Accord Brings New Sense of Urgency to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Abstract: CAIRO — A day after Palestinian leaders signed what many called a landmark reconciliation accord, the antagonists in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their international mediators in Europe staked out positions in a rapidly shifting political and diplomatic landscape on Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, travelling to Rome for a meeting focused on Libya, refused to slam the door on negotiations that could include Hamas as part of a larger Palestinian authority, even as Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshal, said he was fully committed to working for a two-state solution. But Mr. Meshal was in no mood for concessions. In an interview in his Cairo hotel suite, he declined to swear off violence or to agree that a Palestinian state would produce an end to the conflict — key demands of Israel , the United States and Europe. He defined his goal as “a Palestinian state in the 1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capital, without any settlements or settlers, not an inch of land swaps and respecting the right of return” of Palestinian refugees to Israel itself. Asked if a deal honoring those principles would produce an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, Mr. Meshal declined to elaborate. “I don’t want to talk about that,” he said. He added: “When Israel made agreements with Egypt and Jordan, no one conditioned it on how Israel should think. The Arabs and the West didn’t ask Israel what it was thinking deep inside. All Palestinians know that 60 years ago they were living on historic Palestine from the river to the sea. It is no secret.” None of Thursday’s statements suggested an imminent breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian situation; on the contrary. But the subtle shifts in tone — if not substance — underscored the degree to which the newest Palestinian attempt at reconciling embittered rivals in Gaza and the West Bank has changed the dynamic of a conflict that has been at an impasse for years. Plans for President Obama to lay out broad proposals for a peace process this week — the subject of debate within his administration — were scuttled after the Hamas- Fatah accord was announced last week, according to two people briefed on the plans. (The raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan early Monday cemented the decision to postpone the speech, one senior administration official said.) The administration has reacted warily to the reconciliation pact, with many expressing doubt it would survive even as long as a week, but pointedly officials have not rejected it outright, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has. The senior administration official said that the United States, unlike in the past, did not want to preclude a genuine shift by Hamas, or force the Palestinians into a corner by denouncing any alliance that would include a group the United States and others designate as terrorists. “There is a calculated element to this,” the official said. When asked if the reconciliation would close the door to any possible negotiations with the Israelis or force a suspension in security assistance the United States has funneled to the Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, Mrs. Clinton declined to answer directly. “There are many steps that have yet to be undertaken in order to implement the agreement,” she said. “And we are going to be carefully assessing what this actually means, because there are a number of different potential meanings to it, both on paper and in practice.” She emphasized, as the administration has always done, that the United States would not accept a Palestinian government that included Hamas unless the group renounced violence, agreed to live by previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements and recognized Israel. These are the so-called “quartet principles,” agreed on by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain made a similar point during a visit to London by Mr. Netanyahu, who later went on to Paris, reflecting the sudden diplomatic urgency caused by the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the party that leads the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas , for his part, travelled to Berlin to make the case for a declaration of Palestinian statehood, only to hear from Chancellor Angela Merkel that “unilateral steps” were not helpful. Mrs. Merkel urged a rapid return to peace efforts based on recognition of Israel’s right to exist, the renunciation of violence and commitment to the process of negotiation. “Time is short,” she said. As those meetings unfolded, differences between France and Germany seemed to be widening, particularly over the question of whether the United Nations should endorse a declaration of Palestinian independence in September, as Palestinian leaders are urging. In an interview published on Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France implied that he would support the idea of recognition if Middle East peace efforts remained stalemated through the summer. Mr. Abbas, who has largely given up on peace negotiations with Israel under Mr. Netanyahu, concluded that the best way forward was national unity and an appeal to the international community to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Fatah and Hamas fought a brief civil war in 2007 and have been divided ever since. The agreement they signed this week calls for a new government of technocrats to plan for elections in the coming year as well as committees to coordinate security cooperation and questions like prisoner releases. The bitterness runs deep, though, and many challenges remain. “The whole world knows what Hamas thinks and what our principles are,” Mr. Meshal said on Thursday. “But we are talking now about a common national agenda. The world should deal with what we are working toward now, the national political program.” Asked whether in his pact, he had agreed to end violent resistance, he replied: “Where there is occupation and settlement, there is a right to resistance. Israel is the aggressor. But resistance is a means, not an end.” He added that over the coming months that, as Hamas and Fatah worked out their differences, “we are ready to reach an agreement on how to manage resistance.” He said that Hamas had entered into cease-fires with Israel in the past and that it was ready to do so in the future. There is one in effect right now. “If occupation ends,” he said, “resistance ends. If Israel stops firing, we stop firing.”

Israel
Palestinians
Hamas
European Union
Netanyahu Benjamin
Abbas Mahmoud
Fatah Al
Sarkozy Nicolas
Merkel Angela


Sikhs Mourn Victims and Lament Post-9/11 Targeting

Abstract: Sikhs in New York and across the country on Monday mourned the deaths in the shooting rampage at one of their temples outside Milwaukee, and some said the killings revived bitter memories of the period just after the Sept. 11 attacks when their distinctive turbans and beards seemed to trigger harassment and violence by people who wrongly assumed that they were militant Muslims. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to a Sikh temple in Queens and praised Sikhs for their contributions to the community. The mayor vowed to maintain security for New Yorkers of all faiths. Nancy Powell, the American ambassador to India, where the vast majority of the world’s 25 million Sikhs live, visited a temple in New Delhi and expressed horror and solidarity. Elsewhere, Sikhs reflected on the uncomfortable fact that because their appearance sets them apart, they are sometimes mistakenly singled out as targets. Observant Sikh men often wear turbans and do not cut their hair or shave their beards. “I have been called Osama bin Laden walking down the street, because in the popular imagination a turban is associated with bin Laden and Al Qaeda,” said Prabhjot Singh, who works in the high-tech industry near San Francisco. “But 99 percent of the people who wear turbans in the United States are Sikhs, so they face a disproportionate number of acts of discrimination.” In collecting data about post-Sept. 11 hate crimes, the Justice Department does not draw a distinction between Sikhs and Muslims, an entirely separate religion. A report from October says, “In the first six years after 9/11, the department investigated more than 800 incidents involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against persons perceived to be Muslim or Sikh, or of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian origin.” Sikhism, a monotheistic faith that emerged from the Punjab region of India about 500 years ago, is one of the world’s youngest major religions. It emphasizes self-reliance and individual responsibility and draws its tenets from the words of 10 gurus. The last guru, named Singh, as are many Sikhs today, died in 1708. More than many other religious practitioners, Sikh men wear a uniform: unshorn hair and a small comb covered by a turban; a steel bracelet; and, for a certain group of initiates, a sword known as a kirpan. The religion is known for promoting women to positions of power, and has championed social justice. British colonialists in India tended to favor the Sikhs, viewing them as more Western than the Hindus and Muslims, who made up the vast majority of the population there. “Historically in India there has been tension between the Sikhs and the ruling elite, whether Muslim or Hindu,” said Harpreet Singh, a Sikh who is finishing a doctorate in South Asian religions at Harvard and helped found the Sikh Coalition in 2001 to help Sikhs stand up for their rights. “The gurus didn’t want to pay the non-Muslim tax. Sikhs grew in numbers and became a political force.” The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh from Punjab, and on Monday he expressed sorrow and condemnation for the killings of six people at a Wisconsin temple on Sunday by a man who appeared to have ties to a white supremacist movement. The gunman was killed by the police. Other recent acts of violence against Sikhs — the defacing in February of a temple in Michigan, the beating of a cabdriver in California in late 2010 — involved mistaken references to Al Qaeda or militant Islam. The first post-Sept. 11 killing classified as a hate crime took place in Arizona, where a Sikh was gunned down by a man who is now serving a life sentence. In the Jackson Heights section of Queens on Monday, Sikh men in russet, black and peach-colored turbans swept leaves from the fronts of stores selling saris and gold jewelry, and offered discounts to passers-by. Many talked about the Wisconsin rampage. “Very sad. I was shocked,” said Harbinder Singh, who works at a grocery. “We have not done any harm to anyone. Why are we targeted? Maybe some other religions have done harm. They think that we are the same. Maybe that’s the reason.” Inder Mohan Singh, 73, who owns a Western Union location, lives in Woodbury on Long Island and has been in the United States for 40 years. “I’m just an ordinary man, just like other people, just like other Americans,” he said. “I should cut my hair? No one is going to change. I’m wearing the turban. I have to do it. I don’t want to say, ‘No, now I’m not going to wear my turban because of this man.’ ” He added: “This is our religion. We cannot leave our religion for one man.”

India
Discrimination
Hate Crimes
Sikhs and Sikhism
Murders and Attempted Murders
Page Wade Michael
New York City
Oak Creek (Wis)
Bloomberg Michael R
Oak Creek Wis Shooting (2012)


Greece: Ex-Official’s Relatives Fined for Bank Deposits

Abstract: Greece’s financial crimes squad has traced more than six million euros, or nearly $8 million, in undeclared assets in the bank accounts of four relatives of a former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, who is being investigated for his handling of a list of some 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, a source of much-needed potential tax revenue untapped by the authorities. The four people face fines of about $13 million, said an official of the crimes squad. The development appeared to strengthen the case against Mr. Papaconstantinou, who became the focus of a parliamentary investigation in January after prosecutors revealed that the names of four of his relatives had been removed from the original list of depositors. Last week, Greek lawmakers voted to widen the investigation of Mr. Papaconstantinou.

