Zestra Makers Claim Double Standard in Acceptance

Abstract: A WOMAN in her early 40s pops up on the TV screen. “Women are starting to talk about something they have been feeling for a long time,” she says, “wanting more sexual satisfaction.” Another woman, this one in her mid-50s says, “After I had my children, sex didn’t make me feel the same way.” And a third, “I wish it were easier for me to feel aroused.” The two-minute ad for Zestra Essential Arousal Oils, a blend of botanical oils and extracts that promise to enhance sexual arousal for women, was created by ShadowBox Entertainment Pictures. In an age of soul-bearing memoirs (adultery, addiction, incest) and frank discourse on male sexual concerns ( impotence , size), the commercial is pretty tame: middle-age women discussing how they feel less than amorous. And when compared with a commercial for, say, Fire and Ice from Trojan, which features a couple racing into a 24-hour pharmacy to buy the product, it’s downright PG.  Still, Zestra has had a difficult time getting its ad approved to run on the air, meeting resistance from TV networks, national cable stations, radio stations, and even Web sites like Facebook and WebMD. Rachel Braun Scherl, the president of Semprae Laboratories, which manufactures Zestra, believes it is because of the culture’s discomfort with women’s sexuality. “The Cialises of the world are a perfectly acceptable part of conversation in our culture today, but when it comes to talking about the realities of women’s lives, like menstruation, you always have some woman running in the field in a dress,” Ms. Braun Scherl said. “In our experience, we haven’t seen women behaving that way. There’s a double standard when it comes to society’s comfort level with female sexual health and enjoyment.” From May to December 2009, Ms. Braun Scherl and Mary W. Jaensch, Semprae’s chief executive, shopped the ad around to about 100 TV stations. With the exception of Soapnet Women’s Entertainment and Discovery Health, many either refused or placed certain parameters on the ads. BET, for example would only broadcast the ad from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 8 to 9 a.m. Some of the other networks required additions — which the company made — to add disclaimers like: “Not for people under 18.” But the bulk of the stations and networks indicated that there were no changes that could be made to render the ad appropriate. Zestra did not fare any better with radio. In the spring, Ms. Braun Scherl and Ms. Jaensch hired Leibler-Bronfman Lubalin advertising, a Manhattan agency, to create a series of radio ads. Many stations told them to remove the words sex and arousal, which proved somewhat challenging for a product having to do with sexual arousal. In the end, only KBAY in San Jose, Calif., and KMJQ in Houston ran the commercials; KBAB and KSCS, both in Texas, agreed to broadcast them from midnight to 6 a.m., “which is useless,” said Albert Romano, LBL’s media director. “It’s called the graveyard shift for a reason. What’s the point of running the spots if no one’s going to hear them?” Beth Bronfman, LBL’s chief executive, agreed that a double-standard existed when marketing some products to women. “Have you ever listened to a Cialis commercial word for word?” Ms. Bronfman said. “ ‘An erection lasting more than four hours.’ Why is that O.K.?” Zestra came close to being featured on the Web site WebMD’s sex and relationship section, which regularly posts advertorials on Viagra and erectile dysfunction, but the company ultimately received an e-mail saying that Zestra “did not fall in line with WebMD’s Best Practice Guidelines.” When Ms. Braun Scherl and Ms. Jaensch asked for clarification on what those practices were, they did not receive a response. Neither Eric Lloyd, the Web site’s director for strategic consumer partnerships, nor Kate Hahn, a spokeswoman for WebMD, returned phone calls or e-mails seeking comment. An ad on Facebook that read “Zestra Essential Arousal Oils — Try Zestra for Free” was pulled after several weeks. Ms. Braun Scherl and Ms. Jaensch received an e-mail stating that Facebook did not allow “advertisements that contain or promote adult content” including “sexual terms and/or images.” The women said they were unsuccessful in reaching Facebook officials to discuss the ad. Representatives from Facebook did not return calls or e-mails. “Double standards abound when it comes to advertising anything having to do with our private parts,” said Robert J. Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse. “Commercials for erectile dysfunction products, which discuss not only sex but the hydraulic processes involved in having sex have played during major venues like the Super Bowl . They boldly tout male sexual pleasure as a commodity: an erection in a bottle.”  The difference with Zestra is that it “places female pleasure first, and even seems to suggest that this pleasure can be had with or without the presence of a man,” Mr. Thompson said. Indeed, in one online ad for Zestra, a woman says that, “It works so well, when I think about it, it even makes me want to go home and use it now.” There are no men anywhere in the picture. Mr. Thompson acknowledges that some of the reluctance to broadcast the ads may have to do with the vague sense of what products like Zestra actually do. “If this product works as well as it claims, Victorian prissiness and the collective American embarrassment about sex will probably be trumped by the marketplace,” he said. According to Ms. Braun Scherl and Ms. Jaensch, Zestra sales have increased month over month, and the business is growing. The product has also been featured on television shows like “Dr. Oz,” “Rachael Ray” and the “Tyra Banks.” Still, “there is a huge unmet need, and we’re limited in our ability to get the message to men and women who would benefit from the product,” Ms. Braun Scherl said. “What I would say is, if there are standards for what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, they should be equally applied to products for male and female sexual enjoyment.”

Sex
Women and Girls
Advertising and Marketing


Jets Already Thinking About the Patriots

Abstract: The leftovers from the Jets’ 26-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving did not have much shelf life. Even in a victorious locker room at New Meadowlands Stadium, there was less reflection and more focus on what was ahead. After cornerback Darrelle Revis shut down Bengals receiver Terrell Owens, after the versatile Brad Smith had two long touchdowns, and after the defense reclaimed its snarl, the Jets quickly shifted their attention to the New England Patriots . “There’s a lot for both teams to prove who is the best team,” Revis said. “It’s going to be big. It’s going to be fireworks. It’s going to be time to play a great game.” With both teams improving to 9-2 on Thursday, the framework is in place for a monumental meeting on Dec. 6 in Foxborough, Mass., rich with implications both tangible (playoff position) and intangible (pride). No recent meeting in the bitter Jets-Patriots rivalry has come with this much at stake, or with 11 long days of anticipation preceding it. On Friday, Coach Rex Ryan said in a conference call that he had expected a game of this magnitude all along and that he believed even early this season that the Patriots and the Jets were two of the best teams in football. He called the latest installment of the rivalry the “marquee” game of the N.F.L. regular season. “It’s always a big game, but this one will have a lot of buildup,” left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson said. Shrugging, he added, “Would you rather have it any other way?” The Patriots, too, wasted little time talking about the game. “The Jets game is huge,” Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo said in The Boston Globe. “We need it. So do they.” Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said in The Globe: “You know what: the Jets are the Jets. They’re going to do what they do best, and we’re going to do what we do. It’s a division game. We have a couple more days to get prepared for them. We’ll make the best of it. Trust me, we will. But it’s going to be another dogfight. It’s going to be a classic A.F.C. East battle.” The winner of the game two Mondays from now will claim first place in the A.F.C. East, and that could end up being the difference between receiving the No. 1 seed in the playoffs or the No. 5 seed — the difference between home-field advantage through January and playing on the road. Of course, it is a game that would be interesting even without that backdrop. Ryan irked the Patriots before the season when he declared his team was “soon to be champs.” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady publicly acknowledged that his hatred for the Jets prevented him from watching the HBO series “Hard Knocks.” The only recent regular-season matchup between the teams that compares to this one occurred in 2002. Entering the game, the Jets were 7-7, and the Patriots were 8-6 and tied with the Miami Dolphins atop the division. The Jets won at New England, 30-17, on the way to a 9-7 finish and a playoff appearance. The Patriots were left out. (The Jets have a 51-50-1 series lead.) Since the Jets’ 28-14 win over the Patriots at New Meadowlands Stadium in Week 2, the teams have been keeping pace with each other. Before the Jets took the field Thursday, New England defeated the Detroit Lions, 45-24 , with Brady throwing for four touchdowns and a perfect passer rating. It provided a reminder of the challenge ahead for the Jets, who trailed the Bengals, 7-3, in the first half before pulling away in the third quarter. Running back LaDainian Tomlinson said he was sure to watch the Patriots play before he arrived at the stadium Thursday. Quarterback Mark Sanchez said he was considering watching film of the Patriots when he returned home, by then early Friday morning. Defensive end Trevor Pryce said he preferred to take the next three days away from all the hype. But safety James Ihedigbo said: “You start thinking about this one now. You could write every story you want for this one.” For the Jets, there would seem to be added importance in beating the Patriots, who have won 25 consecutive regular-season games at home. The Jets’ schedule does not get much easier: still to come are trips to play the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-3) and the Chicago Bears (7-3). Linebacker Bart Scott said Thursday that the Jets wanted to prove their worth with their play. Scott needed to pause after he rattled off the consequences of the Patriots game. “You know what,” he said. “Sounds like the playoffs to me.” The anticipation for the meeting will surely build over the coming days, but hardly anyone wearing a Jets logo felt the need to temper his excitement. That included the team’s coach. Unprompted, Ryan perked up a few ears when he used the words “Tom Brady” while answering a question in his postgame news conference about the Jet defense’s play against the Bengals. The third question of the session, which followed, was not about Owens or Chad Ochocinco, but the Patriots. “They’re clearly the best team in football,” Ryan said with more than a hint of sarcasm. “That’s what it looks like, and that’s what all of the experts say — except me. We’ll see.”

