Ford Ad Draws Criticism Even Before It Is Shown

Abstract: DETROIT, Jan. 24 - On Monday, William Clay Ford Jr., chief executive of Ford Motor, made his case to employees, analysts and the media for how his company could survive. On Wednesday, he starts making that case to consumers. Whether they will buy it is another issue. In a new television commercial Ford timed for broadcast just two days after it said it would close as many as 14 factories and cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next six years, Mr. Ford says his company is "determined to retake the American roadway." The ad, titled "Rebirth," echoes much of the restructuring plan that Mr. Ford presented on Monday and candidly acknowledges the company's recent difficulties. Details of the plan continued to unfold Tuesday as Ford shook up its top management ranks. Its chief marketing and sales executive, Stephen G. Lyons, and its head of investor relations, Barbara L. Gasper, will both leave the company, Ford said. Ford also eliminated four corporate officer positions and shuffled other high-ranking managers. Anne Stevens, Ford's chief operating officer, said in an interview that if Ford was to overcome the perception it was not doing enough to address its problems, candor was the best way to do that. "We recognize the reality of the marketplace," she said. "We're fighting to win, and that's what we're going to do. This is not the time to hide." The 30-second commercial will appear on national television and in some select markets, including Detroit, New York and Washington, during the next three months. But analysts said the commercial, intended as a marketing component of its restructuring plan, was risky because it reminds consumers of Ford's problems even as it asks them to buy Ford vehicles. "What they're trying to say is, we have problems, but we're trying to innovate our way out of our problems," said Jack Trout, president of the marketing firm Trout & Partners in Greenwich, Conn. "But the next question is, show me the innovation. And that will make or break Ford. I think it's very important for them to come up with some good product to talk about." Clive Chajet, president of the Chajet Consultancy, a brand-imaging firm in New York, said the new advertisement shifted focus away from Ford's brands and placed it on the automaker's problems. "I don't think people care about a corporation so much as they care about the car they drive," he said. "Consumers want to hear about the brand, how much it costs, how many miles per gallon it gets and the features. Focusing on their problems cannot avoid sounding defensive." This is not the first time that Mr. Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, has taken up the role of company spokesman. His first starring role in Ford commercials was in 2002, shortly after he became chief executive and began his first corporate turnaround plan. Those ads, titled "Ford on Ford," featured Mr. Ford talking about his family's imprint on American culture. Most recently, Mr. Ford has appeared in a series of ads that began last fall and that focus on the company's safety and hybrid technologies. Using an executive as a corporate spokesman works well only when the executive fits the image of the company, said Andrew Gershoff, a professor of marketing at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. "The decision to use the C.E.O. shouldn't just be about, let's get the top guy to say something. It should be more about, how does this person and their personality fit with the brand image we are trying to convey?" This tactic has worked for executives like Dave Thomas of Wendy's, Frank Perdue of Perdue Farms ("It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken") and Victor Kiam of Remington, who said in commercials that he liked Remington's shaver so much, he bought the company. In Detroit, the quintessential executive pitchman is the former Chrysler chairman, Lee A. Iacocca, who famously said in ads in the 1980's, "If you can find a better car, buy it." The success of the new Ford commercial hinges largely on the extent to which consumers see Mr. Ford as someone who, like Mr. Iacocca, can rebuild a troubled automaker. "He can take advantage of the fact that we might be able to think about him representing the history of the Ford Motor Company, and that might make him a more trustworthy source than any other Ford C.E.O.," Mr. Gershoff said. While Mr. Ford's blood ties to the company may work as an asset, his stewardship of the company during times of financial distress may work against him, analysts said. "I can think of no one who is more associated with management than Bill Ford," Mr. Chajet said. "So why would you choose the person most responsible to be the spokesman?"

DETROIT (MICH)
FORD MOTOR CO
FORD WILLIAM CLAY JR
REFORM AND REORGANIZATION


Black Church Burned in Mississippi, With ‘Vote Trump’ Scrawled on Side

Abstract: GREENVILLE, Miss. — A predominantly African-American church here was badly burned on Tuesday evening, with the words “Vote Trump” spray-painted on the side of the building, an episode that comes amid rising concerns over possible violence in the final days of a polarizing and racially charged presidential race. Mayor Errick D. Simmons of Greenville said that firefighters, responding to a call around 9:15 p.m., discovered the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church “engulfed in flames.” Fire Chief Ruben Brown said the blaze took about an hour to fully extinguish. The church sanctuary was heavily damaged by heat, fire and smoke, he said. By Wednesday evening, Mr. Brown said investigators had concluded that the fire was “definitely arson” after discovering “some type of solvent or flammable substance” inside. And Police Chief Delando Wilson said a “person of interest” was being interviewed by authorities “to see if this person was an active participant in this crime, or to rule them out from being a participant.” The 200-member church has been a fixture for more than 110 years in Greenville, a Mississippi Delta city of about 32,000. “Our hearts are broken but are not angry,” Carolyn Hudson, the church pastor, said at a news conference called Wednesday by city officials. “But hearts are broken, and we are saddened by what has happened.” No one was injured in the attack. At the news conference, Chief Wilson said the episode was being investigated as a hate crime. “We feel that the quote that was placed on the church was basically, it’s an intimidation of someone’s right to vote whatever way they choose to vote,” he said. “So that would be definitely considered a hate crime.” But “as far it being a racial issue,” he added, “I can’t say that.” The F.B.I. office in Jackson, the state capital, released a brief statement saying that it was “working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to determine if any civil rights crimes were committed.” The state fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also assisting with the investigation. Mississippi’s secretary of state, Delbert Hosemann, said Wednesday that he had been in contact with “authorities in Greenville” and the state Highway Patrol about the attack. Those discussions led him to believe that the burning and vandalism were not committed by “somebody of a political nature,” he said. “The initial work here indicates this is not of a political nature even though there may be something that says ‘Vote Trump’ on the side of the church,” said Mr. Hosemann, a Republican. “So everybody needs to calm down here until we get to the bottom of this.” Image Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives surveyed the damage on Wednesday. Credit Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press In a Wednesday evening phone interview including the mayor, the fire chief and the police chief, Mr. Simmons said none of them had been in contact with Mr. Hosemann or his staff about the matter. Mr. Wilson said investigators were keeping all possible motives on the table. The attack occurred a little more than two weeks after a local Republican headquarters in Hillsborough, N.C., was firebombed , and graffiti were discovered with a swastika and the message “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” No one has been arrested in that attack. It also follows months of racially charged campaign speech from Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Though Mr. Trump has portrayed himself as a friend of African-Americans and has vowed to make their lives better, he has garnered the support of many white supremacists and white nationalists. Some of his supporters have darkly predicted riots and even revolution if he loses to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday. His campaign this week disavowed support from The Crusader, a Ku Klux Klan newspaper. Mr. Trump is heavily favored to win in Mississippi, a state where about 60 percent of the population is white. At the news conference, Mayor Simmons, an African-American, called the racial climate in Greenville “fairly good,” though he noted a racial slur had been found painted on a boat ramp Sept. 11. Like much of the Mississippi Delta, Greenville has struggled economically and has worked to overcome the legacy of slavery. In the mid-20th century, as African-Americans struggled to integrate the Deep South, church bombings were among the ugliest acts of retaliation by recalcitrant white racists. Greenville today is about 20 percent white and 78 percent black, and the public schools are virtually all black. But Mr. Simmons noted that blacks and whites now pray together every fifth Sunday as part of an event he created. The mayor said he visited church members Wednesday. “I talked to folks who were fearful,” he said. “I talked to people who were intimidated. I talked to people who, quite frankly, were saddened and crying last night. This should not happen in 2016. It happened in the ’50s. It happened in the ’60s. But we’re in 2016.” In a separate phone interview on Wednesday, the mayor said race relations in the city had not really changed with the rise of Mr. Trump. But he blamed the Republican candidate for coarsening the national mood, and said extremists were using his remarks “as an excuse to show their true colors.” Also on Wednesday, about three dozen people gathered in a park along the Greenville waterfront to pray and speak about healing and the primacy of faith over politics. Joining a Methodist preacher, an Episcopal priest and a synagogue president in the cool of the night was Alice Washington, a member of Hopewell. “We had good church on Sunday,” she said, saying it had been some time since she remembered such a good service. “We’ve been trying to figure out who would do something like this to our church,” she said. “Whoever done it, may God bless them.”

