U.S. Navy Commander Implies China Has Eroded Safety of South China Sea

Abstract: BEIJING — A senior American naval commander has implicitly accused China of creating “so-called military zones” close to artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea, declaring that such actions are eroding the security of one of the world’s busiest waterways. In a speech in Honolulu on Monday, the commander, Adm. Scott H. Swift of the United States Pacific Fleet, said commercial ships that had previously sailed freely through international shipping lanes were being diverted from areas deemed to be too close to the artificial islands built by the Chinese in the Spratly archipelago. Admiral Swift, who visited China last month, said that routine commercial and military operations in the South China Sea had become subject to warnings, interrupting the freedom of navigation, as well as air rights, to such an extent that the “unilateral assertiveness” was becoming a trend that was “unacceptable.” Countries in the region are being forced to finance their navies beyond what is needed for self-defense, he said, implying that this was heightening the risk of an arms race. Although Admiral Swift did not say as much, it was clear he was referring to China. By mentioning “so-called military zones,” he was offering a counterpoint to an assertion by President Xi Jinping of China during a visit to Washington in September that China did “not intend to pursue militarization” of islands in the South China Sea. The admiral’s speech, delivered to a regional security forum, was his second concerning the South China Sea since October, and was tougher in tone than his previous warnings about the situation. Officials from China were invited to the forum but did not attend, a Pacific Fleet official said. The South China Sea has become one of the most serious strategic problems between China and the United States, largely because Washington challenges Beijing’s right to enlarge tiny specks in the waterway into islands big enough to accommodate military runways and radar equipment. The waterway is important to China militarily and commercially: About 75 percent of its oil imports arrive by sea, according to China Energy News, a state-run publication. In October, the United States dispatched a guided missile destroyer, the Lassen, on a freedom-of-navigation patrol within the 12-nautical-mile limit of Subi Reef, one of the new artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago claimed by China. Other claimants of reefs and islands in the Spratlys include Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Admiral Swift said that fishermen from the region were also threatened. “Intimidated by the manner in which some navies, coast guards and maritime military enforce claims in contested waters, fishermen who trawled the seas freely for generations are facing threats to their livelihoods imposed by nations with unresolved, and often unrecognized, claims,” he said. In reaction to Admiral Swift’s speech, a spokesman at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, said on Tuesday that “some country” — an obvious reference to the United States — was “deliberately” exaggerating tensions in the region with the purpose of creating “chaos.” A Pacific Fleet spokesman, asked for specific examples of commercial ships that had been forced to change their route because of orders from the Chinese Navy, said he would need time to research the answer. Tussles between Chinese vessels and fishing trawlers from other nations around the South China Sea have occurred for years. But the Chinese vessels have been emboldened by a new Chinese law this year that requires foreign fishing vessels to obtain permission to enter waters that China claims. Trawlers from the Philippines and Vietnam have reported being hosed by Chinese water cannons this year and being robbed at gunpoint. In September, Vietnam said a Chinese vessel had sunk one of its fishing boats near the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by China and Vietnam. Video A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused “some countries” of exaggerating tensions in the South China Sea after a United States admiral warned of an arms race in Asia. Credit Credit Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press Admiral Swift’s remarks came as the BBC reported that a single-engine Cessna 206 aircraft rented by one of its television crews for filming the creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea had been warned by the Chinese Navy to turn back as it neared each of three artificial islands. The plane was identified incorrectly by the Chinese as a military aircraft and ordered to leave the airspace around the islands China has built, the BBC said. When the plane headed southwest toward Fiery Cross Reef, known as Yongshu Jiao in Chinese, and was close to 20 nautical miles to the reef where the Chinese have built a major runway, a voice came over the radio, the BBC said. “Foreign military aircraft to northwest of Yongshu Island, this is the Chinese Navy. You are threatening the security of our station,” the voice said, according to the BBC account. When the plane flew toward Gaven Reef and Mischief Reef, also places where the Chinese have undertaken construction, there were similar warnings from the Chinese, the BBC said. As the BBC plane turned back toward the Philippines, it came across a military aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force patrolling the region that had apparently received orders from the Chinese to leave. The BBC reported the Australian pilot saying: “China Navy, China Navy. We are an Australian aircraft exercising international freedom-of-navigation rights, in international airspace in accordance with the international civil aviation convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . Over.” In the Australian capital, Canberra, the country’s Defense Department said that an AP-3C Orion had conducted routine maritime patrols from Nov. 25 to Dec. 4 as part of a regular surveillance operation intended to preserve “regional security and stability” in Southeast Asia. As Washington’s strongest ally in the Pacific region, the Australian government has increasingly expressed concerns about China’s behavior in the South China Sea. Australia has operated the Orion aircraft from a base in the Malaysian state of Penang for a range of duties in the Asia Pacific region, including during the war in Afghanistan, according to Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. Australia conducts surveillance flights for its own intelligence purposes and not as part of a joint operation with the United States, he said. So far, the flights over the South China Sea have been irregular and conducted without much fanfare, although David Johnston, the former Australian defense minister, mentioned them in a speech in Singapore last year, Mr. Jennings said. The tone of Admiral Swift’s speech showed that the standoff between China and the United States and its allies over the South China Sea was becoming increasingly difficult to resolve, Mr. Jennings said. “It’s very hard to see how there can be a compromise between China’s assertion of sovereign control over the vast majority of the South China Sea inside the Nine Dash Line and freedom of navigation,” he said, referring to a line drawn by the Chinese that roughly encircles more than 80 percent of the waterway. Asked on Tuesday about the BBC flight and the warning from the Chinese Navy, Mr. Hong of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China had “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands.

China
South China Sea
Military
Scott H. Swift
Navigation
US Foreign Policy
US Military


WikiLeaks Archive - Cooperation and Frustration With Mexico

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — More than a year ago — before drug cartels killed a gubernatorial candidate and began murdering mayors , before shootings and kidnappings in Mexico ’s industrial capital, Monterrey, surged to the point that the State Department ordered children of American diplomats there to leave the country — a Mexican official admitted that the government feared it could lose control of parts of the nation. At a dinner held by Mexico’s acting attorney general for a visiting delegation from the Department of Justice in October 2009, the comments by Gerónimo Gutiérrez, then a deputy secretary in the ministry in charge of domestic security, suggested that even then a sense of anxiety about the drug war had begun to take hold in many parts of the Mexican government. In the account of the meeting, which was included in the American diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks and posted on Mexican news Web sites, Mr. Gutiérrez was quoted as saying: “We have 18 months and if we do not produce a tangible success that is recognizable to the Mexican people, it will be difficult to sustain the confrontation into the next administration.” The summary of Mr. Gutiérrez’s comments, written by the United States ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, continued: “He expressed a real concern with ‘losing’ certain regions. It is damaging Mexico’s international reputation, hurting foreign investment, and leading to a sense of government impotence, Gutiérrez said.” The documents released by WikiLeaks capture a moment at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 when Mexican officials were forced to acknowledge — despite their public claims of progress — that their military strategy was not producing the results they had hoped for in the drug war. The diplomatic cables also show just how entwined the United States has become in Mexico’s drug war. The United States government provides Mexico with intelligence to pinpoint where top drug lords are hiding out, trains elite troops, and American officials discuss strategy to try to quell the violence in Ciudad Juárez, which has become ground zero in the drug war. But the cables suggest frustration that the military, the police and prosecutors are not up to the task. In a blunt assessment, John Feeley, the deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy in Mexico City, concluded in January that military officials “share the parochial, risk-averse habits that often plague their civilian counterparts in Mexican law enforcement agencies.” A year later, there have been some notable successes in capturing or killing cartel leaders and their violent lieutenants. Police intelligence appears to have become more effective. But the military continues to play the top role in the drug war, and the violence that so worried Mexican officials at the end of last year has spread, becoming more entrenched than ever. The diplomatic cables present a picture of such intense rivalry among Mexico’s civilian law enforcement agencies and its military that little gets done. In his account, Mr. Feeley said that “Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency’s success is viewed as another’s failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of.” Mr. Feely continued: “Prosecution rates for organized crime-related offenses are dismal; 2 percent of those detained are brought to trial. Only 2 percent of those arrested in Ciudad Juárez have even been charged with a crime.” The documents also show how anxious the Mexican government was to contain the bloodshed in Juárez, which has intensified this year. At the October 2009 meeting with the delegation from the Justice Department, Mr. Gutiérrez and Jorge Tello Peón, who was then President Felipe Calderón’s top intelligence official for the drug war, said that the government “must succeed in Juárez because Calderón has staked so much of his reputation there, with a major show of force that, to date, has not panned out,” according to Mr. Pascual’s account. The content of the documents elicited angry responses from Mexican officials. Late Thursday, the Foreign Relations Ministry said the reports “reflect some deplorable practices from the point of view of respect that should prevail between nations that collaborate for common objectives.” Mr. Pascual hastened to assure Mexicans that relations were still strong. Calling the cables “impressionistic snapshots of a moment in time,” he wrote in El Universal newspaper that “like some snapshots, they can be out of focus or unflattering.” Much of what is in the diplomatic cables are similar to what American diplomats say about the need for Mexican law enforcement agencies to do their jobs more effectively. Indeed, much of it is not all that different from the vigorous debate going on inside Mexico. The army faces charges of human rights abuses, and efforts to reform the police have failed to generate much confidence among ordinary Mexicans. But the unguarded criticisms in the diplomatic cables have roused prickly nationalist sensibilities in Mexico, especially candid assessments like one from the United States Embassy that stated: “Official corruption is widespread, leading to a compartmentalized siege mentality among ‘clean’ law enforcement leaders and their lieutenants.” Another sensitive topic is criticism of the military. A cable from Ambassador Pascual last December offered an inside look at how the Mexican Army failed to move to capture one top drug lord, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, last December. The United States Embassy initially told the army where Mr. Beltrán Leyva was hiding out, but the army did not act. The embassy then told the navy, and an elite American-trained unit moved into action. Mr. Beltrán Leyva escaped the first navy raid, but the embassy several days later located him in a apartment complex in Cuernavaca, about 50 miles south of Mexico City. The navy unit moved in and killed him when he refused to surrender. Mr. Pascual concluded that the navy’s success put the army “in the difficult position of explaining why it has been reluctant to act on good intelligence and conduct operations against high-level targets.”

