February 29, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Monday, February 29, 2016

Going National

Clinton Heads to Super Tuesday With Momentum Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at Meharry Medical College, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn.

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Page 3

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Amid cease-fire:

Opposition activists report airstrikes in northern Syria

SE Asia ministers voice concerns on South China Seas

BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Warplanes carried out air raids Sunday on several parts of northern Syria as a top opposition official warned that continued violations of a fragile cease-fire could jeopardize a planned resumption of U.N.-brokered peace talks.

The acts of violence came as Russia said a northern town held by a predominantly Kurdish militia came under fire from the Turkish side of the border.

Sunday’s air raids came on the second day of a ceasefire brokered by Russia and the U.S., the most ambitious effort yet to curb the violence of the country’s fiveyear civil war. The truce has been holding since it went into effect at midnight Friday despite accusations by both sides of violations.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes hit the villages of Daret Azzeh and Qobtan al-Jabal in Aleppo province. The group did not say whether the warplanes were Russian or Syrian.

The Local Coordination Committees said the warplanes were Russian.

The Observatory and the LCC also reported air raids on the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour saying a woman was killed and 12 others were wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the warplanes struck areas controlled by al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. Both the Nusra Front and the Islamic State group are excluded from the truce.

Meanwhile Syria’s state news agency said militants fired shells into government-held areas in the coastal province of Latakia from their bases near the Turkish border. The agency

JERRY HARMER Associated Press VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Foreign ministers from the 10 countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations said over the weekend that they were “seriously concerned” by recent developments in the disputed SouthChina Sea region and will seek a meeting over the issue with China.

At the end of their annual retreat, held this year in the Lao capital of Vientiane, they noted their worries and reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability in the area.

The strategically important South China Sea is at the center of a territorial dispute involving China on one side and a number of ASEAN countries on the other, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Tensions have ramped up since China began a massive land reclamation program in 2013. Recent satellite imagery suggests that China has installed surface-to-air missiles in a disputed area in the Paracels chain, prompting accusations that Beijing is militarizing the area.

A joint statement said the ASEAN foreign ministers “remained seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some members on the land reclamations and escalation of activities” in the South China Sea. The statement added that the activities have “eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.q

reported that the shelling killed and wounded a number of people, without giving further details.

Opposition activists and state media also reported clashes between troops

abiding by the truce.

“The repeated violations by the regime and its allies have killed 29 and wounded dozens,” he said, adding that the opposition is abiding by the cease-fire

planes are based.

On Saturday, members of the Islamic State group attacked the border town of Tal Abyad and the nearby village of Suluk that were captured months ago by

A Syrian boy covers his face as he rides a bicycle through a devastated part of the old city of Homs, Syria. Warplanes carried out air raids Sunday on several parts of northern Syria as a top opposition official warned that continued violations of a fragile cease-fire could jeopardize a planned resumption of U.N.-brokered peace talks.

(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

and members of the Islamic State group mostly in the northern province of Aleppo. Still, both sides have said they will continue to abide by the truce.

Also Sunday, Riad Hijab, who heads the High Negotiations Committee, an umbrella for opposition and rebel factions, said in a statement directed to U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon that Russian, Iranian and government forces have not stopped hostilities since the truce went into effect.

Hijab said there has been 24 cases of shelling and five cases of ground attacks.

He added that Russian warplanes carried out 26 airstrikes on Sunday alone targeting rebels that are

and warning that “resuming the negotiations process in such circumstances would be difficult.”

The U.N. Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has called for a new round of indirect peace talks in Geneva on March 7, after the first round of talks collapsed earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Russian military operating in Syria said it has information about an attack on the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from Turkish territories with the use of large-caliber artillery and has asked the United States for an explanation.

Russia has set up a center for monitoring the truce at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria, where Russian war-

Kurdish fighters, according to a Syrian rebel official.

Hours-long battles between Kurdish fighters and IS militants forced them out of Tal Abyad and other areas despite some presence of the extremists on the outskirts of the border town.

The Observatory said the battle of Tal Abyad lasted a full day and left 70 IS fighters, 20 Kurdish fighters and 10 civilians dead.