Fires
Arson
Hate crime
Black People,African-Americans
Greenville Mississippi
church,churches
2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump


In Ohio, F.T.C. Bans ProMedica-St. Luke’s Merger

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission has blocked an Ohio hospital merger in a closely watched case that could slow the consolidation of health care providers around the country. In the Ohio case, the commission ruled that the merger of the ProMedica Health System and St. Luke’s Hospital would “substantially lessen competition” in the Toledo area, allowing the hospitals to charge higher prices. The merger, justified by the hospitals as a way to prepare for “ health care reform ,” will probably result in “higher health care costs for patients, employers and employees,” the commission said. ProMedica had argued that the merger would advance the type of collaboration promoted by President Obama under the new health care law. The commission rejected this argument. The ruling serves notice that such cooperation runs the risk of being seen by regulators as anticompetitive behavior in violation of antitrust law. The 2010 health care law has prompted a frenzy of activity as hospitals buy up doctor practices or form joint ventures to coordinate care, with the prospect of earning government bonuses for controlling costs. By a 4-to-0 vote, the commission last week found the Ohio merger illegal and ordered ProMedica to sell St. Luke’s within 180 days. Jeffrey C. Kuhn, the general counsel of ProMedica, said Monday that the company intended to appeal the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati. In an interview, Mr. Kuhn said the merger would have “no substantial impact on competition,” and he added that another health care system, Catholic Health Partners, was still “a formidable competitor.” Thomas L. Greaney, an expert on health and antitrust law at St. Louis University, said, “This decision sends a signal, a warning, to hospitals: You will be scrutinized extremely closely if you undertake a merger with a close competitor.” Melinda R. Hatton, senior vice president and general counsel of the American Hospital Association, said, “The F.T.C. decision, if upheld on appeal, could slow the pace of mergers and joint ventures needed to achieve the ambitious goals being set for health care providers by the government, employers and insurers.” The commission cited internal company documents and testimony from dozens of witnesses to support its conclusion that the merger “will significantly increase ProMedica’s bargaining leverage,” allowing it to negotiate higher payment rates from Aetna, Humana and other insurers. Before the merger in 2010, the commission said, “ProMedica had by far the highest prices for general acute-care inpatient services in Lucas County,” which includes Toledo, and its rates were among the highest in Ohio. By contrast, the agency said, rates at St. Luke’s were the lowest in the county. The commission analyzed the market for general inpatient hospital services in Lucas County. The merger would reduce the number of competitors to three from four, it said, and the combined entity would control 58 percent of the market. Concentration in the market for inpatient obstetrical services would be even greater because the merger would reduce the number of competitors to two from three, and the combined entity would control 80.5 percent of the market, the commission said. In its decision, the agency cited testimony by Prof. Robert J. Town, a health economist at the University of Pennsylvania, who estimated that prices would increase by 38 percent at St. Luke’s Hospital and by 11 percent at other ProMedica hospitals in Lucas County. “St. Luke’s clearly anticipated that its rates would increase,” the commission said, and “ProMedica’s superior negotiating clout with managed care organizations was among the primary reasons St. Luke’s joined the ProMedica system.” Explaining the decision, Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the commission, said: “Hospitals are a big driver of health costs. No matter what happens in the Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act — and I hope it is upheld — competition will play a vital role in ensuring that health costs don’t continue to rise as fast as they have in the past.”

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)


Immigration Officials to Continue Fingerprint Sharing Program

Abstract: Federal immigration officials announced Friday that they were terminating the joint agreements with state and local governments that have been at the center of a controversy surrounding a national fingerprint-sharing program, although they said they would continue setting up the program unilaterally. In a letter to 40 governors and local officials who had signed the agreements, John Morton , the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement , said the change was intended to eliminate widespread confusion, which has plagued the program since its kickoff in 2008, over whether the agreements were necessary to initiate it. The move also seemed intended to remove political pressure from local officials who felt uneasy about appearing to collaborate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. The decision was met with a chorus of angry criticism from immigrant groups. More than 200 immigrant advocacy groups recently signed a letter demanding that the Obama administration suspend the program until changes are made to ensure that illegal immigrants who are not criminals are not deported. But Friday’s move made clear that the administration had no intention of suspending or even slowing the pace of the program. The agreements, called memorandums of agreement, laid out the guidelines for setting up the program, known as Secure Communities , which is being rolled out across the country and is scheduled to be in effect nationwide by 2013. Under the program, a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s enforcement strategy, the fingerprints of everyone booked into a local or county jail are automatically sent to the Department of Homeland Security and compared with prints in the agency’s files, which record immigration violations. Immigration officials insist that the program is intended to identify and deport the most serious noncitizen criminals as well as those who threaten national security. But critics have argued that the program has resulted in the deportations of a disproportionate number of foreigners guilty only of low-level offenses, like traffic infractions, or immigration violations. This year, the governors of Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, in the belief that Secure Communities was voluntary, announced they were suspending or canceling their participation in the program. But since at least last fall, federal officials have insisted that the program was never voluntary and could be carried out across the country without the consent of local or state officials. In a letter to Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware on Friday, Mr. Morton said that his agency was canceling the agreements because it had determined that they were “not required to activate or operate Secure Communities.” “We are going to bring to an end any questions about whether or not we are requiring any state involvement in immigration enforcement,” a senior official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an interview on Friday. Obama administration officials have explained that as long as local jurisdictions continue to share fingerprints with the F.B.I. — a routine procedure — then the fingerprints will automatically flow into a general federal database accessible to Homeland Security Department officials.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US)


House Backs Ban on Primate Sales

Abstract: WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Prompted by the mauling of a Connecticut woman by a pet chimpanzee, the House voted 323 to 95 on Tuesday to ban interstate trade of apes and monkeys. “Images of Curious George and Koko may lead us to believe that these creatures are cuddly and harmless,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, referring to the famous children’s book chimpanzee and a gorilla who learned sign language. “But last week’s tragedy and other similar attacks stand as evidence that this is not the case — that they are in fact wild animals and they simply must not be kept as pets,” said Mr. Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat. Last Tuesday, a 200-pound chimpanzee that had once starred in television commercials attacked and severely injured a woman in Stamford, Conn. The chimp was shot dead by the police. The bill would prohibit interstate sale or purchase of monkeys and apes, including chimpanzees, orangutans, marmosets and lemurs. It would have no impact on the use of primates by zoos or researchers or disabled people.

Pets
Monkeys and Apes
Law and Legislation


In Response to a Rider Survey, More Trains on the 7 Line

Abstract: Is it worth getting up 20 minutes earlier if it means your train to work will be less crowded? Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit , said yesterday that he planned to add extra trains on the No. 7 line before and after the peak commuting period, to address rider complaints about overcrowded trains. The added trains mean that if riders are willing to travel a little earlier or a little later than they currently do, they may be rewarded with a less crowded ride. The new measure, which will begin in December, was Mr. Roberts’s response to a survey of riders on the No. 7 line that named overcrowding as the top priority for improvement. The survey drew 16,000 responses. Mr. Roberts has sought to project an image of greater openness to riders since he took over the transit agency in April. And he has said that the surveys, which he calls rider report cards, are a prime tool in getting to know what riders think and convincing them that they are being heard. No. 7 was the first line to be surveyed, and Mr. Roberts said he expected to complete surveys on all the lines by November. “This is our prescription,” Mr. Roberts said of the survey results, which he announced yesterday at a news conference. “If we want to persuade our riders that we are making the system better, here’s the road map.” Mr. Roberts said that he could not add more trains during the busiest period in the morning and evening, which lasts roughly an hour, because the line was already running at capacity then. But by adding trains before and after, he said, he hoped to be able to “spread the peak” and change the habits of some riders. He was unable to provide details, however, about how many trains would be added or what time they would run. The additional service cannot begin until December because of union work rules on how train crews are assigned, he said. During the busiest times on the No. 7, trains arrive about every two minutes at express stations. Mr. Roberts said he would aim to reach that frequency of service during a more extended period in the morning and evening. The riders, who mailed in the surveys or submitted them online, gave overall service on the No. 7 line a C-minus. Asked about individual aspects of service, they gave the lowest mark, a D, to lack of room on the trains at rush hour. On another part of the survey, they listed overcrowding as their top priority for improvement. The riders also gave a D-plus for hard-to-understand announcements in stations and on trains and a C-minus for cleanliness. Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a rider advocacy group, said that asking riders for their opinions was a significant change. “It’s kind of unthinkable that they would have done this in the last regime,” he said, referring to the survey and the response. Mr. Russianoff added: “I think some people will take advantage of more frequent service on the off-peak periods. The reason people like rush hour so much, in addition to the fact that it meets their work schedule, is that the trains come so often.” Mr. Roberts also said he would change the way trains are cleaned on the 7 line. Now the trains are cleaned when they arrive at the Main Street station at the end of the line in Queens. That means they accumulate trash all the way to Manhattan and back again before anyone sweeps them out. He said additional crews at Times Square, the Manhattan terminus, would clean the trains before they head back to Queens. And to address garbled announcements, he said he would have workers make daily checks of the speaker system in trains and stations and make repairs when problems are found. Asked if he was disappointed by the low marks in the survey, Mr. Roberts said he was not. “The purpose of the whole exercise is to find out what the riders think,” he said. “Up to this point in time we didn’t know what the riders thought, and now we know.”

