Immigration Tests Prospects for a Borderless Europe

Abstract: BASEL, Switzerland — Carolina Porta Nova, 19, had dreams of becoming a schoolteacher in her native Portugal. But the grinding recession, government cuts to education and an unemployment rate of about 40 percent among young people put an end to those plans. So last October Ms. Porta Nova moved to Switzerland, where she quickly found work as a house cleaner in a country whose relatively healthy economy has made it a magnet for job-seekers from the European Union, particularly its distressed southern tier. “I can see no happy future for teachers in Portugal,” she said. Ms. Porta Nova was one of 79,000 migrants last year to Switzerland, although it is not a member of the European Union. That has helped raise the number of foreign residents by 14 percent over the last five years, a pace that has begun to alarm some here. After mounting pressure, the government this month reintroduced quotas for work permits for European Union citizens. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party is now pushing for a referendum on immigration, which could re-establish checks at Swiss borders with European Union countries for the first time in five years. The Swiss are not alone in their reservations about immigration. Declining economies, the rise of nationalist parties, and the prospect of citizens from two of the bloc’s newest and poorest members, Romania and Bulgaria, gaining unrestricted access to European Union labor markets have tested the ambitions for a borderless Europe more than at any time since the Schengen Agreement, which eliminated most internal boundaries, went into effect in 1995. The British government has proposed making it easier to deport some foreigners and requiring migrants to pay for some health care. Denmark reimposed border controls two years ago, and Spain recently required work contracts for Romanians after a fourfold increase in their arrivals, reversing a previous commitment to allow them free access. Such steps have highlighted a new tendency by economically stressed European Union members to retreat to their corners after decades of pooling their fortunes. The Swiss decision, in particular, drew a rebuke from Catherine Ashton, the union’s foreign policy chief, who said the restrictions “disregard the great benefits that the free movement of persons brings to the citizens of both Switzerland and the E.U.” Still, despite the building resistance to migration, for a vast majority of Europe’s workers a common labor market has not lived up to its promise, and even less so in a time of hardship. Only a third of foreigners in the European Union come from other member states, equivalent to 12.8 million people of a total population of over 500 million, according to 2011 data from Eurostat, the statistics office. That relatively low percentage suggests that “the free movement of persons is a fundamental E.U. freedom that has ironically only worked in practice for those who are economically active,” said José María de Areilza, a professor of European Union law at the Esade business school in Madrid. The others, he added, “have been facing all sorts of limitations that member states have put in place to prevent welfare shopping.” That is true even in Switzerland, where the economy has remained largely unscathed by the debt crisis that has engulfed most of the surrounding European Union. Image Hafiz Russell, left, an Italian from a Bangladeshi family, and João Emanuel, from Portugal, work for Mr. Ferreira in Basel. This month the Swiss government reintroduced quotas for work permits for citizens from the European Union. Credit Christoph Bangert for The International Herald Tribune But worried about preserving its economic health — and fending off challenges from the far right — the government invoked a “safeguard” clause in its European agreements that allows it to restrict immigration from European Union states. For a year, it will issue five-year work permits to 53,700 citizens of 17 western countries in the union and 2,180 permits for citizens of the 10 Eastern European countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some Swiss argue that the steps were needed to relieve the pressure of new migrants, who have swelled Switzerland’s population to more than eight million. The proportion of foreigners in Switzerland has risen to about 27 percent — one of the highest shares in the Western world — from 6 percent in 1950. Simonetta Sommaruga, the Swiss justice minister, said the quota decision was “not an unfriendly act against the European Union,” but a way to address the widening gap between a robust Swiss economy and the dismal situation elsewhere in Europe, particularly in southern nations where “unemployment is exploding.” “We want to send a message to European citizens that our labor market is not without limits,” she said. Still, Patricia von Falkenstein, the president of the Liberal Party in Basel, said the quotas were really about “containing political pressure within Switzerland.” The government, she said, “needs to show that it’s taking the immigration issue seriously or otherwise risk a much more serious problem next year, which could lead to a catastrophic dismantling of all that Switzerland has managed to negotiate with the E.U.” But if the new restrictions were intended to blunt a populist push led by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which fought successfully against Swiss membership in the European Union, the party seems unappeased. Silvia Bär, an official from the Swiss People’s Party, said the new quotas were little more than “symbolic,” since migrants could circumvent the restrictions by applying for short-term work permits until mid-2014, when the limits expire and cannot be renewed. In its manifesto, the party accuses the Swiss authorities of “doing their best to solve the problem of foreigners by naturalizing them,” noting that the number of people who have received Swiss citizenship has risen more than fivefold since 1991 to almost 45,000. “Jobless foreigners often find that the welfare benefits on offer here are more attractive than working back home,” it adds, echoing complaints in Britain. The biggest wave of immigration to Switzerland took place almost 50 years ago, with workers from countries like Spain and Portugal seeking to escape poverty and dictatorship. João Ferreira, 52, manager of the restaurant Besenstiel in Basel, emigrated from Portugal after the 1974 revolution there overthrew the fascist dictatorship. He now has 12 workers, mostly Portuguese, Germans, Italians and French. The migrants arriving today, Mr. Ferreira said, form “a new and very different generation of Portuguese, who come with real qualifications, rather than barely any education at all.”

Immigration
Europe
Switzerland
Economy
Euro Crisis
Swiss People's Party
EU


Clashing Goals in Syria Strikes Bedevil Obama

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — President Obama said the American-led airstrikes in Syria were intended to punish the terror organizations that threatened the United States — but would do nothing to aid President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who is at war with the same groups. But on the third day of strikes, it was increasingly uncertain whether the United States could maintain that delicate balance. A Syrian diplomat crowed to a pro-government newspaper that “the U.S. military leadership is now fighting in the same trenches with the Syrian generals, in a war on terrorism inside Syria.” And in New York, the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in an interview that he had delivered a private message to Mr. Assad on behalf of Washington, reassuring him that the Syrian government was not the target of American-led airstrikes. The confident statements by Syrian leaders and their allies showed how difficult it already is for Mr. Obama to go after terrorists operating out of Syria without getting dragged more deeply into that nation’s three-and-a-half-year-old civil war. Indeed, the American strikes have provided some political cover for Mr. Assad, as pro-government Syrians have become increasingly, even publicly, angry at his inability to defeat the militants. On the other side, Mr. Obama’s Persian Gulf allies, whom he has pointed to as crucial to the credibility of the air campaign, have expressed displeasure with the United States’ reluctance to go after Mr. Assad directly. For years, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pressed Washington to join the fight to oust the Syrian president. And for years, the United States has demurred. “We need to create an army to fight the terrorists, but we also have to fight the regime,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, emir of Qatar, said Thursday in an interview with New York Times editors. “We have to do both.” Mr. Obama told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that the United States would work with its allies to roll back the Islamic State through military action and support for moderate rebels. But he added, “The only lasting solution to Syria’s civil war is political: an inclusive political transition that responds to the legitimate aspirations of all Syrian citizens, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of creed.” Yet as the Syrian conflict transformed from peaceful, popular calls for change to a bloody unraveling of the nation, it also became a proxy battlefield for regional and global interests. Iran and Russia sided with Mr. Assad. Arab Gulf nations sided with the rebels, though not always with the same rebels. The United States called for Mr. Assad to go, but never fully engaged. The rise of the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS, prompted Mr. Obama to jump in, but under the auspices of an antiterrorism campaign. The United States was not taking sides in the civil war, or at least it did not intend to. But the minute it entered the battlefield, it inevitably muddled its standing in Syria and across the Middle East, analysts and experts in the region said. When American attacks, for example, killed militants with the Nusra Front, a group linked to Al Qaeda, it angered some of the same Syrian insurgents who Mr. Obama has said will help make up a ground force against the Islamic State. A Rogue State Along Two Rivers The victories gained by the militant group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were built on months of maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Some of the groups that had said they would support the United States’ mission have now issued statements condemning the American strikes on the Qaeda-linked militants. Those groups have also expressed concern that by making the Islamic State its priority, the United States has acknowledged that it does not seek to unseat Mr. Assad. Conversely, supporters of the Syrian government say hitting the Nusra Front is proof that the United States has switched sides. “Of course coordination exists,” said a pro-government Syrian journalist speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, who had criticized the prospect of the strikes but turned practically jubilant once they began. “How else do you explain the strikes on Nusra?” But the battle lines are not so clear-cut, as both sides try to spin the American involvement to their advantage, pressing Washington to shift even as Mr. Obama remains determined to stay his course. The Arab allies have, to Washington’s delight, made no effort to hide their involvement in the bombing raids. They have, in fact, even boasted of their roles. Saudi Arabia has released “Top Gun”-style photos of its pilots posing with their jets, and the United Arab Emirates has bragged that one of its pilots is a woman . But the delight has as much to do with the countries’ hope that the United States will eventually come around to helping oust Mr. Assad as it does with aiding the United States in a fight against extremism, analysts said. “The key gulf states agreed to the American request in a large part to try to steer America’s Syria policy after years of frustration,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “They believed that if they had said no to the Americans, the hope for a shift in U.S. policy toward Syria would be nil.” Other commentators said gulf nations frustrated with Mr. Obama’s hesitancy had gladly joined in when his tone changed. “Once there is a determined America and a determined President Obama, he will find a receptive ally in the region to work with him,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political analyst in the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, these Arab partners see that the United States is once again depending on regional strongmen and monarchs with absolute authority to pursue its interests in the region. For a time, it appeared that Washington was moving away from that decades-old model toward supporting popular movements that sought to bring democracy and greater rights to the region. That infuriated Saudi Arabia and the other monarchies, but with the collapse of the Arab Spring and the rise of the Islamic State, the old alliances have been reinvigorated. “We are back to the future,” said Salman Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Center , a Qatar-based branch of the Brookings Institution. “After the rush of the Arab Spring, there is a realization that they are our real friends and allies in the region and in this fight.” Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. American officials have called the participation of five Arab countries — Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — in the Syria campaign essential to combating the perception that the United States is waging war on Muslims. All five are hereditary monarchies that limit political participation and often face criticism from human rights groups for cracking down on dissidents. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni powerhouse, has wielded its vast oil wealth to support the Egyptian military in its fight against the Muslim Brotherhood, funded rebels in Syria and deployed troops in 2011 to help the Sunni rulers of Bahrain put down a political uprising led by that nation’s Shiite majority. The United Arab Emirates has also contributed to the regional battle against Islamists, most recently by teaming up with Egypt to bomb them in Libya. At home, it has rounded up Islamist activists and limited free speech. Qatar, too, has bankrolled rebels in Syria, and in 2012 it sentenced a poet to life in prison for reciting a verse deemed insulting to the country’s ruler. Jordan also criminalizes criticism of the king and limits press freedoms. Rights activists fear that these countries’ partnership with the United States will make it harder for the West to press them to make reforms. “These are states with very problematic human rights records,” said Nicholas McGeehan, a Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This bonding together against a common enemy is understandable, but there will be implications for the human rights in these countries.” The Arab allies worked to bolster their own global standing at the United Nations General Assembly this week, exposing the disagreements that have often kept them from acting together. The king of Jordan cast himself as a staunch American ally and said Jordan would propose a Security Council resolution to make attacks on religious communities a crime against humanity. Bahrain highlighted the problem of illicit financing for extremist groups from the region, in a clear dig at its neighbor Qatar. But most of these countries stand together in supporting a leadership change in Syria, which the United States says is not its goal. And that stance from the United States has delighted pro-government Syrians. “The Syrian Army will certainly benefit from the American airstrikes,” the unnamed diplomat told the pro-government Syrian newspaper Al Watan.

