U.S. Frees Detainees, but Afghans’ Anger Persists

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — The tribal elders had traveled many hours to reach a windswept Afghan military base on the capital’s outskirts to sign their names to a piece of paper allowing them to bring their countrymen home from American detention. As an Afghan general read the document aloud, Cmdr. Dawood Zazai, a towering Pashtun tribal leader from Paktia Province who fought the Soviets, thumped his crutch for attention. Along with other elders, he did not like a clause in the document that said the detainees had been reasonably held based on intelligence. “I cannot sign this,” Commander Zazai said, thumping his crutch again. “I don’t know what that intelligence said; we did not see that intelligence. It is right that we are illiterate, but we are not blind. “Who proved that these men were guilty?” No one answered because Commander Zazai had just touched on the crux of the legal debate that has raged for nearly a decade in the United States: Does the United States have the legal right to hold, indefinitely without charge or trial, people captured on the battlefield? His question also exposed a fundamental disagreement between the Afghans and the American military about whether people had been fairly detained. This is the latest chapter in America’s tortuous effort to repair the damage done over the last nine years by a troubled, overcrowded detention system that often produced more insurgents rather than reforming them. The problems were similar in the huge sweeps of suspected insurgents in Iraq. Now, in Afghanistan , detainees who are deemed not to be a threat are handed over to local elders on the understanding that it is the community’s responsibility to ensure that they stay on the right side of the law. The releases that took place at a recent ceremony at the 201st Afghan Army Corps headquarters, as well as the release or assignment to Afghan detention of 70 to 80 detainees earlier this year, are part of a new effort to free detainees who are no longer thought to be an imminent threat to the government of Afghanistan or the international forces. Under the program, recently overhauled by Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward and Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, a Harvard-trained lawyer with the army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, there is now an automatic administrative review devised to speed the release process, and for the first time it allows detainees to make a case for their release. Once the review board has approved a release, the Afghan military, in conjunction with the Americans, asks the detainee to sign a pledge to stay away from the insurgency, from the Taliban and from Al Qaeda. The elders are asked to sign a similar pledge that they will help them. Similar programs have been used with considerable success in Iraq, and the new one in Afghanistan builds on that experience. There are now about 800 detainees at the American-run Detention Facility in Parwan, the new detention center that opened at the end of 2009 to replace the notorious holding facility at Bagram Air Base, which is associated with abuses that resulted in the deaths of at least two detainees. The vast majority of detainees are Afghans, but about 32 are foreigners, according to a senior American officer. The American plan is to hand control of the detention center to the Afghan Ministry of Defense by January 2011, but Americans will still be deeply involved in the detention operations. In the coming months, the Americans hope to use the review process to release as many detainees as possible if they are deemed no longer a threat and to transfer to Afghan custody those who can be tried for crimes under Afghan law. But as the recent ceremony showed, beyond the cake and fruit and formal speeches lies a reservoir of resentment about how the United States has handled detentions since 2001. In interviews, former detainees and their families said the Americans were routinely misled by informants who either had personal grudges against them or were paid by others to give information to the Americans that would put the person in jail. In addition, many Afghans have experienced the detentions as humiliating, and found almost unbearable the depths of poverty borne by their families during their internment. “The information you had about these men was wrong in the first place,” said Hajji Azizullah, 54, a leader of the Andar tribe in Ghazni, who had come to sign for two detainees. “We are confident they were not involved with insurgents. If they were, we wouldn’t be here to sign for them.” One detainee, Pacha Khan, 29, an illiterate bread baker from Kunar Province, said he was still puzzled about why he had been detained in the first place, let alone held for three years. “I was innocent,” he insisted. “Spies took money and sold me to the Americans. The Americans treated us very well, but as you know, jail is a big thing — to be away from your family, your relatives.” His brother, Gul Ahmed Dindar, was less forgiving. He had to support his brother’s family of eight children and a wife on the meager salary of a local police officer. “They were about to sell their children,” he said. “They had very little to live on. They sold their one goat, their one sheep and their cow. Then they sold the furniture — it was not much. They have had a very tough life.” Admiral Harward insisted that the American intelligence was good and that these were insurgents, but on hearing the elders’ protests about signing a document that made it sound as if the tribal leaders agreed with the American view, he offered to change the language to say that in the eyes of American forces these detainees were insurgents. The elders nodded their assent. The new language will be used on future sponsor forms. “We learn something every time we do this,” Admiral Harward said. The Afghan military made its own effort to solve the problem when it heard the elders’ protests, by simply writing in the word “no” in front of the phrase saying the detainee had a “link to the insurgency.” The version the elders signed said the detainee had “no link.” In the shifting shadows of this often invisible war, where no one is sure who is lying and who is telling the truth, it seemed a reasonable way to resolve the day’s discord.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Borel Retires After 33 Years

Abstract: The Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner, is retiring, said his agent, Larry Melancon. Borel, 49, who was based at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, won 5,146 races in a career that covered 33 years.

Calvin Borel
Horse racing
Horse Jockeys and Trainers


Obama Delivers an Anticorporate Message

Abstract: Senator Barack Obama , Democrat of Illinois, is running three new advertisements in six states ahead of the multistate primary on Feb. 5. This 30-second commercial, “Need,” is running in Connecticut, Delaware and Utah. PRODUCER Obama media team THE SCRIPT Mr. Obama says, “I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message.” Then, addressing a town-hall-style event, he says, “This administration has further divided Wall Street from Main Street. You got C.E.O.’s who are making more in 10 minutes than ordinary workers are making in a year.” In an interview, he continues: “The bedrock, the foundation of our economy, is our workers. And the middle class have been treading water or worse. My plan says: ‘Let’s return some balance to our tax code. Close these corporate loopholes the lobbyists put in, and let’s make sure that tax breaks are given to people who really need it.’ ” ON THE SCREEN The advertisement opens with a black and white photo of Mr. Obama, then switches to video of him speaking at the forum in Oak Park, Ill. Mr. Obama then speaks to the camera, with cuts away to scenes of him meeting voters and a photo of him with someone wearing a “Jobs! Worth fighting for” T-shirt. Beneath is text highlighting his economic proposals, including “Close corporate tax loopholes,” “$1,000 tax cut per working family” and “No taxes on seniors making under $50,000.” It ends with information about how to vote in the state in which the commercial appears. ACCURACY The gap between executive pay and worker compensation has been on the rise, but is not as great as at its peak in 2000, said Kevin J. Murphy, a professor at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. The average top executive at a Standard & Poor’s 500 company now makes 550 times what the average worker makes — not quite the “10 minutes” mark, Professor Murphy said, although “you could obviously find an example that would make that right.” SCORECARD The campaign’s decision to run the anticorporate spots in Connecticut and Delaware, centers of the hedge fund and banking and credit card industries, respectively, could be seen as risky. During the first three quarters of 2007, Mr. Obama received $489,234 from employees of hedge funds, second among Democrats only to Senator Christopher J. Dodd, who is no longer seeking the nomination, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions. Those states do have many middle-class homeowners who could be feeling the squeeze in an economic downturn. SARAH WHEATON

Presidential Election of 2008
Political Advertising
Obama Barack


Bank of England in Money Market Inquiry

Abstract: LONDON — The Serious Fraud Office, the British agency that investigates and prosecutes fraud and corruption, is investigating whether the Bank of England played any role in rigging money market auctions during the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008. Both institutions confirmed the inquiry on Wednesday night. The investigation follows an independent inquiry commissioned by the central bank last year and carried out by Anthony Grabiner, the same lawyer who conducted a separate £3 million inquiry into whether the Bank of England knew or participated in colluding and rigging the currency markets. The bank said in a statement that it referred the results of Mr. Grabiner’s liquidity auction investigation to the Serious Fraud Office on Nov. 20 2014. The agency confirmed this evening that it was investigating the matter. A criminal investigation will cast a heavy shadow over the central bank, whose governor, Mark Carney, has sought to make transparency and reform a priority. This week however, the Bank of England came under fire from members of the Treasury Select Committee over Mr. Grabiner’s other investigation into whether any bank officials knew of or participated in the rigging of foreign exchange markets. Mr. Grabiner concluded that report in November, clearing the Bank of England of any improper conduct. It criticized Martin Mallett, the bank’s former chief currency dealer, saying that Mr. Mallett failed to alert his superiors about concerns that he had about potential problems in the market and that he did not relay conversations he had with senior market traders about the issues which became central in the investigation. Six banks have so far paid $4.3 billion to settle charges in the currency rigging inquiry. Mr. Mallett was fired over sharing an internal Bank of England document with market participants, offering personal opinions about bank policy, using bad language and sending emails with inappropriate attachments. At the Treasury Select hearing, Jesse Norman, a Conservative member of the committee, said that he had commissioned a lawyer to weigh in on the Grabiner report, saying that he was concerned that the investigation was less than thorough. Charles Béar, the lawyer, said the Bank of England had failed to cast a tough enough eye on its own role in the scandal, after setting “very low tests” for the inquiry. “The performance of the bank’s officials at various levels has not been subject to the scrutiny in the way in which professional people are normally assessed when a serious problem comes to light,” Mr. Béar wrote in his report. In that meeting, Mr. Carney defended Mr. Grabiner’s first report and declined to comment on the money market investigation. “We at the bank don’t provide a running commentary on the inquiries we’re conducting,” he said. That stance changed on Wednesday night after The Financial Times reported that the Serious Fraud office was investigating the bank over the auctions.