New York City Transit
Commuting
Transit Systems


James Patterson Has a Big Plan for Small Books

Abstract: People already read James Patterson’s books — and in staggering numbers. Last year, he and his team of writers had 36 books land on the New York Times best-seller list . To date, he has published 156 books that have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide. But Mr. Patterson is after an even bigger audience. He wants to sell books to people who have abandoned reading for television, video games, movies and social media. So how do you sell books to somebody who doesn’t normally read? Mr. Patterson’s plan: make them shorter, cheaper, more plot-driven and more widely available. In June, Mr. Patterson will test that idea with BookShots, a new line of short and propulsive novels that cost less than $5 and can be read in a single sitting. Mr. Patterson will write some of the books himself, write some with others, and hand pick the rest. He aims to release two to four books a month through Little, Brown, his publisher. All of the titles will be shorter than 150 pages, the length of a novella. Mr. Patterson said the books would be aimed at readers who might not want to invest their time in a 300- or 400-page novel. And he hopes they might even appeal to people who do not normally read at all. If it works, it could open up a big new market: According to a Pew Research Center survey released last fall , 27 percent of American adults said they had not read a book in the past year. “You can race through these — they’re like reading movies,” he said during a recent interview in New York. “It gives people some alternative ways to read.” It could also open up new avenues for selling books, something that publishers have struggled with as big bookstore chains have closed down stores. At first, BookShots will appear in the usual venues for commercial fiction — Barnes & Noble, Amazon, big-box stores and independent bookstores — and will be available in digital and audio versions. But eventually, Mr. Patterson and his publisher want to colonize retail chains that don’t normally sell books, like drugstores, grocery stores and other outlets. They envision having BookShots next to magazines in grocery store checkout lanes, or dangling from clip strips like a bag of gummy bears. “Those venues are very inhospitable to traditional publishing, but we think this is a type of book that could work very well there,” said Michael Pietsch, the chief executive of Hachette Book Group, which publishes Mr. Patterson’s books in the United States through its Little, Brown imprint. “He has enough recognition that his name can make it work.” Image James Patterson at home in Palm Beach, Fla. He is working with other writers on a series of short novels to be priced below $5. Credit Ryan Stone for The New York Times In some ways, Mr. Patterson’s effort is a throwback to the dime novels and pulp fiction magazines that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, when commercial fiction was widely available in drugstores. The category seems ripe for a modern-day revival. Many readers have already developed a taste for shorter digital works. BookShots is like an analog version of digital publishing programs like Amazon’s Kindle Singles, Byliner, The Atavist or Nook Snaps, Barnes & Noble’s experiment with shorter digital content. Publishers and writers have tried to engage fickle readers with bite-size digital fiction in various ways, from unbundling short stories and selling them for 99 cents apiece, to serializing novels as short, plot driven e-books. Still, no one has tried to apply the same bite-size commercial fiction model to print, at least not in a sustained way. It is tough to sell a single short story in print. And while some of the most beloved American literary classics are novella-length works — John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” — the format has largely fallen out of favor with publishers, who make much of their money from hardcover books, which have higher profit margins and tend to get better store placement. “Little tiny books don’t stand out in the store,” Mr. Pietsch said. “They’re hard to see, and they’re hard to get media attention for. They’re economically difficult.” Hachette is betting that Mr. Patterson is famous enough to overcome those obstacles. The company is planning to publish 21 BookShots in 2016, including thrillers, science fiction, mysteries and romances. The first two, out in June, are “Cross Kill,” a book by Mr. Patterson starring his popular recurring character Alex Cross, and “Zoo II,” a science-fiction thriller written by Mr. Patterson and Max DiLallo. All the books will be written or partially written by Mr. Patterson, except the romances, which will be labeled “James Patterson Presents.” Later this year, Mr. Patterson plans to expand BookShots to include nonfiction, with a focus on short, newsy books that play off current events. As an example, he mentioned a book pegged to the presidential election. He wouldn’t elaborate on the content or reveal the author’s name, but the working title makes the subject matter pretty obvious: “Trump vs. Clinton.”

James Patterson
Books
Publishing
EBooks EReaders


French Soldier Killed in Somalia Commando Raid

Abstract: PARIS — French special forces failed early Saturday in a hostage rescue mission in southern Somalia. President François Hollande, in a brief, somber televised statement on Saturday evening, said that two French soldiers had died in the mission and that the hostage, a French intelligence officer, was “assassinated” by his Islamist captors despite the militants’ claims that he was still alive. French officials had earlier been cautious about the fate of the hostage, an agent using the name Denis Allex, and had said that one soldier had died and another was missing. France’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, insisted that the rescue mission was unconnected to the French military action in Mali that began Friday against Islamist radicals who were threatening to seize more of that country. But Islamist groups holding up to eight French hostages in northern Africa have threatened to kill them if the French intervened militarily on the continent. Mr. Hollande called the mission in Somalia a failure and took responsibility for ordering it. Mr. Allex was taken hostage on July 14, 2009, Bastille Day, from a hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, along with a colleague who later escaped. The French said the two had been working as security consultants to the transitional government in Somalia. Image Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defense minister, at press conference in Paris on Saturday. Credit Ian Langsdon/European Pressphoto Agency The rescue operation, using helicopters, was a significant one that met “very strong resistance,” Mr. Le Drian said at a morning news conference. Mr. Le Drian said that Mr. Allex was in the location raided, and that 17 Shabab fighters had been killed in the operation. In a statement later Saturday, the Shabab movement said that Mr. Allex was still alive and was being held in a different place, and that they were holding an injured French soldier. The militant group “will give its final verdict” regarding Mr. Allex within two days, the group said in a statement in English linked to a post on its Twitter account, but Mr. Hollande said unequivocally that he had been killed. The president did not say how he knew Mr. Allex had died. The movement also had said that the raid was carried out at about 2 a.m. by five French helicopters in the southern Somali town of Bula-Marer and that it lasted about 45 minutes. “Instead of rescuing them, such ill-advised operations only further imperil the lives of the hostages,” the statement said. French military officials would not confirm those details or the name of the town. Mr. Le Drian said that the rescue operation had been planned for some time and had been delayed by weather. The Defense Ministry statement justified the raid, saying, “Faced with the intransigence of the terrorists, who refused to negotiate for three and a half years and who were holding Denis Allex in inhumane conditions, an operation was planned and carried out.”

Somalia
France
Military
Francois Hollande


Chibots Prepare for Debut in ‘Heddatron’

Abstract: An hour before the start of Tuesday night’s penultimate dress rehearsal, half the cast of Sideshow Theatre Company ’s “Heddatron” was making a lot of noise — lunging and stretching, their voices swooping through a range of warm-up exercises. Downstage, the cast members Billy-bot and Hans stood apart, occasionally flexing an arm or a neck joint, winking at curious onlookers and, when provoked, beeping loudly. Appearances to the contrary, Billy-bot and Hans are not divas. They are robots, preparing for their debut Friday at the Chicago premiere of Elizabeth Meriwether’s dystopian fantasy. Part of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s second annual Garage Rep series , which highlights “innovative, young companies,” “Heddatron” tells the story of Jane Gordon, a disconsolate Michigan housewife whose existential spiral into suicidal depression is rudely interrupted by a rogue band of self-aware robots. They spirit her off to Ecuador and force her to perform scenes from Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.” Billy-bot and Hans have the most time onstage, but they are only 2 of the 10 robots created for the show by members of the Chicago Area Robotics League, or Chibots . Five large robots are controlled remotely by cast members sitting offstage, and the remaining five are very small, autonomous “critter-bots,” which basically just zip around the stage for the last five minutes of the play. Last year, when it was decided that Sideshow would perform “Heddatron,” Jonathan Green, the director, knew he had to address the robot issue. “The script calls for real robots, so I Googled ‘Chicago’ and ‘robots,’ and I found Chibots,” Mr. Green said. “I e-mailed them and tried not to sound insane — I mean, it’s such a preposterous idea.” But the next day, he had a reply. “They responded very calmly,” he said, “and said it sounded like an interesting project.” Bruce Phillips, a member of the Sideshow company, controls Billy-bot (think Wall-E crossed with E.T.). “This guy needs to do a lot of things,” Mr. Phillips said. “We kept going to the engineers, asking, ‘Can you make him do this? Or this?’ And almost every time, they said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ “ Now, Mr. Phillips said, the engineers have a soft spot for Billy-bot because they spent so much time working on him. Eddy Wright, an engineer and member of Chibots, agreed, saying, “Billy is very expressive, and it took a lot of work to get his eyes and ears to a point where he could express emotion.” But only to a point. “People asked us whether we were going to make them autonomous,” Mr. Wright said. “But we thought maybe having giant six-foot robots running around on their own wasn’t the best idea.” If the technical glitches during Tuesday’s dress rehearsal were any indication, robot actors are not much easier to work with than their human counterparts. “I’ve worked with some robotic actors before, but never actual robots,” Mr. Green said. “It’s a really interesting process — you think the robots are going to do the same thing every time. But they’re operated by remote control, by humans, many of whom are performers themselves.” Designing and creating 10 robots is not cheap. In this case, it cost roughly $5,000, which Sideshow is trying to raise online at kickstarter.com . As of Wednesday, supporters had pledged $3,315. Megan Smith, Sideshow’s managing director, said the company had also gotten help from the electronics stores and warehouses where Chibots’ engineers buy robot parts. “We got some really great pricing because it was for a nonprofit,” Ms. Smith said. “And everyone thought the project sounded cool.” Mr. Wright also designed the control boards used to maneuver the robots around the stage. After Tuesday’s dress rehearsal, he pronounced himself “very happy” with their performances. “We’ve got a few kinks to work out,” he said. “The floor needs to be really clean, because otherwise the robots tend to get stuck.” The biggest challenge, Mr. Wright said, was “making the way they act and move convey more than just a box moving around on stage.” “Heddatron,” which is by turns raucously funny and crushingly bleak, has been performed only once before professionally, in 2006, by Les Frères Corbusier company of New York. That five-year lapse gives the robots in the Chicago production a certain advantage, Mr. Green said. “We’re using the next generation of robots,” he said Tuesday as he leaned in to examine Billy-bot’s mechanical eyes. “They’re a little bit more functional, and safer.” Was he referring to the tantalizing possibility that the robots, inspired by the play, might become sentient and take over the production? No, Mr. Green said. “I just mean they’re less likely to tip over.”

