February 11, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Thursday, February 11, 2016

Bowing Out

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie thanks supporters during a rally in Nashua, N.H. Christie suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president after failing to break out from a field in which non-traditional candidates are making strides.

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Page 4

Gov. Chris Christie Ends 2016 White House Bid

A2 UP

Thursday 11 February 2016

FRONT

Pope on Ash Wednesday: charity’s not to please ourselves FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis rubbed ashes on the bowed heads of prelates, nuns and ordinary Catholics Wednesday, and had them smudged on his own head, too, to usher in the Lenten season of prayer and sacrifice he said must be done out of authentic love, not to satisfy one’s conscience.

The ritual, during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, symbolizes mortality. Catholics in churches worldwide were also marking Ash Wednesday with similar ceremonies. Lent is the annual period of penitence, prayers and sacrifice as faithful prepare for Easter.

“True love, indeed, is not an exterior act, it’s not to give something in a paternalistic way to satisfy the conscience, but it is accepting those who need our time, our friendship, our help,” Francis said in his homily.

The pope described Lent as

a good time “to train ourselves to be more sensitive and merciful” to others. He added that Lent presents the occasion to practice simplicity and sharing.

The pope has proclaimed this year as a Holy Year of Mercy. He says people are hurt by the “evil they commit and suffer” and need to experience forgiveness.

Since becoming pontiff in 2013, Francis has stressed that the church needs to be less severe and judgmental.

Attending the Mass were some 700 “Missionaries of Mercy,” of the more than 1,000 priests chosen from candidates worldwide to promote the pope’s vision of mercy, especially to those who have strayed from the church and want to return to the flock. After the ceremony, they were to head to assignments to preach and hear confessions in Africa, Asia, North America, the Middle East and elsewhere during the Holy Year, which

Pope Francis speaks as he leads the Ash Wednesday mass, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. The Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a solemn period of 40 days of prayer and self-denial leading up to Easter.

(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

runs through Nov. 20.

This select corps of confessors received special permission from the pope to absolve extremely grave sins normally dealt with by

diocesan bishops or Vatican officials. Among those sins are profaning a consecrated host or violating confessional secrecy.

Abortion is another such grave sin that in the eyes of the church must be absolved only by bishops or specially designated priests. But last year, Fran-

cis announced that, during the Holy Year, he is allowing all rank-and-file priests to grant such absolution to women who want to repent. In Catholic teaching, abortion triggers automatic excommunication when the person is aware of the penalty and commits the sin anyway.q

French lawmakers approve divisive citizenship bill citing terror worries SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers have approved a divisive bill aimed at making it possible to revoke the citizenship of people convicted on terrorism charges. The bill, presented

by Socialist Prime minister Manuel Valls in the wake of the Paris attacks last year, passed by 317-199 Wednesday in parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly. The measure revealed deep division among the ruling Socialists.

Many on the left expressed indignation at the move and refused to vote for it.

Justice minister Christian Taubira resigned last month in protest. The measure also divides the opposition conservatives.

Valls justified the need for the bill by the terrorist threat. “Because we are at war, we must unite”, he

told journalists after the vote. “This is a great day for the Republic, for unity, for France and for the fight against terrorism”.

The reform, which would alter the Constitution, is still far from being definitively adopted. It also needs to be voted on by the Senate and ultimately would require a three-fifths majority vote from lawmakers of both houses.

The government says the measure would concern a very small number of people but is of high symbolic value. The decision to revoke a person’s French citizenship would be made by a judge and would apply to terrorism-related crimes.

Human rights groups had warned that the bill risked discriminating against minorities of immigrant background as the initial text targeted dual nationals only.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Thursday 11 February 2016

Senate passes bill to hit North Korea with harsher sanctions next five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea, purchase communications equipment and support humanitarian assistance programs.

The legislation comes in the wake of Pyongyang’s recent satellite launch and technical advances that U.S. intelligence agencies said the reclusive Asian nation is making in its nuclear weapons program.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., joined by, from left, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John Thune, RS.D. and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, following a closed-door policy meeting. Seeking to derail North Korea’s drive for nuclear weapons, Republican and Democratic senators set aside their partisan differences Wednesday to unanimously pass legislation aimed at starving Pyongyang of the money it needs to build an atomic arsenal.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to derail North Korea’s drive for nuclear weapons, Republican and Democratic senators set aside their partisan differences Wednesday to unanimously pass legislation aimed at starving Pyongyang of the money it needs to build an atomic arsenal.

The Senate approved the sanctions bill 96-0 after lawmakers repeatedly denounced Pyongyang for flouting international law by pursuing nuclear weapons.

Sen. Bob Menendez said for too long North Korea has been dismissed as a strange country run by irrational leaders. “It’s time to take North Korea seriously,” Menendez said.

The Senate bill, authored

by Menendez and Sen. Cory Gardner targets North Korea’s ability to finance the development of miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.

The legislation also authorizes $50 million over the

Gardner said the Obama administration’s policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea has failed.

“The situation in the Korea peninsula is at its most unstable point since the armistice,” said Gardner, referring to the 1953 agreement to end the Korean War. The House overwhelmingly approved North Korean sanctions legislation last month. While there are dif-

ferences in the two bills, Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he does not expect any difficulty in producing a final measure.

The House sent the Senate a bill that was very strong and “we’ve been able to improve it,” said Corker, a Tennessee Republican. “I think they’ll be happy with those improvements.”q

A4 U.S.

Thursday 11 February 2016

NEWS

Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina end 2016 White House bids

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina attends a campaign event at Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown, N.H. Fiorina ended her 2016 White house bid on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 after a disappointing showing at New Hampshire’s primary.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

JILL COLVIN Associated Press NASHUA, New Hampshire (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the Republican nomination for president on Wednesday, a day after his disappointing sixth-place finish in New Hampshire’s primary.

Campaign spokeswoman Samantha Smith said Christie shared his decision with staff at his campaign headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, late Wednesday afternoon, and was calling donors and other supporters.

Christie on Tuesday night told supporters he was heading home to New Jersey to “take a deep breath,” await the final tally of results from New Hampshire and decide what to do next. He said he was leaving New Hampshire “without an ounce of regret,” but spoke of his campaign in the past tense at one point and canceled a Wednesday event in nextto-vote South Carolina.

Christie dropped out of the race the same day that Carly Fiorina announced on social media that she, too, was calling it quits. Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, won just 4 percent of the vote in New Hampshire.

Christie had 7 percent.

But Tuesday’s result appeared to be the final blow for a candidate whose campaign saw glimmers of hope at times, but had trouble from the get-go raising money and building support in a crowded Republican field dominated by another brash East Coaster, businessman Donald Trump.

While Trump posed a challenge to the entire Republican field, his dominance seemed especially damaging to Christie, who had branded himself the “telling it like it is” candidate.

When he returns home to finish his second term as governor, Christie will face a slew of unsolved problems and rock-bottom approval ratings from residents who, polls show, feel he neglected New Jersey to pursue his national am-

bitions.

Christie racked up a long list of notable endorsements from state legislative leaders in New Hampshire.

At the end of 2015, he appeared to be breaking into the top tier after a video of him discussing a friend’s struggle with drug addiction went viral.

The terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in particular played to Christie’s advantage, allowing him to talk about his previous job as a U.S. attorney and play up his law-and-order credentials.

And a commanding performance during the last Republican debate before the New Hampshire primary earned him strong reviews.

But with a field filled with numerous other options, including current and former governors and senators, Christie never consolidated support, despite being praised by both fans and rivals as one of the Republican Party’s best communicators.

Christie may have missed a better chance at the White House four year ago, when some of his party’s most powerful statesmen and donors begged him to run in 2012. But Christie declined, saying that he didn’t feel like he was ready.

Christie’s aggressive political team worked to rack up endorsements and wide victory margins in his re-election bid for governor as a springboard for 2016. At the same time, his aides took their game of doling out political favors and punishments too far, leading to one of the most dumbfounding political scandals in recent memory. Aides purposely created traffic jams in the town of Fort Lee to punish the mayor, who chose not to endorse Christie’s re-election.

While Christie first laughed off the suggestion that his team had anything to do with the plot, the denials quickly unraveled following the release of emails, including one from a top aide that read, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”q

U.S. NEWS A5

Thursday 11 February 2016

Trump, Sanders face challenges after commanding primary wins MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders were moving on Wednesday from commanding wins in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary to more diverse states that will challenge their transformation from outsider candidates to their parties’ presidential nominees.

The next Republican contest is the Feb. 20 South Carolina primary. The state is a hotbed of conservative tea party groups and evangelical voters that will test Trump’s staying power.

Next for Democrats is the Nevada caucus on the same day.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, easily beat Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and first lady once seen as the all-but-certain Democratic nominee. With more than 90 percent of the vote counted in New Hampshire, Sanders had 60 percent to Clinton’s 38 percent.

Trump, the brash real estate billionaire and television personality who has never held public office, had 35 percent among the Republicans, with moderate Ohio Gov. John Kasich a distant second with 16 percent.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished third in New Hampshire, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was fourth and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was fifth. Less than a percentage point separated each of those positions.

“I think they’re all really potential threats,” Trump said of his rivals Wednesday on MSNBC. “But I’m ok at handling threats.”

Kasich, who surged from relative obscurity in New Hampshire, has a poorly funded campaign that will struggle to keep up mo-

mentum in South Carolina and beyond.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was expected to drop out after finishing sixth in New Hampshire. That’s according to a two people familiar with his plans, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Sanders’ campaign launched ads Wednesday in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts — all states where they believe the Vermont senator can grow.

Clinton’s campaign argues she will perform better as the race heads to more racially diverse states, including Nevada and South Carolina. Both New Hampshire and Iowa are overwhelmingly white states.

Civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said he met with Sanders on Wednesday to discuss issues that affect the African-American community, including affirmative action and police brutality.

Sharpton said he won’t endorse a candidate until he and various heads of national civil rights organizations meet with Clinton next week.

Nevada has been considered Clinton territory, in part because of her strong relationships to the Latino community and longtime Democrats in the state.

At stake Tuesday were less than 1 percent of the delegates who, at party national conventions in July, will choose nominees to succeed Obama. But a strong showing in New Hampshire can give a candidate momentum ahead of state contests in coming weeks, including the March 1 “Super Tuesday” when 11 states vote.q

The Rev. Al Sharpton talks with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. as they sit down for a breakfast meeting at Sylvia’s Restaurant, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. Sanders defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A6 U.S.

Thursday 11 February 2016

NEWS

Amid boom in catch, debate rages over lobster license rules Associated Press AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Members of the next generation of Maine lobster fishermen say they fear they will never get a license to fish for the valuable critters, but some longstanding lobstermen fear changing the rules could result in overfishing.

A key Maine legislative

panel held a public hearing on Wednesday on changes designed to streamline the process of obtaining one of about 5,800 lobstering licenses in the state. The call for changes comes as Maine lobsters have grown in value in recent years, and prices have held steady for consumers as lobstermen’s catches have boomed, re-

sulting in heavy supply.

A vote could come as early as Feb. 17. There are nearly 300 people on the waiting list for a license, and some have been on the list for more than a decade.

Ethan DeBery, a Phippsburg lobsterman who completed an apprenticeship and has been on the list for seven years, said the cur-

rent system isn’t fair.

“I wake up every morning and I look at my late father’s trap pile in the yard,” DeBery said. “If you’re not going to get off the list until you’re 50, there’s no point in even getting a boat.

That’s not real entry.”

Rep. Walter Kumiega, DDeer Isle, has proposed the changes, which include the

creation of a new class of license that would be limited to 300 traps instead of the usual 800. Another piece of the proposal would require the state’s lobster fishing zones to grant new licenses based on the number of retired licenses instead of the number of retired traps. The zones currently use a mix of those two methods.q

Hawaii’s big wave surf competition called off by officials

A surfer catches a wave at Waimea Bay after the Memory of Eddie Aikau surfing contest was canceled, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, in Haleiwa, Hawaii. The competition was called off early Wednesday when the 40-foot swells predicted failed to materialize, event spokeswoman Jodi Wilmott said.

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

CALEB JONES Associated Press HALEIWA, Hawaii (AP) — Legendary surfer Eddie Aikau would have gone out. But Wednesday’s surf in Hawaii didn’t stack up to his namesake competition’s big-wave standards and the event was called off hours before it was supposed to happen.

“Eddie would go” is the mantra of the Quiksilver surfing competition in

memory of Aikau, a Native Hawaiian surfer famous for riding monster waves and saving hundreds of lives as Waimea Bay’s first official lifeguard.

The event was last held in 2009, when waves built to competition size for long enough for the surfers to run their heats.

Conditions Wednesday on the North Shore of Oahu had been forecast to meet the competition’s strict re-

quirements for 40-foot-high swells that last for hours. But the towering breakers were a no-show, and as the sun came up over throngs of spectators and dozens of elite surfers, ‘The Eddie’ was called off.

