Oct. 06, 2016

Thursday

October 6, 2016 T: 582-7800 | F: 582-7044 www.arubatoday.com

ONE TO WATCH Boston Red Sox’s Xander Bogaerts Page 20

Exodus

Beth Johnson fills up her car after waiting in line at a Sunoco gas station in advance of Hurricane Matthew in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Hurricane Matthew marched toward Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as nearly 2 million people along the coast were urged to evacuate their homes Wednesday, a mass exodus ahead of a major storm packing power the U.S. hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

(AP Photo/Mic Smith)

Millions Urged to Evacuate as Matthew Nears East Coast

MIKE SCHNEIDER KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Matthew marched toward Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as people along the coast were urged to evacuate

their homes Wednesday, a mass exodus ahead of a major storm packing power the U.S. hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

A spokeswoman for Florida’s governor says about 1.5 million residents have been urged to leave their

homes as Hurricane Matthew makes its way toward to state.

Most of the counties along Florida’s Atlantic coast have issued mandatory evacuations along the eastern most areas.

Jackie Schutz, spokeswom-

an for Florida Gov. Rick Scott, says the estimate of people statewide who are either being ordered or urged to evacuate is about 1.5 million.

South Carolina has told about a quarter million people to leave the coast

and Gov. Nikki Haley says she currently plans to order more evacuations for two more counties Thursday, bringing the total to about 500,000 people.

Continued on page 3

A2 UP

Thursday 6 October 2016

FRONT

Security Council agrees on Portugal’s Guterres next UN chief EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Portugal’s former prime minister Antonio Guterres won the Security Council’s unanimous backing Wednesday to become the next U.N. secretarygeneral, winning plaudits for his strong leadership but disappointing campaigners for a woman or East European to be the world’s top diplomat for the first time.

The veteran politician and diplomat, who served as the U.N.’s refugee chief until December, topped all six informal polls in the council after his performance in the first-ever questionand-answer sessions in the 193-member General Assembly, which received high marks from almost every diplomat.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the assembly hearings showed that Guterres “was an outstanding candidate ... who will take the United Nations to the next level in terms of leadership” and will provide “a moral authority at a time when the world is divided on issues, above all like Syria.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current Security Council president, appeared before reporters surrounded by the 14 other council ambassadors after the sixth informal poll of the 10 remaining candidates was held behind closed doors saying: “You are witnessing, I think, a historic scene.”Churkin then thanked all the candidates

saying they displayed “a lot of wisdom, understanding and concern for the fate of the world” and

post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general

al since 1996, said: “While it is disappointing that a man has once again been proposed by the U.N. Security

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres speaks during a news conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Guterres won the Security Council’s unanimous backing Wednesday to become the next U.N. secretary-general.

(Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

announced: “We have a clear favorite, and his name is Antonio Guterres.”

He said the Security Council would hold a formal vote on Thursday morning and expressed hope that the council will recommend Guterres by “acclamation” to the 193-member General Assembly, which must approve a successor to Ban Ki-moon whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions. Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the

and it was their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and more than 50 nations and many others campaigned to elect the first female U.N. chief. There was disappointment among East Europeans, who fielded many candidates in the race but never united behind one, and among supporters hoping for a woman. Seven of the 13 candidates who entered the race were women.

Antonia Kirkland, program manager for Equality Now, which has campaigned for a woman secretary-gener-

Council as secretary-general, we are at least hopeful that he will continue the feminist agenda.”

She said this should include “first of all, ensuring gender parity among his staff at the Secretariat, and also prioritizing violence and discrimination against women as a pivotal issue.”

Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, the U.N. official who played a key role in shaping last December’s historic agreement to fight climate change and one of three candidates who dropped out of the race, tweeted: “Bittersweet re-

sults #NextSG. Bitter: not a woman. Sweet: by far the best man in the race. Congrats Antonio Guterres! We are all with you.”

In the fifth “straw” poll on Sept. 28, Guterres received two “discourage” votes and there was a lot of speculation about whether Russia would support him.

The sixth poll on Wednesday morning was considered key because it was the first to use colored ballots to distinguish the votes of the five veto-wielding Security Council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

“The permanent members had red ballots and the non-permanent members had white ballots,” Britain’s Rycroft told reporters later.

He said “the crucial moment” for him was the announcement of the result of the fifth permanent member which showed Guterres had no “discourage” votes from any council member.

In that final vote, Guterres had 13 “encourage” votes, no “discourage” votes and two “no opinions.” He was the only candidate to top the required nine “encourage” votes and no “discourage” vote from a permanent member.

Far behind in second place was Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak with a vote of 7-6-2 including two “discourage” votes from permanent members. Serbia’s former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic had the same result but three “discourage” votes from permanent members.q

Paris climate agreement to take effect November 4 MICHAEL ASTOR Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The landmark Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force on Nov. 4, after being pushed past a key threshold Wednesday by a coalition of the world’s largest polluters and small island nations threatened by rising seas.

President Barack Obama hailed the news as “a turning point for our planet,” and U.N. Secretary-Gener-

al Ban Ki-moon called the agreement’s strong international support a “testament for the urgency of action.” Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech, called it: “A moment of bright hope in the increasingly discouraging landscape of climate science.”

U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq said the EU, Canada and Nepal would deposit their instruments of ratification Wednesday, edging

the percentage of emissions by ratifying countries past the 55 percent threshold needed for the treaty to take effect.

“I am delighted to announce that today the Paris Agreement will cross the second and final threshold needed for entry into force, and will enter into force on 4 November 2016,” Ban said in a statement issued from Europe.

“Global momentum for the Paris Agreement to enter

into force in 2016 has been remarkable. What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. “ The deal takes effect 30 days after 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions, have adopted it. Sixty-two countries had done so as of Tuesday but they accounted only for about 52 percent of emissions.

A U.N. website said that as of Wednesday afternoon 73 of the 197 parties to the

treaty, accounting for 56.87 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification.

Obama welcomed the news with a special address in the Rose Garden.

“Today, the world meets the moment,” Obama said.

“And if we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.”q

U.S. NEWS A3

Thursday 6 October 2016

Millions urged to evacuate as Matthew nears East Coast Continued from Front Matthew was a dangerous and life-threatening Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 mph (190 kph) as it passed through the Bahamas, and it was expected to be very near Florida’s Atlantic coast by Thursday evening. At least 11 deaths in the Caribbean have been blamed on the storm, with heavy damage reported in Haiti.

The storm was forecast to scrape much of the Florida coast and any slight deviation could mean landfall or it heading farther out to sea. Either way, it was going to be close enough to wreak havoc along the lower part of the East Coast, and many people weren’t taking any chances. In Melbourne Beach, near the Kennedy Space Center, Carlos and April Medina moved their paddle board and kayak inside the garage and took pictures off the walls of their home about 500 feet from the coast. They moved the pool furniture inside, turned off the water, disconnected all electrical appliances and emptied their refrigerator. They then hopped in a truck filled with legal documents, jewelry and a decorative carved shell that had once belonged to April Medina’s greatgrandfather and headed west to Orlando, where they planned to ride out the storm with their daughter’s family.

“The way we see it, if it maintains its current path, we get tropical stormstrength winds. If it makes a little shift to the left, it could be a Category 2 or 3 and I don’t want to be anywhere near it,” Carlos Medina said. “We are just being a little safe, a little bit more cautious.”

About 20 miles away in the town of Cape Canaveral, John Long said Hurricane Matthew is just hype as his neighbors in his RV park packed up and evacuated inland. Even though his 32-foot RV is just feet from the Banana River and a half mile from the beach, he had no plans to leave.

Selen Hernandez of Deerfield Beach loads water into his car at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. Water was flying off the shelves in the tri-county area in anticipation of Hurricane Matthew.

(Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel via AP)

Long, who owns a bike shop and has lived along the Space Coast for 30 years, said he has a generator and enough food and water for himself and his cats to last a week.

“There’s always tremendous buildup and then it’s no stronger than an afternoon thunderstorm,” he said. “I’m not anticipating that much damage.”

In Fort Lauderdale, about 200 miles south, six employees at a seven-bedroom Mediterranean-style mansion packed up for an evacuation fearing any storm surge could flood the property. The homeowners planned to move to another home they own in Palm Beach that’s further from the water. Two Lamborghinis and a Ferrari had

been placed inside the garage, but employee Mae White wasn’t sure what they would do with a Rolls Royce, Mustang and other cars still parked in the driveway.

“This storm surge. It’s scary,” White said. “You’re on the water, you’ve got to go.”

The last Category 3 storm or higher to hit the United States was Wilma in Oc-

tober 2005. It made landfall with 120 mph (190 kph) winds in southwest Florida, killing five people as it pushed through the Everglades and into the Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach area. It caused an estimated $21 billion in damage and left thousands of residents without power for more than a week. It concluded a twoyear span when a record eight hurricanes hit the state.

As of 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Matthew was centered about 400 miles (640 kilometers) southeast of West Palm Beach and moving northwest, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricaneforce winds extended 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the center.

“When a hurricane is forecast to take a track roughly parallel to a coastline, as Matthew is forecast to do from Florida through South Carolina, it becomes very difficult to specify impacts at any one location,” said National Hurricane Center forecaster Lixion Avila.q

A4 U.S.

Thursday 6 October 2016

NEWS

After testy VP debate, Trump rebuffs claim he ‘loves’ Putin

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump meets with hispanic business leaders at El Sombrero Mexican Cafe, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016, in Las Vegas.

(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

JONATHAN LEMIRE JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday on Hillary Clinton’s accusation that he’s cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Mike Pence found himself on the defensive over the issue in the vice presidential debate against Tim Kaine.

Trump offered effusive praise for his running mate but also claimed credit for Pence’s strong perfor-

mance even as both campaigns acknowledged that the sole vice presidential debate was unlikely to alter the race’s trajectory.

Picking up where Pence left off, he said his relationship with Russia’s leader would be determined by how Moscow responds to strong U.S. leadership under a Trump administration.

“They say Donald Trump loves Putin. I don’t love, I don’t hate. We’ll see how it works,” Trump told a rally outside Las Vegas.

Clinton on Wednesday said

Trump has “this weird fascination with dictators.”

“My opponent seems not to know the difference between an ally and adversary,” Clinton said at an evening fund raiser in Washington. “There seems to be some misunderstanding about what it means to have a dictatorship and provide leadership.”

The billionaire candidate sought to take away an argument that Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, have ramped up in the final weeks of the

campaign as they work to portray Trump as dangerous for American interests overseas. While U.S.-Russia relations nosedive over failed diplomacy in Syria, Trump has complimented Putin, calling him a strong leader and even encouraging him to track down Clinton’s missing e-mails, though Trump later said he was being sarcastic.

“You guys love Russia,” Kaine said in Tuesday’s debate. “You both have said Vladimir Putin is a better leader than the president.”

In a forceful rebuke, Pence described Putin as a “small and bullying leader,” but blamed Clinton and President Barack Obama for a “weak and feckless” foreign policy that had awakened Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and meddling in the Middle East.

The U.S. and Russia back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war but both are fighting the Islamic State group there. The U.S. cut off talks with Russia about Syria this week after the latest cease-fire collapsed, blaming Russia for failing to fulfill its commitments under the deal.

“I can say this: If we get along and Russia went out with us and knocked the hell out of ISIS, that’s OK with me folks,” Trump said, using an acronym for the

extremist group.

Since last week’s debate, Trump has faced a barrage of questions over a leaked tax return showing he lost more than $900 million in 1995. In turn, he’s sought to reframe his life story as a comeback tale he hopes to recreate on behalf of a faltering nation.

“America needs a turnaround. American needs a comeback. America needs a change. And that’s why I’m running,” Trump said.

Taking the stage in Nevada, Trump took his own victory lap for Pence’s performance, which he called “phenomenal.” So phenomenal, in fact, that Trump said it was “the single most decisive victory in the history of VP debates.”

Pence’s cool demeanor contrasted with Trump’s bluster during his own, topof-the-ticket showdown against Clinton. However strong Pence’s performance, Trump made clear he considers it a reflection of himself. “I’m getting a lot of credit, because that’s really my first so-called choice, that was my first hire,” Trump said of Pence.

Even Clinton’s team wasn’t claiming that Kaine had come out on top, despite the chest-puffing that usually follows a political debate.q

Bernie Sanders urges Democratic unity in return to Wisconsin

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks as he campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Russ Feingold, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016.

(Amber Arnold/Wisconsin State Journal via AP)

SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Bernie Sanders urged party unity, while also delivering a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump, on Wednesday during his first visit to Wisconsin since winning the state’s primary over Hillary Clinton six months ago.

“We are not going to allow Donald Trump to divide us up,” Sanders told a crowd of about 1,200 people, saying that Trump has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign.

Sanders’ campaign stop comes as Trump has put a renewed focus on Wisconsin, campaigning in the state last week with another visit planned for Sat-

urday.

Polls show the race between Clinton and Trump in Wisconsin is about even.

Clinton has deployed Sanders and other surrogates, including first lady Michelle Obama, to swing states to help her, particularly with millennials. Sanders made a couple of stops at University of Minnesota campuses on Tuesday before hitting Iowa and Wisconsin on Wednesday.

While his message was not specifically geared toward a college audience, Sanders reiterated his support of Clinton’s plans to allow student loan debt to be refinanced and to make tuition free for families earning up to $125,000. q

U.S. NEWS A5

Thursday 6 October 2016

THURSDAY

NSA contractor accused of taking classified information TAMI ABDOLLAH ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A contractor for the National Security Agency has been arrested on charges that he illegally removed highly classified information and stored the material in his home and car, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was arrested by the FBI in August after he admitted to having taken government secrets, authorities said. A defense attorney said Martin did not intend to betray his country.

