Ex-Leader of Iran Announces Candidacy

Abstract: TEHRAN — Ending months of speculation, former President Mohammad Khatami , who favored détente with the West and more social and political freedom in Iran , said Sunday that he would run in presidential elections in June. Mr. Khatami announced his decision at a news conference in Tehran, after having repeatedly hinted that he might run. “I never had any doubts,” he said. “Is it possible to be indifferent?” Mr. Khatami, who has a broad base of support, would pose a serious challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose aides have said he will seek re-election. “The Iranian nation’s historical demand is to have freedom, independence and justice, and I will work for that,” Mr. Khatami said Sunday. His declaration came as Iran prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution this week. Mr. Khatami’s reform agenda faced serious opposition from hard-line clerics during his eight years as president, from 1997 to 2005. His reformist allies in Parliament were barred from running for re-election, dozens of his allies were jailed and pro-democracy publications were shut down. Mr. Ahmadinejad reversed many of the social and political freedoms that Mr. Khatami had permitted. Supporters of Mr. Khatami are counting on a large turnout to compete with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s populist agenda, which has attracted supporters among the country’s poor. Despite that support, his presidency has been hurt by economic mismanagement, surging inflation and a deterioration of ties with the West over Iran’s nuclear program . Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on domestic and foreign policy, has favored Mr. Ahmadinejad in his speeches. It is unclear whether the Guardian Council, a hard-line body of clerics close to the supreme leader that has the power to approve or disqualify candidates, will try to prevent Mr. Khatami from running. Conservative politicians and former supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad who now criticize his policies have said that if Mr. Khatami entered the race, they would unite behind Mr. Ahmadinejad. Ali Motahari, a leading conservative member of Parliament and an outspoken critic of Mr. Ahmadinejad, said in an interview with the daily newspaper Etemad Melli last month that the conservatives would favor Mr. Ahmadinejad, although “he is not deep in his thinking.” “We prefer a reformed Ahmadinejad to Mr. Khatami,” he told the newspaper. “Mr. Khatami would not be an appropriate president and there might be riots again if he gets elected,” he warned, referring to the pro-democracy demonstrations during Mr. Khatami’s presidency.

Iran
Elections
Khatami Mohammad
Politics and Government


Pakistani Leader and Rival Unite on Terrorism Meeting

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In an unusual sign of accord between the two major political parties, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced over the weekend that the government and the opposition would hold a national conference on ways to combat terrorism. The announcement came days after 42 people were killed and hundreds were wounded when two suicide bombers struck the famed Sufi shrine Data Darbar on Thursday night in Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province. The attack incited street protests in Lahore on Saturday, and it provoked complaints that law enforcement was not doing enough to protect holy sites from sectarian militant groups. Nawaz Sharif , the leader of the main opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League-N , deplored the attack at a news conference on Saturday. It is time, he said, for the government to hold a national conference on terrorism and open talks with the Pakistani Taliban, “who are ready to talk and ready to listen.” Mr. Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz Sharif is the chief minister of Punjab, did not specify which Taliban figures such talks should include. Prime Minister Gilani agreed late Saturday to the proposal for a national conference, though it appeared unlikely that it would involve representatives of any militant groups. The conference will discuss how to better fight back against the militants, and show concern for the problem, politicians said. The creation of such a conference was interpreted as an encouraging step by politicians who have called for greater leadership by the civilian government against terrorism. Until now the army has mostly led the effort against the Pakistani Taliban, fighting the militants in the tribal areas adjacent to Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban denied responsibility for the Data Darbar attack. The shrine, one of the most popular in Lahore, is considered un-Islamic by followers of the Wahhabi and Salafi schools of Islamic thought that Taliban fighters generally adhere to. Some religious scholars were so outraged by the attack on the shrine that they called for the resignations of Chief Minister Sharif and the Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah. Earlier this year, Chief Minister Sharif was criticized by the national government, led by the more secular Pakistan Peoples Party , when he appealed to the Taliban to stop attacking Punjab on the grounds that the Muslim League and the Taliban had a common enemy in the United States. Since then, he has been accused of not doing enough to crack down on militant groups that have coalesced under the umbrella of the Punjabi Taliban. The federal Interior Ministry said after the assault on the shrine that it had warned Punjab authorities of a possible terrorist attack in Lahore last week. A rare joint statement by the prime minister and Nawaz Sharif on Sunday said now was “not the time for blame games.” A similar conference on terrorism by the two main political parties was held in Islamabad two years ago, but those talks petered out and responsibility for tackling terrorism was handed to the army. An effective national strategy by the civilian government would need stronger and more cohesive leadership and more money for the poorly financed police forces in the major cities, according to law enforcement officials.

Pakistan
Terrorism
Data Darbar
Muslim League-N
Gilani Yousaf Raza
Data Domain Inc
Lahore (Pakistan)
Sharif Nawaz


Sestak Case Casts Light on Murky Political Boundaries

Abstract: WASHINGTON — When the White House enlisted former President Bill Clinton to see if Representative Joe Sestak would accept a presidential appointment to drop out of a Senate race, there is no question it was committing politics. But was it committing a crime? The dispute surrounding the White House effort to nudge Mr. Sestak out of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary has once again cast a harsh light on the murky boundaries that govern American political life. When does ordinary horse trading cross a line? When does behavior that may violate sensibilities actually violate federal law? The law bans promising any position to influence an election, and Republican lawmakers have called for a special prosecutor or the F.B.I. to investigate whether Rahm Emanuel , the White House chief of staff, or his colleagues made an illegal quid pro quo proposal. The White House and independent Democratic lawyers have scoffed at the notion that anything illegal happened and accused the Republicans of trying to criminalize politics. Even former Attorney General Michael Mukasey , appointed by President George W. Bush , said on Fox News that it was questionable if there was any crime and that a prosecution “really is a stretch.” Richard Painter, who was Mr. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, has written that it hardly amounts to an illegal bribe. And Mr. Sestak himself said he did not think it was a crime. “If I ever thought anything had been wrong about this, I would have reported it,” Mr. Sestak said. He added, “I understand Washington, D.C., is often about political deals.” Indeed, the White House compiled a list of other times administrations considered appointments to affect elections. Among the examples it found, citing news reports: Mr. Bush’s team looking for a position for Representative Benjamin A. Gilman of New York in 2002 to avoid him challenging another Republican incumbent; Mr. Clinton nominating Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts to be ambassador to Mexico in 1997, making it easier for a Democrat to win his office; and Ronald Reagan ’s advisers dangling an ambassadorship in 1981 if Senator S. I. Hayakawa dropped out of a California Republican primary. At the same time, it can depend on just how subtle or explicit the offers are. Political deals offered in a particularly raw way have gotten officeholders in trouble before. In 2004, the House ethics committee admonished Representative Tom DeLay of Texas , then the Republican House majority leader, for offering to support the Congressional campaign of a fellow lawmaker’s son in exchange for a critical vote on a Medicare bill. And former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois , a Democrat, is scheduled to go on trial this week on allegations of trying to sell Barack Obama ’s Senate seat for a high-paying job. So what about this case? Federal law makes it a crime for anyone “who directly or indirectly promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or any other benefit” to someone else “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.” It is also illegal for a government official to use “his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for offices including senator. William Burck, a white-collar defense attorney at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and former deputy White House counsel under Mr. Bush, said it did not matter that the position being discussed with Mr. Sestak was an unpaid advisory board membership. “The legal question comes down to the White House’s intent and Sestak’s understanding of what the White House wanted from him in return,” Mr. Burck said. “If the position was offered as a quid pro quo to induce Sestak not to run in the Democratic primary, then it could be viewed essentially as a bribe. If the job was offered to him without conditions, then it would be harder to prove any law was violated.” Joseph Gibson, former chief counsel to House Judiciary Committee Republicans and author of “Persuading Congress,” dismissed the defense that everyone does it. “Most parents do not accept that excuse from their children, and the public should not accept it here,” he said. “A line may have been crossed. But we do not know all the facts right now, and we cannot fairly judge the situation until we do.” David B. Rivkin Jr., who served in the White House and the Justice Department under Republican presidents, agreed that more investigation was needed. “Indeed, to say now that the law was broken is a stretch,” he said. “We don’t know yet. It all depends on what was said to him, what he said in response.” The major question, Mr. Rivkin added, is whether the discussion “amounted to a promise or was it something much more ephemeral?” The language of the law, though, is so broad it would seem to cover any number of widely accepted political activities. “This strikes me as marginally seedy but not a crime and not something worthy of spending resources to investigate,” said Michael R. Bromwich, a former Iran -Contra prosecutor and Justice Department inspector general. “For better or worse, our political system is characterized by deals and exchanges of favors.” Jack Quinn, who was White House counsel for Mr. Clinton, said “there was no suggestion of a quid pro quo” as required by law. “Republican complaints about this echo the years of numerous absurd G.O.P. investigations in the ‘90s, the upshot of which was not a single conclusion of wrongdoing but the waste of untold millions of taxpayer dollars.” Steven F. Reich, a co-chairman of the white-collar practice at Manatt Phelps & Phillips and a former White House lawyer under Mr. Clinton, said there was no legal case. “We don’t throw common sense out the window when we analyze the scope of a law,” he said. “That is especially true here, where a literal application of the law would produce absurd results.”

