January 11, 2016

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

Powerball Jackpot Climbs to World’s Largest at $1.3 Billion JOSH FUNK Associated Press OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — Lottery officials say the estimated $1.3 billion prize for the next Powerball drawing is the largest jackpot ever in the world.

No one matched all six Powerball numbers Saturday night, leading to the astronomical prize, which is all but certain to grow before the next drawing Wednesday as more people buy tickets, said Kelly Cripe with the Texas Lot-

In this photo made with a fisheye lens a clerk hands a patron his $10 worth of chances for the upcoming Powerball drawing in Cranberry Township, Pa. Lottery officials say the estimated $1.3 billion prize for the next Powerball drawing is the largest jackpot ever in the world.

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

tery.

“Biggest jackpot in the history of the world. Absolutely confirmed,” Texas Lottery executive director Gary

Grief said.

“We’ve never been at these levels,” said Grief, whose state lottery is part of the Multi-State Lottery

Association that runs Powerball.

The jackpot is so big that billboards in Texas and around the country have to

advertise the price as $999 million because they’re not built to show billions.

Continued on page 6

A2 UP

Monday 11 January 2016

FRONT

Powerful US bomber flies over S. Korea as standoff deepens FOSTER KLUG AHN YOUNG-JOON Associated Press OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea (AP) — A powerful U.S. B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as a Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul

as past nuclear-backed moves by the United States to topple its authoritarian government.

The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 and U.S. F-16 fighters and returned to its base in Guam after the flight, the U.S. military said.

“This was a demonstration

to celebrate the country’s widely disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test. Kim is seeking to rally pride in an explosion viewed with outrage by much of the world and to boost his domestic political goals.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea’s state media to the B-52 fly-

day from state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticize,” Kim was reported as saying during his tour of the People’s Armed Forces Ministry.

The tone of Kim’s comments, which sought to glo-

A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flies over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016. The powerful U.S. B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as a Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul and North Korea following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

and North Korea following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test.

North Korea will read the flyover of a bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons — seen by an Associated Press photographer at Osan Air Base near Seoul — as a threat. Any hint of America’s nuclear power enrages Pyongyang, which links its own pursuit of atomic weapons to what it sees

of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland,” said Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander U.S. Pacific Command, in a statement. “North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations.”

The B-52 flight follows a victory tour by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

over, which also happened after North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013.

Kim’s first public comments about last week’s test came in a visit to the country’s military headquarters, where he called the explosion “a self-defensive step” meant to protect the region “from the danger of nuclear war caused by the U.S.-led imperialists,” according to a dispatch Sun-

rify him and justify the test, is typical of state media propaganda.

But they also provide insight into North Korea’s long-running argument that it is the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, and a “hostile” U.S. policy that seeks to topple the government in Pyongyang, that make North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons abso-

lutely necessary.

During his tour, Kim posed for photos with leading military officials in front of statues of the two members of his family who led the country previously — Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. He also sought to link the purported success of the nuclear test to a ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, the party’s first since 1980. He’s expected to use the congress to announce major state policies and shake up the country’s political elite to further consolidate his power. World powers are looking for ways to punish the North over a nuclear test that, even if not of a hydrogen bomb, still likely pushes Pyongyang closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that can reach the U.S. mainland. Many outside governments and experts question whether the blast was in fact a powerful hydrogen test.

In the wake of the test on Wednesday, the two Koreas have settled into the kind of Cold War-era standoff that has defined their relationship over the past seven decades. Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda from huge speakers along the border, and the North is reportedly using speakers of its own in an attempt to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

A top North Korean ruling party official’s recent warning that the South’s broadcasts have pushed the Korean Peninsula “toward the brink of war” is typical of Pyongyang’s over-the-top rhetoric. But it is also indicative of the real fury that the broadcasts, which criticize the country’s revered dictatorship, cause in the North.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Monday 11 January 2016

McConnell:

No intention of push for a new war powers vote WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate won’t take up President Barack Obama’s request for new war powers to fight the Islamic State group, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday, to avoid tying the hands of the next president.

The Obama administration last February proposed a three-year authorization that would take the fight beyond national borders and expand it to any “closely related successor entity” to IS. The plan did not authorize large-scale ground operations. It has languished in Congress as Republicans and Democrats have failed to coalesce around a new authorization.

McConnell’s resistance to a fresh authorization for the use of military force puts him at odds with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said this past week that he had asked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce to conduct “listening sessions” with lawmakers on a new plan.

Obama has relied on congressional authorizations given to President George W. Bush for the fight against al-Qaida after the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Many lawmakers are reluctant to commit, given the political fallout from the 2002 vote for the invasion of Iraq, even though the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, have resulted in a bipartisan push for new war powers. Others are loath to grant the president new authority, seeing that step as approval for Obama’s strategy in the fight against

Islamic State militants.

McConnell said he could not imagine voting for Obama’s draft of an authorization for the use of military force because it “restricted his activities, what he could do based upon conditions on the ground. But I don’t want to tie the hands of the next president ... who’s going to have to clean up this mess, created by all of this passivity over the last eight years,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

To critics, the White House’s use of post-Sept.

11 congressional authorizations is a legal stretch, and they note that the fight has expanded greatly.

In a statement this past week, Royce said that if Congress can get a new authorization done “that ensures our commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat ISIS, I want to move it. But ultimately, it is going to be up to President Obama to lead.

Containment has failed.

The administration already has the authority it needs to take the fight to these radical Islamist terrorists, and it needs to step up.”

Obama, in an Oval Office address days after the San Bernardino shootings in December, said that if Congress believed, as he did, that the U.S. was at war with IS, “it should go ahead and vote to authorize the continued use of military force against these terrorists.”

He added that more than a year after ordering military airstrikes against IS targets, “I think it’s time for Congress to vote to demonstrate that the American people are united and committed to this fight.”q

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington. The Senate won’t take up President Barack Obama’s request for new war powers to fight the Islamic State group, McConnell said Sunday.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A4 U.S.

Monday 11 January 2016

NEWS

In final State of Union, Obama aims to define his presidency JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Out of time to push a new legislative agenda, President Barack Obama will look past Congress and to the American people in his final State of the Union address, aiming to define his presidency and his legacy before others can do it for him.

For his seventh address, Obama plans to skip the traditional list of grand proposals, new policies and presidential appeals for new laws in favor of a broad overview of what he has accomplished since 2009 and what is undone in his final year in office. Aides said the president on Tuesday night will give his assessment of what the country looks like in 2016 and the direction he hopes it will take in the future.

To the extent he can, Obama will try to give a burst of energy to initiatives he is hoping to push past beyond the life of his administration.

Advisers who met with Obama as he readied his recent executive actions on gun control said the president gave this guidance: “Everything this year should be infused with a sense of possibility” and

President Barack Obama stops to greet White House guests after speaking in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Obama will look past Congress and to the American people in his final State of the Union address, aiming to define his presidency and his legacy.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

“don’t take the foot off the gas pedal.”

Despite his inevitable slide into lame-duck status and the partisan politics of the election year, Obama is emboldened by recent successes that formed one of the most productive stretches in his presidency.

Over the past year, Obama has reached a nuclear deal with Iran, relaunched diplomatic relations with Cuba, secured a global

climate pact and an AsiaPacific trade deal, and negotiated a budget deal with the Republican-led Congress. Unemployment has fallen to 5 percent and renewed confidence in the economy has led the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates.

Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said the president planned in his speech to cite those achievements to argue

that “we’ve brought America back.”

While Obama wants to keep the momentum going, the presidential campaign may drown him out.

The White House scheduled this year’s speech earlier than usual, in part to ensure Obama had room to maneuver before voters get their first say in the nominating process — the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.

To the dismay of some in

Hillary Clinton brushes off Trump’s swipes at Bill WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton is brushing off Donald Trump’s persistent swipes at her husband, the former president.

The Democratic presidential front-runner says Republicans have a history of

trying to dig up dirt on the Clintons, and if they want to recycle that now, that’s their business.

As she said Sunday: “Didn’t work before, won’t work again.” With Bill Clinton out campaigning for his wife,

Trump is reminding people of the ex-president’s affair with a White House intern and the questions that have swirled around him concerning other women.

Trump said on “Fox News Sunday” that some women

have had their reputations destroyed and Hillary Clinton helped that happen.

Hillary Clinton says of such tactics: “I think it’s a dead end, blind alley for them.”

She spoke on CBS TV’s “Face the Nation.”q

his party, Obama doesn’t plan to use the address as an opening argument for Democratic candidates in the November election.

White House officials said the president would have ample opportunities to frame the campaign.

Still, anything Obama says or does in an election year raises the political heat.

For example, Republicans have seized on Obama’s unilateral moves to tighten gun policies, a topic for Tuesday’s speech, as the latest example of why voters cannot trust Democrats.

Obama’s best prospects for achievements this year are on issues where he and Congress at least partially agree. Central to his speech will be a renewed call for a criminal justice overhaul and for approval of the Asia-Pacific trade agreement, which many Republicans support.

He will face a less receptive crowd when it comes to foreign policy and homeland security. Republicans and even many Democrats say his strategy for fighting the Islamic State group is ineffective.

Obama insists he has not abandoned a campaign promise to close the prison at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba, although Republican opposition has made that difficult to fulfill. Last year the White House said Obama would send Congress a new plan for closing the detention center, but there have been seemingly endless delays.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Monday 11 January 2016

2nd Baltimore officer to go on trial in Gray case JULIET LINDERMAN Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) — A police van driver will be the second Baltimore officer to go on trial in the death of a black man who suffered fatal injuries during the trip from the site of his arrest to a police station.

Caesar Goodson was with Freddie Gray for every second of his 45-minute trip to the Western District police station, where Gray arrived critically injured and unresponsive. But Goodson’s account of what happened on that day remains a mystery: He is the only one of six officers charged in Gray’s death not to speak to investigators. His trial, which begins Monday, will offer the public its first chance to hear Goodson’s side of the story. Goodson was behind the wheel of the van that carried Gray to six different locations while he was handcuffed and shackled but unrestrained in the rear.

He faces the most serious charge of all — seconddegree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. To be convicted, prosecutors must prove that Goodson was so callous in his disregard for Gray’s life that he deliberately allowed him to die. Last month, Officer William Porter’s trial ended with a hung jury, making the stakes for Goodson’s trial even higher in a city still on edge from the rioting and unrest in April that followed Gray’s death.

Gray, a young black man, died April 19, a week after he broke his neck in police custody. His death exposed the deep divide between the public and the police in Baltimore, and became a national symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement protesting police treatment of minority communities.

Prosecutors say the officers should be held accountable for Gray’s fatal injuries because they didn’t buckle him into a seat belt, nor did they call an ambulance when he indicated he needed medical attention. Goodson, they say,

Caesar Goodson, right, arrives at Courthouse East, in Baltimore for a motions hearing ahead of his trial. Goodson drove the police transport van where Freddie Gray was critically injured. Prosecutors want William Porter, whose trial ended in a mistrial last month, to testify against Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White.

(Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

bears the most responsibility because as the wagon driver, Gray was technically in his custody.

Prosecutors have revealed little about the case they plan to present against Goodson, who is also black, but in a pretrial hearing last week they said they would call a witness who specializes in “retaliatory prisoner transport practices,” indicating they intend to bring up the possibility that Gray received a “rough ride” in the van. During the hearing, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had introduced “a new legal theory or area of testimony at the proverbial eleventh hour.” The witness is Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore police officer and Maryland state trooper.

