Pressed From His Right, Speaker Yields on a Budget Showdown

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After three years of cajoling, finessing and occasionally strong-arming his fitful conservative majority, Speaker John A. Boehner waved the white flag on Wednesday, surrendering to demands from his right flank that he tie money to keep the government open after Sept. 30 to stripping President Obama’s health care law of any financing. Mr. Boehner knows that the plan he unveiled cannot pass the Senate, and that it may prove unwise politically and economically. His leadership team pressed just last week for an alternative. But with conservative forces uniting against him, he ultimately saw no alternative but to capitulate — and few good options to stop a government shutdown in two weeks. “Today was a step forward, and a win for the American people,” said Representative Tom Graves, the Georgia Republican whose “defund Obamacare” push had amassed 80 House supporters, a bloc large enough to dictate the outcome. With much of the government set to run out of money at the end of the month — and run out of borrowing authority by mid-October — Mr. Boehner faced a choice: he could steer a middle ground and find a way out of his fiscal dead end with Republican and Democratic votes, or he could yield to a conservative movement to strip the Affordable Care Act of financing, unite his Republican majority around that war cry, and hope for the best. House conservatives let Mr. Boehner know that any solution that could not attract a majority of the Republican conference could cost him his speakership. Divided Senate Republicans made clear that linking further government spending or a debt ceiling increase to gutting the health care law would never get through the Senate. In March, the speaker himself said: “Do you want to risk the full faith and credit of the U.S. government over Obamacare? That’s a very tough argument to make.” On Wednesday, the speaker announced his choice. “The law’s a train wreck,” he said. “It’s time to protect American families from this unworkable law.” The House’s stopgap spending measure would finance the government through Dec. 15 at the current spending levels, which reflect the automatic spending cuts that took effect in March, known as sequestration, while blocking the health care law, under which the uninsured will be enrolled beginning on Oct. 1. If the bill clears the House on Friday, Republican leaders could put forward a measure as soon as next week that would raise the government’s statutory borrowing limit. That bill would also take aim at the Affordable Care Act, with a one-year delay of its provisions coupled with a one-year increase in the debt ceiling. It would also expedite the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Louisiana and set a timeline for an overhaul of the federal tax code, and possibly include some other Republican wishes, like specific spending cuts and regulatory changes. For Mr. Boehner, the announcement Wednesday was a humbling moment, and possibly a defining one. Since the Tea Party wave swept Republicans to power in 2010, the beleaguered speaker has often found himself at odds with the most conservative wing of his conference. In late 2011, he famously put his fractious conference on mute as he explained via telephone how it had to give up its opposition to extending a cut in the payroll tax. Image Speaker John A. Boehner, center, with Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, spoke about the budget on Wednesday. Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times Three times this year, on major pieces of legislation, the speaker has put what he believed to be the greater needs of his country and his national party over those of his recalcitrant right wing. In January, the House passed legislation to avert huge and sudden tax increases on virtually every American — but let taxes rise on the wealthy — with Democratic votes and a minority of votes by Republicans. The same math passed relief for Hurricane Sandy and a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. This time around he was contrite, quoting a plaque that graced the speaker’s office of Newt Gingrich: Listen, Learn, Help and Lead. “The key to any leadership job is to listen,” Mr. Boehner said. Mr. Gingrich, of course, was deposed by an angry coup after Republicans lost seats in midterm elections during the second term of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton. This time, the ground troops simply got their way with Mr. Boehner, providing new evidence that the Tea Party has changed Washington, not the other way around. As has been the case with each fiscal crisis since the Republicans took control of the House, Mr. Boehner’s decision was an embrace of short-term tactics over long-term strategy. How either the spending or the debt limit measures will become law is anybody’s guess. “Look, I think you could get all of us in the Senate to support it,” Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, said of his Senate Republican colleagues. “The problem is, what is the Democrat majority going to do with it? That’s the challenge.” Even the man who started the “defund Obamacare” boomlet, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, seemed to accept Senate reality on Wednesday, putting the onus on House Republicans to stand and fight. “Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so,” Mr. Cruz said. “At that point, House Republicans must stand firm.” Mr. Obama was visibly irked by the speaker’s decision. “You have never seen in the history of the United States the debt ceiling or the threat of not raising the debt ceiling being used to extort a president or a governing party, and trying to force issues that have nothing to do with the budget and have nothing to do with the debt,” he said at the Business Roundtable, which represents the chief executives of the nation’s largest companies. Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a consistent ally of the Republican majority, questioned the House’s course. Democrats were gleeful at the potential political consequences. Representative Steve Israel of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said House Republicans set off Wednesday on a kamikaze mission, with their speaker in the pilot’s seat. “They’re living in right-wing fantasy land” if they expect Democrats to take the blame for the chaos that could ensue, he said. But victorious House conservatives did their end-zone dance and evinced no worries about the final outcome. “Even the best coaches in the N.F.L. only script out the first two series of plays,” said Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, when asked how the speaker would play out the sequence of events. “They don’t script the whole game. We’ve got to play the game. We’ve got to see how it all shakes out.”

Federal Budget
House of Representatives
Congress
John Boehner
US National Debt
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Barack Obama
US Politics
Health Insurance


Latest Iran Talks End Without a Deal

Abstract: LAUSANNE, Switzerland — An intensive round of talks on limiting Iran ’s nuclear program ended abruptly on Friday with the two sides still divided over some important issues. American and Iranian negotiators have been trying to meet a March 31 deadline for drafting the outlines of an accord. Once that is done, a detailed, comprehensive agreement is to be completed by the end of June. American officials said the talks would resume next week in Switzerland, probably on Thursday. In the meantime, Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet in London on Saturday with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, which along with Russia and China are negotiating partners with the United States in the talks. Mr. Kerry said on Friday that some progress had been made in the talks, which he has described as tough at times. In a statement he issued commemorating Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, Mr. Kerry called on Iran’s leadership to show the flexibility to bridge the remaining gaps. “It is my sincere hope that if Iran’s leaders make the right choices, the necessary choices, in the ongoing nuclear talks, that this new year and this new spring will mark a better future both for the Iranian people and for the world,” Mr. Kerry said. But Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of Iran, suggested in a Twitter message that it was up to the United States and its negotiating partners to make the concessions necessary to seal an accord. “Iranians have already made their choice: Engage with dignity,” Mr. Zarif wrote. “It’s high time for the U.S. and its allies to chose: pressure or agreement.” The Nuclear Talks With Iran, Explained What the United States and Iran want out of discussions over Iran’s nuclear development. A number of difficult obstacles emerged during the latest round of talks here, including disagreements over what kinds of limits should be imposed on research and development of new types of centrifuges for enriching uranium. Another major impediment to an agreement has been differences over how quickly to suspend or remove sanctions that have been imposed on Iran by the United Nations Security Council, the United States and the European Union. The round of talks in Switzerland was held in the same 19th-century luxury hotel where the Treaty of Lausanne was negotiated. That accord, signed in 1923, defined the boundaries of modern Turkey and formalized the end of the Ottoman Empire. On Friday morning, it initially appeared that the negotiations would continue here into the weekend, even though Saturday was the start of Nowruz. Arrangements were being discussed for Mr. Kerry to be joined at the talks by his European counterparts, Laurent Fabius of France, Philip Hammond of Britain and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany. But some Iranian officials were notably unenthusiastic about that prospect, telling the Iranian media that it would be better if Western nations sorted out their positions among themselves before engaging with Iran. After it was reported that the 90-year-old mother of President Hassan Rouhani of Iran had died, the Iranian delegation made clear that it would be leaving on Friday. Hossein Fereydoun, Mr. Rouhani’s brother, is a member of the Iranian delegation, but he left for Tehran early in the day to attend the funeral. Mr. Kerry offered his condolences, and American officials said Mr. Kerry would confer with Mr. Fabius, Mr. Hammond and Mr. Steinmeier in London instead of Lausanne. When the talks resume, an important question will be what form an initial accord might take. The Obama administration would like to be able to use such an agreement to argue against any congressional moves to impose additional sanctions on Iran. So administration officials would prefer that an initial accord outline specific limits — what a senior American official this week called a “quantitative dimension.” But the Iranians appear reluctant to treat an initial understanding as a formal agreement to be signed by each side. They appear to believe that to do so might codify their concessions, and swiftly attract criticism from hard-liners in Iran without yielding all of the benefits of a final comprehensive accord that is to be completed by the end of June. “We made good progress,” Mr. Kerry said Friday, accenting the positive. “There are one or two critical issues,” Mr. Zarif said, “and for the other issues, still one or two points remain to be resolved.”