Bill Clinton
Senate
Crime
Pennsylvania
Democrats
Rahm Emanuel
Justice Department
Arlen Specter
US Politics


Focus at Bonds Trial May Be on Empty Seat

Abstract: In less than three weeks, Barry Bonds and his longtime trainer, Greg Anderson, will meet in federal court, expected to tell a judge the same things they have been saying throughout Bonds’s longstanding perjury case. At a pretrial conference March 1 in San Francisco, Bonds is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 about his suspected steroid use in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative case. He will be arraigned and will enter a plea for the third time since his initial indictment in 2007 after prosecutors filed a modified indictment Thursday, cutting the charges against him to 5 from 11. Anderson, who prosecutors say gave Bonds steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, is expected to tell United States District Court Judge Susan Illston he will not testify. He spent more than a year in jail for refusing to testify against Bonds, his childhood friend. Anderson’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, said Anderson intended to remain silent. Illston said she would put Anderson in jail for the duration of the trial if he again defied the court. The relationship between Bonds and Anderson is at the crux of the government’s case. Bonds’s lawyers say Anderson’s refusal to testify means that any evidence relating to Anderson should be thrown out. The government begs to differ. With the jury trial set to begin March 21, the sides have been honing their arguments and posturing for the trial’s rules to be set to their advantage. Prosecutors this week modified their indictment for a third time, mainly to conform to Illston’s recent ruling to exclude some evidence that links Bonds to Anderson. Without Anderson’s testimony, there is no way to authenticate that the evidence — including doping calendars — is connected to Bonds, Illston ruled. In anticipation of Anderson’s refusal to testify, Illston told each side’s lawyers Friday they should figure out how to explain Anderson’s absence to the jury. Anderson’s name is expected to be mentioned often at trial, including when prosecutors call several former and current major league players and one former N.F.L. player to testify. The government says those athletes, including Jason Giambi, will discuss how Anderson gave them performance-enhancing drugs, told them how to use them and described their effectiveness. “The jury deserves to be told something,” Illston told the lawyers, according to The Associated Press. “We owe them something about why he’s not testifying” Illston also said she would later rule on a secretly taped conversation between Anderson and Bonds’s former business manager, Steven Hoskins. The government claims the conversation, said to be recorded in the Giants’ locker room in March 2003, captures Anderson telling Hoskins he is injecting Bonds with an undetectable steroid. Bonds’s lawyers say the tape is hearsay and should be excluded if Anderson will not authenticate it. The conversation, Bonds’s lawyers argued Friday, could have been a discussion about legal substances. Prosecutors say it should be allowed as an exclusion to the hearsay rule because Anderson is speaking against his own interest. “I understand why the government is fighting hard to get the tape in, but the fact that Anderson isn’t testifying isn’t good for them,” said Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor who specializes in white-collar criminal defense who is not involved in the Bonds case. “It’s going to be an uphill climb for the government, but the fact is the government usually wins in federal criminal trials.” Even the pared-down indictment, leaving four perjury counts and one count of obstruction of justice, might give the government an advantage. Peter Keane, a professor at Golden Gate University School of Law who has been following the case, said the jury could now focus on the counts that the government probably has the strongest evidence to prove. “They’ll often cut out the cheap counts to take away the defense’s argument of: ‘Look how desperate the government is. They threw all these cheap charges at the defendant,’ ” he said. “It would be easy for the defense to poke holes into those cheap charges and convince the jury that the whole case is weak. So the government actually made a strategic move there.” Keane said all the government was looking to do was convict Bonds on one charge, so the reduced number of charges should not be considered a blow to the government’s case. No matter the number of charges again him, Bonds is facing possible prison time. The latest indictment says that each count carries a 10-year maximum penalty. Sentencing guidelines for a first offense call for much less than that. “Both sides are saying that the new indictment doesn’t change a thing,” Keane said. “All the government really cares about is one conviction. If they get one conviction on him on any of the counts relating to perjury, it’s a victory.”


Group Cites 7 Attacks on Hospitals Across Syria

Abstract: BEIRUT — At least seven hospitals or medical facilities in Syria have been hit by airstrikes since Russia entered the civil war there, killing at least four people, according to an international human rights group and Syrian relief workers. The latest strikes occurred Tuesday, when warplanes struck the town of Sarmin, in Idlib Province, killing a physiotherapist and a guard at the local field hospital administered by the Syrian American Medical Society , the society said in a statement. It was impossible to independently confirm who had carried out that attack and earlier attacks on medical facilities in Hama, Latakia and Aleppo Provinces. Physicians for Human Rights , the group that documented the seven attacks, said Russian warplanes were responsible, citing evidence including information released by the Russian Defense Ministry that indicated its warplanes were flying missions near the medical facilities. How Syrians Are Dying Over four years of war has forced more than four million to flee the country, fueling a migrant crisis in the Middle East and Europe. The bombings are among hundreds of attacks on health facilities since war broke out in Syria in March 2011. Some 679 medical workers have died, according Physicians for Human Rights. The group said that 90 percent of the attacks had been carried out by the government of President Bashar al-Assad and amounted to war crimes. Russian forces entered the conflict about three weeks ago. The latest attacks in Syria come amid growing international alarm at the threats faced by medical workers in conflict zones. Earlier this month, a United States airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan killed at least 22 hospital staff members and patients. In Yemen, hospitals and clinics have been repeatedly hit by airstrikes carried out by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, as well as shelling by the rebel group known as the Houthis. Widney Brown, the director of operations for Physicians for Human Rights in New York, said that aside from statements from the Defense Ministry, other factors pointed to Russia’s involvement in the latest attacks in Syria, including the distinctive formations of its fighter jets. While the Syrian government had deliberately targeted medical facilities, “with the Russians, we were hoping there would be a more responsible approach,” Ms. Brown said.

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Bipartisan Support, With Caveats, for Obama on Iraq Airstrikes

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama drew bipartisan support on Friday from members of Congress for his decision to authorize military strikes in Iraq, but the backing was tempered with substantial concern — including within Mr. Obama’s own party — about his strategy for the operation. Republicans suggested that the administration had acted too slowly and timidly to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and now was moving too cautiously against the group. Some said he should not rule out ground troops. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio accused the president of “parochial thinking” that had emboldened the enemy and “squanders the sacrifices Americans have made.” “The president’s authorization of airstrikes is appropriate, but like many Americans, I am dismayed by the ongoing absence of a strategy for countering the grave threat ISIS poses to the region,” the speaker said in a statement. “Vital national interests are at stake, yet the White House has remained disengaged despite warnings from Iraqi leaders, Congress and even members of its own administration.” Democrats and the antiwar groups that make up a crucial part of their political base said they were concerned about “mission creep,” cautioning that their opposition to committing American ground forces in Iraq was resolute. “While the president has existing authority to protect American diplomatic personnel, I remain concerned about U.S. mission creep in Iraq and escalation into a larger conflict, which I oppose,” said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, who is one of the party’s leading antiwar voices on Capitol Hill. Ms. Lee said that she backed “strictly humanitarian efforts to prevent a genocide in Iraq,” and that the president must ask Congress for authorization for “any further military action” there. Ordinarily, such criticism would hold little importance for limited military engagements, but Mr. Obama, in perhaps one of the most glaring foreign policy missteps of his presidency, turned to Congress last year for authorization to strike Syria and was rebuffed. Even Mr. Obama’s allies on intervention, both in the Iraq and Syria conflicts, expressed an emboldened skepticism and demanded a larger role in the administration’s foreign policy “While I support the administration’s short-term actions to respond to the current crisis, I expect them to lay out in the coming days the objectives they hope to achieve and the related time frame,” said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who co-wrote the defeated resolution on a Syria strike. “In addition, while I appreciate being informed in advance of this announcement, I also expect the administration to cite the relevant authorities they are relying upon for these actions.” Still, some of the most informed voices in both parties said military action against the extremists in Iraq was necessary and probably belated. “This is a very serious situation,” said Representative C. A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, reflecting the opinions of more hawkish Democrats. “This ISIL is dangerous. They’re strong. They have command and control. They have weaponry.” ISIL is an alternative name for ISIS. That view is shared by Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who said he backed the airstrikes — which he had been urging since January — but was concerned that Mr. Obama was not mounting a comprehensive enough effort to annihilate the threat from ISIS. “If this is the beginning of a real effort to push back ISIS and destroy them, then I definitely support that,” Mr. Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran and Air National Guardsman who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview. “Unfortunately, he did not have the intensity to come out and say that we have to destroy them. I think the president is frightened of re-engaging in Iraq, and I don’t think he really knows how to sell the reality of re-engaging to the American people.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, also said that Mr. Obama must do more to explain the goal and limits of the operation, but he spoke from a much different perspective. “Humanitarian relief is necessary to prevent genocide and provide food and water to meet an urgent emergency, but the president owes the American people a better, fuller explanation of the scope and strategy of military actions,” he said. “I am deeply concerned that these actions could lead to prolonged direct military involvement, which I would strongly oppose.” Antiwar groups were deeply critical of the airstrikes. Angela Canterbury, the executive director of the Council for a Livable World and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said the groups “categorically condemn President Obama’s renewed military engagement by the United States in Iraq,” adding, “We cannot afford another unwinnable war overseas.” In a statement, she called on Congress to cut short its five-week summer recess and return to Washington to “assert its constitutional role in matters of military involvement overseas.” Anna Galland of MoveOn.org Civic Action said news of the military operations was “deeply disturbing,” raising concern about “mission creep, unintended consequences and incremental escalation.”

