Afghan Forces Attack Coalition Troops, Officials Say

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — The toll in a wave of attacks against coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts rose this week, underscoring the increasing tempo of the so-called green-on-blue assaults this year. Details have emerged about two such cases that both occurred Wednesday. In one, NATO and Afghan officials on Friday confirmed that two Afghan policemen opened fire on coalition troops in the Zhare district, near the city of Kandahar, wounding two NATO soldiers before they were themselves killed. In the other — in which a coalition soldier was killed in Kandahar Province by a man in an Afghan soldier’s uniform — a California newspaper, The Ventura County Star, identified the victim as Andrew Britton, 25, a Green Beret whose identity and death were confirmed by a family friend in Simi Valley, Calif. So far this year, there have been 11 attacks by Afghan security forces against coalition soldiers, resulting in the deaths of 18 people, 10 of them Americans, according to a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. That is 20 percent of the total of NATO combat fatalities this year. In 2011 there were 21 such attacks leading to 35 deaths, he said. Last year, a classified study commissioned by the American military found that 58 American combat fatalities, 6 percent, came in 26 green-on-blue attacks from May 2007 to May 2011. The attacks come amid a series of provocative events, including an inadvertent burning of Korans in February that led to widespread violence ; a rampage attributed to an American soldier in Kandahar Province, in which 16 or 17 civilians were massacred; and desecration of what were identified as the corpses of Taliban fighters, once in January and again in April . In Washington recently, the Afghan defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, told reporters that his government was taking steps to prevent green-on-blue attacks. “We are doing much better vetting in our recruiting centers, requiring two individuals as guarantors for every applicant and are doing full background checks on all of our soldiers,” he said. In the case of the Green Beret, the police chief in Shah Wali Kot, a district in Kandahar Province, Pacha Khan, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that the American was killed along with two Afghan soldiers and an interpreter in a night raid gone awry. “Probably Afghan and U.S. forces had an argument that triggered the incident,” Mr. Khan was quoted as saying. He said that an Afghan Special Forces soldier shot the American soldier and his interpreter, and that return fire killed the two Afghan soldiers. But a senior Afghan military officer said that although initial reports said the gunfire took place during a raid, the authorities later determined that it happened on a joint base in Kajore, a village in the district. “We have sent an investigation team to find out the exact cause of the shooting,” said the Afghan National Army’s 205th Corps commander, Gen. Abdul Hameed. Night raids had long been a contentious issue between the allies. The Afghan authorities only recently took charge of them in a deal signed this month. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, in a statement posted in English on an insurgent Web site, said that the Afghan who attacked had infiltrated the military with the aim of killing Americans, and had killed three people before being killed himself. “The soldier, Zakirullah, resident of Nangarhar Province, who had joined the puppet army for the very purpose, was martyred by the U.S. invaders during the exchange of fire,” the statement said. In the other green-on-blue attack this week, Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said a skirmish broke out between the Afghan police and NATO soldiers. He did not specify their nationality, but nearly all coalition soldiers there are American. In the subsequent firefight, two policemen were killed and two NATO soldiers wounded.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Consulate Said to Support Claim of Syrian Gas Attack

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A State Department cable asserted that Syrian forces might have used poison gas in December, according to a report by Foreignpolicy.com on Tuesday. The classified cable was sent by the United States consul general in Istanbul, according to the Web site, and it discussed a consulate investigation into allegations that chemical weapons were used in the city of Homs on Dec. 23. A White House statement on Tuesday evening discounted the possibility that poison gas had been used. But White House and State Department officials declined to comment directly on the cable. Nor did they rule out that some form of chemical agent may have been used. “The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program,” the White House statement said. Reports of some kind of attack surfaced on Al Jazeera and in videos circulated by opposition activists, but details have been sketchy about matters like what kind of substance might have caused the injuries, some of them fatal, that were reported. President Obama has said the use of chemical weapons by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad would cross a “red line” and possibly set off American military intervention. “The president was very clear when he said that if the Assad regime makes the tragic mistake of using chemical weapons, or fails to meet its obligation to secure them, the regime will be held accountable,” the White House statement said. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this month that the American military was not able to prevent a chemical weapons attack, but he left open the possibility that the United States might respond militarily. “The act of preventing the use of chemical weapons would be almost unachievable,” General Dempsey said. “I think that Syria must understand by now that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. And to that extent, it provides a deterrent value. But preventing it, if they decide to use it, I think we would be reacting.” According to the Foreign Policy Web site, the American investigation into the allegations of chemical weapons use drew on interviews with Syrian defectors, doctors and activists.

Syria
State Department
Bashar al-Assad
Biological and Chemical Warfare
Homs Syria
US Military
Barack Obama


Infant Found Unconscious in Harlem Dies, Police Say

Abstract: A 23-day-old boy died on Friday after the police found him wounded and unconscious in his family’s apartment in East Harlem, the authorities said. The infant, Deion McNeil, was unresponsive and bleeding from a gash on his forehead when he was found on the living room floor, the police said. Detectives on Saturday were questioning Deion’s mother, Ebony McNeil, who was the only adult at home with the boy when she called the police around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, the authorities said. Two other children — Ms. McNeil’s 6-year-old son and 17-month-old daughter — were also at home at the time. Emergency medical workers took Deion to Metropolitan Hospital Center, which is across the street from the family’s apartment in the Washington Houses on Second Avenue at 97th Street. He was born in that hospital, according to a post on the Facebook account of Larry McPhail, his grandfather. Image Outside the Washington Houses in East Harlem, where 23-day-old Deion was found bleeding and unresponsive on Friday. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times But doctors could not save Deion on Friday. The police said they were awaiting autopsy results to determine the cause of death. No charges had been filed as of Saturday afternoon. Neighbors described the apartment building as quiet, and Deion’s family as mostly private. Virginia Salisbury, who has lived in the building for about 15 years, said residents rarely invited trouble. “It’s been good, I like it here,” she said. “Never had any problems since I moved in.” Angel Feliciano, 24, who has also lived at the Washington Houses for more than a decade, said he was out caring for his own daughter when the police arrived on Friday night. “It made me feel so sad,” he said. “I’ve got a kid of my own, she’s only a month and 17 days. No one wants to hear nothing like that.” Christopher McKniff, a spokesman for New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, said in a statement that the agency “is aware of this situation and together with the N.Y.P.D. are investigating the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.”

