Chinese New Year: Inside the World’s Largest Trek

Abstract: BEIJING — Xu Zhengming was lugging a 36-inch flat-screen television through the Beijing West Railway Station on his way home for China’s Lunar New Year. Another passenger was hauling a tub of meat. And many migrant workers returning to their home villages carried bundles of clothes and gifts for children they see maybe once a year. They all said that they could not go home empty-handed for China’s biggest holiday. Even if that meant carting a television for two days across 1,000 miles. Image Wang Tianchang, a migrant laborer, sleeping at the station. He said he was not taking home gifts for his children because his boss had not paid him $150 in owed wages. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times “I get to go back just once a year. It’s a long way,” Mr. Xu said as he heaved the television, bundled in protective clothing, through the railway station. He was headed to a village outside Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, a journey he estimated would take about 20 hours. “My father is in the countryside, and the family is hard up,” said Mr. Xu, a middle-aged construction laborer in Beijing, the Chinese capital. “He always wanted a flat-screen television, so I’m taking mine home to give him.” He and most other passengers at this cavernous, thrumming station were among hundreds of millions of Chinese on the move for the Lunar New Year. Many wore red hats or scarves, the color of good luck. While the total number of holiday travelers is hard to pin down, this is the world’s largest annual migration. Image Passengers on a train heading from Beijing to Chongqing, a 30-hour trip of more than a thousand miles. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times Zhang Kemin, a restaurant worker dragging a plastic tub holding about 18 pounds of beef and lamb, said he was taking the meat home to Hebei Province, adjacent to Beijing, to make boiled dumplings filled with a mix of meat and vegetables, an essential part of the holiday food in northern China. “There’s pork at home,” he explained. Video The world’s biggest annual human migration is underway as hundreds of millions of Chinese leave the cities to return to their hometowns for the Spring Festival. Credit Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times. Technology by Samsung In the days before the holiday, big cities, like Beijing, and the coastal industrial regions exhale tens of millions of workers who head back to their hometowns and villages by train, plane, bus, car and motorbike for this family holiday of marathon eating, fireworks and paying respects to relatives. This year, the festivities start on Friday evening, when the country says goodbye to the Year of the Monkey and welcomes the Year of the Rooster. On Thursday, the Beijing West Railway Station hummed like a giant boot camp, with the police, paramilitary troops and station staff members hustling passengers into waiting rooms to be corralled onto trains. Workers at the station said the holiday rush was more orderly than a decade ago, when heaving crowds threatened to overwhelm stations. Image The festivities start on Friday evening, when China says goodbye to the Year of the Monkey and welcomes the Year of the Rooster. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times “It used to be crazy, but it’s a lot better now,” said Yang Guibao, a bald 64-year-old cleaner at the station. “They add many more trains for the Spring Festival, and the passengers don’t have to be so packed,” he said, using another name for the Lunar New Year. With a wag of his finger, he warned, “There are still pickpockets around, but there are also plainclothes cops.” China’s trains have become more numerous and faster than even a few years ago. More people go by car or plane, and they are not as bent on all going home at the same time. Some visit at quieter times of the year. China’s expanding high-speed rail network now covers about 12,500 miles of track. The railway administration has cracked down on ticket scalpers, and it has become common to order tickets online or from vending machines. Image Smoking a cigarette before boarding a train. China’s trains have become more numerous and faster than even a few years ago, but more people are also traveling by car or plane for the holiday. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times So while the holiday migration is still daunting, it’s not as crazy as before. “Before it took a day on a train, but now it takes three and a half hours,” said Zhang Guiping, a 62-year-old businesswoman waiting for a train to Fuping, a county in Hebei Province. She said she had been in Beijing petitioning the government over a land dispute. Despite her feud with officialdom, she said she was happy with the better trains. “There are more trains, the security checks take less time, and it’s easier to buy tickets,” she said. The Chinese transportation authorities have estimated that people will make close to three billion journeys over this Lunar New Year travel period, including 356 million trips by train. But those numbers can sound misleadingly large. Many people take multiple journeys — by train and bus — to get home and then return to work, so the actual number of bodies on the move is lower than those numbers may suggest. Image Workers at the station said the holiday rush was more orderly than a decade ago, when huge crowds threatened to overwhelm stations. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times That does not mean that the holiday rush is a tranquil experience. The Beijing West Railway Station, in particular, is an unsightly monument to poor planning that opened in 1996, and its construction was blighted by corruption . Officials estimated that in the 40-day holiday travel period that began in mid-January, the station would send off 11.8 million passengers, 6 percent more than last year, Chinese state radio reported . People must steel themselves for big crowds, and then they scramble to jump on trains and find space for the gifts and treats that many take home. The official Lunar New Year break lasts a week, but the traditional festival ends after its 15th day. Many migrant workers from the countryside linger at home for precious time with children and parents, whom they rarely or never see the rest of the year. But Wang Tianchang, a 32-year-old migrant laborer who had been sleeping on a sack of bedding in a train station waiting room, said he was not taking home any gifts for his children. His boss on a building site had not paid him $150 owed in wages. “Things are expensive here. I haven’t bought a thing,” he said. But he said, “It’s really important to go home for the Spring Festival. You can see your wife and kids.”

Beijing
China
Lunar New Year
Travel,Tourism
Transit Terminals


Despite Insult on Twitter, Braylon Edwards Rejoins Jets

Abstract: Braylon Edwards called the Jets ’ front office “idiots” on Twitter last week. On Tuesday, Edwards and the Jets reunited. So it goes with the Jets, whose desperation for a healthy receiver trumps any ill feelings over Edwards’s unflattering opinion of the organization. Edwards, awarded off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks, who dropped him from injured reserve Monday, joins the Jets as he left them before last season: bursting with unfulfilled potential and with much to prove. That his career, after two unproductive seasons in San Francisco and Seattle, is not over. That his skills have not eroded. That he can still deliver crushing blocks and catch deep passes and gain separation, serving as the tall and physical vertical threat Mark Sanchez has lacked since Edwards’s departure. When the Jets acquired Edwards from Cleveland in 2009, they installed him as their No. 1 receiver. Three years later, with no knowledge of the coordinator Tony Sparano’s system, he might not be their No. 3, and that is even with Stephen Hill (sprained knee ligament) and Clyde Gates (concussion) uncertain for Monday night’s game at Tennessee. Still, Edwards could prove valuable. His familiarity and bond with Sanchez cannot be overstated, and the presence of another ally will encourage Sanchez during the Jets’ unlikely playoff push. Edwards, who turns 30 in February, arrived four games into Sanchez’s first season. They developed a rapport, the veteran and the rookie. On several occasions, Edwards used his size — 6 feet 3 inches and 211 pounds — to bail out Sanchez, who considers him a friend and hosted him at his annual Jets West passing camp in 2011. “I know he loved being here,” Sanchez said last week. “He loved the guys in this locker room.” Sanchez was asked about Edwards for one particular reason: that incendiary Twitter message contained a spirited defense of Sanchez, who had been benched two days earlier against Arizona. Edwards later apologized, saying, “I have disrespected and insulted an administration that I have the utmost respect for.” Saying he always had “a great deal of admiration and respect” for Edwards, Coach Rex Ryan last month praised him for his work ethic, toughness and unselfish nature. In the “Playing Like a Jet” videos that the team showed players the day after games, Edwards was a constant presence — as a blocker. Asked about Edwards on Monday, Ryan deferred to the past. “You guys know what I’ve always said about Braylon,” Ryan said, adding, “So you know how I feel about him.” In 34 games with the Jets, counting the postseason, Edwards caught 103 passes for 1,765 yards and 13 touchdowns, including an 80-yarder in the Jets’ A.F.C. championship game loss to Indianapolis in January 2010. He arrived with a reputation for locker-room petulance — complaining about playing time and arguing with teammates — and, days before the trade, he was accused of assault in Cleveland. Ryan did not reform Edwards, who was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in September 2010. Still, Edwards rarely posed a problem for the team. Reliable if somewhat moody, he was the team’s resident disc jockey, a Scrabble whiz and a respected teammate. His consistency complemented the flash of Santonio Holmes. The Jets let Edwards go in favor of Plaxico Burress, who, wearing Edwards’s No. 17, was an asset in the red zone but a liability everywhere else, lacking the speed to stretch the field. In two seasons since, Edwards had 23 receptions and a touchdown across 19 games for San Francisco and Seattle. Knee problems slowed him last season with the 49ers, and surfaced again two months ago. But he is back. Back with Sanchez, back with Ryan, back with the management he called “idiots,” the once and future Jet.

Twitter
Football
New York Jets
Edwards Braylon


After Deadly Unrest, Thailand Calm on King’s Birthday

Abstract: BANGKOK — Antigovernment protests that have left five people dead and several hundred injured over the past week in Thailand paused for a hiatus on Thursday to allow celebrations of the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The king, who has intervened in previous political standoffs during his 67 years on the throne, did not directly address the protests in a short speech to his subjects, saying only that Thais should “help each other for the national interest.” Protesters have vowed to overthrow the government and rid the country of its most influential political family. Ultra-monarchists, frustrated with grinding cycles of political turmoil, have in recent years advocated replacing the country’s parliamentary democracy with a government of technocrats appointed by the king. A similar plea was made in recent days by the protesters, who have occupied major government buildings for more than a week. But the king has rejected this idea in the past, and his appearance on Thursday underlined his frailty. He arrived at the televised ceremony, held in a hall of his palace in the beach resort of Hua Hin, in his padded wheelchair and sat impassively as Thai officials delivered their oaths of allegiance using the highly formal vocabulary reserved for addressing the monarch. The king’s breathing appeared labored, and when it was his turn to speak, he read very slowly from a piece of paper, pronouncing each word in a raspy voice. “Our country has been peaceful for a long time because we are united in our country and perform duties for the sake of the national interest,” he said, pausing several times as he read. In a sign of his infirmity, the sentence took a full two minutes to read. The camera frequently cut away from the king during the pauses, showing stone-faced political and military leaders in the hall. Also in attendance were Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and other important members of the royal family. But Queen Sirikit, who is also ailing, was absent. As the king was being wheeled out of the hall, a crowd of his subjects outside wept and repeatedly shouted, “Long live the king!” The king moved to Hua Hin this year after spending four years in a hospital in Bangkok. He lives in a palace named Far From Worries. Suthep Thaugsuban, the protest leader, has vowed to restart the demonstrations on Friday in Bangkok. In an interview published Thursday in The Bangkok Post, Mr. Suthep said he would lead a “peaceful coup of the people.” Protesters have occupied the Finance Ministry building and a large government complex and have laid siege to numerous other government buildings and cut power to others. The goal of the protests is to rid the country of the influence of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who was forced out by the military in a 2006 coup. Mr. Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is the current prime minister. She and other members of the government were in attendance at the king’s birthday ceremony.