Greece
George Papaconstantinou
Euro Crisis


With Ivan Nova Sharp, Yankees Beat Orioles for First Win of the Year

Abstract: BALTIMORE — Mark Teixeira waited throughout the winter and spring for the Yankees to line up after a game and shake hands. Most starters depart the ballpark by the ninth inning of spring training games, so the first opportunity for a victorious postgame procession needed to come in the regular season. The Yankees waited three games longer than they hoped, but on Monday they finally secured a 6-2 victory . “A lot of times, the first for everything is the most difficult to get in a season,” Derek Jeter said. “Whether it’s the first hit, first R.B.I., first anything — first win.” The only indication that this was not a typical night at the ballpark for a Yankees- Orioles game was the standings. The Yankees entered Camden Yards with a 0-3 record, and the Orioles welcomed their counterparts with a 3-0 record. A loss might have prompted further unrest among the Yankee fan base, which tends not to accept last place at any point in the season. A contingent of Yankee fans filled the stands in Baltimore, and they had ample reason to applaud early, when Teixeira’s run-scoring single in the first gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Jeter, who was a member of the last Yankees team to open the season 0-3 in 1998, helped with a four-hit game highlighted by a run-scoring double to cap a three-run fourth. Every player in the batting order except for Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher had a hit. Each lineup decision that Manager Joe Girardi was questioned about before the game proved clairvoyant. Andruw Jones , who was starting in place of Brett Gardner for the second time in three games, hit a solo home run in the sixth. Eduardo Nunez, who committed the only Yankee error of the season, made a diving catch at third base to end the fourth inning. And Ivan Nova, who struggled through spring training, impressed in his first start of the season. “I wasn’t going to make too much of spring training,” Girardi said. “We had a lot to fall back on what he did last season and build on. But everyone wants to feel good about themselves.” When Nova arrived at the ballpark Monday with Freddy Garcia, Nova told Garcia that there were situations last season when Nova would start during a cold stretch in the season and reversed the team’s fortunes with a victory. He told Garcia the same could happen in his first start, and he proved correct. Nova allowed two runs in seven innings while striking out seven and not walking anyone. He threw first-pitch strikes against 16 of 29 batters in earning the win. “I don’t want to be the stopper,” Nova said. “I want to win every day, whether I pitch or not.” The victory came after Tampa Bay swept the Yankees in a season-opening three-game series and Girardi took time to speak with the club. Girardi remained vague on what he said, insisting that it was important the players trust that what is said in the clubhouse remains in the clubhouse. But the message seemed to be about keeping a three-game losing streak in perspective. Still, Girardi did not hear from Hal Steinbrenner, the club’s managing general partner. Girardi said that was “par for the course,” and that conversations with Steinbrenner usually occur when Steinbrenner attends a Yankees homestand. Would it have been different if George Steinbrenner were alive and running the club like a one-man tornado ? “Possible; maybe,” Girardi said before Monday’s game. “But I’ve always said my heat comes from within. Could it be more public? I don’t know.” Girardi accepted the job after the 2007 season, by which point George Steinbrenner’s presence was already fading. But Girardi was a reserve catcher and a bench coach when Steinbrenner’s wrath loomed over the clubhouse, so he knows what life was once like for a Yankees manager. Another person who understands that role is Orioles Manager Buck Showalter, who spent four seasons leading the Yankees in the early 1990s. Showalter offered little reaction to his former club’s slow start other than acknowledging that the Yankees would eventually turn things around. Showalter said the Yankees had too much talent and too big a payroll to creep in the standings for too long. He was more concerned about the Orioles, who have not had a winning season since 1997 and finished last in the American League East in three of the past four years. By the time Mariano Rivera took the mound in the ninth, the 25,478 in attendance had dwindled to a disproportional amount of pinstriped jerseys and blue caps paying respect to their longtime closer. They finally had reason to breathe after the Yankees moved past the first weekend’s futility with an outing that can halt panic and restore normalcy — at least for a day. Inside Pitch Andy Pettitte allowed one run and two hits over three innings for the Class A Tampa Yankees on Monday night in his second game action since he ended a one-year retirement. (AP)

Jones Andruw
Nova Ivan
New York Yankees
Baltimore Orioles
Baseball


Suicide of Staten Island Girl Is Blamed on Bullying

Abstract: Felicia Garcia rarely cried, so when her friend saw her sobbing alone in a hallway between classes at Tottenville High School on Wednesday, she knew something was wrong. The friend, Briana Torres, at 16 a year older and a grade ahead of Felicia, hugged her and walked her to sixth-period English class, the girls’ arms clasped around each other’s shoulders. On the way, Felicia cheered up enough to laugh at a joke, and make a joke of her own. But there were signs of unraveling. Late Monday night, she had posted a brief Twitter message: “I cant, im done, I give up.” After school Wednesday, Felicia walked to the Staten Island Railway station where many students board trains home. She waited impatiently for the train, and as it approached, she hurled herself backward onto the tracks. A friend grabbed her arm, but she twisted free. She was pronounced dead that evening. By the time her friends began to congregate in the hospital waiting room, posting messages on Twitter and Facebook in what would become a flurry of online speculation about her death, most had pinpointed a cause: Felicia had been bullied, they said, tormented by football players on Tottenville’s undefeated team. Some said she was teased because she had piercings and lived in foster care . Others said players had spread sexual boasts about her over the weekend, after Tottenville’s 16-8 victory over Port Richmond High School. To many friends, she appeared to weather the swirl of innuendo with her usual confidence. “She never really reached out for help; she was a really tough person,” Briana said Thursday, wearing a small tribute on her left wrist — an “RIP Felicia” inked in purple. “When I dropped her off at class, I wasn’t really worried about her.” Felicia had reported the taunts to an administrator, who arranged mediation sessions between Felicia and the boys she said were harassing her. Police are now investigating her death. Neither they nor the Education Department nor the school would comment on the bullying allegations. There was already little that was easy in Felicia’s life. Friends described her childhood as a patchwork of loss and instability: both her parents died when she was young, and she disliked living with her aunt, said Kaitlyn Antonmarchi, 15, who said she had been Felicia’s best friend since eighth grade. At one point, Felicia ran away from her aunt’s house with an older man. After she entered the foster system, she bounced in and out of different homes, dyed her dark hair red and sprouted a cluster of piercings. With her latest foster parents, Felicia finally seemed happy and stable, Kaitlyn said. Moving to the other side of Staten Island, she started high school at Tottenville, improved her grades, let the dye wash out and eliminated most piercings. At Friday’s football game, Kaitlyn said: “She looked happy. She was laughing. It didn’t look like anything was upsetting her at all.” Bullying is common at the school, classmates said, but administrators usually acted to stop it, and it rarely reached the level that Felicia experienced. Tease Felicia, and she would come back with a quick, witty retort, said Alissa Compitello, 17, a senior. “If you tried to bully her, she’d laugh at you,” she said. “Somebody must’ve said something pretty bad about her for this to happen. They just wouldn’t stop.” On Wednesday, Felicia had asked Karl Geiling, 15, a sophomore at Tottenville, about how his test had gone. He saw her at the train station later. “I was way down, away from her,” he said. “All I heard was screams, and then everybody went silent.” At school on Thursday, many students wore black and purple, colors often associated with anti-bullying campaigns, and met with grief counselors. A crowd of about 500 gathered at the station in the evening, many holding candles. Someone had tied purple and black balloons to a chain-link fence overlooking the tracks, with notes and a photo fluttering alongside them. As their classmates created anti-bullying Facebook pages in Felicia’s honor Wednesday night, several football players took to Twitter to protest what they saw as the wholesale tarring of the team, which is a perennial favorite to win the Public School Athletic League championship. At least two seniors have been offered scholarships to play Division I college football. “None of you even no half the story so stop pointing fingers at the football team,” wrote James Munson, a safety on the team and the son of the team’s coach, Jim Munson. Another player, Richy Lam, a senior, said Thursday that many members of the team had not even known Felicia. In New York, an anti-bullying statute signed in 2010, one of numerous laws passed around the country in the wake of teenage suicides, requires schools to develop policies to deter harassment of students by other students, including education programs and disciplinary procedures. Prosecutions for student bullying are rare; perhaps the best-known case is that of Dharun Ravi , who was convicted of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy charges for using a webcam to spy on his Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide a few days later. Mr. Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail. “Bullying that violates criminal law can be prosecuted criminally, but not as bullying,” said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia Law School who directs its Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Physical violence or threats of physical violence could be prosecuted, she said, “but what most often happens is that schools and prosecutors try to keep these situations out of criminal court which can be appropriate if the school system takes the incident seriously, punishes the offender and protects the victim.” It is not clear whether anyone will be disciplined in Felicia’s case. For some students, the school’s next challenge is Friday’s football game against the rival Curtis High School team, the last of the season, which may be pushed to Sunday. Felicia was a fan. When Kaitlyn last saw her, she said, she had been planning to cheer Tottenville this weekend. “She said, ‘Yeah, I’m going,’ ” Kaitlyn said. “And I said, I’ll see you there.”