Chicago (Ill)
Robots and Robotics
Theater


Switzerland Unruffled by Qaddafi’s Call for ‘Jihad’ in Wake of Its Ban on New Minarets

Abstract: PARIS — The Swiss government reacted blandly on Friday to the latest rhetorical sally from the eccentric Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi , who called on Thursday for a “jihad” against Switzerland . The two countries have been sparring since the Swiss arrested one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons and his wife in 2008 on suspicion of beating their servants. On Thursday, in a rambling address in Benghazi, Libya , before a gathering to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, Colonel Qaddafi called for jihad, or a holy war, against Switzerland because of its ban on new minarets for mosques and urged Muslims to boycott Swiss products and ban Swiss planes and ships. “Those who destroy God’s mosques deserve to be attacked through jihad, and if Switzerland was on our borders, we would fight it,” Colonel Qaddafi was quoted as saying by Libya’s official news agency. Libya does not border Switzerland, however. Instead, after his son Hannibal’s arrest and detention for two days, Colonel Qaddafi recalled diplomats from Switzerland, interrupted oil shipments, withdrew money from Swiss banks and, more controversially, prevented two Swiss businessmen from leaving Libya. One was released only this week after 19 months in detention. But Max Göldi, an engineer, remains in Libya, serving a “reduced sentence” of four months in jail. Last week, Libya barred citizens from 25 European countries from visiting Libya in retaliation for Swiss travel restrictions on Colonel Qaddafi, his family and his ministers. On Friday, the Swiss government refused to comment on the latest Qaddafi comments and the call for jihad. Muslims in Switzerland, who are mostly European in origin and represent about 6 percent of the population, shrugged off the Qaddafi threat but were anxious that his words could further harden Swiss public opinion. Last November, Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on building new minarets on mosques. It “did not shock us, as he often says such nonsense,” Yasar Ozdemir, member of the Zurich-based Swiss Federation of Muslim Associations, told Agence France-Presse. Omar el-Sanie, the director of Geneva’s mosque, told The Associated Press: “In my opinion, this is a purely political matter between Libya and Switzerland, and has nothing to do with Islam or with Muslims.” United Nations officials called Colonel Qaddafi’s comments unacceptable, as did individual countries, like France. A spokesman for the European Union foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton , said the comments “come at an unfortunate moment when the European Union is working closely with Switzerland to reach a diplomatic solution” to its squabble with Libya.

Switzerland
Libya
European Union
Qaddafi Muammar el-
Ashton Catherine


Tiny Tax on Financial Trades Gains Advocates

Abstract: They call it the Robin Hood tax — a tiny levy on trades in the financial markets that would take money from the banks and give it to the world’s poor. And like the mythical hero of Sherwood Forest, it is beginning to capture the public’s imagination. Driven by populist anger at bankers as well as government needs for more revenue, the idea of a tax on trades of stocks , bonds and other financial instruments has attracted an array of influential champions, including the leaders of France and Germany , the billionaire philanthropists Bill Gates and George Soros , former Vice President Al Gore , the consumer activist Ralph Nader , Pope Benedict XVI and the archbishop of Canterbury. “We all agree that a financial transaction tax would be the right signal to show that we have understood that financial markets have to contribute their share to the recovery of economies,” the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel , told her Parliament recently. On Sunday, Mario Monti , the new prime minister of Italy , announced plans to impose a tax on certain financial transactions as part of a far-reaching plan to fix his country’s budgetary problems, and he endorsed the idea of a Europewide transactions tax. So far, the broader debt crisis engulfing the euro zone nations has pushed discussion of the tax into the background. But if European leaders can agree on a plan that calms the financial markets, they would be in a stronger position to enact a levy, analysts said. “There is some momentum behind this,” said Simon Tilford, chief economist of the Center for European Reform in London . “If they keep the show on the road, they probably will attempt to run with this.” The Robin Hood tax has also become a rallying point for labor unions, nongovernmental organizations and the Occupy Wall Street movement, which view it as a way to claw back money from the top 1 percent to help the other 99 percent. Last month, thousands of demonstrators, including hundreds in Robin Hood outfits with bright green caps and bows and arrows, flooded into southern France to urge the leaders of the Group of 20 nations to do more to help the poor, including passing a financial transactions tax. Enacting such a tax still faces many hurdles, however — most notably, skepticism from leaders in the United States and Britain , home to some of the world’s most important financial exchanges. The day after the Robin Hood protest, for example, Mr. Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and one of the world’s wealthiest men, presented a report to a closed-door meeting of the G-20 leaders that laid out his ideas on how rich countries could aid poor ones. One of his proposals was a modest tax on trades of financial instruments that could generate $48 billion or more annually from the G-20 countries. Ms. Merkel and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy , quickly piped up, enthusiastically endorsing the tax. But Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron , expressed serious reservations, saying Britain would embrace it only if it were adopted globally. British officials fear that unless the tax is worldwide, trading will flee London’s huge markets to countries with no tax. The Obama administration has also been lukewarm, expressing sympathy but saying it would be hard to execute, could drive trading overseas and would hurt pension funds and individual investors in addition to banks. Administration officials say they would prefer a tax on the assets of the largest banks as a way to discourage them from risky activities. “The president is sympathetic to the goals that a financial transactions tax is trying to achieve and he is pushing for a financial crisis responsibility fee and closing other Wall Street loopholes as the best and most feasible way to achieve those goals,” an administration official said. Still, support is growing for the idea, which has been largely dormant since the 1970s, when a version was first proposed by the economist James Tobin, later a Nobel Prize winner. “The tax is a good idea because banks are where the money is. It’s the same reason Jesse James robbed banks,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, which recently held demonstrations at the offices of 60 members of Congress in support of the levy. “The thing about the financial transactions tax is it’s stunning how quickly people get it and how fast they embrace it.” Labor groups like the nurses’ union and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. see the tax as a way to finance job creation programs to fight high unemployment in the United States and Europe . Other advocates hope it will slow the speculation that many blame for undermining the euro and causing wild swings in financial markets. Mr. Gates and Mr. Sarkozy would like to use the money to finance development in the world’s poorest nations. And leaders like Ms. Merkel and some members of Congress are eyeing it as a relatively painless source of money to help plug government deficits. On Nov. 16, the French Senate passed a bill supporting a financial transactions tax. And the European Commission in Brussels has said it would like to put a tax of $10 per $10,000 of transactions in place throughout the European Union by 2014, predicting it would raise 57 billion euros ($77 billion) a year in European countries alone. Last month, Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, and Senator Tom Harkin , an Iowa Democrat, proposed an American version of the tax that they said could raise $350 billion over 10 years. Their legislation would impose $3 in taxes for each $10,000 in transactions. Other proposals, including those from the nurses’ union, call for a tax of $50 per $10,000. Mr. DeFazio said his tax plan would “raise money to invest in the real economy,” but he acknowledged that it faced an uphill battle in Washington , especially within the antitax Republican caucus. Opponents say that even at the rate in the DeFazio-Harkin bill, the tax would add significantly to the cost of trading, exceeding what institutional investors pay in commissions. “At a time when we face a slow economic recovery, such a tax will impede the efficiency of markets and impair depth and liquidity as well as raise costs to the issuers, pensions and investors who help drive economic growth,” Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr., executive vice president for public policy at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said in a statement. George Osborne, the British chancellor of the exchequer, described the proposed tax as “economic suicide” for Europe. In this time of economic crisis, he said, the European Union “should be coming forward with new ideas to promote growth, not undermine it.” And Glenn Hubbard, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush , said the Robin Hood tax is a “monstrously bad idea.” “Such a tax isn’t really going to get at the banks,” added Mr. Hubbard, who is now an adviser to the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney . “It’s going to hit the people who own the assets that are traded,” like investors. Supporters of a financial transactions tax note that Britain already imposes a levy of $50 per $10,000 of stocks traded, while Hong Kong and Singapore , with fast-growing financial markets, impose fees of $10 to $20 per $10,000 of the value of certain transactions. The United States imposed a tiny tax on stock trades from 1914 to 1966. The British actor Bill Nighy , who has made online videos promoting the tax , calls it a beautiful idea. “It would raise enough money to solve problems at home and overseas, and it could do it without hurting ordinary people,” he said.