Thailand
Bangkok
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Thaksin Shinawatra
Yingluck Shinawatra


In Granderson, Mets Take Strikeouts With the Power

Abstract: LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Curtis Granderson, who was brought to the Mets to hit home runs, now wears the number of a man who swatted 714, mostly for the Yankees. That would be No. 3, as in Babe Ruth. Granderson chose it because he wanted a single-digit number for his trim frame — “I’m a little guy,” he said — and because he was born in March, the third month. “He brings a tremendous amount of professionalism; he brings a personality; he brings credibility; he brings experience; and he brings talent,” Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson said. “I think all of those things will be important.” The Wilpons are spending again, committing $60 million — five times their richest free-agent contract in the last three off-seasons — to Granderson for the next four years. Granderson delivers the attributes Alderson listed, but his number also evokes the tries a hitter gets before striking out. And Granderson does an awful lot of that. In his last full season with the Yankees, 2012, Granderson set a club record for strikeouts with 195. He broke his own record, set the previous year with 169. The Mets last season fanned 1,384 times, tied for the most in the National League and 134 more times than they had ever struck out before. This is the story of the modern game: a parade of power arms with wipeout breaking stuff overpowering the hitters. With power bats becoming harder to find, teams will tolerate strikeouts to get them. Granderson is not even the only new Mets outfielder in this mold: Chris Young (one year, $7.25 million) is another free swinger. “What we look at is overall performance, which would include home run rates, walk rates, a variety of different things that go beyond just how many strikeouts,” Alderson said. “We don’t promote the idea of strikeouts, but at the same time, you sometimes need to take the bad with the good.” Image The Mets and Curtis Granderson agreed to the $60 million deal last week. Credit Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press The Boston Red Sox set a franchise record for strikeouts last season and often looked futile in October. Mike Napoli struck out in more than half his plate appearances in the American League Championship Series, but also homered twice, both in one-run victories. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series, of course, and Granderson cheerfully noted that the Mets were already in better shape than Boston was a year ago. The Red Sox vaulted from last place to a title, and the Mets, Granderson pointed out, finished in third place in the N.L. East. “Any team has an opportunity to go out there and win,” Granderson said. “And this organization as a whole, with the pieces they have such as David Wright and the rest of the cast out there, we have everything in place to go out there and do some amazing things.” His use of the word amazing was probably intentional. After four years in the Bronx, Granderson has shifted fully to a Flushing State of Mind. For $60 million, why wouldn’t he? “A lot of the people I’ve met in New York have always said true New Yorkers are Mets fans,” Granderson said. “So I’m excited to get a chance to see them all out there.” Granderson must not have interacted much with the fans at Yankee Stadium, who watched him help the Yankees to the playoffs in each of his first three seasons. He bashed 84 homers from 2011 to 2012, including 37 away from the Yankees’ cozy dimensions. The Mets are betting that his power will translate to Citi Field, but at least they have wagered only money. The Arizona Diamondbacks sacrificed a top young starter, Tyler Skaggs, and a speedy outfielder, Adam Eaton, to get their own power hitter Tuesday. Image The Diamondbacks, who hit a franchise-low 130 homers last season, acquired Mark Trumbo from the Angels in a three-team trade. Credit Bob Levey/Getty Images The Diamondbacks acquired Mark Trumbo — the Angels’ home run leader in each of the last three seasons — and two players to be named while sending Skaggs to Anaheim and Eaton to the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox also sent starter Hector Santiago to the Angels. Kevin Towers, the Diamondbacks’ general manager, had tried to rid his team of hitters prone to strikeouts. Over three off-seasons, he shed Young, Adam LaRoche, Mark Reynolds, Kelly Johnson (a new Yankee) and Justin Upton. The team’s strikeouts fell, but home run production all but disappeared. Last season, the Diamondbacks hit only 130 home runs, the fewest in franchise history, despite the presence of Paul Goldschmidt, who tied for the league lead with 36. Only two Diamondbacks teams had ever scored fewer runs: the 1998 expansion team and the 2004 group that lost 111 games. “If Goldy didn’t go deep,” Towers said, “we usually didn’t win.” Towers believes Trumbo, usually a first baseman, has the athleticism to start every day in left field. He also believes he has the pitching depth to spare Skaggs, who was ranked by Baseball America before last season as the 12th-best prospect in the game. But he also had little choice. A general manager for most of the last two decades, Towers could not remember a time when power was so hard to find. “That’s probably why we were so aggressive after this deal,” Towers said, adding that the team would control Trumbo for three years. “We didn’t see where the power was going to come from, looking at the free-agent market going forward, even in the draft.” Like the Mets, the Diamondbacks have shown this winter that nothing today is more precious than power. Four bases with one swing make up for three strikes and you’re out.

Mets
Curtis Granderson
Yankees
Diamondbacks
Baseball


Virgin America Places Big Order With Airbus

Abstract: Airbus , the European aircraft manufacturer, said on Monday that Virgin America had signed an order for 60 new single-aisle A320 airplanes. The order includes 30 of the A320neo, a new version of Airbus’s best-selling airplane that will be equipped with a more fuel-efficient engine. The new airplanes could reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent, according to Airbus. They will be delivered starting in 2016, said John Leahy, chief operating officer at Airbus. Virgin America signed its contract on Dec. 29, making it the first customer for the A320neo. It also means that the contract will be logged in Airbus’s 2010 order book, totaling 644 orders. Airbus said that allowed it to nudge ahead of Boeing in 2010, which announced orders of 625 planes, according to Airbus. After months of hesitation, Airbus announced in November that it would go ahead with its plans to update its A320 airplane, one of the best selling in the world. The “neo” part of the name stands for new engine option, a reference to a new generation of engines called geared turbo fans that burn less fuel than current engines. The airplane deal comes as Airbus holds its annual news conference. Airbus has been struggling with delays on its biggest airplane programs, including the A380 double-decker jumbo plane, and its new composite A350 aircraft that it hopes will rival Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner . Last week, Airbus announced a record order from IndiGo , a Indian low-cost carrier, which said it would buy 180 A320s, including 150 with the new engine. That deal, which Airbus expects to sign within the next two months, has a list price of $15.6 billion. Analysts, as well as Boeing, have questioned whether Airbus can actually meet the expected fuel savings with its new plane. They say it will require heavier wings to accommodate the larger engines, for instance. But Mr. Leahy, who has been a strong advocate of the new version, dismissed the criticism. “I am really frustrated that some people in the industry are saying this is not such a good business case,” Mr. Leahy said. “There has never been an aircraft with 15 percent fuel cuts that was not a huge success. We are a little frustrated that our competitor is wringing its hands, wondering whether the business case is worthwhile.” Virgin America, which began operations in 2007, has 34 airplanes in operation, with 17 more committed to be delivered this year. It is seeking to expand its network throughout the United States and expects to have a fleet of 80 to 110 planes by 2016, said David Cush, Virgin America’s president and chief executive officer. The airline’s new order with Airbus has a list price of $5.1 billion, but airlines typically receive steep discounts from manufacturers, especially for new airplanes. Airbus does not disclose the actual sale price for competitive reasons. Mr. Cush said that with oil prices rising, airlines needed to consider any technology that could help offset rising costs. He estimated that with oil at $80 a barrel, the annual fuel savings per plane with the A320neo amounted to $1.1 million. Oil is currently more than $90 a barrel. Along with lower fuel consumption, the airplane would help reduce carbon emissions, Mr. Cush said. “If oil becomes more expensive, this becomes a natural hedge for us,” he said. “If the industry does not clean itself up and is unwilling to invest in these technologies, we will become a pariah, and people will deem travel is evil.”

