New Rules and Old Plants May Strain Summer Energy Supplies

Abstract: WASHINGTON — As 58 million people across 13 states sweated through the third day of a heat wave last month, power demand in North America’s largest regional grid jurisdiction hit a record high. And yet there was no shortage, no rolling blackout and no brownout in an area that stretches from Maryland to Chicago. But that may not be the case in the future as stricter air quality rules are put in place. Eastern utilities satisfied demand that day — July 21 — with hefty output from dozens of 1950s and 1960s coal -burning power plants that dump prodigious amounts of acid gases, soot, mercury and arsenic into the air. Because of new Environmental Protection Agency rules, and some yet to be written, many of those plants are expected to close in coming years. No one is sure yet how many or which ones will be shuttered or what the total lost output would be. And there is little agreement over how peak demand will be met in future summers. The E.P.A. estimates that a rule on air toxins and mercury that it expects to complete in November will result in a loss of 10,000 megawatts — or almost 1 percent of the generating capacity in the United States. Electricity experts, however, say that rule, combined with forthcoming ones on coal ash and cooling water, will have a much greater effect — from 48,000 megawatts to 80,000 megawatts, or 3.5 to 7 percent. The Southern Company, which like most coal-burning power companies opposes the new standards, said on Aug. 4 that it would retire 4,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation under the proposed rules. It warned that the closings would “significantly impact customers and the overall U.S. economy as a result of higher costs for electricity and reduced reliability.” American Electric Power, a multistate utility based in Columbus, Ohio, is saying it will retire 6,000 megawatts. Much of that was scheduled to retire anyway, but the rules have stepped up those retirement dates. Robert W. Perciasepe, the deputy administrator of the E.P.A., said his agency had not estimated all the retirements that would be set off by rules it was still preparing. His agency, he said, was trying to move promptly through rulemaking and “provide the rational basis for utility planning, instead of this continually rolling ball of uncertainty, which allows people to speculate, and creates a situation where it’s very difficult for competent utility planners to do the work they need to do.” He said the E.P.A. had been regulating power plant emissions for 40 years, and where necessary to keep the grid stable, had granted delays and exemptions. The industry is concerned. PJM Interconnection, the regional unit that set the demand record on July 21, has suggested that the E.P.A. rules would put the grid’s reliability at risk. “E.P.A.’s analysis of the impact of the proposed rule may understate the level of expected generation of plant retirements and does not provide sufficient flexibility or time to address potential localized reliability concerns,” it wrote in a statement filed with the agency. The most likely replacement for the coal plants is new natural gas-powered generators. But PJM and others are complaining that if the E.P.A. follows its intended schedule, utilities will not have much time to decide whether to close or upgrade their old plants, and no one will have time to build new ones. Marc de Croisset, an analyst for the investment bank FBR, said the uncertainties arose from the scale of the plant closings. “It’s a major transformation,” he said — the biggest since the electric companies shifted away from oil in the 1970s, possibly larger. On July 20, a record was also set farther to the west, reported by the Midwest Independent System Operator, a parallel organization that stretches from Michigan to Montana and Manitoba. On Aug. 1 and 2, the Southwest Power Pool, which covers an area from Kansas to New Mexico, set a record. Texas, which is an electrical island in its grid operation, also set new records. And New York State, which forms its own electrical jurisdiction, has come within a whisker of doing so. Most of the old records had been set in a heat wave at the end of July 2006. Peak electricity use in the intervening years has been stunted by the natural variability of weather and a recession . The new peaks will shape the planning of the grid. In the eastern United States, electricity is mostly generated near where it is consumed, and if some producers disappear, someone will have to build new generation or new transmission to supply the area from a distant source. “You always manage toward the peak, and have a reserve margin based on your latest peak,” said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy, which does business in areas that experienced a new peak. Peak supply is also becoming a vexing problem because so much of the generating capacity added around the country lately is wind power, which is almost useless on the hot, still days when air-conditioning drives up demand. PJM, which once stood for Pennsylvania, Jersey and Maryland, factors in such variability, counting a 100-megawatt wind farm as being worth only 13 megawatts on a peak summer day, for example. While over the course of a year the wind machines can contribute mightily to kilowatt hours produced, they do much of their production on windy winter nights, according to experts at PJM and other grid organizations. In summer, utility planners have increasingly turned to a tool known as demand response, in which big customers sign up to have some of their power switched off in exchange for cash payments or cheaper rates. It is somewhat like an airline passenger’s volunteering to be “bumped” in exchange for a free ticket. Companies recruit consumers willing to have their consumption electronically throttled. That can help, but if plants close before a replacement is found, local demand can exceed supply, creating scattered shortages. “There’s a lot of trepidation, and rightfully so,” said Paul M. Sotkiewicz , the senior economist at PJM. Very few companies that own coal-fired power plants have announced which ones will close, partly because they are waiting to see what their neighbors decide. If a competitor goes out of business, prices for electricity will rise and the survivor could get enough revenue to make expensive upgrades worthwhile. “They’re playing a giant game of chicken right now, to be the last man standing, just like the airlines,” said Mr. de Croisset, the FBR analyst. The agency is writing a cascade of rules on emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury, and handling of ash; it published a “Cross-State Air Pollution Rule” last month. American Electric Power has listed 25 of 55 coal-fired generators as candidates for being shuttered, many of which have been running at full capacity lately. On that list is a 42-year-old behemoth in Louisa, Ky., called Big Sandy 2. Upgrading it would cost $700 million, the company says. “This heat wave shows that you can’t rely on a massive amount of wind generation to fill the void,” Pat Hemlepp, a spokesman for American Electric Power, wrote in an e-mail. “That’s why we are extremely concerned about reliability.” Others say that A.E.P. has been slower than its competitors to upgrade its plants and is now seeking delays in new E.P.A. rules to keep its competitive advantage. Michael J. Bradley, a consultant based in Concord, Mass., said A.E.P. was “not in a great position because they haven’t reinvested.” Some Republicans in Congress would like to step in to block new E.P.A. rules. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the ranking minority member of the Senate Energy Committee, recently sent a pointed letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking what the effects of the plant retirements would be. Senator Murkowski said in a statement that E.P.A. rules were coming at a “breakneck pace,” too fast for government reliability experts to keep up. She predicted “an avalanche of waivers.”

Coal
Environmental Protection Agency
Air Pollution
Electric Light and Power


A Long Way From Guyana, Near a Family He Rarely Gets to See

Abstract: At his age, Frank Gaul said, he should be retired and spending his days lolling in a rocking chair. Instead, Mr. Gaul, 67, is on his feet eight hours a day, working as a security guard. Mr. Gaul spent his life in Guyana until 2010. That year, at the urging of his wife, Elizabeth, the couple immigrated to New York City, where one of their daughters had moved years earlier. “My wife, she took care of the grandchildren,” Mr. Gaul said. “She lost everything when they left. That left a gap in her. And all her thoughts and her focus was to get to America.” Although Mr. Gaul and his wife would have to live with their daughter’s family in a small apartment in Long Island City, Queens, he had few misgivings about the decision to leave Guyana. He has been accustomed to adversity since childhood. Mr. Gaul, the son of a single mother to whom he was a source of shame, was raised by his grandmother. His mother was never anything more to him than an elusive stranger. “There was no communication,” he said. “I barely saw her at all.” When he was a teenager, Mr. Gaul’s grandmother could not afford to keep paying for his education. “All of my friends, my classmates, moved on to secondary school, and I couldn’t,” he said. “I couldn’t take it. I was too depressed. I said: ‘I’m not going back to school.’ ” At 13, he began working in construction, a trade that he said molded him into a man. He went on to run a business of his own. “I did it all my life,” he said, “until I left to come here.” Given his decades of experience, Mr. Gaul expected to find work with relative ease. Almost a year went by before he got a job cleaning airplanes. Health problems, including diabetes, forced him to leave. It took him even longer to find work again. “It was two years at home, waiting for a job, applying,” he said. In 2012, while he was looking, he earned his high school equivalency diploma. The Neediest Cases The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund provides direct assistance to struggling New Yorkers. Tap for information about how to donate. In late 2014, Mr. Gaul saw a flier for Urban Upbound , a nonprofit organization that brings economic and educational resources to neighborhoods with public housing complexes. He joined its work force development program, where he gained the credentials to work as a security guard. Community Service Society of New York , one of the organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund , used $438 to pay for Mr. Gaul’s training, license and registration. It also gave him $112 for a monthly MetroCard so he could attend classes. Since April, Mr. Gaul has been reporting five days a week to his post at 1 World Trade Center . He works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., when he would typically be doing something else: “That’s sleep time,” he said. The nocturnal schedule and the time spent on his feet are an exhausting combination. Mr. Gaul’s responsibilities also take him away from the loved ones he left Guyana to be closer to. His wife and daughter work as home health aides, and their schedules are opposite his. Mr. Gaul speaks wistfully of the life he left behind. He misses the cuisine most of all and often finds his thoughts turning to the retirement he has been denied. “Back home, it was ‘lay back,’ ” he said “Here, it’s ‘giddy-up!’ ” He added that growing old was better in Guyana than it was in the United States. “I don’t want to go into a home,” he said. In Guyana, he added, “When you get old, a relative takes care of you.” The Gauls have a son and a daughter who still live in Guyana, along with several grandchildren and numerous friends. It seems inevitable, Mr. Gaul said, that he and his wife will return home, unless their circumstances improve drastically. He does not foresee that happening, though, and even jokes that winning the lottery is their best chance for staying in the United States. “It isn’t easy,” Mr. Gaul said, “especially when you’re used to living your life one way.”

