinoff, Tribune-owned Web sites like CareerBuilder.com will be separated from the print publications, potentially removing an important stream of advertising revenue for the papers. The Daily Caller’s report quoted an anonymous source as saying that the newspaper acquisition would not be palatable for the Kochs without that Web revenue. Ms. Cohlmia said that “In terms of the Tribune, the Daily Caller story is accurate.” The Daily Caller’s source also said Koch Industries’ interest in the newspapers faded “a couple months” ago. In July, when Charles Koch was interviewed by The Wichita Eagle, the local newspaper where Koch Industries is based in Kansas, he said a bid for Tribune’s newspapers was possible — “it’s not on the front burner, but it’s possible.” “There are tremendous changes going on in media, in taking media as a whole, all forms of communication. We’re back at square one analyzing where is the most change, where are the best opportunities for new entrants to come in and add value. And so newspapers are one, but there are all sorts of others. There’s the Internet, there’s TV. There’s entertainment. And so we don’t know where we’ll end up on that,” Mr. Koch told the paper.

David Koch
Tribune Company
Newspaper
Koch Industries
Charles Koch
Mergers and Acquisitions
News media,journalism


2 Senate Democrats Introduce Bill to Curb Activist Hedge Funds

Abstract: Two Senate Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday that would take aim at activist hedge funds and their ability to act together in “wolf packs” to overtake public companies. The bill would shorten the number of days that activists have to disclose newly acquired shares in a company and force the disclosure of derivatives and other holdings that now don’t have to be reported. It would also redefine the rules about who has to report when they have amassed a greater than 5 percent stake in a company. The bill, by Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley of Oregon, comes after years of debate about reforming share ownership disclosures both at the Securities and Exchange Commission and among shareholder advocacy groups. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is vying for the Democratic nomination for president, are co-sponsoring the bill. Activism is on the rise. The pending merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont came after months of prodding by Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management. Carl C. Icahn threatened a proxy battle at the American International Group before the insurer agreed this year to give board seats to his firm and another activist, John Paulson of Paulson & Company. William A. Ackman has pushed for a merger of Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern, which the latter has rejected three times. Mr. Ackman’s fund is also being hurt by the sharp drop in the price of shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, with which he first teamed up in 2014 in an unsuccessful campaign to acquire its rival, Allergan. Last year, the number of companies receiving public demands by an activist investor grew 16 percent, to 551, according to Activist Insight. About half the demands sought board seats on the targeted companies, another fifth pushed mergers or other transactions, and 12 percent pushed for share buybacks or sales or spinoffs of real estate. The Senate bill was inspired by what happened at the Wausau Paper Company, the target of the activist fund Starboard Value in 2011. The battle between the two ultimately led to the closing of a paper mill in Brokaw, Wis., eliminating more than 100 jobs and devastating the local economy. “We cannot allow our economy to be hijacked by a small group of investors who seek only to enrich themselves at the expense of workers, taxpayers and communities,” Ms. Baldwin said on Thursday. Investors have 10 days to report to the S.E.C. when they have acquired more than 5 percent of a public company’s shares, but they don’t have to report derivatives positions and they don’t have to report when they fall below the 5 percent threshold. The bill aims at curbing the power of “wolf packs,” which occur when a lead fund tips off others that a disclosure is about to be made, giving the other funds the opportunity to buy the same stock before the 10-day window is up. The bill would shorten that window to two days. John C. Coffee Jr., a Columbia University Law School professor, has studied the “wolf pack” phenomenon and found abnormal buying in the days immediately leading up to an ownership disclosure. “This pattern should not be surprising,” he wrote in a paper last May. Those who learn of the pending filing “face a nearly riskless opportunity for profitable trading, if they act quickly.” The bill would define separate investors acting together as a single group for disclosure requirement purposes and force them to disclose derivatives positions. “Activists are having a chilling effect on reinvestment in the United States as they threaten companies and advocate reduced investment through share buybacks versus investing to build long-term enterprises,” said Hank Newell, the former chief executive of Wausau Paper.

Hedge fund
Shareholder Rights
Legislation
Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin
Jeff Merkley


Alternative to Pap Test Is Approved by F.D.A.