Sales
Airbus Industrie
Airlines and Airplanes


With Help of Russian Business Leaders, M.B.A. School Opens in Moscow

Abstract: MOSCOW — A handful of top Russian business figures have created a Master of Business Administration program that tackles the issues they faced themselves: bribery, relentless bureaucracy and imperfect laws. Supporters of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo say it will fill an important niche by getting students ready for the unpredictable, sometimes corrupt world of emerging market economies. “We’d like to change the whole model,” said the school’s dean, Wilfried Vanhonacker. “It doesn’t make sense for us, nor are we interested in competing with Harvard. That’s a business school of the past, I have to say. But a business school of the future has to be different.” With construction not quite finished on its $250 million glass-and-steel campus just outside the Moscow city limits, the school began its full-time, 16-month M.B.A. program this month, with classes temporarily in the five-star Hotel Baltschug Kempinski near the Kremlin. Mr. Vanhonacker, the former director of the doctoral program at the Insead business school in France, said that developing economies provided the biggest business opportunities but schools did not prepare students to work in them. “We looked and we didn’t see any business school preparing this talent, even though in most corporate sectors this is where we expect the growth to come from,” he said. Other business schools do offer some focus on emerging markets. Insead, for example, offers field work in China, India and Middle East. Loïc Sadoulet, academic director of the Insead Africa Initiative, said one optional course focuses on developing countries and deals with issues like foreign direct investment, corruption and health. The Skolkovo program includes classroom courses in management theory but also will invite dozens of guest speakers to provide the students with examples of the challenges of emerging economies. And part of their training consists of working at companies solving real-world problems. After three months of studying management theory, students will be placed with a government department or company in Russia, China, India or the United States. “It’s learning by doing, not learning by acting or playing,” said Serge Hayward, director of the M.B.A. program. “We’re trying to put them in an environment where they are going to function rather than tell them about this environment.” Mr. Hayward said that he had considered asking officials in police agencies and private security companies to speak to the business students, and might even invite an organized crime boss to talk about the challenges of management. One of the aims of putting students into the world of business and government, Mr. Vanhonacker said, is to break down their preconceptions. “We want to shock them that there is a reality out there which is very different from what they think it is,” he said. Last week, 40 students in their 20s and 30s, most dressed casually in sport shirts and jeans, listened to a professor, Pierre Casse, lecture on leadership. Mr. Casse used a hypothetical murder case to illustrate how judgment depends on a person’s point of reference and how leadership is about rallying people around one reference point. Julia Davis, an American student, said she had chosen the Moscow school because it was a “forward-looking” institution with no preconceived notion of either business education or the nature of the global economy. Ms. Davis said she was glad the Skolkovo instructors talked about topics like corruption, flawed legislation and the role of ruling political parties in emerging economies. Among the patrons of the school are some of the biggest names in the Russian business world, like Ruben Vardanian, founder of Troika Dialog investment bank, as well as global companies like Credit Suisse and industrial giants like Severstal, the Russian steel maker. Roman Abramovich, the billionaire investor and owner of the Chelsea soccer team in Britain, donated 26 hectares, or 64 acres, of land for the campus. President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, who has spoken of the need to fight corruption, sits on the advisory board and spoke at the program’s inaugural ceremony. Mr. Vardanian said that only private money had been involved in starting the school, but approval from the higher authorities had spared the project bureaucratic hurdles that it might otherwise have faced. Although there are M.B.A. programs at a handful of universities in Russia, few of them attract professors with global credentials and most of the programs are taught in Russian. Classes in Skolkovo are conducted in English. Skolkovo’s training is not cheap. Fees for the full-time M.B.A. program, including accommodation and flights to India, China and the United States, are €50,000, or about $74,000. The sum will sound daunting for many in Russia, where the national average for a monthly salary is 18,000 rubles, or about $600, and 33,000 rubles in Moscow. Alexandra Dronova, a student, said she had chosen Skolkovo because she wanted an education relevant to life in Russia. “There’s not much point to be educated somewhere in the States,” she said. “There are excellent schools there, but how do you apply this in Russia?”

Russia
Business Schools
Colleges and Universities


Mets’ Win Comes With a Big Loss, as Noah Syndergaard Has Strep Throat

Abstract: As the Mets near the final week of the regular season chasing a playoff spot, they have come to resemble a triage unit housing a baseball team. Every day seems to bring a new injury and a new conundrum. Their September roster, bloated to 39 players, is not carrying unnecessary baggage but much-needed pieces to paper over new holes and to leverage in crucial moments. It has turned Terry Collins, for better or worse, into a quick-triggered manager. Nearly every at-bat is now a decision. Each game is handled as if it were its own self-contained season. “I don’t think we can approach it any other way,” Collins said. Citi Field on Friday night was no place for the passive or the patient. In a 10-5 win over the Phillies, Collins set the tone early. With the Mets down by a run in the bottom of the second inning, Ty Kelly walked to the plate. Gabriel Ynoa, the starting pitcher and the man for whom Kelly was pinch-hitting, remained in the dugout. That the game was still young and the score was still close did not matter to Collins. He removed Ynoa after just 43 pitches, starting the cascade of pinch-hitters and relievers that flowed during the next 3 hours 40 minutes. In all, on a lineup card most likely riddled with strikethroughs, the Mets used 20 players, including six pitchers. It turned the night into another test of endurance. The Mets had barely trudged by Philadelphia on Thursday , escaping with a victory only because of an 11th-inning home run by Asdrubal Cabrera. This time, they had to toil again. Image Noah Syndergaard will not make his next scheduled start on Saturday, dealing a blow to the Mets’ hopes for a wild-card berth. Credit Jim McIsaac/Getty Images A six-run fifth inning, punctuated by Michael Conforto’s three-run, opposite-field home run, gave them a 7-3 lead and pushed Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson out of the game. In the seventh, with the score tightened to 7-5, the Mets cobbled together two hits and a walk, then watched Philadelphia catcher Cameron Rupp make an errant throw off a bunt by Juan Lagares. Altogether, it put three more runs on the board. With Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia unavailable because of heavy use recently, Hansel Robles pitched the final two and two-thirds innings to earn his first save of the season. “I know one thing,” Collins said. “You come to the park these days, you know you’re going to get in the game.” The victory put the Mets one and a half games clear of the St. Louis Cardinals in the race for the National League’s two wild-card playoff spots. The Mets started the day tied with the San Francisco Giants, who played late Friday night in San Diego. The win came with costs, as Mets victories often do. Cabrera left the game after seven innings after having fouled a ball off his knee earlier in the contest. But the Mets did not even need to wait for the game to begin to learn of the latest piece of bad news for their rotation. Collins announced during his pregame news conference that Noah Syndergaard, the team’s ace, would not make his scheduled start on Saturday because he had strep throat. In the moment of silence between the initial news and the diagnosis, hardly anyone could have been blamed for assuming the worst. It has been that kind of season for the Mets. Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon are the last men standing in the club’s rotation of dreams that started the season in April. Sean Gilmartin, a left-handed long reliever with a 4.76 E.R.A. over 17 innings in 13 appearances with the Mets this season, will make the start in Syndergaard’s place. It is not yet known how Syndergaard’s illness will affect the Mets for the rest of the season. While Collins said he hoped Syndergaard could start early next week, his status was far from certain. Syndergaard was also lined up to pitch Oct. 5 for the wild-card game, if the Mets qualify for it, but that is also up in the air. The Mets have already lost Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey for the season, and Zack Wheeler never made it back from Tommy John surgery. Steven Matz has not pitched in six weeks and was scratched Thursday from Friday’s game, putting Ynoa on the mound in his stead. “Right now, in our situation, we can’t worry about Oct. 5,” Collins said of Syndergaard. “We’ve got to worry about being there Oct. 1. We’re just hoping right now that the medication, with some rest, with some nourishment, that he gets some energy back to where maybe he can pitch Monday, Tuesday. So just move him back a couple of days. When we get into the last three days of the season, we’ll see where we sit.” But the club was not done with its worries for the day. In the fifth inning, Cabrera, the shortstop whose scorching swing has helped carry the Mets during the past month despite a creaky left knee, fouled a ball off his right knee and fell to the ground. Cabrera stayed in the game and set the stage for the Mets’ knockout inning with a walk. Afterward, with a red splotch on his knee, Cabrera laughed at his manager’s best intentions. Collins had said it was most likely time for Cabrera to sit for a night following another health scare. “I don’t know,” Cabrera said with a laugh. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’m going to do my best to do that tomorrow.”


