January 9, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Saturday, January 9, 2016

Mexico: Drug Lord “El Chapo” Guzman Recaptured

E. CASTILLO M. STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The world’s most-wanted drug lord was captured for a third time in a daring raid Friday by Mexican marines, six months after he tunneled out of a maximum security prison in a madefor-Hollywood escape that deeply embarrassed the government and strained ties with the United States.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, writing in his Twitter account: “mission accomplished: we have him.” Few had thought Guzman would be taken alive, and few now believe Mexico will want to try to hold him a third time in Mexican prisons. He escaped from maximumsecurity facilities in 2001 and on July 11, 2015, the second breakout especially humiliating for the Pena Nieto administration, which only held him for less than 18 months. The U.S. has sought his extradition, though Mexico in the past has said he would serve sentences here first.

Continued on Page 2

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks at a press conference following the capture of fugitive drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. Pena announced that Guzman had been recaptured six months after escaping from a maximum security prison.

(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A2 UP

Saturday 9 January 2016

Mexico:

FRONT

Drug Lord “El Chapo” Guzman Recaptured Continued from front

But Pena Nieto gave a brief live message Friday afternoon that focused heavily on touting the competency of his administration, which has suffered a series of embarrassments and scandals in the first half of his presidency.

“The arrest of today is very

enforcement official said Guzman was captured at a motel on the outskirts of Los Mochis.

Given Guzman’s penchant for escaping through tunnels, the details of his capture, once they are released by Mexican officials, are sure to be startling.

After his first capture in Guatemala in June 1993,

transnational organized crime, violence, and drug trafficking,” a DEA statement said.

The U.S. Justice Department commended the working relationship as well.

“I salute the Mexican law enforcement and military personnel who have worked tirelessly in recent months to bring Guzman to

In this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs

by Mexican navy marines at a navy hanger in Mexico City, Mexico. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto posted on his Twitter account, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, that drug lord Joaquin ‘Chapo’ Guzman has been recaptured.

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

important for the government of Mexico. It shows that the public can have confidence in its institutions,” Pena Nieto said.

“Mexicans can count on a government decided and determined to build a better country.”

Guzman was apprehended after a shootout with Mexican marines in Los Mochis, a seaside city in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa, said a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by name. He said Guzman was taken alive and was not wounded.

Five people were killed and one Mexican marine wounded in the clash at a house. It was unclear if Guzman was there or nearby when the raid was under way. Another law

Guzman was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He reportedly made his 2001 escape from the maximum security prison in a laundry cart, though some have discounted that version.

His second escape last July was even more audacious.

He slipped down a hole in his shower stall in plain view of guards into a mile-long tunnel dug from a property outside the prison.

The tunnel was complete with ventilation, lights and a motorbike on rails, illustrating the extent to which corruption was involved in covering up such an elaborate operation.

In the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration hailed the capture as proof of the close relationship between the two countries. “The arrest is a significant achievement in our shared fight against

justice,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.

A Mexican law enforcement official said authorities located Guzman several days ago, based on reports he was in Los Mochis.

The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said authorities had even searched storm drains in the area. In 2014, Guzman escaped capture by fleeing through a network of interconnected tunnels in the drainage system in Culiacan, the Sinaloa state capital.

The Mexican Navy said in a statement that marines acting on a tip raided a home in Los Mochis before dawn. They were fired on from inside the structure, it said. Five suspects were killed and six others arrested. The marine’s injuries were not life threatening.q

Prosecutors: Paris fugitive hid out in suspected bomb factory JOHN DAHLBURG Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian prosecutors on Friday revealed new details about the biggest mystery in the Paris attacks: What happened to fugitive Salah Abdeslam after he ditched his car and explosive vest?

After slipping through a police dragnet, they said, he apparently hid out in the same Brussels apartment that served as the killers’ bomb factory.

“We found material to make explosives, we found traces of explosives and we found three belts. So you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to make the right deduction,” Belgian Federal Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told The Associated Press.

Also discovered during a Dec. 10 police search of the third-floor residence on the Rue Henri Berge: one of 26-year-old Abdeslam’s fingerprints, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement.

A Brussels native whose older brother, Brahim, was one of the Paris suicide bombers, Abdeslam is believed to have played a key logistical role in the Nov. 13 carnage in which 130 people lost their lives. Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for the mass killings.

Early on the morning of Nov. 14, Abdeslam called two friends in Brussels to come fetch him from the French capital.

A French gendarme stopped the three men in their car near the border, but released them. Authorities now believe Abdeslam arrived later that same day at the apartment in the Schaerbeek district of the Belgian capital, eventually was picked up by someone else, “and we lost him,” Van der Sypt said.

It’s not yet clear when Abdeslam was most recently in the apartment, he said.

Now the target of an international manhunt, Abdeslam’s whereabouts remain unknown. “If we knew where he was, we’d catch him,” said Van der Sypt.

Earlier unconfirmed reports said he was spotted two days after the Paris attacks in Liege in eastern Belgium, heading toward Germany.

Last month, some Belgian tabloids reported he’d been smuggled Nov. 16 out of a hideout in Molenbeek, another Brussels neighborhood where he and other Paris attackers lived, by an accomplice who feigned a household move and hid him inside a piece of furniture.

Van der Sypt said authorities decided to release information about last month’s search to dispel inaccuracies published by some media. Refusing to disclose specifics, the prosecutor said evidence acquired in the apartment “has helped us get further in the investigation.”

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the residence on a quiet Schaerbeek street flanked on both sides by row houses was rented under a false identity that may have been used by one of the people currently held in Belgium on suspicion of aiding and abetting the Paris attackers.

That person was not identified by Belgian authorities.

One of the 10 men arrested, Ali Oulkadi, a welder and restaurant deliveryman from Molenbeek, is suspected of being the person who drove Abdeslam to Schaerbeek from another district of Brussels. Detained Nov. 22, Oulkadi has been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

Inside the Rue Henri Berge apartment, three handmade belts were found by police, and “could have been intended for the transport of explosives,” the prosecutor’s office said.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Saturday 9 January 2016

Philadelphia police: Suspect shot officer in name of Islam

Officials investigate the scene of a shooting Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Philadelphia. A Philadelphia police officer was shot multiple times by a man who ambushed him as he sat in his marked police cruiser, authorities said.

(AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)

ERRIN WHACK Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man accused of ambushing a police officer and firing shots at point-blank range said he was acting in the name of Islam and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Philadelphia authorities said Friday.

Both the officer and suspect were injured during the barrage of gunfire late Thursday at an intersection as the officer sat in his police car.

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Edward Archer. Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Archer

told police he believed the department defends laws that are contrary to Islam.

Ross said there was no apparent motive for the attack. Police said there was no indication anyone else was involved.

“He just came out of nowhere and started firing on him,” Ross said of the suspect. “He just started firing with one aim and one aim only, to kill him.”

Officer Jesse Hartnett shouted, “I’m bleeding heavily!” into his police radio, got out of his car and chased the suspect before police apprehended him.

The gunman fired at least 13 shots toward Hartnett

US announces new plans to counter violent extremism WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration announced new steps Friday to counter violent extremism by the Islamic State group and other militants, both at home and abroad.

The Homeland Security and Justice Departments will create and operate a task force focused on domestic efforts to prevent violent extremism.

The task force will be based at the Homeland Security Department and staffed by representatives from the

FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and other departments and agencies.

The State Department is revamping an existing program as the “global engagement center.”

The goal is to do a better job of involving and empowering foreign governments and non-governmental groups based outside the U.S. to speak out against the Islamic State and other militant groups, the department said.q

and eventually reached through the driver’s-side window. The officer returned fire, hitting his attacker at least three times.

Hartnett, 33, was in stable condition.

“I don’t know how this officer survived,” Ross said.

“This is absolutely one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen.”

Archer’s mother, Valerie Holliday, told The Philadelphia Inquirer her son has been hearing voices recently and that the family asked him to get help. She also described him as a de-

vout Muslim.

The gun used by Archer was stolen from an officer’s home in 2013, police said.

Jim Kenney, in his first week as mayor of the nation’s fifth-largest city, called Archer’s actions “abhorrent” and said they have nothing to do the teachings of Islam.

The mayor also said, “There are just too many guns on the streets, and I think our national government needs to do something about that.”

His statement comes after President Barack Obama’s

announcement Tuesday of his plan to tighten gun control laws.

Last March, Archer pleaded guilty to firearms and assault charges stemming from a 2012 case but was immediately released and placed on probation, court records show. Records also show he was scheduled to be sentenced Monday in suburban Philadelphia in a traffic and forgery case.

The attorney who represented him in the firearms case was unavailable to comment because he was in court, his office said. q

A4 U.S.

Saturday 9 January 2016

NEWS

Obama vetoes bill to repeal signature health care law

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., ponders a question during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, where he talked about his 2016 agenda and GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare, formally known as The Affordable Care Act. President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed legislation to repeal his health care law, saying the measure “would reverse the significant progress we have made in improving health care in America.”

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed legislation to repeal his health care law, saying the measure “would reverse the significant

progress we have made in improving health care in America.”

The veto was expected.

But Republicans claimed victory with the vote, arguing that they met two goals by finally passing a repeal

bill: keeping a promise to voters in an election year, and showing that they are capable of repealing the law if a Republican wins November’s presidential election.

The issue is expected to be

a factor in the campaign with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton defending it against Republicans who argue the measure doesn’t work.

Republican lawmakers have pushed many repeal measures since 2010, when Obama signed the health care, his signature domestic achievement, into law.

This was the first of those bills to clear Congress and reach his desk.

In his veto message to Congress, Obama disagreed with critics of the measure.

The president said the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as “Obamacare,” includes fairer rules and stronger consumer protections “that have made health care coverage more affordable, more attainable and more patient-centered. And it is working.”

The Senate passed the measure last year under special rules that protected it from Democratic delaying tactics and the House passed it this week.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, predicted it

Sanctions bill seeks to deny North Korea cash RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives isn’t waiting for confirmation of North Korea’s hydrogen-bomb test claim before voting on legislation that expands sanctions on Pyongyang and specifically seeks to deny the hard currency lawmakers say it needs for its weapons programs. The legislation,

which has broad bipartisan support and could be on the House floor as early as Tuesday, languished for nearly a year until North Korea announced two days ago that it had conducted a fourth nuclear test — this one detonating a thermonuclear device with huge destructive power.

The announcement was greeted with doubt that North Korea had set off a

hydrogen bomb, which would represent a significant and unexpected advance for the reclusive country’s limited nuclear arsenal. While it could take weeks or even longer to confirm or refute the claim, lawmakers are pushing ahead. The bill’s author, House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Chairman Ed Royce, on Friday described the Obama’s

administration’s policy on North Korea as one of “strategic patience” that has failed to curb development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles to deliver them.

“This is the approach that will work because you need consequences,” Royce said of the legislation during remarks at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.q

will be “a matter of time” before the law is finally overturned.

“We have now shown that there is a clear path to repealing Obamacare without 60 votes in the Senate,” Ryan said. “So, next year, if we’re sending this bill to a Republican president, it will get signed into law.

Obamacare will be gone. ... It’s just a matter of time.”

For maximum visibility, Republican leaders made the legislation their first major vote of 2016. Although they don’t have the votes to override Obama’s veto, they scheduled an override vote for Jan. 26.

“We will hold a vote to override this veto, taking this process all the way to the end under the Constitution,” Ryan said.

The bill would dismantle the health law’s key pillars, including requirements that most people obtain coverage and that larger employers offer it to workers.

More than 16 million people have gained health coverage since the law was enacted, according to government figures.

They could risk losing it under the Republican approach.

Obama said reliable health care coverage would no longer be a right for everyone under the bill, but would become “a privilege for a few.” He admonished lawmakers for wasting time “refighting old political battles” and said they should instead be working on policies to grow the economy, help middle-class families and create jobs. q

U.S. NEWS A5

Saturday 9 January 2016

Terror-related arrests in 2 states refuel refugee debate recounted “just shooting, spraying, spraying” with his assault rifle during a battle.

He said he helped execute three Syrian government soldiers, according to the document.

Authorities say Al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group affiliated with Islamic State.

There is no indication that Al Hardan, an Iraqi refugee, actually traveled to Syria.

Both are Iraqi-born Palestinians who came to the United States as refugees.

There was no evidence either man intended or planned attacks in the United States.

The arrests, which came a little more than a month after an attack in San Bernardino, California, killed

Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, left, is escorted by U.S. Marshals from the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Houston. Al Hardan made his initial appearance in federal court in Houston Friday morning after he was indicted Wednesday on three charges related to accusations he tried to provide material support to the Islamic State group.

(AP Photo/Bob Levey)

DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — A man in California encouraged a fellow Iraqi refugee in Texas to join the civil war against the Syrian government and promised to teach him how to fight, federal authorities said Friday, a day after terrorism charges against the men were revealed.

A criminal complaint filed against 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab of Sacramento details the social media communication he had with 24-yearold Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan of Houston. Al Hardan is the person identified as “Individual I” in the com-

plaint, according to Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for theU.S. attorney in Sacramento.

“O God, grant us martyrdom for your sake while engaged in fighting and not retreating; a martyrdom that would make you satisfied with us,” Al-Jayab wrote to Al Hardan in April 2013.

The complaint says AlJayab, who already had fought in Syria, promised to provide weapons training to Al Hardan and advised him on how he would be assigned to the battlefield once he arrived in Syria.