Iraq
Republicans
Democrats
Barack Obama
US Military
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State


Slumping Rodriguez Is Center of Attention in Yankees’ Series vs. Orioles

Abstract: As best as Alex Rodriguez could recall, the last time he had been pinch-hit for in a meaningful situation during a baseball game, he was a teenager in high school. And he was not entirely sure that had happened. But Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, with the Yankees staring at defeat and facing a 2-1 deficit in their best-of-five American League division series with Baltimore, Rodriguez saw Yankees Manager Joe Girardi heading his way. It was the ninth inning, the Yankees were trailing by a run, and Rodriguez had gone 0 for 3 in the game, with two strikeouts. Girardi, proving that major league managers do not always play it safe in the playoffs, told Rodriguez he was not going to get a chance to play hero Wednesday. And he wasn’t going to get another opportunity to disappoint Yankees fans in the postseason either. Girardi made the gutsy move of sending Raul Ibanez to the plate for Rodriguez, and Ibanez tied the game, 2-2, with a home run to right field. Rodriguez was the first Yankee to greet Ibanez at the top step of the dugout after he rounded the bases. Then, in the 12th inning, Ibanez did it again, winning the game, 3-2, with a second homer. “I couldn’t be happier for Raul,” Rodriguez said in a buoyant Yankees clubhouse. “Ten years ago, I might have reacted differently. I admit I might not have taken it as well. But I have matured. I told Joe when he came to me that he had to do exactly what he felt he had to do.” Asked if he was insulted by Girardi’s decision or if he would harbor any hard feelings, Rodriguez shook his head. “No, no way,” he answered. “I’m one of the leaders of this team now. It’s about winning. We won; I’m pleased. Whatever it takes.” All day Wednesday, the New York metropolitan region was busy debating whether Rodriguez should be moved down in the batting order from the No. 3 spot he has held. After Wednesday’s turn of events, the debate will be stoked with a new, unforeseen edge. The question will be whether Rodriguez should play at all. Baltimore will start Joe Saunders, a left-handed pitcher, in Thursday’s Game 4. Ibanez, a left-handed hitter, doesn’t usually play against lefties. But do you really sit someone who hit home runs on his last two swings of the bat? Two home runs that might have saved a season? The better idea might be to play Rodriguez, but substitute Ibanez for Curtis Granderson, who has looked completely lost at the plate. Ichiro Suzuki could play center field. All these options will be considered and reconsidered in the hours before Thursday’s game. For his part, Rodriguez said he expected to play Thursday. “One hundred percent,” he said when asked if he was confident he would be in Thursday’s lineup. “I wish it was me hitting two home runs tonight, but I’m still feeling good. I was relaxed tonight. I’m ready to break out.” If that is so, he did not look it Wednesday. Rodriguez had been greeted with a polite ovation as he walked to home plate for his first at-bat in the game. The cheers were an acknowledgment that Rodriguez was once again the focus of blame. It is what happens when you have had only one productive postseason as a Yankee. But in his opening moment on the Yankee stage Wednesday, the fans offered Rodriguez a clear show of support in tough times. When he promptly grounded out weakly to shortstop, the olive branch from the grandstand was rescinded, and boos rained down on Rodriguez as if it were 2004 again. Or 2005. Or 2006. Leading off the fourth inning, Rodriguez looked no better at the plate, sometimes striding off balance or swinging late. When he missed a low fastball for a third strike, the fans responded with a throaty, sustained chorus of boos. In the sixth inning, with a runner at first base, Rodriguez struck out again, biting on a breaking ball in the dirt. The booing intensified. Baltimore’s Game 3 starter, Miguel Gonzalez, was doing such a good job against Rodriguez and the rest of the Yankees lineup, Buck Showalter did not need to use his principal weapon against Rodriguez, the Orioles sidearm-throwing reliever Darren O’Day. O’Day, who had a brilliant 2012 regular season with a 7-1 record and 2.28 earned run average, is the Orioles’ designated Rodriguez specialist, in part because of his quirky delivery. If Baltimore’s starter falters at all in the middle to late innings and is facing a meaningful at-bat, O’Day will tangle with Rodriguez — if he is in the lineup moving forward. It wasn’t necessary Wednesday. O’Day retired three other Yankees in the eighth inning. As euphoric as the Yankees were late Wednesday, Ibanez’s heroics conveniently overshadowed an anemic offensive effort up and down the lineup. Rodriguez is far from the only beleaguered slugger in the stable. While fans will clamor for a revamped lineup, the choices are minimal. Who can Girardi turn to for help? Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira and Granderson followed Rodriguez to the plate in the Yankees’ batting order Wednesday. They combined for 16 plate appearances but only Swisher registered a hit. Only Derek Jeter, Ibanez and catcher Russell Martin had multiple hits. So what can the Yankees do? Turn Martin, whose batting average was below .200 for much of the regular season, into the new No. 3 hitter? Or Ibanez? It’s a notion that would have seemed bizarrely far-fetched just a game ago, but now? If a pinch-hitter can hit in the ninth inning of a playoff game for Alex Rodriguez, taking the bat out of the hands of a player with more than 600 career home runs — with his team trailing by one run — then anything is possible.

Baseball
Playoff Games
Rodriguez Alex
Showalter Buck
O'Day Darren
Baltimore Orioles
New York Yankees


Urban Twisters

Abstract: Q. If big tornadoes hit Manhattan, would the skyscrapers break up the winds, or would some of them be destroyed? A. Neither would be likely, according to experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It is a myth that skyscrapers somehow puncture the whirlwinds that build up into tornadoes, the experts say. No place is immune to tornadoes . It has even been suggested by some researchers that concentrations of large buildings may help produce stronger tornadoes, not weaker ones. Tornadoes are relatively rare in the New York City area, which lies outside the so-called Tornado Alley of the Midwest and South, where topological and meteorological conditions are closer to ideal for tornado formation. But tornadoes have indeed hit skyscrapers, notably the 35-story Bank One Tower in Fort Worth in 2000. The damage there chiefly involved the glass skin and some interior walls, not the steel structure. Bank One was left with a sievelike surface but was repaired. In skyscrapers as well as in low-rise buildings, a major risk is windborne debris. If you are warned of an approaching tornado while you are in a skyscraper, go to an interior area away from windows, on a lower floor, if possible. Interior staircases are usually safe. The Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests incorporating a safe room for skyscraper occupants, not unlike Dorothy’s storm cellar. C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Tornadoes
Buildings (Structures)
Manhattan (NYC)
Science and Technology


Stocks Close Higher After Fed Leaves Rates Steady

Abstract: Stocks pushed past concerns over a widening European debt crisis and closed higher on Wall Street on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve reassured investors that the economy was improving and left interest rates untouched as predicted. Standard & Poor’s cut the debt rating of Spain on Wednesday, the third European downgrade in two days. Greece and Portugal were marked down on Tuesday, setting in motion a global flight from equities to fixed-income investments, particularly those in United States dollars. As the euro fell to a one-year low, European leaders scrambled to control market instability springing from the Greek debt crisis and to stave off contagion. Investors want to see some stability emerge from a timetable on a proposed bailout plan for Greece. On Wednesday, Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said the government could present draft legislation on such a plan as early as Monday . But much still depends on negotiations with Greece over the terms, which could conclude by the end of this week. “The market is looking for some stability that they can grab onto, that this is not getting out of control,” said William J. Schultz, chief investment officer, McQueen, Ball & Associates. “How they handle Greece will dictate how they deal with any weaker units out there. Portugal is on the fringes, and you have Italy and Ireland sitting out there. Maybe they are not as bad, but maybe they will need some support as well.” At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 53.28 points, or 0.48 percent, at 11,045.27. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index showed a gain of 7.65 points or 0.65 percent, at 1,191.36, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 0.26 points, or 0.01 percent, at 2,471.73. The market has been grappling with fears that financial troubles in Europe might spread. But Spain’s downgrade was not expected to have as much of an effect as that of Greece, which “basically forces the hand of a lot of portfolio managers who cannot hold junk or high-yield debt,” said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global. “Double A is not the end of the world,” said Mr. Kalivas, referring to Spain’s new credit rating. “And it does not force people to rejigger their portfolios or put a lot of Spanish debt on the market looking for a home.” If anything, Mr. Kalivas said, the Spanish downgrade would “give a little tailwind” to the talks to aid Greece. European stocks closed mostly lower. In the United States, investors had been waiting for cues from the Federal Reserve on the economy, and in the afternoon they got what they expected. Although the Fed said there were still constraints on household spending, it did not change its basic characterization of the economic recovery or of its expectations for inflation, which it maintained was “likely to be subdued for some time.” As expected, it kept short-term interest rates near zero. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note fell 19/32, to 98 28/32, and the yield rose to 3.76 percent, from 3.69 percent late Tuesday. The market is continuing to rely on corporate earnings for economic signals. Financials and energy shares were higher, while the consumer discretionary sector slipped. Hank Smith, chief investment officer of Haverford Investments, said it appeared more companies were profiting by increasing revenue, a transition from earlier quarters when they raised profits by cutting costs. “The large story here in our opinion in that the first-quarter earnings reports are confirming that we are in a powerful profits recovery,” Mr. Smith said. Comcast, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical were the latest companies to exceed earnings expectations. Dow Chemical rose $1.76, or 5.85 percent, to $31.83. Comcast rose 35 cents, or almost 2 percent, to $18.81. Northrop Grumman rose $1.49, or 2.2 percent, to $68.67.