Nationals Prioritize Stephen Strasburg’s Long-Term Health

Abstract: WASHINGTON To witness Stephen Strasburg at his best is to thirst for more. Watch him overwhelm the Atlanta Braves for six innings on a rainy Tuesday in August, and try not to get greedy. You want to see him pitch like this in the chill of October, and you know Strasburg does, too. “I feel great,” he said in the Washington Nationals clubhouse, after striking out 10 in a 4-1 victory. “I feel like I’ve got a lot more left in the tank.” Strasburg could have promised to pitch a dozen perfect games, and it would have sounded plausible. He flings fastballs at 97 miles an hour, drops changeups at 91 and spins devastating curveballs, too. He has overcome reconstructive elbow surgery to go 15-5 with a 2.85 earned run average while leading the National League in strikeouts, with 183. And now it is all about to stop, because of an innings limit Strasburg cannot escape. “It’s funny, nobody talks to me personally about it,” Strasburg said. “So obviously I can either scour the Internet or watch all this stuff being said on TV, or I can just keep pitching — and watch the Golf Channel, I guess.” Strasburg and the Nationals have brought this on themselves by being so good, so fast. Strasburg turned 24 years old last month and had reconstructive elbow surgery in August 2010. The Nationals were so bad then that they picked first over all in the draft. Now they are 77-46. But if a sudden injury befell Strasburg tomorrow and knocked him out of the postseason, the Nationals could still win the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals won last fall despite losing an ace, Adam Wainwright, for the entire season. The way to win a title is to reach the playoffs as often as you can and hope everything breaks right one time. That is the Nationals’ master plan. “Stephen is a special talent, I don’t think anyone is going to deny that,” said Ryan Zimmerman, the veteran third baseman. “We’re lucky he’s going to be a special talent for a long time. I’d like to be able to look on that mound and have that feeling for 10 or 15 years.” For the 25th time this season, Strasburg gave his teammates that feeling of invincibility Tuesday. He came back after a 51-minute rain delay in the third inning and stifled the Braves, who now trail Washington by seven games. The Nationals seem certain to host postseason games here for the first time since 1933. Even their ancestors, the Montreal Expos, never reached the World Series. In Strasburg, the Nationals have a prototypical power pitcher, the ace counted on to win big games in October. They are so rare, Zimmerman said, that “when they come around, of course everybody wants to run them into the ground and pitch them as much as you can, because you get so excited and they’re so nice to have.” But, he added, “You’ve got to think of how nice it would be to have for a long, long time.” Exactly. This season is the start of something for the Nationals, not the culmination. General Manager Mike Rizzo has built them to contend for years, with nearly every important piece under team control for next season. That includes starters Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann and Ross Detwiler, whose combined earned run average is 2.98. The idea of risking Strasburg’s long-term health for a desperate run at the 2012 World Series title is tantalizing but foolish, especially for a team built like this. With apologies to “The Social Network,” one playoff appearance isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Five playoff appearances. The blueprint for Strasburg is Zimmermann. He had the same operation — Tommy John surgery — a year before Strasburg. Last season, in his first full year back, Zimmermann worked 1611/3 innings and made his final start on Aug. 28. This season, with no restrictions, he has a 2.54 E.R.A., second lowest in the National League. Following doctors’ recommendations has worked for Zimmermann. So why would the Nationals alter the plan for Strasburg — who has now thrown 1451/3 innings — simply because this year’s team is better than last year’s? “A lot of people have come to me and said, ‘What about the fans?’ ” said Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras. “You’ve got to remember, the fans of Washington are benefiting from this program. The Nationals wouldn’t be where they are without Zimmermann being a part of that staff. Zimmermann followed the same protocol, and that’s why he’s about to pitch 200 innings and pitch in postseason games — because he’s healthy.” Boras, who does not represent Zimmermann, stressed that he does not make the decisions about how the Nationals use their pitchers. Davey Johnson, the manager, said he advocated the plan to use Strasburg like any other starter — regular work from opening day until the innings threshold — because anything else could be dangerous to his recovery. “I’ve heard everything from bloggers and tweeters: do this, bring him out of the bullpen, blah, blah, blah,” Johnson said. “I’ve heard it all. It’s a good thing you guys aren’t managing. I’m the one managing, and you do what’s best for the player — always, No. 1.” Recovery from surgery is not the only reason to shut down Strasburg. The last three decades are littered with pitchers who endured punishing workloads before age 24 and flamed out in their 30s. For every Greg Maddux, who turned out fine, there are many more like Steve Avery, Bret Saberhagen, Fernando Valenzuela and Mike Witt. Boras can name all the exceptions — C. C. Sabathia, Matt Cain, and so on — and acknowledged there can be physical freaks. The wiser course, he said, is the conservative one, especially considering Strasburg’s surgery. “People say he’s healthy and performing and he doesn’t feel anything; you can go by velocity, he feels fine,” Boras said. “But you can’t rely on what the pitcher feels, because the impact of this comes later.” Strasburg will make an impact, one way or another. Better to go for transcendent performance than cautionary tale.

Washington Nationals
Baseball
Playoff Games
Strasburg Stephen


Suit Claims Weeknd Song Infringes on Copyright of Film Soundtrack

Abstract: The Weeknd’s song “ The Hills ” became one of the biggest hits of the year with a slithery electronic bass line. But according to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed on Wednesday, that bass line was taken without permission from the soundtrack of a little-noticed science-fiction thriller. The suit was filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles by Cutting Edge Music on behalf of Tom Raybould, a Welsh composer who wrote the music for “ The Machine ,” directed by Caradog James, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 but was not widely distributed in theaters in the United States. Still, the suit asserts, the music for “The Machine” reached associates of the Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye. On March 9, according to the suit, Mr. Raybould received a direct message on Twitter from Emmanuel Nickerson, a producer and writer known as Million Dollar Mano, that said: “I sampled your music might make it 2 the weeknd next album. Huge fan of what u did 4 the machine movie!” According the suit, both “The Hills” and a track on “The Machine” soundtrack called “ Revolution ” feature “bass lines performed with almost identical idiosyncratic sounds at the same register and using the same pitch sequence, melodic phase structure and rhythmic durations,” along with other similarities. The suit seeks unspecified damages, and it names as defendants several record labels and music publishers involved with the song. “The Hills,” which was released as a single in May, lists as its songwriters Mr. Tesfaye; Mr. Nickerson; Ahmad Balshe, better known as Belly; and Carlo Montagnese, known as Illangelo. The song spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s singles chart, and according to Nielsen it sold 2.4 million downloads and has been streamed nearly 400 million times in the United States on audio and video services. This week, the Weeknd was nominated for seven Grammy Awards , including album of the year for “Beauty Behind the Madness,” on which “The Hills” appears. A representative of Songs Music Publishing, the publisher that represents the Weeknd, declined to comment on Wednesday, saying that the company had not been served with the complaint. Representatives of Republic Records, the Weeknd’s label, did not respond to a request for comment.

Copyrights
Lawsuits
Music
Tom Raybould
The Machine
Abel Tesfaye,The Weeknd


Stocks Fall as Traders Focus on Japan Crisis

Abstract: There was no respite for weary investors Wednesday as deepening worries about the nuclear crisis in Japan prompted another sharp sell-off, leaving stocks in negative territory for the year. The anxiety was heightened by increasing volatility as stocks, bonds and currencies alike swung sharply through the course of a trading day punctuated by worsening news reports about Japan as well as word that police and riot troops had clashed again with protesters in Bahrain. “There is so much uncertainty about the Japanese situation and the Middle East that people are just struggling to quantify them,” said Barry Knapp, head of American equity strategy at Barclays Capital. Japanese stocks seemed set for another volatile trading day Thursday, amid reports that foreign financial firms are pushing Japanese stock market officials to halt trading. The Nikkei 225 index was down 1.5 percent in afternoon trading. The Japanese yen strengthened further Wednesday, striking a 16-year high, on speculation that Japanese investors may be selling their overseas holdings of assets like American Treasuries to bring capital home to help pay for reconstruction after the earthquake and tsunami. Investors have been hit by one hard-to-foresee event after another in the last year, leaving them bewildered, Mr. Knapp said. From the European sovereign debt crisis to the protests across the Middle East and now the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, the risks to the world economy seem to be multiplying. Wednesday started on a calmer note, with investors seemingly reassured by a 5 percent recovery in Japanese shares. But stocks slumped shortly after 11 a.m. when traders focused on a warning from a European Union official in Brussels that a catastrophic event at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant might be imminent. Treasury bond prices spiked at the same time, forcing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to cancel a bond-buying operation for the first time. Stocks recovered slightly around midday, only to fall sharply again. By the end of the trading session, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 242.12 points, or 2.04 percent, to 11,613.30. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index lost 24.99 points, or 1.95 percent, to 1,256.88. The Nasdaq declined 50.51 points, or 1.89 percent, to 2,616.82, hurt by a 4 percent fall in Apple after a rare downgrade by an analyst. All three major indexes have fallen more than 3.5 percent so far this week, putting the benchmark S.& P. 500 index down about 0.1 percent for the year. Oil prices climbed back above $98 a barrel as violence intensified in North Africa and the Middle East. The VIX, a measure of volatility in the Standard & Poor’s stock market index, rose to its highest level in more than six months, and market participants reported unusually large sales in the S.& P. 500 e-mini future, the instrument that was one of the triggers of last May’s flash crash, and big sales of some exchange-traded funds linked to Treasury bond yields, adding to the feverish atmosphere. Treasuries rose, continuing their ascent of recent days. Since Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on March 11, the prices of risky assets like stocks and commodities have plummeted while safe-haven investments like Treasuries have risen. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose a full percentage point late Thursday to 103 22/32, and the yield fell to 3.19 percent, from 3.30 percent. With the uncertainty around the world rising, government officials and central bankers signaled that they were prepared to act. The Bank of Japan continued to pump liquidity into the financial system on Wednesday, and Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, raised the possibility that Japan could receive financial assistance from other countries. Ms. Lagarde announced that she was arranging a discussion for as early as Thursday among finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 7 countries to assess the economic impact of the crisis in Japan and a possible response. In particular, officials in Paris think that the European Central Bank still has room to maneuver — certainly compared with the American Federal Reserve — in terms of using monetary tools to bolster liquidity in markets. Still, global central bankers have plenty of options to choose from if the situation in Japan and the global markets deteriorate. One initial plan could center on opening lines of credit from major central banks. Similar facilities were opened by some central banks after the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001 and during the financial panic of 2008-9. In this case, the Bank of Japan would provide a steady stream of yen to the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, ensuring that private banks would have easy access to the Japanese currency. Demand for yen has been rising in recent days, as Japanese insurers and other financial firms sell their most liquid assets, like stocks and commodities, to generate cash to use at home for rebuilding efforts. With sensitivity so high, it took only a comment by the European Union energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, to unnerve traders Wednesday. He told lawmakers in Brussels that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was “effectively out of control.” “In the coming hours, there could be further catastrophic events,” he said, according to Bloomberg News. That assessment was based on information from the European Union, the union’s mission in Tokyo, the International Atomic Energy Agency and media reports, he said. “This spooked the markets,” an analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman, Marc Chandler, said. Even though a spokesman was reported as quickly qualifying the commissioner’s statements, saying Mr. Oettinger had no special information beyond what was public, the damage was done. “Having witnessed a fall of such magnitude and so fast, the skittishness remained,” said Guy Lebas of Janney Montgomery Scott.