Al-Jayab described how he began fighting shortly after he turned 16, and

14, brought new life to a debate over whether the United States is doing enough to screen refugees.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called for a retroactive review of all refugees who have come to the U.S. to examine “all of the evidence that might indicate whether these individuals have ties to radical Islamic terrorists.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the screening of refugees is rigorous and thorough. He repeated the administration’s opposition to proposals that would impose a religious test or bar individuals from the U.S. based on their ethnicity.

“That doesn’t represent who we are as a country

and, most importantly, it’s not going to keep us safe,” Earnest said.

Al-Jayab faces up to eight years in prison on charges of traveling to Syria to fight and lying to investigators about it. He was due to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon.

His attorney, Ben Galloway of the federal defender’s office, did not return telephone and emailed messages Thursday or Friday.

Al Hardan made his initial appearance in Houston federal court Friday morning after he was indicted Wednesday on three charges related to accusations he tried to provide material support to Islamic State. q

A6 U.S.

Saturday 9 January 2016

NEWS

Seeking support for gun actions, Obama rips gun lobby JOSH LEDERMAN KEVIN FREKING Associated Press FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) — President Barack Obama tore into the nation’s largest gun lobby on Thursday as he sought support for

imposing martial law. He blamed that notion on the National Rifle Association and like-minded groups that convince its members that “somebody’s going to come grab your guns.”

“Yes, that is a conspiracy,”

and child-proof medicine bottles as examples.

Obama, taking the stage at George Mason University, said he’s always been willing to meet with the NRA — if they’re willing to address the facts. He said

President Barack Obama, left, speaks on gun control during a CNN televised town hall meeting hosted by Anderson Cooper, right, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

his actions on gun control, accusing the powerful lobby group of peddling an “imaginary fiction” that he said has distorted the national debate about gun violence.

In a prime-time, televised forum, Obama dismissed what he called a “conspiracy” alleging that the federal government — and Obama in particular — wants to seize all firearms as a precursor to

Obama said. “I’m only going to be here for another year. When would I have started on this enterprise?”

Obama defended his support for the constitutional right to gun ownership while arguing it was consistent with his efforts to curb violence and mass shootings. He said the NRA was refusing to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts

the NRA was invited to the forum but declined to participate. Several NRA members were in the audience for the forum, which was organized and hosted by CNN. “There’s a reason why the NRA’s not here. They’re just down the street,” Obama said, referring to the group’s nearby headquarters. “Since this is a main reason they exist, you’d think that they’d be pre-

pared to have a debate with the president.”

The White House has sought to portray the NRA, the nation’s largest gun group, as possessing a disproportionate influence over lawmakers that has prevented new gun laws despite polls that show broad U.S. support for measures like universal background checks. Last year, following a series of mass shootings, Obama pledged to “politicize” the issue in an attempt to level the playing field for gun control supporters.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said ahead of the event that the group saw “no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House.” Still, the group pushed back on Obama in real time on Twitter, noting in one tweet that “none of the president’s orders would have stopped any of the recent mass shootings.”

The American Firearms Retailers Association, another lobby group that represents gun dealers, did participate. Asked how business had been since Obama took office, Kris Jacob replied: “It’s been busy.”

“There’s a very serious concern in this country about personal security,” he added.

Obama’s actions on guns have drawn major attention in the presidential campaign, with the Democratic candidates backing Obama and the Republicans unanimously voicing opposition. q

Maine:

Governor sorry about ‘young white’ girls remark

PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Republican governor apologized Friday for his remark about out-of-state drug dealers impregnating “young white” girls, saying he didn’t mean to inject race into discussion of the state’s heroin epidemic.

Gov. Paul LePage had described the drug dealers as “guys with the name D-

Money, Smoothie, Shifty” and added “half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave.”

“My brain didn’t catch up to my mouth. Instead of ‘Maine women,’ I said ‘white women,’” LePage said, noting that Maine is among the nation’s whitest states. The governor’s comment Wednesday evening drew criticism from Maine

and beyond. LePage is white. The president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Michael Alpert, called the remarks “sad” and “foolish.” The governor’s spokesman said Thursday that he wasn’t making a comment about race.

LePage’s comments at times get him into trouble.

He said on the campaign

trail that he’d tell President Barack Obama to “go to hell,” and soon after he was elected to his first term, he told an NAACP chapter to “kiss my butt.”

LePage said Friday that he’s passionate about addressing the state’s drug problem. Maine was on pace for a record year for drug overdose deaths in 2015; the final figures have not yet been tallied. q

OK judge says man must stand trial in beheading at work TIM TALLEY Associated Press NORMAN, Oklahoma (AP) — A man accused of beheading a co-worker with a large butcher knife at an Oklahoma food processing plant must stand trial for first-degree murder, a judge ruled Friday after a hearing at which witnesses graphically described what they saw in the September 2014 attack.

Alton Nolen could face the death penalty if convicted in the rampage at the Vaughan Foods plant in Moore, an Oklahoma City suburb.

Cleveland County Special Judge Steve Stice ordered him to stand trial on charges including first-degree murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

Nolen, 31, has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Mitch Solomon of the Oklahoma Indigent Defender’s Office, declined to comment after the hearing.

Investigators have said Nolen had just been suspended from his job when he walked into the company’s administrative office and attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, severing her head.

They say he also stabbed another co-worker, who survived, before he was shot by a company executive.

Gary Hazelrigg, Vaughn’s customer service manager at the time, said Hufford was in his office on Sept. 25, 2014, when a man he identified as Nolen came into the office and grabbed her, placing one hand on her forehead with the other hand holding a “large, heavy butcher knife drawn across her neck.”

“In no more than a second or two, the man pulled her forehead toward him and made a vicious cut across her throat with the knife,” Hazelrigg testified.

Nolen then threw Hufford to the floor, sat on top of her and sawed at her throat, Hazelrigg said. He said he repeatedly tried to knock Nolen off her. He said he thought he heard Nolen say: “Die ... die.”q

U.S. NEWS A7

Saturday 9 January 2016

LIFE

is Beautiful

Coffee - Kitchen - Drinks

US Financial Front:

Employers hire at blistering pace, defying global trends

Waitress Laura Haege carries a breakfast to be serve at the Waveland Cafe, in Des Moines, Iowa. U.S. employers have steadily added jobs even as global growth has flagged and financial markets have sunk. The jobs report for December on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, may provide some hints of whether that trend can endure.

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

C. S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — American employers added a robust 292,000 jobs in December, suggesting that the U.S. economy is so far defying global weakness and growing solidly.

The strong hiring underscores the resilience of the United States at a time of financial turmoil stemming from China’s slowing economy and plummeting stock market. Most economists expect U.S. consumer spending to continue to offset overseas weakness, though many foresee only modest U.S. growth.

In its monthly jobs report Friday, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate was 5 percent in December for a third straight month. More Americans started looking for jobs and found them.

The government also said employers added a combined 50,000 more jobs in October and November than it had previously estimated. For the July-September quarter, hiring averaged 284,000 a month —

the best three-month pace in a year.

Even as many more jobs have been added, the unemployment rate has held at 5 percent for the past three months because nearly 1 million more Americans have begun seeking jobs since September. That influx has kept the number of unemployed nearly unchanged at 7.9 million.

A resilient U.S. economy will likely help some other countries by drawing in more imports, especially as the higher-valued dollar holds down the prices of foreign goods. The World Bank said this week that Mexico and emerging markets in Central America should fare better than the rest of South America because of their proximity to the healthier U.S. economy.

Still, the effect could be limited if Americans’ spending remains concentrated in services — from restaurants to health care — rather than factory goods.

At the same time, Friday’s solid jobs report could make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will further

raise rates after announcing its first increase in nearly a decade last month.

Steady hiring would reduce the supply of people seeking jobs, which could lead to higher pay and possibly help lift inflation closer to the Fed’s 2 percent target.

Many economists expect the Fed to raise its benchmark rate three times this year. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services, says the robust jobs data means the next increase will likely be in March.

Still, the jobs report contained no signs of inflation.

That led other economists such as Alan Levenson at T. Rowe Price to say that Fed officials may need to see

prices rise further before raising rates again.

U.S. stocks rose modestly after the jobs report was issued. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 24 points in late morning after falling sharply all week.

For all of 2015, employers added 2.65 million jobs, a monthly average of 221,000. That made 2015 the second-best year for hiring since 1999, after 2014.

“2015 went out with a mega-bang,” says Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at the consulting firm CohnReznick.

“It speaks to the underlying strength of the domestic economy. The United State is intertwined with the international economy but

to a far lesser degree than many other countries.”

O’Keefe noted that global trade accounts for only about 30 percent of U.S. economic activity, one of the lowest such percentages in the world.

Kevin Logan, chief U.S. economist at HSBC, says U.S. factories remain vulnerable to slowing global growth. But manufacturing makes up less than 9 percent of U.S. employment. Many factories are now highly automated and don’t employ as many people as they used to.

“People are consuming things that aren’t things, like data plans, restaurant meals, health care and entertainment,” Logan said.q

A8

Saturday 9 January 2016

WORLD NEWS

Arab gunman dies in shootout a week after killing 3 Israelis IAN DEITCH Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — An Arab gunman who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv last week was slain Friday in a shootout with police special forces, authorities said, following a massive manhunt that put Israelis on edge amid months of near-daily Palestinian attacks on civilians and soldiers.

The gunman was hiding in a building in his hometown of Arara in northern Israel, said police spokeswoman Luba Samri. As the special forces closed in on him in the residential area, he came out shooting, she said.

Authorities had identified the gunman as Nashat Milhem who opened fire at a bar on a busy Tel Aviv street on Jan. 1, killing two people and wounding six others in chilling video that was caught on security cameras at a health food store next door. He later also shot and killed an Arab taxi driver.

Milhem fired at police Friday with the same gun he used in the Tel Aviv shoot-

ing, Samri said.

Witness Hakim Younis told Channel 10 TV that he saw some of the shootout from his home.

“I was sitting on my balcony with my cousin ... when suddenly shooting began — hundreds of bullets, like in a war,” Younis said, adding that he then went inside. Large numbers of security forces had entered the town earlier and had told residents to stay in their homes, he added.

Alon Ben-David, the TV station’s defense analyst, said special forces with dogs had searched the town.

Milhem shot a police dog that had entered a building as part of the search, he added, and that exposed his location, prompting troops to close in.

Ben-David said it appears that several people had helped Milhem hide, assisting him with food and other essentials, following last week’s attack. He said the gunman had been hiding there all week.

Israelis are used to resuming their daily routines quickly after an attack because

Israeli policemen stand on guard in the village of Arara, northern Israel, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. An Arab gunman who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv has died in a shootout with officers in Arara, police said Friday, a week after a massive manhunt that put Israelis on edge while the killer was on the loose.

(AP Photo/Gil Eliyahu-Jinipix)

assailants are usually swiftly captured or killed. But the Tel Aviv shootings left many people jittery because Milhem, who was considered armed and dangerous, was on the loose for a week.

In the security video, a

man with short dark hair, glasses and a black bag over his shoulder was seen scooping up nuts from the health food store’s bulk food section, putting them in a plastic bag, and then emptying them back. He then walked to the store’s

entrance, placed his backpack on a shopping cart, and removed a gun from it before stepping outside and opening fire into the bar.

He then was seen running away along busy Dizengoff Street.

Egypt: 2 Austrians, 1 Swede wounded in resort attack HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Two suspected militants stabbed and wounded three foreign tourists — two Austrians and a Swede — at a hotel in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Hurghada on Friday, the Interior Ministry said.

Security forces opened fire at the two assailants, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry said two men armed with knives had entered the outdoor restaurant at the front of the seaside, four-star Bella Vista Hotel and attacked the tourists.

The ministry identified the slain attacker as 21-yearold Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz, a student from Cairo’s neighborhood of Giza. Both attackers, it said, carried knives and pellet guns.

All three wounded tourists were taken to hospital, where one was treated and discharged, the statement said. There was no word on the condition of the other two.

Security officials had initially said the attackers wounded two tourists, a Dane and a German, but such discrepancies are common in the immediate aftermath of terror attacks.

The attack came just hours after the local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack a day earlier on a hotel in Cairo near the Giza Pyramids. No one was hurt in the Thursday attack in which a group of over a dozen men fired flares and birdshot at a security post outside hotel where Arab Israeli tourists were staying.

Egypt has been battling an insurgency by Islamic militants led by the local affili-

ate of the extremist Islamic State group. The insurgency has been centered at the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula but has frequently spilled over into the mainland since the ouster in 2013 of the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The Hurghada attack is a dangerous precedent since Egypt’s Red Sea resorts have done better than elsewhere in the country in withering the slump suffered by the vital tourism sector in the five years of turmoil since an uprising toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Thursday’s Giza attack was also significant in that it targeted a hotel in Cairo, a heavily policed city of some 18 million residents, at a time when security appeared to relatively improve in recent months after a series of bomb attacks.

WORLD NEWS 9

Saturday 9 January 2016

Iran holds mass protests against Saudi Arabia amid tensions NASSER KARIMI Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians held mass protests on Friday across the Islamic Republic, angered by Saudi Arabia’s execution of a Shiite cleric that has enflamed regional tensions between the Mideast rivals.

Later in the day, the Iranian foreign minister insisted in a letter to the U.N. chief that Tehran has no desire to escalate tensions and said Saudis must make a “crucial choice” — either continue supporting extremists and promoting sectarian hatred or promote good neighborliness and regional stability.

The crisis has seen Saudi Arabia sever ties with Iran after crowds of protesters in Iran attacked two of its diplomatic posts on Sunday. Those assaults came after Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Shiite cleric, the day before.