New England Patriots
Football
New York Jets
Revis Darrelle
Ryan Rex
Brady Tom
Sanchez Mark


California Couples Line Up to Marry After Stay on Same-Sex Marriage Is Lifted

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — The words “spouses for life” echoed throughout City Hall on Saturday as hundreds of same-sex couples were married in stairways, rotundas and seemingly every open space in the building. Image Michael Potoczniak, 38, wore his camouflage Army uniform to marry his partner of 10 years, Todd Saunders, 47. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times Hundreds of thousands of gay men and lesbians from across the country were already en route to San Francisco for the city’s annual gay pride parade this weekend when news broke on Friday afternoon that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had lifted the stay on same-sex marriages, allowing counties to immediately begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The county clerk’s office here, usually open only on weekdays, extended its hours on Friday and planned to stay open through Sunday to accommodate the hordes of same-sex couples wanting to become newlyweds. And city officials planned for record attendance — as many as 1.5 million people — at the gay pride parade. Image Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, two of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, were married by Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa at City Hall in Los Angeles. Credit Patrick T. Fallon for The New York Times “I already feel less stressed and more secure just knowing we can get married today,” said Antoinette Torri, 31, who woke up at 4:30 a.m. and drove down from Sonoma, Calif., with her soon-to-be wife, Petra. The couple were first in a line of more than a hundred same-sex couples that began forming in front of City Hall hours before officials opened the doors at 9 a.m. Some wore formal wedding gowns, others matching Hawaiian shirts and khaki shorts. There were those pushing strollers and quieting crying infants and a handful who looked to be nursing hangovers. “Congratulations! It’s about time!” yelled a driver passing by in a car, honking. Image Rob and Jae Keitamo of Oakland held hands during their ceremony. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times “Welcome to San Francisco. Step right this way,” said Gabriel Breitzke-Rivera, who wore a black robe while directing eager couples as City Hall finally opened its doors. By midmorning on Saturday, Mr. Breitzke-Rivera, a deputy marriage commissioner, had already performed dozens of same-sex marriages. “I wept through the first three ceremonies I did yesterday,” said Mr. Breitzke-Rivera, 61, a retired sheriff who now volunteers at the county clerk’s office officiating vows. As a gay man who married his partner during the six-month window in 2008 when some 18,000 couples were legally married in the state, Mr. Breitzke-Rivera is a strong supporter of the institution of marriage. “Marriage strengthened my relationship. It gave us a legitimacy,” he said. “It is also something you feel deep in your heart.” Image Couples waited for the doors of San Francisco's City Hall to open on Saturday. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times Even as weddings were under way here, lawyers for a group that opposes same-sex marriage filed an emergency motion on Saturday requesting that the United States Supreme Court step in to stop counties from issuing marriages licenses to same-sex couples. In their petition to the court, lawyers for the group, Alliance Defending Freedom, claimed that the federal appeals court had acted prematurely when it lifted the stay on same-sex marriage on Friday before the standard 25-day waiting period during which parties can request that the court rehear a case. Despite the legal maneuvering, the city was in a festive mood Saturday. Outside City Hall, a light breeze off the Pacific Ocean made a line of rainbow flags flutter, and law enforcement officials began blocking off major streets in preparation for Sunday’s parade. Inside, couples high-fived after signing their marriage licenses and clerks busily passed out standard-issue booklets titled, “Your Future Together.” Video The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday sparked a wave of video reactions on Instagram and other social media. Capt. Michael Potoczniak, 38, wore his camouflage uniform to marry his partner of 10 years, Todd Saunders, 47. A Veterans Affairs psychologist, Captain Potoczniak was to fly to Texas on Sunday for Army Reserves basic training. “I can sleep easier now,” said Captain Potoczniak, “because I know that if anything happens to me anywhere in the world, he is my husband now, and we have the rights of other married people.”

San Francisco
Supreme Court
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Homosexuality
Weddings and Engagements


Stranded Travelers Turn to Videoconferencing

Abstract: BERLIN — Stranded travelers and businesses are turning increasingly to audio and video conferencing to get around the global travel restrictions caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, businesses that supply conferencing services and equipment said Monday. Aaron McCormack, chief executive of BT Conferencing, a unit of the British telecom operator BT and the world’s largest provider of conferencing services to businesses, said his company had seen a 35 percent increase in demand since the volcanic disruptions. About 80 percent of the increase has been demand for audio conferencing, and 20 percent for video conferencing services, said Mr. McCormack, who is based in Boston. He added that most of BT’s large corporate clients, like PepsiCo and Philips Electronics, had increased their use of video conferencing to cope with the travel disruptions. “We have seen the largest demand in audio conferencing because when people are in an ad hoc fashion having to react to the situation, this is what they do first,” Mr. McCormack said. “But we are also seeing an increase in video conferencing.” To meet demand, Deutsche Telekom said it was offering its largest corporate customers the ability to use the operator’s own internal conferencing studios and equipment, made by Cisco Systems, at eight German locations. The operator said it planned to extend the offer to other big customers temporarily on an emergency basis. Skype, the Internet-based telecommunications operator, said the company had also seen an increase in video conferencing over its service since the volcano’s eruption. “Skype has seen increased volumes in voice and video calling over the last week,” said Kim Milosevich, a Skype spokeswoman in London. She said the company was unable to release more specific figures on the increase but had many anecdotal accounts of its use. In one case, a couple stranded in Dubai decided to televise their wedding vows over a Skype video conference to guests gathered for their wedding ceremony on Saturday in England, Ms. Milosevich said. Andew W. Davis, a senior partner at Wainhouse Research, a company that tracks the video conferencing industry, said the disruption had prompted him to revise his growth forecast for industry sales of conferencing equipment this year to 15 percent from 10 percent. Mr. Davis said global sales of video conferencing equipment and software reached $1.5 billion in 2009. “We have seen from every major disruption like this an increase in the use of video conferencing,” said Mr. Davis, who is based in Duxbury, Massachusetts. “I am 99 percent sure that we will see another increase this time also.” Keith Gyford, the managing director of First Connections, a video conferencing operator based in Basingstoke, England, said he also expected the unprecedented travel disruptions to lift interest in the company’s telecommunications business. “These types of events only raise the profile of the technology,” Mr. Gyford said. Ruth Rowan, the marketing director in Britain for BT who normally works from London, has been stranded since last week at BT’s regional center in Boston, where she had been attending a research conference. “We have had many of the international guests at the conference who have been stranded in Boston like me coming into our offices to use our conferencing services,” Ms. Rowan said. The director of a local government council in Britain was planning to hold her regular two-hour council meeting by BT conference from Boston, she added. “People are definitely using conferencing to cope with the situation,” Ms. Rowan said. Cisco Systems will standardize its videoconferencing systems to be compatible with products offered by other companies, a top executive said Monday, Bloomberg News reported from Helsinki. Cisco, the world’s largest maker of network equipment, recently acquired Tandberg of Norway for 19 billion kroner, or $3.2 billion, in an effort to capture more of a growing market. Some single-screen products from the two companies already talk to each other.

Travel Restrictions
Eyjafjallajokull Volcano (Iceland)
Cisco Systems Inc
Videophones and Videoconferencing
Skype Technologies


Michelle Obama Cites View of Growing Segregation

Abstract: TOPEKA, Kan. — Sixty years after the Supreme Court outlawed “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, civil rights advocates say American schools are becoming increasingly segregated, while the first lady, Michelle Obama, lamented that “many young people are going to schools with kids who look just like them.” “Today, by some measures, our schools are as segregated as they were back when Dr. King gave his final speech,” Mrs. Obama told 1,200 graduating high school seniors Friday here in the city that gave rise to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. In a speech that was part commencement address, part policy pronouncement and part journey into her own past, Mrs. Obama said that Brown’s advances were being reversed. “Many districts in this country have actually pulled back on efforts to integrate their schools, and many communities have become less diverse,” she said, leading to schools that are less diverse. “And too often,” Mrs. Obama said, “those schools aren’t equal, especially ones attended by students of color which too often lag behind.” Today about four in 10 black and Latino students attend intensely segregated schools, the federal Department of Education reported on its official blog on Friday, adding that only 14 percent of white students attend schools that could be considered multicultural. “We have slowly and very steadily slipped backward,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights. “All over the country we are seeing more and more racially segregated schools.” Here in Kansas, there is intense debate over whether the state is living up to Brown’s promise. An alliance of school districts has sued the state, contending that current financing for schools is inadequate and is disproportionately hurting schools in low-income, minority districts. The State Supreme Court recently ordered the Legislature to restore special aid for poor districts. Gov. Sam Brownback said in a brief interview on Friday that he agreed with the court’s decision. “It needs to be fixed,” he said. But Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in Washington, said Friday that funding systems like that in Kansas “are relegating millions of primarily black and brown children into schools that are separate, unequal and inadequate.” Saturday marks 60 years to the day that the Supreme Court decided Brown, a case whose lead plaintiff was Oliver L. Brown, a part-time pastor and shop welder for the Santa Fe Railroad who wanted his eldest daughter, Linda, to attend integrated schools. Image Michelle Obama attended the "Senior Recognition Day" event with high school students in Topeka, Kan., on Friday. Credit Sait Serkan Gurbuz/Reuters In Washington on Friday evening, President Obama observed the anniversary of the Brown decision by meeting with families of the plaintiffs. Linda Brown and her younger sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, as well as two of the lawyers in the case, planned to attend. “It’s our first African-American president, something that many people involved in Brown didn’t think they would live to see,” Mrs. Brown Henderson said in an interview this week, calling the visit “a manifestation of what they worked for.” Mrs. Obama spent the afternoon touring the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka. The two-story brick schoolhouse, once a school for blacks only, is now a civil rights museum and education center, and the first lady held a round-table discussion there with high school students from poor neighborhoods who dream of going to college. “What are your hopes, how do you think about college, what do you think about life there?” she asked them. “What are some of the challenges that you face?” Earlier in the day, Governor Brownback visited the site, cutting a ribbon on a newly renovated kindergarten classroom that has been restored to look as it did during the 1950s. “Separate but equal ends here,” Mr. Brownback said. People in Topeka have strong feelings about the Brown case; some of those who attended Mr. Brownback’s ribbon cutting on Friday had attended segregated schools here. Among them was Dale Cushinberry, a retired school principal, who recalls being bused as a child to a school outside his own neighborhood. “Our neighborhood was integrated,” Mr. Cushinberry said. “We played in the park together, and played ball on weekends, and then on Monday we would get on a yellow school bus and they” — his white playmates — “would walk down the street” to the neighborhood school. “After Brown,” he said, “we just walked to school together.” For Mrs. Obama, too, the visit was personal. She was born in Chicago at a time when public schools were still resisting integration. By the time she entered high school, the city — under pressure from the federal government — opened an integrated magnet school for high achievers, which Mrs. Obama credits with setting her on a path to Princeton and Harvard. She told the students in Topeka that when she was feeling discouraged, she liked to “take a step back and remind myself” of all the progress she had seen. “I think about my mother, who, as a little girl, went to segregated schools in Chicago and felt the sting of discrimination,” she said. “I think about my husband’s grandparents, white folks born and raised right here in Kansas — products themselves of segregation,” who helped raise a biracial grandson. “And then,” Mrs. Obama said, “I think about how that child grew up to be the president of the United States, and how today, that little girl from Chicago is helping to raise her granddaughters in the White House.”