New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Community Service Society of New York
Philanthropy


Utah: Fire Started by Target Shooters Prompts 1,000 Evacuations

Abstract: Residents of about 1,000 homes in northern Utah were being evacuated Friday after high winds kicked up a fire started by target shooters. The 750-acre blaze started Thursday near the Saratoga Springs landfill. The authorities were initially worried as flames moved toward property owned by an explosives company. But as winds kicked up, the fire began moving toward Saratoga Springs, and crews began focusing on saving homes. Fire officials were calling in additional aircraft and extra ground crews. No injuries or structural damage have been reported.

Utah
Fires and Firefighters
Evacuations and Evacuees


Union Head Assails New U.S. Rules for Immigration Detention

Abstract: The leader of a union representing thousands of federal officers responsible for detaining and deporting illegal immigrants said Wednesday that new rules issued by the Obama administration for immigration detention centers nationwide were flawed and would make the system “more dangerous.” In testimony in Washington before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Chris Crane, the president of Council 118 of the American Federation of Government Employees, accused administration officials of systematically excluding agents from discussions of security provisions in the new rules. The agents Mr. Crane represents are from Immigration and Customs Enforcement , which is in charge of immigration detention. Mr. Crane said the new rules, which the agency published in February, eliminated or undercut many security procedures that were routine in other federal facilities. “New detention standards proposed by ICE are unsafe,” Mr. Crane said, using the acronym for the agency, “unsafe for detainees and unsafe for employees.” The testimony by Mr. Crane was a new sign of a deep rift between top immigration officials, including John Morton, the director of the agency, and at least some enforcement agents on the ground, as the Obama administration makes ambitious changes in deportations policy and detention practices. The hearing, under the title “Holiday on ICE,” was called by Republicans to air their criticisms of the new detention standards, which they regard as overly lax and wasteful. “Under this administration, detention looks more like recess,” Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said at the opening of the hearing. Kevin Landy, assistant director for detention policy and planning at ICE, noted that the agency did not have legal powers to punish, as federal prisons do. The agency holds immigrants under civil, not criminal authorities, while they await the outcome of immigration court cases or head for deportation. The new standards were devised to deal with failings that led in recent years to dozens of deaths of immigrants in detention, many lawsuits and critical reports from oversight officials. The standards will improve medical care and add protections against sexual abuse for detainees, Mr. Landy said, and make it easier for them to consult with lawyers. This month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened a new detention center in Karnes County, Tex., that is the first one in the country designed for civil detention. It includes more freedom of movement, recreation and contact visits for immigrants held there. The contrast between Mr. Landy and Mr. Crane was so great, it often seemed they were talking about different detention systems. Mr. Crane testified that the union had tried repeatedly over three years to participate through bargaining in internal discussions leading to the new detention policy — to no avail, he said. He accused the Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, and Mr. Morton of negotiating in bad faith, in “the most anti-union and anti-federal law enforcement campaign we have witnessed.” Mr. Crane said ICE had set up no national system for employees to report attacks by detainees on officers. ICE agents are also concerned, he said, that the new standards do not include criminal background screenings of visitors to detention centers. The standards call for pat-down searches instead of more thorough strip searches, Mr. Crane testified, and they permit immigrants to observe searches by agents in the facility, allowing detainees to “learn search techniques.” ICE officers have been asked to conduct initial medical screenings, he said, which are not within their expertise. Mr. Crane noted that the agency had made a major shift to focus its efforts on deporting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes. But while the proportion of criminals in detention increases, he argued, “security protocols appear to be weakening.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US)


Ohio: ‘Heartbeat Bill’ Curbing Abortion Is Sidelined

Abstract: The leader of the Ohio Senate put a stop Tuesday to a bill that would have imposed the most stringent restriction on abortions in the nation. The chamber does not plan to vote on the “heartbeat bill” before the legislative session ends next month, said Senate President Thomas E. Niehaus, a Republican, citing concerns that the resulting law might have been found unconstitutional. The bill, which passed the House, proposed banning abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy. Backers hoped the bill would provoke a legal challenge with the potential to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks. Ohio Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, and many lawmakers worried the limit would be unconstitutional, jeopardizing other abortion limits.

Ohio
Abortion
Law and Legislation
Niehaus Thomas E


Friedel Sets Appearance Record

Abstract: The American goalkeeper Brad Friedel of AstonVilla made a record 167th consecutive PremierLeague appearance in a 0-0 tie againstFulham. The 37-year-old Friedel, who startedthe streak in August 2004 with Blackburn,overtook the record set by Portsmouth’s DavidJames in April. (AP)

Soccer
Friedel Brad
Premier League
Aston Villa


Deloitte Agrees to Pay $1 Million Fine

Abstract: Deloitte & Touche, one of the Big Four accounting firms, agreed yesterday to pay $1 million to settle accusations that it had botched an audit of a pharmaceutical company by entrusting it to a partner it knew to be a poor auditor. The penalty was issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and was the first use of its disciplinary powers against a large accounting firm. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which created the board, the money is to be used for accounting scholarships. The board said that by the time Deloitte issued its 2003 audit of Ligand Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego company, the firm’s management had concluded that the San Diego audit partner, James L. Fazio, 46, had performed poor audits in the past and should not be assigned to future audits of public companies. Mr. Fazio’s supervisor, the board said, had told him he “was perceived as a quality risk” and urged that he resign. Nonetheless, Mr. Fazio was allowed to supervise the Ligand audit without additional oversight and failed to conduct proper audit procedures that would have shown that the company was overstating its revenue, the board said. Deloitte consented to the penalty without admitting or denying the board’s findings. Mr. Fazio, who has since left Deloitte, consented to an order barring him from associating with a public company auditing firm for at least two years. “A firm is responsible for its audit reports and the quality of its audits,” said Claudius B. Modesti, the accounting board’s director for enforcement and investigations. “We think the sanctions reflect the seriousness of the violations.” In 2003 and early 2004, Ligand’s stock was rising on the strength of sales of its drugs, which included a new painkiller and medication for the treatment of cancer. Although it was still losing money, the rising sales sent the stock price, which had been under $4 early in 2003, to a peak of almost $25 in spring 2004. But the board said that much of the reported sales came from aggressive programs to sell drugs to wholesalers, particularly at the end of quarters when the company needed to meet sales goals. In the fourth quarter of 2003, Ligand’s sales totaled $1.1 million in October, $3.3 million in November and $43.4 million in December. The wholesalers had the right to return unsold drugs to Ligand, which could report sales on its financial statements only after reducing them to reflect estimated returns. The board said Deloitte had not challenged those estimates despite evidence that returns were running at a much higher rate. Ligand’s stock plunged in the summer of 2004 after it reported disappointing sales. In 2005, after the company had changed auditors, it restated 2003 earnings, saying that more than half the revenue it reported in 2003 should not have been reported. In trading yesterday, shares of Ligand closed up 13 cents, at $$4.92. Deloitte, in a statement, said it had “established and implemented changes to its quality-control policies and procedures that directly address the P.C.A.O.B.’s concerns.” It added that it was “confident that its audit policies and procedures were among the very best in the profession and that they meet or exceed all applicable standards.” A lawyer for Mr. Fazio did not return a telephone call seeking comment. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act allowed both the S.E.C. and the board to discipline public auditors, and it is not clear how they plan to divide the responsibility. The board said the Los Angeles office of the S.E.C. had been involved in the investigation.