Stocks and Bonds
Economic Conditions and Trends


E.U. Banking Watchdog Warns of Legal Breach by Bulgaria

Abstract: LONDON — The European Union’s banking watchdog has warned that Bulgaria’s authorities have breached European law by continuing to block depositors’ access to their money at a large troubled lender the government seized four months ago. The warning comes after a run on deposits forced the lender, Corporate Commercial Bank, to close in June, leaving tens of thousands of consumers and businesses without access to their cash in the European Union’s poorest member state. On Monday evening, the European Banking Authority, based in London, urged the Bulgarian authorities to provide access to more than half of the deposits — about $2.4 billion, which are insured by the state under European Union law. In the meantime, a group of bondholders, including investors in the United States and Europe, is also considering suing the Bulgarian government. The bank, known by its Bulgarian initials, K.T.B., defaulted on $150 million in bonds in August. The group “will initiate legal action against the Bulgarian government and individual members of the leadership in the coming weeks, claiming discriminatory treatment and breach of relevant Bulgarian and E.U. laws,” an American bondholder, who is in the group and spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of continuing negotiations with the government, said in an interview. The central bank has said that a decision on the future of K.T.B. would be made by Nov. 20 at the latest, pending the results of an audit, as officials continue to wrangle over whether the state should bail out the bank or find private investors in the hope of saving it. The audit results are expected this week. If they show K.T.B. to be insolvent, the central bank could revoke its license and seek its bankruptcy. The Bulgarian finance ministry on Tuesday referred requests for comment to the central bank. The central bank did not respond to those requests. It was after the bank run, prompted by news reports of dubious deals by its main shareholder, that the Bulgarian central bank seized control of the lender and suspended all of its operations. But according to a statement by the European Banking Authority, the central bank is breaking European Union law “by removing access by protected depositors to their protected deposits.” Depositors have staged near-weekly protests in front of the central bank in the capital, Sofia, since August, demanding that the authorities reopen K.T.B. The bank, Bulgaria’s fourth-largest, has $4 billion in deposits held by consumers as well as by companies, hospitals, municipalities and schools. Trade and employer unions have warned that the uncertainty surrounding the bank could threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs in Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million. The fallout from the banking crisis has so far been limited to Bulgaria. The country’s foreign-owned banks, which account for about 70 percent of the market and include UniCredit of Italy and Raiffeisen Bank International of Austria, have not been affected. According to the European Banking Authority, depositors should have been compensated within 25 days after their accounts became unavailable. The state guarantees up to 100,000 euros, or $128,000, a depositor. The rest of the money at K.T.B., which amounts to about $1.6 billion, is not insured by the state. The European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, opened its own proceedings against Bulgaria in September, demanding compensation for K.T.B. depositors. If Bulgaria does not comply with the commission’s request, it could be taken to the European Court of Justice, which would have the power to fine the country and force it to comply with European rules. An earlier effort to rescue K.T.B. with state funds was abandoned after the Bulgarian government resigned in the summer, before parliamentary elections held early this month. That vote produced a highly fragmented Parliament, leaving parties in Sofia still struggling to form a cabinet. K.T.B. was forced to close on June 20 after customers withdrew more than a fifth of deposits in a weeklong bank run. A preliminary audit by the central bank revealed outsize exposure to companies linked to its biggest shareholder, Tsvetan Vassilev, and missing documentation for more than two-thirds of the bank’s loans. Mr. Vassilev has denied any wrongdoing and blamed business rivals working in collusion with state officials and prosecutors for the turmoil at the bank. On Aug. 12, Bulgarian prosecutors charged Mr. Vassilev with embezzling about $140 million from the bank during the last three years. Interpol, the international police agency, issued an arrest warrant for him. A month later, Mr. Vassilev resurfaced in neighboring Serbia and surrendered to the police. He is in Belgrade, the capital, awaiting a court ruling on an extradition request by Bulgaria.

Bulgaria
European Banking Authority
Banking and Finance
Debt
EU


In Pivotal Week for Euro Debt Crisis, a Test for Mario Draghi

Abstract: FRANKFURT — The last time Mario Draghi addressed the news media after a meeting of the European Central Bank , on Aug. 2, he disappointed investors who wanted him to crack his whip and immediately bring bond markets to heel. The markets dropped even before Mr. Draghi was done speaking. Only in subsequent days and weeks did the bond markets calm down, as investors evidently absorbed his underlying message: that the central bank intended to take meaningful action against the euro debt crisis even if quick remedies were not possible. But this Thursday, when the central bank meets again, Mr. Draghi, the bank’s president, could have a far harder time reconciling the expectations of twitchy financial markets with the limitations of his power. Although investors are counting on bold action, analysts say the bank probably needs more time to resolve internal differences and deliver on a promise to use its financial clout to tame runaway borrowing costs for the most troubled euro zone countries. “Market expectation of Draghi’s ability to maneuver may be exaggerated,” said Marie Diron, a former economist at the central bank who advises the consulting firm Ernst & Young. “That could lead to a sell-off.” Some analysts do expect the central bank to cut the benchmark interest rate to 0.5 percent on Thursday, from its already record low level of 0.75 percent. Although that reduction might not impress investors as much as a bold intervention in the bond market, it could at least indicate Mr. Draghi’s commitment to his July promise of doing whatever it takes to preserve the euro. The bank meeting is probably the central event, but not the only one, in what is likely to be a busy week for the euro zone. Political leaders will also continue making the rounds of one another’s capitals to plot crisis strategy. One of the most closely watched meetings, also on Thursday, will take place when Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, visits the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, in Madrid. Spain’s debt drama seems to have entered a dangerous phase, with some of the country’s biggest regions requesting financial aid from a central government already staggered by its own high borrowing costs. Mr. Draghi at least temporarily mollified markets last week with an opinion piece in the German newspaper Die Zeit that was widely interpreted as signaling the central bank’s determination to begin buying the bonds of troubled euro zone governments, despite resistance from Germany. Exceptional measures may be required, Mr. Draghi wrote, “when markets are fragmented or influenced by irrational fears.” Top European Central Bank officials have indicated that they are working overtime to determine how best to keep borrowing costs for countries like Spain and Italy affordable. Mr. Draghi and other members of the bank’s executive board even canceled plans to attend the annual meeting this past weekend of global central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., saying there was too much to do in Frankfurt. So far, the mere promise of central bank action has had an effect. Since spiking in late July, bond yields, a measure of a government’s borrowing costs, have fallen below 6 percent on 10-year debt for Italy and below 7 percent for Spain — levels considered acceptable, if not exactly comfortable. But the yields, which have begun to edge higher again in recent days, are linked to expectations that Mr. Draghi will provide specifics of the central bank’s bond-buying strategy at the news conference Thursday after the meeting of the central bank’s governing council. Mr. Draghi is thought to have the support of most of the council’s 23 members. But he must contend with stiff and vocal resistance to bond buying from Jens Weidmann, the president of the German Bundesbank. The Bundesbank declined to comment Friday on a report in Bild, a German newspaper, that Mr. Weidmann had even threatened to resign in protest over the bond buying, a course of action that has become something of a tradition among disgruntled German central bankers. The Bundesbank would only refer to an interview published in Der Spiegel magazine last week, in which Mr. Weidmann said, “I can carry out my duty best if I remain in office.” While Mr. Weidmann has been the only member of the governing council to object publicly to bond buying by the central bank, some others are likely to share some of his concerns. That group probably includes Yves Mersch, governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg, and Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland. Spokesmen for the two men declined to comment. These quiet dissenters may already have won concessions from Mr. Draghi that could constrain a new bond-buying program. For example, their objections may well be the reason Mr. Draghi said last month that any bond purchases would focus on short-term debt. By buying bonds that mature in two years or less, the central bank would keep the pressure on countries to continue reducing debt and improving economic performance. Governments would know they needed to face investors again in a fairly short time. The concern is that constraints imposed by Mr. Weidmann and others could dilute the effects of bond buying, rendering it less effective. In any case, actual bond buying by the central bank is probably at least several weeks away. Mr. Draghi said in August that the bank would intervene in bond markets only in concert with the new European Union rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, or E.S.M. Countries would need to ask the rescue fund for help, Mr. Draghi said, and the fund would take the lead in bond buying, with the central bank providing backup financial support. But the fund, meant to replace a temporary bailout fund, is in legal limbo at least until the German constitutional court rules Sept. 12 on a challenge to the country’s participation. While many analysts do not expect the court to block Germany from taking part, some have warned of such a risk. “If the Court bans the German government from joining the E.S.M. for now, this will likely have major repercussions for financial markets,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note to clients. At the news conference this Thursday, Mr. Draghi will most likely need to finesse the difference between investors’ desire for instant gratification and the obstacles that remain before heavy-duty bond buying can start. The questions on investors’ minds include whether the central bank will set upper limits on bond yields that it would defend at all costs. Probably not, analysts say, because it would be the equivalent of writing a blank check to the government issuing those bonds. Investors will want to know, too, whether the central bank will continue to consider itself a preferred creditor, which raises the risk for other investors if a country defaults. Although the bank is expected to give up its privileged status in the debt market, that approach also carries risks. If the bank lost money on any bonds, taxpayers throughout the euro zone might ultimately have to replenish its reserves. (That is one of Mr. Weidmann’s big concerns because Germany is the bank’s biggest contributor.) A promise to expose itself to future losses might be credible only if the central bank took a hit on its existing holdings, namely an estimated 40 billion euros, or $50 billion, in Greek bonds. This year, the bank refused to accept the losses on Greek debt that private bondholders agreed to absorb. But a decision to forgive some of Greece’s debt would stir outrage in Germany and some other countries. Investors will also be asking how the bank, once it relieved market pressure, would ensure that countries like Italy would continue efforts to streamline their economies. Governments typically have trouble sticking to economic overhaul plans because doing so requires political leaders to challenge labor unions and industry groups that have stakes in the status quo. One method of punishing a backsliding country would be for the central bank to let that government’s borrowing costs rise again. But that would risk accelerating the crisis. “The central bank will probably not halt its purchases at the very point when the problems become more serious,” Michael Schubert, an analyst at Commerzbank, said in a note to clients Friday. Addressing such technical and political questions Thursday, after what may be a contentious debate within the bank’s governing council, could be the biggest public test yet of Mr. Draghi’s rhetorical skills. He will need to keep his options open while still convincing investors that the central bank is willing to use overwhelming force to contain euro zone borrowing costs. “Given the damage already done, any recovery in financial stability and economic activity will take time,” analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note last week. “But consistent and effective E.C.B. policy is a necessary condition for that. From what we’ve already heard from E.C.B. President Draghi, the E.C.B. may be prepared to deliver.”