East Harlem
Deion McNeil
Babies
Fatalities,casualties
Child Abuse


Waves Hit Hawaii and California

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — A tsunami emanating from the massive earthquake that hit Japan on Friday sent seven-foot waves into the Hawaiian islands, but appeared to have caused no major damage in Hawaii or along the West Coast. Peter Carlisle, the mayor of Honolulu, said Friday that the threat had subsided substantially and that coastal highways had reopened on the island of Oahu. He said residents who had evacuated were now free to return home, though they should remain off beaches for now. But by midmorning on a beautiful, sunny day, sunbathers and walkers had returned to Waikiki Beach, though in smaller numbers than usual. Here and there children ventured into the water, despite official warnings to stay out of the ocean. “You kind of observe things out there,” said Dominik Ladner of Toronto, who stood on the beach while his two children ran in and out of the water. “But I’m not worried too much.” Kyle and Connie Gilmer of Anniston, Ala., stood on a breakwater that had been shown on television being swamped by waves six hours earlier. “It crossed my mind,” Mr. Gilmer said, speaking about the tsunami. By midday, a tsunami warning — which directs residents of low-lying regions to move inland and to higher ground — had been lifted for most of Hawaii, and people around the state were returning to homes, hotels and beaches. For the most part, damage was minor — docks and boats were damaged in several marinas. However, the Kona district of the Hawaii island sustained more serious damage, with waves submerging the pier and topping a sea wall, flooding several hotels and businesses. A tsunami warning remained in effect along the West Coast of the United States, from central California to Alaska. The Coast Guard reported that one person was swept to sea near McKinleyville, Calif., while trying to take pictures of the approaching waves. A search had begun. Four people were also swept to sea in Curry County, Ore., in the southwestern corner of the state. According to Deputy Brandi Carballo, all four were overtaken by the water as they sought to observe the waves. “They didn’t think the tsunami was that strong,” she said. Two managed to escape under their own power, while two others were rescued by firefighters and members of law enforcement. One victim, a woman, was taken to the hospital after nearly drowning, said Deputy Carballo. The first waves arrived along that stretch of the Oregon coastline around 7:30 a.m., but intensified between 11 a.m. and noon. Damage was not insignificant, with boats sunk in the harbor of Brookings, Ore., and others swept out to sea. The National Weather Service was also reporting wide array of property damage along California’s most northern coast. About three dozen boats were destroyed in Crescent City, Calif., where a 1964 tsunami — considered one of the most destructive ever to strike the continental United States _ killed nearly a dozen people. On Friday, all of the city’s docks were destroyed, according to the weather service, though no homes were damaged. Evacuations had been ordered in some spots, and officials were blunt in advising residents to stay clear. "Don’t be fooled," read a special weather statement. "Tsunami waves can seem to stop for long periods and then begin again." Powerful waves also sunk several boats in Santa Cruz harbor, about 60 miles southeast of San Francisco on Monterey Bay. A series of waves ripped docks up and sent debris speeding toward shore. Sailboats broke free of their moorings and slammed against docks, bridges and other boats. Surfboards, kayaks and other smaller watercraft were tossed airborne in the tumult. As owners scrambled over docks to try to save their boats, bystanders serving as lookouts yelled, “Wave! Wave!” as surges ebbed and flowed in about 20 minute intervals. “It was like a whitewater rafting trip in the middle of the harbor,” said Marc Kraft, president of Pacific Yachting and Sailing , a sailing school that had several boats damaged. Mr. Kraft said his brother, who lives in Tokyo, had called him before dawn to say that he was safe, but that a wave was headed his way. “It’s hard to see this,” Mr. Kraft said. “But the bottom line is that no one was hurt.” By midmorning, waves hitting local beaches near San Francisco were of a modest size and posed no flooding danger. Instead of causing people to flee, however, the potential for powerful surges attracted large crowds of spectators to the shore. In Hawaii, far larger waves started hitting the islands early Friday and caused damage to piers and marinas and some flooding, officials said. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries. Officials in California and elsewhere along the West Coast closed beaches as a precaution, prohibiting swimming, surfing and fishing. There were no calls for widespread, mandatory evacuations. But weather experts warned that there could be large waves and unusual changes in the currents for several hours. Schools in some California beach communities closed Friday. Along the Oregon coast, Marvin VandeStreek, who operates the Edwin K Bed and Breakfast in Florence, Ore., said tsunami warnings had been broadcast in the area throughout the night. “They were sounding the sirens for people to evacuate and police and fire were coming through the streets with loudspeakers and the lights going,” Mr. VandeStreek said. He said he woke the guests at his inn and moved into an evacuation center, where other residents — some with their pets — surrounded a television broadcasting CNN. At a news conference Friday morning at City Hall, Mayor Edwin M. Lee of San Francisco said he did not expect the crest — expected to be one to two feet — to cause damage. He said no evacuations would be ordered. Still, the Great Highway — which runs along Ocean Beach, the city’s premier stretch of sand and a popular surf spot — was closed, and officials were warning residents and visitors to stay clear of the area. But the surf seemed normal Friday morning, though hundreds of sightseers had come to watch the waves, which arrived just past 8 a.m. Onlookers lined the cliffs above the beach and clogged some suburban highways angling for a view. Chakot Rabhakrishnan, a laid-off Sprint customer service representative who lives near San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, said he had come to “have a watch.” He said he been a little worried about the surge but could “tell by the rocks,” he said — pointing to an outcropping poking out of the surf — that no big wave was headed to the beach. “I thought we might get some effect,” Mr. Rabhakrishnan said. “But not so much.” In Pacifica, Calif., a small coastal city about 15 miles south of San Francisco, school officials canceled classes for the day and law enforcement officials on loudspeakers cleared people off beaches and strung yellow caution tape to close off beach parking lots. On Friday morning at about 8 a.m. — when the first surge had been predicted to arrive — hundreds of residents and curious onlookers sought higher ground and premium views along a road above the city. People parked their cars, set up lawn chairs and looked seaward through binoculars and cameras, waiting. Among those who evacuated were Andy Wood, 43, his wife Erin, 35, and their three sons, ages 16, 3 and 10 months. The Woods, who live a few blocks from the beach, received a call from the sheriff’s office at about 4:30 a.m., so they packed the boys, a change of clothes, their dog, Daisy, and cat, Bella, into the family minivan and headed for safety. “We’ve been worried about tsunamis since we moved here,” said Mr. Wood, a computer programmer. “As soon as we got that call I was like, ‘Let’s pack up and get out.’ I’d rather be overcautious and look like a fool than end up on the news for not evacuating when we should have.” After watching the ocean for about an hour, Mr. Wood said the family planned to head home. “It looks like another normal day at the beach,” he said. In the hours before the waves were predicted to hit Hawaii, Honolulu Police drove down Kalakaua Avenue telling straggling tourists to return to their hotels and advising street musicians and vendors about what streets to avoid on their way home. In one sign that something unusual was afoot, a two-block pleasure zone along Kapiolani Street was nearly devoid of prostitutes well before midnight. In the Waikiki district, lines formed at gas stations and some high-end boutiques closed early. At the 1,600-room Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, a whiteboard announcing the tsunami warning drew worried guests as well as those who posed before the board for vacation snapshots. Later in the evening, guests from lower floors were relocated to rooms higher in the hotel. In the expansive lobby of the Sheraton Wakiki, a cluster of Japanese guests remained, using a bank of Internet-connected computers. The tsunami did have one temporary, picturesque effect on Waikiki Beach: a circle of lights, like a new skyline, a mile offshore, where boats from local marinas had gone to ride out the storm. On the island of Lanai, civil defense sirens sounded piercing alarms at regular intervals into the night and thousands of people in low-lying coastal areas deemed “inundation zones” were ordered to evacuate. But by morning, a school of spinner dolphins could be seen swimming peacefully in Manele Bay, apparently sensing no further danger.

Hawaii
California
Tidal Waves and Tsunamis


Frank Rich to Be Consultant for HBO

Abstract: Frank Rich, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, has signed on with HBO as a creative consultant to help develop new programming, while still writing his weekly column, HBO and Times executives said Wednesday. He will be barred from writing in his column, which deals primarily with politics, about either HBO or its parent company, Time Warner , Mr. Rich and Times editors said. Mr. Rich, 58, was a film and television critic for Time magazine before joining The Times in 1980 as a theater critic. He began writing an Op-Ed column in 1994, and his became one of the most prominent political voices in the newspaper, and a decidedly liberal one. He has also written for The Times Magazine and its book review section. At HBO, Mr. Rich said, his role will be “to bring ideas, to vet ideas, everything from comedies to documentaries to docudramas.” HBO executives said they approached Mr. Rich several months ago about a working relationship. “We sat down and had a casual conversation early in the year, and we were delighted that Frank was excited by it,” said Richard L. Plepler, co-president of the network. “I don’t think there’s anybody who’s more well regarded as a cultural interpreter.” Andrew Rosenthal, the editorial page editor of The Times, said that he had signed off on Mr. Rich’s deal with HBO, and that the top newsroom editors and the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., were informed and did not raise any objections. “There was no concern that there was a conflict of interest, because he no longer has any connection to news coverage of HBO or any related entity,” he said. He added that Mr. Rich has severed his connections to The Times’s culture desk, which covers HBO. He has been an adviser to that desk, and from 2003 to 2005, his column appeared in the Arts & Leisure section, rather than on the Op-Ed pages. In his column, Mr. Rich has rarely focused on any Time Warner property, and when he has, the results have not been flattering — for example, in 2006, he wrote scathingly of Time’s declaration of “You” as the person of the year, calling it an “editorial pratfall.” But he frequently makes passing mention of various arms of Time Warner, including CNN and Time, and he has been a vocal critic of CNN’s primary competitor, Fox News Channel. Mr. Rich and Mr. Rosenthal said that for a political column, such material remains fair game.