The narrow road that snakes along Oahu’s North Shore was backed up with traffic early in the day as fans rode bikes or walked for miles to reach the venue. Parking was nearly im-

possible to come by anywhere near the beach.

The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau competition began in 1984, six years after Aikau died trying to save others. It has only been held eight times.

Some of the best big-wave surfers in the world were at Waimea Bay to compete in the event, including Eddie’s brother Clyde Aikau, who is the oldest competitor at 66 years old and the only person to compete in all eight events.

“Is Uncle Clyde ready to ride? Absolutely,” Aikau told The Associated Press after he posed for photos with excited fans.

He said he and his brother used to ride Waimea Bay because of their passion for the sport.

“It was just that love to ride, you know, the biggest wave in the world, and to ride it with friends that you really love and you really have a lot of confidence in that if you get in trouble, they’ll help you out,” he said.

He said the event isn’t about fame or money, it’s

about honoring his brother’s legacy. He also added that this will be his last year competing in the Eddie.

As a lifeguard, Eddie Aikau is said to have never had a fatality while on duty.

When the surf was too big for most in Waimea Bay and the crowds cleared out, Aikau would grab his surfboard and take on the biggest waves around.

Event spokeswoman and longtime Aikau family friend Jodi Wilmott told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the surfers invited to the event “absolutely understand the prestige of being invited,” but that the competition is more about the aloha spirit that Eddie lived his life with.

“He really did share aloha wherever he went,” Wilmott said. He was a guardian of the bay and any other body of water he visited, Wilmott said, and fittingly so as he was a direct descendant of a Hawaiian high priest named Hewahewa, who was given the task of watching over the Waimea Valley long before Aikau arrived. q

A tax on tampons? Some US states debate the proposal HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An international debate over whether to tax tampons and other feminine hygiene products has made its way to some U.S. states like conservative Utah, where a bill is set to be heard by a committee made of only men.

Such taxes penalize women for their biology, some critics say. That perspective has picked up momentum,

with at least five U.S. states getting rid of taxes on such products.

Most states don’t tax prescription drugs or food, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Feminine hygiene products should be considered necessities, not luxuries, said Stephanie Pitcher with the Utah Women’s Coalition.

“Having a period is not a choice for women,” she

said.

Pennsylvania and Minnesota are among states that have eliminated these taxes. A handful of other states, including California, have seen similar proposals brought before their legislatures this year.

President Barack Obama said in an interview with a YouTube blogger last month that he had no idea why feminine hygiene products were taxed.

Last year, Canada removed taxes on feminine hygiene products after receiving unanimous political support. Britain set the tax on sanitary products at 5 percent, the lowest possible level, and leaders have considered doing away with it.

In Utah, state Rep. Susan Duckworth’s proposal also calls for making adult incontinence products and children’s diapers tax-free.

She hopes that by making her plan broader, it will earn more support.

The proposal could save residents who use these products at least $30 each year in taxes, Duckworth said.

But estimates from Utah’s legislative budget staff say removing the sales tax on the products would reduce revenue to the general fund by over $1 million next year. q

U.S. NEWS A7

Thursday 11 February 2016

US Financial Front:

Yellen warns economic weakness could slow rate hikes MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen cautioned Wednesday that global weakness and falling financial markets could depress the U.S. economy’s growth and slow the pace of Fed interest rate hikes.

But Yellen made clear that the Fed won’t likely find it necessary to cut rates after having raised them from record lows in December.

She did concede, though, that negative rates, which central banks in Japan and Europe have recently imposed, are a tool the Fed has at least studied.

In her semiannual report to Congress, Yellen offered no major surprises. And she reiterated the Fed’s confidence that the U.S. economy was on track for stronger growth and an increase in too-low inflation.

At the same time, she noted the weaker economic figures that have emerged since 2016 began and made clear the Fed is nervous about the risks from abroad.

Her concerns about the perils to U.S. growth contrasted with the Fed’s statement eight weeks ago, when it raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade and described economic risks as “balanced.”

In her testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Yellen also: — Expressed sympathy with committee members who raised concerns about chronically higherthan-average unemployment among black Americans. Members of an activ-

ist group, the Fed Up coalition, attended the hearing wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the messages “What Recovery?” and “Let Our Wages Grow.”

The group has been urging the Fed to delay further rate hikes until the job market improves further, especially for minority groups.

— Sounded her concern about China’s weaker currency and economic outlook, which are rattling markets. She also warned that rising borrowing rates and a strong dollar could slow U.S. growth and hiring, a reflection of the intensified turmoil that has gripped markets. Still, she said robust hiring at the end of 2015 and signs of stronger pay growth could offset those drags.

— Said the Fed still expects to raise rates gradually but is not on any preset course.

The central bank will likely slow its pace of rate increases “if the economy were to disappoint,” she said.

— Cautioned that the sharp declines in stock prices, rising rates for riskier borrowers and further strength in the dollar had created

Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, before the House Financial Services Committee hearing on monetary policy and the state of the economy.

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

conditions that pose risks to growth. “These developments, if they prove persistent, could weigh on the outlook for economic activity and the labor market, although declines in longer-term interest rates and oil prices could provide some offset,” she said.

— Observed that the central bank still thinks energy price declines and a stronger dollar will fade in com-

ing months and help raise inflation back up to the Fed’s 2 percent target rate.

The higher-valued dollar has held down U.S. inflation by making foreign goods cheaper for Americans.

Worker pay, though, has begun to show its first significant gains since the Great Recession ended 6½ years ago.

— Said Fed officials considered in 2010 the possibility

of using negative rates to bolster the economy but eventually rejected the approach. Yellen suggested that the issue of the Fed’s legal authority to impose negative borrowing rates as a means of stimulating growth still needed to be examined.

Yellen’s testimony marked the first of two days of testimony she will give to Congress.q

Federal budget in black for January on quirk MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government recorded a budget surplus in January of $55.2 billion, helped by a timing quirk that shifted benefit payments to December.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the surplus marked an improvement from January 2015 when the government

recorded a small deficit of $17.5 billion. Part of the improvement reflected the fact that $42 billion in benefit checks were sent out in December because the regular payment period fell on a weekend.

For the first four months of this budget year, the deficit totaled $160.4 billion, below last year’s deficit of $194.2 billion for the same period.

Both the Obama adminis-

tration and the Congressional Budget Office are forecasting this year’s deficit to top last year’s imbalance of $439.1 billion. Obama, in the new budget he released Tuesday, projects that the deficit will jump to $616 billion this year while the CBO is forecasting a deficit of $544 billion. The CBO projects that the deficit will keep rising and top $1 trillion again in 2022 as

the costs of Social Security and Medicare climb with the retirement of the baby boomers. Through the first four months of this budget year, which began Oct. 1, government receipts total $1.08 trillion, an increase of 3.2 percent over the same period a year ago. Government outlays total $1.24 trillion, down a slight 0.1 percent from the same period for the 2015 budget year.q

A8

Thursday 11 February 2016

WORLD NEWS

Kurdish fighters attack Syrian air base held by insurgents

Syrians gather at the scene where three bombs exploded in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Kurdish fighters helped by Russian airstrikes launched an attack in northern Syria on Wednesday in an attempt to capture a military air base held by Syrian insurgents.

(Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP)

BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish fighters helped by Russian airstrikes launched an attack in northern Syria on Wednesday in an attempt to capture a military air base held by Syrian insurgents, while an international aid group warned that the health system in parts of the north is close to col-

lapse.

Syria’s Kurds have been among the most effective forces battling the Islamic State group, but have remained largely neutral in the conflict between President Bashar Assad and the rebels fighting to overthrow him. But with Syrian troops backed by Russian warplanes waging a major offensive between the north-

ern city of Aleppo and the Turkish border, the Kurds appeared to be exploiting the chaos to expand their nearby enclave, known as Afrin.

Maj. Yasser Abdul-Rahim, a rebel commander in Aleppo province, told The Associated Press that fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, known as the YPG, are clashing with

rebels near Mannagh air base. He accused the YPG of trying to take Arab villages near Afrin.

“We are fighting on three fronts,” he said via Skype, referring to the YPG, Syrian troops and the IS group, which also controls parts of Aleppo province. He warned that Mannagh air base could fall to Kurdish fighters because of the Russian air cover and the intensity of the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said YPG fighters are trying to capture the former Syrian air base, which fell to the opposition in August 2013.

Ahmad al-Ahmad, an opposition activist based in Aleppo province, said the fighting is concentrated outside the air base and that Russian warplanes are bombarding the area. He said that YPG fighters are also trying to push their way toward the nearby village of Kfar Naya. “The front in northern Aleppo is in flames,” he said via Skype.

Kurdish forces in Afrin could not be reached for comment.

Doctors Without Borders meanwhile said military operations in Aleppo prov-

ince have brought “the already devastated health system” close to collapse in the Azaz district, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Turkish border.

The group, also known as MSF, warned that any escalation would worsen the humanitarian crisis in the northern region, which has already sent tens of thousands of people fleeing toward the border with Turkey. It said several hospitals and smaller health facilities in Azaz and around the city of Aleppo have been hit by airstrikes in the last two weeks, including at least three MSF-supported hospitals.

MSF said attacks “on the few remaining functional medical facilities must stop immediately. Fighting and bombing campaigns in heavily populated areas must be halted, at the very least until civilians can flee to secure areas with access to basic services.”

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that since the offensive in Aleppo province began on Feb. 1, some 518 people have been killed, including 101 civilians, 169 insurgents and 143 troops and pro-government forces.q

Nigeria’s army accuse 2 soldiers of arming Boko Haram HARUNA UMAR Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s army has arrested two soldiers allegedly caught trying to ferry a large quantity of arms and ammunition to Boko Haram Islamic extremists, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said the two were sappers, or combat engineers, who worked in an explosive ordinance unit in the northeast

where Boko Haram commits most attacks, and may have trained insurgents in bomb-making.

Some soldiers have told the AP that Boko Haram has infiltrated Nigeria’s security forces and some fight with the army by day and with the extremists by night.

Usman spoke at a news conference where he also reported that in recent days the military has killed 35 extremists and rescued

about 300 civilians held by Boko Haram.

His statements come a day after Nigeria’s Secret Service said it arrested an alleged recruiter for the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, identified as Abdussalam Enesi Yunusa. It did not give his nationality.

The Secret Service said two Nigerians already are training in Libya with IS. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to IS last year. IS

propaganda has urged militants who cannot reach Iraq orSyria to go to Africa and fight in Libya or join Boko Haram, but there has been no evidence of IS fighters in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari declared in December that Nigeria’s military has “technically” won the war against Boko Haram, forcing the militants from towns and villages across a swath of the

northeast where they had declared an Islamic caliphate.

Boko Haram has changed tactics, hitting soft targets like remote villages and carrying out multiple suicide bombings in cities. A twin suicide bombing Tuesday killed 58 people in a refugee camp. A Jan. 30 attack on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the command center of the war on Boko Haram, killed 92 people. q

WORLD NEWS 9

Thursday 11 February 2016

EU and Britain have big differences over ‘ever closer union’ JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — For Britain and the European Union, they are three little words that expose big philosophical differences: “Ever closer union.”

The phrase, baked into the EU’s 1957 founding treaty and other key documents, remains a fault line between Britain and its European neighbors.

On Tuesday, the EU’s six original member nations including Italy, Germany and France - stressed their commitment to “the process of creating an ever closer union among the people of Europe.”

The declaration by foreign ministers comes at an awkward time for Prime Minister David Cameron, who is pushing for changes to Britain’s relationship with the EU ahead of a national referendum - probably later this year - on whether to remain in the bloc.

Cameron and EU leaders hope to strike a deal at a Feb. 18-19 meeting in Brussels, but differences remain over contrasting visions for the future of the union. European Council President Donald Tusk, who is shepherding the negotiations, said Wednesday that the talks were “a very fragile political process” but he hoped to get an agreement next week.

Throughout the negotiations, Cameron has stressed that Britain is happy to be part of the EU’s free-trade zone, but wants assurances it will not have its laws and economy tied more closely to the other member states.

“We are going to keep our borders,” Cameron said last week. “We are never going to sign up to things like a European army. We

are never going to sign up to an ever closer union.”

British Euroskeptics seized on the six “core Europe” nations’ declaration as proof that the EU aims to become a European super-state. The tabloid Daily Express said it could leave Cameron’s reform agenda “in tatters.”

But John Ryan, a professor at the London School of Economics, thinks there is less to “ever closer union” than meets the eye.

“It’s an emotive catchphrase,” he said. But “in this particular negotiation it’s rather irrelevant.”

The main sticking points in Britain’s negotiations are its demand for greater protection for the U.K. and other countries that don’t use the euro single currency - which has prompted some opposition among the 19 nations that do and the U.K.’s desire to control migration by limiting benefits for workers from other EU countries.

That grates against the key EU principle of free movement of people within the bloc.

