Even Santa Claus, as Giver and as Employee, Isn’t Immune to the Recession

Abstract: PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. LOUIS NIKO, who has been playing Santa Claus at the Phillipsburg Mall for the past 12 years, still asks the children who bounce on his lap if they have been naughty or nice, but when it comes to taking their gift requests in these difficult economic times, the man dressed in snow-white whiskers and a bright red suit is no longer making promises. “With so many people struggling financially, I have had to change my conversation a bit when the children ask me for toys,” said Mr. Niko, 80, a retired maintenance supervisor who lives in West Easton, Pa., just a short sleigh ride from the mall. Mr. Niko’s careful approach was on full display at his Santa station on a recent Friday at the mall. Christopher Hoffman, 5, and his brother, Connor, 2, had just rattled off a laundry list of goodies, including Lego blocks, a model space ship and an Elmo doll, when Mr. Niko replied: “Well, boys, we’ll look at our list of toys that we make at the North Pole, and if I find some of your toys on the list, I’ll get them for you. Whatever I don’t find, I’ll try to get you next Christmas.” As he spoke to the boys, Mr. Niko, whose Santa-like whiskers are real, shot a quick look at their mother, Suzanne Hoffman, who was standing nearby and nodded in approval. “It’s better to make the kids know that they will not be receiving everything they ask for,” said Mrs. Hoffman, a figure-skating instructor who lives in Whitehouse Station, N.J. “My husband and I have been watching our Christmas budget more this year than in years before. We have come up with a budget, and we are sticking to it.” So have many other shoppers and retailers across the region, and Santas like Mr. Niko — who noted that while he is seeing two to three hundred children a day, that is roughly two to three hundred fewer children a week than at this time last year — are feeling the belt-tightening crunch. “I’d say my bookings are down from last Christmas season by about 40 percent,” said Joe DeFelice, a 74-year-old Santa from Burlington Township, N.J., whose credentials including ho-ho-hoing at the Quaker Bridge Mall in Princeton and who now does his best St. Nick at private parties, recreation centers and even auto dealerships. “This terrible economy is really hurting me,” said Mr. DeFelice, who said he had made as much as $10,000 playing Santa in a single Christmas season. “I only charge $100 an hour, and I know for certain that some of those Santas from New York charge $200 an hour. So if I’m doing poorly, how are they doing?” Not well, at least in the case of Mike Pope, a 48-year-old taxi driver and part-time actor from East Meadow on Long Island. Mr. Pope, whose acting credits include playing Santa Claus at malls, department stores and private parties, was let go by Hicks Nursery in Westbury, which could no longer afford to pay him for his services. “It’s cheaper for them to use an employee who already works there,” said Mr. Pope, who took his jolly-old act to the Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn. “The economy has been bad for everyone — even Santa Claus.” Ken Gresk, a 69-year-old retired schoolteacher who lives in Manchester, Conn., is one Santa who is thriving despite the tough economic climate. “Business has never been better,” said Mr. Gresk, who estimates that he sees 2,000 children each holiday season, primarily at private parties and special functions. Mr. Gresk said that an unusual business strategy has a lot to do with his recession-proof Santa. “I let my clientele pay me for what they think my services are worth,” he said. “This pretty much allows me to play Santa without the issue of money getting in the way.” The man who plays Santa at the Westchester Mall in White Plains said that he had worked there for six years but had not seen a decline in the number of children visiting on a daily basis this year, nor had he been fielding requests for less-expensive items. On weekends, said Santa (just Santa; it is the policy of the Noerr Programs, which operates the mall’s Santa Set, to have its Santas remain anonymous), he chats with 300 to 400 children a day. “In good economic times or bad, children are still children, and they are going to ask Santa for their favorite toys,” he said. “I have been playing Santa for over 20 years, and during my career, I have never had a child ask me for anything less than what he or she really wanted.” Although Santa is doing well at the Westchester Mall, Bob Mindte, the owner of Santaforhire.com , a company based in Newport Beach, Calif., that dispatches Santas across the country, said that mall Santas had been most affected by the economic downturn. He said that fewer mall Santas would be used because the photography companies that use them must pay rent at the mall regardless of the number of customers they draw and must rely on enough Santa traffic to make a profit. “Many of those companies are nervous about not being able to make up their initial investments,” Mr. Mindte said. “But outside of the malls, the Santa business, at least as far as I can see, is doing pretty well — maybe not as well as in years past, but pretty well.”

Santa Claus
Christmas
Recession and Depression
New Jersey


‘Infinitesimal,’ a Look at a 16th-Century Math Battle

Abstract: Bertrand Russell once wrote that mathematics had a “ beauty cold and austere .” In this new book, the historian Amir Alexander shows that mathematics can also become entangled in ugliness hot and messy. The time was the late 16th and 17th centuries, and the mathematics in question was the proper understanding of continua — straight lines, plane figures, solids. Is a line segment, for example, composed of an infinite number of indivisible points? If so, and if these infinitesimals have zero width, how does the line segment come to have a positive length? And if they have nonzero widths, why isn’t the sum of their widths infinite? For reasons like these, Aristotle had argued that continua could not consist of indivisibles. But new developments were demonstrating that thinking of them this way yielded insights not easily obtained from traditional Euclidean geometry. Huh? It’s natural to wonder how such a seemingly arcane issue could possibly arouse much passion. But this fascinating narrative by Dr. Alexander (an occasional book reviewer for Science Times) vivifies the era and the fault lines that the mathematical dispute revealed. Let’s begin with the math. The mathematicians, Cavalieri , Torricelli , Galileo and others, were at the forefront of the new geometric approaches involving infinitesimals. If classical Euclidean geometry is conceived as a top-down approach with all theorems following by pure logic from a few self-evident axioms, the new approaches can be thought of as bottom-up, inspired by experience. For example, just as a piece of cloth can be considered a collection of parallel threads and a book a collection of pages, so too might a plane be considered an infinite number of parallel lines and a solid an infinite number of parallel planes. But why was this so controversial? The Reformation was one part of the answer; another was the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic order of the Society of Jesus, whose intellectual rigor and allegiance to the papacy made them a bulwark against Protestant advances. To the Jesuits, tradition, resoluteness and authority seemed bound up with Euclid and Catholicism; chaos, confusion and paradoxes were associated with infinitesimals and the motley array of proliferating Protestant sects. Image Infinitesimal How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World. Scientific American/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 368 pages. $27. Indeed, Galileo, later to be found guilty of heresy, supported some of his ideas with infinitesimal-flavored arguments. Dr. Alexander writes that he was as courageous as possible under the circumstances, not only a great mathematician and physicist but a witty and compelling writer willing to take on the Jesuits. Most of the book is devoted to the interrelated stories of many leading mathematical/religious figures during these tumultuous early modern times. They include the priest Christopher Clavius and his mathematical work on the new Gregorian calendar , and the relentless Jesuit censors and the dead weight they finally succeeded in placing on Italian mathematics by proscribing infinitesimals. Along the way there are striking geometric insights that buttress the case for infinitesimals. Cavalieri’s principle, for example, states that if two solids are included between parallel planes and cross-sections of these two solids at every height have equal areas, then the solids have the same volume. Consider, for example, two towers of coins, one straight, the other of equal height but with the coins sticking haphazardly out the sides. It’s intuitive that the towers have equal volume, and would even if the coins were “infinitely thin” and the towers leaned and twisted every which way. Formulas for the areas and volumes of geometric figures were surprisingly easy to obtain using this principle, which was a precursor of integral calculus. No one talks of infinitesimals any more: The modern notion of limits accomplishes everything they did, but much more rigorously. One exception is a recent reconstruction of infinitesimals — positive “numbers” smaller than every real number — devised by the logician Abraham Robinson and developed further by H. Jerome Keisler, my adviser at the University of Wisconsin. Since the Jesuits succeeded in banning infinitesimals in Italy, the last part of Dr. Alexander’s finely detailed, dramatic story traces their subsequent history north to England. There one of the key figures is Thomas Hobbes , the 17th-century philosopher of authoritarianism, a strong advocate of law, order — and, like the Jesuits, of the top-down hierarchical nature of Euclidean geometry. Hobbes’s hated antagonist, the mathematician John Wallis , used infinitesimals freely, along with any other ideas he thought might further mathematical insight. And further it they did, leading over time to calculus, differential equations, and science and technology that have truly shaped the modern world. But the battle is not quite over. A trace of the dynamic that animated fierce struggles between Jesuit mathematicians and the infinitesimalists, as well as between Hobbes and Wallis, can be found today. Now, however, the opposition is between proof-driven “pure” mathematicians and computer-friendly, quasi-empirical mathematicians. The latter will dominate, I hope and expect — along with the kind of moderate pluralistic democracy that Dr. Alexander sees as a natural outgrowth of Wallis’s open, experimental mathematics.