New York Times
Rich Frank
Home Box Office
Time Warner Inc


For Afghans in Kunduz, Taliban Assault Is Just the Latest Affront

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — From the early days of his presidency last year, President Ashraf Ghani knew he faced a national security threat in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. He installed a new governor, a new police chief and a new head of intelligence, and spoke of turning Kunduz into an example of what better governance could accomplish. Instead, it has become a sobering testament to the cost of failed governance. The fall of the provincial capital, Kunduz City, to the Taliban nine days ago was partly born of years of disgust with and distrust in the main representatives of the central government there: a succession of corrupt or ineffective governors and aides, and a horde of Afghan Local Police militiamen who were more often abusive than responsible. Interviews with officials and residents of Kunduz indicate that despite Mr. Ghani’s vow to improve things, frustrations in the province had been boiling even before the Taliban ’s recent assault. Most of those interviewed described feeling abandoned by the government, and left at the mercy of local strongmen and militia leaders — including the Afghan Local Police — and, in recent months, to the steady advance of the Taliban toward the city. Increasingly, that distrust has manifested in ethnic and factional divisions that carry uncomfortable echoes of the Afghan civil war. Deeply disillusioned by the government’s and the security forces’ failure in Kunduz, many residents are simply leaving. Others are looking for help from ethnic militias, or even the Taliban. Compounding skepticism toward the government was the absence of the provincial governor, Omar Safi, when the city fell. Mr. Safi, who was appointed governor by Mr. Ghani, had already been accused of being corrupt and out of touch. He surfaced in Kabul, the capital, earlier this week but declined requests for an interview Wednesday. Also missing from the fray were many members of the Afghan Local Police, who when faced with a Taliban assault decided not to fight. In one sign of how disaffected some in Kunduz had become, when the Taliban came knocking on people’s doors, some residents opened them and let them in, according to local officials and witness accounts. Even pro-government residents and Afghan security officials now admit that part of the assault on Kunduz started from within the city: Many of the Taliban fighters had been hiding in people’s homes before they launched an inside-out offensive. “ The Taliban never confronted the front lines of the army,” said Hameedullah Baluch, a civil society activist in Kunduz, who remained in the area during the assault but retreated temporarily to the airport where the security forces took refuge. “But where I was in the city they attacked the police stations, they were already inside.” Kunduz Province is a microcosm of Afghanistan with its ethnic patchwork, its long history of armed commanders of all stripes, and its uneasy relationship with the central government. It is also a strategic and psychological key to controlling northeastern Afghanistan, with roads that lead north to the Tajikistan border and south to Kabul. It is a place the government can ill afford to lose. As early as 2009, American officials were worried by a growing Taliban presence in the province, and began training and paying local militiamen as a defense force. Most later became Afghan Local Police, brought under the Interior Ministry. But others remained armed even without the official cover. The Germans, who were responsible for securing the north of the country until 2014, supported development projects in the city — including one that provided clean drinking water for the first time — in an effort to show people the potential benefits of good government. But none of that worked the way the West hoped it would. The Afghan Local Police program was deeply flawed, and to residents, Mr. Ghani’s moves seemed just more in a succession of bad policies inflicted on the province. “The central governor airlifted a new governor in by parachute to lead Kunduz, which he couldn’t and which eventually led to the fall of the city,” said Qadir Hussainkhel, a former chairman of the Kunduz Provincial Council. “This was the weakest governor Kunduz ever had,” he said, before admitting: “Kunduz never had a good governor.” Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the country’s chief executive and a northerner, agreed that the central government had not served Kunduz well. “Positive change had not taken place in Kunduz; the people were not happy,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. But he insisted that it was not a case of people preferring the Taliban to the government. Part of the problem, particularly in Kunduz, was that even as the number of Afghan Local Police members grew, the militiamen remained more loyal to their old commanders than to the government. Individual units tended to be from a single ethnicity: Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara or Turkmen. So rather than each group reflecting the diversity of the province, they reflected its divisions. Largely left out were Pashtuns, which heightened their already keen sense of being ethnically disadvantaged in Kunduz. For the most part, the local police, who received just three weeks of training, were the same unaccountable gunmen they had been before. They made only a small salary, rarely exceeding $120 a month after their commanders took a cut, and many supplemented that income by abusing local people and collecting the usher, an Islamic tax, much as the Taliban do. And like street gangs, they fought one another for turf, sometimes killing civilians in the crossfire. Most often those they intimidated were Pashtuns, who were often seen as allied with the Taliban whether they were or not. That in turn made Pashtuns more hostile to the government. In 2012, the director for the United Nations human rights division in Afghanistan at the time, James Rodehaver, said of the northern Afghan Local Police: “If you are trying to pull a country together, you have a lot of trouble doing it if all you have are monoethnic armed groups that have no accountability except to local political figures: That’s what brought 30 years of armed conflict.” For Kunduz residents, it all added up to a lot of men with guns. “The main problem is that some people in our city are Taliban and some are local police,” said Sighbatullah, 25, an agronomy lecturer at Kunduz University, who like many Afghans uses just one name. “They both do the same thing,” he said. “The local police are smuggling drugs, treating the people badly and so the Taliban see this situation and they know the government doesn’t do anything for us, and therefore they can get people to join the Taliban.” This was the Kunduz that Mr. Ghani inherited, and his efforts to remake it ran afoul of the past. According to people in Kunduz, Mr. Ghani’s first mistake was in choosing as the new governor Mr. Safi, whose main experience as an administrator of nonprofit groups seemed a poor fit for the job. Mr. Ghani’s second mistake, they say, was ordering the governor to get rid of illegitimate armed groups, which he tried to do. That made him more enemies than friends in Kunduz, particularly among the powerful commanders whose help he needed against a resurgent Taliban. Some accuse Mr. Safi of actually working to give the Taliban an advantage in its conquest — by trying to strip the city of potential militia defenders, and by working with the intelligence services to enlist and arm more Pashtun militiamen, some of whom are accused of helping the Taliban get into the city. Nine days after the fall of Kunduz, the city has been only partly reclaimed by the Afghan security forces. And Afghan generals say the city will not be truly safe until all of Kunduz Province is reclaimed. Locals believe that, too. Sighbatullah fled the city on Friday after five days of Taliban occupation. The Taliban were constantly in and out of his house, using his roof as a firing position, he said. The situation’s intractability has undermined his faith in the Ghani government, he added. “We thought Ashraf Ghani was better than Hamid Karzai,” he said. “But now we see Hamid Karzai was better than Ashraf Ghani, because when he was governing we didn’t face problems like having our city in the control of the Taliban.” “I will not return until they have cleared every district in the province,” he added. “If any Taliban are left there, they will come back.”

Kunduz
Taliban
Afghanistan
Ashraf Ghani
Police
Afghanistan War
Afghan National Army
Terrorism


Training the Mind Not to Wander

Abstract: A wandering mind can lead to accidents and lost productivity. Now, a study finds that real-time brain monitoring can be used to help people regain focus . Neuroscientists at Princeton University monitored the brain activity of students who were asked to perform a repetitive task that required close attention. While lying inside an functional magnetic resonance imaging, or f.M.R.I., machine, the students were shown a series of pictures of human faces superimposed over scenery. They were told to press a button when they saw a particular kind of face (female or male) or when they saw a particular kind of scenery (inside or outside). The test was designed to mirror the kind of everyday task from which one could easily lose focus, said Nicholas B. Turk-Browne, the lead author of the study. “What makes this a study of attention is they needed to select the image that’s relevant and ignore the other part,” he said. As the students performed the task, the researchers monitored their brain waves for signs that they were focusing on the wrong thing. When such a signal was detected, the researchers made the task more difficult. The students soon learned to recognize signs that their attention was lagging, and their performance improved. The findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, show that people can learn to stop their minds from wandering if they are made aware it is happening, Dr. Turk-Browne said. “If we can use brain activity as a basis of feedback, we might be able to train people to be more sensitive to when their attention is starting to wane,” he said.