Bank of England
Mark Carney
Money market account
Banking and Finance
Serious Fraud Office United Kingdom
Martin Mallet
Great Britain


Jury in Ghailani Trial Ends Week Without Verdict

Abstract: A federal jury in Manhattan was sent home for the weekend by a judge on Thursday after failing to reach a verdict on the second day of deliberations in the case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani , the first former Guantánamo detainee to be tried in civilian court. Mr. Ghailani, 36, faces conspiracy and murder charges stemming from the 1998 terrorist bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in which 224 people were killed and thousands were wounded. If convicted of murder, Mr. Ghailani faces a mandatory life prison sentence. His case has been seen as a kind of test for the Obama administration’s goal of trying detainees like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks, and other suspected 9/11 plotters in civilian court. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that the administration was “close to a decision” on that matter. On Thursday, the jury in Mr. Ghailani’s case sent a note to the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, asking for the findings of an F.B.I. search of a residence in Dar es Salaam where Mr. Ghailani had lived, as well as the testimony of a former F.B.I. agent who said he had found a blasting cap there in an armoire that Mr. Ghailani had used. Mr. Ghailani’s lawyers have argued that the search was flawed, and suggested the blasting cap was planted in the armoire by another conspirator, a claim prosecutors have disputed. Late in the afternoon, Judge Kaplan read aloud another note from the jury, which said, “We have nothing further to deliberate for the day.” When the judge called in the jury and asked for clarification, the foreman said, “We’ve been talking about certain points all day,” and added that “it would take a long time to go into anything else.” The jury’s deliberations will resume on Monday.

Ghailani Ahmed Khalfan
Kaplan Lewis A
Terrorism
Manhattan (NYC)


Transit Union Leader Vows No More Strikes

Abstract: With the transit workers’ union suffering from financially crippling penalties for its illegal strike in 2005, the union’s president pledged in recently filed court papers that the union had no intention of going on strike again “now or in the future.” Roger Toussaint , the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, made the pledge in an affidavit seeking to restore the union’s right to automatically collect dues from members’ paychecks. The 38,000-member union was fined $2.5 million and stripped of what is known as dues check-off as punishment for its 60-hour strike in December 2005, which violated the state’s Taylor Law barring public-sector unions from going on strike. The union has been hobbled by the loss of automatic dues collection, and its revenues appear to have fallen by millions of dollars, though many members have continued to pay dues. The statement, submitted in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in late October, is a contrast to the fiery words that had become Mr. Toussaint’s trademark before and during the strike. It also goes further than Mr. Toussaint has in the past to state that the union will not strike again. The city, which strongly opposed an attempt last year by the union to win back its dues collection rights, will not block the union’s motion this time, officials said Friday. “We are not going to oppose getting their check-off back because they have finally done what the law and the court said they have to do, which is say, ‘We will not strike again,’ ” said the city’s corporation counsel, Michael A. Cardozo, the Bloomberg administration’s top lawyer. Justice Bruce M. Balter is scheduled to hold a hearing on the union’s request on Monday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, representing New York City Transit, submitted papers on Tuesday saying the agency would not oppose reinstatement of automatic dues collection. That, along with the city’s new position, made it appear likely that the court would allow the dues check-off to resume. Mr. Cardozo said that even with Mr. Toussaint’s latest affidavit, there were no guarantees that the union would not some day strike again. But he said that the union might face even heavier financial penalties next time. A spokesman for the union declined to comment. Local 100 has long had a reputation as one of the city’s most aggressive unions. The local has struck three times since 1966 and threatened strikes on two other occasions. During the 2005 strike and afterward, Mr. Toussaint seemed to revel in the role of combative labor leader. He spent four days in jail in April 2006 for his role leading the illegal strike. When he came out he vowed, “We are not backing down.” While such words helped him in his rise to the leadership of the union and after, his concession to the court could undermine his support among union members. Mr. Toussaint must run for re-election as local president next June. The union’s current contract expires in mid-January. Mr. Toussaint’s affidavit, which is dated Oct. 21, says that the union “does not assert the right to strike against any government” and that the union “has no intention, now or in the future” of conducting or threatening a strike against the transit agency. In September 2007, in the earlier effort to regain the check-off, Mr. Toussaint signed an affidavit saying that the union did not assert the right to strike, omitting the statement about the union’s future intentions. At that time the transit agency, which has made a priority of improving labor relations, said it would go along with the union’s request. But the city demanded that the court refuse. In a November 2007 ruling, Justice Balter sided with the city, saying the union must unequivocally pledge not to strike again by submitting sworn statements by Mr. Toussaint and all members of the union’s executive board. The union appealed, and last month an appellate panel altered Justice Balter’s decision, saying that the union could submit a single affidavit but that it should also renounce any future intention of carrying out a strike. That prompted Mr. Toussaint’s new affidavit , which was accompanied by a resolution backing him that he said was passed by the executive board. His affidavit said a vote on the resolution was conducted by telephone. But on Friday a member of the executive board denied being told that the board was taking a formal vote on the resolution. The board member, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from Mr. Toussaint, opposed the resolution.

Strikes
Transport Workers Union
Labor
Toussaint Roger
Organized Labor
Transit Systems


Manchester City Buys the Pieces, but They Don't Fit

Abstract: LONDON — Money can buy talent, but no amount of it can build teamwork. As we enter April, there could hardly be a greater contrast to the ways that Manchester City and Real Madrid are trying to convert their massive spending power into domestic league titles. Madrid’s is the more daunting task. It is trying to knock Barcelona, the best team on earth, off its perch as Spain’s perennial champion. After losing points, and discipline, recently, Real bounced back in majestic fashion with a 5-1 victory against Osasuna on Saturday. Osasuna’s stadium in Pamplona is a fortress, an expression of Basque defiance against the rich and powerful. Madrid stormed it, and, once Karim Benzema scored with a volley of breathtaking technique and timing, Osasuna’s resistance was broken. As long as Real wins its games, Barcelona cannot win La Liga. Barça also won Saturday, with a routine 2-0 victory over another Basque challenger, Athletic Bilbao, but La Liga is Madrid’s to lose: It leads by six points with eight games to go. The coach, José Mourinho, may never win the hearts of Madridistas who regard him as abrasive and autocratic. But he has blended the club’s collection of exotic individuals into a coherent and, after two years, stylish unit. In England, City’s lead has dissolved. Its hunger to usurp United as the top team in Manchester has been fueled by unprecedented amounts of petro-dollars from Abu Dhabi. City’s owners have brought in players from around the world with a mission to topple United and make City the English champion for the first time since 1968. City has led the standings for most of the season. After City thrashed United, 6-1, in Old Trafford stadium in October, it appeared to have all the firepower required to make this intracity revolution happen. Huge cracks are appearing in City’s quest. It still, clearly, owns the talent, but its team cohesion is beginning to fall apart. April is what Alex Ferguson, the veteran United manager, calls “squeaky bum time.” Translation: As the pressures mount, the run-up to the title becomes as much a test of nerve as of skill. It was thought that April 30, when City hosts United at Etihad Stadium, would be the decisive day in this championship. It still might be, but it is now in United’s hands whether the outcome of that game is relevant or not. While Manchester City was losing its most treasured possession, a record of winning every game on home turf for more than a year, United’s players were on the golf course of St. Andrews in Scotland. This was Ferguson’s way of relieving the tension. He has experienced players who have weathered the course of winning an English title before, but he also has young players that he wishes to protect from all the gossip around town. No doubt the players watched events unfold, as City’s team harmony unfolded, on Saturday. The City coach, Roberto Mancini, had so many surplus players that he loaned out 10 of them — including the strikers Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz — to other clubs. By Mancini’s own judgment, his attackers let the team down on Saturday. That might sound strange, given that it was defense that yielded first in going behind, 3-1, to a gutsy, hard-running Sunderland. Many of City’s disaffected fans had vacated the stadium before two goals, from Mario Balotelli and Aleksandar Kolarov, brought a dramatic denouement and rescued a point via a 3-3 draw. But Balotelli and Kolarov had been central to something that happened before that comeback. They had fought, almost literally, over which of them would take a free kick. Balotelli, the king of petulance, lost the argument. The brooding Italian had to be physically restrained by colleagues, and he was eventually led away and given a public talking-to by the team captain, Vincent Kompany. In the stands, the coach Mancini simply rolled his eyes, puckered his cheeks, and flicked at his hair, Italian style. Balotelli is his prodigy, but Balotelli is a 21-year-old child within a man. Last week, given a break from training, he was back in Milan where the previous coach, Mourinho, had decided he was too much of a troublemaker to have in his Inter squad. Now managing Real Madrid, Mourinho is mentioned as a possibility when speculation arises whether City’s owners will tolerate failure or replace the coach this coming summer. For now, Mourinho is responsible for Madrid. Balotelli is Mancini’s problem. “I don’t trust Mario,” Mancini said last Friday. “I don’t think anyone can trust Mario. He can easily score two goals tomorrow, but we can’t trust him.” Mancini was speaking after Balotelli drove to Inter’s training base in a Ferrari earlier in the week and gate-crashed a news conference to introduce the club’s youth trainer as its new first-team coach. Balotelli breezed in, shook the hand of the coach, and flounced out. If Mancini cannot trust him, then why, you might ask, does he select him? The City coach admitted Saturday that he thought about taking Balotelli off the field after just five minutes of play. He couldn’t do that, he explained, because Edin Dzeko has not scored the goals expected of him; Sergio Agüero has a blistered foot; and Carlos Tévez is not fit to play a full 90 minutes after he went AWOL in Argentina for six months. Talent versus temperament is pretty much a City blueprint of late. Mancini regrets that David Silva and Yaya Touré, his two stalwart midfield runners throughout this season, are tiring just when their energy is needed most. Silva’s creative mind has been the team’s most dependable spark for months on end, but now he looks worn down. Touré is the team’s giant, physically and mentally, given his Barcelona background. But he is not Superman, and like many of the players who took time out in January and February to compete in the African Cup of Nations, Touré has not looked the same since he returned. Buying up talent from the world pool is one thing. Blending them is another. And keeping them all running in the same direction on the last laps of the league marathon is the hardest thing.