Tax
Labor Unions
Occupy Wall Street
Stocks and Bonds
Banking and Finance
Transfer tax


A Review of Havana Central, in Yonkers

Abstract: OVER two visits to Havana Central, the Cuban restaurant that opened in April in the new Ridge Hill Shopping Center in Yonkers, I was surprised by the number of times waiters gathered to sing “Happy Birthday.” Bearing candlelit desserts, they repeatedly grouped around diners and gave spirited versions of the song with clapping and a loud “woo, woo” at the end of each line. It was kind of fun, but it turns out it there was probably something fake about it, too. The restaurant gives a free flan to anyone who says it is his or her birthday, a waiter told me, so people often claim it is their birthday even when it isn’t. That sense of harmless inauthenticity characterizes this Havana Central over all. A sister to Manhattan’s two versions of the restaurant, on the Upper West Side and near Times Square, the Yonkers Havana Central is the most like a theme park. Designed to evoke pre-revolutionary Cuba, there is loud Latin music, tropical-style dark fans hanging from the ceiling and blown-up posters of old Carteles magazine covers on the walls. But look closely and you’ll find that the large potted plants are plastic, and at least some of the food might as well be. Tamales served as an appetizer, one chicken and the other pork, were bland and dry though the accompanying mojo (garlic sauce) helped make them edible. The chicharrones were tasty and nicely rendered, but the other two components of the “pork lovers combo” — a pork chop and pernil — were drowning in sauces that didn’t quite hit the mark. The chop came doused in an oversweet teriyakilike gravy and the pernil, which works best as a mixture of tender meat with a bit of crunchy skin, was all mush with an overwhelming vinegar taste. On one visit, the entrees arrived before we had even made a dent in our appetizers, and though the waiter took them back to the kitchen without complaint, it was obvious on their return that they had just been sitting on a shelf somewhere. The shrimp in garlic sauce, in particular, was lukewarm and the sauce, though not unpleasant in taste, had become gelatinous. Even worse, on another visit, two desserts — the chocolate rum cake and the dulce de leche cheesecake — both had a distinctly chemical flavor. That is not to say one cannot have a good meal at Havana Central. The picadillo was rich and satisfying, made with both green olives and raisins (some places will skimp on one or the other). The classic paella was delicately seasoned and bursting with a subtle but delicious chorizo, chicken, clams, mussels and shrimp. The best tastes come from the appetizers menu. If I were to return to the restaurant, I would take a seat at the bar, order one of the many tropical drinks (the pineapple mojito with agave and the red sangria were both winners) and then request the lobster-stuffed avocado, which came with crispy, well-salted tostones. The empanadas were good, particularly the Cubano with its pickles and roasted pork. The queso fundido, ordered with ropa vieja, was a tasty meal in itself. And fried calamari were light and tender though the accompanying “tomato salsa” tasted like oversweet tomato paste from a can. The children’s menu is clever. There are the usual chicken fingers, but no pizza to be found. Instead, children may have a half order of arroz con pollo, roast chicken, an empanada or delicious little sliders. At least two desserts were worth ordering: the house-made churros — doughnut sticks rolled in sugar and served with caramel and chocolate sauces — and the tres leches cake, which, unlike the other desserts, is made off-site and was airy with a sweet meringue topping. Though the hot chocolate was thin and seemed to have more cinnamon and nutmeg than chocolate, the pressed coffee was robust and plentiful. As for the popular flan, I never got to try it — it was sold out on both of my visits. It seems clear that Havana Central, with its chainlike approach to Cuban food (another restaurant is in the works for Roosevelt Field on Long Island), is meeting some kind of need. But those craving the joys of down-home Cuban cuisine might want to look elsewhere. Havana Central Ridge Hill Shopping Center 238 Market Street Yonkers (914) 423-5500 havanacentral.com O.K. THE SPACE A big, open space with high ceilings and terra-cotta-colored walls. The design is meant to evoke pre-revolutionary Cuba, with dark ceiling fans, enlarged posters of covers of the 1930s magazine Carteles and Latin music. There’s a back room for a more intimate setting, an enclosed area like a porch out front and outside seating if weather permits. Wheelchair accessible. THE CROWD A mix of casually dressed young and old (there is an appealing children’s menu), families, friends and dates. The restaurant is loud, but that appears to be part of the fun for many. THE BAR Long, sometimes crowded and situated right at the front of the restaurant. There’s a mojito menu ($9.50 to $12 a glass; $40 to $55 a pitcher), red or white sangria ($10 to $12 a glass; $40 to $45 a pitcher), margaritas ($9 to $12 a glass; $40 to $55 a pitcher), many other tropical drinks and a decent sampling of beers ($5 to $7 a glass or bottle) and wines ($9 to $14 a glass; $28 to $48 a bottle). Fresh-muddled, agave-sweetened lemonade is a good nonalcoholic choice ($4 a glass). THE BILL Entrees run from $15 to $29. Major credit cards accepted. WHAT WE LIKED Chicken sofrito, spinach and goat cheese, and Cubano empanadas, lobster stuffed avocado, plantain chips with avocado salsa and mojo, queso fundido, fried calamari, pork chicharrones, picadillo, classic paella, tres leches cake, churros. IF YOU GO Open Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Reservations recommended, especially on weekends. Metered parking on the street or in a nearby lot. RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t Bother.

Restaurants
Yonkers (NY)
Havana Central (Yonkers NY Restaurant)
Havana Central (Yonkers NY)


Pollution Leads to Drop in Life Span in Northern China, Research Finds

Abstract: BEIJING — Southern Chinese on average have lived at least five years longer than their northern counterparts in recent decades because of the destructive health effects of pollution from the widespread use of coal in the north, according to a study released Monday by a prominent American science journal. The study, which appears in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , was conducted by an American, an Israeli and two Chinese scholars and was based on analyses of health and pollution data collected by official Chinese sources from 1981 to 2001. The results provide a new assessment of the enormous cost of China’s environmental degradation, which in the north is partly a result of the emissions of deadly pollutants from coal-driven energy generation. The researchers project that the 500 million Chinese who live north of the Huai River will lose 2.5 billion years of life expectancy because of outdoor air pollution. “It highlights that in developing countries there’s a trade-off in increasing incomes today and protecting public health and environmental quality,” said the American member of the research team, Michael Greenstone , a professor of environmental economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “And it highlights the fact that the public health costs are larger than we had thought.” Mr. Greenstone said in a telephone interview that another surprising result of the study was that the higher mortality rates were found across all age groups. The study is the first measuring this kind of impact that relies purely on data collected within China. Its conclusions are based on analyses of population groups living in areas north and south of the Huai River. The Chinese government has for years maintained a policy of free coal for boilers to generate winter heating north of the river, which runs parallel to and between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. That policy and the ubiquity of northern coal-fired factories have contributed to the vast gap between the coal pollutants emitted in north and south. Howard Frumkin, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, said a “strong point” of the study was its basis in the “natural experiment” resulting from China’s disparate coal policies. “The results are biologically plausible, and consistent with previous research,” he said. Image Pollution from widespread coal use in northern China has led to an average decrease in life span, research shows. Credit Donald Chan/Reuters For every additional 100 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter above the average pollution levels in the south, the life expectancy at birth drops by three years, the researchers found. Mr. Greenstone said that estimate could be roughly applied to other developing nations where the baseline level of pollutants was high. “This adds to the growing mountain of evidence of the heavy cost of China’s pollution,” said Alex L. Wang, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policies. “Other studies have shown significant near-term harms, in the form of illness, lost work days and even risks to children beginning in utero. This study suggests that the long-term harms of coal pollution might be worse than we thought.” Mr. Wang said the new study could “help to build the case for more aggressive environmental regulation” — for example, a previous order by Chinese leaders to shut down coal-fired boilers in some areas could be widened, and faster shutdown times could be required. The health statistics recorded through the two-decade period by Chinese officials and examined by the study’s researchers showed that the 5.5-year drop in life expectancy in the north was almost entirely due to a rise in deaths attributed to cardiorespiratory diseases or related health problems. The pollution data, also recorded by officials, indicated that the concentration of particulates north of the Huai was 184 micrograms per cubic meter higher than in the south, or 55 percent greater. Several recent scientific studies have revealed the toll that China’s outdoor air pollution is taking on humans. This spring, new data released from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study revealed that such pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010, or nearly 40 percent of the global total. Some Chinese officials have sought to quash reports that link premature deaths to pollution. According to news reports, Chinese officials excised parts of a 2007 report called “Cost of Pollution in China” that had concluded that 350,000 to 400,000 people die prematurely in China each year because of outdoor air pollution. The study was done by the World Bank with the help of the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration, the precursor to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. This year, many Chinese have expressed fury and frustration over the surging levels of air pollution, especially in the north, which in January had record levels of particulate matter. Pollution levels have remained high this summer, and many foreigners and middle- or upper-class Chinese with children are looking to leave the country rather than tolerate the health risks. Mr. Greenstone said he did not have a basis for comparing pollution levels now with those during the period covered by the study, 1981 to 2001. During that time, the method of measuring particulate matter was different. Mr. Greenstone also said he did not know how pollution in northern China affected the life expectancy for people not living there for their entire lives, or for residents of northern China who made frequent or long trips to less polluted areas.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America


Qwest Ends Auction of Its Long-Distance Network

Abstract: DENVER — Qwest Communications International , the telecommunications company, said on Monday that it was calling off the auction for its nationwide long-haul data and telephone network. The company, based in Denver, said the network was more valuable to the company than the amount it would raise in a sale. Qwest did not say how much the bids it received were worth. News reports last week indicated Qwest received bids far below the $2 billion to $3 billion it wanted. Qwest has a debt load of $13.3 billion, and the sale of the network at the right price could have given it some breathing room. However, the network is also useful in supporting its two other main businesses: local phone service in 14 states and nationwide services for government and corporations. Level 3 Communications, which also operates a long-haul network, was mentioned as a potential buyer. Revenue has been declining in the wholesale business for some time, as competition is pushing down prices. Shares of Qwest fell 24 cents to close at $3.93 on Monday.