After Friday prayers in Tehran, thousands of worshippers joined the rally, carrying pictures of al-Nimr and chanting “Death to Al Saud,” referencing the kingdom’s royal family.

They also chanted “Down with the U.S.” and “Death to Israel,” traditional Iranian slogans at protests.

The rally in Tehran lasted some 40 minutes and took place in an outdoor space at the Mosalla Mosque, the main site for Friday prayers in Tehran.

Iranian state media reported similar protests taking place in other Iranian cities and towns. Shiites across the greater Mideast have rallied throughout the week over al-Nimr’s execution.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon obtained Friday

by The Associated Press that Iran has “no desire or interest in escalation of tension in our neighborhood” and hopes Saudi Arabia will “heed the cause of reason.”

Zarif said that from the first days of President Hassan Rouhani’s election, both he and the president have sent public and private signals to Saudi Arabia “about our readiness to engage in dialogue and accommodation to promote regional stability and combat destabilizing extremist violence.”

But he also accused the Saudis of trying to prevent or defeat the nuclear deal reached in July, of producing or mis-educating many “extremist perpetrators of

Iranian worshippers attend a rally to protest the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent opposition Saudi Shiite cleric, after their Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016.

Thousands of worshippers who took part in Friday prayers in Tehran joined the rally, carrying pictures of al-Nimr and chanting “Death to Al Saud,” referencing the kingdom’s royal family.

Iranian state media reported similar protests taking place in other Iranian cities and towns. The poster reads:”We all sacrifice for you Islam”.

(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

acts of terror,” of supporting “extremist terrorists in Syria and elsewhere,” and waging a “senseless war” in Yemen.

Zarif also accused Saudi authorities of engaging in “numerous direct and at times lethal provocations against Iran.” He cited Saudi bombers hitting Iranian diplomatic facilities in Yemen several times, including on April 24 and Sept. 18 last year and Jan. 7, “killing two local service person-

nel, injuring a number of Yemeni guards and inflicting damage to the buildings.” He did not specify where the killings, injuries and damage took place.

Zarif also accused the Saudis of persistently mistreating Iraqi pilgrims, “fueling public outrage in Iran.”

On Thursday, Iran claimed that a Saudi-led airstrike the previous night had hit the Iranian Embassy in Sanaa, citing Iran’s Foreign Ministry. However, an Asso-

ciated Press reporter who reached the site just after the announcement saw no damage to the building, which sits in a neighborhood near a presidential palace that’s seen many previous strikes.

Iran vowed to file a report about their claim to the United Nations, while the Saudi military issued a statement through the kingdom’s state news agency, dismissing the allegation as false.q

UN envoy in Syria to assure upcoming peace talks in Geneva Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — As a Saudi-Iran crisis roils the Middle East, the U.N. special envoy to Syria arrived in Damascus on Friday to lay the groundwork and prepare the peace negotiations between President Bashar Assad’s government and its opponents due later this month in Geneva.

But Syrian opposition figures insist it’s impossible to talk

peace when Syrian government forces are stepping up their attacks and laying siege to oppositionheld areas that leave Syrians starving to death.

Staffan de Mistura’s visit comes as the Saudi-Iranian rift has raised concerns that the disagreements between Riyadh and Tehran — who support different sides in Syria’s civil war — could derail efforts to

negotiate a peace process for Syria led by the U.N., the United States and Russia.

The U.N. is urging the sides in Syria’s five-year-conflict to the negotiating table on Jan. 25 in an effort to find a resolution for the conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half the country’s population. Conferences in Geneva in 2014 failed to bring about a settlement,

though this round is seen as particularly urgent after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last month endorsing a transitional plan for Syria.

Its passage was a rare show of unity among global powers, which have backed opposing sides of the conflict — Russia siding with Assad and the United States saying the Syrian leader should step down.

The U.N. resolution made no mention of Assad’s fate after the transitional period.

“The Saudi-Iranian escalation of tension will have effects (on Geneva talks) since they are the two main regional powers ... in the Syrian arena,” said Khaled al-Nasser, a member of the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition. “I am pessimistic.”q

A10 WORLD

Saturday 9 January 2016

NEWS

South Korea resumes anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasting FOSTER KLUG HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As world leaders debated how to punish North Korea’s claim of a fourth nuclear test, South Korea retaliated by broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the rivals’ tense border Friday on what was believed to be Kim Jong Un’s birthday.

North Korea considers such broadcasts to be an act of psychological warfare and likely will have a furious response. Pyongyang is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian leadership of Kim, the third member of his family to rule the country. When South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire, followed by threats of war.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that frontline troops, near 11 sites where loudspeakers started blaring propaganda at noon, were on highest alert. Yonhap said Seoul had deployed missiles, artillery and other weapons systems near the border to swiftly deal with any possible North Korean provocation. South Korea’s Defense Ministry did not immediately confirm the reports. The North Korean response could be harsh because of the high emotions surrounding the likely birthday of Kim, who is believed to be in his early 30s. North Korean military forces often compete to show their loyalty to the leader. The North’s state media has yet to mention Kim’s birthday or South Korea’s loudspeaker campaign. The broadcasts came as world powers sought to find other ways to punish the North for conducting what it said was its first hydrogen bomb test Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the North’s only major ally

and its biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

Diplomats at a U.N. Security Council emergency session pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China is seen as key.

South Korean and U.S. military leaders also have discussed the deployment of U.S. “strategic assets,” Seoul’s Defense Ministry said. Officials refused to elaborate, but the assets likely are B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines. After North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013, the U.S. took the unusual step of sending its most powerful warplanes — B-2 stealth bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 bombers — to drills with South Korea in a show of force. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal. Outside experts are skeptical the blast was a hydrogen bomb, but even a test of an atomic bomb would push North Korea closer to building a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a long-range missile.

Late Friday, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety said a small amount of radioactive elements was found in air samples collected from the peninsula’s eastern seas after the blast but the measured amount was too small to determine whether the North had really detonated a nuclear device.

The institute said the level of xenon-133 isotopes found in the samples was similar to levels normally detected at its two radioactive gas detectors on the eastern and western coasts. q

Spain: US couple charged over son’s death HERNAN RATO CIARAN GILES Associated Press GIRONA, Spain (AP) — An American couple arrested after police found the badly decomposed

tioned by the judge.

Case prosecutor Enrique Barata said their passports had been removed and that the pair had “lost their sense of reality” following the death of their asthmat-

on Nov. 15 when the family went to a restaurant to celebrate a family birthday.

Barata said the father told the judge that the family did not take the child to a hospital because they

Case prosecutor Enrique Barata, center right, talks to the media outside the courthouse in Girona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. American couple Bruce and Schrell Hopkins who were arrested after police found the badly decomposed body of their 7-year-old son at the family’s apartment in northeastern Spain told a court Friday that the child suffered from asthma and did not wake up one morning but that the family didn’t think he was dead.

(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

body of their 7-year-old son at the family’s apartment in northeastern Spain claimed Friday that the child did not wake up one morning weeks ago but that they didn’t accept he was dead.

Bruce and Schrell Hopkins, aged 39 and 38, and who originated from the Detroit area, were charged Friday with negligent homicide but were released provisionally after being ques-

ic son Caleb.

The charges come three days after the couple’s arrest when police found the body of Caleb under several blankets on a bed at the rented apartment in the city of Girona where the couple lived with their three children.

Barata said the exact cause and time of the child’s death had yet to be established and that Caleb was known to be alive

did not believe in standard medicine, but that they had previously treated his asthma with inhalers and homeopathic medicine.

“The child was fine playing around and living a normal life. But one morning he wouldn’t wake up,” Barata told reporters. “The father explained he tried to give his son resuscitating maneuvers, cardiac massage and mouth-to-mouth breathing. q

Cologne Police chief dismissed over assaults GEIR MOULSON FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The police chief of the German city of Cologne was dismissed Friday amid mounting criticism of his force’s handling of a string of New Year’s Eve sexual assaults and robberies that police and witnesses have blamed largely on foreigners.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia said it was sending Wolfgang Albers into early re-

tirement, and the 60-yearold commander said he understood the reasons why.

The state’s interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, said Albers’ removal was “necessary to restore public trust and the Cologne police’s ability to act with a view to upcoming major events.”

Cologne’s annual Carnival is next month.

Albers had faced mounting criticism for the police response to New Year’s Eve attacks on women

by groups of men within a 1,000-strong crowd described by police as predominantly Arab or North African in origin.

The German government said 31 suspects were briefly detained for questioning after the New Year’s Eve trouble, among them 18 asylum-seekers. The 31 included nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Saturday 9 January 2016

Venezuelan socialists protest new congress’ ban on Chavez

An oversized portrait of Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez that was recently removed from the National Assembly building, now stands in Bolivar Square in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Although the face of Hugo Chavez is already plastered on walls throughout much of the Venezuelan capital, the late leader’s supporters are now vowing to put up images of the “eternal commander” on every street corner.

Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez gave the order at a rally Thursday to protest the decision by the new opposition-controlled congress to banish from the neoclassical legislature building all images of Chavez and his mentor, independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Chavistas have been enraged by a video playing non-stop on state media showing the congress’ new leader, Henry Ramos, cracking jokes while ordering workers to haul away a giant billboard of Chavez.

“I don’t want to see Chavez or Maduro,” Ramos says in the video, shot from a cellphone on his first day on the job. “Take it all to Miraflores, or the trash,” he says, referring to the presidential palace.

At the rally Thursday outside the National Assembly in Plaza Bolivar, hundreds

of government supporters dressed in red swore loyalty to Chavez and Bolivar.

One protester dressed up as Uncle Sam pulling the strings of a cut-out Ramos.

“I have to defend their honor for my children, my grandchildren and great grandchildren,” said one protester, 77-year-old Eva Prada, who held images of both Chavez and Bolivar.

President Nicolas Maduro visited Chavez’s mausoleum accompanied by his newly appointed Cabinet to lend his support to the campaign. In a fiery speech before dozens of military officers, he called the removal of Bolivar’s portrait from congress the most-serious affront to the memory of “the Liberator” in the nearly 200 years since his death. He ordered that every military family be given pictures of Bolivar and Chavez to hang in their homes.

“I don’t know how each of us should react, in our hearts and minds, when the entire fatherland has been undeniably desecrated,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino told troops at the mausoleum, which is in a historic fort atop a Caracas slum.

Chavez, who died in 2013 suffering from cancer, is revered by millions of poor Venezuelans who benefited from social programs like free housing and medical attention. A stencil of his eyes, on giant red billboards and spray-painted on buildings, is the most ubiquitous image in the country.

Opponents say the socialists’ outrage is being feigned to distract from the economic crisis that led to the government’s thrashing in legislative elections last month, when opposition candidates won a two-

thirds majority in congress, taking control of the body for the first time in 17 years.

Foes of the socialists note that while Chavez’s eyes are everywhere — providing a protective gaze or Big Brother-like dose of despotism, depending on the viewer’s political views — his chosen successor, Maduro, is rarely lionized in the same way, which they say is a reflection of growing discontent among Venezuelans.

In Bolivar, however, Ramos picked on a more universally beloved figure.

Among the images re-

moved from congress is a giant reconstruction of Bolivar’s face based on an exhumation of his remains ordered by Chavez. The image has long stirred controversy because it was given a darker complexion that contrasts with 19th century paintings in which Bolivar is shown with more European features.

Ramos in the video says the only depiction he wants to see of Bolivar in the legislature is the “classic” one.

“That’s no Simon Bolivar, it’s an invention of this man, a crazy thing,” Ramos says, referring to Chavez.

A12 WORLD

Saturday 9 January 2016

NEWS

Cuban dissidents leaving country amid shift in US policy A. RODRIGUEZ M. WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — One year ago, the Cuban government began releasing 53 political prisoners whom President Barack Obama wanted freed as part of a historic deal to re-establish diplomatic relations between the former Cold War foes.

U.S. government information and an Associated Press assessment of the dissidents’ lives 12 months after their release shows that at least 35 have asked for refugee status allowing them to move permanently to the U.S., reducing the ranks of an already weak and divided opposition movement.

Many applications have been delayed by vetting of the dissidents’ criminal records, some of which have little to do with political activity. Seven have either left Cuba or are preparing to leave this month.

Among those who remain, at least six men are back in Cuban prison on what their allies say are politically related charges. Others have abandoned activism altogether.

About 20 of the freed dissidents have decided not to leave, some because they’ve abandoned political activism. But others say they want to stay and work to change the government.

“Our commitment is here,” said Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a group based in the country’s east. “We do a lot to make our members aware of that, so that they don’t leave.”

Many Cuban exiles view the country’s dissidents as brave freedom fighters against the single-party state founded by Fidel Cas-

tro and run by his brother, Raul. Exiles support some political activists here with money and lobbying of politicians and the press in the U.S. and other countries.

The Cuban government

with the Cuban government. He argues that will bring better conditions for the Cuban people in the long run, and says he may travel to Cuba as early as this spring if he feels the rights situation here is im-

“The reforms that have to be made in terms of restrictions of liberty must come from the Cuban government, not from the government of the United States,” said Marselha Goncalves Margerin, Amnesty Interna-

Dissident Miguel Alberto Ulloa, 25, poses for a photo in his home, holding his release document, a day after his release, in Havana, Cuba, one year ago, on Jan. 9, 2015. Advocates, relatives and dissidents say that Cuba has freed at least 38 people on a U.S. list of imprisoned opposition members, U.S. officials said Friday after weeks of virtual silence that those released had been on the list of 53.

(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

historically has characterized internal dissidents as unpatriotic mercenaries acting on behalf of the U.S. government and violent exile groups who want to retake control of Cuba.

