Kings’ Victory a Likely Finishing Touch to Knicks’ Season

Abstract: Mike D’Antoni gripped his hips. He wiped his brow. He stared ahead. He crossed his arms. He blinked rapidly. He stood and hollered. He sat quietly. It was hard to find the right reaction to a 30-point deficit against the worst team in the N.B.A. The fans, however, knew the drill. They filled Madison Square Garden with boos Friday night, while the Sacramento Kings humiliated the Knicks in a 121-94 rout — the likely epilogue to a once-promising season. “Obviously, something broke,” said D’Antoni, the Knicks’ first-year coach. “I don’t know exactly what it is.” Any lingering illusions of a playoff drive were shattered Friday. The defeat left the Knicks (28-40) three and a half games out of the playoff field, with 14 games left. It is not the math, but the Knicks’ complete lack of competence in their last two games that makes the postseason seem like a fantasy. In a span of three days, they lost to the Nets and the Kings by a combined 53 points. On Friday, they spotted the Kings a 15-0 lead and trailed from start to finish. The competition only gets tougher from here. The Knicks have a Saturday-night game in Orlando (50-18) and will see the Magic again Monday at the Garden. Meanwhile, two teams the Knicks are chasing — the Nets and the Charlotte Bobcats — won Friday, further cluttering the path to the postseason. The mere mention of the word “playoffs” caused D’Antoni to chuckle. “I’m not going to go home and look at the other teams,” he said. “I think I’ll watch our tape. Obviously, it’s hard. We’re not out. But we can’t play like this.” In another season, the building would have echoed with chants of, “Fire (fill in coach’s name here)!” Sacramento dissected the Knicks’ defense with back-door cuts and pinpoint shooting, converting 55.3 percent of its field goals. Kevin Martin, who led the Kings with 30 points, provided the exclamation point with a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 30 in the third quarter. Martin celebrated with a slight grin and a back-and-forth hand gesture that signaled, “It’s over.” The Kings looked like All-Stars on Friday. Beno Udrih had 20 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. Spencer Hawes, the second-year center, had 18 points and 13 rebounds. The Nets had already crippled the Knicks’ playoff drive on Wednesday. But this was an emotional low. The Kings (15-54) arrived with the worst record in the N.B.A., the worst road record in the N.B.A. and an 0-28 mark against the Eastern Conference. The Knicks helped Sacramento avoid becoming the first N.B.A. team ever to go winless against the opposite conference. “This is definitely, probably the worst loss for us this year,” said Chris Duhon, who had 11 points and missed 7 of 10 shots. “It’s very upsetting the way that we played, the way we performed, especially when we’re in the playoff race.” Nate Robinson, his hot streak over, went 6 for 14 from the field and finished with 19 points. David Lee, who is dragging with an injured right knee, had 6 points and 3 rebounds — one of his worst games of the season — and left without speaking to reporters. Larry Hughes missed 7 of 8 shots and finished with 3 points. Al Harrington, the Knicks’ leading scorer, sat out the game to rest a sore Achilles’ tendon but is expected to return for Saturday’s game in Orlando. The Knicks also lost Jared Jeffries in the fourth quarter, because of a laceration over his left eye that required six stitches. Over the last month, the Knicks have weathered injuries to Duhon (back), Robinson (ankle), Danilo Gallinari (back), Harrington and Lee, leading D’Antoni to suggest that the Knicks might be breaking down. “I don’t know if the spring was too tightly wound and just broke,” he said. The boos began early and echoed throughout the night. The Knicks missed their first nine shots of the game, including several point-blank layup attempts, as the Kings raced to a 15-0 lead. The Knicks pulled within 28-27 on a Robinson 3-pointer, but the Kings closed the half on a 23-8 run. It was hard to find any optimism among the Knicks, except at Robinson’s locker. “Fourteen games left. Anything can happen,” Robinson chirped. “We can go 14-0 from here on out.” That seems like a bigger stretch than the massive billboard that turned the 5-foot-9 Robinson into an 80-foot giant outside the Garden. REBOUNDS Eddy Curry’s 3-year-old son was turned over to a family member in Chicago late Thursday night after the boy’s maternal grandmother relinquished custody. Yolan Henry had vowed to defy a judge’s order giving custody to Curry. But the boy was handed over to Curry’s mother at 11:30 p.m. outside the Cook County court house. Curry, who attended the hearing earlier in the day, was not present. He did not speak to reporters Friday. Henry had been caring for her grandson since the murder of her daughter Nova Henry, Curry’s former girlfriend, in January.

Sacramento Kings
New York Knicks
Basketball


Ryder Cup 2014: U.S. Rookies Rule Morning, and Then Europe Wakes Up

Abstract: GLENEAGLES, Scotland — Long on energy and short on battle scars, is there a better combination for an afternoon Ryder Cup foursomes match on a hilly course? Tom Watson, the American captain, believed so. He sat the first-timers Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, stars of Friday’s morning session, and played the unbeaten team of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. His decision produced results only second-guessers and the Europeans could love, as the Americans lost three of four afternoon matches to trail, 5-3, at day’s end. In the morning’s four-ball session, Spieth, 21, and Reed, 24, handed the European talisman Ian Poulter his first Ryder Cup defeat in his past eight matches. After their 5-and-4 rout of Poulter and his partner, Scotland’s native son Stephen Gallacher , Spieth and Reed were as surprised as anyone to get the afternoon alternate-shot matches off. Spieth said he was “100 percent certain” he and Reed would play in the afternoon because Watson had told the team he would send players out in the afternoon based on their performances in the morning. Watson took the blame for Spieth’s confusion, saying that in his assessment there was a better pairing for the afternoon session. Image The first-timers Jordan Spieth, left, and Patrick Reed defeated Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, 5 and 4, in a morning rout, but the pair sat out the afternoon round. Credit Andrew Redington/Getty Images “I had some doubt in making that decision, but my gut feeling said that was the right decision to make,” Watson added. Reed and Spieth will play together in Saturday’s morning four-ball session against Thomas Bjorn and Martin Kaymer, while Mickelson and Bradley will sit. On Friday morning, Mickelson, appearing in his 10th Ryder Cup, and Bradley combined for a 1-up victory against the top-ranked Rory McIlroy and the third-ranked Sergio García. It was the fourth win in four matches for the American duo, which debuted at 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago. Roughly 30 minutes later, they were back on the course against a rested pairing of Victor Dubuisson and Graeme McDowell, who never trailed en route to a 3-and-2 victory. Mickelson, whose career foursomes record is 4-6-4, looked lethargic, prompting his swing coach, Butch Harmon, to question why he played in the afternoon. “He’s 44,” Harmon said on Sky Sports. “He looks out of gas to me.” When Harmon’s comments were relayed to him, Mickelson said: “I don’t know if that is the description I’d use, as far as being out of gas, as far as energy, but I stopped hitting good shots. I didn’t play well in the afternoon and I ended up not making putts I normally make, and hitting some shots I haven’t been hitting.” Image Rickie Fowler, playing with Jimmy Walker, helped earn a half-point for the United States in a morning four-ball match against Thomas Bjorn and Martin Kaymer. Credit Jamie Squire/Getty Images The Europeans led despite their top players — McIlroy, García and Poulter — contributing a total of a half-point. The half-point came from McIlroy and García, who were 2 down against Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker with two holes to play in their afternoon match. McIlroy made a 40-foot birdie putt to win the 17th hole and Fowler badly missed a birdie putt on 18 that would have won the match. Fowler and Walker had to settle for half a point after leading for most of the back nine. Fowler and Walker had gotten an unlikely half-point in the morning as the United States took a 2 ½-1 ½ lead. The pair never led in their match against Bjorn and Kaymer and were 3 down after four holes. Walker, in his Ryder Cup debut, had two hole-outs, the first from a bunker on the ninth, to key the comeback. He squared the match with an 8-foot birdie at 18. The Europeans were led by Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, who never trailed in their two matches. They beat Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson, 5 and 4, in four-balls, and Hunter Mahan and Zach Johnson, 2 up, in alternate shot. Image Sergio García, left, and Rory McIlroy after McIlroy made a 40-foot birdie putt to win the 17th hole in an afternoon match. Credit Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images Reed and Spieth lobbied Tom Watson to go back out in the afternoon. “I felt like in alternate shot, him and I would have been great to go back out and take the momentum of what we had just done,” Reed said. “But at the end of the day, Captain Watson, he picks the pairings for a reason.” Neither Spieth nor Reed was alive when the 65-year-old Watson was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988, but their win was not an upset for the ages. Poulter has labored this calendar year, with five missed cuts in 19 starts around the globe. With one top-five finish in 2014, Poulter came here hoping to flip a switch. Instead, he struggled with his club selection in the wind and with his speed on the greens, which are slower than what the players routinely face on the PGA Tour — except when the balls were rolling downwind. Poulter will be paired with McIlroy on Saturday morning. Watson’s day ended with a chorus of critics second-guessing his afternoon pairings, but it began with a standing ovation at the first hole . His five British Open titles, including four at Scottish venues, have rendered him an honorary Scot. The Eurocentric fans in the grandstands, bundled against the early morning chill, serenaded him by singing, “There’s only one Tom Watson.” There is also only one Bubba Watson. Two years ago on home soil, he encouraged the fans at the first tee to make noise during his swing . On Friday, Watson stuck his tee in the ground, then stood back and cupped his ear, and the fans responded by piercing the silence with cheers. His drive missed the fairway, foreshadowing his day. Image Mickelson after missing a putt on the fourth green. He and Bradley lost in their afternoon foursome. Credit Peter Morrison/Associated Press Simpson hit next and popped up his drive, which traveled less than 200 yards. “I looked over at Justin before I teed it up,” Watson said, referring to Rose, “and I said, ‘Hey, don’t laugh at him.’ ” Spieth and Reed, the third Americans off, were greeted at the first tee by the singsong chant, “Who are you?” They quickly silenced the crowds with their play, which included four birdies by Reed in the first 13 holes. “It was very quiet around our group today,” Spieth said. “That’s what we were looking for.” The Europeans were warned. On Thursday, Tom Watson said, “These kids are tough, both of them.” Reed brims with bombast , which does not bother Watson. “When he gets going, he thinks he can beat the world, and I like that attitude in a player,” Watson said. He would not divulge any of the factors that went into his decision to sit Reed and Spieth, but he did share an anecdote. After telling Reed he was not playing, Watson asked Reed how he felt about it. Watson said Reed said he was all right with the decision, and then said, “Well, really, Captain, I’m not all right with it.” Watson smiled. “I said, ‘That’s the way I want you to be.’ ” Watson chalked up the Americans’ deficit to a bad day by some of his players, leaving his critics to wonder if perhaps he should have included himself on that list.