The arrest was not made public until Wednesday, when the Justice Department released a criminal complaint that accused Martin of having been in possession of top-secret information that could cause “exceptionally grave danger” to national security if disclosed.

Among the classified documents found with Martin, the FBI said, were six that contain sensitive intelligence — meaning they were produced through sensitive government sources or methods that

Debbie the wife of Harold Thomas Martin III, talks to reporters outside of her home in Glen Burnie, Md., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. A federal government contractor is accused of stealing highly classified information. The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a criminal complaint against Harold Thomas Martin III of Glen Burnie, Maryland.

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

are critical to national security — and date back to 2014. All the documents were clearly marked as classified information, according to a FBI affidavit accompanying the complaint.

The complaint does not specify what documents Martin is alleged to have taken. He was arrested around the same time U.S. officials acknowledged an

investigation into a cyber leak of purported hacking tools used by the NSA. That tool kit consists of malicious software intended to tamper with firewalls, the electronic defenses protecting computer networks. Those documents were leaked by a group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers.” The complaint does not reference that group or allege a link to Martin.

The arrest could turn into another embarrassment for the U.S. intelligence community.

It would be the second known case since 2013 of a government contractor being publicly accused of removing secret data from the NSA, which monitors and collects sensitive information and data, mostly from overseas.

At the White House, spokes-

man Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama takes the situation “quite seriously. And it is a good reminder for all of us with security clearances about how important it is for us to protect sensitive national security information.”

The New York Times first reported the arrest of an NSA contractor who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton.

The complaint does not identify the agency Martin worked for as a contractor, but a U.S. official familiar with the investigation confirmed it was the NSA. Booz Allen said in a statement that after learning of the arrest of one of its employees, it reached out to law enforcement authorities to offer its cooperation and fired the worker.

At Martin’s home, investigators found stolen property valued at “well in excess of $1,000,” the complaint said. He voluntarily agreed to an interview.

“Martin at first denied, and later when confronted with specific documents, admitted he took documents and digital files from his work assignment to his residence and vehicle that he knew were classified,” the affidavit says. q

Federal judge orders top CIA officials to give depositions NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered former top CIA officials to sit for depositions in a lawsuit brought against two psychologists who designed the agency’s harsh interrogation methods in the war on terror, an action the federal government called unprecedented.

U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush in Spokane, Washington, issued

the order Tuesday.

Among those ordered to give depositions under oath in the next few months are John Rizzo and Jose Rodriguez. Rizzo was the CIA’s chief lawyer, and Rodriguez was the head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center.

The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three men — Gul Rahman, Suleiman Abdullah Salim, and Mohamed Ahmed Ben

Soud. They contend they were tortured using methods developed by CIAcontracted psychologists James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen.

Trial is set for next June.

“This order affirms that our judicial system can handle claims of CIA torture,” said ACLU attorney Dror Ladin.

“For years, claims of secrecy shut the courthouse doors to survivors, but the systematic abuse of prisoners can’t be swept under

the rug forever.”

The depositions were requested by Mitchell and Jessen, who have private attorneys.

The Justice Department is involved in the case to represent the government’s interests in keeping classified information secret. The government tried to bar oral questioning of the CIA officials at a hearing on the matter last week.

“I don’t think that’s ever happened in the history of

this country,” Justice Department attorney Andrew Warden said of the depositions at the hearing.

Quackenbush also ordered the government to produce documents requested by Mitchell and Jessen.

According to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the torture program, Mitchell and Jessen designed the interrogation methods and took part in sessions with CIA prisoners.q

A6 U.S.

Thursday 6 October 2016

NEWS

American Living:

Do-it-yourself spirit brings business to vacant Detroit land

Ron Shelton stands by one of his apple trees in Detroit. Some Detroit residents are using a do-ityourself approach to start businesses amid the city’s overabundance of vacant land and wide open spaces. Shelton is sinking his finances into a small apple orchard and cider mill in a neighborhood dotted with empty lots and aging homes.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Detroit resident Ron Shelton knows it’s a gamble to sink his scant finances that include earnings from carpentry work into a small apple orchard and cider mill in a neighborhood with vacant land and aging homes.

“A profit would be nice.

I’d have to see where that goes,” Shelton, 51, said after hauling a rusting apple grinder from a pickup truck’s bed into his backyard.

He and others are using a do-it-yourself approach

to start businesses amid Detroit’s overabundance of vacant land and wide open spaces. The city’s population loss of about 1.1 million people since the 1950s and subsequent bulldozing of empty and dilapidated houses have left it with about 120,000 vacant lots. Spread across Detroit, the lots are part of about 24 square miles of empty real estate — enough to fit nearly all of Newark, New Jersey, and about half of Miami.

Other former manufacturing hubs are dealing with what to do with empty

lots once houses are torn down. Chicago has sold more than 400 vacant parcels since 2014. In Milwaukee, homeowners next to a vacant lot can buy it for $1.

Detroit’s Land Bank charges homeowners $100 for city-owned side lots next to their homes.

Shelton, who began planting apple trees last year on two borrowed lots near the house he bought from a friend for $1,500, said there’s plenty of room to grow and build things cheaply in Detroit. Besides the 55 trees he has on the two lots, he has two more

trees growing elsewhere in the neighborhood. He’s still collecting machinery for the mill he’s assembling in a garage-like building he constructed behind his home.

Others are turning cheap, vacant Detroit land into projects, too. A theater collective is holding plays and other programs on side lots near two homes it owns.

A nonprofit has created a flowering prairie amid urban blight.

Jeff Adams has started Artesian Farms with a 7,000-square-foot building he bought in 2014 for $35,000.

“You have to pick and choose what you are capable of and what can make money,” said the 61-year-old Adams, who used to sell tech applications to the auto industry and now grows and harvests kale, lettuce and basil in the building formerly used by an auto supplier.

He admits the space that sat vacant for years is an odd place for an indoor farm, but said good businessprinciples can be applied almost anywhere.

Edward Lynch, a planner for Detroit Future City, said the amount of vacant land in Detroit is “larger than what we can use for potential development.”

Thousands of derelict houses are razed each year or

await demolition, and little new housing is coming to neighborhoods outside the greater downtown area.

“The market demand to do a lot of things isn’t there,” Lynch said.

Detroit Future City, announced in early 2013, is proposing ideas for how to best use land in the city over 50 years.

“With 120,000 vacant lots throughout the city, that essentially means every single street, every single block ends up being impacted,” said Anika Goss Foster, executive director of the Detroit Future City Implementation Office. “Because most of these lots are undevelopable, they become an economic detriment to neighborhoods.”

She said finding ways to transform property into something productive “strengthens the economic capacity” of those areas.

City officials are being deliberate in how they identify vacant land for development. Detroit planning director Maurice Cox said they want projects that can become long-lasting examples of neighborhood revitalization and “not simply an interim solution or land use of last resort.”

The city has identified 10 acres in northwest Detroit for ecological, agricultural, energy, crop or other uses.q

NYC’s ‘Little Church That Stood’ plans 250th anniversary

This photo shows the exterior of St. Paul’s Chapel in New York.

The Episcopal sanctuary, Manhattan’s oldest church, is getting ready to celebrate its 250-year history, which includes worshippers ranging from George Washington to those who searched for victims following the Sept. 11 attacks. One World Trade Center rises in the background.

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

ULA ILNYTZKY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan’s oldest church is getting ready to celebrate its 250-year history, which includes worshippers ranging from George Washington to those who searched for victims following the Sept.

11 attacks.

St. Paul’s Chapel in Lower Manhattan is best known today as the “Little Church that Stood,” having survived unscathed as the World Trade Center towers came down across the street.

A monthslong interior ren-

ovation of the Episcopal sanctuary will be unveiled on its anniversary date Oct. 30, along with a “9/11 Chapel of Remembrance” area for quiet reflection that also contains artifacts of the attacks. Tuesday, a weather-resistant statue of St. Paul was to be lowered by crane to a spot outside the chapel where the original had stood.

St. Paul’s, the chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church several blocks south, is Manhattan’s last remaining colonial structure. It was built in 1766 as a “Chapel of Ease” for the “uptown” pa-

rishioners of the expanding city, then at the tip of Manhattan.

It was known best in colonial times for surviving several fires, the most devastating of which was the Great Fire of 1776 that consumed a quarter of lower Manhattan. A fire bucket brigade saved the chapel but Trinity, built in 1698, was turned into a pile of rubble.

“That is why Founding Fathers like George Washington wound up worshipping at St. Paul’s regularly,” said Anne Petrimoulx, the archivist for Trinity and St. Paul’s. q

U.S. NEWS A7

Thursday 6 October 2016

US Financial Front:

Black, Latino youth less likely to get money from folks

JESSE J. HOLLAND EMILY SWANSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — More young blacks and Latinos feel that they can’t depend on family to help them with financial needs, from big-ticket items like college tuition to smaller expenses, than do whites or Asians, according to a new GenForward poll.

And more than half of millennials overall say an unexpected bill of $1,000 would cause them financial difficulty, a sign that young Americans are still struggling years after the end of the recession, according to the poll released this week.

This information comes from a new GenForward survey of young adults conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The first-of-its-kind poll pays special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of the country’s most diverse generation. An assist from parents or family gives some young Americans a secure financial foundation, allowing them to leave college with little or no debt, to purchase a home, to begin investing or planning for retirement and to establish good credit. The ability to take advantage of generational wealth may be a reason why minorities think whites have a better chance of getting ahead financially. Most young adults think whites have at least some advantage in getting ahead economically, including 77

percent of blacks, 76 percent of Asians, 70 percent of Latinos and 58 percent of whites. Michael Summers, 30, of Indianapolis, Indiana, who is black, said it would be out of the question for his parents to give him a small loan, much less a larger one.

“My mom is retired and on a fixed income, and while she would try, there’s probably no way for her to come up any extra money,” said Summers, who has been unemployed for a while but is about to start work in janitorial services.

“I wouldn’t even try to ask for something like a down payment for a house or something like that.”

If they had to pay an unexpected bill of $1,000 or more, half of young whites, or 50 percent say they would have a lot of difficulty coming up with the cash, while majorities of young African-Americans, 59 percent, and Latinos, 64 percent, also said they would have problems coming up with the money. Asian-Americans were the least likely to say they would have a lot of trouble, at 39 percent.

But nearly two-thirds of whites and Asian-Americans said it was at least somewhat likely that their families could help them pay. Almost half of Hispanics — 46 percent — thought they might be able to get that much money from their families, while only 42 percent of African-Americans said they would be able to ask their families for $1,000. At Howard University, a historically black university in the District of Columbia, several students said they think they would be able to get money from

their parents if they were truly desperate, but would feel bad for even asking.

“I don’t want to ask,” said Aliyah Hale, 19, of Los An-

different for everyone.”

The numbers get worse when the expenses get higher, according to the poll.

eight percent of Latinos and 63 percent of young blacks and Asian-Americans think it’s at least somewhat likely that their

A Bureau of Printing and Engraving employee checks one dollar bills at the plant in Washington.

When the bills are due, more young blacks and Latinos feel like they can’t turn to Mommy, Daddy or even Grandma to help them out of financial trouble than whites or Asians, according to a new Associated Press poll.

(AP Photo/Hillery Smith Garrison)

geles, who is attending Howard on scholarship. “I have kind of reservations about asking my parents for too much money, but if I desperately needed it, it would be available.”

Darien Pierce, 19, of New York City, also said his parents could come up with the money but only for emergencies. Not everyone is as lucky, he said.

“There are a lot of people who can afford to do things like that,” Pierce said as he hurried to class “There are also a lot of students’ parents who can’t afford to do things like that. Most of my friends’ parents, it would hurt their pockets, but I also know some people whose pockets it wouldn’t hurt. It’s

Close to half of young AsianAmericans and whites, but less than a third of Latinos or African-Americans, said their families might be able to help them pay tuition or pay off a student loan.

If they needed help with the down-payment on a house, only about a third of young Asian-Americans and whites say it’s at least somewhat likely their families could help. The numbers are worse for blacks and Latinos, with only about a quarter saying their parents would be able to help them with a down payment for a house.

Despite all of this, larger numbers of minorities say they will have a better life than their parents. Sixty-

generation will have a better life than their parents’ generation. Almost half of whites, 49 percent, think they will have a better life than their parents.

The poll of 1,851 adults age 18-30 was conducted Sept.

1-14 using a sample drawn from the probability-based GenForward panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. young adult population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

The survey was paid for by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago, using grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation.q

A8

Thursday 6 October 2016

WORLD NEWS

UK’s May vows centrist government after EU exit ‘revolution’

Conservative Party Leader and Prime Minister, Theresa May, addresses delegates at the Conservative Party Conference at the ICC, in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. May has vowed to govern from the “center ground” of politics, a day after her government alarmed liberals by saying that businesses should prioritize hiring British workers over foreign ones.

(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)

JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May laid out the shape, if not the detail, of her vision for Britain on Wednesday, saying government should play a bigger role in people’s lives than it has under some of her Conservative predecessors.

May told the Conservative Party’s annual conference that she would govern from “the new center ground of British politics, built on the values of fairness and opportunity.”

Her version of the center ground adopted ideas from both the left and the right.

On one hand, May promised curbs on immigration

and on generous welfare benefits. On the other, she vowed to improve workers’ rights and control exploitative capitalists.

“A change has got to come, and we are going to deliver it,” May said.