Bullies
Tottenville High School
Staten Island Railway
Suicides and Suicide Attempts
Garcia Felicia
Social Networking (Internet)
Staten Island (NYC)


Hillary Clinton’s Doctor Says Pneumonia Led to Abrupt Exit From 9/11 Event

Abstract: Hillary Clinton is being treated for pneumonia and dehydration, her doctor said on Sunday, hours after she abruptly left a ceremony in New York honoring the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and had to be helped into a van by Secret Service agents. The incident, which occurred after months of questions about her health from her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, and his campaign, is likely to increase pressure on Mrs. Clinton to address the issue and release detailed medical records, which she has so far declined to do. Mrs. Clinton was taken from the morning event at ground zero to the Manhattan apartment of her daughter, Chelsea. About 90 minutes after arriving there, Mrs. Clinton emerged from the apartment in New York’s Flatiron district. She waved to onlookers and posed for pictures with a little girl on the sidewalk. “I’m feeling great,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It’s a beautiful day in New York.” Mrs. Clinton left in her motorcade without the group of reporters that is designated to travel with her in public. A campaign spokesman, Nick Merrill, indicated that she had returned to her Chappaqua, N.Y., residence sometime after 1 p.m., and Mrs. Clinton was not seen publicly the rest of the day. Mr. Merrill initially described Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, as feeling “overheated” at the commemoration ceremony. But just after 5 p.m., a campaign official said Mrs. Clinton’s physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, had examined the candidate at her home in Chappaqua, and Dr. Bardack said in a statement that Mrs. Clinton was “rehydrated and recovering nicely.” “Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies,” Dr. Bardack’s statement said, adding that on Friday morning, after a prolonged cough, Mrs. Clinton was given a diagnosis of pneumonia. “She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule,” Dr. Bardack added. “At this morning’s event, she became overheated and dehydrated.” Dr. Bardack did not indicate what sort of pneumonia Mrs. Clinton had or elaborate on the nature of the examination last week, whether Mrs. Clinton had a fever today, or a host of other issues that could offer more precise insights about her condition. Late Sunday night, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said she was canceling her plans to travel to California on Monday for what had been a planned two-day trip there. Image Hillary Clinton as she left her daughter Chelsea’s apartment in New York on Sunday. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times A video of Mrs. Clinton taken by an attendee at the ceremony captured what appeared to be her legs buckling as she struggled to steady herself and walk to her van. She required assistance from two Secret Service agents, who held her on either side, to move off a curb and into the van. Close-up images revealed that her feet were dragging as she was hoisted into the vehicle. The episode thrust questions about Mrs. Clinton’s health and the transparency of her campaign squarely into the last two months of the race, which many polls show has grown tighter. For months Republicans have, with scarce evidence, questioned the stamina of Mrs. Clinton, 68, and claimed she is ill, often pointing to her repeated coughing bouts. She has brushed off such claims. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump, 70, have shared substantially less information about their health than some previous presidential candidates. And Mrs. Clinton revealed that she had pneumonia and had been prescribed medication only after the startling video emerged of her being unable to walk under her own volition after the ceremony. Her campaign initially did not offer any information about why she had left early or her whereabouts. Twice during the day, she abandoned the group of reporters assigned to cover her public movements. Campaign officials did not respond to multiple inquiries about whether Mrs. Clinton had been treated by a doctor or had taken any medications. Even some members of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign staff had been unaware of her recent diagnosis. Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s long-time aide, sent an email to the full campaign staff on Sunday that included the doctor’s note, to share with them “the full picture.” “Onward as H.R.C. would say,” Ms. Abedin wrote in the message, the contents of which were disclosed by a Clinton aide who requested anonymity to share an internal campaign email. Temperatures were in the high 70s on Sunday morning in New York, and humidity was high. Mr. Trump also attended the ceremony, as did many other dignitaries. Other attendees at the event said afterward that Mrs. Clinton had not appeared ill when she first arrived at the former site of the World Trade Center. “She seemed fine,” said Representative Peter T. King of New York, a Republican, who recalled speaking briefly with Mrs. Clinton around 8:30 a.m. But about an hour later there was a minor commotion, Mr. King said. A number of New York’s current and former elected officials had been standing in silence as the names of the victims of the attacks were read. Suddenly, Mrs. Clinton, a former New York senator, left her position. Mrs. Clinton emerged last week from an August mostly focused on private fund-raisers with campaign events in Ohio, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina and Missouri. On Wednesday, she participated in an NBC forum on national security , and on Friday she attended a Manhattan fund-raiser where she characterized half of Mr. Trump’s supporters as a “ basket of deplorables .” The candidates had taken their advertisements off the air to honor the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Trump said nothing when he was asked on Sunday about Mrs. Clinton’s condition. But he and his supporters have aggressively sought to raise questions about Mrs. Clinton’s health in recent months. Mr. Trump has highlighted her recurring cough and wrote on Twitter last month that “both candidates” should “release detailed medical records.” (Mr. Trump has issued only a limited summary of his health.) Questions about the health of presidential hopefuls are hardly new to this campaign, but long before the exacting scrutiny of the modern media environment, campaigns were often able to suppress information about the ailments of candidates. Rumors about Franklin D. Roosevelt’s health, for example, pervaded his final presidential campaign in 1944, but he campaigned vigorously and his aides kept the extent of the heart disease that would kill him the following year out of the news. More recently, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Senator John McCain, each of whom was the Republican presidential nominee while in his 70s, faced questions about their physical condition. “The physical demands of running for president, even with private planes and Secret Service protection, are more difficult than the mental demands,” said Scott Reed, who managed Mr. Dole’s 1996 campaign. Mr. Trump has also been criticized for sharing few details about his health, providing only a brief statement from his personal physician in December. Short on particulars like heart rate, cholesterol level or family history, it described Mr. Trump in laudatory terms, saying that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” The physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, later told NBC News that he had written the statement in five minutes while a black car waited outside his office to collect it. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has tried to bat away rumors about her health , including releasing a letter from Mrs. Clinton’s doctor saying she was in “excellent health.” But aides have dismissed such questions as a way to distract from the issue of Mr. Trump’s not releasing his tax returns. In July 2015, Mrs. Clinton issued a detailed two-page letter from her physician that included a concussion she sustained in 2012, while she was secretary of state; it left her with a blood clot in her head and double vision. Dr. Bardack, Mrs. Clinton’s physician, said those symptoms had been resolved within two months. The candidate’s husband, Bill Clinton, however, has said that she “required six months of very serious work to get over” the concussion — a statement that helped feed conspiracy theories among Republicans that the injury was worse than initially disclosed, though there is no medical evidence to support those theories. Asked whether she was concerned that such questions about her health would affect the election, as the polls have tightened, Mrs. Clinton told reporters on her campaign plane last week: “I’m not concerned about the conspiracy theories. There are so many of them, I’ve lost track of them.”

Hillary Clinton
Pneumonia
World Trade Center
2016 Presidential Election
9/11,Sept 11
Donald Trump
Medicine and Health


Shutting Down New York City for a Day Won’t Have a Lasting Impact, Economists Say

Abstract: Virtually shutting down the entire New York City metropolitan area for a blizzard that flaked out was a costly decision, but it will not have a lasting effect on the region, economists said on Tuesday. With the highways and transit systems closed overnight, most of the usual commercial activity in and around New York City ground to a halt on Monday and only gradually returned on Tuesday. Most of a day’s output — the goods and services produced — was skipped as workers hunkered down at home, having been warned that it might take two days to dig out from a storm that was forecast to dump more than two feet of snow on the city. But after those predictions proved overblown for the city , economists said the impact would be minor. Much of the lost activity could be made up in the next few weeks as residents caught up on missed shopping trips and work overtime to complete assignments, they said. Image The winter storm this week, predicted to be one of the worst ever to hit New York City, failed to deliver much of a blow. But it still brought the city to a halt. Children enjoyed the snow at Waterside Plaza, with the Queensboro Bridge in the background. 1 / 12 “All in all, the storm’s a nuisance, but it’s not an economic disaster,” said Ryan Sweet, director of real-time economics for Moody’s Analytics . Mr. Sweet said that the metropolitan area contributes about 8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, or about $5.3 billion a day in economic activity. With the roads and subway systems having reopened early Tuesday, less than a full day’s productivity was lost, and much of what was lost “will be made up in subsequent weeks,” he said. Some businesses, including restaurants and theaters, will not be able to recoup their losses. But some of that spending would have shifted to other businesses, such as grocery stores and providers of home entertainment, said Evan M. Gold, a senior vice president at Planalytics , which measures the effects of weather on consumer demand. “I have three kids home from school today,” Mr. Gold said. “Maybe they’re watching an on-demand movie. I’m sure we’re spending money on things that normally we would not have made a purchase of today.” Planalytics estimated that the storm wiped out about $500 million in sales in the Northeast that will not be recovered. At least half of that would have come from New England, where the storm was most severe. Only about one-third to half of that total would have come from the New York City area, Mr. Gold said. Image The sidewalk in front of Bergdorf Goodman on Tuesday. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times Mr. Gold said he could not venture a guess about the share of that loss that could be attributed to the decisions by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City to shut down the subway and commuter lines Monday and to order everyone off the streets. A study released last year by IHS Global Insight estimated that a one-day shutdown caused by a snowstorm would cost New York State $700 million and New Jersey $289 million in economic activity. Most of that loss would be from wages of hourly workers and the forgone spending of that income, the study said. The effects of the storm that swept up the East Coast on Monday night left large swaths of both states unscathed. Not so for the public images of Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio, who were the targets of a lot of criticism on social media for overhyping the hazards of the storm. But other city officials were more forgiving. Ronnie Lowenstein, the director of the city’s Independent Budget Office, said the shutdowns “look like a mistake because the storm didn’t materialize as the National Weather Service predicted.” But it was a less costly error than the underreaction by the administration of former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to a snowstorm on the day after Christmas in 2010. “The risk of being wrong is extremely costly if the storm were anywhere near as big as forecast,” Ms. Lowenstein said. Scott M. Stringer, the city’s comptroller, said “the impact of any limited weather event on the economy of the city is generally small and transitory.” Some working people may lose wages, he said, “but the vast majority of our city’s economic activity — real estate transactions, retail sales and other consumer spending — either continues on as normal or is just displaced to another day. Money not spent today is eventually spent.”