Mathematics
Books
Amir Alexander
Aristotle
Euclid
Galileo Galilei


Blaze Damages Nairobi’s International Airport

Abstract: NAIROBI, Kenya — A huge fire broke out Wednesday and raged for four hours at Nairobi’s international airport on the anniversary of the attacks on the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, officials and witnesses said, bringing East Africa’s busiest airport to a standstill and turning parts of it into charred ruins. By midafternoon, Michael Kamau, a senior government transportation official, told reporters that the airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, had been partly reopened for domestic and cargo flights, but that international passenger traffic was still suspended. The airport authorities planned to convert another part of the facility to a temporary terminal for international passenger flights, he said. Visiting the gutted section of the circular, 1960s-era terminal, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said there was no loss of life but expressed dismay over the damage and disruption, said Manoah Esipisu, a presidential spokesman. The fire’s cause was being investigated, he added. Image Credit The New York Times Kenya is a crucial Western ally, abutting troubled areas of neighboring Somalia. But Mr. Kenyatta and other Kenyan officials were reluctant to make any immediate link to terrorism. Wednesday, Aug. 7, is the anniversary of the coordinated bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, attacks that killed more than 200 people. “There is no reason to speculate at this point,” Mr. Esipisu said. Nairobi is an essential hub for sub-Saharan passenger traffic, transporting 6.3 million passengers a year on more than 40 international airlines from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the rest of Africa. It is also a vital cargo link, particularly for the export of produce, cut flowers and other perishable goods from across East Africa — an important source of foreign currency. Analysts said the quick resumption of international cargo traffic would probably minimize any immediate impact on the Kenyan economy, and the fact that some passenger flights had also resumed indicated that critical computer systems that handle ticketing, baggage processing and navigation systems were unaffected by the blaze. Image Firefighters amid debris at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Wednesday, the anniversary of the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy in Kenya. Credit Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “If the runway can operate and the control tower can operate, then the airport should be close to fully operational within a few days,” said David Feldman, a managing partner at Exambela, an aviation consulting firm based in Paris. Airport officials said the fire started around 5 a.m. Wednesday, when many flights to and from Europe and elsewhere were scheduled. Many incoming flights were diverted to Mombasa, on the Indian Ocean coast. Katie Price, an American aid worker with Catholic Relief Services, said she arrived on a plane from Lusaka, Zambia, that landed around the time the fire broke out and was stranded in the aircraft for several hours, before hundreds of passengers were evacuated in a cargo area that escaped the blaze. Image The fire sent dense black smoke billowing into the sky. Credit Kyodo News, via Associated Press In a telephone interview, Ms. Price, 32, said the fire appeared to have caused major damage. “It looked like it would be hard to repair,” she said. Kenya’s civil aviation authorities gave clearance late Wednesday for the airport to operate international passenger flights from a part of the terminal normally reserved for domestic traffic. Smoke continued to billow from the blackened, five-story terminal building late Wednesday, and an acrid stench lingered in the air. Hundreds of people, including airport workers and stranded travelers, milled outside a cordon set up near the remains of the international arrivals area, which also housed baggage-claim facilities. Mr. Feldman predicted that the situation for air travelers was likely to remain chaotic for some time, as August is a peak month for Kenyan tourism, with thousands of visitors flocking to its beaches and game reserves. “It will be a mess, probably operating in very uncomfortable, open-air conditions” with significant delays, Mr. Feldman said.

Nairobi
Airport
Kenya
Fires
Tanzania
Terrorism
Diplomats Embassies and Consulates


Woman Burned in Explosion at Queens Home

Abstract: An explosion rocked a Queens home yesterday afternoon and badly burned one of its residents as firefighters and utility crews were searching for the source of a natural gas leak wafting through the neighborhood. Two hundred neighbors were evacuated as police officers and firefighters cordoned off a block on 41st Street in Sunnyside, near 48th Avenue, and shut down the gas and electricity as a safety measure. Con Ed crews eventually found and began repairing the broken gas main that fire officials said caused the leak. The explosion disrupted family preparations on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, as residents returning from work were barred from their homes. The victim, Kunta Oza, 69, was taken to the burn center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. She was in critical condition last night with severe burns over much of her body, fire officials said. As worried relatives gathered at the hospital, her son, Joe Oza, said, he had no information about her prognosis. One other occupant of the building was treated at the scene for minor injuries. City Councilman Eric N. Gioia said he spoke with Mr. Oza and received the following account: Mr. Oza’s wife, Clara, had called him from the house, at 48-19 41st Street, about 3:30 p.m. complaining of a gas odor. Concerned, she left with their two children. But Mr. Oza’s mother and a housekeeper remained. Many neighbors said that after they had smelled gas about 3 p.m., firefighters came and searched the area, but then left. Then Con Ed crews arrived, and a company spokesman said the utility called the Fire Department to return. Shortly after the firefighters returned, residents reported hearing a boom at about 4:30 that reverberated through the neighborhood. A neighbor who lives around the corner, Francis Cianfrocca, 47, described it as “a short, sharp explosion.” Councilman Gioia questioned why the firefighters initially left. “That’s the question that’s on my mind,” he said. “That’s on everybody’s mind.” A fire chief at the scene, Ed Kilduff, said that the firefighters believed that the gas leak was under the street, and that they had not found a strong odor of gas in homes. When Con Ed crews arrived, they said that they could handle the situation, so the firefighters left, the chief said. But then the Con Ed crews had trouble gaining access to the basements of homes and asked the firefighters to return and help, which they did, the chief said. A Con Ed spokesman agreed with that account, but he said that the utility’s problem was not getting access to basements but rather to manholes that were obstructed by parked cars. Further investigation determined that a six-inch-diameter gas main pipe under the street had broken, and that the leaking gas migrated along electrical conduits into 8 or 10 homes on the block of two- and three-story Tudor-style attached houses, Chief Kilduff and Con Ed said. The chief said that he could not confirm or deny speculation that the explosion was ignited when Mrs. Oza turned on a light switch in the basement. It was unknown what caused the break in the gas main. Fire officials said that they did not consider the leak suspicious. How long the main had been broken was also unknown, but the landlord of a nearby building, Frank Szabo, said his tenants reported smelling gas two or three days earlier. A Con Ed spokesman, Alfonso Quiroz, said that the utility was cooperating with the Fire Department in a joint investigation. At a temporary shelter set up by the Red Cross in nearby Public School 199, Gladys Valette, who lives two doors away from the explosion, recalled her own reaction to the blast. “Oh, my God, we need to get out!” she said as she grabbed her son, Kerwin, 7, and ran out of the house. Now she is contemplating spending Thanksgiving at the shelter. “Maybe tomorrow we need to get turkey in the street,” Mrs. Valette said. But fire officials and Con Ed said they were working to return most of the families to their homes later in the night, and some residents were being escorted across the barricades around 11 p.m. Though neighbors said they saw no flames at the site of the explosion, Chief Kilduff said that there was fire damage to that house, but no danger of collapse. The adjoining homes were not affected. One resident, Francisco Herrera, said that he had just finished showering when the explosion hit. He was so startled that “I ran out into the street in a T-shirt and my underwear,” he said. He went back inside to get sweat pants before being evacuated from the house.

Explosions
Queens (NYC)
Fires and Firefighters
Gas (Fuel)


Cardinals Pull Even as Hitters Put On a Show

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — The home team’s home runs are marked with short bursts of fireworks, and they were exploding again late Monday afternoon — pop, pop, pop, pop — to mark the demolition unfolding at Busch Stadium. One day after slumping to a maddening defeat, the St. Louis Cardinals whacked their way to a 12-4 victory over the Washington Nationals , evening the best-of-five National League division series at one game apiece. In navigating a 3-hour-27-minute game, the Cardinals hardly missed a step. Manager Mike Matheny, who seemed outfoxed by Davey Johnson during the key moments of his team’s loss the previous night, manipulated his bullpen masterfully to work around an early injury to his starting pitcher. Helping the cause, Cardinals hitters, who managed only two runs in Game 1, gathered 13 hits, 8 of them for extra bases, while blasting 4 home runs. When the smoke cleared, the enthusiastic fans among the announced crowd of 45,840 were waving their team off to Washington, where postseason baseball will return Wednesday afternoon for the first time since 1933. “We know the offense has the potential to do this,” Matheny said. “It was nice to see this, and hopefully it becomes contagious and the guys keep going.” The sparkling play felt contagious. Allen Craig pounded a solo homer to left field with two outs in the third inning, giving the Cardinals a 5-1 cushion. Daniel Descalso, batting seventh, belted one to right to lead off a two-run fourth. And Carlos Beltran added two monstrous ones — a solo shot off the second-deck facade in left field in the sixth and a two-run bomb over the bullpen in left-center during a four-run eighth — to help seal the victory. “Who doesn’t love to play in this type of game, where you’re fighting to win a championship?” said Beltran, who signed with the Cardinals last winter and has returned to the postseason for the first time since 2006, when he was with the Mets. “Especially in my case, I haven’t been able to have that opportunity.” Both starters could muster only abbreviated outings. Jaime Garcia, the Cardinals right-hander, struggled with his control, throwing 51 pitches through two innings, and was pulled during his team’s four-run rally in the second. After the game, Matheny revealed that Garcia had felt discomfort in his shoulder during the game and was sent to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam. But Matheny, a rookie manager, produced a performance reminiscent of his predecessor, Tony La Russa, juggling five relievers to guide his team to the victory. Lance Lynn, who went 18-7 this season while making 29 of his 35 appearances as a starter, struck out five over three innings to earn the win. “Lance stepped up in big fashion and was able to really take advantage of that opportunity, because we needed him badly,” Matheny said. Jordan Zimmermann, the Nationals’ starter, helped with his bat, putting his team up with a run-scoring single in the second, but he was knocked from the mound after three innings. Unlike his teammate Gio Gonzalez, who avoided damage Sunday afternoon despite issuing seven walks, Zimmermann, who did not issue a walk, could not make key pitches when they counted most, allowing five runs and seven hits. “He didn’t really make a lot of adjustments out there,” Johnson said. The Nationals did show signs of life, putting a brief dent in the deficit when Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche blasted back-to-back solo home runs — one to left field, one to right — off Lynn in the fifth inning. But for the most part they were stymied, and Jon Jay may have been their primary antagonist. Jay, the Cardinals’ leadoff man and center fielder, was omnipresent, slapping a run-scoring single in the second, reaching on a run-scoring error in the fourth, and ripping a run-scoring triple to right field in the ninth. In the sixth, he went crashing into the center-field wall, airborne and at full speed, to rob Danny Espinosa of an extra-base hit, and when he came to bat in the bottom of the inning, the fans rose for a standing ovation. “I’ve never had a stadium get that loud for me doing something,” Jay said. “That was definitely something special.” The series will finish with up to three games in Washington, beginning Wednesday afternoon, and the Nationals, who came to St. Louis as slight favorites, seemed eager to leave Busch Stadium, where for one night they could not match the Cardinals’ fireworks. “We’re fine,” Johnson said. “We’re ready to go home.”