Manchester City (Soccer Team)
Manchester United (Soccer Team)
Real Madrid (Soccer Team)
Sunderland (Soccer Team)


India’s Slowing Economy Forcing Budget Decisions

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Not too long ago, when India’s economy was roaring amid predictions of high growth rates for years to come, the finance minister could be forgiven for strutting during budget week. He got to march into India’s Parliament with the ceremonial briefcase bearing a budget stuffed with goodies. But on Thursday, when the current finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, arrives in Parliament, his steps will be heavier, and the mood is likely to be, too. Faced with slowing growth, persistent inflation and sagging investor confidence, India’s government is pinned between conflicting pressures: economists warn that tough steps are needed to avoid long-term fiscal problems, even as political leaders are leery of introducing unpopular measures before important elections this year. On Wednesday, the government sought to change the pessimistic narrative, as the Finance Ministry released its annual economic survey and projected that economic growth would jump somewhere above 6 percent during the next fiscal year, predicting that the downturn was “more or less over and the economy is looking up.” Some economists were skeptical, given that similar rosy predictions in recent budgets have proved wrong. “Let me remind you that last year the economic survey spoke of about 7.6 percent projected growth — and what we had was 5 percent growth,” said Ajay Bodke, head of investment strategy and advisory at Prabhudas Lilladher, a Mumbai brokerage. “That is not just a miss but a humongous miss.” The consequences of the budget plans are especially high because India, once a darling of global investors and an anointed power-in-waiting, is struggling to regain its lost luster. India’s estimated 5 percent growth rate for the current fiscal year compares with 8 percent in 2010. Ratings agencies have threatened to downgrade the country’s investment rating to “junk” status. Meanwhile, India’s political class has spent more than three years enmeshed in scandals, as a bickering Parliament has accomplished almost nothing. “It’s a supercritical moment, actually,” said Rajiv Kumar, an economist with the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. “If you get it right, and this is a budget that can shore up the government’s credibility, they can turn it around.” For investors and business leaders, the question is whether the government will make tough calls to address the country’s large fiscal and account deficits, curb huge subsidies for diesel fuel and petroleum products, unclog bureaucratic bottlenecks on stalled manufacturing, energy and infrastructure projects and create incentives to entice new investment. Image India's finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, arrived at the Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Credit B Mathur/Reuters Only a year ago, Pranab Mukherjee, then finance minister, unveiled a budget now regarded by many analysts as a major mistake. Desperate to increase revenues, the government spooked investors by giving broad latitude for tax collectors to pursue multinationals for billions of dollars in new, unexpected taxes. Investment slowed markedly, while investors and political opponents complained that India’s coalition government, led by the Indian National Congress Party, was endangering one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. “The economy is in a deep crisis at the moment,” said Yashwant Sinha of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, a former finance minister, “and I only hope the crisis doesn’t become any deeper with more pre-election sops.” Mr. Sinha and many independent economists warn that the economy cannot afford a repeat of 2008, when the government was preparing for national elections the following year. Then, the pre-election budget was filled with big spending measures, including pay raises for government workers and the forgiveness of billions of dollars in loans to farmers. The government was easily re-elected in 2009, but the new spending contributed to a fiscal deficit that rose to roughly 6 percent, from about 2 percent the previous year. Now, the Congress Party is preparing for state elections this year, while positioning itself for the national races in 2014, when Parliament and control of the government will be up for grabs. Some economists argue that a tough budget this week could restore confidence and jump-start economic growth by the end of this year, providing the government with a political lift in 2014. Yet there is also speculation in political circles that the Congress Party may call early elections, as soon as this year, and would want to curry votes with a budget laced with more spending. Meanwhile, many social advocates cite the gross inequality in Indian society — which has hundreds of millions of people still living on $2 a day or less — and are pushing to expand the safety net. In particular, Congress Party leaders have endorsed plans for the National Food Security Bill, which would expand the number of people eligible for government food subsidies at a huge cost. Many analysts say the government must clearly show how the measure would be financed, or risk even deeper damage to the country’s fiscal situation. “This year’s budget will be especially important for convincing investors that India’s fiscal position is back on a sustainable track and that populist policies won’t overwhelm the pressing need to bring down the fiscal deficit and put public debt on a downward trajectory,” Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University and an adviser to India’s finance minister, said via e-mail. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, considered a father of the 1990s market reforms that prompted the country’s two-decade economic boom, recently warned of “formidable challenges” facing the country. Mr. Chidambaram, the finance minister, who is known as a tough-minded political troubleshooter, has instituted a five-year plan to trim the deficit and was credited with pushing through measures last year that reduced fuel subsidies and opened the retail and aviation sectors to more foreign direct investment. But if these steps buoyed the spirits of the business community, they have not yet revived economic growth. In Wednesday’s report, the Finance Ministry predicted that growth rates would improve to between 6.1 percent and 6.7 percent in the next fiscal year. Many independent economists are far less optimistic, projecting growth between 5 percent and 5.5 percent.

India
Economy
Budget
Palaniappan Chidambaram
Pranab Mukherjee
Indian National Congress
Bharatiya Janata Party
Manmohan Singh


New Zealand Gets Creative to Keep Its Rugby Stars

Abstract: WELLINGTON — For once, the phrase “Four more years” will be music to the ears of New Zealand rugby fans. That was not the case in Sydney in 2003, when the World Cup dreams of New Zealand were shattered once again, prompting Australia captain George Gregan to yell “Four more years, boys, four more years,” at the prone New Zealand scrum-half Byron Kelleher. That taunt was just another reminder of how New Zealand habitually has found a way to come up short on rugby’s biggest stage every four years. But this month, those three little words brought relief and joy in equal measure as superstar fly-half Daniel Carter and then the All Blacks’ inspirational captain, Richie McCaw, pledged their futures to New Zealand rugby by signing new four-year deals. Their decisions to stay have provided a huge lift for rugby in New Zealand as it continues to deal with the steady stream of players heading to Europe and Japan. Carter’s decision to stay through 2015 was more of a surprise than McCaw’s re-signing. The New Zealand captain had hinted strongly his preference was to remain in New Zealand, but Carter had been considering big-money offers from overseas. The fact that he turned his back on lucrative contracts from the French clubs Racing Métro and Perpignan and an English team, Bath, was a feather in the cap for the New Zealand Rugby Union and its decision to “think outside the square” when it came to contract terms. While the details of the contracts remain confidential, it is understood that the hugely marketable duo will be the highest-paid rugby players in New Zealand, and both will also continue to supplemen their rugby salaries with money from endorsement deals. N.Z.R.U. chief executive Steve Tew made no secret of the fact that his organization had taken a flexible approach when it came to dealing with two of rugby’s biggest names — and the exciting talent Sonny Bill Williams can expect the same treatment during his contract negotiations as well. Williams’s current contract allowed him to compete in two boxing bouts, the second of which takes place this Sunday, and being able to pursue his dream in the ring is likely to feature in negotiations this time around, too. This flexible approach for its two star players has resulted in Carter’s and McCaw’s both getting a sabbatical option in their deals — not a regular feature in New Zealand rugby player contracts — that will give them either an extended break or allow them to take up a short-term contract overseas without jeopardizing their involvement with the All Blacks. A similar clause in his previous contract allowed Carter to sign a six-month deal with Perpignan in 2009, although his time in France was cut short when he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon. Normal N.Z.R.U. eligibility rules require players to be based in New Zealand to be considered for All Blacks selection. Carter and McCaw both openly admitted that the desire to keep playing for New Zealand had played a big part in their decisions to re-sign, which means that rule will not be relaxed any time soon. “We think that right now it’s absolutely not the right time to look at that,” said Neil Sorensen, N.Z.R.U. general manager, professional rugby. “We think the lure of the black jersey, the fact that our players are playing here in our competitions in our backyard is an important part of what makes the All Blacks a successful team.” Those eligibility rules are also a key factor in the constant battle the N.Z.R.U. faces to retain its players as it cannot match the vast spending power of clubs in Europe and Japan, which are bankrolled by wealthy benefactors. Unlike in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, where players are contracted to their national unions, players in England, France and Japan are contracted to clubs and are released to their national unions only at specific times of the year. That means that the N.Z.R.U., which pays the wages of players at all five Super Rugby franchises and the 14 ITM Cup provincial teams, cannot compete with a club that has one squad to finance, especially when that club is in the French Top 14 with an €8 million, or nearly $11.5 million, salary cap or in the English Premiership, where starting in the 2012-13 season the salary cap will be raised by £500,000, about $825,000, to £4.5 million, and one marquee player can be signed outside of that cap. Typically, the players who choose to head overseas are those whose All Blacks careers are on the wane or who believe they have little chance of playing for their country and wish to get some financial security for life post-rugby, although most also say that the chance to experience a different country and culture plays a part in their decision to go. Sorensen admits the trend is unlikely to stop. “But it’s no bigger now than it was 10 years ago. It’s something we’ve had to deal with ever since professional rugby started,” he said. “There are always players that we will lose, and we understand that,” he added. “We just factor that into our planning. That’s why we have to put a lot of effort into our talent identification and player development.” Sorensen also does not see the New Zealand rugby landscape moving toward a more European-type club structure where Super Rugby franchises became independent of the N.Z.R.U. “I don’t envisage them ever being separate to the N.Z.R.U.,” he said, “but I certainly envisage a time, and we welcome a time, when additional investment comes in where private investment was secured for franchises and franchises generated significant revenues from outside the N.Z.R.U. “Right now their biggest form of revenue is from us because we pay for their players. We would welcome enquiries from wealthy corporates and wealthy individuals. We would certainly open our arms and say ‘Come and visit us, we’re happy to talk.”’


