February 24, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Time Served

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, to discuss the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Obama administration released its long-awaited plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer remaining detainees to a facility in the United States.

(AP Photo/Pablo Monsivais)

Obama Makes Case for Guantanamo Bay Closure

L. C. BALDOR K. HENNESSEY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba slammed into a wall of Republican opposition on Tuesday, stopping cold Obama’s hope for a bipartisan effort to “close a chapter” that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is Obama’s last attempt to make good on an unfulfilled campaign promise by persuading

Congress to change the law that prohibits moving detainees accused of violent extremist acts to U.S. soil. Fourteen years after the facility opened and seven years after Obama took office, the president argued it was “finally” time to shutter a facility that has sparked persistent legal battles, become a recruitment tool for Islamic militants and garnered strong opposition from some allies abroad. “I don’t want to pass this problem onto the next president, whoever it is,” Obama said in an appearance at the White House. “If we don’t

do what’s required now, I think future generations are going to look back and ask why we failed to act when the right course, the right side of history, and justice and our best American traditions was clear.”

Despite the big ambitions, Obama’s proposed path remained unclear. The plan leaves unanswered the politically thorny question of where in the U.S a new facility would be located.

It offered broad cost estimates. The White House described it as more of a conversation starter than a definitive outline.

Republican leaders in Con-

gress showed no interest in having that conversation.

“We will review President Obama’s plan but since it includes bringing dangerous terrorists to facilities in U.S. communities, he knows that the bipartisan will of Congress has already been expressed against that proposal,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Obama had yet to convince Americans that moving detainees to U.S. soil is “smart or safe.”

“It is against the law — and it will stay against the law,” Ryan said.

Even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war and an advocate of closing the prison, called Obama’s report a “vague menu of options,” which does not include a policy for dealing with future detainees.

Obama has “missed a major chance to convince the Congress and the American people that he has a responsible plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” he said.

It’s not clear whether that chance ever existed.

Continued on page 3

A2 UP

Wednesday 24 February

FRONT

Proposed truce accepted by Syrian government, opposition ALBERT AJI BASSEM MROUE Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s government on Tuesday accepted a proposed U.S.-Russian ceasefire that is to go into effect later this week, but reserved the right to respond to any violations of the truce. The main opposition and rebel umbrella group approved the deal but set its own conditions.

The developments followed an agreement between Washington and Moscow for a new ceasefire set to take effect at midnight Friday local time in the 5-year-old civil war, even as major questions over enforcement remain unresolved. The truce does not cover the Islamic State group, Syria’s al-Qaida

branch known as the Nusra Front, or any other militia designated as a terrorist organization by the U.N. Security Council.

But exactly where along Syria’s complicated front lines the fighting would stop and where counterterrorism operations could continue under the truce is still to be addressed. The five-page plan released by the U.S. State Department also leaves open how cease-fire breaches would be dealt with.

While accepting the proposed truce, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said its operations will continue against IS, the Nusra Front and “other terrorist groups.” It also stressed the right of its armed forces “to retaliate against any violation carried out by these groups.”

Syrian men pose for a picture as they gather in the Marjeh square in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. The Syrian government and the main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel groups announced on Tuesday they both conditionally accept a proposed U.S.-Russian cease fire that the international community hopes will bring them back to the negotiating table in Geneva for talks to end the war.

(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Cabinet minister Ali Haidar said the government will respect the cease-fire in principle, although he could not “speak on behalf of the armed groups.”

“Violations will happen from other parties and not from the Syrian state’s side,” Haidar told The Associated Press after talks in Damascus with Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The main umbrella for Syrian opposition and rebel groups, the High Negotiations Committee, gave conditional approval late Monday. The HNC said acceptance was conditional on the government ending its siege of 18 rebel-held areas, releasing detainees and halting aerial and artillery bombardment. However, Talal Sillo, a spokesman for the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces, told the AP that his group will not abide by the truce because it’s fighting against the Islamic State group in northern Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said won’t vouch for the success of the agreement but said it’s the best pathway for ending the bloodshed.

“I’m not going to say this process is sure to work because I don’t know,” Kerry testified in Washington be-

fore the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Russian military said it has set up a coordination center to help enforce the cease-fire. The center is located at Syria’s Hemeimeem air base, which hosts Russian warplanes, said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov, adding that it was established in line with the U.S.-Russian agreement.

Its purpose, Konashenkov said, would be to help organize cease-fire negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition. Russia has given out its hotline numbers for enforcing the truce to the U.S., he added.

Some Syrians in the northern town of Qamishli expressed skepticism that the truce would hold.

“If the international community had wanted to stop the bloodshed, the killing and shelling, this could have happened three or four years ago,” Bakr Safir told the newsgathering Arab agency Arab24.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura halted the latest Syria talks in Geneva on Feb. 3 because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased bombings and a large-scale government offensive near the northern city of Aleppo.q

U.S. NEWS A3 Obama Makes Case for Guantanamo Bay Closure Wednesday 24 February

Continued from Front Momentum to close the facility has slowed dramatically under Obama’s tenure. Congress remains deadlocked on far less contentious matters, and the issue has little resonance on the presidential campaign trail.

Still, for Obama, the facility stands as painful reminder of the limits on his power: His first executive order sketched out a timeline for closing the prison, but was ultimately derailed by Congress.

The White House has not ruled out the possibility that the president may again attempt to close the prison through executive action — a move that would directly challenge Congress’ authority. The plan submitted Tuesday does not address that option.

Instead, the proposal reflects the administration’s strategy of shrinking the population, hoping the cost of housing the diminished population would ultimately make closure inevitable.

Under the plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current detainees will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving up to 60 detainees who are either facing trial by military commission or have been determined to be too dangerous to release but are not facing charges.

Those detainees would be

relocated to a U.S. facility that could cost up to $475 million to build, but would ultimately be offset by as much as $180 million per year in operating cost savings. The annual operating cost for Guantanamo is $445 million. The U.S. facilities would cost between $265 million and $305 million to operate each year, according to the proposal.

The plan considers, but does not name, 13 different locations in the U.S., including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, as well as six other locations at current correctional facilities on state, federal or military sites in several states. It also notes that there could be all new construction on existing military bases. The plan doesn’t recommend a preferred site.

Naming a site would have certainly further antagonized some members of Congress. Those representing South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado already have voiced opposition to housing the detainees in their states.

Advocates of closing Guantanamo say the prison has long been a recruiting tool for militant groups and that holding extremists suspected of violent acts indefinitely without charges or trial sparks anger and dismay among U.S. allies.

Opponents, however, say changing the detention center’s ZIP code won’t eliminate that problem.q

US convening meeting on countering IS recruitment

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is convening a meeting this week to discuss efforts to counter the propaganda of the Islamic State and its recruitment of Westerners to become terrorists.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at the Justice Department involves government officials as well as dozens of representatives from advertising and social media companies and Silicon Valley.

It will be followed by a

reception at the White House.

The summit reflects ongoing concerns about slick Islamic State propaganda that encourages disaffected young adults to join the terror group’s cause in Syria or to commit acts of violence closer to home.

Officials and private sector executives are brainstorming ways to fight that messaging, which has often spread through social media platforms such as Twitter.q

President Barack Obama speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Obama announced Pentagon’s long-awaited plan to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer the remaining detainees to a facility in the U.S. The plan is Obamas last-ditch effort to make good on campaign vow to close Guantanamo.

(AP Photo/Pablo Monsivais)

A4 U.S.

Wednesday 24 February

NEWS

Republican senators: No hearing or vote for Obama court pick ANDREW TAYLOR MARY JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday ruled out any hearing for President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, insisting that the choice rests with the president’s successor.

“Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people, this committee will not hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee until after our next president is sworn in on January 20, 2017,” they said in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I agree with the Judiciary

Committee’s recommendation to not have hearings. In short, there will not be action taken,” McConnell told reporters.

Even the most divisive nominees for the high court have received a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, and the electionyear decision to deny such a session is a sharp break with the Senate’s traditional “advise and consent” role. A committee review and a hearing is the first step in the process.

Antonin Scalia’s Feb. 13 death ignited a major fight in Washington over whether Obama should be able to replace him in a presidential election year. He had been dead only for a few hours when McConnell announced that he would oppose replacing him be-

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, joined by, from second for left are, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, laughs while meeting with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, following a closed-door policy meeting.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

fore the election.

Obama is expected to announce a nomination in the next few weeks.

The Republicans’ action is certain to have repercussions, not only in the presidential race but in congressional contests where vulnerable Senate incumbents in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire face tough Democratic challengers. At least one of those senators, Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois, has suggested holding hearings.

But Republican members of the committee met with McConnell and emerged with a simple message: “No hearing, no vote,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court nominee are the most highprofile in the Senate, and any session is certain to be a spectacle. Among the members of the panel is Republican presiden-

tial candidate Ted Cruz, and the Texas senator has vowed to block any nominee.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it was “absolutely” still possible the Senate would hold hearings, pointing to a handful of Republicans who he said had expressed a willingness, including Kirk, Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Coats of Indiana and Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Earnest said Obama has spoken to Republican lawmakers, including some on the committee, in recent days.

Republicans pointed to a 1992 speech by Vice President Joe Biden, then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in which he said that in a presidential election year the Senate should “not consider holding hearings until after the election.” As it turned out, there was no opening on the court that year.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Wednesday 24 February

Apple to tell judge Congress must decide on encryption TAMI ABDOLLAH Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. will tell a federal judge this week in legal papers that its fight with the FBI over iPhone encryption should be decided by Congress, not by courts, The Associated Press has learned.

Apple will also argue that the Obama administration’s request to help it hack into an iPhone in a terrorism case is improper under an 18th century law, the 1789 All Writs Act, which has been used to compel companies to provide assistance to law enforcement in investigations.

A lead attorney for Apple, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., previewed for the AP some of the company’s upcoming arguments in the case.

Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, has also hinted at the company’s courtroom strategy.

Apple’s effort would move the contentious policy debate between digital privacy rights and national security interests to Congress, where Apple — one of the world’s most respected technology companies — wields considerably more influence. Apple spent nearly $5 million lobbying Congress last year, mostly on tax and copyright issues.

Key lawmakers have been openly divided about whether the government’s demands in the case go too far.

Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in California ordered Apple last week to create specialized software to help the FBI hack into a locked, county-issued iPhone used by a gunman in the mass shootings last December in San Bernardino, California.

Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at an office holiday party in an attack at least partly inspired by the Islamic State group.

“The government is really seeking to push the courts to do what they haven’t been able to persuade Congress to do,” Boutrous said in an AP interview.

“That’s to give it more broad, sweeping authority to help the Department of Justice hack into devices, to have a back door into devices, and the law simply does not provide that authority.”

The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, this week disputed that Congress should settle the issue. Earnest said the magistrate judge “came down in favor of our law enforcement” after evaluating arguments by Apple and the FBI. Apple hasn’t yet made any filings in the case because the Justice Department asked the magistrate to rule before Apple had an opportunity to object.

“Sending complicated things to Congress is often not the surest way to get a quick answer,” Earnest said. “In fact, even asking some of the most basic questions of Congress sometimes does not ensure a quick answer.”

Apple intends to argue that the 1789 law has never been used to compel a company to write software to help the government.

Michael Zweiback, the former chief of the cybercrimes section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said it was highly unusual for the U.S. to ask Apple to give the FBI specialized software that would weaken the digital locks on the iPhone.