Classified Information and State Secrets


N.H.L. Nears Lockout as Shane Doan Re-Signs With Coyotes

Abstract: With N.H.L. teams on track to begin a lockout at midnight Saturday, the league engaged in a bevy of activity almost everywhere except the bargaining table. The highly regarded free-agent forward Shane Doan re-signed with the Phoenix Coyotes , and the N.H.L. Players’ Association appealed to the labor relations boards in Quebec and Alberta to block the lockout in those Canadian provinces. Still, nothing seemed likely to derail the lockout. On Friday the league and the union had contact on certain procedural matters, but there were no new negotiations. On Thursday, the N.H.L. Board of Governors gave Commissioner Gary Bettman a unanimous vote of support to shut down the league when the collective bargaining agreement expires on Saturday. “The league is not in a position, not willing to move forward with another season under the status quo,” Bettman told reporters after the board meeting at a Midtown Manhattan hotel. A lockout would be the third Bettman has called since becoming commissioner in 1993. The last one, in 2004-5, cost the entire season and resulted in a 24 percent pay cut for the players. A few blocks away, almost 300 N.H.L. players gathered for a meeting and a show of solidarity with Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director. “If indeed they lock out,” Fehr said, “is that reasonably calculated to make a deal more likely or less likely? I think you can figure out the answer.” Bettman and the owners are demanding that players accept 47 percent of league revenue, a reduction from the 57 percent they earn under the expiring agreement. That would amount to a 17 percent pay cut for the players. Fehr and the players have offered to reduce their share of league revenue to between 54 percent and 52 percent. After listening to arguments from both sides during the day, the Quebec Labor Relations Board ruled Friday night against a motion brought by the union and 16 Montreal Canadiens players to block the lockout in the province. While rejecting the players’ motion for an injunction, the board ruled that more hearings were needed before making a final determination. Until then, Canadiens players would be locked out, as players would in the rest of the league. Players from the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames also challenged the lockout in a motion before the Alberta Labor Relations Board. Those hearings are scheduled for next Friday. Doan’s decision to stay with the Coyotes represented confidence in the debt-strapped club, and a bitter disappointment for the Rangers, the Vancouver Canucks and three other teams that made formal contract offers to Doan, a 16-year veteran with 318 career goals. Doan, 35, was with the original Winnipeg Jets when they moved to Arizona in 1996 and has played with the Coyotes ever since, becoming team captain in the 2003-4 season. He stayed with the club through many problems on and off the ice, but reluctantly became a free agent on July 1 when it was unclear whether the Coyotes would find a buyer after three seasons as a ward of the N.H.L. He put off a decision several times until Friday, when he re-signed with the Coyotes after agreeing to a four-year deal worth $21.2 million. Doan had said that he would sign with the Coyotes if the team’s prospective new owner, Greg Jamison, could complete a sale agreement with the city of Glendale. That was unclear on Friday as discussions continued on the city’s proposal to cut $20 million from a 20-year, $300 million arena management fee it previously agreed to pay Jamison. Other N.H.L. teams scrambled to sign players on the next-to-last day before all business would be suspended indefinitely. The Dallas Stars re-signed the veteran goalie Kari Lehtonen to a five-year, $29.5 million extension. That makes Lehtonen, a 28-year-old with two games of playoff experience, the league’s sixth-highest-paid goalie, at almost $6 million a season. The Canucks re-signed forward Alex Burrows, 31, to a four-year contract worth $18 million. The Washington Capitals re-signed defenseman John Carlson, a 22-year-old former first-round pick, to a six-year, $23.8 million deal. The Detroit Red Wings signed the free-agent defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo, 29, to a two-year, $5 million deal and gave forward Justin Abdelkader, 25, a four-year, $7.2 million contract.

Lockouts
Phoenix Coyotes
Doan Shane
National Hockey League
Hockey Ice
National Hockey League Players' Assn
Bettman Gary


Verdasco Takes Clay Title

Abstract: Fernando Verdasco of Spain won the United States Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston for his first ATP Tour title since 2010, beating his countryman Nicolás Almagro, 6-3, 7-6 (4). ■ Alize Cornet of France saved a match point before outlasting Camila Giorgi of Italy, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5, to win the Katowice Open in Poland.

Fernando Verdasco
Tennis
Assn of Tennis Professionals
Nicolas Almagro


News Corp. and NBC in Web Deal

Abstract: In a long-anticipated challenge to YouTube and other online video sites, two big media companies yesterday announced a new venture to showcase their own programming across the Internet’s biggest Web sites, as well as a new jointly owned Web destination. The News Corporation and NBC Universal will distribute their latest video fare, like episodes of “24” and “The Office” on AOL, Yahoo, MSN and MySpace, which together reach about 96 percent of the Internet’s audience in the United States. The content, which will appear in an embedded media player on these Web sites as well as on a new separate video site that News Corporation and NBC Universal will introduce, will be supported by advertising and be free to viewers. Viewers will also be able to edit the content and post their own videos, a popular feature of other online video sites, as well as buy downloads of movies from the 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios. News Corporation and NBC Universal, like other media companies, have had complex and increasingly tense relationships with Google, which owns YouTube. The media companies’ copyrighted material, like television shows and music videos, show up on YouTube without the media companies’ permission. Viacom, which has held discussions on joining the unnamed new venture but so far has not done so, is suing YouTube for $1 billion on the grounds of copyright infringement. While many media joint ventures have fizzled both online and off, the unnamed venture — which some working on the project referred to internally as “Caterpillar” — could represent one of the boldest efforts yet by conventional media companies to try to maintain control over their content and advertising relationships on the freewheeling Web. The idea is to create a “one-stop shop” for advertisers that would give the media companies’ more clout in negotiating to distribute their video material around the Internet. The new company does not yet have a name or a management team but is expected to start operating this summer. Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said that the distribution deals with the major Web destinations underscored that the new venture is not merely a defensive move against YouTube and Google, as some early reports had characterized it. “I totally disagree with that,” Mr. Zucker said in an interview. “What this is doing is taking advantage of the huge marketplace, both on the advertising side and consumer side, for this kind of material.” Peter A. Chernin, the president of the News Corporation, said the new site “has absolutely no resemblance” to YouTube and that Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, is considering licensing the new venture’s fare just as other big Internet players have. A Google spokesman confirmed that Mr. Schmidt spoke with Mr. Chernin yesterday morning by phone but declined to discuss any details about the call. All the advertising in the video programming will be sold by either the media companies themselves or the new Web venture, and shows and clips will be displayed on a video player that will be embedded in sites like MSN and AOL. For the Internet companies who are distributing the shows, it allows them a new way to tap into the surging popularity of Internet video and vie with YouTube for viewers. The impetus for announcing the business now, executives involved said, was the conclusion of deals with AOL, Yahoo, MSN and MySpace. The partners had also spent several months trying to recruit other media companies including Viacom, Walt Disney and CBS to join their start-up. “This was never about speed, this was about getting it right,” Mr. Chernin said in an interview. “It took us this long to get it right.” Carl D. Folta, a Viacom spokesman, said that “a new online video distribution platform that respects copyrights is a welcome addition to the industry.” Mr. Folta declined to comment on whether Viacom would join the venture. Both of the founding companies have vast video assets. In addition to owning the NBC TV network, NBC Universal’s businesses include the cable channels USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Bravo. The News Corporation owns the Fox Television Network and MySpace. Both companies have agreed to make their entertainment content available online only through the new venture or through their existing Web outlets such as NBC.com and Fox.com . Mr. Zucker said NBC would continue to promote NBC.com heavily alongside its programming. Five people familiar with the terms of the new venture — none of whom wanted to be identified because they said the information was confidential — said the new company would get close to 90 percent of the gross revenue from any advertising displayed on a distributor Web site like AOL. The majority of new revenue generated by the new business will go to its media partners. The venture will have its own sale force. But to avoid the appearance of one TV network’s fare getting more attention, marketers looking to advertise there will not be able to buy advertising based on individual shows or networks, but rather according to genre or demographic data. At the same time, NBC or Fox can reclaim and sell the advertising inventory of any show it is distributing online by buying it back from the new company at a discount. “Everything they’ve promised sounds great,” said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research. “But file this in the category of easier said than done. This is going to be a huge undertaking to pull off. The site has to be amazing, fun to use, well branded. It’s not something you can pull together in a couple of months.” Because its content is coming from only two companies initially, this venture could invite comparisons to some earlier ill-starred attempts by media companies to compete online. For example, in 1999 Universal Music and Bertelsmann teamed up to start a site called GetMusic.com to compete with the popular file-sharing site Napster. That venture, like others, did not survive even though Napster’s faded under legal pressure, because it did not offer a wide enough selection of programming to excite consumers. The new video venture is different in several respects, however. For one, it is advertising-supported and represents a new, centralized way for the television networks to try extend their relationships with marketers online, where video is the fastest-growing category of advertising. The companies’ said initial advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Royal Caribbean, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors. Jessica Reif Cohen, the media analyst at Merrill Lynch, said the new venture could provide “more significant reach than advertisers have previously been able to obtain online” for video. Starz Sues Disney Over Film Sales LOS ANGELES, March 22 — Starz Entertainment, a unit of Liberty Media, wants to block Walt Disney from selling movies over the Internet while those films are showing on Starz cable and Web services. Starz filed suit Thursday in United States District Court for the Central District of California alleging that the sale of movies through Apple’s iTunes store and elsewhere violates a promise to license those films to Starz exclusively for a set period. Starz contends it has paid Disney more than $1 billion for exclusive rights to show Disney films during blocks of time after the movies leave theaters. The lawsuit claims the contract prevents Disney from selling films on the Internet before they appear on Starz services, like the Starz and Encore video-on-demand movie channels or its online service, Vongo. The lawsuit, against Disney’s Buena Vista unit, was filed after months of talks failed to produce a solution, Starz said. “We believe Starz misreads its agreement with Buena Vista Television and that its claim is without merit,” a Disney spokeswoman, Kim Harbin, said in a statement. “BVT retained and has the right to sell its motion pictures in a wide range of mediums.”