Syria
Bashar al-Assad
United Arab Emirates
Arab Spring
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
US Foreign Policy
US Military
Barack Obama
Free Syrian Army


In College Football Playoff, Towering Antihero Is Joined by a Steadfast Supporting Cast

Abstract: Be it Don Draper of “Mad Men” or Walter White of “Breaking Bad,” television audiences cannot seem to get enough of the beguiling antihero these days. College football has one of its own, and its name is Alabama. Under Coach Nick Saban, the dour Crimson Tide have been the sport’s protagonist for the past decade, winning four national championships in the past seven seasons. This year — with Alabama the only undefeated team from a major conference, at 13-0, and the top seed in the four-team College Football Playoff — it barely seems as if there are other characters. The discussion during the next few weeks, in advance of the national semifinals on Dec. 31, will revolve around whether anyone can hope to stop the Crimson Tide. Image Washington Coach Chris Petersen hoisted the Pacific-12 trophy after the Huskies pounded Colorado, 41-10. Washington is No. 4 in the playoff. Credit Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Washington, the Pacific-12 Conference’s champion and the playoff’s fourth seed, will get the first opportunity, in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Asked about the seemingly ubiquitous signs held up by college football fans that read, “We Want ’Bama,” Washington Coach Chris Petersen told ESPN on Sunday afternoon: “Sometimes, you’ve got to be careful what you wish for. I didn’t hold that sign up.” Should the Huskies give way, Alabama’s only hurdle will be the winner of the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.: Clemson, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s champion and the second seed, or Ohio State, a Big Ten team and the third seed. In either case, the title game would constitute a rematch of a recent playoff game. Image Ohio State running back Curtis Samuel scored the winning touchdown against Michigan in double overtime on Nov. 26. The Buckeyes are the No. 3 team. Credit Greg Bartram/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Mack Brown, who won the 2005 season’s national championship as Texas’ coach — and lost to Alabama in the 2009 season’s title game — said the Peach Bowl would be an excellent matchup, “much better than people will give it credit for.” Washington (12-1) has an offense led by the sophomore Jake Browning, who, now with two full regular seasons of experience, has thrown 42 touchdown passes this year, against seven interceptions. The Huskies also have the eighth-best scoring defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision, ceding just 17.2 points per game. Then again, Alabama is No. 1, at 11.8 points per game, and although Washington has played several ranked teams, it has faced no defense like that of the Crimson Tide, who also led the F.B.S. in yards per game (248) and defensive touchdowns (10, with five off fumbles and five off interceptions). They added four more scores on punt returns. Image Clemson’s Carlos Watkins (94) after a sack in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game against Virginia Tech. The Tigers are No. 2 in the playoff. Credit Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via Reuters The results for the Crimson Tide and the Huskies against a common opponent offer a stark contrast. Alabama mauled Southern California, 52-6, in Arlington, Tex., in its season opener, in September. Two months later, the Trojans, who struggled early before finishing the season 9-3 and ranked ninth by the playoff committee, handed Washington its only loss, a 26-13 defeat in Seattle. “U.S.C. was the underdog, came in with a chip on their shoulder,” said Brown, now an ESPN commentator. “That’s normally the part Washington plays.” Which is not to say the Peach Bowl will be close. The average margin of victory in the four semifinal games that have been played under the current system is 26 points — last year, the No. 2 seed Alabama blew out Michigan State, the Big Ten champion and the No. 3 seed, 38-0. “The biggest surprise,” Brown said, “would be if we go to the fourth quarter with Alabama — can Washington get it close? Because if it is close, the pressure will be on Alabama.” The Fiesta Bowl looks like the more balanced semifinal, with similar teams led by experienced quarterbacks who are threats to run and to throw: Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Ohio State’s J. T. Barrett. Both the Tigers (12-1) and the Buckeyes (11-1) averaged more than 40 points per game on offense and were in the top 12 in the F.B.S. in scoring defense. Clemson’s defense stands out for its tackles for a loss (8.6 per game, tied for third); Ohio State was second in defensive touchdowns to Alabama, with seven. Both teams have playoff experience, with Ohio State winning the title for the 2014 season and Clemson finishing as the runner-up in January. Each of those runs included a game against Alabama: Ohio State beat the Crimson Tide, 42-35, in a semifinal, and Clemson lost, 45-40, in the title game. Saban has turned pessimism into an art form — and a motivational tactic — and on a conference call on Sunday, he pointed to several games this season that were close calls for Alabama: at Mississippi, which at one point led, 24-3; against Texas A&M, which took a 14-13 lead in the third quarter; and in Saturday’s Southeastern Conference championship game against Florida, in which Alabama struggled on offense at first. “We’ve had lots of difficult challenges this year that our players have had to persevere,” Saban said. There are only two left.