“There’s a significant legal question as to whether the All Writs Act can be used to order a company to create something that may not presently exist,” Zweiback said. He said as a former prosecutor he was sympathetic to the government’s case, but he de-

FBI Director James Comey is seen in Arlington, Va. Apple Inc. will tell a federal judge this week in legal papers that its fight with the FBI over iPhone encryption should be decided by Congress, not by courts, The Associated Press has learned.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

scribed Apple’s arguments as strong and said the issue has broad implications.

“We are not the only ones who are asking for encryption keys,” he said. “The Chinese government has

made similar demands upon them, the European Union has made similar demands upon them, so the implications are really not even national. They’re international in scope.”q

A6 U.S.

Wednesday 24 February

NEWS

American Living:

Bathrooms become battlegrounds in anti-discrimination debate JONATHAN DREW GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As bathrooms become battlegrounds in the national debate over anti-discrimination laws, a city council’s decision to protect the restroom choices of transgender people in Charlotte, North Carolina, was cheered Tuesday by rights advocates as a courageous move. But it may not stand for very long.

Gov. Pat McCrory told The Associated Press that the bathroom provision denies privacy rights for people who expect to share restrooms or locker rooms only with people born with the same anatomy.

“It’s an extreme regulation that changes the basic norms of society,” the Republican governor said, adding that he would like the state legislature to preempt any local governments from enforcing such ordinances. “I don’t want to have 100 different rules” across the state, he said.

As sweeping changes take hold across America in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage last year, advocates for lesbian, gay,

Leon Threatt, of Charlotte, speaks against the nondiscrimination ordinance during a City Council meeting’s vote on the nondiscrimination ordinance, in Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina’s largest city has legalized the ability of transgender people to choose public restrooms corresponding to their gender identity. The governor calls it a threat to public safety, and some state lawmakers are vowing to overrule the city.

(Robert Lahser /The Charlotte Observer via AP)

bisexual and transgender people have sought to build on that momentum by securing broad protections against discrimination in cities and states nationwide.

Most of the 20 largest U.S. cities now enforce state laws or local ordinances that include allowances for people to use the bathroom of the gender they

identify with, said Cathryn Oakley, an attorney with the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign who helped generate support for Charlotte’s ordinance.

And as conservatives push back, they are increasingly finding that concerns about bathroom encounters resonate more with voters than other aspects of such laws. In Jacksonville,

Florida, a council member withdrew a measure similar to Charlotte’s last week after encountering just such pressure.

“We’re currently tracking 192 bills, the vast majority of which are anti-LGBT with major themes being trans bathrooms and rfras (religious freedom restoration acts) focused on marriage,” Mark Daniel Snyder,

Few immigrant children deported from US in last 4 years ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has deported about 4 percent of the tens of thousands of unaccompanied child immigrants who have been caught crossing the U.S. border illegally in the last several years, a Homeland Security Department of-

ficial told lawmakers Tuesday.

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s removal operations, Thomas Homan, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that 7,643 immigrants who arrived as children were sent home between the 2012 and 2015 budget years.

More than 171,000 children, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, were arrested at the border during that same time.

The number of children caught crossing the border illegally spiked in 2014 and the Obama administration promised that those who were not eligible for protections in the United States

would be swiftly sent home.

Federal law requires that children from countries that don’t border the United States be transferred to the care of the Health and Human Services Department before being placed with a sponsor, usually a relative, while they wait for their immigration case to be heard by a judge. q

spokesman for the Equality Federation, a gay rights group, said in an email.

Charlotte’s ordinance is broader than just bathrooms, prohibiting hotels for example from refusing to rent a room to a lesbian couple, City Attorney Robert Hagemann stressed.

“The restroom issue has gotten an awful lot of attention,” Hagemann said.

“The primary aspect of what the council did is to prohibit discrimination in public accommodation.

That’s not just restrooms.”

A turning point was Houston, whose city council approved an ordinance similar to Charlotte’s. After a campaign that invoked concerns about bathroom safety last year, voters overwhelmingly overturned the ordinance in a referendum.

“The opposition has really run with this inflammatory, discriminatory messaging, and unfortunately they have found some traction,” Oakley said.

Transgender advocates, meanwhile, have worried openly that conservatives are using the bathroom issue to drive a wedge between them and other members of the LGBT movement.

“It’s absolutely not fair.

What they’re trying to do is roll back some of the progress that the LGBT community as a whole has made over the last several years by targeting some of the most vulnerable — and unfortunately least understood —members of our community,” said Demoya Gordon, a Lambda Legal staff attorney who works on its Transgender Rights Project. q

U.S. NEWS A7

Wednesday 24 February

US Financial Front:

American bank earnings jump 11.9% in 4Q; loan losses up they set aside to cover potential losses on loans by 45.5 percent, or $3.8 billion, from a year earlier, the FDIC reported. That brought the total set aside for the latest period to $12 billion — the highest level in three years.

And lending grew by 2.3 percent, driven by a mostly

A customer uses an ATM at a branch of Chase Bank in New York. U.S. bank earnings jumped 11.9 percent in the final three months of 2015 compared with the previous year on rising revenue, and legal expenses declined as some big banks wound down legal settlements that arose from the financial crisis. Data issued Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed that losses from loans increased for the first time in five and a half years.

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. bank earnings jumped 11.9 percent in the final three months of 2015 compared with the previous year on rising revenue. Legal expenses declined as some big banks wound down legal settlements that arose from the financial crisis.

Nonetheless, data issued Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed that losses from loans increased for the first time in five and a half years. The increase in loans that banks wrote off as uncollectible was especially strong — 43.4 percent — for industrial borrowers as plummeting oil prices hurt energy companies.

The FDIC reported that U.S. banks earned $40.8 billion in the October-December quarter, up from $36.4 billion a year earlier.

More than half of all banks, 56.6 percent, reported an

increase in profit from a year earlier. Only 9.1 percent of banks were unprofitable.

The number of “problem” banks on the FDIC’s confidential list fell below 200 for the first time in more than seven years, since the financial crisis.

FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg took note of the impact of the steep fall in oil prices over the past year and a half.

“Recently, domestic and international market developments have led to heightened concerns about the U.S. economic outlook and prospects for the banking industry,” Gruenberg said at a news conference. “Thus far, the performance of the banks has not been impacted materially. However, the full effect of lower energy and other commodity prices remains to be seen.”

In the fourth quarter, banks increased the amounts

seasonal increase in credit card balances and a rise in commercial and industrial loans. The number of banks on the FDIC’s “problem list” fell to 183 from 203 in the third quarter.

The number of bank failures continues to slow, marking eight last year. That is

still more than normal. In a strong economy, an average of four or five banks closes annually. But failures declined from 24 in 2013 and were down sharply from 157 in 2010 — the most in one year since the height of the savings and loan crisis in 1992.q

A8

Wednesday 24 February

WORLD NEWS

Bank of England prepares contingency plans for EU vote DANICA KIRKA JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England is preparing a contingency plan for the aftermath of Britain’s referendum on European Union membership, Governor Mark Carney said Tuesday. But he said the central bank will not predict the likely outcome or economic consequences of a vote to leave.

Carney acknowledged that uncertainty about the outcome was fueling instability for the pound, as the opposing sides in the EU debate traded allegations about the economic impact of leaving, a prospect known as Brexit.

The heads of almost 200 firms warned in a letter to The Times newspaper that a British vote to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum would “deter investment, threaten jobs and put the economy at risk.”

Signatories included CEOs at over a third of the FSTE 100 firms, among them Bob Dudley of BP, Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden and Burberry CEO Christopher Bailey.

The chiefs of Heathrow and Gatwick airports also signed, but there were some notable absentees, including the bosses of retailer Tesco and Barclays bank. The letter was organized with the support of Prime Minister David Cameron’s office.

Cameron said Tuesday that a vote for Brexit would cause “big uncertainty for businesses.”

“If you leave, you spend two years discussing the arrangements for leaving,” throwing Britain’s trade agreements into limbo.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the most prominent backers of a “leave” vote, said many business leaders had also warned in the past of dire conse-

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney gives evidence to the Treasury Select Committee at the House of Commons in London, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2016. The Bank of England will not be predicting the likely economic consequences of a British vote to leave the European Union, known as Brexit, Carney said Tuesday, but he acknowledged that uncertainty about the outcome was fueling instability for the pound.

(PA via AP)

quences if Britain did not join the euro single currency. Britain kept the pound, and avoided much of the turmoil in the eurozone in

recent years.

Carney told Parliament’s Treasury Committee that central bank policymakers were “not making a judg-

ment about the potential outcome of the referendum ... or an assessment of the potential consequences of a leave vote.” q

Afghan government and Taliban to begin talks in March LYNNE O’DONNELL Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Four countries trying to end Afghanistan’s 15-year war with the Taliban announced on Tuesday that direct talks between the Afghan government and the insurgent group will take place next week.

Representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met in the Afghan capital for a fourth round of discussions to set conditions for eventual peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.

In a joint statement, they

invited insurgents to join the talks, which will be the first between the two sides since the peace process was restarted last month.

Efforts to bring the warring sides together last year were derailed when Kabul revealed that the Taliban’s one-eyed leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for more than two years.

In Tuesday’s communique, the four countries “expressed strong support for the upcoming direct talks between the government of Afghanistan and authorized representatives of the

Taliban and other groups.”

The talks would take place in Pakistan.

The delegations were led

by Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Yao Jing and U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Kabul David Lindwall.

They said they would meet again immediately after the direct Kabul-Taliban talks.

It was the fourth meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Cooperation Group,

which has earlier called on the Taliban to enter peace talks with Kabul and work toward cutting violence that has killed thousands of Afghan civilians since the insurgency started almost 15 years ago.

Taliban leaders, who fled across the Pakistan border to escape the 2001 U.S. invasion, are believed to be harbored by Pakistani authorities, in particular the ISI intelligence agency, in cities including Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar. While Pakistan denies providing safe havens for the insurgents, Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani has led accusations that the Taliban are a proxy force for Islamabad’s regional interests.

This deep mistrust of Pakistan means that “it is three against one around the talks table,” said an Afghan official who asked not to be named as the sensitivity of the issue meant he had no authority to speak publicly.

While China is a reluctant international peace broker, as its own foreign policy is built on a principle of “non-interference” in other countries’ affairs, its presence does appear to be yielding results.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Wednesday 24 February

Migrants stranded in Greece, face eviction in France COSTAS KANTOURIS ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — At flashpoints near borders on either side of Europe, authorities tried Tuesday to force back migrants desperate to begin new lives in more prosperous nations.

In Greece, police bused about 1,250 Afghans stuck at the Macedonian border back to Athens after countries further up the migrant trail wouldn’t let them through. In France, authorities prepared to evict people from a shantytown known as the “jungle” in the port of Calais, where migrants wait for a chance to try to cross into Britain.

The seemingly arbitrary decision by some Balkan countries to close their borders to Afghans attempting to make their way across Europe to seek asylum has left thousands stranded in Greece, even as more continue to arrive on Greek islands from the nearby Turkish shore.

By nightfall, more than 4,000 people, mostly from Syria and Iraq, were camped out just yards from the border fence waiting to cross into Macedonia.

Although those nationalities were not being blocked, the flow across the border had slowed to a trickle, leaving thousands waiting in the cold as night descended.

The European Union and United Nations criticized the new restrictions on Afghans, with the EU’s executive arm saying it had “concerns about this approach” and would raise the issue with the countries in question.

Among the Afghans turned away from the Macedonian border was 20-yearold Mirwais Amin, who said he was separated from

relatives when he was sent back to Athens.

“Macedonia isn’t letting migrants through. I can’t understand why,” he said.

“I can’t get to the (border) camp, and members of my family are there. It’s cold here and we have no food.”