European Central Bank
Spain
Germany
Italy
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Draghi Mario


Najibullah Zazi Is Transferred to New York in Terror Case

Abstract: A federal judge in Denver on Friday ordered the airport shuttle bus driver charged in a Qaeda bomb plot held without bail and, almost immediately, the United States Marshals Service flew him to the New York area, where he is to appear in a Brooklyn courtroom next week. A federal jet carrying the man, Najibullah Zazi , 24, landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey shortly before 6 p.m. In shackles, Mr. Zazi was put in a police helicopter and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he will be held until a hearing Tuesday morning before Judge Raymond J. Dearie of United States District Court. Mr. Zazi was arrested in Colorado on Sept. 19 on charges that he made false statements during a terrorism investigation, ending a week of frenzied law enforcement activity in Queens and Colorado in a case several federal officials have called the most serious terrorism investigation in years. An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday charged him with a single count of conspiring to detonate explosives. Court papers filed in the case, arguing that he be held without bail, tracked Mr. Zazi from what a prosecutor said was his explosives training in Pakistan last year and his efforts in recent weeks in a Colorado hotel to cook up the same type of home-brewed explosives used in the 2005 London transit bombings to a trip to Queens in a rental car on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. At the hearing Friday morning in federal court in Denver, the prosecutor there, Tim Neff, an assistant United States attorney, argued that Mr. Zazi’s extensive overseas travel, and his wife in Pakistan, made him a flight risk, which was compounded by the severity of the charge against him. Mr. Zazi, he said, was “literally off the charts in terms of the sentencing guidelines,” which would inform any court’s ultimate decision if the young man were convicted. He faces life in prison. Appearing solemn during the proceeding, Mr. Zazi was clad in a white prison smock, and he conferred at times with his lawyers, J. Michael Dowling and Arthur Folsom, softly answering the questions put to him by Magistrate Judge Craig B. Shaffer. Mr. Folsom argued that Mr. Zazi, who the authorities have said was warned by a Queens imam that that federal agents were looking for him and flew back to Denver on Sept. 12, was not a flight risk. He told Judge Shaffer that the young man could have gone anywhere. “He had the option of getting on a plane and flying to Canada or Pakistan or flying to virtually anywhere else on the planet, but he got back on a plane and flew back to Colorado,” Mr. Folsom said. Judge Shaffer, however, found that Mr. Zazi would pose a danger were he to be released, and ordered him held without bail and transferred to New York. “I find that in this instance there is considerable evidence to suggest that there are extremely serious charges,” the judge said. “The evidence would suggest not only are there serious charges, but that this defendant played an integral part in the steps and the activities that culminated in the indictment.” A 12-page detention memo filed with the indictment, which was voted on Wednesday, did not detail the precise timing or location of any intended target or targets. And while the document described in detail what it said were Mr. Zazi’s efforts to buy and work with the chemicals needed to make the home-brewed explosives, much remained unclear, including whether he or his confederates had built a bomb. People briefed on the case, however, said some investigators have theorized that the young man had built a test device and detonated it somewhere in the desert around Denver, and they have been working to determine whether he had indeed done so, and, if so, where. But there has been no question, over the last 11 days since the investigation became public, that senior federal officials in Washington, New York and Colorado viewed what they called a plot by Al Qaeda as an extremely serious threat, although it is unclear precisely when the inquiry began. In Denver, where Mr. Zazi had been under scrutiny with several other suspects, the agent who oversees the F.B.I. field office said he believed that investigators “disrupted something really bad,” but did so before agents fully understood the scope of plot and how it was likely to unfold. The agent, James H. Davis, said that left certain key questions unanswered, adding, “We are nowhere near done.” Mr. Davis, who would not discuss evidence in the case, said that leading up to the arrests a week ago, virtually all the nearly 200 agents in his office worked round the clock, assisted by Denver area police and sheriff’s deputies. “I am comfortable that we are going to be able to get our arms around this thing,” he said. Officials have hinted that more arrests were expected, but it was unclear on Friday whether any people the authorities have identified as Mr. Zazi’s associates remained at large. “The big question is they’re trying to figure out is who’s part of the bigger network,” said Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, a former federal prosecutor and the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security intelligence subcommittee, who has been briefed on the case. At the detention hearing, Mr. Neff reiterated that Mr. Zazi had e-mailed himself bomb-making instructions and had been shopping for the components to make the explosives, triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, from beauty supply stores. In arguing that the judge should grant Mr. Zazi bail, Mr. Folsom cited another issue raised in the court papers: an electronic scale that investigators found in the Queens apartment where Mr. Zazi spent the night of Sept. 10, contending that it did not indicate his client had anything to do with the production of TATP. “No traces of any kind of chemicals or production of a chemical or TATP were found in his vehicle,” he said. “No traces were found when they searched his home in Colorado.” Traces of acetone residue, however, were found in the vent above the stove in a hotel suite kitchen where the authorities said he was heating chemicals as part of the process of making the explosives. Before Mr. Zazi was arrested, he denied wrongdoing, saying in interviews and through his lawyers that he had no links to Al Qaeda or any terrorist plot.

Terrorism
Al Qaeda
Zazi Najibullah
Bombs and Explosives


Italy Plans to Resume Building Atomic Plants

Abstract: ROME — Italy announced Thursday that within five years it planned to resume building nuclear energy plants, two decades after a public referendum resoundingly banned nuclear power and deactivated all its reactors. “By the end of this legislature, we will put down the foundation stone for the construction in our country of a group of new-generation nuclear plants,” said Claudio Scajola, minister of economic development. “An action plan to go back to nuclear power cannot be delayed anymore.” The change is a striking sign of the times, reflecting growing concern in many European countries over the skyrocketing price of oil and energy security, and the warming effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuels. All have combined to make this once-scorned form of energy far more palatable. “Italy has had the most dramatic, the most public turnaround, but the sentiments against nuclear are reversing very quickly all across Europe — Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and more,” said Ian Hore-Lacey, spokesman for the World Nuclear Association, an industry group based in London. The rehabilitation of nuclear power was underscored in January when John Hutton, the British business secretary, grouped it with “other low-carbon sources of energy” like biofuels . It was barely mentioned in the government action plan on energy three years earlier. Echoing the sentiment on Thursday, Mr. Scajola said, “Only nuclear plants safely produce energy on a vast scale with competitive costs, respecting the environment.” A number of European countries have banned or restricted nuclear power in the past 20 years, including Italy, which closed all its plants. Germany and Belgium have long prohibited the building of reactors, although existing ones were allowed to run their natural lifespan. France was one of the few countries that continued to rely heavily on nuclear power. Environmental groups in Italy immediately attacked any plan to bring back nuclear power. Giuseppe Onufrio, a director of Greenpeace Italy, called the announcement “a declaration of war.” Emma Bonino, an opposition politician and vice president of the Italian Senate, said building nuclear plants made no economic sense because they would not be ready for at least 20 years. “We should be investing more in solar and wind,” she said. “We should be moving much more quickly to improve energy efficiency, of buildings, for example. That’s something Italy has never done anything with.” But conditions were very different in the 1980s, when European countries turned away from nuclear power. Oil cost less than $50 a barrel, global warming was a fringe science and climate change had not been linked to manmade emissions. Perhaps more important for the public psyche, almost all of Europe’s nuclear bans and restrictions were enacted after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union in which radioactivity was released into the environment. The equation has changed. Today, with oil approaching $150 a barrel, most European countries, which generally have no oil and gas resources, have been forced by finances to consider new forms of energy — and fast. New nuclear plants take 20 years to build. Also, Europeans watched in horror in 2006 as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia cut off the natural gas supply to Ukraine in a price dispute, leaving it in darkness. New green technologies, like solar power , wind and biofuel, cannot yet form the backbone of a country’s energy strategy, and it is not clear that they will ever achieve that level. Italy is the largest net energy importer in Europe, but nearly all European countries rely heavily on imported energy — particularly oil and gas. Enel, Italy’s leading energy provider, announced this year that it would close its oil-fired power plants because the fuel had become unaffordable. Italians pay the highest energy prices in Europe. Enel has been building coal plants to fill the void left by oil. Coal plants are cheaper but create relatively high levels of carbon emissions, even using the type of new “clean coal” technology Enel had planned. A few European countries, like Germany and Poland, could likewise fall back on their abundant coal reserves if they rejected oil and gas — but most of the coal mined in each country is of low grade and pollutes highly. After the government announcement opening Italy to nuclear power, Enel’s managing director, Fulvio Conti, said, “We are ready.” But he added that “new regulation and strong agreement on the plan within the country” would be needed. Enel, which operates power plants in several European countries, already has at least one nuclear plant, in Bulgaria, and has been researching so-called fourth-generation nuclear reactors, which are intended to be safer and to minimize waste and the use of natural resources. Italy’s old reactors still exist, but are too outdated to be reopened. New ones would have to be built. The Italian government laid out few specifics to back its announcement and officials at the Ministry of Economic Development said they were still studying issues like exactly what kind of plants could be built, and whether a new referendum would be required to re-open Italy to nuclear power. Marzia Marzioli, who leads a citizens’ campaign against new coal plants in Italy, said nuclear was equally repellent. “As with coal, nuclear energy is the exact opposite of what we would like for Italy.” “It is a choice that doesn’t consider the alternatives,” such as solar power, she said. To build nuclear plants, Italy would almost certainly have to improve its system of dealing with nuclear waste. The plants that were shut down years ago still store 235 tons of nuclear fuel.