College football
Nick Saban
University of Alabama


Match-Fixing Suspicions Raised at Australian Open After Site Stops Bets on Match

Abstract: MELBOURNE, Australia — A major sports gambling website suspended betting on Sunday for a mixed doubles match at the Australian Open, raising suspicions of match fixing at one of the world’s most prestigious tennis tournaments. Ahead of a first-round match pitting Lara Arruabarrena and David Marrero against Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot, large amounts of money poured in on what would normally be an obscure contest, said Marco Blume, head of sportsbook at the website, Pinnacle Sports, one of the largest and most influential betting websites in the world. Nearly all of the money, Blume said, came down for Hlavackova and Kubot, which he said was an indication that the match might be fixed. Hlavackova and Kubot won, 6-0, 6-3 . The first set lasted only 20 minutes. Arruabarrena, the 33rd-ranked doubles player on the women’s tour, and Marrero, ranked 32nd among men, rejected any possibility of fixing in an interview after the match. Marrero, who like Arruabarrena is from Spain, cited a knee injury in explaining their performance. The suspicious gambling activity comes with the sport already under intense international scrutiny over possible match fixing. Last week, at the start of the Australian Open, tennis officials were left scrambling when the BBC and BuzzFeed reported that 16 players were repeatedly flagged over suspicions that they had thrown matches but that officials did not discipline them. The accusations in the report, which centered primarily on matches from several years ago, dominated the first several days of the tournament. Tennis officials have emphasized that unusual betting patterns alone are not sufficient evidence of match fixing. It is possible, they have said, that someone close to the players could pass inside information — like knowledge of an injury — to professional gamblers, who would then wager accordingly. A spokeswoman for the International Tennis Federation, the governing body for tennis’s four Grand Slam events, said the organization had not been notified of any suspicious activity. She added that such information would first go to the Tennis Integrity Unit, the sport’s internal watchdog. Nigel Willerton, a representative for that group, said in an email that it would not comment about the mixed doubles match. About 13 hours before the match was set to begin, Pinnacle’s traders suspended betting on it, Blume said. He then notified the police in Victoria, the Australian state where the tournament takes place, of possible irregularities. “The law enforcement agencies are watching this area very closely,” said John Eren, the minister of sport for Victoria. “Of course we’ve seen it in many different sports, not just tennis. And that’s really sad because at the end of the day, 99.9 percent of the sport-loving community don’t behave in that way. It’s important to stamp these out very quickly, and I’m hoping that the relevant authorities will act quickly and swiftly to deal with some of these matters.” The police said they worked with Australian tennis officials throughout the tournament but would not confirm whether they had been alerted to the irregularities or were investigating this particular match. Blume said of Pinnacle, “We saw a small number of people placing a large amount of money.” He added: “In context, these matches are rather small. That means that any aggressive betting behavior is very easy to detect on our side.” Blume said Pinnacle had seen no such betting behavior for any other match at this Australian Open. First-round mixed doubles matches typically generate little gambling action, but more than $25,000 had been wagered on another website, the betting exchange Betfair, a few hours before the match was scheduled to start. By comparison, three other mixed doubles matches scheduled for similar times on Sunday had generated less than $2,000 combined. “We have a specialist team who monitor our markets and work closely with sports governing bodies, including the T.I.U., to investigate any suspicious betting patterns that arise,” said James Midmer, a spokesman for Betfair. “Due to the nature of this team’s work, we can’t comment on speculation surrounding individual sports and events.” Stefano Berlincioni, a sports gambling expert from Italy who writes for the website Last Word on Sports, last year highlighted a doubles match involving Marrero that Berlincioni believed was suspicious. He said Sunday that his analysis of the wagering activity around the Australian Open match indicated it might have been fixed. Blume, of Pinnacle Sports, said the site opened betting on the match early in the morning, United States time, on Thursday. Hlavackova and Kubot were listed as the favorites to win, but by Saturday morning, Blume said, so much money was pouring in on them that Pinnacle drastically altered its odds to attract betting on Arruabarrena and Marrero. Pinnacle also reduced the maximum amount for a single bet to $100, from $500. Even still, Blume said, heavy bets kept coming in on the Czech Hlavackova and the Polish Kubot. Just nine minutes after reducing the betting maximum, he said, traders on the Pinnacle floor suspended betting on the match. Blume said his traders “have a very high sensitivity to all incoming betting,” particularly for a doubles match that would normally attract little action. He added, “Even the slightest disturbance in the betting sets off any alarms on my trading floor.” Because Pinnacle has such a large volume of bets, the website is a good vehicle for noticing such irregularities, Blume said. ( The site has been identified by United States law enforcement authorities as accepting bets illegally in the United States, a charge Pinnacle strongly denies. The site operates in many legal markets and is legally registered in Curaçao, in the southern Caribbean.) Blume said that odds in other betting markets throughout the world also moved in ways suggesting irregularities. “We run much like a stock exchange in terms of our day-to-day work,” Blume said. “We see almost everything because almost automatically you come to us one way or another.” That allows Pinnacle to act as a monitor of sports integrity, Blume said. Still, the enormous amount of money bet legally and illegally on thousands of websites is ultimately the motivation for match fixing, experts in the field say. A bettor who knows that a match is fixed and who succeeds in putting money on the winning side can win enormous payouts. The match Sunday was played on Court 6 at Melbourne Park. As the players rose from their chairs for the start of the match, a fan with a Spanish flag draped over his legs shouted, “Vamos, David!” Video Marrero started his service game well, taking a 30-0 lead, but he then double-faulted, with both serves curling into the net. Kubot held quickly to begin the match. Marrero started his service game well, taking a 30-0 lead, but he then double-faulted, with both serves curling into the net. Arruabarrena gave the team a 40-15 lead with a smash winner, but faulty play from Marrero quickly undid them: A gentle lob was smashed away by Kubot; a forehand veered wide; a routine cross-court backhand landed far wide of the doubles alley. Although the male player on a mixed doubles team is often able to attack his female opponent’s serve, Marrero missed all three returns of Hlavackova’s serve in the following game. Video On the third set point of the first set, Marrero sent up a soft lob, which Hlavackova smashed to finish the set at 6-0. After several more unforced errors, Marrero served again, with his team down by 0-5. He opened the game with a double fault. On the third set point, he sent up a soft lob, which Hlavackova smashed to finish the set. The second set was more competitive. Marrero hit a backhand return winner on a break point and clenched his fist in celebration. But he immediately fell behind, 0-40, in his following service game and faced four break points. After saving the first three, he double-faulted on the fourth, again sending both serves into the net, to level the set at 1-1. Video On game point in the third game of the second set, an off-balance Marrero scooped his forehand wide. On game point in the next game, an off-balance Marrero scooped his forehand wide. With his team then down by 1-4, Marrero held his serve for the first time in four tries, and he and Arruabarrena broke Hlavackova’s serve in the following game to close the gap in the set to 3-4. The next two games were won by Hlavackova and Kubot, with Kubot’s strong serve on match point deflecting off Marrero’s frame and into a trash can behind the umpire’s chair. The two pairs met at the net and clasped hands, and the players exchanged kisses on the cheek with their opponents of the opposite sex. Berlincioni, the betting expert from Italy, flagged four men’s doubles matches involving Marrero on the ATP Tour that had included suspicious betting movements, at tournaments in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna and Metz, France. In addition, before Marrero’s previous three mixed doubles matches at Grand Slam events, all last year, his odds significantly drifted. His chances of winning his match at Wimbledon last year, according to Berlincioni, dropped to 29 percent by the time the match began, from 55 percent initially. Marrero, who has lost his last 10 mixed doubles matches and has a 7-21 career record in the format, said after Sunday’s loss that he was not able to play his best tennis against a female opponent. “Normally, when I play, I play full power, in doubles or singles,” said Marrero, who won the doubles title at the 2013 ATP World Tour Finals. “But when I see the lady in front of me, I feel my hand wants to play, but my head says, ‘Be careful.’ This is not a good combination.” Marrero also said he had had a scan that showed an inflamed tendon in his knee. Although he had played “my 100 percent,” he said, he was also cautious, hoping to avoid an injury that could keep him out “for three, four, five months.” He explained that mixed doubles was “important but not as important, you know?” Marrero said he felt more pain after hitting an ace in the second game of the second set. Marrero and Arruabarrena said they had not told anyone but their coaches, tournament doctors and another pair of Spanish players about Marrero’s injury. Still, they said, it was possible that a spectator could have noticed that Marrero was affected by the injury in practice Saturday. “Someone had to know this,” Arruabarrena said. Marrero said the only incident of match fixing he had heard about was one infamous match involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martín Vassallo Argüello from 2007, which was rehashed in the recent BBC and BuzzFeed report. (The ATP said in 2008 that it found no evidence of wrongdoing by Davydenko or Argüello.) “I am professional,” Marrero said. “I try to make my best tennis on the court. If you see all my matches, I don’t like to pull out of tournaments.” If he had retired midmatch or pulled out of the match before it began, Marrero pointed out, he would not have received any prize money.

Australian Open
Gambling
Tennis
Lara Arruabarrena
David Marrero
Andrea Hlavackova
Lukasz Kubot
Pinnacle Sports
Cheating


North Korea Opens Dam Flow, Sweeping Away 6 in the South

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea unleashed walls of water from one or more of its dams on Sunday, sending a flash flood roaring through the heavily armed border with South Korea and sweeping away six South Koreans, officials in Seoul said. The six South Koreans, who are still missing, include an 8-year-old boy. They were camping or fishing on the Imjin River, which flows from the North, enters South Korea north of Seoul, and meanders close to the border before emptying into the Yellow Sea. “The government will send a telegram to the North on Monday to protest and demand a satisfying explanation,” the Unification Ministry of South Korea said in a statement. Officials said the Imjin River’s water level on the border doubled, to 15.1 feet, after North Korea began releasing water without warning at 2 a.m. on Sunday, either from its newly built Hwanggang Dam 17 miles north of the border or from a smaller dam downstream. No heavy rain was reported in North Korea in recent days, according to South Korean weather officials. It remained unclear whether the North unleashed the water by accident or to provoke the South. In recent weeks, North Korea has alternated harsh statements and claims of nuclear advances with conciliatory gestures , as tensions ran high over international sanctions imposed on the Communist state following its nuclear test in May. Also Sunday, a body believed to be that of a North Korean boy swept downstream in the Imjin River was found just south of the border, the police said. South Koreans have long feared that North Korea could unleash a water offensive by releasing monstrous columns of water from dams it has been building along the mountainous border in recent decades. The North set off the first so-called water panic in Seoul in 1986, when it was discovered that the secretive government, known for digging invasion tunnels under the border, was building a massive dam upstream on the Han River, which cuts through the South Korean capital. South Korea feared that a sudden release of water from the dam could submerge part of Seoul, and hurried to build a counter-dam downstream called Peace Dam. Short of cash and fuel, North Korea has been building dams for electricity.

North Korea
South Korea
Floods
Levees and Dams


Consumer Credit Fell in October for a Ninth Month

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans borrowed less for a record ninth month in October, another sign that consumer spending would remain weak, making it harder for the economy to mount a sustained rebound. Consumer credit fell at an annual rate of $3.51 billion in October, the Federal Reserve said Monday . Economists expected a $9.3 billion decline. Demand for revolving credit, the category that includes credit cards, fell 9.3 percent, while borrowing in the category that includes auto loans rose at an annual rate of 2.6 percent. Americans are borrowing less as they try to replenish depleted investments. Many are finding it hard to get credit as banks, hit by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, have tightened lending standards. The 2.6 percent rise in the category that includes car loans reflected a rebound in auto sales in October after they fell sharply in September. That drop came after a surge in auto sales in August as consumers rushed to take advantage of the government’s popular “cash for clunkers” incentives before they expired. While economists have worried for years about the low rate of savings, the concern is that consumers could derail the recovery if they start saving too much of their incomes. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity. Consumers have been reluctant to spend in large part because the labor market has been so weak. The government reported Friday that the unemployment rate improved slightly in November, dropping to 10 percent after hitting a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. However analysts cautioned that they expected a recovery in jobs to remain lackluster because the overall economy would be growing at rates that are too modest to support solid growth. Many analysts believe the unemployment rate will resume rising, hitting a peak of about 10.5 percent by next summer.