Economy
Snow Snowstorms
NYC
Consumer behaviour


Wise Dan’s Success Also Boosts Trainer

Abstract: In horse racing, there is a belief that a horse’s talent cannot be determined by pedigree or auction price; it is the racetrack that is the judge of good horses, and they can come from anywhere. The reigning horse of the year, Wise Dan, is one of those horses. A 6-year-old gelding, Wise Dan has finished ahead of all but one of his opponents in his six races this year. Before that loss, he had won nine consecutive races dating to August 2012, five of them Grade I starts, including last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile . Wise Dan will try to return to the winner’s circle when he races in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita Park in California. Standing in his way will be Silver Max, who defeated him in his last race, on Oct. 5, and Olympic Glory, an impressive winner at Ascot Racecourse in England this month. Despite the upset by Silver Max, Wise Dan is training well, the trainer Charles LoPresti said. “He’s as good as he was when he went into last year’s Breeders’ Cup,” LoPresti said. To gauge what that might mean: last year Wise Dan ran the fastest Mile, 1 minute 31.78 seconds, in the 29-year history of the Breeders’ Cup and, in doing so, broke Santa Anita’s course record as well. Still, Wise Dan’s success came as a surprise. His owner, Morton Fink, does not exactly know what made him breed his only mare, Lisa Danielle, to the Pennsylvania-based Wiseman’s Ferry, except that he owns a share in the stallion, who was a decent runner but failed to produce any noteworthy offspring, and that the stud fee at the time was only $1,000. Lisa Danielle, named after Fink’s granddaughter, was a $29,000 yearling purchase who won one race. But Fink, a Chicago native who has bred and raced horses for 40 years, patiently waited for that once-in-a-lifetime horse to come along. “I’m 83 now,” said Fink, who despite being slowed by health problems remains as involved as ever with his six-horse stable and can be found most weekends at Arlington Park with his wife, Elaine. “I honestly believe he’s helped me live longer,” Fink said of Wise Dan, who has won 18 of 26 starts and finished second twice while winning more than $5 million. LoPresti, who grew up in Brooklyn, said: “I’m very proud of him. He’s just a nice horse to have around.” Until Wise Dan, LoPresti had a relatively low profile in the sport. Since taking out his trainer’s license in 1993, he has amassed just over $13 million in earnings, but more than $9 million of that has come in the last three years. He won his first graded stakes race in 2009, with Wise Dan’s half-brother Successful Dan, winner of close to $1 million, and secured a second-place finish in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile with Turallure. But it was Wise Dan who catapulted LoPresti into racing’s limelight. In 2010, Wise Dan finished fifth in his first start, but broke his maiden in his next race, winning by 15 lengths. Two races later, he earned his first stakes victory. Image Wise Dan, center, winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park last year, when he broke the course record. Credit Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press From there, he has been almost unstoppable. He won the Ben Ali in April 2012, setting the track record at Keeneland for a mile and an eighth on the synthetic surface. In September, he broke a turf-course record at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto when he cruised in the Woodbine Mile, which he also won in 2012. In the Woodbine Mile, jockey John Velazquez barely moved a muscle while atop Wise Dan, a big chestnut, making the record-setting performance look more like a workout than a race. Then, on Oct. 5, Wise Dan met his match. Back at Keeneland, his home track, Wise Dan was looking for his second consecutive win in the Shadwell Turf Mile, his final race before heading to the Breeders’ Cup. But a deluge in Lexington, Ky., forced officials to take the race off the turf. A thoroughly soaked track, a wide trip and the speedy colt Silver Max proved to be his undoing. Wise Dan finished second, beaten by a length and a quarter. “He was a little frustrated that he got beat, I think,” LoPresti said days after the race. “But it wasn’t the most ideal racetrack, and I think he fought it.” While the loss stung, LoPresti felt no shame in finishing second. It just was not his horse’s day. “Taking nothing away from the winner, he won fair and square, and he’s a nice, improving horse,” he said. LoPresti, who spent his childhood around hunter and jumper horses, was introduced to racehorses at 19 after responding to an advertisement in The Blood-Horse magazine for a job at a thoroughbred farm in Kentucky. “The job was taken, and I guess they liked me enough,” LoPresti, 56, said. “They sent me back to New York to talk to their trainer at the racetrack at the time, and the rest is history,” Now LoPresti, a resident of Kentucky since 1978, has 30 horses stabled at Keeneland, and he and his wife, Amy, operate Forest Lane, a farm in Lexington, where they are known for sticking to the same old-school approach and hands-on horsemanship they learned in their youth. “They don’t have any kids, so they treat the horses like they are their kids,” Fink said of the LoPrestis. That means that for Wise Dan and his stablemates, winters are spent having a break at the farm so the yearlings can move in and get accustomed to the track. “I don’t want to run horses 365 days a year,” LoPresti said. “I want to run them when I think the best racing is, and I think the best racing is spring, summer and the fall.” He added, “I probably miss a little bit by not being in Florida in February and March, but you know what, I’m not that consumed with winning the Kentucky Derby.” Right now, LoPresti’s focus is on Wise Dan and the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile. “What he does for the fans and what he does for us, all my team that’s worked with him,” LoPresti said. “He is just a dream come true.” He paused and added, “I hope he is around for a lot more years, I tell you.”

Horse racing
Charles LoPresti
Santa Anita Park Calif
Horse Jockeys and Trainers


Six Women at Dresdner File Bias Suit

Abstract: Six women who are senior bankers at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Services have sued the investment bank, contending that they were denied equal bonuses and promotions that went to men with less experience. The complaint, brought by three directors and three vice presidents -- all still working at the bank -- also cites instances of lewd behavior toward the women, entertainment of clients at a strip club and repeated examples of scaled-back opportunities for women after they returned from maternity leave. In one case, Katherine Smith, a director in equity sales trading in London who has worked at the bank or at its predecessors since 1996, was referred to as the "Pamela Anderson of sales/trading" by her supervisor, according to the lawsuit. And while Ms. Smith has been among the group's top producers in terms of commissions generated for stock sales, she was awarded progressively lower bonuses and denied a promotion to managing director, the most senior ranking on Wall Street, "because she is a woman and because she has a child," the suit contends. One woman complained of a male managing director who routinely took prostitutes to the office during his lunch hour, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in United States District Court in Manhattan, seeks class-action status on behalf of 500 women who work at Dresdner Kleinwort, the American investment bank of Dresdner Bank of Germany. The lawsuit seeks $1.4 billion for economic damages, emotional distress, harm to reputation and punitive damages. An employee of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London, who asked to be identified only as a spokeswoman, disputed the claims and said the bank would fight the suit. "It is not our policy to comment on pending or threatened litigation," she said. Dresdner Kleinwort "fully complies with all applicable employment-related laws and is confident that any claims to the contrary are without merit," she said. In recent years, sexual harassment cases have plagued Wall Street, which has yet to shake its reputation as something of a boys' club. Saleswomen and female traders, investment bankers and private wealth managers at firms like Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney have sued, claiming discriminatory treatment, unequal pay and promotion, and demeaning work conditions. In July 2004, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $54 million to settle a sex discrimination case covering as many as 340 women. The settlement awarded Allison K. Schieffelin, a successful bond saleswoman who brought the case, $12 million. Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney have paid more than $200 million combined to women who worked in their brokerage operations. Like many banks on Wall Street, Dresdner Kleinwort has a low percentage of women in senior positions. According to May 2005 data cited in the lawsuit, women account for less than 2 percent of managing directors in Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's worldwide capital markets division. Only 13 percent of directors, the next level down, are women. Of the 500 women in the capital markets division, about 60 percent are associates, the second-lowest rank, or below. The six plaintiffs have been at Dresdner "for a total of 50 years," said their lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor of Thompson Wigdor & Gilly in New York. One plaintiff, Jyoti Ruta, a director in structured finance who has worked with the firm since 1994, said: "I have heard so many women at DrKW who tell me the things that their male managers and colleagues have done to them. It saddens me. "They love their work, they are building their careers and they believe in the firm, but they are treated in such a way that they will never advance." According to the suit, Ms. Ruta was stripped of revenue-generating opportunities, left out of critical client events and generally relegated to the sidelines after she returned from maternity leave in 2003. She is currently pregnant with her second child. She said the firm had retaliated against her for taking action against it by issuing false performance reports and scrutinizing activities like lunch breaks. In addition to Dresdner Kleinwort, the lawsuit names 12 supervisors, one of them a woman, as defendants.

DRESDNER KLEINWORT WASSERSTEIN
SUITS AND LITIGATION


With Regained Sight, Facing Other Disabilities With Dignity

Abstract: Arva Mason is not one to complain. She has been nearly deaf since birth. But since her arrival in the United States from her native Panama in 1984 to be with her mother and siblings, she has silently worked sorting, packaging and assembling products for Brooklyn businesses. “She’s a pretty serious person,” said Cynthia Quintanilla, a Medicaid service coordinator at Brooklyn Community Services, where Ms. Mason is employed in the nonprofit organization’s Brooklyn Unlimited workshop, which provides packaging and assembly services to manufacturers and retailers. Even when her eyesight began to fail early last year, Ms. Mason, now 60, still did not complain. But Patricia Waisome, Ms. Mason’s 79-year-old sister, who lives half a block away and looks after her, noticed around June of last year that Ms. Mason’s eyes were “always red.” “When I asked what was wrong with her eyes, she said it was cigarette smoke from the workers where she was employed,” Ms. Waisome said. But then she noticed that her sister, uncharacteristically, had begun to slack off on housekeeping at her Brooklyn apartment. “She didn’t notice the dirt and dust in the corners, and I would fuss at her,” Ms. Waisome said. Despite failing eyesight, Ms. Mason, who is developmentally disabled, somehow managed to go grocery shopping, and generally moved about her neighborhood as she always had. She pays $478 a month in rent, and other bills, according to Brooklyn Community Services, include $40 for cable and $17 for gas and electricity. She receives $631 a month in Social Security disability payments and about $150 a month for her work at the workshop. “She did tell me she always had to wait to see somebody crossing the street, because when the sun gets in her eyes, she can’t see,” Ms. Waisome said. Otherwise, Ms. Waisome said, “I don’t know how she got on the bus in the morning to go to work and come back.” What finally prompted Ms. Waisome and Brooklyn Community Services staff members to take action was when one of the workshop’s floor supervisors noticed that Ms. Mason was holding a label for a test tube two inches from her face. In October 2009, an ophthalmologist pronounced Ms. Mason legally blind, with cataracts in both eyes. Ms. Quintanilla recalled that the doctor said that if the cataracts were not removed immediately, the optic nerve would die, and Ms. Mason would be permanently blind. An operation to remove the cataract from her left eye was scheduled for Nov. 16. “When her sister and I came into the recovery room, the other patients were all a little sedated,” Ms. Quintanilla said. “But Arva was sitting up: very awake and looking around like a child in a candy store, because she hadn’t seen things in so long.” “When we were leaving the hospital, she got ahead of us, and opened the doors for us,” Ms. Quintanilla said. “When that happened, Patricia and I jumped back and said, ‘Oh, my God, she does see!’ It was a big moment.” An operation on her right eye last Friday was also successful. After the operation, Brooklyn Community Services, one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, installed a $49 wireless flashing-light doorbell so that Ms. Mason could tell when her sister was ringing the buzzer. Ms. Mason had always been a snappy dresser, but as her cataracts worsened, she seemed to become less careful about her appearance, Ms. Quintanilla said. After the cataracts were removed, her fastidiousness was back with a vengeance. “She is back to wearing colorful, well-coordinated clothes — wearing hats and gloves and glasses,” Ms. Quintanilla said. “She’s back out there shopping and looking for things that she likes. And she can stretch a dollar like you wouldn’t believe. If you mention that you like something she’s wearing, she’ll tell you, ‘Two dollars’ or, ‘Three dollars.’ She likes to tell you about her bargains.”