Both sides are relying on a complicated compro-

Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street in London for the House of Commons to prepare for Prime Minister’s Questions, Wednesday Feb. 10, 2016. The EU’s six founding nations, including Italy, Germany and France, have stressed their commitment to “an ever-closer union among the people of Europe.” That’s awkward for Prime Minister David Cameron, who is seeking to loosen Britain’s relationship with the EU ahead of a U.K. referendum on whether to stay in the bloc.

(Stefan Rousseau/ PA via AP)

mise - involving temporary limits known as an “emergency brake” - to resolve the benefits impasse. But some EU leaders remain concerned that the move discriminates against nonBritish workers, while British Euroskeptics say it will have little effect on immigrant numbers.

In comparison to those

tough issues, Ryan says it costs other EU leaders little to give Britain an optout from the “ever closer union.”

The draft document that EU leaders hope to approve at next week’s summit stresses that ever closer union is “not an equivalent to the objective of political integration.” And it

says member states “that want to deepen integration (can) move ahead, whilst respecting the rights of those which do not want to take such a course.”

That can be seen as acknowledgment that a twospeed Europe already exists, despite the six founding nations’ declaration of unity. q

Italians arrest Argentine prelate in ponzi scheme ROME (AP) — An Argentine monsignor suspected of being behind a Ponzi scheme swindling investors out of 30 million euros ($34 million) has been put under house arrest in Genoa, Italian financial police said Wednesday.

Monsignor Patrizio Benvenuti boasted of Vatican connections and held dinners in a prestigious Rome palazzo as part of a technique to persuade nearly 300 people, many of them elderly, to put their money in an investment fund as

well as to donate to a charitable foundation, said Police Capt. Alessandra Faietti, based in the northern city of Bolzano.

Most of those swindled were French or Belgian citizens, Italian authorities said.

Faietti said the probe began after a nun who had been Benvenuti’s housekeeper in Rome for many years contacted tax police when she started receiving at her home bank and other documents referring to a trust that had been set up in her name.

Police said the nun was startled and puzzled to see hundreds of thousands of euros moving through financial instruments linked to her name.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for a French financier who allegedly worked closely with Benvenuti, the police said.

The two men are under investigation on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, authorities said.

Seven other people are also under investigation.

Police seized property, bank accounts and other items worth a total of 10 million euros ($11 million).

Among the seized properties was a luxurious 15thcentury villa on the Tuscan coast near Piombino where Benvenuti would stay, Faietti said.

Tax police said at the beginning investors did receive some interest payments, as commonly happens in Ponzi schemes, but later the payments stopped coming and they couldn’t get their investment back.q

A10 WORLD

Thursday 11 February 2016

NEWS South Korea to shut down joint industrial park with North Korea

A wild elephant that strayed into the town stands after authorities shot it with a tranquilizer gun at Siliguri in West Bengal state, India, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. The elephant had wandered from the Baikunthapur forest on Wednesday, crossing roads and a small river before entering the town.

The panicked elephant ran amok, trampling parked cars and motorbikes before it was tranquilized.

(AP Photo)

Elephant rampages in India, smashing homes MANIK BANERJEE Associated Press KOLKATA, India (AP) — A wild elephant rampaged through an east Indian town on Wednesday, smashing cars and homes and sending panicked people running before the animal was tranquilized to be returned to the forest.

As the frightened elephant ran amok, trampling parked cars and motorbikes, crowds of people gathered to watch from balconies and roof tops.

Some followed from a distance as the elephant moved through the streets.

“The elephant was scared and was trying to go back to the jungle,” said Papaiya Sarkar, a 40-year-old homemaker who watched the elephant amble down a street near her home.

The elephant had wandered from the Baikunthapur forest, crossing roads and a small river before entering the town of Siliguri in West Bengal state.

Divisional Forest Officer Basab Rai said the female elephant appeared to be a loner without a herd, and was likely searching for food when it strayed into the town.

He said it did not attack any people, and appeared to be afraid of them. After several hours, it became clear the elephant was unable to find its way back to the forest.

Authorities eventually shot the elephant three times with a tranquilizer gun and used a crane to lift it into a truck once it had calmed down.

It was then taken to a park

for domesticated pachyderms that is maintained by the forest department.

Once the effect of the tranquilizer wore off, authorities planned to return the elephant to the forest, Rai said. Elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people in India, as the human population of 1.25 billion soars and cities and towns grow at the expense of jungles and other elephant habitats. In India and Sri Lanka, more than 400 elephants and 250 humans are killed each year.

On Wednesday, another wild elephant trampled a farmer to death in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The farmer had been sleeping in his paddy field when the elephant appeared, police told Press Trust of India.q

YOUKYUNG LEE AP Business Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Wednesday that it will shut down a joint industrial park with North Korea in response to its recent rocket launch, accusing the North of using hard currency from the park to develop its nuclear and missile programs.

The decision to end operations at the industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, the last major cooperation project between the rival countries, comes after North Korea on Sunday launched a long-range rocket considered by other nations to be a banned missile technology test.

By closing the complex, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has done something her conservative predecessor resisted, even after two attacks blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. It is among the strongest punitive measures available to her.

South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said at a news conference that the suspension of operations at the park would stop the North from using currency earned there to develop nuclear and missile technology.

The park, which started producing goods in 2004, has provided 616 billion won ($560 million) of cash to impoverished North Korea, Hong said.

“It appears that such funds have not been used to pave the way to peace as the international community had hoped, but rather to upgrade its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles,” he said at the televised briefing.

The Unification Ministry, which is responsible for relations with North Korea, said in a statement that the government had “decided to completely shut down” the park. It notified North Korean authorities of the decision and asked them to help ensure the safe return of South Korean citizens from Kaesong.

There was no immediate reaction to the move from North Korea.

The United States supported the move by its close ally, and said it was considering its own, unspecified “unilateral measures” to punish Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, even as the U.N. Security Council deliberates imposing more multilateral sanctions.

South Korea’s government will provide financial compensation to companies that operate at the park, the Finance Ministry said.

South Korean businesses with factories at the park reacted with a mixture of disappointment and anger. In a statement, the association of South Korean companies in Kaesong denounced the government’s decision as “entirely incomprehensible and unjust.”

Lee Eun Haeng, chairman of Ilsung Leports, which produces fashion goods at the park, said the companies had become “victims” of a political situation.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Thursday 11 February 2016

Reporter kidnapped in southern Mexico found dead: officials MEXICO CITY (AP) — A reporter who was kidnapped by armed assailants in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz this week has been found dead, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Anabel Flores Salazar’s body was discovered on a highway in the neighboring state of Puebla and later identified by family members, Veracruz prosecutors said in a statement.

Flores Salazar, a crimebeat reporter for a local newspaper in Orizaba, Veracruz, was dragged from her home near the city before dawn Monday.

At least 15 journalists have been killed in Veracruz since Gov. Javier Duarte took office in 2010, and three more have disappeared. His administration has been criticized for suggesting many of those reporters had links to drug gangs or were victims of common crime.

In Flores Salazar’s case, prosecutors have said they were investigating “all the reporter’s possible ties.” The office said she had been in the company of an alleged Zetas drug gang member when he was arrested in 2014.

“Veracruz authorities have a history of denigrating the activities of local journalists without providing any concrete evidence,” said Carlos Lauria, senior America program coordinator at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. “We urge authorities to abstain from making unfounded accusations that may further endanger the Veracruz media.”

In August, five gunmen burst into a bar in Orizaba and killed a reporter who was sitting at a table with a reputed drug gang boss.

Pope visit to Mexico basilica highlights Guadalupe influence PETER ORSI Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A weathered pastel image of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs from German Herrera Hernandez’s dashboard, watching over his passengers from her perch next to his cigarettes, gum and the handful of coins he uses to make change.

“We believe in her,” said Herrera, a 55-year-old who has been driving a cab in Mexico City for about a decade. “She protects us, wherever we go.”

When Pope Francis visits this week he’ll make an emotional stop at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe — patron saint of Mexico and “empress of the Americas” — where millions of pilgrims flock each year to pray before the shroud that bears her image.

But she’s also an ever-present part of life for millions of people like Herrera, not just at the basilica. Across the country, in private homes and public marketplaces, she gazes down beneficently from the walls of taco stands and police stations, from hair salon mirrors and even outside no-tell motels.

In poor barrios and posh shopping districts, perhaps nothing unites Mexicans more than their reverence for the Virgin. Grieving families light candles beneath her likeness in shrines

A police officer takes a photo of a mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the neighborhood of Ecatepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Pope Francis will make an emotional stop at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, where millions of pilgrims flock each year to pray before the shroud that bears her image.

(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

to dead relatives, while young hipsters shell out big bucks for shirtsleeve tattoos of the Virgin.

“There’s the old refrain in Mexico that Mexicans are 90 percent Catholic and 100 percent Guadalupan,” said Andrew Chesnut, chair in Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. “If there’s one main constituent element of Mexican-ness, it’s Guadalupe, because she obviously transcends the religious realm. ... So she sells products, she’s tattoos, (even with) people who aren’t necessarily her dev-

otees.”

According to tradition, the dark-skinned virgin appeared before the Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531 at Tepeyac, a hillside near Mexico City where Aztecs worshipped a mothergoddess, and her image was miraculously imprinted on his cloak.

The image helped priests inculcate Catholicism among indigenous Mexicans during Spanish colonial rule, and the church later made her patron of all the Americas. Juan Diego was canonized as the hemisphere’s first Indian

saint in 2002 during the papacy of John Paul II. Juan Diego’s cloak is on display today behind glass at the basilica, the most visited Marian shrine on the planet, where signs admonish against flash photography and long lines of worshippers are carried past along a self-moving walkway.

Chesnut called Francis “a very strongly Marian pontiff” and said his visit to the basilica will be one of the defining moments of his trip to Mexico, which has more Catholics than any other Spanish-speaking country.

Jamaica:

Gunmen open fire on motorcade by opposition party

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Police say gunmen have opened fire on a campaign motorcade by Jamaica’s main opposition party and killed one man as it traveled through a troubled neighborhood.

Investigators say three oth-

ers were wounded by gunfire in the Jamaica Labor Party motorcade.

About 12 cars also were damaged by hurled rocks.

The violence occurred in Flankers, an impoverished community in northern Jamaica that has historically

been a reliable source of votes for Labor.

In a Wednesday police statement, Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor said political organizers had been told not to send campaign motorcades there due to recent vio-

lence.

Two men from Flankers were killed late Sunday when gunfire broke out at a Labor rally in nearby Montego Bay. Jamaica will hold general elections Feb. 25.

A12 WORLD

Thursday 11 February 2016

NEWS

In Central America, gangs an obstacle in battle against Zika C. SHERMAN Associated Press CUSCATANCINGO, El Salvador (AP) — For health workers battling Zika across much of Central America, the immediate menace is not the mosquitoes that transmit the virus. It’s the

companying a fumigation team in greater San Salvador was shot dead by mara members after they lifted his shirt and, according to local media reports, found he had a tattoo from a rival gang. Similar incidents have played out in neigh-

have advised women to put off pregnancies for two years due to severe birth defects tentatively linked to the virus. The country has also launched a campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, relying on aggressive fumigation and

Soldiers show a mosquito larva found during a fumigation campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito in the La Comuna 2 neighborhood of Guatemala City. Soldiers worked to protect health workers from armed and well-organized street gangs known as maras that exert near-total control over entire neighborhoods. In some cases, gangs deny access to health crews they suspect of working with police or a rival gang.

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

gangsters who control the streets, and sometimes threaten their lives.

Armed and well-organized street gangs known as maras exert near-total control over entire neighborhoods, using sentries to track everyone who comes and goes. In some cases, they deny access to health crews they suspect of working with police or a rival gang.

In 2014, an emergency medical technician ac-

boring Honduras and in Guatemala, where fumigators are chased by thugs, assaulted or charged a small tax for access.

“The state is absent” in such areas, said Carlos Carcach, a criminologist with the Superior School of Economics and Business in El Salvador. “The state is being replaced by the gang.”

More than 7,000 suspected cases of Zika have been identified in El Salvador, where government officials

the removal of standing water and refuse where its larvae can breed.

But El Salvador, a country of just 6 million people, recorded more than 700 murders in January and had a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, believed to be the highest of any country not in open war.

That’s the environment in which government health workers struggle to contain Zika.

To get into Cuscatancingo, on San Salvador’s outskirts, a reporter met a local resident outside town and traveled there in his car, which would not raise the gangs’ suspicions.

Approaching the Villa Mariona government health clinic, the driver rolled down the vehicle’s windows so a group of young Mara Salvatrucha gangsters in low-hanging jeans, gelled hair and plaid shirts could see who was inside.

One asked what was going on, and whether the reporter had cameras. When a police foot patrol came up the street, a teen shouted “Policia!” into his radio and the youths ran.