Credit
Consumer Behavior
Credit and Money Cards
United States Economy


Electronic Papyrus: The Digital Book, Unfurled

Abstract: CONSUMERS like large displays on the mobile devices they use for reading an e-mail message or an e-book, but they also like to tuck those devices into their pockets. But the bigger the screen on a cellphone or an e-reader, the sooner it outgrows pocket size. Now a hallmark feature of these screens — their rigidity — is changing. New technologies are developing that make displays flexible, foldable or even as rollable as papyrus, so that large screens can be unfurled from small containers. One new mobile device, the Readius, designed mainly for reading books, magazines, newspapers and mail, is the size of a standard cellphone. Flip it open, though, and a screen tucked within the housing opens to a 5-inch diagonal display. The screen looks just like a liquid crystal display, but can bend so flexibly that it can wrap around a finger. Because the Readius is pocket-sized, but has a generous, supple screen, people with five minutes to spare in a taxi, bus or subway can use the dead time to open it, read a page or two of a book and then return the device to a shirt pocket, said Karl McGoldrick, the chief executive of Polymer Vision, the company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, that created the device. The Readius may even help stop people from obsessing over their e-mail: with the device, spare moments for reading may be put to a possibly better use — say, a novel by Stendhal. But if their good intentions fail, the device has a wireless connection to download e-mail as well as books. The black-and-white display holds about 22 lines of a book page, depending on the font, all shown in the crisp black type provided by technology from E Ink, also used in Amazon’s Kindle and other e-readers. The screen changes from one page to the next in about half a second, at the touch of a thumb. The Readius will be introduced in England, Italy and Germany this fall, and in the United States early in 2009, Mr. McGoldrick said. Its battery lasts for about 30 hours of reading — long enough to get through “The Red and the Black,” and possibly a chunk of “War and Peace.” Pages can be read under a variety of lighting conditions, even including full sunlight, he said. The price is not yet set, but Thomas van der Zijden, vice president for marketing and sales, said the Readius would be more expensive than the Kindle, which now is selling for $359. The Readius is not the only entry in the area of flexible displays. “It’s an exciting example, but there are going to be a slew of other devices coming soon, too,” said Shawn O’Rourke, director of engineering at the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University at Tempe, which focuses on the technology’s future commercialization. Mr. O’Rourke defined flexible displays as “different than a BlackBerry or notebook,” with their traditional glass backings. “These displays are thin, lightweight and rugged — and they bend,” he said. The underlying substrates that support the display are typically either plastic or metal foil. The market for flexible displays is likely to grow rapidly, said Jennifer Colegrove, an analyst at the iSuppli Corporation, a market research firm in El Segundo, Calif. “Flexible displays are the crucial enabling technology for a new generation of portable devices that are mobile, but also have compelling user interfaces,” she said. Flexible displays offer the advantages of easy, relatively inexpensive and safe shipping and handling, compared with conventional rigid screens, she said. Her firm forecasts that the total market for flexible displays will grow to $2.8 billion by 2013. Paul Semenza, vice president for display research at iSuppli, says that flexible displays are not entirely new on the market, but that previous ones have been relatively low-resolution applications — like those in smart cards and point-of-purchase signs — “not high-resolution ones that have the kind of image quality that users expect.” The Readius images have this potential, he said, because the displays are powered by what is called an active matrix — transistors behind each pixel that can potentially provide fast switching and high performance. “Polymer Vision’s technology is unusual,” Mr. Semenza said. “It’s hard to make an active matrix on something other than glass.” If Polymer Vision succeeds in “making these transistor arrays,” he said, “you’ll have the ability to make high-performance displays on flexible substrates that look as good as a notebook display on any high-performance L.C.D.” THE Readius, which so far displays 16 shades of gray on its screen, is not at that state yet, but Polymer Vision is hoping to add color and video capability in the future, Mr. McGoldrick said. A prototype for a color model was demonstrated at a trade show in May. Mr. O’Rourke of the Flexible Display Center likes the look of the new generation of supple screens, but he also likes their toughness. “Some of them we’ve beaten with hammers, and they still run,” he said. “No one could do that with a BlackBerry.”

Polymer Vision
flexible displays
Handheld Computers
Computers and the Internet
Electronic Books


Nebraska Fires Coach Bo Pelini

Abstract: Bo Pelini was dismissed as Nebraska’s coach Sunday after a seven-year stint marked by an inability to restore the football team to national prominence and too many embarrassing defeats. Pelini won at least nine games every season, but he never won a conference championship, and his teams lost four games in every season he completed. Pelini was 66-27 and led the Cornhuskers to three league championship games in the Big 12 and Big Ten. The associate head coach, Barney Cotton, a Nebraska alumnus, will be the interim head coach. ■ The University of Alabama-Birmingham appears close to dropping its football program, according to multiple media outlets. The program has had financial troubles and has struggled on the field for years. “Unless something changes before the weekend ends, I think it’s over,” Coach Bill Clark told ESPN .com. “I think the odds are very high it ends this week.” Sports Illustrated and USA Today, citing unidentified sources, reported that UAB was taking steps to disband the program this week.

Coaches
Bo Pelini
College football
University of Nebraska
University of Alabama at Birmingham


U.S. Women’s Defense Counters Inexperience With Energy and Communication

Abstract: SAN JOSE, Calif. — Meghan Klingenberg figured she could go above and beyond to further build team camaraderie, and her idea involved a box of doughnuts for her teammates before a recent World Cup tuneup. Such gestures mean a lot for a group of players still getting to know one another. With each match the Americans play and through every rigorous training session, Klingenberg and the defense become more comfortable together on a new-look back line ahead of the team’s World Cup opener two weeks from now against Australia in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “Step 1 to becoming the most popular girl on the team,” wrote Klingenberg, who posted on Twitter a photo of the doughnuts. The American defensive foursome that started in a 5-1 victory against Mexico in last weekend’s send-off match in Carson, Calif., featured nobody with more than 80 appearances for the national team, yet that does not seem to have Coach Jill Ellis overly concerned heading to Canada. Especially with the veteran defender and captain Christie Rampone helping lead this young group in her fifth World Cup. With 305 international caps, Rampone, who will turn 40 during the tournament, is second in United States women’s soccer history, behind the retired Kristine Lilly. Ali Krieger started all six matches of the 2011 tournament in Germany, while Becky Sauerbrunn earned a start. Add the newcomer Julie Johnston and Klingenberg to the mix and Ellis acknowledges she has a uniquely skilled defense that loves to push forward on the attack whenever possible. “We’re asking more of them in the attack than we have in the past,” Ellis said. “But I certainly think that defensively, we’re coming together. We read the game collectively very well. I still think individually there are things we can improve upon.” Goalkeeper Hope Solo has needed time to adjust to different players’ tendencies as Ellis mixes and matches combinations to find her best lineup heading into the Group D opener June 8. Everybody involved understands there is unfinished business after the United States lost to Japan on penalty kicks in the 2011 World Cup final. “Each game, we’re ironing out the details in the back,” Krieger said. “We have our clean sheets. As of right now, we’re golden. We’ve done really well together, and we have a great understanding, a great communication in the back four. It’s super strong. We also have so much depth for a back line. Anybody that has to come in and jump in is right there on the same page, and I think we’ve done such a great job in the last two games to solidify that.” The second-ranked United States team (7-1-1) has limited its opponents to a single goal — by Mexico — over its last six games. The Americans have eight shutouts dating to a 7-0 victory against Argentina on Dec. 18. The personnel Ellis chooses has not seemed to matter much. Johnston earned her spot after filling in for the injured Rampone and Whitney Engen at March’s Algarve Cup in Portugal. She scored her first career goal for the Americans in a 2-0 victory against France in the Algarve final March 11. The Mexico match was only Johnston’s 11th for the Americans, after she picked up a goal in a third straight game by scoring against Ireland on May 10. “She’s a warrior,” Ellis said. “She’s got great spirit. She’s got grit. She will sacrifice life and limb to stop a defender or block a shot.” What some of these women might lack in experience on soccer’s biggest stage, they are determined to make up for with their energy on both ends of the field. No ball gets by them, they tell one another, no matter who is on the field together at any time. “Our back line, our back four, everybody, is so easy to play with because we’ve been doing it a long time now,” Klingenberg said. “It really doesn’t matter who you’re putting in. The way that we can read each other and rely on each other is really special. “You get a rapport playing together. I feel like they totally have my back; same with Hope and all the rest of the keepers. When you can feel like that with your team, you know it’s good going forward. It’s great.” Klingenberg has played alongside Sauerbrunn regularly and previously with Engen on the Houston Dash. Krieger had a scare last month when she sustained a concussion with her Washington Spirit team. She has been using a protective headband, which requires only a slight adjustment after a header. Solo sees significant strides as she watches the group in front of her. The Americans’ final World Cup tuneup is Saturday against South Korea in Harrison, N.J.. “It’s a learning process, but it’s been a few years now, not necessarily working with the exact back line but with the same teammates,” Solo said. “I’m comfortable, and I’m really confident with my back line right now.”