Many Millions in Kickbacks From Tribes

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The kickbacks from one Indian tribe exceeded $11 million. From another, they surpassed $6 million. In less than three years, Jack Abramoff secretly netted more than $20 million from tribes in five states, a sum close to half of the $43.3 million they paid him and a partner to lobby on their behalf. "These are staggering numbers, even by Washington standards," said Stanley Brand, a defense lawyer who specializes in criminal and ethical matters. "The big firms do very, very well, but they don't come close to these kinds of numbers." The level to which Mr. Abramoff enriched himself at the expense of clients came into sharp focus on Tuesday as his plea agreement on federal charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion was made public by the Justice Department. The agreement referred to five business relationships Mr. Abramoff had with Indian tribes, and in each case he admitted to receiving a large percentage of the tribe's total spending as a kickback. As part of his plea, Mr. Abramoff agreed to repay his former clients $25 million. Mr. Abramoff carried out his fraudulent schemes by persuading clients that they needed the lobbying services of firms run by a former business partner, Michael Scanlon, or by his own companies. Mr. Scanlon pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress, and as part of his plea, he agreed to repay $19.6 million to the tribes that once retained him. Mr. Abramoff's largest kickback came from a Louisiana tribe that used his services from early 2001 through the spring of 2004. In the plea agreement Mr. Abramoff said the tribe paid companies run by Mr. Scanlon $30,510,000. But through an agreement between Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon, they concealed a kickback of about $11,450,000 to Mr. Abramoff. In another scheme, beginning in early 2001, a Mississippi tribe paid Mr. Scanlon about $14,765,000, ignorant of the "secret profit-sharing agreement" between Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff that sliced off nearly half of the total, about $6,364,000, as a kickback to Mr. Abramoff. A Michigan tribe paid Mr. Scanlon about $3.5 million from the middle of 2002 to the fall of 2003, unaware of the "secret arrangement" that directed about $540,000, half the profit earned by Mr. Scanlon's companies, to Mr. Abramoff. In a scheme that suggested how little they cared for the needs of their clients, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon persuaded a Texas tribe in 2002 to hire them to help the tribe reopen its casino through federal legislation. According to the plea agreement, while the tribe paid $4.2 million for services arranged by Mr. Scanlon, the two men concealed from the Texas tribe that, at the same time, they had collected millions of dollars from the Louisiana tribe to oppose all gaming in the Texas Legislature. They also did not tell the Texas tribe that $1,850,000 of their fees went directly to Mr. Abramoff "pursuant to his undisclosed arrangement with Mr. Scanlon." In a final case cited by the plea agreement, a New Mexico tribe paid Mr. Scanlon $2.75 million, hiding from tribal officials that the lobbying firm's profit margin was about 80 percent and that $1,175,000 of the total was paid to Mr. Abramoff through his secret agreement with Mr. Scanlon. Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists, a trade group with 700 members, said Mr. Abramoff was "in a league by himself" as a Washington lobbyist, a term he said he used reluctantly. "Jack Abramoff, by my definition, is not a lobbyist," Mr. Miller said. "He knowingly defrauded clients. In my view, he is nothing more than a scam artist."

INDIANS AMERICAN
BRIBERY
LOBBYING AND LOBBYISTS


Bernanke Says Recession ‘Is Very Likely Over at This Point’

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke , said Tuesday that it was “very likely” that the recession had ended although he cautioned that it could be months before unemployment rates dropped significantly. “Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was,” Mr. Bernanke said in response to a question about unemployment trends. “That’s a challenge for us and all policy makers going forward.” The cautiously optimistic assessment came at the end of a speech at the Brookings Institution observing a year after a market crisis that was precipitated by the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Shortly before the speech, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales had surged in August as consumers swapped old cars for new ones under the “cash-for-clunkers” program. The increase, by a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent rate over the previous month, widely surpassed analysts’ expectations and was the largest monthly increase since January 2006. Mr. Bernanke said the consensus of economic forecasters was for moderate economic growth for the remainder of this year and next, particularly as credit markets thaw, consumer confidence takes time to heal and the federal government begins to unwind spending and lending programs intended to mend the economy. “The general view of forecasters is that growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect given the depth of the recession,” Mr. Bernanke said, because of several issues, including continuing financial and credit problems, deleveraging by households and the need to end the economic stimulus programs. All these elements will “make the 2010 recovery moderate, in particular not much faster than the underlying growth rate of the economy,” he added. Business cycles are officially dated by a committee of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The committee often spends many months sifting through economic trends before declaring the beginning and end dates of a recession. The latest recession began 12 months before it was officially declared in December 2008 by the committee. For policy makers in Washington, a more significant question than the actual date of the end of the current recession will be when to begin unwinding the myriad lending and guarantee programs that were hastily created in response to the crisis. Officials at the Federal Reserve have already begun to consider the question. Mr. Bernanke and other officials, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, have warned that removing the programs too early could lead to another round of problems. Historians now generally agree that, during the Great Depression , the early withdrawal of government programs in the 1930s led to deeper economic problems throughout that decade. On the other hand, some analysts have warned that waiting too long could fuel significant price increases and lead to a return of corrosive levels of inflation. The unwinding of the various spending programs and lower-interest rate policies of the Fed is not likely to be popular because, among other things, it could increase the cost of borrowing. That also threatens to increase the borrowing costs for the federal government, which already faces record deficits. And policy makers will have to confront decisions on retrenching government lending and spending programs just as lawmakers are facing midterm elections next year. In his speech , a version of which he has made before, Mr. Bernanke defended the decisions by the central bank and other policy makers throughout the crisis and said that any hesitation in taking the emergency steps that were ultimately pursued by the Fed, the federal government and foreign powers could have led to a far steeper economic decline. “Without these speedy and forceful actions, last October’s panic would likely have continued to intensify, more major financial firms would have failed, and the entire global financial system would have been at serious risk,” Mr. Bernanke said. “We cannot know for sure what the economic effects of these events would have been, but what we know about the effects of financial crises suggests that the resulting global downturn could have been extraordinarily deep and protracted.”

Bernanke Ben S
United States Economy
Recession and Depression


Liberty Defeat Mystics

Abstract: Alex Montgomery scored a career-high 21 points off the bench to help the Liberty rally for a 93-88 home win against Washington. The Liberty (9-12) overcame a 14-point deficit early in the fourth quarter. Cappie Pondexter also scored 21 points for the Liberty.

Basketball
Washington Mystics
New York Liberty


Bayern Munich Dominates Manchester City

Abstract: Defending champion Bayern Munich produced a powerful display to outclass host Manchester City, 3-1, in the UEFA Champions League. Dominant in all facets of the game, Munich took a 1-0 halftime lead after City goalkeeper Joe Hart let Franck Ribéry’s shot slip through his grasp. Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben added goals in a four-minute span. Also in Group D, host CSKA Moscow came from behind to beat Viktoria Plzen, 3-2. In Group A, host Shakhtar Donetsk scored a late equalizer to hold Manchester United to a 1-1 draw in a tense game. In Germany, Jens Hegeler scored on a free kick in the second minute of injury time to give host Bayer Leverkusen a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad. In Group B, the new coach Roberto Mancini steered Galatasaray to a 2-2 draw at Juventus. And Cristiano Ronaldo continued his sparkling form with two goals in a 4-0 victory for host Real Madrid against Copenhagen. In Group C, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as Paris St.-Germain eased to a 3-0 win against visiting Benfica, and Kostas Mitroglou had a hat trick to lead Olympiakos to a 3-0 victory at Anderlecht.

Soccer
Manchester City Soccer Team
Bayern Munich Soccer Team


Suicide Attack Kills Scores of Military Recruits in Aden, Yemen

Abstract: CAIRO — A powerful car bomb rocked the southern port city of Aden, Yemen, on Monday morning, killing at least 54 young military recruits who were preparing to join government forces and wounding scores, officials said. The explosion took place in the crowded Mansoura neighborhood around 8:15 a.m., when many people were outside commuting to work, officials said. Mansoura has been the site of multiple attacks by militants in the past year. The Islamic State, through its Amaq News Agency , called the attack a “martyrdom operation” and said it had killed “around 60 people.” The terrorist group and the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda have exploited the chaos of the country’s long-running civil war to exercise control in certain areas, especially in the south. “It’s been a shaky morning,” Hassan Boucenine, who leads the Yemeni branch of Doctors Without Borders, said after witnessing the attack. “The explosion rocked my windows, and I was like 300 meters away. It was not nice. But we are treating everyone.” The medical organization said on Twitter that at least 45 people had been killed and that 60 others had been wounded, but Al-Khadher Laswar, a Health Ministry official in Aden, said the death toll was 54 people, with 67 wounded. At least one child, a 6-year-old boy, was among the wounded, according to Malak Shaher, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders. The killed and wounded recruits, most in their 20s and 30s, were signing up for military training in Djibouti and Eritrea, another official said. There, the newcomers would have been prepared to fight Shiite Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia, he added. The official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the attack publicly, said witnesses had told him that the blast had occurred after a speeding vehicle drove through the gate of a school, which was being used for the military recruitment. Troops had opened the gate to let through a truck that was delivering food for the recruits. The war between the internationally recognized government, led by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi rebels, backed by his predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in 2012 , has torn Yemen apart. Pro-government militia fighters, dressed in military fatigues, sealed off the bombing site to rescue the remaining recruits, inspect what remained of the car and clear the rubble, according to witnesses. “There was blood and small parts of the car almost everywhere in the yard and on the steps,” said Wael al-Qabati, a local journalist at the scene. The blast was so strong, he said, that it broke the windows and damaged the facades of many nearby apartment buildings. “But people did not seem bothered,” Mr. Qabati said. “They have gotten so used to bombings, no one panics anymore.” He added that he had seen women and children come out to watch rescue efforts. “No one looked shocked or scared,” he said. “It was like it was not the site of a bombing. They just watched indifferently for a while and then went about their business.” Mr. Boucenine, the Doctors Without Borders chief, also noticed the unusual calmness of many of the city’s residents. “Although the blast was a big shock, there was no widespread panic at all,” he said. He added: “We have seen many civilian clothes on victims. The hospital is very crowded. Most hospitals have shut down. We are alone here, and we really need help.” Over 600 health facilities nationwide have been forced to close since violence began, the United Nations says. Many relatives of victims of Monday’s attack blamed the authorities for the deaths and injuries, said Mr. Qabati, the journalist. “The families kept asking people at the hospitals where their sons are, why the government did not properly secure the center,” he said. “They were angry.” Since the fighting between rival factions intensified in March 2015, missile and rocket attacks across Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, which is leading an American-backed coalition against the Houthis, have been common. A spokesman for the government could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday. In response to the increased deadly attacks on its border, Saudi Arabia recently set in motion a plan to recruit 5,000 Yemenis to protect its southern provinces, particularly Jizan and Najran, Yemeni officials said. The conflict in Yemen has killed about 9,000 people, including 3,218 civilians, since March 2015, according to the United Nations. It remains unclear how heavily protected the military recruitment center in Aden was.