Several years ago, the clinic was forced to shut down for several months because staff members were being extorted, according to Nelson Mejia, Villa Mariona’s sanitation coordinator. He and the then-director met with gang members to explain why it was important that they work there. Gang members asked that their people get prompt treatment at the facility then agreed to allow operations to resume under a wary truce. But there have been more incidents.

Gang members beat up and took away a man working on a local water project for the health ministry. Once, when a clinic employee was going doorto-door for a health project, a gang member called to warn that he should leave immediately because he was suspected of being a cop. Another worker on a fumigation mission left after

being intimidated by gangsters.

“When this clinic reopened, it reopened with fear,” Mejia said.

Whenever a suspected case of Zika is identified, the Villa Mariona clinic tries to send teams into the area to look for others with fever and to destroy mosquito breeding areas. Mejia said workers from another clinic in Cuscatancingo have been denied entry at times.

Eduardo Espinoza, vice minister of health, said such incidents are sporadic.

“We haven’t had any significant trouble except in some areas, specifically in the metropolitan area,” Espinoza said.

In Guatemala, fumigators planned to go into one Guatemala City neighborhood last week but locals warned it was too dangerous, said Sergio Mendez, fumigation coordinator for the health ministry.

“We don’t ask for help from the police or the army to enter an area, because later they go and carry out raids,” Mendez said. “And we have to go back. The people think we reported them.”

Gangs can also hamper the fight against Zika and other public health efforts in less-direct ways.

Fear of the maras leads many residents to refuse to answer the door or let health workers inside. Of the nine suspected Zika cases in the area served by the Villa Mariona clinic, only five have been identified because people refuse to share relatives’ phone numbers or addresses.q

Venezuela malls scale back hours as government cuts energy FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Shops in malls across Venezuela closed their doors Wednesday afternoon to comply with a government electricity rationing order.

Venezuela’s socialist government is asking more than 100 malls to close or generate their own power four hours each day, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 7

p.m. to 9 p.m.

Dozens of mall workers and would-be shoppers waited out the closure at a shopping center in upscale Caracas Wednesday. They complained about the new policy, which comes amid a general economic breakdown that has led to chronic shortages and triple-digit inflation.

“I need my salary,” fast food restaurant manager Yorgenis Tovar said. “I can’t

let myself become unemployed at this point, with everything getting so expensive.”

Officials say the measure will help the economically embattled country cope with problems at hydroelectric plants due to a severe drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon Malls have become a haven for Venezuelans as the country has become one

of the most violent in the world. In many areas, they are also the only places to see movies.

Venezuela has grappled with blackouts for years, including one that took President Nicolas Maduro by surprise as he delivered a national address on live television. Caracas occasionally shuts down because of citywide loss of power and rural areas see regular rolling blackouts.

Electricity here is virtually free, giving Venezuelans little incentive to conserve.

The government tried a similar policy in 2010, but rolled it back after patrons put up stiff resistance. This time, many shoppers seem resigned.

“Nothing about this surprises me,” teacher Rosa Velasquez said. “Every day now something happens to make life here worse.”q

LOCAL A13

Thursday 11 February 2016

Queen of the World:

10 World Titles and Counting for Lady Sarah-Quita Offringa

CHRIS YATES ORANJESTAD - After completing her studies, 2015 saw Sarah-Quita Offringa of Aruba (Starboard/ NeilPryde/ Mystic/ Maui Ultra Fins) return to competing in all 3 disciplines full-time.

Some may have thought that this may be too taller order to remain competing at the very top of her game, but she emphatically proved any doubters wrong as she claimed world titles in the freestyle and slalom, while breaking into the overall top 3 for the first time in the waves. After a hugely successful year we caught up with SQ, who now holds 10 world titles to her name — 8 freestyle and 2 slalom — for an interview.

CHRIS YATES: 2015 was a pretty big year for you…

2 world titles and podium in the waves for the first time… how was the season overall for you?

SARAH-QUITA: “Yeah!! I don’t know where it started, but all of a sudden I felt like competing in all disciplines and at the beginning of 2015 I told myself that I wanted to finish top 3 in everything.

To be more specific, I wanted the freestyle and slalom title and finish 3rd in waves.

It was actually really tough to keep up with all the disciplines and stay focused and not panic because the other girls were practicing their disciplines while I was competing in another. By the end of the year I was extremely exhausted but achieving what I wanted was really, really satisfying. “ CY: Your latest world titles take you to an extremely impressive count of 10… at the age of just 24… did you ever imagine winning

so many world titles and what else would you like to achieve in windsurfing?

SQ: “Wauw ! To think about it like that is a bit weird for me, because it means I’ve been on tour for a while now hahaha.

No I never imagined winning all these titles. To be honest, that wasn’t even my aspiration as a kid. I just enjoyed the sport so much and being able to travel and compete was already the bomb.

Other things I would like to achieve in windsurfing is to improve my wave sailing much more. Basically I just want to be an all around windsurfer so I can enjoy all types of conditions.

I don’t know other than that. I just want to be an ambassador for the sport and hopefully see it grow again. I keep hearing stories about how big it used

to be... I wasn’t around then though to see it ha ha.

But maybe we can get that back to a certain degree!”

CY: With the amount of success you’ve achieved in

such a short space of time do you ever find it hard to motivate yourself to compete? And do you plan on continuing to compete in the foreseeable future… or is there something else

you’d like to pursue?

SQ: “The thing is that my motivation isn’t necessarily winning, my motivation is to improve. And I do that through competing. The

stress of competition does get to me sometimes, to the point that I ask myself why I’m even doing it, but once a contest is over I am so incredibly motivated to train and get better for

the next time that I forget about all the nerves I had before and can’t wait to compete again.

Well, I have been competing for about ten years now and there are definitely

other things I would like to do in the future, but for now it’s still quite fun, so Ima be around :).”

CY: You recently premiered Cabeibusha ‘The Curly Gem’ in Aruba — how did that go to town in your home country?

SQ:“Yes ! It was great to show my movie back home in Aruba.

The support I get there is amazing, and to finally be able to show them what this windsurfing life I have is all about feels great.

Finally they could get an insight about what we go through as windsurfers, travelling and competing around the world.

I just want to show that although I might be from a small island, you can go as far as you like, as long as you work for it.

The response I’ve had from everybody was really good and I’m very very thankful to the producer Julien Robinet and Broken bloke productions for taking me on this movie making journey.”

Continued on page 16

A14 LOCAL

Thursday 11 February 2016

Cuba’s Cookin’ Brings the Salsa to the Dinner Table!

ORANJESTAD - It’s been 16 years since Cuba’s Cookin’ opened its doors here in Aruba and we feel it has always been our mission to bring Cuban hospitality, art, music and dance to Aruba. The history of the compatibility of these two island cultures goes way back to the turn of the century when many Arubans went to Cuba in search of opportunities. What many of them found was back-

breaking work in the sugarcane fields. Many of those Arubans also married and returned to their homeland with Cuban wives, strengthening those deep ties between the big and the small islands.

In our years as proprietors of Cuba’s Cookin’ we have had a great time meeting so many of you and sharing our love of this rich culture: a love for dance, traditional Cuban music –

salsa, bolero, cha-cha-cha – and, of course, the great food and art!

Therefore tonight at Cuba’s Cookin’ there will be a live steamy hot Salsa demonstration given with real Latin dancers.

Come and join Cuba’s Cookin’ tonight at 7:00pm for this special Salsa performance, enjoy dinner and some truly thrilling moments that only this culture has to offer. q

LOCAL A15

Thursday 11 February 2016

Carl and Betsy Ern Honored by the Aruba Tourism Authority Pawling, New York. Carl and Betsy love Aruba very much because of the extremely friendly people, the climate, the beaches, the restaurants and the relaxing atmosphere.

The Ern family loves to visit Aruba every year also to meet with their long-time

ORANJESTAD - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very nice couple whom are loyal and friendly visitors of Aruba, as

Ambassadors of Goodwill at the Royal Jewels and Diamonds at the Royal Plaza Mall.

The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name

of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 20-to-34 consecutive years.

The honorees were Mr. Carl and Mrs. Betsy Ern of

Aruban friends like Mr. Rajesh Lalwani and family from the Royal Jewels and Diamonds.

The certificate was presented by Mr. Ernest Giel representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with Mr. Rajesh Lalwani and employees of the Royal Jewels and Diamonds.q

A16 LOCAL

Thursday 11 February 2016

back into the windsurfing swing, but this year I finally felt like I was progressing again, so as I said.. it really felt like a victory this time.

BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!”

CY: After such a long year on tour is it nice to finally be able to relax and spend

Queen of the world Continued from page 13

CY:Out of all the world titles you’ve won is there one that stands out in your mind more than others? If so, why?

SQ: “Both 2011 and 2015.

When I won both freestyle and slalom championship titles. In 2011 I had spent most of my time studying and less time on the board.

And then it’s hard to come out and compete when you’re not so sure about

how you’re going to perform. Winning both titles was mind blowing and I couldn’t believe it.

Whereas this year, it was something I really aimed for and having accomplished it, really felt like a victory.

I had no sail sponsor last year (2014) and getting all my gear together was just a hassle.

This year I was fully equipped with my new sail sponsor Neilpryde, and I could really focus on my sailing. since I finished my studies in 2014, it took me a while to get

takes a toll on you. I left home at the beginning of June and was back by mid December.

So when I finally got back home, I think I went M.I.A for 2 weeks and slept a LOT hahaha. I did windsurf a lot as well. what else do you do when it’s windy !?

bed, a closet and a car!”

CY: What’s your plans for the rest of the off season?

SQ: “Well… My first competition is in May, but the way I see it that’s already around the corner.

I’m going to hang around Aruba though, because I haven’t been home for longer than 4 weeks in five years. And the windy season starts NOW. I’ll probably get a lot of freestyle and slalom in, but still need to figure out where to go to practice some waves.”

CY: Thanks SQ. Enjoy the rest of your winter and we’ll look forward to seeing you again a little later this year.q

some time at home?

SQ: “Wauwie! That was really long, all that travelling and competing definitely

But yeah..it’s nice to be back in your comfort zone and recharge for a while.

You really start appreciating having your own room,

SPORTS A17

Thursday 11 February 2016

Caddies lose lawsuit against U.S. PGA Tour DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer PEBBLE BEACH, California (AP) — Caddies lost their class-action lawsuit against the U.S. PGA Tour when a federal judge in California ruled they signed a contract with the tour that requires them to wear bibs as part of their uniform and cannot claim that corporate sponsorship on the bibs makes them human billboards.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the lawsuit late Tuesday with prejudice, which typically means it cannot be refiled.

The decision came just over a year after caddies filed the lawsuit in northern California. The lawsuit began with 81 caddies and had grown to 168.

Chhabria dismissed all seven of the contractual claims.

The caddies have been at odds with the tour for years over what they perceive as poor treatment.

They are not allowed in clubhouses, and at some tournaments are not allowed in the locker room.

“The caddies’ overall complaint about poor treatment by the tour has merit, but this federal lawsuit about bibs does not,” Chhabria said.

At the heart of the lawsuit was a claim that the tour was using them as “human billboards” because the bibs they wore on the course, which featured the logo of the title sponsor, amounted to advertising for which they received no compensation. Lawyers for the caddies estimated the value of the advertising at $50 million a year.

Continued on Page 17

Rivera leaves

Carolina Panthers’ head coach Ron Rivera leaves after NFL Super Bowl 50 football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, Calif. The Broncos won 24-10.

Associated Press Page 19

A18 SPORTS

Thursday 11 February 2016

The odds are high that Spieth enjoys Pebble Beach DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Jordan Spieth rarely sees a shot as impossible, sometimes when he doesn’t even have a club in his hand.

Walking off the 15th tee at Pebble Beach earlier this week, he noticed a golf ball that had gone well over the 14th green. Spieth offered to throw it back to the group behind him, only that would have been too simple.

“Give me some odds,” he said to caddie Michael Greller.

The challenge was to throw the ball into the hole. He was 75 feet away looking down to a back pin on a green that sloped severely away from him. Impossible.

Spieth cupped the ball in his left hand and flipped it underhanded, high and with backspin. It landed in the rough, hopped onto the green and ... missed by a few inches.

He also wanted odds on getting up-and-down from a plugged lie in the bunker to a short-sided pin at No. 8 (missed again).

Think back to last summer at St. Andrews when Spieth was going for the Grand Slam. After his third round Sunday, he engaged in a tense duel with Greller on who could throw a golf ball some 20 yards away into a carton on the practice range (Spieth made).

It’s a way to laugh a lot and keep it light, and a big

In this Feb. 2, 2015, file photo, country music star Jake Owen, left, talks with his playing partner Jordan Spieth, right, on the third tee of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course during the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif. Some see this tournament as a burden. The rounds can approach six hours because they are played in foursomes with amateurs. Spieth, who has played the last two times with Owen, says “This week, it’s so unique and it’s so much fun.”

Associated Press

part of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am is all about that.

Some see this tournament as a burden.