Christie Rampone
Soccer
Ali Krieger
Hope Solo
FIFA Women's World Cup


Quinnipiac Climbs to Top With Some Luck and an Up-Tempo Game

Abstract: In early November, the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team was 3-3-1, disjointed and selfish. Then it began to believe in a full-sprint offense, in killing penalties and blocking shots. Many players summoned what they called Muzzy Power, and the team’s goalie harnessed his “positive energy cells” to help heighten his focus. The Bobcats, who did not play in Division I until the 1998-99 season, are now 21-3-4 and have not lost in 21 games. They ascended this week to the No. 1 ranking in both major collegiate polls , the first team in any sport to do so at the university in Hamden, Conn. Ask the players, and they say this may be the grandest act to date of Muzzy Power, defined as the ability derived from their mustaches. Jeremy Langlois, the team’s leading scorer, explained. At first they started growing mustaches as part of the Movember movement. Then they kept winning, into December, then January. They could not change anything. They agreed to trim their upper lips, but not shave. This Muzzy Power was credited for fortunate goals, lucky wins and timely breaks. Image At first, the Quinnipiac men's hockey team started growing mustaches as part of the Movember movement. Then they kept winning, into December, then January. They could not change anything. Credit Quinnipiac Athletics The first of them, perhaps, came in the initial game of the streak. Quinnipiac had outshot Colgate by 34-10 in regulation on Nov. 9 only to be tied, 2-2, heading into overtime. The Bobcats’ embarrassing first month aside, they surely deserved to win the game, Coach Rand Pecknold said. Just more than a minute had elapsed in overtime when Clay Harvey took the puck down the right side, as Russell Goodman trailed. Harvey flicked a backhand shot on net that was stopped, but Goodman then banged in the puck. The bench cleared and mobbed Goodman in celebration against the boards. “There was a lot of selfish play the first month of the season,” Pecknold said. “Once we scored that goal, we bought in that we could dominate. We were off to the races. That was the most important goal of the season.” The players embraced Pecknold’s up-tempo practice philosophy, which he likened to the New England Patriots’ no-huddle offense. At that pace, the scoring was shared, spread out over 12 players who have tallied at least 10 points . As the streak went on, Pecknold relied on all four lines to score. Everyone, even the team’s top scorers, blocked shots, and the Bobcats killed penalties at a 90.3-percent rate, the third-best rate in the nation. The players, in turn, relied on Muzzy Power. Langlois, who leads the team with 11 goals and 15 assists, believed. So did Harvey, whose thick handlebar mustache is considered the team’s best. He is second on the team with 12 assists. Image Coach Rand Pecknold, left, and Quinnipiac are unbeaten in their last 21 games. Credit Quinnipiac Athletics Langlois said about half the team kept the mustaches. Sometimes while walking on campus, students would stop to congratulate them and ask why they all looked so creepy. If anyone was exempt from the Muzzy Power superstition, it was Eric Hartzell, the Bobcats’ goalie and best player. He has started every game in Quinnipiac’s 18-0-3 streak and is a contender for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top college hockey player. He is 6 feet 4 inches and nimble, but had not been all that disciplined until this season, Pecknold said. Once he was 45 minutes late for a team meeting and expected to play. He let in bad goals, and let every goal, good or bad, bother him. Then as Hartzell’s senior season approached, Pecknold noticed a change. “At one point it kicked in, like, I need to do more than what I’m doing,” Pecknold said. “I need to be committed if I want to make it to the N.H.L. one day.” Before the season, Hartzell read the book “How Full Is Your Bucket?” which explains how to increase positive moments while reducing negative ones, and referenced passages he had highlighted in a book called “The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles.” Image Eric Hartzell has a 1.46 goals against average. Credit John Hassett/Quinnipiac University, via Associated Press Hartzell said “The Biology of Belief,” in particular, taught him to respond positively when he let in a goal. “If you can learn to control that, the positive energy cells in your body will help continue your stride,” he said. He added: “When the puck drops, I’m in my own zone. I’m basically on my own planet. I’m not thinking about anything but stopping the puck.” His 1.46 goals against average is the lowest in Division I hockey among goalies who have played more than 15 games. His save percentage (.936) is among the nation’s best. The streak, and some of the team’s luck, will inevitably end, Pecknold said. If the Bobcats do slip in one of their final six regular-season games, they may just keep the mustaches, Langlois said. They have grown quite fond of them. “There might not be any stopping us,” Hartzell said, “because we bond so well together.”

Quinnipiac University
College Sports
Basketball
Ice hockey


Rebuilt Blue Jays Stumble Out of the Gate

Abstract: TORONTO — The first question posed to Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons in his office Tuesday afternoon dripped with extra meaning. “John, where were you for Joe Carter’s home run in ’93?” he was asked. Gibbons leaned back in his chair and smiled. A blank white calendar, no wins circled or losses crossed, hung on the wall behind him. This was hours before opening night at Rogers Centre, and anticipation for baseball in Toronto felt perhaps as high as it has been since Carter’s home run gave Toronto its second straight World Series title. At 4:37 p.m., Jose Reyes, a former National League batting champion, stepped into the cage for batting practice. His former Mets teammate and the reigning N.L. Cy Young Award winner, R. A. Dickey, was to be the night’s starter. In the clubhouse, players rattled off the team’s new acquisitions as they might boast about a baseball card collection. “There’s a leadoff hitter, five really good starting pitchers, a deep bullpen, depth in our minor leagues,” Adam Lind, the designated hitter, said. “We’ve got a lot of good things going right now.” With a capacity crowd, it all made for a memorable night, at least before the Indians knocked around Dickey and shut down the hitters in their 4-1 victory, tossing a little cold water on baseball’s hottest team this winter. After spending $40 million in the off-season — pushing the payroll well above $100 million for the first time in franchise history — Toronto believes it has rebuilt a contender, one that can challenge in the American League East for the first time in two decades. Along with Reyes and Dickey, acquired in separate trades with the Miami Marlins and the Mets, the Blue Jays brought in pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle and signed Mark DeRosa, Maicer Izturis and Melky Cabrera to bolster the offense. Tuesday’s lineup featured Reyes and Cabrera at the top ahead of the sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. The four combined to go just 2 for 12, but much will be riding on their shoulders. Image R. A. Dickey, a former Met making the first opening day start of his career, took the loss in a 4-1 defeat against Cleveland. Credit Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press “We’re going to win a lot of ballgames,” Reyes said. “We have everything: we have speed, we have power, we have pitching. We just have to put it together on the field.” Fans gave Dickey the largest cheers during pregame introductions, clearly overjoyed to have a 20-game winner headlining the staff as the team’s first bona fide ace since Roy Halladay left after the 2009 season. Dickey had never made an opening day start, and he said the adrenaline made his knuckleball a little harder to control. He allowed four runs (three earned) and five hits in six innings. But Dickey called the response he received from the fans “borderline supernatural,” and there was a distinct buzz in the air. The stadium was mostly full — a few patches of empty seats dotted the left-field stands — and most of the fans stayed until the last pitch, as if soaking up the sight of this team in fear that it all might be too good to be true. “You wish it would’ve went different,” Dickey said. “But the nature of this game is it’s a marathon, and you can’t panic. Nobody in here’s panicking. We want to win the Series.” Before the game, Gibbons’s one note of concern was that the team would get off to a bad start, the kind of stumble out of the gate that seemed to throw off the Marlins a year ago and the Boston Red Sox before that, after both made headlines with moves during the off-season. Gibbons indicated that it might be important to build off the momentum of the preseason hype. “I think that’d do wonders,” he said. Reyes, who left the Mets and signed with Miami last season, before being traded to Toronto as part of a 12-player deal in November, said his feeling was that the Blue Jays could win a lot of games, in April and beyond. “We’re going to play hard every day and see what happens,” Reyes said. “We believe in the talent that we’re going to put every single day on the field.” Regardless, 2 hours 31 minutes into the new season, the good start would have to wait a little longer for a city that has been exceedingly patient.

Blue Jays
Baseball
R A Dickey
Cleveland Indians


Louisiana Tech Advances

Abstract: Alex Hamilton scored 20 points and Louisiana Tech (29-7) held off a Georgia (20-14) comeback for a 79-71 win in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament in Athens, Ga. ■ Quardell Young drove the length of the court for a go-ahead layup with 0.9 seconds left and Wisconsin-Whitewater held off Williams to win the N.C.A.A. Division III men’s championship game, 75-73, in Salem, Va.

National Invitation Tournament
College basketball
Louisiana Tech University
University of Georgia


An App to Search for Street Art

Abstract: The destruction of the graffiti mecca 5Pointz, in Long Island City, last fall was a devastating blow to the community of street art in New York City and around the world. Lois Stavsky, an aficionado of local street art, said 5Pointz “was wonderful to me, and its loss is tremendous.” “Artists all over the world,” she added, “were contacting me asking for a place to paint, and I’d always direct them to 5Pointz and meet them there.” Ms. Stavsky, who taught at Taft High School in the Bronx from 1970 to 1980, the crucial decade in the birth of the city’s graffiti scene, is also the content creator for the New York version of an app called Geo Street Art. (There is a sister app in London, run by the software’s developer, Richard Howard-Griffin.) Ms. Stavsky’s expertise grounds a gorgeous app in the details of an essential part of the city’s art scene. Mapping apps have become crucial to the city dweller, aids in tracking down everything from vegan restaurants to haunted buildings, but few are as encyclopedic or as attractive as this one. Image Credit Christoph Hitz No Credit It provides a museum’s worth of information on street art, graffiti and more than 150 artists involved in the scene. The quality of photography on the app is excellent; it’s worth flipping through even when the temperature outside makes an actual tour of street art less appealing. You can search for art via a map of the city, with notable street art geotagged in four of the five boroughs. (Staten Island is neglected, as usual.) You can also search for specific artists or browse the “news” tab, featuring blog posts about street-art openings and interviews with artists. Geo Street Art’s map is currently out of date by several months. It still lists art that has been taken down, and fails to mention some newer projects. This lag is attributable partly to the ephemeral nature of street art and should be addressed in an expected major overhaul of the app within a few weeks. After the update, the art that is currently listed and no longer exists, including many of the pieces from 5Pointz, will be removed from the map but will remain on the app as reference points. “I’m also sure there will be a resurrection,” Ms. Stavsky said of 5Pointz. “The need for a site like that is just too great.” But while it is true that the city now lacks a physical base for fans of street art to come and pay homage, Geo Street Art: New York helps to fill the void as a digital space that conjures the majesty of the physical location. With some luck, it may even inspire the future creator of the reborn spot that Ms. Stavsky envisions.