Michelle Obama
Segregation
Brown v. Board of Education
Discrimination
Race and Ethnicity
K-12 Education
Topeka KS
Black People,African-Americans


Egyptian Minister Visits Israel in Push for Peace With Palestinians

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Egypt’s foreign minister arrived in Israel on Sunday — the first such high-level visit in nearly a decade — saying that he had come to promote the “vision” of his boss, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to help rejuvenate the moribund peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel hailed the arrival of the foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, as “important from many points of view,” adding that it attested to Israel’s changing relationship with Egypt under the leadership of Mr. Sisi. The visit came amid international efforts to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Both sides noted that it followed Mr. Sisi’s call in May to revive the peace process. In late June, Mr. Shoukry met with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at Mr. Abbas’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. In his remarks in Jerusalem on Sunday, Mr. Shoukry said, “The current state of affairs, unfortunately, is neither stable nor sustainable.” Egypt backs the Arab Initiative, a 2002 plan that offers Israel diplomatic relations with the Arab world in return for withdrawing from all the territory Israel seized in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and agreeing to a “just” solution for Palestinian refugees. Egypt has also expressed its support for a French initiative for an international peace conference, which Israel has rejected . Mr. Netanyahu, who also serves as Israel’s foreign minister, insists on bilateral talks with the Palestinians, but has also expressed enthusiasm for a regional process that would, in turn, help resolve the Palestinian issue. The Palestinian leadership says that more than 20 years of on-and-off direct negotiations for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel have proved futile, and it has sought to internationalize the conflict. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, ending decades of hostilities, but the relationship remained cold. It grew chillier after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and the 2012 election of Mohamed Morsi , a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. But the toppling of Mr. Morsi by the military in 2013 and the ascendance of Mr. Sisi, a former general, seems to have ushered in a new era for Israeli-Egyptian relations. Experts say there have been new levels of coordination and cooperation between the two sides as Egyptian forces have battled Islamic State militants in the Sinai Peninsula, along Egypt’s border with Israel. Mr. Sisi told The Washington Post last year that he had spoken “a lot” with Mr. Netanyahu. “This is another stage in the process of normalization between Israel and Egypt since Sisi became president,” Mira Tzoreff, an Egypt expert at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said of the visit. She added that Mr. Sisi had presented the relationship with Israel “openly, as an Egyptian interest.” By taking the lead in trying to reboot the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Mr. Sisi could improve his — and Israel’s — standing with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states as they seek allies to contend with the regional ambitions of Shiite Iran, and could also assuage Washington. While Egypt, which has received billions of dollars in American aid, remains close allies with the United States, their relationship has been strained recently over Mr. Sisi’s harsh treatment of dissidents. Mr. Sisi does not seem to have been put off that Mr. Netanyahu, of the conservative Likud Party, recently expanded his ruling coalition by bringing in the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party and appointed its hard-line leader , Avigdor Lieberman, as defense minister, sealing the right-wing orientation of his government. Mr. Netanyahu has, in the meantime, been nurturing relations with Russia and hinting at under-the-table contacts with states like Saudi Arabia, with which Israel has no open ties. He also reached a deal with Turkey last month to resume full diplomatic relations, ending a six-year rift. “The Middle East is burning and changing,” said Itzhak Levanon, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt who now lectures on Egyptian affairs at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Mr. Levanon said the Egyptian leadership might well view Mr. Netanyahu as “a man we can perhaps do business with.”

Egypt
Israel
Palestinians
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Benjamin Netanyahu
Sameh Shoukry
International relations


A World Craving Oil Is Stirred by Anxiety

Abstract: HOUSTON — Crude oil prices reached $100 a barrel in the United States on Wednesday, the highest price in more than two years, as Middle East oil flows were interrupted this week for the first time since the region’s turmoil began. Multinational oil companies have curtailed production in Libya as protesters engage in violent confrontation with the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Analysts estimate that as many as a million barrels of Libyan oil a day have been removed from world markets in recent days, and investors fear that more oil production could be disrupted if the unrest spreads to other crucial producing nations, like Algeria. More broadly, economists are concerned that if oil prices stay high this year, they could slow the already fragile global economic recovery. As a general rule of thumb, every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oil reduces the growth of the gross domestic product by half a percentage point within two years. Libya produces less than 2 percent of the world’s oil, and exports little to the United States. But the high quality of its reserves magnifies its importance in world markets. Libya’s “sweet” crude oil cannot be easily replaced in the production of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, particularly by the many European and Asian refineries that are not equipped to refine “sour” crude, which is higher in sulfur content. Saudi Arabia has more than four million barrels of spare capacity and has promised to tap it if necessary, but that capacity is mostly for sour grades of oil. Should the turmoil in Libya last for more than a few weeks, oil experts predict that European refiners will be forced to buy sweet crude from Algeria and Nigeria, two principal sources of sweet crude for the United States. That would probably push up American gasoline prices, which have already risen 6 cents a gallon over the last week to an average of $3.19 for regular grade. “It will force all sweet crude refiners into a bidding war,” said Lawrence J. Goldstein, a director at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, an organization partly financed by the oil industry. “Quality matters more than quantity.” Sweet crude is particularly well suited for producing diesel fuel, which is far more popular as a transportation fuel in Europe than in the United States. Sour crudes are more expensive to refine, but American refineries are typically outfitted with equipment to refine them because so much oil imported to the United States comes from Latin America, where many oil reserves are sour. The last time there was a shortage of sweet crude, in 2007 and early 2008, oil prices surged to more than $140 a barrel, although that shortage was caused mostly by spiraling demand and not a sudden cut in supply. The price of the benchmark American oil, West Texas Intermediate, briefly touched $100 on Wednesday before settling at $98.10 in New York trading, up $2.68 from Tuesday. In London, the benchmark Brent crude rose $5.47, to $111.25. A gauge of jet fuel prices, known as Gulf Coast jet fuel, soared 10.7 cents, to $2.99 a gallon in the spot market on Wednesday, putting pressure on airlines to raise fares. Meanwhile, diesel prices have risen 4 cents in the last week, to $3.57 a gallon, the highest level since October 2008. Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a consultancy firm, said the Brent benchmark was headed for $120 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate would reach $110 “in the near term.” That could easily push the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline to $3.50, which economists say would cut into consumer discretionary spending, like dining out. Typically, every one-cent increase in the pump price of gasoline takes more than $1 billion out of consumer pockets over a year. Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, said in a research note that the turmoil “will slow the economic recovery this year, as both consumers and businesses look on with concern and begin to reconsider their spending plans.” Still, the United States remains less directly vulnerable than most European or Asian nations because its large refineries can process both sweet and sour crudes. A versatile refinery fleet makes the United States an exporter of both diesel and jet fuel. If supplies of sweet oil become tight, the United States can release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but that would probably have only a marginal effect on prices. Europe is most immediately affected by the Libyan crisis. More than 85 percent of Libya’s exports go to Europe, with more than a third of that going to Italy. Most of the rest goes to Asia. About 5 percent is sent to the United States. ENI, the Italian oil company, Repsol of Spain, Total of France, Statoil of Norway, and BASF, the German chemical and energy company, have halted much if not most of their oil production in Libya and moved personnel out of the country. In a research note, Barclays Capital estimated that around one million barrels a day of production had been shut down, or more than half the country’s total. Much of Libya’s oil producing capacity and its port facilities are in the eastern part of the country, where the government has lost the most control. That leaves the eyes of the oil world on neighboring Algeria, another country with a history of unrest. Algeria is the seventh-biggest source of American oil imports. There have been sporadic protests against high food prices and unemployment in Algeria over the last several weeks, including at least two large demonstrations in Algiers demanding the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. “You have a powder keg in Algeria with social problems, ethnic problems and an Islamist organization blended together and overlapping,” said Michael J. Economides, a professor of engineering and energy economics at the University of Houston. “Many refineries would go into paroxysm if they lose Libyan and Algerian oil.” Most Middle East oil production is controlled by national oil companies that operate as virtual state agencies and coordinate their security needs with the national militaries. But that is not the case in either Libya or Algeria, where American and European oil companies have invested heavily over the last decade to bolster production that had been lagging. Foreign companies have shown in Libya, and to a lesser extent in Egypt, that they will shut down exploration and production and close their offices rather than jeopardize the safety of their employees.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Chile: 3 Suspects Arrested in Bombing

Abstract: Chilean officials said Thursday that they had arrested three members of an anarchist cell suspected in the country’s worst bomb attack in more than two decades. One of the suspects is believed to have carried out the attack while two others were accomplices, said Interior and Security Minister Rodrigo Peñailillo, who did not release their names. The explosion on Sept. 8 scattered shrapnel across a crowded underground shopping area connected to a subway station, wounding 14 people. A declaration published Thursday on an anarchist website in the name of a faction of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for the attack, but insisted that their target “was not consumers or workers, but the structures, properties and enforcers of power.” Local media reports quoted a defense lawyer, Eduardo Camus, as saying that the three suspects denied any wrongdoing.