Italy
Environment
Global Warming
Atomic Energy
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline


Magazines Going to the Web to Get Students to Read

Abstract: COLLEGE students are famous for their transient ways, moving frequently and rarely leaving a permanent mailing address for magazine publishers to send subscription solicitations to. For now, some magazine publishers are settling for their e-mail address. A new digital initiative to begin this month will give away thousands of magazine subscriptions to college students, but the magazines will be delivered via e-mail, not in print. The Magazine Publishers of America, the trade group that is sponsoring the initiative, is hoping to convert more students into magazine readers and introduce them to a digital medium that might stand up to print. The digital edition, reached by a link within the e-mail message, is a replica of the magazine, including text, photos and advertising. The magazine publishers participating in the initiative said they are looking for a viable way to reach college students, a coveted demographic for advertisers. “Colleges have typically been a black hole for magazines in terms of distribution,” Jack Kliger, the president and chief executive of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., said. “There’s always been a difficulty in reaching college students because the physical distribution issues are very unique to colleges in that nobody stays in one place for very long.” Beyond the fact that the magazine publishers are trying to lure more subscribers, they are also testing the viability of digital delivery. But the larger challenge for publishers is reaching a younger audience that grew up reading on the Web and may have less use for print. “There’s no question that younger people are much more oriented toward getting information from the Web than older people,” said James Meigs, the editor in chief of Popular Mechanics, a Hearst publication. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a place for magazines in their lives.” Five magazines and five universities are participating in the project. Students who opt in will receive one-year subscriptions to a magazine, which the publishers have chosen according to their colleges and universities. The School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California will get Premiere; the Parsons School of Design, Elle; the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, Foreign Policy; the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, BusinessWeek; and Notre Dame’s college of engineering, Popular Mechanics. Students will receive an e-mail asking them if they would like to participate. If the answer is yes, they can click on a link that confirms participation. Soon after, the magazine begins arriving in an e-mail message with a link to the digital issue. A company called Zinio Systems charges magazines for the service of producing the digital versions, which consumers download using software that enables them to open the electronic file. •The initiative will not affect each magazine’s advertising rate base, so the additional subscribers will be a bonus to advertisers paying for space in the print versions. Digital delivery has existed for years, but it has yet to take hold with magazine subscribers. Popular Mechanics, for example, has roughly 5,000 digital subscribers out of a rate base of 1.2 million. But regular subscribers to the digital version of Popular Mechanics pay the same price as print subscribers, at a smaller cost to magazine publishers. (Visitors to the Web sites of Popular Mechanics and many other magazines are permitted to read articles free.) Nina Link, the president and chief executive of the Magazine Publishers of America, said once the participating students graduate and begin to stay in one place, they could be converted into print subscribers. “We firmly believe one doesn’t replace the other,” Ms. Link said. “What we’re saying is, there are choices. Once they move on and are out of school, they’ll make choices based on the lifestyle they’re in.” The publishers participating in the initiative are quick to emphasize the benefits of the digital form — readers can zoom in and out on the text, turn pages with a click of a mouse and download several issues onto a laptop for later reading. Still, “There will never be the richness and the strength of the graphic image the way you do it in print,” Mr. Kliger of Hachette said. “You do qualitatively lose certain things, but you do gain certain things.” Mr. Meigs of Popular Mechanics said he thought of magazines as not just a print product, but as a collection of information. “I don’t see this so much as something that will replace print, but augment print,” Mr. Meigs said. “This is an industry that needs to be flexible, and we need to be in front of our readers.”

Magazines
Magazine Publishers of America
Colleges and Universities
Computers and the Internet


Afghanistan: Government Officials are Jailed for Ties to Drug Trade

Abstract: Afghanistan announced on Monday that it had jailed 11 government officials, including a senior policeman, for links with the narcotics trade. Afghanistan has long produced about 90 percent of the world’s opium, and United States and Afghan officials worry that profits from the industry are used to fuel the country’s raging insurgency.

Afghanistan
Opium
Afghanistan War (2001- )
Drug Abuse and Traffic


Minor League Affiliate Steeps Players in the Ways of the Islanders

Abstract: The Islanders have many reasons to be grateful as they look ahead to the second half of the season. With 31 victories in 46 games, they are in first place in the Metropolitan Division. They are getting steady production from four lines and top-notch goaltending from Jaroslav Halak, who will represent the team at Sunday’s N.H.L. All-Star Game, along with center John Tavares. With the playoffs looming and a move to Barclays Center in Brooklyn ahead, the Islanders also have reason to be excited about their future. Their team depth is best exemplified by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate. The Sound Tigers, based in Connecticut, are populated with players who have spent time with the Islanders. The younger brigade appears to be benefiting from the organization’s theme of structured play and relentless work ethic, which starts with Islanders Coach Jack Capuano and extends to his Bridgeport counterpart, Brent Thompson. With forward Colin McDonald, goaltender Kevin Poulin and defensemen Aaron Ness, Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Pulock, the Sound Tigers have a distinct talent base in case the Islanders need reinforcements down the stretch or in the postseason. “There are always stories of guys who get in the lineup late in a season and wind up playing throughout the playoffs,” said Thompson, an assistant on Capuano’s staff during the past two seasons and a former N.H.L. defenseman. “We want the transition to be seamless.” The Bridgeport roster features two of the Islanders’ recent first-round draft picks: Reinhart, the fourth overall pick in 2012, and Pulock, the 15th pick in 2013. Pulock, who is out with an upper-body injury, had 12 goals in his first 29 games. Thompson cites McDonald and Ness as particularly valuable assets for his squad. Ness, 24, the team’s captain, will replace Pulock at the A.H.L. All-Star Game on Monday in Utica, N.Y. McDonald, 30, who leads the team in goals (14) and is tied for the lead in points (34), has proved to be a positive veteran presence since he was sent down in October because the Islanders had a glut of forwards. “Having those guys here is a great benefit,” Thompson said. “A player like Colin McDonald — how he goes about his game, his day-to-day habits — that’s huge for our young guys because he has played for the Islanders and knows what it takes to be successful.” Ness has just 24 games of N.H.L. experience, while McDonald has 124, plus six playoff games, on his N.H.L. résumé. Poulin, 24, played 28 games for the Islanders last season. Image Brent Thompson is the coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Credit Alex Goodlett for The New York Times “The guys look up to me, and I take pride in that,” said McDonald, who was captain of the Sound Tigers during the 2012 lockout. “I play hard every game no matter where I am because that’s my job.” Capuano, who coached the Sound Tigers for three-plus seasons before ascending to the Islanders’ bench in November 2010, said synergy and the process were important. “We have a staff down there that understands our staff up here,” Capuano said. “When you look around the league, there are many guys who spent a lot of time in the American league. We all understand what it takes to get here.” Eleven players on the Islanders’ roster also skated with the Sound Tigers; Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo and Matt Martin played for Capuano in Bridgeport. For Casey Cizikas, who centers the effective fourth line between Martin on the left and Cal Clutterbuck on the right, his time at Bridgeport was crucial. “That experience taught me what kind of player I have to be to be successful here,” he said. “And so many of us had the same route.” He added, “It’s definitely nice that we’ve all been through it together.” While the Islanders will be preparing to face the Rangers, the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings this week after the All-Star break, Thompson’s squad will continue riding buses to arenas in Syracuse, Providence and Binghamton. The weekend-focused A.H.L. schedule often features three straight games without a day off. That demanding pace helped Brock Nelson — second on the Islanders behind Tavares with 15 goals — make the adjustment from college hockey to the bruising 82-game marathon of the N.H.L. season. Nelson led the Sound Tigers with 52 points in 2012-13, his only full season in Bridgeport. “All those bus rides and back-to-back games, I learned a lot,” said Nelson, a first-round pick by the Islanders in 2010. “It means even more because many of my teammates there are here now, and we played similar styles in both places. Mutual understanding goes a long way.” Capuano and Thompson take pride in their shared outlook, a bond forged in friendship and featuring open lines of communication between staffs. “The relationship we have built is strong, and we know what expectations are and how they should be relayed to our players,” Thompson said. “That message goes from our general manager, Garth Snow, to Jack and his assistants to me and my staff.” Patience also proves a valuable attribute when it comes to shepherding young talent. “It’s not a race, not a sprint to reach the N.H.L.,” Thompson said. “Once they get up there, we don’t want them to come back down here.”

Islanders
All-star game
Bridgeport Sound Tigers
Ice hockey


Bristol-Myers and Biogen Exceed Earnings Expectations

Abstract: Bristol-Myers Squibb reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, but its revenue was below forecast because of weak sales of its schizophrenia treatment and changes that were part of the health care overhaul. Most of its American rivals, including Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, have beat profit forecasts in the quarter because of cost cuts and other factors but have also reported weaker-than-expected revenue. Separately, the biotechnology company Biogen Idec also posted better-than-expected earnings, helped by higher sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Avonex, but sales of another multiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri , were lower than expected. Bristol-Myers said third-quarter earnings from continuing operations rose 6.4 percent to $949 million, or 55 cents a share, from $892 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, the drug maker earned 59 cents a share. Analysts on average had expected 53 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Bristol-Myers shares fell 30 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $26.86. Global sales were little changed, at $4.8 billion. Analysts were expecting $4.92 billion. Sales of Abilify, which had been Bristol-Myers’s big growth driver in recent years, slumped in the quarter. Its sales fell 7 percent to $608 million, about $31 million below forecasts. Health care reform in the United States — including higher price rebates drug makers must extend to the government’s Medicaid insurance program for the poor — hurt Abilify revenue. Bristol-Myers also now keeps a lower percentage of Abilify sales under a recently restructured agreement with its partner Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Bristol-Myers, which loses patent protection late next year on Plavix, a drug to prevent blood clots with annual sales of $6 billion, said approval of other promising drugs would help cushion the blow of cheaper generics. The company said it expected full-year earnings, excluding special items, of $2.10 to $2.20 a share. That the company’s previous forecast of profit growth of 13.5 percent to 19 percent. Biogen, meanwhile, is battling to defend its share of the market for multiple sclerosis drugs in the face of new competition. Novartis recently introduced the first oral M.S. treatment, Gilenya, which some industry experts said could take a substantial share of the market. But Biogen executives said on a conference call with analysts that the company had taken extensive measures to defend sales of Avonex, its flagship product, by adding to its sales force, improving communications with patients and improving its support services. Net income in the third quarter fell to $254 million from $278 million a year ago as the company invested in an experimental drug to treat Lou Gehrig’s disease. On a per-share basis, net income rose to $1.05 from 95 cents because of a share buy-back program. Earnings excluding one-time items were $1.35 a share. On average, analysts had expected earnings of $1.22 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Biogen shares rose 9 cents, or 0.15 percent, to close at $59.99. Revenue rose 5 percent to $1.2 billion, topping the average analyst estimate of $1.16 billion. Still, global sales of Tysabri, which Biogen markets with the Irish drug maker Elan Corporation, were weaker than expected. Sales of Tysabri rose 9 percent to $307 million. On average, analysts had expected Tysabri sales of $327 million. Biogen said that as of the end of September, about 55,100 patients were on Tysabri therapy worldwide. The weekly net addition of patients using the therapy fell to 177 in the third quarter from 185 in the second quarter.