Yemen
Bombs
Terrorism
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Fatalities,casualties


Man Sentenced to Life for Kidnapping Boy

Abstract: UNION, Mo., Oct. 8 (AP) — A former pizza parlor manager was sentenced to life in prison Monday for kidnapping one of two boys whom the authorities said he held captive and sexually abused in his apartment. The defendant, Michael Devlin, 41, pleaded guilty to one charge of child kidnapping and one charge of armed criminal action in the January abduction of 13-year-old William Ownby, known as Ben, as the boy walked home alone from his school bus stop. “We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Ben’s mother, Doris Ownby, told reporters after the sentencing hearing. “Now that it’s here, it’s such a relief.” It was the first in a series of hearings this week in four jurisdictions where Mr. Devlin faces more than 80 counts in the abductions of Ben and Shawn Hornbeck, now 16, who was snatched in 2002 while riding his bike and held for more than four years. Lawyers said Mr. Devlin planned to plead guilty to all charges against him to spare the emotional toll of trials on his relatives and the boys’ families. “He just does not want to see anyone suffer any more than they have in this whole ordeal,” said Mr. Devlin’s lawyer, Michael Kielty. In court, Mr. Devlin answered a series of questions from Judge Stanley Williams of Circuit Court but declined to explain the plea when the judge asked if he wanted to comment. The prosecutor, Bob Parks, depicted a predator who spent months seeking out a victim. In the three months before Ben’s abduction, Mr. Devlin visited rural areas, driving near schools and following school bus routes “in hopes of finding a boy,” Mr. Parks said. One day, he said, Mr. Devlin “followed one boy as he walked down the road by himself.’ “This turned out to be Ben Ownby,” he said. In his pickup truck, Mr. Devlin had duct tape, a brown hooded sweat shirt and a 9-millimeter gun, Mr. Parks said. He drove up to Ben and asked if he knew where some people lived, the prosecutor said. When Ben appeared nervous, Mr. Parks said, Mr. Devlin grabbed him and shoved him into the truck. Ben asked Mr. Devlin why he was taking him, Mr. Parks said. “The defendant said, ‘Just because,’” Mr. Parks said. Mr. Devlin then drove Ben to his apartment in Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis. Ben was 13 when he disappeared minutes after stepping off his school bus in rural Franklin County. Four days later, on Jan. 12, a tip led to Mr. Devlin’s cramped apartment, where both boys were found.


Justice Dept. Informs Inmate of Pre-Arrest Surveillance

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has informed a former Brooklyn man who is serving a 15-year prison sentence over a terrorism-related conviction that his communications were subjected to surveillance without warrants before his arrest. It was the third time the department has provided such notice since changing a practice last summer that had concealed the presence of evidence derived from warrantless wiretapping from defendants. It was also the first time that the notice involved a completed case. But Loretta Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, told the inmate, an Albanian citizen named Agron Hasbajrami , that because he gave up a right to appeal when he pleaded guilty in 2012 , it is not likely that he can reopen his case over the matter. “In the government’s view, this supplemental notification does not afford you a basis to withdraw your plea or to otherwise attack your conviction or sentence because you expressly waived those rights, as well as the right to any additional disclosures from the government, in your plea agreement,” she wrote to him in a letter , which was also filed in court. Still, Ms. Lynch wrote, because Mr. Hasbajrami is trying to vacate his conviction on other grounds, he can add the surveillance matter to his claims. Mr. Hasbajrami was arrested in September 2011 at Kennedy International Airport as he was preparing to fly abroad. Accused of sending money to an unidentified terrorist group in Pakistan and planning to go join the group, he could have faced 60 years in prison if convicted at trial. He agreed to plead guilty in exchange for capping his sentence at 15 years. The previous two notifications went to a Colorado man whose case had not yet gone to trial and to an Oregon man who had been convicted after a trial but not yet sentenced. The Colorado man has already brought a first-of-its-kind challenge to the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which authorized warrantless wiretapping. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the 2008 law because the plaintiffs could not prove they had been wiretapped under it. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. told the justices that the Justice Department was obliged to notify criminal defendants who faced evidence derived from such surveillance, and who would have standing to challenge the law. But it later emerged that the practice of the Justice Department’s National Security Division was not to provide such notice in a compound investigation: When warrantless wiretapping led to an individual wiretap order, which in turn led to evidence, prosecutors told the defendant only that the evidence had come from the wiretap order. As a result, no defendant knew he had standing to challenge the 2008 law. In August, Mr. Verrilli pushed through a change in the practice , leading to a review of pending and past cases. It remains to be seen whether the department will provide such a notice to any inmates who were convicted and sentenced after a trial. At a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, the acting chief of the National Security Division, John Carlin, said the review would continue. Mr. Carlin also pointed to a recent filing in the Oregon case in which the department explained the revised policy, telling Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, that he would distribute it to prosecutors across the country “so they know exactly what our position is on that issue.” The filing also rejected accusations — including in a letter by Mr. Heinrich and two other senators — that the Justice Department had misled the Supreme Court. Mr. Heinrich did not raise that issue on Tuesday.

Justice Department
Agron Hasbajrami
FISA
Wiretapping Eavesdropping
Terrorism


Smith vs. Sanchez Quarterback Duel Just Got Worse

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It could have been worse for the Jets. Maybe Geno Smith could have thrown four interceptions in his first seven drives Saturday night against the Giants, instead of only three. Maybe Mark Sanchez could have shredded both knees, instead of just injuring his right shoulder, playing in the waning minutes of a meaningless game after appearing to secure the Jets’ starting quarterback position by virtue of Smith’s struggles. Maybe Rex Ryan could have flashed two thumbs up while posing with the Snoopy trophy, awarded to the winner of the annual preseason game between the tenants of MetLife Stadium, instead of just remarking: “We’ll take Snoopy, too. I’m just happy to get the win.” To get the win. The Jets prevailed, 24-21, in overtime, improving their regular-season record to 0-0. “If it wasn’t important,” Ryan said, “I wouldn’t have put Mark out there.” The competition that had dragged on since April, when the Jets drafted Smith in the second round, seemed to have reached a merciful conclusion by halftime. Given a chance to impress, Smith faltered. He has promise, he is talented, but he is also raw — and, even considering Sanchez’s flaws, less of a viable option for now. Not that the Jets would acknowledge as much even under less bizarre circumstances, but it seemed straightforward: Sanchez, by default, would retain his starting job, with Smith waiting to unseat him — eventually. The timeline might have accelerated with about six minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Marvin Austin slammed into the right side of Sanchez, who had just released a pass, knocking him to the turf. He grabbed his shoulder, writhing for a bit, before scurrying off for X-rays. The fact that Ryan sent Sanchez into the game, with 11:21 remaining and the Giants leading, 15-14, suggested two things. One, that he still needed to see Sanchez perform at a certain level to convince him that he deserved to start the season opener against Tampa Bay on Sept. 8. And two, that he was so possessed by the mantra of competition that he and John Idzik, the first-year general manager, have preached, that he prioritized victory, and that he was best served playing his presumptive Week 1 starter behind a second-team offensive line. Why risk an injury to Sanchez by playing him, Ryan was asked. “Well, why compete period?” he said. “We’re there to win. We had our starting offense out there for three quarters because we’re trying to win the game.” Why weren’t the other first-stringers playing if you were trying to win the game, Ryan was asked. “It’s my decision, and we’re going to compete,” he said. “We said we’re going to compete and watch that competition.” Many absurd things have befallen this franchise in recent years, much of it — though not all — the Jets’ doing. On Saturday night, there was a moment late in Ryan’s news conference, soon after a reporter asked him if it was irresponsible to leave in Sanchez, when he turned his back to the news media when pressed whether Smith could still win the job. The Snoopy trophy sat off to the side. “I can say anything I want,” Ryan said. “That’s the beauty of this country. I can answer it 100 times. I can stand backwards and answer the question.” And still, after all this, Ryan reiterated that they were no closer to deciding the starting quarterback. Making the simple difficult since 1963 — that could be the Jets’ motto. Sanchez’s presence in the game — after Smith’s poor performance had effectively declared Sanchez triumphant — could be argued as an incredibly unwise decision. Ryan risked injury, and look what happened. It seemed that Matt Simms, who was speaking with the offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, would replace Smith, but Sanchez started to warm up hastily, and in he went. On his first play, he was drilled for a sack. If it is determined that Sanchez, who is scheduled for a magnetic resonance imaging test Sunday, has a severe injury, it stands to reason that he would have a difficult chance of reclaiming his job from Smith upon his return. Sanchez’s clothes were still in his locker, but a team spokesman said that he had left the stadium. The Jets drafted Smith to unseat Sanchez, much as they drafted Sanchez to emerge as a rookie, in 2009. They awarded Smith plenty of first-team snaps during training camp, including for all four days last week. They extended the competition so he could recoup playing time lost to a sprained ankle. They started him against the Giants in their most important preseason game, intent to give him as many snaps as possible. Smith’s nine series before halftime consisted of three interceptions, three three-and-outs, a touchdown, a punt and the end of the half. After halftime, he led the Jets on a scoring drive against the Giants’ second-team defense, but he also showed a lack of awareness by stepping on the back line of the end zone, resulting in a safety. He passed for 199 yards, completing 16 of 30 attempts, and had a quarterback rating of 45.7. A cynic might say that Sanchez put forth precisely this sort of night last season, and that is precisely the reason the Jets spent the 39th pick in the draft — when they had glaring needs at several positions — on a quarterback. There is no shame in Smith not looking ready to open the season as their starter. He was not necessarily supposed to be; it was just the Jets’ hope. “As long as Rex and the committee are evaluating us,” Smith said, “I think I have a shot.” By default, he probably does. The Jets went into Saturday night seeking clarity. In all likelihood, they found it. Just not in the way they hoped for. Imagine if they had lost. Then it really would have been a bad night.