Chile
Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire
Transit Terminals
Terrorism


One Candidate, 2 or 3 Ballot Lines: Bid to Alter Practice Stirs Debate

Abstract: ALBANY — Among the thicket of proposals being floated to combat Albany’s chronic corruption problem, there is one that seems fairly straightforward: to repeal the Wilson-Pakula Act of 1947, which gives the leaders of political parties the power to anoint nonparty members who want to run on their ballot lines. It is a practice that dovetails with New York State’s unique and antique “fusion voting” system, a vestige of 19th-century elections which has been banned by many other states, which allows candidates to run — and collect votes — on multiple party lines. Over the years, it has been used by some of the state’s smallest political parties to endorse major-party candidates in exchange for consideration of their political goals. Or, as critics allege, sometimes just for money. But several small parties argue that the proposed changes could marginalize their groups — and their political views, a position held by Mike Long, the chairman of the state’s Conservative Party. “Wilson-Pakula didn’t commit the crime, and the fusion system didn’t promote the crime,” Mr. Long said. “You can put us out of business and do away with fusion voting and you’re still going to have to deal with individuals who want to game the system.” The reason for some legislators’ sudden distaste for Wilson-Pakula is simple: the law was at the center of recent allegations against Senator Malcolm A. Smith , a Queens Democrat accused of trying to bribe his way onto the Republican ballot for the New York City mayor’s race. Since then, the law has been criticized by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who said on Tuesday that it encourages “corruption and the appearance of corruption,” tempting some to sell their nominations to the highest bidder. “You’re forcing people to go to the party bosses,” Mr. Cuomo said. Instead of needing the permission of those leaders, Mr. Cuomo said his plan would require candidates to gather signatures to make their way onto their ballot. But critics of Mr. Cuomo’s plan say it could open any party’s nominating process up to deep-pocketed interlopers who could pay petitioners to gather signatures and basically buy their way onto ballots, without holding true to the party principles. “Parties are supposed to select own standard-bearers from people who share their values,” said Daniel Cantor, the executive director of the liberal Working Families Party. “Under this system, primary voters would have no idea if people listed on the ballot had any allegiance to party’s values.” Image Senator Malcolm A. Smith of Queens has been accused of trying to bribe his way into the New York City mayor’s race. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times Such an unapproved candidacy could “threaten the integrity of any party,” he said. And if a party has a bad year, there are consequences: they need to draw 50,000 votes in an election for governor to have an automatic line on the ballot for the next four years. Fusion voting, also called cross-endorsements, was common during the 19th century, when parties would often team up to defeat formidable candidates. “Historically it was useful,” said Jim Twombly, an associate professor of political science at Elmira College. “But the reality is that fusion voting as its used in New York is for the trading of political favors.” Dozens of states forbid the practice; this year, Connecticut has considered a bill that would have ended cross-endorsements there. Lawrence Norden, a deputy director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said he believed that cross-endorsements were still valuable as a way for third-party voters to feel as though their vote counts, as well as a way for candidates to show their support for certain specific issues. “It’s a signifier to the voter as to where that candidate stands,” he said, adding that “it gives voters more choice and more ability to clarify what the candidate’s message is.” In Albany, the powerful Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, opposes changing fusion voting. “I don’t think we should preclude people from running on more than one line,” Mr. Silver said on Tuesday, adding, “There has to be a mechanism for us, for people to gain dual endorsements or more.” The debate is also complicated by the fact that many major-party candidates have openly accepted third-party endorsements, including Mr. Cuomo — who ran on the Working Families line in 2010 — and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who appeared on the Republican and Independence Party lines in all three of his campaigns and gave money to the Independence Party . Jacqueline Salit, a strategist for the Independence Party, said that she was proud of the party’s “fusion relationships” with Mr. Bloomberg, saying that it had offered independent-minded voters a chance to “say something about their political vision,” including their affection for “nonpartisan governance.” She also dismissed the argument made by some that such cross-endorsements — and the votes they bring — give small-party leaders an outsize influence. “I think it’s a tool for bringing new ideas and new approaches into the mainstream,” Ms. Salit said, adding that “the argument that it’s undemocratic that the small parties can leverage beyond their size in this context, I think that’s laughable.”

Politics
New York
Election
Malcolm A Smith


Archangel Antiques, a Curiosity in the East Village

Abstract: IT would seem an almost impossible feat to stand out amid the clutter of Archangel Antiques , in the East Village, where tightly packed rails of vintage clothing vie for attention with glass cabinets lined with jewelry and curiosities. Yet the first thing most customers notice after descending to the subterranean entrance is Michael Duggan, who can usually be found sitting toward the back of the musty space, peering out from behind a pair of beige, 1950s tortoiseshell glasses. On a recent weekday afternoon, Mr. Duggan, the store manager, was dressed in a pair of bright yellow 1970s tartan golf slacks and an untied mustard yellow bow tie hanging from the open collar of a dress shirt as he recounted his ability to attract attention in even the most challenging environments. “The other week I was at the Waverly Inn sitting at a table near Puff Daddy and Ivanka Trump,” Mr. Duggan said in a smooth, nasal monotone, “and people kept looking over at me and asking, ‘Who is that guy?’ ” Mr. Duggan, 52, was telling the story, matter-of-factly, to one of the store’s owners, Gail Busche. Very little about Mr. Duggan seemed to surprise Ms. Busche, 72. Shortly after Archangel Antiques, on Ninth Street near Second Avenue, opened 18 years ago, she asked him to mind the store “for a few days.” Mr. Duggan has been there ever since. “I tend to collect very different things myself,” said Mr. Duggan, reaching for a clutch of photographs that revealed his dimly lighted one-bedroom apartment — “just off Avenue B” — dominated by an eclectic mix of furniture and art. “Being a collector is why I get inspired to sell to other people,” he said. Above Mr. Duggan, a large, if unostentatious, circular sign suspended from the tin ceiling advertised “Buttons,” an understatement if ever there was one; the store claims to have more than a million buttons, most from 1860 to 1960, many of them filling dozens of old drawers and filing cabinets. “About 25 years ago, I bought a cookie tin that had black glass Victorian buttons in it,” said Ms. Busche, who previously worked at flea markets on Canal Street and West 26th Street. “People got interested in them, so whenever I traveled I would advertise for button collections.” By the light of a nearby lamp, Mr. Duggan provided a crash course in the evolution of button manufacturing. “After hard rubber, they went into celluloid, which is the first of the synthetic materials,” he said, crouching behind a glass counter to remove a tray. “But celluloid was a derivative of gunpowder, so they had to develop a thermoplastic, and that’s what Bakelite is.” He set down a tray of red and yellow Bakelite buttons of various shapes and sizes. “But when Bakelite was ground down it was poisonous,” Mr. Duggan said, “so they had to stop making that, too.” The store’s extensive collection of buttons and cufflinks often provides inspiration for designers from fashion companies like Anthropologie and Ralph Lauren, Mr. Duggan said. Stylists from film, television and theater regularly visit, too, searching for hard-to-find period details. But on this particular day, customers were confined to regulars, students and tourists, among them Miina Manninen, a petite Finnish weather forecaster, who picked out an $85 1960s black-and-white, glen plaid day dress. Ms. Manninen paid cash and, after she had gone, Mr. Duggan dropped $5 in the till and kept the rest. About one-third of the store’s inventory belongs to him. But, he said, he had mixed feelings whenever an interesting piece sold: joy that the item would brighten someone’s life and sorrow that it would no longer delight and intrigue customers. “It’s the exceptional things,” Mr. Duggan said, “that draw you in.”

Antiques
Jewels and Jewelry
East Village (NYC)


In Isner, U.S. Has a Player Too Good to Ignore

Abstract: Novak Djokovic has firsthand knowledge of the transformative power of the Davis Cup. He attributes his rise to the summit of men’s tennis in part to all the good vibrations he absorbed as he led his long-struggling nation, Serbia, to its first Cup title in 2010. So it would be intriguing to know exactly what Djokovic was thinking behind his sunglasses Sunday as he sat next to his girlfriend, Jelena Ristic, in the stands at the Monte Carlo Country Club and watched John Isner produce his latest bravura performance under big pressure. Though the Serbian team would have much preferred that Djokovic be with them in Prague, watching Isner required no major effort on Djokovic’s part. Like many a tennis star past and present, his primary residence is in Monte Carlo, and he often trains at the club where Isner and the enduring — and formidable — doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan gave the United States a surprisingly straightforward victory over France and an unexpected spot in the Davis Cup semifinals. “We’ve had the worst draw that you could possibly imagine so far,” said Jim Courier, the U.S. captain. “I’m shocked we’re still in the Davis Cup this year.” Serbia, with Djokovic out of the lineup to conserve his energy for the major individual events ahead, is no longer in the Davis Cup this year. But with Isner, a tower of a man filling tall orders, the United States has beaten Switzerland and France on the road and on clay. It should not get any easier from here because the semifinals in September will be back on the road in Spain, in all likelihood on more red clay. If Courier and the Americans somehow survive that, the final would likely be on yet more clay in Argentina, which will be a favorite in its home semifinal against Tomas Berdych and the Czechs. Reading too much into the semifinals at this stage is foolhardy, considering how weary and/or injured the top players could be after a four-month surge that will include the French Open , Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open . David Ferrer is a stunning 14-0 in Davis Cup singles play on Spanish clay. And though he has already committed to the semifinal, will he truly make it to the court? And will Rafael Nadal return to the team under a new captain, Alex Corretja? “It’s going to be a war of attrition for these players to have enough energy to be ready to go in September,” Courier said. But Djokovic is well-placed to know that the transformative effects for now are well under way for Isner, who is back at No. 10 in the rankings this week. After upsetting Roger Federer in the victory over Switzerland in February, Isner upset Djokovic in the semifinals in Indian Wells, California. Now Isner has swept both of his singles matches on the road against France, overwhelming the solid defenses of Gilles Simon in straight sets Friday and manhandling an in-form, in-the-mood Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets Sunday. Isner, all 6-foot-9 of him, did not just do it with the massive, technically sound serve that has and will continue to define him to the general public. The 2.06-meter-tall American did it with a thunderous forehand, an unexpectedly solid backhand, deft and deftly timed drop shots and with often excellent volleys of the swing, reflex and lunging varietals. Perhaps more ominously for men like Djokovic, he did it with an equanimity that indicated that he fully expected to do it. “I think the reason I played so well this weekend was because beating Roger in the first round was huge for me,” Isner said. “Prior to that, to be honest, I hadn’t really played that great in Davis Cup.” It was a good Sunday for University of Georgia alumni with unconventional backgrounds. Bubba Watson, who has never had a formal golf lesson, won the Masters. Isner — who, unlike Watson, kept the tears to a minimum — is the only college graduate in the top 30. Patrick McEnroe, the former U.S. captain, thinks Isner is playing well enough on clay to reach the French Open final this year. That would be quite a leap for a 26-year-old who has made just one Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance and has yet to prove that he can handle the physical rigors of seven matches over two weeks as well as he handled the longest match in tennis history in the first round at Wimbledon in 2010 against Nicolas Mahut. But American excitement is understandable, and it is not only the Americans who are impressed. “It was bothering me to see how much I was admiring him,” Guy Forget, the French captain, told French reporters. “Every time John had his back against the wall, he came up with a fabulous shot.” As a result, Forget did not get his happy ending in his 14th and final year as French captain. The best came early with France winning its only title under his leadership in 2001. But the team did reach two other finals during his tenure, and Forget did succeed in maintaining the Davis Cup’s status as a main event in France, which is not the case in the United States, where Americans often scratch their heads over the staggered schedule or ignore the event altogether in favor of myriad other sports diversions. If, however, Isner and his teammates keep this particular run going, their compatriots might want to consider shifting their priorities and paying attention for a change. Djokovic is already watching closely — and in person.