Auctions
Qwest Communications International Inc
Telephones and Telecommunications


Hamas Releases Photographs Said to Show Captured Israelis

Abstract: JAFFA, Israel — The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas showed photographs on Friday of four Israelis, two of whom it said were captives being held in Gaza. Two others were Israeli soldiers who were killed during the 2014 conflict in Gaza, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul . The images of Mr. Goldin and Mr. Shaul were included in an announcement by the Qassam Brigades , Hamas’ military wing, on Al Aqsa, a Hamas-run satellite channel. The identities of the other two people pictured were not immediately clear. The announcement was the first time the group had released photographs of the people it said it had been holding captive. The spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, who goes by his nom de guerre, Abu Obeida, referred to all four of them as Israeli soldiers. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians, including Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descent . Mr. Mengistu, who is believed to be in his mid to late 20s, crossed an Israeli-constructed fence that surrounds much of Gaza on Sept. 7, 2014. His family has said that he has psychiatric problems. Hamas is also holding an Arab citizen of Israel who has not been identified. In the announcement, the Hamas spokesman said that the group was not negotiating with the Israeli government for the return of Israelis held in Gaza. He did not offer any more details on the condition or identities of the captives. The Israeli government has conducted prisoner exchanges with Palestinian militants for soldiers held captive and for the remains of dead Israelis. Those deals have often proved politically contentious, not least because of the large numbers of Palestinian prisoners that Israel has released for the return of its soldiers. David Keyes, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no comment on the announcement. Israel was long traumatized by the capture of Gilad Shalit , a soldier who was seized in a cross-border raid in 2006 and held captive by Hamas in Gaza for five years. After a broad public campaign pressuring the Israeli government, he was freed in 2011 in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.

Hamas
Israel
Hadar Goldin
Kidnapping and Hostages


Hardaway to Enter Draft

Abstract: Tim Hardaway Jr. said Wednesday that he would forgo his senior season at Michigan and enter the N.B.A. draft. He is the second Michigan player to declare early for this year’s draft; Trey Burke, a sophomore and the national player of the year, announced his departure last Sunday. Hardaway’s father played in the N.B.A. from 1989 to 2003. Michigan lost to Louisville in the N.C.A.A. title game.

Sports Drafts and Recruits
College basketball
University of Michigan
Tim Hardaway Jr


Joint Chiefs Chairman Is Gloomy on Afghanistan

Abstract: WASHINGTON — With security and economic conditions in Afghanistan already in dire straits, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday that the situation there would probably only worsen next year. “The trends across the board are not going in the right direction,” the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen , told reporters. “I would anticipate next year would be a tougher year.” Admiral Mullen said Afghanistan was likely to continue what a nearly completed intelligence assessment called “a downward spiral” unless there were rapid, major improvements. Those improvements include curbing Afghanistan’s booming heroin trade, bolstering district and tribal leaders to offset a weak central government in Kabul , breathing life into a flagging economy and stemming the flow of militants who are carrying out increasingly sophisticated attacks from havens in Pakistan . Admiral Mullen struck a pessimistic note when asked whether it was likely such reversals would take place. “Both the trends and the status specifically of where we are on those other things right now would indicate that the trends are going to continue,” he said. The sobering forecast comes as a draft report by American intelligence agencies has cast serious doubt on the ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban ’s influence there, and as the Bush administration has initiated a major review of its Afghanistan policy. Part of the review will address increased troop levels. Gen. David D. McKiernan , the top American commander in Afghanistan, has said he needs as many as 15,000 combat and support troops beyond the 8,000 additional troops that President Bush recently approved for deployment early next year. But Admiral Mullen underscored a point he has made repeatedly in the past: the military can be only one part of the solution in Afghanistan. “We’ve got to impact pretty significantly, pretty fast on the poppy issue,” he said referring to the heroin trade, a scourge that by some estimates accounts for 50 percent of Afghanistan’s economy and pours $100 million a year into the Taliban’s coffers. General McKiernan said last week that NATO forces would be authorized to attack narcotics bosses, their foot soldiers and their infrastructure if they were linked to the movement of weapons, improvised explosives or foreign fighters into Afghanistan. But Admiral Mullen said a broader counternarcotics solution involving the 42 countries with a presence in Afghanistan had so far proved maddeningly elusive. “There isn’t universal agreement on how we should approach this,” he said. “We’re all not in agreement on how to attack this problem.” In Thursday’s breakfast session with reporters, he seemed slightly less hopeful that the negative trends could be reversed anytime soon. Admiral Mullen cited, for instance, the need to “move forward” and increase engagement with tribal leaders in Afghanistan, an acknowledgment that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President Hamid Karzai . He also expressed concern over the growing violence stemming from attacks by militants based in Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas, a threat the United States has responded to with a growing number of missile strikes and even a Special Operations ground raid early last month. A senior administration official said the increased airstrikes by remotely piloted Central Intelligence Agency Predator aircraft, as well as the ground raid on Sept. 3, were having some impact on Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who are using the tribal areas as a sanctuary. “The people on the ground realize that the safety they’d grown accustomed to wasn’t so safe,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing operations. “It puts them on the move. It has them talking on their networks. They may devote more manpower to posting guards and sentries. They move around and move away from the border, and don’t stay in one location as long.” Admiral Mullen praised recent Pakistani Army operations against militants in Bajaur and Swat, and the recent leadership shake-up in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. But he expressed concern that Pakistan’s domestic financial crisis, with increasing fuel and food costs, could hamper the government’s ability to stage and finance sustained and effective counterterrorism operations. Bush administration officials are trying to gear up international support to guard against a downturn in Pakistan’s already fragile economy. Higher oil prices this year put a deep strain on Pakistan’s oil subsidy program, and the government has raised oil and energy prices some 70 percent, a move that has not sat well with Pakistani people. Beyond that, there has been a flight of foreign investment from the country, particularly in the weeks since the Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad, the capital, on Sept. 20. The worsening economic outlook in Pakistan has left administration officials scrambling to find aid for the country before things get worse. There may be one ray of sunshine amid the gloom, administration officials said. They said that the recent fall in the price of oil that had come about as the global financial crisis had worsened could actually be a boon to Pakistan, by easing the pressure on the Pakistani government, which still subsidizes energy costs in the country.

Afghanistan
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Taliban
NATO
Hamid Karzai
Michael G Mullen
Afghanistan War
David D McKiernan


California: Court Allows Elimination of Redevelopment Agencies

Abstract: The State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature had the right to eliminate local redevelopment agencies, redirecting more than $1 billion to help close a huge budget gap. The state began authorizing the agencies in the 1940s to subsidize construction in rundown areas. After the Legislature voted to abolish them this summer, several cities and agencies sued, saying the state had no right to the funds. The court said that abolishing the agencies was “a proper exercise of the legislative power vested in the Legislature” and that the government could “establish or dissolve local agencies and subdivisions as it sees fit.” The Legislature also approved a plan allowing cities to reorganize the agencies if they agreed to use the money for state obligations this year, but the court ruled that plan invalid, effectively eliminating the nearly 400 agencies.

California
Brown Edmund G Jr
State Legislatures
Budgets and Budgeting
Decisions and Verdicts


Fighting the Deficit, With Military Land Policy

Abstract: IN a previous column, I introduced the concept of a “paid lunch.” It’s better than a free lunch — which is often thought not to exist — because you’re paid to devour it. But what qualifies as a paid lunch for the government? The answer is a proposal that will stimulate the economy and create tangible benefits while — drum roll, please! — reducing the deficit. My initial suggestion was to sell off some of the radio spectrum now used for television broadcasts. And I’m happy to say that the Federal Communications Commission recently proposed a version of this idea to support its national broadband initiative . So here’s another paid-lunch idea. This one is intended to increase the efficiency of the military and its ability to serve the country — all while reducing military spending. Similar in spirit to the spectrum proposal, it boils down to a simple principle: To allocate resources efficiently, decision makers must make choices based on true market values. For the military, that means taking land prices into account in choosing sites for bases. It may be time to sell off some prime real estate. After the cold war, deciding which bases to shut down was a political hot potato. The job went to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which started in 1988 and had its last round in 2005. Guess which factor the commission didn’t focus on? The money you could get for selling a particular piece of land. Bases were given away or sold below market price. The military didn’t have much incentive to sell its crown jewels, and it still doesn’t. To see what’s wrong here, consider another example of military inefficiency: the draft. Under the old Selective Service System, the military did not have to pay market wages to entice workers to enlist. As you might expect, the armed forces used too much labor and conscripted people who didn’t want to serve, a problem that became acute during the unpopular war in Vietnam . Today, people in the military are there by choice, and labor is no longer considered a free good. (As a result, military personnel are no longer assigned to “KP”; civilians are hired to peel the potatoes and wash the dishes.) When it comes to land use, however, the military is like other areas of government. It doesn’t have incentives to make good decisions about where to put its facilities. It doesn’t have to pay fair market rent for the land it occupies. In fact, it pays no rent or taxes , and, just as bad, has no incentive to move from highly valued land to someplace cheaper. Indeed, if the military wants to shift more than 1,000 civilian employees from one location to another, it has to receive permission from Congress. And we have had plenty of recent reminders that Congress isn’t a place from which rational choices are likely to emerge. It is time for a change. Politicians on both sides of the aisle should be able to agree that we face a long-term budget problem. A better land-use policy for the military could make a difference. The Defense Department has vast land holdings, some in prime locations — including the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere. (Of course, land prices are lower than they once were, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to dump a lot more on the market right now. But reducing the budget deficit is a long-term problem anyhow.) The Marine Corps seems to have particularly good taste in base location. For example, it has Camp Pendleton, about 40 miles north of downtown San Diego . The base sits on 200 square miles of land, including 17.5 miles of Pacific shoreline. About 60,000 people work there. Of course, I am not in a position to say whether the Marines need all the land at Camp Pendleton, but I can say with some assurance that the land is very valuable. Think ocean views with what many people regard as the country’s best climate. Even in the current real estate market, a ballpark estimate is that the land would fetch at least $5 billion from a developer. Furthermore, the Marines have other bases, like Twentynine Palms in the Mojave Desert . That base covers more than 900 square miles of land that is considerably less valuable. You can’t practice amphibious landings in the desert, but other operations could be done at either place. Is it really necessary to conduct tank-training exercises on land with an ocean view? Do the Marines really need all those miles of beach? On the other hand, you can’t blame the Marines for preferring to live at Camp Pendleton, or Hawaii , for that matter. HOW could we give the various military branches an economic incentive to use land rationally? First, include real estate prices explicitly in land use evaluations, along with factors like environmental and economic effects on local communities. Second, give the armed forces some skin in the game. Right now, the Defense Department has no financial incentive to consider the value of alternative land use. Even when officials can sell land, they can be instructed to take less than market value. Affected communities also need to share potential windfalls — and somehow be prevented from delaying changes for decades. We need to overcome the constant political fighting about issues like urban sprawl, employment and retaining open spaces. Perhaps I am being naïve, but the current economic environment might provide a background that could stimulate rational discourse, especially in a nearly bankrupt state like California . The point I am making is perfectly general. If we were starting from scratch, it is unlikely that we would decide to devote so much valuable land to its current uses. The government is sitting on valuable pieces of property (and radio spectrum, for that matter). As we think about how to deal with the long-term deficit, we need to devise ways to encourage rational economic decisions — and tell government agencies that their funding will depend on their ability to make them.