Whatever the reason, many ordinary Cubans today question the dissidents’ credentials, saying they suspect the activists are motivated mostly by money from abroad and the chance of visa to the U.S. or Europe.

Obama’s new policy moves away from a decades-long U.S. focus on the dissidents and toward a broader diplomatic and economic engagement

proving and a presidential trip will help.

In a statement Thursday night, the State Department said: “We have publicly called for the release of political prisoners and others jailed for exercising their internationally recognized freedoms in Cuba, and will continue to do so.”

It added that the U.S. Embassy has been in contact with many of those freed last year.

International advocacy groups such as Amnesty International say that regardless of U.S. policy, it’s up to Cuba to improve the island’s human rights situation.

tional’s advocacy director for the Americas.

Cuban officials did not respond to requests for comment on how the freed dissidents are faring.

Among those back behind bars is Wilberto Parada, who was arrested for public disorder in October when he protested in front of a prosecutor’s office in Havana.

Vladimir Morera, from the central province of Villa Clara, has been jailed since May on charges of assault. Fellow dissidents said he held a weekslong hunger strike that ended last month.q

Colombia rebels demand remains of guerrilla priest BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s second-largest rebel group is demanding that authorities locate and return the e remains of one of Latin America’s most emblematic guerrillas.

Camilo Torres was a Roman

Catholic priest who set aside his cassock in 1965 to take up arms for the National Liberation Army.

He was killed in his first combat and has been revered by leftists ever since as a martyr who died fight-

ing for social justice.

His body was never found but is believed to have been taken by his military enemies as a trophy.

The ELN in a statement Friday said that as the 50th

anniversary of Torres’ death approaches it’s time he receive a proper burial.

Locating the remains could also encourage the ELN to join peace talks with the much-larger FARC rebel ground.q

Puerto Rico sued for diverted funds amid budget crisis DANICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico is facing its first lawsuit over how the U.S. territory’s government has diverted funds to meet certain bond payments as its liquidity dwindles amid a worsening economic crisis.

The lawsuit filed late Thursday by Assured Guaranty Corp. and Ambac Assurance Corporation claims the government violated the U.S. constitution by diverting tax revenues meant to back certain bonds and used them instead to finance general obligation bonds, which have higher priority.

“At this time we have no choice but to protect our stakeholders through judicial recourse,” Nader Tavakoli, Ambac’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “The Commonwealth has committed itself to a ‘scorched earth’ strategy of blaming its fiscal and structural problems on lenders, Congress and others, in an effort to deflect responsibility and obtain retroactive application of bankruptcy laws.”

The two New York-based companies and their affiliates insure nearly $8 billion of the territory’s debt, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico. The companies claim the government illegally diverted at least $163 million when it had other available resources to pay part of its debt.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said Friday that the lawsuit will provoke other creditors to rush to court.

He warned that Puerto Rico does not have the legal structure to deal with such lawsuits and called on U.S. Congress to provide the island with a restructuring mechanism.

“It’s a shame that Congress, which responds to Wall Street lobbyists, has ignored Puerto Rico’s crisis and instead opted to allow the island’s 3.5 million U.S. citizens and its creditors to enter into chaos,” he said.q

LOCAL A13

Saturday 9 January 2016

Gold Coast:

Aruba’s premiere Residential Community enters its final phase of development

MALMOK - When Gold Coast broke ground in the mid 90s, local developers, Cas Bon NV., expressed their desire to make it into the premiere residential community on the island.

They envisioned finely designed high quality homes and infrastructure, and later on, past the construction phase, providing high quality services compatible with five star resorts, as homes and condos become occupied.

Looking back at those early days, developers note with great satisfaction that

market with its locally financed Gold Coast project on Malmokweg, and remarkably throughout the many phases of construction, it remained true to the original Mediterranean and Caribbean architectural master-plan, with spacious two level homes, and upscale condos, delivering on all its promises for attractive amenities, from picturesque plazas and fountains to lush landscaping.

Now in its final phase of construction Gold Coast is offering a not-to-be missed

their vision translated itself into a beautiful neighborhood, populated by a satisfied and growing customer-base, enhance by a sterling reputation among financial institutions.

Cas Bon NV was already popular in the local market delivering affordable housing when it ventured into the condo and villa

opportunity with only a few lots available suitable for the construction of homes, and only a few 2/3 bedroom condos for sale in its inventory.

The development, now over 80% sold out, is inviting investors to visit the gated community, and tour its condos, townhouses and luxury villas.

Your dream of a home to call your own on the Island paradise of Aruba may become a reality, within the affordable premiere Residential Community, in pres-

tigious Malmok, just blocks away from the scenic Northwest Coastline and the Island’s most beautiful sandy white beaches and crystal waters. For quality,

design, style, security and convenience, the address is Gold Coast, and hurry up as the development just recently entered its final phase.q

A14 LOCAL

Saturday 9 January 2016

Online tool enhances visitor ease to island:

ATA’s Digital Embarkation and Disembarkation Card a Success!

ORANJESTAD (PRNewswire) – The Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA), Aruba Immigration Services (IASA) and Gamma introduced a new service to the island’s visitors in December. As a country that continually strives for the pursuit of innovation and modernization in guest services, Aruba’s new service allows guests the option of digitally filling out the required Embarkation and Disembarkation card (ED-card) before ever stepping foot on the popular Caribbean island.

In the past, the ED-card was given to travelers while still onboard their flight. With the introduction of the new online version, visitors are now able to go to www. edcardaruba.aw as soon

as they book their flights to fill out the digital ED-card as a convenient and green alternative, contributing to Aruba’s commitment to sustainable action.

Families, couples and friends heading to Aruba

along with travel industry leaders will appreciate the digital ED-card for offering visitors the opportunity to easily complete the information requirements before embarking on their journey, as well as expedit-

ing the airport flow once they arrive on-island.

Aruba’s “Happy Returners”—travelers who have been to Aruba at least once before or continue to return, year after year—will appreciate that they only have to update their digital ED-card with new travel dates and trip details, as the system will save their basic information for future

the Aruba’s Happy Flow program, designed to streamline and expedite the passenger process with enhanced digital airport checkpoints.”

Once more, Aruba has been differentiated from other destinations and ATA from other Destination Marketing and Management Organizations (DMMOs) for this innovative focus on meeting the modern traveler’s needs and exceeding expectations.

ATA has also recently launched the Happiness Builder, a game-changing digital tool that allows visitors to begin their vacations early and enjoy the trip planning process almost as much as their time on island.

A content-rich planning experience where travelers can explore aruba.com/ shortcuts for nearly 100 videos featuring adventure, relaxation, romance and cultural activities in Aruba,

use. All visitors to Aruba are required to fill out an ED-card, although the traditional paper card will still be available for visitors who prefer this. Guests can fill out their digital ED-card as soon as they have booked their flights and up to 48 hours before departing to Aruba. After 48 hours have passed, all visitors must fill out the paper ED-card upon arrival.

“ATA and IASA are thrilled to be industry leaders with this time saving digital tool.

Aruba’s tourism partners and local people are all committed to the continued enhancement of our One happy island,” said Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, CEO of ATA. “Upon landing with their ED-card already completed, visitors will be further delighted to discover

the Happiness Builder creates a personal ‘Shortcut to Happiness’ video itinerary made from six chosen clips with the addition of happy music and a personalized message which can then be shared with friends and loved ones via email and social media.

As Aruba continues to evolve from both a product and marketing perspective, new and innovative tools like digital the ED-card and the Happiness Builder remain crucial to Aruba’s success as one of the most popular tourist destinations.

Fill out your own ED-card online at www.edcardaruba.aw. For more information on the One happy island, visit www.aruba. com. Engage with Aruba via social media at www. facebook.com/ArubaFans or @Aruba on Twitter.q

LOCAL A15

Saturday 9 January 2016

Happy Hours and So Much More at Sand at Brickel Bay!

PALM BEACH - Enjoy Happy Hour every night from 9pm to 10pm at Sand at Brickel

Bay Beach Club and Re-

sort! Dance, Drink, Karaoke, and so much more at Sand, the hottest spot just off the beach in Palm Beach Aruba! Monday is Karaoke Night, Wednesday is Ladies Night, Friday is Live Band Night, and DJ Ed is in the house each night from Wednesday to Saturday! Day and night Sand offers total club service around the pool and at the bar, so that you feel right at home as you lounge the lazy hours away, experiencing the true meaning

of fun! Terrific dining, delicious drinks and the hottest scene on Palm Beach is at Sand, at Brickel Bay Beach

Club.

Open every night from 5pm till ‘late,’ and Friday and Saturday till 3am.

A16 LOCAL

Saturday 9 January 2016

Win Big at Trop Club & Casino and the Double Down Sports Bar! EAGLE BEACH - The Trop Club & Casino and the Double Down Sports Bar, Aruba’s favorite adult playgrounds, presented themselves in a new and exciting jacket just recently, when both underwent extensive renovations.

The cozy casino, adjacent to the Tropicana Resort, which now opens every day at 10am, has been totally redone at the cost of just over one million dollars and painted a most attractive Ultra Marine Blue on the outside. The interior also received a modern, industrial look, with many contemporary features.

Wilfred Trimon, Casino Director at the Tropicana Aruba Resort & Casino reports that the slots floor enjoyed a 20% increase and with it the casino staffing had increased by as much as 50%.

Over the years, Trop Club & Casino members have grown to expect a great deal more from their Trop Advantage® card.

The Trop Advantage Club offers more awards and more choices, having developed a complete promotional calendar, guaranteed to entertain and reward players, every day of the week. Players may apply for the fun card at the Trop Advantage® Center at no charge, if they are 18 and up, certain restrictions apply.

With more fun, value and variety Bingo is played in three weekly sessions every Sunday, Monday at 11am, while the Tuesday bingo starts at 4:00pm, with a total of $1,700 in prizes each time, including the progressive jackpot and the lucrative powerball. Players are reminded that the coming Sunday, the first 50

Trop Advantage members who buy a bingo card will receive complimentary breakfast at the popular Double Down Bar & Grill.

Wednesday is a strong favorite among regulars with the FREE $700 slot tournament, starting at 7pm. The tournament is open to all Trop Advantage members.

Best of all, the Double Down Sports Bar & Grill also

underwent a complete facelift. The restaurant with a spacious bar delivers a variety of boldly flavored, made-to-order menu items, and on Saturday becomes the NFL headquarters showing football, all day with 50% off food, for all Trop Advantage members. The Double Down Sports Bar & Grill really caters to sports enthusiast, as they watch the big game on numerous TV screens, or watch their favorite sporting events on their own TV, as each of the restaurant booth table is outfitted with one.

The casino restaurant, a casual eatery with an inviting neighborhood atmosphere, features besides the multi-media system, a full bar in an open layout, which appeals to sports fans and families alike.

The restaurant concept of the Double Down Sports Bar & Grill offers flexible dining options as patrons may eat at the bar and enjoy quick casual counter service. They may sit down in the friendly dining room and enjoy casual dining table service. Resort guests may call in for room service and locals and visitors may

get meals to go, as takeout, for beach picnics or beach tennis practice on the adjacent Beach Tennis courts.

Patrons rave about the inviting atmosphere, and are especially enthusiastic about the customized dining experience, coming back again and again for the juicy hand-formed burgers, salads and international entrees. The restaurant’s Build Your Own Burger is a crowd pleaser, driving guest visits and loyalty.

Open for breakfast lunch and dinner, all day dining

and snacking, late-night cravings, and workday lunches, the Double Down Sports Bar & Grill is especially popular in the morning when chef’s choices such as Steak & Eggs, Eggs Benedict, Smoked Salmon, and breakfast sandwiches can be ordered in addition to waffles, pancakes, and other classic breakfast favorites.

The restaurant is looking forward to feed and entertain multiple generational guests, and the casino keeps the excitement going, which you don’t want to miss!q

SPORTS A17

Saturday 9 January 2016

Khalil Mack Makes All-Pro History Oakland Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack (52) celebrates after sacking Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers during the first half of an NFL football game, in Oakland, Calif. Khalil Mack has become the first selection at two positions in the same year, while Adrian Peterson and J.J. Watt are unanimous choices for the 2015 Associated Press NFL All-Pro Team. Â (AP Photo/Ryan Kang) Page 19

A18 SPORTS

Saturday 9 January 2016

NFC Wildcard Preview:

Vikings looking forward to hosting Seahawks in frigid temps

NEW YORK (AP) — An NFL wild-card playoff against the Seattle Seahawks is hardly a reward for the Minnesota Vikings for winning their first division title since 2009.

Then again, the Vikings are more than happy to be at home on Sunday, when they will host their first outdoor playoff game in 40 years before they move under a new roof in mid-year.

This could be one of the coldest games in NFL history, with an expected temperature at kickoff of minus-17 C, and a wind chill of minus-29. Forecasters warn of frostbite to exposed skin. The brutal cold has reportedly kept ticket prices lower than normal.

The conditions ought to benefit a Vikings team built around NFL rushing leader Adrian Peterson and a stout defense that racked up 14 sacks over a season-finishing three-game winning

streak. They’re in a groove, and will be even better if nose tackle Linval Joseph, who missed four of the last five games with a toe injury, returns to the lineup.

The worry for the Vikings is if they fall behind quickly, their run-first formula featuring Peterson implodes, and protecting Teddy Bridge-

water behind a so-so offensive line gets harder. When the Seahawks were in Minneapolis only a month ago, and the temperature was a relatively balmy 5 degrees, they restricted Peterson to eight carries for 18 yards in a 38-7 blowout.