The head of the center. Lt. Gen Sergei Kuralenko, said Sunday that the suspected violation took place overnight and his center has turned to the corresponding U.S. center in Amman for an explanation, since Turkey is a member of the U.S.-led coalition,q

U.S. NEWS A3

Monday 29 February 2016

With big win, Clinton heads to Super Tuesday with momentum JULIE PACE LISA LERER Associated Press COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — Hillary Clinton resoundingly reclaimed her standing as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination with a lopsided victory over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina, giving her momentum heading into the Super Tuesday contests in multiple states.

For Sanders, the roughly 50-point defeat crystalized his weakness with black voters, a crucial segment of the Democratic electorate. If he loses blacks by similar margins in the Southern states that vote Tuesday, Clinton would likely take a delegate lead difficult for the Vermont senator to overcome.

Taken together, 865 Democratic delegates to the party’s national nominating convention are up for grabs in the Super Tuesday contests in 11 states and American Samoa. Sanders aims to stay close to Clinton in the South while focusing most of his attention on states in the Midwest and Northeast, including his home state of Vermont.

As Clinton relished the most sweeping victory of her political career, her focus was already on Super Tuesday — and the general election. “Despite what you hear, we don’t need to make America great again,” Clinton said at a rally Saturday night, alluding to Republican front-runner Donald Trump and his campaign slogan. “America has never stopped being great,” Clinton declared.

Sanders acknowledged getting “decimated” in South Carolina, but said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his campaign is “looking to the future, not looking back” as the contests move outside the South.

Like Clinton, Trump has won three of the four early voting contests. He’s cleared the field of nearly all his rivals, but is engaged in an increasingly bitter contest

with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two senators scrambling to stop the billionaire from running away with the Republican nomination.

On Tuesday, Republicans will vote in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.

Cruz acknowledged that a strong showing by Trump on Tuesday could perhaps seal the nomination for the real estate magnate. The Texas senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “there is no doubt that if Donald steamrolls through Super Tuesday, wins everywhere with big margins, that he may well be unstoppable.”

Whatever the polls, Rubio expressed confidence that Trump won’t be the Republican presidential nominee. But the Florida senator warned Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation that if Trump does win the nomination “it will split us and splinter us in a way that we may never be able to recover.” The Republican candidates fired insults at each other Saturday. Cruz asked parents if they would be pleased if their children spouted profanities in the manner of the brash billionaire, while Rubio mocked Trump as a “con artist” with “the worst spray tan in America.”

For Clinton, South Carolina was a moment to wipe away bitter memories of her loss to Barack Obama there eight years ago. She won the support of nearly 9 in 10 black voters, crucial Democratic backers who had abandoned her for Obama in 2008.

Sanders, expecting defeat on Saturday, left the state before voting finished and turned his attention to states outside the South that vote in Tuesday’s delegate-rich contests. He didn’t mention the results of the South Carolina vote once in a nearly hour-long speech in Minnesota late Saturday night, but in a statement, vowed to fight on aggressively.

Clinton allies quickly touted the breadth of her victory.

Along with blacks, she won most women and voters

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at Meharry Medical College, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn.

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

aged 30 and older, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press

and television networks..

Sanders continued to do well with young voters, his most passionate support-

ers. He also carried those who identified themselves as independent and most white voters.q

A4 U.S.

Monday 29 February 2016

NEWS

White supremacist leader at center of new Trump furor BILL BARROW THOMAS BEAUMONT Associated Press LEESBURG, Virginia (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is drawing criticism for refusing to denounce an implicit endorsement from a white supremacist leader, with his main rivals, senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, using the matter to hammer the billionaire businessman just two days before multiple state primaries could put him on an irreversible path to the party’s nomination.

Trump was asked Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether he rejected support from David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, and other white supremacists after Duke told his radio fol-

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a speech at a rally in Oklahoma City. Trump is drawing criticism for refusing to denounce an implicit endorsement from a white supremacist leader.

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

lowers this week that a vote against Trump was equivalent to “treason to your heritage.”

“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke.

OK?” Trump told host Jake

Tapper. “I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.”

Trump was asked Friday by journalists how he felt about Duke’s support. He said he didn’t know anything about it and curtly said: “All right, I disavow, ok?”