May was elected Conservative leader after Britons voted June 23 to leave the European Union — against

the advice of Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned after the result.

Although she had served in Cameron’s Cabinet for six years, most voters knew little of May’s ideas or passions. In a speech intended to remedy that, May called the referendum result “a quiet revolution” by people who have not benefited from globalization or rapid economic change.

May, like Cameron, backed the losing “remain” side in the referendum, but said Britain’s EU exit provided “a once-in-a-generation chance to change the direction of our nation for good.”

In a striking change of tone from Cameron — who combined social liberalism with fiscal austerity and light-touch economic regulation — May attacked corporate bosses who dodge tax and raid employees’ pension funds.

She signaled she would take a more interventionist economic approach, saying “government can and should be a force for good.”

She said the government would open more selective schools to improve education, invest in large-scale infrastructure projects, fight racial discrimination and

Belgium: 2 police stabbed, may be terror-related JOHN DAHLBURG Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — A knifewielding man stabbed two police officers in Brussels on Wednesday in an attack that may be terror-related, Belgian prosecutors said.

It was the latest attack on law enforcement officials in

a nation that has been on high alert since 32 people were killed March 22 in suicide bombing attacks on the Brussels airport and subway.

Two police officers in the Schaerbeek neighborhood of Brussels were attacked at noon on the street by a

man with a knife, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

Another police patrol overpowered the man, who was shot in the leg before he was arrested. During that operation, a third police officer was slightly injured, it said.

State-run broadcaster RTBF said the assailant stabbed one officer in the neck, the other in the abdomen and broke the nose of a third officer who shot him.

The suspect arrested was identified by prosecutors as Hicham D., a 43-year-old Belgian national.q

build “a country that works for everyone,” regardless of race, religion, parentage or place of birth.

In a populist pitch to those who voted to leave the EU — including supporters of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party — May criticized elites who find patriotism “distasteful” and “concerns about immigration parochial.”

Some have accused the Conservatives of pandering to xenophobia with promises to impose new curbs on immigration and promote British workers over foreign ones. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Tuesday that companies could be forced to disclose what percentage of their workforce was from other countries.

May repeated her intention to launch formal exit talks with the EU by the end of March.

She said Britain would seek to retain a close relationship with the bloc, with continued free trade in goods and services. But she said the U.K. would not cede control over immigration, a conflict with the EU’s principle of free movement that could prove a sticking point in negotiations.

Hundreds of thousands of European workers have moved to Britain in the last decade — and hundreds of thousands of Britons also live in other EU countries.

May said the U.K. would not “retreat from the world” when it leaves the EU, instead becoming “a confident global Britain that doesn’t turn its back on globalization but ensures the benefits are shared by all.” q

WORLD NEWS A9

Thursday 6 October 2016

Syria’s military to reduce airstrikes for Aleppo evacuations PHILIP ISSA JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s military command said it would scale back its bombardment of the contested city of Aleppo on Wednesday to allow civilians to evacuate besieged rebel-held neighborhoods.

The announcement, broadcast on state TV, followed 16 days of airstrikes and shelling that have killed over 300 civilians and damaged hospitals and water facilities. Satellite images released Wednesday by the U.N. show the scale of the destruction since a U.S.-Russia brokered ceasefire collapsed two weeks ago. The government is accused by opponents and international observers of using violence to forcibly depopulate areas seen as disloyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“The government has used scorched earth tactics against us, and then blesses us with an opportunity to leave? Of course this is refused,” said Ammar Sakkar, the military spokesman of the Fastiqum rebel faction inside east Aleppo.

Doctors inside the city’s besieged eastern neighbor-

hoods said there were fewer attacks on Wednesday, after two weeks of airstrikes in which Russian and Syrian government jets targeted underground hospitals with bunker-busting bombs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 316 civilians in eastern Aleppo have been killed in the past two weeks’ violence. U.N. Secretary General Ban Kimoon has described conditions in eastern Aleppo, where 275,000 people are trapped under a government siege, as “worse than a slaughterhouse.”

The government has insisted, however, that rebels inside east Aleppo have been preventing civilians from leaving via the safe corridors it demarcated in July with the Russian military. It says hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of displaced people have fled to areas of government control across the country.

Earlier this year, the Syrian government negotiated the complete evacuation of Daraya, once an opposition hub on the outskirts of Damascus, after four years of siege left residents with no food or medical care.

In this still image taken from video provided by the Syrian government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, government troops patrol inside the Bustan Al-Basha neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. The footage shows extensive destruction to buildings in the neighborhood and a factory of hand-made bombs using home gas bottles as shells.

(Syrian Central Military Media via AP)

The U.N. likened the arrangement to “forced displacement” and warned it could not be a precedent for other areas.

The U.N.’s satellite imagery program released images it said showed the most recent destruction to eastern parts of Aleppo.

“Since the cease-fire has broken down, you certainly see an awful lot of new damage,” said Lars Bromley, a research adviser at UNOSAT. The images, from DigitalGlobe and obtained by the U.N. agency through a licensing arrangement with the U.S. State Depart-

ment, show mostly “formerly blasted and blown-up areas” during Syria’s 5-1/2year war “experiencing a great deal of additional damage,” said Bromley.

“To a certain extent you’re looking at rubble being pushed around,” he told reporters. q

Iraq tribal leader: strike kills 19 pro-government fighters S. SALAHEDDIN Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — A tribal leader said Wednesday that an airstrike killed 19 pro-government tribal Sunni fighters south of the town of Mosul, which is held by the Islamic State group.

Sheikh Nazhan al-Lihaibi said the airstrike took place at 2 a.m. Wednesday, following hours of clashes between his troops and IS militants in the Haj Ali area

to the east of the town of Qayara. Al-Lihaibi said five more fighters were wounded.

The U.S.-led coalition said it had carried out strikes in the area at the request of Iraqi security forces, adding that it had destroyed a building and killed eight enemy fighters.

“We are aware of the reports that Sunni tribal fighters were in the building that was struck and we are tak-

ing those reports seriously,” a spokesman for the U.S.led coalition said. He said the Coalition and Iraqi security forces were carrying out a joint investigation into the incident.

Mahmoud Ali, an officer with al-Lahaibi’s militia, said that U.S special forces troops arrived in the area warning them of a future airstrike and telling them to keep away.

It was unclear if the tribal

fighters acted on this advice.

Ali said that the airstrike killed 20 fighters, some of whom were inside a house.

Al-Lihaibi said his fighters had repelled an attack by IS late Wednesday, and another two of his fighters had been killed in the clashes.

With aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi government forces and paramilitary troops retook the town of Qayara in Au-

gust. The town, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Mosul, is key for the longawaited military operation to dislodge IS militants from Mosul.

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, is located about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

While the Syrian city of Raqqa is considered the caliphate’s de facto capital, Mosul is the largest city under its control.q

A10 WORLD

Thursday 6 October 2016

NEWS

Donors pledge $15.2 billion to Afghanistan despite fatigue

European Council President Donald Tusk, right, talks with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, center, and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, during a conference on Afghanistan in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. The two-day conference, hosted by the EU, will have the participation of over 70 countries to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan.

(AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

LORNE COOK JOHN DAHLBURG Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors pledged $15.2 billion dollars on Wednesday to help keep Afghanistan’s beleaguered government afloat for the next four years, despite growing reluctance to pour more money into a corruptionplagued country wracked by conflict.

The promised funds from more than 70 nations taking part fell short of commitments made last time in Tokyo in 2012, but the European Union’s development commissioner, Neven Mim-

ica, said the pledges “surpassed some of our best case scenarios.”

As the donors met, Afghan forces, backed by American helicopters, battled the Taliban in the northern city of Kunduz for the third straight day Wednesday, following a multipronged attack launched by insurgents earlier this week.

Beyond the insurgency, the Afghan government is estimated to only be capable of meeting 20 percent of its budget, and about 39 percent of the Afghan population lives on less than $1.35 a day. But Afghanistan has survived off Western aid

and military support for 15 years, since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden in 2001. The European Union, co-hosting the donor conference in Brussels, struggled to raise the funds that Kabul so sorely needs, given the increasingly powerful insurgency there and rampant corruption.

In the end, the EU and its 28 member states pledged 5.6 billion dollars in total until 2017, making it the biggest donor.

“It is truly a remarkable day,” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told reporters.

But he acknowledged

that no money would be forthcoming if the government does not crackdown on corruption and crime, and take the upper-hand against the insurgents.

“The work from the Afghan side begins in earnest tomorrow. A credit line has been extended,” he said.

“If we do not muster the political will in the practical ways of dealing with corruption, these pledges will remain pledges.”

But many participants at the conference have heard such rhetoric before, and some were underwhelmed by the promises being made.

“The commitments to fighting corruption are very weak and we are disappointed,” Ikram Afzali, from the anti-corruption civil society group Integrity Watch Afghanistan, told The Associated Press.

He said that some of the anti-corruption plans on the table are “just windowdressing for this conference.”

Other plans are to be drawn up for next year.

“We don’t have time,” he said.

Still, despite the delays and setbacks, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “it’s important today that the international community sends a strong message of support.”

Afghanistan’s leaders “have been making impressive reforms and development plans to change the lives of people that

have been suffering too long,” Ban said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he still has “an enormous sense of confidence about the future.” “Year by year our shared effort, one of the largest international coalitions ever assembled, and maintained over a sustained period in time, is in fact yielding encouraging dividends,” Kerry told the representatives.

Speaking to reporters as the conference got underway, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini denied reports the bloc is making aid conditional on Afghanistan taking back people who have fled to Europe, saying there is “never a link between our development aid and what we do on migration.” But there is clear pressure on the authorities in Kabul to do more to stop people fleeing and take back those who leave.

The head of the International Organization for Migration, William Lacy Swing, told the AP that around 6,000 people are flooding back into Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran every day, and that any increased returns from Europe would put additional pressure on the country’s fragile institutions.

“This is a very vulnerable society with very limited capacity to receive these people, in terms of health facilities, education facilities and training facilities,” Swing said.q

Pakistan: trading fire with India after ‘unprovoked’ attack

Pakistani lawmaker and Defense Minister Khawaja Asif arrives to attend a joint session of parliament to discuss Pakistan India tension over Kashmir, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016.

(AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

MUNIR AHMED Associated Press ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s military on Wednesday accused India of another “unprovoked” attack in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, saying it “befittingly” responded by returning fire, a sign of increasing tension between the two nuclear-armed archrivals.

In a statement, the military said Pakistani and Indian troops were still exchanging fire in Kashmir.

An Indian army officer said Pakistani troops fired small

arms and mortars at Indian military positions at three places along the Line of Control. The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the reporters, said Indian soldiers “befittingly responded to unprovoked cease-fire violations.” No casualties were reported. The latest fighting took place as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended a joint sitting of the Senate and the National Assembly convened to discuss the Kashmir situation.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Thursday 6 October 2016

South Africa’s university protests show racial division C. TORCHIA Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In a racially charged scene, a mostly black group of South African student protesters on Wednesday confronted white students who want demonstrations for free education to stop so they can complete the academic year.

The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg said “many racist remarks” were made when demonstrators disrupted a march there by several dozen students, most of them white, who want to return to class.

Video of the confrontation shows one angry black protester saying allegedly diffident police did not break up the march because its participants were white, in contrast to a campus clash a day earlier between police and protesters.

Since last month, sometimes violent demonstrations for free education have occurred at some South African universities whose students are mostly black. Protesters say they are the victims of economic inequities and a legacy of “white privilege” in universities and other institutions dating from white

A student supporting the “Fees Must Fall” movement, right, shouts at students who want to return to class at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. In a racially charged scene, a mostly black group of student protesters confronted white students who want protests for free education to stop so they can complete the academic year.

(AP Photo)

minority rule, which was dismantled in 1994.

The sensitive topic of race relations is coming to the fore as more white students express their views. A group of mostly white students also rallied Wednesday for the resumption of classes at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the city of Port Elizabeth. They said black students who want to return to school are not speaking up for fear of re-

prisals.

The University of Cape Town closed Wednesday because of student protests.

While South Africa won praise for reconciliation efforts among racial factions when apartheid ended, many black South Africans express frustration that they have failed to reap the economic benefits they expected from democracy.

The income of the average

white household is six times that of a black household, according to 2011 census data.

The government has said it will cover 2017 fee increases for poor university students. Protesters rejected that concession, though some university managements say the majority of students and faculty don’t want to lose the academic year even if they support the idea of accessible edu-

cation for all.

“We are not against the ‘Fees Must Fall’ protests,” said Stuart Young, a student at the University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits University.

Young and other white students stayed mostly silent as they were harangued during their rally calling for classes to resume. The university hopes to re-open on Monday.

“Do you know how we suffered?” a black protester said, pointing his finger for emphasis. He was referring to decades of racial oppression under white rulers that denied basic freedoms to the black majority.

About 63 percent of the 37,000 students at Wits University are black, while 20 percent are white, according to the university. The rest belong to other ethnic groups.

In a statement, Wits University said several people were “making racist and defamatory remarks on multiple platforms including at public gatherings and in the media,” and that it is investigating “a voice clip that has been circulating on social media inciting violence against particular race groups.”q

UN peacekeepers fled, used tear gas on South Sudan civilians JUSTIN LYNCH Associated Press JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — United Nations peacekeepers abandoned their posts when fighting erupted in South Sudan’s capital in July and then used tear gas on frightened civilians who sought shelter at the center of the U.N. base, a new report says.

Wednesday’s report by the U.S.-based Center for Civilians in Conflict adds to a growing list of incidents

where U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of failing to carry out their mandate in South Sudan, where civil war erupted in December 2013.