Japan
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (2011)
Nikkei Stock Average
Stocks and Bonds


Yankee Stadium Vendor Delivers Punch Lines and Peanuts

Abstract: The new Yankee Stadium has no shortage of star power — on the field, in Monument Park where the great Yankees are immortalized and among those old Yankees who appear on special occasions, like Yogi Berra. But while his name may not be familiar to many, Steve Lazarus is as much a fixture among some fans as the famous facade that has been re-created in the new ballpark. For 32 years Mr. Lazarus, 51, has worked and performed at Yankee Stadium, where he has hustled as much as Phil Rizzuto, showed off his arm as much as Whitey Ford and been as reliable as Derek Jeter. Mr. Lazarus has done his thing in the stands as a vendor, rushing ice cream to fans before it gets too soft, tossing bags of peanuts across several rows, selling hot dogs that were actually hot and cold beer that was actually cold. And along the way he also has become well-known for passing out jokes: “Our oldest vendor is 83 and he got suspended: He tested positive for Maalox.” On his days off and in the off-season, Mr. Lazarus’s sense of humor has also translated into a paycheck, because when he is not working at the stadium he is appearing on the stages of comedy clubs, mostly in the suburbs in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But while the audiences at the clubs can certainly be critical, Mr. Lazarus points out that fans at Yankee Stadium are not shy when it comes to expressing their opinions. “Yankee fans are the toughest,” he said. “They don’t give anyone a chance. They yell, ‘You stink! Get off the field!’ “I said, ‘Come on. Let the guy finish singing the national anthem.’ ” Mr. Lazarus, who was born and lives in the Bronx, said his journey to becoming a vendor started when his father took him to his first Yankee game, Old Timers’ Day in 1965. “I was 7 and the vendors were nice to me,” he said. “They always had something funny to say. The beer man would come over to sell my dad a beer and he’d look at me. ‘You have I.D.?’ “Then he would say: ‘You can’t have a beer. You have to drive your dad home.’ ” As he and his father went to more games, Mr. Lazarus realized the vendors enjoyed a big perk. “They got to go to all the games for free,” he said. “And back then, many games were not on TV, so that was a big deal. And they were popular with all the fans.” Mr. Lazarus came to realize that someone who could not make it on the field could still be at the ballpark for every game. “If I could not be a player, I thought, the heck with being a fireman or policeman, I want to be a vendor,” he said. As it happened, Mr. Lazarus said, his father was a bookie, and one of his clients was in charge of the vendors. His first day at work was at the 1977 All-Star Game. Then came the excitement of the Yankees winning the World Series that October and again the following year. Later, in the 1980s, the Yankees hit a dry spell that no amount of beer could quench. There were years of losing and empty seats. “I had to step up my material to get fans’ attention,” he said. “Fans were paying more attention to me than what was going on on the field.” Here’s a taste of his schtick: “My dad is a lousy gambler. I once overheard him betting against the Harlem Globetrotters!” Tedd Derian, a retired limousine driver who is a regular at Yankee games, said: “Steve’s very entertaining. His act is a little extra thrown in with the game. He’s quick coming up with lines. I don’t know how he does it while he’s running around. He’s a real hustler.” Mr. Lazarus has written a self-published book, “The Pope and Me at Yankee Stadium,” about his life as a vendor and comedian. The title refers to the two times he worked at the stadium when the pope was the star attraction. “No, I wasn’t selling beer,” Mr. Lazarus said. “But maybe even stranger, I was selling Hebrew National hot dogs.” Mr. Lazarus worries that the many food options available at the new stadium may threaten the livelihood of vendors. “You can see the game anywhere you eat,” he said. “In the old place, nobody wanted to leave their seats and miss the action.” But at least on opening day, Mr. Lazarus and his beer were in high demand. “Beer here!” he shouted, as he worked on the main level behind third base. A man in a Yankee cap and a blue jersey with No. 2 on the back waved a $20 bill. A boy in a Yankee cap and pinstriped shirt sat to his left. Mr. Lazarus nodded at the man, rushed over and passed a bottle toward them. “You have I.D.?” he asked the younger fan. The boy and the man laughed.


Kasparov Faces Obstacles to Leading Chess Federation

Abstract: Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who retired in 2005, is preparing to re-enter the chess arena, and his next opponent may be the most formidable, and strangest, he has faced. Mr. Kasparov, 50, announced recently that he would run for the presidency of the World Chess Federation , the game’s governing body, and try to unseat Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has led the federation since 1995. The election will be held during the Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, next August. Mr. Kasparov would seem to have a number of advantages. He is charismatic, famous in the chess world and beyond it, and in frequent demand as a public speaker. Since he retired from competition, he has also been a political gadfly in Russia, a leader of opposition political groups and an outspoken critic of President Vladimir V. Putin. By contrast, Mr. Ilyumzhinov, 51, is a businessman who was born in Kalmykia, an impoverished Russian republic on the Caspian Sea, and amassed a fortune after the fall of the Soviet Union, though exactly how, and how much, is something of a mystery. He was the president of Kalmykia from 1993 to 2010, serving partly at Mr. Putin’s discretion. Though he never won fame as a player, Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s devotion to chess seems genuine — but so are his eccentricities. He has said that he believes the game was invented by extraterrestrials, and he claims to have been abducted by aliens in yellow spacesuits on the night of Sept. 17, 1997. He built Chess City, a huge glass dome surrounded by a housing development, in Kalmykia’s obscure and inaccessible capital, Elista, and had the federation hold championship tournaments there. In June 2011, at the height of the civil war in Libya, Mr. Ilyumzhinov appeared in Tripoli to meet with an old friend, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, ostensibly to discuss opportunities for developing chess programs in the country. The men played a game of chess for the cameras. It was the last time Mr. Qaddafi was seen alive in public before he was captured and killed four months later. In an interview, Mr. Kasparov blamed Mr. Ilyumzhinov for one of the biggest shortcomings of the federation, known by its French acronym, FIDE: its inability to attract big corporate sponsorships. “Anybody Googling FIDE sees he is dealing with someone who is taken by aliens and is playing chess with Qaddafi,” he said. Mr. Ilyumzhinov, who also visited President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in August 2012, said in an interview that his trips were not intended to make statements. “Chess is not political,” he said. “I am not communist, I am not socialist, I am not a democrat. I am peaceful.” Despite Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s quirks, Mr. Kasparov faces an uphill battle to get elected. Each member country of the federation has a single vote regardless of size, so the tiny Republic of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean has the same say as the United States. While Mr. Ilyumzhinov has had little support in most Western countries during his tenure, he has marshaled the backing of many small countries that are not at the forefront of chess, and has had no trouble retaining power. When Anatoly Karpov, Mr. Kasparov’s old chess adversary, ran for president of FIDE in 2010, Mr. Ilyumzhinov beat him handily, 95 votes to 55. Mr. Kasparov said that while past elections were dogged by rumors of fraud and bribery and “were not transparent,” this time around “those issues have been resolved.” He added obliquely, “I have resources that can help me to run a global campaign.” Those resources include the deep pockets of Rex Sinquefield, a retired businessman from St. Louis who is Mr. Kasparov’s nominee to lead the federation’s organization in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Sinquefield has become the biggest benefactor of chess in the United States in recent years, and has sponsored the United States Championship. Mr. Ilyumzhinov defended his record, saying that he had invested a lot of his own money to promote the game and had attracted some major sponsors, including Rosneft, the giant Russian energy company, which is underwriting a program to promote the teaching of chess in schools and has sponsored some tournaments. In general, he said, chess is hard to sell to sponsors, compared with “action” sports like tennis, football and basketball that are “interesting for TV.” At a chess tournament, the audience remains quiet and minutes may go by without anything appearing to happen. “You cannot say, ‘Go! Go! Rah! Rah! Good move!’ ” he said. “People want some emotion. Chess is an art and not a spectator sport.” Mr. Ilyumzhinov insisted that Mr. Kasparov could do no better than he had on the sponsorship issue. He said Mr. Kasparov was a poor manager and that groups he started, like the Professional Chess Association in the 1990s, had failed. He also criticized Mr. Kasparov’s political activities in Russia, including his opposition to Mr. Putin. Mr. Kasparov said that, though he still believed that Mr. Putin was “destroying the future of my country,” he would give up his political ambitions and devote himself wholeheartedly to FIDE if elected. That would not be a very great concession, it would seem. In 2009, Mr. Kasparov and his wife, Daria, bought a $3.4 million condominium on West 76th Street in Manhattan, and his youngest daughter attends school in New York. He has spent less and less time in Russia in recent years, and even said last June that he would not go back, for fear of arrest. So as a practical matter, he said, “I don’t see how much this will scale back my political activities.”