Washington Nationals
Baseball
St Louis Cardinals
Playoff Games


Despite Initial Tremors, Markets Mostly Shake Off Greek Election Results

Abstract: PARIS — Financial markets on Monday largely took in stride the results of Greek parliamentary elections, which handed a decisive victory to the left-wing Syriza party a day earlier. Syriza and its outspoken leader, Alexis Tsipras, who had campaigned against the austerity measures imposed on Greece by its international creditors, formed a coalition government on Monday with a right-wing fringe party, Independent Greeks. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.5 percent soon after the opening bell. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, a barometer of eurozone blue chips, rose 0.6 percent in European afternoon trading, while the FTSE 100 index in London slipped about 0.1 percent. The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.1256. Markets had trembled initially, sending the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond in the United States to a record low in early trading, as investors moved funds to assets perceived as safer. The euro briefly dropped to $1.1098, its lowest level since 2003. Stocks in Athens fell 3.6 percent. The election result was largely in line with analysts’ predictions, and investors had had weeks to adjust their portfolios to reflect the possibility that a showdown over the future of Greece’s economic direction was near, pitting Athens against Brussels. The change in the Greek political landscape comes at a time of unsettling shifts in the world economy that have left policy makers and investors on alert for disruptions in financial markets. Crude oil prices continue to fall this year, after having dropped about 50 percent in 2014, and the European Central Bank announced last week that it would buy 60 billion euros, or about $67 billion, worth of bonds each month until inflation in the eurozone rises to its official target of just under 2 percent. The International Monetary Fund warned last week that the prospects for global growth were dimming — with the notable exception of the United States — raising the specter of a slowdown that would exacerbate the problems of low-price pressures and growing inequality. Derek Halpenny, the European head of global markets research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in London, said in a research note that he did not expect the change in Athens to create “existential risks” to the euro, or for strong euro-selling pressures to emerge in the short term. But Mr. Halpenny said that there were “certainly increased risks, and an error in the negotiating stage could mean this becomes a bigger negative for the market.” Image Alexis Tsipras, Greece's new prime minister, after his swearing in ceremony in Athens on Monday. Credit Louisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images European bonds, whose prices had been rising for months in anticipation of the European Central Bank’s move last week to stimulate the economy, showed little movement on Monday. Greek bond prices fell amid the postelection uncertainty, sending their yields higher, to 8.70 percent — the highest in the eurozone. Yields reached a recent peak of 10.3 percent on Jan. 7, when pre-election jitters were strongest. Perhaps the biggest question for financial markets is what the Syriza victory will mean for Greek bonds, particularly in light of the plan announced by Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, last week. The central bank plans to buy up a significant part of the bonds issued by each of the 19 eurozone governments, something that could bring substantial relief to the Athens government’s borrowing costs. But Mr. Draghi noted at a news conference on Thursday that, “There are obviously some conditions before we can buy Greek bonds,” including that the Greek government honor its bailout program. If Athens meets the conditions, the European Central Bank “could buy bonds in, I believe, July,” Mr. Draghi added. The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which often reflects the opinion of the business community, stated in an initial analysis: “Tsipras will not be able to escape one fact: Greece needs more foreign money, whether from the markets or from the European Union. He has a choice between compromises with the troika and a huge state bankruptcy that could lead his country further into the abyss.” Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the I.M.F., said in an interview posted on the website of the French daily Le Monde on Monday that Greece still had to honor pledges it made as part of a bailout plan. Athens committed to overhaul government administration and tax collection, and to reduce delays in the legal system, Ms. Lagarde said. “These aren’t austerity measures, these are fundamental reforms that remain to be carried out,” she said. Asked by Le Monde about Mr. Tsipras’s pledge to restructure Greece’s debt, Ms. Lagarde responded that there were “internal rules of the eurozone to be respected.” “We can’t make special categories for this or that country,” she said. Mr. Tsipras, who is positioned to become the next prime minister, has pledged to keep Greece within the eurozone as he seeks to negotiate an easing of austerity measures and to rebuild the economy. The country has the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone, at 25.7 percent as of September, the most recent data available. Asian stocks were mixed, with major indexes in Tokyo falling about 0.3 percent and Hong Kong shares rising 0.2 percent.

Greece
European Central Bank
Euro Crisis
Antonis Samaras


With Some Coaching, Bloomberg Bites His Tongue on the Campaign Trail

Abstract: For years, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called City Councilwoman Letitia James “Trish,” even though she is known as Tish and corrected him again and again. When the mayor spoke to her, his body language spoke volumes, she said: He would look up, down, around, anywhere but at her face. What a difference an election makes, said Ms. James, a Brooklyn Democrat. “Now he looks at you, and he calls me by my name,” she said. “But it’s the season we’re in, because I believe he’s been coached over and over again.” Mr. Bloomberg is many things, but warm and fuzzy is not among them. He can be blunt, dismissive and even crass at times, qualities that some New Yorkers have found refreshing. But this year, during the mayor’s controversial bid for a third term, his advisers have worked intensely to get him to restrain himself and watch what he says. And Mr. Bloomberg, a former Boy Scout, has internalized that message so well that administration officials now often use the same word to describe the mayor’s behavior: muzzled. “The campaign strategy is to protect Bloomberg from Bloomberg,” said one person close to the mayor who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize their relationship. Mr. Bloomberg has not committed any major gaffes on the campaign trail. He has projected an upbeat mood, generally speaking, and has joked about his poor spelling skills and his age (67). He has not displayed his trademark snarkiness with reporters, even describing the journalist he earlier this year called a “disgrace” (Azi Paybarah of The New York Observer) as “brilliant.” And with the election just days away, that has left supporters of Mr. Bloomberg’s Democratic opponent, William C. Thompson Jr., frustrated. Of course, the strategy has also relied on minimizing the chances for a nasty mayoral moment. Mr. Bloomberg’s news conferences are much shorter now. In recent weeks, he has fielded questions at a Hindu temple (about four minutes), a Red Hook port facility (almost six minutes) and an endorsement in Riverside Park (clocking in at nine minutes). For several days last week, he did not have any formal question-and-answer sessions with reporters, until one was hastily added on Friday (10 minutes). By contrast, some of his news conferences earlier this year were near marathons. In March, he fielded questions for 25 minutes after a speech to the Economic Club of New York. That same month, he took questions for 27 minutes at an event about water meters in Brooklyn. “There’s been a concerted effort to attempt to trim the amount of endless conversation in front of folks,” said one Bloomberg adviser. “The path to a defeat is through those kinds of slip-ups or any combativeness on his part.” The Bloomberg campaign says that the mayor has not changed at all. He has been, according to Howard Wolfson, the campaign’s chief media strategist, “an incredibly disciplined and focused candidate, and I think you’ve seen it every day on the stump.” But other campaign aides and supporters say that the mayor’s makeover was necessitated by several factors. One was the recognition, early on, that his re-election bid would not be as easy as his 2005 run. Some people were outraged over his push to overturn term limits. The economy was sputtering. And some people were lambasting Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire who is the richest man in New York, saying he favored developers and the wealthy at the expense of the poor and working class — ingredients, all, for populist outrage. Then, in the spring, Mr. Bloomberg’s tartness came through on two high-profile occasions, reinforcing the image of him as out of touch and insensitive. In addition to telling Mr. Paybarah, who had asked about his rationale for changing term limits, that he was a disgrace , the mayor lashed out at another reporter , Michael Harris. Mr. Harris had accidentally turned on his tape recorder during a news conference, playing bits of an earlier political rally, and the mayor did not hold back, even when the City Council speaker pointed out that Mr. Harris was in a wheelchair. (The mayor later apologized.) “I think there were people after the Azi and the Michael Harris incidents who said, ‘O.K., a couple more of those, and that’s an ad montage, and that could be trouble,’ ” said one veteran Democrat who has worked closely with the Bloomberg administration. So over time, people close to Mr. Bloomberg — including Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris — urged him to do away with such outbursts, according to several aides and supporters. “In a previous race it almost felt like it was a parade before the coronation,” said Councilman Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who has endorsed the mayor. “But this time around, with the economy being down, with some people being upset about the term limits issue and the challenges with anyone getting re-elected to a third term, it makes a lot more sense for him to be even more cautious and disciplined.” Still, there have been opportunities for Mr. Bloomberg to trip up, and he has not done so. Take what happened Oct. 25 in Queens, when he visited a Hindu temple. He was surrounded by beauty contestants, but rather than say something ribald — which he has been known to do — he simply smiled and said, “My girlfriend’s not going to be happy about this.” Then again, Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign persona may well have an expiration date. “It’s going to last until he wins,” said one Bloomberg supporter. “There’s no way they can bottle him up that long.”