Trump hasn’t always claimed ignorance on Duke’s history. In 2000, he wrote a New York Times op-ed explaining why he abandoned the possibility of running for president on the Reform Party ticket.

He wrote of an “underside” and “fringe element” of the party, concluding, “I leave the Reform Party to David Duke, Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani. That is not company I wish to keep.”

Trump’s comments sparked a wave of censures just ahead of Super Tuesday — March 1 — when 11 states hold Republican primaries.

At stake are 595 delegates to the party’s national convention this summer, with 1,237 needed to win the nomination.

On the Democratic side, 865 delegates are up for grabs in Super Tuesday contests in 11 states and American Samoa. It takes 2,383 delegates to gain the Democratic nomination.

Hillary Clinton received another burst of momentum after her lopsided victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Saturday, fueled by an 84-16 advantage among African-Americans, a key Democratic constituency that will also play a dominant role in several Super Tuesday states.

“We got decimated, that’s what happened,” Sanders said on ABC, though he promised to continue his campaign against what he describes as a political and economic oligarchy.

The latest shake up in the Republican race comes as attention shifts to the South, with about a half dozen states in the region holding contests on Tuesday. Trump holds commanding leads across the region, with the exception of Cruz’s home state of Texas, a dynamic that puts tremendous pressure on Rubio and Cruz as they try to outlast each other and derail Trump.

Campaigning in Virginia, Rubio pounced on Trump’s latest position on Duke, shifting to a more serious tone after spending the weekend mocking his rival’s hair and “the worst spray tan in America.”

“We cannot be a party who refuses to condemn white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan,” the Florida senator told thousands of supporters gathered in Leesburg, Virginia. “Not only is that wrong, it makes him unelectable. How are we going to grow the party if we nominate someone who doesn’t repudiate the Ku Klux Klan?”

Cruz also weighed in on Sunday, calling Trump’s comments “Really sad.”

“You’re better than this,” Cruz wrote. “We should all agree, racism is wrong, KKK is abhorrent.”

Democrat Bernie Sanders also lashed out at his Republican rival on Twitter, writing: “America’s first black president cannot and will not be succeeded by a hatemonger who refuses to condemn the KKK.” Trump also garnered backlash Sunday for recently retweeting a quote from Benito Mussolini, the 20th century fascist dictator of Italy, which reads: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”

Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “I know who said it. q

U.S. NEWS A5

Monday 29 February 2016

Slain Virginia officer lauded for bravery, intelligence

Police surround a home Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, following a fatal shooting at the residence Saturday evening, in Woodbridge, Va. Ronald Williams Hamilton is being held without bond in the Prince William County Adult Detention Center on charges that include murder of a law enforcement officer.

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) — On her first day on the job, Officer Ashley Guindon responded to a call that could have become routine, had she gone on to a long career in law enforcement: a domestic disturbance in a well-kept suburban neighborhood.

But something had already gone terribly wrong inside the northern Virginia home of Army Sgt. Ronald Hamilton, police said Sunday, and Guindon’s brief time with the Prince William County police department came to a horrific end.

Hamilton opened fire on Guindon and two of her fellow officers, killing her and leaving the others seriously wounded, Police Chief Stephan Hudson said.

Standing next to the county’s top elected official and chief prosecutor, Hudson was stone-faced at a news conference on Sunday as he lauded Guindon’s bravery, intelligence and compassion. The chief offered no details about what might have provoked the gunman, who worked at the Pentagon and, according to neighbors, was about to be transferred to Italy.

The fight Saturday afternoon between Hamilton, 32, and his wife, Crystal Hamilton, 29, had been ongoing throughout the day, but it escalated after she called 911, Hudson said. Hamilton fatally shot his wife between her call to police and the officer’s ar-

rival, and the three officers were shot just after they arrived at his front door, he said.

As quickly as the violence began, it was over, Hudson said, with Hamilton emerging from his front door to surrender as additional officers arrived. The couple’s 11-year-old son was home at the time of the slayings and is being cared for by relatives, Hudson said.

Guindon, 28, died at a hospital, where the two other injured officers — Jesse Hempen, 31, and David McKeown, 33 — were being treated on Sunday. Police did not detail their injuries. Hudson said their lives were no longer in danger but they faced long recoveries.