United States
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Bristol Myers Squibb Company
Biogen Idec Incorporated


Lawyer Says Clemens’s 2003 Drug Test Was Negative

Abstract: In recent months, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have been linked to the list of 100 or so players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, the first season such tests were conducted by Major League Baseball. But Roger Clemens is not on that list, says his lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin . In telephone interviews this week, Hardin described how he obtained Clemens’s test results, then handed them over to Congress. Hardin said that before Clemens testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February 2008, the panel requested the results of his 2003 test; under baseball’s agreement with the players union, those initial tests were supposed to remain anonymous. Hardin said that after the panel’s request, one of the lawyers on Clemens’s defense team contacted Comprehensive Drug Testing, the company that oversaw the 2003 testing program, and said that Clemens would waive his right to have the results kept private. Hardin said the drug-testing company provided him with the results for Clemens and he then forwarded them to the House committee. “The results show Roger was negative in every respect, performance-enhancing drugs and masking agents,” Hardin said. Asked why he was bringing up the test results now, a year and a half after Clemens’s testimony, Hardin said it had to do with the disclosures involving Rodriguez and Sosa. “The only reason why I mention it now is because Roger is being mentioned with Sosa and Rodriguez, who have been tied to 2003 tests, and Roger didn’t test positive,” Hardin said. The disclosure of Clemens’s test results from 2003, however, has no direct bearing on assertions about drug use that have put Clemens, the 46-year-old former pitcher, in legal jeopardy. The Mitchell report , which was released in December 2007, contained statements from Clemens’s former trainer, Brian McNamee , that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001. McNamee made no assertions about 2003. Clemens vehemently disputed what McNamee contended in the report and denied using performance-enhancers at any point in his career. The standoff led Congress to call Clemens and McNamee to testify before the oversight committee on Feb. 13, 2008. During the hearing, they repeatedly contradicted each other. Shortly afterward, the committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking that it determine whether Clemens had made false statements under oath. A federal grand jury is now determining whether Clemens should be indicted for perjury. The 2003 test results did not reveal whether Clemens had human growth hormone in his system because there is no urine test for that substance. The 2003 test results were also not part of the evidence and testimony that the oversight committee eventually made public. A Congressional staff member with direct knowledge of events in 2008 said that the committee felt it had obtained the test results with the understanding that they would remain confidential. The committee did, however, release a transcript of the deposition that Clemens provided to committee investigators before he testified. The 2003 test is cited in that deposition, but no mention is made of positive or negative results. Hardin said that when he first provided the test results to the committee, “we said that his information was private but we didn’t know whether they were going to release it.” But, he added, “we assumed they had the ability to reveal anything we provided them.” He noted that medical records, including information about a possibly drug-related abscess that Clemens developed in 1998, were made public by the committee. “The medical records were in the same stuff that we sent with the testing results,” Hardin said. “And it’s strange to me that they chose to make the stuff that made Roger look bad from the medical records public and not the drug-testing information.” Asked why, in the wake of the hearing, he did not cite the test results himself, Hardin said, “It would have been fruitless.” “After the hearing, the atmosphere was so disbelieving of Roger that nobody wanted to listen to us,” he said.

Major League Baseball
Steroids
Human Growth Hormone
Hormones
Perjury
Clemens Roger
Hardin Rusty
Rodriguez Alex
Sosa Sammy
McNamee Brian


Masahiro Tanaka Says His Velocity May Be Lower

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Just about 48 hours away from throwing the first pitch of the season for the Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka issued a warning signal of sorts. Tanaka, the Yankees’ best pitcher, is trying to reinvent himself in subtle ways, and on Saturday he said it was unlikely that his pitches would regain the velocity they had last season. Tanaka’s pitches were noticeably slower in spring training than they were in 2014, when Tanaka was dominant in the first half of the season. Yankees fans, already uncertain of the team’s prospects in 2015 and hopeful that Tanaka can regain last year’s form, are likely to be concerned that the ace of the staff is raising a caution flag on the eve of the season. “I’m trying to establish a certain pitching style for this year,” Tanaka said through an interpreter on Saturday before the Yankees’ final spring training game against the Washington Nationals. “Maybe it’s not the wisest to ask for velocity from me this year.” Maybe it is also not wise to change one’s style of pitching after a highly successful first season in the major leagues. A year ago, Tanaka went 13-5 with a 2.77 E.R.A., but he partly tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and elected to recover without surgery, which could explain his current approach. Tanaka made four starts in the exhibition season and had a 3.07 E.R.A., but he said he had altered his style on the mound, and it has resulted in lower readings on the radar gun. Those readings have raised questions about the strength and health of his elbow. Tanaka said his elbow was fine, but he did not dismiss the notion that his new style was designed to protect the elbow. “My pitching style, as far as my mechanics, I’m trying to relax a little bit more when I’m throwing,” he said. “So that might have something to do with it a little bit.” This spring, Tanaka has been throwing two-seam fastballs, which he hardly threw at all last season, in the hope of getting quicker outs through ground balls. Tanaka also said he was concerned that his four-seam fastball, which tends to move in a straight line, was getting hit last year. Last year, Tanaka averaged 91.1 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball, according to Pitchf/x data. His slider averaged 83.1 m.p.h., and his split-finger fastball was clocked at an average of 86.1. Manager Joe Girardi, among others, has voiced the hope that Tanaka will throw harder once real games start and the heat of competition grips him. Tanaka himself cautioned not to expect a jump in speed. “I think it will be, as far as miles per hour, lower than last year,” he said. The Yankees did not sign Tanaka to be a power pitcher. His splitter is his signature pitch. But when he pitched in Japan, scouts spoke of his ability to ramp up his velocity to 96 or 97 m.p.h. at key junctures of the game. But now, Girardi said: “I think it’s important that he continues to use his four-seamer. I think that’s really important.” INSIDE PITCH Alex Rodriguez, returning from a yearlong suspension for his role in a scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs, played in a major league stadium for the first time since 2013 and was roundly booed. “I’m almost numb to it,” he said after the Yankees beat the Washington Nationals, 4-3, at Nationals Park. ... The Yankees designated Austin Romine for assignment and named John Ryan Murphy the backup catcher.


Selig Says He Expects the Number of Playoff Teams to Expand in 2012

Abstract: Commissioner Bud Selig said he expected the playoffs to expand to 10 teams from 8 for the 2012 season. Selig went public last fall with his support for expanded playoffs, and the matter is subject to collective bargaining with the players union. “I would say we’re moving to expanding the playoffs, but there’s a myriad of details to work out,” Selig said Thursday at his annual meeting with The Associated Press Sports Editors. “Ten is a fair number.” Selig said that scheduling was the major issue of discussion, including how many games the new wild-card playoff round would be. The two wild cards in each league would meet, and the winners would advance to the following round against division winners. “The more we’ve talked about it, I think we’re moving inexorably to that,” he said. He also addressed the Barry Bonds verdict at the meeting, saying that he would not consider changing Bonds’s records after the conviction on obstruction of justice last week. Bonds holds the career (762) and season (73) home run records, breaking marks set by Hank Aaron (755) and Mark McGwire (70). “In life there’s always got to be pragmatism,” Selig said. PAYMENTS FOR FORMER PLAYERS Major League Baseball’s Commissioner’s office and the players union announced that players who played between 1947 and 1980 but not long enough to qualify for the league’s pension would receive annual payments of up to $10,000. Bud Selig said that the payments would be made to more than 850 players who did not play long enough to be vested in the league’s pension plan. For most of those years, that threshold was four years. Players from that era have long sought some sort of compensation for having fallen through that crack. The money would come from the tax that teams pay for exceeding the maximum payroll, said Rob Manfred, the league’s vice president for labor relations. LYNN ZINSER GRANDERSON’S POWER SURGE Rewind to last August, when the Yankees’ hitting coach, Kevin Long, set about revamping Curtis Granderson’s mechanics. One of Long’s primary concerns was that Granderson would associate his new shortened swing with a drop in power, sacrificing home runs for consistency. “It’s a funny thing,” Long said then, and eight months later that notion still is. Rather than sap his power, those changes produced a two-month surge that has carried into this season. On Wednesday night Granderson homered for the third straight game, tying him with Mark Teixeira and Howie Kendrick for the American League lead with six. After a two-day session with Long, Granderson ditched his loopier swing Aug. 12, and in 64 games since then he has hit more homers (20) than anyone else in baseball except Troy Tulowitzki (24) and Jose Bautista (23), according to Stats LLC. Of his 15 hits, 10 have been for extra bases, evidence of a hitting position that allows him to consistently drive the ball. With that foundation, Granderson has seemingly overcome his inefficiency against left-handed pitchers, an issue that plagued him in 2009 and the first four months of 2010. Three of his six homers were against lefties. BEN SHPIGEL REDS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 4 Mike Leake, in his first game since being arrested for shoplifting on Monday, pitched seven innings to give struggling Cincinnati a much-needed boost in a victory over visiting Arizona. (AP) CARDINALS 5, NATIONALS 0 Kyle Lohse threw a career-best two-hitter for his fourth straight impressive outing as host St. Louis beat Washington. (AP) DODGERS 5, BRAVES 3 In Los Angeles, Matt Kemp hit his second game-ending homer in five days, connecting in the 12th inning against Atlanta. Kemp hit a two-run homer on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals after the Dodgers entered the ninth trailing, 1-0. (AP) MARLINS 9, PIRATES 5 Scott Cousins hit a grand slam for his first career home run, and Brett Hayes added a three-run homer as Florida beat visiting Pittsburgh to finish a three-game sweep. (AP) WHITE SOX 9, RAYS 2 Omar Vizquel, A. J. Pierzynski, Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko each drove in two runs and the White Sox stopped a seven-game losing streak with a victory over host Tampa Bay. (AP) TWINS 3, ORIOLES 1 Jim Thome hit his 591st career home run and visiting Minnesota beat Baltimore. Michael Cuddyer also hit a home run for the last-place Twins, who came in with a major-league-low six home runs in 18 games. (AP) ROYALS 3, INDIANS 2 Melky Cabrera hit a bases-loaded, two-run single off Cleveland closer Chris Perez in the ninth inning, lifting host Kansas City over the Indians. (AP) BRAUN SIGNS EXTENSION Left fielder Ryan Braun signed a five-year, $105 million contract extension with the Milwaukee Brewers. The deal is the longest commitment to a player in franchise history. (AP)