Cataracts
Eyes and Eyesight
Handicapped
Philanthropy
Brooklyn (NYC)


France Stirs Ill Will as It Consorts With Region’s Autocrats

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — A waiter, reacting to the mosquitoes plaguing a customer on a recent hot night here, said sharply, “Those aren’t mosquitoes; those are French people!” Two thousand miles away, in another coastal African capital, Libreville, in Gabon, a crowd yelled: “We’re sick of the French! Let’s kick them out! Let’s kill them!” after learning this fall that their nation’s reigning autocracy was staying in power. It is not a good time to be French in Francophone Africa, except if you are a high official from Paris privately visiting a strongman’s palace. As democracy slips in country after country in the region, France often quietly sides, once again, with the once-and-future autocrats. All summer long, while African opposition figures were protesting, demonstrating and fleeing, men in power were coolly visiting Paris, or receiving visits in return. Nicolas Sarkozy, now France’s president, promised a departure in relations with Africa three years ago. Instead, the nation appears to be reverting to historic type, looking past unsavory rulers for the sake of a uranium mine in Niger, oil interests in Gabon and a deep-water port in Cameroon. On the region’s streets, where people have been clamoring for democracy, this choosing of sides — the side of power — by the region’s old colonial ruler has led to attacks on French structures, rock-throwing at French people and warnings for French citizens to stay indoors or evacuate. For decades, France played a preponderant role in the making and unmaking of governments and economies in this part of the world. And while perception now outstrips current reality, France is still a principal commercial partner. Three French banks accounted for nearly 70 percent of the banking business in the African franc zone in 2007, according to a prominent French political scientist, Philippe Hugon, and the French government itself says that 60 percent of its foreign assistance goes to sub-Saharan Africa. The antigovernment demonstrators think France still pulls the strings, and while French officials deny this, their actions often suggest otherwise. In Gabon, where the election of an autocrat’s son dashed hopes for ending 40 years of rule under the Bongo family, Mr. Sarkozy’s man in Africa, Alain Joyandet, showed up at Ali Bongo’s pomp-filled inauguration, telling reporters that Mr. Bongo “must be given time.” Publicly, France said it had no horse in the Gabonese elections; behind the scenes, Robert Bourgi, a Paris lawyer with documented access to Mr. Sarkozy’s entourage, openly supported the candidacy of Mr. Bongo, his client. Mr. Sarkozy even accorded Mr. Bourgi one of France’s highest honors, the Legion of Honor. In Africa, “opposition to power also means opposition to France,” said Mamadou Diouf, the director of Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies. “We find ourselves in a paradox: The champion of the rights of man practices a politics absolutely contrary to its principles,” Mr. Diouf said of France’s policies in Africa. Mr. Joyandet, the secretary of state for cooperation, disagreed sharply. “It’s not right; we absolutely don’t uphold the existing power at whatever cost,” he said. “Everywhere, we are asking for a return to democracy.” Mr. Joyandet pointed to Ivory Coast, where France has been pushing for long-delayed elections. “France supports institutions, not candidates,” he said. He insisted that France had gone beyond “practices of another age that we don’t do anymore.” When Mr. Sarkozy promised “a new relationship” with Africa three years ago, he said it would be “equal, and freed of the scars of the past.” His first cooperation secretary, Jean-Marie Bockel, later reinforced the message, saying he wanted to “sign the death warrant” of the old France-Africa relationship, which he called “ambiguous” and “complaisant.” But Mr. Bockel was soon out of his post after offending Mr. Bongo’s father with his anticorruption declarations. His replacement, Mr. Joyandet, has been careful to moderate his tone when speaking of African autocrats. Last month, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the general who staged a coup in the desert nation of Mauritania and consolidated his power with an election this summer, was cordially received in Paris and abundantly photographed with a smiling Mr. Sarkozy. In Niger, President Mamadou Tandja has methodically rolled back civil liberties, locked up opposition figures and prolonged his stay in power beyond his electoral mandate; his picture with Mr. Sarkozy is on the French Foreign Ministry’s Web site, and a spokesman in Paris said two weeks ago that “high-level contacts were being maintained with the Niger political class,” though he added, “especially” with the opposition. France was “much more prudent with respect to Tandja than the other democracies,” said Mohammed Bazoum, a Niger opposition leader. “They tried to dissuade him, but not with the firmness that was necessary.” Even leaders in Guinea’s military junta, international pariahs since a massacre of unarmed demonstrators on Sept. 28, were cordially received in Paris less than two weeks before the killings, at a time when American officials were shunning all contact. A close associate of Mr. Sarkozy’s, Patrick Balkany, was quoted by the French press as saying at the time that “the candidacy of Moussa Dadis Camara is not a problem,” referring to the junta leader now widely blamed for sanctioning the killings. In July, President Sarkozy cordially received the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 and removed presidential term limits last year. Mr. Sarkozy praised the country as a “pole of moderation.” Amnesty International recently noted persistent human rights abuses by Cameroon officials, including torture, extrajudicial executions, beatings, and the arrest and imprisonment of political opponents. Cameroonian protesters in Paris held up placards reading, “Biya murderer, Sarkozy accomplice.” Mr. Joyandet said that “for us, the relationship with Francophone Africa is especially difficult.” “When we do too much they say we’re colonialist,” he continued. “And when we don’t do enough, we hear complaints.” French officials have discouraged scrutiny of African leaders’ corruption, the fruits of which often end up in Paris. A French good-government group’s campaign to expose and recover the “ill-gotten gains” of three of the most notorious leaders — the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Congo Republic and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea — has been opposed by the prosecutor of the French Republic on the grounds that the group has no standing to sue, and that the facts are “ill defined.” In fact, the group, Transparency International, had set out in detail the leaders’ extensive luxury real-estate holdings in Paris. Last month, an appeals court in Paris agreed with the prosecutors. Reports of the luxuries to which Mr. Biya treated himself on his Paris visit “enormously shocked people,” said Jean Faustin Kinyock, president of the National Human Rights League in Cameroon, and the French were seen as complicit. Analysts said that the sentiment was pervasive. “People don’t like France because France isn’t helping Africans freely choose their leaders,” said Achille Mbembe, a political scientist and historian at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. “And the democratic process is blocked, practically everywhere.”

France
Africa
International Relations
Dakar (Senegal)


Promises of ‘Fresh Start’ for U.S.-Russia Relations

Abstract: LONDON — President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia , in their first meeting, vowed a “fresh start” in relations and announced their intention to cooperate on a variety of issues, beginning with negotiations on a new arms control treaty. In seeking to recast a relationship that has been teetering on the brink of a new cold war, the two leaders also promised to work together on the war in Afghanistan and efforts to rein in Iran ’s nuclear ambitions. Appearing after a 70-minute session here, the two struck a warm tone. “What we’re seeing today is the beginning of new progress in the U.S.-Russian relations,” Mr. Obama said. “And I think that President Medvedev’s leadership is, and has been, critical in allowing that progress to take place.” The relationship has suffered in recent years over a series of issues, from missile defense to NATO expansion to Russia’s invasion of the Georgian territory of South Ossetia . Mr. Obama conceded that there remained “real differences” between the countries. But he said he had no intention of “papering over those differences,” which he said had developed because “the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift.” Mr. Obama, who is making his debut on the world stage this week at the Group of 20 economic summit meeting, spent Wednesday engaged in a series of firsts: besides his first meeting with Mr. Medvedev, he also met with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and with President Hu Jintao of China . He defended the United States from French and German criticism that Washington was trying to bully others into pumping more money into economic stimulus programs. And he tried to sound optimistic that the Group of 20 meeting on Thursday, which is already featuring a schism between the United States and Europe over deregulation and spending, would accomplish something more than posturing. “I am absolutely confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work in concert to deal with those problems,” he said. But by far the most wrenching conflict that he tackled on Wednesday involved Russia. Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev met for about 10 minutes with only their interpreters present, and spent 60 minutes in discussions with a larger delegation that included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the national security adviser, James L. Jones . First meetings between American and Russian leaders are fraught with historical significance. Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev famously pummeled President John F. Kennedy in 1961 during a two-day grilling in Vienna at a meeting Mr. Kennedy characterized as the “roughest thing in my life”; shortly after that meeting, Mr. Khrushchev began building the Berlin Wall. President George W. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin established a personal rapport in Slovenia in 2001 that was badly eroded later by a string of contentious issues, like America’s plans to locate a missile defense system in Eastern Europe against Russian wishes. Mr. Obama walked into the meeting with Mr. Medvedev on Wednesday, his aides said, determined not to repeat past mistakes. After initial pleasantries — the two men discussed their shared interest in law — Mr. Obama, the aides recounted, said, “All right, let’s get down to business,” and began discussions that included Afghanistan, Iran, missile defense and human rights. Mr. Obama brought up Lev A. Ponomaryov, a Russian human rights leader and frequent Kremlin critic, who was beaten late Tuesday outside his Moscow home. The president did not, however, mention the jailed former tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky , who is being tried in Russia on charges of tax evasion and other offenses that his supporters claim are trumped up. A joint statement released after the meeting promised a “fresh start in relations between our two countries,” and White House officials said Mr. Obama would visit Moscow in July. “We, the leaders of Russia and the United States, are ready to move beyond cold war mentalities,” the two men said in the statement. “In just a few months we have worked hard to establish a new tone in our relations. Now it is time to get down to business and translate our warm words into actual achievements of benefit to Russia, the United States and all those around the world interested in peace and prosperity.” But clear problems between the nations remained visible, even when viewed through the prism of the joint statement, which sought to emphasize common ground. On European missile defense, for instance, the statement acknowledged “that differences remain” but said that Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev looked into possibilities for cooperation, “taking into account joint assessments of missile challenges and threats.” That appeared to be a noncommittal way of saying that Russia still had not lifted its intense objections to American plans to locate a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, and that the Obama administration was not willing to give up those plans unless it received something from Russia in return, foreign policy experts said. The United States could be looking for more cooperation on international efforts to halt what the West believes are Iran’s efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon despite Tehran’s obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “While we recognize that under the N.P.T. Iran has the right to a civilian nuclear program, Iran needs to restore confidence in its exclusively peaceful nature,” the statement said, reflecting the Russian argument that Iran’s nuclear ambitions may have been overstated. Still, in a concession to the United States, the statement called on Iran to stop its enrichment of uranium and to allow more international weapons inspections of its nuclear facilities.