With Finality, F.B.I. Opts Not to Share iPhone-Unlocking Method

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. closed the door Wednesday to the possibility of giving Apple the technical solution that the government bought to unlock the iPhone used by one of the attackers in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. The decision leaves Apple in the dark about the technical details of how the F.B.I. — with help from an unknown outside group that was apparently paid at least $1.3 million — managed to bypass the company’s vaunted encryption. After two months of tense sparring over the San Bernardino iPhone, the government’s decision was a clear rebuke to Apple. Its chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has declared publicly that the company should not have to develop new software so the F.B.I. can unlock its phones. The F.B.I. on Wednesday appeared eager to return the favor by refusing to divulge how it finally broke in. The decision upset some technology industry executives, who said it appeared to run counter to the Obama administration’s promises to promote security and transparency in the nation’s technology operations. Apple declined to comment on Wednesday. F.B.I. officials maintained that what they bought from the outside company amounted only to a tool for getting into the phone, and not a blueprint exposing the actual security flaws in the device. As a result, F.B.I. officials decided not to send the issue on to a special White House panel that reviews the question of whether software vulnerabilities discovered by American intelligence officials should be shared with the software designer to enhance security. That review panel could have determined that the technical fix bought by the F.B.I. should be shared with Apple. “The F.B.I. purchased the method from an outside party so that we could unlock the San Bernardino device,” said Amy S. Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology. “We did not, however, purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate. As a result, currently we do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review” by the White House examiners, she said. Soon after the government said that a third party had successfully gotten data from the phone, after giving the F.B.I. a demonstration of its method in February, many security professionals were hopeful that the method would be made public. “It’s the position of Obama administration that security flaws should be disclosed to the parties that can fix them,” said Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla. She added that the fact that the F.B.I. did not take the necessary steps to understand how the outside group opened the phone shows that the review process over all needs to be more transparent. The government’s decision simply to hire the locksmith and ignore how that lock was opened “creates a gap in the review process” that is “not transparent and has not been set in legislation,” she said. The F.B.I.’s carefully worded statement reveals that law enforcement authorities have found a loophole in the vulnerability review process created by the administration— hire the hacker to extract the data, but be careful to not know how he got the job done. “The F.B.I. is intentionally exploiting a known vulnerability and enabling people to profit off of it,” said Alex Rice, the chief technology officer at HackerOne, a security company in San Francisco that helps coordinate vulnerability disclosure for corporations. “The collateral damage done by this lack of transparency and the possible ongoing existence of the flaw is serious.” The government’s claim that it does not have enough details to provide any information to the review process is not unusual. “Over the last 10 years as cellphones became more important to criminal investigations, law enforcement would hire digital forensics teams, would extract data for investigators without necessarily buying the capability to do it themselves,” said Ben Johnson, the co-founder of the security start-up Carbon Black. The F.B.I. decided not to send the issue to the White House to review under a classified and little-known system known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process. There are often “legitimate pros and cons” in deciding whether a flaw should be disclosed to the designer, a senior official said in a 2014 White House blog post — one of the few times the review process has been publicly discussed. Because the government relies on Internet security, wrote Michael Daniel, special assistant to the president on cybersecurity, “disclosing vulnerabilities usually makes sense. We need these systems to be secure as much as, if not more so, than anyone else.” But Mr. Daniel acknowledged that the United States government could sometimes exploit the security flaws itself if it does not disclose them. “Disclosing a vulnerability can mean that we forgo an opportunity to collect crucial intelligence that could thwart a terrorist attack, stop the theft of our nation’s intellectual property, or even discover more dangerous vulnerabilities that are being used by hackers or other adversaries to exploit our networks,” he said.

Apple
FBI
Privacy
Government Surveillance
Computer security


Washington Coach Keeps Quiet on Starter

Abstract: Washington Coach Chris Petersen is keeping his pick for his starting quarterback a secret until the team takes the field for Friday night’s season opener, at No. 23 Boise State. Petersen said the Huskies decided the best move for their program was withholding the name of their starter in part to limit distractions. The junior Jeff Lindquist, the redshirt freshman K. J. Carta-Samuels and the true freshman Jake Browning competed for the job during camp.

Chris Petersen
College football
University of Washington


Hints of Agenda and Tone for New First Lady

Abstract: WASHINGTON — She celebrated her 45th birthday in a vintage train car, amid balloons and crepe-paper streamers, and cheering crowds serenaded her by name. She danced in front of the Lincoln Memorial to Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” with her husband and daughters clapping by her side. She assembled care packages for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, in this long, whirlwind weekend, marveled that she would soon be the public face of America’s first family. On Inauguration Day, Michelle Obama will become the first African-American to assume the role of first lady, a woman with the power to influence the nation’s sense of identity, its fashion trends, its charitable causes and its perceptions of black women and their families. Already, the outlines of her style and public agenda have begun to emerge. She has hired a politically seasoned team of advisers and an interior decorator committed to creating a family-friendly feel in her elegant new home. She has sketched out a vision of a White House brimming with children and ordinary Americans while suggesting she may delegate some traditional first lady duties to her staff: food tastings, china selection and the like. She has decided to shape her public program with the help of a policy director who has raised concerns about instances of systemic employment bias against minorities and called for tougher enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, contentious issues in the workplace. And she has highlighted the warm, informal tone that she hopes will characterize her time in the executive mansion by signing e-mail messages to supporters simply as “Michelle.” Mrs. Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a former hospital executive, has made it clear that her two young daughters will be her biggest priority. The causes she has promised to promote — expanding volunteerism and supporting military families and working parents — fall squarely into the realm of platforms traditionally championed by first ladies. But the staff she has assembled is also clearly prepared to tackle a tougher issues-oriented program. “Her experience will guide the kinds of things she does, and her personal experience is unique for a first lady,” said Paul Schmitz, a longtime friend. “She understands the needs of low-income communities. She understands the needs of women. She has balanced raising a family with a career.” “She’ll think deeply about how to use her own bully pulpit,” said Mr. Schmitz, who heads Public Allies, a nonprofit leadership-training network for young adults. “And I think that’s the challenge. You are now the most prominent woman in America. What does that mean? What do you do?” It is a difficult question, particularly since Mrs. Obama is still grappling with how life in the grand house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will transform her family’s existence. She has grown accustomed to being in the spotlight — with Secret Service agents accompanying her to private lunches with her girlfriends — and has consulted with Laura Bush and former first ladies Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter. But she has no experience with the day-to-day details of life in the White House. President Bush and his wife were old hands at White House living because they had visited often when Mr. Bush’s father, George Bush, was running the country. Mrs. Obama visited the private residence in the White House for the first time in November after the election. She grew up in a tiny apartment and marveled recently when she and her close friend Valerie Jarrett pored over photographs of the 15 bedrooms in the presidential mansion. “You have to pinch yourself to think that that’s home,” said Ms. Jarrett, who is also one of President-elect Barack Obama ’s closest advisers. Craig Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s brother, described the Obamas’ new reality as “mind-boggling.” “Every time I talk to her, I’m like, ‘What are you doing now?’ ” said Mr. Robinson, who has delighted in his sister’s accounts of her days in Washington before the move to the White House. “We are such novices at this. I’m just trying to find out, How many bathrooms are in there?” (The answer is 34, according to William Seale, a historian who has written about the White House.) Mrs. Obama has the highest favorability ratings of any incoming first lady since 1980, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll completed Thursday. Forty-six percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of her. Seven percent had an unfavorable view. Gossip magazines, cable networks and major newspapers vie for tiny details about her and her daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. The designer of Mrs. Obama’s inaugural gown? (Sorry, no word yet.) Her favorite musician of all time? (Yes, Stevie Wonder.) Where in the White House is Malia likely to gather her thoughts when she has a tough school assignment? (At Lincoln’s desk where he penned the Gettysburg Address.) Mrs. Obama, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has reached out directly to supporters via e-mail and YouTube. And she has taken care in recent months to strike the right notes, emphasizing a preference for American fashion designers and announcing plans to use “affordable brands and products” as she redecorates the White House during this recession. She knows that life under the microscope carries its perils. After some rhetorical stumbles during the presidential campaign, Mrs. Obama was criticized by conservative columnists who accused her of being unpatriotic and bitter toward whites. Her approval ratings have soared since she refocused her image on her role as a wife and mother, but she still comes under periodic attack from conservative bloggers and others. “There will be some people trying to pick holes,” Mr. Robinson said. “We’re used to that.” Mrs. Obama’s diverse team, which includes former Congressional staff members and strategists from Democratic presidential campaigns, seems equally prepared to hone her message or deflect attack. Jackie Norris, her chief of staff, served as a senior adviser in Iowa for the presidential campaigns of Mr. Obama and former Vice President Al Gore. Melissa Winter, her deputy chief of staff, spent 18 years on Capitol Hill. Jocelyn Frye, her policy director, is general counsel for at the National Partnership for Women and Families in Washington, a nonprofit that advocates for workplace equity. Camille Johnston, her communications director, worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns and served as press secretary for two cabinet officials. And her press secretary, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, worked for Mrs. Clinton when she was first lady and was deputy communications director for Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign. By contrast, Laura Bush’s first chief of staff came straight from the Governor’s Mansion in Texas and knew little about national or Washington politics, and her press aides have typically lacked national media experience, according to a former Bush administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. While many of Mrs. Obama’s advisers do not have White House experience and may have initial difficulties navigating its bureaucracy, the official said the staff was far more politically seasoned than Mrs. Bush’s team. “She’s trying to get the best people, pulling in the cream of the crop,” the official said of Mrs. Obama. The new first lady will also have clear channels to the West Wing, counting close friends among the president-elect’s advisers, including Ms. Jarrett and Susan Sher, who is associate counsel. They could be key allies should she choose to weigh in on policy issues she cares about. (She has said that she plans to leave the business of governing to her husband.) Mrs. Obama has focused publicly in recent months on her self-described role of “mom in chief,” settling her daughters at Sidwell Friends School and persuading her mother to move into the White House. She has made a point of hiring a chief of staff and a chef who regularly wrestle with the challenges faced by working mothers. But the disciplined, no-nonsense executive also comes through. While Mrs. Bush often hand-picked the silver, china and tablecloths for White House dinners, Mrs. Obama is more likely to focus on the broad themes of such events, delegating the details, Ms. Jarrett said. (Mr. Robinson said that while his sister typically cooked for her girls, she might be happy to delegate that for a while, too.) She wants a home that is gracious, with 20th-century art amid the antiques, but comfortable for children. As a former community organizer, she also wants the White House to be more accessible to ordinary Americans, envisioning picnics that might include local children as well as state dinners. “She wants it to be fun and to bring a sense of youth and style,” said Ms. Sher, Mrs. Obama’s friend. Mrs. Obama also wants the White House to feel like home. She has spent her entire life in Chicago, aside from her years in college and law school. And when her closest friends prepared to hold a goodbye lunch in her honor, she asked only for keepsakes and personal mementos. So her friends brought snapshots in small frames, photographs of Mrs. Obama with her family, colleagues and friends in Chicago. Ms. Sher, who attended the lunch, said she did not know if Mrs. Obama had settled on a place for the photos in her new house. But she is not worried. “She said there’s a lot of room,” Ms. Sher said.