In Calais, authorities maintained the sprawling shantytown, which cropped up years ago but mushroomed last year in the midst of the migrant crisis, is a sanitation risk. Charity groups went to court to seek a last-minute delay of the forced evacuation, and on Tuesday the court announced a decision would not come until Wednesday or later.

Regional administration head Fabienne Buccio said on Europe-1 radio the expulsion order doesn’t mean authorities will use force. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve insisted the evacuation would be “progressive.”

Maya Konforti of the aid group L’Auberge des Migrants said volunteers would stand by the migrants if authorities try to force them out.

“We are going to be at their side ... no matter what,” she said. “We are very suspicious but we are hopeful that they are going to be reasonable, because we are reasonable.”

Belgium was reinforcing its borders with France near Calais in anticipation of a potential wave of people attempting to cross if the camp is shut down.

The waves of refugees heading to Europe have grown in pace even compared to last year’s massive influx, sorely testing European unity. Greece, with its extensive coastline and its islands’ proximity to Turkey, is by far the favored route.q

Migrants watch French officials tour a makeshift camp set outside Calais, France, Tuesday Feb. 23, 2016. People fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, the Mideast and Asia are facing an evening deadline to move out of the camp in the French port of Calais that has become a flashpoint in Europe’s migrant crisis.

(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A10 WORLD

Wednesday 24 February

NEWS

AP: Iraqi Kurdish troops rescue Swedish teen from Islamic State BALINT SZLANKO Associated Press IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish authorities said Tuesday their troops rescued a Swedish teenager from the Islamic State group near the extremist-controlled city of Mosul earlier this month, while a local TV station broadcast an interview with the girl in which she described how she came with her boyfriend to Iraq last year.

A statement from the regional government said the rescue operation by the Kurdish anti-terrorist forces took place on Feb. 17 near Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

The statement identified the young woman by name, saying the 16-year-old from the Swedish town of Boras “was misled” by an Islamic State member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul.

Swedish authorities and the teenager’s family had contacted the Iraqi Kurdish government and asked for help in locating and rescuing the girl from the IS, the statement also said.

It added that the young woman was currently in Iraqi Kurdish territory and was being “provided the care afforded to her under international law,” adding that she will be “transferred to Swedish authorities to return home once necessary arrangements” are made.

The statement provided no details on the rescue and did not say whether the teen was mistreated while with the Islamic State group. The Associated Press does not identify minors who may have been victims of abuse or may be accused of crimes.

Iraqi Kurdish officials contacted by the AP in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq, declined to provide more details on the case.

But a local TV station, K24, described the rescue as a “unique military operation” and late Tuesday night broadcast an exclusive interview with the teen in which she describes what had happened to her in the last two years.

The girl recounts how she stopped going to school at the age of 14 and met her boyfriend that year. At first all was fine, she says, but then he started speaking more and more about “ISIS videos.”

“I didn’t know what ISIS means, or Islam,” she said, using an alternative acronym for the IS group.

The boyfriend convinced her to “go to ISIS in Syria” and the pair left Sweden by train on May 31, 2015, she said, recounting their subsequent journey across Europe until they reached Turkey and crossed into Syria and from there, they ended up in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

They were given a house but it was without electricity or water, she said, adding that it was “totally different” from Sweden.

After a while, she got a mobile phone and contacted her mother, saying she wanted to come back to Sweden.

Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin speaks while presenting a report on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, in Moscow, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Yashin released a report accusing Moscowbacked Chechnya’s regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, of involvement in the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and other alleged crimes.

(AP Photo/A. Zemlianichenko )

Russian opposition activist blames Chechen leader over killing of Kremlin critic V. ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian opposition activist bluntly accused Chechnya’s Moscow-backed regional leader of involvement in the killing of a prominent Kremlin foe, describing the Chechen strongman as a top security threat to Russia in a report released Tuesday.

Ilya Yashin said he had “no doubt” that Ramzan Kadyrov was behind the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Feb. 27, 2015, outside the Kremlin in Moscow.

Yashin said he was sure the suspected triggerman, an officer in Kadyrov’s security force, and his alleged accomplices wouldn’t have acted without Kadyrov’s approval. Kadyrov has denied the accusations and the official probe has failed to identify the mastermind

behind the murder.

Yashin’s presentation of the report at the opposition party’s headquarters in Moscow Tuesday was interrupted by a bomb threat and police moved to clear the hall.

An unidentified protester threw replica U.S. dollars at Yashin, suggesting perceived U.S. support for the Russian opposition.

In his report, Yashin accused Kadyrov of misappropriating generous federal subsidies to Chechnya to enrich himself and his loyalists and relying on a personal army of 30,000 to enforce his rule.

“Chechnya has become a separate state within the Russian state,” Yashin said.

“Kadyrov effectively rejects the federal law and ignores the Russian constitution.”

President Vladimir Putin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize the region in Russia’s North Caucasus after

two devastating separatist wars. The gruff 39-year-old succeeded his father, the former rebel who switched sides to become Chechnya’s first Moscow-backed leader before dying in a rebel bombing in 2004.

Kadyrov has used personal ties with Putin to ensure a steady flow of federal funds and effective immunity from federal controls.

His unparalleled clout has angered leaders of Russia’s powerful law enforcement agencies, who have pushed for Kadyrov’s dismissal.

The killing of Nemtsov, who was shot dead while walking across a bridge outside the Kremlin, reportedly made Putin mad and emboldened Kadyrov’s foes.

The probe into the killing has bogged down, however, apparently reflecting Putin’s view of Kadyrov as a linchpin of stability in Chechnya.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Wednesday 24 February

Indians protest in Delhi over student’s death, sedition case

Indian students shout slogans during a protest in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Thousands of students and teachers are gathering in the heart of the Indian capital to protest the recent death of a student due to caste discrimination and the arrest of a student leader on sedition charges in New Delhi.

(AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

NIRMALA GEORGE Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Shouting slogans and holding placards, thousands of students and teachers marched through the heart of the Indian capital Tuesday to protest the recent death of a student who faced caste discrimination and the arrest of a student leader on sedition charges.

The protesters from New

Delhi’s two main universities marched near the Indian parliament, demanding the student’s immediate release and condemning violence by supporters of the ruling Hindu nationalist party.

Kanhaiya Kumar, president of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s student union, was arrested earlier this month over his participation in events where anti-India slo-

gans were allegedly shouted. Opposition politicians who addressed the rally accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and his Bharatiya Janata Party of suppressing freedom of expression and fanning communal tensions.

Hundreds of policemen stood silently as the students, joined by thousands of teachers, journalists and ordinary citizens, shouted

China radars reported in Spratly Islands C. BODEEN Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday reasserted Beijing’s right to develop its South China Sea island outposts following a U.S. think tank’s report that China has built new radar facilities in the disputed Spratly Islands.

Citing commercial satellite imagery, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, said the radars on the outposts

of Gaven, Hughes, Johnson South and Cuarteron reefs could be key to helping Chinaestablish effective control over the strategically vital area’s sea and airspace.

China has been building islands on top of reefs and atolls it controls, then adding air strips, harbors and other infrastructure that would help consolidate its control. Five other governments also hold maritime claims that overlap

with Beijing’s, and the U.S. has said it is concerned about China’s militarization of the area.

Beijing rejects the accusations, saying it is merely installing defensive measures on islands, primarily for civilian purposes.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no specific information about the CSIS report, but said China had undisputed sovereignty over the area.

slogans and waved Indian flags.

“We will not tolerate attacks on freedom of speech,” ‘’BJP government come to your senses,” and “Down with the BJP government” the protesters shouted as they marched to the accompaniment of drums.

The turmoil that has gripped JNU has led to criticism that the Modi government is attacking freedom of expression and dissent, with the academic community condemning the ultra-nationalism promoted

by Hindu nationalist groups.

“This is the result of the BJP’s concerted attacks on students. The BJP has a singlepoint agenda to wipe out all opposition,” said Shehla Rashid, a JNU student.

A New Delhi court has re-

manded Kumar in custody until March 2. Five other students who face similar allegations are expected to surrender to police later.

In Srinagar, the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir, dozens of students in the University of Kashmir marched in the campus in solidarity with protesting JNU students.

Kashmir University students also demanded the release of Delhi University lecturer, S.A.R. Geelani, arrested last week on sedition charges for organizing an event in Indian capital where antiIndia slogans were allegedly shouted along with criticism against the 2013 secret hanging of a Kashmiri separatist convicted of attacking the Indian Parliament.

A12 WORLD

Wednesday 24 February

NEWS

US-Brazil teams seek mothers, babies for Zika research JENNY BARCHFIELD Associated Press JOAO PESSAO, Brazil (AP) — U.S. and Brazilian health workers fanned out across one of Brazil’s poorest states Tuesday in search of mothers and their infants for a study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus is causing birth defects in babies.

Brazil’s health minister, Marcelo Castro, says he is “absolutely sure” mosquitoborne Zika is responsible for a spike in cases of the rare birth defect microcephaly, which sees babies born with small heads and brains and can cause severe developmental problems.

But with scant scientific literature published on the matter, some doctors in Brazil and elsewhere say there is not yet enough scientific data to prove the connection.

Jointly run by the Brazil’s Health Ministry and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study is intended to fill that vacuum by comparing babies with microcephaly and their mothers to babies without the condition.

The popular “understanding is that Zika virus (be-

A municipal health worker prepares to apply insecticide in a junk yard to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.

(AP Photo/Andre Penner)

hind the microcephaly spike). How much of that is Zika virus is really one of the important goals of this study,” said Erin Staples, a Colorado-based epidemiologist who heads the CDC contingent in Paraiba state. “I do believe there is something occurring that is unique and knowable, but

we really need to understand better, mostly so we can prevent this from happening to other generations.”

Eight teams made up of one CDC staffer and three Brazilian health workers will knock on the doors of several hundred randomly selected families with infants

throughout Paraiba, a northeastern coastal state that is one of Brazil’s least developed.

The teams hope to recruit at least 130 babies with microcephaly and their mothers and two to three times that number of mothers and babies without the condition, all born in the

Rousseff’s marketing guru in Brazil to face arrest BRUCE DOUGLAS Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A political marketing guru who helped President Dilma Rousseff win two elections is now under arrest in the latest blow for her embattled government.

Joao Santana, the campaign strategist behind Rousseff’s electoral victories in 2010 and 2014, was taken into custody Tuesday morning after his flight from the Dominican Republic arrived in Sao Paulo. Po-

lice transferred him to the southern city of Curitiba.

A day earlier, police had issued an arrest warrant for Santana and his wife, Monica Moura, as part of Operation Car Wash, a two-year-long investigation into corruption at the staterun oil company, Petrobras.

They are accused of using secret foreign bank accounts to receive millions of dollars in illicit funds from offshore companies controlled by Odebrecht, one of the major Brazilian con-

struction companies implicated in the scandal.

Operation Car Wash, which began two years ago as an investigation into a bribes-for-contracts scheme at Petrobras, has exposed how widely corruption permeates Brazilian society, snaring dozens of senior politicians, as well as the executives of powerful construction companies.

Santana first came to prominence in 2002, helping run the presidential campaign that led to victory for Lula

da Silva. He has overseen the presidential election campaigns of the ruling Workers’ Party ever since.

“He is without doubt the most talented campaign manager in Brazil,” Lucas de Aragao, a managing partner of Arko Advice said in a telephone interview.

“He was one of the first people to introduce U.S.style political campaigning to Brazil, with proper data, focus groups and accurate research into the needs of the electorate.”q

same areas and at around the same time.

The researchers will take blood samples from mothers and babies that will be sent to labs in Brazil and the United States to test for Zika and dengue, a similar virus also transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

The idea is to determine whether mothers whose babies have microcephaly were infected with Zika and, if so, when during their pregnancies.