Jets
Geno Smith
Giants
Mark Sanchez
Football


Former M.V.P. Miguel Tejada and Royals Reach a Deal

Abstract: The former American League most valuable player Miguel Tejada has reached a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals and says he is ready to return to the majors. Tejada, a 38-year-old infielder, got a one-year contract that will be worth $1.1 million if he makes the majors. There is an additional $400,000 in performance bonuses. A six-time All-Star, Tejada last played in the majors in 2011 with the San Francisco Giants, hitting .239 with 4 homers and 26 runs batted in over 91 games.

Miguel Tejada
Kansas City Royals
Baseball


S.E.C. Charges Accountants and Firms With Sarbanes-Oxley Violations

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (AP) — Federal regulators charged 69 accounting firms and partners on Thursday with violating a landmark 2002 antifraud law by auditing public companies without registering with the board that supervises the accounting industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which often brings charges and settles them on the same day, also said that 50 of the firms and partners had settled with the agency. There were no Big Four or major accounting firms among the 37 businesses involved. Yet the action was significant because it represented the S.E.C.’s first cases alleging violation of a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law requiring accounting firms that audit public companies to register with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board . The law was enacted in response to the corporate scandals of 2002. Without being registered and subject to inspections by the board, the 69 accounting firms and partners around the country together issued audit reports for 53 public companies from November 2003 to October 2005, the S.E.C. said. Congress created the board, with subpoena power and the authority to discipline accountants, in the Sarbanes-Oxley law to replace the accounting industry’s own regulators. The corporate blowups of 2002 exposed inadequate internal controls and auditors at major companies who had become too cozy with the corporations whose books they examined. The S.E.C., in turn, oversees the accounting board. The agency’s enforcement director, Linda Chatman Thomsen, said Thursday that it “is committed to ensuring compliance with the regulatory framework Congress established for auditors of public companies.” “The actions we take today protect investors and will deter future violations of Sarbanes-Oxley’s registration provision,” Ms. Thomsen said in a statement. The 28 accounting firms and 22 partners settling the cases were censured by the S.E.C. They were not fined. Eighteen of the firms had previously agreed to return a total of $168,150 in audit fees to the companies that paid them. The firms and partners agreeing to settlements are: Beckman Kirkland & Whitney, of Agoura Hills, Calif., and James M. Kirkland and Robert J. Whitney; Berger, Apple & Associates, Beachwood, Ohio, and Mitchell S. Seifert; the Beutel Accountancy Corporation, Agoura Hills, and Todd W. Beutel; Charles J. Birnberg C.P.A., West Paterson, N.J.; Bray & Associates C.P.A.’s, Greencastle, Ind., and Arnold D. Bray; Bujan & Associates, Homer Glen, Ill., and Frank Bujan; Dan Clasby & Company, Beverly, Mass., and Daniel E. Clasby; William E. Costello C.P.A., Bakersfield, Calif.; Henry L. Creel Company, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Henry L. Creel; Darilek, Butler & Co., San Antonio, and Robert F. Darilek; F. X. Duffy & Company, Philadelphia, and Kevin P. Duffy; Sanford H. Feibusch C.P.A., Las Vegas, and Sanford H. Feibusch; Forbush & Associates, Reno, Nev., and Daniel J. Forbush; Isaac Gordon C.P.A., Los Angeles; Charles R. Hunt C.P.A., Edgewater, Fla., and Charles R. Hunt; Michael C. Lingerman, Philadelphia; Joseph Mao C.P.A., New Hyde Park, N.Y.; McNeal, Williamson & Company, Logan, W.Va., and Daniel L. Williamson; Milner & Brock C.P.A.’s, Greenville, S.C., and Stephen D. Milner; Preferred Accounting Services Inc., Miami, and Ana Costales; Bruce Redlin C.P.A., New Berlin, Wis.; Reed & Taylor C.P.A.’s, Detroit, and Robert E. Reed; Henry Schiffer C.P.A., Beverly Hills, Calif., and Henry Schiffer; Randy Simpson C.P.A., Sandy, Utah, and Randy R. Simpson; Andrew M. Smith C.P.A., Los Angeles; Norman Stumacher C.P.A., Bellmore, N.Y.; United Financial C.P.A., New York, and Anowar Hossain; Harvey S. Weingard C.P.A., Boynton Beach, Fla.; and David M. Winings C.P.A., Palm Desert, Calif., and David M. Winings. The cases against the other 19 firms and partners are pending. They are: Lester Rex Andersen, a Utah resident; Banker & Company, of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Jitendra S. Banker; the Choi Dow Ian Hong & Lee Accountancy Corporation, Los Angeles, and Ernest E. Dow; Michael Deutchman C.P.A., Melville, N.Y.; Halt, Buzas & Powell, Alexandria, Va., Wayne A. Powell and Steven R. Halt; Frederick A. Kaden & Company, Brentwood, N.Y., and Frederick A. Kaden; Carl S. Sanko C.P.A., Topanga, Calif.; Schuhalter Coughlin & Suozzo, Raritan, N.J., and Edward J. Suozzo; Richard E. Sellers, Utah resident; Jay J. Shapiro C.P.A., Los Angeles, and Jay J. Shapiro; Story & Company, Centennial, Colo., and Brian L. Story.


Missouri: Unemployment Cited in Suicide Note

Abstract: The Missouri auditor’s spokesman wrote “I just can’t take being unemployed again” before his apparent suicide, the authorities said Tuesday. The spokesman, Spence Jackson, was found dead Sunday in his Jefferson City apartment from a gunshot wound to the head. The death came a month after Mr. Jackson’s boss, Tom Schweich, who was running for governor, killed himself. Mr. Schweich, a Republican, shot himself just minutes after telling a reporter that he wanted to go public with allegations that John Hancock, the head of the state Republican Party, had told some donors last year that Mr. Schweich was Jewish. Mr. Schweich, who was Christian but had Jewish ancestry, said he perceived the remarks as anti-Semitism.

Missouri
Unemployment
Suicide
Spence Jackson
Tom Schweich


Scranton Diocese to Pay $3 Million in Sex Abuse Case

Abstract: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Pa., has agreed to pay $3 million to a man who said that as a teenager he was sexually abused by one of its priests, it was announced yesterday. The settlement is one of the largest individual awards made by a Catholic diocese to a victim of sexual abuse by clergy members, said lawyers familiar with such suits and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a victims’ rights group. The settlement was reached Wednesday, after two days of testimony at a federal civil trial by priests and lay people revealed that the diocese had been warned about the conduct of the priest, Albert M. Liberatore Jr., “but the diocese did nothing about it,” said the victim’s lawyer, Daniel T. Brier. The victim, who was not identified, had been scheduled to testify Wednesday. Mr. Brier said his client was now 22, lived in New York and hoped to become a lawyer. Mr. Liberatore, who was defrocked in June 2006, pleaded guilty in 2005 to a criminal charge of attempted sexual abuse stemming from the case and was sentenced to 10 years of probation. Also in 2005, he received five years’ probation in a separate case after pleading guilty to indecent assault and other charges. As part of the settlement, the diocese agreed to set up a meeting with the victim’s mother so that the diocese’s former bishop, James C. Timlin, now retired, and the Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz, who was vicar of priests when the abuse occurred, could apologize to her. In a statement, the diocese, which covers 11 counties and 200 parishes in northeastern Pennsylvania , said that part of the cost of the settlement would be paid for by insurance and part by the diocese, but that no parish money would be involved. “Today’s settlement represents the diocese’s efforts to assist the victim to heal and to move on to achieve a productive and fulfilling life,” the statement said. Mr. Liberatore first met the victim in 1997 when he was 12 and the priest was helping to console the boy’s mother as she coped with her husband’s debilitating illness. Then, starting in 1999 and continuing until 2002 — as the sexual abuse scandal in the church was gaining national attention, Mr. Brier noted — Mr. Liberatore repeatedly took advantage of his fatherlike position and abused the victim. As soon as the victim came forward in 2004, the diocese said, it removed Mr. Liberatore from the ministry and began proceedings to defrock him.