Ryder Cup
Tom Watson
Jordan Spieth
Patrick Reed
Ian Poulter
Bubba Watson
Golf


Gun Ring Involving U.S. Soldier Is Broken Up, Chinese Officials Say

Abstract: SHANGHAI — The Chinese authorities said on Tuesday that they had detained 23 suspects here and had broken up an international gun trafficking ring that conspired with a United States soldier to smuggle firearms into China . The Ministry of Public Security said that more than 100 guns and gun parts, and about 50,000 bullets, had been seized in the case, which is being jointly investigated with the American authorities. The announcement came weeks after United States officials arrested Staff Sgt. Joseph Debose, 29, a soldier with a Special Forces National Guard unit in North Carolina, on charges of illegal firearms trafficking. According to the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, customs officers in Shanghai stumbled upon the smuggling ring in August after discovering a Beretta 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and other firearms hidden inside a stereo speaker in a U.P.S. package. After contacting U.P.S. in the United States, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, the authorities traced the package to two Chinese nationals in New York, using shipping documents and surveillance video from a U.P.S. facility in Queens. The two men eventually led the authorities to Sergeant Debose, who was acting as a gun dealer in North Carolina, prosecutors said. The Chinese men, Lin Zhifu, 25, and Li Lilan, 23, were indicted last month in New York on charges of illegally exporting firearms. Mr. Lin pleaded guilty, and Mr. Li pleaded not guilty. The charges carry a prison term of up to 20 years. The authorities said they believed that the group began smuggling firearms in late 2010. Among the weapons brought into China were semiautomatic pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and military-style assault weapons. Private gun ownership in China is highly restricted, with nearly all firearms in the hands of the state authorities. According to the authorities, one of the Chinese men in New York said that Sergeant Debose had taught them how to erase the serial numbers from the weapons. The authorities in China used forensic technology and a microscope to recover the numbers. Officials in New York said that Sergeant Debose spoke to the Chinese men about a shipment. Shortly after the call, the authorities said, Sergeant Debose called the local sheriff’s office in North Carolina to say that several firearms had been stolen from his garage. The authorities said that at the time of his arrest on May 20, Sergeant Debose was carrying a loaded .45-caliber pistol. A lawyer for Sergeant Debose could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Western Wildfires Consume Manpower and Acreage

Abstract: CHELAN, Wash. — Firefighters often talk about wildfires as living things, each one different in its inherently dangerous behavior and fickle shifts of temper. They are so unpredictable that even a seemingly mundane part of the day — getting to the job — can turn deadly. It did here on Wednesday, in the middle of one of the worst wildfire summers in the West on record, when three firefighters died after their vehicle crashed near a blaze here in north-central Washington State. The fire caught them. “It hurts deep, but the job goes on,” Representative David Reichert, whose congressional district includes the area, said at a news conference here on Thursday, where fire officials pointed out that the situation could get worse still with a new round of wind and heat. “That’s what first responders do,” he added. The dead men were identified Thursday by the Forest Service as Tom Zbyszewski, 20; Andrew Zajac, 26; and Richard Wheeler, 31. One of the injured, Daniel Lyon, 25, was being treated at Harborview Hospital in Seattle, the Forest Service said. Mr. Lyon lives in Puyallup, Wash., but no hometowns were immediately given for the fallen men. The accident here in Washington, near the town of Twisp, was the worst loss of life in a wildfire in the state since 2001, when four people were killed by a fire, according to federal figures. Image In Chelan, a town of tourism, apples and winemaking, the fire’s ferocity was evident at an apple processing plant. Gov. Jay Inslee said he was seeking a federal emergency declaration. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Even before the three fatalities, the numbers were daunting: The nation entered its eighth day on Thursday on what is officially known as Preparedness Level 5, which signifies that fire managers are struggling to find enough crews and commanders for the fires that are burning, most of them in parched Northwestern states and in Northern California. It is the highest such classification and also the first time since 2013 that it has been applied. In 2013, it was in effect for seven days. More acres have burned so far this year — about 7.2 million by Thursday, an area almost five times the size of the state of Delaware — than in each of the previous 10 years, according to statistics compiled by the National Interagency Fire Center . Two-thirds of those acres are in Alaska, which is having a particularly punishing fire season and is contending with mudslides caused by torrential rains on the denuded land. But what has made this fire season different in Western states is that it sprang up quickly and ferociously, in “a condensed time frame where everything escalated,” said Tina Boehle, an information officer at the Interagency Fire Center, in Boise, Idaho. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said the deaths on Wednesday, and the injuries to four other people in the same accident, had pushed what had been a structural and environmental disaster to the next level. “These fires have burned a big hole in the state’s heart,” he said in a fire-station news conference on Thursday. Mr. Inslee said he asked federal officials for a state disaster declaration. Image The charred and melted ruins of a car near Chelan, Wash., where active-duty soldiers arrived this week to help fight wildfires. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Here in Chelan, a town of tourism, apples and winemaking, the fire’s ferocity was evident at an apple-processing plant barely two miles from where Mr. Inslee stood. Metal walls were bowed and buckled, as though blown out from within. A pile of apples sat in the charred ruins, burned to a bleak rainbow of red, orange and black. The hubcaps of a burned car had melted, flowing onto the ground and solidifying back into bright hard ribbons of silver. Some 200 active-duty soldiers arrived in Washington State this week, the first time since 2006 that the nation has called in the military to engage in battles against wildfires. Because they are presumed to have no background in firefighting, the soldiers went through basic classroom instruction on fire behavior, suppression tactics and weather, and spent one day practicing, fulfilling the same training requirements that any entry-level firefighter must fulfill. The military also supplied four C-130 Hercules aircraft, which are primarily used for cargo transport and were converted into air tankers and assigned to Sacramento, Calif., to fight flames from above. Each is capable of dropping 2,700 gallons of fire retardant, a chemical mix that can help slow down a fire’s advance. On Thursday, 100 firefighters from Ontario were in Missoula, Mont., joining nine crews from Alaska on fire lines in central Idaho and western Montana. Fire managers have also called in “militias,” or groups of park rangers and other people, such as safety officers and public information officers, trained and qualified to work on fire lines or management positions in incident command teams, Ms. Boehle said. Firefighters face constant risks on the roads they drive and on the rugged terrain where they often work. They often toil very long hours — crews working in Oregon said they had been on duty for as many as 18 hours a day during a two-week assignment, suppressing 74 new fires — and must contend with rolling rocks and falling branches and trees. A list of fatalities among wildland firefighters compiled by the National Interagency Fire Center encapsulates the dangers: “vehicle accident,” “rollover” and “hazard tree” are some of the main causes listed in 1,086 deaths between 1910 and 2014. Image Firefighters are in short supply as wildfires are bearing down on places like Twisp, Wash., 114 miles northeast of Seattle. Credit Ted S. Warren/Associated Press There were 93 uncontained large fires burning in the United States on Thursday, including 33 in the Pacific Northwest, 29 in Northern California, and 18 in the northern Rockies, according to the day’s official situation report. Near Twisp, 114 miles northeast of Seattle, a fire that killed three firefighters on Wednesday was burning in the same region devastated last year by the Carlton Complex fire, which destroyed 300 homes and incinerated some 300,000 acres of land, the state’s largest fire on record. “The conditions are as bad as, and possibly worse than they were last year,” Peter J. Goldmark, commissioner of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said in an interview on Thursday. “Fuels are drier, the winds are going to be bad today, communities are being evacuated, so people are trying to get out of the way as firefighters are getting in. It’s a very dangerous situation we’re facing.” There were at least 15 other large fires burning in Washington, Mr. Goldmark said, including several fires that merged into a complex in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, east of Twisp. Smoke from all these fires was so thick on Thursday that incident commanders were hardly able to deploy aircraft to drop retardant and water on flames. “Fires are apt to move explosively,” Mr. Goldmark said. “It’s very unsettling.” Fire is fueled by hot and dry weather, and the forecast for the Northwestern states calls for above-normal temperatures, below-normal precipitation and continuing drought in many areas into the fall. “The story this week is the wind and the low humidity, and neither are any help to firefighters,” Ms. Boehle said. She also mentioned the role of meteorological inversions, which almost always trigger intense fire behavior once they dissipate. Inversions happen when smoke and gases that rise from fires heat up the usually cooler air at higher altitudes and quickly dry up the vegetation, making it more combustible. Lightning is a wildfire’s main natural source of ignition. “The good thing is that there’s no lightning forecast for the Northwestern areas in the coming days,” Ms. Boehle said.