More than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers are in this East African country. More than 200,000 civilians are sheltering in U.N. camps in the capital and elsewhere.

The new report, based on interviews with 59 South Sudanese civilians and 21 officials with the U.N. mission,

among others, says some peacekeepers refused orders to protect civilians during the July chaos in Juba.

Hundreds of people died in the fighting between government and opposition forces.

Peacekeepers with the U.N. force in South Sudan, or UNMISS, largely remained confined to their base during and immediately after the violence, and struggled to patrol the capital for weeks afterward, the report says.

The Associated Press has reported that peacekeepers also refused to respond to pleas for help as government soldiers looted and raped aid workers at the nearby Terrain compound.

Separately, the new report found that Chinese peacekeepers at a U.N. camp “fled en masse” from their positions in response to heavy fighting nearby, leaving behind some weapons and ammunition.

With those peacekeepers

gone, and with nowhere in that part of the U.N. camp to seek shelter from gunfire, about 5,000 civilians “fled over fences and barbed wire” into the heart of the camp where administrative offices are located, the report says.

Overwhelmed peacekeepers then struggled to manage the crowd, and civilian witnesses said some looting occurred.

A response came the next day.q

A12 WORLD

Thursday 6 October 2016

NEWS

Two students from the school of missing 43 killed in Mexico

In this Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 photo, a woman carries a bag of ice that she bought at El Angel Ice Plant during a massive blackout in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The top debt restructuring official for Puerto Rico’s troubled power company said this week that the agency faces serious infrastructure problems despite borrowing millions of dollars in recent years.

(AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Puerto Rico: Power company facing scrutiny after blackout DANICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The top debt restructuring official for Puerto Rico’s troubled power company said this week at a legislative hearing on last month’s island-wide blackout that the agency faces serious infrastructure problems despite borrowing millions of dollars in recent years.

Lisa Donahue, who is overseeing the restructuring of the Electric Power Authority, also said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently requested information related to bonds the agency sold in 2012 and 2013 amid a decade-long economic crisis.

It was unclear whether the SEC has launched a formal investigation. Officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Donahue’s comments come as frustration builds over the blackout, which lasted several days after a fire at one of the com-

pany’s main power plants set off a cascade of power failures across the island.

Puerto Rico senators are holding a hearing to examine what caused the fire and why power was restored so slowly.

Some of the legislators also questioned how the authority racked up $9 billion in debt.

“It is outrageous that no one has audited this debt and that no one can tell us how it spent $5 million,” said Sen. Ramon Luis Nieves, referring to money the company borrowed in recent years.

During her testimony, Donahue said the power company should explore privatizing its operations, particularly its division of energy generation. She said the agency’s system of transmission and distribution is in “dire need” of investment and maintenance.

The Electric Power Authority recently increased rates

to help generate more revenue as it prepares to issue new bonds as part of a restructuring deal with bondholders. The move has further angered Puerto Ricans, who complain of spotty service and say they cannot afford higher fees amid a decade-long recession that has spooked investors and prompted an exodus to the U.S. mainland. The company also faces numerous corruption allegations and accusations that it overcharges customers.

In June, the owner of the U.S. territory’s biggest oil supplier was arrested after being charged with misappropriating $11 million in public funds. Jose Gonzalez Amador and his company, PetroWest, are accused of charging the power company a 0.5 percent municipal tax even though some municipalities granted them a lower rate or waived the tax altogether. q

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen attacked a public transport van in southern Mexico and killed three people, including two students from the teachers college that had 43 students disappear in the hands of police two years ago, authorities said Wednesday.

Roberto Alvarez Heredia, spokesman of the Guerrero Coordination Group, said that the attack occurred Tuesday evening outside the state capital Chilpancingo on a van headed to Tixtla where the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa is located.

Alvarez said the motive was theft, but said they were shot while handing over their wallets. Guerrero Gov. Hector Astudillo condemned the killings Wednesday.

There was no apparent connection to the disappearance of the 43 classmates, who prosecutors say were intercepted by local police in Iguala on Sept. 26, 2014, and turned over to members of a drug cartel. They have not been heard from since, and failure to solve the case has become a continuing major scandal for Mexico’s government.

Less than an hour after the students were shot, gunmen in Chilpancingo killed another minibus driver who refused to stop for them.

Also Tuesday, authorities in the neighboring state of Michoacan found four men slain on a roadside whom they identified as members of Catholic evangelism group.

The Michoacan state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that family members identified the

four men and said they were last seen Saturday, but had not been reported missing. It said one was wearing a tactical vest.

Former La Ruana parish priest Jose Luis Segura Barragan began posting on his Facebook page about the men’s disappearances on Sunday.

He wrote that they belonged to a group called the Rainbow that proselytized in communities.

They were all in their 20s.

They were last seen outside the church Saturday around 10:30 p.m. Segura did not immediately respond to messages, but the Apatzingan Diocese confirmed that the Facebook page belonged to Segura.

Their bodies were found Tuesday in San Juan de los Platanos, about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Apatzingan.

Segura blamed organized crime for the murders. “This tragedy touches my heart deeply, because I spent time with them for three years, and I accompanied them in their evangelism retreats and their missions to small hamlets,” Segura wrote Tuesday.

In a subsequent post, Segura called on society to stand up against the violence.

“I believe that it’s time that we take seriously organized crime and the government, useless or complicit,” Segura wrote.

“We cannot put up with any more murders, executions, abductions, kidnappings, extortions and the other cruel and destructive actions that the criminals commit against society and the Catholic Church.”q

LOCAL A13

Thursday 6 October 2016

University of Aruba Proudly Honors its Top Graduates ORANJESTAD - University of Aruba, UA, once again honored its most outstanding graduates recently.

During the annual Student Award ceremony, the UA presented awards and prizes to those students who stood out not just because of their grades, but particularly the level of investigation and thesis.

The university by law has to serve the Aruba community with relevant investigation and recommendations and students, which emphasizes the value of the studies students conduct.

Rector Dr. Glenn Thode at the occasion said the his goal was always to make sure for the University of Aruba to become a community on its own, and recognition events such as the Student Awards contribute to this. Particularly since many local companies support and reward the work of the graduates.

Masters of Ceremony Sinthya Ridderstaat, a student

all those awarded also received a token in the form of the Lotus,” according to Clay.

Each faculty chose nominees for Student Awards.

The nominees are those with outstanding research and thesis. The sponsors of the Awards evaluated the nominees and had the final

the Department of Public Health, and according to FEF Dean Joost Jacobs, the department already committed to adopt some of her recommendations regarding the communication system within the organization.

The FAS has three programs and therefore, three grad-

created an online process to teach mathematics. ENNIA Insurance provided the prize to the outstanding Mathematic graduate.

Clementia Eugene, representing the Social Works and Development program of the FAS called forth Indrah Zievinger as the recipient of the Aruba Bank prize

Helder while studying was diagnosed with acute diabetes and has been hospitalized for a long time.

Despite her battle with diabetes, Nurienne continued to serve the com-munity of the University as a member of various organizations, while remaining dedicated to her studies. Helder is now in The Netherlands for her Masters studies. Her mother received the “RBC-SETAR’ Student Award from Yolanda Richardson of the OGM and Pierre Rafini of the RBC Bank and SETAR representative Suzy Maduro.

Madhu Jadnanansing, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies, FHTMS, presented the honors to Jennifer-Lou Richardson.

Richardson impressed the award committee with her thesis on Relationship Marketing.

She was awarded the annual Family Malmberg Foundation Prize.

And finally, Stacey Kran-

of the Organization, Governance and Management (OGM) of the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) and exchange student of the University of South Carolina, currently attending the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies (FHTMS) Sadrick Clay led the ceremony that carried the Lotus motto and logo.

“The Lotus represents humility and passion at the same time,” Ridderstaat explained. “And that is why

say in choosing the winners.

Criteria included relevance for the private sector, community and level of analysis and recommendations.

The financial service firm CATC for instance presented the Student Award and prize for the out-standing thesis written by Vernalisa Franken of the Faculty of Economics and Finance, FEF. Franken is currently doing her Masters studies in The Netherlands. She focused her investigation on

uates were honored with Student Awards.

Dino Cesar Quandt received the Student Award for the Mathematics program. Contrary to the others, the Mathematics program does not require a thesis but students have to compile a port-folio of works. And the portfolio of Quandt, a Civil Engineering teacher is impressive according to FAS Dean Tim Croes. According to Croes, Dino Quandt among others

for her outstanding thesis.

Zievinger focused her investigation on the new systems for elderly care in Aruba.

Nurienne Helder’s win as the top graduate for the Organization, Governance and Management, OGM, was perhaps the most emotional part of the ceremony. Helder who represented Aruba in the Kingdom Parliament, focused on the management of diabetes in Aruba. And her investigation is personal.

sen of the Faculty of Law received the Van Eps Kunnemanvan Doorne prize from the hands of Attorney Jeanot de Cuba as the winner for the best 2015-2016 thesis. According to Dean Fiona Bogaerts, Kransen along with her colleague Ruthlene Web both graduated with a 90 percent. Yet, the commission of the law firm deemed Kransen’s thesis on the ‘Rights of Fathers’ as very relevant for Aruba.q

A14 LOCAL

Thursday 6 October 2016

Hip, Hip, Hurray for a Whopping 25 Years of Fun at Café the Plaza

ORANJESTAD - Café the Plaza is celebrating something special: 25 years in business. It is a milestone, something which is quite exceptional on the island.

Twenty-five years ago, with the support of investor Jan van der Lubbe of Botica Eagle, Hans Nooter and Harry Koeman took over a

restaurant in Harbourtown, as the Renaissance Marketplace was then called.

They named it Café the Plaza and their touch proved to be gold: as soon as the place changed ownership, patrons appeared as if by magic. The secret of the Dutch Touch of these two: really good value, a nice

menu and great meals in a relaxed and very welcoming atmosphere. After so many years, this still holds true.

Café the Plaza is bestknown for its outrageous and fun happenings. Who does not remember the weird Elfstedentocht? It was a team effort in bar-

hopping throughout Oranjestad. Teams had to wear snorkels and flippers and Aruba has never witnessed anything like it ever again.

The event was even written up in Dutch newspapers and it got television coverage as well. Other events included 19 editions of the Aruba Polesitting Championships, herring evenings, tennis tournaments and legendary soccer matches, which were watched by hundreds of fans on big screens. The World Cup and European Championships in which the Dutch team, dressed in orange, starred, are still featuring in everybody’s memory.

The weekly Quiz Night, held on Tuesday evenings, is still going strong as is the annual commemorative

Hans Nooter Golf Tournament, which always draws a good crowd. This year, in celebaration of 25 years Café the Plaza, there is a Strongest Man competition and karaoke event for colleagues from other bars and restaurants on the island and a monthlong program of festivities.

The festivities are a way to thank loyal patrons; they are the mainstay of a successful business.

After a quarter of a century, Harry Koeman is saying goodbye to Aruba Wine and Dine. He is leaving his company in the capable hands of Evert Gerards, president of the Board.

Kevin Slangen (managing director) and Fabian Lantinga (financial director) form the rest of the AWD management group.

Café the Plaza’s ongoing renovations have modernized, but not changed its cozy atmosphere. The

glass front allows more light inside, but the pub-like ambiance is still there. Visitors as well as locals enjoy sitting at the spacious bar, inside or on the terrace, enjoying breakfast, coffee, lunch, drinks or dinner.

Harry, Evert, Kevin, Fabian and their fantastic team would like to thank the regulars of Café the Plaza for their continued patronage; they have made the restaurant into the successful place it is. So hip, hip, hurray to Café the Plaza and we are already looking forward to celebrating its 50th anniversary in 25 years’ time.q

LOCAL A15

Thursday 6 October 2016

Loyal Guests Honored at the Marriott Surf Club weather, the beaches and the restaurants. They always say that Aruba is truly ‘One Happy Island,’ and the Marriott Surf Club is a wonderful resort. The certifi-

PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very nice couple whom are loyal and friendly visitors of Aruba, as Distinguished Visitors at

the Marriott Surf Club. The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 10-to-19 consecutive years.

The honorees were Mr. Lawrence and Mrs. Helen Macedo. Lawrence and Helen are loyal members of the Marriott Surf Club, and they love Aruba for the friendly people, the

cate was presented by Mr. Ricardo Croes representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with Jenny Boekhoudt from the Marriott Surf Club.

A16 LOCAL

Thursday 6 October 2016

Countries of the Region Meet at ECLAC to Examine Progress in Implementation of Measures on Population and Development -The Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean hold their third meeting at ECLAC headquarters from 4 to 6 October.

ORANJESTAD - The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is hosting a meeting of representatives of the region’s countries to analyze a proposal of indicators for statistical followup to the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, the principal intergovernmental agreement on population and development issues in the region. This is the third meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development (CRPD).

The meeting opened with statements by Alicia

Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Patricia Chemor, Secretary-General of the National Council for Population (CONAPO) of Mexico, in her capacity as Chair of the Presiding Officers; and Esteban Caballero, Director of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA-LACRO). All the speakers drew attention to the convergences between the Montevideo

Consensus, adopted in 2013 at the first session of the Regional Conference, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015 by the 193 member countries of the United Nations. They also emphasized that CRPD must play a key role in follow-up to the 2030 Agenda through the newly established Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, which

will hold its first meeting in Mexico in April 2017.

In her statement, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC said that stable population growth, ageing and urbanization were the main demographic processes relevant to the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus and the 2030 Agenda in the region. “Strengthening demographic databases is essential to support policies aimed at reducing both poverty, which affects 175 million people in Latin America, and inequality,” remarked Bárcena.