Nigeria: Fatal Attack at Official’s Home

Abstract: Gunmen killed several supporters of a politician in Nigeria ’s oil-producing Niger Delta on Friday during a gathering at his home, the latest act of political violence ahead of elections in April. Supporters of Timi Alaibe, who quit as presidential adviser on the Niger Delta last month to run for the governorship of Bayelsa State, were attacked during a reception to welcome him back from the capital, Abuja, witnesses said. Initial reports said two people were killed by attackers armed with guns and machetes, but witnesses later said they believed four people died and two were critically injured.

Nigeria
Politics and Government
Murders and Attempted Murders
Demonstrations Protests and Riots


Uber Driver Napped as His Passenger Led Highway Chase, Police Say

Abstract: A passenger who got behind the steering wheel of an Uber car so that the driver could nap led the police on a highway chase in central New York, the State Police said. The passenger, Juan R. Carlos, 20, of the Bronx, hired the car to travel nearly 300 miles from Philadelphia to a college in Herkimer, N.Y., on Saturday, the police said. At about 5:35 a.m., the State Police were monitoring traffic on Interstate 81 in Kirkwood, N.Y., a town near the Pennsylvania border, when a 2016 Hyundai Sonata went by at 86 miles per hour, the police said. Troopers attempted to stop the car, but it sped up and they eventually lost sight of it. Behind the wheel, the police said, was Mr. Carlos. During the ride, the Uber driver, Corey Robinson, 43, of Philadelphia, became tired and asked Mr. Carlos to drive while he slept. Mr. Robinson later woke up and asked why Mr. Carlos was driving so fast. He replied that the police were chasing them, the authorities said. Image Juan R. Carlos Credit New York State Police Mr. Robinson demanded that his passenger-turned-driver pull over, but Mr. Carlos refused. The police said they found the car after it crashed into a guard rail in Colesville, N.Y. Both men were taken to UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, N.Y., treated for minor injuries and released. The men were taken into custody, but Mr. Robinson was released without charges, the police said. Mr. Carlos was charged with unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree, driving without a license and several other traffic violations, the police said . Uber said in a statement on Wednesday that both the driver and the rider had been suspended from using the service, and that the company was “reaching out to the authorities to assist in their investigation.” On Tuesday, the company’s website published an article with the headline “ A wake-up call to end drowsy driving .” It did not specifically address the New York chase. “We all know it’s dangerous to get behind the wheel when we’ve been drinking — but what about when we’re tired?” the post said. “Over 60 percent of Americans admit they’ve driven while drowsy at least once in the past year. Yet sleep deprivation impairs our judgment just as much as alcohol — and is just as likely to result in a fatal crash.”


Iran Said to Be Open to Proposed New Nuclear Talks

Abstract: MUNICH — Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday that his country was open to a renewed offer of direct talks with the United States on its nuclear program and that it looked favorably on a proposal for a new round of multilateral nuclear negotiations on Feb. 25 in Kazakhstan. But the Iranian official, Ali Akbar Salehi, does not have the power in the Iranian system to decide these matters on his own, so his comments were viewed by European and American officials as more atmospheric, intended for the trans-Atlantic audience at the Munich Security Conference , than definitive. Mr. Salehi called a restated offer here for direct talks with Washington, expressed Saturday by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “a step forward” and said, “We take these statements with positive consideration.” But Mr. Salehi quickly added that “each time we have come and negotiated, it was the other side, unfortunately, who did not heed” its commitments. And he complained to the Iranian news media of “contradictory signals” from President Obama and “the threatening rhetoric that everything is on the table,” including military means to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon. “This does not go along with this gesture” of direct talks, Mr. Salehi said, “so we will have to wait a little bit longer and see if they are really faithful this time.” Having negotiated in the past with Washington over Iraq, he said, Iran had no “red lines.” Similarly, Mr. Salehi said he had “good news,” responding to the proposal by the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, of another round of negotiations with Iran run by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany. She suggested that they take place Feb. 25 to 26 in Kazakhstan. Iran has regularly delayed such meetings, which the six powers had hoped to restart in December, and then in January, with arguments over location and timing. Image Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday. Credit Matthias Schrader/Associated Press Iran is represented in nuclear talks by Saeed Jalili, who is designated as the “personal representative” of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is the ayatollah who will decide matters on the nuclear issue, and who will certainly decide whether Tehran opens direct talks with the United States, which he regards as being intent on overturning the Islamic Revolution in Iran, American officials said. Mr. Jalili is in Damascus meeting with officials from the Syrian government, which Iran is supporting with arms, fuel and cash. Mr. Biden said bluntly in response to a question on Saturday that Washington was prepared for bilateral talks with Iran “when the Iranian leadership, supreme leader, is serious.” Mr. Biden added that the offer of talks “stands, but it must be real and tangible, and there has to be an agenda that they are prepared to speak to. We are not prepared to do it just for the exercise.” Ms. Ashton’s spokesman, Michael Mann, noted that she has been proposing various dates and locations to Tehran since December, “so it is good to hear that the foreign minister finally confirmed now.” But he added, “We hope the negotiating team will also confirm.” Iran has played hard to get on the nuclear issue, say Western diplomats involved with the talks, and since 2009, Mr. Jalili has regularly refused offers to meet separately with the American negotiator in the multilateral talks, who is now Wendy R. Sherman , the under secretary for political affairs in the State Department. In the last round of talks, in Moscow in June, Iran insisted that the world powers lift all sanctions against Tehran as a precondition for substantive talks on reducing or eliminating Iran’s growing stockpile of enriched uranium. The six powers have argued that Iran must first comply with Security Council resolutions, demanding that it halt enrichment and satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency that it does not have a nuclear weapons program. Iran has also refused the agency access to various sites in Iran. Mr. Salehi also met with the leader of the Syrian opposition, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, who repeated his offer here of talks with representatives of the government of President Bashar al-Assad under certain conditions. Iran and Russia are Mr. Assad’s two most important allies and suppliers, and Mr. Salehi and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, called Sheik Khatib’s suggestion “a good step forward.” Mr. Salehi said that Iran would talk to anyone and that “we are ready to be part of the solution” in Syria. And Mr. Lavrov told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Sunday that Sheik Khatib’s proposal was “a very important step, especially since the coalition was created on the basis of categorical rejection of any talks with the regime.” But Sheik Khatib’s offer has produced fierce criticism from his own coalition, which has demanded that Mr. Assad step down before any talks.

Iran
Nuclear weapon
International Atomic Energy Agency
UN
Arab Spring
US Foreign Policy


Tenet Healthcare Reports Profit but Lowers Forecast

Abstract: DALLAS (AP) — The Tenet Healthcare Corporation said on Tuesday that it had swung to a third-quarter profit, but it lowered its outlook. The company earned $104 million, or 22 cents a share, after a loss of $59 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent, to $2.16 billion. Excluding a $140 million gain from the sale of an investment and other items, the company lost 6 cents a share. The loss was greater than the 3 cent loss expected by analysts, and Tenet’s stock fell 37 percent.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation
Company Reports
Hospitals


Gang Members Said to Consider Blackmailing Toronto’s Mayor

Abstract: OTTAWA — Gang members were heard on wiretaps discussing drug use by Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto and suggesting that he could be blackmailed, according to a police document that was released by a court on Wednesday. Image The Toronto City Council has stripped Mayor Rob Ford of most of his power and most of his budget and staff. Credit Aaron Harris/Reuters Those allegations and others were contained in previously redacted portions of the 474-page police document, an affidavit that was used to obtain search warrants. Interviews and wiretaps, the Toronto police wrote, suggested that Mr. Ford regularly used drugs, possibly including heroin, and that dealers discussed blackmailing him. Last month, Mr. Ford characterized his use of crack cocaine in a now-infamous video as an aberration brought on by “one of my drunken stupors.” “Rob Ford wants some drugs,” the police said they overheard one gang member tell another on a wiretap. “The mayor of the city, Rob Ford, was smoking his rocks today,” another said, apparently referring to crack cocaine. Another gang member boasted on a wiretap that he had “so much pictures of Rob Ford doing the hezza,” a slang term for heroin. Video At a Toronto City Council meeting, Mayor Rob Ford said he bought illegal drugs in the last two years. When asked if he had an addiction to illicit drugs, the mayor said “absolutely not.” Credit Credit Mark Blinch/Reuters It appeared from the document that the mayor in March tried to buy the video of him using crack from the gang members for $5,000 plus an automobile. Wiretaps, however, show that they wanted up to $150,000. On May 17, The Toronto Star and the website Gawker reported that they had seen the video. The Toronto City Council has stripped Mr. Ford of most of his power and most of his budget and staff. Under provincial law, it cannot remove him from office. But the release of the additional police information on Wednesday afternoon renewed calls for Mr. Ford to step down entirely. Mr. Ford ignored reporters’ questions when he left his office, smiling, on Wednesday evening.