Chess
Garry Kasparov
World Chess Federation
Kirsan N Ilyumzhinov


Attacks on the Homeless Rise, With Youths Mostly to Blame

Abstract: CROSS CITY, Fla. — Warren Messner was 15 when he and some friends attacked a homeless man and left him for dead. Mr. Messner jumped on a log laid across the man’s ribs. He does not know why. He was high, does not remember much and wants to forget the rest. Today Mr. Messner is a baby-faced 18-year-old serving 22 years for second-degree murder. He used to like skipping school and listening to rap music with friends. He imagined he eventually would help his father install flooring. Now he talks to his parents nearly every night from the maximum-security Cross City Correctional Institution. “It was just a senseless crime.” he said, his eyes down, his shoulders slumped. “I wish it would have never happened. It made no sense. It was stupidity.” Mr. Messner’s story is not unusual. Nationwide, violence against the homeless is soaring, and overwhelmingly the attackers are teenagers and young adults. In Florida the problem is so severe that the National Coalition for the Homeless is setting up speakers bureaus to address a culture that sees attacking the homeless as a sport. It is the first time the organization has singled out a particular state. Of more than 142 unprovoked attacks on homeless people in 2007, the most — at least 32 — were in Florida, according to a preliminary count by the coalition and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Nationwide, such attacks rose about 65 percent from 2005. In Fort Lauderdale a group of teenagers captured national attention in 2006 when a surveillance camera caught one laughing as he beat a homeless man with a baseball bat. The teenagers attacked three homeless men that night and face a murder trial in one man’s death. A year later in Daytona Beach, a 17-year-old and two 10-year-olds attacked a homeless Army veteran. One 10-year-old dropped a cement block on the man’s face, the police said. “What could possibly be in the mind of a 10- or 12-year-old that would possess them to pick up a rock and pick up a brick and beat another human being in the head?” said Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. “It defies any rational thought process, but it’s also why we felt so strongly we had to do something.” The trust has teamed with the local schools to develop a curriculum for elementary, middle and high schools teaching respect for the homeless. Advocates for the homeless blame a society that they say shuns the homeless through laws that criminalize sleeping in parks, camping and begging. “I think it reflects a lack of respect for the homeless that has reached such extreme proportions that homeless people aren’t viewed as people,” said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Troubled by news photos showing those two 10-year-olds in Daytona Beach in prison suits and handcuffs, the National Coalition for the Homeless joined with AmeriCorps Vista to open speakers bureaus last fall in Key West, Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Nine more are planned in Florida. The idea is to educate students using speakers who are homeless or once lived on the streets, and the organization wants to open more bureaus nationwide, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the coalition. The speakers are like George Siletti, who grew up in foster care and lived as a homeless drifter on and off for 25 years, starting at the age of 16. Now 51, Mr. Siletti said he took medication for schizophrenia and depression and lived in subsidized housing in Washington, addressing schools, churches and organizations about homelessness. “I’ve had bottles thrown at me. I’ve had people spit on me, cursed me out for no reason,” said Mr. Siletti, who was attacked by teenagers in Fort Lauderdale as he and others slept under a bridge in the 1980s. “People seem to pick on the most vulnerable because they really think that they won’t do nothing.” In Miami, students are learning from a weeklong curriculum and a DVD teaching that families are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. The curriculum requires younger students to make posters and older students to write essays about what they learned. Legislation adding the homeless to hate-crime laws has been introduced in Alaska, California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio and Texas. Bills are also pending in Congress. Mr. Messner, who is an imposing six feet, 240 pounds in his blue prison suit, talks about his crime with quiet resignation. He and his friends were looking for a place to smoke marijuana near his home in the Daytona Beach area when they stumbled on Michael Roberts. Mr. Messner joined the attack and remembers hearing Mr. Roberts groan when he jumped on the log, but then Mr. Messner tried to pull his friends away, he said. “He was making noises,” Mr. Messner said. “He asked one time why we was doing it to him. Why we was messing with him.” A few days later, Mr. Roberts’s body was found. Mr. Messner agreed to a plea bargain and drew the lightest sentence of the four convicted in the attack. He does not like prison much. He keeps busy doing yard work, exercising and reading. He likes James Patterson novels and murder mysteries. He has dropped at least 40 pounds and developed a penchant for prison tattoos. One arm reads “thug” while the other reads “life.” His mother’s name, Lori, is on one hand. On one arm is the same cross he wears around his neck, surrounded by the words “hope,” “faith” and “love.” “I’m not a killer. I know that,” Mr. Messner said. “A lot of people, they see this story and call us killers. I’m not a killer. I regret what I did. I wish I could take it back.”

Florida
National Coalition for the Homeless
Homeless Persons
Murders and Attempted Murders
Children and Youth
Daytona Beach (Fla)


Euro Zone Economy’s Slide Accelerates, Data Show

Abstract: PARIS — The European economy appears to be slowing further, private-sector data showed Thursday, raising the possibility that the recession will deepen even as the crisis in Cyprus undermines faith in the future of currency union. An index of euro zone purchasing managers by Markit Economics fell in March to 46.5 from 47.9 in February, with the rate of decline worsening for the second month in a row. The purchasing managers composite index has fallen in every month but one since September 2011. An index above 50.0 suggests economic expansion, while a level below that suggests contraction. The economy of the 17-nation euro zone, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the overall E.U. gross domestic product, shrank for a fifth straight quarter at the end of 2012, and indications suggest that trend will continue in January through March period. A record jobless rate of 11.9 percent and government budget-balancing measures have hurt household spending across most of Europe, even as the United States continues to grow modestly. Separate Markit reports showed both the German and French economies, the two largest in the euro zone, losing steam. The German composite index came in Thursday at 51.0 for March, down from 53.3 in February. The French composite index was worse, falling to 42.1 for March from 43.1 in February, as service and manufacturing activity declined. Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam, said the report Thursday “pours cold water on hopes of an imminent end to the euro zone recession,” as it showed domestic demand remaining weak across Europe. Mr. van Vliet said he had “penciled in a return to growth” for the euro zone in the second quarter, led by a German rebound, after a small January-March contraction. But with Germany now apparently slowing and Cyprus struggling to work out a bailout, he said, both the first and second quarters may now disappoint expectations. Mr. van Vliet said it was also looking increasingly likely that his forecast for a 0.3 percent contraction of the euro zone this year would turn out to be too optimistic. The data contrast with a continuing uptick in euro zone economic sentiment. The European Commission said in February that its economic and business confidence indicator in the 17 countries using the euro had improved for the fourth straight month last month, as industrial orders rose.

Euro
Euro Crisis
European Monetary Union


Wife of Accused Soldier Kept Blog on Anguish of Army Life

Abstract: She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She described the knot she got in her stomach from missing him. She wrote of her disappointment after he was passed over for a promotion. But mostly, Karilyn Bales — the wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales , the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers last week — relayed the simple anguish of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments. “Bob left for Iraq this morning,” she wrote in her family blog on Aug. 9, 2009. “Quincy slept in our bed last night.” Though much of the family’s online presence appears to have been removed in recent days, the fragments that remain capture the daily travails typical of any family with a loved one stationed abroad. A little less than a year ago, in March 2011, Ms. Bales wrote on her blog that her husband had not received a promotion to E-7, sergeant first class. The family was disappointed, she said, “after all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.” But Ms. Bales was also relieved, she wrote, because she hoped that the Army might allow the family some autonomy in choosing its next location, after Sergeant Bales had spent years at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. She listed her top choices: Germany (“best adventure opportunity!”); Italy (“2nd best adventure opp”); Hawaii (“nuff said”); Kentucky (“we would at least be near Bob’s family”); and Georgia (“to be a sniper teacher, not because it is a fun place to live”). In some of these locations, Sergeant Bales’s chances of being deployed to a war zone would probably have been lower. Wherever they went, Ms. Bales said, she hoped to rent out their house in Lake Tapps, Wash., she wrote, “so that we would have it to come back to when our adventure is over.” More often, Ms. Bales focused on ordinary struggles. She described surprise phone calls and solo doctor’s appointments, attempts to clean the house while Sergeant Bales was gone and the “bad dreams” she woke from after a nap on the day he left in 2009. She recalled discussions of baby names with him while he was away, and celebrating Easter one Sunday early, so that Sergeant Bales could decorate eggs with their daughter, Quincy, before leaving home again. In 2006, while she was pregnant with Quincy, Ms. Bales wrote that though she was careful not to wish the days away, “I only want the days to go by fast when it comes to Bob coming back home.” A few days later, Ms. Bales wrote about a common tic she shared with her unborn child: “I get the hiccups all the time these days, I always think that Bob is thinking about me.” One morning, she continued, she could feel the baby hiccupping in her belly. “I guess Bob was thinking about her too,” Ms. Bales wrote. When Quincy was born in December 2006, Ms. Bales wrote, she received a call at the hospital. “It was Bob calling from the airport in Kuwait!!” she wrote. “It was so good to hear his voice. I told him how the birth went and he got to hear Quincy squeaking in the background.” In August 2007, she described some of the child’s first words. “Much to Daddy’s happiness,” she wrote, “she now says ‘D’ as in Dadadadadada.” Ms. Bales’s post from March 2011, about the Army promotion, appears to have been the blog’s latest entry. In it, she seemed to hint at why she maintained the site in the first place. The collection of posts was a “time capsule,” she wrote, and she hoped that her children would one day “enjoy reading about the decisions that Mom and Dad went through during their lives.” With a relocation expected, she said, the family’s coming months would be full of change. “I am hoping to blog about it and look back in a year,” she wrote, “to see how far we have come from right now.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


2 Boston Tunnels Require Repairs

Abstract: BOSTON, Sept. 26 — Two aging tunnels leading to and from Logan International Airport need major ceiling repairs, Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday. The findings are a result of an audit conducted after a Boston woman was killed in July by falling concrete in a newer tunnel. The Sumner Tunnel, which runs from the airport to downtown Boston, is the worse off of the two. Steel supports holding up a tiled drop ceiling that runs through most of the tunnel are rusting, causing them to expand and damage about 30 percent of the concrete that forms the shell of the structure. That concrete, from which the drop ceiling hangs, is fractured and chipping away, though it is not in danger of falling and jeopardizing motorists. Parts of the tunnel ceiling were never fitted with drop tiles, and the original 72-year-old concrete ceiling remains. That concrete is rotting, and crews are chipping away loose areas with hammers to ensure they do not fall onto the roadway. Those parts of the ceiling must eventually be replaced. In the Callahan Tunnel, which leads to the airport, 418 bolts holding steel supports into the top of the tunnel are loose and in the process of being repaired. As in the tunnel where the Boston woman, Milena Del Valle, 38, was killed, the beams holding the drop ceiling in this one are fastened to the tunnel with epoxy bolts. The Callahan Tunnel, which is 45 years old, also lacks diagonal steel beams to support the structure in case of an earthquake and must be fitted with them. Repairs on the Sumner Tunnel are unlikely to begin until next summer because a plan must be developed, Mr. Romney said. The tunnel will also not be repaired until the entire system where Ms. Del Valle was killed is reopened, and officials said they did not know when that would be. “The Sumner’s condition is such that a long-term structural repair is going to have to be done,” Mr. Romney said at a news conference. “This is not something that can be repaired in the evening on occasions. This is a major project to reline and repair the inside of that tunnel system.” The tunnels are safe to use until the repairs begin, Mr. Romney said, because they are being inspected regularly. Officials said such deterioration was common in older tunnels in cold climates because concrete laid decades ago was more porous than the material used today. Any decay is usually caught during routine inspection.