Brain
Princeton
Nicholas B. Turk-Browne
Nature Neuroscience Journal


Suharto Dies at 86; Indonesian Dictator Brought Order and Bloodshed

Abstract: Suharto of Indonesia , whose 32-year dictatorship was one of the most brutal and corrupt of the 20th century, died Sunday in Jakarta. He was 86. He had been admitted to a Jakarta hospital on Jan. 4 with heart, lung and kidney problems, and placed on a dialysis machine and then a ventilator to support his final days of life. Mr. Suharto was driven from office in 1998 by widespread rioting, economic paralysis and political chaos. His rule was not without accomplishment; he led Indonesia to stability and nurtured economic growth. But these successes were ultimately overshadowed by pervasive and large-scale corruption; repressive, militarized rule; and a convulsion of mass bloodletting when he seized power in the late 1960s that took at least 500,000 lives. As the leader of one of the world’s most populous countries, Mr. Suharto and his family became notorious for controlling state enterprises and taking kickbacks for government contracts, for siphoning money from state charities and for committing gross violations of human rights. Yet Mr. Suharto remained virtually untouchable to the end, even as his successors in a new democratic system repudiated his rule. He was never charged with the killings committed under his command, and managed to escape criminal prosecution for embezzling millions of dollars, possibly billions, by having himself declared mentally incapable to stand trial. A civil suit against him was pending at his death. After he was forced from office, he tried to give the appearance of a frail and humiliated former potentate, but he could be seen jogging and swinging a golf club at his home in the center of Jakarta. His health deteriorated in his final years, and he became something of a recluse. In his last days, a parade of the country’s power elite visited the hospital to pay their respects. Mr. Suharto — who like many Indonesians used only one name — stepped down on May 21, 1998, just two months after arranging to have himself elected to a seventh five-year term. He departed with an apology to the nation. “I am sorry for my mistakes,” he said. But his quiet statement came only after the deaths of 500 student protesters, an event that shocked the people into a consensus that the president must go. When demonstrators occupied the Parliament building, once-docile legislators finally called on him to resign. Like his predecessor, Sukarno, Mr. Suharto worked to forge national unity in a fractious country of 200 million people comprising 300 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages and inhabiting about 6,000 islands spread over a 3,500-mile archipelago. Sukarno had also fallen from power in a wave of violence, one that swept the country in 1965 after an attack that was officially portrayed as an abortive leftist coup. Mr. Suharto, one of the few senior military officers to escape execution on the first day of that uprising, moved decisively against the insurgents and effectively took control of the country. Mr. Suharto dealt gingerly with Sukarno, a founding father of the nation who still had support within the army. Sukarno was kept as a figurehead while Mr. Suharto, a relatively little known major general, waited three years to officially succeed him, in 1968. In the following years, governing through consensus, traditional mysticism, military repression and authoritarian control, President Suharto restored order to the country and presided over an era of substantial development. Many Indonesians benefited from his programs, but none more so than members of his family, who became billionaires many times over. Last year, he topped a new list of world leaders who had stolen from state coffers. The list, by the United Nations and the World Bank, cited an estimate that he had embezzled $15 billion to $35 billion. Enigmatic and Magical Mr. Suharto was an unlikely character to play such a major role in his country’s destiny. He was a private person, and although he wielded complete power, he spoke in gentle tones, smiled sweetly to friend and foe and presented himself as a man of humble origins, shy, retiring and enigmatic. Short and thick set, he almost invariably dressed in a Western business suit or a safari jacket once he gave up his military uniform, and a black songkok, the flat traditional Indonesian cap. He rarely took a public stand on any issue. Instead, by waiting to allow a consensus to form, he was usually able to make events evolve the way he wished. He can be better understood in the context of the old forms of Javanese kingship in which the ruler was surrounded by courtiers who tried to divine the royal mind. Although he was a Muslim, Mr. Suharto seemed imbued with Indonesian traditions of animism and mysticism overlaid with Hindu and Buddhist teachings. In a country given to superstition, where ancient patterns of belief coexist with more modern ideas, he consulted gurus and dukuns, spiritual advisers and soothsayers who were believed to be in touch with natural forces. Whether it was those forces or his timing, good fortune came to him. Just as the United States was becoming embroiled in Vietnam, he stood as a bulwark against Communism in Asia. The United States rewarded him with a foreign aid program that eventually amounted to more than $4 billion a year. In addition, a consortium of Western countries and Japan established an aid program that in 1994 alone totaled almost $5 billion. In doing so, the United States, along with much of the rest of the world, showed a willingness to overlook the corruption, favoritism and violations of human rights, including the disappearance of opposition politicians, that came to characterize Mr. Suharto’s rule. Many Indonesians, too, supported him, at least while the economy was buoyant. But the Asian economic turmoil in 1997 exposed Indonesia’s economy as on the brink of collapse. The currency lost 30 percent of its value in 1996, a drought made rice scarce, unemployment rose and the widening income gap led to rioting and violence. Mr. Suharto turned to the International Monetary Fund, which agreed to a $43 billion bailout if Indonesia would abide by its terms. His signing of those terms was seen as a humiliating capitulation, but he equivocated when it came to instituting them. Many saw his hesitation as an effort to protect the fortunes of his family and friends, money widely believed to have been stashed in foreign banks. Mr. Suharto called for belt-tightening. He raised fuel prices, then revoked the order. He promised bank reform and ended tax breaks, then reversed himself or left wide loopholes. His failure to come to grips with economic problems brought a wave of student unrest. In May 1998, student rallies spilled from the campuses into the streets and across the archipelago. Hundreds died in fires and clashes with security forces. Apparently unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Mr. Suharto left on a trip to Cairo, but was forced to cut it short in an effort to restore order. The economic crisis was a challenge that he did not seem to know how to handle. “This is something he cannot shoot, he cannot put in jail, he cannot close down, like our newspaper,” said Jusuf Wanandi, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, an Indonesian policy institute. Anti-Communist Purges In the 1960s, during the turbulent months after his rise to power, few would have predicted that Mr. Suharto, a peasant turned soldier, would be able to weather crisis after crisis, as he did for 32 years. The first of those was touched off by long-smoldering resentments between Communists, conservative Muslims and ethnic Chinese that exploded into one of the bloodiest massacres in modern history. His precise role in the violence is not clear; he managed to keep his name from being directly attached to it. What is clear is that in many areas the army, which he controlled, supplied weapons to and whipped up a tense population to mutilate and murder people suspected of being Communists, many of them of Chinese ancestry. Estimates of the number of dead have ranged from 500,000 to as many as one million. Contemporary dispatches reported that the general sent crack troops of the army’s Strategic Reserve Command to organize the liquidation of the Communists. Hamish McDonald, a journalist with wide experience in Asia, wrote in his book “Suharto’s Indonesia” that General Suharto later dispatched Col. Sarwo Edhi Wibowo with a force of commandos “to encourage the anti-Communist civilians to help with the job.” The colonel said, “We gave them two or three days’ training, then sent them out to kill the Communists.” Along with presumed Communists, entire families were wiped out and personal scores settled with ethnic Chinese, longtime residents of the country. Mr. Suharto had blamed the Indonesian Communist Party for what he described as an abortive coup in 1965, though the Communists’ exact role in it remains unclear. In that uprising, six senior anti-Communist generals were killed in one evening, and questions have lingered about why Mr. Suharto was one of the few senior officers not marked for assassination. In any event, he became the chief beneficiary of the subsequent crackdown as he moved quickly to consolidate his control. When Mr. Suharto took over from Sukarno, the country was bankrupt. Inflation was rampant and hunger was commonplace in a country rich in natural resources. Mr. Suharto ended Sukarno’s policy of confrontation with Malaysia and became a force for regional stability by helping to establish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Indonesia rejoined the United Nations, from which it had withdrawn in 1965. With the help of American-trained economists, Indonesia moved from being the world’s largest rice-importing nation to a rice exporter. During the 1970s, oil was a major export and a significant source of foreign exchange. High oil prices allowed considerable economic development, but when Pertamina, the national oil company, was shaken by scandal in the late ’70s, the country again neared bankruptcy. Mr. Suharto brought what became known as the New Order to Indonesia, but at the price of repression. Scholars have estimated that as many as 750,000 people were arrested in the military crackdown after the killing of the generals, and that 55,000 to 100,000 people accused of being Communists may have been held without trial for as long as 14 years. In the early ’80s, 4,000 to 9,000 people were killed by death squads organized by army Special Forces to deal with petty criminals and some political operatives. And, according to Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson, a professor emeritus of government at Cornell, 200,000 people of a population of 700,000 died in East Timor in the civil war and famine after Indonesia’s invasion and annexation in 1975. Professor Anderson called Mr. Suharto a “malign dictator with blood on his hands — over the years anywhere from half a million to a million people.” The repressiveness of the Suharto era broke into the headlines during President Ronald Reagan’s trip to Asia in 1986, a trip meant to highlight the “winds of freedom” in the region. Just before Mr. Reagan’s arrival in Bali, the government expelled a correspondent for The New York Times and barred two Australian journalists after unfavorable reports about the great wealth accumulated by the general and his family. When he came to power, he refused at first to move into the presidential palace, saying he preferred to live in his own modest house in Jakarta. During his years as president, however, his homes became palatial. The Family Business While he occupied himself with affairs of state or relaxed with a round of golf or a day of fishing, his wife, Siti Hartinah Suharto, known as Madame Tien, handled the family’s business affairs. She became the object of quiet criticism, with her detractors calling her “Madame Tien Percent,” a reference to what were said to be commissions she received on business deals. But Madame Tien, who died in 1996, was restrained compared with the six Suharto children. They used their connections to amass as much as $35 billion from their business interests, according to an estimate by Transparency International, a private anticorruption organization. Cartels and monopolies extended the family’s reach to paper, cement, plywood, cloves, toll roads, power plants, automobiles and banks. One daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, led a corporate group that collected many of the tolls on new highways. A son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, became chairman of a conglomerate of some 90 companies with interests in everything from shipping and insurance to cocoa and timber, hotels, television, automobiles, even condoms. Another son was connected to the state oil monopoly. Whatever favors were not given to the Suharto family went to friends. A respected Indonesian scholar was quoted by The Times as saying: “At least 80 percent of major government projects go in some form to the president’s children or friends.” The family has denied that it benefited unfairly from tax breaks and other favors and said government contracts had been subjected to competitive bidding, a widely disputed assertion. Impoverished Childhood Mr. Suharto was born on June 8, 1921, in Kemusu Argamulja, a village west of Yogyakarta in central Java. He was the only child from his father’s second marriage, but he had 11 half-brothers and sisters. His father was a village irrigation official, with control over the water for rice growers. His parents divorced, and he moved from his mother’s home to an aunt’s, to his father’s, to his stepfather’s. At one point he was transferred to the household of Daryatmo, a noted guru and dukun, who remained an adviser to Mr. Suharto in his later years. He was so poor that he once had to change schools because he could not afford the shorts and shoes that were the required uniform. His education ended with junior high school. He found a job in the bank in his village, but resigned after he tore his only set of work clothes in a bicycle accident. Indonesia was a Dutch colony, and with the outbreak of war in 1940 he joined the Royal Netherlands Indies Army, which surrendered to the Japanese three months after Pearl Harbor. Indonesian nationalists began cooperating with the Japanese as a step toward independence, and he joined the Japanese-sponsored Volunteer Army, reaching the rank of commander. After the Japanese surrender he joined the independence forces, emerging as a lieutenant colonel, steeped in anticolonialism and anti-Communism. In 1947 he married Siti Hartinah; they had six children, Siti Hardiyanti Hastuti Rukmana, Sigit Harjojudanto, Bambang Trihatmodjo, Siti Hediati, Hutomo Mandala Putra and Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih, who survive, along with 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild. After attending the army staff and command school, he was made a brigadier general and placed in charge of intelligence. He rose to command the army’s new Strategic Reserve Force, the position he held when the six generals were killed in 1965. On that night he was visiting his youngest child in a hospital, and it was said that that was how he escaped assassination. Despite the allegations of human-rights abuses and corruption, Mr. Suharto escaped prosecution, evidence of the influence he retained long after he was forced from power. In 2000 the government charged him with having embezzled more than $600 million, but later dropped the charges because he was in ill health. After Time magazine reported that he had stolen up to $15 billion, he sued for defamation, and lost twice in lower courts before the Supreme Court ruled in his favor last year. In July, prosecutors filed a civil suit, which is still pending, seeking $1.1 billion in damages for embezzling. And in December, an investigation was announced into six cases of human-rights abuses, including the killing of more than half a million people in the ’60s. Because of a stroke and other ailments, he was said to have brain damage and trouble communicating. But in November, after obtaining the verdict against Time, he gave a rare interview to an Indonesian news magazine. Asked about the accusations of corruption, he laughed. “It’s all empty talk,” he said. “Let them accuse me. The fact is I have never committed corruption.”