The rounds can approach six hours because they are played in foursomes with amateurs. Saturday at Pebble Beach can be a distraction because it’s all

about the celebrities, like the time Bill Murray tossed an elderly woman into a bunker. The weather can be dicey (not this week).

Others see the Pebble Beach Pro-Am for what it is — a week that brings together the professional and amateur game, sprinkled

with the entertainment and corporate.

Spieth played his first year with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, and the last two with country star Jake Owen. Dustin Johnson plays with Wayne Gretzky, his future father-inlaw. And nowhere else but Pebble will you see this on a tee sheet — Tim Herron and Larry the Cable Guy. “This week, it’s so unique and it’s so much fun,” Spieth said. “I say that because of the pairings that I’ve had now the last four years. How can you not have fun? But as we’re out there — Jake will tell you, he’s seen me at the happiest and some of the most ... a couple of years ago I was tied for the lead with Jimmy Walker and threeputted Pebble seven times on Saturday.

“Yeah, that was a fun round,” Owen said.

“So as much fun as we’re having in between shots, I’m here to win this golf tournament,” Spieth said.

“And if we can win it together, even better. But I would rather take a win and us get second than for us to win and me get second.”

Spieth appears to have a decent golfer at his side.

Owen beat him in their match at Cypress Point on Tuesday (Spieth gave him nine shots). Owen, meanwhile, has been around Spieth enough to see him ask for odds and call a shot, and every now and

then deliver on his pledge.

Consider a charity event in December in Owen’s hometown of Vero Beach, Florida.

“No matter where we are on the golf course, the shot always has odds,” Owen said.

They were in the middle of the 13th fairway, 98 yards from the pin, about 100 fans following along in the fairway and 1,000 waiting behind the green to see the No. 1 player in Vero Beach.

“He looks at me and says, ‘All right what are the odds? I’m going to make this,’” Owen said. “I’m like, ‘You’re 98 yards out in the middle of the fairway.’

Without missing a beat, he just steps up, hits the shot in the air. He’s like, ‘Pay up.’

And I’m sitting there watching. It hits 3 feet behind the pin, and with all these people watching, spins back and goes in the hole. And he looks at me and I’m like, ‘This doesn’t happen with normal people.’”

Owen said a plaque is being inserted from that spot in the fairway.

“It just is kind of a way to smile and say, ‘I told you so.’ I’ve been doing it going back to grade school with friends,” Spieth said.

“I think everyone does it on the golf course. It’s just, ‘Hey, hole-in-one here, you owe this.’ It’s probably not going to happen. But when it does, you get a good story out of it.”q

Caddies lawsuit

Actor/director Clint Eastwood, left, stands with his caddie Nick Faldo, right, while waiting to putt on the 18th green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during the celebrity challenge event of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Associated Press

Chhabria suggested in his ruling that the caddies’ own complaint worked against them.

The contract a caddie signs to work a tour event says caddies are to wear uniforms and identification badges prescribed by the tournament and the tour.

Chhabria said the caddies in their brief acknowledge that “the PGA Tour has required caddies to wear bibs for decades.”

“In other words, for decades, the bib has been the primary part of the ‘uni-

form’ that the tour requires caddies to wear,” Chhabria wrote. “The only reasonable interpretation of the contract is that the caddies agreed the tour could make them wear bibs.”

Chhabria also found no merit to claims of antitrust and trademark law, along with complaints of publicity rights, and contracts were signed under duress.

Richard Meadow of Lanier Law Firm, which represents the caddies, said the decision would be closely reviewed to determine

grounds for appeal.

“We are, however, pleased the court acknowledged that the caddies are treated poorly by the PGA Tour and hope that the tour takes that to heart and begins to treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve,” Meadow said.

The tour said in a statement it was pleased by the decision. “We look forward to putting this matter behind us and moving forward in a positive direction with the caddies,” the statement said.q

SPORTS A19

Thursday 11 February 2016

Panthers turn page to 2016 after deflating Super Bowl loss STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) — Dave Gettleman has been on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to Super Bowl — winning two with the New York Giants as a front office assistant and losing on Sunday as general manager of the Carolina Panthers.

“This side stinks,” Gettleman said Tuesday.

But Gettleman said the Panthers are in good position moving forward, citing the vast majority of the team’s core players being under contract and the fact the team is “not in horrible shape” under next season’s NFL salary cap.

He acknowledged that going 15-1 in the regular season and reaching the Super Bowl was “very unique,” but was quick to add that the goal is to get refocused and next year reach the peak of the mountain.

“You can’t sit here on your laurels because you went to the Super Bowl and just think you’re going to go back again,” Gettleman said.

He’s right.

The last seven Super Bowl losers have returned to the playoffs the following season, but none have made it back to the big game.

In fact, the last team to lose a Super Bowl and make it back the following year was the Buffalo Bills, who did three times in the early 1990s. The last time a team lost the Super Bowl and came back to win it all the following season was the Miami Dolphins in 1973.

Coach Ron Rivera wants to change all of that.

Rivera congratulated his players on a special season Tuesday before they packed their bags and headed out the door, then

Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera watches his team stretch during practice in preparation for the Super Bowl 50 football game Friday Feb. 5, 2016 in San Jose, Calif.

Associated Press

flipped the page forward to next season.

“The truth of the matter is that you would love to be in position that Denver is right now, celebrating, but we’re not,” Rivera said. “So going forward, there are 30 teams behind us and one in front of us. That’s our goal - if you want to be the champs, beat the champs.

We’ve got to start planning and mapping and getting ready for next season, which we have.”

That begins this week.

Rivera said he will take three days off before he and Gettleman and the scouting staff get together to begin discussing the roster.

Perhaps the two biggest questions the Panthers face is deciding whether to

re-sign free agent cornerback Josh Norman (or use the franchise tag on him), and whether to release defensive ends Charles Johnson and Jared Allen, two potential moves that would free up more than $19 million in salary cap space combined Gettleman refused to speculate on those or any other moves, saying he hasn’t evaluated the roster and even if he had “I don’t talk contracts.”

All-Pro fullback Mike Tolbert will be an unrestricted free agent and wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery and safety Roman Harper have contracts that will void this offseason.

Defensive tackles Kawann Short, who was twice named NFC Defensive

Player of the Month this season, is under contract through 2016 but the Panthers may look to extend his deal before training camp.

Rivera acknowledged the 2016 Panthers will look different than this year’s team.

“That locker room will never be the same,” Rivera said. “... I was in Chicago with the ‘85 team that went to the Super Bowl, and the ‘86 team was better statistically but we didn’t win because we didn’t have that same chemistry in the locker room. Things are going to change.”

Some aren’t.

Cam Newton will be around for a while after signing a five-year, $103.8 million contract extension last season. Tight end Greg

Olsen, linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis also got new deals last year.

The Panthers don’t draft until 30th overall, but Gettleman said in some ways it will feel like the Panthers have a bonus first-round pick because Kelvin Benjamin, the team’s best wide receiver, will be back after tearing his ACL last year in training camp.

Despite Benjamin’s offense, the Panthers still led the league in scoring — although they managed just 10 points in the Super Bowl.

Olsen said while he has no clue who will be on the roster next season, he has faith in Gettleman, who has gotten the Panthers to the postseason in all three years since his arrival.q

20 SPORTS

Thursday 11 February 2016

NBA Capsules

Spurs run away from Heat, 119-101

The Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — LaMarcus Aldridge scored 28 points, Kawhi Leonard added 23 and the San Antonio Spurs got seven points on one possession in the fourth quarter to help them beat the Miami Heat 119-101 on Tuesday night.

Danny Green added 15 for the Spurs, who have won six straight over the Heat going back to the 2014 NBA Finals.

Dwyane Wade scored 20 points on 9 for 12 shooting for Miami, which goes into the All-Star break on a twogame slide.

Chris Bosh scored 18 and Hassan Whiteside added 14 points and six rebounds before getting ejected in that pivotal possession in the fourth.

Whiteside was assessed a flagrant-2 for elbowing the Spurs’ Boban Marjanovic as they tried to get position for a rebound. That was part of a seven-point trip for the Spurs, who pushed an 87-80 lead to 94-80 in 16 seconds and weren’t threatened again.

JAZZ 121, MAVERICKS 119, OT DALLAS (AP) — Gordon Hayward hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer in overtime and Utah extended its season-best winning

streak to seven games.

Rodney Hood had a tying 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in regulation as the Jazz ended a 10-game losing streak in Dallas. Their last win on the Mavericks’ home court was Jan. 9, 2010.

Hood finished with 29 points, and Hayward had 20, including 13 in the second half and overtime.

Chandler Parsons led Dallas with 24 points but missed an open 3-pointer for the lead with 24 seconds left in the Mavericks’ second straight overtime game and NBA-high eighth of the season.

WIZARDS 111, KNICKS 108 NEW YORK (AP) — John Wall had 28 points and 17 assists, Bradley Beal scored 26, and Washington beat New York in the Knicks’ first game under Kurt Rambis.

Wall made four free throws in the final 6.6 seconds and the Wizards held on when Langston Galloway’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was just short.

Carmelo Anthony had 33 points and 13 rebounds, but the Knicks lost their sixth straight in their first game since firing Derek Fisher on Monday. They have dropped 10 of 11 and started Rambis’ era the same way Fisher’s ended,

by quickly falling in a huge early hole.

Rookie Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points, but just two after his 14-point third quarter.

BUCKS 112, CELTICS 111 MILWAUKEE (AP) — Khris Middleton made one of two free throws with 0.6 seconds left and Milwaukee defeated Boston.

Middleton drew a foul on Avery Bradley to get to the line. Boston had tied the game when Kelly Olynyk made two free throws with one second remaining.

Milwaukee appeared to have won the game on Greg Monroe’s last-second hook shot, giving the Bucks a 111-109 lead. Olynyk then drew the foul with no time expiring off the clock.

Monroe, who was removed from the starting lineup, had 29 points and 12 rebounds as the Bucks ended a five-game losing streak. Middleton had 20 points and Michael Carter-Williams, who also was benched, added 16.

Crowder and Bradley had 18 points each for the Celtics.

WARRIORS 123, ROCKETS 110 OAKLAND, California — Stephen Curry had 35 points, nine assists and six rebounds and the Golden State Warriors relied on a signature putaway fourth quarter to hold off the Houston Rockets 123-110 on Tuesday night.

Andrew Bogut added 13 points, 11 rebounds, a season-high six blocked shots — three in the fourth — and three steals in one of his best games yet.

Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes hit back-toback 3-pointers to start the fourth to get the defending champions going after the game was tied at 93 after the third.

Golden State won its 42nd straight regular-season home game and is 24-0 at Oracle Arena this season.

The Warriors are within two home victories of matching the Chicago Bulls’ NBA-record home winning streak

San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) dunks the ball against Miami Heat forward Luol Deng (9) and forward Amar’e Stoudemire (5) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Miami. Aldridge scored 28 points as the Spurs defeated the Heat 119-101.

Associated Press

of 44 games from March 30, 1995-April 4, 1996.

James Harden overcame a scoreless first quarter to

finish with 37 points, five assists and five rebounds in Houston’s eighth straight loss to Golden State.q

SPORTS A21

Thursday 11 February 2016

NHL Capsules

Lucic scores in return to Boston; Kings rout Bruins 9-2 The Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Milan Lucic scored in his return to Boston, Drew Doughty had a power-play goal for his 300th career point and the Los Angeles Kings had nine goal scorers in a 9-2 rout of the Bruins on Tuesday night.

Marian Gaborik added a goal and an assist for Los Angeles, which had lost four of six. Doughty also had an assist.

Jeff Carter, Andy Andreoff, Dwight King, Trevor Lewis, Luke Schenn and Dustin Brown also scored for the Kings, who chased Tuukka Rask during the second period on the way to setting a season high for goals. Los Angeles also had a seasonbest 57 shots on net.

The 27-year-old Lucic played eight seasons with the Bruins and was a member of their 2011 Stanley Cup championship team.

Boston traded the popular wing at the beginning of last summer.

Brad Marchand scored his team-leading 25th goal, and Tyler Randell had the other score for the Bruins, who lost in regulation for just the third time in 11 games (7-3-1). Rask gave up five goals on 32 shots.

Jonathan Quick made 35 saves for the Kings.

DEVILS 2, OILERS 1 NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — Reid Boucher set up a goal and scored the game-winner 7:13 into the third period, and New Jersey edged Edmonton after retiring Martin Brodeur’s No. 30 jersey in a rousing ceremony.

Adam Henrique also had a goal and an assist as the Devils snapped a threegame losing streak and sent the Oilers to their third straight loss. Cory Schneider made 19 saves for New Jersey.

Connor McDavid, the top pick in last year’s draft, set up Jordan Eberle’s goal for Edmonton.