Wildfires
Fires
Washington
Western States
National Interagency Fire Center


Brooklyn Man on Trial on Charges of Making False Reports to 911

Abstract: The stream of calls came into the 911 system from an unknown person in Brooklyn, each one describing an emergency in the heart of Williamsburg: a sound like an explosion in an L train tunnel; a man displaying a pistol; someone wielding a knife and issuing threats. Each of those incidents was reported in late 2012. The repeat caller declined to provide an address to 911 operators, sometimes saying he had simply witnessed dramatic events unfold as he walked through the neighborhood. Once he told an operator that he felt compelled to leave the scene before the police arrived because of the enveloping chaos. Another time, he gave his name as Dillman. Some time later, the commanding officer of the 94th Precinct , which covers part of Williamsburg, reviewed the recording of one of the calls, describing gunshots ringing out in front of a crowded bar and panicked throngs racing for cover while screaming and shouting. The commander, Deputy Inspector Terence Hurson, thought the voice was familiar. It sounded like Louis Segna, a 53-year-old man known to the local police — not because of any criminal record, but because he was a regular at meetings of the precinct’s community council, where neighbors assemble to talk with police commanders about local issues. Soon afterward, Mr. Segna acknowledged making the 911 calls. In a criminal complaint, the police said that two phones connected to Mr. Segna had been used more than 400 times over a two-year period to place 911 calls from Williamsburg, and that “a large number” of those calls “were subsequently marked unfounded.” A grand jury indicted Mr. Segna on 11 counts of falsely reporting an incident, and his trial in State Supreme Court wound its way to closing arguments on Tuesday. A lawyer for Mr. Segna told jurors that the fact that the authorities had declared the calls unfounded did not mean that they had described fake occurrences. “These are not calls that are frivolous,” the lawyer, William Fowlkes, said, adding that his client had taken to heart the law enforcement slogan “if you see something, say something” and had simply tried to assist the authorities by providing a steady supply of helpful tips. Mr. Fowlkes went on to suggest that the hustle and bustle at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and North Seventh Street — a crowded corner surrounded by bars and restaurants, and the spot where Mr. Segna described several emergencies — may have made some of the events he reported difficult to verify. “It’s loud; it’s bright,” the lawyer said. “There are moving apparatuses all over the place.” But a prosecutor, Linda Hristova, dismissed that possibility during her summation. She said the police had interviewed many people while responding to calls placed by Mr. Segna but had never found anyone who substantiated his accounts. While the motive behind Mr. Segna’s many calls remained a mystery, Ms. Hristova said, the evidence indicated that he had knowingly made false reports and had tried to keep his identity secret. “He intentionally manipulated the city’s emergency response system by repeatedly making false 911 calls,” Ms. Hristova said. “The defendant didn’t see anything, so he shouldn’t have said anything.” The jurors received the case late Tuesday and were to resume deliberations on Wednesday.

Louis Segna
911.
NYC
Williamsburg Brooklyn


Judge Orders Investigation Into Messi’s Tax History

Abstract: A Spanish judge rejected a prosecutor’s request to drop charges of tax fraud against Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi and ordered the investigation into three cases of suspected unpaid taxes to proceed. A court statement said there was “sufficient evidence” to believe that Messi “could have known and consented” to the creation of a fictitious corporate structure to avoid paying taxes on income from his image rights. Messi’s father, Jorge Horacio Messi, is under investigation for claims of unpaid taxes totaling $5.3 million (4 million euros) from 2007 to 2009. Once the investigating judge finishes his deliberations, he will give the tax office and the state prosecutor’s office 10 days to come up with a case against Messi or a final decision to dismiss it. ■ FIFA wants the Italian soccer federation to open an investigation into accusations of racist comments by Carlo Tavecchio, the favorite to become the president of the Italian Football Federation, made Friday at an assembly of Italy’s amateur leagues.


Asia, Where Mobile Games Flowered, Extends Its Reach

Abstract: TOKYO — When SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications provider, announced last week that it had agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in a Finnish mobile game company for $1.5 billion, many people in both industries reacted with disbelief. Suddenly Supercell, a three-year-old game developer in Helsinki with only 100 or so employees and two successful games, was worth $3 billion. The investment in Supercell, the developer of Hay Day and Clash of Clans, reflects the growing global ambitions of Asian companies like SoftBank in mobile gaming, the fastest-growing part of the game business. Japanese companies like Sony, Sega and Nintendo dominated the early days of the console era of video games. American companies like Electronic Arts were the driving force in the extension of console gaming to the PC. Now, even as Sony and its main console rival, Microsoft, prepare to sell their newest devices, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox1, other companies in Japan and across Asia are positioning themselves to take a leading role in mobile games. “Who has $1.5 billion to invest in a company like Supercell?” said Bertrand Schmitt, chief executive of App Annie, a mobile analytics firm based in Beijing. “There are not so many players in the West who could do this.” Eight of the 10 biggest merger-and-acquisition transactions involving game companies this year have been initiated by buyers based in Asia, according to Digi-Capital, an investment bank that specializes in games. These include the Supercell deal, in which SoftBank was joined by a subsidiary, the Japanese game company GungHo. The list does not include the management buyout of Activision Blizzard, the world’s biggest video game publisher, in which a Chinese Internet company, Tencent, took part. The growth of mobile gaming is upending the longstanding business model of the business, which was based on the sale of games — and the devices to play them. The new approach is to give away games away for smartphones and then to earn revenue from in-game purchases, advertising and other add-ons. While the so-called free-to-play model has spread to much of the rest of the world, it was mostly pioneered in Asia. “If the U.S. and Europe are great conceptually, the leading Asian markets are masters of the science of making money from mobile,” said Tim Merel, founder of Digi-Capital. In September, two Asian countries, Japan and South Korea, together accounted for a whopping 62 percent of worldwide revenue from games on the Google Play mobile app store, according to App Annie. The United States represented 15 percent of sales. Over all, Asia accounts for half of the revenue in the mobile game business, and this will grow to two-thirds in 2016, according to Digi-Capital. Asia’s leadership in free mobile games is explained by a variety of factors. In 2000, China banned the sale of consoles, because violent video games were considered a corrupting influence on youth. Though the government recently moved to ease restrictions, many Chinese players have gotten used to alternative kinds of games. In Tokyo and other crowded Asian cities, mobile games make a convenient distraction during subway journeys. In Japan, rudimentary mobile games, offered by wireless operators like NTT DoCoMo, were already popular before smartphones and app stores arrived on the scene. So, while it is hard to imagine a mobile network operator in the United States or Europe following SoftBank’s move, analysts said the investment might have made sense for that company, which also recently bought the United States cellphone operator Sprint for $21.6 billion. “There’s no way a Deutsche Telekom or a Verizon could spend $1.5 billion for half of a small game company in Finland,” said Serkan Toto, an independent technology analyst in Tokyo. “Their shareholders would absolutely slaughter them.” SoftBank shareholders did not. In fact, the stock price barely budged. But the dynamics of the mobile business are different in Japan. Though many of the recent mergers and acquisitions initiated by Asian buyers involve Asia-based targets, SoftBank’s purchase of a controlling stake in Supercell is not the first deal for a Western mobile game company. In 2010, DeNA of Japan acquired Ngmoco, based in San Francisco. In 2012, Tencent took a sizable minority stake in Epic Games, based in North Carolina. “All of the Asian players are trying to crack the Western market,” said Will Luton, author of the book “Free 2 Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away” (New Riders, 2013), and a consultant based in Bristol, England. Not all of these deals worked out well. Last year, a Japanese social networking and gaming company, Gree, shut down OpenFeint, a mobile game platform, only a little more than a year after it had spent $104 million to buy it. Mr. Luton and others say Supercell and SoftBank might be a better fit. Supercell and GungHo — which was founded by Taizo Son, brother of the SoftBank founder, Masayoshi Son — will be able use each other’s games to market their own creations in places where they have not had a strong presence. GungHo’s biggest hit, Puzzle & Dragons, for example, is hugely popular in Asia but not as widely played in Europe. The companies, which have cooperated on promotions in the past, will now be able to deepen their ties. Even though the United States is a smaller mobile gaming market, adding Supercell could help SoftBank flesh out the appeal of Sprint, said Thomas Husson, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The value of the acquisition goes beyond potential revenues in the mobile gaming sector,” he said. “I think the rationale for SoftBank is that powerful gaming content will fuel its overall mobile Internet and app strategy and enable them to globalize some of their initiatives in the light of the Sprint acquisition.”

Asia
SoftBank
Japan
Supercell
Smartphone
Mobile Apps
Computer and Video Games


Arizona: Court Panel Maintains Stay on Abortion Rules

Abstract: A federal appeals court panel has kept the stay on rules restricting the use of the most common abortion medications while a case against them plays out in court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the rules last week. Arizona’s attorney general, Tom Horne, asked the court to let them take effect, saying Planned Parenthood Arizona did not have enough evidence to show they were detrimental. The panel said Tuesday that patients would most likely suffer irreparable harm if the rules took effect because they would lose access to a common abortion procedure.