Russia
US Foreign Policy
Barack Obama
Dmitri A Medvedev


Gary Kubiak, Denver Broncos Coach Who Led Team to a Title, Is Expected to Retire

Abstract: Gary Kubiak, the longtime quarterback who led his old team, the Denver Broncos, to a Super Bowl title last season as the head coach, is expected to retire because of health concerns. An announcement is expected on Monday, when Kubiak is to meet the news media a day after the Broncos finished the season by beating the Oakland Raiders, 24-6. With a 9-7 record, Denver missed the playoffs. Before the game, ESPN and several other news outlets reported that Kubiak would retire after the season. Fans in Denver, anticipating his departure, chanted “Kooooobes” with less than a minute left in the game. Afterward, Kubiak declined to confirm whether he would retire but said he would address the topic on Monday. He did say, however, that he had “struggled this year” and that he was emotional during the game. “Yeah, there’s some emotions, naturally,” he told reporters. “I’ve got a lot invested in the place. Let me deal with it a little tomorrow, but yeah, it was tough.” Kubiak, 55, has had several health scares. In 2013, he collapsed as he was leaving the field at halftime while coaching the Houston Texans. It was determined that he had had a kind of ministroke — a transient ischemic attack, or temporary interruption of blood flow to the brain caused by a clot. This season, Kubiak was hospitalized with a “complex migraine” that caused him to miss a game. Kubiak’s retirement would mean that there would be at least six coaching openings in the N.F.L. The Buffalo Bills, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Los Angeles Rams all fired their head coaches in recent weeks. The San Francisco 49ers (2-14 this season) and the San Diego Chargers (5-11) announced after their games Sunday that they had fired their coaches. Chip Kelly coached the 49ers for only this season; the team’s general manager, Trent Baalke, was also fired. The Chargers’ head coach, Mike McCoy, had a record of 27-37, including one playoff appearance, in four seasons with the team. Kubiak, as a backup quarterback to John Elway in the 1980s and early 1990s, played on three Denver teams that went to the Super Bowl and lost. As quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the Broncos, Kubiak helped them win two Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999. Kubiak was head coach of the Houston Texans from 2006 to 2013, compiling a 61-64 record and leading the team to two playoff appearances. He returned to Denver last season, and the Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl.


Beyond Fiji and Perrier, With a Water Sommelier

Abstract: When a doctor told Michael Mascha, a wine connoisseur, that he could either live or continue to drink, it wasn’t an easy choice. “I hesitated,” he recounted recently at his home in Harlingen, “because I had just bought some nice bottles of Krug Champagne.” But Mr. Mascha eventually reconciled himself with a heart defect that barred him from alcohol and found another beverage to explore with his sophisticated palate: water. In the decade since, Mr. Mascha has become a high-profile figure in the growing bottled-water industry. FineWaters.com , an online encyclopedia of bottled water that he started in 2003, connects consumers with bottlers of premium water around the world. Martin Riese, a water sommelier at Ray’s and the Stark Bar at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, calls Mr. Mascha a water guru and one of the top water experts in the world. Mr. Mascha makes little money from his online venture, which sells a glass he designed and his book but not water. Instead, he is engaged in a constant advocacy. His claim: Water, with its variations in taste, terroir and provenance, is worthy of earnest consideration. “I have about a 98 percent conversion rate,” Mr. Mascha says of skeptics. Treat anyone to Tasmanian Rain, a clear Australian water, and ROI, a Slovenian mineral water so dense with magnesium that the chemical element settles to the bottom of a glass, and the difference is undeniable. Mr. Mascha recalls an encounter in 2007 with a Time magazine columnist, Joel Stein. “My publicist back then said, don’t do it,” Mr. Mascha said. “He’s just out to get you.” It turned out that he was. “I have an inherent hatred of bottled water,” Mr. Stein said, recalling the encounter. “It just feels fake and privileged.” But he was won over. Mr. Mascha was “so very smart and very charming,” he said. “And he’s very earnest — yet not unaware of the dandyishness of what he does.” In Stein’s self-referencing column, “The Making of a Water Snob,” he wrote that in talking to Mr. Mascha he “got excited about the water I had come to humiliate.” When Mr. Mascha first turned his attention to water, the field lacked reliable metrics for assessing taste, he said. In the past, the experts would “tell you in 20 sentences what they’d feel when they’d drink each water, and it sounded really amazing,” Mr. Mascha said. “The only problem is that if they were to do the same thing in a blind tasting,” he added, “they would have come up with something different.” Mr. Mascha differentiates between premium waters using measurable categories. Mineral content is the major contributor to water’s taste. There is also balance, the level of infused carbon dioxide; orientation, the water’s pH level; hardness, the amount of calcium and magnesium in the water; virginality, the water’s nitrogen content; and vintage, which can range from days to thousands of years.But Mr. Mascha is interested in more than just taste. “Like wine,” he says, “it’s not only the characteristics you can perceive but the story.” In pursuit of story, he has traveled to Greenland to harvest iceberg water in a tiny boat. But not all great waters need to come from halfway around the world. For a top-quality Texas label, Mr. Mascha recommends Crazy Water from Mineral Wells, which got its name from a 19th-century woman of questionable mental health, who found the town’s heavy mineral water curative. After a childhood in Austria’s capital city, Vienna, Mr. Mascha became interested in the anthropological study of food. He lived for years with his wife, Erika, in Fiji, filming documentaries, after which he taught visual anthropology at the University of Southern California, working with the primatologist Jane Goodall, among others. An encounter with the pre-Netscape Internet, in 1993, took him in another direction. He was co-founder of a successful information-technology company that was hit hard by the 2000 tech industry crash. So he founded another — and cashed out in 2006. Then he left Los Angeles. Harlingen’s salt-water fly fishing was a big draw, as was the low cost of living. His friends in California thought he was crazy for moving here, and so, for that matter, did residents of Harlingen. “At the beginning, nobody asked us where we were from. We thought that was kind of strange,” he said. “Then we discovered that for the longest time, people thought we were in the witness protection program.” But Mr. Mascha quickly grew to love the area. He makes an effort to show off Harlingen to those in the world of premium water, many of whom have come to Mr. Mascha’s headquarters, a ranch-style house on more than an acre of tropical gardens. He has become a prominent figure in the community. The Maschas started Harlingen’s first farmer’s market, and Mr. Mascha has exhibited some of his nude photography at the city’s museum. FineWaters recently added its first employee in Shanghai, where the demand for luxury goods, including bottled water, is exploding. “I have unbelievable fun,” Mr. Mascha said. “I’m traveling the world. I’m eating in good restaurants. I’m telling people interesting stories about waters they’ll enjoy. It’s not a bad life.”

Water
Michael Mascha
Texas
Anthropology
Metals and Minerals


Food Prices Lead December Inflation in China

Abstract: BEIJING — The annual consumer inflation rate in China accelerated to a seven-month high of 2.5 percent in December, mostly because of rising food prices. The rate, which exceeded expectations, narrowed the scope for the central bank to stimulate the economy by easing monetary policy, data released Friday showed. Analysts said the increase was a harbinger, as price pressures would increase in coming months. They judged, however, that the central bank could still afford to loosen policy — manipulating money supply and interest rates — if economic growth crumbled. Li Huiyong, an economist at Shenyin Wanguo Securities in Shanghai, said the data on the consumer price index were “mainly driven by rising food prices due to seasonal factors and the recent cold weather. “We expect consumer inflation would not be a big concern for the government in 2013, with an annual increase of 3 percent.” Consumer inflation in China accelerated 2.6 percent in 2012, comfortably below the central bank’s target of 4 percent. Food, accounting for about 30 percent of China’s consumer price index, was a major driver of inflation last month, as cold weather and holiday demand raised prices. The National Bureau of Statistics said the food C.P.I. had risen 4.2 percent in December from the same month the previous year. The nonfood component rose 1.7 percent. Accelerating inflation underlines hopes that the Chinese economy is emerging from its worst downturn in more than three years in a recovery led by strengthening domestic demand. The official China Securities Journal quoted Zhang Xiaoqiang — vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency — as saying this month that consumer inflation would run at 3.5 percent in 2013. The China corporate sector has been battling falling profits. The Friday data suggested easing producer deflation.