Priests
Pennsylvania
Roman Catholic Church
Sex Crimes
Suits and Litigation
Religion and Churches


Factory Activity Grows at Slowest Pace Since ‘13

Abstract: Activity at United States factories grew last month at its slowest pace since May 2013 as manufacturers pared their stockpiles and cut jobs. The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday that its index of factory activity slipped to 50.1 points in October from 50.2 in September. The figures barely signal growth, which is any reading above 50. Manufacturers have been squeezed this year as a strong dollar and weak economies in China and other big foreign markets have cut into exports. A high dollar makes United States goods pricier overseas, while also lowering prices for imports that compete with American products. Monday’s report showed that a measure of hiring fell sharply, from 50.5 points to 47.6. That means manufacturers cut jobs last month. Still, the report contained some bright signs: New orders jumped, suggesting that business might pick up in coming months. And a gauge of production rose for the first time since July. “We’re hopeful this will mark the low,” Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note to clients. “It looks as though the downshift in manufacturing activity may be coming to an end.” Both manufacturers and their customers are cutting back on stockpiles, which slows production as companies sell existing goods rather than order new stock. But that trend slowed last month and may soon be complete, said Bradley Holcomb, chair of I.S.M.’s manufacturing survey committee. Sharp declines in oil and natural gas prices have led drilling companies to reduce orders for steel pipe and other equipment used to build rigs. That trend, combined with the strong dollar, has helped lower the I.S.M. index from roughly 57 late last year to 50.1. Strong car sales, which are running at their highest level in a decade, are one of the few trends that are working in the opposite direction, and are bolstering factory output. A slowdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy, has delivered a direct hit on construction equipment makers such as Caterpillar. Yet there are signs that China’s economy is stabilizing. A survey of its manufacturers over the weekend found that its factory activity is still contracting but at a slower pace. Other reports point to continuing weakness in United States manufacturing, however. Factory production has fallen for two straight months, according to figures compiled by the Federal Reserve. And orders for long-lasting factory goods, an indication of future output, have tumbled in the last two months, a Commerce Department report last week indicated. Many retailers and other businesses stockpiled too many goods in the winter and spring and were left with crowded warehouses and store shelves. As they work off the excess supply, they have cut back on orders for new goods. A slowdown in stockpiling was a big reason the economy weakened in the July-September quarter, the government said on Thursday. The economy expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, far below the 3.9 percent pace in the April-June quarter.

Manufacturing
Institute for Supply Management
Economy
Commerce Department
US Economy


India Takes Aim at Poverty With Cash Transfer Program

Abstract: NEW DELHI — India has more poor people than any nation on earth, but many of its antipoverty programs end up feeding the rich more than the needy. A new program hopes to change that. On Jan. 1, India eliminated a raft of bureaucratic middlemen by depositing government pension and scholarship payments directly into the bank accounts of about 245,000 people in 20 of the nation’s hundreds of districts, in a bid to prevent corrupt state and local officials from diverting much of the money to their own pockets. Hundreds of thousands more people will be added to the program in the coming months. In a country of 1.2 billion, the numbers so far are modest, but some officials and economists see the start of direct payments as revolutionary — a program intended not only to curb corruption but also to serve as a vehicle for lifting countless millions out of poverty altogether. The nation’s finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, described the cash transfer program to Indian news media as a “pioneering and pathbreaking reform” that is a “game changer for governance.” He acknowledged that the initial rollout had been modest because of “practical difficulties, some quite unforeseen.” He promised that those problems would be resolved before the end of 2013, when the program is to be extended in phases to other parts of the country. Some critics, however, said the program was intended more to buy votes among the poor than to overcome poverty. And some said that in a country where hundreds of millions have no access to banks, never mind personal bank accounts, direct electronic money transfers are only one aspect of a much broader effort necessary to build a real safety net for India’s vast population. “An impression has been created that the government is about to launch an ambitious scheme of direct cash transfers to poor families,” Jean Drèze , an honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics, wrote in an e-mail. “This is quite misleading. What the government is actually planning is an experiment to change the modalities of existing transfers — nothing more, nothing less.” The program is based on models in Mexico and Brazil in which poor families receive stipends in exchange for meeting certain social goals, like keeping their children in school or getting regular medical checkups. International aid organizations have praised these efforts in several places; in Brazil alone, nearly 50 million people participate. But one of India’s biggest hurdles is simply figuring out how to distinguish its 1.2 billion citizens. The country is now in the midst of another ambitious project to undertake retinal and fingerprint scans in every village and city in the hope of giving hundreds of millions who have no official identification a card with a 12-digit number that would, among other things, give them access to the modern financial world. After three years of operation, the program has issued unique numbers to 220 million people. Bindu Ananth, the president of IFMR Trust , a financial charity, said that getting people bank accounts can be surprisingly beneficial because the poor often pay stiff fees to cash checks or get small loans, fees that are substantially reduced for account holders. “I think this is one of the biggest things to happen to India’s financial system in a decade,” Ms. Ananth said. Only about a third of Indian households have bank accounts. Getting a significant portion of the remaining households included in the nation’s financial system will take an enormous amount of additional effort and expense, at least part of which will fall on the government to bear, economists said. “There are two things this cash transfer program is supposed to do: prevent leakage from corruption, and bring everybody into the system,” said Surendra L. Rao, a former director general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research . “And I don’t see either happening anytime soon.” The great promise of the cash transfer program — as well as its greatest point of contention — would come if it tackled India’s expensive and inefficient system for handing out food and subsidized fuel through nearly 50,000 government shops. Image In Rayagada, a woman placed her finger on a biometric reader in order to buy her allotment of subsidized rice. Credit Manish Swarup/Associated Press India spends almost $14 billion annually on this system, or nearly 1 percent of its gross domestic product, but the system is poorly managed and woefully inefficient. Grains, for instance, pass through myriad hands, with much of the supply being diverted or replaced with rotten or poor-quality grains before it reaches its intended recipients. Rajiv Gandhi, who served as prime minister for five years in the late 1980s before being assassinated in 1991 while running for office, once estimated that only 15 percent of the money spent on the poor actually reached them; his son Rahul Gandhi said recently that this level may now be as low as 5 percent. But so far the government has stopped short of replacing the direct distribution of food and fuel with cash payments because of the enormous logistical difficulties involved, and because many of those involved in pilot projects in which cash was substituted for goods have said they preferred receiving food. There are several problems with making a switch, experts say. One is that men are often the ones who receive cash in the programs, and they sometimes squander the money. When food is distributed, however, women are often the recipients, and they are more likely to use the food to benefit their children. Another problem is that while cash transfers can significantly reduce losses to corrupt intermediaries and traders, simply setting up the system does little to overhaul the sometimes-corrupt decision-making process that determines who is eligible for benefits in the first place. A group of 208 scholars and activists released an open letter on Monday, the day before the pilot program started, saying that electronic transfers of pensions and scholarships were fine but substituting cash for food “could cause havoc and massive social exclusion.” Still, Arvind Panagariya , an economics professor at Columbia University and the former chief economist of the Asian Development Bank, contended that opposition to the program was shortsighted, dismissing fears that the poor would squander the money they receive. “The argument that people will not spend on the essential goods when given cash for that is spurious and paternalistic,” Dr. Panagariya said in an interview. The Indian government’s aggressive timetable for rolling out the cash transfer program has led some of its political opponents to claim that the entire exercise is mostly about securing political support for the governing coalition led by the Indian National Congress Party. A World Bank study found that there is a direct link between cash transfer programs and voting patterns, with beneficiaries strongly supporting the party that gave them money. A significant number of early enrollees in the program live in states controlled by the Congress Party. Giving cash to “India’s poor is all about power, politics and winning elections,” a recent article in the popular newsmagazine Outlook India argued. The government has promised to continue the program’s rollout through 2014, when national elections are scheduled. The Election Commission of India ordered the government last year to postpone starting the program in eight districts in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat because of pending state elections, which were held last month. Mr. Rao, the economic researcher, cautioned that the rural poor would need a vastly improved social and commercial infrastructure — better shops, schools and hospitals — for any cash-based welfare plan to significantly improve their lives. “Cash transfers,” he said, “are not a panacea.”