Teams will also be on the lookout for other factors that, possibly in conjunction with Zika, could be behind Brazil’s increase in microcephaly, such as a prior infection with dengue, toxoplasmosis or the ingestion of toxins.

“If we can provide some basic information or show a potential association, that will allow us another avenue of how do we prevent this and what do we need to do next,” Staples said.

The recruitment process is expected to take four to five weeks, but the timetable will largely depend on how receptive potential subjects are.

At a training session Monday in the state capital of Joao Pessoa, the field teams rehearsed how they will reach out to families and discussed ethical concerns, including how to react to reticence from potential subjects and how many times it is OK to prick babies to try to draw blood.

The language barrier proved a stumbling block at the training session, with the Brazilians and Americans team members often resorting to pantomime as they ran through the scripts they are to recite to potential subjects in this Portuguese-speaking nation. q

LOCAL A13

Wednesday 24 February

The New Luxury Beachfront Condominiums:

Azure Beach Residences Brakes Ground in Eagle Beach!

PALM BEACH - The Pering Group developers of Oceania Residences and Blue Residences is adding Azure Beach Residences to its exclusive portfolio of luxury condominium developments in Aruba.

The property will feature 106 spacious whole-ownership condominium units and 9 superb villas that will be built in two phases, with the first scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2018.

Alberto Perret-Gentil, Project Manager said: “Our vision is to create a high-

ing in the project.

Nicole Muxi, Vice President of Sales and Marketing added “Having seen the plans for the resort, it’s impressive how every aspect of the property is designed to exceed the expectations of owners and guests. In particular I love the ocean-front pool area with its expansive green lawns” 180o views of Eagle Beach Bay from the comfort of your own private balcony.

Azure Beach Residences will consist of two residential towers with spacious guests will have access to concierge services and be able to request pre-arrival grocery stocking and daily maid service.

Owners and guests also can enjoy water sports at nearby Eagle Beach or golf privileges at two nearby courses, including Tierra del Sol, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. The property is located steps away from Aruba’s two most popular beaches and tourist areas: Eagle Beach and Palm Beach.

quality product with all the modern conveniences and services of a full-service resort.

When we selected the site for Azure and enjoyed the stunning views of Eagle Beach Bay, we knew it was spectacular – it’s hard to imagine a more idyllic location.”

Pering is partnering up once again with architects Enrique Feldman and Armand De Koning which will be in charge of the project’s design.

The team will also include Juan Ramon Pacheco who will oversee landscap-

units ranging from two to five bedrooms and offering unobstructed views of the Atlantic.

They will be decorated in a sleek contemporary style and feature elevated ceilings, roomy terraces, upscale appliances and electronics, and wireless internet.

Planned on-site amenities include a private beach protected by a jetty, two swimming pools, fitness center, tennis court, Residents-only Club Room and landscaped sun-deck.

In addition to poolside and beach butler service

AZURE is an easy walk from dining and attractions. Just four miles from Azure Beach Residences, Aruba’s capital Oranjestad retains the charm of a quaint seaside village, although it has developed into a cosmopolitan, international tourist destination, with stylish shops, gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, and casinos. Other attractions are crystal-clear blue waters, miles of white-sand beaches, music festivals, and local cultural events.q

A14 LOCAL

Wednesday 24 February

Share Your Cherished Old Photographs With Hilton Aruba Resort!

--The Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino announces a photo competition.

PALM BEACH - The Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, fondly known as La Grande Dame of Palm Beach will be undergoing renovations during the upcoming off-season and as part of that undertaking, will be commissioning new artwork to complement the elegant rooms and the freshly designed public spaces. In view of the resort’s rich heritage and authentic Aruban roots management is presently searching archives and photo albums for old historical images of the hotel in the early days, anything dated before the Millennium, to be digitalized, and then artfully and proudly displayed throughout the property. Amateur photographer and professional photographers are hereby invited to participate, in an open competition, for

the rarest, most evocative pictures, with or without people, of the resort since its opening day, in July of 1959. Aruba’s first luxury resort, now flagged under the Hilton Worldwide brand was constructed between 1956 and 1959, with 120 rooms, employing 160 locals. It was designed by that era’s most avantgarde American architect, Morris Lapidus, who also designed the Eden Roc and the Fontainebleau hotels in Miami. Lapidus came to Aruba as a guest of the island’s government and picked a prime location for his dream hotel, on pristine Palm Beach. From that moment on, the hotel continuously played an important social and economic role in the life of the island, serving as the backdrop for many celebrations of a lifetime, from private weddings, to public parties, entertaining royalties and most significantly through the decades, remaining

the employer of choice within the island’s burgeoning hospitality industry.

At the eve of a major renovation, the competition announced by management calls for an extensive search of private and public archives, rewarding finders with a wealth of prizes.

“Please bring us your photographs,” says General Manager Olivier Maumaire, “and we’ll treat them with utmost respect. They will be

cleaned up and restored, digitalized and artistically treated to become our cherished works of art. “ The resort’s PR and Marketing Manager Nunette Maduro accepted the task of curating the treasures, making sure photographs are also returned to their owners, once processed.

“The resort is accepting photos, negatives, slides, newspaper clippings, even poor copies,” Maduro re-

iterates,“ they will all be brought back to life by the resort’s graphic designers, and adorn our walls for many years to come.”

Prizes for the winners of the competition include weekend stays, eforea spa treatments and dinner invitations to the Sunset Grille restaurant. The general public is encouraged to respond before March 15th, in order to be included in competition.q

LOCAL A15

Wednesday 24 February

Loyal Visitors Honored at the Holiday Inn Resort PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very nice couple as Distinguished Visitors at the Holiday Inn Resort.

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

The honorees were Mr. Nikolaas Engonidis and Mrs. Anna Sotiriou of Massachusetts.

Nicholas and Anna are regular guests of the Holiday Inn Resort and they love Aruba very much because of the friendly people, the climate, beaches, restaurants, relaxation and being on Aruba and staying at the Holiday Inn is like being home for them. The certificate was presented

by Mr. Jonathan Boekhoudt representing the Aruba Tourism Authority.

A16 LOCAL

Wednesday 24 February

Let’s brunch on Sunday, February28:

L.G. Smith’s Decadent Sunday Brunch À La Carte is Back!

ORANJESTAD - The L.G. Smith’s Sunday Brunch À La Carte is back, after a successful start last January for its new season, the once a month Sunday Brunch À La Carte is ‘served’ this upcoming Sunday for only $44,95 excl. service charge.

Chef Augusto Riofrio sure knows how to exceed all expectations once again to all who visits L.G. Smith’s Steak & Chop House.

Chef Augusto Riofrio, a specialized chef in Peruvian and International cuisine with extensive knowledge and experience prepared a menu to ensure culinary delight.

Start with the LG’s Deluxe Deli which includes chipotle smoked bacon, salmon and many others. The ‘cold

selection’, will offer you Asparagus á la Flamande, 4

combinations of Oysters, Ceviche of fresh Fish or

Seafood and many more.

The ‘hot selection’ will be

sizzling with Escargot Smiths Style, Beef Short Rib and Mushroom Risotto. Also enjoy soups and mix salads.

As a main dish choose a Braised Bistro Filet, Pan Fried Sea bass, Pisco Marinated Scallops & Shrimps, Lobster Permentier or the Authentic Certified Angus Beef Lomo Saltado.

Last but not least, enjoy a wide-ranging dessert selection to complement your brunch.

Brunch is served this Sunday 28th of February from 11am to 2:30pm. We recommend making your reservation on time. For reservation please call 523-6195 or visit the website of LG Smith’s Steak & Chop House www.lgsmiths. com.q

SPORTS A17

Wednesday 24 February

Martin Klizan from Slovakia returns the ball to Nick Kyrgios from Australia during a second day match of the Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.

Associated Press

CURRY POWER

Wawrinka breaks racket on way to 1st win at Dubai tournament SANDRA HARWITT Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Second-seeded Stan Wawrinka has finally won a match at the Dubai Tennis Championships after beating Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday to advance to the second round.

Wawrinka played at the tournament in 2006 and 2008, and lost in the first round both times.

The fourth-ranked Swiss led 5-3 but couldn’t close out the first set with his serve.

A frustrated Wawrinka crushed his racket at 1540 in the 11th game of the same set, and received a racket abuse warning.

“It’s a good win, great win for me,” Wawrinka said.

“Not playing well, still winning, still fighting, still finding a way.”

Earlier, third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Joao Sousa of Portugal.

Continued on Page 18

Warriors become fastest team to 50 wins Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) reacts after being charged with a foul in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in Atlanta.

Associated Press Page 21

A18 SPORTS

Wednesday 24 February

Sepp Blatter’s book about life at FIFA set to be published GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer ZURICH (AP) — Sepp Blatter’s book about his life at FIFA is expected to be published within weeks.

The website of Swiss publisher Werd & Weber has said “Sepp Blatter: Mission Football” will cost 39 Swiss francs (US$39) and intended to make it available in February.

Blatter previously said it would be a photograph-

led book with anecdotes about his 40 years at FIFA, including as president since 1998.

“Despite the success, Blatter repeatedly had to put up with harsh reviews and prejudices,” the publisher’s preview said.

“In this richly illustrated book, Sepp Blatter tells how he learned to deal with the hostility.”

The 300-page, hardcover book was written by his

spokesman, Thomas Renggli.

Renggli told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the publishing timetable had been pushed back by some weeks, and the book would include the result of Friday’s FIFA presidential election.

The election will formally end Blatter’s near 18-year presidency in the week he should receive the verdict of his appeal to FIFA

against an eight-year ban for conflicts of interest.

Blatter hopes to be cleared of wrongdoing so he can host the presidential election meeting in Zurich.

Blatter and one-time election favorite Michel Platini, the UEFA president, were banned by the FIFA ethics committee in December over a “disloyal payment”

of $2 million to the former France great in 2011.

Both men claim they had a verbal agreement for FIFA to pay Platini additional salary for his work as Blatter’s presidential adviser from 1999-2002.

FIFA ethics prosecutors have counter-appealed to seek life bans for both men.q

Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic returns the ball to Joao Sousa from Portugal during a second day match of the Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.

Associated Press Continued from Page 17

In this Dec. 21, 2015 file photo suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter attends a news conference in Zurich, Switzerland, after he has been banned for 8 years from all football related activities.

Associated Press

“A first match, playing outside after a while, it’s a good test,” Berdych said.

“Don’t make it more complicated than needed.”

The seventh-ranked Berdych is a two-time finalist in Dubai, in 2013 and ‘14.

He’s reached at least the semifinals four of the last five years.

Australian Nick Kyrgios beat seventh-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The 33rd-ranked Kyrgios arrived in Dubai on Monday,

having captured his first career ATP title at Marseille without dropping a set.

“I thought that both of us were playing really average today,” Kyrgios said. “I wasn’t feeling great. So I’m just happy I got through.”

Also, eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany defeated wild-card entry Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-1, 7-5, and Borna Coric of Croatia beat Czech Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-4.

Fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain defeated Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-2, 6-4.q

SPORTS A19

Wednesday 24 February

Grizzlies Marc Gasol to miss rest of season after surgery MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Grizzlies center Marc Gasol will miss the rest of this season after having surgery to repair his broken right foot.

The Grizzlies announced Tuesday that Gasol had surgery on Saturday. General

contract last July after earning a starting spot in the All-Star game last season. He also was the first Grizzlies player voted to the All-NBA first team.

The 7-foot-1, 255-pound center averaged 16.6

Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol claps from the bench in the second half of an NBA basketball game, in Memphis, Tenn.

Associated Press

manager Chris Wallace said in a statement that a full recovery is expected.