Art
Graffiti
Lois Stavsky
Mobile Apps
5Pointz Arts Center
NYC


Early Woes Add to Mets’ Misery

Abstract: Officially, it took 3 hours and 20 minutes Thursday night for the Mets to lose to the Dodgers, 11-2, at Citi Field . The game ended at 10:30 p.m. on a double-play grounder by Nick Evans, amid indifferent hoots from the scattered remnants of 39,865 dispirited fans. But emotionally, the game seemed out of reach in its first half-hour, well before the sun set, even before some of the fans arrived. That was when the Dodgers scored four runs in the first inning off starter Livan Hernandez (5-5). “You know when you fall behind that quickly it’s going to be a long night,” said David Wright, who had two hits for the Mets. “It’s a trying time for us. It’s challenging.” The result was the fifth defeat in the last six games for the Mets and the 10th in the last 13 for an injury-weakened and disillusioned team that is reeling toward the All-Star break. After the game, Manager Jerry Manuel was asked if he felt the season was spinning out of control. “That doesn’t concern me as much as the way we’re playing,” Manuel said. Their starting pitching may be the Mets’ best aspect at the moment, as Manuel insisted before and after the game. But even that strength has descended toward the depths of the team’s poor hitting and fielding. Hernandez started the season well, going 5-1 in his first six decisions. But he has lost his last four decisions. In his previous start, last Friday in Philadelphia, Hernandez gave up seven earned runs in three innings. On Thursday night, he gave up eight runs and 11 hits in four innings. “I got two bad games back to back,” Hernandez said. “The other games were good.” He blamed Thursday’s problems on “a lot of broken bats, bloopers.” “They hit the holes,” he said. But at this stage of his long career, Hernandez has developed a reputation for fading in the second half of seasons, and Manuel did not come close to offering him a ringing endorsement after the game. “We have to think about all options,” Manuel said about the Mets’ rotation. “We haven’t decided that yet. I’m not saying somebody’s in or somebody’s out.” Three of the Dodgers’ first-inning runs came on a two-out double by Orlando Hudson, who later left the game when he was hit in the leg by a pitch from Brian Stokes, the third of the Mets’ four pitchers. The Dodgers got two more runs in the second when Hernandez gave up four more hits, including the second R.B.I. single to Manny Ramirez . The victory went to Randy Wolf (4-3). The Mets nicked him for one run in the first inning on a single by Gary Sheffield and another in the third on a groundout by Ryan Church. But they never mounted a serious challenge to the Dodgers, who have the best record in baseball at 54-31. The Mets fell to 40-44. It was the last of six meetings this season between the teams. The Dodgers won five of them. They are in first place in the National League West, and the Mets are a fading fourth in the N.L. East. If they were in the same division, the Mets would trail the Dodgers by 13 ½ games. The Mets’ ennui seemed apparent in two moments involving umpires. The first came in the fourth inning with Los Angeles leading by 6-2 with one out and Casey Blake batting with runners on first and second. Blake hit a line drive to Luis Castillo, the second baseman, who flipped the ball to shortstop Alex Cora, who was covering second in an attempt to double off Rafael Furcal. Cora and the ball seemed to arrive at the base a moment before Furcal scampered back. But the umpire John Hirschbeck ruled the runner safe. Two batters later, with two outs, Russell Martin drove home two more runs. The second example came at the end of the seventh inning, with two men on base, when Sheffield — who had two hits — was called out on strikes by the home plate umpire, Marty Foster. As Sheffield walked slowly down the first-base line with his bat still in his hand, he protested to Foster, who answered back. When Sheffield persisted, Foster ejected him. By this time, many of the fans were streaming toward the exits. Sheffield, the cleanup hitter who had two hits, was one of few home run threats in the Mets’ lineup. Although discarded by Detroit before the season, he is one of the most dangerous hitters on a Mets roster weakened by injuries. Their last home run was hit July 2. Wright, ever the optimist, said, “We’ve proven we don’t need home runs to win.” INSIDE PITCH The rookie outfielder Fernando Martinez has been placed on the disabled list with a right knee injury and infielder Argenis Reyes was called up from Class AAA Buffalo to replace him. In the bottom of the fourth, Reyes pinch-hit for starting pitcher Livan Hernandez and grounded out.

Baseball
New York Mets
Wolf Randy
Hernandez Livan
Sheffield Gary
Ramirez Manny
Manuel Jerry


In Immigration Bill, Deportees See Hope for Second Chance

Abstract: TIJUANA, Mexico — Erik García arrived at the metal gate of a migrant shelter here, deported from Los Angeles just hours earlier. After 23 years in the United States illegally, he suddenly found himself separated from the country where he had moved as a boy, and from his two teenage daughters, both American citizens. That same day, senators in Washington unveiled a surprise: an immigration bill that could allow deportees like him to return to the United States, a stunning reversal of American policy after years of record-high deportations. “Really?” said Mr. García, 33, wiping his eyes when told of the measure. “Are you sure?” No previous Congressional effort to change immigration law has offered such a broad, swift reprieve to people deported by the government. The bill, introduced last month, would give a legal second chance to tens of thousands of deportees without serious criminal records who have a child, parent or spouse with a green card or American citizenship. Many deportees brought to the United States before their 16th birthday would be eligible to return as well. Even in a bill overflowing with ambitious and controversial proposals, the deportee measure is becoming one of the most contested elements — a humanitarian necessity to some; to others, a shameful reward for lawbreakers. On Wednesday, an amendment from Senator Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who is among the bill’s most vocal critics, sought to strip out the deportee reprieve. Other opponents have welcomed it as a political godsend, calling it such an overreach that it would make the entire immigration bill easier to defeat. But some Democrats and immigrant rights groups have pledged to defend the deportee return, characterizing it as an important step in righting a wrong. “We have had four million people deported since 2002 and close to two million since 2008,” said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “This is the only way to reunite families that have been destroyed by our outdated, broken and cruel immigration policies.” The Senate bill, one of the most sweeping bipartisan immigration efforts in decades, would cut down on future deportations by giving millions of immigrants in the United States provisional legal status. It could also reduce illegal traffic heading north because, as Democrats involved in drafting the legislation noted, many migrants crossing the border illegally are deportees trying to return to their families. But it is unclear who would get that winning ticket. Under the legislation, there are obvious candidates who would qualify, some criminals who clearly would not — and an ocean of people who may fall somewhere in between. An epic sorting process, if the bill passed, would be especially visible here. Roughly 70 percent of immigrants deported under President Obama have been sent to Mexico, and Tijuana has received more than anywhere else. More than 461,000 immigrants have been dropped off in this hilly metropolis south of San Diego since 2008, flooding barrios and soup kitchens and adding to insecurity as deportees both commit and fall victim to crime. “The city doesn’t have the resources to care for them,” said Tijuana’s mayor, Carlos Bustamante. “We’re suffering.” Homes and flophouses here are now filled with former and future immigrants like María Luisa Reyes, who left her tiny town in central Mexico in 1989, at 20. Now she has three daughters in the United States whom she has been trying to get back to since being deported two years ago. “I was in the immigration office checking on my application to get legal, and they told me I was denied and that I needed to be removed,” she said. “They arrested me right there.” “My youngest daughter is 7,” she added, in limbo at a women’s shelter here. “When I call, she says, ‘Why, Mommy, why?’” Mr. García, 33, also tried to get legal. He said he arrived in the United States when he was 10 and tried to adjust his status in 2007, while working for one of California’s largest catering companies. But he lost his job in a mass layoff in 2010, he said, and moved in with his sister. When immigration officials sent him a letter with an appointment date, he said, he never saw it. An order of removal followed, unbeknown to Mr. García until last month. A Chance to Return 8 Photos View Slide Show › Image Monica Almeida/The New York Times “The police stopped me and asked me for my ID,” he said, sitting in an icy room in the shorts he wore at the time. “They checked it and found a warrant from immigration.” He said he had no other crimes on his record. “I’ve been trying to become a pastor,” he said. “Ever since I applied for a green card, I’ve been praying for God to help me.” A Senate aide involved in legislative negotiations said deportees would not be granted an automatic right of return; they would have to apply. Deportees would be ineligible if they had been expelled for criminal reasons, or if they were convicted of a felony or at least three misdemeanors. The waivers would be granted at the discretion of the secretary of homeland security. Immigration lawyers say that could mean approvals end up being inconsistent, and even those who seem to qualify say they do not trust the same authorities who had deported them to suddenly help them return. “I’m hopeful, but I need to be ready for the possibility of denial,” said Nancy Landa, 32, a graduate of Cal State Northridge who said she was brought to the United States as a little girl but deported in 2009 because her immigration lawyer had failed to file the proper paperwork. “I’m not too confident that the process would actually work.” A major complication could be repeat immigration offenses and the range of prosecutions they have spawned, giving immigrants with nearly identical immigration violations far different criminal records. The crime of “illegal re-entry” for returning to the United States after a deportation used to be reserved largely for violent criminals. Now it is the nation’s most prosecuted federal felony, but not everyone caught by immigration authorities is charged with it. “It’s arbitrary. It depends on who picks you up, when, and where they pick you up,” said David Leopold, general counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “So who will become eligible or ineligible in terms of illegal re-entry is really luck of the draw.” Ms. Reyes appeared to be among the fortunate. In the last six months, she says, she has tried to cross the border four times, only to turn back or be caught by the San Diego border patrol. Once, she said, she was rescued on a mountain during a snowstorm after being held by men with guns and black masks, who fled when they saw American agents. But for all of her many attempts, she said, she had yet to be prosecuted for illegal re-entry. Víctor Pérez, though, a mechanic standing in the long line at a free breakfast near the border fence, said he had been deported after spending more than a year in an Arizona jail because he was caught crossing the mountains outside Nogales, Ariz. It was his third immigration offense. He said he was deported in 2005 because of a traffic stop, and again in 2008. “It’s not fair, for me or for a lot of us” he said, looking down the food line, where, volunteers say, 65 percent of the 1,100 people who show up every day have been deported. “It’s not like I robbed anyone or hurt anyone. I just wanted to work.” If not for his immigration felony, Mr. Pérez, 28, would have a better shot at getting back under the deportee provision. He arrived in the United States when he was 13; his wife and two children are all American citizens. Wherever deportees gathered in Tijuana, similar if-only stories emerged. Uriel Leo Ramírez, 38, said he was deported after the police knocked on his door because he was drunk and arguing with his wife. “My kids are 8 and 5,” he said. Guadalupe Jiménez Griffith, 44, said she was deported after her sick (now deceased) husband used someone else’s Social Security card to get Medicaid and welfare. All three of her children were born in the United States. In this crowd, Mr. García mostly kept to himself. He had found a jacket to keep warm and was still mulling over his long-shot chance at getting back to his family. If only the bill would pass, he thought. If only he could hold on long enough. “What I’m worried about is the next two years,” he said. “What happens now?”