PANTHERS 7, SABRES 4 BUFFALO, New York (AP) — Panthers defenseman Alex Petrovic scored in the first minute of the second period to cap Florida’s fourgoal opening surge against

Los Angeles Kings’ Milan Lucic and Alec Martinez (27) chest bump after their 9-2 win over the Boston Bruins in an NHL hockey game in Boston Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016.

Associated Press

Buffalo.

Florida scored seven goals for the second time this season after managing just two in its past two games, including a 3-0 loss at Detroit on Monday night.

Reilly Smith scored twice, including an empty-netter, and added an assist. Petrovic, Jussi Jokinen and Brian Campbell had a goal and assist apiece for the Atlantic Division leaders.

Jaromir Jagr and Brandon Pirri also scored in helping Florida improve to 6-1-1 in its past eight. The Panthers are 8-0-2 in their past 10 games at Buffalo.

Roberto Luongo stopped 30 shots to improve to 14-22 in his past 18 starts.

Sabres rookie Sam Reinhart scored two power-play goals in the second.

DUCKS 4, FLYERS 1 PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rickard Rakell had two goals, Chris Stewart scored on a penalty shot and Andrew Cogliano added an empty-netter to lead Anaheim over Philadelphia.

Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for the Ducks, who bounced back from Monday’s 6-2 blowout at Pittsburgh that snapped their six-game winning streak.

Anaheim improved to 144-1 since Christmas while getting the victory in the

second game of a sevengame road trip that will cover 7,300 miles in 13 days.

Wayne Simmonds scored for the Flyers, who dropped their third straight overall and fifth in the last six home games.

ISLANDERS 3, BLUE JACKETS 2, SO COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cal Clutterbuck scored the winning goal in the shootout, lifting New York to a comeback victory over Columbus.

Frans Nielsen also scored in the shootout and Jaroslav Halak stopped three of four attempts by the Blue Jackets. Anders Lee had the tying goal early in the third period.

Ryan Strome also scored in regulation for the Islanders, who completed a fourgame sweep of the season series.

Alexander Wennerg had Columbus’ lone shootout goal. Cam Atkinson and Brandon Dubinsky each had a goal and an assist in regulation. Rookie goalie Joonas Korpisalo made a career-high 44 saves.

SHARKS 2, BLACKHAWKS 0 CHICAGO (AP) — Martin Jones made 33 saves for his fifth shutout this season and Patrick Marleau scored a power-play goal in the second period to lead San

Jose past Chicago.

Joe Thornton added a long empty-netter with 1:42 left.

Marleau’s goal, on the Sharks’ only man advantage, ended his six-game drought and was just his second in his last 17. But it was all the offense San Jose needed to improve to 18-8-2 on the road, best in the Western Conference.

Jones rebounded to earn his 12th career shutout after allowing five goals on 29 shots in a 6-2 loss at Nashville on Saturday. He is 9-2-1 in his last 12 starts and 16-52 on the road.

Chicago goalie Corey Crawford made 25 saves as the defending Stanley Cup champions were blanked for the sixth time this season.

CANADIENS 4, LIGHTNING 2 MONTREAL (AP) — Tomas Plekanec scored twice and added an assist, helping the Canadiens to a victory over Tampa Bay that extended Montreal’s winning streak to three games.

Brendan Gallagher and Devante Smith-Pelly also scored for Montreal. With 37 saves, Ben Scrivens earned his third consecutive victory after going 0-4 to start the season.

Valtteri Filppula and Victor Hedman scored for the Lightning. Ben Bishop

stopped 23 shots but Tampa Bay has dropped consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Nov. 27-28.

JETS 2, BLUES 1, SO ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mark Scheifele scored in the fourth round for his first career shootout goal in four attempts, lifting Winnipeg over St. Louis.

Bryan Little had his 16th goal in the opening minute of the second period for the Jets, who beat the Blues for just the second time in 15 games (2-11-2) since moving back to Winnipeg in 2011. Dustin Byfuglien had an assist a day after signing a $38 million, five-year contract extension with the Jets, who are 4-0-1 in their last five on the road.

Brian Elliott made 32 saves in regulation and overtime for the Blues, held to one goal or none in five of their last six games. Colton Parayko ended a 20-game goal drought in the second period.

CAPITALS 5, PREDATORS 3 NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Marcus Johansson had a goal and two assists to lead Washington past Nashville.

Tom Wilson and Justin Williams each had a goal and an assist, and Jason Chimera and Alex Ovechkin also scored. Braden Holtby made 23 saves for the Capitals, winners of four straight.

Filip Forsberg scored twice and Roman Josi had a goal for Nashville. The Predators have lost three of four since the All-Star break.

STARS 4, WILD 3, OT ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — John Klingberg scored in overtime and Kari Lehtonen made 37 saves to win for the first time in more than a month as Dallas defeated slumping Minnesota.

It was the 11th loss in 12 games for the fading Wild.

Jamie Benn, who had two assists, set up Klingberg’s high shot from the slot that eluded Darcy Kuemper at 2:39 of the extra period.

Patrick Eaves added a goal and an assist and Tyler Seguin had two assists for the Stars, who recovered from a 5-1 loss Saturday at Chicago.q

A22

Thursday 11 February 2016

SPORTS

Grin and bear it: NHL players say losing teeth part of game LARRY LAGE AP Hockey Writer When Brent Burns packs his bags for road trips, the San Jose Sharks defenseman often leaves something behind: His cosmetic teeth.

“I don’t wear them often,” he said. “I usually find them in a drawer a couple months down the road and put them somewhere safe, forget where that is, and find them a couple months later.”

Burns, a happy-go-lucky guy, said he is missing three of his real teeth and a fourth is “hanging on by a thread.” He is holding out hope it won’t join his other missing Chiclets.

“I need that one for corn on the cob,” Burns said with a gap-filled smile.

Missing teeth have been associated with hard-nosed hockey — for better and for worse — for decades, becoming a stereotype of the game even with some players, like Burns, embracing it as a rite of passage or badge of honor. Gordie Howe, Bobby Clarke, Ken Daneyko, Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull — all have grins famous for what’s not there.

Chicago’s Duncan Keith had seven teeth knocked out by a puck in the Western Conference final-clinching game in 2011 against San Jose and quipped after-

In this Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, file photo, Pacific Division defenseman Brent Burns (88), of the San Jose Sharks, talks with a referee during the NHL hockey All-Star championship game in Nashville, Tenn. When Brent Burns packs his bags for road trips, the Sharks defenseman usually leaves some cosmetic teeth behind. “I don’t wear them often,” he said. “I usually find them in a drawer a couple months down the road and put them somewhere safe, forget where that is, and find them a couple months later.”

Associated Press

ward: “You’ve got leave it all on the ice.”

Many casual fans might assume all players are missing a few teeth — not true — but there is far more interest in keeping the originals than there was in the 1980s, a time Kings coach Darryl Sutter recalls seeing players writing their numbers on coffee cups, putting their teeth in the cups and setting them on a shelf before games.

“The joke was switching teeth around,” Sutter said with a sly grin.

Hall of Famer Chris Pronger has great-looking choppers, though they’re not the ones he was born with, and Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien can pop a perfect-looking tooth in and out like he’s a magician.

Despite player safety being scrutinized by the league more than ever and technological advances in equipment, hockey players are going to lose teeth. The only way to help players keep their teeth is to force them to attach full-cage

masks to their helmets. And that, in the NHL at least, is not going to happen any time soon if ever.

If a player chooses to wear a mouth guard, he may help his chances of not having a concussion. His pearly whites, though, are still at risk from a puck, a stick, the ice or a check into the boards.

“I’ve pulled teeth out of mouth guards,” Detroit Red Wings equipment manager Paul Boyer said. “They’re not designed to keep the teeth in the mouth.”

When players do get hit in the mouth with a stick or puck during a game, they are moments away from getting professional treatment from a team dentist and perhaps an oral surgeon. The Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings are among the teams with a dental chair in their arenas.

“We’ve got full coverage, too,” Byfuglien cracked.

Dental care is one of the progressive moves made by the NHL, according to Predators general manager David Poile. When Poile was an administrative assistant for the Atlanta Flames in the early ‘70s, he said, he doesn’t recall the team even having a dentist.

“An oral surgeon who can also do plastic surgery is

ideal,” added Pronger. “I had a nice set of teeth.

Now, I’ve got new ones.

And, I broke my jaw and you probably can’t tell I had 50 stitches here and 27 there.”

Unlike Byfuglien, Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty doesn’t wear his cosmetic tooth, which he calls “a flipper” because he said it makes his lisp worse. Doughty had all of his teeth until losing one last year and another one early this season. One got knocked out by a puck and the other was jarred out of his mouth by a high stick.

Doughty says the problems have contributed to his top lip drooping onto the left side of his bottom lip.

“It’s kind of got a bunch of stuff built up in here so it’s always lazy,” he said.

Doughty also acknowledges he has been lax about protecting his teeth, and brain, to some extent by simply wearing a mouth guard.

“I’ve been told I should many, many times,” he said. “My team doctors want me to wear one.

With my teeth being knocked out — one with a puck in the face and one was a high stick — I don’t really think the mouth guard would help in those situations. q

Teenager Taylor Fritz wins opener in Memphis open

American Taylor Fritz hits a winner against fellow American Michael Mmoh during the second day of the Memphis Open tennis tournament at the Racquet Club in Memphis, Tenn., Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016.

Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — Teenager Taylor Fritz, a promising American, won his opening-round match

in the Memphis Open on Tuesday night beating Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-4.

It was the second ATP World Tour win for the 18-yearold. Fritz relied on 10 aces and solid ground game to move into the second round, where he’ll play No. 2 seed Steve Johnson.

The tournament’s top four seeds - defending champion Kei Nishikori and Americans Johnson, Donald Young and Sam Querrey — received first-round byes.

Fritz, ranked 145th, rose nearly 1,000 spots in the ATP rankings last year and won for the first time in the U.S. “It feels good,” Fritz said. “I played a really solid match all the way through.”

Fritz finished last year as the world’s top-ranked junior and opened the season with a victory at a lowerlevel Tour event in Australia. He also qualified for the Australian Open, but lost in the opening round to American Jack Sock in five sets.

In other first-round matches Tuesday, No. 7 seed John Millman and No. 8 Damir Dzumhur advanced. Also, Spain’s Marcel Granollers beat Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, 6-1, 6-3; Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen defeated Australian Matthew Ebden, 6-1, 3-0 (retired) and Ricardas Berankis beat Dudi Sela, 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-5.

Millman advanced with a

6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5 victory over American Austin Krajicek and Dzumhur beat American Tim Smyczek, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

With the win, Millman surpassed his match-win total from a year ago. He went 5-9 in 2015. He is 6-4 after defeating Krajicek.

Millman said he gained confidence behind a strong finish to last season.

He opened his year with a third-round finish at the Australian Open. He made the quarterfinals of last week’s ATP Tour event in Montpellier, France.

Laaksonen came through last weekend’s two-rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw and claim his first ATP Tour-level victory

since 2014. The match ended prematurely in the second set when Ebden retired with a left leg injury.

Laaksonen plays Querrey, who won 2010 Memphis tournament, in Wednesday’s second round.

He said he realized early in the match that Ebden was unable to run effectively from side to side and couldn’t get to drop shots.

Laaksonen said playing in qualifying gave him an advantage.

“It helps, it’s always easier to start the first round if you’ve gone through qualifying,” Laaksonen said. “You get used to (the speed of) the court and the (condition) of the (tennis) balls. I like the way it is playing.”q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Thursday 11 February 2016

Government will consider Google computer to be car’s driver TOM KRISHER JUSTIN PRITCHARD Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Computers that control cars of the future can be considered drivers just like humans, the federal government’s highway safety agency has found.

The redefinition of “driver” by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an important break for Google, taking it a step closer to its goal of self-driving cars without steering wheels, pedals or human drivers.

But the company still has a long journey ahead before its cars get on the road in great numbers.

While the safety agency agreed with Google’s “driver” reinterpretation in a recent letter, it didn’t allow other concessions and said numerous federal rules would have to be changed to permit the cars.

“NHTSA will interpret ‘driver’ in the context of Google’s described motor vehicle design as referring to the SDS (self-driving system) and not to any of the vehicle occupants,” Paul Hemmersbaugh, NHTSA’s chief counsel, wrote in the letter.

But the agency rejected many of Google’s claims that its cars met federal auto safety standards, including a requirement for foot and hand brakes.

Google said the requirement wasn’t necessary because the electronic driver can stop the cars.

Yet the government said regulations are clear and would have to be changed to allow that.

“In a number of instances, it may be possible for Google to show that certain (federal) standards are unnecessary for a particular vehicle design,” Hemmersbaugh wrote. “To date, however, Google has not made such a showing.”

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has suggested the cars could be ready for the public in a few years.

After several years of caution, last month federal regulators said they wanted to

This May 13, 2015, file photo, shows Google’s new self-driving car during a demonstration at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif.

Associated Press

help speed thetechnology’s widespread adoption if it proves to be safe.