Abstract: The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first alternative to the long-used Pap test as a primary screening method for cervical cancer, in the face of opposition from some women’s groups and health organizations. The new test, developed by Roche, detects the DNA of the human papilloma virus, which causes almost all cases of cervical cancer, in a sample taken from the cervix. Pap testing involves examining the cervical sample under a microscope to detect abnormalities. A committee of outside advisers to the F.D.A. unanimously endorsed the Roche test in a meeting last month. But a coalition of 17 consumer, women’s and health groups opposed the approval, arguing that the new screening method had not been adequately tested and could upend a practice that has successfully prevented cervical cancer for decades. “This proposed indication for the HPV test would represent an unprecedented and significant shift in clinical practice that would affect millions of women for the majority of their adult lives,” the coalition said in a letter to the F.D.A. earlier this month. The letter was organized by the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund, a research and patient education organization, and signed by the American Public Health Association, Consumers Union, the National Organization for Women and the women’s health education group Our Bodies Ourselves, among others. A separate letter making similar arguments was sent to the agency earlier this week by a group of doctors and professors. The F.D.A. said, however, that the evidence was sufficient. “Roche Diagnostics conducted a well-designed study that provided the F.D.A. with a reasonable assurance of the safety and effectiveness when used as a primary screening tool for cervical cancer,” Alberto Gutierrez, the agency official who oversees diagnostic testing, said in a statement. In a letter he sent on Thursday to the coalition of opponents, Dr. Gutierrez noted that the agency merely decided if a test was safe and effective for its intended use. It is up to medical societies and other organizations to decide whether and how to use the test. The approval does not mandate use of the HPV test, just makes it another option. The Society of Gynecologic Oncology, in a statement on Thursday , said it and other organizations were developing an interim guidance document on incorporating primary HPV testing into cervical cancer screening. Although the group said HPV testing “will provide doctors one more tool to use in cervical cancer screening,” it also acknowledged that the “approval has raised a number of questions.” It said that it was “extremely unlikely that doctors will stop using the Pap any time soon.” Roche’s Cobas HPV test and HPV tests sold by other companies have been used until now as a follow-up test to help resolve ambiguous Pap results, or together with Pap testing as a primary screening tool. The new approval would allow the HPV test to be used alone as an initial screen for women 25 and older. Pap testing would be used only in certain cases as a follow-up test. Studies have shown that HPV testing can result in detection of more precancerous lesions than Pap testing. However, the virus test could also conceivably lead to more false alarms because presence of the virus does not necessarily mean cancer. Most young women get infected with HPV after they become sexually active, though in many cases their immune systems can clear the virus. That is why HPV testing has generally not been used until now in women younger than 30. Opponents of the F.D.A.’s action said approval of HPV testing for women as young as 25 could lead to more young women being sent for unnecessary cervical examinations and biopsies, which in some cases can lead to preterm births or other problems. Roche has said that it got around that problem because its test specifically detected the two types of the virus that account for 70 percent of the cancers. Under its proposal, a women testing positive for one of those two types would then go for a cervical examination known as colposcopy. If a woman tested negative for genotypes 16 and 18 but positive for one or more of the other 12 types the test can detect, she would then get a Pap test to see if a colposcopy was warranted. HPV tests generally cost $80 to $100 while Pap testing costs only $20 to $40, according to Diana Zuckerman, president of the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund. Roche said that Medicare paid only about $48 for an HPV test and that when all factors were considered, the difference in cost between HPV and Pap testing was not significant. Pap testing, begun about 60 years ago, has led to a sharp decline in cervical cancer in the United States. But there are still about 12,000 new cases and 4,000 deaths a year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Cervical cancer
HPV
Medical test
Roche Holding A G
FDA


Reporter’s Kin Sue City and Hospital

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The family of a retired reporter for The New York Times who was fatally beaten in January near his home here sued the District of Columbia and Howard University Hospital on Monday, contending that he would be alive but for their negligence. The suit, seeking $20 million, blames the city’s Police and Fire Departments and the hospital for the death of the reporter, David E. Rosenbaum, 63, who was beaten on the head by two robbers on the night of Jan. 6. An inquiry established that Mr. Rosenbaum was at first presumed to be intoxicated and so was not treated with urgency. He died of brain injuries two days later in the hospital. The inquiry, by the inspector general’s office of the district, found that “multiple individual failures” and “alarming levels of complacency” among police officers, firefighters, ambulance technicians, doctors and nurses caused inexcusable delays in treating Mr. Rosenbaum. The men held in the case, Percey Jordan Jr. and his cousin Michael Hamlin, were arrested soon after surveillance cameras photographed them using Mr. Rosenbaum’s credit cards. Mr. Jordan, 42, was convicted of murder, robbery, conspiracy and credit-card fraud last month. Mr. Hamlin, 24, had pleaded guilty earlier to similar charges and testified against his cousin. The men face decades in prison when they are sentenced.


Utah: Mormons Address Exclusion of Black Priests

Abstract: The Mormon Church, on its website , offers its most extensive explanation yet about its exclusion of blacks from the priesthood, with a posting that for the first time disavows previous teachings. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints barred black men from the priesthood until 1978. Mormon scholars called the posting a significant event in church history.

Utah
Mormons
Priest
Black People,African-Americans