Fortis Reports $37 Billion Loss but Now Is Optimistic

Abstract: The Belgian financial services company Fortis Holding reported a €28 billion loss for 2008 on Tuesday and offered an optimistic view of the future, but a Brussels court ruling cast doubt on hopes for a rapid takeover by BNP Paribas. Fortis’s loss, equivalent to about $37 billion, came after a profit of €4 billion in 2007. Most of the total resulted from losses of €27.4 billion on the hurried sale of its banking operations to the Dutch and Belgian governments as the company teetered on the verge of failure last autumn. It got back €2 billion for its Dutch insurance operations. In Brussels, the company’s plans to engineer a sale of the banking operations to BNP hit a serious snag when an appeals court ruled that only Fortis shareholders of record on Oct. 14 who have kept their shares since then will have a vote next Wednesday and Thursday on the government takeover that enabled the breakup of the company. The exclusion of shareholders who bought more recently would keep out short-term investors who sought a quick profit from allowing the deal to go through, and could also open the way to additional litigation from the newer investors, who might claim their rights have been violated. The company and the Belgian government reached a revised deal March 6 with BNP under which the French bank would pay €2.9 billion in shares for 75 percent of Fortis Bank. That is about €510 million more for shareholders than in the previous offer. The proposal also gives guarantees that the insurance unit would remain in business. BNP Paribas would become the largest euro-zone bank in terms of deposits if the deal goes through. The Fortis chief executive, Karel De Boeck, said that the company was being held hostage by the continuous efforts to hold up the deal in the courts. “There is a number of people that underestimate the damage they do by continuously questioning, tracking our attention down to what is not the essentials,” Bloomberg News quoted him as saying. Earlier Tuesday, Mr. de Boeck had urged shareholder support for the deal, saying a combination with BNP would ensure Fortis’s viability and that the merged company would carefully consider the best way to employ its capital, including through acquisitions. Fortis said it intended to go ahead with the shareholder votes, but it now faces the prospect of a long court fight, regardless of the outcome. The company’s shares rose more than 10 percent Brussels trading on Tuesday, gaining €1.29, to €9.97. Laurent Arnauts, an attorney with the in Brussels law firm Modrikamen, which is leading opposition to the takeover, said after the court ruling that the shareholders he represents — a little less than 1 percent of the total — would continue their efforts to derail the BNP deal and the government takeover that enabled it regardless of what happens in the shareholder vote next week. “We want Fortis to stand alone,” Mr. Arnauts said, “The BNP offer is bad.” He said it was unlikely BNP, which has received funds from the French government, would be able to substantially raise its offer to reflect “the true value of Fortis.” The ruling Tuesday will raise the effective stake of Ping An Insurance, a Chinese insurer based in Shenzhen, to about 25 percent of the vote, from about 5 percent on Feb. 11, when shareholders rejected the deal by a thin margin. Ping An, which lost 15.7 billion yuan on its Fortis investment last year as a result of the company’s implosion, voted against the BNP deal. An attorney for Ping An in Brussels, Stefan Odeurs, declined to comment, saying: “Our client will probably make a press announcement in the course of the week.” Fortis took on a heavy debt load with its part in the acquisition and breakup of the Dutch bank ABM AMRO at the height of the credit bubble. With Fortis facing failure after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Dutch government nationalized the Netherlands operations in October, and BNP Paribas agreed to acquire the banking and insurance operations in Belgium and Luxembourg. Opposition from aggrieved shareholders has twice torpedoed a BNP deal Sberbank, the top Russian lender, said bad loans were expected to continue to climb sharply, Reuters reported from Moscow. German Gref, the head of the bank, said bad loan provisions would increase to 7.5 percent to 9.0 percent of its loan portfolio by the end of 2009. Just a month ago, the bank estimated 5.0 percent to 7.5 percent.


The Feud That’s Shaking Gallery Walls

Abstract: Ronald O. Perelman slides into a chair in his office surrounded by proof of his “wall power”: an Andy Warhol print, a Roy Lichtenstein landscape and one of Cy Twombly’s giant squiggle paintings. Mr. Perelman has collected art for as long as he’s been collecting companies. His trove of postwar and contemporary work, amassed over more than 30 years and spread among his Manhattan townhouse, East Hampton estate and 257-foot yacht, is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion. Today, however, he wants to exhibit a different side of the art world. Through a lawsuit against his former friend and art dealer Larry Gagosian, Mr. Perelman has set out to expose what he calls the “dirty” side of the glamorous, opaque, $60-billion business of buying and selling high-end art. “Art is such a beautiful thing,” Mr. Perelman told me recently in his first interview on the subject. “But it’s been sullied by an ugly business. It needs to be fixed.” Mr. Perelman has his own share of critics, of course. This 71-year-old billionaire C.E.O. of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings — which owns or controls companies including Revlon, Scientific Games and Deluxe Entertainment — is better known for his public divorces and hardball business tactics than he is for moralizing about market reform. He is one of the most sophisticated players in the art market, with his own special art fund and curator. He is the consummate insider. In a statement, Mr. Gagosian’s lawyer, Matthew S. Dontzin, said that “Ron Perelman’s disingenuous claims that he is a crusader are nothing more than a cover for the fact that he is a notorious bully with a well-known history of filing meritless litigations who once again won’t pay what’s owed.” Image Larry Gagosian Credit Image Gate, via Getty Images Mr. Gagosian declined to comment for this article. Still, whether or not they sympathize with Mr. Perelman, many dealers and collectors appreciate his well-funded effort — he’s spent millions on lawyers and a team of investigators. The art market, many say, is now driven more by speculation and trading than by long-term collectors or underlying value. Even as prices reach glittering new highs, with $58 million Balloon Dogs and $142 million Francis Bacon triptychs , art remains one of the world’s largest unregulated markets, with remarkably little disclosure or conflict-of-interest rules. Auction houses, for instance, now use “third-party guarantees,” in which an anonymous investor or collector agrees to buy a piece before auction at an undisclosed price. Those investors can also bid on the work and get a share of profits if it sells to someone else for a higher price. Dealers commonly buy back work from their own artists to support prices, collectors and gallerists say. And more top works are being bought, traded and sold by groups of individuals with undisclosed business ties. “The market has certainly become more commodified,” said David Nash, the New York gallerist and former Sotheby’s executive, who isn’t involved in the Perelman-Gagosian feud. “Art’s considered much more of a tradable asset now. I would agree there is a need for greater transparency.” Back in 2011, Mr. Perelman and Mr. Gagosian were close friends and had been for more than 20 years, attending parties and charity events together and partnering on a restaurant in the Hamptons, the Blue Parrot. Mr. Perelman had bought or sold nearly 200 works of art through Mr. Gagosian, helping Mr. Gagosian become one of the world’s most powerful dealers, with more than $1 billion in sales and galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Rome and other cities. In turn, Mr. Perelman built a collection of prized works that have soared in value over the last decade. One afternoon in April 2011 at Mr. Gagosian’s gallery on Madison Avenue, Mr. Perelman was captivated by a shimmering blue Twombly painting on the wall; it was titled “Leaving Paphos Ringed With Waves.” Mr. Gagosian said it was valued at around $8 million. Mr. Perelman offered around $6 million. According to court filings, Mr. Perelman approached Mr. Gagosian a little more than a week later with another offer. But Mr. Gagosian had already sold it — to an entity based in the Cayman Islands controlled by the Mugrabi family, megacollectors who often partner with Mr. Gagosian to buy and sell art. The Mugrabis bought it for $7.25 million, paying in part with their ownership stake in artwork also co-owned by Mr. Gagosian. Image Ronald O. Perelman Credit Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images Mr. Gagosian didn’t tell Mr. Perelman who the buyer was. But he told Mr. Perelman that if he still wanted to buy the piece, the new price would be $11.5 million. In September, Mr. Perelman agreed to pay $10.5 million, giving the Mugrabis a quick $2 million profit and Mr. Gagosian a $1 million commission. The deal shattered their friendship. Mr. Gagosian and Mr. Perelman sued each other on the same day in 2012. In his suit, Mr. Gagosian accused Mr. Perelman of breach of contract, saying he failed to adequately pay for the Twombly and other works, offering cash and “unwanted” art in exchange that fell $1 million short of the promised payment. (That suit was withdrawn, but Mr. Gagosian still says he was never paid in full.) In suing Mr. Gagosian, Mr. Perelman contended fraud, saying the Mugrabi sale was a “sham” aimed at jacking up the price. “The striking jump in price, the lightning-fast chronology of events and the absence of a typical invoice for the sale, all call into question the propriety and bona fides of the sale,” Mr. Perelman’s lawyers said in court filings. Mr. Perelman declined to comment on the case’s specifics or on Mr. Gagosian, but said his desire to shine a light on the market went far beyond his Twombly purchase. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said. Mr. Gagosian’s lawyers say the Mugrabi purchase was an “arm’s-length transaction” supported by all the proper invoices and documentation. In the last few months, Mr. Perelman has turned the art world upside down. His lawyers have sent subpoenas to some of the biggest players in the business and sent art experts to galleries and dealers and even to visit artists. He subpoenaed members of the Mugrabi family. (Jose, David and Alberto Mugrabi gave depositions last month.) He has also submitted subpoenas to the auction houses Sotheby’s and Phillips, according to court filings. He’s even enlisted a former F.B.I. agent who is well versed in the art business to interview big collectors and dealers, according to two gallery owners. Major artists close to Mr. Gagosian have also been questioned, these gallerists say. According to court papers, Mr. Perelman is seeking information related to dealers, collectors and investors who deal with Mr. Gagosian. Mr. Gagosian’s lawyers say the interrogation is an effort to “harass Gagosian and disparage the gallery.” Mr. Perelman has already spent an estimated $3 million or more on lawyers and research. A settlement looks unlikely. At a recent mediation session ordered by the court, Mr. Perelman and Mr. Gagosian sat in the same room, but didn’t speak to each other.