Moody’s Reduces Iceland’s Debt Rating to Negative

Abstract: Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded Iceland’s debt ratings outlook to negative, from stable, over concerns about the nation’s ability to tap the foreign credit it needs to stay afloat. Moody’s said Iceland’s economic recovery was threatened by delays in the resolution of the so-called Icesave dispute, which involves the repayment of $5.3 billion to Britain and the Netherlands to compensate the two countries for payments to citizens with accounts in a collapsed Icelandic bank. Iceland’s government was pushed into a referendum last month that rejected a deal with Britain and the Netherlands after public anger about the harsh terms. Moody’s acknowledged that Iceland might still achieve a better deal in renewed negotiations, but said the current uncertainty was hurting the country’s short-term economic and financial prospects. The global financial crisis wreaked political and economic havoc in Iceland, ending a decade of dizzying economic growth. Iceland’s banks collapsed within a week in October 2008, its krona currency plummeted and protests toppled the government. Moody’s said the economy was likely to underperform forecasts in 2010, perhaps contracting by 5 percent or more. Kenneth Orchard, vice president and senior credit officer in Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group, said that the stalled Icesave negotiations had created some risk that the government might not be able to refinance its December 2011 and May 2012 eurobonds in the international capital markets. Moody’s changed the outlook on the Icelandic government’s Baa3 ratings to negative, from stable. The outlooks on the Baa2 foreign currency bond ceiling and Baa3 foreign currency deposit ceiling were also changed to negative, from stable.

Iceland
Economic Conditions and Trends
Moody's Corporation
Ratings and Rating Systems


A School’s Addition of Arabic Classes Puts Tolerance to the Test

Abstract: As the president of her high school Peace Club, Claire Brennan does not like to fight. Even so, Claire, who will be a senior at Friends Seminary this fall, found herself in some impassioned conversations — let’s not even call them debates — this year, as she and some friends discussed what non-Western foreign language the school should add to its curriculum. The school, a small downtown institution, was soliciting suggestions from students and parents on whether Arabic or Mandarin Chinese would better suit its educational mission. “It was the talk of the whole school,” said Claire, one of a few students gathered in the principal’s office last week to discuss the issue. Claire, a lanky 17-year-old, had come down on the side of Arabic for obvious reasons — she is, after all, the president of the Peace Club — but she wanted to make it clear that her support for the language choice didn’t begin and end with world harmony. All along, she had agreed with her fellow classmate Christian Lopez-Balboa, who had pointed out in a classwide meeting with administrators that in five or six years, Arabic, not Chinese, might well be the more important language for those students who would be starting careers in finance. “I’m interested in emerging markets,” said Christian, 17, by way of explaining this insight. Although the school takes seriously the tenets of pacifism and tolerance central to its Quaker tradition, it is also, like any New York City private school, in touch with the current high-flying world of New York financiers. And so arguments like Christian’s surely added a practical, even cosmopolitan touch. In the end, the deciding committee at Friends reached consensus in February: Arabic. In the months after Sept. 11, there was a sense of urgency, nationwide, around increasing the number of Arabic speakers, among both peaceniks (if only we could better understand each other) and hawks (how are we supposed to spy on Muslim terrorists if only four people in the C.I.A. speak Arabic?). Since then, the number of college students taking advantage of Arabic classes has more than doubled, according to the Modern Language Association, but the offerings at the high school level, a starting point that gives students a better shot at achieving proficiency, remain scarce, even in New York. A handful of New York schools now offer Arabic: Stuyvesant High School, which started teaching the language in response to the efforts of the Islamic student association; Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where the classes are exclusively attended by students of Arabic descent, the principal said; the School for International Studies; the United Nations International School; and, of course, the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, which has a heavy emphasis on Arabic language and culture and has been mired in controversy since plans for it were announced. But Friends Seminary is most likely the first school in New York to offer the language that doesn’t have a significant Arabic-speaking student body. The field of Arabic teaching is new and small enough in this country that simply finding qualified teachers presents a challenge, said Rosemary Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association. That wasn’t the experience at Friends, said the principal, Robert Lauder, noting that he had four candidates he’d have been thrilled to hire. In the end, they went with Anna Swank, who graduated from the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University with a master’s degree and has recently been teaching at Columbia University’s Arabic Summer Program. “If we start early enough, it really will be about the other and finding out about this part of the world that we’ve misunderstood in so many ways,” said Ms. Swank, who is 26. She quickly followed up with a caveat, as if anticipating any potential contortion of her relatively uncontroversial sentiment (the downfall of the first principal of Khalil Gibran started with comments attributed to her in an interview with The New York Post). “I don’t want to get called an apologist and say it’s all peachy,” she said. “I’ve lived there, I know there’s good and bad in the world; it’s just the good doesn’t get talked about here.” If the school wanted to make a hire unlikely to risk controversy, Ms. Swank, who is from Minnesota, seems like a safe bet. “I’m on neither side of the fence,” she said. “I’m Mayflower on one side of my family, and American Indian on the other.” Perhaps inevitably, four or five parents called or met with Mr. Lauder to express their strong concerns that the language program would have a strong pro- Palestinian slant, although Mr. Lauder said they seemed reassured by conversations with him about the school’s motivations. So far, of the school’s 260 students, 30 have signed up for Ms. Swank’s class, which they will take four days a week. She wants them, in addition to studying Modern Standard Arabic, to learn a little bit of the Egyptian dialect, which she is most familiar with, to write to pen pals and to get in touch with the culture of Arab youth on YouTube. Closer to home, she said, she can’t wait until the students start going into an Egyptian-run deli near school and showing off a few phrases. “They’ll be so surprised and delighted,” she said. If the students are going to start building bridges somewhere, the corner of 16th and Third sounds like as good a place as any.

Friends Seminary
New York City
Arabic Language
Education and Schools
Private and Sectarian Schools
Language and Languages
Teachers and School Employees


Public Schools Say They Want Level Playing Field

Abstract: BERT AMMERMAN watched a football game last month between Don Bosco Prep and Bergen Catholic High School. A top player from each team, he noted, came from the same town about 45 miles away: Vernon. Mr. Ammerman, the interim school superintendent in New Milford, said he thought that athletics, not education, brought those players to their schools. “And when it came to the recruitment of those two players,” he said, “each Catholic school had a major advantage over the public schools that play in their league.” Mr. Ammerman is one of many public school officials who are adamantly opposed to their teams’ competing in a wide range of sports, most notably football and basketball, against private and parochial schools throughout New Jersey . (The football and basketball teams meet during the regular season, but have separate postseason championships.) The playing field, many public school officials contend, is not level, because private schools — not just Catholic schools — can recruit students from anywhere in or outside the state, while public schools are restricted by district boundaries. Officials at private schools acknowledge their recruiting advantages and their impact. Don Bosco, for example, has not lost a football game to a public school in 10 years. But efforts to alter the balance of power, which public schools have advocated for more than 30 years, failed again recently to win approval. On Dec. 3, members of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, which governs 243,000 athletes, rejected a proposal to separate public and private high school teams from competing. That proposal, defeated 186 to 178, was brought forward by public school officials from the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League, where Catholic schools like Don Bosco Prep, in Ramsey; Bergen Catholic, in Oradell; and St. Joseph Regional High School, in Montvale, have long dominated the competition. Earlier this season, Paramus High, considered one of the better public school football teams in North Jersey, was crushed by Bergen Catholic, 39-7. “The system of competition that exists in the state of New Jersey is severely unlevel,” said Joe Piro, the athletic director at Nutley High School. “Nonpublic schools have the ability to attract student athletes from multiple geographic areas, and we don’t.” The high school athletic association also voted against — by a wider margin, 209 to 155 — a proposal by the Sussex County Interscholastic League, which consists of nine public schools and one Catholic school, calling for the separation of public and private schools only in football. But in an effort to ease tensions, the state association formed a 12-member committee to explore ways to improve competitive balance. That committee has recommended realigning and merging leagues, as well as instituting a policy that would require athletes transferring from one school to another to sit out a calendar year before joining a new team. (Currently, a transferring student must sit out only 30 days.) The committee also pushed for hiring an investigator to monitor circumstances regarding schools’ accepting transfer students. The athletic association could put those recommendations in place by the start of next year’s football season. Msgr. Michael E. Kelly, headmaster of Seton Hall Prep, in South Orange, the only private school in the 20-school Iron Hills Conference, said the recommendations “will give relief to some of the public schools that are not happy about their competitive situations.” “It will give the public schools more options,” he said, “while still allowing for games between public and nonpublic schools.” But Mr. Piro called the recommendations merely “a step in the right direction.” “They still do not speak directly to the issue,” he said. “This is about public schools playing nonpublic schools on an unlevel playing field, period. It’s staring us right in the face, and we’re afraid to stare back at it.” Mr. Piro said that Nutley was one of 10 public schools in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League threatening to pull out of the 20-member league, which consists of 14 public school teams and 6 private schools. “In terms of realignment, we have to see a very viable solution come out of all of this, and in a very timely manner,” he said. Mr. Piro, who said his basketball teams were 0-40 against Catholic schools in the last 10 years, likened Nutley’s football situation to “a classroom setting with 40 kids, all of whom keep failing.” “Wouldn’t that tell you that something is absolutely and positively wrong with the system?” he asked. Nunzio Campanile, the athletic director at Don Bosco, whose football team has won 24 consecutive games, including state championships the past two seasons, acknowledged that Catholic schools had a clear advantage over public schools when they meet in the regular season. “Obviously, we have the advantage, because we can pull kids from a number of towns, and they are limited by their borders,” he said. “It’s tough on the public schools, especially where football is concerned.” Mr. Campanile said problems might arise if Don Bosco Prep was forced to play in a new league that did not include public school teams. “We could probably fill a football schedule,” he said, “but in a sport like basketball, we would have to do a lot more traveling in central and south-central New Jersey to fill out a longer schedule, which would have a huge impact on our budget and require us to start pulling kids out of classes early to travel to these games, which is not exactly the best system where education is concerned. “And without public school competition,” Mr. Campanile added, “where am I going to find 25 wrestling matches?” When told about such concerns, Mr. Ammerman said they were “convenient excuses.” “About three years ago, the starting five players from the Paramus Catholic basketball team were all from New York, and about six years ago, Don Bosco’s football team featured a tailback who traveled to school from Exit 3 on the New Jersey Turnpike,” he said. “I didn’t hear anyone complaining about travel issues then.”