Iran
Lausanne
John Kerry
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Hassan Rouhani
Nuclear weapon
US Foreign Policy
Embargoes Sanctions


Bank Stress Test May Expand Regulators’ Role

Abstract: Nearly 100 federal banking regulators descended on Citigroup in New York on Wednesday morning. Dozens more fanned out through Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks across the nation. It was just another workday. For years, regulators have embedded themselves inside the nation’s major banks to monitor their financial health. But now these regulators could become the arbiters of American finance. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is empowering them to decide which banks are strong enough to survive on their own — and which must be compelled to accept new bailouts from Washington, along with any strings that might be attached to them. At the center of this effort, part of the Obama administration’s plan to shore up the nation’s financial industry, is a new stress test for banks that federal officials are devising. Details are scant. But exams for 18 or so of the biggest banks are set to begin immediately, and the first results could arrive within weeks. They are not expected to be made public for every institution. Regulators were also discussing whether to apply the stress test to small and midsize banks, according to an administration official. The new test is likely to be more stringent than the standards used to determine which banks would receive money under the first round of the federal rescue. And unlike in the government’s initial investments, the amount of capital that banks receive will be based on the depth of their problems. Regulators plan to assess the potential losses a bank could face over the next two years, rather than the typical one year, according to government officials close to the situation. They are also expected to look at banks’ exposure to derivatives and other assets normally carried off their balance sheets, and make sure that banks also carry an additional capital cushion. Their assumptions will be guided on a “worst case” basis. The exams could be used not only to determine which large banks would receive additional aid but also to help weed out small, unhealthy banks, hastening consolidation in the industry. Analysts said the program hints at a creeping nationalization of the banking industry. “There is no way you can survive the failure of the stress test without having the government inject large amounts of taxpayer money,” said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at the Stanford Group in Washington. “That means the government will own a majority of the bank.” Paul J. Miller, a longtime banking analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey, said the test might provide the government with political cover to take a more heavy-handed approach. “It gives them the mechanism they need to take giant steps with capital infusions,” he said. “Maybe the thought is that we will put in so much capital that even under these stringent circumstances, this bank will not fail,” added Martin Lowy, a banking lawyer who advised the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on troubled banks during the savings and loan crisis of 20 years ago. “That will take a huge amount of capital if they are going to do it honestly,” he said. “Why that is different from nationalizing, I don’t know.” If a bank fails the test, its regulators will demand that it raise additional capital. But with few investors willing to put in fresh funds, the bank may be forced to return to the government. The government could inject capital into the bank without declaring it insolvent, since it may meet other industry standards. It might also require that the bank have enough common equity to start lending again, something investors increasingly demand. According to a government official close to the situation, regulators will continue to require that banks maintain a minimum 6 percent Tier 1 capital ratio, a common measure of financial health. Regulators are also expected to insist that at least half of that figure, or 3 percent, come from common stock. As part of the new program, firms that receive new preferred equity investments from the government can convert them into common shares. Senior administration officials are also considering allowing the Treasury’s original investments under the Troubled Asset Relief Program , or TARP, to be converted into common equity, but no final decision has been made. The government’s new investments will carry several additional restrictions. They will bar banks from paying quarterly dividends in excess of a penny, repurchasing their shares or pursuing acquisitions. Senior executives will be subject to a $500,000 cap on annual cash compensation until the government is repaid. It also means the government could become the largest shareholder of many of those banks, setting the stage for it to play an even more powerful role. Some analysts questioned whether the approach would work. “What you are left with is that we are going to nationalize banks that fail the stress test,” Mr. Seiberg said. “How many big companies are going to want to do business with government-run banks?”

Banks and Banking
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


French Banks Acquire Bond Insurance Company

Abstract: Another crack in the subprime mortgage market appeared to have been patched yesterday as two French banks bought out a bond-insurance company that has exposure to the mortgage crisis. The banks, Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d’Epargne, paid $1.5 billion to take ownership of CIFG Holding from Natixis, a French banking company in which each bank holds a 34 percent share. The deal is a defensive move meant to preserve CIFG’s AAA rating with Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. Like all bond insurers, CIFG’s entire business model is based around preserving that rating, and CIFG even uses the rating in its logo. But CIFG’s rating has been at risk. Fitch and Moody’s put out public warnings this month that they were considering lowering CIFG’s rating. Last summer, Standard & Poor’s announced a negative outlook for CIFG based on its corporate governance. Yesterday’s deal was developed in “close consultation with the ratings agencies,” said Jacques R. Rolfo, the chief executive of CIFG, in a press release. The statement said the deal had the direct purpose of maintaining the AAA rating. Fitch responded with a statement yesterday saying that it would hold CIFG at a AAA rating. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s did not return calls for comment about their intentions. Some of CIFG’s competitors, including the Ambac Financial Corporation and MBIA Inc., may follow CIFG in seeking additional investment to reassure the ratings agencies that they can back the loans they have insured even as the mortgage markets sour. Companies like CIFG benefited in recent years when mortgage originators like Countrywide Financial and Wells Fargo filled the pipeline with new mortgages — often ones to people with poor credit histories. CIFG and other bond guarantors insure — or “wrap” in industry parlance — pools of mortgages and other types of debt, like municipal loans. Those pools of debt are rated more favorably based on CIFG’s financial guarantee, and better credit ratings allow institutions to borrow money at a lower cost. But now the ratings agencies are afraid that CIFG and other insurers may not be able to pay for all possible losses. As of Oct. 5, CIFG said it had direct exposure to $1.9 billion in residential mortgages. CIFG also insured $9.4 billion in complex bundles of securities called collateralized debt obligations. Just under half the securities backing those C.D.O.’s were backed by subprime mortgage loans. Most of the residential mortgages that CIFG insured were loans made in 2005, according to CIFG’s Web site. Yesterday’s sale of 100 percent of CIFG’s capital to the two banks appears a bit like a game of hot potato. CIFG has been a part of Natixis only since 2006, when the two French banks formed Natixis. The banks own about 69 percent of Natixis, and the rest is publicly traded. CIFG accounted for only 1 percent of Natixis’ net income of $1.48 billion in the first half of this year, according to a financial filing from August. A spokeswoman from Groupe Banque Populaire said the bank would not comment until after Natixis’s third-quarter earnings were announced Thursday. A spokeswoman from Groupe Caisse d’Epargne hung up when reached. “We are extremely pleased to have the support of the controlling shareholders of Natixis,” Mr. Rolfo said, referring to the two banks, in the CIFG release. This is not the first cash infusion CIFG has received this year. In July, Natixis provided $100 million in capital to CIFG.

Mortgages
Groupe Banque Populaire
Groupe Caisse d’Epargne
Banks and Banking
France
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Economic Conditions and Trends


Mound of Salt Grows on Brooklyn Waterfront

Abstract: The mound of salt in the Red Hook Marine Terminal soars over the waterfront, as white and dry as the sands of Coney Island and as tall as the four-story brick tenements across the street. Salt piles, while not common, have been seen over the years in the neighborhood, which is on the border, roughly, of Red Hook and Cobble Hill. But residents said that this heap, at the corner of Kane and Columbia Streets, had risen dramatically over the past week. Not only that, they added, the constant breezes off the East River leave a gritty coating of salt on parked cars, plants, benches and apartment windows. “It’s like a mountain,” said Brian Dennison, 46, a freelance editor who was standing in a bookstore opposite the mound. “How long will it be here?” Over the last few days the salt pile has become an object of curiosity for those intrigued by the sights of a working waterfront, and a source of irritation to some who live nearby. People have shown up to photograph the mound or just gaze in silence. Some blamed the salt for their itchy eyes or throats. On Sunday, Brian McCormick posted fliers that read in part, “Stop the salt pile menace.” The fliers encouraged residents to ask their elected officials to investigate. Mr. McCormick said that salt had been stored since February inside the northern part of the terminal, running along Columbia Street. But over the last week, he said, the size of the pile had practically doubled. And on windy days, he added, thick clouds of salt spread onto Columbia Street. “It’s like whiteout conditions around here,” he said. “You have to cover your eyes; you have to cover your face.” On Sunday afternoon, an employee of American Stevedoring, which leases the terminal from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said that salt was being temporarily stored there before being shipped throughout the state. The man, who was reached on the telephone and would not give his name, said he did not know what the salt would be used for. “We’re taking every safety measure,” he said. “There’s no harm from the salt.” Others, however, said that the salty film adhering to surfaces was unpleasant and could damage plants and trees. While it was not as thick as, say, the salt on the rim of a margarita glass, one could trace one’s name in it on a glass table in a courtyard. A view from a nearby rooftop showed derricks with huge shovels attached appearing to move salt from a ship called the Nordstar into metal funnels on the waterfront. Trucks took loads from the funnels, then drove several hundred feet to the salt pile. Several tractors, a pickup truck and a dump truck lumbered atop the pile, smoothing parts of it. Occasionally, clouds of salt billowed above the heap. On the sidewalk below, Philip Calvalo, 46, looked at the mound as he waited for the B61 bus. He said he had not made up his mind about whether the pile was as troubling as other atmospheric contaminants. “We’re breathing in smog and all types of fumes and chemicals,” he said. “At least salt is part of the earth.”