In letters over the past three months, Google asked NHTSA to interpret safety standards in ways that would ease the path for self-driving car prototypes to get into public hands.

In order to put their cars on the road, automakers must self-certify that they meet federal safety standards and get NHTSA’s approval.

While Hemmersbaugh’s letter agrees about the computer as the driver, it says the company will have to apply for exemptions to the standards, and the agency will have to go through the cumbersome federal rule-making process in some cases to get the cars approved.

In January at the Detroit auto show, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the government wants to get autonomous cars on the road quickly and will fast-track policies and possibly even waive regulations to do it.

Foxx said NHTSA, which is part of his department, will spend the next six months developing guidance for automakers on what’s expected of selfdriving prototype cars and what sort of tests should be

used to make sure they are safe.

The agency also will develop a model policy for states to follow if they decide to allow autonomous cars on public roads.

That policy could eventually lead to consistent national regulations for autonomous cars. Right now, individual states like California, Florida and Nevada have their own regulations.

Seven states and Washington, D.C., allow autonomous vehicle testing on their roads, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The federal government isn’t predicting when autonomous cars will be on public roads in big numbers, but some automakers have said they could be in use in limited areas by 2020 — and Google has been more bullish than that.

Foxx said the government believes self-driving vehicles could eventually cut traffic deaths, decrease highway congestion and improve the environment.

He encouraged automakers to come to the government with ideas about how to speed their development.

Safety advocates worry the agency is getting too cozy with the auto industry when it comes totechnology regulations.

Google spokesman Johnny Luu said the company had no comment beyond that it was reviewing the agency’s response.q

Agencies contend Facebook is breaching French privacy laws PHILIPPE SOTTO Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Two agencies contend Facebook is breaching privacy laws in France by tracking and using the personal data of more than 30 million users, as well as non-users who are browsing the Internet.

The government-linked General Direction for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control on Tuesday issued a formal notice giving Facebook two months to comply with French data protection laws or risk sanctions.

The independent privacy watchdog CNIL earlier set a three-month limit ahead of eventual fines.

CNIL said that Facebook collects data about account holders’ “political or religious opinions” and “sexual orientation,” without informing them and compiles information on account holders to be

used for targeted advertising. By failing to provide tools to prevent such use, Facebook violates users’ “fundamental rights and interests,” including respect for privacy, CNIL said.

The California-based company also collects data of non-Facebook users’ Internet browsing without their knowledge when they visit a public Facebook page and uses the information it collects for targeted advertising, according to the statement.

The agency asked Facebook to “fairly collect data” of non-account holders and provide account holders with the means to object to compilation of data for advertising purposes, the statement said.

“This notice is not a sanction and the procedure will be publicly closed” if Facebook complies with the French data protection act, CNIL’s statement

said. Without compliance the matter may be referred to a special committee that decides on sanctions.

CNIL’s regulations call for sanctions of up to 150,000 euros ($170,000) in such cases.

The other agency, under the Economy Ministry, accused Facebook on Tuesday of removing without consultation content or information posted by users and unilaterally changing its terms and conditions without informing users in advance.

If changes relating to those complaints are not made within two months, the social network could risk a fine of up to 15,000 euros ($17,000) and a civil trial over allegedly illegal clauses, according to the Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control agency.

There was no immediate response to email queries to Facebook for comment.q

A24 BUSINESS

Thursday 11 February 2016

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ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer The Federal Reserve’s latest signals on interest rates gave U.S. stocks a lift for much of Wednesday, but the rally didn’t last.

A sell-off in the final minutes of trading knocked the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index slightly into the red.

The slide extended a three-day losing streak for the two indexes. Only the Nasdaq composite held its course, carving out a slight gain.

Materials and energy stocks were among the biggest decliners as U.S. crude oil prices declined again.

Investors were mostly focused on Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s remarks on the economy and interest rates as she delivered her semiannual report to Congress.

The market has been anxious about the possibility of interest rate hikes at a time when the global economy is showing signs of slowing.

But Yellen’s remarks addressed investors’ concerns, said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

“The markets have gotten the message that the Fed is not on autopilot,” Davidson said. “If they’d gotten the sense that the Fed was on autopilot and was predestined to a certain num-

ber of rate hikes in 2016, that would have been troublesome.”

The Dow fell 99.64 points, or 0.6 percent, to 15,914.74.

sent stocks higher early on and sustained them until the last-minute slide as oil prices closed lower.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell

At the same time, she cautioned that global weakness and falling financial markets could depress the U.S. economy’s growth.

Trader Jonathan Corpina works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Federal Reserve’s latest signals on interest rates gave U.S. stocks a lift for much of Wednesday, but the rally didn’t last.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The average is now down 8.7 percent this year. The S&P 500 index slipped 0.35 point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,851.86. The index is off 9.4 percent this year.

The Nasdaq added 14.83 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,283.59. The gain helped trim the Nasdaq’s losses for the year, which stand at 14.5 percent.

Investors appeared to be in a buying mood early in the day in anticipation of Yellen’s testimony. That

49 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close at $27.45 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, rose 52 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $30.84 a barrel in London.

Yellen offered no major surprises in prepared remarks released before the start of her two-day Congressional testimony. She reiterated the Fed’s confidence that the U.S. economy was on track for stronger growth and a rebound in inflation.

That would, in turn, slow the pace of Fed interest rate hikes, she said.

Yellen also made clear that the central bank won’t likely find it necessary to cut rates after having raised them from record lows in December.

Since the Fed decided to raise its key interest rate from a record low in December, the U.S. economy has hit some turbulence and markets have become volatile. q

BUSINESS A25

Thursday 11 February 2016

Staples gets EU approval for acquisition of Office Depot NEW YORK (AP) — Staples has received European approval for its buyout of Office Depot and in exchange, it said Wednesday that it would split off some operations in Europe to allay monopoly fears.

The company will divest all of Office Depot’s operations in Sweden, as well as European retail, contract, online and catalog operations in an agreement with the European Commission.

But the $6.3 billion still needs approval in Canada at home in the U.S., which is far from assured.

U.S. regulators in December rejected Staples’ offer to sell $1.25 billion in contracts to work around anti-trust issues. The Fed-

People walk into a Staples office supply store in Miami. Staples has received European approval Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, for its buyout of Office Depot and in exchange, will split off businesses there to allay monopoly fears.

(AP Photo/ Lynne Sladky)

eral Trade Commission believes that the combination

of the last two major office supply retailers would throt-

Japan Internet company SoftBank’s profit suffers over US carrier Sprint YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank is reporting an 88 percent drop in fiscal third quarter profit as it struggles to turn around its U.S. carrier Sprint.

SoftBank Group Corp. reported Wednesday a 2.3 billion yen ($20 million) October-December profit, down from 18.7 billion yen the same period a year earlier.

As the first to offer the iPhone in Japan, SoftBank’s business in Japan is going strong, but it has faced a challenge with money-losing Sprint.

Sprint has promised to create a superior network, offer competitive prices and provide better services.

The company based in Overland Park, Kansas, says it’s on track to cut $800 million in costs for fiscal 2015, having slashed 2,500 jobs since the fall, or 8 percent of its workforce.

But SoftBank did not give any full year projections.

“Currently it is difficult to provide forecasts on the results in figures due to a large number of uncertain factors,” it said.

Chief Executive Masayoshi

A man walks past a sign of SoftBank in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank is reporting an 88 percent drop in fiscal third quarter profit as it struggles to turn around its U.S. carrier Sprint.

(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Son repeatedly promised in his earnings presentation Wednesday that the dismal results at Sprint had bottomed out and things were about to improve.

“Sprint is where there’s the biggest gap between many people’s image and my image,” he said.

Waste was massive in the past at Sprint, but executives were working on eliminating such waste, Son said. He also said users are no longer quitting Sprint, and the carrier was doing consistently well in connection speed tests.

SoftBank’s mobile connections in Japan are “the best in the world,” Son said, implying his company had the experience to deliver that eventually in the U.S. and elsewhere. q

tle competition and allow the new company to dictate the price of supplies.

Staples and Office Depot Inc. recently extended this week’s deadline to complete the deal by more than three months, to May 16, giving it more time to argue its case.

“The acquisition has been approved in Australia, New Zealand, China, and Europe,” said Staples Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent.

“Regulatory agencies around the world understand that this acquisition will allow Staples to provide increased value and service to customers of all sizes. We look forward to a full, impartial judicial review in the United States.”

The office supply sector has been upended by technological changes in the work place, as well as a slow economic recovery. The industry had already undergone a notable consolida-

tion with the merger three years ago of Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, Florida, and OfficeMax. Office Depot and Staples now say that competition, with the arrival of major online operators like Amazon. com, has become even more severe, and that the FTC is contradicting itself because it said that the office supply market was highly competitive only three years ago.

Shares of both companies have plunged 50 percent this year as companies clamp down on spending and continue to migrate to a more digital work place.

Staples Inc., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, said that it is still willing to negotiate with the FTC and that it may pursue legal action to close the deal.

Shares of Office Depot Inc. and Staples both rose sharply in premarket trading.q

A26 COMICS

Thursday 11 February 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

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

CLASSIFIED A27

Thursday 11 February 2016

Classifieds 1)Time Share Resale C.P.V. Resorts one bedroom week 6,7 G building overlook the pool same floor Price :$7000 each More info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _________________________________ 2)Time Share Resale Divi Links (Golf) one bedroom week 5 room #2222 Studio week 5 Room #2223 31 weeks remain on the contract 10 can be accelerated Price one BR:$11000 Price ST:$9000 Price 2 BR:$20,000 More info call:(297)630-1307 204634 _________________________________ 3)Time Share Resale Aruba Divi Phoenix Studio week 7 Room #824 35 weeks left on the contract Price:$27,000 Studio week 8 Room#754 31 weeks left on the contract Price :$23,000 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _________________________________ 4) Time Share Resale Occidental Grand Studio week 8&9 Mandatory all inclusive Price :$24000 both weeks More Info Call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _________________________________ 5)Time Share Resale Occidental Grand One Bedroom Deluxe week 8 Mandatory All inclusive Price:$20,000 More Info Call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _________________________________ 6)Time Share Resale Renaissance Suites one bedroom week 8 room #2530 Harbor and Ocean view Price :$11,000 More Info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _________________________________ 7)Time Share Resale Divi Links (Golf) Studio week 7 Room #4205 28 weeks remain on the contract 10 can be accelerated Price:$10,000 more info call:(297) 630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com

FOR SALE Strategically located 4546 sq.m property land in Oranjestad, suitable for commercial center or apartments.

Call 593-7118 or e-mail: wetronv@gmail.com 204637 _____________________________ 9)Time Share Resale Marriott Surf Club 2 BR G.V. Plat. Price:$15,000 2 BR O.V. Plat. Price:$16,000 2 BR.O.S. Plat .Price:$18,000 2 BR.O.F. Plat. Price:$29,000 3 BR.O.V. Plat. Price:$29,000 More Info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _____________________________ 10)Time Share Resale Marriott Ocean Club 1 BR Ocean View Price:$11,000 2 BR Ocean View Price:$17,000 2 BR Ocean Front Price:$29,000 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatime travel.com www.arubatimetravel.com 204634 _____________________________ 11) Time Share Resale C.P.V. Resorts 2 bedroom week 6 room #202 E- Building, Garden View Price :$6500 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _____________________________ 12)Time Share Resale La Cabana BRC 1 BR week 4 room #242 A Pool/Ocean View Saturday Check In, Price :$8000 More Info Call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204634 _____________________________

FOR SALE Condo in Gold Coast Everything’s included in this 2 Br 2 1/2 bath unit check it out now at www.arubarental.info or call 562-0735 free pick up

204377 ___________________________

Time Share Resale Paradise Beach Villas One Bedroom wk 2 rm #322 One Bedroom wk 3 rm #324 Pool/Ocean view Price:$8.500 each More Info Call:(297) 630-1307

204350 ____________________________

FOR SALE DIVI GOLF RESORT Sale by owner weeks 3,4 and 5 in room 4221. All 3 weeks $50,000.00 Call US 860 798-5713 ddimauro@ness-inc.com 204622 _____________________________ FOR SALE CASA DEL MAR Sale by owner weeks 6 and 7 in room 1119. Both weeks $50,000.00 Call US 860 798-5713 or email at ddimauro@ness-inc.com 204622 _____________________________

DIVI VILLAGE Studio Presidential week 7 2/14 start, ground floor steps to pool, unit 1 AE, king bed, queen sofa $875 also Tropicana 1 br week 8 2/21 start, lock off master, 2 queen beds, queen sleeper sofa, all amenities $860 e-mail: rmwjmw@aol.com or us 508-651-0016

DOCTOR ON DUTY Oranjestad

Dr. van Trigt Tel. 582-2991 San Nicolas Dr. Vis Tel: 584-9700

TIMESHARE FOR SALE

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FOR SALE by owner Marriott Surf Club Time Share Resale 2 br O.V. lock off unit Gold Divi Dutch Village season price $16.000 204400 ____________________________ 1 Br week #8 RM #94 Marriott Ocean Club Right on the beach DIVI PHOENIX 2 Br O.V. Gold season 5 floor 25 weeks remain on the contract Week 38 Studio lock off unit 8 can be accelerated ocean view room 904 tower Price $16.000 Price: $8000 35 weeks remaining $3500 567-6024 / 587-2633 more info call: (297)630-1307 Divi Golf & Beach week 11 martem1@aol.com info@arubatimetravel.com 1 B 2 bath $6500 FSBO 204634 USA 718-748-0395 ____________________________ Ritchey5652@comcast.net

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A28 SCIENCE

Thursday 11 February 2016

Babies’ eye damage and Zika? Brazil study suggests a link LINDSEY TANNER

AP Medical Writer CHICAGO (AP) — The Zika virus might cause eye damage in small-headed infants born to women infected during pregnancy, a small study in Brazil suggests.