“Marc’s determination and competitive spirit will serve him, his family and the team well as he begins the healing and rehab process from which we expect him to make a full recovery,” Wallace said. “We are confident we will have Marc back anchoring our team next season and beyond.”

Gasol signed a five-year

points and 7.0 rebounds in 52 games this season. He scored 11 points in the first quarter Feb. 8 against Portland before leaving with the injury.

“It is frustrating to not be on the court with my teammates at this time,” Gasol said in a statement released by the Grizzlies. “But I understand that the focus of this process is on longterm health and stability.

I look forward to the road

ahead and a full and successful recovery.”

The Grizzlies, 32-23 and fifth in the Western Conference, have made the playoffs each of the past five seasons. Memphis has won two of three games without Ga-

sol and made two trades last week adding center Chris Andersen, P.J. Hairston and Lance Stephenson in exchange for Courtney Lee and Jeff Green.

“We know this is a difficult time for Marc and want to

be supportive of him during his recovery,” Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said.

“His presence is still felt greatly within the locker room, and even while he is sidelined, he is still leading us as we push forward.”q

20 SPORTS

Wednesday 24 February

NHL Capsules

Sharks tops Blues 6-3 on the road in NHL San Jose Sharks’ Brent Burns, right, congratulates teammate Joe Thornton after Thornton scored a hole during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in St. Louis. The Sharks won 6-3.

Associated Press

The Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton each scored two goals, powering the San Jose Sharks to a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues in the NHL on Monday.

Thornton also had two assists as San Jose improved to 21-9-2 on the road, matching their total road wins from last season. At home, the Sharks are just 11-12-3.

The Blues lost goalie Brian Elliott to a lower-body injury in the first period. San Jose defenseman Matt Tennyson left in the first after he was driven into the glass.

Hertl had two of San Jose’s three goals in the first. He also scored in the Sharks’ 5-2 loss at Carolina on Friday.

Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists for St. Louis. David Backes and Jay Bouwmeester also scored.

CAPITALS 3, COYOTES 2 WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Richards scored his first goal in more than a year, leading the Capitals to the victory.

Alex Ovechkin put Washington ahead with his league-leading 39th goal of the season and had an assist.

Evgeny Kuznetsov also had a goal and an assist for NHLbest Washington, which won its fourth straight and ninth in its last 10 games.

Defensemen Connor Murphy and Kevin Connauton scored for Arizona, which began a five-game East Coast road trip with its second consecutive loss. Louis Domingue made 31 saves.

Only seconds after Ovechkin’s goal made it 2-1, Domingue appeared to have the puck covered with a glove in his crease when Washington’s Tom Wilson reached a stick in to poke it away. It found Richards, who rifled home

Washington’s second goal in 26 seconds. Coyotes coach Dave Tippett challenged the goal, but it stood.

PREDATORS 2, CANADIENS 1, SO MONTREAL (AP) — Craig Smith scored the only goal in the shootout, lifting Nashville to the road win.

Viktor Arvidsson scored in the first period for the Predators (28-21-11), who are 3-0-3 in their last six games.

Brendan Gallagher scored his 16th goal for Montreal (28-27-5), which has recorded at least one point in its last five home games (4-0-1).

Nashville outshot Montreal 29-27 in regulation time and 30-29 overall.

BLUE JACKETS 6, BRUINS 4 BOSTON (AP) — Boone Jenner scored two goals and Scott Hartnell had a goal and an assist, leading Columbus to the road win.

William Karlsson, Brandon Saad and Dalton Prout also scored for the Blue Jackets, who avoided a sweep in the three-game season series by picking up a point for 10th time in their last 12 games (7-2-3).

Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 26 saves.

Matt Beleskey and Loui Eriksson each had two goals for Boston, which continued its inexplicable home woes.

Backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson made 29 saves.

The Bruins were coming off an impressive 4-2 road trip, but they were unable to build on that momentum back at home. Boston is 207-3 away from TD Garden, and just 12-15-3 at home.q

SPORTS A21

Wednesday 24 February

NBA Capsules

Curry leads Warriors to 50th win, 102-92 over Hawks The Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 36 points and the Golden State Warriors became the fastest team in NBA history to 50 wins, beating the Atlanta Hawks 102-92 Monday night after squandering a 23-point lead.

The Warriors (50-5) eclipsed the mark set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who needed one more game to win their 50th. Of course, that’s the team Golden State is chasing, moving another step closer to the record 7210 mark put up by Michael Jordan and his teammates at the height of their six-titles-in-eight-years dynasty.

Atlanta closed the third quarter on a 28-6 run and grabbed the lead briefly early in the fourth, igniting the sellout crowd. But the Warriors would not be denied, bouncing back to hand the Hawks their fourth straight home loss.

Klay Thompson added 27 points for the Warriors. Both he and Curry knocked down five shots from 3-point range. Draymond Green had 14 rebounds and nine assists.

Al Horford led the Hawks with 23 points.

PISTONS 96, CAVALIERS 88 CLEVELAND (AP) — Reggie Jackson scored 23 points, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 19 and Detroit withstood Cleveland’s late comeback to end a fivegame losing streak.

One day after allowing New Orleans center Anthony Davis to score 59 points with 20 rebounds, the Pistons beat the Eastern Conference’s top team for the second time this season.

Andre Drummond added

15 rebounds for the Pistons, who let an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter dwindle to six before putting away the Cavs and ending their five-game winning streak.

Kyrie Irving scored 30 and Kevin Love 24 for Cleveland, which had an off night after looking so impressive in a win at Oklahoma City on Sunday. LeBron James scored just 12 points — 13 below his average — and went 5 of 18 from the floor, missing all four 3-point tries and committing six turnovers.

Tobias Harris, acquired from Orlando in a trade last week, scored 14 in his first start for the Pistons.

HEAT 101, PACERS 93, OT MIAMI (AP) — Goran Dragic scored 24 points, Hassan Whiteside finished with 19 points and 18 rebounds, and Miami won its third consecutive game since the All-Star break, rallying from 14 points down to beat Indiana in overtime.

Dwyane Wade added 16 points and Justise Winslow scored 15 for Miami, which won despite shooting only 38 percent. The Heat grabbed 66 rebounds for the second consecutive game after reaching that mark only three times in their first 28 seasons.

Luol Deng added 13 points and 16 rebounds for Miami.

Paul George had 31 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers, and Myles Turner scored 16. But Indiana’s starting backcourt of Monta Ellis and George Hill combined to miss 22 of 24 shots.

RAPTORS 122, KNICKS 95 NEW YORK (AP) — Kyle Lowry had 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his

first triple-double of the season, DeMar DeRozan also scored 22 while becoming the winningest player in Raptors history, and Toronto beat New York.

Jonas Valanciunas added 20 points for the Raptors, who won so easily that Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis changed his mind in the final minutes of the blowout and inserted Jimmer Fredette.

Just signed to a 10-day contract, the former college player of the year made a 3-pointer on his lone shot attempt — about the only thing Knicks fans had to cheer during the team’s 12th loss in 14 games.

DeRozan passed Chris Bosh and Morris Peterson with his 233rd win in six-plus years wearing a Raptors uniform.

Carmelo Anthony had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks on the fifth anniversary of his trade to New York. Robin Lopez added 21 points and 13 boards.

TIMBERWOLVES 124, CELTICS 122 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — KarlAnthony Towns had 28 points, 13 rebounds and four assists, and Minnesota outlasted Boston.

Gorgui Dieng had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Ricky Rubio gave the Timberwolves 15 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and some terrific defense on Celtics All-Star Isaiah Thomas.

Jae Crowder had 27 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics, who lost on the second night of a backto-back for the first time in six games. Boston’s normally stingy defense gave up 51.8 percent shooting to the Wolves. The Celtics

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) drives against Atlanta Hawks guard Dennis Schroder (17) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in Atlanta.

Associated Press

were also outrebounded 51-38, and Marcus Smart missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won it.

Zach LaVine had 16 points and shot 4 of 5 on 3-pointers, and Andrew Wiggins scored 17 for the Wolves.

BUCKS 108, LAKERS 101 MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and Milwaukee beat Los Angeles in retiring star Kobe Bryant’s last trip to the Bradley Center.

Bryant had 15 points in 24 minutes, shooting 3 of 12 from the field and 8 for 9 at the foul line. He was feted with a pregame video tribute by Bucks coach Jason Kidd, who faced the 37-year-old Bryant numerous times during his playing days.

Kidd’s young players set the pace and outscored the Lakers 36-17 in the third quarter. All five Bucks starters scored in double figures.

The Lakers lost their sixth straight game.

CLIPPERS 124, SUNS 84

LOS ANGELES (AP) — J.J. Redick scored 22 points and Los Angeles handed Phoenix its 12th consecutive loss overall and 15th in a row on the road.

DeAndre Jordan added 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris Paul had 16 points and 14 assists for the Clippers, who split their previous two games against the West’s top two teams, the Warriors and Spurs. Los Angeles had its way with the conference’s secondworst team, earning its most lopsided win of the season while improving to 20-6 without injured Blake Griffin.

Archie Goodwin scored 20 points off the bench for the Suns, who trailed the entire game on the way to their worst loss of the season.

In other NBA games it was Detroit 96, Cleveland 88; Miami 101, Indiana 93, OT; Toronto 122, New York 95; Minnesota 124, Boston 122; Milwaukee 108, L.A. Lakers 101; Golden State 102, Atlanta 92; and L.A. Clippers 124, Phoenix 84.q

A22 HEALTH

Wednesday 24 February

By: Dr. Carlos Viana

It is no secret that we look good when we feel good and are full of sexual energy that largely defines our health, charisma and vitality.

As your body’s largest organ young and fair looking skin quickly presents your health and vitality. Obviously the person who said “Beauty is just skin deep” knows very little about good medicine.

Companies that produce skin care products would like you to believe that a beautiful complexion is purchased from a jar. Afraid not! Truly radiant, moist and blemish-free skin is a result of being clean, not just skin deep, but from deep within.

Having clean blood that continuously supplies wonderful nutrients right to the doorway of each and every cell in your body is the way of having beautiful skin. Unfortunately, keeping toxins out of your blood and organs is difficult because we live in an environment full of chemicals and drugs, and eat mostly refined foods.

If your goal is healthy skin, you have to make a conscious effort to cleanse these dangerous substances out of your body while putting in the finest nutrients. The good news is that your body is constantly in a cleansing mode and will push out toxins as long as you supply it

Largest Organ

with the energy to do so. The organs responsible for providing you with beautiful skin include: your liver, kidneys, adrenals, thyroid, and large intestines.

Contrary to popular belief, exposing skin to moderate sunshine may stop certain cancers from growing, including skin cancer. Vitamin D is a powerful antioxidant that can help protect us from premature aging and degenerative diseases. The safest way to obtain vitamin D is through appropriate sun exposure. The key word here is “appropriate”. You should never allow yourself to get sunburned.

Sunburn is caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet light is not healthy and leads to premature aging, wrinkling skin and skin cancer. This can be from the sun, sunlamps or even from some workplace light sources such as welding arcs. Signs of sunburn are skin that is: red, swollen, painful, and sometimes blistered. Chills, fever, nausea and vomiting can occur if the sunburn covers a lot of your body and is severe.

The risk for sunburn is higher for persons with fair skin, blue eyes and red or blond hair. What many people do not know is that taking some medications including sulfa drugs, some antibiotics, some water pills and even over-the-counter antihistamines greatly increase your chances of getting sunburned.