Far From Fast, Giants’ Manning Thrives Under Pressure

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — By any measure, Eli Manning is not a mobile quarterback. He is slow. He is awkward. He is, as his father, Archie, said, “not a runner.” But while Manning may not be as nimble as Michael Vick or Tim Tebow, it does not mean his mobility is not important. In fact, as Manning continues to produce superlative statistics in what has become a career year, his ability to pass successfully while under pressure may be his biggest weapon. Last Sunday’s comeback victory over the Dallas Cowboys offered two examples. On the Giants’ second-to-last drive, Manning completed critical passes of 23 yards to Victor Cruz, on third down, and 24 yards to Hakeem Nicks that brought the Giants to the Cowboys’ 8-yard line. In both instances, Manning made his throws after scrambling away from pressure and with his weight on his back foot. If he had taken a sack in either instance, the Giants’ chances of scoring the first touchdown in their rally from a 12-point deficit would have decreased considerably. “He knows what he’s doing in there,” Nicks said. “He’s been around for a while, so he’s got good pocket presence and knows where he has to be to make the plays.” It has been that way all season. According to the Web site Pro Football Focus, Manning has been pressured on 38.1 percent of his drop-backs this season, fifth highest in the N.F.L. In those situations, Manning is completing 61.4 percent of his passes — best in the league, ahead of the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers and the Saints’ Drew Brees. With the Giants’ offensive line in flux from the beginning of the season — and getting worse with more injuries last month — the value of Manning’s ability to thrive when he is forced to improvise has been heightened. “Eli is a pocket passer — that’s what he is,” Archie Manning said in a telephone interview. “He’s not a runner, but he’s always thrown the ball on the run. He did it some at Ole Miss and his mechanics are good. He gets his shoulders square and delivers the football, and in those situations that is usually what matters most.” Eli Manning, as he almost always does, played down any significance to his surge this season. Despite his modesty, the numbers are difficult to ignore: Manning has already set the franchise record for single-season passing yardage (at 4,105 and counting), and has a chance to pass the N.F.L. record of 5,084, set by Dan Marino in 1984. Manning has also thrown for 400 yards or more in a game three times this season. Marino is the only other quarterback to have done that — he did it three times in 1986 and four in 1984. “I’m feeling comfortable and these guys are doing a great job of getting open, understanding our concepts, understanding our plays and going out there and making plays when those opportunities form,” Manning said. Manning is also excelling with a receiving corps that had only one proven threat (Nicks) coming into the season. Cruz’s emergence has been surprising and impressive, and there is no doubt that Manning’s accuracy — and ability to keep plays alive long enough for receivers like Cruz to get open — has been a factor. With 1,150 receiving yards, Cruz is only 194 yards short of the Giants’ franchise record held by Amani Toomer and has joined Nicks (1,023 yards) as the only receivers in franchise history to top 1,000 yards in the same season. Many of those yards have come at the end of big plays — Manning has completed 15 passes of 40 or more yards, most in the N.F.L. and three more than Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has the second most. The Giants’ offense has certainly looked different this season. The running game, save for last week’s outburst, has been dismal, and Manning has been forced to improvise. According to the Web site Football Outsiders, Manning threw just one touchdown pass, in 60 attempts, outside the pocket in the past two seasons; this year, according to Pro Football Focus, Manning has already completed six touchdown passes on plays when he is being pressured. “His footwork has always been up to par,” Cruz said. “He might not be the fastest guy in the world, but he can make the right moves and he’s been doing it all season.” EXTRA POINTS Safety Kenny Phillips (knee) returned to practice and was expected to play Sunday against Washington. Phillips missed last week’s game, in which the Giants’ secondary was beaten several times on long pass plays. ... Justin Tuck (toe) did not practice, but Coach Tom Coughlin said he did not consider Tuck’s injury serious.

Football
New York Giants
Manning Eli
Nicks Hakeem
Cruz Victor
Manning Archie
Records and Achievements


Kept From Homelessness by the Kindness and Caring of Friends

Abstract: It has been a long time since Lita Williams had a home of her own. For most of her adult life, Ms. Williams, 52, has moved from one friend’s apartment to another so that she would not have to go to a homeless shelter. By her count, she has stayed in more than a dozen places, mostly in Brooklyn, where she grew up. Sometimes it is for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of months. “I’ve lived everywhere,” she said. “People are nice to me and say I can stay with them.” For now, home is the Flatbush apartment of Elaine Coles, 82, whom she met through a friend at a bingo hall 15 years ago. Most nights, the two women sit down together for dinner. Ms. Coles cooks for them, and Ms. Williams washes the dishes. They have become so close that Ms. Williams calls her Ma. “She’s been very good to me,” said Ms. Williams, who has developmental disabilities. “She watches over me and makes sure I come out of the house looking like I should. I would do anything for her.” Ms. Williams was the third of five girls raised by their mother, Theresa Codrington, a dietitian in East New York, Brooklyn. She died of lung cancer in 1991. Ms. Williams said she could not remember her father, Percy Williams, a cook on a ship, who died when she was a toddler. Her family was poor, Ms. Williams said, but her mother always made sure there were new toys at Christmas: a bike, dolls, roller skates. Ms. Williams, who struggled in school, recalled that her mother was especially protective of her. As her sisters moved out and started families of their own, Ms. Williams stayed at home. “My childhood was pretty good,” Ms. Williams said. “I loved every bit of it. I wish I still had a mother.” After her mother’s death, Ms. Williams moved in with an older sister, who later died of drug-related causes, she said. Ms. Williams was then on her own. Her other sisters do not live in New York. She did not want to live anywhere else. “If I had to leave, I would, but I’m used to it and I love it,” she said. “To go to another state, I’d be lost.” Ms. Williams has diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other health problems. She learned to give herself insulin shots, twice a day, so that she did not have to wait for a nurse. “I don’t want anyone to say I’m a burden to them, so I try to do everything myself,” she said. The Neediest Cases The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund provides direct assistance to struggling New Yorkers. Tap for information about how to donate. Ms. Williams, who is unemployed, attends a support program that teaches her life skills such as managing time and money and using a computer. She has had jobs assembling and packing up items for businesses, like tennis balls and hospital trays. She receives $754 monthly in benefits, including $183 in food stamps. She pays Ms. Coles $400 every month and spends $50 a month on a phone bill. Brooklyn Community Services , one of seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund , drew $150 from the fund in October so that Ms. Williams could buy a winter coat. She had only a men’s black jacket that she bought for $15 from a thrift store four years ago and kept wearing even after the zipper broke. Ms. Williams headed for Burlington Coat Factory in Downtown Brooklyn, where she bought a green down coat that goes to her knees for $85. She was so excited that she wore the coat the next day in 70-degree temperatures to show it off. She used the rest of the money to buy underwear, socks, pajamas, a hat and a scarf. “I can’t even remember the last time I bought a new coat,” she said. “By the time I finish paying bills and everything, then I’m back to square one.” Ms. Williams said she has been happy living with Ms. Coles, who looks after her. She reminds Ms. Williams to fix her hair in the morning, or change into a nicer shirt. Ms. Williams said she looked forward to their home-cooked meals; her favorite is the baked chicken. Afterward, they watch television and talk. “We don’t have no problem,” Ms. Coles said. “Whatever I tell her, she listens. She says I don’t ever tell her anything wrong. I talk to her like I talk to my kid.” Ms. Coles helped Ms. Williams save $220 in the past month, putting a little of Ms. Williams’s money away for her every week so that she could take a bus to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with relatives. To get ready for the trip, Ms. Williams was washing her clothes in a basement laundry room on a recent afternoon. She owned only three pairs of pants, she said, and had been wearing faded black jeans all week because the others were dirty. “I think I’m doing a lot better now,” Ms. Williams said, holding her old coat with the broken zipper closed as she left the laundry room. She did not wear her new coat, she said, because she did not want to risk getting bleach on it.

New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Brooklyn Community Services
Philanthropy


Born in Mexico, Living in Florida, Tiant’s Wife Is a Fervent Boston Fan

Abstract: Thirty-five years after her husband’s final game for the Boston Red Sox, a brilliant two-hit shutout that set up a one-game playoff against the Yankees, Maria Tiant remains a fervent Red Sox fan. She watches most games at her home in Fort Myers, Fla., sometimes wearing a Red Sox shirt or a lucky hat, cheering, yelling, jumping straight up out of her seat as she nervously follows her team, especially now that it is fighting for a third championship since her husband, Luis, retired. “Oh, my, I want them to win so much,” she said. “I am always yelling at the TV: ‘Why can’t you hit the ball? Please, hit the ball.’ I get upset because I know they can do it. But I still love them all.” Many former players cherish their old teams and support them zealously. Others left their clubs under bad circumstances and harbor resentments. Some are merely indifferent to the fates of their former teams. But what compels a woman to remain loyal to the team that her husband hasn’t pitched for since Jimmy Carter was president? Image Luis Tiant pitched for Boston in the 1970s and now works for the team. Credit Associated Press “I don’t know if other wives still root for the Red Sox or not,” she said in a telephone interview. “Maybe a lot of the wives aren’t still together with the players. Maybe they aren’t as interested. For me, I am just a big fan.” In part, Maria Tiant roots for the Red Sox because Luis Tiant still works for them. For the past decade he has been an instructor and an ambassador of sorts for the Red Sox. He also owns a sausage stand outside Fenway Park. But it’s more than that. Born and raised in Mexico City, Maria Tiant came to love the Red Sox while Luis played for them from 1971 through 1978, years that included some indelible memories, including Tiant’s five-hit shutout in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series at Fenway Park against the Cincinnati Reds. Tiant, now 72, also singled and scored a run in that game, missing home plate before sneaking back to touch it with his toe amid chants of “Looo-ee, Looo-ee.” “I was sitting in the stands with my Red Sox noisemaker,” Maria Tiant recalled. “I will never forget when he went back to touch the plate. And his father was able to come from Cuba and throw out the first pitch, too. That was the first time I met him. I loved that man.” Luis met Maria when he was playing in Mexico in 1960. Or, more accurately, when Maria was playing. Then Maria Navarro, she played softball for her employer, the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, in Mexico City. During one game, as she was running in from center field, a handsome young man in the stands blew her a kiss. Her friends said, “Did you see that?” She just blushed and said, “Oh, he’s crazy.” Luis was at the game with a friend, who was also friends with two sisters on Maria’s team. A few days later, in July 1960, the sisters hosted a party and invited Luis and Maria. They met formally for the first time, talked and danced, and began dating soon after. On Oct. 1 of that year — in her 70s, Maria has remarkable recall for dates — Luis went back to Cuba, which was in the early stages of Fidel Castro’s regime. But during their first months together, she said, he never told her he was a pitcher for the Tigers in the Mexican League. Image Luis Tiant met his wife, Maria, in Mexico in 1960 through her softball team. Over the winter, he wrote letters from Cuba, and they spoke on the phone a few times. He returned to Mexico on May 25, 1961, on one of the last flights to Mexico City allowed to leave Cuba. On Aug. 12, some time after he revealed that he was a professional player, they were married, a union forged through baseball. In 1962, Luis moved to the United States to pitch in the Cleveland Indians’ system. Maria remained in Mexico City during his first 12 major league seasons, and their children, two boys and a girl, were born there. In 1974, the family moved to Milton, Mass., just south of Boston, during the height of Luis’s success with the Red Sox. Daniel, the Tiants’ youngest child, is 39 and runs Tiant Cigar . The company was founded by Luis, whose love of cigars has been well known since his pitching days, when he was nicknamed El Tiante. Daniel also spends time watching the Red Sox with his mother, and trying not to get in her way. “She’s really into it, and she really knows the game,” Daniel said by telephone. “When my dad pitched, it was about supporting him. Now, it’s just about rooting for her Red Sox, and she is zeroed in on it. Sometimes I just have to get out of there because it’s pretty intense.” When Luis pitched for the Indians, Maria rooted for them. When Luis left Boston to join the Yankees, she cheered for them, as well, and also for the Pirates and Angels, Luis’s last two teams. ( He pitched 19 years for six major league teams , and many say he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.) But there was always something special about the Red Sox. Maria, who still goes to games in Boston, said her favorite player was David Ortiz — “of course.” When the team’s owners asked Luis to work for the Red Sox, Maria said, it was like going home. “I was so happy,” she said. “I always like to think of my husband with the Red Sox.”