Salt
Brooklyn (NYC)
Red Hook (NYC)
Cobble Hill (NYC)


3 People Are Fatally Shot in a Car on Long Island

Abstract: WYANDANCH, N.Y. — Three people sitting in a parked car were shot and killed late Wednesday night and a fourth was wounded in the gunfire on a residential street in this Long Island community, the authorities said. One man and two women were pronounced dead at the scene, on Davidson Street, after a gunman approached their sport utility vehicle and opened fire, the Suffolk County police said. Another woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for her injuries and was expected to survive. As of Thursday afternoon, the police said, no one had been arrested. The police identified the three people killed as William Madrey, 25, of Wyandanch; Stephanie Almedina Rivera, 23, of Bay Shore; and Ciara Smith, 23, of Deer Park. Mr. Madrey, the police said in a statement, “is a previously self-admitted gang member.” The Suffolk County police were investigating whether gang affiliations contributed to the shooting. Detective Lieutenant Kevin Beyrer said at a news conference that the police were looking for a male suspect. He did not rule out the possibility that there could have been multiple killers. “It’s way too early to narrow the focus of this investigation,” Detective Lt. Beyrer said. He added that investigators were trying to learn why the victims had been sitting in the car, a 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer, between 46 and 50 Davidson Street, on Wednesday night. The shooting was reported at 11:50 p.m. Hours later, investigators were still combing the street of single-family homes. Image Virginia Dawson-Taylor, president of the Wyandanch community-based neighborhood watch group, said, “We have people in this neighborhood that are afraid to go out of their house after dark.” Credit John Taggart for The New York Times Aliesha Brown, 22, said she was awakened by the sound of gunfire across the street from her home. Violence has become so routine here and in other nearby towns, she said, that it barely fazed her. “It’s regular; it happens everywhere, so why be scared?” said Ms. Brown, speaking through her window screen. Wyandanch has struggled for decades to curb drug dealing and gun violence. The community is one of the poorest in Suffolk County; about 18 percent of residents live below the poverty level, almost triple the rate in Suffolk County, according to the most recent census data. Some homes on and around Davidson Street on Thursday appeared to have been abandoned. Virginia Dawson-Taylor, the president of a Wyandanch neighborhood watch group and a resident here since 1950, said that in an earlier era, life in the community was different. Residents would leave their doors open and welcome guests into their homes without reservation. Now, she said, people are afraid. “We have people in this neighborhood that are afraid to go out of their house after dark,” she said. “It’s like every week, you hear gunshots going off, you see helicopters flying over.” Ms. Dawson-Taylor added that the area needed more police patrols, pointing to a house on the block where she said residents had complained of drug activity. “It’s a priority in every other town, and Wyandanch should be no different,” she said. Antoinne Poole, 24, who lives near the scene of the shooting, said he was shot last year by a stray bullet. While the victims of the shooting on Wednesday appeared to be the intended targets, he lamented that it could have happened to anyone. “That could’ve been me,” said Mr. Poole, whose nighttime walk in the neighborhood takes him past the shooting site. On Wednesday night, he said, he happened to walk in the opposite direction.

Long Island
Wyandanch
Murders and Homicides
Fatalities,casualties


High in the Air, Artist Attracts a Crowd

Abstract: I ALWAYS take a sketch pad with me when I fly. And I fly quite a bit, sometimes to meet with clients. Other times just for pleasure. There is something wonderful about being 35,000 feet in the air, looking down on the earth, that gives an artist a new perspective. I make my home in Sun Valley , Idaho , and often travel to Los Angeles as well as Europe . No matter where I go, though, I find that the world is a very small place. But from an artist’s perspective, the world is full of wonders. Most of my work has a New England look to it, and I figure I must have lived there in another life. My paintings are generally labeled as “Americana,” and I must say that the American landscape is truly lovely. As are its people. When I’m traveling I do rough drawings in pencil. One of my greatest joys is simply looking out the window of an airplane as we are making an airport approach, taking off or simply flying low. You can see beautiful fields of green, depending on where I’m flying, or a complete urban landscape. Both are interesting in their own way. I try to imagine the type of people who live and work and love in all the little towns, and very often I get inspirations. I sketch out some thoughts and then let my imagination run wild. When I bring out my sketch pad midflight, fellow travelers are always curious about what I’m doing. Art brings people together. Even if I’m simply sketching a tree, a cow or a horse, I always get a crowd gathered around my seat to see what I’m doing. People will then return to their assigned spots and then come back several times during the flight to see how my drawing has progressed. I’ve had many conversations with seatmates who tell me how they wish they painted or sketched or did something artistic. I tell them to go for it. They may be surprised by what transpires. I’ve also made some good contacts with seatmates interested in the art world. I even sold a couple of paintings once while sitting in one of Delta’s Crown Room Clubs at the airport. People interested in planes and flying are a different breed. I have done several paintings where buyers wanted their private jet portrayed in the picture. I really do believe that I could have had some artistic license with the family members in the picture. But that plane needed to be right on the money, just like a photograph. The last thing they wanted was for their jets to look like folk art. In the days before security tightened so much, I often carried a finished canvas on board with me. Those days are long gone. Now it’s just me, my sketch pad and my carry-on. Although I am sometimes traveling for as long as 10 days at a time, I don’t pack luggage. I’ve managed to figure out how to pack just a few items of clothing in a carry-on bag to get me through my sojourns. I’m proud of the fact I can combine and mix and match and make every outfit look different each time it’s worn. The key, of course, is accessories. I consider that an art form, which would make the minimalists proud.

Art
Idaho
Europe
Airlines and Airplanes
Sun Valley (Idaho)
Los Angeles (Calif)


California: Ban on Plastic Bags Spreads

Abstract: Los Angeles County supervisors approved a measure on Tuesday that bars stores in the unincorporated parts of the county from handing out single-use plastic bags. An estimated 1.1. million people live in those areas. The ordinance, which does not include Los Angeles and other cities in the county, also requires stores to charge 10 cents for each paper bag given to customers. It goes into effect next year. The California cities of Fairfax, Malibu, Palo Alto and San Francisco have also enacted such bans.


U.S. Airstrike Killed Iraqis by Accident, Officials Say

Abstract: ABOARD THE U.S.S. KEARSARGE — An airstrike that mistakenly killed Iraqi troops on Friday was carried out by an American plane, United States officials said on Saturday. The episode poses a fresh challenge to the Obama administration’s efforts to expand cooperation with the Iraqis in fighting the Islamic State, and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was quick to call the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to express his condolences and invite Iraq to participate in an investigation. Mr. Carter did not offer a detailed explanation for the errant airstrike, which killed nine Iraqi soldiers and one officer, according to Iraq’s defense minister. But Mr. Carter said, “It seemed to be a mistake that involved both sides.” “These kind of things can happen when you are fighting side by side as we are, on a dynamic battlefield,” Mr. Carter told reporters aboard the Kearsarge, an assault ship deployed in the Persian Gulf. Another American official, who asked for anonymity to discuss an episode under investigation, said the plane that carried out the attack was a B-1B bomber, which dropped several bombs as it was supporting Iraqi forces battling Islamic State fighters near Falluja. At least one of those bombs, it appears, struck the Iraqi troops. Bad weather may have been a contributing factor, American and Iraqi officials say. With fog in the area, it may have been difficult for reconnaissance drones or aircraft to keep track of the shifting Iraqi positions. A third American official said the Iraqi troops appeared to have been closer to the target area than the Americans had realized. There have been few instances of “friendly fire” in Iraq since the American-led campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, began last year. One important military question raised by the attack is whether the risk of such episodes might be reduced by deploying teams of air controllers with the Iraqi forces, particularly when Iraqi troops are fighting with the Islamic State in urban areas or at close quarters. Seeking to minimize the risk of American casualties, the Obama administration decided early in the campaign that the American advisers and trainers who are assisting Iraqi troops would work inside the confines of several large bases in Iraq. But that has meant that American commanders have had to rely on aircraft to confirm the targeting information provided by Iraqi troops instead of on American air controllers on the battlefield. A broader political question is whether the episode will make it harder for Mr. Abadi to accept an expanded role for the United States, which is seeking to speed up the campaign against the Islamic State. Mr. Carter told Congress this month that the Obama administration was prepared to support the Iraqi military with Apache attack helicopters in its fight to reclaim Ramadi. He also said the administration was ready to deploy advisers with select Iraqi brigades. “The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi Army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers, if circumstances dictate and if requested by Prime Minister Abadi,” Mr. Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mr. Abadi, however, has been weakened by a series of political struggles with his rivals, and has come under pressure from Shiite politicians who are close to Iran to reject a greater United States military role in Iraq. He did not take up the Pentagon on its offer when he met with Mr. Carter on Wednesday. But American officials hope that Mr. Abadi will agree to the use of Apache helicopters and advisers for future operations, which are expected to be more challenging as Iraqi forces look toward the battle for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. The political dynamics in Iraq were clear with the divergent response to the airstrike. Hakim al-Zamili, the chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s defense and security committee and a political supporter of the anti-United States Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, provided a far higher toll than the Defense Ministry’s and demanded an investigation. Mr. Abadi, however, accepted Mr. Carter’s explanation that the episode was a genuine mistake, and expressed hope that politicians in Iraq and elsewhere would not try to exploit the airstrike for their own purposes, according to the Americans’ account of the phone call from Mr. Carter to Mr. Abadi. “He and I both expressed regret over the incident and also determination to continue the campaign to expel ISIL from Iraqi territory,” Mr. Carter said. There are signs, however, that the political debate over the incident might linger, as even Iraqi officials who work closely with the Americans say there must strict accountability. According to the Iraqi military, the Iraqis turned to the American-led coalition for air support during the fight because bad weather precluded the use of Iraqi airpower. The American plane carried out two strikes, which resulted in a significant number of Islamic State casualties and enabled the Iraqi force to quickly advance. But the coalition that did not realize that the Iraqi troops had moved forward when a third strike occurred. Khaled al-Obeidi, Iraq’s defense minister issued a statement on Saturday saying that Iraqis would carry out their own inquiry to determine whether Iraqi forces or the coalition was at fault for failing to update the information on the position of the Iraqi troops. The Iraqi government, he said, will not tolerate the loss of “Iraqi blood.”