Immigration
Deportation
Tijuana
US
Illegal Immigration


Pigeon Spikes

Abstract: Hanging on roof and window ledges throughout the Bay Area, pigeon spikes serve as one of the many deterrents that protect local buildings from the oft-maligned birds . Pets Gone Wild San Francisco’s pigeons are feral “rock doves.” Ornithologists believe the pigeon was the first domesticated bird, originally prized in the Middle East 6,000 years ago for the delicious meat of its squabs and the fertilizing prowess of its waste. Pigeons are highly adaptable; they nest in a wide variety of locations and will eat almost anything. Flying Rodent? An estimated 3.5 million feral pigeons live in the Bay Area. Large populations also live in New York City; London; Seville, Spain; Venice; and New Delhi. The characterization “rats with wings” became popular after it was used in Woody Allen’s 1980 film, “Stardust Memories.” Edgy Critters Pigeons are edge-landing birds. When landing above ground, they land only on peaks or at perimeters, where they can use their claws to grip for stability. To deter pigeons from a building, only those areas need to be blocked. No Stabbing Many pigeon spikes are not pointed. Birds Away/Pigeons Away, a 25-year-old company based in Concord, uses only blunt-ended prongs. It decided spikes were inferior to prongs because they injured birds and snagged flying debris like large leaves, newspapers and plastic bags. Feathered Hero Domestic carrier pigeons have been used for centuries to transmit messages during wartime. An American bird, G.I. Joe, received a medal for his courageous flight in World War II, traveling 20 miles to safeguard the lives of British soldiers. Winged Plague Pigeons can transmit heart and kidney diseases to humans, as well as salmonella and encephalitis. They also carry parasites like ticks, mites, fleas and lice. Artistic Decision The de Young Museum is protected from pigeons by an invisible “shock track” on its edges that is charged with a low voltage. Bird Brains At the Balboa Park BART station, pigeons tried to nest between the spikes, but they got stuck and eventually starved. BART has also tried to deter pigeons with fake owls and rubber snakes. Ugly and Injurious Highly acidic pigeon feces can corrode paint and most metals. The droppings on sidewalks can also lead to liability issues, like slip-and-fall lawsuits.


When Airlines Serve Alcohol, and the Beverage Cart Requires a Bouncer

Abstract: When Joshua Konowe, a technology entrepreneur, took his seat in an emergency exit row on a flight to Belgium last fall, he was unaware that his seatmate had washed down an anti-anxiety pill with her glass of wine. “She starts drinking, and about an hour into the flight, she’s completely making no sense whatsoever,” he said. Mr. Konowe said she rambled about her fear of flying and how she did not want to be on the plane. “She says, ‘Maybe I should just open the door,’ and she goes to grab it.” When she started trying to move the handle, Mr. Konowe knew he had to intervene. He put his hand on her arm and alerted flight attendants. Nothing came of the episode, but it is one of the untold numbers of alcohol-related run-ins, arguments and otherwise bizarre moments on planes that flight attendants and industry executives say are a persistent problem. In response, airlines are pushing to gain more leverage over passengers’ potentially dangerous behavior. In particular, the International Air Transport Association is seeking stronger international laws to allow an unruly passenger to be charged in the country where the plane lands, but the measure still awaits ratification. Beyond that, the air transport association would like better monitoring of potentially drunk passengers before they board a plane. Tony Tyler, chief executive of the association, has said that the number of incidents reported by airlines has soared in recent years. Last year, roughly 8,000 incidents of unruly passenger behavior were voluntarily reported by the airlines to I.A.T.A., up from fewer than 1,000 incidents in 2007, when the association began tracking such episodes. It is unclear whether that is because there are indeed more incidents, or the airlines are more attuned to reporting the problem. “It’s certainly enough that it is a major concern,” said an I.A.T.A. spokesman, Perry Flint. In the United States, the number of unruly passenger incidents on domestic flights — where the legal protections for the airlines are stronger — has remained largely flat in recent years, with 160 reported enforcement actions last year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. But nowhere are the conditions for trouble more ripe than on international flights. Last year, Delta announced it was offering free liquor as well as beer and wine on international flights. “Introducing a little holiday ‘spirit’ to last the whole year through,” the company said on Twitter in December. On domestic flights, alcohol is generally not given away in coach class. With its new policy, Delta joined in making what has been a standard offering for years by many international carriers. Two years ago, American Airlines began to offer free beer and wine on flights to and from Europe, Asia and some South American countries. US Airways, which merged with American Airlines in December, offers free wine with dinner on international flights. George W. Hamlin, president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting, said free-drinks policies are often put in place for competitive reasons. “It could be a foreign carrier is already doing it,” he said. “There are some people who would make the choice to go with a carrier based on free alcohol.” There is a price, the airline workers say. Amanda Pleva, a career flight attendant, said passengers might be motivated to drink too much for any number of reasons: fear of flying, wanting to sleep, stress, boredom or frustration caused by a long delay, or just wanting to have a good time. “In delay situations, the passengers all wait it out in the bars,” she said. “Usually, when you have people who are traveling for business and getting drunk on the plane, it’s usually not just because they want to have a good time. If anything, it could be stress drinking.” Image Credit Chi Birmingham Passengers might turn to a drink or two to take the edge off their stress, but prescription anti-anxiety medications or sleep aids can add a sometimes alarming element when a passenger chases a pill with a drink or two. “Right now, with prescription pills, people think they’re invincible,” Ms. Pleva said. “You definitely find people getting more irrational.” Whatever measures are taken, analysts say that there is less tolerance as planes fly at ever-higher capacity. “We may have reached the point where there are just so many passengers on board in a crowded space that some passenger behaviors are triggered,” said Robert W. Mann, an airline industry consultant. That appeared to be the case last month, when a drunk passenger aboard an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Miami forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Phoenix. “We address these issues as they arise,” Simcha McIntosh, a spokeswoman representing American Airlines, wrote in an email. “Ultimately, the captain decides whether a flight needs to divert because of a disruptive passenger.” These cases can be expensive. It can cost an airline $20,000 or more to divert a plane in terms of crew time, fuel costs, airport fees and other expenses, Mr. Mann said. “The meter keeps running.” Sometimes the price can climb even higher. The I.A.T.A. said one 2011 altercation that forced the diversion of a trans-Pacific flight cost an airline around $200,000. It’s hard to tell how many in-flight incidents are related to alcohol, because exact numbers are not tracked, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence. “Many airlines that participated in an I.A.T.A. survey on unruly passengers viewed alcohol as the major contributor to disruptive behavior,” the association said on its website. “They observed that passengers, in numerous instances, may have been intoxicated at the time of boarding the aircraft or had access to their own alcohol supply on board.” Some people try to sneak alcohol on board, Ms. Pleva said. “The liquid and gel ban really helps,” she said. Others ask every flight attendant for a drink and hide the evidence. Ms. Pleva said attendants occasionally stumble across a stash of empty bottles in the seat back pocket after passengers leave. Frequent fliers like Shai Tertner, who runs an event production company, says it is no coincidence that when drinks are free, people are likely to drink more. Mr. Tertner, who has offices in four cities, flies for work up to four times a month. “Every once in a while I have to fly coach, and you still see people drinking, but I see more people drinking in business class,” he said. “Many more people drink in business, I think, because it comes with the package.” Even on morning flights he regularly takes to Los Angeles from the East Coast, Mr. Tertner said, many of his fellow passengers are drinking. “To me, it’s surprising,” he said. “When you fly business class, people take advantage of it.” Mr. Tertner said on one such flight, another passenger provoked a confrontation when he groped one of the flight attendants. “I actually felt uncomfortable looking at it,” he said. “He would reach out and touch her, and you could see her moving away.” The flight attendant put a halt to the passenger’s advances, but not before many other passengers noticed the confrontation. “He caused a scene,” Mr. Tertner said.