Being careful about not getting sunburned is good; however, constant use of sunscreen is not a good way to limit your sun

exposure either. That is because it is a toxic chemical that can cause problems in your system and increase your risk of disease. Here in Aruba the worse time to be out in the sun is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. During these hours, if you have to go out in the sun you can use your clothing to block the sun’s rays during your exposure time with the use of hats and long sleeve shirts and pants or simply stay in the shade once you have reached your safe dose.

Acupuncture procedures used to help the skin are drawn from Chinese texts that have been in existence for thousands of years. As a Traditional Chinese Medicine physician I take a wholebody approach that produces more youthful and toned skin without the use of drugs or surgery. It works remarkably well on the face and abdomen.

Since acupuncture is based on the idea that optimal health is achieved when the body’s systems are in balance, there are other benefits as well. For example, women who choose facial acupuncture can expect reduced depression and less anxiety, better digestion and sleep cycles, and fewer hot flashes and night sweats.

Those who opt for abdominal acupuncture are likely to benefit from increased fertility and sex drive.

An important part of balancing your body’s energy flow is to detoxify the colon, remove heavy metals, and stop eating incorrectly for your metabolic type – the three factors that produce unwanted pro-inflammatory

reactions in the body. Inflammatory reactions in your body show up on your skin as acne, white yeast spots, hives, or psoriasis.

Acne is a disease of Western civilization and colleague medical anthropologists report that the condition was virtually nonexistent in non-westernized societies, where refined carbohydrates and sugar were rarely eaten.

For instance, in one study that looked at acne cases in islanders of Papua New Guinea and hunter-gatherers of Paraguay, no acne cases were found in either group.

The findings are consistent with what we see in our grassroots clinic the significant role of environmental factors, such as diet and vitamin deficiencies in acne. Unfortunately, poor food quality, including genetically modified foods (GMO) are spreading worldwide and causing increased health problems.

Erroneously, conventional allopathic medicine attempts to treat acne with antibiotics or topical creams that can be especially problematic because, the drug may kill the good bacteria along with the bad. Drinking sufficient water (1lt/qt. per 30kg/60lbs of weight) and limiting grains and milk products is an integral step toward optimizing your skin and overall health. The more we study the influence of grains and milk products, and their secondary consequences on insulin, the more we will find that their pervasive influences touch nearly every aspect of our health.

Cleansing the colon with a colonic done by a pro-

fessional is a good way to get re-hydrated and clean the body. The cleansing shows in glowing skin. Supplementing with Zinc helps clear up acne.

Get The Point! We help restore healthy bodies so that inner beauty and balance reflect on the outside.

Like other health issues, there is no “magic solution” that is to be found in a bottle of pills.

A combination of cleansing, replenishing and protecting the body along with good lifestyle can achieve truly radiant, blemish-free skin. Want a healthy you from the inside out? Call for an appointment.

CARLOS VIANA, Ph. D. is an Oriental Medical Doctor (O.M.D.) having studied in China; a US Board Cert.

Clinical Nutritionist (C.C.N.), an Addiction Professional (C.Ad.), Chairperson of the Latin American Committee of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), a Rejuvenating Cell Therapist specializing in Age Management, has a weekly radio program, writes and lectures extensively. For information: VIANA HEALING CENTER, Kibaima 7, St Cruz TEL: 585-1270 Web Site: www. vianaheal.com “Prescriptions from Paradise” - Dr. Viana’s Award Winning BOOK: Prescriptions from Paradise, Introduction to Biocompatible Medicine – Available at local Bookstores, Hotel Gift shops and Boticas.

Signed copies at Viana Healing Center, EBooks: Amazon kindle, Nook, Itunes check for Events at: facebook.com/ vianahealingcenter. Join the discussion:q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Wednesday 24 February

Bill Gates supports government efforts in Apple case BREE FOWLER AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Gates is supportive of investigators’ efforts to force Apple to help them crack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, saying a balance needs to be struck between government access and the need to preserve data security.

While clarifying he doesn’t support untrammeled government access to personal data, the Microsoft co-founder’s position runs contrary to those of many tech executives who have backed Apple Inc. The heads of Facebook, Twitter and Google have all sided with Apple on the grounds that complying with the government’s request would ultimately undermine data privacy.

Gates stated in a hand-

Bill Gates talks to reporters about the 2016 annual letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New York, Monday, Feb. 22, 2016.

Associated Press

ful of interviews that it’s not uncommon for phone companies and banks to hand over customer information to investigators. He questioned why tech companies should be treated differently.

In particular, he took issue

with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s argument that helping the crack the shooter’s iPhone would set a broader precedent.

“They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” Gates, who remains a technical adviser to Mi-

crosoft Corp., told the Financial Times in a Tuesday interview.

And in a lengthy interview on Charlie Rose on PBS, Gates said that if government is “blind,” it might not be able to stop online crimes such as tax evasion, child pornography and, most importantly, terrorism.

He added in an interview with The Associated Press that public opinion will likely be on the government’s side, saying “I do think people want the government to act on their behalf if they feel like the safeguards are there.”

But Gates later on Tuesday said that he was being mischaracterized by the media as backing the FBI. “The extreme view that government always gets everything, nobody supports that,” he told Bloomberg News. “Having the

government be blind, people don’t support that.”

Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym last week ordered Apple to assist investigators by creating specialized software that would let the FBI rapidly test random passcode combinations to try to unlock the iPhone and view data stored on it.

The county-issued iPhone 5C was used by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at an office holiday party in December before they died in a gun battle with police.

But Apple maintains that creating such software would set a dangerous precedent, threatening data security for millions by making essentially a master key that could later be duplicated and used against other phones.q

Hottest phones you’ve never heard of _ same bang, less buck YOUKYUNG LEE AP Technology Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Move over, Apple and Samsung. The next big smartphone might be from little-known Chinese brands such as TCL and OPPO. Along with other Chinese phone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi, Chinese brands have surpassed Samsung in China and are encroaching on Apple’s turf. In the coming years, analysts forecast that these cheap Android phones with not-so-cheap features will likely attract more budget-conscious customers in Europe and even in Samsung’s and Apple’s home markets, South Korea and the United States.

Chinese phone makers made their global ambitions known at this week’s Mobile World Congress

wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei and TCL vied to steal the spotlight from Samsung and LG, both of which announced new high-end phones at the show. Xiaomi, which typically launches phones in China, will preview the Mi 5 phone in Barcelona on Wednesday.

“The Chinese smartphone vendors have a very unique feature — it is the price,” said Shu On Kwok, editor of AndroidPIT, a website that tracks Android developments. “You get the same features as an LG or a Samsung smartphone has hardware-wise, but for a lower price.”

Samsung saw its market share decline in 2015, while Apple forecast its first revenue decline in over 13 years. Both will have to do more to prove the value of

the extra dollars their customers pay.

Along with premium hardware, Apple has tried to position its products as unique by offering software, services and apps that work only on Apple devices — although in many cases comparable services are available for Android devices.

At Samsung’s product event Sunday, mobile chief D.J. Koh said “we have other ideas” beyond core smartphone features. Samsung, for instance, is promoting its Galaxy phones’ compatibility with a Samsung virtual-reality headset and an upcoming 360-degree camera. But VR is still in its early days, of interest largely to gamers and tech pioneers.

The Chinese brands have already taken their toll on

A man checks the Huawei Honor 5X during Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.

Along Associated Press

Samsung. Although it’s still the largest smartphone maker in the world, Samsung is no longer among the top five phone makers in China, according to market research firms IDC and Counterpoint Technology. Profits from the mobile

business have plunged to less than half of what it was in its heyday. Apple’s sales in China rose in the fourth quarter, but its growth was outshined by Huawei.

But bad news for manufacturers is good news for consumers.q

A24 BUSINESS

Wednesday 24 February

Stocks end lower on Wall Street as commodities prices fall KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell broadly on Tuesday as commodity prices retreated. Crude oil sank more than 4 percent. Investors remained worried about growth in China as the country cut the value of its currency against the dollar yet again.

Investors were also discouraged by a report showing that consumer confidence

fell to its lowest level in seven months. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 188.88 points, or 1.1 percent, to 16,431.78. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 24.23 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,921.27 and the Nasdaq composite fell 67.02 points, or 1.5 percent, to 4,503.58.

As has happened multiple times this year, stocks fell in tandem with energy prices.

Oil prices moved lower af-

ter the International Energy Agency said on Monday it does not expect oil prices to recover significantly until 2017. The agency did say it expects slower growth in global supplies. Crude oil fell $1.52, or 4.6 percent, to $31.87 a barrel while Brent crude, which is used to price oils internationally, fell $1.42, or 4.1 percent, to $33.27 a barrel in London.

Energy stocks fell far more than the rest of the market,

Fred DeMarco, right, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. Stocks fell broadly on Tuesday as commodity prices retreated.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

with the energy component of the S&P 500 dropping 3.2 percent.

It’s not uncommon to see stocks give up some of their gains after a strong multi-day like the one that happened last week, but traders say the mood in the market is still cautious.

They note that trading volume has been far lighter on days the market has risen and heavier on days it has fallen. That suggests there is more interest among investors in getting out of stocks than there is in getting in to them. “We aren’t seeing the buying interest that you would usually see in a major upward swing in the markets,” said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management. “Although we have come off the bottom, it’s still quite volatile out there.” Investors were also still watching developments out of China, where the People’s Bank of China announced it had cut its daily rate between the yuan and the dollar more than expected. The weakening yuan was a major cause of market turmoil in August 2015 as investors worried that it signaled a slowdown in China’s economy.

Here in the U.S., a report from the Conference Board showed U.S. consumer con-

fidence fell to 92.2 in February, down sharply from a reading of 97.8 in January and the lowest level since July. Consumers expressed worries about deteriorating business conditions and turbulence in the financial markets for their drop in confidence.

Among individual companies, Fitbit, a maker of wearable fitness trackers, fell $3.44, or 21 percent, to $13.08 after the company issued a weak forecast for 2016. Dow member United Technologies lost 77 cents, or 1 percent, to $91.60 after the company rejected a merger offer from Honeywell. U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.72 percent from 1.75 percent a day earlier. The dollar fell to 112.06 yen from 112.83 yen while the euro weakened to $1.1009 from $1.1026.

In other energy prices, heating oil fell 3.3 cents to $1.022 a gallon, wholesale gasoline fell 3.4 cents to 96.6 cents and natural gas fell 3.9 cents to $1.782 per thousand cubic feet.

Precious and industrial metals futures ended mixed. Gold rose $12.50 to $1,222.60 an ounce, silver rose six cents to $15.24 an ounce and copper slipped a penny to $2.11 a pound.q

BUSINESS A25

Wednesday 24 February

Macy’s 4Q profits down but encouraging signs for 2016 ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s wrapped up a weak fiscal year on an encouraging note, but the nation’s largest department store retailer still sees challenges ahead.

Macy’s, which also operates Bloomingdale’s stores, reported a 31 percent decline in fourth-quarter profits, dragged down by store closings and other costs. But the adjusted results beat Wall Street estimates and sales picked up in the final weeks of the holiday quarter as winter finally arrived, driving sales of coats and boots higher.

A very warm winter early on plagued retailers during the most critical selling period of the year.

But the company says that it doesn’t expect to see a key revenue figure turn positive until the fourth quarter.

Shares rose nearly 5 percent Tuesday to $43.10.

The retailer had been a stellar performer since the recession, but over the last year or so, it has stumbled, including through the crucial holiday shopping season. And weather wasn’t the only factor.