Aged
Concrete
Bridges and Tunnels
Romney Mitt
Boston (Mass)


Rocky Road for Canadian Oil

Abstract: CALGARY, Alberta — With TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline snarled in a regulatory and legal struggle south of the border, Canadian oil companies are proposing many new and expanded pipelines that would connect the oil sands fields with new markets in China and across the world. The planned projects that would snake east and west as well as south, could break the virtual United States monopoly market for Canadian oil exports, and enable oil sands production to climb by more than 25 percent in the next decade even if the Keystone pipeline is ultimately blocked. “The regulatory uncertainty and political decisions in the United States have absolutely increased Canadian resolve to get to global markets for our oil,” said Brian Ferguson, chief executive of Cenovus Energy, one of Canada’s leading oil companies. Image A rally in Kitimat against the Northern Gateway pipeline. Credit Julie Gordon/Reuters But there are many hurdles to clear. The resistance is strongest in British Columbia, which oil companies envision as the gateway to fast-growing Asian markets. The critical Northern Gateway pipeline, in particular, has faced strong opposition from Native Canadian groups, which have induced the pipeline company Enbridge to make important safety concessions and even to give an ownership stake to Native Canadians. The company also faces opposition from Kitimat, a town that is the port terminal for the Northern Gateway, which recently voted against the project in a nonbinding referendum. Another proposed TransCanada project, called Energy East, which would revamp a gas pipeline to take 1.1 million barrels of oil a day to refineries in Quebec and on the east coast, has drawn opposition from environmentalists. Seismic work and other construction of a marine terminal, scientists say, will imperil the already declining beluga whale population in the St. Lawrence River. More broadly, environmental groups have initiated legal challenges of the government’s streamlined pipeline approval process, which they contend is overly friendly to the oil industry. Image The Northern Gateway pipeline's terminal is planned near the Douglas Channel. Credit Julie Gordon/Reuters “We’ll challenge them at every opportunity we can get,” said Hannah McKinnon, the national program manager of Toronto-based Environmental Defence. Ms. McKinnon said the debate in the United States over Keystone XL and the battle in British Columbia over Northern Gateway have stoked a broader debate about the oil sands across Canada. “A lot of people are surprised to hear that we’re not all tar-sands zealots,” she added. Still, the prospects for most of the proposed Canadian pipelines appear bright. Enbridge hopes its Alberta Clipper, which already takes 450,000 barrels a day to the United States and has a 2010 United States presidential permit, can secure an amendment to its permit without much trouble to expand capacity to 800,000 barrels a day. Kinder Morgan plans to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver to more than 800,000 barrels a day, from 300,000 barrels, and despite local protests, many energy specialists predict the provincial and federal governments will reach an accord that will satisfy most people. The half-dozen or so projects total three million barrels a day of extra pipeline capacity — much more than the 700,000 barrels a day of capacity Canadian producers would acquire from the Keystone XL project. Image Opponents of the Enbridge Northern Gateway project protested in March. Credit Robin Rowland/Canadian Press, via Associated Press “You would have to go back to the 1950s to see this many major pipeline proposals on the table,” said Monica Gattinger, a professor of public policy at the University of Ottawa. “Previous junctures have always been about where energy is going to flow in North America. This is the sole juncture about freeing Canadian energy reserves to the world.” Canadian oil executives say they need most, if not all, of the proposed pipelines, including Keystone, to meet their oil production targets for 2025, which calls for an increase from a current 3.5 million barrels to six million barrels a day, including a doubling of oil sands production. Otherwise, they will have to slow development. And, just to be sure, the industry is planning to move as much as an additional million barrels of oil by train, although pipelines remain the more economical and reliable alternative. “For us, for future investment, it’s pipeline,” said John Rhind, vice president for oil sands at Shell Canada. “We want more capacity. Long term, we need to see access to global markets.” Some Canadian oil executives, who are losing patience with the Obama administration over its delayed decision on Keystone after almost six years of review, even see a silver lining because the delay might quicken the pace for the building of alternatives in Canada. Image Jason Hamel, left, and Michael Audet maintained the Enbridge pipeline. Credit Pierre Obendrauf/The Gazette Among the most significant of the proposed pipelines is Enbridge’s giant Northern Gateway project, which would send more than a half-million barrels of bitumen a day to the west coast for export by tanker to Asian markets, principally China. But it has been a lightning rod for opposition because British Columbians from across the political spectrum fear that regular trips by tankers along the province’s scenic and rugged coastline will inevitably lead to a huge oil spill. As the final destination of Northern Gateway and the home of its planned ship terminal, Kitimat stands to gain the most in long-term jobs from the pipeline. But the remote community, which is dominated by an aluminum smelter, rejected Northern Gateway in a plebiscite, 58.4 percent to 41.6 percent in April. The town’s district council then passed a symbolic motion against the pipeline. Mayor Joanne Monaghan said that she still wanted the pipeline, and its jobs, to come to Kitimat although she voted against the Northern Gateway to fulfill a promise to honor the result of the plebiscite. Enbridge has promised to continue its efforts to win local support. Image Gerald Amos prepared crab traps on Douglas Channel near the pipeline terminal site. Credit Julie Gordon/Reuters More problematic for Enbridge is opposition from Native Canadian groups. The pipeline would run through the territories of 43 Native Canadian nations, and 17 have withheld support so far. Twenty-six of the First Nations, as the aboriginal groups are called, have signed so-called equity support agreements which give them part ownership of the pipeline. The company agreed to increase the thickness of the pipe, add more automated valve stations for safety, and committed to step up regular inspections. It also changed pipeline routes in 26 locations based on suggestions from local communities. “We are going to continue to engage as best we can,” said Al Monaco, Enbridge’s chief executive. But in an interview he conceded, “With some of the First Nations, we haven’t had a great dialogue.” The opposition of those mostly coastal aboriginal groups will probably set the stage for a historic constitutional battle. A decade ago, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that native groups must be consulted and accommodated on resource development. But the native groups were not given explicit veto powers, and ambiguity surrounds the definitions of consultation and accommodation. Gordon Christie, the director of the Indigenous Legal Studies Department at the University of British Columbia, said that while dissidents do not hold veto power, the government risks provoking possibly violent confrontations if it declares the consultation and accommodations complete and pushes ahead with Northern Gateway. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Professor Christie said. “But I think the people of the world are going to learn a lot about central B.C.”

Canada
Pipelines
Oil sands
Keystone Pipeline
Oil and Gasoline
TransCanada Corporation
International trade


Magic’s Turkoglu Is Suspended for Steroids

Abstract: Orlando Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu was suspended for 20 games by the N.B.A. on Wednesday after testing positive for steroids. The league said Turkoglu tested positive for methenolone, an anabolic steroid. He began serving the suspension Wednesday night when the Magic hosted the Atlanta Hawks. Turkoglu took full responsibility for the positive test and apologized to the Magic organization, fans and fellow teammates. He said he took medication from a trainer in Turkey last summer to help him recover from a shoulder injury and mistakenly neglected to check it against the N.B.A.’s list of banned substances. “As a player this is the worst situation that you want to be in,” said Turkoglu, a 6-foot-10-inch forward. “I’m just sorry to put the organization in this situation.” He is the eighth player suspended for performance-enhancing drugs under the N.B.A.’s drug-testing policy, which was established in 1999, and he is the second Magic player to be suspended under the policy in the past four years. The former Magic forward Rashard Lewis was suspended 10 games in 2009 after testing positive for an elevated testosterone level. Performance-enhancing drugs have not been a prominent issue in the N.B.A., in contrast to the headlines they have created in the N.F.L. and Major League Baseball. The 33-year-old Turkoglu, who is from Turkey, is in his 13th season in the N.B.A. SPURS 96, CAVALIERS 95 Kawhi Leonard’s 3-pointer with 2.9 seconds remaining gave San Antonio a win in Cleveland. CELTICS 71, BULLS 69 Kevin Garnett scored 8 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and added 11 rebounds, and Boston overcame poor shooting to beat visiting Chicago. PACERS 101, BOBCATS 77 Paul George posted his second triple-double of the season with 23 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high 12 assists, and host Indiana routed Charlotte. BUCKS 94, 76ERS 92 Monta Ellis scored 28 points, Brandon Jennings added 21 and Milwaukee rallied in the fourth quarter at home against Philadelphia. HAWKS 108, MAGIC 76 Josh Smith had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and Al Horford added 26 points and 12 rebounds as Atlanta blew past Orlando. PISTONS 96, WIZARDS 85 Will Bynum scored 6 of his 20 points in a late run, and host Detroit went on to beat Washington. MAVERICKS 123, KINGS 100 Vince Carter scored 26 points to pass Larry Bird for 29th on the N.B.A.’s career scoring list, and host Dallas headed into the All-Star break with a victory. JAZZ 97, TIMBERWOLVES 93 Al Jefferson had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Paul Millsap scored 21 points to power visiting Utah. HORNETS 98, TRAIL BLAZERS 63 Anthony Davis had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and New Orleans handed visiting Portland its fifth straight loss.

Steroid
Orlando Magic
Hedo Turkoglu
Atlanta Hawks
Basketball
Drug test
Doping


Robinson III and McGary Will Stay at Michigan

Abstract: Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary will return to Michigan for their sophomore seasons. Robinson started all 39 games for Michigan this season and averaged 11 points. McGary averaged 7.5 points. Michigan has lost the national player of the year, Trey Burke, and guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to the N.B.A. draft.