First Ladies
Inaugurations
Sidwell Friends School
United States Politics and Government
Obama Michelle
White House (Washington DC)
Families and Family Life
Politics and Government
Bush Laura
Obama Barack


Sabathia Reaches 20 Wins for the First Time

Abstract: BALTIMORE — No one has been better the past year at pitching at home than C. C. Sabathia . And he might as well have been pitching at Yankee Stadium on Saturday considering how many Yankees fans packed into Camden Yards. Thousands of fans bedecked in blue and white gave the Baltimore Orioles their first sellout since their home opener, easily outnumbering Orioles fans and making Sabathia feel right at home. But as comfortable as Sabathia might have been in front of the partisan crowd, the night ended with Sabathia in a place he had never before been — the 20-win level. Just as Sabathia did, the Yankees also ended just where they wanted to be: still atop the American League East after their 11-3 drubbing of the Orioles . It was their second win in as many days, securing their first series victory in two weeks. “I feel good,” Sabathia said. “I’m just more excited that we won the game, and people will stop asking me about it now.” Better yet, people also have stopped asking about the Yankees’ slump, which cast a shadow over their disappointing series in Texas and Tampa Bay the past week. Alex Rodriguez’s ninth-inning home run created an obvious hero for Friday night’s victory , and Sabathia was the ready-made protagonist Saturday. Sabathia’s previous career high was 19 wins — a mark he reached twice before this season, in 2007 with Cleveland, when he won the American League Cy Young Award, and last year with the Yankees. But while Sabathia did not get carried away celebrating his milestone — in fact, asked to reflect after the game, he suggested he pitched more consistently in 2007 than he has this season — the win undoubtedly came as a relief for Sabathia and his teammates. Saturday’s game was Sabathia’s third try at the 20-win mark; he took the loss on Sept. 7 against Baltimore and received a no-decision in the Yankees’ 11-inning loss to the Rays on Monday, although he pitched well enough that night to earn a win, surrendering only two hits in eight scoreless innings. “Really happy for him,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He’s been our ace all year — really, since he’s got here. And to get to 20 wins, it’s quite an accomplishment.” His teammates were even more effusive. “Obviously, we know that this is C. C.’s third time going for that; that’s kind of in the back of everybody’s mind,” Nick Swisher said. “For him, who’s had such a great career, we definitely wanted to come out tonight and finally get him that win that he so very much deserves.” Sabathia is the first Yankees pitcher to reach the 20-win threshold since Mike Mussina went 20-9 in 2008, and the first Yankees left-hander to do so since Andy Pettitte five years earlier. He is also the first in the major leagues to reach that mark this season, bolstering his case for another Cy Young. Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies each have 19 wins. No pitcher had 20 victories last season. It was not, however, Sabathia’s finest performance — and not quite the kind of dominating effort that he unleashed at Tampa Bay in his last start. The Orioles scrounged up runs in the second and third on sacrifice flies and in the fifth on a home run by Robert Andino, his second in as many games. Over all, Sabathia (20-6) allowed three runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out four in seven innings. But it was more than enough for a victory. The Yankees’ offense, which struggled Friday, consisted of much more than Rodriguez and his big swings (though Rodriguez went 2 for 4 with two runs on Saturday). Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson hit home runs, and Brett Gardner finished a home run short of hitting for the cycle. Cano’s two runs batted in put him at 101 for the season, the first time in his career that he has crossed the 100-R.B.I. threshold. “It means a lot,” Cano said. Yet it was Sabathia who was the center of attention in the Yankees’ clubhouse for doing what he failed to do against the Orioles a week and a half ago. And it was fitting that Sabathia reached his milestone at Camden Yards; a quarter of his 20 wins this season have come against Baltimore, a club he has dominated throughout his career. But while his teammates were giddy in talking about the milestone after the game — “He’s got to be on cloud nine tonight,” Swisher said — for now, Sabathia is keeping an even keel. “Maybe after the season, I can sit back and enjoy it a little more,” he said. “Right now, I’m just looking five days ahead to who I’m pitching against next.” INSIDE PITCH Mark Teixeira was held out of the lineup Saturday; with Thursday’s day off, that gave Teixeira two days of rest in three days. Teixeira has been bothered by a broken toe on his right foot, which he sustained Aug. 31 when he was hit by a pitch, and a bruised thumb, which he sustained four days before that while diving for a ball. “It’s been tough,” Teixeira said. “This has been the toughest two- or three-week stretch I think I’ve had in my whole career, playing through pain.” ... Nick Swisher, who has been limited recently to pinch-hitting because of an ailing left knee, returned to the starting lineup as designated hitter. He was 2 for 5 with a double before being removed for a pinch runner in the eighth inning. He said after the game that he was ready to return to playing the field. “I feel good,” he said.

Baltimore Orioles
New York Yankees
Sabathia C C
Baseball


A Review of ‘Once on This Island,’ at the Paper Mill Playhouse

Abstract: Most people who have been on vacation in the Caribbean know that the premise behind “Once on This Island,” the atmospheric new production at the Paper Mill Playhouse , is based in socioeconomic reality. At many a destination, the taxi drive from the airport takes tourists through the poorer parts of the island, reminding them that the smiling people in crisp uniforms who bring them beach towels, piña coladas and room-service breakfasts in their bougainvillea-draped mini-villas lead daily lives that are a far cry from a five-star resort. “Once on This Island,” a fairy tale with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, begins by explaining a similar but thoroughly local dichotomy on a fictional Antilles isle. One side of the island is inhabited by the people we meet first, who are black and poor. The other side is inhabited by the so-called grands hommes (this is a French-speaking island), who have lighter skin and are rich and comfortable. And one day the twain meet. It is a love story, a more somber take on “The Little Mermaid” with a Greek-myth kind of ending. And it is told by the poor islanders to calm a frightened little girl. Ti Moune ( Syesha Mercado in the Paper Mill production) is a peasant girl whose adoptive parents found her perched in a tree after a major storm. As a grown woman, she happens upon a dying man who has been in an automobile accident. Daniel Beauxhomme (Adam Jacobs) is young, handsome and, most important, a grand homme (as his surname suggests). Ti Moune saves his life and nurses him back to health — spends days and nights in his bed, “healing him,” as the ensemble explains with a lascivious wink, a nice touch from the director, Thomas Kail. She falls in love and wonders why, if he loves her in return, she cannot live happily ever after as his bride. Clearly, she hasn’t read “The Great Gatsby.” Ms. Mercado, who placed third on the reality competition show “American Idol” in 2008, has a lovely stage presence and a big, booming voice. So do many of her fellow cast members, who include Darius de Haas as Agwe, the god of water; Alan Mingo Jr. as Papa Ge, the demon of death; and Aurelia Williams as the earth-mother goddess, Asaka. But it is only when Daniel recovers consciousness, returns to his side of the island and sings “Some Girls” to Ti Moune (“You are as wild as that windblown tree/As dark and as deep as the midnight sea”) that the production fully comes to life. Until then, the script feels like too much narration and too little action. And sadly, that moment comes quite late in what is only a 90-minute show. “Once on This Island” is based on a 1985 novel, “My Love, My Love: Or, The Peasant Girl,” by Rosa Guy , an American author born in Trinidad. The songs that Ms. Ahrens and Mr. Flaherty (a team best known for their Tony Award-winning musical “Ragtime,” with a book by Terrence McNally) have added to Ms. Guy’s story sometimes have a Caribbean lilt, but just as often they are simply pleasantly melodic Broadway show tunes that run to the anthemic. The show opened at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 1990 and moved to Broadway later that year, directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele. In general, Bradley Rapier’s choreography for the Paper Mill production is graceful and confident, but the standout number, Ti Moune’s dance at the grands hommes’ party, is sensual, wild, joyous and African. Donyale Werle’s attractive scenic design begins with a stage-size screen that often acts as sea and sky and adds rustically stylized palms and shanties on one side of the island and golden, wooden structures for the luxurious hotel on the other side, where Daniel and his family live. From the first storm to the magical ending, Kenneth Posner’s lighting design is good-looking, moody and tropical. Jessica Jahn’s costume design is just Caribbean enough, with lots of crinkled cotton in white and soft, fruity pastels. There are some nice aspects to this production. It is impressive, for instance, how seamlessly members of the ensemble transform themselves from understanding gods to apathetic peasants to grands hommes (with little more than Carnival masks and sashes). But much of “Once on This Island” is a soothing children’s bedtime story. And most grown-up audiences probably aren’t looking for that.