Iraq
Iraqi Army
Pentagon
US Military
Ashton Carter
US


Bryans Keep U.S. in Davis Cup Series

Abstract: GIJÓN, Spain (AP) — Mike and Bob Bryan won the doubles match for the United States to trim Spain’s lead in the Davis Cup semifinals to 2-1 on Saturday. The Bryan twins were stretched by Marcel Granollers and Marc López in a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory in which Granollers injured his left calf during the second set. The Bryans kept the Americans in the series, winning before a near capacity crowd of 15,000, and a chance to reach the Davis Cup final in November. John Isner is scheduled to play David Ferrer in reverse singles on Sunday. Spain, the defending champion, is aiming for a fourth trip to the finals in five years. Should Isner beat the fifth-ranked Ferrer, Sam Querrey and Nicolas Almagro would play the deciding match. Spain is 37-0 after opening the semifinal with a sweep of the opening singles points. The United States has recovered from a 0-2 deficit only once, in 1934, but its record improves when it is down by 1-2, having won five times, the last in 2000. Spain’s captain, Alex Corretja, asked Granollers to quit rather than risk injury, but he played and improved over time. López also had a bandage on his left calf. “At times we thought he was going to quit, but he kept getting the balls and hitting the serves,” Bob Bryan said after the 3-hour-38-minute match. “That’s probably one of the longest Davis Cup matches we’ve ever played.” Mike Bryan stumbled chasing down a drop shot to miss out on the first match point, but López double-faulted on the second opportunity. “It’s a shame, because we felt really good today,” said López before referring to his calf problem, which forced him to retire from a United States Open doubles semifinal. “It happened to me in the U.S. one week ago. It’s tough.” Almagro defeated Isner in a five-set thriller on Friday, and Querrey lost to Ferrer in four sets. Combined, Almagro and Ferrer are 23-1 on clay in Davis Cup competition.


Out of Syria, Into a European Maze

Abstract: SYRACUSE, Sicily — As war rages on, more refugees are risking a journey to what they hope will be prosperous new lives. Fifty miles off the southeastern coast of Sicily, the refugee boat first appeared as a gray spot on the horizon, rising up or dipping away with the churn of the Mediterranean. Then, as an Italian Coast Guard rescue ship drew closer, the small boat came fully into view, as did the dim figure of a man, standing on the bow, waving a white blanket. Adrift at sea, the boat heaved with about 150 Syrians fleeing war. Mothers in head scarves clutched infants. A child wore a SpongeBob life jacket. Smugglers had left them alone with a satellite phone and an emergency number in Italy: Save us, they pleaded to the Italians before the phone went dead. We are lost. Capt. Roberto Mangione shouted for everyone to stay calm as he positioned his Coast Guard ship alongside the listing trawler. The Syrians, pale and beleaguered, started clapping. They had been at sea for six days, drinking fetid water, enduring a terrifying storm. One man combed his hair, as if preparing to greet his new life. A woman named Abeer, dazed and exhausted, thought: salvation, at last. “I had nothing left in Syria,” she explained after stepping onto the rescue boat. She had fled with her husband and three teenage children. “We came with nothing but ourselves to Europe.” The Syrian exodus has become one of the gravest global refugee crises of recent decades. More than two million people have fled Syria’s civil war, most resettling in neighboring Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. But since this summer, refugees have also started pouring into Europe in what became for many weeks a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean. Over five months, Italy’s Coast Guard rescued thousands of Syrians, even as hundreds of other migrants, including many Syrians, died in two major shipwrecks in October. For many, reaching Europe was merely the beginning of another difficult journey. Having risked their lives in hopes of settling in prospering Northern Europe, many Syrians found themselves trapped in the south, living illegally in Italy, hiding from the police, as they tried to sneak past border guards and travel north to apply for asylum. Image Syrian refugees huddled under Mylar blankets, used to keep them warm and dry, after being rescued by Italian Coast Guard. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times One Syrian man set himself on fire in Rome in October as a protest. In Milan, the financial capital and a transit hub near Italy’s northern border, Syrians began arriving in August, and kept coming as late as November, as refugees took shelter in the central train station, presenting local officials with a dilemma: help them or arrest them? “This is a humanitarian emergency,” Pierfrancesco Majorino, a Milan council member, said in late October. From the outset, Europe’s response to the Syrian refugees has pitted the ideals of the Continent against the hard reality of European immigration and asylum laws. After the October shipwrecks, European leaders pledged to increase patrols and rescue operations in the Mediterranean — long a demand of southern countries like Italy, which have complained of bearing Europe’s burden. But Europe’s broader policies on migration and asylum remain riddled with contradictions and mixed signals. This year, Germany and Sweden promised generous benefits and asylum for Syrian refugees, which inspired thousands of Syrians to pay extortionate fees to smugglers to make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. Yet upon reaching Italy, the gateway to Europe, the Syrians have been ensnared in red tape: European law requires that the police immediately fingerprint and register them as refugees in Italy — and asylum seekers must make their applications in the country where they are first fingerprinted and registered. Few Syrians want asylum in Italy, where the economy is mired in recession and benefits for migrants are meager. Once fingerprinted, however, even if the Syrians make it north to Sweden or Germany, they can be sent back to Italy, where the asylum process often drags on for months. “They are not offering us things we left our country for — no jobs, no homes,” Abeer said. “They are sympathetic. But I didn’t leave Damascus to live like that. Poverty is as bad as war.” Like most Syrians interviewed for this article, Abeer asked to be identified by a single name out of fear of saying anything that might bring retribution to family members still in Syria. Image Credit The New York Times Abeer’s rescue at sea on Oct. 2 came weeks after her family fled Syria. They had planned to leave Italy quickly for Sweden. Instead, they spent nearly a month bouncing around Italy, desperately raising money for a trip north, trying to elude the police and immigration authorities. “I thought things were going to be easier,” she said later at a park in Milan. “But no. Our dreams have begun to fade.” Rescue at Sea The storm hit on the second day. Rain battered the refugee boat as heavy winds spun it up and down the lines of high, rolling waves. Land was nowhere to be seen. People retched from seasickness. “We began to believe we would be dead,” Abeer said. Her family had left Syria on Sept. 13, shattered by the war. Her husband’s company had been destroyed in a bombing raid. Her teenage son, confronted on the street by a security officer, narrowly escaped being shot. Violence kept creeping closer. A man was killed in a car parked in front of their home. On another day, Abeer found a head on the street. She started selling things — rings, a necklace, a laptop computer, her cellphone. Her relatives and friends sent money until she had raised $11,000. Traveling to Europe by land is very difficult, so most Syrians pay smugglers to take them by boat. Abeer’s family flew to Egypt and spent 15 days shuttling between safe houses in the port city of Alexandria, until they were rushed onto a tiny boat in the early morning darkness, as the smugglers cursed them. “They were threatening us all the time,” Abeer said. Smuggling operations have long flourished in northern Africa, often along the coasts of Libya or Tunisia, only 70 miles or so from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Critics of Europe’s immigration policies say smugglers thrive because Europe has created too few legal channels for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, especially for poor refugees seeking to escape countries such as Eritrea or Somalia. For reasons of proximity, most Syrians travel through Egypt rather than Libya, and many of those coming to Europe are from the middle class, including pharmacists, engineers and shop owners. In interviews with dozens of Syrians now in Italy, several said they had ruled out Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey, because Europe offers the potential of professional opportunities and lifestyles similar to what they left behind. Image Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times “I hear the Syrian people get bad treatment in Jordan and Lebanon,” said one man, Basim, a medical technician who spent 10 days at sea to reach Italy. “Sweden, I will go to Sweden. Sweden is good life.” The Egyptian route can take six days or longer, with smugglers charging $1,000 to $3,500 per person to reach the waters near Sicily. Many of the boats are 55-foot wooden trawlers that have been stripped down to rickety hulls, making it easier for smugglers to press as many as 500 people onboard. Usually, smugglers depart Egypt with the refugees packed onto a large “mother” ship that is towing a smaller trawler. Once reaching Italian waters, the refugees are pushed onto the smaller boat, handed a satellite phone and given emergency numbers in Italy. The smugglers turn back to Egypt on the larger ship, leaving the Syrians abandoned at sea, sometimes for several days, waiting to be rescued. “They are so desperate,” said Luca Sancilio, who served as commander of the Coast Guard station in Syracuse until mid-November when he was promoted to a new position in Rome. “We’ve seen people in wheelchairs, and people with amputated limbs.” The smugglers abandoned Abeer’s boat on the fifth day, promising it would reach land in three hours. But 15 hours had passed, and people became increasingly desperate. Abeer, utterly exhausted, said she began to contemplate suicide. Then, in the distance, the Italian rescue ship came into view. “When we saw the boat, we thought, ‘At last, we are saved,'” Abeer said. “I forgot all the pain. We were going to be on the earth again. I hated the sea.” But as the Italian rescue ship came near, the Syrians also reminded themselves: no fingerprints in Italy. Video A boat packed with Syrian refugees fleeing the war bobbed in the sea about 50 miles off the southeastern coast of Sicily as the Italian Coast Guard approached. Credit Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times Clenched Fists Day or night, as refugees have poured into Syracuse throughout the summer and early fall, even the tourists at the outdoor cafes have succumbed to the spectacle. On some nights, they press against the temporary fencing at the dock, snapping photographs and watching in silence as Syrians stagger off Coast Guard rescue boats. “The numbers are so big this year that there is no comparison,” said Commander Sancilio of the Coast Guard. Last year, Coast Guard boats in Syracuse rescued 572 migrants at sea. By late November this year, the number had exceeded 11,500, mostly Syrians or Palestinians who had been living for generations in Syria. Tragedy is common. Coast Guard crews have found bodies on refugee boats; one mother saw both her children die on a journey and had to toss their bodies overboard. Captain Mangione, who leads many of the rescue missions, carries a gurney because his crew often has to transfer people with gunshot wounds suffered in Syria. But there is also joy. In late September, a Syrian man named Jaffar arrived at the Coast Guard office in tears. A year earlier, he had escaped to Finland; now he had come to Sicily to find his brother and two nephews. He had tracked them by text message until they fled by boat from Egypt. When the boat was brought in a day later, Jaffar tried to break past the police as the refugees slowly stepped onto the dock. “My brother! My brother!” he shouted at the sight of a weary man holding a small child, a second boy standing nearby. He then held out his mobile phone and broadcast live images, via Skype, to his brother’s wife, still in Syria. Hours after refugees arrive at the dock, the police and customs officials are required to take fingerprints and register each person into a Europe-wide database. Many times, Syrians will clench their fists, refusing to reveal their fingertips. In some instances, Syrians have complained that the police forced them to submit, even beating them. Abeer was supposed to represent her group with the Italian authorities. In Syria, she had taught English in a Palestinian settlement and assumed she could communicate with the authorities in Sicily. But at the dock, she was rushed to a hospital after nearly fainting from exhaustion. When she returned, the police were in a tense confrontation with a group of Syrian men after 20 people had been forcibly fingerprinted. A Rescue at Sea 10 Photos View Slide Show › Image Bryan Denton for The New York Times “I went to the gate and asked for the police officer,” she said. “He said, ‘O.K., I promise you I’m not going to oblige anyone else.’ They were very kind. They brought us food, coats and milk.” And the fingerprinting stopped. The fingerprints tether a person in a system that requires asylum seekers to make applications in the country where they are first registered. Even if Syrians make it north to Sweden or Germany, they are sent back to Italy, where the asylum process can drag on for months and where benefits are paltry. In Syracuse, the entry point into Italy’s immigration system is a nondescript holding center on the outskirts of the city, where newly arrived migrants await asylum hearings. The gate is left open, and when the Syrians on Abeer’s boat arrived at the center, several people left almost immediately for the closest train station. Abeer’s family stayed for two days, calling friends and relatives to raise 2,000 euros, about $2,700. Then they walked six miles to the bus station. Leaving was easy. But it also meant that they were now in the country illegally. Escape From Italy On Oct. 18, a Friday, families loitered on benches inside a park on the outskirts of Milan as children ran in circles, laughing. Only slowly did it become clear that most of the people in the park were Syrian, including Abeer and her family. They were different now. Gone was the veil once worn by Abeer. The two teenage girls wore clingy jeans and jewelry. Abeer combed out her hair and wore makeup. This was not a celebration of a more permissive culture. They were trying to blend in, to avoid notice as illegal migrants. The €2,000 that had bankrolled their departure from Sicily was now mostly gone. They had taken trains and buses to Rome and Tuscany, then up to Milan, back to Tuscany, and back again to Milan, living on the run. They tried to fly to Denmark but were stopped by a guard at the Milan airport who refused to let them pass through security. “I told her she had to help us,” Abeer said. “We were refugees. But she didn’t help.” In a holding room at the Milan airport, the police pressured the family for fingerprints. They refused, and finally a sympathetic officer let them go, offering a piece of advice: Stay away from trains and planes. Stuck in Milan, they slept on the floor of a mosque, trying to find another way north. Video Tragedy is common, when the refugees come ashore. But there is also joy, as there was when a man named Jaffar came to the harbor to look for his brother and two nephews. Credit Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times Nor were they alone in Italy’s fashion and financial capital. At Milan’s central train station, beneath billboards for Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana, a few hundred Syrians were squatting on the mezzanine as passengers hurried by in late October. “A week ago, there were 40 to 50 people here,” said Jesu Issam Kabakebbji, an Italian of Syrian descent, as he sat beside a group of city social service workers, registering the Syrians in the station. “Today, I’ve registered more than 240 names. What are we going to do when the next train from the south comes with more Syrians?” Officials in Milan, rather than arrest the Syrians, decided to help by establishing an unofficial “humanitarian corridor,” arranging showers at Catholic charities and even assigning rooms in local homeless shelters. Asked whether housing illegal migrants complied with Italian law, Mr. Majorino, the council member, laughed. “I don’t really know,” he said. “I just know that what we are doing is right. We can’t become the Damascus of Italy. But we have a moral obligation to these people, before a political one.” Some Syrians had managed to cross the Austrian border by train, only to be sent back by immigration agents. One of them, Alan Ali, 21, a dentistry student from Damascus, had been among the survivors in October of the second shipwreck , in Maltese waters, when he swam to a life raft tossed out of a military airplane from Malta. “I was swimming,” he said. “But our friends could not swim. Many children died. Many people died. Pregnant women.” For Abeer’s family, the chance to escape Italy came unexpectedly. A contact in Germany agreed to drive down and bring them to Dortmund. But the car could hold only Abeer and her three children. Her husband would have to remain in Milan and find another way north. The car arrived in Milan on Oct. 25. Two days later, after detouring through France, they reached Germany. Then, after a few days more, they boarded a bus and then a train for Sweden. The trip took 32 hours, but they made it. And Abeer’s husband also found safe passage. Appearing before Swedish authorities, the family finally offered their fingerprints. By November, they had started the application process for residency permits, the first step in building a new life. “We are looking forward to having a room, not a house,” she said before leaving Milan. “Opening the door, closing the door. Being a family again.”