New Jersey
Athletics and Sports
Education and Schools


Scott Carson, Overseer of Dreamliner, to Retire From Boeing

Abstract: The Boeing Company said Monday that the executive overseeing its commercial-plane programs, including the delayed 787 Dreamliner , would retire. The executive, Scott E. Carson, 63, has led the commercial division since 2006, a period in which the new plane was delayed repeatedly by a variety of problems. He will be succeeded on Tuesday by James F. Albaugh, the company’s top executive for military programs, though Mr. Carson will not formally retire until the end of the year, Boeing said in a statement . Dennis Muilenburg, 45, will succeed Mr. Albaugh, 59, at Boeing’s military systems division. Four days earlier, Boeing, based in Chicago, set a new schedule for the Dreamliner. The company said that it expected the plane’s first test flight to happen by the end of the year and that deliveries to airlines would start in the fourth quarter of 2010. Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney Jr., told reporters and stock analysts that Mr. Carson, who had a background in finance and marketing, had made the decision to retire on his own. “The decision to retire was Scott’s,” Mr. McNerney said, adding that Mr. Carson felt that, with the new schedule, he would be “giving his successor a clear path forward on the program.” Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Leeham Company, an aviation consulting firm, said he believed that Mr. Carson had been planning to step down for some time. Mr. Hamilton said Mr. Carson told him at the Paris air show in June that he intended to retire once both the 787 and 747-8, an updated version of the jumbo jet that is also expected to fly later this year, completed their first flights. Mr. McNerney praised Mr. Albaugh as one of the company’s most experienced executives. He also said that Mr. Albaugh, an engineer who has headed Boeing’s military, space and related businesses since 2002, “is a technical guy himself.” Mr. Albaugh holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics from Willamette University, and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Columbia. He will soon relocate to the Seattle area. Mr. Albaugh “has a deep appreciation for the kind of oversight we need to blend into our development efforts here,” Mr. McNerney said. Mr. Carson had been credited with reviving sales of commercial aircraft before the recession hit. But the 787 Dreamliner, lighter and more fuel-efficient than other airplanes, has been plagued by delays stemming from supply problems, a labor strike, parts shortages and structural flaws. It is Boeing’s first major new airplane in a decade and the most popular program in the company’s history, with more than 800 advance orders. But its first test flight is more than two years behind schedule. And the plane, which will make extensive use of lightweight plastic composite in place of aluminum, was originally planned for delivery in May 2008. Mr. Albaugh has been at Boeing for 34 years. While he led the company’s military and space businesses, the unit’s revenue grew to $34 billion, from $25 billion, the company said, though its revenue flattened out as Pentagon spending peaked. During the last two years, Boeing transferred other executives from its military business into top management roles on the Dreamliner project as it tried to get it back on track.

Boeing Co
Appointments and Executive Changes
Airlines and Airplanes


European Union Sets Modest Target for Growth

Abstract: BRUSSELS — A decade after undertaking its last, largely unsuccessful, economic regeneration plan, the European Union repeated the exercise on Wednesday, this time hoping that alarm created by the financial crisis and fear of the rise of Asia would lead to better results. Although the Lisbon Strategy, approved in 2000, set a target for the European Union to become the world’s most competitive economy within a decade, the latest plan sets the more modest aim of generating an additional 2 percent of economic growth across the bloc in the next decade. Europe 2020, a document released here on Wednesday, argues that while the financial crisis “exposed structural weaknesses” in the European economy, “the world is moving fast and long-term challenges — globalization, pressure on resources, aging — intensify.” Five overall objectives outlined in the document will be discussed by European Union leaders this month. Each nation will then discuss its own specific goals, which are due to be agreed upon by all 27 member nations by the end of June. Outlining his proposals, the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said it was vital for government leaders to take responsibility for achieving a level of economic growth necessary to maintain European living standards. Crucial decisions on spending priorities and taxation remain the sole preserve of the E.U. national governments, and their recognition of the need for change will determine whether the Europe 2020 strategy delivers more than its predecessor. “The European Union appears ready for stronger economic coordination and stronger economic governance,” Mr. Barroso said. But he added that “if the member states don’t want to play ball, nothing is going to happen.” That comment underlined the fact that the European Union’s tools for requiring countries to meet economic targets were limited, one reason for the failure of the Lisbon Strategy. Mr. Barroso made it clear that no official sanctions against recalcitrant nations would be proposed, despite earlier calls from Spain for such a procedure. Under a new treaty, however, the European Commission now has the power to send a formal warning to a member state, effectively naming and shaming the country, if it is diverging from the bloc’s overall economic strategy. Mr. Barroso’s five objectives for E.U. countries by 2020 were increasing employment to an average of 75 percent from 69 percent among people ages 20 to 64; raising the number of young people gaining a college degree to 40 percent from 30 percent; lifting research spending by governments and companies to 3 percent of gross domestic product; reducing the number of people living in poverty to 60 million from 80 million; and generating more renewable power while reducing energy consumption. Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, the umbrella body under which E.U. leaders meet, has highlighted the 2020 economic regeneration as the center of his political strategy. He has argued that without faster economic growth, Europe’s social security system will become unaffordable, and he says that he wants E.U. leaders to meet more regularly to review their economic performance. One main obstacle for Mr. Van Rompuy and Mr. Barroso will be to get the larger member states to sign up to any accord that potentially exposes them to embarrassing warnings on the handling of their economies. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, wrote to Mr. Barroso to express her government’s concerns about a possible linking of the new surveillance measures to adherence to the Stability and Growth Pact, which governs the euro, Reuters reported. Mr. Barroso said Wednesday that no part of the proposal would weaken the pact. Meanwhile, Spain played down the lack of any proposal for sanctions against countries that missed targets. Celestino Corbacho, the Spanish employment minister, said that debate was “in the past,” the Europa press news agency reported. The Europe 2020 document got a skeptical reception from some analysts, including Hans Martens and Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive and chief economist, respectively, of the European Policy Center in Brussels. They questioned how the targets had been selected and whether the mechanisms were sufficient to push national governments to implement them. “The proposed governance mechanism is still predominantly ‘soft,’ relying on benchmarking, monitoring and recommendations,” they said in a statement. They also argued that “structural reform of public sectors, and especially public services, should have had a more prominent role.” Philippe de Buck, director general of BusinessEurope, a federation of business lobbies, said that “in the extraordinary circumstances Europe faces today, a growth strategy is the answer if we want to achieve a sound European Union, with strong companies and jobs for many people.”

European Union
European Commission
Economic Conditions and Trends
Politics and Government


India, Praising Arrest of Militants, to Restart Talks with Pakistan

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Indian officials on Thursday said they would reschedule diplomatic talks with Pakistan, originally planned for Friday, “in the very near future,” expressing satisfaction with Pakistan’s arrest of militants thought to be connected to a recent attack on Indian soil. The remarks came a day after Pakistan announced the arrests of several members of Jaish-e-Muhammad, a banned group that is accused of staging a terrorist attack this month on an Indian air force base in Pathankot, in Punjab State. All six assailants and seven Indian security personnel died in the attack. “The action taken against Jaish-e-Muhammad is an important and positive first step,” said Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, at a news briefing in New Delhi. Jaish-e-Muhammad has carried out attacks in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, the disputed border region, and Pakistani officials say the group has ties to the Pakistani Taliban and to Al Qaeda. Pakistani news reports also claimed that the group’s leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, one of India’s most wanted terrorists, had also been arrested, but Mr. Swarup said India had no knowledge of his arrest. On Wednesday, the chief of the Pakistani Army attended a meeting called by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and observers in both countries were watching closely to see whether Mr. Sharif, rather than military leaders, had taken a bigger role in shaping policy toward India. Vivek Katju, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, said he was unsure whether the Pakistani Army was willing to repudiate what he called its “low-intensity war” against India. “Pakistan’s army in the past has controlled Pakistan’s foreign and security policy,” he said. “I don’t see it giving up that position.” Relations between India and Pakistan, which chilled soon after Mr. Sharif attended Narendra Modi’s inauguration ceremony as India’s prime minister in 2014, took a sudden and warmer turn last month, when Mr. Modi made an unscheduled visit to Lahore, Pakistan, on Dec. 25. A week after Mr. Modi’s visit, though, six gunmen infiltrated the Pathankot air force base in what analysts read as an attempt to derail the peace process. G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan, said he believed that the attack had required months of careful planning and ground support.

India
Pakistan
Jaish-e-Muhammad
Pathankot
Nawaz Sharif
International relations