Red Sox
Luis Tiant
World Series
Baseball


Death of Dog After Westminster Leaves Handler Suspicious

Abstract: Cruz was a fluffy marshmallow of a dog, a prizewinning Samoyed who flew commercial, not in the cargo hold; scarcely touched the sidewalk; and competed at this month’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. On the eve of the competition, Cruz shared a steak with his longtime handler and settled in for the night at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. But before the week was out, Cruz was dead, and his snow white body was at the center of a high-stakes mystery, a whodunit that has rattled the show world and ignited tensions between animal activists and purebred-champion breeders. Cruz’s survivors — the handler and at least one of his owners — have not ruled out foul play. They have spent the days since his death retracing every paw step, replaying conversations with onlookers, racking their brains to understand what happened. A necropsy was not performed on Cruz, 3, who died in Lakewood, Colo., where he was competing in another show. The cause of death remains unclear, but he had symptoms that strongly resembled those of dogs that had ingested rodent poison, the veterinarian who treated him said. She said she felt it was unlikely that Cruz had been deliberately poisoned. Although experts said intentional poisonings of show dogs were extremely rare, such stories have long circulated inside the cloistered and heated world of canine competitions. Poisoning allegations at Westminster date to 1895, when eight dogs were poisoned the morning before the competition. “Jealousy believed the motive,” a front-page headline in The New York Times read. Robert Chaffin, Cruz’s handler, accompanied Cruz to New York for the Westminster competition and spent nearly every minute of the trip by his side, paying close attention to anything the dog tried to eat. He said he believed that extreme animal rights activists, who have called dog shows and purebred competitions inhumane, might have been responsible. “Unfortunately, dog shows have been plagued by some of these people for years,” Chaffin said. “I’ve heard horror stories about other people’s dogs having their setups tampered with, being poisoned, but I never thought it would come to me.” Chaffin made clear that he had uncovered no evidence that Cruz had been deliberately poisoned, and he acknowledged that it was possible that the dog had accidentally swallowed poison. But he was far from comfortable calling the case closed. Chaffin said he remembered a stranger at the Westminster show who glared at him and made a disapproving remark about Cruz’s vocal cords having been removed to quiet his bark, a process known as debarking . “It would have been easy for someone to throw something in his cage,” Chaffin said. Lynette Blue, one of Cruz’s owners, said she called the New York Police Department shortly after Cruz died but had not heard back. A police spokeswoman was not able to immediately confirm that she called. Blue said she was still considering whether to take further action. Animal rights groups have clashed with dog show exhibitors before, taking issue with the breeding of purebred dogs, seizure and rescue practices, the very existence of dog shows and a plethora of legislation nationwide related to dog ownership. Image Cruz, a Samoyed, may have ingested poison, but the cause of death was unclear. Credit Lynette Blue In recent years, the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent representatives to the Westminster show to try to break into the exhibition ring and distribute leaflets near the venue, said Ingrid Newkirk, the group’s founder and president. While she repeated her opposition to the Westminster show on Wednesday, Newkirk adamantly said that her organization had nothing to do with Cruz’s death. “PETA does not sanction that,” she said. “It’s so scurrilous; it’s so low to even suggest it.” In a relatively short career, Cruz soared into the top rankings for Samoyeds, and while he did not trot away with a prize at Westminster, his owners said he had a promising career ahead of him. “We have been devastated and in shock,” Blue said. “This is one of the most painful experiences of my life.” On Feb. 16, after Cruz began vomiting blood, Chaffin took him to Animal Critical Care and Emergency Services in Lakewood, where he was hooked up to an intravenous drip and received oxygen. Within a few hours, he was dead. Experts said there were several possibilities to explain the rapid decline. One was that Cruz may have had an undiagnosed, rare genetic disorder, like hemophilia. But Cruz had no history of trauma or such blood disorders in his bloodline, Blue said. Poisoning, whether intentional or not, seemed the most likely explanation. Blue declined for Cruz to have a necropsy because she was confident that he swallowed poison, she said. Veterinarians said his symptoms resembled those of dogs who had ingested mouse and rat poisons, which usually take three to five days to cause physical symptoms in a dog. That would mean Cruz would probably have ingested any poison while he was in New York. Molly Comiskey, the Colorado veterinarian who treated Cruz, said: “Dogs are dogs. It’s not anyone’s fault. They eat stuff; they get into things; they make bad decisions.” Chaffin, Cruz’s handler, said it would have been difficult for Cruz to accidentally eat poison. He said he carefully checked every corner of the room he and Cruz shared in the New Yorker Hotel, specifically looking for rat poison. He said he found the room, and the hotel’s accommodations for dogs over all, to be safe. Ann Peterson, the hotel’s president and general manager, said that the hotel did not use harmful pesticides and that it even set up an area inside the hotel to give canine guests a safe place to exercise. “I couldn’t imagine it happening here,” she said. As Cruz’s owners accepted condolences from well-wishers in the show community and beyond in recent days, Blue said she could not stop from speculating about what happened to her beloved dog. “It’s devastating,” Blue said. “We keep thinking of the various scenarios, and it’s starting to feel like something we may never know.”


New York Will Trim Common Core Exams After Many Students Skipped Them

Abstract: New York State’s standardized tests for third through eighth graders will be shortened this year, the education commissioner said on Wednesday, the latest retooling of a group of exams that have grown so unpopular that 20 percent of eligible children sat them out this past spring. The commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, said at a meeting of the Board of Regents in Albany that some multiple choice questions would be shaved off the math assessments and a number of passages would be cut from the reading exams taken next year. A spokeswoman for the Education Department said that the tests would be shortened for students in each grade, and that they would be trimmed further in 2017. This move is the second time tests have been shortened since they were introduced in 2013, when the state became among the first in the nation to align its tests with the Common Core standards, a set of rigorous learning goals designed to prepare students for college. The new tests, which are given over parts of six days, led to a steep drop in passing rates in 2013, and they have not improved much since then. In 2015, just 31 percent of the state’s students passed the reading tests, and 38 percent passed the math exams. Resistance to the state assessments from parents and teachers has grown , and “opt out” became a rallying cry this year as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo moved to make teachers’ annual ratings more dependent on test scores. (On Wednesday, the Regents voted to give teachers more opportunity to appeal those ratings.) Though both state and federal education officials have expressed concern that the test-refusal movement was depriving schools of a useful analytical tool, the officials also have backed off from earlier threats that they could withhold money from school districts with high opt-out numbers. In response to the pressure, the state also has announced two separate review efforts to evaluate the tests and standards. One review, which was demanded by lawmakers, is being led by Ms. Elia, while the other was ordered by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat. And this summer, the Education Department also announced that it was parting ways with Pearson, the international education company that has designed the state tests thus far. In its place, the agency hired Questar Assessment, a smaller company based in Minneapolis. The announcement on Wednesday on test length, however, seemed unlikely to quiet critics. “Half a disaster is still a disaster,” said Loy Gross, a co-founder of the parent activist group United to Counter the Core, who added shortening the tests was just tinkering around the edges of a very large problem. “And no,” she added, “it’s not going to appease parents who will continue to opt their kids out of tests.”

New York
Tests
MaryEllen Elia
Board of Regents
K-12 Education
Education Department NYS
Andrew Cuomo


Saudi Soldier Shot While Patrolling Restive Area

Abstract: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) — A Saudi soldier was fatally shot while patrolling an area populated by minority Shiite Muslims late on Friday, the Interior Ministry said Saturday, and one of the gunmen was killed in the shootout that followed. “A security patrol was exposed to heavy fire from four armed rioters on motorbikes when pausing at a street intersection in Qatif,” the Saudi news agency said, quoting an Interior Ministry spokesman, Mansour Turki. The deaths bring to 11 the number of people killed in the Qatif area since November amid protests by members of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority over what they see as entrenched discrimination. Mr. Turki said the gunmen were arrested after an exchange of fire in which one of them was killed. Another man with a gunshot wound was arrested at a hospital. He identified the soldier who was killed as Hussein Bawah Ali Zabani. Another soldier, Saad Miteb Mohammed al-Shammari, was wounded, Mr. Turki said. Saudi Shiites mostly live in the Eastern Province, also home to the kingdom’s oil industry , and complain that they lack access to government jobs, education and full rights of worship. The government denies those charges.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Desi Bouterse’s Return Throws a Shadow Over Suriname