Foster Rules on Medicine Are Key in Child’s Death

Abstract: Foster parents are supposed to check with the foster-care agency before administering even routine medication to children in their care, but the Harlem woman charged Monday with criminally negligent homicide of a 6-year-old girl apparently did not do so before placing a strong medicinal patch on her injured neck or giving her Motrin earlier. The girl, Taylor Webster, died Sunday afternoon, one day after the foster mother, Joanne Alvarez, a 54-year-old home health aide, placed the pain-relieving medication, known as a fentanyl transdermal patch, on her neck. Law enforcement officials said Ms. Alvarez told them the patch had been prescribed to her five months ago for chronic pain that she has suffered since 2000, but a search of her apartment showed that it was in someone else’s name, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Barbara Thompson. The patch, which delivers a narcotic drug more powerful than morphine through the skin, is typically used to treat severe pain in adults, often cancer patients. According to the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, before giving a child any medication, foster parents are required to first contact their private foster-care agency, which contracts with the city to recruit parents and monitor families in the system. “There’s a way to reach the foster-care agency 24/7,” said Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services. Ms. Stein would not say whether Ms. Alvarez had contacted the foster-care agency, which was identified by child-welfare advocates as Good Shepherd Services. But those familiar with the system said a nurse or health care professional never would have authorized the use of such a patch on a 59-pound child; weight helps determine dosage, and the patch is usually prescribed only after the use of other narcotics. Dr. Lara Gordon, director of the Child Protection Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College, said she had no knowledge of this specific case but that a pediatrician should certainly have been consulted before “making such a drastic move” as administering a fentanyl patch. “That’s a big, big, big no-no,” she said. “It’s not something we would prescribe for a normally healthy child. You put these patches on people who are going through chemotherapy and have bone pain. It’s not just for a routine muscle spasm or neck pain.” At Ms. Alvarez’s arraignment on Monday, prosecutors said that Taylor had started complaining of neck pain Saturday afternoon. Ms. Alvarez told investigators that she gave Taylor some Motrin before going out that evening to a concert, leaving the girl with Ms. Alvarez’s adult daughter. When Ms. Alvarez returned home, the girl was still in pain, so she gave her more Motrin around midnight and put the patch on her neck in the area of her carotid artery, she told investigators. The next day, the authorities say, Ms. Alvarez went to work and at 3 p.m., her 23-year-old daughter called her to say Taylor was unconscious. Taylor was pronounced dead at a hospital at 5:10 p.m. Ms. Alvarez, who has five biological children and two adopted children and had been caring for Taylor for several years, had drawn the attention of child welfare officials three times before. Two of those instances involved accusations of excessive corporal punishment against Taylor, Penelope Brady, an assistant district attorney, said on Monday. One of those inquiries is still open. The third instance, which Ms. Brady did not describe in nature, has been closed. Ms. Stein, the children’s services spokeswoman, refused to discuss the complaints against Ms. Alvarez, saying the agency never comments on investigations or their outcomes. But she said that many reports of child abuse each year turn out to be unfounded. Foster parents are “strictly forbidden” to discipline children in their care by hitting or spanking, Ms. Stein added. “This is the standard,” she wrote in an e-mail message. “Foster parents receive training on how to discipline children safely without using physical force.” Ms. Stein said that the city could take a number of steps if it is determined that a foster parent has used corporal punishment, depending on the circumstances. The parent could be referred to a parenting course if investigators believed it was a one-time slap, for instance, and that the child was otherwise well cared for. But a more serious finding would result in the child’s removal from the foster home. Bill Baccaglini, executive director of the New York Foundling, one of the oldest child-welfare agencies in New York, said the tragedy would likely make agencies more vigilant about working with foster parents on administering medication. “My gut tells me, thankfully, that this is very, very rare,” Mr. Baccaglini said. “But this story, certainly for any of us in this business, gives us cause to pause and reexamine our own internal procedures.”

Children and Youth
Foster Care
Child Abuse and Neglect
Medicine and Health


Rats, Roaches and the Naked Man With the Gun

Abstract: IN 1979 and 1980, my father, Esteban Torres, worked under an exterminator’s license setting traps in and fumigating businesses and homes throughout the Bronx and Manhattan. I won’t bore you with roach and rodent stories — those could run on forever. Instead, I’ll tell you about some of the people my father worked for, the ones he called crazy or knuckleheads. I’ll start with two incidents in which clients put guns to my father’s head and he proceeded to fumigate their apartments anyway, after talking them into lowering their weapons. In one apartment building on East 14th Street in Manhattan, a woman in a first-floor apartment wished him luck as he went up the stairs to the first apartment he was going to work in. That seemed a strange thing to say to an exterminator. After all, my dad was carrying a tank of chemicals that could stop a charging rhino; the roaches might be tough, but the deck was stacked in my dad’s favor. When he stood knocking at the door for a few minutes, minutes during which he was sure he heard someone inside, he thought he’d figured out the woman’s meaning. People made appointments they didn’t want to keep but never bothered to cancel. You needed good luck just to get some customers to actually open the door. This looked like one of those cases, so he climbed down a flight to the next apartment on his list. This one seemed to be truly empty. As my father waited for a response, he felt cold steel pressed against the back of his head. “What are you doing here?” the man holding the gun wanted to know. “I’m the exterminator,” my father answered. The man wanted to see ID. My father held up the tank of chemicals, along with the gas mask he used in hopes of avoiding cancer. It took a while, but the man with the gun relented and escorted my father back to the apartment upstairs. When my father was finished, he waited patiently for the man with the gun to produce a check for $25, which was the charge for an apartment back then. When my father finally left the building, the woman on the first floor asked if anything had happened. When my dad mentioned the whole gun thing, she just laughed. “That guy’s crazy,” she said. “He says he’s training to be in the C.I.A., has to sneak up on people. Take them by surprise.” My father left the building without bothering to look back. He didn’t want to know if the C.I.A. trainee was aiming at him from his window. The other incident took place in a building on East Fourth Street, and the fellow in question was more straightforward. When my father knocked, the door was opened by a man with a gun. No clothes on, just a gun. “Exterminator,” my father said. The man lowered the gun. My father did the standard spraying along the perimeter of the living room walls as the man sat there naked, an array of joints on the coffee table. As my father headed toward a closed bedroom door, the man jumped up and ordered him to leave it alone. So my father, having finished his work, just stood there. “What?” the man demanded. “The money,” my father replied. Another check for $25 changed hands. I’ve often wondered what might have been behind the closed door if the man wasn’t afraid to show my dad the drugs or the gun or his own naked body. But these questions never concerned my father. Neither did the barely clothed women, or the spouses who argued as he set traps, or the parents who screamed at their children while he put out poisons. To him, they were all just crazy. What concerned my father was leaving the Bronx. Then, as now, the Bronx had very nice neighborhoods, places with tree-lined streets, excellent schools, million-dollar homes. We didn’t live there. We lived in East Tremont, the place where Hollywood came when it needed a set for the opening of the gritty crime drama “Fort Apache, the Bronx.” In addition to being an exterminator, my father was the custodian for the Tremont branch of the New York Public Library on Washington Avenue. The job included a rent-free apartment, which was where we lived. About 20 other custodians had similar accommodations, but ours came with a view of abandoned, burnt-out and gutted buildings in just about every direction. Across the street was an abandoned building where heroin addicts went to shoot up, stumbling out in a daze. Sometimes they left candles burning, and mattresses caught fire. The fire trucks came, but the flames were never serious enough to harm the squatters who lived on the top floor. Besides, the fire station was only two blocks away. PART of my father’s job at the library was to keep the exterior of the building free of gang graffiti. As with exterminating, this also required the use of harsh chemicals. My father being an asthmatic, both his jobs were tough on his lungs, but health issues were not going to force him out of work. A free apartment, a salary from the library, my mother’s salary earned as a library clerk in an even worse neighborhood and whatever he could make from the exterminating business were all too much to pass up. He had a plan, and he intended to do everything he could to make it work. His plan was to move the family to the countryside in Puerto Rico. This wasn’t an original idea. My father had left Puerto Rico as a 12-year-old and had met my mother, Carmen, who was also from Puerto Rico, in New York. My parents had deep roots on the island. To them, leaving behind the dirt and danger of the big city for the quiet and calm of island life seemed natural. My sisters and I hated the idea. We’d been to the island but barely spoke a word of Spanish. We had friends in the Bronx — never mind that we weren’t allowed out on the streets to play with them. As fate would have it, the move to Puerto Rico lasted only a year. A recession brought us back to the city. My mother took up her old job as a library clerk, my sisters and I made new friends, and my father found work as part of a crew that cleaned a bank overnight. He could have taken up his gas mask again and made more money as an exterminator, but the idea didn’t appeal to him. He had liked most of his customers. He could handle the rats and the roaches. It was the crazies and the knuckleheads that kept him away.