National Broadcasting Co
News Corporation Limited
YouTube.com
Computers and the Internet
Recordings and Downloads (Video)


Clint Dempsey Replaced as U.S. National Team Captain

Abstract: Michael Bradley will be the United States national soccer team’s captain during the Concacaf Gold Cup this month, taking over the role from Clint Dempsey in further fallout from Dempsey’s confrontation with a referee last month. Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach of the United States team, announced the change Wednesday, saying he had made it to “let Clint focus on what he’s all about.” Dempsey has been barred by Major League Soccer ( for three games ) and the United States Open Cup ( for two years ) for an incident in a match on June 16. Dempsey, playing for his club, the Seattle Sounders, in the Open Cup, confronted the referee late in a contentious game against the Portland Timbers. Upset about a call, Dempsey knocked the referee’s notebook from his hand, picked it up and tore it to pieces . Dempsey received a red card for his actions and later apologized . But Klinsmann issued another punishment, stripping him of the captain status he had held since 2013 . Image Clint Dempsey, left, tore up the referee's notebook during a game in the Open Cup. Credit Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press “I had a very, very good conversation with Clint about what happened during the Open Cup, but also about how we want to approach things,” Klinsmann said in an interview posted on ussoccer.com . “For the time being, we thought it’s the best thing to give the captaincy to Michael Bradley and let Clint focus on what he’s all about.” Klinsmann said that he met with Dempsey this week after he reported to national team camp and that he decided not to suspend Dempsey from the team and bar him from playing in its busy schedule of matches this month. “Clint is about scoring goals,” Klinsmann said. “We need Clint Dempsey badly with the national team. We need him in a good spirit.” He added, “The best thing for everyone right now is to let him concentrate really on playing and doing what he does best.” It is unclear if Dempsey will regain the captaincy after the Gold Cup. The Americans open the Gold Cup, the regional championship tournament, on Tuesday against Honduras in Frisco, Tex.

Clint Dempsey
Michael Bradley
Soccer
Jurgen Klinsmann
US Men's Soccer Team


Moore Signs With Lynx

Abstract: The Minnesota Lynx signed Maya Moore, the former Connecticut star who was the first pick in the W.N.B.A. draft on Monday. Terms were not disclosed. Her first action with the Lynx will come on May 24. Moore was also named the winner of the Honda Sports Award as the top woman in college basketball for the second year in a row.

Minnesota Lynx
Basketball
Moore Maya
Women's National Basketball Assn
University of Connecticut
Draft and Recruitment (Sports)


Sarkozy Vows to Aid France’s Immigrant Suburbs

Abstract: PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Friday to tackle the problems of the nation’s immigrant suburbs, vowing to send in 4,000 more police officers and aid for neighborhoods that have struggled with despair, violence and riots. He pledged to begin the “de-ghettoization” of such neighborhoods with a busing plan to move children out of underperforming, segregated schools. He also announced a job-training program for 100,000 youths and “second chance” schools for young adults without diplomas. But Mr. Sarkozy also threatened a new battle against drug traffickers, who he said were “poisoning the lives of the neighborhoods.” France ’s national postal service announced that it would stop delivering mail to some suburban neighborhoods because its employees had faced attacks on their routes. Mr. Sarkozy, whose approval ratings have plunged since his election last year, is seeking to deliver on a campaign pledge to create a “Marshall Plan” to revive the suburbs, where seething anger about discrimination and unemployment exploded across France in car burnings and clashes with the police in 2005 and last year.

France
Suburbs
Unemployment
Immigration and Refugees
Demonstrations and Riots
Sarkozy Nicolas


Stranded Travelers in Europe Get Some Relief

Abstract: LONDON — Conditions improved on Wednesday at delay-plagued Heathrow Airport, where about 70 percent of the scheduled flights were operating after days of weather-related chaos. Still, no one was allowed to enter the airport without a ticket on a confirmed flight, and hundreds of people were left outside in the cold. A spokesman for BAA, which owns and operates the airport , said the company hoped to be able to return to a normal schedule at Heathrow on Thursday in order to “get people back home for Christmas.” Other transportation hubs in Europe also took advantage of the brief respite in the snow to try to thin the huge crowds of passengers who had been stranded. But transportation officials warned that there was more snow to come, and that it might be some time before they could restore full service or even get all airplanes in the right places. Every day that service is curtailed, the number of stranded passengers grows. BAA has been criticized — by passengers, by unions, by the mayor of London — for being unprepared and then for responding slowly to the storm, which during a single hour on Saturday dumped five inches of snow at Heathrow. On Wednesday, BAA’s chief executive, Colin Matthews, said that he accepted full responsibility for the airport’s problems and that he would give up his bonus this year. “We’ve had unacceptable conditions for passengers in the past few days,” he told the BBC. Last year, Mr. Matthews received salary, bonuses and shares that would be worth about $1.5 million today. In an interview with Sky News, Mr. Matthews also said that BAA “will need to purchase new equipment, and we will need to do it quickly.” He added, “We have to assume that we’ll have weather like this in the future.” The Eurostar rail service, which also suffered major disruptions because of the freezing weather, was operating most of its trains on Wednesday, although delays were reported. But national train lines in Britain were not doing as well, delaying and canceling departures on the east coast and into Scotland. Transportation in Western Europe has been virtually paralyzed this week, the busiest travel period of the year. In France, the possibility of more bad weather threatened the authorities’ attempt to restore normal air and rail service. Météo-France, the French weather service, issued a winter storm advisory, warning that a new snowstorm would hit the northern part of the country on Wednesday evening. Its British counterpart, the Met Office , also issued severe weather warnings and said that a storm bearing ice and snow was likely to develop in the north before moving south. The temperature fell below freezing in parts of Scotland on Tuesday night and was expected to drop around the country over the next several days.

Europe
Weather
Snow and Snowstorms
Airlines and Airplanes


ISIS Militants Stone an Iraqi Couple Accused of Adultery

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants in Iraq on Tuesday publicly stoned a man and woman to death on charges of adultery, parading the victims in a public square in the northern city of Mosul, according to witnesses and an Iraqi military official. Later in the day, the militants publicly beheaded three young men on a street in central Mosul, accusing them of being the nephews of a political opponent of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. They were the latest in a series of public executions of people accused of social offenses in the city, which the militants wrested from Iraqi control last June. The stoning victims, who were not identified, were in their 20s, witnesses said. The woman was described as being married. It was not known whether they had been given a trial, but none was held in public. Abu Mohammad al-Lahibi, who runs a clothing store in Mosul, said he had seen the militants gathering several hundred residents in front of the government building in Mosul to witness the execution. The couple were handcuffed, and the woman was wearing a niqab, or full face veil. Video ISIS massacred hundreds of Iraqi military recruits in June 2014. Ali Hussein Kadhim survived. This is his improbable story. [Includes graphic images.] Credit Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times “Twelve ISIS militants were standing there who had bags with them filled with stones, and they began throwing the stones at them, and after the third stone the woman was killed,” Mr. Lahibi said. The man died a short while later, he said. Another witness said he had tried to record video of the execution on his cellphone but was ordered by the militants not to do so. “I was moved by the crying of this woman, who started bleeding and then died from the stoning,” said the witness, Saad, who gave only his first name out of concern for his safety. “I was standing there helpless. The government has left us as captives in the hands of ISIS, who make all kinds of crimes in the city. The more I see their crimes, the more I hate them and realize they have come to carry out a paid agenda to destroy the city and its history and civilization and to defame the image of Islam.” As she concluded a three-day trip to Iraq on Tuesday, Catherine Russell, the Obama administration’s ambassador on women’s issues, said in a telephone interview: “It is truly horrifying. ISIL is just trying to suppress and subjugate women and doing so through sheer brutality and terror.” Ms. Russell related being told by women’s representatives from Mosul that the militants went door to door “looking for girls to marry and boys to be fighters.” The stoning was confirmed by an Iraqi military officer, Col. Ahmed al-Jiboori, who is stationed at the Nineveh Liberation Camp east of Mosul. Colonel Jiboori also said that Kurdish pesh merga fighters in the area stopped an Islamic State attack east of the city, on Bashiqa Mountain, on Tuesday, killing 11 militants. Local residents said there had been more than a dozen executions by stoning since the militants began the practice in Mosul in August. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. The three men who were beheaded on Tuesday were described by witnesses as being in their late 20s. After a rumor got out that their uncle had met with the Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, ISIS militants came to the uncle’s home and took the three young men to a public street where they were killed. Such attacks have led some Mosul residents to express urgency for an Iraqi government campaign to retake the city. But the progress of a pro-government offensive against ISIS has been slow, with the main force stuck around the city of Tikrit, south of Mosul, for four weeks. The government announced last week that it was on the verge of capturing Tikrit from the militants , but it more recently said that it was consolidating its forces around the city to minimize casualties, as the militants hold out in the center. Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and Shiite-dominated militias were involved in the effort against militants in Tikrit, who are believed to number in the hundreds or low thousands. On March 12, Iraqi officials announced that they were within days of completely subduing Tikrit and were doing so without help from the American-led coalition. When that did not happen, however, some said the lack of coalition airstrikes was to blame. Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the Iraqi military commander in Salahuddin Province, said that he had requested coalition airstrikes but that they had not come. Earlier, American officials had said that Iraqi officials had not requested help. On Sunday, Hadi al-Ameri, the head of Iraq’s popular mobilization forces, as the Shiite-dominated militias are known, reacted contemptuously to such concerns. “Some of the weaklings in the army say that we need the Americans, but we say we do not need the Americans,” he said. In remarks on Tuesday, General Saadi said he wanted to see Iraqi airstrikes, but did not mention coalition ones. “We are taking the necessary steps to protect our forces, and the tribes will hold the ground after we liberate the territory,” he said on Iraqi television, explaining the delay in subduing Tikrit.