The Seahawks are the twotime defending NFC cham-

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) dives for a eight-yard touchdown run as Minnesota Vikings cornerback Antone Exum (32) defensive tackle Tom Johnson (92) try to bring him down in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 in Minneapolis.

(AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

pions who were one play away last February from back-to-back Super Bowl titles.

The Seahawks haven’t lost their swagger, with a defense that gave up the fewest points per game in the league and ranked second in yardage. The Legion of Boom would like nothing more than to show the NFL they can reach another Super Bowl without that vaunted home-field advantage.

“These guys are confident that we can go wherever we got to go,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.

On the surface, the Green Bay Packers got a decent consolation prize for losing last weekend to the Vikings - a playoff on Sunday at the Washington Redskins, the champions of the weak NFC East. The Packers had the same record on the road (5-3) as they did at Lambeau Field.

The Packers will take a lot of baggage with them, starting with their uncharacteristically punchless offense.

Whether due to a depleted crew of wide receivers, an inadequate offensive line, off-kilter play calling or his own throwing, Aaron Rodgers has had the worst year of his career.

The chances of finding a fix for their big-play woes after 17 weeks are slim.

“We’re 16 games in, so you kind of are who you are, but we’ve got to find a way to put it all together for four quarters,” Rodgers said.

The Redskins, on the other hand, averaged nearly 33 points over a four-game winning streak to finish the regular season. Kirk Cousins has had quite the breakthrough, with 12 touchdown passes and only one interception while averaging close to 300 yards during the streak.q

SPORTS A19

Saturday 9 January 2016

Mack an AP All-Pro at 2 positions; Peterson, Watt unanimous BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Khalil Mack has made All-Pro history.

Mack’s versatility and relentlessness earned him selection at two positions on the 2015 Associated Press All-Pro Team, an NFL first.

The second-year Oakland Raiders defensive end and outside linebacker drew enough support Friday from a panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league to make the squad both spots.

Others, including Houston’s J.J. Watt last year, have been chosen first team at one position and second at another. Watt was a unanimous pick at defensive end for this season’s team, as was Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson.

“I do whatever I can to help the team win. I’m a team guy,” said Mack, who had 15 1/2 sacks (five in one game), behind only Watt in the league.

“Whether it’s dropping in coverage or rushing the passer. I can do either.

I think they (voters) saw that.”

What the voters also saw was the superb work by the Carolina Panthers.

Carolina, with an NFL-best 15-1 record, had the most All-Pros with six: quarterback Cam Newton, fullback Mike Tolbert, center Ryan Kalil, linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis, and cornerback Josh Norman. Kuechly led the Panthers contingent with 49 votes.

“He has fulfilled everything we thought he could be,” Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman said of Newton.

“And he’s just had a great year. Again, the franchise quarterbacks make everybody better — that’s what they do.”

Newton was especially happy to join Kuechly on the team; the linebacker has made it in three of his four pro seasons.

“That’s big, man,” Newton said, adding with a laugh, “I’m just trying to be like Luke Kuechly man, that’s it — Captain America, man.

He sets the tone.”

Five teams — New England, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Arizona and St. Louis — had two All-Pros each. Steelers receiver Antonio Brown drew 49 votes; teammate David DeCastro made it at guard.

The Patriots were tight end Rob Gronkowski and kicker Stephen Gostkowski. From Cincinnati, it was DT Geno Atkins and OT Andrew Whitworth.

Arizona, in a measure of the strength of its secondary, had cornerback Patrick Peterson and safety Tyrann Mathieu. St. Louis’ All-Pros were DT Aaron Donald and punter Johnny Hekker.

One rookie, Seattle kick returner Tyler Lockett, was selected.

“It means a lot,” Lockett said. “There are a lot of great players who come in to the NFL and do an exceptional job and have a great career, but they’re never able to make it on the All-Pro team. It’s nothing that they did, just other players may have had a better season. To be a rookie to be able to come in, it’s a crazy experience and a crazy accolade to have.”

In all, 15 NFC players and 12 from the AFC were chosen.

The other All-Pros: Tampa Bay RB Doug Martin, Atlanta WR Julio Jones, Cleveland OT Joe Thomas, Baltimore G Marshal Yanda, Denver OLB Von Miller, San Francisco ILB NaVorro Bowman, and Kansas City S Eric Berry.

For Berry, 2015 was a particularly special season. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and this time a year ago was undergoing chemotherapy. He returned in spectacular fashion, helping the Chiefs win their final 10 games this season to make the playoffs.

“It’s an incredible honor. It means a lot to me,” said Berry, who also made the 2013 team. “Football’s a team game, so I have to give credit to those guys around me as well. We’ve been hungry from the getgo. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think you see it throughout our play. I think our play speaks for itself.”

In this Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015 file photo, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) runs against the Oakland Raiders during an NFL football game in Oakland, Calif. Peterson is a unanimous choice for the 2015 Associated Press NFL All-Pro Team.

(AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

20 SPORTS

Saturday 9 January 2016

On The Green:

Kevin Kisner is ready to build on a breakthrough year

DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Kevin Kisner has a motto for 2016 that surely is unlike that of any other player on the PGA Tour.

Don’t be Ronda Rousey.

“Make sure we don’t do so many commercials, get caught up in celebrity and then get knocked

out in the second round,” his swing coach, John Tillery, said with a laugh. The reference was to the UFC women’s bantamweight title fight in Australia two months ago when Rousey was floored by a kick to the head by Holly Holm. Kisner is nowhere near that level of celebrity.

But for all the talk about

Kevin Kisner catches the ball tossed by his caddie on the sixth green during the first round of the Tournament of Champions golf event Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.

(AP Photo/Matt York)

encores going into the new year — Jordan Spieth, Jason Day — that should apply to Kisner.

The 31-year-old from South Carolina might be the best golfer hardly anyone knows. One year ago, he was No 236 in the world after he narrowly kept his PGA Tour card while overhauling a swing that had gotten so out of whack he nearly quit the game.

Kisner goes into the new year at No. 17 in the world, and it was no accident. Kisner earned a small slice of PGA Tour history as the only player to lose three playoffs in one season without winning a tournament. And it’s not as if he couldn’t handle the pressure. He birdied the 18th hole in regulation and in the playoff at Hilton Head before Jim Furyk beat him on the second extra hole. He matched birdies with Rickie Fowler until losing to a birdie on the fourth playoff hole at The Players Championship.

He also lost in a four-man

playoff at The Greenbrier, and he was runner-up a fourth time in 2015 at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. In the final tournament of the calendar year (part of a new PGA Tour season), Kisner showed his moxie by turning a three-shot lead into a six-shot victory at Sea Island. Kisner thus fulfilled a pledge to Tillery when he sought his help at the low point of his golfing career.

“All I ever told J.T. was to get me in position where I could hit it a little better and I can win out here,” Kisner said. He resumes the PGA Tour season at Kapalua as the leader in the FedEx Cup because of his win at Sea Island and second-place finish in Shanghai. Still to be determined is whether last year was as good as it gets or if the best is still to come.

What makes Kisner intriguing is his personality. He is loaded with confidence and grit, but it’s hidden behind his straight-shooting, homespun Southern na-

ture. With a slight build, he doesn’t stand out among the new power regime in golf. And he understands why only the hardiest of golf fans would know him.

“This tour doesn’t market the guy that finishes 111th,” Kisner said after opening with a 69 in the first round at Kapalua. “You have to win and be in the hunt for people to know who you are. I was a bottom feeder barely keeping my card.”

He has the pedigree, even if his career record to this point suggests journeyman.

Kisner was the first player at Georgia to be an AllAmerican all four years, but he lost his way as a pro. He didn’t come close to keeping his card his first two years on the PGA Tour.

And even after he won on the Web.com Tour in early 2013 — in effect, assuring a trip back to the big leagues — he knew was going the wrong way.

And that’s when he went to Tillery, whom he knew through Scott Brown, his close friend and neighbor in Aiken, South Carolina.

“When I went to see him, I had already locked up my tour card and I was ready to quit,” Kisner said. “It was that bad.”

Tillery had seen plenty of him through Brown, and he had a clear picture of what needed to change when Kisner hired him. Kisner said his pivot was bad and his arms didn’t fit in sequence with his body, making his swing steep.

“To most of the golf world, he just showed up one day,” Tillery said. “But there was a solid five to six months of grinding through changes. He was determined to stay on the path and know he was working on the right things. And he had a lot of hidden qualities being a good putter, a super good guy and he believed. As soon has he got in position where he believed he swung it good and could drive it play, that confidence of his just poured on top of all that.”q

SPORTS A21

Saturday 9 January 2016

No Love: Djokovic to play Nadal in final of Qatar Open SANDRA HARWITT Associated Press DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will break their 23-23 headto-head record when they meet for the 47th time in the Qatar Open final Saturday.

Top-seeded Djokovic beat third-seeded Tomas

Berdych 6-3, 7-6 (3) to reach his 16th consecutive final Friday.

The last time the Serbian failed to reach a tournament final was when he lost in the quarterfinals in last year’s Qatar Open.

“I’m very proud of the achievement and this particular stat, but I try not to

think about what would happen if I would lose and not get to the final,” Djokovic said. “I try to keep an optimistic approach to every match and every tournament.”

“This is exactly how I want to start the year, getting to the final in the first tournament of the year, against

one of my biggest rivals.”

Nadal advanced to his career 99th final after defeating Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4.

“I’m happy with the victory, being in the first final of the season in the first official tournament is something great,” Nadal said. “The most important thing is if

you feel yourself that every time you go on court you are competitive against everybody and you have your chances.”

Djokovic won all four of their 2015 meetings without dropping a set. The last time Nadal defeated Djokovic was the 2014 French Open final.q

Defending champion Federer into Brisbane semifinals JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Roger Federer overcame a lingering sickness to hold off Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4 on Friday and take his title defense into the semifinals at the Brisbane International.

Another former winner, the unseeded Victoria Azarenka, moved into the women’s final by seeing off U.S. qualifier Samantha Crawford 6-0, 6-3.

After the men’s semifinals on Saturday, the women’s final will feature two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka against No. 4-seeded Angelique Kerber, who beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-3.

Azarenka won Brisbane in 2009, and hasn’t won any title since 2013. After two seasons interrupted by injuries, she’s regaining form while many of the leading women are dealing with injuries in the run-up to the Australian Open which starts in 10 days.

“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” she said, “I’m not saying anything besides that.”

Federer is approaching the tournament from a different angle. He delayed his opening match at the Australian Open warmup until the fifth day because of a

flu-like illness, and was playing Dimitrov in the quarterfinals on less than 24 hours rest.

His serve in the first set was almost flawless, dropping just two points, and he appeared to be on course with break-point chances for another straight-set victory over the young Bulgarian — sometimes likened to him because of their similar styles — before Dimitrov rallied.

After wasting a chance to serve out the second set in a nervous 10th game, Dimitrov dominated the tiebreaker and forced a decider.

Federer, after showing signs of fatigue in the second, took a quick break before the third, and then went on a roll to set up three match points in the ninth game.

Again, Dimitrov rallied, winning five consecutive points and forcing Federer to serve it out — which the 17-time major winner duly did.

“I’m not going to tell you too much, but it was tough in a way,” Federer said of his illness. “Body is not quite ready, so it’s good to get through it without any issues.”

By holding off Dimitrov, who is 10 years his junior, Federer set up a meeting with 22-year-old Dominic Thiem,

Roger Federer of Switzerland smiles and waves after winning his quarterfinal game against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016.

(AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

the youngest player in the top 20.

Thiem beat third-seeded Marin Cilic 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 and said he was hoping to play Federer.

“It’s for every young player an amazing experience to play with probably the greatest of all time,” Thiem

said. “You can learn so many things from him.”

The other semifinal will feature 2015 finalist Milos Raonic a 6-4, 6-4 winner over No. 78-ranked Lucas Pouille, against Bernard Tomic.

Tomic ended 2014 U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori’s streak of three straight

semifinal appearances at Brisbane with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win, his first over a top-10 player on home soil.

In Auckland, New Zealand, Julia Goerges reached her sixth WTA final and her first in four years when she beat qualifier Tamira Paszek 6-4, 6-2 in the ASB Classic semifinals.

Sloane Stephens was leading 5-2 in the first set of the other semifinal against third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki when rain halted play, forcing it to be postponed to Saturday.

At the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia Green sealed its spot in the final against Ukraine by defeating France 2-1.

Nick Kyrgios gave the home team the lead when he beat Kenny De Schepper 6-4, 6-4, Caroline Garcia leveled for France with a 6-4, 7-6 (7) win over Daria Gavrilova, and the Australian pair won the mixed doubles decider 6-4, 2-6, 11-9.

In the Hopman Cup’s 27year history, host Australia has won it only once, in 1999.

“It’s an event that’s been held for a long, long time — before I was even born,” the 20-year-old Kyrgios said. “It’s pretty special. Me and Dasha, we grew up together in juniors. q

Two-time defending champ Wawrinka in Chennai semis CHENNAI, India (AP) — Stan Wawrinka advanced to the semifinals of the Chennai Open with a 6-4, 6-4 win over fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain Friday. The top-seeded Swiss, a two-time defending champion, fired 14 aces

to set up a clash with thirdseeded Frenchman Benoit Paire. Paire also served 14 aces as he defeated Thomas Fabbiano of Italy 6-4, 7-5.

Wawrinka broke serve in the third game but allowed his opponent to break back in the eighth with four

unforced errors. Wawrinka again went a break up in the ninth before wrapping up the first set.