The study lacks hard proof of any link with Zika and vision abnormalities, but as a precaution, the authors recommend routine vision testing in infants born with microcephaly in areas where Zika infections have occurred. Microcephaly, which has many causes, means an abnormally small head and the condition typically involves brain defects. It has made headlines because of an apparent spike in cases in Brazil where Zika infections are rampant.

Scientists are trying to determine if the Zika (ZEE’kuh) virus, spread by mosquito bites, can cause microcephaly. Complications from microcephaly can include vision problems, so whether Zika

This combination of images provided by the American Medical Association shows abnormalities at upper left and upper right on the back areas of the inner eyes of a 1-month-old boy diagnosed with microcephaly due to a possible Zika congenital infection.

Associated Press

leads to eye damage can’t be determined from the study.

The results were published online Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA Ophthalmology.

The researchers found eye damage in 10 of 29 babies born with microcephaly at the Roberto Santos General Hospital in Salvador, Brazil. The problems included abnormali-

ties or scars in the retina and optic nerve.

The babies’ mothers were presumed to have developed Zika infections during pregnancy, and most reported symptoms including rash, fever and joint pain, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Rubens Belfort of the Federal University of Sao Paolo.

A journal editorial by two

Northwestern University eye specialists notes that infections other than Zika have been linked with similar eye problems, and calls the potential link with Zika “presumptive.” Drs. Lee Jampol and Debra Goldstein say it’s unclear if the eye lesions found in the study occur in babies without microcephaly, so they don’t recommend routine eye tests in all babies in Zika-infested re-

gions.

But vision tests are warranted for microcephaly babies in those regions, given the study results, so that any affected infants can be followed and given glasses, eye patches or other treatment as they mature, Jampol said. He said the damage seen in the study is likely irreversible, but it’s too soon to know if any of the babies will be blind.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Thursday 11 February 2016

Cudlitz’s ‘Walking Dead’ mustache has its own Twitter handle LAURI NEFF Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — On “The Walking Dead,” Michael Cudlitz’s character, Abraham Ford, is known for his bright red hair and distinctive handlebar mustache.

His facial hair has so captivated fans of the zombie apocalypse drama that they’ve even created an off-color Twitter account for it at @CudlitzStache “They play with it and they play with the fact that we don’t acknowledge it,” Cudlitz said in an interview this week. “It’s like, ‘What are you doing? I’m right here. I’m right under your nose.’”

Cudlitz said he usually doesn’t comment on the Twitter page because he doesn’t want to get in the way of fans having fun. But

sometimes he just can’t resist and will chime in with something like, “’Hey, knock it off,’ or I say, ‘I’m going to cut you off,’” adding that “everybody gets nervous when you say something like that.”

He spoke just days before “The Walking Dead” returns with its midseason premiere Feb. 14 on AMC at 9 p.m.

ET. Cudlitz said Season 6 picks up with Alexandria overrun with zombies.

“This is the ultimate test,” Cudlitz said, of whether the new characters in the town have the mettle to survive.

“In this episode we’ll see who is able to rise to the occasion and who gets crushed by it.”

Fans also get to meet Negan, the iconic villain of the comic books the series

Author of ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ has new novel coming

NEW YORK (AP) — The author of “Thirteen Reasons Why,” the million-selling young adult novel being developed as a Netflix series, has finished his first solo work of fiction in nearly a decade.

Penguin Young Readers told The Associated Press on Wednesday it would be publishing Jay Asher’s “What Light,” billed as a “contemporary romance” that features a Christmas tree lot in northern California. According to Penguin, Asher was inspired to write the book after reading about a family in Oregon with a Christmas tree lot.

“What Light” comes out Oct. 11.

This book cover image released by Razorbill shows “What Light,” the latest book

by Jay Asher, his first solo work of fiction in nearly a decade.

The book is set for release on Oct. 11, 2016.

Associated Press

“Thirteen Reasons Why,” his first book, was published in 2007 and sold more than 2 million copies. Selena Gomez is serving as executive director of the Netflix project.

Asher has also collaborated with Carolyn Mackler on “The Future Of Us.”q

is based on, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

“You’re going to love Negan. You’re going to love to hate Negan and that’s what I think the show needs, someone that you love that is bad that is just as beloved as the characters that he’s trying to kill.”

As for Abraham, having found a way to move beyond his malaise, he’s now feeling a bit frisky, which viewers saw when he hit on fellow survivor Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green), even though he’s already having an affair with Rosita (Christian Serratos).

Cudlitz said he doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

“It’s the zombie apocalypse. He’s human.”q

In this July 10, 2015 file photo, Michael Cudlitz attends “The Walking Dead” panel on day 2 of Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif.

Associated Press.

A30 PEOPLE

Thursday 11 February 2016

& ARTS

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump gives thumbs up to supporters during a primary night rally, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. Associated Press

Donald Trump skewered in Funny or Die film

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s first place finish among the GOP candidates in the New Hampshire primaries was greeted by a mock online documentary of the brash businessman starring a furiously wigged Johnny Depp.

“Funny or Die Presents Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal: The Movie” was released Tuesday on the Funny or Die site with Ron Howard narrating, music by Kenny Loggins and co-star-

ring Jack McBrayer, Patton Oswalt, Stephen Merchant, Alfred Molina, Henry Winkler and Andy Richter.

The 50-minute film takes its name from Trump’s 1987 best-selling advice book and pretends to be a TV special that Trump petulantly tossed away when it got pre-empted by a football game. The film, grainy and faded, portrays Trump as a megalomaniac and a buffoon. It was written

by Joe Randazzo, a former

editor of The Onion, while Jeremy Konner, a creator of the television series “Drunk History,” directed the spoof. It was produced — and kept a secret — by Adam McKay, a co-founder of Funny or Die, which also counts Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow as principal partners. “Successful people are always on the phone — even if there’s no one on the other end,” the fake Trump lectures a boy in one scene.q

Jack Huston: The ‘Ben-Hur’ remake was an epic undertaking

In this Dec. 3, 2015 file photo, actor Jack Huston arrives at the GQ Men of the Year Party in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Jack Huston is surrounded by the undead in his new movie “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” but this summer

the stakes are even higher.

He stars in the role made famous by Charlton Heston in a remake of “Ben-Hur.” Huston recently watched an early cut of the film and despite the expected jitters

from an actor watching his work, he liked what he saw.

“I think the lovely thing is I was seeing it as the big picture. ...I was so taken by everything and all the work that everyone had done,” said Huston in a recent interview.

In the 1959 version, the filmmakers used thousands of animals and roughly 10,000 extras. In this remake, they have technology on their side. But Huston says they used special effects judiciously.

“All of us were very interested in trying to do as little CGI as possible in the moments where you didn’t need it,” he said.

The film’s famed chariot scene involved shooting six days a week for two months.

“The chariot scenes, all the slave ship stuff, that’s all us. That’s all me there. ...We were very conscious of that and we tried to make it as real as possible, as immersive as possible. ...

We really wanted to give everyone the real experience because that’s what ‘Ben-Hur’ is. When you associate ‘Ben-Hur’ you see the chariot as well as this incredible character and this arc. Everyone’s gonna be waiting, ‘OK, when’s the chariot scene?’ We knew we had to outdo everything on that.”

“Ben-Hur” is scheduled for an Aug. 12 opening.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Thursday 11 February 2016

Target sponsors 4-minute video during Grammys MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Target has its bullseye on the “Hollaback Girl” singer.

Target is sponsoring a fourminute live video by Gwen Stefani during The Grammy Awards on CBS on Monday, an unprecedented move that capitalizes on the current vogue for live TV events. She’ll perform the song “Make Me Like You,” which is being released Friday.

It’s a gamble for Target, since four minutes of primetime ad time costs millions.

And most TV ads are only about 30 or 60 seconds.

It is unclear how much Target spent on the video, but a 30-second spot cost $952,000 in the Grammys in 2014, according to Kantar Media.

Ad experts say the money could be well spent in an age of short attention spans, with more people shifting to watching TV on demand and on their

In this Oct. 17, 2015 file photo, Gwen Stefani performs during an exclusive concert in New York. Target is sponsoring a fourminute live video by Gwen Stefani during The Grammy Awards on CBS on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, an unprecedented move that capitalizes on the current vogue for live TV events.

Associated Press

smartphones, capturing people’s attention during big live events like The Grammys is crucial. And attaching a star’s name to a company can have huge returns: For instance, Red Lobster said sales rose

33 percent the day after megastar Beyonce released a video mentioning the restaurant chain.

Live musical TV events, in particular, recently have been a hit. Fox’s “Grease Live” on Jan. 31 and NBC’s

New adaptation of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ heads to Broadway MARK KENNEDY AP Drama Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” — and its now-somewhat sullied hero Atticus Finch — are heading to Broadway in a new adaptation written by Aaron Sorkin.

Producer Scott Rudin said Wednesday the play will land during the 2017-2018 season under the direction of Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher, who is represented on Broadway now with the brilliant revivals of “The King and I” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” No casting was revealed.

Sorkin’s plays include “A Few Good Men” and “The Farnsworth Invention.” He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his screenplay for “The Social Network,” which Rudin produced, along with Sorkin’s other films “Steve Jobs” and “Moneyball.”

The book has been made the leap to the stage before, including a 1991 adaptation by Christopher Sergel which premiered at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse. There also was a production in 2013 that had a run at London’s Barbican Theatre with Robert Sean Leonard in the role of Finch, the noble widower and lawyer called upon to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama. This new version will mark the story’s Broadway debut.

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in 1960, introduced Finch, Scout, Boo Radley and other beloved literary characters. The book was adapted into an Oscar-winning movie starring Gregory Peck as Atticus and has become standard reading in schools and other reading programs, with worldwide sales topping 40 million copies. q

- In this Oct. 20, 2015 file photo, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin poses for a photo while promoting his movie “Steve Jobs,” in Toronto. Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” - and it’s classic hero Atticus Finch - are heading to Broadway in a new adaptation written by Sorkin.

Associated Press

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and widely praised as a sensitive portrait of racial tension as seen through the eyes of a child in 1930s Alabama, it also has been criticized as sentimental and paternalistic.

Last year saw the publication of Lee’s recently discovered manuscript,

“The Wiz Live!” in December both scored huge ratings and much chatter on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“These days, people can double click and delete you, so advertisers are under pressure to make their content more engaging and relevant to their audience,” said brand consultant Allen Adamson, founder of Brand Simple Consulting. “I think it’s a gamble that will pay off.”

Of course, there’s no guarantee that people will sit through the video, said VCU Brandcenter marketing professor Kelly O’Keefe.

“It’s definitely risky, but the upside is you really create a stir,” he said. “Whether or not they get that upside will depend on how good the music segment is.”

Additionally, the reach of the Grammys is fading.

Grammys had an audi-

ence of 25.3 million last year, its lowest turnout since 2009, according to Nielsen.

But Target is betting on Stefani, which collaborated with the company on the Harajuku Mini clothing line for several years starting in 2011. Her third studio album, “This Is What the Truth Feels Like,” which will be released March 18.

Target has been trying to stage a comeback after some major setbacks in recent years, including a major debit and credit card hack that impacted sales for several months and a misstep that led it to focus on groceries instead of the cheap chic fashions its customers craved.

But it has been turning itself around, with five consecutive quarters of increases in stores open at least one year, a key sales measure. q

Eagles band members to honor Glenn Frey at Grammys

In this April 10, 2014 file photo, Glenn Frey appears at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York.

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

(AP) — Singer and songwriter Jackson Browne will join members of the Eagles in a tribute to the band’s founding member Glenn Frey during Monday’s 58th annual Grammy Awards.

Frey died Jan. 18 of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia at the age of 67. Browne will join the Eagles’ Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B.

Schmit and Bernie Leadon during a special performance during the show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Browne and Frey wrote together early on in their careers, including the Eagles’ first single in 1972 and one of their signature songs, “Take It Easy.”

The Grammy Awards will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on CBS at 8 p.m.

EST.q