Iraq
Adultery
Mosul
Tikrit
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State


Plaintiffs Plan to Continue Pursuing Wal-Mart Cases

Abstract: Wal-Mart has spent 10 years fighting claims that it discriminated against female employees, and by many accounts, it has improved its hiring and promotion policies for women during those years. Monday’s Supreme Court victory for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, may not mean the end to litigation over discrimination claims, however. Even though the company says it has substantially increased the percentages of women in managerial positions, the plaintiffs in the longstanding case said the company should expect several more years of challenges to its employment practices. The Supreme Court decision said that up to 1.5 million women who worked at Wal-Mart did not have enough in common to constitute a class in a class-action suit. The decision did not address whether Wal-Mart had discriminated against women, which plaintiffs contend leaves the door open for further litigation. Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff, said in a call with reporters that “even though we didn’t get the ruling that we had hoped for, we still are determined to move forward and to present our case in court.” Joseph M. Sellers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he would pursue three routes: filing individual claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; slicing the giant class-action lawsuit into smaller ones that would have a better chance of advancement; and pursuing individual discrimination cases. “Instead of one case, this case will be splintered into many pieces,” he said in a call with reporters. Wal-Mart’s lawyers disputed Mr. Sellers’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling, but the plaintiffs’ counsel had already been studying how to pursue smaller cases. “One of the things we started a while ago doing is preparing and evaluating for a number of women filing charges with the E.E.O.C., probably individual charges, though some of them may be framed a little bit more broadly,” Mr. Sellers said in an interview. He plans to begin filing claims within one to two months, and might file up to several thousand of them, he added. Mr. Sellers also said that although the justices had ruled that women who worked at Wal-Mart nationwide did not have enough in common to bring a class-action suit, “we read the decision by the majority as indicating that there may be the possibility of some smaller, more narrowly framed classes that could be pursued.” “So we could end up with some cases framed store by store, or region by region,” he said. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are still seeking complaints from female Wal-Mart employees who have been denied equal pay or promotion, via a Web site, WalmartClass.com . Brad Seligman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that more than 12,000 women had contacted the lawyers during the course of the suit, and that “I expect, after today, thousands more.” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for Wal-Mart, said he interpreted the Supreme Court decision as prohibiting even smaller class-action suits to proceed. “Under today’s ruling, the way we read it, no class can be certified in this case,” Mr. Boutrous said in a call with reporters. “I don’t think it leaves the plaintiffs any running room for any class actions of any size.” Kevin M. McGinty, a lawyer who specializes in class-action suits at the firm Mintz Levin and was not involved in the case, said that the plaintiffs could bring class actions based on smaller groups of people. But, he said, it would not be easy to prove that managers treated all members of even a narrowly defined class consistently. “The problem is, you still have a lot of very individualized questions concerning specific employees, like was someone terminated because she was a bad employee, or because she was a woman?” he said. “Answering those questions is hard to do without getting into the specific cases of the individual employees.” Whether or not other class-action suits are created, both sides said they expected individual sex-discrimination claims to be taken to court. “The named plaintiffs would retain their claims and their ability to move forward in the action,” Mr. Boutrous said. “We’ve always believed we have very strong arguments in response to their claims.” Wal-Mart said Monday that it had long been aggressive about hiring and training women. Gisel Ruiz, executive vice president in charge of people at Wal-Mart U.S., said that “we’ve had women’s initiatives in place a very long time.” In 2010, Ms. Ruiz said, 57 percent of Wal-Mart employees were female. From 2005 to 2010, the company increased the percentage of female low-level and midlevel managers (like assistant managers and store managers) to 41.2 percent, from 38.8 percent. From 2007 to 2010, the percentage of female executives increased to 28.2 percent, from 26.7 percent. She also said that Wal-Mart had put training and development programs for women into place. In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that in earlier complaints, plaintiffs had noted that women made up 70 percent of hourly employees, but just a third of management employees. Ms. Dukes and Christine Kwapnoski, another plaintiff and an employee at the Sam’s Club division of Wal-Mart, said working conditions had improved at the company. Ms. Dukes said, for example, that after the lawsuit was filed in 2001, her store started posting policies about discrimination, and started explaining to employees how they could get promotions. “I have seen quite a few changes being made in the last 10 years,” Ms. Dukes said. “We have seen change,” Ms. Kwapnoski said. “It’s still just a Band-Aid, though.” Of 15 women working for Wal-Mart stores in New Jersey who were interviewed on Monday, some said that they had seen little change in recent years, while others said there was little difference in the treatment of men and women. “There are more women managers here than men,” said an employee named Ann at a Wal-Mart in Kearny. She declined to give her last name for fear of retribution; she and other employees said they had been warned not to speak to news media. Four of the employees said that while they saw no difference in pay, opportunities for advancement or working conditions between men and women, they did believe that managers picked favorites, though those favorites were not based on gender. A few Wal-Mart shoppers interviewed on Monday said they disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision. Evelyn Rosario, an assistant teacher from Hoboken who was shopping at a store in Secaucus, N.J., said she knew about the lawsuit, but shopped at Wal-Mart anyway. “I feel bad for those women, but Wal-Mart does have good deals,” she said. “They make it hard not to shop here.” Esther Dillard, 42, a homemaker from Cliffside Park who was shopping at a Wal-Mart store in North Bergen, N.J., said that the lawsuit had affected her patronage of the store. “I don’t shop here as often as I otherwise would,” she said. “I decided that if there was an inequality situation, I wouldn’t want to shop at the store as often.”

Discrimination
Supreme Court
Shopping and Retail
Decisions and Verdicts
Wal-Mart Stores Inc


Obama Praises American Athletes

Abstract: President Obama gathered Team USA at the White House to hail the Olympians and Paralympians as conquering heroes. “We could not be prouder of you,” he told more than 400 athletes gathered on the South Lawn. “You gave us a summer that we will never forget.” The Americans took home 104 medals for their biggest haul at an Olympics not held in the United States.

United States
Olympic Games
Paralympic Games
Obama Barack
Olympic Games (2012)


Gulf States Cast Dim Eye on Reform After Tumult

Abstract: ABU DHABI — Governments in the Gulf Arab states may not have been overthrown by revolutionary forces, but there are signs that leaders are concerned about the power of the Arab Spring movement. The latest indication of unease is the abrupt expulsion from the United Arab Emirates of foreign-sponsored groups that promote political reform. In March, the authorities expelled the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, a German foundation that provides civic and political education. The U.A.E. also showed the door to the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-based pro-democracy organization, and the Abu Dhabi branch of the American polling group Gallup. The move against the Adenauer group, which is close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party, is likely to prove particularly awkward because a European parliamentary group will shortly arrive in the U.A.E. on a previously scheduled visit and promises to raise the matter with the authorities. The Adenauer group was an administrator of a €2.1 million, or $2.75 million, grant given by the European Commission with the intent to foster cultural, trade and research exchanges between Europe and the Gulf states. Now the question is how the exchange can take place given the crackdown on free speech. “We have to clearly state on behalf of the E.U. that this is not the right way tomove forward,” said Angelika Niebler, a German member of the European Parliament. “N.G.O.’s should be accommodated, not fought against. That will be the message.” The U.A.E. says these organizations breached the agreements under which they were permitted to work. “Some foreign institutions that were operating in the U.A.E. have violated the terms of the license,” Abdul Rahim al Awadhi, assistant foreign minister for legal affairs for the Emirates, said following the closures, according to state media. In recent months the U.A.E. has displayed a new vigilance about potential sources of dissent. The Emirates did not see regime change or even the political turmoil witnessed in nearby Bahrain. Yet the authorities do not seem to want to take any chances. The U.A.E. may be following the example of the Egyptian authorities who have cracked down hard on groups from the West that engaged in activities like promoting democracy and providing media training. Though the raids generated international outrage, the United States government has not cut aid to Egypt. “The momentum is shifting. The Arab regimes are emboldened,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. “They look at what Egypt did and are encouraged by it.” The authorities in the U.A.E. first targeted domestic organizations. A year ago, the boards of several professional associations were disbanded, including the Jurists Association, an influential lawyers’ group. A few months later, the U.A.E. also refused to renew the license of the Gulf Research Center, an organization that sponsored social science research and held conferences. The center, which had been headquartered in Dubai for 10 years, closed those offices and shifted most of its operations to Geneva in June 2011. At about the same time, five Emirati citizens were arrested for insulting the country’s royal family and threatening state security. Last November, the men were sentenced to three-year prison terms but were pardoned days later. Then, late last year, the government announced the revocation of the citizenship of seven Emiratis, who are all members of Al Islah, or Reform, an Islamist group. They are fighting the move in court. The Konrad Adenauer foundation, which had been invited by Abu Dhabi to open its office here in late 2008, will eventually find another foothold elsewhere in the Gulf, perhaps in Qatar. Belabbes Benkredda founded Dubai Debates just over a year ago, intending for it to be a platform for discussing the most important issues facing the Arab world today. Funded by groups such as KAS and Vital Voices, he held discussions on a range of topics, including the future of energy in the Gulf. But today Mr. Benkredda has decided to indefinitely suspend Dubai Debates and turn his efforts to creating a sister organization called Munathara, the Arabic word for debate, in Tunis. A post-Arab Spring Tunisia has created a hospitable legal environment for nongovernmental organizations, one very different from that in the U.A.E. today, he said. Mr. Benkredda said he had lined up another sponsor, Freedom House, another U.S.-based pro-democracy group. Munathara’s first event is planned for June 27 in Tunis. The topic is “Free Expression in the Arab World.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