Paper Mill Playhouse
Theater
New Jersey
Once on This Island (Play)
Ahrens Lynn
Flaherty Stephen
Mercado Syesha
Jacobs Adam
Kail Thomas


Market Rallies Then Levels Off After Debt Deal

Abstract: Hopes were high for a rally in stocks in the wake of Sunday’s debt limit agreement. But the bounce was a thud. On Monday, the three main indexes jumped then slumped for most of the day and closed lower as the reality of the challenges ahead for the economy set in. This is a trend that some analysts say is likely to persist, even after any resolution in the debt ceiling debate and its prospects for downgrade or default. The main reason is worry about the nation’s economic recovery, which recent data shows to be more fragile than originally thought. On Monday, the manufacturing sector showed signs of losing steam in July. “Now that the debt ceiling deal, assuming it passes, has averted an imminent catastrophe, attention can return to the underlying state of the economy,” said Nigel Gault, the IHS Global Insight chief United States economist. “The news there isn’t good.” On Monday, the stock market in the United States briefly followed European and Asian markets higher, lifting more than 1 percent shortly after the opening. But any relief over the last-minute agreement on the debt deal framework was fleeting. After the first half-hour of trading, the three main Wall Street indexes turned negative and mostly stayed in the red, bringing the broader market as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index down more than 4 percent over the past six consecutive days of declines. Much of the slump was attributed to a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing a slowdown in the nation’s factories. The index registered 50.9 percent in July, down from 55.3 percent in June. A reading over 50 percent means the manufacturing sector expanded for the 24th consecutive month. Production and employment showed continued growth in July, but at slower rates than in June. However, the new orders component fell to 49.2 percent, hitting a notch below 50 percent for the first time since June, 2009, when it was 48.9 percent. The news was particularly bad on the heels of the Friday report that the nation’s gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of less than 1 percent in the first half of 2011, with the first quarter and the second quarter at 0.4 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. The G.D.P. data was revised going back to 2003, showing the recession was deeper and the recovery weaker than originally thought. “July’s I.S.M. report was a shocker,” said economists from Capital Economics in a research note. “The index is not flagging up another recession, at least not yet, but it suggests that the easing in G.D.P. growth in the first half of the year is looking more and more like a sustained slowdown than a short-lived soft patch.” Nick Kalivas, vice president for financial research at MF Global, said the weekend’s debt deal developments took some risk and “a little” uncertainty from the market. The deal, he said, “kind of pushes the longer-term issues out to be taken up at another time.” The S.& P. was down 5.34 points, or 0.41 percent, to 1,286.94. The Dow Jones industrial average was off 10.75 points, or 0.09 percent, to 12,132.49, and the Nasdaq index fell 11.77 points, or 0.43 percent, to 2,744.61. Noting that the American stock market has performed well this year largely because of record corporate profits, James Swanson, the chief investment strategy for mutual-fund company MFS Investment Management in Boston, said that “the economy is disappointing investors because the general assumption has been that U.S. growth would be in the twos to threes and it’s clearly not.” While bond markets may rally in response to the fact the debt ceiling crisis was averted, some analysts say the size of the agreement is likely to disappoint investors over the long term. “Foreigners, in particular, are going to look at this deal and say, ‘I thought the U.S. was capable of more than this,’ ” said Zane Brown, the fixed-income strategist at Lord Abbett. “We may find that foreign owners of U.S. Treasury securities may look for opportunities to move elsewhere.” Another issue weighing on investors is whether America will retain its sterling credit rating. “I think we’re going to be watching for the reactions of the rating agencies,” said G. David MacEwen, chief investment officer at mutual-fund company American Century Investments in Kansas City, Mo. Pointing to the stance of Standard and Poor’s that suggested it may downgrade the country to a AA rating from a AAA if spending was not reduced by about $4 trillion, Mr. MacEwen said it was a “big question” whether it and the other rating agencies will be satisfied with this deal. Noting that the manufacturing report followed “terrible” G.D.P. and jobs data, Matt Freund, the senior vice president of investment portfolio management for USAA Investment Management, said, “We think it is a glass half-full economy, but it is getting harder to tell where the water line is.” Yields have fallen as a result, he noted. The benchmark 10-year Treasury was down slightly at 2.75 percent. In addition, there have been continued concerns about the outlook for Europe. Stefan de Schutter, an asset manager at Alpha Trading in Frankfurt, said the initial reaction in Europe to the news in the United States was one of relief but he also said European investors remained cautious. “If we look ahead,” he said, “we’ll see a return to the focus on the economic problems in Europe.” The FTSE 100 in London was down 0.70 percent to 5,774.43, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 2.27 percent to 3,588.05, and the DAX in Frankfurt was off 2.86 percent to 6,953.98, its biggest percentage drop since March. The key index in Japan jumped 1.3 percent, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong added 1 percent, picking up steam after the deal in Washington was announced by President Obama.

Stocks and Bonds
Nikkei Stock Average
National Debt (US)
Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index


Progressive Introduces New Character to Complement Ad Campaign

Abstract: ADVERTISING that encourages viewers to watch series on the USA cable channel like “Burn Notice” and “White Collar” carry the theme “Characters welcome.” Now, it seems, USA may have to share its slogan with the insurance industry. Progressive is joining the ranks of insurers that run multiple campaigns with an assortment of characters, endorsers and spokesbeasts. Others include Allstate, State Farm and, of course, Geico, which has its gecko and cave men, along with a “googly eyes” creature and the latest arrival, a stentorian pitchman who asks odd questions. Progressive, which has been running ads since 2008 featuring a sassy sales clerk named Flo, plans to introduce on Sunday a separate campaign with another character. “Flo is not going anywhere,” said Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer at the Progressive Corporation in Mayfield Village, Ohio. “This is complementary.” The new character is a mysterious man who is nameless for now. He is being referred to by executives of Progressive and its creative agency, Arnold Worldwide, as the Messenger. The character, played by John Jenkinson, is an off-center nomad with outfits that evoke “Magnum, P.I.” or “Starsky and Hutch” and the kind of mustache worn by men in sleazy films of the 1970s. The goal of running more than one campaign at a time is to sufficiently entertain consumers to prevent them from changing channels, turning the page or clicking a mouse. The variety is intended to help the ads stand out amid the clutter, particularly in categories like insurance that are crowded with many large marketers — each with ad budgets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars a year. “It’s kind of a one-two punch,” James Crolley, advertising director at Progressive, said of his company’s dual campaigns. Another goal is for the characters to reach different consumers, he added. Flo, who has appeared in 53 spots so far, set in a make-believe insurance superstore, is aimed at people who are already considering buying policies or changing insurers. The Messenger, by contrast, is intended for “the 72 percent of the population that is not in the market for insurance in a given year,” Mr. Crolley said, “and hand them off to Flo.”  In the first commercial to feature the new character, he turns up inside a mattress store, surprising a couple. “Too bad you’re not buying car insurance ,” the Messenger says, praising a service called Progressive Direct that enables consumers to compare rates. “Wake up and smell the savings.” The commercial ends with the character driving a car on a highway. His face is visible in the rear-view mirror, above a bobblehead doll of Flo perched atop the dashboard. “Out there with a better way,” a voice declares. “Now that’s Progressive.” Subsequent commercials echo the first. In one spot, the Messenger appears in a diner. “Who are you?” the waitress asks; he replies, “Just a man who loves savings — and pie.” In another commercial, he teases a clerk in a clothing store who is selling a pair of jeans for $175, declaring, “The jeans are skinny, but the savings are fat” with Progressive. All the spots conclude with the character driving to another encounter “with people who aren’t even thinking about insurance,” said David Register, executive vice president and group creative director at Arnold Worldwide in Boston, part of Havas. “He’s not a traditional spokesman,” Mr. Register said, nor is he Flo, “who wears a pin that reads, ‘I love insurance.’ ” Rather, the Messenger is meant to personify the conversations that consumers have about insurance, he added, whether in actual meetings, face to face, or virtually, through social media like Facebook and Twitter. “He’s word of mouth,” Mr. Register said. “He’s an advocate for the brand.”  The Messenger also behaves differently from Flo. As a Progressive employee, she is more of a straightforward spokeswoman, while he is a tad askew, as evidenced by his mustache, outdated garb and penchant for unexpected utterances. Mr. Charney described the Messenger as “somewhat like a cross between Sam Elliott or Jeff Bridges and Jim Carrey.” But he, Mr. Crolley and Mr. Register demurred at comparing their new character to the spokesmen for products like Old Spice body wash and Dos Equis beer, who simultaneously serve as — and send up the concept of — brand characters. The Messenger is “a little more offbeat,” Mr. Charney allowed, and as a result “can talk about the brand in a bigger, bolder way.” Mr. Jenkinson appeared with Flo, played by Stephanie Courtney, in a Progressive commercial that was introduced in January. He was not the Messenger, but rather someone shopping for motorcycle insurance; his performance — and his chemistry with Ms. Courtney — led to his casting for the new campaign. The Progressive and Arnold executives are mum on whether the Messenger and Flo will ever join forces. In June, Allstate introduced a campaign with a character named Mayhem, portrayed by Dean Winters, who personifies the pitfalls that can vex drivers. Mayhem is the bad cop to the good cop in the long-running campaign for Allstate featuring Dennis Haysbert. And State Farm recently began a second campaign, with the actor Eddie Matos, which takes a feistier approach on policy prices than its mainstay ads. Other insurers with campaigns centered on characters include Esurance and Farmers. The spending for the Messenger campaign is expected to come from the existing Progressive ad budget. According to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, Progressive spent $227.3 million to advertise in major media in the first six months of 2010, up 36.4 percent from the $166.7 million spent in the same period a year ago.