Syria
Italy
Smuggling
Right of asylum
Refugees,Internally Displaced People


Packers Report Lower Profits Amid Higher Player Salaries

Abstract: Escalating player salaries continued to chew into the profits of the Green Bay Packers last year, the team said Wednesday during its annual earnings report. Operating profits declined for the fourth straight year, to $9.8 million, a decline of 51 percent compared with last year, the team said. At the same time, player salaries jumped 16 percent to $161 million, consuming almost all of the team’s growth in revenue, which rose 4 percent to a record $258 million in the fiscal year that ended in March. “It’s not a sustainable model,” said Mark Murphy, the team’s chief executive. In the four years since the last labor agreement was signed, player costs have risen 11.8 percent while revenue has grown 5.5 percent, Murphy said. The Packers are the only publicly held team in the N.F.L. and the only team to open its books. As a result, they serve as a proxy for the finances of other teams and the league over all. Team owners have complained for several years that they are being squeezed because of rising player salaries. The players contend that the owners are pleading poverty as a way to win concessions from them during negotiations over the next collective bargaining agreement, which expires in March 2011. “I think the owners are really very strongly united that the system needs to be changed,” Murphy said. Because of a stand-off between the two sides, the teams have no salary limits or floors this season, a prospect that has put pressure on smaller market teams. However, teams did not go on the spending spree that players had hoped for when the cap disappeared. In response to the Packers’ financial report, the president of the N.F.L. Players Association, Kevin Mawae, said: “It’s 1/32nd of the financial information we’ve requested in response to their demand that we give back $1 billion and increase our risk of injury by playing two additional games.” The Packers, like many teams, have also been hurt by the sluggish economy. Almost all the growth in their revenue last year came from national sources — television broadcast rights, revenue from ticket sales during road games and so on. Revenue from ticket sales to home games and from gift shops in Green Bay and elsewhere fell half of one percent, and has been largely unchanged for three years. The decline came in spite of the fact that the team won 11 games and made the playoffs. “The financial downturn we’ve seen in the economy has certainly had an impact,” Murphy said. “I think people are feeling better about it, but there’s still a sense of caution.” Additionally, income from the team’s investments fell 81 percent, to $2.1 million.

Green Bay Packers
Football
Company Reports


The Fed Will Publish a Forecast on Rate Moves

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will begin later this month to publish the predictions of its senior officials about their own decisions, hoping to increase its influence over economic activity by guiding investor expectations. The change was approved at the most recent meeting of the Fed’s policy-making committee, in December, but was kept secret until Tuesday afternoon, when the Fed released an account of the meeting after a standard three-week delay. The inaugural forecast, set for Jan. 25, will show the range of predictions made by Fed officials about the level of short-term interest rates in the fourth quarter of 2012, 2013 and 2014, although it will not list individual predictions. It also will summarize when they expect to start raising short-term rates, which they have held near zero since late 2008. And it will describe their plans for the Fed’s investment portfolio. The forecast could reduce borrowing costs for businesses and consumers by convincing investors that the Fed intends to keep rates near zero for longer than expected. But the benefits most likely would be modest, as rates already are very low and already are widely expected to remain near zero into 2014. A more significant possibility, is that the changes will set the stage for the Fed to announce an expansion of its existing economic aid campaign, for example, by once again increasing its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage -backed securities. According to the meeting minutes, “a number of members” of the 10-person committee “indicated that current and prospective economic conditions could well warrant additional policy accommodation, but they believed that any additional actions would be more effective if accompanied by enhanced communication.” This, however, is unlikely to have any broad impact on the economy, because the Fed lacks the power to address the most important issues weighing on growth, including a lack of demand from gloomy consumers, high levels of debt throughout the economy and the depressed condition of the housing market. Stock traders took the Fed’s announcement in stride as indexes continued their rise in the first day of trading in 2012. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed up 1.6 percent. The Fed’s staff, which prepares an economic forecast noted for its unusual accuracy in an uncertain business, reduced its medium-term outlook for growth, citing the impact of events in Europe , according to the minutes. “The Fed’s core problem right now is that the parts of the economy through which those interest rate effects would normally get traction are blocked,” said Vincent Reinhart, chief United States economist at Morgan Stanley and a former senior Fed staff official. “It is not clear how effective any of these policies will be.” The change in communications policy is part of a broader effort by the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke , to improve public understanding of the central bank’s goals and methodology. It formalizes a series of experiments with forecasting that the Fed has made in recent years, beginning with its statement in December 2008 that rates would remain near zero “for some time.” Talking about future policy was a longstanding taboo among central bankers, who worried that investors would treat the predictions as promises and react badly when some predictions inevitably were off base. But the Fed now is casting its lot with the growing camp that regards shaping expectations as a primary tool for monetary policy, and is eager to seize any opportunity. The forecast will summarize the predictions of the Fed’s five governors — two seats on the board are vacant — and the 12 presidents of its regional banks , only five of whom hold votes on the committee at a given time. It will be included in an existing forecast of economic conditions — the rates of growth, inflation and unemployment — that the Fed publishes four times a year. In presenting those forecasts, the Fed excludes the three highest and the three lowest estimates submitted by the officials. It then reports the highest and lowest predictions among the remaining 11 forecasts, showing a range that it describes as the “central tendency.” For example, the forecast published in November, showed the committee expected growth of 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent in 2012. The Fed also will publish what it described as “qualitative information” regarding the committee’s expectations about the management of the Fed’s balance sheet. The Fed’s plans for buying or selling assets are, at present, of even greater interest to most investors than the path of short-term interest rates. Support for the changes was not unanimous, according to the minutes, which said that some “did not see providing policy projections as a useful step at this time.” But no formal vote was recorded. Instead, the minutes reflect that the participants — not just the 10 members with votes — reached a consensus.