Gang
Toronto
Rob Ford
Heroin
Wiretapping Eavesdropping
Extortion and Blackmail
Drug Abuse
Cocaine and Crack


A Star Returns and So Do the Cheers

Abstract: All apparently is forgiven for Jon Scheyer, the local basketball star. One of the most decorated prep players in Illinois history from 2003 to 2006, Scheyer was often booed during his senior year at Glenbrook North High School after announcing he would attend Duke University instead of the University of Illinois. But on Wednesday night Scheyer heard nothing but cheers as he scored 31 points in leading fifth-ranked Duke to an 81 to 65 victory over Iowa State in his first game at the United Center. The crowd of 10,067 included several hundred friends and family members. “It was a special night,” Scheyer said.


U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms’ Role in Foreign Aid

Abstract: Correction Appended EUFAULA, Alabama — Here in this courtly, antebellum town, Alabama’s condom production has survived an onslaught of Asian competition, thanks to the patronage of straitlaced congressmen from this Bible Belt state. Behind the scenes, the politicians have ensured that companies in Alabama won federal contracts to make billions of condoms over the years for AIDS prevention and family planning programs overseas, though Asian factories could do the job at less than half the cost. In recent years, the state’s condom manufacturers fell hundreds of millions of condoms behind on orders, and the federal aid agency began buying them from Asia. The use of Asian-made condoms has contributed to layoffs that are coming next month. But Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has quietly pressed to maintain the unqualified priority for American-made condoms and is likely to prevail if the past is any guide. “What’s wrong with helping the American worker at the same time we are helping people around the world?” asked the senator’s spokesman, Michael Brumas. That question goes to the heart of an intensifying debate among wealthy nations about to what degree foreign aid is about saving jobs at home or lives abroad. Britain, Ireland and Norway have all sought to make aid more cost effective by opening contracts in their programs to fight global poverty to international competition. The United States, meanwhile, continues to restrict bidding on billions of dollars worth of business to companies operating in America, and not just those that make condoms. The wheat to feed the starving must be grown in United States and shipped to Africa, enriching agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill. The American consulting firms that carry out antipoverty programs abroad — dubbed beltway bandits by critics — do work that some advocates say local groups in developing countries could often manage at far less cost. The history of the federal government’s condom purchases embodies the tradeoffs that characterize foreign aid American-style. Alabama’s congressmen have long preserved several hundred factory jobs here by insisting that the United States Agency for International Development buy condoms made here, though, probably in a nod to their conservative constituencies, most have typically done so discreetly. Those who favor tying aid to domestic interests say that it not only preserves jobs and supports American companies, but helps ensure broad political support for foreign aid, which is not always popular. On the other hand, skepticism of foreign aid is frequently rooted in the perception that the money is not well spent. Blame often falls on corrupt leaders in poor countries, but aid from rich nations with restrictions requiring it to be spent in the donor country can also reduce effectiveness. The United States government, the world’s largest donor of condoms, has bought more than nine billion condoms over the past two decades. Under President Bush’s global AIDS plan, which dedicates billions of dollars to fight the epidemic, a third of the money for prevention must go to promoting abstinence. But that leaves two-thirds for other programs, so the federal government’s distribution of condoms has risen, to over 400 million a year. Over the years, Usaid could have afforded even more condoms — among the most effective methods for slowing the spread of AIDS — if it had it bought them from the lowest bidders on the world market, as have the United Nations Population Fund and many other donors. Randall L. Tobias, who heads Usaid, declined through a spokesman to be interviewed on this topic. His predecessor, Andrew Natsios, sought to weaken the hold of what he sometimes called a cartel of domestic interest groups over foreign aid. He tried, for example, to persuade Congress to allow the purchase of some African food to feed Africa’s hungry. Congress killed that proposal last year and again this year. Hilary Benn, Britain’s secretary of state for international development, said in an interview that in 2001 his country untied its aid from requirements that only British firms could bid for international antipoverty work. “If you untie aid, it’s 100 percent clear you’re giving aid to reduce poverty and not to benefit your own country’s commercial interests,” he said. In recent years, most of the low-end condom business has moved to Asia, including Australia-based Ansell, which used to have plants in Alabama. American makers cannot compete with Asia on price — unless they have the federal contract. The last American factory making condoms for Usaid sits anonymously in a pine-shaded industrial park here in Eufaula. Inside a modern, low-slung building owned by Alatech Healthcare, ingenious contraptions almost as long as a football field repeatedly dip 16,000 phallic-shaped bulbs into vats of latex, with the capacity to turn out a billion condoms a year. The equation of need is never straightforward. Africa’s need to forestall its slow-motion catastrophe of AIDS deaths is vast. But there is need here, too. Most of the 260 people employed at this factory and the company’s packaging plant in Slocomb are women, some the children of sharecroppers and textile factory workers, many of them struggling to support families on $7 to $8 an hour. The most vulnerable among them — single mothers and older women with scant education — are the most fearful of foreign competition. All feel the looming threat. “It’s cheaper, yeah,” said Lisa Jackson, 42, a worker in the packaging plant. “But we Americans should have first choice. We need our jobs to stay in America. We got to feed our families. I just wish it had never come to sending manufacturing jobs overseas.” From 2003 to 2005, Alatech and one other company making condoms for Usaid fell behind on their orders, agency officials said. Last year, the other company went bankrupt. So Usaid ordered condoms from Asia, the first of which were shipped last year. With only a single American company still in line for the federal contract, agency officials are wary of ruling out Asian suppliers. At such moments in the past, Alabama’s politicians have come to the rescue of the state’s condom industry. This time was no exception. Senator Richard C. Shelby, a Republican on the Appropriations Committee, had a provision tucked into the 2004 budget bill requiring that Usaid buy only American-made condoms to the extent possible, given cost and availability. His spokeswoman, Kate Boyd, said the agency did not tell him it was worried about the relative cost of American and Asian-made condoms. Senator Sessions wrote Usaid a letter last year saying it should purchase condoms from foreign producers only after it had bought all the condoms American companies could make, noting it was “extremely important to jobs in my state.” Usaid assured the senator in writing that it “remains committed to prioritizing domestic suppliers.” On the strength of that, Alatech bought the more modern Eufaula plant from its bankrupt rival. Without the government contract, the company’s president, Larry Povlacs, said, Alatech would go out of business. In interviews, agency officials were noncommittal about whether they would halt all purchases in Asia. Condoms made there cost around 2 cents each, opposed to about 5 cents for those made here. “At the end of the day, it’s all a political process,” Bob Lester, who recently retired after 31 years as a lawyer at Usaid, said of such decisions. “The foreign aid program has very few rabbis. Why make enemies when you don’t have to?” Duff Gillespie, a retired senior Usaid official who is now a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said that over the years officials at Usaid raised the prospect of foreign competition to tamp down what he called “the greed factor” of Alabama condom manufacturers. But whenever the staff pushed to buy in Asia, Alabama politicians pushed right back. During the Reagan years, the offices of two Alabamans, Representative William Dickinson, a Republican, and Senator Howell Heflin, a Democrat, caught wind of one such move. Mike House, chief of staff to Senator Heflin, recalled being tipped off by Mr. Dickinson’s chief of staff. “He says, ‘Well, A.I.D. is going to buy condoms from Korea,’ ” Mr. House recalled. “ ‘The reason is they can get three condoms for the price of one that they’re paying us.’ ” Mr. House said he asked in amazement, “You mean we’re making rubbers in Alabama?” The congressmen’s staffs threatened to introduce amendments to require that condoms be made in America. The agency backed off. Further attempts to open up bidding proved fruitless. Representative Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington State, had seen the devastation of AIDS firsthand in the 1980s as a State Department medical officer in Africa. But he said he could not break what he called the “stranglehold” of Alabama congressmen on the condom rules. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Representative Sonny Callahan, a Republican from Alabama, served as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that shaped Usaid’s budget. Brian Atwood, who headed Usaid in those years, said no administrator “in his right mind” would have tried to cut Alabama out of the condom contract at a time when many Republicans were deeply hostile to foreign aid. Then in 2001, after decades of negotiation, the United States and other wealthy donor nations reached a nonbinding agreement to open at least some foreign aid contracts to all qualified bidders. Included were those for commodities bound for the world’s poorest nations. Usaid decided the agreement did not apply to condoms since some went to more advanced developing countries. Alabama’s manufacturers kept the condom business once again. William Nicol, who heads the poverty reduction division of the Development Assistance Committee at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of economically advanced countries, scoffed at Usaid’s interpretation. “That’s rubbish,” he said in a telephone interview. The condom companies’ inability in recent years to fulfill Usaid’s orders accomplished what the gentleman’s agreement did not: the entry of Asian competitors. Usaid has asked Alatech to make 201 million condoms next year, less than half of this year’s order, and ordered another 100 million made in Korea and China. Come Nov. 15, Alatech will lay off more than half its work force. Those jobs fell victim to Usaid’s smaller orders for condoms, foreign competition and automation. The reactions of these workers ranged from philosophical to panicked. One, Garry Appling, a 41-year-old single mother, has worked before as a $6-an-hour cashier at Krystal, the fast food restaurant, and another at $7.15 an hour in a chicken processing plant. She said her 10-year-old daughter, Anterria, worries that she will have to go back to the chicken plant, a place so cold and wet Ms. Appling often fell ill. But even facing her own impending job loss, Ms. Appling took a moment to empathize with the women making condoms on the other side of the world. “We need a job — I guess they do, too,” she said, during a brief pause from feeding condoms into an intricate, rotating, whooshing machine that tested them for holes. “It’s sad. “At the same time, the United States can’t just keep helping overseas. They’ve got to help us, too.”