Inflation
China
Economy
Consumer behaviour


Tribune Bankruptcy Talks Disintegrate

Abstract: The troubled progress of the Tribune Company bankruptcy suffered another blow on Friday as a lawyer for the publishing giant said that negotiations with creditors had broken down. The failure to reach a resolution ensures that the bankruptcy, now in its second year, will drag on longer, raising the prospect of dueling litigation if Tribune cannot reach agreements with the lenders and bondholders it has to repay. Tribune, which owns The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and a number of television stations, had hoped that a Delaware bankruptcy court would approve its reorganization plan as early as this month. But now it appears that the process will go on until at least November, when a judge is scheduled to hold hearings on the reorganization plan Tribune is putting together. Two creditors, JPMorgan Chase and the investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Company dropped out of the agreement, which would have made them part owners of the reorganized company. At a hearing in Delaware on Friday, James Conlan, Tribune’s attorney, said the company “had tried mightily to bring the parties together.” But he said those efforts failed. For now, Tribune will go it alone developing a plan, which it will submit to the court by next Friday. Creditors eventually vote on whether to accept the settlements the company proposes and could put forth plans of their own. “This process is moving more slowly and has become noisier than we had hoped,” Randy Michaels, Tribune’s chief executive, and Gerald A. Spector, the company’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail to employees on Friday that sought to reassure them of the company’s stability. “Next week, we’ll file our monthly operating report for July and once again, our financial results will be strong. All of our media businesses are profitable, and our creditors recognize how well we are performing.” Adding another twist, a lawyer for a group of creditors told the judge on Friday that his clients were prepared to move forward with a lawsuit claiming the sale of Tribune to the real estate mogul Samuel Zell was a fraud because it saddled the company with too much debt.


Point Guards Past and Present Send Nets to Third Straight Loss

Abstract: As the Warriors’ bus pulled up to Barclays Center on Friday, Coach Mark Jackson imagined for a moment what effect the glittery new arena and the rebranded Nets franchise would have on young point guards in New York. Guards just like Jackson, who starred at nearby Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School during an era of great backcourt play in the city, idolizing players like Earl Monroe. Young players now have a new place to watch their icons. And one was on display Friday — for Golden State. Jackson’s return to Brooklyn was highlighted by a brilliant performance from Stephen Curry, the player he has groomed into a potential All-Star. Curry scored 21 points in the second half, leading the Warriors past the Nets, 109-102 . The Nets (11-7) have lost three in a row, and Coach Avery Johnson knows why. “We’re not the same team defensively,” Johnson said. “Everything’s on the table right now in terms of figuring out how to get this team out of this defensive funk.” For the last four games, Brooklyn has been without center Brook Lopez, sidelined with a sprained foot, and his absence has been noticeable. The Warriors scored 50 points in the paint on Friday, 18 coming on second-chance opportunities, mostly as a result of the energetic David Lee, who had 30 points and 15 rebounds. Lee was too much for Lopez’s replacement, Andray Blatche, who has shown flashes of talent but also some head-scratching tendencies. Both were on display Friday night — Blatche being steady and productive in the low post; Blatche turning the ball over while attempting a crossover dribble; Blatche stepping back for an ill-advised 3-pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded. But that shot went in, and the Nets cannot argue with Blatche’s results. He has averaged 18.7 points and 10.5 rebounds in Lopez’s place, after scoring 22 points with 15 rebounds Friday. Blatche might have sensed that his time in the spotlight is growing short. Johnson said Lopez could return to the lineup as early as Sunday. On Friday, he sat courtside in a trim blazer and blue jeans as Golden State (12-7) came back from a 13-point deficit in the second quarter. As dominant as Lee can be, the Warriors are a guard-oriented team, and Curry has come into his own in his fourth N.B.A. season. Averaging 21.9 points over his last 10 games, Curry flashed off screens and darted around the court like a frantic hummingbird. He took only five shots in the first half but quickly found a rhythm in the second. “He’s one of those players, you think you’re guarding him tough, two or three feet behind the line, and he still raises up and hits them,” the Nets’ Deron Williams said. The Warriors trailed, 89-86, with 9 minutes 35 seconds remaining but went on a 9-1 run to seize control of the game. Joe Johnson, who scored a season-high 32 points, said the Nets did not get enough stops in the end. “Offense wasn’t the problem,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t have any energy and effort to keep guys out of the paint, box guys, get rebounds.” Nobody was happier about the game than Jackson, who played at St. John’s and then with the Knicks, but had yet to return to New York as a coach. “It really hit me as we were a couple of blocks away,” Jackson said before the game. “There was a McDonald’s we used to go to after every home game in high school, and we drove past it. It just brought back some memories.”

Basketball
Golden State Warriors
Brooklyn Nets


A Review of Millwright’s, in Simsbury

Abstract: WHAT kind of dining experience would you expect to have in a restaurant serving corn chowder, pork and beans, and fried chicken with watermelon? Almost certainly not what you get at Millwright’s, where Tyler Anderson offers a brashly elegant take on these and other homey American classics. A winner on the Food Network show “Chopped,” Mr. Anderson decamped this summer from Copper Beech Inn in Ivoryton to open his own restaurant in a historic West Street mill. His fans have been thronging the place ever since. Fancying up comfort food is fraught with peril, and not every dish on Mr. Anderson’s menu succeeds. Foie gras mousse topped with grape jelly and candied peanuts — “the house p.b.j.,” our server quipped — was not only too coy, but unbalanced, the jelly overwhelming the duck liver. I also wondered about the crisped puffed rice adorning an appetizer of fabulously fresh raw tuna, introducing an odd, breakfast note. But far more often, the gamble paid off brilliantly. A starter of chicken with dumplings turned out to be a complex presentation of velvety smooth gnocchi, confit chicken and hints of mint. Grilled cheese and tomato came in two components: an herbed tomato terrine, delicately held together with tomato gelée, and a deliriously tasty grilled mini-sandwich of Cheddar and custard-soaked brioche. Millwright’s chowder arrives via a showy tableside presentation, with corn and lobster stacked in a bowl and then the soup — a thinned-out sauce vierge scented with anise — decanted from a porcelain pitcher. Fried chicken is also not what you might expect: slices of an artfully constructed roulade are propped among miniature timbales of braised spinach. Mr. Anderson makes a sausage filling, or farce, from chicken leg meat, rolls it up in the thin-pounded breast, then poaches it sous-vide, dredges it in buttermilk and fries it in duck fat. Oh, and that watermelon? Pickled and cubed. This kind of preparation encapsulates the back-and-forth between classical and colloquial that is at the heart of his cooking. And it’s really, really good. Dish after dish showcased a deft, wide-ranging touch. Salmon was a runaway table favorite: a generously sized fillet, with a crust of black trumpet mushrooms, laid on a bed of chewy farro and topped with garlic scapes. A prime-beef duo partnered a halved strip steak, slightly blackened outside and picture-pink within — and filet-mignon tender — with an even more unctuous short rib, drenched in a rich Bordelaise. Skate wing is not easy to prepare; the tough cartilaginous structure is a task to remove, and when overcooked the fish becomes rubbery. Not here. Seared perfectly, slightly crisp and yet fall-apart tender, a buerre noir sauce glistening in its corrugations, it possessed a buttery, lemony magnificence. Grilled lamb loin came mixed up with eggplant, yogurt, heirloom tomatoes and mint, making it vaguely Greek and entirely yummy. At every turn Millwright’s serves up pleasing surprises — like the grilled plums and scatter of sunflower-seed granola enlivening a dish of sliced roasted pork loin, or the bits of chorizo in a lobster bake, a tureen of mussels, potatoes and corn topped with a butter-poached lobster tail and Hollandaise-like sauce. Squash-blossom fritters were not the bulbous blobs I’d encountered elsewhere, but pencil-thin, with the Parmesan-laden zucchini filling carefully piped in. We loved the flaky, fluffy cornmeal biscuits, doled out by our server like gems, with honeyed black-sesame-seeded butter. Desserts included a fruit cobbler that was neither too sweet nor too densely packed, and a superb honey semifreddo whose futuristic architecture featured a Saturn-like ring of chocolate. Mr. Anderson uses ingredients from New England, and favors what he calls the “grandma techniques” of pickling, preserving, canning and jarring. Everything is done in-house, right down to the fruit infusions used in cocktails. Herbs abound in almost every dish: a scrumptious coriander purée alongside the tuna; the vibrant green-goddess dressing with the salmon; the flecks of basil in a lemon sorbet. Fennel and mint figure prominently, adding a cooling depth, along with more unusual, specialty herbs, like the lemon balm in the chowder, also called melissa, commonly used in aromatherapy for its calming properties. And there is something ineffably soothing about dining at Millwright’s. You sit in a spacious room beneath the vaulted barnlike ceiling with its post-and-beam structures. The millpond’s waterfall splashes just outside the window, creating a gentle susurration. The ambience is both majestic and rustic. Complaints? Well, the type on the menu is awfully small. The ratatouille could be less heavy on the tomato. Our waiter was given to cloying aphorisms (“Sharing is caring!” he exclaimed, when we requested extra plates). But I’m grasping. I suppose some may want to nudge Mr. Anderson’s balance of arty and hearty toward the latter. I’m not one of them. His is a cuisine that both dazzles and delights; sophisticated enough to impress, it’s simple enough to make you feel at home. Millwright’s Restaurant 77 West Street Simsbury (860) 651-5500 millwrightsrestaurant.com DON’T MISS THE SPACE Seating for 75 in a rustic and lavishly renovated 17th-century mill overlooking a dam. Seasonal deck dining outdoors for 30 more in a spectacular woods-and-waterfall setting. A downstairs tavern seats 65, and a third-floor private dining space will open later this month. Wheelchair access on all levels. THE CROWD Well-dressed couples of all ages. THE BAR A cozy basement tavern, open nightly from 5:30 p.m. “until whenever our guests are done,” serves upscale bar food in a small warren of rooms spread around a large stone fireplace. THE BILL Appetizers, $8 to $18; entrees, $25 to $33; desserts, $9. A notably eclectic wine list features 140 labels, most under $50, accompanied by helpful notes and organized under categories like “Big and Bold” or “Deep and Dark.” WHAT WE LIKED Raw tuna, corn chowder, tomato terrine, chicken and dumplings, squash blossom fritters, lamb meatballs, pork loin, fried chicken, grilled lamb loin, prime beef duo, roast salmon, lobster bake, skate wing, fruit cobbler, honey semifreddo. IF YOU GO Brunch: Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner: Tuesday through Friday, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 5 to 9:30 p.m. Reservations, accepted six weeks in advance, are recommended. All major credit cards accepted. Free parking in large lot in front of restaurant. RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t bother.