Alcoa Posts Profit on Shift in Operations

Abstract: Alcoa earned a profit in the first quarter after posting a loss a year earlier, reflecting its continuing shift from traditional smelting and refining to value-added businesses like automotive and aerospace, the company said on Wednesday. It also reaffirmed its 2015 forecasts for its major markets. Also on Wednesday, Alcoa said it expected the world aluminum market to have a surplus of 326,000 metric tons in 2015. The company’s earnings, excluding restructuring costs, beat market expectations, but its revenue lagged analysts’ estimates, sending Alcoa shares down more than 3 percent in after-hours trading. Alcoa’s chief executive, Klaus Kleinfeld, said in a telephone interview that all of Alcoa’s growth over the previous year came from its new businesses, as it had shut down or reduced a large portion of its essential aluminum smelting and refining business. “This shows that our strong operational transformation is fully on track,” Mr. Kleinfeld said, adding, “we have more work to do.” The company has been moving away from its traditional, more costly smelting operations in pursuit of more value-added products for the automotive and aerospace industries. Last month, the company announced a strategic review of 14 percent of its global smelting capacity and 16 percent of its global refining capacity. Last week, Alcoa said it was curtailing the remaining smelting capacity at a plant in Brazil as part of that process. The company has made several acquisitions recently to increase its focus on aerospace products. In March, Alcoa announced it had agreed to buy RTI International Metals, a titanium supplier whose customers include Boeing, for $1.3 billion. The surplus forecast differed sharply from Alcoa’s January estimate of a 38,000-metric-ton deficit for 2015, largely driven by an increase in its estimate for output in China, a top producer. “China continues to add capacity,” said William Oplinger, the company’s chief financial officer. “Smelters have been reluctant to curtail as prices have recovered.” Demand for aluminum remained strong, he said, noting that global inventories continue to fall and are at 66 days of consumption, just above their 30-year average of 61 days. “The industry needs metal to operate,” Mr. Oplinger said. “So as metal comes out of inventory it is being absorbed through higher demand.” Alcoa said it expected growth in global aerospace sales to reach 9 to 10 percent in 2015 and worldwide automotive production to rise 2 to 4 percent. The company posted first-quarter net income of $195 million, or 14 cents a share, in contrast to a loss of $178 million, or 16 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding restructuring costs, Alcoa earned $363 million, or 28 cents a share. Wall Street analysts had expected 26 cents, according to Reuters. Alcoa reported revenue of $5.82 billion, up nearly 7 percent from $5.45 billion a year earlier, but short of the $5.94 billion expected by analysts. In after-hours trading, Alcoa shares were down more than 3 percent at $13.21.


Valencia Rallies in Europa League

Abstract: Valencia fought back from a three-goal first-leg deficit by beating Basel, 5-0, in extra time to qualify for the Europa League semifinals. Pablo Alcácer scored a hat trick. The competition favorite, Juventus, advanced after a tense 2-1 win at home over Lyon. Host Sevilla beat Porto, 4-1, to qualify by 4-2 on aggregate, and Benfica beat visiting AZ Alkmaar, 2-0, for a 3-0 aggregate victory. ■ Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is likely to miss the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona next Wednesday because of a leg injury. Madrid said medical scans revealed a muscle injury in his left leg in addition to a left knee injury he had been nursing. (AP) ■ Seattle Sounders forward Clint Dempsey is Major League Soccer’s highest-paid player, at $6,695,000 in guaranteed compensation this season. Midfielder Michael Bradley is second, at $6.5 million, followed by his Toronto teammate Jermain Defoe, at $6.18 million, according to figures released by the M.L.S. players union.

Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo
Soccer
UEFA Europa League
Valencia Soccer Team
Basel Soccer Team


North Carolina Wins Fourth Straight Game at Duke

Abstract: Ty Lawson scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half as No. 3 North Carolina rallied past No. 6 Duke, 101-87, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night. Hansbrough scored 17 points for the Tar Heels (22-2, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who became the first team in nine seasons to score at least 100 points against Duke. Trailing by 52-44 at halftime, the Tar Heels took the lead for good on a late 25-11 run, snapping the Blue Devils’ 14-game home winning streak and claiming first place in the conference. Wayne Ellington and Danny Green each scored 15 points. Green and Hansbrough joined the former Wake Forest standouts Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue as the only players to beat Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski four straight times at Cameron. Kyle Singler scored 22 points and Jon Scheyer added 20 for Duke (20-4, 7-3). Gerald Henderson finished with 17 points but was just 1 for 9 in the second half. UCONN 63, SYRACUSE 49 Hasheem Thabeet had 8 points, 16 rebounds and 7 blocks to lead top-ranked Connecticut to its 12th straight victory. A. J. Price had 17 points for the host Huskies (23-1, 11-1 Big East), who had to play almost the entire game without their second-leading scorer, Jerome Dyson. He injured his knee four minutes into the game and did not return. Jonny Flynn had 16 points for No. 23 Syracuse (18-7, 6-6). It was Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun’s 797th victory; he is second among active coaches and eight victories ahead of Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. CINCINNATI 71, ST. JOHN’S 61 Yancy Gates scored 21 points as host Cincinnati opened up a 21-point lead before holding off St. John’s. The Bearcats (17-8, 7-5 Big East) shot a season-high 62.8 percent from the field and extended their winning streak to three games. Paris Horne scored 20 points to lead the Red Storm (12-12, 3-9), which slipped to .500 for the first time this season with its third straight loss. OKLAHOMA 78, BAYLOR 63 Blake Griffin had 18 points and 10 rebounds for his 21st double-double this season, tying an Oklahoma record, and the No. 2 Sooners (24-1, 10-0 Big 12) won their 30th consecutive game over host Baylor (15-9, 3-7). N.C. STATE 82, WAKE FOREST 76 Brandon Costner scored 23 points to help host North Carolina State (13-9, 3-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeat No. 7 Wake Forest (18-4, 5-4). DAYTON 71, XAVIER 58 Chris Wright led a balanced offense with 19 points, and host Dayton (22-3, 8-2 Atlantic 10) ended its six-game losing streak against No. 14 Xavier (20-4, 8-2). IN OTHER GAMES No. 8 Memphis (21-3, 9-0 Conference USA) routed visiting Tulsa (17-8, 7-3) for its 15th straight victory, 63-37. ... No. 20 Purdue (18-6, 7-4 Big Ten) beat visiting Penn State (17-8, 6-6), 61-47. ... Massachusetts (9-13, 4-5 Atlantic 10) beat host Fordham (3-18, 1-8), 91-68. ... Rhode Island (17-8, 6-4 Atlantic 10) rallied past visiting St. Bonaventure (12-11, 3-7), 87-80. DUKE STUDENT HAS MENINGITIS A Duke freshman who camped outside Cameron Indoor Stadium for a chance to see the men’s basketball game against North Carolina has contracted bacterial meningitis. Officials said that the infection was caught early and that the student was expected to recover fully. Women CONNECTICUT 77, ST. JOHN’S 64 Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles each scored 21 points to help top-ranked Connecticut remain unbeaten with a victory at St. John’s. Maya Moore had 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Huskies (24-0, 10-0 Big East) continued their best start since beginning the 2002-3 season 31-0. Da’Shena Stevens scored 27 points for St. John’s (15-8, 3-7).