Alcohol
Flight attendant
American Airlines
Airlines,airplanes
Delta Air Lines
International Air Transport Assn
US Airways Group


Swelling in Knee Keeps Hideki Matsui Inactive This Weekend

Abstract: The Yankees had hoped that Hideki Matsui would be able to take batting practice this weekend, but his troublesome left knee did not cooperate. Surgery is possible, and Matsui said an operation would likely end his season. “I would assume if I had the surgery, at this point, it would probably take as long as it did for my right knee to recover,” Matsui said Thursday through an interpreter. “So in that sense, if I were to have surgery right now, the season would be over.” A team trainer told Manager Joe Girardi that Matsui’s knee had not responded well enough to physical therapy to begin baseball drills. Matsui has been receiving treatment at Yankee Stadium. “He got sore,” Girardi said. “Sometimes, when you take some steps forward, you’re going to have to take some steps back. He’ll take the whole weekend off from hitting, and we’ll see where he is on Tuesday.” Matsui has had fluid drained from the knee twice, and he had surgery on the right knee after last season. The left knee, though, has been a problem for him for years, even as he played in 1,768 consecutive games for the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants. The streak, it seems, has caught up with him. “That’s my assumption,” Matsui said. “Over the years, the stress that was placed on those joints probably led to this.” Matsui said that doctors have told him he would be able to play out the season if the inflammation subsided. “It’s calmed down quite a bit,” Matsui said. Matsui is hitting .323 with 7 homers and 34 runs batted in over 69 games. He was even hotter lately, with a .365 average in his last 26 games before landing on the disabled list. YANKS TO WEAR SPECIAL CAPS The Yankees have worn patches on their caps for special occasions, but Friday’s game will be their first ever wearing a true alternate cap in a regular-season game. The Yankees will join the rest of baseball in wearing a navy blue cap with a red, white and blue stars-and-stripes motif inside their logo, with some of the proceeds from cap sales going to the Welcome Back Veterans fund. 2 MINOR LEAGUERS HURT Shelley Duncan, who was hitting .243 for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, separated his shoulder making a diving catch Tuesday and was placed on the disabled list. Duncan is expected to miss significant time. Another outfielder, Jose Tabata of Class AA Trenton, is on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Tabata was hitting .243 with 3 homers and 10 stolen bases. CASHMAN TALKS TO WAIT Brian Cashman still seems likely to return as general manager, but the co-chairman Hal Steinbrenner confirmed to MLB.com Thursday that no negotiations would take place until after the season. “Brian’s been a good general manager, and again, it’s something that we are going to analyze when the time is right, which will be at the end of the year,” Steinbrenner said. “Now is just not the time.” Hal’s father, the principal owner George Steinbrenner, turns 78 on Friday. Hal Steinbrenner said the family would try to get George Steinbrenner to New York for the All-Star Game on July 15. SHARING A TALENT SCOUT As rumors swirl about Alex Rodriguez’s personal life — from People magazine and Us Weekly to the front pages of The New York Post and The Daily News — it is worth noting a curious connection. After splitting last December with his agent, Scott Boras, Rodriguez hired a Hollywood talent manager, Guy Oseary, to represent him. Oseary also represents the two singers who have reportedly been linked to Rodriguez and his wife: Madonna and Lenny Kravitz, who are each starting world tours this summer.


Syria: Government Releases Some Female Detainees

Abstract: Antigovernment activists said Wednesday that the Syrian government had released at least 15 female detainees in what appeared to be part of an ambitious regional prisoner swap. Last week that deal, brokered by several countries, freed Lebanese captives held by Syrian rebels and two Turkish pilots held in Lebanon. Syrian rebels had reportedly also demanded the release of the female prisoners.


U.S. Pulls Advisers from Afghan Government Media Center

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Until this week, a little-noticed part of the United States’ war effort here included teaching Afghan officials the art of public relations — mainly, how to give news conferences — at an American-financed government information center. But on Wednesday, as word spread that the American military and civilian advisers had been abruptly pulled from the center this week, both American and Afghan officials broke a cardinal rule of public relations: They could not get their stories straight. The Americans said that it was time for Afghan officialdom to deliver news on its own, and that the move had been planned for some time as part of the broader drawdown slowly under way. The Afghans said the Americans were annoyed over a news conference on Saturday that featured criticism of civilian deaths in NATO raids. In the grand scheme of the American war, this is a small spat over an institution that is little known outside Kabul news media circles. But if the Americans did leave over the news conference, it may signal their growing impatience with the steady drumbeat of Afghan criticism — and an increasing willingness to disengage from Afghan institutions with which they are displeased. That is a marked change from only a year ago, when American officials ordinarily reacted to perceived Afghan failures by pushing harder to reverse them. But the urge to reshape Afghanistan in a Western image appears to be fading. The news conference in question was held on Saturday, and it focused on the report of a delegation appointed by President Hamid Karzai to look into accusations of civilian casualties in the provinces of Kandahar, Kapisa and Paktia. The delegation painted a harsh picture of NATO forces, portraying them as callous and careless. But that was not unusual. Mr. Karzai has been voicing the same message for years, much to the frustration of American officials, who point out that a vast majority of civilian casualties are caused by the Taliban, not NATO. Afghans who work at the Afghan Government Media Information Center said they had not been told of any planned transition. They said they had noticed growing American impatience with some new Afghan employees at the center, who seemed to have more of an anti-American bent than their predecessors. The Americans have been back to the information center only once since Dec. 25 — they showed up with a truck on Monday night and packed up their equipment, an Afghan official said. The Afghans did not seem to have a problem with that. “We have no regrets if they want to leave us,” said Ezatullah Safi, the deputy director of the information center. A major, if often unnoticed, part of the American project in Afghanistan has involved embedding Western advisers — most civilian, some military — in nearly every Afghan department to help create a functioning government. In some cases, there was a point not so long ago when the American mentors were the main interlocutors between government ministers and foreigners in Kabul. Their efficacy has, at times, been questionable: the mentors at the central bank, for instance, failed to catch the brewing scandal with Kabul Bank . Once Afghanistan’s largest lender, the bank nearly collapsed last year after evidence emerged that the Afghan political elite had used it as a personal piggy bank for years. The Western mentors are now gone. The Afghan attorney general threw out the mentors at his office last year when they became too helpful in pursuing corruption cases against government officials. The information center, in contrast, was a relative success, providing a focal point for news conferences, and in the process encouraging officials to hold them. That is a big change from a few years ago when some government ministries would request that questions be submitted by fax, even though they did not have working fax machines. American mentors still remain sprinkled throughout other parts of the Afghan government. But their importance is fading as the Americans try to start stepping back, militarily and economically. The American Embassy said in a short statement on Wednesday that the withdrawal from the information center was part of that process. “The United States is reassessing and reviewing its relationship with the Afghan Government Media Information Center, and thought it appropriate to withdraw U.S. personnel while that process is under way,” it said. The statement added that the withdrawal of the personnel was part of a planned transition, and added, “We want to ensure that U.S. support and resources are used efficiently and effectively as the transition takes place.” Gavin Sundwall, an embassy spokesman, said later in a brief telephone interview that timing of the pullout and the news conference were only a “coincidence.” American financing will continue. Afghan officials said the center received $3 million this year, and $4 million last year.

Civilian Casualties
Kabul (Afghanistan)
Public Relations and Publicity
Afghanistan War (2001- )


Joe Biden and Loretta Lynch Mourn Officers at Service in Baton Rouge

Abstract: BATON ROUGE, La. — After weeks of heated discussions about race relations and several days of mourning over the killing of three law enforcement officers here, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch added their voices Thursday to those contemplating life, death and the meaning of community. “It has touched the soul of this entire nation,” Mr. Biden, speaking at a memorial service, said of the attack by a lone gunman . “Everybody in the country is talking about it. Everybody is learning their stories. Everyone says now is the time to heal.” The memorial took place at Healing Place Church, where a funeral had been held on Friday for Officer Matthew Gerald , 41. Similar services in the days that followed shut down parts of Baton Rouge’s interstate system, with mourners lining the streets that led to the other churches for the funerals of Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, who was buried on Saturday, and Officer Montrell Jackson, 32, who was interred on Monday. “Now the city has to reach out, the country has to reach out, to law enforcement to let you know how much we care,” Mr. Biden said to the more than 350 people spread out inside the megachurch. Before Thursday’s speeches began, Charles T. Cravins, 60, said he had driven 63 miles from Opelousas, in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country, for the memorial with the expectation that it might bring him and others a sense of closure. “Hopefully, this represents a turning of the page,” said Mr. Cravins, clutching a program that he rolled up and then unrolled again. “But for that to happen, we need to open a real dialogue as the crisis passes. That’s the next step.” Passing three empty chairs that held the peaked caps of each dead officer’s department, Ms. Lynch used her time at the podium to urge mourners to look for “meaning in the midst of this tragedy.” Image Three chairs at the service, held at Healing Place Church, honored the three law enforcement officers who were killed by a gunman on July 17. Credit Jonathan Bachman/Reuters “This beloved community is the foundation for a living memorial to these fallen heroes,” she said. “But it is a memorial that we have to build together.” The three officers were killed early on the morning of July 17 by Gavin Long, 29, along a busy commercial strip not far from Baton Rouge Police Headquarters. Another three officers were wounded, including Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Tullier, 41, who remains hospitalized and is “fighting for his life,” according to Sheriff Sid J. Gautreaux III of East Baton Rouge Parish. The authorities said Mr. Long ambushed the officers and may have been motivated by the July 5 death of Alton Sterling , 37, a black man who was shot multiple times and killed after an altercation with two white city police offers. Mr. Long was killed by a SWAT team sniper. Mr. Biden singled out the need for better community policing, which he said had been lacking in recent years because of budget cuts at law enforcement agencies across the nation. He said he sorely missed the days when police officers knew whether a 15-year-old standing on a corner in a “hoodie” was a known “gangbanger” or someone who could one day be “the next poet laureate.” Sheriff Gautreaux touched on similar themes: “How do we turn tragedy into triumph? The answer is kindness. Kindness opens doors. Hate, prejudice, violence shuts doors.” Edmond Jordan, 41, a state representative who lives in the nearby suburb of Brusly but whose district includes parts of Baton Rouge, said the memorial offered him a brief respite from the growing call for action, whether from elected officials or elsewhere. “It’s not just elected officials, though,” Mr. Jordan said. “Solutions need to be sought out from our community leaders and residents, too. But we’re never going to get to that point if we don’t recognize the problems we have in Baton Rouge. It’s definitely not the worst place to be, and I love this city, but we have a lot of work to do.” Mr. Jordan added that he was striving for some semblance of constancy in a city that is pulled between memorials and moving on, yanked from anger to acceptance, only to start the whole process over again. The shared sentiment among speakers at the memorial was that it was time for the city to heal while acknowledging that something positive could result from the summer’s turmoil. “We cannot allow this tragedy to define us,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said, “but we can allow it to direct us.”

Joe Biden
Baton Rouge
Matthew Gerald
Brad Garafola
Attacks on Police
Murders and Homicides
Montrell L Jackson
Gavin Long Baton Rouge shooter
Loretta E Lynch