Collecting
Art
Lawsuits
Larry Gagosian
Price
Auction
Ronald Perelman


Novak Djokovic’s French Open Chase

Abstract: PARIS — Respecting the schedule that Novak Djokovic laid out in January, it is now time for dessert. So will he finally get to taste some at the French Open? Many a great tennis champion has skidded to a halt at Roland Garros. Those who have tried, tried some more and ultimately failed to win the world’s premier clay-court event include Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, Bill Tilden, John McEnroe, Pancho Gonzales, John Newcombe, Stefan Edberg and Djokovic’s coach, Boris Becker. “I lost to guys who were better than me on clay; there is no mystery,” Becker said in an interview last week. Becker, at his best on faster surfaces, reached three French Open semifinals but never won any tour-level tournament on clay. Djokovic is in a different class as one of the most successful clay-court players in history. His career winning percentage on the surface, 79.7 percent, is the fifth best in the Open era for players with more than 200 matches. And since the French championships became open to non-French players in 1925, no other man has had as impressive a record in Paris without finding a way to win the title at least once. “He definitely needs it; there’s no doubt,” said Jim Courier, a two-time French Open champion. “Novak would not be considered the greatest player of all time, which he has a chance to be, if he’s not able to win it.” Image Djokovic with the 2015 French Open champion, Wawrinka, who defeated him by 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Credit Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Djokovic, an elastic Serbian and the world’s No. 1 player by a mathematical margin equivalent to the Rift Valley, has been a French Open finalist three times in the last four years. He lost in four sets in 2012 and 2014 to the greatest clay-court player in history, Rafael Nadal, which was deflating but perfectly comprehensible. Djokovic then obliterated Nadal, a nine-time champion, in the quarterfinals last year only to lose the big one, in an earthshaking upset , to Stan Wawrinka, who was in a state of unanticipated grace. But Djokovic has also reached four semifinals and two quarterfinals at Roland Garros since he made his debut in 2005, shortly after his 18th birthday. No man has been so close for so long without reward — not even Roger Federer, who reached three finals but only one semifinal before finally winning in 2009 . No, Djokovic is all on his lonesome in the frustration department. He is the only man in the top 10 in career French Open match victories without the title. Although he is clearly still in his prime (he turns 29 on Sunday) and in the midst of another dominant season, the clock — biological and otherwise — is ticking. Federer, Andres Gomez, Andre Agassi and Wawrinka share the men’s French Open record, each having won the title for the first time on his 11th attempt. This will be Djokovic’s 12th try. Although he has proved himself remarkably adept in recent seasons at shedding midmatch and midtournament mental baggage and finding the lines when it really counts, Roland Garros at this stage seems a psychological challenge of a very different magnitude. Image Djokovic in his first French Open appearance, in 2005. He will be making his 12th appearance this year, seeking his first title. Credit Christophe Ena/Associated Press “He lost in the French to Stan last year, and I think the second practice at Wimbledon, I organized another practice with Stan because of that,” Becker said. “I told Novak: ‘That was clay. This is grass. It’s a new tournament, and you’ve got to practice with the guy who gave you a very disappointing loss.’ And Novak did it, and once they practiced, they joked about it, and it was over. “Paris was over. So there are ways about it, how you overcome situations. But in order to overcome them, you have to face them. You have to talk about them. You have to deal with it. You can’t run away.” Opportunities to talk about Roland Garros are legion, of course. Along with an Olympic gold medal, the French Open is the only major tennis prize Djokovic lacks, and unlike the gold medal, it is a trophy he has to chase every spring. “I think he has put too much out there in public the last few years as to what it means to him,” Courier said. “I think one of Nadal’s great strengths is, he’s always played every point so individually, let alone tournaments. “Obviously the majors mean more to everybody, but Nadal is able to compartmentalize so well historically. So is Federer, and I think Novak is a little more of an emotion-based guy. He thrives on that energy, and I think as a result of that, he’s been honest to his credit, but maybe to a fault.” This year, the questions started in earnest the night he won the Australian Open in January and compared himself to a wolf on a hill fighting off the pack below. “But wolf needs to eat a lot of different meals to get to Paris,” Djokovic said. “Paris is a dessert.” Since then, Djokovic has dined out on American hardcourts, sweeping the Indian Wells and Miami events. Even with a title in Madrid this month, there has been some clay-court indigestion, including an opening-round loss to Jiri Vesely in Monte Carlo and a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Andy Murray on Sunday in the final in Rome . Both losses came with caveats. In Monte Carlo, Djokovic was flat after a draining period on and off the court. In Rome, he had already fought through Nadal in a taxing two-set quarterfinal and Kei Nishikori in an even more grueling three-set semifinal before playing with a sore ankle against Murray on very little rest. With Djokovic’s quest, the French Open, which begins Sunday, was already interesting. Now, with Murray, Nadal and Nishikori all in the mix, it is fascinating. Djokovic has a week to reboot and recover, which is something he does particularly well in a Grand Slam context. And when he returns to Paris this time, he returns with the memory of the touching and extended ovation he received after last year’s loss in the final, from a tough and unpredictable audience: the French crowd on center court. “I think he goes with good feelings to Paris,” Becker said. “The loss to Stan gave him more than he anticipated, and I think that that carries in the soul a long time, how the crowd really appreciated his sportsmanship at the end and his fair play. “Obviously, Novak knows what is the task, but you go day by day, practice by practice, match by match and then take it from there. I think the overriding feeling is a good one. He’s looking forward to the challenge.” And perhaps — at last — his just dessert.


3 Held in Bomb Plot Against Somalis in Kansas

Abstract: Three militia members plotted to detonate a bomb at a housing complex in western Kansas where Somali immigrants lived and worshiped, federal investigators said Friday. The men, who were arrested Friday morning on domestic terrorism charges, scouted out the apartments in Garden City, Kan., stockpiled guns and composed a manifesto about their anti-Muslim motives, prosecutors said. “Their rhetoric and their speech have revealed a hatred for Muslims, Somalis and immigrants,” an F.B.I. agent wrote in affidavit related to the case. The plotters planned to carry out their attack on Nov. 9, the day after the presidential election, the authorities said. The three men are Curtis Allen and Gavin Wright, both 49 and from Liberal, Kan., about 65 miles from Garden City, and Patrick Stein, 47, of Wright, Kan. According to the F.B.I. agent’s affidavit, the men referred to Muslims as “cockroaches” and met frequently to discuss the plot. Officials said that the apartment complex they targeted housed about 120 people, including many Somalis who work at a nearby meatpacking plant, and that one of the units was used as a mosque. Eric Jackson, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I’s Kansas City office, said that agents infiltrated the militia months ago, and that the men planned to wait until the presidential campaign was over before carrying out the plot. He did not specify which candidate the militia members were supporting. Prosecutors said Mr. Stein became worried this week that the plan could be foiled after Mr. Allen was arrested on domestic violence charges. “These individuals had desire, the means and the capability, and were committed to carrying out this act of domestic terrorism,” Mr. Jackson said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called Friday for state and federal law enforcement agencies to increase protection of mosques across the country. The council’s Kansas board chairman, Moussa Elbayoumy, said Garden City counted several hundred Muslims among its roughly 27,000 residents. Mr. Elbayoumy said there was one mosque in the city, which served a mixture of long-established American Muslims and recent immigrants. “I am personally not aware of any tensions between the Muslim community and the surrounding community,” said Mr. Elbayoumy, who lives in another part of Kansas. “Most of them are getting along very well, and there have been contacts with interfaith groups.” Investigators said the plotters were part of a group called the Crusaders that had militia and so-called sovereign citizen ties. The authorities learned of the attack from a paid informant, the affidavit said. In the affidavit, the F.B.I. agent wrote, “They chose the target location based on their hatred of these groups, their perception that the people represent a threat to American society, a desire to inspire other militia groups, and a desire to ‘wake people up.’ ” Mayor Chris Law of Garden City said in a statement that he was “shocked, but at the same time extremely proud of and grateful for the efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement.” The Garden City police chief, Michael Utz, said his department had been aware of the investigation and was assured that all suspects were in custody. Mr. Jackson, the F.B.I. official, said he was confident the plot was fully foiled. It would have had a significant impact not only on the state of Kansas, this community, but also this nation,” Mr. Jackson said. “This would have been picked up not only nationally, but internationally.”