Google Results Show Struggle With Mobile

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — For more than a year, Google has been struggling to solve this riddle: Even though people are using Google on their mobile devices more than ever, how does Google make more money on mobile ads? Despite a range of efforts by Google, the riddle remains unsolved, its financial report Thursday revealed. Google reported second-quarter results that missed analysts’ expectations for revenue and profit. They showed that its desktop search business continues to slow and ad prices continue to fall as it struggles to make as much money on mobile devices. The report was particularly incongruous given how Google’s share price climbed 27 percent this year. It is a vexing problem for every company that has generated revenue through advertising, be it a century-old magazine with a mobile app or a new Web site aggregating the news. Mobile ads do not command the premium that Web advertising does (and Web ads do not make as much as print ads). Colin W. Gillis, a technology analyst at BGC Partners, wrote a haiku before the earnings announcement: “The results should be/ pretty as a picture to/ justify the stock.” They were not. Shares, which fell 1 percent ahead of the report on Thursday, fell another 4 percent in after-hours trading. “One of the reasons why people like Google is you can look forward and see what they’re doing with Glass and laying fiber and driverless cars and Chrome, chasing after new revenue streams,” Mr. Gillis said. “But those are still pretty far away. Google’s core business is all about advertising and clicks, and the core business is absolutely maturing.” Mobile ads, he added, are inexpensive yet “overpriced because the conversion rates are so low.” “It’s still too hard to transact on a phone,” Mr. Gillis said. Google had seemed to have finally found a solution to the riddle, by making the biggest-ever change to its AdWords advertising product. The new program, called enhanced campaigns, which was introduced in February and will be mandatory for all advertisers on Monday, gives advertisers less choice about advertising on mobile devices by automatically including desktop, tablet and cellphone ads for all campaigns. Advertisers can choose not to buy cellphone ads but are required to buy tablet ads. Google says that this simplifies the process for advertisers and makes it easier to reach customers who use devices indiscriminately. More important than the type of device, the company says, is whether someone is at a desk or on the sofa, in the mood to shop or eat. But it also means that the price of mobile ads, which has been about half that of desktop ads, will most likely increase. Google’s ads are sold at auction, and one reason mobile prices have been low is that there has been less demand. Enhanced campaigns should change that. For example, the cost per ad click, known as C.P.C., for clients of the Search Agency, a search ad firm, rose 22 percent in the quarter, largely because of Google’s ad-buying changes. It was the first time that tablet ads cost more than those on desktops, and advertisers increased spending on smartphones 25 percent, the most of any device category. “There used to be a discount you would get for going after traffic on tablets instead of desktops,” said Keith Wilson, vice president for agency products at the Search Agency. “Now that is disappearing. That is what is going to drive up C.P.C.’s in the mobile space. This has been a catalyst for prioritizing mobile.” But it was too early for the results of the new ad program to show up in Google’s financial report, company executives said Thursday. The price that advertisers pay when Google users click on their ads decreased 6 percent from last year and 2 percent from the previous quarter, declining for the seventh quarter in a row and at a steeper annual rate than in the previous quarter. Mobile ad pricing is “one of the many factors at work” affecting click prices, said Nikesh Arora, Google’s chief business officer. Google is in the early stages of enhanced campaigns and it will most likely take a year for the results to become apparent, he said. He added that another important metric at Google, the number of clicks on ads, is up 23 percent over last year, partly because of increased mobile use. Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, said that six million advertisers had already switched to enhanced campaigns. American Apparel, according to Google , doubled its mobile conversion rate with the new ads, and M&Ms, the Mars candy brand, increased it by 41 percent. In addition to enhanced campaigns, Google is doing other things to improve its mobile offerings and its profits from mobile ads. It has been encouraging Web sites to improve their mobile versions, and last month it said Web sites without easy-to-use mobile versions could fall in search rankings. And it introduced its product listing ads, for shopping, to mobile devices. Google reported second-quarter revenue of $14.11 billion, up 19 percent from $11.8 billion a year ago. Net revenue, which excludes payments to ad partners, was $11.1 billion, up from $9.2 billion. Net income rose to $3.23 billion, or $9.54 a share, from $2.79 billion, or $8.42 a share. Excluding the cost of stock options, Google’s second-quarter profit was $9.56 a share. Analysts had expected net revenue of $11.33 billion and earnings, excluding the cost of stock options, of $10.78 a share. Adding to the disappointing results was a $342 million operating loss at Motorola Mobility, which is expected to introduce a new phone, the Moto X, this summer. As shareholders and analysts wait for Google to find the next product to reignite revenue growth as the core search business slows, Mr. Page acknowledged the challenges of building new products that reach people on the same scale as search. “It’s pretty easy to come up with ideas,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to make them real and get them to billions of people. And that’s to me what’s so exciting.”

Google
Earnings Reports
Online advertising


Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare

Abstract: ROME, Oct. 11 — A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it. Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, and there are 31 abortions for every 100 live births, the study said. The results of the study, a collaboration between scientists from the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a reproductive rights group, are being published Friday in the journal Lancet. “We now have a global picture of induced abortion in the world, covering both countries where it is legal and countries where laws are very restrictive,” Dr. Paul Van Look, director of the W.H.O. Department of Reproductive Health and Research, said in a telephone interview. “What we see is that the law does not influence a woman’s decision to have an abortion. If there’s an unplanned pregnancy, it does not matter if the law is restrictive or liberal.” But the legal status of abortion did greatly affect the dangers involved, the researchers said. “Generally, where abortion is legal it will be provided in a safe manner,” Dr. Van Look said. “And the opposite is also true: where it is illegal, it is likely to be unsafe, performed under unsafe conditions by poorly trained providers.” The data also suggested that the best way to reduce abortion rates was not to make abortion illegal but to make contraception more widely available, said Sharon Camp, chief executive of the Guttmacher Institute. In Eastern Europe, where contraceptive choices have broadened since the fall of Communism, the study found that abortion rates have decreased by 50 percent, although they are still relatively high compared with those in Western Europe. “In the past we didn’t have this kind of data to draw on,” Ms. Camp said. “Contraception is often the missing element” where abortion rates are high, she said. Anti-abortion groups criticized the research, saying that the scientists had jumped to conclusions from imperfect tallies, often estimates of abortion rates in countries where the procedure was illegal. “These numbers are not definitive and very susceptible to interpretation according to the agenda of the people who are organizing the data,” said Randall K. O’Bannon, director of education and research at the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund in Washington. He said that the major reason women die in the developing world is that hospitals and health systems lack good doctors and medicines. “They have equated the word ‘safe’ with ‘legal’ and ‘unsafe’ with ‘illegal,’ which gives you the illusion that to deal with serious medical system problems you just make abortion legal,” he said. The study indicated that about 20 million abortions that would be considered unsafe are performed each year and that 67,000 women die as a result of complications from those abortions, most in countries where abortion is illegal. The researchers used national data for 2003 from countries where abortion was legal and therefore tallied. W.H.O. scientists estimated abortion rates from countries where it was outlawed, using data on hospital admissions for abortion complications, interviews with local family planning experts and surveys of women in those countries. The wealth of information that comes out of the study provides some striking lessons, the researchers said. In Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States, 21 per 1,000 in that year. The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception. The Bush administration’s multibillion-dollar campaign against H.I.V. /AIDS in Africa has directed money to programs that promote abstinence before marriage, and to condoms only as a last resort. It has prohibited the use of American money to support overseas family planning groups that provide abortions or promote abortion as a method of family planning. Worldwide, the annual number of abortions appeared to have declined between 1995, the last year such a broad study was conducted, and 2003, from an estimated 46 million to 42 million, the study concluded. The 1995 study, by the Guttmacher Institute, had far less data on countries where abortion was illegal. Some countries, like South Africa, have undergone substantial transitions in abortion laws in that time. The procedure was made legal in South Africa in 1996, leading to a 90 percent decrease in mortality among women who had abortions, some studies have found. Abortion is illegal in most of Africa, though. It is the second-leading cause of death among women admitted to hospitals in Ethiopia, its Health Ministry has said. It is the cause of 13 percent of maternal deaths at hospitals in Nigeria, recent studies have found.

Abortion
World Health Organization
Birth Control and Family Planning