Restaurants
Simsbury (Conn)
Millwright's Restaurant (Simsbury Conn)


China Orders Ban on New Government Buildings

Abstract: HONG KONG — China issued a directive on Tuesday banning the construction of government buildings for the next five years, the latest in a series of initiatives by President Xi Jinping to discourage corruption and foster frugality at a time of broad popular resentment against high-living bureaucrats. The central government authorities in Beijing have periodically tried to rein in the widely mocked penchant for grandiosity among local officials who order offices for themselves. A few of these projects have been slowed or stopped, including the nearly Pentagon-size headquarters started by a local government several years ago in an impoverished corner of Anhui Province in central China. But until now, such isolated cases have done little to dissuade other local officials from their own pharaonic ambitions. The government of Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, attracted critical attention across China last fall after beginning construction of what was initially planned as Asia’s largest government building. But Tuesday’s joint directive by China’s cabinet and the Chinese Communist Party went much further than prohibiting the construction of buildings: it also banned a long list of strategies that local leaders have used to circumvent previous, more informal efforts to discourage them. Expanding or restoring existing government compounds in the name of street repairs or urban planning? Not allowed. A new training center or hotel? Also forbidden. Multiple offices for the same official? Prohibited. Since taking over as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November, Mr. Xi has tried to discourage lavish spending and gift giving by the party’s cadres and rein in opulent lifestyles among senior military officers. His campaign temporarily emptied many luxury restaurants over the winter, although there have been recent signs of a revival of behind-the-scenes extravagance. The new directive showed clear signs of being a continuation of the anticorruption campaign, describing the ban as “important for building a clean government” and improving the ties between the party and the people. Yet the prohibition on new buildings also comes as the government is starting to round up and prosecute activists who called on officials to disclose their wealth and the wealth of their families. In the most celebrated case, Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights activist, was charged last week with “assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place” — even though, according to his wife, he had already been under informal house arrest for three months. Debt-fueled spending by local governments, partly for new buildings but also for roads, sewers, water systems and other projects, has been a growing worry in recent years for Beijing policy makers, as well as for economists and credit-rating agencies around the world. Most tallies of total local government debt in China tend to be in the vicinity of $2 trillion, equal to three months of China’s entire economic output, but some estimates are even higher. Cheng Li, the China research director at the Brookings Institution, said the construction restrictions would do little to assuage broader worries about the Chinese economy. “We should put into perspective that the problem of local government spending on buildings is not the most serious problem facing China’s economy,” Mr. Li said in a telephone interview from Beijing. “The property bubble, shadow banking and the state-owned enterprise monopolies are far more risky.” Prime Minister Li Keqiang vowed on coming to office in March that there would be no more new government buildings during the current five-year term of the government, and the new decree follows through on that promise. But the decree also acknowledges that similar efforts to halt profligate spending on such buildings in recent years have not worked as intended, and that the buildings have “harmed the image of the party and government.” A clear loophole in Tuesday’s directive is that it does little to rein in spending by enterprises partly or entirely owned by government entities. State-owned enterprises have been very active builders of hotels, providing free luxury suites to local officials for their meetings and all too often for assignations with mistresses, according to hotel industry executives. Mr. Li of the Brookings Institution predicted that Mr. Xi would seek greater austerity at state-owned enterprises next. One persistent feature of Chinese political life, the retired official who continues to haunt his former agency or even the entire government by wielding influence from behind the scenes, will not be eradicated by the directive. Former officials who left or retired years ago are supposed to give up their offices, the directive said, but they are not required to do so immediately. These offices “should be returned in time,” a statement on a government Web site said.

China
Construction
Xi Jinping
Corruption
Communist Party of China


Falcao Left Off Columbia’s Cup Team

Abstract: Monaco striker Radamel Falcao was left off Colombia’s squad for the World Cup after failing to recover from a knee injury. Falcao’s presence had been in doubt ever since he underwent surgery in January. But Colombia fans had been hoping for a recovery. ■ Striker Rickie Lambert joined Liverpool from Southampton for a reported fee of 4 million pounds ($6.7 million), strengthening the team’s attack for its return to the Champions League. (AP) ■ Uruguay striker Luis Suárez is recovering well from knee surgery and will be able to play in a World Cup opener against Costa Rica on June 14.

Radamel Falcao
Colombia
2014 World Cup
Soccer


3 Say Bloomberg Keeps Hand in Company

Abstract: The three women whose complaints of discrimination at Bloomberg L.P. spurred a federal lawsuit last week say Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is involved in running the company despite his public statements to the contrary. The mayor, who remains the firm’s majority owner, has maintained that he has had nothing to do with the company’s day-to-day operations since he was elected in 2001, and a company spokeswoman strongly denied any suggestion that Mr. Bloomberg was involved. However, a motion filed yesterday by the women, who have accused the company of discriminating against them after they became pregnant, contends that the mayor is in touch with Lex Fenwick, the company’s chief executive, and discussed complaints of mistreatment of female executives with Mr. Fenwick. The lawsuit, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission , is the latest and most sweeping of a string of discrimination and sexual harassment complaints filed since the 1990s by individuals against Bloomberg L.P., the media and financial services giant. One of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, Janet Loures, says in the motion that she attended a company meeting last month about a Bloomberg service known as People Product during which a senior manager stated: “Mike calls Lex all the time about People Product — he probably shouldn’t, but he does.” Mr. Bloomberg declined to be interviewed yesterday, and his aides referred questions to the company. Judith Czelusniak, a Bloomberg L.P. spokeswoman, declined to address the specific allegations. But she suggested that the women were seeking to bolster press attention by personally attacking Mr. Bloomberg, whose national profile has risen as he has been discussed as a possible independent presidential candidate. “It sounds like an effort to damage reputations and stir up publicity to pressure the company for financial gain,” she said. “This company is proud of our track record in treating our people well and in offering the best benefit programs around for all employees, especially families and women.” She said the mayor had not discussed the E.E.O.C. complaint with company management. William J. Dealy, one of the lawyers representing the women, said yesterday that the “motion and complaint speaks for itself.” The E.E.O.C. filed a class-action lawsuit against the company last week accusing it of engaging in a pattern of discrimination against female employees after they became pregnant and returned from maternity leave. The suit stems from complaints made by the women to the agency in 2006. The women, Tanys Lancaster, 38; Jill Patricot, 35; and Ms. Loures, 41, claimed they were demoted and had compensation reduced after they disclosed they were pregnant and took maternity leave. The women filed their motion yesterday seeking to intervene in the E.E.O.C. case. If granted, it would allow them to sue for much more money under state and city antidiscrimination laws. Federal law caps punitive damages at $300,000. The women seek $48 million each. Since 1997, the company has been hit with at least 16 employment discrimination lawsuits in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New Jersey and Washington. Five of the suits, including the E.E.O.C’s, remain open. At least four others were settled and the remaining lawsuits were either dismissed or information was not readily available yesterday about their outcome. The lawsuits depict a workplace intolerant of older workers, of women and men who needed extra time for child care, and of people with disabilities or health problems. Neal Brickman, a Manhattan lawyer who has represented several former Bloomberg employees, says the lawsuits do not represent all of the cases in which discrimination occurs because many are settled confidentially before ever reaching court, leaving no public record. While most of the cases were filed after Mr. Bloomberg stepped away from management of the company in 2001, many trace back to the environment he created there, Mr. Brickman asserts. “I think he set the tone that it was all right to do this, and no one’s changed or altered that tone,” Mr. Brickman said. During his first mayoral campaign in 2001, Mr. Bloomberg said his company took misconduct allegations very seriously. He described the cases as, “If you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to make a fuss.” In a continuing age-discrimination case in New Jersey, three former editorial employees and another still with the company say they were demoted, harassed and given a series of tedious assignments as the company tried to “manage” them out. Vincent Sgro, one of the plaintiffs, who became a Bloomberg consultant and then a reporter after the company purchased his petroleum industry newsletter in 1991, said he noticed an unusual work environment from the start. “I observed that Michael Bloomberg preferred younger, mostly college-age employees, and I felt increasingly isolated,” he said in an affidavit. A former company recruiter who is a witness in the case said in a deposition that applicants were regularly thrown out for “little other reason than just age.” The company responded in court records by providing a list of employees over 40. Company officials have denied the allegations in the five cases, and vowed to fight them. In 1996 and 1997, the company was hit with four lawsuits filed by female employees accusing the company of sex discrimination or sexual harassment. One was settled, another went to binding arbitration where the outcome was unknown yesterday; the other two were dismissed or dropped. The most publicized of those was filed by a former sales executive, Sekiko Sekai Garrison, who claimed that less attractive women were ridiculed and new mothers saw their sales territories and pay slashed. In the most explosive allegation, Ms. Garrison claimed that when she told Mr. Bloomberg she was pregnant, he expressed unhappiness with the number of pregnant women on his staff and suggested she get an abortion. Mr. Bloomberg strongly denied the allegations and settled the case for an undisclosed sum.

Discrimination
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Bloomberg LP
Bloomberg Michael R
Suits and Litigation


Illinois: Review Ordered for Dennis Hastert’s Medical File

Abstract: A judge overseeing the hush-money case against former House speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday ordered an independent review of his medical records. His sentence had been delayed when his lawyers said he had nearly died and was in poor health. The order by Judge Thomas M. Durkin in Federal District Court in Chicago does not explain the need for an expert. Mr. Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty to violating bank laws in seeking to pay someone $3.5 million in hush money. His deal calls for a sentence of no more than six months in prison.

Chicago
US Politics
House of Representatives
Congress
J Dennis Hastert