Arizona
Abortion
Planned Parenthood
Decisions and Verdicts


Kurish Leader Declares Truce With Turkey

Abstract: DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — The jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday called for a cease-fire and ordered all his fighters off Turkish soil, in a landmark moment for a newly energized effort to end three decades of armed conflict with the Turkish government. Since its start late last year, the peace effort has transfixed a Turkish public traumatized by a long and bloody conflict that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives and fractured society along ethnic lines. While there have been previous periods of cease-fire between Turkey and Mr. Ocalan’s group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., never before has there been so much support at the highest levels of both the Turkish and Kurdish leadership. “We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak,” Mr. Ocalan wrote in a letter read out to jubilant crowds gathered in the Kurdish heartland here in southern Turkey. “A new era starts when politics, instead of guns, comes to the forefront.” For the Turkish government, seeking peace within its borders is a step toward realizing its ambition to be a regional power broker. For the Kurds, the call for peace carries with it the hope of more rights under a new constitution and the freedom to express a separate identity within a country that for decades denied their existence, forbade them to speak their language and abused their activists. The declaration by Mr. Ocalan was seen as a critical confidence-building step in the peace process. It brought ecstatic celebration among the huge crowds gathered outside Diyarbakir to celebrate Nowruz, the traditional spring festival. Lawmakers read out statements in both Turkish and Kurdish as waves of yellow, red and green, the traditional Kurdish colors, rippled through the masses. The deal is far from done, however. Notably, while Mr. Ocalan called for militants to retreat to bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, he did not order them to disarm. And a long process of constitutional reform and negotiations over Kurdish prisoners lies ahead. Still, if a lasting peace is achieved, there would be ramifications across the broader Middle East, where millions of Kurds also live in Syria, Iraq and Iran and have long held ambitions for independence. For nearly a century they have also nurtured a sense of betrayal: after the Allied victory in World War I, the victors first promised Kurdish independence, and then reneged. Accordingly, it is an open question whether the Turkish Kurds’ willingness to seek greater rights within Turkey rather than hold out for independence signals that broader ambitions for a pan-Kurdish state have been tempered. The emphasis made in the letter on national unity and the will to live alongside Turks was regarded as an effort by Mr. Ocalan to calm nationalists who consider the peace process a major risk for territorial unity, and to also contain regional aspirations among Turkey’s Kurds. Image Masked supporters of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan demonstrated outside Diyarbakir on Thursday. Credit Associated Press Regional tensions are also a factor for Turkey. In the tumult of Syria’s civil war, an offshoot of the Kurdish rebel group called the Democratic Union Party has taken up arms in pursuit of Kurdish autonomy there. In making peace with the P.K.K., analysts have said, Turkey is seeking to head off the creation of a new base within Syria from which militants linked to the group could launch attacks on Turkey. The quick pace of the talks has riveted the public here. “When I first started writing about this subject, I couldn’t even imagine it would come to this point,” wrote Eyup Can, the editor in chief of the newspaper Radikal, in a recent column. “In three months, Turkey is putting a stop to 30 years of bloodshed.” For all the joy and celebration, there was still a sense of caution, and acknowledgment of a long road ahead. “I see the statement as a positive development,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference in the Netherlands, where he was on a state visit. “Implementation, however, is much more important, as we hope to see at the earliest to what extent Ocalan’s statement will be accepted.” While the effort to find peace carries political risks for Mr. Erdogan, it also carries huge possibilities. He faces some opposition from nationalist groups opposed to pursuing talks with the P.K.K., which is regarded as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. But the political gamble Mr. Erdogan has made is that successful talks could earn him the support of Kurdish lawmakers in Parliament for his effort to alter the constitution to create an empowered presidency that he would then seek in an election next year, analysts have said. Mr. Ocalan’s direct involvement in the peace process, albeit while he is serving a life term in prison on a treason conviction, was itself a statement of how far the two sides have come. He had been barred from involvement in previous diplomatic efforts. Murat Karayilan, the P.K.K. military commander, issued a statement from his mountain redoubt in northern Iraq in support of Mr. Ocalan’s call, NTV, a Turkish television channel, reported. Hardened by the resentments from decades of persecution by the Turkish state, and mindful of past failed attempts at peace, some Kurds sounded a note of skepticism. “If the state fools these people once more, hell would break lose, and we’d be forced to leave this land that will turn into a big ball of fire,” Zulkuf Gunes, 52, said, as he embraced his 2-year-old grandson dressed in a traditional Kurdish outfit in military green. In Istanbul, Habibe Sezgin, a Kurd who moved to the city in the 1990s to escape the bloodshed in the southeast, expressed tempered hope. “I will hope and pray for peace,” she said, “but it is hard to believe in it after seeing so much violence over the years.”

Turkey
Kurdish
Abdullah Ocalan
Kurdistan Workers' Party,PKK


Epson’s MovieMate Both Plays and Projects DVDs

Abstract: Sometimes, combining gadgets is a bad idea (Internet-enabled refrigerators come to mind). But every once in a while, something comes along that is, if not inspired, at least a practical and reasonable merger of products. All-in-one video projectors — an LCD projector joined to a DVD player and speakers — fall into that category. Throw a unit in the back of your car and you have a one-box entertainment center wherever you go — all you need is a white wall and a power outlet. Epson’s MovieMate 55 projector is one of the latest all-in-ones. At just over eight pounds, the $700 MovieMate 55 can project a 60-inch image from six feet away or a 120-inch image from 12 feet away. You can play movies using the onboard progressive-scan DVD player (and control them with the included remote), or through a device connected to the MovieMate via its VGA port. You can also connect an iPod , a Wii, a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360. Life-size Rock Band 2 concerts, here we come. AZADEH ENSHA

Epson
projector
Computers and the Internet


Tottenham Overwhelms Sunderland

Abstract: Christian Eriksen scored one goal and set up two more as host Tottenham recovered from an early defensive error to rout Sunderland, 5-1.

Soccer
Sunderland Soccer Team
Tottenham Hotspur Soccer Team


Craft Is Lighter Than Air — and Doesn’t Pollute It

Abstract: PARIS — Early on July 25, 1909, the French aviator Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel from Calais, France, to Dover, England, in an aircraft that he had designed himself. This summer, a group of French students hopes to repeat the epic flight in a self-designed, but very different, aircraft — a solar-powered dirigible. Project Sol’R is an initiative by students from the French engineering university INSA Lyon and the Essec international business school. The team has designed and built the first manned solar airship, intended to demonstrate the possibilities of zero-emission flight. Completed in 2009, their prototype, named Néphélios, is a semi-flexible helium-filled airship measuring 22 meters, or 72 feet, long and 5.5 meters in diameter. It consists of a lightweight aluminum frame with an outer skin of nylon and polyethylene. Stretched along the top of the balloon are 42 thin-film solar cells that produce enough energy to drive an electric motor turning two large propellers. The team originally planned the Channel crossing to coincide with the centenary of the Blériot flight last year, but technical difficulties pushed back the flight. Still, Bastien Lefrançois, the dirigible’s 27-year-old pilot, has now made a dozen short test flights on the Néphélios: “For the moment, it has been quite successful,” Mr. Lefrançois said in an interview this month. “But we had many reliability problems in the beginning.” Early problems related mostly to wiring, components and wind disturbances. But the biggest challenge facing the team now, Mr. Lefrançois said, involves the solar cells. Although the cells work well, energy conversion efficiency is poor. Laid out flat, and in full sunshine, “the theoretical maximum the solar cells can generate is 2.4 kilowatts,” Mr. Lefrançois said. “But because of the curve of the envelope, we can only generate a little less than 2 kilowatts, and for the moment we are getting a third of that.” The issue of conversion efficiency is just one of many that the team has encountered along its learning curve — which is the point of the exercise. With a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour, or 25 m.p.h., and lifting capacity of 350 kilograms, or 772 pounds, Néphélios is unlikely to make it in the worlds of commercial transportation or heavy lifting. As a technological test bed, however, it can provide valuable insights for the development of photovoltaic cell technology. As with Solar Impulse, the experimental solar-powered aircraft that completed its first night flight July 8, Néphélios is a concept vehicle for technologies that may lead the way to cleaner, greener future aviation. At the very least, its value is symbolic: calling people’s attention to the possibilities of carbon-free air travel. Silent, ultralong-endurance solar airships, moreover, have enormous commercial and military potential for surveillance and intelligence missions. Lockheed Martin ’s High Altitude Airship program is one example of an attempt to develop a commercial applications for dirigible technology. The U.S. defense contractor is working on an unmanned, untethered, solar-powered dirigible to be used as a platform for surveillance and telecommunications equipment. The project was canceled in 2008 because of budgetary constraints, but Lockheed Martin said recently that it had received additional funding in May from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command to restart the program. A prototype test flight is planned for the summer of next year.

Airships
Lockheed Martin
United States Army
Solar Energy


New Rules to Begin for Hudson River Airspace

Abstract: New rules for airplanes, helicopters and other aircraft operating in the congested air corridor above the Hudson River will go into effect on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Monday. The restrictions, developed in the aftermath of a deadly midair collision between a single-engine plane and a tourist helicopter on Aug. 8, will require pilots to navigate separate altitude corridors specific to their mission, whether it be touring or passing through. The new rules are a bid to tame what one elected official has referred to as a Wild West of airspace. “These changes will define separate corridors for aircraft operating locally and those flying along the Hudson River area,” said J. Randolph Babbitt, the F.A.A. administrator. “Separating aircraft on different missions and improving pilot situational awareness will add more layers of safety to this high-demand airspace.” Air traffic traversing the corridor under the jurisdiction of air traffic controllers will fly above 1,300 feet. Below that, another corridor, from 1,000 to 1,300 feet, will be for pilots wishing to pass through the area without being handled by air traffic control. Another corridor, below 1,000 feet, will be for planes or helicopters wishing to linger or sightsee. Additionally, in the two lower-altitude corridors, the new rules will make some safety recommendations mandatory. Pilots must obey a speed limit of 140 knots or less for all aircraft; activate anticollision devices, navigation equipment and landing lights; tune their radios to a frequency of 123.05, known as the common traffic advisory frequency; and announce their aircraft’s description, location, direction and altitude when entering the area. In addition, southbound planes and copters must hug the New Jersey coastline, and northbound ones must hew closely to the West Side of Manhattan. Officials said the new rules would take effect at 4 a.m. Thursday. However, some pilots have already been following them to a limited extent since they were announced in September, said Henry P. Krakowski, the chief operating officer for the F.A.A. The new rules drew criticism from Senator Charles E. Schumer and Jerrold Nadler, a United States representative who represents the West Side of Manhattan. “Congressman Nadler and Senator Schumer are researching their options and both believe they should put some limitations on the helicopter traffic in that corridor,” said Robert M. Gottheim, an aide to Mr. Nadler. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the Aug. 8 midair collision, which killed nine people. Deborah A. P. Hersman, the board’s chairwoman, credited the Federal Aviation Administration with moving quickly to address safety concerns after the collision. “We’re seeing changed charts, we’re seeing new procedures, and a new way of looking at the airspace over New York City,” Ms. Hersman said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday. Also on Monday, the aviation agency made permanent a restriction for air traffic above the East River that was put in place in 2006, just days after the New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were killed when their plane crashed into a building. The F.A.A. has banned all aircraft, except seaplanes and helicopters, from flying in the East River corridor without specific permission from air traffic controllers.