Basketball
College Athletics
University of Connecticut
Thabeet Hasheem
Syracuse University


Colts Put Emphatic End to Jets’ Surprising Run

Abstract: INDIANAPOLIS — The Jets trudged toward their locker room in silence as confetti swirled behind them on the field. The N.F.L. ’s most talkative team had finally been muted, muzzled by quarterback Peyton Manning and the explosive hometown Colts in the American Football Conference championship game. The family of Coach Rex Ryan leaned against a railing. Several members appeared near tears. Ryan had turned a team, an organization and a league into believers, yet the Colts were the ones headed to the Super Bowl while the Jets only added to their 41-year drought. After the Colts completed their 30-17 triumph Sunday in front of the 67,650 who blanketed Lucas Oil Stadium in blue, Jets receiver Braylon Edwards embraced Rob Ryan, Rex’s twin, along the railing. “We’ll be back next year,” Edwards said. He sounded convinced and devastated. A month ago, even the Jets believed their season was finished; even Rex Ryan declared their playoff chances dead. What happened afterward seemed like divine intervention to the players. The Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals rested starters in the final two regular-season games, the Jets won two road playoff games, and the Jets’ bandwagon filled to capacity. Receiver Jerricho Cotchery was a believer. Despite Manning’s mastery, despite his 377 yards passing and 3 touchdowns, Cotchery was convinced until he glanced at the scoreboard and watched the final seconds tick away. He was certain this season would last another two weeks until the very moment that it ended. That the Jets’ roster is stocked with talented young players offered little solace for many. “You never know when an opportunity like this is going to come again,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “Maybe this football team needed to get here and have this experience in order to take the next step. We thought we were ready this year. Maybe we weren’t.” In the back corner of the visitors’ locker room, tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson reflected and dressed at the same time. He predicted before this season that he would make the Pro Bowl and that the Jets would win the Super Bowl. He got one call right. Ferguson tried to peddle positives. He pointed to the growth of quarterback Mark Sanchez over the final month. He talked about how the team stuck together when it lost six of seven games and fell to 4-6. In two weeks, Ferguson claimed he would feel better about this season, more proud. Told that he spit out the positives like bad broccoli, Ferguson relented. “I definitely don’t feel that way right now,” he said. The Jets played the first 28 minutes about as well as they could have hoped. Sanchez dropped an 80-yard play-action touchdown pass into Edwards’s waiting arms. Brad Smith, the college quarterback the Jets converted to wide receiver, threw a 45-yard strike to Cotchery that set up Sanchez’s second touchdown toss. On that play, Sanchez found tight end Dustin Keller for a 9-yard score. Keller is a Purdue graduate and Indiana native whose uncle Tony Kendall died last week. Kendall left Keller a voice mail message Tuesday, told him to give everything he had. Keller responded with his third touchdown this postseason, one dedicated to Uncle Tony. Linebacker David Harris had already sacked Manning twice, and the Jets had built a 17-6 advantage at the two-minute warning. Then Manning found Austin Collie for a 46-yard gain, setting up a 16-yard touchdown pass to Collie on the next play. The Jets still led, 17-13, but the game changed there, at that moment. Ryan said the score “took the wind out of our sails.” Players went a step further. In the locker room at halftime, they said there was palpable frustration, a sense that the lead they held was tenuous, that the score before the half would come back to haunt them, somehow. “We were 30 minutes away, 30 minutes from the Super Bowl,” tackle Damien Woody said. More blows came in the third quarter. Running back Shonn Greene, the first rookie in N.F.L. history to gain at least 125 rushing yards in his first two postseason games, left for good with a rib injury. Jay Feely missed a second field-goal attempt, this time from 52 yards out. Manning cut the Jets’ defense with the ease and precision befitting his status among the greatest quarterbacks in N.F.L. history. Ryan said the Jets tried man coverage, two-man coverage, zone coverage — “We tried you-name-it coverage,” he said — but Manning continued to exploit the Jets’ overmatched secondary. He passed for two of his touchdowns in the second half, when the Colts ensured their trip to Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 against the New Orleans Saints. “If you can’t disrupt his rhythm, he’s going to kill you,” Ryan said. Regaining life fell to Sanchez, who was attempting to become the first rookie quarterback since the N.F.L.-A.F.L. merger to win a conference title game. Sanchez surpassed 200 passing yards in only 4 of the 17 games he started before this one. But he passed for 257 yards here. He scrambled away from pressure and converted third downs, his football growth over the last month as evident as the full beard on his face. “That bodes well for next year,” fullback Tony Richardson said. “He was poised. He got us out of bad situations. He played as well as anyone could have expected.” Afterward, Richardson told his younger teammates to remember how this felt, to store the pain for future motivation. As the players stalked into the locker room, their owner, Woody Johnson, thanked them and told them he was proud. Of this season, Johnson said he had never “seen anything like it.” Johnson was as conflicted as the Jets, maybe more so. His daughter Casey was found dead at the start of this playoff run. Even wins gave Johnson little solace, and he deflected that question afterward, saying only that the Jets tried to win the game. As he left, the Jets gathered in the tunnel with their families. They spoke in hushed tones, noting both the talent that remains for next season and the difficulty teams have in returning to title games, talented or not. “All my emotions are pointing toward disappointment,” Cotchery said. “I’m not even thinking about next year. I’m disappointed all the way around.” He paused, conflicted still, then added, “We feel like we’re building something special around here.”

Football
Super Bowl
Playoff Games
Indianapolis Colts
New York Jets
National Football League


Working Without a Standard Playbook, the Fed Plans Its Moves on Rates

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In raising the interest rate it charges banks for short-term loans , the Federal Reserve set the stage on Thursday for the day when the recovering economy will lead it to begin a broader campaign to tighten monetary policy. The question now is how long it will be until that day arrives. The Fed and its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke , face a complex set of forces as they decide how and when to reverse the aggressive steps they took to contain the financial crisis and the ensuing damage to the economy. With the financial system awash in money and economic growth picking up, inflationary forces are possible. But with unemployment hovering near double digits, with Mr. Bernanke under attack for his performance in the runup to the crisis and with Congress moving to pare back the central bank’s powers, economic and political pressures are weighing against rapid interest rate increases. How Mr. Bernanke manages the pivot to tighter policy will test his skills nearly as much as the near collapse of the banking system and the worst recession in generations. Managing expectations, said Karen E. Dynan, who was a longtime Fed economist and is now co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution , is one of the Fed’s greatest challenges. “No one knows what’s going to happen as they start to withdraw this unconventional monetary policy,” she said. “These linkages are not understood. It’s critical right now for the Fed to be laying out its logic and persuading markets that its logic makes sense.” Given that unemployment is nearly 10 percent, she said, it is unusual that inflation expectations have not declined. Economic forecasters expect a core measure of inflation to average 2.39 percent a year from 2010 to 2019, an increase from 2.26 percent when the survey was last conducted, according to a quarterly survey of forecasters released last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “People are worried about the size of the balance sheet,” Ms. Dynan said. “They’re worried that there’s a tipping point whereby the Fed’s balance sheet gets so large that it triggers inflation.” Matthew J. Slaughter, an economist in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, said that any number of narratives seemed plausible. “You can reasonably tell stories about high inflation emerging in the next few years — or persistently high unemployment,” he said. “It would be great to have strong economic recovery and modest inflation.” Just as Mr. Bernanke had to improvise to create emergency programs to address the liquidity crisis threatening the capital markets, so too will he have to be nimble in unwinding them. The termination of four emergency lending programs on Feb. 1, and the quarter percentage point increase in the discount rate the Fed charges banks , mean that the Fed is reducing the liquidity it opened in 2008 when credit markets froze. But with considerable slack in the economy, the Fed says the benchmark interest rate it controls — the one that most influences rates paid by consumers and businesses — will stay near zero “for an extended period” of at least several months. “It’s hard to see inflation picking up anytime soon, so there is time for the Fed to normalize,” said Kristin J. Forbes, an economist at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management. After Mr. Bernanke presents his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress next week, the central bank will be looking ahead to March 31, its self-imposed deadline for ending its purchases of $1.25 trillion of mortgage -backed securities and another $175 billion in debts guaranteed by federally controlled housing entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . “The discount rate, from the Fed’s point of view, is not the punctuation point,” said Bruce C. Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase . “The bigger event, in terms of market reaction and consequences, is the end of the mortgage purchases.” Economists call those asset purchases, along with the Fed’s holding of interest rates near zero, quantitative easing . It is one of the most extreme forms of monetary policy, and although the Fed has now outlined an exit strategy, there is no precedent to examine. “There’s no playbook for this,” Mr. Slaughter said. “The Fed and other central banks — including the European Central Bank , the Bank of England , and the Bank of Japan , though it has dealt with quantitative easing longer — have to figure out how to shrink their balance sheets and return to more traditional central banking.” The Fed’s balance sheet reveals the depth of the challenge. As of Wednesday, the balance sheet stood at $2.2 trillion. The assets included $1.03 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and $165.6 billion in debts guaranteed by housing entities. The Fed’s asset purchases have helped to cradle the housing market and keep mortgage interest rates down. Short-term Treasury bills , historically a mainstay of the balance sheet, now make up just a tiny fraction of the picture. On the liabilities side, banks hold $1.2 trillion in reserves at the Fed. When the time comes to tighten credit, Mr. Bernanke has indicated, the Fed will start with the interest rate on excess reserves — a policy tool Congress gave the Fed in October 2008. Raising that rate would discourage banks from pulling out their reserves and increasing the money supply too quickly. It would also have the effect of lifting the benchmark Fed funds rate, the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight. Compared with the enormous challenge posed by the balance sheet, the decision to raise the discount rate on loans made directly to banks, to three-quarters of a percentage point from half a percentage point, which was effective Friday, might seem insignificant. As of Wednesday there were $14.2 billion in discount-window loans on the balance sheet, down from a peak of $110.7 billion in October 2008. But even though the Fed had indicated that the discount-rate increase was coming, the timing took many by surprise. Mark W. Olson, a financial regulatory consultant and a former Fed governor, called it “eye-catching.” “From inside the Fed, it may have been seen largely as technical, but outside the Fed, it is seen as more than that,” Mr. Olson said. The apparent divide between those who were taken aback by the timing of the increase and those who were not “probably means that he found a decent balance,” Ms. Forbes said. “If you perfectly telegraph when you’re going to do it, you might as well do it that day, since so much of interest rate and monetary policy is about expectations,” she said. “It doesn’t matter so much what it is, versus what was expected.”