Condoms
Foreign Aid
Factories and Industrial Plants


Blagojevich to Begin Prison Term for Corruption

Abstract: CHICAGO — Rod R. Blagojevich stepped into his front yard on Wednesday for a last goodbye. As always, the cameras rolled. Helicopters whirred. Curiosity seekers and supporters crushed in, delivering banners with messages like “Only God is Perfect.” Tears fell. But much of Chicago, which had been living with Mr. Blagojevich’s tale for years, seemed to shrug. What began in 2008 with his stunning, predawn arrest at this very house, amid allegations that he had tried to trade or sell a United States Senate seat, had taken many topsy-turvy detours: his impeachment as governor, his attempt at a star turn on the television talk show circuit and reality TV, the deadlocked jury , the second trial and the anticipated start, on Thursday, of a 14-year prison term. Around this state, people said they were simply ready to think about something (anything) else — or that they had already stopped pondering Mr. Blagojevich long ago, a few even confiding that they had not realized that he was still around. “It’s like, good riddance,” Patty Loeffler, 58, said the other day as she caught a bus along Michigan Avenue. “And I’ll be glad when we stop hearing about it.” Said Michael Benninghoff, 44: “I think we’ve kind of moved on.” Mr. Blagojevich, known for his tailored suits and trademark puff of dark hair, is a former prosecutor and state and federal lawmaker who once saw himself as a possible presidential candidate. On Thursday, he is expected to arrive at a low-security federal prison near Littleton, Colo., where inmates must give up everything but simple wedding bands and religious medallions, undergo a strip search, don khaki uniforms and prepare to work around the prison for as little as 12 cents an hour. Now, at 55, he is the fourth Illinois governor in recent memory to be imprisoned, but the arc of his unraveling was anything but ordinary, even by this state’s long tradition of political corruption. In 2002, Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was elected governor on a reform platform — the antidote, his campaign seemed to say, to a Republican governor, George Ryan, who was mired in scandal and would later go to prison. By late 2008, just after Barack Obama won the White House, Mr. Blagojevich, then in his second term, happily found himself assigned by state law to appoint a replacement for Mr. Obama from Illinois in the Senate. But by then, federal agents had already been recording Mr. Blagojevich’s telephone calls, and swiftly came a slew of corruption charges that the federal prosecutor said would make “Lincoln roll over in his grave.” The most headline-grabbing of all the ways prosecutors said Mr. Blagojevich tried to make money for official acts: He had, in stunningly salty, crass language caught on the recordings, tried to get a better job, a cabinet post, a big campaign donation in exchange for Mr. Obama’s old Senate seat. He used expletives to describe just how “golden” his opportunity to pick a new senator was. After two trials, he was convicted on 18 counts. But in the interim, Illinois came to know Mr. Blagojevich, who vehemently professed his innocence and whose lawyers have started an appeal, in a way the state never really had when he ran it. He recited poetry in news conferences. He shared chats with daytime talk show hosts. He performed Elvis Presley songs for a neighborhood party. He wrote a memoir. He pitched pistachios in an ad. Until the last few months, he talked and talked and talked. But if sympathies for Mr. Blagojevich seemed scarce outside of his circle of friends and neighbors in recent days, the same did not hold for his family. Elected officials — even those who had furiously condemned Mr. Blagojevich’s behavior — expressed deep empathy for his two school-age daughters, who are expected to continue living here in his North Side home after Mr. Blagojevich reports to prison. In recent weeks, Mr. Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, appeared on Rosie O’Donnell’s television show and tearfully professed her fear that the girls are “going to be totally screwed up from this.” And on Wednesday, she stood beside her husband, tears running down her cheeks, as Mr. Blagojevich spoke of his daughters and asked aloud, “How do you make sense of this, and what is it that you can tell your kids so they can appreciate the magnitude of this calamity?” Judy Baar Topinka, the state comptroller and a Republican who once ran against Mr. Blagojevich for governor and lost, said, “It kind of breaks my heart.” Still, she said, the legacy of Mr. Blagojevich on the state — and its grim financial situation — will last far longer than his 14-year prison term. And why, she asked, did he feel the need to give one last public statement rather than leave quietly? “This is typical Blagojevich — he still in his final hours cannot give up the spotlight,” she said. At 5:02 p.m. Central Time precisely — a time that assured that Chicago television stations could go with live feeds to the starts of their evening news — Mr. Blagojevich stepped out of his house in a pair of blue jeans and into the waiting throng. Clutching his wife, he launched into a speech he might have used on the campaign trail, reminding the crowd of his efforts to bring health care to all children, extra health examinations for women, free public transportation for the elderly. He said he took responsibility for things he had said — “political talk” and “horse trades,” as he described them. Then he said he was hopeful for an appeal. “The law as it stands right now is that I have to go do what I have to go do, and this is the hardest thing that I have ever had to do,” he said. As he walked away, having spoken for more than 10 minutes, he seemed to be searching for words. “I’ll see you around,” he said, finally.

Illinois
Blagojevich Rod R
Corruption (Institutional)


Indicted Ex-Leader of Bosnian Serbs Calls Atrocities ‘Myths’

Abstract: PARIS — Radovan Karadzic , the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, on Tuesday denied charges that his troops had committed large-scale atrocities during the Bosnian war, brushing aside the accusations as “myths” fabricated by his enemies. He said the judges at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague should withdraw his indictment and should throw out the prison sentences given to some of his generals. The siege of Sarajevo, where more than 10,000 people died in 44 months, was not a siege by Bosnian Serb forces, he said. Instead, Sarajevo was a city divided by fighting, he contended, where Muslims killed other Muslims and “planted bodies of dead soldiers” around the city to put the blame on the Serbs. He also dismissed the widely documented massacre of more than 7,000 boys and men at Srebrenica in 1995 as a fiction. He said that the accusation of genocide there was based on graves that held a few thousand bodies of people who were not victims of a massacre but had simply died during four years of fighting. Mr. Karadzic, who was once a psychiatrist and poet, spoke on the second day of his opening statement at the trial, where he faces charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He presented his version of the war, and as his onetime mentor, the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, did during his own trial, he used television clips, documentary reports and quotations from friends and foes to buttress his case. But his portrayal of the Serbs as victims of hostile propaganda and cunning wartime trickery seemed directed at an audience far beyond the courtroom, who could follow proceedings live on television. Mr. Karadzic’s presentation, which often included rambling descriptions, was unlikely to have made a great impression on a court in which much of what he described has already been the subject of lengthy trials, convictions and appeals. Mr. Karadzic, who is acting as his own lawyer, apparently intends to concentrate on a narrative of the Serbs as victims. In his view, the Serbs were not the aggressor during the war from 1992 to 1995 but the “weaker party, on the defensive all the time.” Bosnian Serbs in particular, he said, were victims of “ruses of war” and trickery employed by Bosnian Muslims, who he said were bent on establishing an Iran-type Islamic state and driving out all Christians. He cited attacks on a Serbian church, on a wedding ceremony and on Serbs celebrating Christian holidays as examples of Muslim aggression. United Nations peacekeepers were not neutral, he argued, but a warring party; he said he would provide proof that they helped smuggle weapons and ammunition to Muslim forces. Mr. Karadzic said that he had been a peacemaker and that he had had nothing to do with the deaths at Srebrenica, a United Nations enclave that was overrun by Serbian troops. “Some officers said they wanted to kill prisoners of war, and I said they are crazy,” he said. Mr. Karadzic made light of notorious concentration camps where, former inmates have testified, non-Serbs were raped, tortured and killed. They were normal “investigation centers,” he said, used by organs of the state to separate civilians from fighters. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, the presiding judge said the trial was adjourned, pending a decision on an appeal Mr. Karadzic has filed, requesting more time to prepare his defense.