Kansas
Immigration
Terrorism
Garden City
Muslim Americans
FBI
Fringe Groups


Researcher Gets First Photograph Ever of Rare Hummingbird

Abstract: The mountainous area around Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, is a biological hotspot of sorts, filled with bird species that are found nowhere else. “It’s just chock-full of these rare endemic birds,” said Michael Parr, vice president of American Bird Conservancy , which works to protect wild birds and their habitat in the Americas. Among the species found there is a hummingbird, the Santa Marta sabrewing. Rare birds in isolated habitats can be a recipe for extinction, and while there had been a few unconfirmed sightings of the sabrewing in recent years, the bird’s existence had not been documented for decades. Until March 24, that is, when a researcher studying migratory birds, Laura Cárdenas, caught one in a mist net, banded it and took its picture before releasing it. It’s the first photograph ever of a Santa Marta sabrewing. “She had a little bit of luck,” Mr. Parr said. “The bird just flew into the net, completely by chance.” The photograph was taken in the El Dorado Preserve, 1,700 acres of land in the mountains that was purchased by the conservancy and other groups in 2006. More than 360 bird species have been found there, including the hummingbird and 10 others that are listed as threatened. The eventual goal is to expand the reserve to about 7,000 acres in an area that has been badly deforested. “It’s the very best piece of remaining habitat,” Mr. Parr said. The sighting shows that “the ecosystem is more intact than you might have feared,” he added.

Birds
Colombia
Endangered and Extinct Species
Environment
Science and Technology


Death After the Typhoon: ‘It Was Preventable’

Abstract: TACLOBAN, the Philippines — Richard Pulga lay on a hard steel gurney for five days with only a saline drip after being seriously injured in the typhoon that devastated his country. On Friday, Mr. Pulga, 27, died — essentially of a broken leg. Doctors said the father of two small children could have been saved. Instead, he became a victim of the incompetence and inaction that have plagued relief efforts here for the hundreds of thousands left injured, or homeless or hungry, and sometimes all three, since the typhoon hit. By the time Dr. Rodel Flores, a surgeon with a team of visiting doctors, found Mr. Pulga on Thursday, he had received no antibiotics or antiseptic and his leg was badly infected. The doctor ordered an emergency amputation to try to save his life. But the surgery was too late, and death soon followed. “In short,” Dr. Flores said, “it was preventable.” Mr. Pulga was one of the first victims of Typhoon Haiyan to be brought to the top government hospital in the city. He was there because he had tried to protect his home, sending his family to a safer place as some of the highest typhoon winds ever recorded slammed into his island. Those winds sent a coconut rocketing through the darkness into his leg, shattering it. His death is one of the clearest signs yet of the human toll taken by a slow and troubled relief effort since the typhoon swept ashore on Nov. 8. Like much-needed water and food, medicine — including antibiotics — was held up for days as rescue teams struggled to operate amid the chaos of a city with too few military or police officers to provide security and too little government control. Aid workers huddled for days at the airport, unable to obtain vehicles or fuel and fearful of venturing out amid reports of sporadic gunfire as desperate people nearly hijacked one convoy approaching Tacloban, which turned back. Some of those workers have since said the inadequate government response has made this disaster more difficult in some ways than such historic catastrophes as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. By Friday, a full week into the disaster, aid had finally begun to flow more smoothly, in part because of help from better-equipped foreign militaries. Field hospitals had begun to be set up, but as with the Indian Ocean disaster, aid workers worried that infections from lacerations would claim many more lives. For Mr. Pulga’s family, the loss is catastrophic. A farmer, Mr. Pulga was one of the few men in his extended family able to earn money. In his final days, as he spoke with a reporter from The New York Times, it was that thought that consumed him. On Friday, his widow, Jennifer, wept next to his covered corpse in a hallway at St. Paul’s Hospital here, a private hospital the surgeons transferred him to in the last-ditch effort to save him. After initially being too traumatized to visit, she had arrived in time for his surgery. “I want to bring him home,” she said Friday, “but we have no home left.” Mr. Pulga arrived at the first hospital, Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, shortly after the storm swept through. The hospital had been partly swamped with seawater, losing electricity and most of its medical supplies. In his time there, Mr. Pulga received virtually no care. When his wound began leaking blood during the interview on Wednesday, two workers in orange Philippines Department of Health vests removed the blood-caked, four-day-old bandage, showed the wound briefly to a government doctor, then secured the same bandage with gauze to stop the bleeding. Image Mr. Pulga on Wednesday. The hospital was running low on antiseptics, antibiotics and painkillers; Mr. Pulga received none. It was unclear why the hospital’s triage team did not make him a higher priority. Luminada Florendo, Mr. Pulga’s aunt, said on Wednesday that a doctor had suggested she take him home because she had no money for the treatment he would need; the doctor left before he could be interviewed. When the visiting medical team from Davao in the southern Philippines showed up a day later, the doctors concluded that Mr. Pulga was the sickest person in the hospital and ordered that he be transferred to St. Paul’s. Dr. Mauri Bravo III, one of the surgeons who performed the amputation, said the wound had a distinctive fruity smell of infection. Mr. Pulga’s eyes were turning yellow, and his abdomen was distended. Doctors found no sign of lower-back injury, another possible cause of abdominal pain. Virginia Ausa, a nurse at Eastern Visayas Regional, said that no one there had been aware that Mr. Pulga had been interviewed by an international news organization and that he had not been singled out for special treatment for this reason by the Davao team. Dr. Flores said the same. As the doctors prepared Mr. Pulga for surgery on Thursday, it became clear that he was suffering from septicemia and that his body’s ability to produce red blood cells was dwindling. But on Friday his body began to shut down, partly because the hospital’s blood bank had been destroyed, so he could not receive a needed transfusion before surgery. By late morning, he was dead. Dr. Flores said the bill for his care would most likely be covered by the Philippines Department of Health. When told the story of Mr. Pulga’s final days, Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez — who has been widely accused by residents of mounting an insufficient relief response — was quick to deflect criticism, saying Eastern Visayas Regional has long been “a problem.” Dr. Albert de Leon, the hospital’s chief administrator, said malnutrition and other unsuspected weaknesses in people like Mr. Pulga sometimes made them hard to save. “There is a supreme being who decides the fate of every one of us,” he said. When told of Mr. Romualdez’s criticisms, Dr. de Leon launched into such an angry outburst that another doctor rushed over to calm him. Dr. de Leon said that his hospital was an excellent teaching and research institution and that the mayor should do much more to organize typhoon relief. “We are in his city, and yet he is not doing that — even the garbage disposal, he doesn’t do anything,” Dr. de Leon raged in a hospital corridor that was growing dark at sunset and still had no electricity. At St. Paul’s Hospital, a security guard told Mr. Pulga’s wife that her husband’s body would have to be buried in a mass grave if she could not remove it. She had no vehicle to transport it and sobbed for more than an hour, refusing to make a decision. Dr. Flores and Dr. Bravo gave a lengthy interview in the hospital parking lot about Mr. Pulga’s last days. Dr. Bravo then went upstairs to the steel bed where Mr. Pulga’s body had been. It was empty. No one seemed to know where the corpse or the bereaved had gone.

Philippines
Richard Pulga
Typhoon Haiyan
Hospital
Fatalities,casualties
Tacloban Philippines
Humanitarian aid


Solyndra, a Solar-Panel Maker, Will Close a Plant

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Solyndra, a Silicon Valley solar-panel maker that won half a billion dollars in federal aid to build a state-of-the-art robotic factory, plans to announce on Wednesday that it will shut down an older plant and lay off workers. The cost-cutting move, which will reduce the company’s previously announced production capacity, is a sign of the notable shift in the prospects for cutting-edge American solar companies, which now face intense price competition from Chinese manufacturers that use more established photovoltaic technologies. Just seven weeks ago, Solyndra opened Fab 2, a $733 million factory in Fremont, Calif., to make its high-tech solar panels. The new plant was supposed to be the first phase of a rapid expansion of the company. Instead, Solyndra has decided to shutter the old plant and postpone plans to expand Fab 2, which was built with a $535 million federal loan guarantee . “Fab 2 is much more efficient and cost-effective than our existing facility,” Brian Harrison, Solyndra’s chief executive, said in an interview. “We’re adjusting our plans to be more in line with where the market is and where our business is at the moment.” When Solyndra filed for an initial public stock offering in December, it estimated it would have a total production capacity of 610 megawatts by 2013 if its two plants were fully built out. The company now expects it have capacity of 285 to 300 megawatts by 2013. Solyndra abandoned plans for the stock offering in June, citing market conditions. The company is the most prominent of a wave of Silicon Valley solar start-ups that hoped to transform the economics of the industry. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Energy Secretary Steven Chu helped break ground on Fab 2 last year, and President Obama made an appearance at the unfinished factory in May to extol Solyndra’s innovative technology. Mr. Harrison noted that the market had undergone a significant shift since Solyndra filed for the stock offering, with solar module prices plummeting as low-cost Chinese manufacturers like Suntech and Yingli ramped up production. That has put pressure on companies like Solyndra, which makes advanced thin-film solar modules that are less efficient than conventional photovoltaic modules but had been cheaper to install until prices began to fall sharply last year. Solyndra said it would lay off around 40 employees and not renew contracts for about 150 temporary workers as a result of the consolidation. The closing of the old factory, called Fab 1, will save the company more than $60 million in capital expenditures, executives said. Mr. Harrison, who became Solyndra’s chief executive in July, said that despite the cutbacks, the company’s production of solar panels for commercial rooftops would double in 2011 from the previous year. He said Solyndra continued to receive large orders from customers. Depending on how the market evolves, Solyndra could reopen Fab 1 or expand its new factory, Mr. Harrison said.