But prosecutors’ plans were complicated this week when Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled that Porter must testify as a state’s witness against Goodson, despite Porter’s claim that he has a right not to incriminate himself.

An appeals court temporarily halted the decision to force Porter to testify until it can reach a final ruling.

Whether Goodson takes the stand could depend on whether Porter is called as a witness, and is compelled to testify.q

A6 U.S.

Monday 11 January 2016

NEWS

Cruz, Trump up in Iowa as ‘takedown’ talk fades STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three weeks before Iowa kicks off the state-by-state presidential nominating contests, businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are generating overwhelming enthusiasm among Republican voters in the state, along

ture. Trump is not a Republican and he is not a conservative,” said Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who is not affiliated with a 2016 campaign. “The geometry is conflicting: If you limit one, you aid the other.

“At the end,” Castellanos said, “Republicans may face the devil’s bargain and have to settle for the

of Cruz and Trump.

There is little evidence of widespread alarm from establishment Republican leaders and their well-funded supporters. Despite their commanding presence in preference polls, Trump and Cruz have almost completely escaped paid attack ads, particularly in Iowa.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Ottumwa, Iowa.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

with concern, though not panic, among the party professionals who believe both are unelectable in November against the Democratic nominee.

Despite such fears, talk of a “takedown” effort aimed at either Trump or Cruz appears to have faded as the Feb. 1 caucuses in Iowa near. For now, there is nervous acceptance that two of the Republican Party’s most divisive figures may stay at the top of the presidential pack well into the first month of voters’ getting their say.

“Cruz would not only cost us the general, he would cost the GOP the fu-

lesser of two anti-establishment evils.”

That feeling is echoed by party officials across the country, who acknowledged they have few tools to stop Cruz or Trump. Instead, there is hope that voters ultimately will settle on what they consider a more viable alternative from a group of candidates that includes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

“Let’s see how the votes go before we panic,” said Washington-based Republican operative John Feehery, who has been critical

Republican National committeeman Ron Kaufman of Massachusetts said the party’s “centrist conservatives” will have to be patient until what they see as a more electable alternative to Trump and Cruz emerges.

“This is about who’s going to be in the finals,” Kaufman said. “Clearly on one side it’s going to be Trump and/or Cruz. And for the centrist conservatives, it’s going to come down to one of three governors or Rubio.”

That may explain why the attacks on Cruz and Trump pale in comparison to the amount spent disparaging

other candidates. For example, a Rubio-boosting group recently put more than $1 million into sharpelbowed anti-Christie attacks in New Hampshire.

Rubio has been the target of close to $1 million in negative advertising, mostly in Iowa and mostly by Cruz boosters.

There is unquestioned excitement among the Republican electorate in Iowa for the two front-runners.

On Saturday, Cruz concluded a six-day, 28-stop trek across the state, drawing overflow crowds everywhere — from a pizza restaurant in Pocahontas to a small college in Sioux Center, where hundreds packed the auditorium, spilling into the stairwell and upper level.

“There is no doubt that the Washington cartel is in full panic mode,” said an almost giddy Cruz this past week. “They are in full panic mode because they are seeing on the ground conservatives uniting.”

At other stops, Cruz supporters stood outside in snow and sub-freezing temperatures, unable to get in for a seat, but still trying to listen through open doors. At a Friday morning event in Mason City, 48-year-old Robert Peterson said he was sold on Cruz, even though he said he had never before voted for a Republican presidential candidate.

“It’s time for a change,” Peterson said, standing at the back of the room wearing a red “Cruz 2016” button and holding a red, white and blue Cruz sign. “The status quo has got to go.”

It’s much the same for Trump, who is showing no signs of slowing down after leading most national preference polls since the summer. q

Powerball Jackpot

Continued from Front The lottery computers will handle the decimal point without a problem.

The odds to win are one in 292.2 million. Seventy-five percent of all the possible combinations were purchased before Saturday’s drawing, Grief said, and he expects that enough tickets will be sold to cover about 80 percent by Wednesday. About 95 percent of Powerball tickets have computer-generated numbers.

“I’ve been in the industry over 20 years, and I’ve seen jackpots hit when we hardly have any of the potential numbers covered — like 5 percent of the possible combinations covered.

And I’ve seen other jackpots when we’ve had 95 percent of the combinations covered and it rolls,” Grief said.

Saturday’s winning numbers — 16-19-32-34-57 and Powerball number of 13 — did gain some people a little wealth: 25 tickets won $1 million by matching five numbers, and three other tickets won $2 million because they paid extra to multiply smaller prizes.

The record jackpot lured an unprecedented frenzy of purchases. Between Jan. 6 and Saturday’s drawing, more than $900 million in Powerball tickets were sold.

Officials expect similar sales before the next drawing, but Grief said it’s hard to predict how excitement about the record jackpot will boost sales.

“It’s exponentially greater than any sales that any of the states involved have ever seen,” he said.

Powerball is played in 44 states as well as the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. q

U.S. NEWS A7

Monday 11 January 2016

US Financial Front:

Small business crystal ball: Don’t look for boom in 2016

JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t look for a small business boom in 2016.

Companies in some industries and in certain parts of the U.S. may have a strong year, but overall, small businesses can expect a continuation of the slow, uneven growth they experienced in 2015.

Surveys show owners generally have lowered expectations for their companies in 2016. A survey taken in November by Wells Fargo & Co. found 70 percent of owners expect their companies’ financial situation to be good in 12 months, down from 74 percent in a

survey during the summer.

Forty-seven percent predicted their revenue would be higher, down from 51 percent.

Sluggish consumer spending, the slowdown in the gas and oil industries and the still-unpredictable housing market are expected to keep companies cautious.

Uneasiness about possible terror attacks also is likely to add to the uncertainty.

Economist Scott Anderson expects companies in the Midwest to have a tougher time than those on the East and West coasts because the energy and mining industries are struggling.

Anderson, chief economist with Bank of the West,

Evan Mountain, owner of Fred Astaire Dance Studio, poses in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Mountain expects business at his dance studio in suburban Detroit to grow in 2016 along with the auto industry.

(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

counted 123,000 jobs lost in those industries from 2014 to 2015. And the plunge in

commodities prices is hurting companies related to agriculture, he says.

Consumer spending has also been erratic in recent months, which has a direct effect on small businesses like retailers and restaurants. Spending rose 0.3 percent in November after stagnating in October, according to the Commerce Department. Consumers have put more money into savings — $748 billion in November and $757 billion in October, up from $723 billion in September.

Consumers are willing to buy cars but are otherwise more cautious, Anderson says.

“You need to see the consumer hitting on all cylinders for small businesses to feel the full effect,” he says.q

A8

Monday 11 January 2016

WORLD NEWS

Italian police probe slaying of American woman in Florence FANUEL MORELLI NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Police vowed “maximum attention” Sunday to find the killer of an American found dead in her Florence apartment as Italy’s expat community expressed hope that the case won’t turn into another Amanda Knox-style, drawn-out, headline-grabbing legal saga.

Police opened a murder investigation Saturday after 35-year-old Ashley Olsen of Summer Haven, Florida, was found dead, her neck bruised and scratched.

Authorities questioned Olsen’s boyfriend, a local artist, Saturday but said they have no suspects so far.

“What happened in Florence is getting the maximum attention to find out what it’s all about,” Italy’s police chief, Alessandro Pansa, said during an unrelated visit Sunday to Florence, the ANSA news agency reported.

Meanwhile, friends and fellow expats expressed horror at the slaying of a woman known around Florence for her beloved beagle, Scout, and said they hoped her killer would be found quickly. Flowers were left at her doorstep.

“I can’t imagine a person who would hurt her. She is a gentle, a kind, a beautiful, friendly, lovely girl and it’s an awful shock,” Amy, a friend who only gave her first name, told The As-

Italian forensic police officers stand outside an apartment where 35-year-old American woman Ashley Oslen was found dead, in Florence, Italy. Italian police say the woman has been found slain in her apartment with bruises and scratches on her neck, but wouldn’t comment on Italian news reports that the woman had been strangled until an autopsy is performed.

(Maurizio Degl’Innocenti/ANSA via AP)

sociated Press in Florence.

“We’ve got a great community here of people and everyone loved her.”

Friends and other expats expressed hope that the case wouldn’t end up repeating the flawed, flipflopping investigation into

the last high-profile murder case of a foreigner living in Italy, that of Meredith Kercher.

The British student was studying in the Umbrian city of Perugia when she was found dead in 2007.

Knox, Kercher’s Ameri-

can roommate, and her then-boyfriend were at first convicted of the murder, then acquitted, convicted again on appeal and finally acquitted for good when Italy’s supreme court last year definitively exonerated them. q

Egypt’s first parliament in 3 years convenes Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s first legislature in more than three years, a 596-seat chamber packed with supporters of President AbdelFattah el-Sissi, held its inaugural session on Sunday, signaling the completion of a political road map announced after the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president.

The assembly, elected in November and December, is the first legislature since el-Sissi, as military chief, led the 2013 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against

the Islamist leader and his Muslim Brotherhood. The new parliament replaces one dominated by Islamists that was dissolved by a court ruling in June 2012.

The new chamber’s first task will be to ratify some 300 presidential decrees issued by el-Sissi since taking office in June 2014 and Interim President Adly Mansour before him. Under the constitution, these decrees must be ratified within 15 days starting from the date of the inaugural session.

Failure to do so will result in the automatic repeal of the laws.

The decrees include a law severely restricting street demonstrations and a terror law that curbs press freedoms and gives police sweeping powers.

Sunday’s session was supposed to be a mostly procedural one, with lawmakers taking the oath and electing a speaker and two deputies. But heated arguments between lawmakers broke out when an outspoken member, Murtada Mansour, strayed from the text of the oath to avoid endorsing the Jan. 25, 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Monday 11 January 2016

Germany: Authorities must probe Cologne assault links

Demonstrators protest against racism and sexism in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve, outside the cathedral in Cologne, Germany. Poster at right reads: No violence against women. After the sexual assaults around Cologne’s main station on New Year’s Eve, various groups have called for continued demonstrations.

(Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

DAVID RISING Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German authorities need to quickly determine whether a string of New Year’s Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Co-

logne blamed largely on foreigners may be linked to similar offenses in other cities, the justice minister said in comments published Sunday.

Authorities and witnesses

say the attackers were among about 1,000 people, mostly men, gathered at Cologne’s central train station, some of whom broke off into small groups that groped and robbed

women.

“If such a horde gathers in order to commit crimes, that appears in some form to be planned,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the newspaper Bild. “Nobody can tell me that this was not coordinated or prepared.”

The attacks are still being investigated, but police have said their focus is on suspects of primarily North African origin, which has put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and its open-door policy to asylum seekers.

Nearly 1.1 million migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 alone.

She announced a proposal Saturday that would make it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes, which still needs parliamentary approval.

Cologne police said Sunday that 516 criminal complaints had now been filed with them in connection to the New Year’s attacks,

about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual offenses.

They also announced that on Saturday night they arrested a 19-year-old Moroccan man on allegations he stole a 23-year-old woman’s cellphone on New Year’s, and had identified 19 other suspects by name. Police said the Moroccan, who they said has been involved in various crimes since 2013, isn’t accused of a sexual offense but the investigation is ongoing.

In a separate development that seemed likely to provide more grist for opponents of Merkel’s policies, police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday raided an apartment at a shelter for asylum-seekers in Recklinghausen that they said had been occupied by an extremist who French police fatally shot on Thursday as he stormed a Paris police station.q

A10 WORLD

Monday 11 January 2016

NEWS

Mexico: Sean Penn interview helped locate drug lord E. CASTILLO K. CORCORAN Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — The recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces at one point located the world’s most-wanted trafficker thanks to a secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn.

Penn’s interview with Guzman, who has twice escaped from Mexican maximum security prisons, appeared late Saturday on the website of Rolling Stone magazine. It was purportedly held at an undisclosed hideout in northern Mexico in October, about two months before Guzman’s recapture Friday in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, after six months on the run.

In the interview, Guzman defends his work at the head of the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization, one blamed for thousands of killings. When asked if he is to blame for high addiction rates, he responds: “No, that is false, because the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all.

Drug trafficking? That’s false.” In the article, Penn describes taking elaborate security measures ahead

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by army soldiers to a waiting helicopter, at a federal hangar in Mexico City. The recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces at one point located the world’s most-wanted trafficker thanks to a secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn.

(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

of the clandestine meeting. But apparently they were not enough.

A Mexican federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told the Associated Press it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October.

Authorities who later raided the area decided not to open fire on Guzman as he

ran away because he was with two women and child.

He was able to escape, and officials once again apparently lost track of him. But they finally caught him Friday at a house in Los Mochis where Mexican marines nabbed him after a shootout that left five people dead.

The official said the meeting between Penn and Guzman was held in Tamazula, a community in Durango state that neighbors

Sinaloa, home of Guzman’s drug cartel.

On Friday, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said that Guzman’s contact with actors and producers for a possible film about him helped give law enforcement a lead on tracking and capturing the world’s most notorious drug kingpin.

In the Rolling Stone article, Penn wrote that Guzman was interested in having a movie filmed on his life.

He said Guzman wanted Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who facilitated the meeting between the men, involved in the project.

“He was interested in seeing the story of his life told on film, but would entrust its telling only to Kate,” wrote Penn, who appears in a photo posted with the interview shaking hands with Guzman whose face is uncovered There was no immediate response from Penn’s representatives to the Mexican official’s comments.

Earlier Saturday, a federal law enforcement official said that Mexico is willing to extradite Guzman to the United States, a sharp reversal from the official position after his last capture in 2014.

But he cautioned that there could be a lengthy wait before U.S. prosecutors get their hands on Guzman. “You have to go through the judicial process, and the defense has its elements too.”

Top officials in the party of President Enrique Pena Nieto also floated the idea of extradition, which they had flatly ruled out before Guzman’s embarrassing escape from Mexico’s top maximum security prison on July 11 — his second from a Mexican prison.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Monday 11 January 2016

In Haiti election, only 1 presidential candidate campaigning DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Campaigning for Haiti’s presidential runoff election kicked off this weekend, though it appears there is only one candidate who will actively participate.

Government-backed contender Jovenel Moise, a little-known agricultural entrepreneur who led a crowded field of 54 candidates with nearly 33 percent of the vote in the Oct. 25 first round, attracted roughly 1,500 people to his first rally Friday evening.

Big speakers pumped out bass-heavy songs featuring his campaign moniker, “Neg Bannann” — Banana Man in Haitian Creole — and a group of women wore yellow banana costumes.

But the campaign team of the second-place finisher, Jude Celestin, was quiet a day after saying he would take part in the Jan. 24 runoff only if sweeping changes recently recommended by a special commission were adopted first to improve Haiti’s much-criticized electoral machinery.

Celestin, a former state construction chief, told The Miami Herald on Thursday that outgoing President Michel Martelly “will have to do an election with just one candidate.” His phone consistently goes unanswered and his campaign leaders did not respond to calls this weekend.

While the Provisional Electoral Council has pledged

to improve transparency for the final round, special commission spokesman Rosny Desroches has said he has seen very little progress to improve the process and ease tensions since the panel’s recommendations were released last weekend.

Unless Celestin officially withdraws from the race his name will appear on the runoff ballot whether he chooses to campaign or not, Provisional Electoral Council spokesman Roudy Stanley Penn said Friday.

“Until he sends us a letter saying he is withdrawing he will be on the ballots for the final round and people can choose to vote for him,” Penn said.

The U.N., the U.S. government and other foreign governments that monitor Haiti strongly support holding the final round of elections this month so a transfer of power to a new president can take place by a Feb. 7 constitutional deadline. The Organization of American States said Thursday that the scheduling of

Presidential candidate Jovenel Moise, center, from the PHTK party, greets supporters while campaigning in Petion-Ville, Haiti. Government-backed contender Moise held his first runoff rally late Friday.

(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

the runoff for Jan. 24 was a “step in the right direction.”

A mood of confusion was palpable in the capital of Port-au-Prince as campaigning opened for the once-postponed presidential and legislative runoffs.

That only one presidential

candidate was campaigning left many perplexed and some expressed doubt the elections could reasonably take place under such circumstances.

“I’ve never heard about this happening in any normal country: Only one

candidate in a presidential election.

How can that be possible?” asked food vendor Karine Fenelon, who said she was so turned off by Haiti’s version of democracy that she’s abstained from voting for years.q

Police arrest 2 in British man’s disappearance GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Authorities in the South American nation of Guyana said this weekend they have arrested two suspects in the disappearance of an 18-year-old British man and said they may have found his body.

Police Crime Chief Wendell

Blanhum said 22-year-old Aaron Hing was arrested Friday night as he tried to check into a hotel and a second suspect in disappearance of Dominic Bernard of Epsom was detained early Saturday. Hing “has confessed to involvement in the disappearance

of Mr. Bernard. We are in contact with his relatives in Britain. Hing did admit to having some involvement in this matter, and it is all I am going to say for now,” Blanhum told The Associated Press. Blanhum also said authorities suspect the decomposing body of a

young male found in the southeastern region of Berbice could be that of Bernard. Bernard flew to Guyana in October to visit Hing and police say the men were close. Relatives who had lost contact with Bernard traveled to Guyana to ask the public to help find him. q

A12 WORLD

Monday 11 January 2016

NEWS

In embarrassing turn, only 1 Argentine convict apprehended

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri speaks during a meeting with the Argentine Industrial Union in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Macri is vowing to crack down on drug trafficking amid a national manhunt for three escaped prisoners convicted in drug-related killings.

(AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

P. PRENGAMAN P. LUNA Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — In an embarrassment to President Mauricio Macri’s young administration, Argentina’s top police official said this weekend that only one of three no-

torious convicts were in custody just hours after top officials had celebrated the capture of all three fugitives.

The nearly two-week manhunt appeared to have finally come to an end in the afternoon, when several police and top politicians

said authorities had apprehended Victor Schialli and brothers Martin and Cristian Lanatta.

The men escaped from the General Alvear prison in Buenos Aires province the day after Christmas.

They were convicted in 2008 of killing three men al-

legedly connected to an ephedrine trafficking ring.

Macri, Vice President Gabriela Michetti, Cabinet chief Marcos Pena and Maria Eugenia Vidal, governor of the Buenos Aires province, tweeted congratulatory messages to security forces and promised to continue the fight against drug trafficking.

But a few hours later, the head of the South American nation’s federal police force said that in fact only Martin Lanatta had been captured.

“We continue to intensely search for the two (other) fugitives,” said Roman di Santo.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told reporters late Saturday that authorities had received “false information.” She blamed a “network of accomplices” for throwing authorities off the trail, but didn’t provide details.

She said the focus should be on how one of the men was caught, not on the bungled information.

“Argentines can sleep a little easier tonight,” she said.

Local television channels showed Martin Lanatta being transported in a rural area of the Santa Fe province north of Buenos Aires.

The search, which has often been broadcast live on national television channels, has focused attention on Argentina’s drug problems, which Macri vowed to combat throughout his election campaign.

The three had been on the run since the escape, at times apparently engaging in shootouts with police, made-for-movie footage captured by news helicopters following authorities.

The prison break has also had political reverberations in the highly polarized country: One of the three convicts last year claimed former presidential Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez was the mastermind of the killings.

Fernandez has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Macri’s administration initially treated the escape as a local issue to be dealt with by authorities in the province. q

Violent protests in Brazil to protest increased bus fares M. SAVARESE Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — Police used tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray this weekend to disperse sometimes violent demonstrations against bus fare increases in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the two biggest Brazilian cities.

The protests were organized by the Free Fare Movement, the same group that initiated mass anti-government demonstrations that filled streets across Brazil in 2013. A similar but peaceful

protest was held Belo Horizonte.

Sao Paulo’s demonstration began peacefully but turned violent when masked anarchists started throwing rocks at police.

The Sao Paulo State Public Safety Department said 17 people were arrested among 3,000 protesters and three police officers were injured.

Protesters also smashed store and bank windows and set fire to at least three buses, it said.

Police in Rio de Janeiro said

one masked protester was arrested after incidents similar to those in Sao Paulo, but on a smaller scale.

Organizers of the Rio demonstration, which came just months before the city hosts the 2016 Olympic Games, said about 2,000 people took part. Police didn’t offer any estimate.

The Free Fare Movement called more demonstrations Tuesday.

The protests were mobilized after Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad raised bus fares from 3.50 reals

to 3.80 reals, then his Rio colleague, Eduardo Paes, raised that city’s fare from 3.40 to 3.80 reals.

The new fare is just under a dollar, but the increase comes with Brazil’s economy in recession and as people struggle with prices that already rose more than 10 percent last year.

Union leader Marcelo Schmidt, who joined in the Rio protest, said the demonstrations marked the beginning of a new upheaval for Brazil, which is also gripped by a widespread

corruption scandal tied to the state oil company, Petrobras.

“This is a popular protest.

The more people who come, the better,” Schmidt said.

“We want that the pressure from the streets, the pressure from the people, lowers this fare as it did last year. We will only talk to authorities when people are in the street; that’s when we will talk to authorities, because the authorities are the ones who failed this state.”q

LOCAL A13

Monday 11 January 2016

Real Island Life: Notes From A Day On Aruba!

PALM BEACH - First of all, I like to welcome you to my island in the sun. Aruba’s weather is always so predictable (hot and windy) and that might be the main reason you decided to come visit us.

Of course besides the sun there is much more like: beaches, restaurants, shopping, gambling, activities and more.

Talking about all those fun things to do here, if you live on the island full time, and work every day, you might forget that we truly live in a paradise.

Of course on your off day you might go swimming or drive around First stop was the famous Charlie’s Bar in San Nicolaas Main Street. Generation after generation of Charlie’s have been running this cozy place, where you can spend hours looking around and identifying all the things visiting tourists have left behind to personalize the bar, like baseball caps, business cards, license plates and of course weird kind of souvenirs. Go check it out yourself.....

Up to Baby Beach and Rogers beach. These are the places locals go. This

but it is after a few more days at home when you start realizing how beautiful our island really is. So I took some time to “smell the ocean breeze”......

I truly think that all locals should do so, once in a while, to appreciate where we live and what we have.� Enjoy breakfast outside in your patio or yard. Breathe in and out.... Let it sink in a little. No rush and no

hurry. Take time to enjoy your fresh squeezed lemon juice from your backyard trees with a fish omelet (left over’s from last night’s incredible catch of the day).

Grab an ice cooler, fill it up with anything you like to drink cold, and start driving. Of course you can get in an air-conditioned car, but also nice for the experience are the open-air jeeps. In that case all you

need is to protect yourself with sun block because our sun is really strong-I recommend Aruba Aloe brand!

Packed with a towel and the ice cooler I started driving along the coast line.

Never realized how many different shades of blue really exist in the ocean. I counted at least 9 different types of blues-just like you see in famous movies like the “blue lagoon”.

is where we teach our kids to swim. Calm and shallow waters, lots of space to lie out and catch some sun. If you pick a spot close to the Snack Container where they sell burger and refreshments you can enjoy 24-7 “golden oldies”. Music you grew up with...... After a few hours of “vegging” on the beach staring at the turquoise ocean and listening to the birds that fly by and walk around it is time to get some food.

Zeerovers in Savaneta is the place to go.

Simple, clean and oh so good! The freshest fish on the island, brought in directly by our local fisherman. You order by the piece and or pound and as little or as much as you want. The price for fish and chips is so good that you for sure would ask: “is that all”? No fancy dinner ware, just plain easy simple plastic but I promise you that you will be licking your fingers while enjoying a few drinks and the best sunset on the island, island style........

You see now that a day in Aruba can fly by as long as you have fun enjoy every moment of it.

Yes, you are in PARADISE!!!q

A14 LOCAL

Monday 11 January 2016

Count on Paseo Herencia Mall for Great Nightly Entertainment!

PALM BEACH - The premiere shopping center of Palm Beach, Paseo Herencia, is also a spectacular place for dining, becoming informed about island history and culture, and family fun.

Best of all, the mall hosts fantastic entertainment nightly in the Plaza Padu, and all the shows are absolutely FREE! The diverse lineup of top talent takes

place every evening from 8:00 to 8:30pm, preceded and followed by their fourtimes nightly Waltzing Waters show.

On Mondays Cultural Night, on Tuesdays Local Talent Show, on Wednesdays Latin Night, on Thursdays Fantasy Night, on Fridays Caribbean Pan Night on Saturdays Violin Night.

Shops are open from 10am to 10pm.q

LOCAL A15

Monday 11 January 2016

EQ3 Aruba Offers a Unique Collection of Modern Living

ORANJESTAD - The EQ3 Furniture store, located at Schotlandstraat 45, right across from Ling & Sons Supermarket, offers a unique collection of modern living in combination with style and grace. EQ3 Aruba, knows like no other the quality of indoor and outdoor furniture demands in the harsh weather conditions on our beautiful island. EQ3 is excited to offer an exclusive hospitality division in outdoor furniture by partnering

with Telescope Casual Outdoor Furniture. Thus, making EQ3 the only furniture store in Aruba that offers both indoor and outdoor quality designed furniture! The products are also suited for Hospitality and Commercial use. The outdoor furniture can be seen at De Palm Island, where they have survived Aruba’s harsh climate for many years and still going strong!

EQ3 Aruba has been differentiating itself from

competitors for years when it comes to originality, flexibility, affordability and durability. That is why EQ3 has extended their collection more and offers Contract Furniture and high quality Blinds which are suited for Hotels, condominiums and residential use.

For more information about EQ3 Aruba and its new divisions in Hospitality or residential use visit the website at www.eq3aruba.comq

A16 LOCAL

Monday 11 January 2016

The little jeep tour that could…

If You Are a Thrill Seeker, Jump Into the Deep Blue Sea From a Cliff!

PALM BEACH - The small, family business of ABC Tours continues to prove that it is truly the ‘little tour company that could’. Created 20 years ago by the husband and wife team of Marvin and Sharla Kelly, it excels through commitment to the simple ideal of stellar customer care, while sharing Aruba’s most spectacular attractions. Today’s excursions are exclusive, using top-of-the-line transportation, while offering the same warm, personal charm with the promise of an adventure beyond comparison.

“We started small, guiding the tours ourselves, and with the goal of sharing what we love most about our island with guests,” explains Sharla. “Nowadays, we are still very much involved, managing the company and making sure the feeling of being part of the family is intrinsic to each tour.

What sets us apart is that our tours are made up of small groups so that the safari stays fun and personalized, giving our Tour Guides the flexibility to honor special requests on each tour and that means more value for your money.”

Guests who take part in any one of ABC Tours options quickly learn that this is not just another island tour. Each tour is filled with interesting information, and presented by enthusiastic guides, whose high energy helps provide for

both excitement and fun.

The choice of stops is also unique, with ABC Tours taking guests past the island’s most breathtaking sceneries, and on to discover the hidden beauty of secluded beaches and dramatic rock formations as well as to well-known sites such as Baby Beach and the Natural Pool.

To take even greater pleasure in the off-road experience, guests also have the opportunity to drive one of our 4x4 Land Rovers for a pure 4-wheel fun.

All of ABC Tours’ Land Rovers are specially equipped vehicles, with comfortable seats, that easily traverse island roads, and safely deliver you to each stop.

Thrill seekers also have the option to cliff jump at The Natural Pool, only available on selected tours at ABC. The unique ABC Tours experience extends to the menu, with a homecooked recipe for lunch or dinner as a part of each tour. Traditional meals are provided by Waka Waka restaurant, which uses secret, family recipes, passed down through four generations and provided by Sharla’s own grandmother. The restaurant provides a true taste of Aruba, whether enjoying a meal after an unforgettable tour or simply stopping by, at any time, to try out any one of “Machi (Grandma) Betty’s” delicious offerings, from delectable appetizers to scrumptious desserts.q

SPORTS A17

Monday 11 January 2016

Raonic Shocks Federer, Wins Brisbane International Title

Page 20

FROZEN

Vikings Miss Game-Winning Kick, Hand Seahawks 10-9 Win Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh (3) reacts after missing a field goal during the final seconds of the of an NFL wild-card football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis. The Seahawks won 10-9.

(AP Photo/Jim Mone) Page 19

French Cuisine Daily chef’s specials Exclusive wines Free WIFI Located at The Village (across from Radisson) T: +297 586 5400 | www.papillonaruba.com| Open daily from 5 pm – 10.30 pm

A18 SPORTS

Monday 11 January 2016

AFC Playoffs:

Chiefs, Steelers advance with wild-card wins

Pittsburgh Steelers’ Martavis Bryant (10) makes a 10-yard touchdown reception against Cincinnati Bengals’ Dre Kirkpatrick (27) during the second half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Cincinnati.

(AP Photo/Gary Landers)

HOUSTON (AP) — Kansas City and Pittsburgh advanced in the NFL playoffs with wild-card road wins achieved in contrasting fashion Saturday, with the Chiefs cruising past a disappointing Houston and the Steelers needing a late field goal to beat playoffjinxed Cincinnati.

Kansas City had gone 22 years without a playoff victory but secured this one early thanks to a touchdown from the opening kickoff and a harassing defense that forced five turnovers and beat the Texans

30-0.

The Chiefs have won 11 straight games since starting the season 1-5, and advance to a divisional playoff game at New England next weekend.

The Steelers will travel to Denver after winning a bad-tempered encounter against the Bengals 18-16, with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returning from a shoulder injury sustained in the third quarter and leading his team on a final drive which set up a 35yard field goal by Chris Boswell with 14 seconds left.

Kansas City began in ideal fashion when Knile Davis took the opening kickoff, got three good blocks around the 10-yard line and then simply outran the rest of the defenders for the 106-yard kickoff return score; the second-longest kickoff return TD in postseason history.

The defense took over after that, forcing Houston quarterback Brian Hoyer into a fumble and three interceptions in the first half as the Chiefs took a 13-0 lead.

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith threw a touchdown

pass late in the third and Spencer Ware added a 5-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 27-0.

The victory breaks a streak of eight straight playoff losses by the Chiefs and is their first postseason win since beating the then Houston Oilers in 1994.

Hoyer had a miserable game, getting booed by his owns fans, as he completed only 15 of 34 passes for 136 yards as Houston lost a home playoff game for the first time.

Travis Kelce, who also had more than 100 yards receiving in the first meeting with the Texans this year, had another big day, finishing with eight receptions for 128 yards.

Houston’s J.J. Watt missed most of the second half after injuring his groin in the third quarter. Last year’s Defensive Player of the Year and the NFL sack leader didn’t have a sack on Saturday as Houston’s defense played well but couldn’t hold off an offense that got so many extra chances because of Hoyer’s terrible day.

Pittsburgh was in control for much of a rain-sodden contest at Cincinnati, but was forced to find a late winner after the Bengals turned it into a contest late.

After Martavis Bryant somehow clung on to a som-

ersaulting touchdown reception, the Steelers led 15-0 heading into the final quarter, but Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron put together a late rally.

Cincinnati ripped off 16 straight points, the last six on a 25-yard pass from McCarron to A.J. Green that put the Bengals in front.

They missed the 2-point conversion.

When Vontaze Burfict intercepted on Pittsburgh’s ensuing possession, Cincinnati appeared set to record its first postseason win in 25 years; the sixth-longest postseason drought in NFL history.

However the team that said it would keep it together then completely fell apart.

Jeremy Hill saw the ball knocked out of his grasp for a fumble which the Steelers recovered at the Pittsburgh 9-yard line with 1:23 left.

Roethlisberger, who had been carted off the field after injuring his throwing shoulder in a third-quarter sack by Burfict, returned for the game-winning drive.

He received some help from some costly Bengals indiscipline, as they gave up two 15-yard penalties.

The first was on Burfict for a hit on defenseless Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, then Adam Jones compounded the problem when he lost his cool for another penalty.q

SPORTS A19

Monday 11 January 2016

NFC Playoffs:

Vikings miss game-winning kick, hand Seahawks 10-9 win Replays showed the laces on the ball were turned in — instead of facing out — by holder Jeff Locke.

The Seahawks left their last visit to Minnesota with a 38-7 victory, pure domination on both sides of the ball that left no doubt that Dec. 6 afternoon they’d be a legitimate contender to reach their third straight Super Bowl even without the

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) misses a catch against Minnesota Vikings cornerback Trae Waynes (26) during the second half of an NFL wild-card football game, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis.

(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks needed more than three quarters to warm up at Minnesota.

Then, the Vikings kicked away their chance to beat the two-time defending NFC champions.

Blair Walsh’s 27-yard field goal try into the frigid wind hooked left with 22 seconds remaining, handing the Seahawks a 10-9 victory over the stunned Vikings on a Sunday afternoon in their wild-card round playoff game in below-zero weather that tied for the third-coldest NFL game on record.

The Seahawks (11-6) didn’t score until Russell Wilson’s short touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin early in the fourth quarter, and a fumble by Adrian Peterson for the Vikings on the next possession set up a field goal

by Steven Hauschka.

The Vikings (11-6) took the ball back with 1:42 left at their 39 and, aided by a pass interference penalty on Kam Chancellor, drove deep into Seattle’s territory.

After draining the clock for the seemingly inevitable

win, Walsh missed the winner. He made all three of his earlier attempts.

Seattle will play next weekend at Carolina, where the Panthers had a firstround bye in balmy mid-50s weather.

Huddled around sideline heaters and wearing huge capes, the Seahawks sideline on the shaded side of the stadium was a largely lethargic place for much of the game. Trailing 9-0, Wilson nearly took a huge loss on first down when he fumbled a shotgun snap.

But the quarterback who Vikings coach Mike Zimmer called “Houdini” during the week darted right and found Tyler Lockett wide open for a 35-yard completion to set up the score to Baldwin.

Chancellor, who ripped the ball away from Peterson, quickly became the goat after his penalty and subsequent missed tackle on tight end Kyle Rudolph’s 24-yard reception to the 18. But Chancellor and all of his “Legion of Boom” buddies were amazingly celebrating a few seconds later after Walsh’s miss.

ear-splitting advantage of their home by the bay at CenturyLink Field.

For all their skills, experience and swagger, though, the combination of these conditions and a well-prepared, embarrassed-bythe-previous-performance Vikings team proved to be quite the challenge for the Seahawks.

This was a fittingly frigid fin-

ish for Minnesota’s two-year stint outdoors at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium during construction of the new covered downtown stadium. For the first au naturel postseason game here since the NFC championship game in 1976, the grizzled coach of that team, Bud Grant, served as an honorary captain. q

20 SPORTS

Monday 11 January 2016

Raonic wins Brisbane title, reversing 2015 result v Federer JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Milos Raonic got one back on Roger Federer to start the new season. After losing coach Ivan Ljubicic to the Federer camp leading into 2016, Raonic achieved something nobody else born in the 1990s has managed to do against the 17time major winner — beat him twice.

The 25-year-old Canadian broke Federer’s serve once in each set of a 6-4, 6-4 win on Sunday night in the Brisbane International decider, reversing the outcome of their meeting in last year’s final at the Australian Open warmup tournament.

Ljubicic was in Federer’s corner for the final. Carlos Moya, who will join Raonic’s coaching crew, doesn’t arrive in Australia until next week.

He’s got a good base to work off, starting with Raonic’s eighth career title and only his second win in 11 matches against Federer.

It was a boost coming off a troubled end to 2015, when Raonic missed the last three weeks with a back problem, having missed the French Open earlier in the season with a foot injury, parted company with

Milos Raonic of Canada reacts after winning his men’s final match against Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4 during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016.

(AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Ljubicic and finished out of the top 10.

“It does great things — it signifies within the team how concrete and good the work we’re doing is,” Raonic said of his win. “At the same time, with the difficulties I’ve had last year, it’s maybe a good way for me to show the other guys

I will face going in Melbourne, you know, I’ve got my stuff back together and I can play some good tennis again.”

Raonic attacked top-seeded Federer with his booming serve and forehand, as expected, but also went to the net 13 times in the first set and won 10 of those

points to put him on course for the win.

Federer, who went 6-5 in finals in 2015 — with all five losses coming to topranked Novak Djokovic — struggled earlier in the week with lingering flu-like symptoms, but improved with four matches in four days, including wins over Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals and Dominic Thiem in the semis.

He started strongly, adding some power to his serve and trying to work the taller Raonic around the court, but couldn’t make the strategy pay off. Federer said Raonic had expanded the dimensions of his game and was tactically more astute than he had been in previous seasons.

Raonic “did well. It was a tough match — (my) legs were a little bit wobbly,” Federer said. “Still, considering the week I’ve had, I’m actually quite happy. That’s why I’m not down or anything or disappointed. “If I would’ve known I would’ve made the finals five days ago I would’ve been unbelievably happy.”

Federer planned to head to Melbourne and rest for a few days before getting into his fine-tuning for the Australian Open, which

On the Green:

Stone claims maiden Euro Tour victory at SA Open

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Brandon Stone won the South African Open on Sunday for his maiden European Tour title, becoming the youngest player to win the event since it joined the tour schedule in 1997.

The 22-year-old South African finished with a rollercoaster round of 71 that had seven birdies and also six bogeys, but it was still enough for a two-shot win over fellow home player

Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Stone finished 14 under par at Glendower Golf Club in a tournament that was interrupted by stormy weather, forcing the first three rounds to be suspended and carried over to the following day.

Stone was in tears after completing victory at golf’s second oldest national open after the British Open.

He held a five-shot lead at one point but had to fight

in the end to hold off Bezuidenhout’s late charge.

Bezuidenhout finished with a superb 5-under 67 to nearly steal victory at the end. Englishman Daniel Brooks, who was tied for the lead with Stone when the third round was suspended on Saturday, closed with a 72 to finish 11 under and three shots behind Stone in third. Brooks held a twoshot lead with nine holes to play, but couldn’t keep

that momentum.

Stone only claimed his first professional victory late last year on the South African Sunshine Tour.

He appeared to have blown his chances at Glendower with a run of three straight bogeys and four dropped shots in five holes approaching the turn on Sunday. He shrugged that off to collect four birdies in five holes from No. 12 and finished par-par to win.

starts Jan. 18.

“The good thing is the offseason was great. I have a base there,” Federer said, “so I think within three, four days I should be back at 100 percent.”

The match was on serve until the ninth game when Federer served a doublefault to give Raonic a breakpoint chance and then netted a forehand.

Raonic served out the first set, but needed a medical timeout for treatment on his right leg three games into the second.

He fired a succession of double-faults in the next game, giving Federer a breakpoint opportunity, but managed to hold to level the set at 2-2. In the next game, after leading 30-0, Federer gave Raonic another breakpoint chance when he skewed just wide with a forehand down the line and then conceded the break when he netted a backhand.

Raonic didn’t have any trouble holding from there, and wrapped up the match in 1 hour, 27 minutes.

“Hopefully, a better year this year than last,” said Raonic, who reached the quarterfinals at the last Australian Open but didn’t progress past the third round at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open after skipping the French Open with injury. “It was tough. To see myself slip a little bit, even though I knew it was not necessarily strictly to my tennis level but outside things, those things were hard to accept ... and in some ways also depressing to deal with.

“Every single year until now my ranking had been going up. That’s the thing I was most proud of. To see that slip was hard to accept and also very motivating.”

SPORTS A21

Monday 11 January 2016

Buck Hill ski kids Vonn, Ankeny score big in World Cup races

Lindsey Vonn speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women’s World Cup super-G, in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016.

(AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — On a great day for

World Cup skiers who grew up at little Buck Hill, Lindsey Vonn got her 73rd win and Michael Ankeny scored his

first race points.

They were big achievements — at opposite ends of Alpine skiing’s scale in

two neighboring European countries — that shared proud Minnesota roots.

“It means a lot,” Ankeny told The Associated Press after finally getting his name on the World Cup standings with a 21st-place finish in a slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland.

Vonn recalled Sunday that Ankeny used to race against her younger brother, Reed, on the Buck Hill slope.

“I’m really happy for Michael!” Vonn said in a statement provided by the U.S. ski team.

“It’s amazing to see yet another talented skier come out of (coach) Erich Sailer’s program.”

Ankeny made his World Cup debut in 2011 but broke through Sunday after topping the overall and slalom standings on the

Kristoffersen edges Hirscher again to win World Cup slalom GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — Henrik Kristoffersen won another duel with Marcel Hirscher in a World Cup slalom on Sunday to extend his lead in the standings.

The Norwegian racer edged Austrian Hirscher by .06 seconds as they combined to finish 1-2 for the fourth straight World Cup slalom this season.

“If we keep switching places the whole season then I

will be pretty happy,” said Kristoffersen, who has beaten Hirscher three times with just one loss.

Aleksander Khoroshilov of Russia, the first-run leader, was third, trailing .60 behind Kristoffersen’s two-run time of 1 minute, 51.34 seconds.

The same three racers filled the podium places on Wednesday at Santa Caterina, Italy, where Hirscher got his only slalom win this season.

Still, Hirscher extended his lead in the overall standings as he seeks a fifth straight title.

Fog shrouded the course and hid second-run racers cresting the hill into the steep final section from the view of fans in the finish area.

Kristoffersen came into the picture slicing through the gates faster than anyone to make up time he lost on the darker and foggy top section.

“From the last pitch down, I skied really good in the second run,” said the 21-yearold racer. His seventh career World Cup win was his sixth in slalom as he replaces Felix Neureuther of Germany as Hirscher’s biggest rival in the technical discipline.

Racing started in the morning despite fog and falling snow on a course judged unsafe for Saturday’s giant slalom, which was canceled.q

second-tier Nor-Am Cup circuit last year.

“I’ve been struggling a lot,” he said. “This is just a huge confidence booster.”

Ankeny’s points-scoring two runs on the historic Swiss slope started either side of Vonn’s victory dash down the super-G course at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee in Austria.

Vonn swept the weekend speed races one day after her record-matching 36th career win in World Cup downhills.

Not bad for a graduate of Buck Hill where Vonn started as a pure slalom skier on slopes with little vertical drop.

“It’s really fun to see Lindsey destroying the competition and setting records,” said Ankeny, who is six years younger than Vonn and stayed with slalom.

Ankeny describes their childhood slopes — “about 100 meters (300 feet) long and pretty flat” — as a good grounding.

“It makes you really fast and able to generate speed. That’s an advantage,” he said.

Last month, Vonn also credited Buck Hill for helping her to a rare World Cup giant slalom win under floodlights at Are, Sweden.

“When I was a kid I always trained under the lights after school,” said Vonn, who came from Burnsville while Ankeny is a native of Deephaven. q

A22

Monday 11 January 2016

Italian Roundup:

SPORTS

Napoli takes its 1st winter title since 1990 championship

ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer ROME (AP) — Napoli is halfway to its first Serie A title since Diego Maradona led the club to the 1990 championship.

Gonzalo Higuain scored twice as Napoli routed promoted Frosinone 5-1 Sunday to earn the southern team the Italian league’s symbolic “winter title.”

Through 19 rounds of the 38-match season, Napoli

holds a two-point lead over Inter Milan, which was beaten 1-0 by Sassuolo earlier with a last-minute penalty to surrender the lead.

The winter champion has gone on to win Serie A nearly seven out of every 10 seasons.

“We’re still not sure what we’re capable of,” Napoli’s first-year manager Maurizio Sarri said.

The last time Napoli earned the mid-term honor came

in 1990.

“Being winter champion means nothing. It means something when you’re champion in May,” Higuain said. “We’ve got to stay calm now because there are still five months to go and we want to continue this way.”

Raul Albiol put Napoli ahead from close range midway through the first half when Frosinone goalkeeper Massimo Zappino

appeared blinded by the sun.

Higuain added a penalty on the half-hour mark, Marek Hamsik then scored his third goal in three matches with an impressive solo move after the break, before Higuain dribbled past three defenders to score his league-best 18th.

Substitute Manolo Gabbiadini added another for Napoli with a shot from beyond the area and Paolo

Sammarco then pulled one back for Frosinone, a club located midway between Rome and Naples.

Earlier, Domenico Berardi converted the decisive spot kick for Sassuolo five minutes into added time after Inter defender Joao Miranda was shown a yellow card for a foul on Gregoire Defrel.

Fiorentina is third, three points behind, after losing 3-1 to Lazio on Saturday.q

English Roundup:

Swansea ousted in 1st big FA Cup shock, Spurs secure replay

Tottenham’s Harry Kanescores a penalty to equalise during the English FA Cup third round soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City at White Hart Lane in London, Sunday Jan. 10, 2016.

(AP Photo/Tim Ireland)

STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Swansea was humbled by fourth-tier Oxford for the first big shock of the FA Cup third round, while Tot-

tenham needed an 89thminute penalty from Harry Kane to salvage a 2-2 draw against Leicester on Sunday.

Chelsea endured thirdround humiliation at the

hands of lower-league opposition in Bradford last season but had no problems 12 months on, with a full-strength team beating third-tier Scunthorpe 2-0 through goals by Diego

Costa and Ruben LoftusCheek. The world’s oldest knockout competition was short of upsets on Saturday and an injury-hit Liverpool scrambled to secure a nervy draw at Exeter on Friday. But a surprise finally arrived at Kassam Stadium, where Oxford won 3-2 to leave Swansea to concentrate on its relegation fight in the Premier League.

Fifty-four places separated the teams in the English football pyramid and Ecuador winger Jefferson Montero gave an indication of the supposed difference in class by backheeling the visitors into the lead in the 23rd minute.

However, Oxford scored three goals in 14 minutes either side of the halftime break, and Bafetimbi Gomis’ 66th-minute reply proved only a consolation for Swansea.

Swansea came unstuck after making 10 changes to its lineup — a move made by many Premier League managers this weekend to

deal with fixture congestion and to give first-team action to fringe players.

“All credit to Oxford, they were more energetic than us and passed the ball better,” Swansea manager Alan Curtis said. “We made changes but we still had lots of experience, but Oxford thoroughly deserved to beat us.” Oxford won the League Cup in 1986 and was most recently in England’s top division in 1988, before dropping down the leagues and tumbling into the non-league in 2006.

“I’ve got to be delighted beating a Premier League side — but not just that, it’s the way we did it,” Oxford manager Michael Appleton said.

Four Premier League teams were eliminated Saturday, but only after losing to fellow top-flight sides. It looked like Spurs would be joining them, only to earn a reprieve when Leicester winger Nathen Dyer flicked out his hand to divert the ball away.q

French Roundup:

Sigthorsson gives Nantes 2-1 win over Saint-Etienne

SAM PETREQUIN AP Sports Writer PARIS (AP) — Iceland forward Kolbeinn Sigthorsson silenced his detractors when he scored with 13 minutes left to give Nantes a 2-1 win over Saint-Etienne in the French league on Sunday.

Sigthorsson, who joined

from Ajax Amsterdam last summer, has been criticized by Nantes coach Michel Der Zakarian for his poor performances and perceived lack of commitment at training, with the possibility of a move during the transfer window being discussed.

But the Icelander came off

the bench and took advantage of a poor clearance from Florentin Pogba just seven minutes later to score his second goal of the season with a rightfooted volley.

“Some players were below the level we expected,” Der Zakarian said. “It’s now up to them to show their

qualities and ensure we make a better second half of the season.”

Sigthorsson’s goal rewarded a long spell of dominance for Nantes, which was denied the chance to extend its lead in the 86th minute after the tall striker headed the ball for substitute Alejandro Bedoya,

whose attempt forced goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier to save with his left foot.

The win at the Stade de La Beaujoire ended a sevengame winless run in the league and lifted Nantes to 10th place, two points behind Saint-Etienne, which slumped to a sixth consecutive away defeat.q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Monday 11 January 2016

From the high-flying to the practical: CES 2016 in brief and Western Europe by 2018.

Bao Truong looks at a display of Samsung SUHD Quantum dot display TVs at the Samsung booth during CES International, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Las Vegas.

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

RYAN NAKASHIMA KIM PIERCEALL TOM KRISHER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — This year’s CES gadget show, like ones before it, showed off a mix of the dreamy and the practical in technology. Gadget prototypes promised us fully autonomous vehicles carrying commuters on the streets and in the sky, while gizmos went on sale that aimed to solve daily problems like restocking your fridge. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights of CES 2016: DRONES Drones might no longer be just a toy for hobbyists or weapons for the military. Chinese drone maker Ehang Inc. unveiled what it called the world’s first drone capable of carrying a human passenger, a four-armed quadcopter with eight propellers that it said has been on more than 100 test flights, including some with a human passenger.

The idea is to set a course and then sit back for about a 20-minute ride — assuming, of course, that regulators approve, which will probably be a long haul

itself.

Companies are making drones smaller and smarter than ever for that high-tech selfie. Many can hover and shoot up to 4K video, and several companies are working toward including a more difficult “follow me” function into drones so small they fall under the minimum weight requiring registration by the Federal Aviation Administration.

CONNECTED CARS Automakers and parts suppliers took further steps to make autonomous driving a reality. Quanergy, for instance, announced a low-cost version of laserbased sensors called Lidar that cuts the cost of outfitting autos with the technology to around $1,000 per car from about $70,000.

Israeli company Mobileye and German company Here announced plans to start making super-detailed road maps based on cameras and sensors that exist in cars today. Those maps will help autonomous vehicles navigate in poor weather. Owned by Audi, BMW and Mercedes, Here said it plans to have detailed maps of the highway networks in North America

TVs TV makers like Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL touted a new standard for screens called HDR, or high dynamic range, which show images with higher contrast and more vivid colors. The new tech creates another chicken-andegg problem for the TV industry, as only a handful of movies and TV shows have been reissued in a format that takes advantage of HDR. There are also disparate standards that might end up confusing consumers; some flavors of HDR are branded “premium” while others only processed HDR signals but don’t relay all the benefits to the screen.

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY Some companies showed off technology that combined augmented reality — which superimposes digital images and text on the real world — and virtual reality — which blocks out the real world in a completely immersive environment using a headset and headphones.

HTC says it’s launching the latest version of its Vive headset with a front-facing camera that allows users to do real-life things like take a drink or sit down without taking it off. A start-

up called uSens showed off a prototype headset attached to a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone that had forward-facing infrared and optical cameras so wearers could use their hands to manipulate virtual objects.

Google and Lenovo announced a consumer mobile device would go on sale this summer that incorporatestechnology from its depth-sensing Project Tango robotic sight technology. That could make it easy to do things like get turn-by-turn directions indoors or measure dimensions in a room just by using the device’s cameras.

But the biggest news was the sticker-shock of Oculus’ consumer version of its Rift headset, which the com-

pany priced at $599 — or $1,499 with the high-powered computer necessary to make it work. Facebookowned Oculus began taking orders Wednesday for delivery starting at the end of March.

SMART HOME More intelligent home appliances that can tell people how well they’re sleeping, order more dishwasher detergent and know how much ketchup is likely left in the bottle were among the gadgets on display at CES. Segway, the maker of the two-wheel transporters popular with city tour guide companies, hopes that by next year people might add a personal robot to their homes to carry the groceries home.q

A24 BUSINESS

Monday 11 January 2016

Wall Street Review: Why US stocks ended 2015 mostly flat

ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer The stock market took investors for a wild ride in 2015, but in the end it was a trip to nowhere.

Despite veering between

more.”

The market got 2015 off to a slow start as investors worried about falling crude oil prices, flat earnings growth and when and how quickly the Federal Reserve would

Weak company earnings, largely due to the strong dollar and falling oil prices, didn’t do much for the market’s confidence.

By August, the anxiety had deepened and the market

Trader Peter Tuchman, foreground right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The stock market took investors for a wild ride in 2015, but in the end it was a trip to nowhere.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

record highs and the steepest dive in four years, the stock market is on track to end the year essentially flat.

That means if you invested in a fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, you have little to show for the past 12 months.

“It’s been mildly disappointing,” said Michael Baele, managing director at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank. “Any time that you come in toward the end of the year close to flat you always want a little bit

begin raising interest rates.

By May, the major indexes were hitting new highs.

Even the Nasdaq bested its dot-com high-water mark set in March 2000.

The market didn’t stay in milestone territory for long, though.

Worries about slowing growth in China and elsewhere gave reason for the Fed to pause and for investors to fret, even as the U.S. economy continued to create jobs and consumer confidence improved.

dropped sharply. The three major U.S. indexes went into a correction, commonly defined as a loss of at least 10 percent from a recent peak, for the first time in four years.

That slide didn’t last long, either.

Within several weeks, the market had mostly bounced back. The Nasdaq composite returned to positive territory for the year, while the Dow average and S&P 500 remained slightly in the red until De-

cember.

In the weeks that followed, the S&P 500 inched back into positive territory, leaving the Dow as the only major market indicator negative for the year.

Including dividends, the S&P 500 is on track to return 2 percent, following a return of 13.7 percent in 2014.

“There was a lot of news that kept hitting the market and the market kept shrugging it all off and hung in there,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. “I’d say, given all that the market faced this year, it was pretty strong.”

These were some of the key factors driving markets in 2015:

WAITING FOR THE FED Wall Street watched few things more closely this year than the Federal Reserve. Traders had been predicting early on that the central bank would begin raising its benchmark interest rate as early as March.

When that didn’t happen, investors turned their focus to June, only to be disappointed again.

Eventually, in December, the Fed took action.

It nudged its benchmark overnight borrowing rate higher, its first increase in interest rates in nearly a decade.

The Fed made it clear that it was expressing a vote of confidence in the U.S. economy by doing so and that future increases would be gradual. That helped reassure investors that the Fed wouldn’t raise rates too

Report:

Holiday shopping online spurred by mobile sales MAE ANDERSON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — It was the year smartphones saved Santa.

As expected, numbers out late last week from research firm comScore confirmed mobile shopping, which includes smartphones and tablets, jumped in November and December, spurring on holiday retail sales this year.

Online shoppers are in-

creasingly comfortable with shopping on smartphones as screen sizes get larger and shopping apps get better.

“I believe that we’ve seen a paradigm shift in 2016 where the future of retail will increasingly be defined by consumers’ behavior on mobile,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni.

Total online spending during November and De-

cember rose 13 percent to $69.08 billion from $61.29 billion last year, slightly short of the 14 percent rise comScore, based in Reston, Va., was expecting.

Spending on desktops rose 6 percent to $56.43 billion, short of comScore’s expectations of an 8 percent rise to $58.3 billion.

But mobile commerce helped make up some of that shortfall. Shopping on smartphones and tab-

lets jumped 59 percent to $12.65 billion, well above the 47 percent rise comScore was expecting.

Mobile commerce accounted for 18 percent of total online spending, up from 13 percent last year.

Cyber Monday, Nov. 30, was once again the top spending day of the year with more than $2 billion in desktop buying for the second year in a row.q

quickly and thereby stunt the economy’s growth.

“It really was central banks looming large over the market,” Baele said. “The market had a fair amount of fear that the Fed raising rates was a risk to the market. It’s turned around now.”

CORRECTION ARRIVES The bull market had racked up six years of annual gains by the time the calendars turned to 2015.

The last time it had a correction was 2011. Historically, that’s an unusually long time for the market to go without a meaningful pullback. That plus a string of record highs in late 2014 led many to think the market was overdue a drop.

The long-awaited correction finally arrived in August. Late in the month indexes dropped sharply as investors worried that a slowdown in China’s huge economy could spread to other countries.

Yet after an 11 percent plunge between Aug. 17 and 25, and another, less steep drop in late September, the market began to struggle higher. By late November it had recouped all the losses from its late summer swoon.

Once investors determined that China’s slowdown would not spillover to the U.S. and European economies, “then we had a very rapid recovery from that very sharp decline,” Jeremy Zirin, chief equities strategist at UBS Wealth Management Americas.

EARNINGS DRAG A big reason why the market finished flat in 2015 is that company earnings growth has also been largely flat.

That was due primarily to the impact of falling oil prices on energy sector earnings. Also, the rapid appreciation of the dollar constrained earnings for companies that do a lot of business overseas.

As a result, earnings growth for companies in the S&P 500 index went from 7 percent in 2014 to essentially zero in 2015.q

BUSINESS A25

Monday 11 January 2016

Don’t get suckered: Last year’s fund winners often break bad

US Survey:

STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — It’s tempting to look at which mutual funds did best in 2015 and just invest in those. Winners win, right?

Not in the investing world. It’s tough for funds to stay on top, and last year’s winners regularly turn into this year’s losers.

Look at what happened to the handful of index and actively managed mutual funds that returned 40 percent or more in 2014. Their returns towered over the 14 percent that a Standard & Poor’s 500 index fund produced.

But seven of the 10 went on to lose money the following year. You would have had a slightly better chance of making money in 2015 by picking a fund at random.

The figures dovetail with a raft of studies that suggest investors should consider much more than just past performance when choosing funds.

It turns out that even when funds perform well over long periods, compared with similar funds, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.

A study released by Morningstar this week looked at fund returns in 14 categories, going back to 1996.

It identified which high-yield bond funds were in the top 20 percent for the five years through 2001, then checked to see how they performed over the ensuing five years against the funds that had been in the bottom 20 percent.

The researchers found only small differences in ensuing success for the top and bottom funds in most categories, as long as the time frame was longer than a year.

“Even the best managers generally do not consistently outperform,” the researchers wrote in their report.

“Those who lack the patience to stick with an active manager through multiyear rough patches may be better off in a low-cost index fund.”

S&P Dow Jones Indices, meanwhile, keeps its own scorecard of how many mutual-fund managers are able to stay in the top quartile or even top half of their categories. Its verdict: very few.

Of the 539 funds that ranked in the top half of largecompany funds in the year through March 2011, 52 percent repeated the feat the following year. That’s only slightly better than a coin flip.

How many of those 539 funds were able to remain in the top half for five consecutive years? Less than 5 percent.

The difficulty fund managers have in staying on top serves as a reminder to resist the temptation to hop from one fad to another. Investors are notorious for chasing after whatever’s performing well and fleeing whatever’s struggling.

In other words, they often buy high and sell low, and it’s why investors often have worse returns than the funds they invest in do.

The largest actively managed stock fund, American Funds’ Growth Fund of America, returned an annualized 7.2 percent over the decade through 2015, for example.

That’s how much investors would have made if they bought at the start of that decade and then simply held it. But most investors didn’t do that. Instead, many bought more shares when performance was good and sold when performance lagged. That means the average investor in the fund got a 5.3 percent annual return over the decade, according to Morningstar.

Investors should also look to keep their fund expenses low. A fund with high fees has to perform much better just to match the performance of a low-fee fund. q

C. S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses stepped up hiring last month, led by solid gains in construction and retail, a private survey found.

Payroll processor ADP said

Businesses add 257K jobs, most in a year until the end of the year.

Moody’s Analytics, which helps compile the data, seeks to adjust the numbers to account for the annual “purge,” but isn’t always able to do so fully.

As a result, December’s ADP report tends to be one

several other recent reports suggested the economy slowed at the end of last year. Manufacturing activity contracted for the second straight month in December, as factories cut back sharply on hiring, the Institute for Supply Man-

Sasha Vitalis, left, talks about job opportunities to job seeker Omar Delgado at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. Payroll processor ADP said last week that companies added 257,000 jobs in December, the most in a year.

(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

last week that companies added 257,000 jobs in December, the most in a year.

Construction companies added 24,000 jobs, while retailers and shipping firms added 38,000.

The figures suggest that employers are still hiring at a healthy pace, even as overseas economic weakness and the strong dollar have hit U.S. manufacturing. Factories added just 2,000 jobs last month, ADP said. Yet some economists were skeptical of the figure, because many companies don’t drop laid-off workers from their payrolls

of the highest each year.

Most economists continue to forecast that Friday’s government report will show employers added about 200,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent.

“We don’t view the data as strong evidence that payrolls will exceed expectations on Friday,” said Jim O’Sullivan, the chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

The ADP survey covers only private businesses and frequently diverges from the government’s data.

ADP’s figures come after

agement said on Monday.

Construction spending also dropped for the first time in 17 months in November, as builders pulled back on new hotels and other commercial projects.

And fewer people signed contracts to buy homes in November, evidence that home sales cooled off this winter after decent sales gains earlier last year.

Those reports caused economists at JPMorgan Chase to cut their forecast for growth in the OctoberDecember quarter to an annual rate of 1 percent, from 2 percent. q

Food price rise pushes China inflation up 1.6% BEIJING (AP) — China’s consumer inflation edged up 1.6 percent in December year on year as food prices rose, official data showed this weekend.

The inflation rate reported by the National Bureau of Statistics was up from November’s 1.5 percent and was driven by a 1.5 percent increase in food prices. The price of fresh vegetables jumped 13.7 percent and fresh fruits went up 2.3 percent.

Consumer inflation had been drifting down after hitting 2 percent in August.

Relatively low inflation has given Chinese leaders room to cut interest rates six times since November 2014 to stimulate the slowing economy.

Saturday’s data showed that consumer prices were up 1.4 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year, also pushed by higher food prices. Pork prices jumped year on year

by 9.5 percent and fresh vegetables went up 7.4 percent.

The year’s rise was well below the official target of 3 percent, and lower than 2 percent growth in 2014.

Producer prices, measured as goods that leave the factory, declined by 5.9 percent in December from a year earlier, extending a long period of declines due to excess production capacity in many industries.q

A26 COMICS

Monday 11 January 2016

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Monday 11 January 2016

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A28 SCIENCE

Monday 11 January 2016

All the winter’s a weird weather stage; Here are the players SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Get ready for weather whiplash as powerful climatic forces elbow each other for starring roles in a weird winter show.

The spine-chilling polar vortex is taking center stage in Europe and bringing persistent cold to much of North America — except in Hollywood, where soggy El Nino won’t give up the spotlight.

El Nino delivered a balmy Christmas Eve to the eastern U.S. and shattered national records with a warm, wet and wild December, but meteorologists say the situation is about to change.

“The biggest thing is this whiplash,” said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado.

“It’s going to be a shock for people.”

The center of the cold blast starts this weekend in the U.S. in the upper Midwest, and then moves to the Hudson Bay area next week, while in Europe it starts in the east and north and then spreads, Furtado said. Europe may have to get used to temperatures 20 or so degrees below normal.

“Temperature will be dominated by the impact of the polar vortex,” said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast chief for the private Atmospheric and Environmental Research company outside Boston. It will feel similar to 2013 and 2014, he said.

Americans became painfully familiar with the polar vortex during those winters.

This time, America’s winter temperatures will depend on when the wet and warm El Nino pushes itself back to prominence, Furtado said.

“We have all of these large and unusual events happening all at the same time and I don’t think it has ever happened before,” said Rutgers University climate

scientist Jennifer Francis.

For a winter this dramatic, it may help to consult the program: THE CAST The star is El Nino, a veteran of this stage for a few decades now. This natural warming of the central tropical Pacific occurs every two to seven years or

the cold Arctic air escapes and plunges into lower latitudes, treating the United States and Europe to the polar vortex — a swirling air mass that carries spinechilling temperatures.

The North Atlantic Oscillation is a bit player with a big influence over Europe’s weather. As with its Arctic cousin, the more negative

Pacific, unusually low sea ice levels in the Arctic’s Barents Kara sea area; a cool patch of water off Greenland, likely from melting ice sheets and glaciers; winter storm Frank that hit England; and of course manmade climate change.

ACT ONE This was last month. El Nino

Flagstaff resident Ruth Tilman sweeps off her car after a storm in Flagstaff, Ariz. on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. A series of El Nino-related storms dumped heavy snow on the region.

(AP Photo/Josh Biggs)

so, and changes weather worldwide, especially in the Americas and Asia. It is closely associated with heavy rain in California, and general warming. It has less effect in Europe because that’s further away.

With its flipside, La Nina, it is known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and it lasts about a year.

Playing off against El Nino is the Arctic Oscillation, and its index measures differences in atmospheric pressure between the Arctic and mid-latitudes. When the AO is positive in the winter, polar air stays trapped up north and the weather is relatively mild further south.

When the AO is negative,

its index, the colder the continent becomes.

The jet streams also are important to watch. These rivers of air heavily influence local weather everywhere, carrying storms and clearing skies around the planet.

Usually in the winter, the jet stream that affects most people in the United States and Europe moves relatively straight from west to east. But when it weakens, it can plunge south and north and even get stuck at times, creating odd extremes.

Still other characters may be a factor in making the jet streams oscillate more wildly: A huge blob of warm water in the northern

appeared in classic form, tying 1997-1998 for the strongest on record. The Arctic Oscillation was very positive, trapping cold air in northern latitudes. With so many warm, wet days further south, spring flowers popped up and trees bloomed in December.

“It’s not surprising we were 70 degrees on Christmas Day,” said Mike Halpert of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

El Nino often spawns winter tornadoes in the southern U.S. and they appeared on cue, killing two dozen people in just four days. The

heavy rain that flooded the Mississippi River Valley isn’t usually an El Nino signature though, Cohen said.

ACT TWO The switch flipped: The Arctic Oscillation and its North Atlantic sidekick went negative big time.

“When it’s a negative AO, that’s when people start mentioning the words ‘polar vortex’,” Halpert said.

This time, there’s cold air, but it’s mostly dry so far, despite El Nino, which still spawns a series of rainstorms hitting California.

Meteorologists say wetter weather could bring heavy snowstorms, but that’s not likely for another week or more, although cities along the Great Lakes may get lake effect snow.

So far the east-moving moisture from El Nino is staying south of the Arctic plunge, but that may change.

For now, the AO is dominating in its fight with El Nino, especially in Europe, Cohen said. NFL players and fans will likely brave temperatures around one below zero in Minneapolis.

ACT THREE No spoilers here. Will the polar vortex hold the stage for weeks or months? Will the cold AO and wet El Nino combine for whopper snowstorms?

Rutgers’ Francis doesn’t think the moisture and the cold can keep avoiding each other, saying “we’re going to have major major dumps of snow. We just don’t know where.”

Furtado predicts El Nino will push aside the cold in America, but not in Europe, where it has less of an influence. Cohen is less certain about what will happen as these forces morph and interact over time.

“There’s a lot going on; the weather has been crazy,” Cohen said. “Expect the unexpected.”q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Monday 11 January 2016

Contenders talk BAFTAs, Globes and Oscars at tea time MIKE LENNOX AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many of the film and TV industry award season’s principal players gathered Saturday afternoon for a spot of tea and talked a little business.

The semiannual event, sponsored by the Los Angeles branch of the British Academy of Film and TelevisionArts (BAFTA), is held the day before each Emmy and Golden Globe ceremony, and it usually attracts many of each award show’s top contenders. Among tea attendees this weekend were actors Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”) and Mark Ruffalo (“Spotlight”), actresses Alicia Vikander (“The Danish Girl,” ‘’Ex Machina”) and Cate Blanchett (“Carol”).

A large presence of the “Carol” cast and crew was no surprise, given the period romance tied the historical drama-thriller “Bridge of Spies” in BAFTA nominations, announced Friday.

Each film earned nine nods. Such big recognition coming now from BAFTA is significant given that award-season spoils have been distributed among a wider than usual array of films, said “Carol” co-producer Stephen Woolley.

“It’s a fantastic thumbs-up for us,” he said. “And it will mean a lot, I think, to the more discerning voters across America, whether it’s the American Academy or the DGAs (Directors Guild Awards) or any of those awards still to come.”