In the second set, Wawrinka broke in the seventh game and went on to complete his seventh win in 10 matches against Garcia-Lopez.

“He’s a tough player to beat, we’ve played so many times,” Wawrinka said. “I played well and was putting a lot of pressure on him. I served good and was moving well. It was a solid match (for me) but I’m prepared for a tough match

against Paire.”

Last year’s finalist Aljaz Bedene of Britain and Borna Coric of Croatia will play in the other semifinal.

Bedene saved all three break points in a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win over India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan.q

A22

Saturday 9 January 2016

TECHNOLOGY

You can set up your smart home now - if you’re tenacious ANICK JESDANUN AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A fully automated home is still years away, but the building blocks are already

With the backing of big names such as Samsung, Apple and Nest, a sister company of Google’s, smart-home functionality is slowly creeping into every-

have to rewire your entire home and replace all your lights and appliances.

Nest, a maker of smarthome products, says it doesn’t market its camera,

A man looks at Samsung SUHD TVs at CES International in Las Vegas. The building blocks are in place for setting up a smart home. Samsung’s new smart TVs will have built-in smart-home capabilities, negating the need to buy a hub to get started. A fully automated home is still years away, but the building blocks are already here.

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

here: the phone that turns on the coffee maker from the bedroom, the thermostat that controls the lights when you’re away, the window shades that lift when you say “good morning.”

Although these still aren’t items most people seek out, they’re catching on.

Research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that the number of U.S. households with some form of smarthome system grew 30 percent in 2015 to 27 million, or about 1 in 5.

day homes. Even Amazon is getting involved with its Echo speaker that can respond to voice commands.

At the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, the scheduled topic of a Samsung keynote Thursday is the smart home of today — not tomorrow or five years from now.

Here’s how you might start building your own smart home: GADGETS FIRST, CONNECTIVITY LATER Drop the notion that you

smoke alarm and thermostat as smart-home products, but as products that happen to tap the Internet for increased functionality.

From there, gadgets can start talking to each other, whether they’re made by the same manufacturer or by third parties.

Andrew Brooks, co-founder of Samsung’s smart-home business, SmartThings, says households often start with security-related products, such as locks and garage doors, and evolve from there.

Samsung’s new

smart TVs will have built-in smart-home capabilities, negating the need to buy a hub to get started.

What about your existing lights, TVs and coffee makers? You can buy smart plugs; with a voice command or tap of an app, you can then turn devices on or off once you’ve plugged them in.

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT During a trip over the holidays, I was able to check my Nest camera through an app to confirm that the lights were off. If they weren’t, Siri could have turned them off, since my lights are connected to an iDevices smart plug synced with Apple’s HomeKit system — and thus with Siri.

Motion sensors synced with a SmartThings hub can tell me whether anyone, such as my super, has been in my apartment. A Mr. Coffee machine can start brewing with a tap of the phone, thanks to integration with Belkin’s WeMo system.

When home, I can group products such that the TV and main lights turn off and a night light comes on when I say, “good night.”

It’s relatively straightforward to add components as time and budgets permit. With smart locks, doors automatically lock when you leave. Smart appliances such as the Nest thermostat can also help save energy. Smart-home systems also can incorporate window shades and irrigation systems — perhaps the sprinklers briefly turn off as you walk by.

THE SMART HOME DIVIDED

Though apps try to make the setup easy, there’s still a lot to think about. To get the most out of a smart home, you need to assign lights and appliances to specific rooms on the app.

Then you need to enable automation through the app — figuring out which devices do what when you say “good morning” or “good night.” It isn’t too difficult for tech enthusiasts to figure out, but it could be challenging for folks who want things that “just work.”

Within days, I noticed some quirks in my setup. Because my main lights are connected to a smart plug, voice commands and the smartphone app effectively take control, meaning I actually can’t use the wall switch to turn the lights back on. It takes a few extra seconds to activate Siri and tell her what to do.

In theory, I could just have the lights come on automatically when I open the front door, which has a motion sensor attached.

But that sensor is tied to Samsung’s system, while the lights are with Apple’s.

And that coffee maker?

Samsung’s system works with some WeMo devices, but the coffee maker isn’t listed. The best I could do is attach a coffee maker to a Samsung smart plug, so that a bedroom motion sensor triggers coffee in the morning.

Besides Samsung, Apple, Nest, Amazon and WeMo, there are also smaller systems from the likes of Lowes and Insteon. Some systems work with others, at least in some respects, but it’s far from guaranteed.q

Internet firms warn UK against ‘dangerous’ changes to law LONDON (AP) — Major U.S. Internet companies have urged the British government to reconsider a plan to make telecommunications firms help spies hack into computers and phones.

The draft Investigatory Powers Bill would require telecoms companies to keep records of customers’ Web histories for up to a year,

and to help security services gain access to suspects’ electronic devices.

In a joint submission to a committee of British lawmakers, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo said that “to the extent this could involve the introduction of risks or vulnerabilities into products or services, it would be a very dangerous precedent

to set.”

They urged the government to reconsider, and warned against changes that would weaken online encryption, which they called a “fundamental security tool.”

The submission was made last month and published this week by the committee, which is reviewing the proposed legislation.

Apple has also objected to the British proposals, saying they could weaken online security by providing a backdoor to users’ data for “bad guys” as well as “good guys.”

The British government insists the bill won’t weaken or ban online encryption.

If approved by Parliament, the bill will let police and spies access Internet con-

nection records — a list of websites, apps and messaging services someone has visited, though not the individual pages they looked at or the messages they sent.

Civil liberties groups have also expressed alarm at the bill. A previous version of the legislation was thrown out by lawmakers in 2013 as overly intrusive.q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Saturday 9 January 2016

Does your battery life stink? Try some high-tech workarounds

Renault-Nissan:

RYAN NAKASHIMA AP Business Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — It’s enough to make you want to drop everything and race for the nearest power outlet: Your workday isn’t even done, and your smartphone or laptop battery is already in the red zone.

If you’re hoping that techno-progress will dispel that depleted feeling, you may be in for a long wait. Battery life is constrained by limitations in chemistry, and improvements aren’t keeping pace with demands from modern gadgets.

We’re still dependent on the venerable lithium-ion cell, first commercialized by Sony in 1991; it’s light, safe and holds a lot of charge relative to most alternatives, but it isn’t getting better fast enough to keep up with our growing electronic demands.

So instead, manufacturers are doing their best to “cheat” their way around lithium-ion’s limitations. The CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week featured plenty of workarounds that aim to keep your screen lit longer.

Proceed with caution, though: Manufacturer claims of battery life improvement can fall short of real-world experience.

MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — The Renault-Nissan Alliance is entering the race to build autonomous cars with a plan to introduce 10 different models capable of temporarily relieving humans of their driving duties on highways and city streets.

The road map laid out this week calls for RenaultNissan to gradually phase in the self-driving vehicles in the U.S., Europe, Japan

10 self-driving vehicles expected by 2020 Motors’ latest luxury models, already are capable of shifting into self-driving mode on highways, while other vehicles have been able to automatically park themselves for several years.

Renault-Nissan, a partnership between car makers in France and Japan, still isn’t ready to identify which models will be infused with the self-driving technology or specify how much the autonomous vehicles will cost.

thrusts the alliance into a motorcade of major automakers and technology companies working on self-driving cars. Their goal is to change the way people get around and reduce the number of traffic accidents caused by distracted, drunk or hapless humans behind the wheel.

The competition includes Toyota, Ford Motor, General Motors, Google Inc., ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft and possibly even Apple Inc. The intensifying

NEW CHIPS Not that long ago, computer-chip makers competed to make their chips ever faster and more capable, with power consumption a secondary consideration.

But the boom in energy hungry smartphones and laptops means that companies like Intel need to put much more emphasis on power efficiency these days.

Intel says its sixth-generation Core chips, known as Skylake, add a little more than an hour to battery life to laptops compared with the previous generation, according to spokesman Scott Massey. The chips utilize a more compact design, hard-wired functions that used to be run via software and fine-tuning how they ramp power use up and down.

BETTER-DESIGNED LAPTOPS Laptop manufacturers are smartly sipping power, too.

HP says the Spectre x360 notebook it introduced in March gains up to 72 minutes of battery life, for a total of up to 13 hours, thanks in part to Intel’s new chip.

Among other tricks, the PC doesn’t refresh the screen as often if the image isn’t moving. “If we can solve a bunch of small problems, they can add up,” HP vice president Mike Nash said.

Similarly, Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Yoga tablet turns off its touch screen and keyboard backlight if it senses its owner is walking and has the screen folded back like an open book. Vaio, the computer maker formerly owned by Sony, says its Z Canvas launched in the U.S. in October benefits from shrinking components and efficiently distributing heat to make more room for a bigger battery.

NEW CHARGERS Maybe it’s your phone that’s not keeping up. If so, you might check out new accessories designed to make it easier and faster to charge back up.

Kickstarter-funded Ampy uses your body’s kinetic energy to charge up a pager-sized device. Strap it to your arm or a belt and it can recharge a smartphone in real time; an hour of jogging or similar exercise yields about an hour of use. You could also just throw it in your bag and get the same extra hour of gadget life after a week of walking around — not an awesome trade off, maybe, but possibly better than nothing. q

A prototype of the autonomous driving Nissan Leaf is shown at Renault-Nissan Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. The Renault-Nissan Alliance is entering the race to build autonomous cars with a plan to introduce 10 models capable of temporarily relieving humans of their driving duties on highways and city streets.

(AP Photo/Terry Chea)

and China as its engineers fine-tune the automated technology and its management wrangles with regulators over safety concerns.

If things pan out the way Renault-Nissan envisions, its first batch of self-driving cars debuting later this year will be able to steer while traveling down a single lane on the highway. By 2018, the cars will be able automatically navigate across several highway lanes and then handle traversing city streets on their own by 2020.

Renault-Nissan’s agenda doesn’t represent a huge breakthrough.

Some cars, such as Tesla

The alliance still has lot of work to do to perfect its robotic technology, a point illustrated during a Thursday test drive in a self-driving Nissan Leaf with an Associated Press reporter. The human driver had to grab the steering wheel or step on the brakes on at least three occasions during a 25-minute excursion. During the journey, the vehicle strayed from a lane as the road curved, became confused by a flashing sign in a construction zone and didn’t decelerate quickly enough as a traffic signal turned red.

Thursday’s announcement at Renault-Nissan’s Silicon Valley research center

focus on self-driving technology reflects a belief that people would rather be texting, checking Facebook, reading, or watching videos instead of having to spend so much of their time tediously steering and braking on increasingly congested roads.

Just how long it will take before cars can be trusted to drive completely on their own is a matter of debate.

Google, which has logged more than 1 million miles in self-driving cars since 2009, is hoping to have vehicles that don’t require any human intervention on the road by 2020 in licensing deals with established automakers. q

A24 BUSINESS

Saturday 9 January 2016

Wall Street ends worst week since 2011 MARLEY JAY AP Markets Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A wave of late selling pummeled U.S. stocks Friday and pushed the market to its worst week in four years.

The dismal start to the new year comes as investors worry that China’s huge economy is slowing down.

That has helped send the price of oil plunging to its lowest level since 2004, the latest blow to U.S. energy companies.

by the fight over the U.S. debt ceiling and Standard & Poor’s move to cut the credit rating of the U.S. government.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 167.65 points, or 1 percent, to 16,346.45. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 21.06 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,922.03. The Nasdaq composite index shed 45.80 points, or 1 percent, to 4,643.63.

The Dow and S&P 500 are

The same pattern held in the U.S. In its monthly jobs report, released before the stock market opened, the Labor Department said U.S. employers added 292,000 jobs in December, far more than economists had forecast.

That’s the latest sign the U.S. economy is still growing. On average employers added 284,000 jobs per month in the fourth quarter, the best rate in a year.

Michael Fredericks, portfo-

Trader Jeffrey Vazquez works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.

A wave of late selling pummeled U.S. stocks Friday and pushed the market to its worst week in four years.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Industrial and technology companies such as Boeing and Apple that do a lot of business in China have also fallen sharply this week.

Mining companies such as Freeport-McMoRan plunged as copper prices have fallen. China is a major importer of copper.

Stocks started the day higher, driven in part by news of an encouraging burst in hiring last month by U.S. employers.

China’s stock market also rose 2 percent overnight, recovering somewhat after steep drops earlier in the week triggered trading halts.

Indexes wavered between small gains and losses for most of the day, but took a decisive turn lower in the last hour of trading. That made this the worst week since September 2011, when the market was roiled

each down about 6 percent for the week. The Nasdaq composite fell even more, 7.3 percent. That index is heavily weighted with technology and biotech companies, both of which were high-fliers last year.

The largest losses on Friday went to financial stocks.

JPMorgan Chase lost $1.35, or 2.2 percent, to $58.92 and Citigroup fell $1.43, or 3 percent, to $46.13. Health care stocks slumped, led by drug companies. Energy stocks also skidded as the price of oil, already at decade lows, continued to fall.

European stocks also rose early in the day, but couldn’t hang on. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares declined 0.7 percent while Germany’s DAX lost 1.3 percent. The CAC-40 in France slid 1.6 percent.

lio manager for BlackRock Multi-Asset Income Fund, said the labor market is healthy and wages could improve this month.

“These are unusually strong job creation numbers,” he said.

Fredericks said the low wage growth and limited inflation will make the Federal Reserve proceed cautiously as it raises interest rates. In December the Fed raised rates for the first time in nine years, but interest rates are still very low.

Throughout the week, worries about China’s economy and shocks to its markets have canceled out positive news from the U.S. and Europe.