Guindon, a former Marine Corps reservist who had a master’s degree in forensic science, went through training with the department last year but left for personal reasons, Hudson said. She rejoined the department this year and was sworn in on Friday, which the department marked with a celebratory tweet.

“We were struck by her passion to do this job,” Hudson said. “She did share with us when we rehired her that she felt like she wanted to do this job.

She couldn’t get it out of her blood. She clearly had a passion to serve others in a way that went beyond herself.”

Her line-of-duty death was the fourth in the 46-year history of the department,

and only the second time a county officer was slain maliciously, county officials said. The county has 446,000 residents, and Woodbridge is one of many bedroom communities popular with federal workers, the military and others who commute to Washington, 30 miles to the north.

“This department is revered. It’s respected,” said Corey Stewart, the Republican chairman of the county’s board of supervisors. “She was an example of the kind of person that the department hires and the quality of the men and women who work for the department.”

The county’s longtime chief prosecutor, Commonwealth’s Attorney

Paul Ebert, said he would likely seek the death penalty against Hamilton, who was being held without bond on charges including capital murder, first-degree murder and malicious wounding and was scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.

Guindon’s death was not the first tragedy to strike her family. Her father, David, killed himself the day after he returned home from Iraq, where he served with the New Hampshire Air National Guard. He was buried with full military honors on Aug. 26, 2004.

“He came home and took his own life,” Dorothy Guindon, Ashley’s grandmother, told The Associated Press.q

A6 U.S.

Monday 29 February 2016

NEWS

3 stabbed when violence erupts at KKK rally in California CHRISTINE ARMARIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of protesters who heard about a planned Ku Klux Klan rally were waiting by a Southern California park

and then mayhem ensued.

Witness video captured the brawl just after noon Saturday in an Anaheim park about 3 miles from Disneyland. Several protesters could be seen kicking a

been stabbed, one critically. Five Klansmen were booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, and seven of the approximately 30 counterprotesters were arrested

This photo provided by OC Weekly shows counter-protesters scuffling with a KKK member, on the ground, as he stabs an attacking protester, during an anti-immigration rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. Three people were stabbed Saturday, one critically, after a small group of Ku Klux Klan members staging an anti-immigrant rally clashed with a larger gathering of counter-protesters, police said.

(Eric Hood/OC Weekly via AP)

when six Klansmen pulled up in a black SUV and took out signs reading “White Lives Matter.” The KKK members were dressed in black shirts decorated with the Klan cross and Confederate flag patches.

The protesters immediately moved in, surrounding the Klansmen. Someone smashed the SUV’s window,

KKK member. One Klansman with an American flag used the pole’s tip to stab a man.

“I got stabbed,” the man screamed, lifting his T-shirt to show a wound to his stomach. A fire hydrant where the man briefly sat was covered in blood.

By the time ordered was restored, three people had

on suspicion of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.

“I thought they were going to stomp these Klansmen to death,” said Brian Levin, who directs California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Levin, who was monitoring the protest, said he tried to intervene

when “all hell broke loose,” using his body to get between counter-protesters and Klansmen until officers were able to reach the scene.

Levin said he saw no uniformed officers when the melee started. Sgt. Daron Wyatt says police were definitely there and were engaged with people at one end of the fight, and called for additional resources to deploy to the other end.

He says the event stretched along an entire city block.

Police Chief Raul Quezada said his officers were able to respond quickly enough to arrest all but one of the main participants, with the exception of one counterprotester who was still at large Sunday. Four of the arrestees were released after a review of video evidence, he said Sunday in a statement from the city.

“We will always honor free speech in Anaheim, but we vehemently reject hate and violent confrontation,” Mayor Tom Tait said added. “Anaheim is proud to draw strength in its diversity, tolerance and kindness, and Saturday’s events run counter to that.

A day earlier, Anaheim police had notified the public about the planned protest at Pearson Park and said they would be monitoring the situation. The department also noted that the KKK, like any other group, has a First Amendment right to assemble and dem-

onstrate in a public park.