Hudson River
Air Traffic Control
New York City
Accidents and Safety
Airlines and Airplanes


Starbucks to Close Stores and End Sandwich Sales

Abstract: At the very least, Starbucks will smell like coffee again. As part of a turnaround plan, the beleaguered coffee giant said Wednesday that it would discontinue warm breakfast sandwiches at its stores and focus instead on healthy breakfast options and high-quality baked goods. “In short, the scent of the warm sandwiches interferes with the coffee aroma in our stores,” said Howard D. Schultz, the company’s chairman and chief executive. Mr. Schultz also announced that his company would close 100 underperforming locations in the United States while scaling back the rate of store openings domestically. At the same time, Starbucks will move more aggressively to open stores overseas, where business remains robust. He did not identify the locations that will be closed. In all, Starbucks will open 1,175 restaurants in the United States this budget year, down from its previous goal of 1,600. The company will open 75 more stores abroad than originally predicted, for a total of 975. Mr. Schultz’s comments came as Starbucks reported anemic sales growth of 1 percent at stores open at least a year, the worst three-month performance in the company’s history. United States sales have been battered by a weak economy and increased competition from the likes of McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Same-store sales for American stores declined 1 percent. Adopting a risky tactic that may alienate Wall Street, Mr. Schultz said the company would no longer provide same-store sales numbers, at least temporarily, as he moves forward with his turnaround plan. He said the company’s decisions had been too driven by improving same-store sales rather than consumer needs and that same-store sales numbers would be “erratic” during the transformation. A similar decision in 2006 by Robert L. Nardelli, chief executive of Home Depot, infuriated Wall Street analysts. The decision turned out to be the beginning of the end of Mr. Nardelli’s reign. Starbucks reported earnings of $208 million in the first quarter of its budget year, which ended Dec. 30, a 2 percent gain over the same period a year ago. However, Mr. Schultz warned that the coming year would be difficult because of the reorganization and weakening economy. “You would have to agree that the consumer is in a recession,” he said. Mr. Schultz’s remarks came after the close of markets on Wednesday. Starbucks’ shares declined in after-hours trading by less than 2 percent, to $18.90. In 2007, Starbucks’ stock declined more than 40 percent. What remains unclear is how Mr. Schultz will recapture the cachet that made Starbucks a customer favorite and Wall Street darling. On Wednesday, he said many details of his plan, “including bold innovations that will reassert our coffee leadership, redefine the in-store experience and introduce core brand-building initiatives,” will be announced at Starbucks’ annual meeting in March. Mr. Schultz, who served as chief executive from 1987 to 2000 and is widely credited with Starbucks’ success, was brought back as chief executive this month to try to restore the company’s luster. Harvey Hartman, founder and chief executive of the Hartman Group, a food consulting and market research firm, said it was smart to get rid of breakfast sandwiches and revive the smell of fresh coffee. He also applauded Mr. Schultz’s decision to focus on consumer needs rather than Wall Street demands. “What we hear from consumers more than anything else is, ‘It’s not that I don’t like Starbucks,’ ” he said. “ ‘It’s that they are no longer as relevant to me as they used to be because I’ve changed, and they haven’t changed with me.’ ”

Sales
Coffee
Starbucks Corp
Schultz Howard D


Strong Quarter for Sales at Amazon

Abstract: High gas prices aren’t so bad after all — if you’re Amazon.com . The online retailer’s profit doubled in the second quarter, as revenue rose 41 percent despite consumer anxiety about the economy. “This is a very robust performance and it clearly shows that online selling is holding up very well even if consumer confidence is lower,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Even if people are buying less over all, Amazon is benefiting.” Amazon’s report, announced Wednesday, caps a week of largely mixed results from technology companies. EBay, the online marketplace, showed that it was not immune to the slumping economy when it reported last week that auction growth was slowing, although its profit continued to grow. Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said the company appeared to prosper as more customers went online to shop instead of driving to stores. “Even just driving 10 miles to the store can mean a few dollars,” Mr. Bezos said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday. “We think consumers are taking that into account.” Mr. Bezos also said that more customers signed up for the company’s $79-a-year all-you-can-ship program, Amazon Prime, and that the company had no plans to change Amazon’s free-shipping policy on many items, despite rising gas prices. Amazon’s net shipping cost rose to $128 million from $75 million in the quarter a year earlier, but company executives said that revenue from shipping increased as well, to $186 million from $152 million. Amazon reported net income of $158 million, or 37 cents a share, up from $78 million, or 19 cents a share, in the second quarter of 2007. Operating income rose 86 percent, to $217 million, which includes a $53 million noncash gain from Amazon’s sale of its European DVD rental assets and by the effect of the weak dollar. Revenue rose 41 percent, to $4.06 billion, from $2.89 billion in the year-ago quarter. Excluding the benefit of exchange rates, Amazon’s sales would have been roughly $3.9 billion. Shares of Amazon rose more than 8 percent in after-hours trading, when the earnings were released. They had gained 3.8 percent, or $2.57, to $70.54, in regular trading. The results surpassed analysts’ forecasts of 26 cents a share on $3.96 billion in revenue, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. Looking ahead, the company said it now expects sales of as much as $4.43 billion in the current quarter, or 36 percent higher than a year ago. For the full year, Amazon forecast sales of up to $20.1 billion. Gross margin declined slightly to 23.8 percent from 24.3 percent, mainly because Amazon lowered prices on some items, said Tom Szkutak, Amazon’s chief finance officer. North America sales, including Amazon’s American and Canadian sites, were up 35 percent from a year ago, to $2.17 billion, while international sales were up 47 percent, to $1.89 billion. But adjusting for the effect of exchange rates, international sales grew 34 percent. “We don’t think we are a good barometer for the economy,” Mr. Szkutak said. Amazon, which is based in Seattle, has been making considerable enhancements to its offerings in recent months, in search of new revenue opportunities. In April, it announced a new service, called TextBuyIt, that allows customers to shop for products via text messaging on their cellphones. Earlier, the company lowered the price of its Kindle electronic reading device by $40, to $359, hoping to bolster sales. Last week it announced a movie-streaming service called Amazon Video on Demand and this week it announced a service for TiVo users to buy products they see promoted on TV talk shows.

Company Reports
Computers and the Internet
Amazon.com Inc


SEC Expected to Exclude Transfers Who Have a History of Violence

Abstract: SANDESTIN, Fla. — Years ago, when he first began chasing down high school football players in small towns across the Midwest, Bret Bielema quickly learned one undeniable fact in the seedy and often controversial world of recruiting. You recruit your own problems. “Hasn’t changed since I first started in the 1990s,” Bielema said. He was a 20-something assistant at Iowa then, and now he is a 40-something head coach at Arkansas. The only difference in recruiting over the last two decades is the rules that apply. For one high-powered conference, change is coming and it’s not just in football. It will apply to all sports and to both men and women. This week, the Southeastern Conference is expected to approve rules that would prohibit players with a history of sexual assault, stalking or interpersonal violence from transfering to any of its 14 member universities. “We set the standard last year, and others have followed,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday after the first day of the league’s annual spring meetings. “Our policies will become more clear this week. We’ll see if they continue to follow.” Last year the SEC approved a rule that prohibited its members from accepting transfers — any player that was not a freshman signee — who had been disciplined by previous schools for “serious misconduct.” The definition of serious misconduct was “sexual assault, domestic violence or other forms of sexual violence.” Now, on the heels of the sexual assault revelations at Baylor and how it mishandled off-field allegations of sexual violence, college sport’s most powerful conference wants to expand last year’s language to cover a majority of offenses involving violence and stalking. The conference will also have a standardized set of questions that each member university must use before accepting a transfer. If a player’s behavior results in an expullsion from another university, that player will not be accepted into the SEC. One big difference this spring from last year is that there is unanimous agreement on the changes from the conference’s 14 head football coaches. “It’s a good thing, a smart thing,” Florida Coach Jim McElwain said. “It’s the right thing to do.” Georgia introduced the “serious misconduct” legislation at last year’s SEC spring meetings after Jonathan Taylor was signed by Alabama a year after he was charged with sexual assault and kicked off Georgia’s football team. Less than two months after signing with the Tide, Taylor was kicked off the team after he was accused of domestic violence. Later that summer, Sankey built a committee, one that included student-athletes, to expand on the concept of “serious misconduct” for transfers. Some coaches in the conference — including South Carolina’s Will Muschamp — would like to see the misconduct rule extended to freshmen. Muschamp has a history of dealing with poor player behavior. When he replaced Urban Meyer at Florida in 2011, the program was littered with cases of bad player behavior and drug problems. Thirty players had been arrested in the previous six years. He cleaned up the program, changed the culture and won 11 games in his second season, but was fired after his fourth season when he could not consistently produce a winning team. When asked if he would support stronger player behavior rules — including an initial clearinghouse much like the N.C.A.A.’s academic clearinghouse for all incoming freshmen — Muschamp said, “That’s going to be a lot of work for somebody, but I wouldn’t be against it.” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said his team used a list of 13 specific questions his assistant coaches must ask those closely involved with a potential student-athlete. But many of those closest to players — guidance counselors, principals, parents, coaches — want the players to earn scholarships. “You don’t know if you’re getting the truth,” Saban said. “We do the best we can. It’s not the perfect circumstances.” A few months after Taylor was kicked off the Alabama team, he resurfaced at Southeastern Louisiana, where he is on the 2016 roster. “There are always second chances out there,” Muschamp said.