Like many department stores, Macy’s faces increasing competition from online retailers like Amazon. com. It also has acknowledged that customers are spending more of their money on restaurants, spas and vacations, or sprucing up their homes, rather than clothes. And when they do spend money on clothing, they have increasingly walked through the doors of discount stores like T.J. Maxx. The spending trends are playing out in retailers’ fourth-quarter earnings results. Last week, upscale department store chain Nordstrom Inc. reported fourth-quarter results that came short of analysts’ expectations, sending shares down in after-market trading. J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl’s Inc. are slated to report fourth-quarter results later this week.

But Home Depot Inc., the nation’s largest improvement chain, reported a

This photo shows signage at a Macy’s department store at the Hanover Mall in Hanover, Mass.

Macy’s reported financial results Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.

(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

better-than-expected profit and revenue for the fourth quarter, as it benefits from an improving housing market. A key revenue metric jumped nearly 9 percent in the U.S. Macy’s is making a lot of changes to reinvent the company. And investors are banking on improvement. Shares of Macy’s Inc. fell 36 percent over the past 12 months, but have begun to climb back this year.

“I have reminded my team

that our setback last year is a setup for our comeback,” said Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren in a statement Tuesday.

Lundgren has closed 40 stores and trimmed staff in corporate offices and in stores to become more nimble. The retailer has strived to expand online and has pursued other avenues of growth. It acquired Bluemercury, the upscale beauty products and spa company. And it’s not

playing defense against discounters. Last year it opened Macy’s Backstage to go head to head with T.J. Maxx on its home turf.

Macy’s opened six Backstage pilot stores last fall and plans to open just one this year as it learns from the tests. The company, however, is also carving out areas devoted to Backstage merchandise at 15 full-price stores. Karen Hoguet, chief financial officer at Macy’s, told investors on a conference call that it

was a good way to drive shoppers to Macy’s stores and offer new products like baby gear and toys that the department store doesn’t normally carry.

It’s also simplifying discounting. The Cincinnati company is taking deeper markdowns in the second and third round and eliminating coupons for those offerings. It’s creating separate areas in the store for those clearance goods, which be rolled out throughout the chain.

“I think what happens is customers want simplicity.

And when you are looking for deep clearance goods, you could just see the price of the item and not have to do the math in your head,” said Hoguet. “Our hope is that regular price selling will improve. There’s less clutter on the floor, by moving clearance merchandise into a separate area.”

Hoguet also said Macy’s, facing pressure from investors, is moving to unlock value from some of its real estate and said that the demand has been “very high.”q

A26 COMICS

Wednesday 24 February

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

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

CLASSIFIED A27

Wednesday 24 February

Classifieds 3)Time Share Resale Aruba Divi Phoenix 2 Bedroom lock-out week 9 room 861/862 pool/ocean view 30 weeks remain on the contract 1 Br $15,000 Studio $10,000 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 _________________________________ 4) Time Share Resale Occidental Grand Studio week 8&9 Mandatory all inclusive Price :$24000 both weeks More Info Call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 _________________________________ 5)Time Share Resale Occidental Grand One Bedroom Deluxe week 8 Mandatory All inclusive Price:$20,000 More Info Call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 _________________________________ 6)Time Share Resale Renaissance Suites one bedroom week 8 room #2530 Harbor and Ocean view Price :$11,000 More Info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 _________________________________ 7)Time Share Resale Divi Links (Golf) Studio week 7 building Eagle 28 weeks remain on the contract 10 can be accelerated Price:$10,000 more info call:(297) 630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com

______________________ 204714

8)Time Share Resale Divi Dutch Village Studio week 8 room #133 18 weeks remain on the contract 7 can be accelerated Price :$6000 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 ______________________________ Time Share Resale.

LA CABANA BRC One Bdroom/ week 7, Rm 339C O.V. friday check-in.

US$10.000 Tropicana Resort One Bedroom: week 9 Rm 5567G pool view US$6500 info@arubatimetravel.com Cel:6301307 204714 _____________________________

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

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fifth floor US$8500 Call Yankee Bob thru Friday 26 ABC 524-3000 Rm 241 Membership includes island privilege.

Roundtrip transportation every 20 minute 204712 ___________________________ 9)Time Share Resale Marriott Surf Club 2 BR G.V. Plat. Price:$15,000 2 BR O.V. Plat. Price:$16,000 2 BR.O.S. Plat .Price:$18,000 2 BR.O.F. Plat. Price:$29,000 3 BR.O.V. Plat. Price:$29,000 More Info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com 204714 _____________________________ 10)Time Share Resale Marriott Ocean Club 1 BR Ocean View Price:$11,000 2 BR Ocean View Price:$17,000 2 BR Ocean Front Price:$29,000 more info call:(297)630-1307 info@arubatime travel.com www.arubatimetravel.com 204714 _____________________________

FOR SALE Townhouse Orlando, Fl. 1862 Sq. Ft. 2 stories, Year 2014 City of Medic Lake Nona 32827 E-mail: gustavorf28@gmail.com 204361 _________________________

DIVI DUTCH VILLAGE For Sale week 27

June 25 start 3 room suite, lock off master bed rm, with lock off studio with smal kitchen, one other room with queen sofa, full kitchen, dinning area, TV etc, all amenities, below mkt $4900, if used in 2016 buyer pays M fees of 839, a nd 2017 special assessement, seller pays 2016 (for renovations) rental considered local after Feb. 18 565-9394 e-mail: rmwjmw@aol.com or us 508-651-0016

204717 ____________________________

TIME SHARE For Rent /Sale

Studios and one bedroom units at Divi Village and Dutch Village starting on March 12 todec 11 also week 12 Studio, Unit 107 Mar 12 and week 17 April 24 start, and week 27 ground floor Unit 13 Divi Dutch Village July 2 start 565-9394 e-mail: rmwjmw@aol.com or us 508-651-0016

204717 ____________________________

FOR SALE

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Brand new spacious house in excellent living area on a longlenseland 660 mt2 Time Share Resale build up (roofed) 200 m2 Aruba Divi Phoenix 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, swimmingpool & Studio week #8 spacious pool deck external bath on top floor in the tower overlook the pool side. Build with top quality Ocean 27 weeks remain on the contract materials price :$9000 Reduced price USD 458.000,= more info call :(297)630-1307 More info www.facebook.com/Arubainfo@arubatimetravel.com house-for-sale 204714 ________________________________ or call 563-5058

Time Share Resales Divi Village Studio week 4 room #6107 Price: $6,500 with 24 weeks remain on the contract. one bedroom week 5 room #3212 with 25 weeks remain on the contract 9 can be accelerated Price: $7,500 more info call: (297)630 1307 info@arubatimetravel.com

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Selling, Listing, Renting for over 30 Years

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Time Share Resale Divi Dutch Village 1 br week 8 rm 94 Right on the beach 25 weeks remain on the contract 8 can be accelerated Price:$8.000 More Info Call:(297) 630-1307 info@arubatimetravel.com

204714 _____________________________

DOCTOR ON DUTY Oranjestad

Dr. Dirksz Tel. 587-9787 San Nicolas Dr. Ramautar Tel: 584-4280

TIMESHARE FOR SALE

RENAISSANCE Week room price wk 38 room 529 $4,750 wk 40 room 336 $3,750 wk 40 room 105 $5,000 wk 42 room 338 $4,000 wk 43 room 329 $3,250 wk 49 room 144 $5,500 wk 50 room 546 $6,000 wk 49 room 2571 $3,750 wk 48 room 517 $3,750 wk 48 or 49 room 119 $4,750 wk 48 or 49 room 551 $5,500 wk 49 or 50 room 203 $5,500 wk 21 or 22 room 347 $4,000 wk 1or2 room 517 $9,500 each Contact Brian Cell: 593-0200 vr.realty@mac.com

EMERGENCIA

911

POLICE

100

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527-3140 527-3200 527-2900 584-5000 11141 115 582-1108 527-4000 587-9850 582-1234 523-8833

204343 ____________________________

FOR SALE PHARMACY by owner Oranjestad: Eagle Tel: 587-9011 Marriott Surf Club San Nicolas: Centro Medico Tel: 584-5794 2 br O.V. lock off unit Gold season price $16.000 INFORMATION 118 TAXI-TAS 587-5900 Marriott Ocean Club PROF. TAXI 588-0035 2 Br O.V. Gold season 5 floor TAXI D.T.S. 587-2300 lock off unit SERVICE ARUBA 583-3232 Price $16.000 567-6024 / 587-2633 CRUISESHIP martem1@aol.com February 24 USA 718-748-0395 Freewinds 204627

___________________________

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one bed deluxe fixed week 9 Non Mandatory AI. This is an old contract so all the great original benefits are included. $15,000 email at macalh@aol.com or 610 724 6323 204619 _____________________________

DIVI PHOENIX Week 38 Studio ocean view room 904 tower 35 weeks remaining $3500 Divi Golf & Beach week 11 1 B 2 bath $6500 FSBO Ritchey5652@comcast.net 204614 __________________________

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Narcotics Anonymous QUOTA Club Tel: 525-2672

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A28 SCIENCE

Wednesday 24 February

In South Africa, drones used to battle rhino poaching CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press HLUHLUWE-IMFOLOZI GAME RESERVE, South Africa (AP) — In hills where Zulu royalty once hunted wildlife, South African conservationists now scan live video from a thermal-imaging camera attached to a drone, looking for heat signatures of poachers stalking through the bush to kill rhinos.

The unarmed drone, which resembles a model airplane, flies several miles (kilometers) from a van where an operator toggles a customized video-gaming control, zooming and swiveling the craft’s camera.

The nocturnal surveillance in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve comes amid international discussion about whether technology, particularly drones, will make a real difference in antipoaching efforts that often rely on the “boots on the ground” of rangers on patrol.

Several years ago, drones were touted by some as a silver bullet for conservation, but some experiments have foundered. Even so,

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 a drone is prepared for launching in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve in the KwaZulu Natal province.

Associated Press

drone technology is developing quickly and the aircraft have been used around the world, including: — In Belize, where the Wildlife Conservation Society helped deploy drones to successfully monitor a protected reef area for illegal fishing, according to David Wilkie, director of conservation measures for the group.

— In Indonesia, where drones have surveyed threatened orangutan habitats.

— In Africa, where the World Wildlife Fund is exploring the use of drones and other anti-poachingtechnologies, using funding from Google.

“It’s a very dynamic battle space where the poachers are continually responding to advances intechnologies,” said Arthur Holland Michel, co-director at the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in Annandal e-on-Huds on, New York.

Poachers could, for example, seek vegetation cover

to try to avoid being spotted by drones or use informants to monitor drone teams and learn when the skies are clear.

“They have great potential,” Wilkie said of drones.

“I think they’re not there yet.” Wilkie said that while groups with limited budgets often opt for types of drones used by hobbyists.

A military-grade, aluminum drone with a powerful engine and sophisticated radar that can look through canopy and detect metal — a poacher’s car or motorcycle, for example — could be more effective, he said.

Searching for poachers with drones in Africa’s vast wildlife reserves can seem like a needle-in-a-haystack operation. Costs mount, crashes are frequent, equipment breaks down, rain or high wind can scrap a mission and even before operations start, legal and bureaucratic obstacles must often be overcome in countries that tightly regulate airspace.

In a drone mission in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi recently

observed by an Associated Press team, operators looked for heat-emitting objects that appear white and vertical on the screen, similar in shape to a rice grain. Three vertical rice grains are a giveaway because poachers often work in threes — a tracker, a shooter with a heavycaliber rifle and a carrier with supplies and an axe to hack off rhino horn for eventual sale on an illegal Asian market.

The operators didn’t spot any suspected poachers or need to notify rangers by phone or radio, though they saw horizontal heat signatures from wildlife, including a rhino and a calf.

Flights can last more than two hours, focusing on perimeter fences and other areas where poachers might be.