While China’s economy is still growing, that growth isn’t as fast as it has been.

That could hurt sales of everything from iPhones to oil and heavy machinery.q

A stronger JC Penney emerges from this year’s holiday season A. D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Talk about a comeback.

J.C. Penney reported a 3.9 percent increase in comparable-store sales during the holiday.

It was a reversal of fortunes this crucial selling season, with the usually resilient Macy’s reporting late Wednesday that sales in stores open at least a year slumped 5.2 percent between November and December. Macy’s is now cutting up to 4,800 jobs, reorganizing operations and closing 40 stores. It also slashed its profit outlook.

Macy’s estimated that 80 percent of its decline was weather-related. J.C. Penney said warm weather did cut into clothing sales but there were other strong sellers that offset that weakness.

Gap reported sales for December that showed its continued struggles. The San Francisco-based chain, which operates stores under its namesake, Old Navy and Banana Republic, registered a 5 percent drop in revenue at stores opened at least a year. The declines were across all divisions, including Old Navy, which has recently been a bright spot for the company.

Marvin Ellison, who took over as J.C. Penney CEO last August, said that the company strived to improve its online business. It now has 250 stores that are helping to fulfill online orders as it plays catch up to other retailers. It also focused on store-label brands and improved its selection of gifts for the holidays.

Those were strong numbers for the Plano, Texas retailer, which is nearly three years into a turnaround effort following a disastrous attempt to reinvent the brand under former Apple executive Ron Johnson.

The changes put into place under Johnson resulted in massive losses and plummeting sales.

Still, J.C. Penney has a long way to go before it can claim a full recovery. The company is expected to post annual revenue of $12.6 billion for this fiscal year, up nearly 3 percent from the previous year. That’s remains far from the nearly $18 billion in annual revenue the company once booked.

Macy’s had been a stellar performer since the recession, but over the past year or so has seen its sales growth slow. Profits are under pressure because of investments in new businesses and discounts the retailer has been forced to offer because of weak sales.

The Cincinnati company has blamed its woes on a shift in consumer spending, with Americans dishing out more money on nights out or vacations, and less on clothes. Among other retailers that reported holiday sales was Signet Jewelers Ltd., which reported that comparable-store sales rose 4.9 percent for the eight-week period ended Dec. 26. That compared with an increase of 3.6 percent in the prior year.

Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics, a research firm, said that despite positive results from some stores, he’s still cautious about the fourth-quarter for retailers. He now expects quarterly profits to rise 0.1 percent, down from growth of 5 percent three months ago, as more retailers are forced to slash prices.

“While sales may look good, it came at the expense of margins,” he said.

J.C. Penney, Macy’s and other major retailers report fourth-quarter results next month.

J.C. Penney’s shares rose 26 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $7.26 Thursday. Its shares have fallen 8 percent over the past year. Macy’s shares got a bump Thursday, rising more than 2 percent, or 74 cents, to $36.89. Macy’s shares have fallen more than 40 percent in the past 12 months. q

BUSINESS A25

Saturday 9 January 2016

Clothing retailer Gap sales slump extends to December A. D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Gap’s shares dropped in afterhours trading after the retailer reported a sales slump that extended into December that included even Old Navy, once a bright spot for the company.

The San Francisco-based clothing retailer, which also operates stores under its

own brand as well as Banana Republic, said Thursday that a key sales measure fell 5 percent for the five-week period ended Jan. 2.

The decline was worse than the 3.5 percent drop analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected, on average.

By division, the key revenue measure at Gap fell 2

percent, while Banana Republic posted a 9 percent drop. However, what’s more worrisome is that Old Navy, which had been a juggernaut, suffered its second consecutive monthly sales drop. It saw sales fall 7 percent in December, after a 9 percent drop in November. The metric is based on revenue at stores opened at least a year.

The company’s total revenue dropped 4 percent to $2.01 billion for the fiveweek period.

The results underscore the continued challenges that CEO Art Peck confronts in turning around the business.

The company has long been struggling to turn around its Gap namesake business and im-

prove business at Banana Republic. And executives have said they wanted to use low-price Old Navy as a model for performance.

The company has worked to improve its fashions and trimmed its fleet last year.

But it hasn’t been able to improve sales. That has led the company to discount heavily, which erodes profits.q

Toys R Us holds its own against online holiday competition A. D’INNOCENZIO JOSEPH PISANI AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us reported stronger holiday sales despite intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com.

The company said Friday that sales at stores open at least a year rose 2 percent from Nov. 2 to Jan. 2, compared with last year’s holiday season. From Nov. 29 and Jan. 2, sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.7 percent.

Industry analysts pay close attention to these comparable-store sales figures because they exclude the volatility of newly opened or closed stores, providing a better picture of a retailer’s health.

The results are an illustration of advances made under new CEO David Brandon. After leaving shoppers wanting over the past few holidays, Brandon put a priority on ensuring that the hottest toys were in stock in the final stretch before Christmas. That was

Cousins Stacy Levine, left, and Melissa Bragg shop at the Toys”R”Us store in Atlanta. Toys R Us reported stronger holiday sales despite intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon. com.

(Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal Constitution via AP)

especially true for toys and games related to the new “Star Wars” movie, now the most lucrative film of all time. It’s also a period of revival for the toy industry, which is expected to wrap up its strongest year in at

least a decade.

Annual toy sales were projected to rise 6.2 percent to $19.9 billion last year, according to the NPD Group Inc., a market research firm that tracks about 80 percent of the U.S. toy

market. That would be up from a 4 percent increase in 2014 and mark the biggest increase in at least 10 years since the group has tracked toys using its current system.

This is being driven at least

in part by the strengthening job market.

The U.S. added another 292,000 jobs last month, according to a report from the Labor Department on Friday, bringing the total to 2.65 million jobs for the year. Since 1999, that’s second only to 2014.

Still, the big question remains whether the holiday sales came at the expense of profits. Toys R Us and others pushed heavy discounts this holiday season to pull in shoppers.

“Holiday sales results thus far are favorable, with the unknown at this point being margins and therefore profitability, which will provide a gauge into promotional impact,” said Moody’s Vice President Charlie O’Shea in a statement. Toys R Us said that website sales were strong and demand was high for toys, learning products and seasonal goods. However, it said there was weak demand for electronics, video game consoles and video games. q

Samsung Electronics’ 4Q profit misses expectations YOUKYUNG LEE AP Technology Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 15 percent over a year earlier, a smallerthan-expected gain as the world’s largest maker of smartphones and memory chips struggles to revive growth.

The South Korean company reported in its earnings preview that it recorded 6.1 trillion won ($5.1 billion)

in operating profit for the October-December quarter, compared with 5.3 trillion won a year earlier.

Samsung was expected to report 6.6 trillion won in operating profit, according to financial data provider FactSet. Sales stayed nearly flat at 53 trillion won ($44.3 billion), also slightly lower than expectations. It did not give net profit or other details, which will be announced at the end of this month.

The preliminary results showed that the company’s annual operating profit likely posted a slight gain from 2014 after posting more than 30 percent fall in 2014 from 2013.

But analysts estimated that its annual net income dropped for a second time in three years in 2015 after hitting a peak in 2013, as explosive growth in its mobile business, which once accounted for two-thirds of its profit, came to a stun-

ning halt.

Analysts have recently lowered their forecasts on Samsung’s earnings for the final quarter of 2015, citing weak global demand for personal computers and smartphones that hurt its semiconductor business. Its memory chip and mobile processor business have helped partially outweigh its profit fall from sales of its own smartphones.

Yoo Jongwoo, an analyst at Korea Investment

& Securities, said sluggish iPhone sales pushed down demand for memory chips and mobile processors at Samsung.

They said Samsung’s consumer electronics division, which manufactures and sells television sets and home appliances, was likely its only division that showed a recovery during the quarter thanks to seasonally high demand and a fall in LCD panel prices that helped save costs. q

A26 COMICS

Saturday 9 January 2016

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CLASSIFIED A27

Saturday 9 January 2016

Campbell says it supports federal standard for GMO product labels CANDICE CHOI AP Food Industry Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Campbell Soup says it supports a mandatory national labeling standard for products containing genetically modified ingredients.

The maker of Pepperidge Farm cookies, Prego sauces and Spaghetti-Os says it will withdraw its support from various efforts opposing such labeling, which has become a contested issue in recent years.

The move marks a break from industry groups that have sought to make labeling voluntary. About three-quarters of Campbell’s products contain GMOs. The company has opposed a patchwork of state-by-state legislation that it believes would confuse customers. States have tried to address the issue on their own and Vermont passed legislation requiring food makers to disclose when certain products contain geneti-

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by July. But industry groups want to pre-empt such efforts with federal legislation that would make disclosures voluntary, said Michele Simon, a public health lawyer. “They’re going for as little as they can,” Simon said. If a federal labeling standard isn’t established in a “reasonable amount of time,” Campbell says it will work independently to disclose the presence of GMOs in its products. The company did not specify a timeline for doing so. Genetically modified seeds are engineered in laboratories to have certain traits, like resistance to herbicides. The majority of the country’s corn and soybean crop is now genetically modified, with much of that going to animal feed. Corn and soybeans are also made into popular processed food ingredients like highfructose corn syrup, corn starch and soybean oil.q

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A28 SCIENCE

Saturday 9 January 2016

US says pesticide harms bees in some cases

A bee works on a honeycomb the Gene Brandi Apiary in Los Banos, Calif. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that a major pesticide harms honeybees when used on cotton and citrus but not on other big crops like corn, berries and tobacco.

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A major pesticide harms honeybees when used on cotton and citrus but not on other big crops like corn, berries and tobacco, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found.

It’s the first scientific risk assessment of the much-debated class of pesticides called neonicotinoids and how they affect bees on a chronic long-term basis. The EPA found in some cases the chemical didn’t harm bees or their hives but in other cases it posed a significant risk. It mostly depended on the crop, a nuanced answer that neither clears the way for an outright ban nor is a blanket go-ahead for continued use. Both the pesticide maker and anti-pesticide advocates were unhappy with report.

The issue is important because honeybees are in

trouble and they do more than make honey. They are crucial to our food supply: About one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination.

Some advocacy groups target neonicotinoids — the chemical works on insects’ central nervous systems and are often called “neonics” — and call for bans on the chemicals.

Recent scientific studies have pointed to problems and pesticide makers dispute those studies and this one from the EPA. Europe banned the pesticide class, and then lifted the ban.

Don’t expect any future action on this pesticide to solve the dwindling bee problem because it’s not just this pesticide alone, but a complicated puzzle that includes lack of food for bees, parasites, disease and the way different

pesticides and fungicides interact, said bee expert May Berenbaum at the University of Illinois.

“Anything to reduce stress on bees is helpful,” said University of Maryland entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp. “I am not convinced that neonics are a major driver of colony loss.”

Before it acts on a pesticide, EPA wanted more specific and targeted research. The risk report released Wednesday is the first of four on this class of chemicals. The study was done by the EPA and California’s environmental agency, with a similar one done by Canada.

EPA analysis of detailed tests found a clear level of concentration of the pesticide imidacloprid, the most common neonicotinoid, in which things start to go awry. If nectar brought back to the hive from worker bees had more than 25 parts per billion of

the chemical, “there’s a significant effect,” namely fewer bees, less honey and “a less robust hive,” said Jim Jones, EPA’s assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention. But if the nectar chemical level was below 25 parts per billion, it was as if there were no imidacloprid at all, with no ill effects, Jones said. It was a clear line of harm or no harm, he said.

Levels depended on the crop, Jones said. While nectar of cotton and citrus fruits were above the harmful concentrations, the levels were not harmful for corn — the nation’s top crop by far — most vegetables, berries and tobacco. Other crops weren’t conclusive and need more testing, including legumes, melons, tree nuts and herbs. Also, the controversial practice of treating seeds with the chemical seemed not to harm bees, Jones said.

The problem crops of cotton and citrus are No. 7 and 9 in U.S. production value in 2014, according to Agriculture Department statistics.

The study looked just at commercial honeybees because they are a good surrogate for all pollinators, Jones said. But Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director of the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity, criticized the agency for ignoring wild bees, like bumblebees, which studies show are much more sensitive to the pesticides, calling the report “weak.”

Jones said this is a draft of a scientific report, not a regulation. After public comments and the report is finalized, then EPA may act.q

Study:

Ebola survivors’ blood didn’t help Guinea patients

MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) — Giving the blood of Ebola survivors to patients didn’t seem to make a difference, doctors found in the biggest study so far on the approach, prompting some scientists to say it’s time to abandon the strategy. With no licensed treatment for the devastating disease, doctors have sometimes used blood from survivors to treat the sick, hoping its infection-fighting antibodies might help patients defeat the virus. It seemed to help some patients in the past but there was no clear proof. Amid the world’s biggest outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014, scientists decided to put the treatment to the test in Guinea. At a clinic in the capital Conakry, scientists found no difference in survival between 84 patients who got survivor blood compared to about 400 patients treated some five months earlier, according to the study published in New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.

“We would have liked to have seen more dramatic results,” said Johan van Griensven of the study in Guinea, the paper’s lead author. “But this doesn’t mean (blood) plasma treatment doesn’t work by definition.” He said antibody levels are often low in patients who have only recently recovered from Ebola and that doctors might need to use blood from long-term survivors to get a better effect.

Van Griensven and colleagues studied people who got two transfusions of plasma — the clear part of blood that contains antibodies — in Guinea last year. q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Saturday 9 January 2016

‘Bridge of Spies,’ ‘Carol’ lead race for British film awards nominated for best director at the BAFTAs, along with Adam McKay for financialcrisis drama “The Big Short” and Ridley Scott for “The Martian.”