Southeastern Conference
Domestic violence
College Sports
Sports Drafts and Recruits
Rape
School discipline


Lakers Allow Themselves to Smile After Climbing Back in the Series

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant regained his balance Tuesday night and with it, a self-deprecating sense of humor. It was a lot easier to joke about all that had gone wrong after the Los Angeles Lakers finally put their stamp on the N.B.A. finals. Bryant had been virtually throttled for two games in Boston, a lack of foul calls leaving him testy and unfulfilled, while his team fell behind, 2-0, in the series. Nothing could sour his mood after a tense, generally messy 87-81 victory Tuesday that got the Lakers back in the series. At a glance, there was plenty for the Lakers to wring their hands over. Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol were all but absent. They held the Celtics ’ two main stars in check, yet Boston kept the score close right down to the final seconds. And though the Lakers finally enjoyed an advantage in foul shots (34 to 22), they missed 13 of them. Bryant, who scored a game-high 36 points, went to the line 18 times and missed seven. So there was room for improvement, and good-natured humility. “It felt like I was in a foreign territory, because I haven’t been there in so long,” Bryant said of his trips to the line. “It’s like somebody took me and just dropped me off in the middle of Shanghai with no translator.” He added: “At least I got there. So that’s a positive.” The Lakers were just happy to be back in the series, which the Celtics lead, 2-1. The victory guaranteed them at least two more games, both at Staples Center. Game 4 is Thursday. Bryant played all but 2 minutes 45 seconds, converted 12 of 20 field goals and helped harass Paul Pierce (6 points) into a 2-for-14 shooting night. Kevin Garnett was similarly out of sorts, making 6 of 21 field goals and finishing with 13 points. Yet the suspense did not truly end until Pierce’s off-balance 3-pointer bounced off the rim in the final seconds, and purple and gold streamers fluttered down from the rafters. Boston cut a 7-point deficit to 2 by the 2:41 mark. Sasha Vujacic hit a 3-pointer in the left corner, and Derek Fisher sank two free throws to extend the lead to 83-76 with 1:33 left. The Lakers still needed two clutch shots from Bryant to secure the win. After a defensive lapse allowed Garnett to drive to an uncontested dunk, Bryant struck back with an 18-footer over Ray Allen. Eddie House hit a 3-pointer around the one-minute mark. Bryant answered with a leaning jumper in the lane for an 87-81 lead with 38 seconds left. House missed a 22-footer and Garnett was called for an offensive foul. All the Lakers had to do at that point was run out the clock, but even that proved difficult. Odom, who had missed several point-blank layups, unnecessarily drove the lane and was called for an offensive foul with 6.7 seconds left. There was no time for the Celtics to mount a comeback, but the play served as a final reminder that the Lakers are fortunate not to be down, 3-0. “It was not a beautiful ball game,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said, blaming the cross-country travel and the lack of time to recover after Sunday’s game in Boston. “That’s a transition game, from East Coast to West Coast.” With Odom, Gasol and Derek Fisher combining for just 7 points, the Lakers got a needed boost from Vujacic, who delivered 8 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. “Kobe was fantastic, but I thought Vujacic was the key to the game,” said Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, who absorbed his first finals defeat. “I thought we did a great job with Gasol, thought we did a great job on Odom. But Vujacic, he was aggressive, and he deserved what he got.” Boston lost to the Lakers for the first time in five meetings, counting the regular season. The Celtics fell to 2-8 on the road in the postseason, which could be a concern with two more games here. The Lakers are 9-0 at home in the playoffs and have not lost at Staples Center since March 28. After Jackson groused about the officiating in Game 2 — for giving the Celtics a 38-10 advantage in free throws — it was Rivers’s turn to take a swipe. Not at the referees, but at Jackson. Minutes after Jackson opined that Garnett looked “gassed” in the fourth quarter, Rivers was asked to respond. “Well, I’m just surprised he didn’t whine about fouls tonight,” he said. The game was close all night, which was a wonder considering how much went wrong for the Celtics. Pierce entered the fourth quarter with twice as many fouls (four) as points. He picked up his fifth with 8:56 left to play, for bowling over Jordan Farmar. Allen (25 points) was the only Celtics star to get on track. Rajon Rondo, the Celtics’ shifty point guard, left the game after spraining his left ankle 44 seconds into the third quarter and did not return until the 7:59 mark of the fourth. The Celtics made their best run of the night without him, an 8-0 burst in the third that gave them a 51-49 lead, their first since the opening quarter. They took their last lead at 68-66 early in the fourth. Bryant then hit a 3-pointer that gave Lakers the lead for good. It looked like a missed opportunity for the Celtics. “Either that, or they should have blown us out,” Rivers said. The change of scenery provided a measure of relief for the Lakers, and seemingly a little more respect from the officials. They enjoyed a 14-2 advantage in foul shots in the first quarter, when they built an early lead. Bryant shot eight free throws, one more than he did in all of Game 2. But Bryant continued to carp at the referees for non-calls and drew a technical foul for the second straight game. The Lakers took a 43-37 lead into halftime. For the first time in the series, it was the Celtics who looked bewildered. Pierce missed 6 of 7 shots in the half. Garnett missed his first seven attempts and was 1 for 9. Pierce’s only score in the half, a driving reverse, was sandwiched between a blocked shot by Luke Walton and a 3-point air ball. “Our job is to come out here and get two wins,” Pierce said. “That’s our focus, and we’re not backing down from that.”

Los Angeles Lakers
Basketball
Boston Celtics
National Basketball Assn


Syria Rebels Press Harder to Gain More Fighters

Abstract: ANTAKYA, Turkey — For months, the disparate militias known as the Free Syrian Army relied on defections from the Syrian military to lead a credible if halting challenge to the government of President Bashar al-Assad . Every day seemed to bring word of new recruits. Soldiers fled in packs, or officers stole across a border, lifting the rebels’ morale while swelling their ranks. But now opposition commanders say defections have slowed to a trickle. Some commanders have given up trying to entice defectors, and others have resorted to more desperate measures: cajoling, duping, threatening and even drugging and kidnapping military men to get them to change sides, or at least stay out of the fight. Without defections, they say, the opposition cannot hope to grow, never mind prevail. “We use means only used by the devil,” said Ahmed Qunatri, a rebel commander in northern Syria who defected from the Republican Guard. As Syria’s fighting burns into its 19th month, Mr. Assad’s forces have moved effectively to cut off what amounts to the armed rebellion’s most significant resource: soldiers with training and weapons who change sides. In a shift in strategy, the government has preferred to attack towns and neighborhoods from a distance using artillery and air power, preserving its resources and distancing its soldiers from rebel fighters — and from the public, including friends and neighbors, who might encourage defections. Some rebel commanders now fret that all the soldiers who were inclined to defect already have. The rest remain loyal to the government, or are terrified of betraying it. Others are just suspicious of an armed movement that has found extremists among its ranks. A suicide attack in Aleppo on Wednesday that killed more than 40 people and devastated a government-held district drew widespread anger. Aware of just how much the violence is undermining popular support for the uprising, some rebel groups immediately tried to blame the government for staging the bombing. The government blamed the rebels. By nightfall, Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda , claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings. Col. Qassem Sa’adeddine, the head of the rebel military council for Homs, said in an interview in Turkey that the government’s close watch, especially at checkpoints, meant “communicating with officers has become much harder.” The colonel said it had also become more difficult to protect the families of defectors — for example, safe houses were harder to come by in neighborhoods depopulated by the government. “The officers are more hesitant these days,” he said. More and more, he said, the rebels used force. “We arrest them and give them a chance to defect,” he said. “Some are convinced after a week, so they are welcomed.” Those who remained unconvinced — loyal to the government — were imprisoned, he said, and would face a “trial.” Some of the methods used by the rebels reflected a cunning forged in necessity, but also an ability, at times, for brutality. Several times in recent months, rebel fighting groups — making no effort to persuade their enemies — have been accused of summarily executing captured soldiers. Last week, rebel fighters claimed credit for bombing a school they said was used as a military base. “The fewer the defectors, the less the opposition strives to attract soldiers rather than just fight them,” said Peter Harling, an expert on Syria with the International Crisis Group. “And the harsher armed groups treat the enemy, the fewer will change sides. It’s a self-reinforcing dynamic.” Several commanders said they were still trying to persuade. Mr. Qunatri, the rebel commander, said in an interview here in Antakya that he preferred sending innocent-seeming emissaries to soldiers at military checkpoints. A 12-year-old boy, for example, helped turn one soldier, teasing him mercilessly until he relented. “Dude, why don’t you defect,” the boy would scold, repeatedly, as if the heavily guarded checkpoint was a schoolyard. Another rebel officer, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Ali, sent a barber, Walid, who made friends with the soldiers by offering haircuts or doing laundry. “They want to defect,” Abu Ali said. “They don’t know how, or who can help.” Another rebel commander who was a merchant before the war said he once sent a shepherd, who wandered by checkpoints and lent a sympathetic ear to the soldiers. “It helps if the soldiers were shepherds as well,” the commander said. “Nostalgia.” Another of the former merchant’s operatives, a food delivery man, identified six recruits, but the checkpoint they guarded was too well secured for them to leave: there was no way past the officers. “We thought of sending sleeping pills,” the commander said. The recruits spiked the water and the tea. “Thirty-eight soldiers fell asleep,” said a soldier named Shadi, one of those who defected that day. Rebel seized the sleeping soldiers along with their weapons. Some willingly flipped and others were made to promise they would not return to the fight, he said. “Two of the 38 returned to the army,” he said. Though the rebels claim to have attracted thousands of recruits, there is little evidence the defections have slowed the Syrian Army. Many rebels say they are still waiting for a pivotal moment, for instance, when a brigade changes sides. Until that happens, they say, they are squeezing the army of every last dissenter against increasing odds. An officer from Damascus said rebels called him for 16 months, without ever giving their names, first peppering him with friendly requests, before telling him he would be killed if he did not desert. To drive home the point, sometimes, they called from dead soldiers’ cellphones. “I finally defected, but I was so scared I didn’t trust my own wife,” said the officer. A few weeks ago, three Syrian border guards decided to flee the country, forcing another soldier who had no desire to defect with them at gunpoint, fearing he would thwart their escape. “It was very confusing,” the soldier said in a phone interview from a country neighboring Syria on Friday. “If I stayed, the officers would blame me and I would surely face the death penalty. If I refused, my colleagues might kill me.” After they had crossed the border, the defectors told the soldier he was free. “But where to go?” the soldier said. “I’m stuck with no way to go back. I’m already involved.” Since his exile started, he had started to sympathize with the rebels, he said. Such tactics have angered some antigovernment activists, who worry that they alienate supporters of the uprising. One activist, who requested anonymity for fear of angering the Free Syrian Army, cited a recent case that he said was part of a worrying trend: an officer from the coastal city of Latakia was kidnapped, thrown in the trunk of a car and told he was defecting or he would be killed. But faced with the government’s cruelty, many defectors said they needed no convincing: they were haunted, they said, by innocent victims and the cities they helped destroy. They spoke with pride about protecting demonstrations and defending their homes. As the uprising has transformed into something more ambiguous — a struggle against a dictator but also a war scarred by sectarianism and foreign meddling — allegiances have become more contested. This week, in a jarring turn for the rebels, a man claiming to be a former insurgent commander appeared at an opposition conference in Damascus and said he was defecting back to the government. “The solution in Syria does not lie in the use of weapons or violence or sabotage and explosions or the killing of innocents,” the commander, Col. Khaled Abdel-Rahman al-Zamel, said at the opposition meeting in Damascus. A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army asserted that the reversal was a ruse: the government had arrested the colonel back in March. “He is our colleague and our friend,” the spokesman said.