Progressive Corp
Advertising and Marketing


A Pastor Preaches of Life to Chase Specter of Death

Abstract: Irvington RESTLESS behind his pulpit, preaching to a packed sanctuary that had seen too much dying, the Rev. Ron Christian was inaugurating the new year with a fervent sermon about living. The Sunday morning outside was as cold as the one eight winters ago when he first visited the failing church that happened to share his name, and that had called him to be its new pastor. Christian Love Baptist Church was in foreclosure then, the heat was off, and the fogging breath of the handful of worshipers in the pews rendered their prayers visible. But today the church was close and steamy, and sweat was darkening the pink shirt he wore untucked over his blue jeans. “Last year God gave you a vision!” he shouted, pacing back and forth with one hand held out in front of his middle to pantomime a pregnancy — a vision of a new job, a new home, a new start, a vision of some kind of change in a stagnant life. “It didn’t come to pass, but it grew and it grew and it grew, and it grew some more.” The congregation shouted, too, and the drums crashed, and Mr. Christian, 44, wiped his shaved head dry with a white towel. “But now you got to rush to the hospital because 2009 is the year that you give birth to your dream,” he exhorted, and then gave a command that raised the decibel level even higher as the congregants echoed him. “Look at your neighbor and say: ‘Neighbor, it’s birthing time. I got to get this thing out of my belly. I got to get this thing out of my spirit. I’ve been holding it too long.’ ” Earlier in the week a report by a prominent criminologist, James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, had made headlines with its findings of what anybody who had been watching the procession of funerals through this church already knew: The murder rate among African-American teenagers rose 39 percent from 2000 to 2007, more than five times the rise in the nation’s overall murder rate. In some recent years, Mr. Christian estimates, as many as two-thirds of the people he has buried have been under the age of 30. But he had climbed on top of his pulpit now and turned it into a delivery table, sitting with his knees up and legs spread, at the more hopeful end of the life cycle. “All you got to do is give me one big last push,” he said, grunting through phantom labor pains. “I know your strength is gone, but can you dig deep in yourself and push one more time? Are you in the right position to push this thing out of you?” Life is the answer to death. How many more times, how many more ways, could he say it? But even as he preached his message again now, on the first Sunday of a new year he hoped would bring more baptizing and marrying than burying, he knew he would soon be preaching again at another funeral, for a young man shot to death a few nights earlier just a few blocks away. He knew, too, that last month, two nights after a busload of teenagers from his church traveled to a Union roller rink for a peaceful, joyful Christmas skating party, a young man was shot to death there, and another family started the new year in grief. Too many people in the church have mourned similar losses, but the weight borne by one of them — a young man in a sweatshirt and jeans who has been here each Sunday morning, and Wednesday evenings, too, since September — was especially heavy. “I met him the day my family got murdered — my mother, my two sisters and my cousin,” Terrance McLean, 21, said about his first encounter with Mr. Christian. The four were shot to death the night of Sept. 8 in their Irvington home, which was then set on fire; a suspect has been charged with their murders. “Maybe the first few times I came to church, hearing him preach, I’d probably say, ‘If God knows everything and God don’t make mistakes, how did he allow this to happen?’” said Mr. McLean, who is studying sociology at New Jersey City University, hoping to become a guidance counselor. “But listening to him preach I began to understand more. He reversed that.” Sitting in the pews and standing along the walls this morning was a large number of the kind of worshipers seen less often at many other African-American churches: young men. When Mr. Christian became pastor, he hung a sign on the front of the old brick church: “Sinners Are Welcome Here.” And they have come — Bloods and Crips handing over their bandannas for the collection he keeps in his desk — in part because they know that he has walked some of the same roads they have. “Fourteen rehabs, nine detoxes,” Mr. Christian said later about the addiction to cocaine and heroin that turned him into a thief, cost him his first career — as a state corrections officer and part-time college instructor — and left him briefly homeless before landing him in prison for more than two years. He studied a Bible sent to him there by his father, a Baptist pastor in Newark who now works at Christian Love, and became a minister when he emerged. “Come as you are, let God worry about the rest,” he said to the congregation during the altar call after his sermon had ended. More than a dozen new members came up the aisle, joining a church that has signed up more than 6,000 members now. “If you wait to get yourself together before you walk up you ain’t never walking up, because you ain’t never going to be together.” Others appear on other days, too, people who want to get right with the law as well as with God, fugitives looking for someone trustworthy to surrender to. “I’m talking about murderers, major drug suspects, guys with all-points bulletins on them,” said Michael Chase, Irvington’s police chief, who has received many such surrender calls from Mr. Christian. “There are people that would probably go to no church if it wasn’t for the ministry he has. You can see someone who’s been in jail and you can see someone who’s run the jail in the same congregation.” Mr. Christian changed into a fresh shirt, one of the six he usually goes through in the four services each Sunday, and he stood at the front door embracing all who left. But a few dozen members didn’t, staying in the sanctuary as part of the congregation’s 12-day round-the-clock vigil welcoming the new year, one that he hoped would bring more occasions to celebrate, and fewer to mourn. “First I was burying more people than marrying,” Mr. Christian said, but the balance has shifted over the last year or so. “But now I’m marrying more people than burying.” His wife, Tami, and their five children were home in West Orange, but he was planning to spend the night sleeping on the floor of his office. He makes sure somebody is always here at the church, and tonight it would be him.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Blacks
Christians and Christianity
Christian Ron


Mets Decide They Are Done Reliving October

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Finally, after a second day of watching the Royals rub their World Series victory in the Mets’ faces with another pregame victory celebration, one Met took umbrage. But it was not a player who was a member of the team last November. It was Neil Walker, the new second baseman, who supplied all the offense the team needed on Tuesday to get a small but satisfying measure of revenge against a nemesis. Walker hit a two-run homer and let Noah Syndergaard handle the rest from the mound as the Mets won, 2-0, at Kauffman Stadium for their first win of the season. “To stand out there and watch them celebrate for two of the games was kind of enough for us to get annoyed to a certain degree,” Walker said, “to go out and just compete and win.” The Royals held a tasteful ceremony on Sunday to raise their championship flag, replete with a video montage of their triumph over the Mets that included clips of all the plays that tipped in the Royals’ favor, each one a little dagger to the losers. The Mets said it was understandable and took it with grace. Then, before Tuesday’s game, the Royals held a ceremony to hand out their championship rings. The Mets had apparently seen enough. But after the game, the Mets were able to hold a kind of informal ceremony of their own when David Wright, the team’s captain, presented Walker with a new boxing belt that will be handed to the star of each win. The belt holds sentimental meaning to the Mets, which Wright described at a memorial service last month for Shannon Forde, the longtime member of the media relations staff who died of breast cancer at age 44. The belt is inscribed with a shamrock to honor Forde’s Irish lineage and a pink ribbon commemorating the battle against the disease. “I’ve heard a lot about it,” Walker said. “The mystique of it comes along. That was a really cool moment to get it today, but I don’t know if I completely deserve it. You saw what Noah did it today. We’ll split it.” Walker came to the Mets from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a December trade for Jon Niese. A native of Pittsburgh — he still brandishes a Pittsburgh Penguins shaving kit — Walker said it was strange to turn on the television Sunday and see the Pirates playing without him. The Mets acquired Walker to replace Daniel Murphy, who had signed a free-agent deal with the Washington Nationals in the off-season. Murphy made a splash in his debut on Monday, hitting a home run and a run-scoring double in the 10th inning to help the Nationals win. Walker took note of Murphy’s accomplishment and matched it but said that one had nothing to do with the other. “It’s not about him,” Walker said. “It’s about the Mets.” With one out in the fourth inning and Yoenis Cespedes on first base, Walker turned on an inside pitch that Chris Young, the Royals’ starter, had left up in the danger zone. The ball soared down the right-field line and curled fair around the pole for the only runs of the game. Walker was tested defensively when Eric Hosmer ripped a ground ball to him at second base with one out in the ninth. Walker bobbled it, and Mets fans watching on television had to wonder if he would be emulating that part of Murphy’s game, too. Murphy had defensive difficulties during his time with the Mets, most recently against the Royals in the World Series. But Walker stayed with the play, picked up the ball and fired accurately to first base to get the out. “I was going back to my catching roots on that ball,” said Walker, who had come up as a catcher in the Pirates’ minor league system. During spring training and in his first two games as a Met, Walker has shown a steadiness at second base. He has worked well in tandem with shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, another new Met. But his home run made him stand apart. Manager Terry Collins said it was huge for Walker to start well. Being awarded the first winners’ belt from Wright, who was very close to Forde, was significant, too. “We know he’s a real good player,” Collins said. “The rest of the guys are looking around and saying, Hey, we’re in good shape. We’ve got a real good player on our hands.”