U.S.-European Trade Talks Inch Ahead Amid Flurry of Corporate Wish Lists

Abstract: LONDON — Yum Brands , the owner of KFC, wants cheaper chicken wings, rumps and other assorted poultry parts. Ocean Spray wants an easing of pesticide regulations. DuPont wants greater protection of trade secrets. Negotiations have barely begun for a potentially sweeping trade pact between the United States and Europe. But the lobbying is already well under way by corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. And the sometimes parochial nature of their demands is sure to further complicate the trade talks, which no one expects to proceed quickly or smoothly, given the geopolitics involved. Companies from an array of industries have made their wish lists known, according to a review of their public filings, as well as documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act in the United States. The comments from European companies include one from the Italian carmaker Ferrari urging the American government to drop customs duties on cars and parts, while DHL , the German shipping company, wants airlines to be able to bid on public-sector shipping contracts, regardless of their nationality. The records provide windows onto how companies hope to shape the talks, and how barriers on both sides of the Atlantic have hindered business — or protected the public, depending on the perspective. But the filings also show how high the hurdles might be to reaching a deal by the negotiators’ self-imposed deadline at the end of next year, at least one of any substance. The next negotiating session is set for early October in Brussels. “Generally everybody is very excited by the promise of these talks,” said Robert Mack, a Brussels-based executive who is the head of the public affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller, the public relations and lobbying giant. “In a context of economic recession or slow growth, these talks represent a good way to create some drivers of growth.” Then again, he added, “when you get down into the issues, everything gets a little more complicated.” The deal, if an agreement is reached, would apply to nearly a billion people who live in the combined markets and make it easier for products to be traded between Europe and the United States, as they would presumably have to pass only one regulatory test instead of two. The negotiations could also become de facto global standards, given the size of the combined trans-Atlantic market. The United States and the European Union are already the world’s two largest trading partners, with $2.6 billion in goods and services exchanged daily, according to a European estimate. “It will be one of the greatest boons to economic development on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Stuart E. Eizenstat, a former senior trade official at the Commerce Department, who now works as a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, which has American and European corporate clients that are closely following the trade negotiations. “What is clear is that it will touch everyone in one way or another — their jobs, their health, their safety.” That said, an overriding fear in Europe is that the talks are a far lower priority for the United States, especially for an Obama administration that is already enmeshed in Asian trade talks. “Both American and European companies think this is still a negotiation that is considerably more important for the European political interests,” said Jacob Lund Nielsen, a partner and co-founder of cabinet DN, one of the largest lobbying firms in Brussels, the seat of European Union power. When corporate delegations trudge up to Capitol Hill in Washington, Mr. Nielsen said, it is “very hard to engage lawmakers on this issue, which makes it more difficult to have controversial or substantial talks.” L. Daniel Mullaney, the chief American negotiator, was more upbeat. “I see a lot of enthusiasm on our side for this agreement,” he said. “President Obama himself made it part of his State of the Union address announcing that he is interested in this, and he was there in Northern Ireland at the end of our consultation period” to make a joint announcement with top European officials. A few general trends emerge from the hundreds of comments sent to regulators in Washington and Brussels over the last year. Many companies are seeking greater harmonization in regulations coming out of Washington and Brussels, as well as lower tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic. Europe’s continuing privacy debate is also encompassed in the negotiations, with issues like the security of cloud computing coming to the fore. Those concerns have been made even thornier by Edward J. Snowden’s leaks about spying in Europe by the National Security Agency. The chemicals giant DuPont cited another issue, one that is a concern to many American companies: bringing to Europe the kind of protection of trade secrets that is enshrined in American law. “At the present time, there is no E.U. unfair competition legislation providing for protection against trade secret theft, nor is there an E.U. law to prevent infringing products from entering the market,” Barry M. Granger, a DuPont vice president, wrote in a Washington filing. “The poor quality, or even absence, of trade secret protection in some E.U. member states is problematic for DuPont,” he wrote, adding that the company does not sell certain technologies in Europe as a result. The concerns of individual companies can seem very narrow. Yum Brands, the Kentucky-based operator of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell, owns 2,200 restaurants in Europe. The company has presented the American trade representative’s office with a list of 20 different regulations of poultry, beef and cheese, as well as restaurant equipment, that Yum says set off problematic European tariffs. “Eliminating these tariffs would allow Yum to annually import several million dollars of products from U.S. producers for its restaurants in E.U.,” Ann Grappin, Yum’s senior manager of global trade policy, wrote in a letter to the American trade representative this year. Raw frozen chicken, including “backs with necks attached, rumps and wing tips,” have a tariff of 18.7 euros per 100 kilograms, or $25 per 220 pounds, the filing said. Rumps are defined in European regulations as the tail of the chicken. One of the most contentious proposals from some corporations is the adoption of a dispute appeals system known as “ investor-state resolution ” that would allow businesses to file legal challenges if they believed their rights were being violated — as when a new European regulation might be adopted governing food safety or how private consumer data is used by Internet-based companies. The idea is being pushed by the European Union itself , and by American companies like Chevron, which said in its filing that the company’s “ability to do business globally” depended on “strong mechanisms for resolving disputes.” Others are skeptical. “This leverage, if granted, will be used by companies to prevent legislation they don’t want,” said Joe McNamee, executive director of European Digital Rights. “Why on earth would they not use this? The E.U. has nothing to gain out of such agreement.” Some companies see the talks as an opportunity to pick and choose the most favorable regulations among the varying rules on either side of the Atlantic — whether in food, pharmaceuticals or farming. They also provide corporations a greater role in the writing of new trans-Atlantic regulations, a notion that makes consumer groups queasy. Lori Wallach, a director of Public Citizen, an advocacy group that is closely monitoring the talks, said that she was not surprised the companies were turning to the trade negotiations to move their agendas, but that there should be no doubt about what they were trying to deliver. “What they consider trade irritants, we consider the most important consumer, health, environmental, privacy, financial stability safeguards on either side of the Atlantic,” she said. “This is an effort to achieve through trade what that they could not achieve through democratic processes domestically.” The fruit-growing cooperative Ocean Spray expressed concern in its filing about the difficulty of complying with European regulations on pesticide residue. In Europe, the company explains, maximum pesticide residue levels for cranberries “are set at levels significantly more restrictive than U.S. levels.” Companies including Yum also echoed American frustrations over European rules barring the use of chemicals to reduce microbes on poultry, an issue that has already led to a trans-Atlantic trade dispute . What is clear is that a broad American-European agreement, if it comes to pass, could have ramifications worldwide. “There is a global competition for regulatory prevalence,” said Thomas Tindemans, the chief executive of Hill & Knowlton Strategies in Brussels. “The Europeans and the Americans have been racing against each other to adopt legislation or regulations for their market, which as a result forces or inspires third countries — Japan, China, Russia, Brazil and others” — to adapt to those rules. “If there were to be an E.U.-U.S. agreement,” he added, “it would, de facto, set global standards.”