Abstract: PARAMARIBO, Suriname — Desi Bouterse has been a soldier, a coup plotter, the military ruler of this former Dutch colony, a convicted drug trafficker and, for more than a decade, a fugitive from Interpol. He remains on trial here for the killing of 15 top opponents by his military government in the 1980s. Now, Mr. Bouterse, 65, is leader of this small South American nation yet again, stirring fears of a possible return to the time when Suriname , once a magnet for Western mercenaries and Colombian drug cartels, was renowned for its openness to criminal enterprise. Rather than playing down his past, Mr. Bouterse has defiantly celebrated it since his election last July by Parliament. He has designated Feb. 25, when he and other soldiers carried out a coup in 1980, as a national holiday , calling it the “day of liberation and renewal.” And while Mr. Bouterse has said he will not interfere in the murder case against him here, he named one of his co-defendants in the trial as ambassador to France, showing little deference to the legal cloud hanging over them. Mr. Bouterse has also begun remaking Suriname’s governing institutions, sometimes with his own family. He put his wife, Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring, on the government payroll , paying her about $4,000 a month for her duties as first lady. He also named his son, Dino Bouterse, 38, convicted here in 2005 of leading a cocaine and illegal weapons ring, as part of the command of a new Counter-Terrorism Unit. Dino Bouterse, released from prison in 2008, had also previously been arrested in connection with a 2002 theft of weapons from Suriname’s intelligence agency. “We are witnessing the return of immorality to our small country,” said Eddy Wijngaarde, 67, whose brother, a prominent journalist, was among the 15 dissidents killed by Mr. Bouterse’s government on Dec. 8, 1982. Those killings , known as the “December murders,” represented a searing episode in this nation of 500,000, which gained independence in 1975. The killings opened the way for the creation of a police state supported by Cuba and Libya, which endured through the 1980s. The Dutch government was so concerned about Mr. Bouterse’s government at the time that it drew up an invasion plan to remove him, with logistical support from American forces, according to comments made last year by former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers of the Netherlands. A State Department official would neither confirm nor deny the plan. Mr. Bouterse, who declined several interview requests, accepted “political responsibility” in 2007 for the December murders, but has denied direct involvement. Mystery still shrouds what happened, and rights groups warn that he could engineer a pardon for himself if found guilty. He returned to office by forging a coalition with Ronnie Brunswijk, his old nemesis in the Interior War of the 1980s, a conflict that devastated the Maroons, descendants of escaped slaves in the hinterlands. Since becoming president again, Mr. Bouterse has scoffed at his 1999 drug conviction in absentia in the Netherlands, for smuggling more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine to that country, saying it was “almost a joke.” Still, Mr. Bouterse remained free, benefiting from Suriname’s lack of an extradition treaty with its former colonial ruler. Now he has gained further immunity as head of state, with Interpol shelving its arrest order for him. He has tentatively begun traveling abroad, visiting Brazil, Guyana and the United States, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly. The encore for Suriname’s former strongman has led to new unease with the Netherlands. Reacting to his election last year, Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister at the time, said, “He is not welcome in the Netherlands unless it is to serve his prison sentence.” The Dutch also ended security aid for Suriname after Mr. Bouterse’s return to power. But Dutch officials have recently taken a softer approach, to preserve ties. The Dutch ambassador, Aart Jacobi, declined to comment specifically on Mr. Bouterse, saying only that the Netherlands would continue monitoring drug trafficking and human rights issues here. Mr. Jacobi will also continue attending a yearly ceremony remembering the December murders. “By keeping the memory of that event alive, we may also prevent something similar from happening in the future,” he said. Such stances matter little to Mr. Bouterse’s supporters, of which there are many, particularly among young voters who have little or no memory of his first government. “He’s actually socially minded, with a soft heart,” said Raynell Fraser, 25, a public administration student at Anton de Kom University. “He is one of the few people able to develop the country by bonding all ethnic groups.” No other politician here is as skilled at tapping into Suriname’s populist vein, partly by denouncing the Dutch. As a light-skinned Creole who claims indigenous ancestry from Suriname’s American Indians, he has bridged ethnic divisions here. He is known to dance at rallies while singing Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Before his election, he wore a Che Guevara shirt, which he has now exchanged for dark business suits. And he is a master in communicating not just in Dutch, the official language, but in Sranan Tongo , the language of the street. Bouterse supporters often respond to criticism of him with “Neks no fout,” which roughly translates as, “It doesn’t matter.” Officials here essentially made such a shrug at Dutch reports in January, based on United States diplomatic cables, contending that Mr. Bouterse continued illegal activities long after his 1999 conviction by arranging protection for a Guyanese drug lord’s smuggling operations. The State Department noted in March that cocaine found in sea cargo from Suriname was recently seized in Britain, Pakistan and the Netherlands, after Mr. Bouterse returned to office. But antinarcotics officials here say he is against trafficking. “Mr. Bouterse doesn’t want this government somehow giving space to drug-related criminals,” said Krishna Hussainali-Mathoera, a top Surinamese antidrug official. In a twist, Mr. Bouterse’s return was made possible through an alliance with his old enemy, Mr. Brunswijk, a Maroon who led a guerrilla war against Mr. Bouterse in the 1980s, now a king-making legislator and one of Suriname’s richest men. Mr. Brunswijk, 50, also knows what it means to be a fugitive from international justice. In 1999, a Dutch court sentenced him in absentia for cocaine trafficking. France has a warrant for him on drug trafficking charges. Now, both men have rights groups and anticorruption organizations here on edge. “It floods your mind,” said Sharda Ganga, a Surinamese political analyst, “to think that we’ve arrived back at this point.”

Suriname
Bouterse Desi
Politics and Government
Murders and Attempted Murders
Drug Abuse and Traffic


Inside the Black Budget

Abstract: Skulls. Black cats. A naked woman riding a killer whale. Grim reapers. Snakes. Swords. Occult symbols. A wizard with a staff that shoots lightning bolts. Moons. Stars. A dragon holding the Earth in its claws. No, this is not the fantasy world of a 12-year-old boy. It is, according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon’s classified, or “black,” budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors. The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens — patches — the kind worn on military uniforms. “It’s a fresh approach to secret government,” Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said in an interview. “It shows that these secret programs have their own culture, vocabulary and even sense of humor.” One patch shows a space alien with huge eyes holding a stealth bomber near its mouth. “To Serve Man” reads the text above, a reference to a classic “Twilight Zone” episode in which man is the entree, not the customer. “Gustatus Similis Pullus” reads the caption below, dog Latin for “Tastes Like Chicken.” Military officials and experts said the patches are real if often unofficial efforts at building team spirit. The classified budget of the Defense Department, concealed from the public in all but outline, has nearly doubled in the Bush years, to $32 billion. That is more than the combined budgets of the Food and Drug Administration, the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Those billions have expanded a secret world of advanced science and technology in which military units and federal contractors push back the frontiers of warfare. In the past, such handiwork has produced some of the most advanced jets, weapons and spy satellites, as well as notorious boondoggles. Budget documents tell little. This year, for instance, the Pentagon says Program Element 0603891c is receiving $196 million but will disclose nothing about what the project does. Private analysts say it apparently aims at developing space weapons. Trevor Paglen, an artist and photographer finishing his Ph.D. in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, has managed to document some of this hidden world. The 75 patches he has assembled reveal a bizarre mix of high and low culture where Latin and Greek mottos frame images of spooky demons and sexy warriors, of dragons dropping bombs and skunks firing laser beams. “Oderint Dum Metuant,” reads a patch for an Air Force program that mines spy satellite images for battlefield intelligence, according to Mr. Paglen, who identifies the saying as from Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor famed for his depravity. It translates “Let them hate so long as they fear.” Wizards appear on several patches. The one hurling lightning bolts comes from a secret Air Force base at Groom Lake, northwest of Las Vegas in a secluded valley. Mr. Paglen identifies its five clustered stars and one separate star as a veiled reference to Area 51, where the government tests advanced aircraft and, U.F.O. buffs say, captured alien spaceships. The book offers not only clues into the nature of the secret programs, but also a glimpse of zealous male bonding among the presumed elite of the military-industrial complex. The patches often feel like fraternity pranks gone ballistic. The book’s title? “I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me,” published by Melville House. Mr. Paglen says the title is the Latin translation of a patch designed for the Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 4, at Point Mugu, Calif. Its mission, he says, is to test strike aircraft, conventional weapons and electronic warfare equipment and to develop tactics to use the high-tech armaments in war. “The military has patches for almost everything it does,” Mr. Paglen writes in the introduction. “Including, curiously, for programs, units and activities that are officially secret.” He said contractors in some cases made the patches to build esprit de corps. Other times, he added, military units produced them informally, in contrast to official patches. Mr. Paglen said he found them by touring bases, noting what personnel wore, joining alumni associations, interviewing active and former team members, talking to base historians and filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act. A spokesman for the Pentagon, Cmdr. Bob Mehal, said it would be imprudent to comment on “which patches do or do not represent classified units.” In an e-mail message, Commander Mehal added, “It would be supposition to suggest ‘anyone’ is uncomfortable with this book.” Each year, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a private group in Washington, publishes an update on the Pentagon’s classified budget. It says the money began to soar after the two events of Mr. Bush’s coming into office and terrorists’ 9/11 attacks. What sparked his interest, Mr. Paglen recalled, were Vice President Dick Cheney’s remarks as the Pentagon and World Trade Center smoldered. On “Meet the Press,” he said the nation would engage its “dark side” to find the attackers and justice. “We’ve got to spend time in the shadows,” Mr. Cheney said. “It’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.” In an interview, Mr. Paglen said that remark revived memories of his childhood when his military family traveled the globe to bases often involved in secret missions. “I’d go out drinking with Special Forces guys,” he recalled. “I was 15, and they were 20, and they could never say where they where coming from or what they were doing. You were just around the stuff.” Intrigued by Mr. Cheney’s remarks as well as his own recollections, Mr. Paglen set off to map the secret world and document its expansion. He traveled widely across the Southwest, where the military keeps many secret bases. His labors, he said, resulted in his Ph.D. thesis as well as a book, “Blank Spots on a Map,” that Dutton plans to publish next year. The research also led to another book, “Torture Taxi,” that Melville House published in 2006. It described how spies kidnapped and detained suspected terrorists around the globe. “Black World,” a 2006 display of his photographs at Bellwether, a gallery in Chelsea, showed “anonymous-looking buildings in parched landscapes shot through a shimmering heat haze,” Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, adding that the images “seem to emit a buzz of mystery as they turn military surveillance inside out: here the surveillant is surveilled.” In this research, Mr. Paglen became fascinated by the patches and started collecting them and displaying them at talks and shows. He said a breakthrough occurred around 2004, when he visited Peter Merlin, an “aerospace archaeologist” who works in the Mojave Desert not far from a sprawling military base. Mr. Merlin argued that the lightning bolts, stars and other symbols could be substantive clues about unit numbers and operating locations, as well as the purpose of hidden programs. “These symbols,” Mr. Paglen wrote, “were a language. If you could begin to learn its grammar, you could get a glimpse into the secret world itself.” His book explores this idea and seeks to decode the symbols. Many patches show the Greek letter sigma, which Mr. Paglen identifies as a technical term for how well an object reflects radar waves, a crucial parameter in developing stealthy jets. A patch from a Groom Lake unit shows the letter sigma with the “buster” slash running through it, as in the movie “Ghost Busters.” “Huge Deposit — No Return” reads its caption. Huge Deposit, Mr. Paglen writes, “indicates the bomb load deposited by the bomber on its target, while ‘No Return’ refers to the absence of a radar return, meaning the aircraft was undetectable to radar.” In an interview, Mr. Paglen said his favorite patch was the dragon holding the Earth in its claws, its wings made of American flags and its mouth wide open, baring its fangs. He said it came from the National Reconnaissance Office , which oversees developing spy satellites. “There’s something both belligerent and weirdly self-critical about it,” he remarked. “It’s representing the U.S. as a dragon with the whole world in its clutches.” The field is expanding. Dwayne A. Day and Roger Guillemette, military historians, wrote an article published this year in The Space Review ( www.thespacereview.com/article/1033/1 ) on patches from secret space programs. “It’s neat stuff,” Dr. Day said in an interview. “They’re not really giving away secrets. But the patches do go farther than the organizations want to go officially.” Mr. Paglen plans to keep mining the patches and the field of clandestine military activity. “It’s kind of remarkable,” he said. “This stuff is a huge industry, I mean a huge industry. And it’s remarkable that you can develop these projects on an industrial scale, and we don’t know what they are. It’s an astounding feat of social engineering.”