Mets
Neil Walker
Baseball
Kansas City Royals


California: Woman Is Sentenced in Stabbing

Abstract: A woman who fatally stabbed her millionaire psychologist husband, whom she had met in treatment as a teenager, was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. The woman, Susan M. Polk, 49, received the maximum sentence after acting as her own lawyer in a trial marked by theatrics, including a discussion of her psychic powers. Ms. Polk was convicted in June of second-degree murder in the October 2002 killing of her husband, Dr. Frank F. Polk, 70, at the couple’s home in Orinda, a wealthy city east of San Francisco.

California
Murders and Attempted Murders


Obama to Visit Myanmar

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama will make Asia his first overseas destination since his re-election, with a trip this month that is to include a historic visit to Myanmar and underscore his desire to reorient American foreign policy more toward the Pacific during his second term. The White House announced on Thursday that the newly re-elected Mr. Obama would head to an annual international economic summit meeting in Cambodia and stop in Thailand and Myanmar. No sitting American president has visited either Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, or Cambodia, allowing Mr. Obama to reinforce his commitment to the region. The trip fits into a larger geopolitical chess game by the Obama administration, which has sought to counter rising Chinese assertiveness by engaging its neighbors. China was Myanmar’s main international patron during the final years of military rule there, and the long-isolated country’s opening to the West comes amid a popular backlash against Beijing ’s perceived influence and its role in extracting natural resources. But the planned trip drew criticism from human rights advocates who worried that a presidential visit to Myanmar as it moves toward democracy was premature given its continuing insurgency, ethnic violence and detention of political prisoners. Likewise, some in Congress expressed concern that Mr. Obama’s stop in Cambodia not be seen as validating a harsh authoritarian government that has cracked down on dissidents. The trip from Nov. 17 to 20 will be a quick one, squeezed in just before Thanksgiving, as Mr. Obama focuses most of his energy on confronting tax and spending issues that must be addressed by the end of the year and rebuilding his team for the next four years. The White House said that while in the region, the president would discuss “a broad range of issues,” including economics, security and human rights. The most symbolically potent part of the trip will be the stop in Yangon, where Mr. Obama will meet with the two driving forces behind Myanmar’s dramatic emergence from decades of military dictatorship, President Thein Sein , who came to power last year, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , the Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader freed from house arrest and allowed to run for and win a seat in Parliament. Mr. Obama met with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi when she visited Washington in September, and he has eased sanctions to encourage the evolution in Myanmar. But critics said he was going too far by rewarding Yangon with a visit of his own without extracting additional concrete progress like freedom for hundreds of political prisoners still held there. “This is an incredibly delicate process that’s still at a very early stage,” said Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch . “It would have been better, I think, to reserve some leverage before the incredibly difficult decisions that the government has yet to make.” He added, “It would not be a good thing if the president leaves Burma and there are still political prisoners there.” The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) , an advocacy group, lists 283 political prisoners whose whereabouts it has verified, and said that even as the government has released many others, it has detained more activists arbitrarily. During a visit last winter, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton seemed to say that additional relationship building seemed to depend on the release of the prisoners. “That would have to be resolved before we could take some of the steps that we would be willing to take,” she said then. The U.S. Campaign for Burma, an exile group that has been critical of the government, urged Mr. Obama to cancel the trip. “This government has continuously failed its own responsibilities in serving the people of Burma,” said Aung Din, the group’s director and a former student activist who fled a bloody crackdown by the military in 1988. Others disagreed. “It’s a good time to show American support for what has taken place,” said Gordon Hein, vice president of the Asia Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that is returning to Myanmar 50 years after being forced out. “It’s true there’s still unfinished business to be done in the reform process, but if one waited until every major issue was successfully resolved, that would be a long wait for any country.” In a similar vein, the Cambodia stop has generated concern. Mr. Obama is visiting Phnom Penh to attend a meeting of the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations . A bipartisan group of 12 members of Congress sent Mr. Obama a letter on Oct. 31 saying they saw the value of attending but urging him to condemn human rights violations by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen , who has held power for 27 years. The prime minister’s party “uses various forms of coercion, including violence and manipulation of national institutions, to limit the freedoms of ordinary citizens,” said the letter, whose authors included Senator John McCain of Arizona , a conservative Republican, and Senator Barbara Boxer of California , a liberal Democrat.

Asia
China
Aung San Suu Kyi
Barack Obama
Myanmar,Burma
US Foreign Policy


Under Turkish Mud, Well-Preserved Byzantine Chapel

Abstract: DEMRE, Turkey — In the fourth century A.D., a bishop named Nicholas transformed the city of Myra, on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Turkey, into a Christian capital. Nicholas was later canonized, becoming the St. Nicholas of Christmas fame. Myra had a much unhappier fate. After some 800 years as an important pilgrimage site in the Byzantine Empire it vanished — buried under 18 feet of mud from the rampaging Myros River. All that remained was the Church of St. Nicholas, parts of a Roman amphitheater and tombs cut into the rocky hills. But now, 700 years later, Myra is reappearing. Archaeologists first detected the ancient city in 2009 using ground-penetrating radar that revealed anomalies whose shape and size suggested walls and buildings. Over the next two years they excavated a small, stunning 13th-century chapel sealed in an uncanny state of preservation. Carved out of one wall is a cross that, when sunlit, beams its shape onto the altar. Inside is a vibrant fresco that is highly unusual for Turkey. The chapel’s structural integrity suggests that Myra may be largely intact underground. “This means we can find the original city, like Pompeii,” said Nevzat Cevik, an archaeologist at Akdeniz University who is director of the excavations at Myra, beneath the modern town of Demre. Image One wall of the chapel has a cross-shaped window that, when sunlit, beams its shape onto an altar table. Credit Myra-Andriake Excavations Mark Jackson, a Byzantine archaeologist at Newcastle University in England, who was not involved in the research, called the site “fantastic,” and added,“This level of preservation under such deep layers of mud suggests an extremely well-preserved archive of information.” Occupied since at least the fourth century B.C., Myra was one of the most powerful cities in Lycia, with a native culture that had roots in the Bronze Age. It was invaded by Persians, Hellenized by Greeks, and eventually controlled by Romans. Until the chapel was unearthed, the sole remnant of Myra’s Byzantine era was the Church of St. Nicholas. (The bishop, also known as Nicholas the Wondermaker, was a native Lycian of Greek descent.) First built in the fifth century A.D. and reconstructed repeatedly, it was believed to house his remains and drew pilgrims from across the Mediterranean. Today, Cyrillic signs outside souvenir shops cater to the Russian Orthodox faithful. But Myra attracted invaders, too. Arabs attacked in the seventh and ninth centuries. In the 11th, Seljuk Turks seized the city, and the bones thought to be those of Nicholas were stolen away to Bari, in southern Italy, by merchants who claimed to have been sent by the pope. By the 13th century, Myra was largely abandoned. Yet someone built the small chapel using stones recycled from buildings and tombs. Image Decades later, several seasons of heavy rain appear to have sealed Myra’s fate. The chapel provides evidence of Myra’s swift entombment. If the sediment had built up gradually, the upper portions should show more damage; instead, except for the roof’s dome, at the surface, its preservation is consistent from bottom to top. “It seems incredible,” said Engin Akyurek, a Byzantine archaeologist with Istanbul University who is excavating the site. He and his team dug down 18 feet to the base of chapel, where they discovered a few artifacts from the early 14th century. (At the time, Turks were gaining control of Anatolia, and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Ottomans ruled for nearly five centuries.) In the layers of mud between the 14th-century ground level and the late-Ottoman level — which is just shy of the modern surface — they discovered nothing at all. Ceramics unearthed at the chapel and at St. Nicholas Church indicate that Myra remained unoccupied until the 18th century. And while a sunken city “may sound romantic,” said Dr. Jackson, the British scholar, “this mud promises to have preserved a treasure trove of information on the city during an important period of change.” How classical cities transformed into Byzantine cities during the Christian era, especially between 650 and 1300, is a subject of much scholarly debate. Image A vibrant fresco that is unusual for Turkey was perfectly preserved. Credit Myra-Andriake Excavations “Each city was different,” Dr. Jackson said, “and so we need high-quality, well-excavated evidence in order to contribute to the debate about the nature of urban change in this period.” The fresco in the excavated chapel is especially striking. Six feet tall, it depicts the deesis (“prayer” or “supplication” in Greek). This is a common theme in Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox iconography, but the Myra fresco is different. Where typically these depictions show Christ Pantocrator (Christ the Almighty) enthroned, holding a book and flanked by his mother, Mary, and John the Baptist, whose empty hands are held palms up in supplication, at Myra both John and Mary hold scrolls with Greek text. John’s scroll quotes from John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Mary’s is a dialogue from a prayer for the Virgin Mary in which she intercedes on behalf of humanity, asking Jesus to forgive their sins. Dr. Akyurek said this scroll-in-hand version had been seen in Cyprus and Egypt, but never in Turkey. The chapel is part of a larger dig that includes the Roman amphitheater — largely reconstructed in the second century after an earthquake leveled much of Lycia — and Andriake, Myra’s harbor, about three miles south. Long a major Mediterranean port, Andriake was where St. Paul changed ships on his way to Antioch (now Antakya). Finds there include a workshop that produced royal purple and blue dye from murex snails and a fifth-century synagogue, the first archaeological evidence of Jewish life in Christian Lycia. Much of Myra is under modern buildings in Demre, so archaeologists are unsure where they will dig next. They are buying property from local residents to prevent illegal excavations, though judging from the paucity of artifacts found so far, looters might be disappointed: the last residents of Myra seem to have looked at the rising floodwaters and packed their bags before they left.

Turkey
Archaeology
Byzantine Civilization