Solar Energy
Solyndra Inc
Factories and Manufacturing


Panthers Hit the Road for a Homecoming Game

Abstract: SUNRISE, Fla. — When the puck drops Sunday for the start of the first Stanley Cup playoff game ever played in Brooklyn, the Florida Panthers could feel more at home than the Islanders. The Panthers’ owners, Vincent Viola and Doug Cifu, are as New York as New Yorkers come. Viola grew up in Brooklyn and went to high school at Brooklyn Tech, within walking distance of what is now Barclays Center. Since buying the Panthers with Cifu in 2013 and becoming their principal owner, Viola has arranged a team dinner at Bamonte’s, a classic Italian restaurant in Williamsburg. That was where Viola celebrated his first communion, his confirmation and his high school graduation. “Everybody talks, everybody communicates, and it’s just kind of having people appreciate a little bit where Vinnie came from, the old neighborhood,” Cifu said. “He’s from pretty modest means, so he’s a pretty incredible American story. We don’t close the place, either; it’s open to the public, so yeah, it’s 20-some-odd hockey players and then maybe another 20-odd staff, so we have a big, long table of 50 people, and I’m an Italian-American like Vinnie, so it’s a little bit like our family dinners on Sunday.” Cifu can recall Viola telling him of the time he paid either $2 or $4 to go to his first Rangers game, and how proud he is to call himself a Brooklynite. The fact that Viola was involved in the decision to ultimately build Barclays Center as a partner in the Nets’ organization, and helped move the Nets to Brooklyn, is something that Cifu believes has given his friend the feeling that he has come full circle in life. Cifu grew up a Rangers fan in Syosset on Long Island. He watched the Islanders’ run of four consecutive Stanley Cups during his high school years. He finds it surreal that he is in the midst of a playoff series, tied at a game apiece, between his hometown team and the team he partly owns. Image Vincent Viola, the Panthers’ principal owner. Credit Omar Vega/Invision, via AP Cifu recalled when he met Denis Potvin, a former Islanders defenseman and current Panthers broadcaster, and Bill Torrey, an adviser to the Panthers’ front office and the architect of the Islanders’ Cup-winning teams. “I had to thank them for basically ruining my youth because they were such a juggernaut,” Cifu said. “It was tough growing up in Syosset. I think I was one of three Ranger fans.” Potvin laughed about that when he was reminded of it before Florida’s 3-1 win in Game 2 at BB&T Center on Friday night. “You know, I just feel that Mr. Cifu had bad direction as a young child,” he said. “Somebody had to be a Rangers fan in his family.” But it all seems to have worked out, at least from Potvin’s perspective. “I think we’re all on the same page right now, no doubt about that,” he said. Potvin added, “The fact is I told several people that when I first met Mr. Viola and Doug that it just brought me right back to 1993 with Wayne Huizenga,” the Panthers’ original owner. “And the fact that they were ready to open up shop with some real professionals and help this team go a long way and make a commitment to the area rings true.” Viola and Cifu, separated in age by almost a decade, have become close friends. Since buying the Panthers three years ago — the team was born in 1993, the year the Islanders last won a playoff series — they have tried to build a winner in the mold of the Islanders of the early 1980s. Neither of them laced up hockey skates, but Viola, who declined to be interviewed, and Cifu grew to love the sport so much that after becoming successful businessmen, they turned their eye toward buying a team. Viola, the son of a truck driver, graduated from West Point in 1977. He also went to the United States Army Ranger School and served in the 101st Airborne. He started the Texas regional bank Independent Bank Group in 1989, and he is still the company’s largest shareholder. In 1982 he joined the New York Mercantile Exchange, and he was its chairman from 2001 to 2004. In 2008, Viola founded Virtu Financial, a leading electronic trading firm, and he took it public in April 2015. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Teresa, after raising three sons in New Jersey. “We were sitting at a Ranger game one day talking, and we said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be a cool thing or a great thing if we could apply what we’ve learned in operating businesses — I’ve been in business 25 years; he’s been in business 35 years — to a sports team and particularly hockey?’ ” said Cifu, Virtu Financial’s chief executive and one of its founders. “It was just because we had a good sense that we would really like the culture of the game and the players in the game, so our intuition has been 100 percent correct.” They have also made the Panthers appreciate the tradition at Bamonte’s, where the waiters wear Panthers jerseys. “It’s pretty cool, and we get to see where Vinnie grew up,” said Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad, who had a goal and an assist in Game 2. “He worked his way from the bottom, so it’s pretty interesting.” Bjugstad added: “These guys, our owners, definitely support the team really well. They like coming to the locker room every once in a while and talking to us, which is good from a personal level. And Bamonte’s food is unbelievable. We don’t mind going back there every year.”

Playoffs
Florida Panthers
Islanders
Vincent Viola
Ice hockey
Douglas Anthony Cifu
Barclays Center Brooklyn NY
Bamonte's


Malawi: President Suffers Heart Attack

Abstract: President Bingu wa Mutharika was hospitalized Thursday after suffering a heart attack, medical and government officials said. Mr. Mutharika, 78, who has governed Malawi since 2004, was in serious condition, hospital officials said, but local news reports offered conflicting accounts. Some said he had been airlifted to South Africa for treatment, and at least one report said he had died. His spokesman, Hetherwick Ntaba, said he had no information about the president’s condition. Malawi has been rocked by political and economic turmoil. Security forces fired on protesters last year, killing 19 people, and prompting the United States to suspend a $350 million grant. Mr. Mutharika’s critics accuse him of autocratic behavior; last month his office ordered journalists to stop calling him “the Big Kahuna.”

Malawi
Heart
Mutharika Bingu wa
Politics and Government


N.Y.C. Mayoral Hopefuls Vie to Love Animals the Most

Abstract: Bill de Blasio bragged that his two children were vegetarians. William C. Thompson Jr. noted that he had a rescued cat. Sal F. Albanese said his mother-in-law’s life was lengthened by the companionship of a Chihuahua named Joey. The mayoral candidates participating in a forum on Monday on animal rights all did their best, in various ways, to prove themselves animal lovers. But when it came to over-the-top stories of devotion, none of them outdid John A. Catsimatidis , the businessman and Republican candidate, who described how he once called the Fire Department to rescue his daughter’s escaped cockatiel, and how his wife tried to save the life of the family’s elderly cat by giving it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. (The cat did not survive.) Animal rights have emerged recently as an unexpected tinderbox in the mayoral race, primarily around the issue of New York’s horse carriages. Efforts to ban the industry, which some consider inhumane, have been opposed by Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and Democratic mayoral candidate, making her a bête noire of animal rights activists . Recently, Steve Nislick , a parking garage magnate and the founder of a group that is dedicated to banning the carriages , helped pay for a series of ads attacking Ms. Quinn. So it was little surprise that when Mr. Nislick’s group, Nyclass , announced that it was hosting a forum on animal rights, Ms. Quinn did not attend. Even so, her name was invoked frequently. Before the forum began, the executive director of the group, Allie Feldman, asked audience members to take out their cellphones and call her office to protest her stance on the carriage industry. “There is one thing I think that just about everybody in this room can agree on,” Ms. Feldman said. “That is that Christine Quinn has not been a friend to animals.” A spokesman for Ms. Quinn, Michael Morey, said Monday night that Ms. Quinn had a strong record on animal rights, including expanding financing for spaying and neutering programs, increasing safety measures for kennels and passing laws cracking down on animal abuse. The moderator, Tom F. Allon, who recently gave up his campaign for the Republican nomination, asked the candidates whether they would support legislation requiring sprinklers in pet stores, and how they would manage New York’s goose population. But the emotional heart of the evening, for the audience, was the carriage issue. Mr. de Blasio, the public advocate, drew thunderous applause and foot-stomping for his declaration, “The time for an end to horse carriages is now.” John C. Liu, the comptroller, said he supported a pilot program to replace carriages with electric cars, as Mr. Nislick’s group has proposed. He also tried to goad Mr. de Blasio, who he said had only recently come to oppose the carriage industry. After he noted that in the past Mr. de Blasio had voted to reform, but not ban, the industry, Mr. de Blasio erupted in irritation. “John, I admire your debate technique,” he snapped dismissively. Both Mr. Thompson, a Democrat and former comptroller, and Mr. Albanese, a Democrat and former city councilman, said that they supported phasing out horse carriages but that they were concerned about the jobs of those in the industry. In contrast, Mr. Catsimatidis said without apology that he liked the horse carriages. He said they contributed to the “ambience” of Central Park. When the audience booed and hissed, Mr. Catsimatidis entreated them to let him finish. He suggested, among other things, that retired carriage horses could be housed at the Central Park Zoo. When the audience hooted with derision, he shrugged and said: “It’s only a suggestion.” “I love the animals,” he continued, “and I think they should be well treated.”