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia


After 2 Competitors Crash, Downhill Is Cut Short

Abstract: ASPEN, Colo., Dec. 8 — Despite what many coaches and skiers described as less-than-ideal, and even unsafe, conditions, the women’s World Cup downhill race started at the appointed hour Saturday, a day after several feet of soft snow fell on the mountain here. But after Anne-Sophie Barthet, a 19-year-old competitor from France, tore several knee ligaments during a crash, the event organizers reconsidered continuing the competition. Barthet’s accident resulted in the second medical evacuation of the day. The first involved Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria, a veteran downhiller who sustained a bone bruise of the tibia in her left leg. The circuit’s reigning champion, Nicole Hosp of Austria, refused to compete after learning of Meissnitzer’s crash. After Hosp pulled out of the start shack, her coaches withdrew three of their less-experienced racers, citing soft snow and limited visibility. “It’s such a dangerous race,” Hosp said. “I can’t understand that they would start the race. For Aspen, it will be good, but for the athletes, it’s terrible.” The race referee, Atle Skaardal, defended the decision to start. “It is downhill skiing, and we try to do the best out of every situation,” Skaardal said. Nevertheless, he halted the competition after Barthet’s accident, citing limited visibility, but not before the event was official. That left 18 downhillers at the top of Aspen Mountain. Race organizers had worked feverishly to prepare the course for the downhill, despite a big snowstorm. Britt Janyk of Canada was the winner, with a time of 1 minute 14.17 seconds. She grew up skiing in the wet, foggy snowstorms that regularly hit British Columbia. She said she felt right at home Saturday. “I got on the course this morning to inspect, and I just started smiling,” Janyk said after her first World Cup victory. “It just gave me a little bit of a mental edge, I think.” Janyk, who leads the World Cup downhill standings, said she worried that the injuries and withdrawals would cause the race to be canceled before a minimum number of starters made the victory official. The decision to start the race raised questions about the proper balance between athlete safety and the demands of the sponsors. At an official meeting after the race, Hughes Ansermoz, the coach of the Swiss team, said that the race should have been delayed so that workers could move soft snow off the course. Not everyone seemed to believe conditions were as bad at the start. “There’s a lot of sponsors involved and TV, so sometimes they maybe push a little too hard,” said Alex Hoedlmoser, the coach of the United States women’s downhill team. “But until the last girl crashed, it was doable.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships were tied to live European broadcasts of the event, the only women’s downhill in the United States this year. It was the first women’s World Cup downhill in Aspen since 1988. For the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, which runs the United States ski team, the event was a chance to showcase Lindsey Vonn, the team’s most successful women’s downhiller since Picabo Street. Vonn finished fourth, despite appearing unsure of her footing. She said that the visibility was limited and that the snow was dangerously soft in the race line. “I definitely was not confident,” said Vonn, formerly Lindsey Kildow. The race was originally scheduled for Friday, but after several feet of snow fell on the course late in the week, organizers were forced to delay, then shorten, the downhill. INJURED SKIER RETURNS HOME Aksel Lund Svindal, the reigning overall World Cup champion, has returned home to Norway, 11 days after a crash in downhill training in Beaver Creek, Colo., that required nearly five hours of surgery. He sustained nasal and facial injuries and a cut through his groin muscle, where he had been speared by his ski. Svindal flew home in a private jet, organized for him by a wealthy Norwegian businessman, and told members of the Norwegian news media that he did not intend to rush back to action. (REUTERS) ITALIANS 1-2 IN GIANT SLALOM Massimiliano Blardone led a 1-2 finish for Italy in a World Cup giant slalom in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria. Blardone was third after the opening leg, but completed the Franz Klammer course in 2:10.75 for his fourth career victory in the event. Manfred Moelgg was 0.09 behind. Ted Ligety of the United States was third in 2:10.92 to keep his lead in the discipline. Bode Miller placed seventh. (AP) MORGENSTERN WINS JUMP Thomas Morgenstern of Austria won his second consecutive World Cup ski jumping event. He had the best jump in each round in Trondheim, Norway, to finish ahead of Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria and Tom Hilde of Norway. (AP)

Skiing
Alpine Skiing
World Cup (Skiing)
Athletics and Sports


Malaysia Blocks Critic of Prime Minister From Taking Case to U.S.

Abstract: BANGKOK — The Malaysian authorities on Friday prevented a member of the governing party from traveling to New York, where he had planned to urge American law enforcement officials to investigate a sovereign wealth fund headed by Malaysia ’s prime minister. The party member, Khairuddin Abu Hassan, was arrested hours after his planned departure on Friday. He was charged with trying to overthrow the government, his lawyer said. The arrest comes amid a crackdown against those investigating Prime Minister Najib Razak over deposits in 2013 of nearly $700 million into his personal bank accounts. In July, a Malaysian news outlet that had been investigating the activities of the sovereign wealth fund had its publishing license suspended, and the deputy prime minister and attorney general were removed from their posts. In August, the offices of the country’s anticorruption agency were raided. Mr. Khairuddin, a relatively junior member of Mr. Najib’s party who turned against the prime minister late last year, has traveled to financial capitals in Europe and Asia in an effort to spur investigations into the prime minister’s dealings. He said in an interview this month that he had planned to submit documents to United States law enforcement officials alleging money laundering. “I strongly believe that the U.S. authorities have all the records on money movements,” Mr. Khairuddin said. He declined to be more specific. Mr. Khairuddin was scheduled to meet agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday, his lawyer, Matthias Chang, said in a phone interview on Friday. Mr. Chang said the appointment was made with assistance from the American Embassy in Malaysia. The Malaysian immigration authorities told Mr. Khairuddin that he had been blocked from leaving the country on orders from Police Headquarters, Mr. Chang said. “This was a blatant abuse of power to prevent this report from being filed in the United States,” he said. Mr. Khairuddin was being held Friday night at a police station; a bail hearing is scheduled for Saturday, Mr. Chang said. “It is so ridiculous to say that our action would undermine democracy,” Mr. Chang said. The sovereign wealth fund under investigation, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, had difficulty making debt payments earlier this year, and critics say it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The prime minister is chairman of the fund. The government has denied reports that the $700 million transferred to Mr. Najib in 2013 came from entities linked to the fund. The government says the money was a donation, but it has not specified from whom the money was sent or why it was sent to the prime minister.

Malaysia
Sovereign wealth fund
Najib Razak
1MDB
Corruption


Euro 2012: Spain Defeats Portugal in a Shootout

Abstract: DONETSK, Ukraine — Spain has been criticized as boring at the European Championships, admonished as too defensive. But these are only opinions. Nothing really counts but the objective measure of the final score. While Spain became unnerved by Portugal’s pressure in the semifinals on Wednesday, it never came unraveled or undone. The match remained scoreless through 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime. Still, Spain remained resilient, impenetrable, its chances placed in doubt but with no sense of concession. It showed a champion’s resolve — and luck — and prevailed by 4-2 on penalty kicks. The victory was tenuous but also impressive in Spain’s lack of panic and its sustaining durability of purpose. Spain, the 2008 European champion and 2010 World Cup champion, will now advance to Sunday’s final to face Germany or Italy. History is at stake, along with a trophy. No team has held two European titles and a world title at the same time. For much of Wednesday’s match, Spain seemed uncomfortable, awkward. Portugal pushed its lines high and pressed with organization, speed and aggressive intent. Nine yellow cards were issued, five to the Portuguese. Frequently, Spain’s short, rhythmic passing attack was disrupted. It often resorted to long balls. At times, the attack became so uncertain that passes simply went to no one. When Spain did settle into its patient tiki-taka style, the crowd often jeered at the perceived tedium. La Roja did have the advantage in possession but nowhere near its usual dominance. Perhaps its players were tired, given 48 hours less to rest after the quarterfinals than Portugal. Yet for a ninth consecutive match in a knockout round of a major tournament, Spain did not allow a goal. When penalty kicks played out, the decisive shot came from Cesc Fàbregas. “We can argue about whether we played well or not, but what we cannot dispute is that the defense was excellent,” Spain Coach Vicente del Bosque said. Beforehand, much of the discussion centered on how — and whether — Spain could collectively temper the individual brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo . As it turned out, Ronaldo too often resorted to theatrics, seeking to draw fouls and earn free kicks. His aim was not accurate, either, during the run of play or on set pieces. And he never got a chance to attempt a penalty kick. In the shootout, Xabi Alonso went first for Spain. He had scored two goals against France in the quarterfinals, but this time he was repelled. Rui Patricio, the Portuguese goalkeeper, pushed the shot wide of the left post. João Moutinho chopped his stride as he approached Portugal’s first kick, and did not seem particularly confident. Iker Casillas dived to his right for Spain and made the save. Andrés Iniesta put Spain up, 1-0, sidefooting his shot inside the right post. Pepe made a long run up from outside the penalty area and drilled a low shot inside the left post for a 1-1 tie. Gerard Piqué was next for Spain. With assuredness, he scored. Then Portugal seemed confused. Bruno Alves approached the penalty spot, but Nani also walked up and replaced him. Nani stutter-stepped toward the ball and put it just under the crossbar. At 2-2, Sergio Ramos did his Andrea Pirlo impersonation for Spain. Just as Pirlo had done for Italy against England on Sunday, Ramos chipped an audacious floater into the middle of the net as Rui Patricio went sprawling. Ramos had missed a penalty kick for Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinals against Bayern Munich, but this time he was bold and accurate. According to critics, “I’m not ready for this responsibility to shoot this penalty, but I’m feeling very proud now,” Ramos said. “I wanted another chance.” Alves stepped up next for Portugal, but he seemed uncertain after the earlier mix-up and drove his kick off the crossbar. Spain remained ahead, 3-2. Fàbregas took his turn with a chance to win the match. He had remained on the bench at the start, as del Bosque surprisingly put the center forward Álvaro Negredo into the lineup. Fàbregas entered early in the second half, and along with the later Spanish substitutes, Pedro Rodríguez and Jesús Navas, provided energy and dynamism, if not a goal. When penalty kicks arrived, Fàbregas asked del Bosque to shoot fifth and last, “to be the victorious one.” His shot ricocheted off the left post and kicked into the net. Spain had reached the final of a third consecutive major tournament. “The team worked really hard,” Fàbregas said. “I had this intuition that we could advance if we went to penalties.” When he approached the penalty spot, he added, “I said to the ball that we had to make history and that it shouldn’t let me down.” Ronaldo would have been next for Portugal, but his attempt became irrelevant. And so the player many had called the best in the tournament had no impact in the final, decisive moment. Paulo Bento, Portugal’s coach, said he had no regret for saving Ronaldo for the fifth kick. “If it would have been 4-4 and he would have made the last penalty, we would be talking in a different way,” Bento said. But that is what happens when playing against Spain. People talk about how the outcome could have been different, but it seldom is.

Spain
Portugal
Soccer
UEFA European Football Championship
Ronaldo Cristiano


Montreal in Conference Semifinals

Abstract: Patrice Bernier, Ignacio Piatti and Didier Drogba scored, and the host Montreal Impact beat Toronto F.C., 3-0. Montreal will play the Columbus Crew in a two-game series in the M.L.S. Eastern Conference semifinals; the Red Bulls will face D.C. United in the other semifinal.

Soccer
Columbus Crew Soccer Team
Montreal Impact Soccer Team
Toronto Soccer Team