Syria
Free Syrian Army
Bashar al-Assad
Arab Spring


A Lab-Grown Burger Gets a Taste Test

Abstract: A hamburger made from cow muscle grown in a laboratory was fried, served and eaten in London on Monday in an odd demonstration of one view of the future of food. According to the three people who ate it, the burger was dry and a bit lacking in flavor. One taster, Josh Schonwald, a Chicago-based author of a book on the future of food, said “the bite feels like a conventional hamburger” but that the meat tasted “like an animal-protein cake.” But taste and texture were largely beside the point: The event, arranged by a public relations firm and broadcast live on the Web, was meant to make a case that so-called in vitro, or cultured, meat deserves additional financing and research. Proponents of the idea, including Dr. Mark Post, the Dutch researcher who created the hamburger at the University of Maastricht, say that lab-made meat could provide high-quality protein for the world’s growing population while avoiding most of the environmental and animal-welfare issues related to conventional livestock production. Neil Stephens, a social scientist at Cardiff University in Wales who has studied the development of cultured meat and who attended the tasting, said the event generated a lot of interest. “The exciting thing will be to see the response,” he said. Dr. Post, one of a handful of scientists working in the field, said there was still much research to be done and that it would probably take 10 years or more before cultured meat was commercially viable. Reducing costs is one major issue — he estimated that if production could be scaled up, cultured beef made as this one burger was made would cost more than $30 a pound. The two-year project to make the one burger, plus extra tissue for testing, cost $325,000. On Monday it was revealed that Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, paid for the project. Dr. Post said Mr. Brin got involved because “he basically shares the same concerns about the sustainability of meat production and animal welfare.” Image A chef preparing to cook the world's first lab-grown hamburger in London on Monday. Credit Toby Melville/Reuters The meat was produced using stem cells — basic cells that can turn into tissue-specific cells — from cow shoulder muscle from a slaughterhouse. The cells were multiplied in a nutrient solution and put into small petri dishes, where they became muscle cells and formed tiny strips of muscle fiber. About 20,000 strips were used to make the five-ounce burger, which contained breadcrumbs, salt, and some natural colorings as well. The meat, which contained no fat, was fried in a pan with copious amounts of butter by an English chef and presented on a plate with a bun, lettuce and tomato slices to Dr. Post, Mr. Schonwald and Hanni Rützler, an Austrian food scientist. Pleas from the journalists and others in the audience for a bite were dismissed by Dr. Post, who said he did not have enough to go around. He said he was “very happy” with the burger after tasting it, although he acknowledged that the lack of fat was a problem. “We’re working on that,” he said. “I think it’s a very good start,” he added. “It was to mostly prove that we could do this.” Recent studies have shown that producing cultured meat in factories could greatly reduce water, land and energy use, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, compared with conventional meat production using livestock. Depending on how the stem cells were obtained, no animals might need to be killed to make the meat. Asked if cultured meat might be attractive to vegetarians, Dr. Post said: “Vegetarians should remain vegetarian. That’s even better for the environment.” His goal, he said, was to “let beef eaters eat beef in an environmentally friendly and ethical way.” The tasting event was originally expected to take place last fall but was delayed, Dr. Post has said, because of the need to make more tissue for testing. Dr. Stephens said that despite the delay, “it’s still quite a feat that they’ve achieved.” “To produce that quantity of tissue is beyond what anyone else in the field has done.”

Meat
Mark Post
Sergey Brin
Stem cell
Science and Technology


Strong Profit at Disney, Despite Weakness at Movie Studio

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — The financial health of the Walt Disney Company is improving, notably in the area of television, which helped the company report a 18 percent increase in its fourth-quarter profit on Thursday. But a dismal quarter in movies weighed on the company’s results, and its theme park division remained soft. The Walt Disney Studios unit lost money for the second quarter in a row. The movie studio reported a loss of $13 million, despite a 3 percent increase in revenue, because of write-downs on films like “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” which cost at least $175 million to make but started out with a disappointing $31 million in ticket sales on its opening weekend. During a conference call with analysts, Robert A. Iger, the chief executive, called the studio results “extremely disappointing.” He highlighted a recent shake-up aimed at fixing the studio’s creative problems and “challenging the status quo” when it came to marketing and distribution. In the last two months, Disney has dismissed three of the studio’s top officials, including Dick Cook, the former chairman, and has fired more than a dozen marketing and publicity executives. On Wednesday, the new chairman, Rich Ross, elevated a quartet of production, distribution and finance executives. In an unrelated executive shuffle, Disney said on Thursday that James A. Rasulo, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, would become chief financial officer at the end of the year. Thomas O. Staggs, who has served as the financial chief, will take the top theme park job. Mr. Iger wants to deepen the experience of his bench, much as General Electric has done, by giving executives on-the-ground training in other parts of the far-flung Disney empire. “I’m looking to do more of this in the years ahead,” Mr. Iger said in an interview. “I looked at my entire management team and saw two executives with considerable talent and experience who had been in their respective jobs for quite a long time,” he added. “I think it’s a smart way to motivate them and better prepare them for the future.” Over all, Disney reported net income of $895 million, or 47 cents a share, for the quarter, which ended Oct. 3. That compared with $760 million, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier. For the fiscal year, net income dropped to $3.3 billion from $4.4 billion. The results easily beat analyst expectations, and Disney shares rose in after-hours trading. “While there are some signs of recovery, the environment remains challenging and we are managing accordingly,” Mr. Iger said. Like other media companies, Disney saw improvement in television operations during the quarter, notably at ESPN, which benefited from a revenue deferral from the previous quarter. Income at Media Networks, which includes all of Disney’s television holdings, jumped 26 percent, to $1.5 billion. Revenue from advertising was mixed. Disney’s cable networks, like ABC Family, gained while the ABC broadcast network declined. Mr. Iger said ABC was off to a “solid start” for the fall television season, noting ratings for new shows like “Modern Family” and “FlashForward.” But revenue at theme parks, which is tied to the health of the country’s economy, was still down. Profit decreased 17 percent in the quarter, to $344 million; revenue dipped 4 percent, to $2.8 billion. Although Disney’s parks business is considered a barometer of consumer confidence, recovery in the travel industry tends to lag any broader economic turnaround. One signal that Disney sees improvement is that discounting for rooms at hotels owned by Disney, while still in place, has been scaled back without significant drops in volume. Mr. Staggs told analysts that first-quarter hotel bookings were running about 5 percent below this time last year. The economy also continued to take a toll on Disney’s consumer products division, which reported a 28 percent drop in income in the fourth quarter, to $151 million. Revenue fell 12 percent, to $646 million. The lower results partly reflected a decline in sales of “Hannah Montana” and “High School Musical” merchandise. Results at Disney’s mall stores, which are about to undergo a huge overhaul, also dented earnings. Disney has had a busy few months. Aside from addressing problems at the studio, the company spent $4 billion to buy Marvel Entertainment on Sept. 1 and more recently won approval from the Chinese central government to move forward with a sprawling new resort in Shanghai. Mr. Iger and Mr. Staggs declined to give much guidance about 2010, except to say that the company was expecting a challenging economic environment for the whole year. Disney’s best hope for improvement is in movies, where the immediate pipeline looks quite strong. “The Princess and the Frog,” a musical billed as a return to 2-D animation, opens on Dec. 11, while Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” arrives March 5. The company also has enormous hopes for “Toy Story 3,” set for a June 18 release.

Company Reports
Disney Walt Co
Advertising and Marketing
Recession and Depression


Key Questions and Answers About Antonin Scalia and His Legacy

Abstract: Justice Antonin Scalia died on Saturday during a hunting trip in Texas. He was the longest serving member of the Supreme Court, appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. He leaves behind a substantial legal legacy and a host of questions. Here are answers to a few: Q. Did he write many important majority decisions? A. No. Justice Scalia’s most influential work was in his dissents and concurrences. His most important majority decision was District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 , which revolutionized Second Amendment law by recognizing an individual’s right to own guns. Even there, he appeared to make compromises, including a passage limiting the practical effects of the decision, to garner the five votes needed for a majority. Q. Was he nonetheless influential? A. Yes. His vigorous advocacy of two major interpretive theories, originalism and textualism, have caused those approaches to be widely used by judges and law professors across the ideological spectrum. Originalism seeks to interpret the Constitution as it was understood by those who drafted and ratified it. Textualism considers the words of statutes and frowns on turning to outside sources like statements from members of Congress about the meaning and purpose of laws. Q. Who was Justice Scalia’s best friend on the court? A. It was Ruth Bader Ginsburg , his ideological opposite. The two admired each other and frequently spent New Year’s Eve together. Q. What happens to Justice Scalia’s law clerks? A. His current clerks will probably be assigned to assist in other justices’ chambers. Clerks hired for future terms will have to look for new jobs, but other members of the court may hire them. Q. How will his death affect pending cases? A. The court has two basic choices in deadlocked cases. The ordinary practice is to automatically affirm the decision of the Courts of Appeals without issuing a decision or setting a Supreme Court precedent. Another option is to set the case down for reargument in the next terms in the hope it can be heard by a full court. Q. What did Justice Scalia like to do out of the court? A. He enjoyed life and traveled constantly. He loved to hunt, attend the opera and play poker. Q. How will he be remembered? A. In recent years, Justice Scalia’s cutting writing style and caustic comments from the bench have dominated the public’s perception of him. In his dissent from June’s decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, he mocked Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion, calling it “pretentious.” He also took on the four justices who joined the majority opinion, saying he would have rather have hidden his head in a bag than have signed on to Justice Kennedy’s version of legal reasoning. In an affirmative action case in December, he said that some minority students may be better off at “a less advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.” “I don’t think it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible,” he said, describing — some said distorting — an argument in a supporting brief about the harm that can be caused to students with inferior academic credentials by admitting them to colleges where they will not thrive. Those glimpses of Justice Scalia’s raw and slashing style are likely to fade from public consciousness over time, with the focus shifting to the totality of his 30-year legacy on the court. Q. Which cases may come out differently now? A. Justice Scalia’s death almost surely means that a major threat to public unions has evaporated. Decisions on abortion, contraception, voting rights, and affirmative action may also be affected. Q. What family did Justice Scalia leave behind? A. Justice Scalia and his wife, the former Maureen McCarthy, had nine children, the upshot of what he called Vatican roulette. “We were both devout Catholics,” Justice Scalia told Joan Biskupic for her 2009 biography, “American Original.” “And being a devout Catholic means you have children when God gives them to you, and you raise them.”