Europe
Yum Brands
Lobbying
International trade
US Economy
EU
US


Phish Fans Encounter Crackdown at Garden

Abstract: The arrests began almost as soon as the concertgoers amassed outside Madison Square Garden on Monday evening. Uniformed and plainclothes police officers moved through the crowd, picking off targets and leading them to a police van parked around the corner where they were patted down and loaded in. A man, briefly questioned by the police, tried to run and was quickly grabbed by two officers who threw him to the ground and slapped on handcuffs, as fans in dreadlocks, fishnet stockings and tie-dyed shirts looked on. It was the start of another night of revelry and arrests that has become something of a ritual within the traveling circus that accompanies the jam band Phish. At least 228 people were arrested or received summonses at shows on the first three nights of a four-night stand that was to end Tuesday with a New Year’s Eve performance and undoubtedly more arrests. Illegal drugs have been woven into the fabric of the rock concert experience since before Woodstock. But fans of Phish, a Vermont band with an obsessed following reminiscent of the Grateful Dead, seem to have developed an outsize reputation among law enforcement agencies for heavy drug use. In New York, the police have reason to be vigilant. Exactly four months ago, the authorities were forced to cancel the last day of Electric Zoo, a Labor Day electronic music festival on Randalls Island, after two concertgoers died and four became seriously ill after taking ecstasy. Given the enormous police presence in Midtown Manhattan on a typical day, selling drugs outside a packed, heavily policed public event like a concert at Madison Square Garden would seem to require a heavy dose of pluck, if not something more potent. At least some of those arrested seemed to be aware of the danger. In one episode before the Phish concert on Saturday, a man the police identified as John Picrqlisi, 34, offered to keep watch as his partners, Steven Powers, 47, and Jeffrey Powers, 52, sold some mushrooms on the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, according to a criminal complaint. “Make sure you don’t get caught, cops are everywhere,” Mr. Picrqlisi yelled, according to the complaint. The buyer, who paid $40 for the drugs, was an undercover officer. The three men were arrested and charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance. According to the complaint, Jeffrey Powers had 424 capsules of MDMA, 71 strips of LSD and 14 bags of mushrooms in his pants. Image “We’re all here to see music that people love and the drugs and all that are just a part of the experience that everyone is trying to have together.” JULIA JOHNSON , a senior at George Washington University. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times While ticket scalping and public urination accounted for some of the arrests over the first two days, most were linked to narcotics possession and sales. Undercover officers have confiscated marijuana, hash, psychedelic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA or ecstasy, amphetamine and prescription drugs like Oxycodone, OxyContin and Xanax, among other drugs, the authorities said. Most of the offenders were charged with misdemeanors or given summonses, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. So far, 10 people have been charged with felonies, most of them for attempting to sell drugs to undercover police officers. A website called PholkTales.com that publishes stories written by fans about Phish-related antics has a subsection about encounters with law enforcement with titles like “Caught with a Bong,” “What Pipes? What Paper?,” and “I smell herb!! No you don’t.” Over 40 people were arrested on charges of drugs and prostitution at three Phish shows in Atlantic City from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, according to news reports. Over 30 people were arrested at two Phish concerts on Long Island last year. In October, the police department in Hampton, Va., produced a YouTube video welcoming fans to the city, with an officer saying that the police department was “eagerly awaiting Phish,” while cautioning that there would be additional police in the area. “Yes, we will be enforcing the violations of law,” Sgt. Jason Price said in the video. Outside the Garden on Monday, fans of the band, known as Phish Heads, complained that they were being singled out for scrutiny because of the band’s reputation, though few denied that drug use at concerts was common. “I hate to feel like just because of a certain look that Phish fans have, or a certain idea that goes with Phish, they’re targeted in a very certain way that maybe other fans are not,” said Julia Johnson, 21, a senior at George Washington University. “We’re all here to see music that people love, and the drugs and all that are just a part of the experience that everyone is trying to have together.” Phish fans handed out a 39-page pamphlet, which included a guide to hotels and restaurants in New York City, as well as addresses for local Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. A paragraph titled “Puff Puff,” reminded concertgoers that “25 grams or less of weed” is a violation with no jail time as long as it is not a user’s third offense. The pamphlet also included an editorial plea to stage next year’s New Year’s Eve concert somewhere other than Madison Square Garden, where the band has played each year since 2010. “How about visiting some other great Northeast venues?” the pamphlet said. “You know the ones that have affordable accommodations, easy transportation, and where Our Community is thoroughly welcomed by the Local Community?”

Madison Square Garden
New Year
Music
Drug Abuse
Ecstasy,MDMA,Molly


Man Charged in Fatal Brooklyn Hit-and-Run

Abstract: The suspect in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 12-year-old girl in Brooklyn turned himself in on Thursday and was arrested on 13 charges, including manslaughter, auto theft and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident. Police officials suspect the man, Robert Decarlo, 26, was driving a stolen 2005 Dodge Caravan minivan that jumped the sidewalk on the north side of Flatlands Avenue around 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday, plowing into the 12-year-old, her 9-year-old sister and their mother. After the crash, which occurred near East 46th Street, the driver fled on foot. The sister remained in critical condition, and their mother was in stable condition, a relative of the victims said. The relative said that the 12-year-old, Joie Sellers, and her mother, who is 38, had walked to the bus stop a block from their home to pick up Joie’s sister, Charli, who was on her way home from summer camp on Long Island. The three had just been reunited when the minivan, which had been speeding west on Flatlands Avenue, jumped the curb and hit them, the relative, Roland Pierre, said. The three were taken to Kings County Hospital, where Joie was pronounced dead. Mr. Pierre, who is the mother’s cousin, said Charli had been transferred to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in Manhattan. He said she was still unconscious and did not know what had happened. Image Robert Decarlo Credit New York Police Department “The bus dropped her off, they was walking home, and then, boom,” Mr. Pierre said. “It’s terrible,” he added. He described Joie as a creative girl who loved to dance and paint. “Her sister just followed in her footsteps, and now she’s dead,” Mr. Pierre said. At the bus stop on Thursday afternoon, mourners left teddy bears, flowers and a balloon that showed Disney princesses. Kalifa Johnson, 21, said she had been in her mother’s second-floor apartment on the north side of Flatlands when she heard a crash and ran to her front porch. She saw below her that the van had leapt the curb, rolled over a fire hydrant, torn down a section of chain link fence and smashed against her mother’s parked minivan. It rested on its side. Onlookers rushed to help the victims, and five men lifted the mangled van. The driver, meanwhile, had clambered out of a sky-facing window, stood and gaped at the three bodies for about 30 seconds, then taken off running, according to one witness, Mitch Guejuste. “I thought he was going to help so I paid him no mind and concentrated on the people on the floor,” Mr. Guejuste said. “Then someone yelled: ‘He’s getting away! Chase him!' ”

Brooklyn
Joie Sellers
Hit and Run
Murders
Car Crash
Cars
NYC
Robbery
NYPD


Protesters in Thailand Defy Government Orders to Disperse

Abstract: BANGKOK — Convoys of anti-government protesters coursed through Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon as thousands more demonstrators remained in the commercial heart of the city, where they continued to defy government orders to disperse. Crowds of protesters steadily pushed back lines of unarmed soldiers in an effort to make their way into the important commercial and tourist district of Sukhumvit in the central part of the capital. It was nearly a festive atmosphere, with the protesters, known as red shirts, hugging and shaking hands with smiling soldiers. “There’s no need to be afraid,” an army officer told the crowds through a bullhorn. He then handed the bullhorn to a protest leader who shouted to the soldiers, “Join us!” It was a scene of some camaraderie, and in recent days there has been talk in the capital of “watermelon soldiers” — green on the outside, red on the inside. But there have been political and economic consequences to the ongoing protests as well. Many shopping malls were closed for a third day, and 43 bank branches in Bangkok were shut as the economic toll of the protests rose. On the outskirts of Bangkok, protesters broke into the Election Commission building on Monday, demanding the acceleration of an investigation into charges that a large Thai company made a multimillion-dollar payment to the governing Democrat Party. The group left after securing an agreement that results would be released on April 20, more than a week earlier than scheduled. Protest leaders have kept the city on edge for the past three weeks with unpredictable processions of motorcycles and pickup trucks. They say they want to highlight double standards that benefit the elite at the expense of the poor. So far, the government has not used force against the protesters. On Monday, it sought a court order to make protesters leave the commercial area and prevent them from entering other busy neighborhoods in Bangkok. The court turned down the order, however, saying the government already had such power under the Internal Security Act, which the government has invoked. The protests stem from a 2006 military coup that removed Thaksin Shinawatra , a tycoon turned prime minister, after which the political party he led and a successor party were dissolved by the courts. Mr. Thaksin, who is overseas and has been sentenced in absentia on corruption charges, is still very popular in rural areas. In theory, the Democrat Party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva could itself face dissolution if it is found guilty of accepting the illegal donation. Protesters describe it as a test case for the fairness of the system. Publicly, the protest leaders, who claim to represent the prai, or lower-class Thais, are maintaining a hard line, demanding that Mr. Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call new elections. “It is necessary for us to stage a fight this way,” Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, was quoted as saying in the Thai news media. “The current situation is too severe to be treated with painkillers. It has reached a state where surgery is required.”

Thailand
Democratic Party
Thaksin Shinawatra
Abhisit Vejjajiva
Demonstrations and Riots
Bangkok (Thailand)