Major League Baseball
Baseball
Playoff Games
Selig Bud


Winter Whereabouts of Basking Sharks

Abstract: Basking sharks, those slow-moving creatures that are second in size only to whale sharks, spend their summers and falls in surface waters feeding on plankton blooms. But their winter whereabouts have been a bit of a mystery. For a long time, scientists thought that the sharks must hibernate in deep waters to conserve energy at a time when there was little plankton around. But that idea was disproved by satellite-tagging studies of sharks in the eastern side of the North Atlantic, which showed that they moved seasonally within the region’s temperate waters and kept feeding. Now a new tagging study of sharks in the western North Atlantic, where the seasonal changes in the ocean are greater, has shown that they migrate much farther — into tropical waters and even across the equator. The sharks travel at depths of up to 3,000 feet, sometimes remaining in deep waters for weeks or months. Gregory B. Skomal of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and colleagues attached satellite tags to 25 sharks off Cape Cod, and received data on depth, water temperature and light levels from 18 of them. Their findings are published in Current Biology. Some sharks migrated to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and a few crossed the equator. One went as far into the South Atlantic as the easternmost part of Brazil. Maximum distance traveled was estimated to be 5,500 miles. The findings show that tropical waters are not a barrier to mixing of subpopulations of the sharks. So efforts to conserve the species should be coordinated globally, the researchers say.

Sharks
Fish and Other Marine Life
Conservation of Resources


Yanks’ Staff Struggling; Solutions Are Elusive

Abstract: The Yankees ’ relationship with Phil Hughes is complicated. They need him to pitch well to help stabilize a rotation in flux, but they are limiting his innings to preserve his arm. “Is there a better way?” Manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s hard to find.” In recent starts, Hughes has not been sharp, which might have been a result of extended time off in the Yankees’ attempt to balance priorities. Hughes’s turn in the rotation was skipped once in late June, and he had long rest over the All-Star break in mid-July. Operating on regular rest again and in need of a rebound, Hughes had an improved performance Sunday. But he still gave up two home runs and battled throughout his five and one-third innings as the Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals, 12-6 . “Hopefully, I’ll stay on track for a while now,” said Hughes, who improved his record to 12-3 and was removed after a rain delay of 2 hours 32 minutes. “I never want to make excuses, but you’re kind of built to throw on five days. That’s what starting pitchers do.” The Yankees’ pitching staff is thin. Andy Pettitte could miss up to five weeks with a strained left groin muscle, and their insurance policy, Sergio Mitre, struggled Saturday in his first start since May. Girardi said he expected Mitre to start Thursday, as scheduled. The complexion of the Yankees’ staff could change if they upgrade before the July 31 nonwaiver trading deadline by adding a starter. But one of the top pitchers presumed to be available, Dan Haren, was traded Sunday to the Los Angeles Angels by the Arizona Diamondbacks for Joe Saunders, two other pitchers and a player to be named. Meanwhile, reliever Joba Chamberlain, who has been mentioned in trade rumors, had another poor performance Sunday. He issued a walk and gave up a two-run homer in the eighth, then was booed by the crowd. “I understand I have to be better and have to get better,” said Chamberlain, whose earned run average rose to 5.95, “but you have to keep it in perspective and understand what you’re doing to try to get better.” The Yankees received a scare in the third when Hughes was drilled with a comebacker that ricocheted off his backside. Hughes joked that he was protected because he had “extra padding.” But the next batter, Scott Podsednik, hit a two-run homer that caromed off the bottom of the left-field foul pole. Hughes also allowed a towering solo homer to Rick Ankiel in the fourth, but he said he felt more comfortable later in the game. In the sixth, Hughes struck out Wilson Betemit to start the inning, but rain began to pour and the umpires waved the players off the field. Hughes did not return, but he had already thrown 95 pitches and would not have stayed in much longer, anyway. “I have no say,” Hughes said of his limits. “If I had my input, I wouldn’t do it at all.” Lately, Hughes’s lack of command of his fastball and his cutter has led to mistakes. Girardi wondered aloud whether the extra time off Hughes had received was playing a part in his struggles, saying Hughes may need more work in between starts to stay crisp. The Yankees would prefer not to move Hughes to the bullpen, which would help explain the innings limit. Hughes made 21 starts in 2007 and 2008 with no relief appearances, but he was used in relief much of last year. There is a chance Hughes’s turn in the rotation could be skipped again, but it will depend on how he pitches. Hughes is at a tricky crossroads; the more innings he throws now, the greater the chance that he will miss a turn later. “If your club wasn’t in contention, I’d shut him down in September and let him go every fifth day or sixth day,” Girardi said. “But this club expects to play for a long time, so you can’t do that. We’re doing it in a situation where you’re expected to win.” And that has made for a difficult situation for the Yankees and for Hughes.

New York Yankees
Hughes Phil
Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Haren Dan


Cartoonists in Berndt Toast Gang Will Exhibit Work in Melville, N.Y.

Abstract: THE Berndt Toast Gang, a group of Long Island cartoonists who meet once a month for lunch to hobnob and talk about their craft, have a suggestion to comfort those who see nothing but gloom and doom on the nation’s horizon: Yuk it up. “When you read the news these days, it’s such a downer,” said Mort Drucker, a longtime member and renowned cartoonist who has been cheering up the world, primarily in Mad magazine, for the past 53 years. “Cartoons give you a chance to laugh a little.” Everyone will have a chance for some irreverent chuckles at “Laugh Lines,” an exhibition of the gang’s work from Sept. 16 through Nov. 30 at the Art-trium Gallery on Melville Park Road in Melville. The exhibit, sponsored by the Huntington Arts Council , is an homage to the artists who have helped us through hard times, including wars and national tragedies, said William Grabowski, the curator who came up with the idea. “A cartoon is sort of like a stimulus package for all of us,” Mr. Grabowski said. Fans of comics will have a chance to see work by about 30 of the group’s members, including Mr. Drucker and the artists or creators associated with legendary strips like “Archie,” “The Phantom,” “Felix the Cat,” “The Lockhorns” and “Mary Worth.” Other contributors have done work for outlets like the Walt Disney Company and The New Yorker magazine. Officially, the Berndt Toast Gang is a chapter of the National Cartoonists Society , which has members involved in a variety of media, including comic books and advertising. The Long Island branch was born in 1966 when an initial core group — working on a project for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio — began meeting regularly. The nickname stuck when glasses were raised to a deceased member, Walter Berndt, who created the comic strip “Smitty.” Even cartoonists can use a few laughs in times like these, when print outlets are declining, said Adrian C. Sinnott, 53, a children’s book illustrator and the chapter chairman. But they’re not toast yet. “We’re all trying to deal with the Internet age and how to make a living in it,” he said. “People think everything should be free, but someone has to get paid sometime.” He was cheered by the announcement last week that the Walt Disney Company would acquire Marvel Entertainment, the comic book publisher and movie studio, for $4 billion. “It may be good because there’s a good bit of capital to be put in it now,” he said. “It may actually drum up business.” Mr. Drucker, 80, who never went to art school and does not own a computer, said he still had plenty of work, but he also has an agent to put things on the Web for him. What, him worry? “There will always be cartoonists,” he said at his Woodbury home, in an office decorated with caricatures of, among others, Will Smith and Adam Sandler. “Cartoonists have been around since cave men began drawing on walls. Political cartoonists have always been around, too. The reason is they can tell you a story in one shot.” One thing in their favor is their drive, Mr. Sinnott said: Even if they weren’t paid, cartoonists probably would be “drawing on walls or putting up graffiti somewhere.” That is why those who pursue the art tend to work as long as they can, he said. He knows cartoonists in their 90s who have no intention of quitting. “You can pretty much do it until you fall off your drawing board,” he said.

Art
Drucker Mort
Cartoons and Cartoonists
Museums
Long Island (NY)