Bill de Blasio
Mayoral races
Horse
Carriage
Animal Cruelty
Christine C Quinn
John A Catsimatidis
William C Thompson Jr
John C Liu
NYC


Judge Considers Limits on Apple’s Future E-Book Deals

Abstract: A federal judge proposed on Friday that Apple be required to negotiate future contracts with major publishers separately and at defined intervals as part of its punishment for illegally conspiring to raise the price of e-books. In a sometimes testy hearing in United States District Court in Lower Manhattan, Judge Denise L. Cote said that she was considering a plan in which Apple would negotiate contracts with publishers in a staggered fashion — possibly six to eight months apart — to prevent them from engaging in another price-fixing conspiracy. Judge Cote ruled in July that Apple colluded with publishers to raise the price of e-books before the introduction of its iPad in 2010. Those charges were brought against Apple and five major publishers by the Justice Department in 2012. The publishers all settled, but Apple held out and went to trial. The judge’s proposal was a scaled-back version of the guidelines put forth by the government last week, when it suggested that Apple be forced to end its agreements with the five settling publishers and avoid entering similar agreements with producers of movies, TV and music. Apple responded by calling the proposal a “draconian and punitive intrusion” into its business. The publishers who settled also objected to the Justice Department’s proposed remedy, saying that it would fundamentally change their existing settlements. In court on Friday, Judge Cote said that she wanted an injunction to be tailored so that it would encourage innovation in a rapidly changing e-book business and yet prevent collusion on price in the future. “I have no desire to regulate the App Store,” she said. But Judge Cote also slammed the publishers for lacking “contrition” and said that she feared future collusion in the e-book market. Although the publishers eventually agreed to settlements, none of them admitted wrongdoing. Judge Cote said that the publishers had played “a rough and tumble game” and engaged in “blatant price fixing.” “None of the publisher defendants have expressed any remorse,” she said. “They are, in a word, unrepentant.” Lawyers for Apple and the government said in court that they would meet in the next week and discuss the judge’s proposal. Another hearing is expected later this month. Apple and the Justice Department declined to comment. Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster settled in April 2012; Penguin Group USA and Macmillan settled later. Penguin has since merged with Random House, which was not named in the lawsuit.

Apple
Justice Department
Hachette Books
Simon & Schuster
Penguin Group
Random House
Competition law
EBooks EReaders
HarperCollins Publishers
Denise Cote


Indonesia Is Courted by Obama and China - News Analysis

Abstract: JAKARTA, Indonesia — Less than a day before President Obama touched down in Jakarta on Tuesday, a high-level Chinese delegation wrapped up a three-day official visit here by announcing that Beijing would invest $6.6 billion in desperately needed infrastructure improvements. The announcement’s emphasis on roads, bridges and canals — not to mention its timing — laid down a not-so-subtle challenge to Mr. Obama: Show your Indonesian hosts the money. As the United States and China step up their rivalry in Southeast Asia, Indonesia — officially hewing to a longstanding foreign policy of nonalignment but leaning closer to Washington — represents by far the biggest prize in a region caught uneasily between China’s rise and America’s renewed engagement. At a news conference here with his counterpart, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mr. Obama said the United States was not interested in “containing” China . But a day after endorsing India’s pursuit of a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in a move widely seen as an attempt to check China’s growing influence, Mr. Obama poured on the charm. The president, who spent four years as a boy here , sprinkled some Indonesian words in his speech and reminisced about daily life back then. More pointedly, he sought to align Indonesia with the United States on shared values, calling Indonesia a “critical partner” in ensuring Asia’s prosperity “primarily because it is a country that has figured out how to create a genuine democracy despite great diversity.” American and Chinese officials have been pursuing all 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations , but none more aggressively than Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, spread out across a strategically important, resource-rich archipelago and now led by a democratically elected government impatient to raise the country’s international profile. The United States will have to contend with challenges, old and new. Despite Indonesia’s enduring suspicion of China, Beijing has been making great inroads here, economically, diplomatically and militarily. And a newly confident Indonesia has been reasserting its independent foreign policy, promoting what it now calls a “dynamic equilibrium” for the region. “We want to maintain a strategic space from the rivalry between the United States and China,” said Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesia’s defense minister under Mr. Yudhoyono from 2004 to 2009. “We can navigate between that rivalry, from time to time giving out signals that both the United States and China are important to us, because if we align ourselves too closely, it would be detrimental to the core values of Indonesia’s foreign policy.” Despite Beijing’s efforts, Indonesia, like the rest of Southeast Asia, except Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, remains closer economically and strategically to the United States, experts say. “The Indonesians would never align explicitly with the U.S., but they would learn to play the game,” said Carlyle A. Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy who released a study on the effects of the American-Chinese rivalry on Southeast Asia. In July, the United States lifted a ban on cooperating with Kopassus, an Indonesian special forces unit implicated in past human rights abuses. That removed the last obstacle to normalizing military ties that had been suspended in the 1990s because of Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor. The United States, which has provided Indonesia with $47 million in equipment to bolster maritime security, also was co-host of a nine-nation military exercise with Indonesia last year. But United States policy in other parts of the Muslim world undercuts its appeal in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population. “As President Obama promised in Cairo more than a year ago, he said he wants to create new relations between the United States and the Muslim world based on mutual understanding and respect,” said Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic social and political organizations. “But many of us, including myself, are still waiting for the materialization of his promises. We maintain our skepticism because the foreign policy of the United States in Afghanistan or Palestine has not really shown any change.” Meanwhile, Mr. Syamsuddin said, China has been reaching out to Muslim leaders in Southeast Asia. He himself was invited to meet Jia Qinglin, a member of China’s ruling circle, in Beijing in May. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had planned a visit this year, but canceled for domestic reasons. Because of a failed 1965 Communist coup in Indonesia that is believed to have been backed by Beijing, Indonesia and China had no diplomatic relations until 1989. But trade between the two more than doubled from 2005 to 2009. Since a Strategic Partnership agreement in 2005, high-level military exchanges have increased, and Indonesian officers have trained in China. Under a series of agreements, China said it would provide Indonesia with technical assistance in building aircraft and ships, as well as help in producing weapons and ammunition. But there has been almost no follow-through yet on those agreements, which instead allowed Indonesia to use the “China card” to press the United States into deepening military ties, said Ian J. Storey, an expert on Southeast Asian military issues at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Still, Indonesia signaled recently that there were limits to how close it would get to the United States. In September, Mr. Yudhoyono conspicuously skipped a meeting in New York between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, when Mr. Obama was seeking support in pressing China for a resolution to disputes in the South China Sea. Aides said Mr. Yudhoyono was too busy attending to domestic issues, but his absence was interpreted differently here. “The Indonesian government felt that the U.S. was putting too much pressure on Indonesia and other Asean nations to choose sides,” said Syamsul Hadi, a political scientist at the University of Indonesia .

Indonesia
China
United States International Relations


Delaware Laws, Helpful to Arms Trafficker, to Be Scrutinized

Abstract: A Russian businessman who investigators say is the world’s largest arms trafficker used secret corporations formed in Delaware and other states to finance his activities. Now, the state’s business and tax practices are coming under Congressional scrutiny at a hearing on Thursday. Delaware and the other states have business-friendly laws that encourage the creation of opaque shell companies, allowing their true owners to be disguised or obscured. The Senate is considering new legislation to stop the formation of two million such American corporations a year in various states. Officials say the Russian businessman, Viktor Bout , used at least a dozen shell companies in Delaware — the leading state that allows the formation of such companies — as well as Texas and Florida. A Senate committee, which referred to Mr. Bout as the “Merchant of Death” in a statement on Wednesday, said he was under federal indictment for conspiracy to kill American citizens, acquire and use antiaircraft missiles and supply material to terrorists. Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who co-sponsored the legislation, contends that the state laws effectively allow arms trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling and tax fraud to flourish. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will take up the case at its hearing on Thursday. The proposed legislation would require states to collect the names of beneficial owners of corporations and limited liability companies formed under their laws, and to provide that information to law officials when requested. Mr. Bout, who was born in Tajikistan, was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 as part of an American-led sting operation. He was charged in the United States with conspiracy relating to the smuggling of missiles and rocket launchers to rebels in Colombia, but a Thai court refused last August to extradite him. Mr. Bout has denied any links to arms trafficking and told the judge during the proceedings this year that he was being held in “extremely inhumane” conditions. He was the inspiration for the 2005 Hollywood film “The Lord of War.”

Delaware
Corporations
Shell Companies
Bout Victor


About Half in U.S. Would Pay for Online News, Study Finds

Abstract: Americans, it turns out, are less willing than people in many other Western countries to pay for their online news, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group. Among regular Internet users in the United States, 48 percent said in the survey, conducted in October, that they would pay to read news online, including on mobile devices. That result tied with Britain for the lowest figure among nine countries where Boston Consulting commissioned surveys. In several Western European countries, more than 60 percent said they would pay. When asked how much they would pay, Americans averaged just $3 a month, tied with Australia for the lowest figure — and less than half the $7 average for Italians. The other countries included in the study were Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Finland. “Consumer willingness and intent to pay is related to the availability of a rich amount of free content,” said John Rose, a senior partner and head of the group’s global media practice. “There is more, better, richer free in the United States than anywhere else.” The question is of crucial interest to the American newspaper industry, which is weighing whether and how to put toll gates on its Web sites, to make up for plummeting print advertising. Mr. Rose and Dominic Field, a partner and head of the Boston Consulting media practice in the Americas, said that in Western European countries, news tended to be dominated by a handful of large players. But in the United States, they said, the news market is so fragmented that even if organizations banded together to charge for digital access, consumers would still find free sources online. Americans were much more likely than people in the other countries to say they might pay for admission to sites that offered Internet access to multiple papers. Paradoxically, in every country, the people who were willing to pay the most for news online were the people who already pay the most for news: avid newspaper readers. The study, which drew from a survey of 5,000 people, concluded that charging for online access to news would not greatly increase a newspaper’s revenue, but since the cost of reaching Internet readers was very low, it could significantly increase profit. RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

United States
Newspapers
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Computers and the Internet
News and News Media
Surveys and Series
Great Britain