A Deluge of New Summer Programs Has TV Marketers Scrambling

Abstract: FOR the marketing executives whose job it is to round up eyeballs to watch television, the summer is turning out to be hazy, crazy, anything but lazy. A deluge of original programming is replacing many of the reruns that typically dominate schedules this time of year, offering viewers perhaps the most new summertime series since the early decades of the medium, when so-called summer replacement shows filled in for 13 weeks when the networks’ premier programs finished their seasons and went on vacation. By one count, broadcast networks and cable channels are introducing 88 shows from late May, when the 2013-14 season ended, through late September, when the 2014-15 season will begin. Add the new series on websites like Hulu and YouTube, along with new episodes of streaming video series like “ Orange Is the New Black ” on Netflix, and “the choices are bountiful,” said Marc Berman, editor in chief of TV Media Insights. “That once-proverbial ‘Gone fishing’ sign in the summer is now a memory.” “The growing trend of programming on a year-round basis” not only produces “larger tune-in” in the summer, which benefits advertisers, he added, it also “translates into a stronger promotional platform for the fall,” when the television season starts again. Image Showtime is running ads for "Masters of Sex" that are styled like a racy magazine from the 1950s. Credit Frank W. Ockenfels 3/Showtime The need to find viewers for all that fresh summer fare is generating a flood of advertising campaigns, in traditional media as well as in newer realms like social media. “It’s challenging in a culture with a lot of noise to get attention,” said Don Buckley, executive vice president for program marketing and digital services at Showtime Networks. “You have to find unique ways to reach people.” For instance, among the commercials, print ads and posters to promote the second season of the Showtime series “Masters of Sex,” which is to begin on Sunday, will be a video clip on YouTube . titled “Undress Me,” created by the filmmaker Tatia Pilieva. “First Kiss,” her video promoting a small clothing line, Wren, has generated almost 85.8 million views on YouTube since March. In “Undress Me,” 20 strangers are paired, undress each other down to their underwear and go to bed. The action is meant to evoke the research conducted in the 1950s by the main characters of “Masters of Sex,” William Masters and Virginia Johnson, as is the principal artwork for the campaign, which is styled to resemble the racy men’s magazines of the era that were often sold in plain brown wrappers. “It’s probably more important than ever to have the right creative platform,” Mr. Buckley said. “We don’t take anything for granted.” Image A campaign to promote "The Strain," a new series on the FX cable channel, includes outdoor ads with startling images like this one in Times Square. “Masters of Sex” is one of two series that Showtime, owned by the CBS Corporation, is bringing back on Sunday for a second season, along with “Ray Donovan,” with Liev Schreiber in the title role. Another cable channel, USA Network, is running campaigns for four series that returned for the summer — “Covert Affairs,” “Graceland,” “Royal Pains” and “Suits” — and two, “Rush” and “Satisfaction,” making their premieres on July 17. “I joke that as a marketer I wish I’d appreciated five years ago, even three years ago, how much easier it was to launch and sustain a show,” said Alexandra Shapiro, executive vice president for marketing and digital at USA Network, part of the NBCUniversal division of Comcast. “To stand out, you’ve got to zag while everyone else is zigging.” “ ‘Satisfaction’ is a great example of what we need to do now, and will need to do, for all our shows,” she added. To promote that drama, about a couple trying to make marriage work, USA Network has teamed with two nontraditional media companies, HowAboutWe and Vice Media, for efforts like online video and events. “This is one of our first television-related projects,” said Eddy Moretti, chief creative officer of Vice Media, which also creates content that advertises movies and brands. He described the three-episode web series that will promote “Satisfaction,” about “sex and relationships in the modern world,” as “additional storytelling inspired by the storytelling of the show.” “The TV marketing departments are saying, ‘Let’s do something different,’ ” Mr. Moretti said. “I think that’s really cool.” Image A campaign to promote "Satisfaction," a new series on the USA Network cable channel. As appealing as unconventional promotional tactics are, Mr. Buckley of Showtime said, they are “part art, part science.” Although “we have analytic tools we didn’t have even five years ago to help us find people with the propensity to watch a show,” he added, “we’re flying a little blind because we don’t always have the metrics.” The result is sometimes two steps forward and a step back. For instance, complaints in Los Angeles about some billboard ads with startling images of a worm in an eyeball — promoting “The Strain,” a horror series that the FX cable channel will introduce on Sunday — led FX to replace them with other ads for the show. Although “we’re not out there looking to upset people,” said Stephanie Gibbons, president for marketing and on-air promotion at FX Networks, part of 21st Century Fox, the series is “not for the faint of heart” and the images “are signaling some people that it’s not for them.” “When you’re breaking rules,” she added, “there can be some glass on the floor.” “The Strain” is one of five series FX will introduce this summer, along with “Married,” “Partners,” “Tyrant” and “You’re the Worst.” Television is “definitely a 365-day-a-year business now,” Ms. Gibbons said. “There’s no break, no cycle; it’s a wheel of continuous content.” “Sometimes,” she added, laughing, “you feel like the hamster within that wheel.”

TV
YouTube
Masters of Sex
The Strain
Satisfaction
NBCUniversal
advertising,marketing
Online advertising
Cable television
Hulu.com


Boba Boys in Port Jefferson Serves Wild Tea Flavors

Abstract: With the focus of a bartender, Zachary Schaffer, 24, stood behind the Boba Boys counter in the Harbor Square minimall in Port Jefferson on a recent afternoon. He vigorously shook a stainless steel tumbler, then poured a frothy green liquid over tapioca pearls in a clear cup, adding a thick, colorful straw. The nonalcoholic drink, a cold, creamy mix of half-and-half, water and honeydew-flavored powdered tea , was one of 20 flavors of Taiwanese bubble tea on the menu. (Other flavors included watermelon, purple Oreo and bubble gum.) “I call it a dessert drink,” said Mr. Schaffer, who opened Boba Boys two months ago, after experimenting with bubble tea at You, Me and Tea, a Port Jefferson tea emporium owned by his parents, Robert and Susanne Schaffer. He shares a space in the mall, with table and chairs, with two food vendors. Bubble tea has its origins in Taiwan and is named for the bubbles of froth on top and the sweet tapioca pearls (also known as boba) on the bottom. The cassava-based boba are marinated in pure sugar cane syrup and are gold or black (reflecting the addition of molasses, caramel and brown sugar). “It’s almost like having a Gummi Bear in the bottom of your drink,” Mr. Schaffer said. In addition to the traditional “milk” teas, Boba Boys offers three nondairy flavors (sour litchi, green tea and green apple). There is also freshly brewed iced black tea (a darjeeling and assam blend) spiked with different fruit-flavored syrups, like mango or peach. Boba Boys will offer “bubble lattes,” hot versions of the bubble tea, beginning this month. All teas are $4.50 for 16 ounces, with an extra scoop of boba for 50 cents. Boba Boys Bubble Tea, 134 Main Street, Harbor Square Mall, Port Jefferson; bobaboys.com . Open Monday to Thursday, 1 to 9 p.m.; Friday, 1 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 1 to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 8 p.m.

Tea
Bars
Port Jefferson (NY)
Restaurants
Cooking and Cookbooks


Forming Common Cause to Fight Overfishing

Abstract: PARIS — Amid heated debates about ways to improve the management of Europe’s fishing fleet and the European Union ’s Common Fisheries Policy, owners of fishing boats in northwest France have set up a new organization to help prevent overfishing and ensure themselves a sustainable livelihood. The group, Les Pêcheurs de Bretagne, or Breton Fishermen, formed in November by a merger of two existing groups, represents a third of the French fishing industry: 800 boats and 3,000 crew members, with an annual catch of 100,000 tons of fish — mainly hake, pollack, monkfish and langoustine, or spiny lobsters — worth €283 million, or $374 million. Despite decades of regulation, an ever-increasing appetite for fish and indiscriminate industrial-scale fishing techniques have brought many fish species to the brink of extinction. According to the environmental activist organization Greenpeace, 80 percent of fish stocks globally are overexploited or at the brink of being so. The Breton organization, an umbrella group for the local Atlantic and Channel fishing fleets, collectively manages an important proportion of France’s fishing quotas. Its members include single-boat captains and industrial flotillas like Scapêche, the largest French fishing fleet, which is owned by the supermarket chain Intermarché. “When I first started fishing, 35 years ago, we overfished, did whatever we wanted,” Patrice Donnart, the head of the organization, said in a phone interview this month from his home in Quimper, at the far western tip of Brittany. “The regulation was nothing like today.” “We felt the resources were simply endless,” he added. Now, Mr. Donnart said, “I can see a new kind of professional conscience, a personal sense of responsibility, which is what we’re pushing for. It’s important to show the world we’re not pirates.” One of the key challenges facing the industry is to minimize the number of immature or unwanted fish that are netted along with the commercially valuable ones and usually go to waste or are turned into fish meal for salmon farms. To cut back on rejects, the Breton fisheries have developed several designs for nets and techniques for sorting at sea, working in tandem with scientists at the French Research Institute for Marine Exploitation, Ifremer. One new trawl net design has a sorting grille at the bottom of the net that allows small fish to escape; another has a square mesh that catches langoustine but allows hake to get away. According to Nolwenn Gace-Rimaud, Pêcheurs de Bretagne project manager, the introduction of improved trawl nets by Brittany fishing fleets has spared the catch of 14 million unwanted hake annually and 70 million undersized langoustine. That earned the region’s fisheries a champions award from the Seafood Choices Alliance, a private international group, at the International Boston Seafood show in 2008. The organization has also taken on the coordination of measures to tackle the overfishing of specific species and fishing grounds — for example, a two-month annual moratorium in February and March on cod -fishing in E.U. waters and a two-day-a-week ban on sardine fishing in the spawning season, from April to September. A breach of the rules can result in confiscation of the catch, but that rarely happens, because peer pressure and collective surveillance act as strong deterrents, Ms. Gace-Rimaud said. For the fishermen, respecting these limitations on their activity “was a real sacrifice, at first,” said Jacques Pichon, the organization’s director. But the protection and rebuilding of fish stocks would be “fruitful in the long run,” he said. “We are already seeing results.” On the marketing front, Pêcheurs de Bretagne is developing a sustainable fisheries labeling system. It is also active in the debate on changing the E.U. fisheries policy, where it argues for collectively managed quotas, opposing a proposal by the European Commission in July to introduce individual, purchasable, transferable fishing rights for boat owners, starting in 2014. “Individual quotas are dangerous,” said Isabelle Thomas, vice president of the Brittany Region Council responsible for marine affairs and coastal protection. “They would make collective regulation impossible.” The result, she said in a telephone interview, would be the sale of fishing rights at speculative prices, and a loss of jobs in the region. A fundamental objective of the collective approach is to maintain a varied fishing fleet, resisting economic pressures for a smaller fleet of larger boats and industrial-scale catches, Ms. Thomas said. With industrial fishing, “the resource is ruled by the market, disregarding the fishing industry’s social responsibility,” she said. Still, Pêcheurs de Bretagne, by virtue of the combined size of its membership, is itself a large commercial organization, noted François Chartier, ocean campaigner for Greenpeace France. He urged it to give equal opportunity to the small boats “to remain ethical.” The small boats “are more sustainable in the long run,” he said, because they “fish more selectively.”