Patricia Chemor, Chair of the Presiding Officers, affirmed that reliable demographic information was essential for making public policy decisions in areas relating to birth and death rates, distribution and migration, and said that national institutions needed to

be strengthened to maintain statistical consistency and comparability.

Esteban Caballero, Regional Director of UNFPA, called for more dialogue on statistical indicators between the Regional Conference on Population and Development and the Statistical Conference of the Americas, both subsidiary bodies of ECLAC. He said that, in the main, the same indicators should be used to follow up both the Montevideo Consensus and the 2030 Agenda. The proposal of indicators for regional follow-up to the Montevideo Consensus to be presented at this meeting is intended to achieve data comparability between countries. The final version of the indicators will be adopted by CRPD at its third session, to be held in El Salvador in 2017. q

SPORTS A17

Thursday 6 October 2016

JAY WALKIN’

Toronto Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion celebrates after hitting a walk-off three-run home run against the Baltimore Orioles during the 11th inning of an American League wild-card baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016.

Associated Press

Encarnacion’s 11th-inning HR lifts Jays over O’s IAN HARRISON Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Edwin Encarnacion advanced Toronto to Major League Baseball’s Division Series in the Blue Jays’ familiar manner — with a big home run.

Encarnacion hit a three-run drive in the 11th inning off Ubaldo Jimenez as Toronto beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 in Tuesday night’s American League wild card game to advance to a Division Series matchup against old foe Texas.

“It was a very special mo-

ment and a very special opportunity,” Encarnacion said through a translator.

Jose Bautista also homered for the Blue Jays, who open on Tuesday at Texas. Encarnacion’s homer brought back memories of the tiebreaking, three-run shot that Bautista hit in the seventh inning of Game 5 of last year’s AL Division Series win over the Rangers, a shot punctuated by a memorable bat flip.

And the Blue Jays won their last World Series title in 1993 on Joe Carter’s walkoff home run.

“I was looking for a fastball and I was trying to put the barrel on it, get a little bit in front because the infield was playing in, and I actually got it,” Encarnacion said.

Jimenez relieved Brian Duensing with one out in the 11th and Devon Travis singled in a 1-1 pitch. Reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson singled on the next pitch and Travis went all the way to third as left fielder Nolan Reimold bobbled the ball.

Encarnacion sent the following pitch, a 91 mph offering, soaring into the

second deck in left. Encarnacion immediately knew it was gone and raised both arms in triumph, index fingers pointed skyward.

The crowd of 49,934 chanted “Eddie, Eddie!” as Encarnacion circled the bases before being mobbed by his teammates. Encarnacion matched his career-best with 42 home runs in the regular season.

Jimenez said he was trying to throw a low slider and induce a double play.

“It didn’t do anything,” Jimenez said. “It stayed up.”

Orioles closer Zach Britton,

who was perfect in 47 save chances during the regular season, never got in the game.

“Nobody has been pitching better for us than Ubaldo,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “It didn’t work out.”

Britton warmed up three times but didn’t leave the bullpen.

“It’s frustrating but it’s not my call,” Britton said. “It was just frustrating to have to sit there and watch.”

Continued on Page 19

A18 SPORTS

Thursday 6 October 2016

Ryder Cup becoming a spectacle for all the wrong reasons DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer CHASKA, Minn. (AP) — When players broke away from the PGA of America in 1968 to form what is now the PGA Tour, two properties had to be divided.

The tour took the lucrative World Series of Golf at Firestone. The PGA of America was saddled with the Ryder Cup, which attracted hardly any attention in the U.S. Just look at it now.

Try to count the more than 150,000 fans over three days who roamed Hazeltine, standing a dozen deep, shoulder to shoulder, and filled every grandstand even when a match was an hour from getting to that hole.

It was the latest example that the Ryder Cup has become the biggest spectacle in golf (but only because the Masters would never want “spectacle” to be associated with its tournament). The Phoenix Open boasts of record attendance, but those fig-

Europe’s Rory McIlroy gestures to the crowd after making his putt on the eighth hole during a singles match at the Ryder Cup golf tournament Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

Associated Press

ures tend to be inflated and half the crowd isn’t even interested in golf.

The buzz at Hazeltine was

Tiger Woods to be assistant captain at Presidents Cup JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — Tiger Woods will be at Presidents Cup next year with or without his golf clubs.

U.S. captain Steve Stricker said Wednesday he has chosen Woods, Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and three-time Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples to be his assistants for the matches next year at Liberty National.

International team captain Nick Price said his three assistants would be Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Tony Johnstone.

Woods was an assistant to Love at Hazeltine when the U.S. won the Ryder Cup over Europe last week.

Woods is to return to competition next week after being out more than a year recovering from back surgery. Stricker says he

United States vice-captain Tiger Woods smiles during a practice round for the Ryder Cup golf tournament Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

Associated Press

hopes Woods is at Liberty National as a player. If not, he’ll have him as an assistant captain.q

incredible.

It was the brutish behavior that comes with such an enormous crowd that should make the PGA of America pause.

The stories players once shared from the Ryder Cup used to be about how nervous they were on the first tee. Now the stories are about the verbal abuse from the American fans — certainly not the majority, but enough to leave a bad taste.

“I got called a turd, which is the first time since I was about 12 years old, so it made me feel young again,” said Lee Westwood, trying to make light of a dark situation.

Emotions were raw Sunday night, and the crude comments from the gallery became a popular topic among the Europeans. This wasn’t sour grapes. They simply were answering questions. They gave full credit to the putting and prowess of the Americans that led to a 17-11 victory.

Years from now, the 41st edition of these matches will be remembered for shots from the players, not shouts from a few unruly fans.

The lasting image from Ha-

zeltine will be Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy producing a four-hole stretch that instantly became part of Ryder Cup lore, especially on the par-3 eighth hole. McIlroy holed a 60-foot putt and cupped a hand to his ear to bait the crowd.

Reed answered with a 25foot putt and wagged his finger at McIlroy. Both players laughed, bumped fists and patted each other on the back. It was great theater that defined the spirit of these matches.

No moment was more painful than Westwood missing two short putts, including a 2-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole that cost Europe a crucial point going into the final day. No one match was more compelling than Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia combining for 19 birdies in a singles match that fittingly ended in a draw.

All that sullied this week was the crowd.

McIlroy got into it with one vulgar fan, stopping to confront him and asking that he be removed. Thomas Pieters was about to take his putter back on a 4-footer to halve the hole in a foursomes match when some genius screamed out, “Hit

it in the water.”

The cheering and jeering at the Ryder Cup is unlike any other golf event.

There were indications early that Hazeltine might be over the top, however.

Fans tend to wait a second or two when the visitors hit a bad shot before cheering the good fortune of the home team. As early as Friday morning, cheers for Europe’s bad shots were loud and immediate. Andy Sullivan hit a tee shot into the water on the 17th hole and cheers rang out before there was so much as a ripple in the water.

And it got worse.

“We want to play this tournament in the manner in which it should be played,” McIlroy said. “The American gallery are fantastic. They really are. We play week in, week out on the PGA Tour, and they couldn’t be nicer to us.

They greet us like we are one of their own. But this week, at times, it went a little bit too far.”

The PGA of America stepped in, but not until Sunday when the Americans had a three-point lead. It urged fans to be passionate and respectful, and pledged a “zero tolerance policy” to remove anyone who was disruptive and shouted profanities at players.

The Americans don’t have an easy time when they play the Ryder Cup in Europe, though the tone is undeniably different.

American fans tend to make it personal. Maybe that’s a product of having lost theRyder Cup too many times over the last 20 years.

Or maybe there are simply too many fans on the course for 32 matches over three days.

Selling more tickets is only going to increase the odds of having more bad eggs who give American fans a bad name. It started at Brookline. It isn’t getting better. If the PGA of America is not careful, the biggest spectacle in golf is going to become a spectacle for all the wrong reasons.q

SPORTS A19

Thursday 6 October 2016

Toronto Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion hits a game winning walk-off three-run home run against the Baltimore Orioles during the 11th inning of an American League wild-card baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016.

Associated Press

MLB attendance drops 1.1 percent, still 11th-highest season NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s average attendance dropped 1.1 percent this season but still was the sport’s 11th-highest year.

The 30 teams combined to draw 73,159,044 fans and average 30,169, the commissioner’s office said Tuesday. That was down from last year’s total of 73.76 million and average of 30,517. The average was the lowest since 30,138 in 2010.

The record total of 79.5 million and average of 32,785 were set in 2007.

The NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers led in home attendance at

3.7 million, followed in the NL by St. Louis (3.44 million), San Francisco (3.37 million) and the Chicago Cubs (3.23 million).

Toronto topped the AL at 3.39 million, followed by the New York Yankees (3.06 million) and Los Angeles Angels (3.02 million).

Tampa Bay had the lowest home attendances at 1.29 million, and Oakland was 29th at 1.52 million.

Cleveland was 28th at 1.59 million despite winning the AL Central for the first time since 2007.

Miami drew an NL-low 1.71 million.q

JAY WALKIN’ Continued from Page 17

Francisco Liriano retired five straight batters on four groundouts and a strikeout for the win after closer Roberto Osuna left with a sore shoulder. “The doctor told me that I was going to be fine, I just need a couple of days,” Osuna said. “I’ve been pitching a lot lately.

They think it’s just fatigue from the last couple of weeks.” Toronto beat Texas last year, sparked by Bautista’s memorable homer.

The teams brawled in May this year when Bautista was

punched in the face by Rangers infielder Rougned Odor following a play at second base.

“It’s going to be a very interesting series and we’re looking forward to it,” Encarnacion said.

Bautista led off the second against Chris Tillman with his fifth postseason homer. Mark Trumbo, who led the major leagues with 47 home runs, gave Baltimore a 2-1 lead in the fourth with a two-run homer off Marcus Stroman.q

A20 SPORTS

Thursday 6 October 2016

While stars get attention, unknowns often shine in October ROB MAADDI AP Sports Writer Big Papi, Kris Bryant and Bryce Harper are just a few of the big-name offensive stars leading their teams into the postseason.

There’s Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki and Edwin Encarnacion on Toronto alone. Adrian Beltre, Carlos Beltran, Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Utley are some of the other recognizable names.

Often, guys like Craig Counsell, Adam Kennedy, Cody Ross, David Freese and Marco Scutaro emerge as October heroes.

Counsell (2001 Diamondbacks), Kennedy (2002 Angels), Ross (2010 Giants), Freese (2011 Cardinals) and Scutaro (2012 Giants) each were MVPs of the league championship series. All of their teams went on to win the World Series. Only Freese and Scutaro ever made it to an All-Star game — once each.

Here’s a Pick 6 of lesser-known players who could shine when the bright lights are on this month: TREA TURNER: Only Daniel Murphy had a higher batting average for the Nationals than their rookie centerfielder. Turner hit .342 with 13 homers, 40 RBIs and 33 stolen bases after coming up from the minors to stay in July. While Harper, the 2015 NL MVP, slumped and Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth had down years, Turner was a big addition for the NL East champions.

YASMANI GRANDAL: He may have been the best bargain on baseball’s highest-priced roster. The Dodgers paid Grandal $693,000, or less than 1 percent of their $227 million payroll. The switch-hitting catcher tied Justin Turner for the team lead with 27 homers and had 72 RBIs in only 390 at-bats.

BEN ZOBRIST: It’s easy to overlook Zobrist on a Cubs team that includes Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward. But Zobrist was an All-Star second baseman, started 29 games in the outfield and usually hit cleanup behind Bryant and Rizzo in Joe Maddon’s lineup.

He finished with a .272 average, 18 homers, 72 RBIs and team-high 96 walks.

XANDER BOGAERTS: While eyes are on David Ortiz and his farewell ride, Bogaerts has emerged as a star on a team filled with outstanding players.

Bogaerts hit .294 with 21 homers and 89 RBIs. He already got a taste of the postseason in 2013 when Boston won the World Series, hitting .296 in 12 games.

ROUGNED ODOR: He’s known more for delivering a hard right fist to Bautista’s jaw, but Odor led the Rangers with 33 homers.

The second baseman hit .271 and drove in 88 runs.

JOSE RAMIREZ: He started at three infield spots and left field and led Indians with a .312 batting average. q

This Sept. 28, 2016 file photo shows Tim Tebow talking during a news conference after his first instructional league baseball game for the New York Mets against the St. Louis Cardinals instructional club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Associated Press

Mets sending Tebow to Arizona Fall League for top prospects MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Tebow will test his baseball skills against some of the game’s premier prospects.

The New York Mets announced they are sending Tebow to the Arizona Fall League after cutting short their instructional league Tuesday with Hurricane Matthew approaching Florida. Gov. Rick Scott already has declared a state of emergency.

Tebow, the former NFL quarterback and 2007

Heisman Trophy winner, is scheduled to report Sunday and play for the Scottsdale Scorpions. Opening day is next Tuesday in the Arizona Fall League, a competitive proving ground designed to enhance the development of promising minor leaguers.

In a statement released by the Mets, Tebow called it “a great opportunity.”

Among his teammates will be New York Yankees first baseman Greg Bird, who hit 11 homers in 46 major league games as a rookie last year before sitting out

this season following shoulder surgery.

“We want Tim to play in more games to continue developing his skills on the field while facing advanced competition,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said.

Tebow’s manager in the AFL will be Mets first base coach Tom Goodwin, once his duties with the big league club are done.

New York worked out Tuesday at Citi Field to prep for Wednesday night’s NL wildcard game against the San Francisco Giants. q

Hamels tabbed Rangers starter for ALDS opener vs Blue Jays

Boston Red Sox’s Xander Bogaerts reacts after striking out during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, in New York.

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — All-Star left-hander Cole Hamels will start the AL Division Series opener for the Texas Rangers against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday.

Hamels (15-5, 3.32) didn’t pitch against the Blue Jays during the regular season but faced them twice in last year’s ALDS. He threw seven innings in the Rangers’ 14-inning win in the second game and lost the Game 5 clincher when three of the five runs against him in 6 1/3 innings were unearned.

Yu Darvish (7-5, 3.41) goes in Game 2 on Friday, his first career ALDS start.

Hamels is 1-1 with a 7.31 ERA over his last six starts. The victory was six scoreless innings at Oakland on Sept. 23, when he won the team’s AL West Division title-clinching game for the second year in a row.q

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Cole Hamels listens to a question during a news conference before Game 1 of the American League Division Series of baseball in Arlington, Texas, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016.

Associated Press

SPORTS A21

Thursday 6 October 2016

Athletes representative says anti-doping system ‘not broken’ LONDON (AP) — The head of WADA’s athlete commission contends the global anti-doping system is not “broken” and laments that politics surrounding the Russian doping scandal has sown “discord” in the fight against performanceenhancing drugs.

Beckie Scott, who chairs the World Anti-Doping Agency athlete committee, urged all sides on Wednesday to put aside their differences and work together to combat “an undeniable threat to the integrity of sporttoday.”

In an op-ed released by the Montreal-based agency, the former Olympic cross-country skier from Canada noted that WADA “has come under intense criticism and scrutiny” in the wake of the allegations of state-backed doping in Russia. “’Why?” Scott said. “For successfully fulfilling their mandate and taking the necessary decisions.”

“To be clear, ‘the system’ is not broken,” she added.

“If it were, the exposure of systematic and state-controlled doping in Russia by WADA would never have happened.”

Several IOC members have blasted WADA, accusing the agency of failing to act sooner on the Russian doping problems.

They also criticized WADA for releasing investigator Richard McLaren’s report on systematic Russian doping just weeks before the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

McLaren’s report led WADA to call for the exclusion of the entire Russian team from the Rio Games.

The IOC rejected the rec-

his is a Thursday, May 12, 2016 file photo of Canadian Olympian Beckie Scott as she speaks to reporters following a World AntiDoping Agency meeting in Montreal Canada.

ommendation, instead asking individual sports federations to determine which Russian athletes could compete.

“It is unacceptable that when it comes to clean, fair sport, there is a sense of discord when there should be harmony,” Scott said.

“Almost every day someone new from the Olympic family takes to the media with the critical claim that the global anti-doping ‘system is broken.’” International Olympic Committee members Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., Sergei Bubka and Gerardo Werthein have all issued

highly critical assessments of WADA in recent weeks.

“The issue has become so deeply divisive and conflicted among stakeholders that it seems athletes have another competitor in the ring — politics,” Scott said.

“Cynicism alone will not win the fight.” Scott’s comments were released three days before an Olympic summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, that the IOC says will focus on developing “a more robust, more efficient and more independent” worldwide anti-doping system. IOC President Thomas Bach has called for the entire testing system to be

independent from sports organizations.

“We have to be solution focused and can no longer afford to become subject to the politics, conflicted interests and game-playing that has held us back for so long,” Scott said.

With WADA’s future role and status under scrutiny, Scott said the agency should be given the autonomy to effectively monitor compliance with global anti-doping rules, apply sanctions and serve as the “regulatory body” for anti-doping efforts around the world. Scott also said WADA needs better fund-

ing. The agency’s annual budget, covered 50-50 by the Olympic movement and national governments, is about $27 million.

“We need to ask ourselves, what is the cost?” she wrote. “What price are we willing to pay for clean, legitimate sport? We must find new ways of funding the quest for a level playing field.”

Scott originally finished third in the 5-kilometer pursuit at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, but was eventually bumped up to the gold medal after the two other medalists were caught for doping.q

A22

Thursday 6 October 2016

SPORTS

Parker scores 29 points to lead Sparks over Sky SARAH TROTTO Associated Press ROSEMONT, Illinois (AP) — Candace Parker scored 29 points and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Chicago Sky 95-75 on Tuesday night to advance to the WNBA Finals.

Kristi Toliver added 21 points and league MVP Nneka Ogwumike had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Sparks, who led by as much as 28 and won the semifinal series 3-1.

They will face the defending champion Minnesota Lynx in a best-of-5 series for the league title. The topseeded Lynx swept Phoenix in the other semifinal and will be going for their fourth title in six years.

The second-seeded Sparks return to the finals for the first time since 2003 after winning championships in 2001 and 2002 with Lisa Leslie.

Cappie Pondexter scored 19 points and rookie Imani Boyette had 15 to lead the fourth-seeded Sky. Clarissa Dos Santos had 14 points and Jessica Breland added 12. Chicago played without 2015 MVP and leading scorer Elena Delle Donne, who has a thumb injury.

The Sparks won the first two games of the series by an average of 17.5 points be-

Andy Murray of Britain celebrates defeating Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia in a men’s singles match at the China Open tennis tournament at the Diamond Court in Beijing, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016.

Associated Press

Murray sets up China Open quarterfinal vs British teammate Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot, right, looks to pass the ball away from Los Angeles Sparks guard Alana Beard, left, during the first half of Game 4 of the WNBA basketball semifinal, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, in Rosemont, Ill. Associated Press

fore the Sky took Game 3 70-66 on Sunday.

After shooting 6-of-33 from beyond the arc in Game 3, the Sparks made 9 of their 13 3-pointers Tuesday. Toliver hit all four of her 3s.

The Sparks shot 55 percent from the field and made 28 of their 30 free throws — including 14 of 15 by Parker.

The Sky went on a 19-9 run to pull within 10 in the third quarter. Pondexter scored 10 points in the period to help Chicago rally. The Sky

got within eight on Erika de Souza’s layup before Parker scored the next eight points on a 3-pointer and five free throws to put the game away.

Los Angeles made 12 of its 16 shots in the second quarter and built the lead to 28. The Sparks outscored the Sky 32-20 in the quarter to take a 55-31 halftime advantage. Parker led the Sparks with 13 points, Toliver had 12 and Ogwumike added 10 by the half. q

BEIJING (AP) — Top-seeded Andy Murray dispatched Andrey Kuznetsov 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday to set up China Open quarterfinal against his British Davis Cup teammate Kyle Edmund.

Both are playing their first tournaments since Britain’s loss to Argentina in the Davis Cup semifinals last month.

Murray is hoping with a strong run in China to close the gap on No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, who withdrew from the tournament.

He struggled initially against Kuznetsov, dropping two early service games as the players traded breaks, but

went on a dominant run after the fifth game.

Edmund, a qualifier, upset seventh-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Fifth-seeded David Ferrer advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini and will next play Alexander Zverev, who beat Jack Sock 6-4, 6-2. Ferrer is still chasing his first title of the season.

The Spaniard has won at least one ATP title in all but one year since 2006.

Grigor Dmitrov held off Steve Johnson 7-5, 6-7 (9), 6-4 and No. 8-seeded Richard Gasquet beat Sam Querrey 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in firstround matches.q

Heavyweight champ Tyson Fury cites depression and cocaine, alcohol use

In this Nov. 29, 2015 file photo, Britain’s new world champion Tyson Fury, celebrates with the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts after winning the world heavyweight title fight against Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko in Duesseldorf, western Germany.

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Troubled heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury says he has been bingeing on cocaine and alcohol to deal with manic depression.

The British boxer has not fought since beating Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 to claim the WBA, WBO and IBF titles.

A rematch with Klitschko was postponed for a second time last month after Fury was declared “medically unfit.” Fury spoke of his “personal demons” in a rambling interview with

Rolling Stone . “I’m a manic depressive. I just hope someone kills me before I kill myself,” Fury is quoted as saying. Fury said he quit his training camp in the Netherlands in May and has been on a downward spiral since. “I’ve been out drinking, Monday to Friday to Sunday,” Fury said. “I’ve taken drugs, cocaine, on many, many occasions for the last six months.” Fury was stripped of the IBF title for not fighting a mandatory challenger, but he still has the WBO and WBA

titles. That could change because of his ongoing inactivity and the potential withdrawal of his license by the British Boxing Board of Control. “The Board meets next week and we’ll discuss it, I’m fairly sure,” BBB of C general secretary Robert Smith told Britain’s Press Association. “The meeting won’t be for Tyson Fury alone. We have a meeting on Oct. 12. All of Mr. Fury’s recent issues will be discussed at that point, after which we’ll see what we’re going to do.”q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Thursday 6 October 2016

‘Smart speakers’ are angling to colonize your living room MAE ANDERSON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Does your home really need a “smart speaker” that can answer questions, call you an Uber, turn off the lights or play music when you ask? You may be about to find out.

Two years ago, Amazon introduced the Amazon Echo, an unassuming, $180 cylinder that sits atop a kitchen counter or bookshelf, acting as a personal assistant that listens to you and does your bidding. Initially, the gadget’s main purpose was a little difficult to discern . But Echo and its Alexa voice recognition software have since become a sleeper hit, with an estimated 3 million gadgets sold as of April, according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

MAKING THE HOME “SMART” Now the Echo is getting some company. On Tuesday, Google announced a similar smart speaker called Google Home, which will be available in November for $129. It will perform many of the same tasks as Echo, including playing music and fielding questions plus controlling compatible lights and appliances. The Google Assistant that works

This Wednesday, March 2, 2016, file photo shows an Echo Dot, left, and an Amazon Tap in San Francisco.

Associated Press

with Home will also be able to access your calendar, Google Maps and other services if you allow.

Apple has opened up its Siri personal assistant so that third-party developers can create new features for it, much the way Ama-

zon has done with its Alexa software. Google Assistant is also opening up to outside apps in December.

Sony is working on Xperia Agent , a digital assistant that connects to devices in the home.

All these companies are

chasing the smart-home market, which could grow to be a $71 billion global industry by 2018, up from $33 billion in 2013 and $25 billion in 2012, according to Juniper Research. That’s growing fast, although it’s still much smaller than the smartphone market, which the research firm IDC valued at about $412 billion in 2015.

But while the Echo carved out an early success, it remains to be seen whether voice-recognition smart speakers will truly break into the mainstream.

“They’re early, (but) the market is early, and we have a long way to go,” said David Smith, an analyst at research firm Gartner.

LEARNING NEW SKILLS One key to the Echo’s success was Amazon’s willingness to work with third-party developers, allowing it to add new functions each week, making it easy for owners of the speaker to discover new ways to use it. (It launched with a few dozen so-called ‘skills’ and now has thousands).

“Initially we got it for music,” said Brian Bishop, a business analyst in Tomball, Texas, whose family uses two Echos. “Later, when it controlled the lights and fans and outlets, that just

made it even better.”

Interest in smart homes appears to be rising as more people become enamored with their smartphones.

A recent online survey of more than 4,600 adults in the U.S. by Forrester Research’s Technographics found 57 percent of them either had used or were interested in using a smart home device such as lights or thermostats designed for remote control.

The Echo’s hands-free operation filled an undiscovered niche in the smarthome universe. Users can just say the wake word “Alexa” and direct it to do a task like turn on lights or set a timer. Since you don’t need to use a smartphone or tablet, that sets it apart from other smart home systems like those offered by Samsung or Apple.

SPEAK TO ME People seem to have an easier time talking to a speaker that has no other interface than they do talking to a smartphone.

“I’ve never used Cortana. I don’t use Google and my wife doesn’t use Siri, but everybody talks to Alexa,” Bishop from Texas said. “I couldn’t really tell you why.

That was the only way to communicate, so we all got in the habit.”q

U.S. subpoena tests privacy promise of encrypted messaging app RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The company responsible for spreading top-of-the-line message encryption across the internet has had a first legal skirmish with the U.S. government.

Open Whisper Systems — whose Signal app pioneered the end-to-end encryption technique now used by a swath of messaging services — was subpoenaed for information about one of its users earlier this year, according to legal correspondence released Tuesday. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the company,

said the small San Francisco firm didn’t produce the user’s name, address, call logs or other details requested by the government. Created by anarchist yachtsman Moxie Marlinspike and a crew of surf-happy developers, Signal has evolved from a niche app used by dissidents and protest leaders into the foundation stone for the encryption of huge tranches of the world’s communications data. When any one of WhatsApp’s billion-plus users sees a discreet lock icon with the words, “Messages you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryp-

tion,” they have Signal to thank . Facebook’s recently launched private chat feature, Secret Conversations , uses Signal’s technology; so too does the incognito mode on Google’s messenger service Allo.

Signal remains a favorite among security-minded users, among them National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. A key selling point has been Open Whisper Systems’ refusal to retain nearly any form of metadata — the often revealing who-how-whenwhere of calls and messages.

“We try to have as little information as possible,” Mar-

This photograph taken Tuesday Oct. 4, 2016 shows the Signal encrypted messaging app loading on a smartphone in Paris.

Associated Press

linspike said in an interview (over Signal, naturally.)

Kaufman said that the request — and Signal’s response to it — was a model for companies hoping to insulate themselves from the

fraught process of handing over their customers’ data.

“We hope it’s an example for other companies how they can continue to stand for customers’ privacy,” he said.q

A24 BUSINESS

Thursday 6 October 2016

Banks, energy firms lead stock market higher BERNARD CONDON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market broke two days of losses on Wednesday with solid gains as investors piled into shares of banks and energy companies.

Stocks jumped from the start on a rise in the price of crude oil, with banks joining the rally after a strong

ergy stockpiles shrank last week, a surprise to most analysts. Chesapeake Energy rose 43 cents to $6.80, a 6.8 percent gain, the biggest in the S&P 500 index.

Investors have been pushing crude sharply higher since OPEC announced a preliminary deal last week that would limit production, and the price is now nearly

to bonds, but are now having second thoughts as yields rise.

“Interest rates have been incredibly low, maybe artificially low, and everyone was chasing something with income, and they were blindly chasing them,” said Eric Ervin, chief executive of Reality Shares, an investment firm. The rush

Trader Glenn Kessler, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. The stock market broke two days of losses on Wednesday with solid gains as investors piled into shares of banks and energy companies.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

report on the service sector suggested the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates soon. Banks can benefit when rates rise because it allows them to charge more for their loans. Bank of America rose 2 percent.

The yield on government bonds rose again, and investors dumped phone and real estate companies, sending them down nearly 2 percent. Investors find them less attractive as a source of income relative to bonds when yields are rising.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 112.58 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,281.03. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 9.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,159.73. The Nasdaq composite rose 26.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,316.02.

The price of U.S. benchmark crude closed near $50 a barrel, its highest price since late June, after a U.S. government report said en-

double its February low of $26.

A private report showed that U.S. service companies grew last month at the fastest pace in nearly a year. The Institute for Supply Management said that its services index jumped to 57.1 in September, the highest point since October last year, the latest in a string of indicators that the economy is gaining strength.

Investors took that as a sign that the Federal Reserve is more likely to raise rates from super-low levels this year, and pushed yields on government bonds higher.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.71 percent from 1.69 percent, and is now up about a tenth of percentage point since the start of the week, a big move.

Investors had been buying high-dividend stocks like utilities and phone and real estate companies as an alternative source of income

out of the one-time high flyers, he added, is a “sign of normality.”

Among stocks making big moves, Constellation Brands rose $2.75, or 1.7 percent, to $168.60 after it reported strong sales of beers like Corona and Modelo in its latest quarter. It raised its projections for sales growth for its beer business.

Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton fell $1.19, or 3.8 percent, to $30.31. Federal prosecutors said a contractor for the National Security Agency had been arrested on charges that he illegally removed highly classified information, and The New York Times reported that the contractor worked for Booz Allen. The firm said it had fired an employee who had been arrested by the FBI. In Europe, the major indexes fell. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.6 percent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.3 percent. Germany’s DAX also dropped 0.3 percent.q

Eurozone financial growth ‘losing momentum’ as Britain rebounds PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain’s exit from the European Union — whenever it takes place — is a cloud over the economic outlook for both the country and its major trading partners within the 19-country eurozone.

Further evidence emerged Wednesday to show that businesses across the single currency bloc are fretting over the risks, while those in Britain appear to have gotten over the initial shock of the vote to leave on June 23 thanks partly to the plunge in the pound. The drop in the currency, which this week hit a 31-year low against the dollar, makes British exports more competitive.

Both the eurozone and British economies are growing, but not by much and certainly not as fast as they were earlier this year. And both their outlooks are intertwined with what happens next.

British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed over the weekend that she will invoke by March the socalled Article 50 of the EU treaty, the mechanism by which two years of talks on Britain’s exit officially commence.

Beyond that, the future is far from clear.

A key concern centers on what Britain’s trading relationship with the remaining 27 EU countries will look like. That uncertainty is clearly weighing on business, as evidenced by a series of surveys released Wednesday.

EUROZONE EDGINESS: Financial information company IHS Markit found that Brexit has been a drain on the eurozone, the group of EU countries that use the euro as their currency and have struggled to grow much over the past few years.

IHS Markit’s purchasing managers’ index for the eurozone, a broad gauge of economic activity encompassing the manufacturing and services sectors, edged down to a 20-month low of 52.6 points in September from 52.9 the previous month.

As anything above 50 indicates expansion, IHS Markit said its index indicates the economy continues to grow, but at a quarterly rate of only 0.3 percent. That muted pace is unlikely to make much of a dent in the eurozone’s 10.1 percent jobless rate or heal the social divisions that have emerged following the region’s debt crisis.

Of the eurozone’s four largest states, IHS Market found that only France is showing signs of gaining momentum, with growth decelerating in Germany, Italy and Spain. Italy, it added, is possibly the biggest source of concern with third quarter growth of 0.1 percent, while Spain, in spite of a slowdown in September, remains the standout performer among the big four.

The slowdown reflects some “growing caution” among businesses about the economic outlook, often due to political uncertainty, said Chris Williamson, IHS Markit’s chief business economist.

“We see this trend persisting into next year, as the impact of Brexit is exacerbated by uncertainty surrounding elections in France and Germany alongside ongoing political unrest in Italy and Spain,” he added.

It’s not just businesses feeling the pinch in the eurozone. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, revealed that retail sales in the eurozone fell 0.1 percent in August while July’s increase was revised down to 0.3 percent from the original 1.1 percent.q

BUSINESS A25

Thursday 6 October 2016

Poles end talks on multibillion deal with Airbus Helicopters WARSAW, Poland (AP) Poland says it is backing off from the multi-billion-euro purchase of French-made Caracal helicopters, quoting unsatisfactory offset deal negotiations.

Poland’s Development Ministry said late Tuesday it was breaking off the vital offset negotiations with Airbus Helicopters that produces the Caracal. It said the negotiating positions of the two sides were so different that “further talks are pointless.”

In an offset agreement, the seller of a product or service agrees to invest in sectors or goods on the buyer’s side, as a way of compensating or enhancing the value of the deal.

Offset deals usually accompany large deals in the military industry.

The ministry said that offers made by Airbus Helicopters failed to properly secure Poland’s economic and security interests. Polish officials earlier hinted the value of the offset should approximately match the value of the purchase and should help develop the nation’s defense industry.

The decision means that Poland will need to open new negotiations with other producers of helicopters. It also delays the purchase of the much-needed multi-task helicopters for Poland’s armed forces that are in the process of being modernized.

The decision to buy the helicopters from Airbus was made by the previous government, led by the proEuropean Civic Platform party. It drew protests from trade unions in two Polish aviation plants linked to firms that were not chosen, one linked to the U.S. producer of the Black Hawk, the other to a British-Italian consortium AgustaWestland, now Leonardo Helicopters, making the AW149 helicopter. Workers in those plants fear layoffs.

The conservative Law and Justice party backed those protests and indicated it might cancel the deal when it won elections last year.q

Smart Money: What to expect from your bond fund STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — How many more times can bond funds ride to the rescue when stocks go on another one of their tumbles?

Markets are calm now, but it was only a couple of months ago that a freakout about the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union sent the largest stock fund to a twoday loss of nearly 6 percent.

Through the turbulence, bond funds once again acted as investors’ comforter and delivered steady gains. But the very success for bond funds means investors need to expect less from them going forward.

Bond yields are low, with the 10-year Treasury note’s below 1.60 percent. Low yields mean bonds not only produce less income but also have less room to rise in price. That’s because they rise when yields fall.

Their prices also fall when interest rates rise.

Ford O’Neil, portfolio manager at the $24.4 billion Fidelity Total Bond fund, recently talked about how bond funds can still be stabilizers for portfolios when stocks are shaky, but investors need to lower their expectations. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Your fund has returned about 7 percent in 2016.

Can it keep having these kinds of returns?

A: We are telling our clients two things. One: anticipate more modest returns going forward. With the Barclays Aggregate (index of highquality U.S. bonds) yielding

just below 2 percent, that’s not a bad perspective on what to expect for returns.

You also have to assume more modest equity returns

volatility of fixed-income investments has dropped for good. It’s been driven by temporary, but longlasting, Fed policies.

Specialist Anthony Rinaldi is silhouetted on a screen at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. How many more times can bond funds ride to the rescue when stocks go on another one of their tumbles? AP Business Writer Stan Choe sets to find out.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

as well.

And I think you have to expect a little more volatility as well. The U.S. economy and the U.S. central bank are diverging from what’s happening in Japan and Europe. With that, you have to anticipate a more volatile environment.

Q: When you’re saying more volatility, do you mean a bumpier stock market or a bumpier bond market?

A: It will be a combination. You will get volatility in both stocks and bonds. The Federal Reserve has dampened a lot of that volatility over the past eight years. I think they’ll be doing less of that going forward.

Over the past eight years, we’ve probably had three quarters of the typical volatility for the bond market. I don’t want people getting comfortable thinking the

Q: So, lower returns for bond funds and higher volatility. Sounds like everything’s working against bond funds. Why keep one?

A: All true, but a bond fund should still give you comfort when your equity portfolio is not faring particularly well. It will help dampen the volatility of your overall portfolio.

It’s hard to step on my soapbox and tell everyone now’s the time to rush to bond funds. But the alternative is cash, which is earning next to nothing and doesn’t give you any upside when the equity markets are challenged.

Q: Your fund can go up to 20 percent in high-yield bonds, which are the ones most likely to default.

You’re close to that cap.

Why so invested when de-

fault rates are at their highest level in years?

A: It’s not because I think high-yield has never been cheaper. More importantly, I think Treasurys have never been less attractive.

We have had very, very low default rates, and they have been rising, although most of the increase has been in the commodity sectors. If you were to come to Fidelity and spend time with our high-yield group, you’d be amazed with how many analysts we have. If they are able to get the security selection right, the hope is that we’re able to avoid many, if not all, of the defaults.

Q: For several years, critics were saying rising rates would mean big losses for bond mutual funds. When’s the last time you heard the phrase “bond bubble?”

A: We heard it a lot in 2012.

I hear it still fairly frequently.

If you look back at bubbles over the years — you can go back to the tulip bubble, the Internet bubble, the housing bubble — in all those cases, people lost 50 to 75 percent of their principal. If you’re buying bonds, you should get your money back. They do mature at par, especially if they’re government securities.

Where you have the greatest risk is if you have inflation - and not a rise from 1 to 2 percent but from 1 to 4 or 5 percent. The only way you can see a bond bubble is if hyper-inflationary forces come back to the United States, and I don’t think there are a lot of people that feel strongly that’s the case. q

Monsanto reports better-than-expected results ST. LOUIS (AP) — Monsanto, which is in the process of being bought by Bayer, reported better-than-expected results for its most recent quarter as sales of its corn and soybean seeds rose.

Last month, German medicine and farm chemical maker Bayer AG offered $57 billion to buy Monsanto, a St. Louis-based company that sells seeds to farmers and makes weed-

killer Roundup. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2017.

Monsanto said Wednesday that sales of sales of soybean seeds jumped 54 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter from the same period a year ago and corn seeds rose 34 percent.

The company reported a loss of $191 million, or 44 cents per share, in the quarter, compared to a loss of

$495 million, or $1.06 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Earnings, adjusted for onetime gains and costs, were 7 cents per share, exceeding Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 2 cents per share.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $2.56 billion in the period,

above the $2.4 billion that analysts expected, according to FactSet. Monsanto expects full-year adjusted earnings in the range of $4.50 to $4.90 per share for the current year.

Analysts expect earnings of $4.88 per share, according to FactSet. Shares of Monsanto Co. rose 92 cents to $102.53 in afternoon trading Wednesday. q

A26 COMICS

Thursday 6 October 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

CLASSIFIED A27

Thursday 6 October 2016

Utah man charged $40 for ‘skin-to-skin’ contact with baby BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ryan Grassley discovered a perplexing charge on a hospital bill for the recent birth of his son: Nearly $40 for “skin to skin” contact after his wife gave birth via cesarean section.

Amused by the bill, he posted a picture of it on Reddit this week and commented: “I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born.”

The post set off a flurry of outrage and consternation on Reddit. Nearly 12,000 people commented, with many sharing their own stories of what they said were bizarre or ridiculous medical charges. “A lot of people like to be shocked and outraged by things,” Grassley said in an interview Wednesday. “Today, It happened to be my hospital bill.”

The fee technically wasn’t for Grassley to hold his baby, but to have an additional nurse present in the hospital recovery room for C-section patients to ensure the mother and baby were safe, said Janet Frank, spokeswoman for Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah.

Grassley said that he wasn’t mad about the bill or seeking reimbursement but thought posting it would make people laugh. He’s also hopeful the attention the bill attracted might lead hospitals to be more precise about their billing charges.q

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A28 SCIENCE

Thursday 6 October 2016

3 win Nobel chemistry prize for world’s tiniest machines KARL RITTER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing the world’s smallest machines, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair but with the potential to revolutionize computer and energy systems.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scottish-born Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa share the 8 million kronor ($930,000) prize for the “design and synthesis of molecular machines,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Machines at the molecular level have taken chemistry to a new dimension and “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems,” the academy said.

Practical applications are still far away — the academy said molecular motors are at the same stage that electrical motors were in the first half of the 19th century — but the potential is huge.

Stoddart, 74, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has already developed a molecule-based computer chip with 20 kB memory. Researchers believe chips so small may

This is a image taken on Nov. 28, 2013 made available by the University of Groningen on Wednesday Oct. 5, 2016 of Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa.

Associated Press

revolutionize computer technology the way silicon-based transistors once did.

Feringa, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, leads a research group that in 2011 built a “nanocar,” a minuscule vehicle with four molecular motors as wheels.

Sauvage is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

The academy said the laureates’ work has inspired other researchers to build increasingly advanced molecular machinery, including a robot that can grasp and connect amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Researchers are also hoping to develop

a new kind of battery using this technology.

“I feel a little bit like the Wright brothers, who were flying 100 years ago for the first time and then people were saying ‘why do we need a flying machine?’”

Feringa, 65, told reporters in Stockholm by phone. “And now we have a Boeing 747 and an Airbus. So that is a bit how I feel.”

Speaking to French TV channel itele, Sauvage, 71, called the news a memorable moment and a big surprise.

“I have won many prizes, but the Nobel Prize is something very special. It’s the most prestigious prize, the one most scientists don’t even dare to dream of in their wildest dreams,” he said.

Stoddart said the award recognized “blue sky” fun-

damental research and that no big applications are expected anytime soon.

“I would not wish to claim that it’s being used anywhere in the world. We’re all waiting in the field for the killer application,” he told The Associated Press.

The academy said Sauvage made the first breakthrough in 1983 when he linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain. Stoddart took the next step in 1991 by threading a molecular ring onto a molecular axle, while Feringa was the first to develop a molecular motor in 1999 when he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continuously in the same direction.

The academy said the “miniaturization of machines” is just in its initial phase, with potentially “thrilling” developments ahead.

“The molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors,” the academy said.

Feringa said he could think of all kinds of potential applications, including smart materials that adapt to external conditions or “tiny robots that the doctors in the future will inject in your blood veins and then go to search for a cancer cell or

... deliver a drug.”

Donna Nelson, president of the American Chemical Society, said the winners met the challenge of not only making the machines, but also demonstrating that they worked as they were supposed to.

Since they were operating on such a tiny scale, it’s “a truly remarkable feat,” she said. The award “will generate a lot of interest in this field,” Nelson said. And given the topic, “children are going to love it. ... They’re the scientists of tomorrow.”

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three Britishborn scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honor achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Thursday 6 October 2016

Paisley Park visitors will see Prince’s studio and mementoes CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) — Prince’s handwritten notes still sit out in the control room of Studio A at Paisley Park, where he recorded some of his greatest hits and was working on a jazz album before he died. The room is filled with his keyboards and guitars, and his iconic symbol graces the control panel.

Those are some of the highlights visitors to Paisley Park will see when the 65,000-square-foot studio complex, where Prince died of an accidental painkiller overdose in April, opens for the first public tours Thursday, NBC’s “Today” show reported from the museum Wednesday (http://on.today. com/2dSnhQX ).

It will open under a temporary permit Thursday — and only two other dates for which tickets had already been sold — instead of daily as originally planned, after city council members in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen delayed action on rezoning because of concerns about public safety and traffic. It’s unclear when the museum will be allowed to begin fullscale tour operations, but the council said it would vote on the issue again “on or before” Dec. 20.

Graceland Holdings, which runs Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, is managing the museum for the Prince estate.

When tours begin, fans

entering the Purple Rain room will see the script, guitar and a motorcycle that Prince rode in the 1984 movie of the same name.

The Oscar that he won for music in the movie is displayed in that room, and the movie will play on one wall.

Prince kept nearly all of his custom-made outfits — about 6,000 pieces of clothing and 1,000 pairs of shoes — and many are on display.

Hallways lined with gold records and other awards guide visitors to the NPG Music Club, where Princeentertained friends and perform for small groups. Private living quarters are off-limits.

NBC’s reports made no reference to Prince’s remains. But Frank Wheaton, an attorney for Prince’s half brother, Alfred Jackson, told The Associated Press that artifacts on display will include Prince’s ashes in an urn.

One of Prince’s older sisters told NBC that her brother’s energy and spirit is evident in the exhibit.

“It’s truly Prince. He thought all this through,” Norrine Nelson said. “He had a vision and he finished it.”

Prince’s younger sister, Tyka Nelson, said she hopes visitors will come away with a very personal experience.

“I want them to maybe feel like maybe they saw Prince up close,” she said. “Sometimes when you’re a fan,

Actor Jamie Foxx visits Venezuela President Maduro CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Actor Jamie Foxx has met with President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Foxx, who won the Oscar Award for “Ray” in 2004, visited Maduro in the presidential palace in Caracas.

State media said Foxx was there to support the country’s socialist revolution and attend the signing of an agreement between Venezuela and its allies for the construction of houses for the poor.

Foxx posed for photos with the deeply-unpopular president of the economically embattled South American country.

In a national address Tuesday, Maduro praised Foxx’s work. Foxx hasn’t commented publicly on what motivated his visit.

Several U.S. celebrities have visited Venezuela to support the country’s socialist revolution over the years, including actors Sean Penn and Danny Glover.q

This undated photo provided by Paisley Park/NPG Records shows the atrium of Prince’s Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minn.

Associated Press

A30 PEOPLE

Thursday 6 October 2016

& ARTS

Sarah Jessica Parker wedded to a new HBO comedy, ‘Divorce’ FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In August 2000, a Time magazine cover story touting singles life displayed Sarah Jessica Parker and her three “Sex and the City” co-stars with the headline: “Who Needs a Husband?”

That question could apply, in spades, to Parker’s new HBO comedy, a piercingly honest yet droll exploration of a marriage on the rocks

titled, brazenly, “Divorce.”

Premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT, “Divorce” returns Parker to series TV in a role that will inevitably be judged against her “Sex and the City” portrayal as self-described “sexual anthropologist” Carrie Bradshaw.

But, odds are, only fleetingly. “Divorce” reintroduces the actress as Frances, a suburban wife and mother gazing into the bathroom

Sarah Jessica Parker attends the premiere of HBO’s “Divorce” at the SVA Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, in New York.

Associated Press

mirror in the series’ first scene as if to wish away encroaching signs of age, whereupon husband Robert (co-star Thomas Haden Church) interrupts to beef about how Frances hogs the bathroom.

Then, his back turned to exit, Frances, fuming, flips him a bird. With that fed-up move, Parker leaves Carrie Bradshaw far behind.

“I just improvised that,” says Parker, looking pleased.

“I’m so glad they used it!”

But make no mistake, very little about “Divorce” wasn’t carefully thought out, if you believe Parker.

She says she and producing partner Alison Benson spent four years crafting the show’s concept while recruiting other off-screen talent that includes series creator Sharon Horgan (already winning acclaim as a star and creator of the dark romantic comedy “Catastrophe,” available on Amazon Prime) and showrunner Paul Simms (whose credits include “The Larry Sanders Show,” ‘’Flight of the Conchords” and “Girls”).

Then they mobilized a supporting cast including Molly Shannon, Talia Balsam and Tracy Letts.

It all adds up to a project Parker was, well, married to — and not as an acting showcase for herself;

at first, she had no plans to appear in it.

What made it so important to her? “A lot of people I knew were at a very interesting point in their relationship,” she explains.

“It’s a reckoning of where we are, versus where we thought we would be, with people contemplating affairs, having affairs, surviving affairs or with marriages destroyed. I knew women who came out of divorces feeling triumphant, and others who felt it wasn’t at all like they thought the liberation would be.”

True, Parker, 51, has famously been wed for two decades to actor Matthew Broderick. “But even if you’re not experiencing it, divorce is swirling around us all,” she says. “I felt strongly that this story should be told because it’s so many people’s story.”

Frances and Robert are a middle-aged, middle-class couple with two children living in New York’s Westchester County. Their marriage is sputtering yet stuck in place. Then a seismic event thrusts divorce into the picture.

Fortunately for the audience, if not for this couple, there’s no easy or quick resolution in sight, despite the series’ seemingly selflimiting, blunt title. Divorce

for Frances and Robert, as for others in their social circle, can inflict itself as a protracted condition.

This would be a good time to mention that “Divorce,” while weighty, isn’t Bergmanesque, nor is it “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

With sufficient frequency, the prism of “Divorce” refracts its raw, all-too-familiar truths into well-earned laughs. (“I am divorcing you,” Frances tells Robert in desperation. “I just got to get the kids to school first.”)

“I watch S.J.,” says her costar Church (“Sideways,” ‘’Spiderman 3”), “and she’s so brilliant in her nuance and navigation of the dramatic and the comedic.”

That goes for Church, too. (“I would never try and blow your head off,” Robert volunteers in a funnyand-not-funny moment, to which Frances can only respond in kind, “Are you sure? Are you really SURE you would never try and blow my head off?”)

“Comedy and drama, I don’t prepare for them any different,” says Church.

“I just want to make it as believable as possible, with always a sense of unknowing for the character: ‘What the (heck) is going to happen next?’ Just trying to keep it all honest. But hidden.”q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Thursday 6 October 2016

DuVernay turns her lens on mass incarceration in ‘The 13th’ JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Ava DuVernay’s documentary “The 13th,” on mass incarceration and its deep, historical roots in America, has been welling up in her a long time.

The film, which DuVernay secretly worked on the last few years, is her third major work to deal with the subject. Her second feature, “Middle of Nowhere,” is about a woman coping with her husband’s imprisonment.

Her recently debuted OWN series, “Queen Sugar,” features a character six months out of jail. But DuVernay traces the film’s origin back further, to when she was a child in Compton.

“Even as a little girl, I’d always tell my mom two things,” DuVernay said in a recent interview. “Sometimes we’d pass by a place around the neighborhood and I’d say, ‘If I’m ever homeless, I’m going to put my sleeping bag and shopping cart there,’ like under the freeway pass. And I’d say if I ever go to jail, I’m going to try to bring this one thing.

“I saw homeless people and I saw people going to jail,” she says. “So it’s always been on my mind.”

DuVernay’s feature film follow-up to her acclaimed, Oscar-nominated (and

famously Oscar-snubbed) civil rights epic “Selma,” isn’t an awards-friendly period drama or some other predictable next step, but a powerfully holistic documentary about race and imprisonment.

Debuting in theaters and via Netflix on Oct. 7, “The 13th” takes its name from the amendment that abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime.” In the film, criminalization — from Reconstruction-era to modern day police brutality — is subjugation by other means.

Mass incarceration (the U.S. makes up 25 percent of the world’s prisoners despite being 5 percent of its population) has emerged as a rare bipartisan issue in recent years. But “The 13th,” the first documentary to ever open the New York Film Festival, seeks to put the problem in a broader social and racial context that dates back to slavery.

“There are some real clearcut, widely known, academically vetted cultural seeds that were planted way back that are blossoming now,” DuVernay says. “We can no longer say that prison is a place bad people go because it’s much more complicated than that.”

The two years between “Selma” and “The 13th”

In this Oct. 19, 2015 file photo, director Ava DuVernay attends the 2015 ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

bracket considerable turmoil for both race in America and equality in Hollywood.

The perceived snub of David Oyelowo for “Selma” helped kick off the “OscarsSoWhite” backlash that drove the Academy of Motion Pictures to diversify its membership. DuVernay was involved in that effort, as well as others to make the movie business more inclusive.

But the Oscars, she says, are no longer on her mind.

“Since ‘Selma,’ I think

about it hardly ever,” says DuVernay, a publicist before she was a filmmaker. “I don’t know if it’s been being supremely and incredibly busy or if it’s just been: ‘Did it, saw what it is and I’m good.’ There are other ways to measure achievement in my mind these days.”

DuVernay is currently in preproduction on Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1963 fantasy classic. She earlier flirted with directing Marvel’s “Black

Panther” before ultimately passing.

“At times, things have come up that on the surface looked attractive,” she says. “To me, I always try to think about my day.

Life is short. That’s kind of how I looked at it, from a very personal place as opposed to a strategic, professional, this-will-getme-further-on-the-board place.”

Having come out of independent film, where her biggest budget was $20 million for “Selma,” DuVernay is relishing her Disney experience. “There are parts of filmmaking that I never even knew existed,” she says laughing. The film is the first $100 million-plus movie to be directed by a woman of color.

“Those things — first black woman at Sundance, Golden Globes, Oscar best-picture — don’t really get my blood up just because it’s bittersweet,” DuVernay says.

“It’s ridiculous these things are happening in 2016 when there have been so many talented women not given the opportunity.

It’s not about my achievement, it’s because someone decided it was the time and I was there.”

DuVernay grants that releasing “The 13th” in an election year is “purposeful.”q

‘Thriller’ songwriter Rod Temperton dies in London at 66 GREGORY KATZ Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Rod Temperton, a British-born musician and songwriter with a singular knack for pop-funk who wrote the Michael Jackson classics “Thriller,” ‘’Rock With You” and many other hits, has died of cancer in London at 66.

His music publisher said in a statement Wednesday that Temperton had died last week of an “aggressive” cancer. No other details were provided.

Jon Platt of Warner/Chappell said Temperton was the

sole writer of “Thriller,” ‘’Off the Wall,” ‘’Rock with You” and other major songs.

Temperton started his career in the disco band Heatwave and collaborated with Aretha Franklin, Herbie Hancock, Anita Baker and many others. He was best known as a songwriter and worked closely with producer Quincy Jones on groundbreaking tracks for Jackson’s mega-selling “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” albums. Platt said Temperton was sometimes known as “the invisible man” for his behind-the-scenes role.

Temperton was a native of the seaside town of Cleethorpes, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of London. He had been working in a frozen fish factory in the mid-1970s when he responded to an ad and joined Heatwave, an international group for whom he played keyboards and wrote two major hits, the disco favorite “Boogie Nights” and the ballad “Always and Forever.”“Always and Forever” attracted wide attention and was later covered by Luther Vandross, among others.

In this March 29, 2012 file photo, songwriter Rod Temperton and his wife Kathy attending a Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Associated Press

His work with Heatwave attracted the attention of Jones, who was then working with Jackson.

Temperton revealed a gift

for both fast and slow numbers, whether the easygoing “Rock with You” or the sci-fi funk of the title track from “Thriller.” q