The best-picture nominees are “The Big Short”; “Bridge of Spies”; “Carol”; “The Revenant”; and newspaper drama “Spotlight.”

The separate category of best British film pits “The Danish Girl” against “Ex Machina”; “Brooklyn”; Amy

Actor Eddie Redmayne poses during the photo call for the movie The Danish Girl in Venice, Italy.

Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies” and lush lesbian romance “Carol” lead nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, while Eddie Redmayne has a chance to win a second straight bestactor prize with his role as a transgender artist in “The Danish Girl.”

(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies” and lush lesbian romance “Carol” lead nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, while Eddie Redmayne has a chance to win a second straight bestactor prize with his role as a transgender artist in “The Danish Girl.”

“Bridge of Spies” and “Carol” each have nine nominations for Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, including best picture. Survival saga “The Revenant” has eight, and dystopian thrill ride “Mad Max: Fury Road” has seven.

“The Danish Girl” — based on the life of early 20thcentury transgender woman Lili Elbe — received five nominations Friday, including acting nods for Redmayne and co-star Alicia

Vikander. Last year Redmayne won the same prize — and an Oscar — for the Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything.”

Swedish rising star Vikander also received a supportingactress nomination for sci-fi thriller “Ex Machina.”

Vikander called both films “such gifts of projects for me” and said she was extremely grateful to be nominated.

The other best-actor contenders are Bryan Cranston for Red Scare drama “Trumbo”; Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant”; Matt Damon for space adventure “The Martian”; and Michael Fassbender for computing biopic “Steve Jobs.”

In the best-actress category, Vikander is up against Brie Larson for motherson drama “Room”; Cate Blanchett for “Carol”; Mag-

gie Smith for Alan Bennett adaptation “The Lady in the Van”; and Saoirse Ronan for Irish emigrant tale “Brooklyn.”

Winners of the British trophies, known as BAFTAs, will be decided by 6,500 members of the British film academy and announced at London’s Royal Opera House on Feb. 14, two weeks before Hollywood’s Academy Awards.

The British awards are considered an omen of Oscars success, and the list puts awards-season propulsion behind Steven Spielberg’s sturdy Tom Hanks vehicle “Bridge of Spies,” Todd Haynes’ gorgeously shot “Carol” and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant,” which stars DiCaprio as a 19th-century fur trapper fighting for survival in the wilderness.

All three filmmakers are

‘SNL’ stars set to host Indie Spirit Awards LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Saturday Night Live’s” Kate McKinnon and “Silicon Valley” star Kumail Nanjiani will co-host the 31st annual Independent Spirit Awards.

Film Independent President Josh Welsh made the announcement this week.

McKinnon has been nominated for multiple Emmys

for her work on “Saturday Night Live,” where she’s best known for such impressions as Hillary Clinton and Justin Bieber. Nanjiani is a comedic writer and actor, known for HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and films such as “The Five-Year Engagement.”

The awards celebrate the

best in independent filmmaking. With its tent on the beach in Santa Monica, the event serves as a relaxed, low-key lead-up to the Academy Awards.

Awards will be handed out in a ceremony broadcast live on IFC on Feb. 27, the day before the Oscars.q

Winehouse documentary “Amy”; marriage drama “45 Years”; and quirky sci-fi fable “The Lobster.”

The year’s biggest films at the British box office were relatively overlooked by the film academy. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” received four nominations — for production design, sound, music and visual effects — while James Bond adventure “Spectre” got nothing. q

A30 PEOPLE

Saturday 9 January 2016

& ARTS

20 Golden Globes: Producer Barry Adelman shares show secrets SANDY COHEN AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Every year around this time, Barry Adelman experiences a dream come true.

He’s the man behind the Golden Globes.

The veteran TV producer will put on his 20th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.

And again, he’ll get that pinch-me feeling, remembering when he watched the show as a young man in Chicago.

“Even then, the Golden Globes was a legendary show that people talked about,” he said in an interview Thursday. “To now be in charge of it is kind of a dream come true.”

Adelman has received nine Emmy nominations for his work on the Golden Globes (among his 17 overall nods), so he can empathize with the nominees inside the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom on show night.

“As a nominee, there’s a nervousness that you feel,” he said. “What we try to do is take the edge off that a

little bit.”

Adelman and his team from Dick Clark Productions do that by cultivating the show’s trademark party atmosphere.

“We have Champagne on every table and we have an open bar,” he said. “We have free-flowing Champagne and food, so it’s much more festive.”

Fourth-time host Ricky Gervais told Ellen DeGeneres on her show that booze gives him the courage to make his wince-inducing jokes. “If I didn’t drink, I wouldn’t be brave enough to say some of the things I’m going to say,” Gervais said. He also blamed alcohol in a pre-emptive apology posted on Twitter last week: “Because I can see the future, I’d like to apologise now for the things I said at next week’s Golden Globes. I was drunk...”

More than 125 famous faces will be in the audience when Gervais takes the stage during the NBC live broadcast. Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanch-

Executive producer Barry Adelman speaks at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. A veteran TV producer, Adelman will put on his 20th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016.

(Todd Williamson/Invision/AP)

ett, Melissa McCarthy and Matt Damon are among the nominees. Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell, Chris Evans and Kate Bosworth were announced Friday as the latest presenters to join a roster that includes Michael

Keaton, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Jamie Foxx, Amy Adams, Kevin Hart, Kate Hudson and Channing Tatum.

Adelman said the biggest change he’s observed over his 20 years with the

Golden Globes is “the stature of the show has grown immensely.”

“The bookings have become the best bookings on TV,” he said. “It’s an amazing spectacle that nobody can duplicate.”q

TV Critics Watch:

How Anthony Hopkins views his relationship with Shakespeare

The Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A roundup of news Friday from the Television Critics Association winter meeting, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on upcoming programs: HOPKINS AS LEAR? Unlike many actors of his generation, Anthony Hopkins says he had an uneasy relationship with the work of William Shakespeare.

His background — he grew up wanting to be a musician, not an actor — had something to do with it. But Hopkins, 78, admitted Friday it was fear he wasn’t up to the material that led him to Hollywood and movie-making largely fulltime after playing King Lear on the British stage in 1986.

“Now, after all these years, I know how to do it,” Hopkins said.

but they come up and offer me a job and I say, ‘OK.’ We are mad. We want to be loved. We want more, more.”

McKellen, who had never shared a stage or screen with Hopkins before this project, said he’s never thought of quitting.

“You don’t have to stop,” he said. “There will always be a part for an old geezer in the corner of the stage.”

Sir Anthony Hopkins appears onstage during “The Dresser” panel at the Starz 2016 Winter TCA on Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif.

(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

He returned to King Lear, in a way. Hopkins is in the movie version of “The Dresser,” a play adaptation in which he portrays an old actor who performs the Shakespeare role in wartime England. Ian McKellen is his dresser, the backstage friend who gets him ready for each performance.

“The Dresser” has already been shown on the BBC and will appear on the Starz network this summer.

Hopkins said he appreciated the character and the need of actors to act.

“Did I ever want to quit?” he asked.

“Yes, several times. Every day I think about quitting

KEOUGH’S NEW SHOW Riley Keough is starring in a new TV show she really wouldn’t want her grandfather to have seen.

The 26-year-old actress plays a law student and law firm intern who gets drawn into the world of women who provide emotional and sexual relationships at a high price.

“The Girlfriend Experience” debuts April 10 on Starz.

Keough is the daughter of

singer Lisa Marie Presley and the granddaughter of the late Elvis Presley, who would have turned 81 on Friday.

“My mother has seen the show. She likes it. She’s pretty progressive. She understands art,” Keough told a gathering of TV critics. “My grandfather, I have no idea because I never met him. I really don’t want to show men in my family the show, to be honest.”

The 13-episode series shares a title with the 2009 movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, who met Keough when she appeared in his movie “Magic Mike.”

“I had a sense I was kind of scratching the surface of her capabilities,” he said.

Keough’s character juggles two different lives and quickly gets drawn into the GFE world, attracted to the rush of control and intimacy.q

PEOPLE & ARTS

Whaling museum set for ‘Moby-Dick’ reading marathon MARK PRATT Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — “MobyDick” fans from around the world are getting ready for their own grueling quest — a marathon reading of Herman Melville’s classic.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum this weekend is holding its 20th annual nonstop reading of the seminal man vs. whale novel, with a few new twists to mark the anniversary.

What started with just “a couple of die-hards and some grog,” according to museum president and CEO James Russell, has grown into a four-day event that culminates in a cover-to-cover, 25-hour reading of the book aloud by about 150 volunteers.

Hundreds attend the live event, and thousands more watch a live stream.

The event has become so popular that this year’s reading spots were snapped up within an hour.

“This is my favorite museum event of the year,” Russell said. “It touches on so many dimensions: the literary experience, the physical works of art, the theatrical performance, the workshops and focus groups.”

The readers are teenagers and nonagenarians. They include Melville scholars and Melville descendants.

They come from across the country and overseas.

This year’s celebrity reader, who traditionally kicks things off by reading what has been called the most famous opening line in literature, “Call me Ishmael,” is award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick.

Portions will be read in foreign languages including Spanish, French and Dutch.

The reading starts at noon Saturday and moves through different galleries of the museum, even at one pointing sailing up the cobblestone street to the Seamen’s Bethel — the Whaleman’s Chapel in the novel.

New for this year are a fourhour reading of a Portuguese adaptation of “Moby-Dick,” and a two-hour children’s version, read by kids ages 8 to 12.q

A31

Saturday 9 January 2016

Justin Bieber asked to leave Mexico’s Tulum ruin site MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican official said Friday that Canadian pop star Justin Bieber and his entourage were asked to leave the Mayan archaeological

Bieber was visiting the seaside ruins on Thursday when the incident occurred.

The official could not specify which of the site’s structures Bieber allegedly had climbed, but said he was “asked to leave.”

Caribbean coast south of Cancun, for several days.

Despite the singer’s reputation for getting out of line, the representative of a native Maya ecotourism camp that Bieber visited near Tulum several days

Justin Bieber is seen in Cannes, southeastern France. A Mexican official the Canadian pop star and his entourage were asked to leave the Mayan archaeological site of Tulum after he apparently tried to climb onto the ruins. Bieber was visiting the sea-side ruins on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, when the incident occurred.

(AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

site of Tulum after he apparently tried to climb onto or among the ruins.

The official of the National Institute of Anthropology and History spoke on condition of anonymity because he or she was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Visitors can climb some pre-Hispanic pyramids in Mexico, but officials rope off or place ‘no entry’ signs on some ruins that are considered vulnerable or unstable.

Bieber has apparently been on vacation in the Tulum area, on Mexico’s

before described him as “completely respectful.”

Nathalie Leño, the spokeswoman for AllTournative, a cooperative effort with Maya communities at a camp called the Jungla Maya Park, said Bieber visited Jan. 5 and “expressed a lot of interest in the work

we do to preserve the environment.”

“He was completely respectful, and he participated in the welcoming ceremony performed by a local shaman,” said Leno.

“He even ate some of the traditional food prepared by local communities,” she noted.

Bieber has been involved in several incidents in Latin America in recent years.

In 2013, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto denied a tweet by Bieber saying the singer met with the leader and his family prior to a show.

Apparently, Bieber was confused about whether the president was there or not. Bieber later wrote in a tweet, “correction. I met the presidente’s family and all their friends in the private meet and greet with all their security. They were very nice.”

That same year, Bieber faced two criminal complaints and demands for refunds in Argentina, in addition to trouble with police for allegedly spraying graffiti in Brazil.

Bieber angered Argentines by abandoning a concert after less than an hour and not showing up for a photo-op that some fans paid hundreds of dollars extra for. The singer’s manager said Bieber came down with food poisoning after a concert.q

Prisoners score Malawi’s first Grammy nomination LYNSEY CHUTEL Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The gentle chorus of maximum security prisoners sung over simple guitar chords has earned Malawians their first Grammy nomination, but it took nearly 10 days for them to find out.

“I Have No Everything Here” is a 20-track collection of sometimes melancholic songs performed by the inmates of Malawi’s overcrowded Zomba prison, documenting life on both sides of the crumbling red brick walls.

The track “Listen to Me” is a warning to young women to stay out of trouble. Oth-

er tracks include “Prison of Sinners,” ‘’Last Wishes” and the more upbeat “When They See Me Dance.” Eighteen of the 20 tracks are sung in the Chichewa language.

The Zomba Prison Project has been nominated for best world music album, on the heels of previous winners and now fellow nominees such as South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo.

Grammy recognition will not lead to a world-touring career for the Zomba Prison Project, though. Many performers are serving life sentences in the prison’s

sandy yard and cramped quarters.

Cut off from the world, the inmates heard about their nomination via charity workers and prison officials, album producer Ian Brennan said in a telephone interview from Paris.

Brennan, who has built a career as a producer determined to promote new international music, said he was nevertheless surprised that his “massive, money-losing labor of love” has garnered international prestige.

Born in Oakland, California, Brennan has also worked in psychiatric facilities for over 20 years, becoming an ex-

pert in violence prevention.

Music is a tool for empathy, he said.

Brennan struck a deal with prison officials in Malawi that he would give workshops on conflict prevention to inmates while getting the chance to record their haunting hymns and traditional songs. The prisoners were paid in money, clothes and other commissary items, all handled by the guards.

Brennan used his own funds to pay for the album, which was released by Six Degrees, a San Francisco record company known for its international catalog. q