Subprime Mortgage Crisis,2008 Financial Crisis


Ruling Favors Conservative Egyptian Candidate

Abstract: CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Wednesday unexpectedly declined to disqualify for the moment an ultraconservative Islamist from running for president because of his mother’s status as an American citizen. The candidate, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, is a front-runner in the polls and is known for denouncing American influence over Egypt . But his eligibility to run is in question because Egyptian law prohibits candidates with at least one parent who held foreign citizenship. Before she died in the past few years, Mr. Abu Ismail’s mother had become an American citizen, traveling with a United States passport and registering to vote in Los Angeles. Late on Wednesday, however, a court ruled in Mr. Abu Ismail’s favor in a lawsuit he had filed demanding that the Interior Ministry prove his mother had become an American citizen. The ministry was unable to produce any official Egyptian documents confirming that. By midnight, Mr. Abu Ismail’s supporters were celebrating in the streets. Still, the ruling on Wednesday did little to settle the issue. The national election commission will make the final determination of his eligibility, and it could disqualify him based on the ample American documentation of the mother’s citizenship. If Mr. Abu Ismail is disqualified, his exit from the race would benefit the two more moderate Islamist candidates: Khairat el-Shater of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a liberal former Brotherhood leader.

Egypt
Elections
Abu Ismail Hazem Salah
Citizenship and Naturalization
Politics and Government


Nuclear Issue in Limbo as Indecision Grips Japan

Abstract: TOKYO — Several industrialized countries have turned their backs on nuclear power as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including one that has already begun permanently shutting functioning plants. That country is not Japan. “Germany chose to get rid of nuclear power because of Fukushima, while the United States is still in favor, but what about Japan, where the accident took place?” said Jun Tateno, who has written several books on nuclear power. “We still have not had a proper public debate about the most fundamental question: Do we want nuclear power’s low-cost electricity for growth, or do we want a safer, nuclear-free society?” Many analysts had hoped that last Sunday’s vote to choose the next governor of Tokyo would provide just such a forum to that question, which lies at the heart of Japan’s struggle to find its economic footing after two decades of malaise. But the results of the contest — which included an impassioned though unsuccessful run by two antinuclear candidates, including a former prime minister — were unclear at best. The current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, appeared emboldened by the results, saying a day after the election that he would soon release a “realistic and balanced” energy strategy, which analysts took as meaning one that would call for restarting at least some idled nuclear plants. But some analysts warned that Mr. Abe could still face a public backlash if he is seen as rushing to return Japan to its pre-accident status quo, especially if he fails to convince enough voters that the plants can be made safe. “The no-nukes candidates lost, but that doesn’t mean there is suddenly a consensus in favor of nuclear power,” said Shiro Asano, a retired professor of politics at Keio University. The election, in fact, appears to encapsulate the indecisiveness that has kept Japan paralyzed for nearly three years, since the triple meltdowns. After decades of marching forward in the belief that the resource-poor country needed cheap nuclear power to compete economically, Japan is no longer able to muster a new national consensus on it. At root, analysts say, is the deeper angst of a nation still grappling with the question raised by the disaster: Are the majority of Japanese who appear afraid to turn the plants back on willing to enter an uncharted, nuclear-free future that might consign their country to decades of lower growth? That question has taken on new urgency as a rising China is challenging Japan’s influence in the region. Voters continue to send mixed signals, electing Mr. Abe, who has called the low-cost electricity from nuclear power a vital part of his popular Abenomics strategy to revive growth even as polls continue to show an ambivalence about atomic energy. Voters have chosen Mr. Abe’s pro-nuclear governing party in national elections, but then oppose an immediate restart of the plants in opinion polls. That fuzzy message has left this consensus-driven country without a way forward, even as its once vaunted trade surplus has turned to a deficit, with soaring bills for fossil fuels to make up for the lost nuclear power. For the moment, many Japanese have compensated for higher electricity costs by embracing conservation efforts. And as was true even in the depths of the economic downturn, life for many Japanese remains relatively comfortable. The subways run like clockwork, the country is safer than many in the world and the economy is still the world’s third largest. While there have been warnings of companies being driven overseas by high energy costs, so far the costs have at least partly been offset by an upturn in profits under Abenomics’s lower-yen, growth-promoting policies, economists say. “People cannot feel the economic damage now because of the overall lift from Abenomics,” said Koji Nomura, an economics professor at Keio University in Tokyo. “But this is a bill that will come due.” The prime minister and his allies in the business community have argued as much, saying that the idling of the nation’s 48 operable reactors since the accident three years ago threatens Abenomics by forcing Japan to import an extra $36 billion worth of natural gas and other fuel every year. But even Mr. Abe has been unwilling to force the point by turning the plants on, while a new regulatory agency has appeared reluctant to risk a public backlash by declaring reactors safe to operate. The watchdog was expected to make its first ruling last month on whether reactors meet new safety standards set in July, but a decision is now not expected until spring at the earliest. Popular fears of nuclear power have not been helped by the continuing problems that plague the cleanup at the Fukushima plant, and continued instances of the utility in charge hiding bad news, despite promises that it would change. “I don’t know which way to go,” confessed Hajime Morikawa, 35, a temporary office worker who had come out to hear one of the antinuclear advocates before the election. “I hope this becomes a step toward a nuclear-free future, but I don’t see how we can just turn the nuclear plants off.” That type of sentiment helps explain the mixed messages of last weekend’s election. While the candidate from the governing, pro-nuclear power party prevailed, analysts say he did so in part by distancing himself from its stance with vague expressions of support for a gradual phaseout of nuclear energy. The two candidates who called for immediately scrapping all atomic power plants also fared better than the results seemed to suggest, winning a combined 1.9 million votes, just 200,000 shy of the victor’s tally. And the only avowedly pro-nuclear candidate of any stature, a former general, placed a distant fourth. At the same time, analysts said, Tokyo’s voters proved unconvinced by the lofty vision articulated by the high-profile antinuclear candidate, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, and another retired prime minister, the popular Junichiro Koizumi, who campaigned at his side. In campaign speeches, the two men, both patrons of the nuclear industry turned apostates by the accident, spoke urgently of the need for Japan to discard nuclear power and become a pioneer in safer, renewable energies they say could drive an economic resurgence. But many analysts said the victory of the governing party candidate signaled that many voters found the appeals of Mr. Hosokawa and Mr. Koizumi unrealistic. As a sign of the depth of the internal conflict, fissures have begun to appear even in Japan’s once solidly pro-nuclear business world. While the powerful Keidanren lobbying group representing Japan’s business establishment still remains a vocal supporter of restarting nuclear plants, many younger companies have turned against it. Rifts have also appeared within Mr. Abe’s governing party, where a group of about 50 mostly younger lawmakers have staged a revolt against Mr. Abe’s unabashedly pro-nuclear stance. But the public has also appeared to lose interest in weekly antinuclear street protests in front of the prime minister’s residence in Tokyo, where the number of people has dropped to a few hundred from tens of thousands two years ago. Some analysts say that in the end, they expect Japan to reject both the desire to go back to the pre-accident embrace of nuclear power, and idealistic calls to take more of a chance with the future. Instead, they say, they expect Japan to go back to the compromise position of a previous government that Mr. Abe scrapped when he took power: allowing the restart of the newest plants in exchange for promises that Japan will eventually shed nuclear power as realistic alternatives are developed. “Neither Abe nor Hosokawa is at the center of public opinion,” said Takeo Kikkawa, an expert on the energy industry at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University. “A gradual phaseout remains the best answer for solving the nuclear problem while preserving growth.”

Japan
Shinzo Abe
Nuclear energy
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
Accidents and Safety


U.N. Panel Faults Sri Lanka Over Presidential Powers

Abstract: COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A United Nations human rights panel urged Sri Lanka on Friday to repeal a constitutional amendment that critics say gives the country’s president too much power. The United Nations Human Rights Committee criticized the amendment in its most recent report on how well Sri Lanka is complying with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The report said that the 18th Amendment, adopted by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in September 2010, violated the principles of the covenant because it “empowers the president to dismiss or appoint members of the judiciary and other independent bodies.” The committee said Mr. Rajapaksa’s firing of the country’s chief justice in January 2013 raised serious doubts about whether that power was consistent with basic principles of due process and judiciary independence. The Sri Lankan government rejected the committee’s views and accused the panel of bias. Keheliya Rambukwella, the country’s media and information minister, told reporters on Friday in Colombo, the capital, that the committee had ignored much more significant threats to civil and political rights posed by the insurgents of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who fought the government for decades. In particular, he cited claims that the insurgents massacred 700 Sri Lankan police officers in 1990, at the height of the conflict. “That shows very clearly how biased they are,” Mr. Rambukwella said of the committee. “There were 700 policemen who were killed, blindfolded after being asked to surrender. Have they mentioned about that? I can mention 101 cases like that.” During the Geneva-based committee’s review of Sri Lanka, the country’s representative, Ravinatha Aryasinha, asked the panel to “judge Sri Lanka in proportion to the challenges Sri Lanka has continued to face as a country emerging from a 30-year terrorist conflict.” Besides the power over judicial appointments, the 18th Amendment also repealed a two-term limit on presidential tenure, allowing Mr. Rajapaksa to run for re-election indefinitely. The United Nations committee said that in addition to repealing the amendment, Sri Lanka should take legislative steps to protect judges from political interference and from other pressures. The panel’s report also called on the country to cooperate with an investigation of alleged human rights abuses, including the disappearances of journalists, clergy members, aid workers and rights activists. The report expressed concern that a commission appointed by Mr. Rajapaksa to look into the issue had been given too narrow a mandate and was moving too slowly.

Sri Lanka
Human Rights
United Nations Human Rights Committee
Mahinda Rajapaksa
UN