European Union
France
Brittany (France)
Fishing Commercial
Sustainable Living


Amgen Reports Jump in Profit, While Glaxo and Wyeth Fell Slightly

Abstract: Amgen reported a sharp increase in profit for the third quarter, while GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth reported a slight drop in their profits. At Amgen, sales for all of its important medicines topped Wall Street estimates, providing a welcome surprise for investors in a tough economic environment. Amgen raised its full-year earnings forecast as it reversed the decline in sales of its top-selling anemia drug that had been hit by safety concerns and reimbursement restrictions. Amgen reported a net profit of $1.16 billion, or $1.09 a share. In the same quarter last year, it reported a net profit of $201 million, or 18 cents a share, when it took revamping charges and was affected by steep declines in its anemia drug sales. Revenue at Amgen for the quarter rose 7 percent, to $3.9 billion, from $3.6 billion. Excluding one-time items, Amgen earned $1.23 a share, exceeding analysts’ average expectations by 15 cents, according to Reuters Estimates. Wyeth announced a delay in its closely watched experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug, highlighting some of the troubles facing the industry. Wyeth raised only the low end of its full-year forecast by 2 cents, but investors sold off the stock as the company did not raise the forecast over all. Wyeth reported flat third-quarter profit as it was affected by generic competition for Protonix, its drug to fight acid reflux. Wyeth said it earned $1.14 billion, or 84 cents a share, compared with $1.15 billion, or 84 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue at Wyeth rose 4 percent, to $5.83 billion, from $5.62 billion. But revenue would have risen only 2 percent if not for the weak dollar. The falling value of the British pound helped third-quarter results at GlaxoSmithKline, softening the blow of competition from generic alternatives for several products and a further drop in sales of its diabetes pill, Avandia . Glaxo’s top-selling drug Advair, used to treat for asthma and chronic respiratory disease, showed growth in the third quarter while vaccine sales were stronger than expected. Net income for Glaxo fell to £1.03 billion ($1.69 billion), from £1.31 billion, a year earlier, the company said. Earnings before revamping charges rose 6 percent, to 25.2 pence a share (41.4 cents). Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had on average forecast earnings of 24.3 pence a share.

Wyeth
Company Reports
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Amgen Inc
GlaxoSmithKline PLC


Seasons at the Plate That Came Out of Left Field

Abstract: Once the baseball season reaches its halfway point, the league leaders start to take on a familiar look. The patient hitters are drawing the most walks, the home run hitters are hitting homers and the doublers are doubling. But part of what makes the game great is that there are always a few surprises among the usual suspects. Some young players like Kris Bryant, 24, of the Cubs; Nolan Arenado, 25, of the Rockies; and Manny Machado, 24, of the Orioles, have taken steps forward. But at their ages — and with their talent — these strides were mostly expected. Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays is having an outstanding year at 30, but after last year’s breakthrough American League M.V.P. season, it can hardly be called a shock. Here, though, are five hitters whose huge 2016 seasons you might not have seen coming (all statistics through Thursday night): Image David Ortiz, left, and Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox celebrated Ortiz’s two-run home run against the Rangers this week. Credit Adam Glanzman/Getty Images North America 5. David Ortiz, Red Sox, 1.106 on-base plus slugging percentage Known as a fearsome clutch hitter, Ortiz is widely respected for his long career of excellence. But he is 40 now. Who expected him to be leading the majors in O.P.S. in what he has said will be his final season? With a major-league-leading 34 doubles, he is only three short of his total from last season, and he is in the top three in R.B.I. and batting average, too. He is not too concerned about his aging body, he told The Boston Herald this week: “I’ve been managing myself pretty well and I got through the first half of the season and I feel good right now, so hopefully we’ll be in the same situation the second half of the season.” Image The Nationals’ Wilson Ramos was hitting .333 entering Friday’s games, a career high. Credit Matt Hazlett/Getty Images 4. Wilson Ramos, Nationals, .937 O.P.S. A journeyman catcher, Ramos had not played 120 games in a season until last year at age 27; he hit .229. So a double-take is a natural reaction to this season’s batting average: .333, comfortably a career high. Ramos has also socked 13 homers, three short of his previous season best, and was named to his first All-Star team. Manager Dusty Baker has praised his defense, too, telling The Washington Post : “He’s my right-hand man on the field. I depend on him as much as anybody, to get the signs, to get the pitchouts, get the throw overs, to call a game, to throw people out, to block balls in the dirt.” Image In Toronto, a sign encouraged fans to vote the Blue Jays’ Michael Saunders to an All-Star team. Credit Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images 3. Michael Saunders, Blue Jays, .932 O.P.S. Last year, he played just nine games because of knee problems and hit .194. In each of his only two full seasons, he hit less than .250. There was talk that Toronto might give up on him and trade him away. But at age 29, he is suddenly hitting .298 with 16 homers, including three in one game in June, and 25 doubles. As a Canadian, Saunders has been a fan favorite in Toronto. Now he is putting up the numbers to back it up. He won a spot on the All-Star team through M.L.B.’s Final Vote campaign, a social media-driven contest that leaves the final roster spot for the A.L. and N.L. teams to fan voting. Image Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy, the former Met, has picked up where he left off last season. He was hitting .346 entering Friday’s games. Credit Benny Sieu/USA Today Sports, via Reuters 2. Daniel Murphy, Nationals, .964 O.P.S. To believers in clutch hitting and the power of the postseason, Murphy’s big year is no surprise, perhaps. After years of competence with the Mets, he erupted in the 2015 postseason, hitting seven home runs in the first two series and being named the National League Championship Series M.V.P. Despite a disappointing World Series (three hits, none for extra bases), he has carried his hot hitting into the regular season, perhaps making the Mets regret letting him go as a free agent to the Nationals. At 31, he is having clearly his best season, with an N.L.-leading .346 batting average and having already exceeded his career best homer total with 15. A month ago, Murphy might have been No. 1 on this list. But after hitting .416 in May, he slipped to .253 in June . Image The Diamondbacks’ Jake Lamb celebrated his two-run home run against the Giants last weekend. Credit Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press 1. Jake Lamb, Diamondbacks, .996 O.P.S. This year’s biggest eye-opener. Lamb looked to have some promise, but last year’s numbers of a .263 batting average with six homers in 107 games hardly set the baseball world alight. But this year, Lamb, a third baseman, is looking like George Brett. He has 20 home runs, more than tripling his previous season best, and is tied for a major-league-high seven triples. His slugging percentage of .625 trails only Ortiz’s. Lamb’s feats have mostly gone unnoticed. Despite a campaign in Arizona, he missed out on the All-Star team. He told The Arizona Republic that he understood: “I didn’t have a great year last year, and my numbers weren’t nearly like this last year. Not a whole lot of guys know about me.” If he keeps it up, that could soon change.

Baseball
David Ortiz
Red Sox
Wilson Ramos
Daniel Murphy
Washington Nationals


Times Articles Removed From Google Results in Europe

Abstract: Google has notified The New York Times in the last month that links to five articles have been removed from some search results on European versions of its search engine to comply with Europe’s “right to be forgotten.” The notifications offer vivid examples of the issues involved in Europe’s decision to allow individuals some measure of control over what appears online about themselves. Of the five articles that Google informed The Times about, three are intensely personal — two wedding announcements from years ago and a brief paid death notice from 2001. Presumably, the people involved had privacy reasons for asking for the material to be hidden. The other two Times articles are less about personal details than about reputation. And it is this concern — even if the facts are fairly reported — that represents a big difference between the way Europe and the United States regulate, or do not regulate, how information is presented online. Unlike in the United States, where freedom of expression is a fundamental right that supersedes other interests, Europe views an individual’s privacy and freedom of expression as almost equal rights. As a matter of policy, Google does not reveal who asked for the material to be shielded, or even what search terms will cause the articles to disappear from results. A little online research — with the help of search engines — showed that each article had a person with a connection to Europe. Google and privacy lawyers are at loggerheads over whether anyone in the world can ask that material be hidden from European search engines, or only people in Europe. One Times article that is being shielded from certain searches in Europe is a report from 2002 about a decision by a United States court to close three websites that the federal government accused of selling an estimated $1 million worth of unusable Web addresses. The complaint named three British companies, TLD Network, Quantum Management and TBS Industries, as well as two men who it said controlled the companies: Thomas Goolnik and Edward Harris Goolnik of London. The case was later settled. Thomas Goolnik did not respond to messages left via social networking sites. Since May, when the European high court made its initial decision on the right to be forgotten, Google has received roughly 140,000 privacy requests connected to more than 500,000 links, according to the company’s top lawyer. So far, the search giant has approved around half of the requests. The bulk do not involve news websites. This summer, Google told several European media outlets, including the BBC and The Guardian, that links to some of their online articles had been removed from its European search results. Yet in a bizarre twist, the company later reinstated some of the links to The Guardian’s articles after that paper challenged Google’s decision. In the last of The Times articles, a feature about a 1998 production of “Villa Villa” by the ensemble called De la Guarda, it was much harder to divine the objection. Not a review, the article explored how the antic, acrobatic show was managing “to get a generation raised on MTV interested in seeing live theater.”

Google
Europe
The New York Times
Privacy
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry