March 14, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Monday, March 14, 2016

READY OR NOT

Obama aims to make renewed ties irreversible In this Sept. 29, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama stands with Cuba’s President Raul Castro before a bilateral meeting at the United Nations headquarters.

President Barack Obama will use his historic trip to Cuba to chip away at key remaining U.S. obstacles to travel and commerce with the communist island, working to push his rapprochement past the point of no return before he leaves office.

Associated Press Page 3

A2 UP

Monday 14 March 2016

FRONT

Intelligence advice for next president: Rocky road ahead DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — To: The next president of the United States.

From: U.S. intelligence officials.

Welcome to the White House. Now read our take on global political landscape and trends for the next five years and beyond. Bottom line: Get ready for a rocky road.

Their forecast calls for a slowing global economy dragged down by sluggish growth in China, and political volatility across the world, spurred by disillusionment with the status quo. Insecurity will deepen rifts among social classes and religious groups. Extremists will consolidate into large-scale networks

In this Sept. 22, 2014, file photo, the White House is photographed from Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Associated Press

across Africa, the Arab world and parts of Asia.

Competition among the U.S, China and Russia will heat up, raising the risk of future confrontations. Climate change is a problem now. And technological advances will force governments and their citizens to wrestle with securing data, privacy, intellectual property and jobs lost to high-tech innovations.

The National Intelligence Council, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, serves as a bridge between intelligence agencies and policymakers. Its global trends report is compiled every four years so it can be handed to an incoming president or the incumbent. A summary of a draft of its latest findings was to be released Monday at a conference in Austin, Texas.

These trends follow 20 years of unprecedented reductions in poverty and increased access to education and information, which have empowered citizens around the world.

Suzanne Fry, director of the council’s Strategic Future Group, and about 10 of her colleagues visited 30 countries since September 2014 to talk about the future with an estimated 1,800 people from all walks

of life.

“Really for the first time in human history, people as individuals, really, really matter,” Fry said in an interview.

She recalled Mohammed Bouazizi, a fruit seller who killed himself in 2010 to protest police actions in Tunisia. His death sparked an uprising that led to the ouster of Tunisia’s dictator and inspired Arab Spring protests against authoritarian rule across the region.

In America, public discontent is evidenced by the rise of two presidential candidates — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders — whose anti-establishment messages appeal to anger among the general electorate, Fry said.

“They’re channeling something that we’re observing in a lot of countries, not just the United States, which is this real dissatisfaction with the existing social bargains or compacts in societies,” Fry said.

The report suggests that this type of populism being seen in industrial nations will percolate in the developing world as those affected by a slow-to-zero rise in wages and a hollowing out of the middle class start questioning the effectiveness of traditional policies.

The council’s final report is expected to be released between Election Day, Nov. 1, and the inauguration of the next president, on Jan. 20, 2017. The aim is to provide information about emerging trends to guide decisions that could alter the way the world is expected to evolve during the next 20 years.

A significant trend cited in the report is a slowdown of China’s economy, which has reduced demand for commodities, especially in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Also on the economic front, the report highlights a concern about increased concentration of wealth among a small number of people.

U.S. NEWS A3

Monday 14 March 2016

Obama to chop down more Cuba barriers, but is Havana ready?

JOSH LEDERMAN Associated Press MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — On his history-making trip to Cuba, President Barack Obama plans to chop down another set of barriers that for generations kept Americans and their money out of the island they once dominated.

Getting Cuba to reopen to America is proving harder.

Hungry for dollars but wary of U.S. influence, Cuban President Raul Castro’s government has taken only a few cautious steps to allow U.S. commerce and tourism to return. Even as Obama’s administration prepares to let more Americans travel and businesses operate in ways unimaginable just two years ago, it’s unclear how far Cuba’s labyrinthine bureaucracy and socialist ideals will bend. It’s a critique of Obama’s peacemaking with Cuba that has gained fresh relevance ahead of his trip, which opponents say rewards a government unwilling to significantly open its economy, let alone abandon single-party government.

When it comes to human rights and democracy, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says that since relations were restored, “things are worse.”

None of that is stopping Obama from using his trip starting next weekend — the first such visit in nearly 90 years — to try to push the diplomatic relaunch past the point of no return before he leaves office. In a bid to show growing momentum, his administration is preparing to further ease restrictions and green-light projects by U.S. companies in connection with the trip, according to a half-dozen individuals familiar with the administration’s plans.

Starwood, the hotel chain whose brands include Sheraton and Westin, is expected to get formal U.S. approval in the coming days, following extensive conversations with Cuban and U.S. officials. The company has applied for a license from

Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which would allow it to operate in Cuba despite congressional sanctions.

The Connecticut-based chain has explored numerous possibilities that include the famed Hotel Saratoga in central Havana, said the individuals, who weren’t authorized to discuss the plans and requested anonymity. Yet Cuba’s resistance to letting foreign companies build or own property makes it more likely Starwood would manage existing hotels, not build them. Another hurdle: Foreign business can’t hire workers directly. Employees work for a Cuban hiring agency that keeps much of their salaries, one factor blamed for Cuban hotels’ infamously sub-standard food and service. The U.S. hasn’t yet managed to get Cuba to announce it will ease that policy. For Cuba, any American footprint carries uncomfortable echoes of the decades before its 1959 revolution, when American business and organized crime worked hand-in-hand with U.S.-backed strongmen to dominate the island’s economy and politics, often with brutal force. For old-school Cuban officials, U.S. hotels, flights and cruise ships are not just new business, but a direct ideological challenge to a system that sees resistance to U.S. dominance in the region as part of its national mission. “In Congress, there’s a lot of criticism from my Republican colleagues about getting this or that before going down there,” said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., one of dozens of lawmakers joining Obama’s trip.

“But the big decision is, do you want to be engaged or not?”

A Marriott spokesman said that chain was also hoping for approval soon, and its CEO, Arne Sorenson, was traveling in Obama’s delegation. Carnival Cruise Line, which already has U.S. approval, said it expects Cuban approval soon after months after waiting and plans to sail starting May 1.

In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, a worker wipes a representation of the The Great Seal of the United States at the newly opened U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

Associated Press

A4 U.S.

Monday 14 March 2016

NEWS

Donald Trump stands by his antagonistic campaign rhetoric

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as veteran Keith Maupin asks the candidate to clarify comments he made about Arizona Sen. John McCain during a campaign stop at the Savannah Center, Sunday, March 13, 2016, in West Chester, Ohio.

Associated Press

BILL BARROW ALAN SCHER ZAGIER BLOOMINGTON, Illinois (AP)

— Republican front-runner Donald Trump stood by his antagonistic campaign

rhetoric on Sunday, rejecting any responsibility for violence at his rallies. His remarks come just two days before make-or-break primaries that likely offer his rivals their last shot at derailing his march toward his party’s nomination.

“We’re not provoking. We want peace. ... We don’t want trouble,” he told a large crowd at a comparatively docile event in Bloomington, Illinois.

Trump’s remarks come after a near-riot Friday night in Chicago as the billionaire real estate mogul canceled a scheduled rally amid widespread altercations among his supporters, detractors and authorities.

His three-state schedule, which included a stop in West Chester, Ohio, and

ends Sunday evening in Florida, also comes less than 48 hours before polls open in five states that could determine whether he wins the Republican nomination without a contested summer convention this summer in Cleveland.

Against that backdrop, Trump continued to blame protesters, media and even Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for the increasingly caustic campaign environment that his rivals assailed.

Interrupted only sparingly in Illinois, Trump assured his backers their frustration is righteous rage against a corrupt political and economic system. He cast his naysayers as “bad people” that “do harm to the country.”

He has tried since the aborted Chicago rally to shift focus to Ohio, where he faces a late push from the popular Republican governor, John Kasich. The outcome will help determine whether Trump can reach the 1,237 delegates required to secure the nomination.

Tuesday’s results in Ohio and Florida — in which the winner takes all the state’s delegates to the national convention — could be decisive in the Republican primary race. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio would face pressure to quit the race if either loses his home state, At an earlier stop this weekend, Trump aimed directly at Kasich, calling him “a baby” and deliberately mispronouncing the governor’s Czech surname.

“He’s not the right guy to be president. He’s not tough enough, he’s not sharp enough,” Trump said at an event outside Day-

ton.

In line with his protectionist economic pitch, Trump noted Kasich’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement as a member of Congress in the 1990s.

Kasich, meanwhile, reversed his months-long practice of avoiding the topic of Trump.

Speaking with The Associated Press aboard his campaign bus between stops in Ohio, Kasich brandished his iPad and read a list of roughly a dozen Trump quotes compiled by an aide.

The quotes included Trump’scomments that his audiences should “hit back” a little more and a statement that he’d like to punch a protester in the face.

“I never really had looked through those quotes,” he said. “It’s really cause for pause.”

Trump’s events unquestionably have become increasingly tense over the course of his campaign, and the candidate has frequently called for aggressive tactics against protesters.

Trump confirmed earlier Sunday that he was considering paying the legal fee of a North Carolina man charged with assault after video captured him punching a protester being escorted by police out of a March 9 rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

He began this weekend blaming protesters on Sanders, saying the Vermont senator’s campaign organizes “disrupters” at Trump events.

Indeed, some protesters at Trump events are seen carrying Sanders’ campaign signs, but Sanders scoffed Sunday at the notion that he’s responsible.

U.S. NEWS A5

Monday 14 March 2016

Body of 2nd crew member found in Hudson River tugboat crash The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The body of a second tugboat crew member who went missing after the boat crashed into a barge on the Hudson River north of New York City has been pulled from the river, authorities said Sunday.

The 90-foot tugboat named Specialist hit a barge early Saturday morning near where the new Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects two counties north of New York City, is being built. The tugboat sank, spilling about 5,000 gallons of fuel into the water.

The body has been identified as Timothy Conklin, 29, of Westbury, Long Island, New York. His body was brought back to shore after divers found him inside the tugboat around 11 a.m. Sunday.

The third crew member aboard the tugboat when it crashed has been identified as Harry Hernandez, 56, of Staten Island, New York. He remains missing.

The body of Paul Amon, 62, of Bayville, New Jersey, was pulled from the water Saturday. Divers were expected to resume the search later Sunday, said Westchester County police spokesman Kieran O’Leary. The tugboat was damaged to the point that a full search was not possible, he added.

In addition, visibility in the water was only about 6 inches, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday. “Much of the diving operation is actually done by feel,” he said. Authorities said three tugboats were pushing a barge from Albany to Jersey City, New Jersey, when one of the three — situated on the right side as it headed south — hit a stationary barge that was part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project. A tugboat on the left side of the barge that was being pushed, as well as one that was pushing the barge from the rear, were not involved in the accident.

But there were reports of radio transmissions from the tug that crashed saying,

according to Cuomo, “We are too close. We have to move left.” But it apparently was too late, the governor said.

Authorities believed the sunken tug is wedged directly underneath the barge it struck at the midspan of the bridge.

Cuomo said he had been “hoping for a miracle” that the men would be found alive.

Instead, the governor said Sunday that he spent some time with the Conklin family, “which is obviously still in shock.”

Cuomo said in a statement that 21 workers were on the bridge construction barge that was hit, but none was injured. He added the construction barge was illuminated at the time of the pre-dawn collision.

The accident occurred near the center of the existing Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Specialist sank in about 40 feet of water within minutes, authorities said. The water temperature in the area was about 40 degrees, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Cuomo said a team was on site to contain the leaking diesel fuel and he did not expect any long-term damage as a result of the spill.

James Mercante, an attorney for the owner of Specialist, said the crew was licensed, competent and experienced personnel. He called the crash “a shocking, horrific marine tragedy.” A spokeswoman for Tappan Zee Constructors, a consortium of companies building the new bridge, said the company is cooperating in the investigation.

The crash occurred near the scene of a 2013 boat crash that killed a bride-tobe and her fiancé’s best man.

The new bridge is to replace an adjacent aging span that now connects Westchester and Rockland counties. Construction on the $3.9 billion project began in October 2013 and is expected to be completed by 2018.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, left, uses a diagram to explain the circumstances of a fatal collision on the water in Tarrytown, N.Y., Saturday, March 12, 2016. A tugboat crashed into a barge on the Hudson River north of New York City early Saturday killing at least one crew member and leaving two still missing.

Associated Press

A6 U.S.

Monday 14 March 2016

NEWS

Louisiana, Mississippi: thousands of homes damaged in floods

BY CAIN BURDEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Widespread flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi has damaged thousands of homes and the risk of more flooding played out Sunday as rain-filled rivers rose over banks.

At least four deaths have been reported in Louisiana, including that of an elderly man, authorities said. Two fishermen have been missing for days in Mississippi.

In northwest Tennessee, more than a dozen homes were evacuated late Saturday after heavy rains breached a levee, according to emergency officials.

Flood warnings were in effect across the region as many rivers remained dangerously high.

Also of concern was another line of thunderstorms that was expected to hit parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, northern Louisiana and northern Mississippi Sunday night. Hail and tornadoes were possible, forecasters said.

But Davyon Hill, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, said this storm system was not expected to drop the kind of record-setting rains that the region has seen recently.

Traffic rushes past this flooded neighborhood in Drew, Miss., Friday, March 11, 2016, as floodwaters have affected areas in the Delta.

Associated Press

“At this point, any rain will aggravate the flooding situation,” he said. “But these (storms) are kind of fast moving and isolated.”

In Louisiana, emergency officials said more than 4,958 homes were damaged. That number is expected to rise as more reports come in from areas still battling floodwaters.

Mississippi reported that 185 homes were damaged by floodwaters and about 650 homes sustained minor damage.

On Sunday, President

Barack Obama signed an order declaring the flooding in Louisiana a major disaster. The president’s declaration triggers federal aid for flood victims.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said he was worried that many flood victims had not purchased flood insurance.

“A lot of these people I spoke to did not have flood insurance because they had never flooded before,” Nungesser said in a telephone interview.

He warned that residents

may not get federal disaster aid if they didn’t have insurance. “It’s not going to be the open check book,” he added.

Downpours - part of a system affecting Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama have submerged roads and cars, washed out bridges and forced residents to flee homes.

Authorities in Louisiana’s Natchitoches Parish said Harold Worsham, 78, drowned while trying to flee floodwaters on Saline Bayou. The sheriff’s office

said Worsham was in a boat that capsized as he and two others were moving items from a home onto an aluminum boat.

On Sunday, Mississippi officials said they were still looking for two missing fishermen, but had no reports of injuries or deaths there.

Flooding on rain-swollen rivers remained a major concern.

In Tennessee, Emergency Management Agency director Rickey Graves in Gibson County told The Jackson Sun that about 10 homes in the community of Kenton and a half dozen homes in Trenton were evacuated Saturday night after a levee was breached.

It’s the most widespread non-hurricane flooding the Louisiana National Guard has ever dealt with, said Col. Pete Schneider, a guard spokesman.

The National Guard said it had about 1,400 soldiers and air crews at work in flooded areas throughout Louisiana, deploying in high-water vehicles, boats and three helicopters. By Sunday morning, National Guard crews had evacuated more than 3,295 people and 316 pets as part of its round-the-clock operations.q

U.S. NEWS A7

Monday 14 March 2016

Crane operators are sky-high stars in NY construction boom VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Tommy Gambardella is a master of New York’s construction universe.

Each morning before dawn, he rides an elevator more than 50 stories up the side of a skyscraper growing on Manhattan’s West Side. Then, he steps out onto a narrow walkway with a drop-dead view of the city below and mounts some spiral steps into the glass control cab of a tower crane.

There, he’s alone, in silence.

From high in the sky, he can see the sun light up Manhattan all the way to the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. He wraps his fingers around two joysticks to bring the crane alive.

Gambardella, 49, is at the helm of one of the giant tower cranes sprouting across the city, a prime force in a building boom that is changing New York’s skyline. It can be dangerous work — a fact hammered home by several deadly accidents in recent years.

“Is it a thrill? I love it. I love it. I absolutely love it,” he says after climbing from the translucent fishbowl of his control cab, atop what will be a 65-story apartment tower. “But you need to have a little more nerve than the average human being, and be a little crazy.”

New York is enjoying a construction bonanza following a recession that choked new investment for years. The city has issued permits for about $35 billion worth of both residential and commercial construction in the past year.

Fifty-five tower cranes and 26 smaller, “crawler” cranes are now in use, licensed by the city — about twice as many as two years ago, according to the Department of Buildings.

Standing on the sidewalk, it is hard not to be awed by, and a little frightened of, the supertall cranes hoisting loads of steel into the sky.

In 2008, a 250-foot-tall tower crane collapsed on Manhattan’s East Side, obliterating a building below as it fell. Seven people died.

Just two months later, two workers were killed when a 200-foot-tall crane fell over and struck an apartment building across the street.

Last year, seven people were injured when an airconditioning unit weighing tons came untethered from a crane, plunging 28 stories to Madison Avenue.

More recently, one of the city’s crawler cranes toppled in gusty winds on Feb. 5, killing a pedestrian.

That accident has again brought attention to crane safety. Last year, the city hired 50 new construction inspectors for a total of about 450.

People’s lives depend on crane precision, because “you can’t have anything falling out of the sky,” says Bobby Cipriano, a veteran operator in charge of crane safety and maintenance at the $4.5 billion Brookfield Property Group development, called Manhattan West, where Gambardella works.

“Tower cranes are intimidating, and you have a tremendous responsibility,” Cipriano says.

Before the crane moves, his dawn routine includes turning on the generator that powers the electric crane and inspecting cables attached to the boom.

He also checks the radio equipment that allows the operator to contact crew members on the ground.

Hoisting loads is a matter of trust. From the sky, the men on the ground look like ants, preparing loads the operator hoists skyward on a cable but cannot always see. “You can feel it. You can feel when it comes up and the signalman says, ‘Great, that was nice,’” says Cipriano.

“There shouldn’t be any ‘Oh, my God’ moments,’” Gambardella adds.

What none of them trusts is the wind.

When it reaches 30 mph, “you’re getting blown around, knocked around,” says Gambardella. “It’s very difficult to control the crane, and the load.”

In this March 10, 2016 photo, a tower crane operator works from a cab, center, above the Hudson Yards construction site in New York. All around New York City, huge cranes fill the city skyline.

Associated Press

All work stops.

When it comes to spectacular New York buildings, Cipriano, 57, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, says he’s seen it all.

He’s manned cranes for the new New York Times building, Goldman Sachs’ downtown headquarters and the revitalized Times Square. But his proudest job was working on One World Trade Center, the 104-story skyscraper that replaced the twin towers decimated in the Sept. 11 attacks. He was part of a crew that slid several cranes on rails up the side of the building to the top. “It’s gratifying. You drive down the road and you can say, ‘I was up there. That’s mine.

I jacked the crane on that building,’” says Cipriano, his eyes lighting up. “I don’t think I would want to do anything else.”

He remembered one dark night when his crew was installing a crane, “and the Empire State Building is behind you, lit up in different colors, and Madison Square Garden. It’s like being in a plane, and coming in for an approach and at night. It’s really cool.”

At Manhattan West, which will include two new office towers, retail, a hotel, rooftop gardens, restaurants and a public park, Gambardella puts in as much as 12 hours a day. Sometimes the Tomkins Cove, NewYork, resident is in the cabin for five-hour stretches with no break.

Not everyone is fit for the precarious work.

“You’ve got to have a certain disposition — everything calm, no yelling, no screaming,” says Gambardella.

A8 U.S.

Monday 14 March 2016

NEWS

Car bomb in Turkey’s capital kills at least 34 SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A suicide car bomb went off near bus stops in the heart of Turkey’s capital on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and wounding around 125 others, officials said.

Two of the dead are believed to be the assailants.

A senior government official told The Associated Press that police suspect that Kurdish militants carried out the attack, which occurred on Ankara’s main boulevard, close to ministries.

At least one of the bombers was a woman, he said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity on the grounds that the investigation was ongoing.

The bombing was the third in the city in five months and came as Turkey is grappling with a host of issues, including renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels, threats from the Islamic State group and a Syrian refugee crisis.

Earlier Sunday, Turkish authorities said they were imposing curfews on two mainly Kurdish towns where Turkey’s security forces were set to launch largescale operations against Kurdish militants. Russia on Sunday also accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions.

Emergency services work at the explosion site in the busy center of Turkish capital, Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, March 13, 2016. The explosion is believed to have been caused by a car bomb that went off close to bus stops. News reports say the large explosion in the capital has caused several deaths and many casualties.

Associated Press

The attack came just three weeks after a suicide car bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people. A Kurdish militant group which is an offshoot of an outlawed rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for the Feb. 17 attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement vowing to bring “terrorism to its knees” and said Turkey would use its right to self-defense to prevent future attacks.

“Our people should not worry, the struggle against

terrorism will for certain end in success and terrorism will be brought to its knees,” Erdogan said.

Saudi state television said that a Saudi woman and three children were among those wounded in the attack. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman condemned the bombing and extended his condolences to the Turkish people, according to the state-run Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbaria.

At least 19 of the wounded were in serious condition, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu told reporters. He said that 30 of the victims died at the scene,

while the other four died at hospitals.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said the attack wouldn’t deter the country from its fight against terrorism. He confirmed the blast was the result of a car bomb that targeted civilians at bus stops on Ataturk Bulvari close to Kizilay square.

Ala said authorities had obtained evidence pointing to the group behind the attack, but said an announcement would be made after the investigation is completed, most probably on Monday. No group has claimed responsibility.

The private NTV news channel said several vehicles caught fire following the blast which also shattered the windows of shops that line the boulevard and the square.

Dogan Asik, 28, was on a packed bus when the explosion occurred.

“There were about 40 people,” said Asik, who suffered injuries to his face and arm.

“It (the bus) slowed down.

A car went by us, and ‘boom’ it exploded.”

Police sealed off the area and pushed onlookers and journalists back, warning that there could be a second bomb. Forensic teams were examining the scene.

The U.S. Embassy had two days earlier issued a security warning about a potential plot to attack Turkish government buildings and housing in one Ankara neighborhood and asked American citizens to avoid those areas. The cab bomb went off in a different neighborhood.

As with the previous bombings, Turkish authorities quickly imposed a ban Sunday preventing media organizations from broadcasting or publishing graphic images of the blast or from the scene.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the government-run telecommunications agency had decided to block access to websites that published images from the scene.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Monday 14 March 2016

U.S. envoy John Kerry meets Europe’s top diplomats in Paris SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for the resumption of Syria peace talks Monday in Geneva following a meeting with France’s new foreign minister and other senior European diplomats.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault hosted Sunday’s meeting in Paris which also included his British, German and Italian counterparts, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

The meeting comes ahead of U.N.-sponsored indirect peace talks on Syria, which are scheduled to start Monday in Geneva amid a partial cease-fire that came into force two weeks ago and has mostly held.

“We look forward to the resumption of talks in Geneva on Monday,” Kerry said in a joint news conference with his counterparts.

Fighting has continued inside Syria but to a lesser degree than in February.

Government forces advanced on the ancient city of Palmyra, which is held by the Islamic State group, while continuing to clash with jihadists and rebels in other parts of the country Sunday.

In the northern part of the

country, factions arrayed against the government turned against one another in an effort to assert their dominance during the cease-fire. Al-Qaeda militants swept through a rebel-held town in northern Syria, arresting U.S.-backed fighters and looting weapons stores belonging to the Free Syrian Army.

Delegations from the Syrian government and opposition, represented in part by the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, arrived in Geneva Sunday, but with conflicting visions for the talks.

HNC spokesman Salem Mislet said the opposition would discuss the establishment of a transitional governing body in which Syrian President Bashar Assad and his associates would have no role.

“The Syrian people have submitted half a million martyrs not to keep Assad in power for a longer period but in order to terminate his presence and to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and also to put an end to the terrorism that targeted the region,” he said.

But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallam said Saturday any talk of remov-

ing Assad during the transitional period was “a red line,” adding that the government rejected the U.N. envoy’s call for presidential elections to be held in the next 18 months.

Kerry said Moallam’s comments “clearly tried to disrupt the process” of negotiations.

Kerry insisted that both Iran and Russia — supporters of the Syrian regime — have adopted “an approach which dictates that there must be a political transition and that we must move toward a presidential election at some point of time.”

The last round of indirect talks collapsed on Feb. 3 over a Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo.

As the Syrian civil war enters its sixth year, Kerry reaffirmed the “determination” of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, “to defeat this barbaric organization.”

The meeting’s participants also issued a joint statement on Libya to express their support for the U.N.sponsored unity government and call for its quick installation in the country’s capital, Tripoli.

French Foreign Minister Jean Marc Ayrault, left, and United States Secretary of State John Kerry, attend a meeting at the Quai d’Orsay ministry in Paris, Sunday, March 13, 2016.

Associated Press

“Political unity and an inclusive and functioning government is the only way to put an end to the instability that has fueled the development of terrorism in Libya,” the statement said.

Libya fell into chaos after the 2011 toppling and killing of longtime leader, Moammar Gadhafi. The country is ruled by two competing governments since 2014: an internationally-recognized body based in the eastern city of Tobruk and a rival one, backed by Islamist-allied militias, in Tripoli.

European Union countries are preparing possible sanctions against officials in Libya blamed for under-

mining the peace process.

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Additionally, diplomats have discussed a possible initiative to restart the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, as France hopes to host an international conference on the issue in the coming months. The new French Mideast peace envoy, Pierre Vimont, will travel to Washington next week to discuss France’s proposal, Ayrault said.

Yemen’s civil war and the Ukraine peace process were also on the agenda of the Paris talks.q ___

A10 WORLD

Monday 14 March 2016

NEWS

Egypt media says country is facing Euro-Islamist conspiracy MARAM MAZEN Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian media and lawmakers have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of bribing European Parliament members to adopt a resolution stating a “grave concern” that Egyptian authorities might be culprits in the torture and killing of an Italian graduate student in Egypt.

The Thursday resolution condemned the killing of 28-year-old researcher and graduate student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found with torture marks nine days after he vanished in Cairo on Jan. 25 — when police were out in force to quash any signs of protest on the anniversary of Egypt’s 2011 uprising. Egyptian authorities say they are investigating the case. The resolution stated that the European Parliament is concerned the case “is not an isolated incident, but that it occurred within a context of torture, death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt in recent years.” Evening talk shows are one of Egypt’s main shapers of public opinion. On Saturday night, a steady stream of hosts and guests outlined a variety of conspiracy theories designed to weaken and isolate Egypt — with the help of the outlawed

In this Feb. 12, 2016 file photo, the family of Giulio Regeni follows his coffin during the funeral service in Fiumicello, Northern Italy.

Associated Press

Muslim Brotherhood and a collection of anti-Egypt human rights organizations.

“The Muslim Brotherhood pays all these people in Europe ... they have influence over all these people,” lawmaker and retired Maj. Gen. Hamdy Bekheet told the el-Mehwar channel

late Saturday.

In the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper’s Sunday edition, a headline read: “The European Parliament has fallen in the trap of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Ahmed Moussa, one of the country’s most popular

talk show hosts, insinuated Saturday that the Italian embassy may be covering up crucial evidence in the case that would link Regeni’s death to a personal dispute.

Moussa claimed on the Sada el-Balad channel that the Italian consulate’s

cameras have captured footage of Regeni and another Italian man in a quarrel close to the consulate, a day before Regeni disappeared. “I am here challenging the Italian ambassador in Cairo to release the information he has,” said Moussa.

WORLD NEWS A11

Monday 14 March 2016

Venezuelans hold rival marches for and against government ARIANA CUBILLOS VICENTE MARQUEZ Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hundreds of opponents and supporters of President Nicolas Maduro held rival marches in Caracas on Saturday, with anti-government forces demanding Venezuela’s leader step down and his sympathizers denouncing U.S. sanctions on some top officials.

The marches were animated but peaceful, unlike massive anti-government protests in 2014 that left dozens dead and barricades burning in the streets. Government critics dressed in white shirts marched through the capital’s better-off Chacao district on Saturday, calling for the liberation of detained opposition members they consider political prisoners.

“There is no bureaucracy or military gang that can stop us,” said National Assembly President and opposition leader Henry Ramos. “Nicolas, save us the tragedy, resign! Do this favor for Venezuela.”

The opposition blames the socialist-inspired government for the widespread shortages, deep recession and soaring inflation plaguing Venezuela.

“I swore that I would never surrender to the oligarchy, under no circumstances,” said Maduro, speaking in a central Caracas plaza where the pro-government march ended.

He denounced a recent decision by President Barack Obama to renew an executive order that declared a national emer-

state institutions, said the legislation amounted to an attempted coup.

Venezuelans have grown accustomed to dueling marches in recent years.

Government supporters tend to stage counter-

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, left, and his wife Cilia Flores, greet supporters as they arrive to take part in an anti-U.S. rally, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, March 12, 2016.

Associated Press

gency with respect to Venezuela, a decree used to justify sanctions against officials accused of human rights abuses and corruption. The individuals come from the top echelon of Venezuela’s state security apparatus that was responsible for cracking down on the 2014 protests and for pursuing charges against leading opponents.

“Respect Venezuela!” shouted government supporters, some holding up signs with images of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The opposition coalition officially unveiled its multipronged strategy for ousting Maduro this week, drawing little reaction from Venezuelans struggling to make ends meet.

On Thursday, the opposition-controlled Congress gave preliminary approval to a bill that would put the country on the road to a presidential recall referendum. Lawmakers are expected to give the bill final approval later this month.

Members of the ruling socialist party, which controls the presidency and most

demonstrations whenever the opposition calls a rally.

Still, Caracas residents had talked anxiously about Saturday’s protests, and some said they had made plans to avoid the city in case violence broke out.q

A12 WORLD

Monday 14 March 2016

NEWS

From ‘welcome’ to ‘enough’ _ Europe’s migrant view shifts ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Last fall, soccer fans celebrated refugee children at a legendary Munich stadium; today, European voters are boosting anti-immigrant political parties and governments are closing their gates to new arrivals. The refrain of Europe’s migrant crisis has changed from “welcome” to “enough already.”

Has Europe suddenly turned heartless? Or is it just waking up to the reality that it has failed to collectively manage this drama?

“It is not sustainable anymore that no one’s playing a common game,” said Yves Pascouau, a migration expert at the European Policy Center. “We need to fix this and really need to move ahead.”

But not all Europeans see this as a problem they must share. Worried about their own weak economies, concerned that their national values are eroding, many say war in the Middle East and poverty in Africa are someone else’s responsibility.

Compassion had the upper hand just six months ago, as the number of Syrian refugees soared and the photo of a dead 3-year-old on a Turkish beach galvanized volunteers. Border guards

Demonstrators hold candles and hold a sign reading ‘Together against racism - 100 percent human dignity’ after the state elections in the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, Sunday, March 13, 2016.

Associated Press

greeted weary travelers with a hearty “Welcome to Germany,” and Chancellor Angela Merkel inspired other nations to do the same. Players on the Munich field promoted integration, holding hands with a refugee child on one side and a German child on the other.

Then, the refugees kept coming, along with economic migrants from Senegal, people fleeing repression in Sudan, and many, many others. Amid the swelling tide was a handful of violent extremists, who found common cause with angry young men whose families arrived a generation earlier.

Paris was attacked. Women were assaulted in Cologne.

Attitudes shifted, creating a turning point in the crisis that has dominated Europe for the past year and will define its immediate future.

Now, resentment of the open-arms approach is driving support for a German nationalist party that made gains Sunday in three state elections.

On the margins, extreme anti-immigrant youth in the French port of Calais torched tires and blocked migrants from the center of town this weekend, decrying a “veritable invasion.”

Sweden, which has taken in more migrants per capita than any other country, has suffered a spate of arson attacks on asylum centers and other sites.

“Europe is at a critical crossroads,” said Prime Minister

Alexis Tsipras of Greece, the first stop for migrants braving the sea crossing from Turkey. Extreme right forces, he said, “are the real threat for Europe now.”

Governments are cracking down, too. The route hundreds of thousands of migrants have taken through the Balkans effectively closed over the past few days, one nation after another shut its borders. Some 42,000 people are now stranded in overwhelmed, debt-weakened Greece, including 14,000 desperate souls languishing in a fetid field in the border town of Idomeni.

Some European leaders consider the unilateral border closures to be a threat to a continent meant to be borderless and based on consensus. But proponents say it’s the only way to show migrants with little chance of winning asylum that smugglers are peddling a false dream of easy prosperity in Europe.

Even Merkel now makes clear that she doesn’t plan a repeat of last September’s move to let in the migrants who had piled up in Hungary.

She still insists on a Europewide solution that addresses the causes of this massive migration. But her government has been tighten-

ing controls — declaring that several Balkan nations and North African nations are safe countries of origin, making their citizens ineligible for asylum — as it tries to reduce the influx of migrants who have little chance of winning permission to stay.

Deterring those migrants is central to the complex EU migration plan being worked out this coming week. The idea is for Europe to send back to Turkey anyone from any country who doesn’t qualify for asylum or has tried to evade the rigorous asylum application process. For every person sent back, EU countries would take in one confirmed Syrian war refugee.

“The policy of waving (people) through is over,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ZDF television Thursday.

“We want to reach solutions. And a solution is that we end these illegal ways to Europe, and so break the business model of the criminal smugglers.”

The coming warm season may provide answers. With the Balkans route closed, others may emerge — and an even more dangerous journey from lawless Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy may offer renewed promise.q

LOCAL A13

Monday 14 March 2016

Local Artist Marcha Hoost

PALM BEACH - Each month, Caribbean Queen at the Palm Beach Plaza Mall honors one local female artist who lives and creates here. For the month of March 2016, local artist Marcha Hoost is the boutique’s celebrated Caribbean Queen, showcasing her charming artwork in the store.

Marcha recalls that when she took her first lamp-

working workshop at Terrafuse in 2006, she immediately fell in love with making glass beads.

In the following years, she participated in several other workshops by renowed artists. Although Marcha designs various objects, she prefers glass bead necklaces with a combination of warm tropical colors and recurring patterns over anything

else she creates.

“Lampworking gives

me

infinite possibilities to combine colors and textures,”

she shares. “My inspiration comes from a variety of sources, such as antique Venetian and African glass beads and nature itself.

Animals and flowers are such great designers; all you have to do is observe and learn,” she adds.

Marcha’s unique collection is on display throughout the month of March, and you are invited to drop in to witness a live demonstration of her craft at the store on the third Thursday of the month in the evening hours.q

A14 LOCAL

Monday 14 March 2016

Aruba Tourism Authority honor Aruba Visitors as Goodwill Ambassador at Aruba Beach Club Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority honored Mr. Frank & Mrs. Linda Sehn resident of New York and Mr. Frank & Mrs. Mary Ann De Cristofano New York and Mr. John & Mrs. Maureen Wickwire resident of Massachusetts as Goodwill Ambassadors of Aruba as a token of appreciation for visiting the island for more than 20 and more consecutive years.

Ms. Darline de Cuba representing the Aruba Tourism Authority, Visitors care Liaison bestowed the certificate of Distinguished Visitors to the honorees on behalf of the Government of Aruba.

Ms. Darline de Cuba and Ms. Kenia was presented at their ceremony and handed some presents to the honorees and thanked them for choosing Aruba as their vacation destination and as their home away

from home for so many years Visitors stated that the main reasons for returning to Aruba were the weather, the restaurants, safety and most of all the people.q

LOCAL A15

Monday 14 March 2016

Jovanna and Ishmail love Tango’s skirt steak and T-bone They call it `the cherry on top of their beautiful holiday’: their dinner at Tango Argentine Grill in the Arawak Garden.

Ishmail and Jovanna Mercurio from Boston, MA, love the island and have been coming here since their honeymoon five years ago. This time they discovered Tango and they tried the skirt steak and the TBone. Vowing to be back to try the other delicious items on the menu, the staffers at Tango hope to see them again next year.

The Mercurios thought the outside setting with its nightly live music was great as well. So see you next year at your 6th anniversary, Ishmail and Jovanna!q

A16 LOCAL

Monday 14 March 2016

Editorial Aruba, March 10 2016

‘Around the World’ by Pepia Est. on March 25 Every two months Taste of Belgium is offering their guests wonderful wine tastings.

Experience the sensory examination and evaluation of wine that will take you on a trip around the world.

Taste the range of perceived flavors, aromas and general characteristics of 4 different wines and a Gin & Tonic cocktail as a warm welcome, all selected by Pepia Est, paired with 5 Hors d’Oeuvres made by our chef.

There are five basic steps in tasting wine: color, swirl, smell, taste, and savor.

These are also known as the “five S” steps: see, swirl, sniff, sip, savor. During this process, a taster must look for clarity, varietal character, integration, expressiveness, complexity, and con-

nectedness.

Varietal character describes how much a wine presents its inherent grape aromas. When a wine is well balanced, the wine is said to have achieved a harmonious fusion.

Wine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience, on this special night with the Taste of Belgium.

The upcoming wine tasting is planned on Friday March 25, from 7PM. Come and enjoy this evening with your friends and family, in the cosy, warm atmosphere at Taste of Belgium.

Enjoy this perfect wine & dine night for $44.50 p.p.

Please make your reservation as soon as possible, to make sure you can attend this night.

Or call: 586 6388 www.tasteofbelgium.aw

Reservations are preferred: info@tasteofbelgium.aw

Mise en Place Holding N.V. Latoya Romney – Market-

ing Coordinator Paradera 151-C, App. 1 | Aruba T: +297 588 3366 E: info@mparuba.com www.misenplacearuba. com

Oranjestad-Benjamin Petrocchi a true native Aruban started the newest export product of Aruba, locally produced hand rolled cigars called “Aruhiba”. These cigars are produced and cultivated in Aruba. Petrocchi always had interest in the cigar business and has also sold Premium Cuban cigars, and now he is growing his own tobacco crops.

After many attempt and trips to Santo Domingo and Cuba, he started his own production and cultivation of Aruhiba Cigars in Aruba. The whole process took him 10 years to perfect.

Petrocchi dedication to the cigars is important for the molding and process of making a perfect cigar which takes a long time. Their handmade cigar box is specially designed with their “Aruhiba” logo.Petrocchi considers Aruhiba as a promotion for Aruba trough its fine cigars .The company sells Aruhiba to the international market as well.

Visit their retail store located in front of the Historic Dutch Windmill in front of Riu Hotel, with purchase of $20 and up you receive a free “Aruhiba” cigars or ask for their gift box of cigars get 1 FREE for only $37.We are open from Monday to Saturday from 9 till 6.30 pm and on Saturdays from 10 to 4 pm. Aruhiba cigars are now available at the gift stores in your resort and at well-known cigar stores. For their complete selection and attractive by the box prices visit our retail stores. Tours are also available to the Tobacco Farm, where our cigars are grown and rolled.

Make an Aruba Tour including a stop at Aruhiba Factory call 739-2000. Winner of the best of Aruba.

The best local product Cigars in tubes Arubian design.

For a group or private tour call 586-7833/593-6177 or send us a email to aruhibacigars@gmail.com www.aruhibacigars.com

SPORTS A17

Monday 14 March 2016

PHOTO PHINISH

PHOTO PHINISH

Kevin Harvick, left, has just enough to beat Carl Edwards, right, at the finish line during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Phoenix International Raceway, Sunday, March 13, 2016, in Avondale, Ariz.

Associated Press

Harvick nips Edwards in wild finish for 8th Phoenix win

MIKE CRANSTON Associated Press AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards twice bumped on the final lap before Harvick inched over the finish line first in an overtime finish Sunday for his record eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup victory at Phoenix Interna-

tional Raceway.

Harvick had the lead on the late restartbefore the charging Edwards made it a side-by-side duel.

“I knew he was better through (Turns) 3 and 4,” Harvick said.

“That was not the car that I wanted to see behind me.”

After the cars banged a

second time, Harvick nosed to the line from the outside 0.010 seconds ahead to continue his dominance at the mile oval.

It’s the same margin of victory as Denny Hamlin’s thrilling win over Martin Truex Jr. last month in the Daytona 500. It was the closest finish in track history.

“I got up too high and wasn’t able to stay on the bottom like I wanted to and then he got into me, like he should have,” Harvick said.

“I needed to get a good run off the corner and I was going to have to get into his door. It worked out, just barely.”

Harvick made up for quali-

fying 18th by shooting toward the front early in the race.

His took the lead for good in the No. 4 Chevrolet when he immediately passed Edwards on a restart with 77 laps to go.

Continued on Page18

A18 SPORTS

Monday 14 March 2016

Phoenix win

Continued from Page17

Harvick built a lead approaching 3 seconds before Kasey Kahne hit the wall with six laps left to bring out the caution. Harvick had enough fuel for the extra two laps — and just barely enough to hold off Edwards.

“If we had one more lap, I could have passed him clean,” Edwards said. “But it just wasn’t going to work without bumping him. So I decided to hit him as hard as I did. I really didn’t want

to wreck him. I thought I moved him enough to get by, but it’s just racing.”

It gave NASCAR another thrilling finish with its new downforce and aerodynamic packages. Used for the first time on a miletrack, the package helped produce plenty of passing and only a handful of tire issues after long green-flag runs.

Harvick and Edwards each showed off their driving skills as the cars banged and wobbled through the final turn.

Hamlin recovered from an early pit penalty to finish third. Kyle Busch started from the pole and led the

Kevin Harvick celebrates in victory lane after winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Phoenix International Raceway, Sunday, March 13, 2016, in Avondale, Ariz.

Associated Press

first 77 laps before ending up fourth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr, who ended Harvick’s four-race winning streak at Phoenix with a rain-shortened victory in November, was fifth.

Two days after a scary crash in which he pulled off his steering wheel in qualifying, Jimmie Johnson finished 11th.

Harvick has won five of the past six races and six of eight at Phoenix.

“I just like racing here,” Harvick said. “It’s just one of those places where I feel like I’ve been here enough times to where I can move around and find something to make our car work.”q

Thomas wins Paris-Nice race despite Contador’s attacks

Gearing Thomas of Great Britain celebrates on the podium in Nice, southeastern France, Sunday, March 13, 2016.

Associated Press

NICE, France (AP) — British rider Geraint Thomas withstood a strong challenge from two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador on the moun-

tainous seventh and final stage to win the Paris-Nice race for the first time on Sunday.

Contador, who has also won Paris-Nice twice, was

in second place overnight and trailed Thomas by 15 seconds. The veteran Spanish rider attacked repeatedly on the last two climbs only to finish four seconds behind Thomas overall.

“I came there obviously wanting to do my best but to actually do it . I’m over the moon,” Thomas said.

Contador crossed the line just behind stage winner Tim Wellens of Belgium, with defending champion Richie Porte of Australia finishing the stage in third place.

Despite finishing the stage in 11th, Thomas had done enough.

“It’s definitely the greatest win in my career so far,” the 29-year-old Welshman said.

“To win ahead of Alberto, who is one of the greatest stage racers ever, and Richie, who won almost every race he entered last year, I can hardly believe it.”

Porte, also a two-time ParisNice winner, placed third overall and was 12 seconds behind Thomas, his former Sky teammate. The two men have been key support riders on both of British star Chris Froome’s Tour wins — last year and in 2013 — but Porte left Sky to become No. 1 rider at BMC racing.

Stage 7 featured four modest climbs before finishing with back-to-back Category 1 climbs — the second-toughest category — up Cote de Peille and Col

d’Eze, before a downhill finish to Nice.

Contador had chances to launch his trademark attacks in the high climbs.

“When Alberto went, we took it calmly at first but then on Col d’Eze, I must admit my legs gave way,” Thomas said. “I really thought it was over even for the podium.”

Although Thomas held on, Contador felt he could have won the race.

“I don’t like second places.

I did everything I could to make up for lost time and in the end I nearly won,” the 33-year-old Contador said.

“At least I’m confident I made the show even if I didn’t succeed. In any case, Geraint Thomas played it well. He has a very strong Team Sky around him, but he could be beaten.”

Wellens, meanwhile, won the stage in 3 hours, 16 minutes.q

SPORTS A19

Monday 14 March 2016

Schwartzel rallies and beats Haas in a playoff the Copperhead course, Schwartzel and McCoy were the only players to break par from the last nine groups.

Charl Schwartzel, of South Africa, reacts as he just misses his putt for birdie during regulation play on the 18th hole during the final round of the Valspar Championship golf tournament Sunday, March 13, 2016, in Palm Harbor, Fla. Schwartzel later beat Bill Haas in a playoff hole.

Associated Press

DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Charl Schwartzel used two big birdies to close with a 4-under 67 and made up a five-shot deficit. All he needed was a par on the first hole of a playoff Sunday at Innisbrook to beat Bill Haas and win the Valspar Championship.

Schwartzel’s two-putt par on the 18th hole in a playoff gave him his third victory worldwide in his last six starts dating to December.

Haas, who never trailed over the final 27 holes of regulation, hit his tee shot into the trees in the playoff, came up short into a bunker and blasted long out of the soft sand to 20 feet. He missed the par putt, and Schwartzel tapped in for his first victory in America since the 2011 Masters.

The loudest cheers belonged to Lee McCoy, the senior at Georgia who grew up next to Innisbrook and made good on his first sponsor’s exemption. Playing alongside Jordan Spieth, McCoy shot 69 to finish alone in fourth.

It was the best finish by an amateur in a PGA Tour event of top players since 17-year-old Justin Rose tied for fourth at the British

Open in 1998 at Royal Birkdale. Robbie Shelton tied for third last year in the Barbasol Championship, held opposite the British Open.

McCoy would have earned $292,800 had he been a pro.

“It’s surreal to say the least,” McCoy said.

Spieth fell behind early, never caught up and closed with a 73 to tie for 18th, seven shots behind.

He couldn’t help but applaud McCoy when he finished his round.

Schwartzel was the only player who put any sustained pressure on Haas, and he made his move with a 65-foot birdie putt across the green on the par-3 13th hole. He got upand-down from a tough lie in the bunker for birdie on the 14th, made a tough par save from the edge of a bunker on the 16th and rolled in a 25-foot putt on the 17th.

He posted at 7-under 277.

Haas had a two-shot lead with three holes to play and had made tough par saves to stay in front. It finally caught up with him when he made bogey from the bunker on the 16th hole, and he closed with two pars for a 72.

With more swirling wind on

“I think everyone’s goal is to keep bogeys off the card,” Schwartzel said when he finished his regulation round. “You’re just surviving.”

That wasn’t easy to do.

Steve Stricker was two shots out of the lead until he made a double bogey on the par-5 11th and never recovered. Graham DeLaet of Canada, starting the final round one shot behind and determined to get his first PGA Tour victory, never made a birdie in his round of 75.

Ryan Moore hit the ball great and couldn’t figure

out the greens, which were slower than normal. Moore was within one shot of the lead at the turn, but he closed with 12 straight pars for a 71 to finish two shots out of the playoff in third place.

It also was a tough day for Ian Poulter, who had a 7575 weekend and tied for 67th.

That bumped Poulter down to No. 67 in the world ranking, which could knock him out of the Dell Match Play.

This was the final week before the world ranking is used to determine the 64man field (Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson are not playing). PGA Tour rookie Patton Kizzire closed with a 72 and tied for 33rd, enough to move past Poulter.q

20 SPORTS

Monday 14 March 2016

Cavaliers bury Clippers 114-90 behind 3-pointers

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James reacts after dunking during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, Sunday, March 13, 2016.

Associated Press

By BETH HARRIS AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There’s something about playing the Los Angeles Clippers that brings out a casual lack of concern in the Cavaliers.

LeBron James scored 27 points and Cleveland buried the Clippers with 3-pointers in a 114-90 victory Sunday, tying their season high with 18 from long range.

James & Co. played with an obvious ease at Staples Center, where they are 7-2 against the Clippers since the 2006-07 season. They were coming off a 12-point win over the Lakers three days earlier in which they made 16 3-pointers. ‘’We came out and took care of business,’’ James said. ‘’We’re getting into form right now. We’ve got a great rotation going right now. The guys are healthy and we’re just trying to play the game the right way.’’

J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving added 17 points each, and reserve Channing Frye had 15 on a seasonhigh-tying five 3-pointers for the Eastern Conference leaders. Frye also had five 3s against the Lakers in a game he started. ‘’Channing coming out and making those threes kind of became contagious,’’ Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. ‘’LeBron set the tone early with his pace, getting rebounds, pushing it. It wasn’t all for himself.

He got the other guys involved making shots.’’

The Cavs won their third straight and improved to 20-6 against the West, including 10-4 on the road.

As comfy as the Cavs were in the opposition’s house, the Clippers were awkward. They fell to 22-12 at home. ‘’We should have more pride,’’ said DeAndre Jordan, who had 11 points and 11 rebounds. ‘’We started out the game great, but

there was no fight once they punched back.’’

J.J. Redick scored 19 points, and Chris Paul added 17 points and 10 assists for the Clippers. They outscored the Cavs 17-7 to start the game, but James tied it on a 3-pointer, and Tristan Thompson’s hook gave the Cavs the lead for good by the end of the quarter. ‘’They moved the ball well, they defended, they stopped us, they got out in transition and we let them be too comfortable,’’ Paul said.

Kevin Love, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds after sitting out the previous game with a left knee sprain, launched the Cavs on a 30-6 run over the end of the first and start of the second quarter that pushed their lead to 37-23.

Frye had three of his 3s in that stretch. ‘’We have a thing now where if you have any airspace and that shot is there, you are taking it,’’ Love said.

The Clippers closed to 4338 with a 15-6 spurt, helped by 3-pointers from Jamal Crawford and two in a row from Paul. But that was their last run of the game.

The Cavs answered with a 15-3 run, including 10 by James, to close the half leading 58-41. James had two three-point plays, the first on a driving layup in which he slapped his right biceps when he drew a foul call, and the second on a dunk.

Cleveland hit eight 3-pointers in the third, including four in a row, when its lead reached 91-68.

Irving was the only Cleveland starter on the floor in the fourth, and he sat down after scoring seven in a row, capped by - what else - a 3-pointer. James Jones hit the Cavs’ 18th 3-pointer with 31 seconds left, the most the Clippers have given up this season.q

SPORTS A21

Monday 14 March 2016

Short-handed Penguins surge past Rangers 5-3

By SIMMI BUTTAR AP Sports Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- With one of their top players out for several weeks, the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to need some help to make the playoffs.

Conor Sheary did his part on Sunday.

Sheary scored twice and Matt Cullen had the go-ahead goal in the third period and the short-handed Penguins beat the New York Rangers 5-3. ‘’He’s a terrific kid,’’ Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. ‘’You can see his offensive instincts, you see his vision when he has the puck.’’

Pittsburgh entered the game in eighth place and in the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 78 points.

The Penguins will be out with star Evgeni Malkin, who is out six to eight weeks after suffering an upper-body injury in Friday’s win over Columbus. He is second on the team with 27 goals and 31 assists in 57 games. ‘’It’s a good opportunity for a lot of guys to get some secondary scoring to get some more minutes when a top guy like that goes down.’’ Sheary said. ‘’Obviously, it’s unfortunate for the team as whole, losing a player like that, but it’s good for younger guys and guys who don’t get that many minutes.’’

Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins andMarc-

Andre Fleury, who won his 350th career game Friday, made 24 saves for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby added an empty-netter for his 29th of the season.

Derick Brassard scored his team-leading 25th goal for the Rangers. Ryan McDonagh and Chris Kreider also scored and Derek Stepan had two assists.

With the game tied 3-3, Cullen sent the puck from behind the net and it deflected off defenseman Marc Staal and past Henrik Lundqvist at 11:09 of the third period. ‘’We got on the puck and were kind of able to possess the puck down low and I kind of got tripped up front and tried to make a play out front and sometimes you get those lucky bounces,’’ Cullen said. ‘’You will take every one.’’

McDonagh scored on a wraparound at 5:04 of the third for his ninth of the season to tie it at 3. Less than a half-minute later, Fleury stopped Rick Nashon a breakaway.

Lundqvist, who returned Saturday after missing three games with a neck injury, made 28 saves. ‘’We did a lot of good things, it’s just today I feel like the puck was bouncing their way more than our way,’’ Lundqvist said. ‘’The fourth one (Pittsburgh goal) was a really tough one.’’

The Penguins dominated the second period, outshooting the Rangers 10-2.

l a i c Spe rs Offe

New York Rangers right wing Jesper Fast (19) collides with Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) in the third period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 13, 2016, in New York.

Associated Press

Sheary, recalled from their American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton late Saturday, scored both of his goals in the period. First, he deflected Justin Schultz’s point shot past Lundqvist at 7:30.

After the Rangers tied it on Brassard’s power-play goal 89 seconds later, Sheary eluded Rangers forward Kevin Hayes and scored on a breakaway at 15:55 to give the Penguins a 3-2 lead after two periods. Coming off Saturday’s overtime loss to Detroit, the Rangers got off to a fast start, outshooting the Penguins 13-3 in the first 11 minutes.

But Fleury kept the game scoreless until Pittsburgh opened the scoring less than minute later.

Lundqvist made a save on Crosby’s one-timer, but Hornqvist took the rebound and shot from behind the net and banked it off the Rangers goalie and into the net for a powerplay goal at 11:56 of the period. ‘’It’s a game where they

made us pay for the opportunities we gave them,’’ McDonagh said. ‘’Against a skilled team with their firepower, you can’t give them too many looks and they made us pay.’’

The Rangers tied it at 18:06 when Kevin Klein started the rush into the Penguins zone and sent a pass to Stepan, who passed to Kreider for a tap-in at 18:06 for his 16th of the season.q

Carte Blanche

Early Bird 5:30 pm till 7:00 pm 3 course dinner a glass of wine

3 or 5 course dinner

Also available Wine pairing

$29.95

Live Saxofoon player every Wednesday night from Cuba No service charge

Playa Linda Beach Resort Reservations: info@amusearuba.com Ph: (+297) 586-9949

A22

Monday 14 March 2016

SPORTS

Luke Bannister of Somerset, a 15 year old British pilot of Bannister’s team, Tornado X-Blades Banni UK, takes part at the World Drone Prix in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 12, 2016.

Associated Press

15-year-old pilot from England wins Dubai’s World Drone Prix JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A team led by a 15-year-old pilot from England took first place Saturday in the World Drone Prix, a new contest hoping to take flight both in this Mideast country fascinated by the technology and with sports fans worldwide.

Luke Bannister of Somerset led Tornado X-Blades Banni UK to win a $250,000 purse, part of $1 million in prizes handed out in the inaugural edition of this race as a Cabinet-level minister announced the start of the World Future Sports Games in December 2017.

Those contests next year will include robotic swimming, running, wrestling and car racing, as well as drone flying, as this city of futuristic skylines yearns to be ahead of the curve.

“We are trying to bring the future closer to us,” said Mohammed al-Gergawi, the United Arab Emirates’ minister for Cabinet affairs.

At the World Drone Prix, four pilots at a time sat in racing-style seats, their eyes covered by goggles allowing them to watch a feed from a camera on their drone. The drones raced on a course behind them, zipping along a white track that occasionally reached up to pinch at the speeding aircraft for 12 laps with the skyscrapers of the Dubai Marina behind them.

The pilots wore the white racing jumpsuits familiar to Formula One, but racers have to worry about what’s above and below them as they fly their drones, said Zachry Thayer, a 25-year-old pilot for Team Big Whoop of Fort Collins, Colorado. But the onboard camera puts a racer into the action like nothing else, he said.

“That’s what’s making it explode,” Thayer said. “Anybody can go out and all of a sudden, they’re Superman,” The crafts flown more resembled Erector Set creations, with one team us-

ing a cheap disposable lighter to solder a wire. The races themselves looked at home in the science-fiction film “Tron” — glowing fluorescent lights guiding the way around the 591-meter (650-yard) track.

Racers had to take at least one pit stop in the race, with crews leaning down to change out batteries. Pilots also had to decide whether to take short cuts, sometimes seeing their drones crash into the ground or into each other to the shouts of spectators.

Dubai, once a sleepy desert port city now home to the world’s tallest building and the long-haul airline Emirates, has embraced drones. Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has given the $1 million Drones for Good Award over the last two years.

Government agencies across the larger United Arab Emirates, ever-eager to be seen using new technology, use drones in activities as varied as inspecting buildings to calming a frantic Abu Dhabi windowwasher in 2014 caught 10 stories up after his scaffolding got stuck. Small hobby drones for sale sit on display in electronics stores in the country’s many luxury malls, while Al-Dhafra Air Base hosts some of the U.S. military’s unmanned aircraft flying missions over Iraq and Syria targeting the Islamic State group.

But the proliferation of hobbyist drone pilots has caused problems here as elsewhere in the world.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, has seen drones fly into its airspace and halt its flights.

Since February, drone owners have been required to register with the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority.

Authorities also ban hobby-

ists from putting cameras or lasers on their drones.

“It is not merely a flying game, but a sport that requires mental focus and accuracy to enable users to harmonize mental commands and hand movements to fly their drone,” Saif Mohammed al-Suwaidi, the aviation authority’s director-general, said in a statement at the time.

That focus — as well as having competitors fly an aircraft they’re not actually in — makes many compare the sport to that of competitive video game playing. Already, so-called eSports revenue was nearly $750 million worldwide in 2015, with sponsorships and advertising accounting for $578 million, according to the New York-based gaming-research firm SuperData.

“Obviously, there’s a crossover with gaming, as you can see with the HD goggles,” said Nigel Tomlinson of Manchester, United Kingdom, who was the manager of Luke’s team.

Those millions, as well as Dubai’s single-minded determination to always be ahead, likely inspired authorities to announce the World Future Sports Games, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 28-30, 2017. Officials hope to hold the games once every two years after that.

On Saturday night at the World Drone Prix, the novelty of the competition seemed to hold the audience’s attention as the drones buzzed around the track. After winning, Tomlinson said the 43 team members of Luke’s team would share the prize money.

Luke himself also seemed happy, rocking back and forth on his heels atop the winner’s podium.

“The lights were awesome,” he shyly said afterward, as his team cheered.q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Monday 14 March 2016

Human Go champion scores 1st win over machine after 3 losses LEE JIN-MAN YOUKYUNG LEE Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A champion Go player scored his first win over a Go-playing computer program on Sunday after losing three straight times in the ancient Chinese board game, saying he finally found weaknesses in the software.

Lee Sedol’s victory over AlphaGo is a reminder that Google’s Go-playing program has room for improvement despite winning the first three matches in the best-of-five series and the $1 million prize, which will be donated to charity. The program — the first computer system to defeat a top Go player — was developed by Google DeepMind two years ago.

“This one win is so valuable and I will not trade this for anything in the world,” Lee, one of the best Go players in the world, said with a smile after entering the post-match news conference at a Seoul hotel to applause from journalists.

Lee had said earlier in the series, which began last week, that he was unable to beat AlphaGo because he could not find any weaknesses in the software’s strategy.

But after Sunday’s match, the 33-year-old South Korean Go grandmaster, who has won 18 international championships, said he found two weaknesses in the artificial intelligence program.

Lee said that when he made an unexpected move, AlphaGo responded with a move as if the program had a bug, indicating that the machine lacked the ability to deal with surprises.

AlphaGo also had more difficulty when it played with a black stone, ac-

South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol reviews the match after winning the fourth match of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, March 13, 2016.

Associated Press

cording to Lee. In Go, two players take turns putting black or white stones on a 19-by-19-line grid, with a goal of putting more terri-

tory under one’s control. A player with a black stone plays first and a white-stone player gets extra points to compensate. Lee played

with a white stone on Sunday. For the final match of the series, scheduled for Tuesday, Lee has offered to play with a black stone,

saying it would make a victory more meaningful.

South Korean commentators could not hide their excitement three hours into Sunday’s match, when it became clear that Lee would finally notch a win.

AlphaGo narrowed the gap with Lee, but could not overtake him, resigning nearly five hours into the game. Go fans whose pride had been crushed

by Lee’s earlier defeats cheered the result. Prior to the series, Go fans, many of them in Asia, believed that the game would prove too complex for the machine to master.Because there are near-infinite board positions in Go and top players rely heavily on intuition, the popular Asian board game has remained the holy grail for the artificial intelligence community for about two decades, after chess was conquered by computers.q

Google is hitting the road _ literally _ for user feedback MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is about to embark on an old-school search, swapping its Internet algorithm for a custom-built van that will cruise across the U.S. to find out how people use its online services and react to new features. The white van emblazoned with Google’s colorful logo and an invitation to “shape the future” of the world’s most powerful Internet company is scheduled to pull out Monday on a sixweek road trip. Google is using the van to help it break out of its Silicon Valley bubble. The van will make multiday stops in seven states, stopping near colleges, libraries, parks and some of Google’s own regional offices in hopes of finding out how average

Americans are using the company’s multitude of digital offerings.

About 500 walk-up volunteers will be invited to step inside the van designed to serve as a mini-version of Google’s Silicon Valley laboratories, where most of the company’s user studies are conducted.

Once inside, researchers will watch, question and record how the volunteers use apps and other services on their smartphones in sessions that will last 15 to 90 minutes. They will receive gift cards and Google t-shirts in return for their time. A few may even get a glimpse at ideas that Google’s engineers are still refining before the company decides whether to release them as products to the general public.

The plan to build a research

In this Wednesday, March 9, 2016 photo, Google User Experience Researcher John Webb, background, Dawn Herman, left, Henry Liang, center, and Victoria Sosik pose for a photo with Google’s User Experience van in New York.

Associated Press

lab on wheels grew out of Google’s recognition that most people don’t live and think the same way as the population living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the company does most of its user research. In this geeky and affluent area, the day’s biggest worry sometimes boils down to how long it will take to

summon an Uber ride to a fancy restaurant. “We are trying to understand the whole end-to-end experience, which is why we are trying to get out to more locations and see more people so we can gather more context,” says Laura Granka, a lead Google researcher focusing on Internet search and maps.

A24 BUSINESS

Monday 14 March 2016

Pricey tea a growing niche crop in US, even Canada

JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press BROOKHAVEN, Mississippi (AP) — After Hurricane Katrina wiped out his timber 11 years ago, Jason McDonald wanted a crop less susceptible to Mississippi’s potentially powerful storms.

Low maintenance was also a priority.

“I didn’t want to be a cattle farmer and chase down cattle at 3 or 4 in the morning,” McDonald said.

A chance encounter with South Carolina tea drew him into the growing ranks of North American farmers from Mississippi to British Columbia who are growing tea for the highpriced specialty market.

There’s money to be made because more Americans are willing to pay premium prices for what they consider top quality, tea consultant Nigel Melican said in a telephone interview from Bedford, England. The specialty tea market is growing 8 to 10 percent a year, according to Peter F. Goggi’s 2015 market review for the Tea Association of the U.S.A. Inc. Such teas are particularly attractive to millennials, who “find delight in the discovery of new and differentiated flavors, ethnic or new cultural offerings and craft selections,” he wrote.

Melican said U.S. wages are too high to compete with overseas farmers who grow the commodity tea commonly found on grocery shelves.

In this Feb. 29, 2016 photograph, Joshua Watson, left, and Chase White gather tea plants onto racks at The Great Mississippi Tea Company near Brookhaven, Miss. A growing number of North American farmers from Mississippi to British Columbia are growing tea for the high-priced specialty market.

Associated Press

For example, a 4-ounce (113-gram) box of 50 Lipton black tea bags can be found online for $3, while Connecticut-based Bigelow Tea sells the South Carolina-grown product at $7.95 for a box of 12 tea bags weighing less than an ounce (28 grams).

Compared with some prices, that’s peanuts.

Eliah Halpenny of Big Island Tea on the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii sells her black and green teas wholesale for about $42 an ounce. Her online retail prices work out to more than $75 an ounce.

Light of Day Organic Teas in Traverse City, Michigan, where plastic-covered

“hoop houses” shelter tea plants eight months of the year, sells its home-grown white tea for $256 a pound or $32 for a 1.5-ounce (42gram) tin. It takes 70,000 hand-picked leaf buds to make a pound of white tea, owner Angela Macke said.“I don’t recommend it to anyone as a commercial crop. You’ve got to love it,” Macke said in a phone interview.

About 60 U.S. farms, with only a handful created before 2000, are growing tea, said Tygh Waters, president of the U.S. League of Tea Growers and founder of Piedmont Tea Co. in Athens,

Georgia. Tea is grown in at least 15 states and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Outside of Hawaii, it generally takes about five years for plants to grow big enough to survive repeated harvests, Walters said.

A tea bag helped decide McDonald’s future after the 2005 hurricane wiped out 75 percent of the pine trees on his farm of nearly 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) near Tylertown, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from what is now his Great Mississippi Tea Company in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

On a visit to South Carolina, he was served a tea called

American Classic. The message on the teabag’s envelope intrigued him — this tea was home-grown.

That led him to the nation’s oldest working tea farm: Charleston Tea Plantation, started by Lipton in 1963 with plants that had grown wild on a defunct farm in Summerville, South Carolina. There, McDonald learned that tea comes from Camellia sinensis, which needs high heat, acidic soil, ample rainfall and humidity. Mississippi State University researchers helped him determine what varieties might be best for Mississippi.

After an unusually cold winter killed off nearly an entire year’s stock in Mississippi, McDonald began buying seeds from overseas, from places such as Nepal and Kenya. He’s looking to cross cold-hardy and heat-tolerant plants to produce a hybrid that will thrive in Mississippi.

He’s also planted seeds from a Hattiesburg woman named Penny, who gave him two huge plants for a promise to name some of their offspring after her. He says those seedlings are growing much faster than other varieties. Hoping for a copper-hued tea, McDonald named them “A Penny’s Worth of Copper.”

BUSINESS A25

Monday 14 March 2016

Would Trump’s trade threats work? Many experts are skeptical PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has promised to shred America’s trade deals and impose fines on imports from Mexico and China. He’s gone so far as to swear off Oreos to protest Nabisco’s transfer of cookie production from Chicago to Mexico.

By attacking trade agreements, the Republican presidential front-runner is channeling the belief, common among many of this year’s angry voters, that foreign competition is robbing American jobs and shrinking wages.

“We’re being killed on trade — absolutely destroyed,” Trump says.

His assault on trade deals — which in some ways echoes arguments of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders — seems to be winning politics. But Trump’s analysis of how trade hurts American workers is flawed, and as president, he would struggle to deliver on his promises.

The United States does have an unbalanced trade relationship with other nations. Last year, it imported $2.76 trillion in goods and services and exported just $2.22 trillion. That $540 billion gap — the trade deficit — was the seventh-biggest on record. Not since 1975 has the United States run a trade surplus.

A trade deficit slows economic growth and can cost jobs. Last year, the U.S. trade gap shrank growth by 0.6 percentage point to a modest 2.4 percent.

Trump, author of the 1987 best-seller “The Art of the Deal,” argues that American negotiators are snookered by smarter deal-makers in China, Mexico and Japan who manage to penetrate the U.S. market without granting equal access to their own. He and his team, which he has said would include corporate takeover artist Carl Icahn, could easily do better, he says.

An assessment of his trade case: LITTLE EFFECT ON JOBS Many economists call Trump’s arguments off-

Americans and cause diplomatic havoc. Economists recall that the 1930 SmootHawley legislation, which

In this Wednesday, March 2, 2016, file photo, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence speaks at a news conference at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, on the decision of Carrier to move jobs out of Indiana to Mexico.

Associated Press

base. Trade deals usually have little overall effect on jobs — positive or negative — partly because the American economy is already open to foreign competition. Bigger forces such as huge wage gaps between the United States and developing countries, and automation that lets companies replace workers, play a much larger role in job losses. “We’re running large trade deficits, and those do cost us jobs,” says C. Fred Bergsten, director emeritus of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Almost none of that can be traced to trade agreements, bad, good or otherwise. Trade agreements always have a small net effect on jobs.”

Economists at the Peterson Institute think the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending deal involving the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries, would barely affect American employment. Jobs created by greater access to Asia-Pacific markets would likely be offset by jobs lost.

Just behind inept negotiators on Trump’s list of those responsible for America’s trade problems are businesses that move operations abroad to capitalize on cheaper labor.

Trump pledged to give up Oreos after Nabisco’s parent, Mondelez International, said it would replace nine production lines in Chicago with four in Mexico.

He also said he would demand that United Technologies reverse a decision to move two Indiana plants to Mexico, eliminating 2,100

jobs. If it refused, he said he would impose a tax on anything the company built in Mexico and exported to the United States.

Trump also said he would tax auto imports from Mexico to stop U.S. automakers from moving production there.

EASIER SAID THAN DONE Levying those tariffs would probably require congressional approval. It would violate commitments the United States made when it joined the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, and the tariffs would trigger retaliation from Mexico. No problem, Trump says. He’d rip up NAFTA. He could exit the agreement provided he gave Mexico and Canada six months’ notice. Experts differ on whether Congress would have to authorize this.

Regardless, leaving NAFTA would cause chaos for businesses that have arranged their operations around its rules.

Trump has threatened to hit Chinese imports with a 45 percent tariff. But in Thursday’s Republican debate, he suggested that the tax might be negotiable.

“The 45 percent is a threat if they don’t behave, if they don’t follow the rules and regulations so that we can have it equal on both sides, we will tax you,” he said on stage.

If Trump replaced the low tariffs provided by NAFTA and World Trade Organization rules with punitive tariffs on Mexican and Chinese goods, he probably would ignite a trade war that would raise prices for

raised tariffs on imports, inflamed trade tensions and worsened the Great Depression.

A26 COMICS

Monday 14 March 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Saturday’s puzzle answer

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

CLASSIFIED A27

Monday 14 March 2016

Dr. Dassen Dr. Wever

Tel. 584-6427

FOR SALE Townhouse

Orlando Fl. 1862 sq. Ft. 2 stories, Year 2014 City of Medic Lake Nona 32827 E-mail: gustavorf28@gmail.com

204361

FOR SALE

Divi Dutch Village 3 Bet room week 11, 13 week Left in Contract $3000 US E-mail: burbon812@yahoo.com 204817

March

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

Divi Dutch Village

1 Bet room week 10, Grount floor 12 week Left in Contract $4,200 US E-mail: burbon812@yahoo.com 204818

FOR SALE

#2 Divi Dutch Village for sale week 27 June 25 Start 3 Room Suite, Lock Off Master bed RM withlock off Studio with small kitchen 1 other room with Queen sofa, full kichen dining area 4900$ if used in 2016 buyer pays M fees of 839, and 2017 special Assessement, Seller Pays 2016, (For Renovations) rmwjmw@aol.com 5086510016 204717

Renaissance

WK 9 5th floor US. $8.500 Call Yankee Bob anytime USA - 1401-828-1322 Membership includs island Privilges Roundtrip trance portacion every 20 min

FOR SALE

204748

4 Bedroom 3 bathroom house with pool on property land in West Punt. Furnished $275.000,00 Phone: 660-7907 204802

TIME SHARE For rent / Sale

Studios and 1 Bedroom at Divi Village / Dutch Village March 12 to Dec 11th.

Also Wk 17 Rm 3205 Studio Blong 2 from 4/24 $ 3950 or Blo. E-mail: rmwjmweaol.com Tel.: 508-651-0016 204724

A28 SCIENCE

Monday 14 March 2016

Year-in-space astronaut hangs up his spacesuit, retires SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — After spending nearly a year in space, astronaut Scott Kelly is hanging up his spacesuit.

NASA announced Kelly’s retirement on Friday, less than two weeks after he returned to Earth. He leaves the space agency on April 1.

The 52-year-old Kelly spent a U.S.-record 340 days in orbit on the International Space Station to see how the human body holds up for long periods of time in space. His results are being compared to those on the ground from his twin brother, Mark, who is a retired astronaut.

Scott Kelly also holds the American record for most time in space: 520 days over four missions.

“I look forward to continuing my 30 years of public service in a new role,” Kelly, who joined the Navy in 1987, said in a Facebook post. “To continue toward any journey, we must always challenge ourselves to take the next step.”

During his one-year trip, Kelly posted hundreds of images, mostly of Earth from orbit, on social media. But he also engaged in a little fun, donning a gorilla suit that was a gag gift from his brother and chasing fellow astronauts through the space station

In this Wednesday, March 2, 2016 photo provided by NASA, International Space Station (ISS) crew member Scott Kelly of the U.S. reacts after landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. On Friday, March 11, 2016, NASA announced Kelly’s retirement, which begins April 1. The 52-year-old Kelly holds the American record for most time in space: 520 days. Associated Press

in a video.

“This year-in-space mission was a profound challenge for all involved, and it gave me a unique perspective and a lot of time to reflect on what my next step should be on our continued journey to help further our capabilities in space and on Earth,” Kelly said in a statement issued by NASA. No specific plans for what’s next were announced. But Kelly will continue to undergo periodic medical tests

as part of his year-in-space mission, NASA said.

“Adjusting in space is easier than adjusting to Earth for me,” Kelly said in his first postflight news conference a week ago. Even then he gave a hint of what was to come, saying he doubted he’d fly again for NASA but adding, “I’ll never be done with space. I will always be involved.”

Kelly’s departure means the space agency is losing its biggest star, said John

Logsdon, a retired space policy professor.

“I’m willing to bet that no one could name another NASA astronaut, anyone not close to the program,” Logsdon said. “It clears the way for the next generation of space fliers. There are a few veteran fliers left, but not many.”

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a retired astronaut himself, said the space agency and science in general is grateful to Kelly,

who he added deserves “meals that don’t come in a bag, a cold beer, hot showers, cool autumn breezes, the sounds of birds chirping, the ability to lay his head on an actual pillow and so much more of the pleasures of life.”

Astronauts who eventually will land on Mars “will be following in the footsteps of one of the finest astronauts in the history of the space program, my friend, Commander Scott Kelly,” Bolden said in a statement.

Kelly returned from the space station on March 2, landing in Kazakhstan with Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko, his partner for the one-year mission. The usual space station stint is six months.

His re-entry into land living was good and bad. Home in Houston, he dove into his backyard pool still in his blue flight suit, going underwater for the first time in nearly a year. But clothing was a problem. In space, his clothes floated around him and didn’t touch his skin.“It’s very, very sensitive,” he told reporters last week. “It’s almost like a burning feeling wherever I like sit or lie or walk.”

Before leaving orbit, Kelly tweeted: “The journey isn’t over. Follow me as I rediscover #Earth!”

His Twitter followers have since read about his first steak, first dental appointment, first rain and that dip in the pool.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Monday 14 March 2016

‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ opens well, but ‘Zootopia’ roars

JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Moviegoers didn’t have much to go on with the mysterious “10 Cloverfield Lane,” but the words “Cloverfield” and “J.J. Abrams” were enough.

The Abrams-produced monster movie, a so-called “spiritual successor” to 2008’s found-footage hit “Cloverfield,” opened with a better-than-expected $25.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That was good enough for second place to the Disney animated hit “Zootopia,” which stayed on top with $50 million in its second week, a slide of only 33 percent from its opening weekend.

The weekend’s biggest disappointment was Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Brothers Grimsby,” which flopped with a mere $3.2 million. It’s a career low box-office debut for the shape-shifting British comedian by a wide margin.

Perhaps sensing trouble, Sony Pictures had post-

poned the release date of the R-rated comedy numerous times. Whereas Cohen’s most popular characters — Borat and Ali G — were deployed largely to satirize America, moviegoers showed less enthusiasm for the British parody of “Brothers Grimsby,” a poorly reviewed R-rated, U.K.-set spy comedy.

With the multiplexes stuffed with R-rated offerings (“Deadpool,” ‘’London Has Fallen,” ‘’Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”), the acclaimed “Zootopia” has had family audiences all to itself. The film, which imagines a metropolis inhabited by animals, will have little competition before “The Jungle Book” arrives in mid-April.

Taking in $83.1 million internationally over the weekend, “Zootopia” has already made more than $430 million globally.

“With the marketplace loaded with R-rated fare, if you’re a family with kids, the only game in town right now is ‘Zootopia,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Mary Elizabeth Winstead, left, and John Goodman in a scene from the film, “10 Cloverfield Lane.”

Associated Press

comScore. “That film is reaping the benefits of studios somehow not realizing: ‘Hey, there’s a big void in this marketplace.’ ” The directorial debut of Dan Trachtenberg, “10 Cloverfield Lane,” arrived with the opposite kind of hoop-

la that preceded Abrams’ previous film, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The release of “10 Cloverfield Lane,” made for just about $13 million, wasn’t much advertised until an ominous Super Bowl spot. Megan Colligan, head of distri-

bution and marketing for Paramount Pictures, said the sly, cryptic campaign got people talking about a movie that revealed little except its two stars (John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in a bunker.

A30 PEOPLE

Monday 14 March 2016

& ARTS

Hollywood learns a new storytelling language for VR RYAN NAKASHIMA Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — What happens to a film’s story when blades of grass are more interesting than the plot? When you can lean in so close to an actor you ought to feel their breath?

When a few simple steps around a room can make you dizzy?

Virtual reality filmmakers are grappling with these challenges as they explore a medium that hasn’t had a century to develop the way movies have. Much the way early cinematographers had to discover cuts, wide shots and perspective, VR filmmakers find themselves making things up as they go along, often mashing up traditional movies and video-game techniques along the way.

Consider for a second how we’ve all internalized the visual language of film.

Quick cuts skip over time and space to get to a story’s point. Wide shots give us a godlike perspective. Zooms and tight focus naturally draw our attention to specific points. Audiences have been trained to stitch it all together into a fluid narrative.

Now picture yourself in the middle of the action.

With a headset strapped over your eyes and ears, sometimes with a controller in your hand, you are completely immersed in the virtual world. Things can happen behind you. There are characters and places to explore from different angles.

It’s all a work in progress, one

In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, the “Henry” movie team conducts a daily at the Oculus Story Studio, a hub for digital animators and experimental filmmakers in San Francisco’s trendy South of Market district. Standing at right is, Ramiro Lopez Dau, director and animation supervisor. In “Henry,” an Oculus short, you find yourself standing inside a lonely hedgehog’s computer-generated house. You’re free to look around at anything, but it’s not until you look at the kitchen door that Henry shows up.

Associated Press

that more consumers will see when the long awaited Oculus Rift VR headset ships later in March. It’s crucial for VR filmmakers to get storytelling right, or the whole virtual reality boom could turn out to be just another sandbox for hardcore video gamers .

JUST LET GO This was one of the first lessons for Oculus Story Studio, a hub for digital animators and experimental filmmakers in San Francisco’s trendy South of Market district.

In an early version of the Oculus short “Lost,” audiences got distracted by looking at foliage or the moon and didn’t pay attention to a giant, disembodied hand that’s the subject of the piece, says creative director Saschka Unseld. So creators added a full 40 seconds to

let viewers get oriented, and then just let go.

“Once you have the audience interested, they will look wherever the story happens,” Unseld says.

“But losing that control of focus of the audience is something that took a while to get over.”

SUBTLE CUES DRIVE THE ACTION In “Henry,” another Oculus short, you find yourself standing inside a lonely hedgehog’s computergenerated house. You’re free to look around at anything, but it’s not until you set eyes on the kitchen door that Henry shows up.

“That’s a triggered moment that makes you feel like you discovered Henry in a very natural way,” says director Ramiro Lopez Dau. Some viewers try to hug Henry, Dau says — but he doesn’t hug back.

LET THE VIEWER DISCOVER WHO THEY ARE At Montreal-based Felix & Paul Studios, filmmakers have exploded the traditional separation between film and filmgoer by making “Who am I?” a central question — sometimes even a mystery — for VR participants.

In the short film “Strangers with Patrick Watson,” for example, a man riffs on a piano and sings. From a seat in the player’s cluttered apartment, you can look at his wall art, peruse his collectibles and even watch his dog.

In Felix & Paul’s “Jurassic World: Apatosaurus,” you start off in a forest next to a jeep; a coffee mug and two-way radio lay within arm’s reach. Turns out you’re a park ranger visiting a sleeping diplodocid.

That helps explain why the dinosaur just sniffs you in a familiar way and goes back to its daily routine chewing leaves.

A short based on the movie “Wild” takes things to a surreal new level. As her omniscient voice narrates, actress Reese Witherspoon hikes up and sits on a rock beside you. Then she looks right through you, and suddenly Laura Dern, playing Witherspoon’s deceased mother, makes you turn to the right. Dern then talks through you to her daughter as if you’re the ghost. Later, a curious fox comes up to sniff you, a reminder that you that you do, in fact, exist — virtually, at least.

“We don’t ask people to

come out of those things and say, ‘I completely figured it out’,” says Felix Lajeunesse, the studio’s creative director.

SUDDEN MOVEMENT = NAUSEA Vrse, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality studio that has worked with The New York Times, Vice News and others, has a signature documentary style involving a voice-over and stationary VR camera placement right in the middle of the action.

But it unhooked the camera in “Millions March NYC ,” an 8-minute VR documentary on racialprofiling protests that Vrse produced with Vice News. Creative director Chris Milk acknowledged the hand-held camera and bouncing, shaky movements make the viewer “a little queasy.”

Many virtual reality filmmakers avoid motion because it induces nausea, but Milk says injecting a touch of acceleration is a new way for directors to provoke an emotional response. “You couldn’t do this in a traditional, rectangular film,” he says.

WHAT IS NARRATIVE, ANYWAY? Can a story be an exploration of a space?

Can it be just a moment in time and a way to understand a situation’s context?

Creator Mac Cauley wrestled with these questions in “The Night Cafe,” a scene painted in the impressionist style of Vincent Van Gogh. q

PEOPLE/ARTS

A31

Monday 14 March 2016

Actress : I only wanted to document Mexican drug lord’s life MEXICO CITY (AP) — Actress Kate del Castillo says in an article published Sunday that she only met secretly with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for a project to document his life in a movie, and denied suggestions she had received any money from the drug lord.

Del Castillo wrote of the meeting in a first-person article published in the Mexican weekly newsmagazine Proceso. She explained how she was contacted by the capo’s attorneys, the discussions leading up to the encounter and ultimately her October 2015 meeting with Guzman and American actor Sean Penn in a remote area of northeastern Mexico.

The Proceso article comes just two days after The New Yorker magazine published part of an interview with the actress. It was the first she had given to any medium about the meeting with the drug lord.

“What I wanted to do was

In this Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, actress Kate Del Castillo speaks during a news conference in City Council chambers in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

document the life of a man named enemy number one by the most powerful nation in the world,” she wrote.

Guzman, known as the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was captured on Jan. 8 af-

ter a nearly six-month manhunt following his escape last July from a maximum security prison through a tunnel built under his cell.

It was his second such escape from a penitentiary.

The actress wrote that the

capo’s attorneys contacted her via email in 2014 and later met with her. The lawyers said that “El Chapo” wanted to give her the rights to tell his story in a movie, one that she would also appear in.

“Why me?” the actress recalled asking.

“Because he admires you, respects you, and fully trusts you,” she said one of the lawyers told her.

Del Castillo told of the trip she made Oct. 2 with Penn and two producers to meet with Guzman. One of the capo’s sons met the group at a hotel and then took them on a journey by land, air, and land again.

Mexican authorities have said they were investigating whether Guzman gave money to Del Castillo’s tequila company. Officials here have also sought to interrogate the actress, although they have said they consider her a witness not a suspect.

In a second article published in Process on Sunday, Del Castillo denied that the capo had given money to her to make the movie, or to her company.

“I have never received money from Mr. Guzman,” she said.q