US Constitution,United States Constitution


Coyotes Beat Islanders, 4-3

Abstract: The Islanders goalie Nathan Lawson had quite an N.H.L. debut. Not only did he experience 60 minutes of regulation action, he also got through his first overtime and shootout, too. Although the struggling Islanders managed a point, they could not secure the second in a 4-3 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night. Kyle Turris scored Phoenix’s third goal of the shootout for the Coyotes, who rallied late just to force overtime. The Coyotes’ captain, Shane Doan, and Radim Vrbata also scored for Phoenix in the shootout. Martin Hanzal scored with 1 minute 28 seconds remaining in regulation to spoil Lawson’s chance at a win. Jesse Joensuu, Michael Grabner and Rob Schremp had goals for the Islanders, who were looking for their second straight win after a six-game losing streak. Lawson, recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League earlier Saturday, made 32 saves. “I felt really good out there,” Lawson said. “I wasn’t nervous at all. It was a great game until the last minute and a half.” The Islanders had only high praise for Lawson, who got the start because goalie Rick DiPietro was scratched with a minor injury to his surgically repaired knee. “I thought he was excellent,” Islanders Coach Jack Capuano said of Lawson. “He was our best player on the ice.” THRASHERS 7, DEVILS 1 Eric Boulton scored three times for his first career N.H.L. hat trick, Chris Thorburn added a goal and two assists, and Atlanta routed the visiting Devils. The former Atlanta captain Ilya Kovalchuk scored a power-play goal in the second period for the Devils, who have dropped 11 of 15 and 8 straight on the road. Ron Hainsey, Boulton and Evander Kane gave the Thrashers a 3-0 lead with first-period goals. Atlanta, which has won three of five, earned its 22nd point in the last 15 games. CANUCKS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1 Alex Burrows scored with 1:07 left in the first period, Jannik Hansen scored with 2:06 remaining in the second, and Vancouver won at home. Mikhail Grabovksi made it 2-1 8:14 into the third when Roberto Luongo whiffed on his 30-foot shot with his glove. But Christian Ehrhoff restored the two-goal lead with a screened point shot with five minutes left. Henrik Sedin scored into an empty net with 30.7 seconds remaining. Luongo finished with 27 saves. HURRICANES 4, DUCKS 1 Eric Staal scored three goals for Carolina, which held on at home to beat Anaheim and extend its season-best winning streak to four. Staal scored two power-play goals during his natural hat trick — the 12th three-goal game of his career. Jussi Jokinen had two assists, and Joe Corvo scored an empty-netter for Carolina. Cam Ward stopped 43 shots for the Hurricanes. STARS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1 Brad Richards scored twice and visiting Dallas beat Columbus. Richards netted the game-winner at 6:17 in the third period on a hard, low wrist shot from the top of the left circle that eluded goalie Mathieu Garon while the teams were each a man down. KINGS 6, PREDATORS 1 Ryan Smyth scored twice, and the Los Angeles Kings broke loose for four goals in the first period of a 6-1 rout against host Nashville, ending the Predators’ season-high five-game winning streak. Justin Williams, Trevor Lewis and Drew Doughty all scored for the Kings before the game was 10 minutes old, quickly ending the night for Nashville’s starting goalie, Anders Lindback. IN OTHER GAMES Andrew Ference scored his first goal in 100 games to help the host Boston Bruins beat Washington, 3-2, and send the Capitals to their eighth straight loss. ... Steven Stamkos scored his 25th goal of the season and the host Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1. ... The rookie Logan Couture scored twice to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.

Phoenix Coyotes
Hockey Ice
New York Islanders
National Hockey League


3 NATO Soldiers Killed at Afghan Security Posts

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Three NATO soldiers were shot to death on Monday in two separate confrontations involving Afghan security forces, officials said, adding to a string of “green on blue” killings that have complicated the relationship between Afghanistan and its Western allies. In southern Helmand Province, an Afghan National Army soldier turned his weapon on British soldiers, killing two of them before being shot to death, said Ghulam Farooq Parwani, deputy commander of the 215th Afghan National Army Corps. The shootings took place at the British-run headquarters of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province, he said. NATO confirmed that two of its soldiers had been killed in an attack, but did not identify their nationality. Also, the international military command in Afghanistan reported that one of its soldiers had been shot to death by an “alleged member of the Afghan local police” as members of the International Security Assistance Force approached a police checkpoint. An ISAF press release gave no further details and did not identify the nationality of the victim. Afghan officials later said the shooting had taken place in Paktika Province. Afghan local police forces are, in general, armed militiamen who are trained by American Special Operations troops and deputized as police officers under a program designed for the defense of their home communities. The program has been controversial because many of the local policemen were former Taliban or criminal elements seeking to exercise control over their areas. Meanwhile, Karilyn Bales, the wife of the American staff sergeant charged with killing 17 people in an Afghan village this month, appeared in her first television interview on Monday. She defended her husband, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales , saying she did not believe that he could have committed such a massacre of civilians, including women and children. “He loves children, and he would not do that,” she said on NBC ’s “Today” show. “It’s heartbreaking.” She described Sergeant Bales as “a very tough guy” who did not appear to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder , like nightmares . But, she said, “he shielded me from a lot of what he went through.” Afghan and American officials have said American officials paid the families of 16 dead and 6 wounded victims on Saturday; at $50,000 for each death and $11,000 for each injury, that totals $866,000. But confusion over differences in the number of dead — Sergeant Bales’s charge sheet from the United States military lists 17, while Afghan officials list 16 — continued on Monday. Early in the day, an Afghan police official in Kandahar Province, where the killings took place, said the 17th victim could be accounted for because a pregnant woman was among the dead. But he later retracted that assertion, and American military officials restated that their investigation showed evidence for 17 murder charges. “At this time, the evidence available to the prosecution team indicates 17 victims of premeditated murder and 6 victims of assault and attempted premeditated murder,” Lt. Col. Jimmie E. Cummings Jr. said by telephone. “There were no wounded who died, and no fetus.” He continued: “That breaks down to 4 males, 4 females and 9 children were murdered. One male, one woman and 4 children were wounded.”

NATO
Afghanistan
Robert Bales
Murders
Afghanistan War
US Military


How to Watch Tennis: Trust Numbers, Not Eyes

Abstract: I want you to watch the United States Open through a different lens, with an analytical eye, replacing guesswork and opinion with patterns and percentages. I want to help you see what matters for winning a tennis match, and what does not. Once your tennis vision has improved, you will understand the game better — and play it better. The first thing to understand is that you are not watching only one match; you are watching two. The obvious match is the one during the point, but the more important match happens between the points. For a lot of players at the Open, the allotment of 20 seconds between points is simply an inconvenience. It should not be. Image Statistics from the 2015 United States Open. Credit The New York Times At some stage of every match, a mental storm cloud rolls in. It could come in the first game, or in the final one, or at any point in between. A bad line call, an exhausting point, the sun, wind and shadows, or a failure to convert a break point can make players reach for the self-destruct button. The reality of tennis, at all levels of the game, is that players beat themselves much more than their opponents do. The practice court looks nothing like a match court. In practice, players rarely miss. In a match, they miss all the time. In the men’s and women’s draws at last year’s United States Open, more than two out of three points ended with errors. There are two types of errors: forced and unforced. Forced errors are more important because a player has control over them. Unforced errors are gifts. Players know they will get some from their opponents, but they have no idea how many. In addition, do not be enamored of winners. Quite often, the player that hits more winners loses the match. Reducing errors is the easier pathway to victory. Image Credit The New York Times The length of a point matters a lot more than fans may think. The first four shots, including the serve and the return, are by far the most important segment. You may think the point is just getting started, but it is often already over. During last year’s United States Open, 71 percent of the points in men’s singles matches and 66 percent of the points on the women’s side came on rallies of four shots or fewer. Only 9 percent of men’s points and 11 percent of women’s points came on rallies of nine shots or more. Image Credit The New York Times And first-strike points have a much greater correlation to a match’s result than extended rallies do, even though those rallies dominate the practice court. At last year’s Open, the players who won more zero-to-four-shot rallies won the match 90 percent of the time in men’s singles and 83 percent of the time in women’s. Players who had the advantage on rallies of nine-plus shots won the match only 56 percent of the time on the men’s side and 59 percent on the women’s. Once a point begins, there are three primary strategies: baseline, approach, and serve and volley. Image Credit The New York Times Everyone plays on the baseline, but it is a tough place from which to gain an advantage. At the 2012 Open, only seven men had a percentage over .500 in baseline play, but only seven men had a losing record from the net. Baseline play is essentially a 50-50 battle. Even Novak Djokovic, last year’s men’s champion, who is widely recognized as the pre-eminent baseliner of our time, won only 56 percent of points from the back of the court last year (although that was significantly better than the men’s average of 46 percent). The women’s champion, Flavia Pennetta, won 53 percent of her baseline points. The front of the court offers better percentages. Men who served and volleyed won the point 68 percent of the time; women won 59 percent of those points. The old way of looking at tennis — the eye test, from the side of the court — is inadequate in a new age with so much data. Numbers can create a better framework for analyzing tennis.