I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me (Book)


New Stars at the Bronx Zoo Include a Giant Anteater Named Velcro

Abstract: A giant anteater has moved into the Bronx. Her name is Velcro. At 120 pounds, with a long, narrow snout and the sticky tongue that earned her name, Velcro is one of the new stars of the Children’s Zoo, a section of the Bronx Zoo that reopens on Saturday after a $4 million renovation that took more than a year. She is not the only new attraction. There’s also Monkey Island, a man-made oasis in the middle of a marsh with hollowed-out, artificial oak trunks that are heated to provide year-round shelter for 11 squirrel monkeys. The Wildlife Conservation Society , which operates the Bronx Zoo , also rebuilt a farm area where children can feed and pet animals, replaced old interpretive signs with whimsical graphics by an artist and children’s book illustrator, Brendan Wenzel, and planted more vegetation, including a maze of 6-foot-high bamboo. It added safety and structural improvements to longtime attractions such as a tree house with a spiral slide inside, and a giant spider web made of rope where generations of children have climbed. “We wanted to take the best aspects of the Children’s Zoo and keep them and improve upon them, and at the same time, add some new and exciting species,” Jim Breheny, the director of the Bronx Zoo and an executive vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said during a preview on Tuesday morning. Mr. Breheny started with an exhibit of prairie dogs, which was not new but had been spruced up with new signs and glass walls in place of wood railings and plexiglass. “These guys have been here for years,” Mr. Breheny noted of the critters, who peered at him from their holes. “Old residents, new digs.” Farther down the shaded walkway, he pointed out Velcro, the first anteater to be shown at the zoo in more than 25 years, he said. Velcro, who is 18 years old, seemed a bit shy as she paced behind a swath of vegetation. Her snout and big, bushy tail swished back and forth. Though anteaters are native to South America, Velcro herself came from the Brookfield Zoo in the Chicago suburbs. Image Lilly Rose Schmid, 2, and her mother, Catherine Schmid, visiting from London, fed and touched goats at the newly rebuilt farm area at the Children's Zoo. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Other newcomers include three South American coati — a mother and her two children — resembling raccoons with their long striped tails. They have taken up residence in an enclosure that previously held a family of ring-tailed lemurs, which moved to the zoo’s Madagascar exhibit. Mr. Breheny added that the Children’s Zoo has been reorganized with more of a focus on animals native to Central and South America, a region that has not been well represented at the Bronx Zoo since the early 1990s, when a South American exhibit area closed. A sloth named Calisto, with large curved claws for hanging in trees, and a mother and baby pudu, a species known as the world’s smallest deer, have also been relocated to the section, though they are not new to the zoo. The renovation, which was financed with private donors and corporate sponsorships, is the second major overhaul of the Children’s Zoo since it opened in 1941 as a small enclosure of primarily domesticated animals set against a storybook landscape. The exhibits had names like Noah’s Ark, Llama’s Castle and Chateau Guinea, where guinea pigs had their own moat and drawbridge, according to zoo records. The idea was to make animal lovers out of city children, or as the zoo’s workers once explained about its history: “This is the first such contact with fur and feathers that a great many city children get, and it is important that a child’s first meeting with animals be a happy one.” In 1981, the Children’s Zoo expanded from one-third of an acre to nearly three acres, and the focus shifted to wild animals and interactive exhibits like the spider web that allowed children to experience animal worlds rather than just observe them. On Tuesday, dozens of children packed into the farm area, which has opened. Hazel Silver, 67, a medical office manager from New Rochelle who came with her 20-month-old granddaughter, Brianna Rice, said she could see the changes. “It’s cleaner, it’s neater, it’s easier to get around,” she said. Renee Rodriguez, 34, watched her 2 1/2-year-old son, Ryan, reach over to pet goats and miniature donkeys. “I love that they can really touch them,” she said. “Especially for city kids to get up close to a goat, that doesn’t happen every day.”

Bronx Zoo
Bronx
Zoo
Children
Animals
Restoration and Renovation


North General Hospital’s Survival Is Said to Be Precarious

Abstract: Thirty years ago, it was the great hope for the future of health care in Harlem, a new private hospital, opened at a time when public hospitals were seen as failing. Harlem’s civic, political and religious leaders fought, often successfully, to get more money and more state subsidies to keep it going. But in a time of economic malaise, the hospital, North General , at Madison Avenue and 122nd Street, may finally be on its deathbed, industry officials say. Like St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, North General is trying to restructure itself to avoid closing and has reached out to potential partners and the state for money to keep going, the officials said on Thursday. Its closing could be a boon for Mount Sinai, St. Luke’s and New York-Presbyterian, other hospitals on the borders of Harlem. Although North General serves a large number of poor and uninsured patients, it is also perceived as a destination for middle-class Harlem residents. The industry officials, who insisted on anonymity because the plans had not been formally announced, said one possibility was for a rehabilitation center operated by the city’s public hospital system to take over at least part of the North General site. Ana Marengo, a spokeswoman for the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, said that Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island wanted to modernize its aging campus, which would be expensive to renovate. “I can tell you that H.H.C. has had discussions with representatives of North General and others about the possible relocation of some of Coler-Goldwater operations,” Ms. Marengo said. But she added, “No decisions have been made.” After being asked Thursday about its financial situation, North General’s administration issued a statement saying that it intended to continue serving Harlem, but acknowledging that the hospital was trying to restructure, and that it was examining a number of options, including sharing space and finding a partner. “Like many health care providers, North General has to find ways to cope with dramatic changes to health care, state funding, the economy and our local area,” the statement said. “We are actively exploring the development of joint clinical programming with a number of local partners, as well as the utilization of available space for the co-location of certain services operated by other providers, to enable us to expand our health care services to our community.” Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association , a trade group, said North General was among “more than a handful of institutions that are facing serious financial problems” across New York City because of the recession and because of seven successive state budget cuts to hospitals, with an eighth on the horizon. One of those institutions is St. Vincent’s , which has been laying off workers and cutting salaries in an effort to stay open despite huge debts and operating losses. The industry officials said that after the state extended $9 million in loans to St. Vincent’s over the last month, North General also approached state officials asking for emergency loans. A spokeswoman for the state Health Department declined to comment on whether North General had asked for money. The hospital has strong ties in Harlem. Its board chairman is the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church , who was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment, according to an aide. Gov. David A. Paterson steered state grants to the hospital while he was state Senate minority leader, and he came under fire for doing so, in part, while his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, was employed as an Albany lobbyist for the hospital. North General has received significant state aid over the years. It has $116.9 million in state-guaranteed bonds outstanding, some of which financed the construction of its current building, which opened in 1991. The hospital made its most recent payment on those loans on Feb. 15, said Paul Burgdorf, a spokesman for the state Dormitory Authority. If the hospital failed to pay off those bonds, the state would be forced to do so. The hospital also has $4.25 million in interest-free loans through a state revolving loan fund.

Hospitals
Shutdowns (Institutional)
Harlem (NYC)
Medicine and Health
St Vincent's Hospital
Layoffs and Job Reductions