Glenn Robinson III
Mitch McGary
College basketball
University of Michigan


A Brooklyn Grocer’s Ripe Years

Abstract: John Cortese wiped his hands on his white apron and paused over the purchase of a half-dozen zucchinis. “Go see what the price is,” he told the customer in his shop on Flatbush Avenue. “I forgot it. I tell you, I don’t know anything anymore.” Then he winked, this 91-year-old grocer who still has his marbles, still opens every morning at 7 a.m. and still runs things himself at Golden Gate Fancy Fruits and Vegetables, on the border of Flatlands and Mill Basin in South Brooklyn. He has been working there since his father opened the place in 1939. “When you come in here, it’s still 1939 ,” he said. “Older people get flashbacks when they walk in.” The wooden floor is well worn, and old-fashioned scales hang from the tin ceiling, “just in case the power goes out,” he said. A modest inventory of fruit is laid out in shallow boxes lined with foil, along with boxes of macaroni and some other staples. The shelving is propped on melon crates with faded labels. “Those boxes are older than you are,” he deadpanned to a reporter visiting the shop, which resembles a movie set, albeit one filled with personal touches, like prices scrawled on cardboard squares fitted into notches on hand-whittled wooden sticks. The customer shopping for zucchinis consulted one square — 69 cents a pound — and Mr. Cortese tallied her bill by hand in a loose-leaf notebook. “When it gets too complicated, I use the adding machine,” he said, ripping the page out for her receipt. Dozens of framed photographs of old Brooklyn line his walls, along with his handwritten “Poor Grocer” poem, which recounts a weary produce man at heaven’s gate and ends with this couplet: “The gates were opened swiftly and St. Peter touched the bell. ‘Come in,’ he said, ‘and take a harp — you’ve had enough of hell.’ ” Actually, Mr. Cortese said, the fruit business was just a front for his real interest: holding court in the once-bustling shop. “I used to have a staff in here — now it’s just me,” he said. “People don’t cook like they used to. They order out, they use supermarkets. So many of the things we used to sell — wax beans, rhubarb, oyster plants, lima beans — I don’t carry this stuff anymore. People are looking for prepared foods.” Mr. Cortese lives nearby, grew up in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and began working in the shop as a boy. “It hasn’t changed since then,” he said. “Once, I was going to redo the storefront, but my accountant said, ‘Why? Then the landlord will expect a new ceiling, new walls, new everything.’ And I’m glad I never did, because now it’s an antique.” Mr. Cortese took over from his father in 1960 and later bought the building, which has enabled him to stay in business in recent years. “It doesn’t make money anymore — I’m putting money into it,” said Mr. Cortese, whose one sojourn away from the shop was to fight in World War II right after graduating from Alexander Hamilton Vocational High School. In the rear of the shop, he pointed to an old bicycle with a wire basket — “I delivered on that till I was 50” — and to his old potbellied stove with the teakettle on top, and to the walk-in freezer and the slot where the ice man used to put huge, cold blocks every few days. Out the back door were his garden and his fig trees. “I give them to my good customers,” Mr. Cortese said. His wife, Anne, died in January. He returned to work soon afterward, he said, because “there’s no way I could sit around the house after that.” He visits her grave at Holy Cross Cemetery nearby, he said, noting that Gil Hodges, the great Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman and New York Mets manager, is also buried there. Transitioning to cheerier topics, he said, “You know, Gil Hodges once came in the shop. “I was waiting on Mrs. Governale, and I saw him picking out grapefruits,” he recalled. “He had huge hands but he was no good at picking grapefruits, so I said, ‘Here, let me help.’ ” Mr. Cortese mentioned that his son, John, was a big Dodgers fan. “Hodges came back with two game balls from the 1969 World Series,” he said. He began chatting with a customer who told him her parents were from Galway, Ireland. Mr. Cortese began a fine rendition of “Galway Bay,” remembering every lyric and hitting every note. When a Nigerian woman bought a bag of red pepper slices that Mr. Cortese had prepared that morning, he reflected that he had seen waves of European immigrants give way to those from Asian, Caribbean and Middle Eastern countries. “And I love them all when they come in here,” he said. He has no plans to retire. “He’ll stay there until he physically can’t do it anymore,” said his daughter Janine Coyne. “He’s not going anywhere unless something takes him out.”

Brooklyn
John Cortese
Mill Basin
Supermarkets


Magnus Carlsen Overwhelms Challenger in Tiebreakers to Win World Chess Championship

Abstract: It took nearly three weeks, 12 closely fought games and a day of high-speed tiebreakers to decide the World Chess Championship, but at the end of play on Wednesday, victory went to Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian grandmaster, leaving Sergey Karjakin to return home to Russia in noble defeat. “Karjakin only wanted to prove he was Carlsen’s equal,” said Denes Boros, a Hungarian grandmaster and chess commentator who was at the event. “Carlsen came to prove he was greater.” In the end, he was. Wednesday was Mr. Carlsen’s 26th birthday, which he said earlier in the week had been good luck in the past. Mr. Karjakin is also 26, making them the youngest pair ever to face off in the world championship. Spectators at the Fulton Market Building in Lower Manhattan, many of them students of past championships, declared the match outstanding, with each player pressing minute advantages or finding inventive defenses against whatever attack the other threw at him. “It’s one of the highest-quality matches on both sides,” said Lev Alburt, a grandmaster who has followed championship matches since 1954. “Even the fact of many draws, almost all have been achieved in very sharp play. Both players are trying to squeeze something almost from nothing. Where other players would play safe, both keep playing for a win, creating problems for their opponent at a risk to themselves.” Image The billionaire Peter Thiel, standing next to Mr. Karjakin, made the honorary first move at the playoff. Credit Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters “It’s one of the most exciting championship matches in history,” he said. “If you’re a beginner, you can learn a lot, and if you’re a grandmaster, you can learn a lot.” Everything got fast and fun on Wednesday, as the solemn, deliberative pace of the first 12 games gave way to rapid action in which mistakes were inevitable. The tiebreakers consisted of four games of high-speed chess, with each man given 25 minutes to complete his moves, plus an additional 10 seconds for every move made. After Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur and former chess prodigy, made the ceremonial first move, Mr. Karjakin, playing white, began the day like most others, with the Ruy Lopez opening. Both players started aggressively, with Mr. Carlsen advancing his pawns on the queen side. He stood up from the board twice in the opening minutes. Mr. Karjakin pushed back, but after an exchange of major pieces, the game headed to a draw — a slight advantage for Mr. Carlsen, who now had white for two of the remaining three games. In the next game, with the rain outside wrapping the venue in a gauzy gray, Mr. Carlsen put enormous time pressure on Mr. Karjakin, at one point forcing the Russian’s clock down to near zero. But a combination of creative defense and missed opportunities let Mr. Karjakin escape with a stalemate, eliciting applause from the crowd. “Magnus blew it,” said Maurice Ashley, a grandmaster watching in a V.I.P. area. Then in Game 3, first blood. With Mr. Karjakin again playing white, Mr. Carlsen applied unrelenting pressure on both sides of the board, forcing Mr. Karjakin again to use his clock. This time the challenger did not have a response for Mr. Carlsen’s attack, and they entered the last game with Mr. Karjakin needing a win just to stay alive and force the match into the blitz round. Mr. Carlsen, playing white in Game 4, never gave Mr. Karjakin a chance, opening a slight advantage and pressing it until the challenger had to fight not to lose. This time, Mr. Karjakin’s remarkable ability to eke out draws was of no use. Mr. Carlsen, needing only a draw to win the match, pressed on and won. For Mr. Carlsen, who has been called “the Mozart of chess,” the last two games were a champion-caliber recovery from his mistake in Game 2, which allowed his opponent to escape. Image The V.I.P. area at the championship, where tickets cost up to $1,200 a day. Credit Misha Friedman for The New York Times After defending brilliantly throughout the match, Mr. Karjakin never managed a serious attack in the tiebreakers. With just three wins in 16 games, Mr. Carlsen retained his title and his reputation as a player with no weaknesses. This was the first world championship match in New York since 1995, and organizers hoped to emulate the luxury boxes at baseball or basketball games, with a V.I.P. lounge where drinks were free and tickets cost up to $1,200 a day. Regular day passes cost $75 most days. It was a test for chess as an American spectator sport, and the results were mixed. Even in the venue, most spectators followed the game on video monitors or computer simulations of the board, rather than observing the players through the one-way mirrors. Many played their own games as the action was going on. Yet the energy of the crowd at moments was unmistakable, if never exactly at the level of Alabama versus Clemson. The organizers said 10 million people worldwide followed the match online — some paying $15 and up for live-streamed video, but most watching computer renderings of the board and pieces for free. The winner takes home 60 percent of a prize purse of about $1.1 million, lower than at some previous championships. Bruce Pandolfini, a writer and teacher, said that history was being made, in part because of the players’ youth and Mr. Carlsen’s celebrity, and also because the match was accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Both players are young enough to build a rivalry for years to come, though three Americans — Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura — were all rated higher than Mr. Karjakin going into the match and are eager for a shot at the title in 2018. If one of them gets that far, he will be the first American to compete for the championship since Bobby Fischer won it in 1972. After the game, Mr. Karjakin suggested that he might have over-prepared, at the expense of his creativity. “Maybe it would be better to have a fresh head and not repeat so much,” he said. Mr. Carlsen said it was the most difficult of his championship matches, adding, “I’m very happy that at the end of the match I managed to find joy in playing.” He added, “That’s the most important thing.”

Magnus Carlsen
World Chess Championship
Chess
Sergey Karjakin
Manhattan