“All we’ve learned to do is to fly and to live in the bush.

It can only get better from here,” said Otto Werdmuller Von Elgg, director of UDS, a fledgling South African firm that operates the drone team in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi.

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Wednesday 24 February

Book Review: Novel probes fiery end of airship era KENDAL WEAVER Associated Press Images of the Hindenburg’s fiery crash landing in 1937 are seared into memory, framing an unforgettable end to the era of great, vulnerable airships.

In film and still photographs, the sleek gray German dirigible that crossed the Atlantic from Frankfurt, Germany, is seen sailing above the Manhattan skyline. Little Nazi swastikas adorn its fins.

A darkening sky greets its arrival at a Lakehurst, New Jersey, landing site.

An explosive fireball erupts.

Ariel Lawhon’s fictional recreation of the disaster, “Flight of Dreams,” goes inside the Hindenburg in search of elusive elements — the spark of motivation that set off the flaming explosion, the meaning of the flight to its passengers and crew, their fate in the grim finale.

Lawhon builds the narrative on facts — she uses real names and biographical details about those aboard the Hindenburg — then propels the story forward with the thrust of fiction.

This is a novel made all the more readable by weaving its way through a riveting historical event.

It marks Lawhon’s second book of fiction based on a 1930s-era news story that captivated the country. Her first, “The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress,” gave new twists to the mysterious disappearance of New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater.

In “Flight of Dreams,” the main characters aboard the Hindenburg — variously identified as the navigator, the journalist, the stewardess and the cabin boy, among others — appear in separate sections as their lives and stories intersect and the flight of the airship becomes precarious.

There is intrigue, budding romance, complicated relationships, gnawing fears

This book cover image released by Doubleday shows “Flight of Dreams,” a novel by Ariel Lawhon.

Associated Press

and whispered hopes.

The Atlantic crossing takes place amid increasing Nazi terror against Jews on the continent, and a sense of foreboding rides with the airship.q

Game show says rules preventing Canadian contestants DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, a famous Canadian, apparently won’t be seeing many of his countrymen on the popular game show for the foreseeable future.

The show said Canadians were precluded taking last month’s online test that is a pipeline for “Jeopardy!” contestants because of a change in that country’s online privacy laws. Producers said Monday they were working to clear up the issue for future tests.

Canadians have traditionally been included in the American version of “Jeopardy!,” which airs in both countries. “We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants,” Trebek, a native of

In this June 16, 2013 file photo, “Jeopardy!” game show host Alex Trebek appears at the 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Associated Press

Sudbury, Ontario, said in a statement. The issue came to light because of a story in the Ottawa Citizen.

“Jeopardy!” producers were not made available for an interview on Mon-

day, and said in a statement that “ever-changing and complex” international laws governing the sharing of information over the Internet precluded the Canadians’ participation.q

Country singer Sonny James dies at age 87 KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn.

(AP) — Country singer Sonny James, who recorded romantic ballads like “Young Love” and turned pop songs into country hits, has died. He was 87.

James, whose given name was James Loden, died Monday in a Nashville hospice facility, according to a family friend, Gary Robble, who was the lead singer of James’ backing band, the Southern Gentlemen.

The singer born in Hackleburg, Alabama, was known as the “Southern Gentleman” because of his gentle, respectable demeanor. He was also a songwriter as well as a guitarist and fiddler. He started his music career with his family’s band with his parents and his sister, Thelma.

Before he reached high school age, he already had performed on several country music radio shows.

As he started his own musical career, Capitol producer Ken Nelson suggest-

In this May 6, 2007 file photo, inductee Sonny James is presented his medallion at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn.

Associated Press

ed he use a combination of his nickname, “Sonny Boy,” with his first name as his professional name.

In 1956, James scored his biggest hit, “Young Love,” which sold 3 million copies and became a No. 1 hit

on the country and pop charts. A decade later, he started an impressive run on top of the country charts with 16 consecutive No. 1 songs between 1967 and 1971.

His other hits included “It’s

the Little Things,” ‘’You’re the Only World I Know,” ‘’I’ll Never Find Another You,” ‘’Empty Arms,” ‘’Behind the Tear,” ‘’Take Good Care of Her,” ‘’When the Snow Is on the Roses,” ‘’That’s Why I Love You Like I Do” and “Here Comes Honey Again.”

“Sonny James was one of country music’s greatest.

He was a true gentleman and made some of the greatest country music records of all times, certainly some of my favorites,” singer Dolly Parton said in a statement.

Robble said James invited the Southern Gentlemen to record and tour with him, which created a vocal-driven sound based on hit songs from the R&B and pop genre. Some of his popular covers included “Since I Met You Baby,” ‘’Endlessly,” ‘’Running Bear,” ‘’It’s Just a Matter of Time,” ‘’Only the Lonely” and “Only Love Can Break a Heart.” “Sonny made country music more commercial,” Robble said.q

A30 PEOPLE

Wednesday 24 February

& ARTS

TV’s ‘black-ish’ takes child’s eye view of police violence LYNN ELBER AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — As tense crowds await a grand jury’s decision in a case of possible police brutality, a child watching TV news coverage asks his parents a simple but loaded question.

“Why are these people so mad?” the AfricanAmerican boy queries in Wednesday’s episode of “black-ish,” prompting the

TV family’s debate over how much to tell children about how harsh the world may or may not be.

The ABC comedy began its second season with a deft look at the increasingly casual use of the N-word, so it’s unsurprising it would take on the even-thornier subject of police treatment of blacks through a fictional case in Los Angeles in which a black man was hit repeatedly with a Taser by

In this image released by ABC, Laurence Fishburne, from left, Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Jennifer Lewis, standing center, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin and Anthony Anderson appear in an episode of “Black-ish” about a highly publicized court case involving alleged police brutality and an African-American teenager, airing Wednesday, Feb. 24 on ABC. Associated Press

officers.

But Kenya Barris, the show’s creator and executive producer, said his goal was to prompt viewer conversations about how parents respond to the deluge of worrying information children face in these hyperconnected times.

The episode, which airs at 9:30 p.m. EST, “had less to do with police brutality and more to do with talking to your kids about the world they’re living in and they can’t avoid anymore” because of the Internet, their friends and myriad other sources, he said.

“How do you talk to your kids about hard things and not make scorched-earth whatever their experiences are going to be based on your experiences” and perspective, Barris said.

The question young Jack (Miles Brown) poses in the opening scene echoes one that Barris got from his own son, then 7, as they watched coverage of the Ferguson, Missouri, protests sparked by the fatal police

shooting of Michael Brown, 18.

That said, Rainbow and Andre “Dre” Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Anderson) and others in the family are blunt in their opinions about police treatment of blacks. The result is funny, provocative and unsettling.

“The police are damn thugs,” says Dre’s father, Pops (Laurence Fishburne).

“Not all police,” says Rainbow.

“Yeah, only 92 percent. The other 8 percent are advisers on ‘Law & Order’ episodes,” snaps back Dre. The point is that that all individuals, black or otherwise, have their own perspective, Barris said, and that was key to “black-ish” from the start.

It’s common for minority characters to be presented with a “monolithic vocal tone,” he said. “We built the series to show we are really multilayered as people, not just black people but in general as a community of Americans.”

The series, of course, also

was designed to draw laughs. Barris recognizes that this week’s episode may summon memories of those “very special” sitcom half-hours that ventured into deep waters, such as 1977’s “All in the Family” episode about the attempted rape of gentle housewife Edith Bunker.

“I’m very interested and nervous as to the reaction.

It’s different from anything I’ve written before,” said Barris.

It’s also different from what TV tends to be, which is carefully detached from controversy to avoid upsetting sponsors or viewers.

Barris credits ABC, which last week named Channing Dungey, the first African-American to head a broadcast network.

“This experiment called ‘black-ish’ has been an amazing journey, and it’s been supported by the network in a way that I don’t know that a lot of other networks would have,” Barris said.q

PEOPLE & ARTS

A31

Wednesday 24 February

AP EXCLUSIVE: Damning study finds a ‘whitewashed’ Hollywood JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In one of the most exhaustive and damning reports on diversity in Hollywood, a new study finds that the films and television produced by major media companies are “whitewashed,” and that an “epidemic of invisibility” runs top to bottom through the industry for women, minorities and LGBT people.

A study to be released Monday by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers one of the most wide-ranging examinations of the film and television industries, including a pointed “inclusivity index” of 10 major media companies — from Disney to Netflix — that gives a failing grade to every movie studio and most TV makers.

Coming just days before an Academy Awards where a second straight year of

In this Friday, Feb. 19, 2016 image made from video, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, appears during an interview in New York.

Associated Press

study’s authors, in an interview. “We don’t have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis.”

The study, titled the Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity, examined the 109 films released by major studios (including arthouse divisions) in 2014 and 305 scripted, first-run TV and

In this photo provided by Amazon Studios, Jeffrey Tambor, right, and Amy Landecker appear in a scene from “Transparent.”

Associated Press

all-white acting nominees has enflamed an industrywide crisis, the report offers a new barrage of sobering statistics that further evidence a deep discrepancy between Hollywood and the American population it entertains, in gender, race and ethnicity.

“The prequel to OscarsSoWhite is HollywoodSoWhite,” said Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and one of the

digital series across 31 networks and streaming services that aired from September 2014 to August 2015.

More than 11,000 speaking characters were analyzed for gender, racial and ethnic representation and LGBT status. Some 10,000 directors, writers and show creators were examined, as was the gender of more than 1,500 executives.

The portrait is one of per-

vasive underrepresentation, no matter the media platform, from CEOs to minor characters. “Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed,” the study concludes.

In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28.3 percent were from minority groups — about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population. Characters 40 years or older skew heavily male across film and TV: 74.3 percent male to 25.7 percent female.

Just 2 percent of speaking characters were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered (and four were from the same series).

“When we start to step back to see this larger ecology, I think we see a picture of exclusion,” said Smith.

“And it doesn’t match the norms of the population of the United States.”

Behind the camera, the discrepancy is even greater.

Directors overall were 87 percent white. Broadcast TV directors (90.4 percent white) were the least diverse.

Just 15.2 percent of directors, 28.9 percent of writers and 22.6 percent of series creators were female.

In film, the gender gap is greatest: Only 3.4 percent of the films studied were directed by women, and only two directors out of the 109 were black women: Ava DuVernay (“Selma”) and Amma Asante (“Belle”).

USC’s study, which the school has been publishing in various forms for the last

channels, all of the major movie studios and three of the dominant streaming services. Each was rated by their percentage of female, minority and LGBT characters; and of female writers and directors. None of the six major studios rated better than 20 percent overall; Time Warner fared poorest of all with a score of zero. The report concludes that the film industry “still functions as a straight, white, boy’s club.”

Disney, Sony, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. didn’t immediate comment Sunday night.

Some of the same companies, however, scored better when their TV and digital offerings were evaluated. Disney, the CW, Amazon and Hulu all scored 65 percent and above.

“When we turn to see where the problem is better or worse, the apex to this whole endeavor is: Everyone in film is failing, all of the companies investigated,” said Smith. “They’re impervious to change. But there

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2016 file photo, Laura Prepon, center, and the cast and crew of “Orange is the New Black” accept the award for outstanding ensemble in a comedy series at the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

10 years, also seeks to add a new metric in the conversation. The “inclusivity index” is a report card for the performances of 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Sony, the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.

Those companies encompass all the broadcast networks, most major cable

are pockets of promise in television. There is a focus that change is possible. The very companies that are inclusive — Disney, CW, Hulu, Amazon to some degree — those companies, if they’re producing and distributing motion pictures, can do this. We now have evidence that they can, and they can thrive.”q