Irish actress Caitriona Balfe, in Los Angeles to attend the

Globes, expressed gratitude to the Globe organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), for acknowledging the Starz TV drama “Outlander” with three nominations.

Though an international ratings hit, the series is a science-fiction romance -a genre piece, the sort that has historically been overlooked by awards groups.

“Well, very easily you can be pigeonholed,” Balfe said.

“It’s hard to sort of break through the ceiling.”

Veteran American actor Jeffrey Tambor also tipped his hat to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for being among the first to honor his series, the transgender dramedy “Transparent,” which went on to win the Emmy for outstanding comedy series.

“This year, it’s just wonderful because we are still the little engine that could,” Tambor said. “You know, there’s film and there’s television. And way over there in Alhambra: streaming. It’s still a little thing.”

Cate Blanchett arrives at the BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party at the Four Seasons Hotel on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Los Angeles.

(Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

“Transparent” can only be seen online, by subscribers of Amazon Prime.

Once the closing credits roll on the Globes, the awardseason attention turns to the Academy of Motion PictureArts and Sciences, whose Oscar nominations

will be unveiled Thursday.

While there seem to be numerous best-picture givens, such as the widely honored “Spotlight,” ‘’Carol” and “The Big Short,” many pundits have said they expect the unexpected.

Actor Demetrius Grosse,

part of the ensemble of the acclaimed hip-hop film “Straight Outta Compton,” said, “I think we could get the nomination for best picture. You know, let’s be very honest. The Academy is made up of mostly old white men.

Record-breaking ‘Star Wars’ movie opens in China LOUISE WATT Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — The record-breaking “Star Wars” opened this weekend in China, where it is far from certain to draw in enough moviegoers to knock off “Avatar” as the world’s alltime biggest grossing movie.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is the highest ever grossing film in the North American market, where it

was released three weeks ago.

But internationally, it still has a long way to go to beat “Avatar,” James Cameron’s science-fiction movie with blue aliens. The international box office of the latest “Star Wars” movie stands at $1.6 billion, compared to the $2.8 billion “Avatar” made in 2009.

Richard Huang, an analyst at Nomura Securities, expects the movie to roughly

match the $229 million in Chinese box-office sales that “Jurassic World” generated last year.

Not many Chinese are familiar with “Star Wars.” The franchise’s three prequel films released from 1999 to 2005 were shown in China, but at a time when there were much fewer screens in the country.

Promotional events organized by Disney in the months leading up to the

release included the placing of 500 Stormtrooper figures on the steps of the Great Wall and the illumination of the movie’s Chinese title on the guard towers for a light show in October.

It enlisted the marketing power of actor and singer Lu Han, who appeared in promotional videos and released a music video on Thursday called “The Inner Force” with images from the film.

A30 PEOPLE

Monday 11 January 2016

& ARTS

TV Critics Watch:

ABC Family network prepping to become Freeform network

DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A roundup of news Saturday from the Television Critics Association winter meeting, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on upcoming programs: PUPPETRY “The Muppets” is undergo-

ing a heart transplant before it comes back on ABC. The network had high hopes for the adult-oriented comedy featuring the famed puppets on its fall schedule, but it fell flat. Co-creator Bob Kushell has been replaced by a new backstage chief, Kristin Newman, and it is being revamped for its return after a

winter hiatus, said Paul Lee, president of the ABC Entertainment Group.

“We didn’t quite feel it had the joy, the laughter and the heart that we were hoping for,” Lee said.

BUCK’S BACK

Freeform network on Tuesday.

Most attention has been paid to the removal of “Family” in the name change. “Family” was deemed unhip for the Disney-owned network

up.

BOTTOMS UP Actress Alexis Carra is moving directly from “Mixology,” a short-lived ABC sitcom whose setting is one night in a Manhattan bar,

Actors Dominic Sherwood, from left, Katherine McNamara, left, and Emeraude Toubia participate in the “Shadowhunters” panel at the Freeform 2016 Winter TCA on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif.

(Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Makers of the upcoming ABC comedy “Uncle Buck” brushed aside concerns that the series could make some black viewers uncomfortable about stereotyping.

The series, due on ABC sometime this spring, is a remake of the 1989 movie of the same name. The late John Candy starred in the film as a lazy, hustler-type character called on by his more responsible brother to take care of his kids in an emergency. ABC’s remake has an all-black cast, with Mike Epps featured in the lead role.

“Believe it or not, there’s an Uncle Buck in every race,” Epps said.

The series has two white executive producers, Steve Cragg and Brian Bradley.

Bradley said more than half of the series’ staff is composed of minorities.

FREEFORM The ABC Family network is pointedly getting rid of the “ABC” in its name when it makes the transition to the

that is focused on reaching women aged 18 to 34, or the group in between “their first kiss and first kid,” said network chief Tom Ascheim.

The sense of discovering something new on their own is important to people in this age group, and having a well-known brand like ABC or Disney in the name plays against that instinct, he said.

With an eye to the future, Ascheim said he doesn’t necessarily want the Freeform brand associated just with a television network.

In focus groups, consumers were asked what they thought of the name if it was tied to a clothing line or streaming service, for example.

The name change is ushered in with a marathon of episodes of “Pretty Little Liars,” ABC Family’s most popular show, and a new episode on Wednesday.

Ascheim said the network is also working with pop star Nicki Minaj on a comedy about her life growing

to a new series for the Freeform network about trying to overcome substance abuse.

Carra said that she attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to prepare for her work in “Recovery Road,” which premieres Jan. 25.

The actress and some others involved in “Recovery Road” purposely didn’t drink while the series was made, she said, adding that she does like to have an occasional glass of wine.

“A few of us were more successful than others,” Carra said.

SCREAM TIME Film producer J.J. Abrams isn’t likely to forget his visit with writer Stephen King in Maine.

After dinner, the celebrated horror writer suggested they go see a horror movie, said Abrams, who has just made an adaptation of King’s novel “11.22.63” for the Hulu streaming service.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Monday 11 January 2016

Pop Life:

A Tribe Called Quest: A look back and looking ahead

MESFIN FEKADU AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A Tribe Called Quest celebrated the 25th anniversary of its debut album, “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm,” in November by re-releasing the album with remixes helmed by Pharrell, CeeLo Green and J. Cole.

The re-release is the first of several planned by the group.

“We have a 25th for ‘The Low End Theory,’ we have a 25th for ‘Beats, Rhymes and Life,’ we have a 25th for ‘Midnight Marauders,’ which all are pretty monumental moments for us personally as well,” Q-Tip said.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the group — including Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White — talked about celebrating 25 years in music, a possible tour, a Tribe biopic and more.

25 YEARS LATER Q-Tip says one word describes Tribe reaching 25 years in music: humility.

“You go back and you look at everything and you’re kind of like, ‘Wow, I lived through a few lives’ and it just happened so fast. It’s somewhat overwhelming,” he said. “Not trying to be egotistical or braggadocios, it has nothing to do with that, but it’s like ... a lot of people don’t get to see 25 in life.”

RE-GROUP Ask Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White if they want the group to hit the road again and they’ll say yes.

Asking Q-Tip will get you a different answer.

“I don’t know. ... I really, I don’t know brotha. I mean, who knows?” said Q-Tip, who was interviewed separately because he was running late.

When asked if he was open to the idea of touring, he said: “Everybody makes it look like it’s me that’s not open to (it).”

Tribe recently performed on “The Tonight Show with

Jimmy Fallon.”

“These are my brothers. I know nothing but them. I only wanna work with them ... in terms of going on tour, I wanna go on tour with them,” Phife Dawg said.

White chimed in: “And we always have fun together.”

Muhammad added that it’s exciting to see “a 15-year-old now discovering A Tribe Called Quest 25 years later” at a concert.

“The spirt of the music and the feeling and the love is strong. It’s bigger than us.”

Muhammad also shut down any rumors about tension between the bandmates.

“If there was tension you would feel it. Do you feel tension? So there it is,” he said in a room with White and Phife Dawg.

CALLING ON THE YOUTH On Tribe’s new anniversary album, Pharrell remixed the classic “Bonita Applebum”; Green worked his magic on “Footprints”; and Cole remixed “Can I Kick It?” Muhammad said the band reached out to a number of younger hiphop acts to re-work Tribe’s music but not everyone was rushing to work with them.

“We reached out to many people. And I will go on record and say — and it might not be the most favorable thing to say — you

DJ/Producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, rapper Jarobi White, and Phife Dawg (Malik Isaac Taylor) of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest pose for a photo at SiriusXM studios in New York. A Tribe Called Quest celebrated the 25th anniversary of its debut album, “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm,” in November by re-releasing the album with remixes helmed by Pharrell, CeeLo Green and J. Cole. The group said more re-releases will be issues for its other albums.

(Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP)

reach out to people and there are some people that call you right back and there are some people who you got to chase,” he said. “And you would think that with a legacy project and a group that I think stood for a lot for hiphop and music, you know, bridging jazz to hip-hop, bridging so many different genres that people would be scratching to be a part of this celebration.”

CURRENT STATE OF HIP-HOP Tribe is easily one of the most respectable acts in the history of hip-hop. As for today’s generation, the veterans are hoping to see more individuality.

“Just a lot of laziness, whereas back when we were doing it everybody had their own lane. Nowadays it’s one on top of the other.

‘Oh, this sold three million with that style. Let me duplicate that style and run with it.’ In order for us to see

the future everybody can’t sound like Future. Like, everybody sounds like Future.

Like, I don’t know even know who’s who outside of Future,” Phife Dawg said.

Muhammad said contemporary rap needs more balance.

“You had N.W.A., you had the Geto Boys, you had Tribe Called Quest, you had Brand Nubians ... Sir Mix-ALot; they’re worlds apart, but there was balance and you felt it globally. q

Rhythm and blues singer Otis Clay dies at age 73 JOHN O’CONNOR Associated Press Hall of fame rhythm and blues artist Otis Clay, known as much for his big heart and charitable work in Chicago as for his singing, has died. He was 73.

The Mississippi-born Clay — whose gruff tenor-tinged voice on blues songs such as “Trying to Live My Life Without You” varied from his haunting but hopeful baritone on gospel standards like “When the Gates Swing Open” — died suddenly of a heart attack on Friday, said his daughter, Ronda Tankson.

The one-time Grammy nominee received two nominations for May’ 37th Blues Music Awards — for Soul-Blues Male Artist and Soul-Blues Album for “This Time for Real,” his collaboration with Billy Price, Clay’s manager Miki Mulvehill said. “Otis was the last standard-bearer for deep southern soul music, the really gospel-inflected music that was in its heyday in the late ‘60s and early and mid ‘70s,” Price told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“These styles change, and different styles are in the forefront, but Otis was just

as strong in the past five years ... For that reason, he was an icon for a lot of us who work in this genre.”

European music enthusiasts and record-collectors flocked to Clay’s music because of its spare, “unvarnished” style wrought of the 1960s soul scenes in Memphis, Tennessee and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Price said.

A 2013 Blues Hall of Fame inductee, Clay had just begun planning a gospel tour of the U.S., followed by a summer European tour and, later, the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise,

Mulvehill said. His latest album is called, “Truth Is.” But Clay, who moved to Chicago in 1957, was much more than a talented musician. A resident of Chicago’s West Side, he was actively involved in charitable work, including assisting development of the Harold Washington Cultural Center. Tankson, a Chicago special education teacher whose pupils include autistic children, said her father gave little thought to what benefit he’d get from performing and held nothing back, even when appearing for her students.q