“Even if the vast majority of our community disagrees with a particular group who visits our city we cannot stop them from lawfully gathering to express their opinions,” Quezada said. “Violence is not acceptable, and we will arrest anybody who assaults another person or commits any other crime in our city.”

Chris Barker, who identified himself as the imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told The Associated Press by phone from North Carolina that his members were holding a peaceful antiimmigration demonstration and acted in self-defense.

“If we’re attacked, we will attack back,” said Barker, whose organization lists Pelham, N.C., as its headquarters. Last year, the group drew headlines when it protested the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol.

The KKK has a long history in Anaheim. In the 1920s, several Klansmen held elected office in the city, which was overwhelmingly white but now has a majority of Hispanics among its roughly 350,000 residents.

In January 2015, packets containing fliers condemning the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and supporting the Ku Klux Klan were left in the driveways of about 40 homes in Santa Ana, about 8 miles south of Anaheim. q

U.S. NEWS A7

Monday 29 February 2016

State legislatures see flurry of daily fantasy sports bills PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The daily fantasy sports debate has spilled into state capitols nationwide, with nearly 30 legislatures considering proposals to regulate, ban or affirm the games played by millions of Americans.

The flurry of recent legislative activity represents a sea change for the industry, which for years was content to operate largely unregulated.

“We’ve been operating in this gray area for a long time, and, up until now, it hasn’t really been a problem,” says Peter Schoenke, chairman of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, which hired about 65 lobbying firms in 44 states to push bills favorable to the industry. “What we want to do in all of these states is to clarify that it is legal.”

A 2006 federal law banned online gambling but spe-

cifically exempted fantasy sports, paving the way for the creation of the niche industry that’s since exploded in popularity, prompting policymakers to take a closer look.

Companies like Boston’s DraftKings and New York’s FanDuel have argued their contests aren’t gambling because the games require more skill than luck.

But where it once shied away from heavy oversight, the industry is now embracing limited regulation, so long as it isn’t subjected to the same exacting standards as traditional gambling operations.

“The laws of skill gaming and gambling were written like a hundred years ago and they don’t really fit fantasy sports,” Schoenke says.

This year’s tally of 30 states with pending bills is up from roughly 16 states last year and two in 2014, according

Peter Schoenke, chairman of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, speaks during a public hearing in Boston. The daily fantasy sports debate has spilled into state capitols nationwide, with nearly 30 legislatures considering proposals to regulate, ban or affirm the games played by millions of Americans.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

to GamblingCompliance Research Services, which has been tracking the legislation.

At least half the bills represent variations of an

industry-backed proposal exempting the games from state gambling regulations and imposing requirements meant to protect consumers, according to an Asso-

ciated Press review.

Among them is a Virginia bill that’s the first headed to the governor for approval this year, following passage by the legislature last week.

A8

Monday 29 February 2016

WORLD NEWS

Ireland’s divided lawmakers mull possible pact, 2nd election SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press DUBLIN (AP) — Lawmakers in Ireland expressed a sense of shellshock and division Sunday over whether the country’s next government should be a historic alliance of age-old foes — or whether there should be a second election.

With two-thirds of winners declared in the race to fill a 158-member parliament, the new political landscape looked like the most fractured in Irish history.

The two perennial centrist heavyweights — governing Fine Gael and opposition Fianna Fail — remained virtually neck and neck, with Fine Gael winners of 31 parliamentary seats, Fianna Fail 30.

Analysts forecast that Fine

Gael would finish a few lawmakers stronger than the party’s political nemesis Fianna Fail. But neither would be able to form a parliamentary majority with any other single party, only each other.

Voters disgusted by Ireland’s 2008 economic collapse, 2010 international bailout and years of austerity deemed necessary to repair the damage threw their support in Friday’s election to a dizzying array of anti-government voices.

For the first time in Irish electoral history, the combined popular vote for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael slid below 50 percent.

The two parties evolved from opposite sides of the cut-throat civil war that

Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams, centre, celebrates with supporters after being elected the representative for Louth at the count centre in Dundalk, Ireland, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016. Counts under Ireland’s complex proportional representation system continue Sunday to fill Ireland’s parliament.

(AP Photo Peter Morrison)

followed Ireland’s 1922 independence from Britain.

Between them, they have led every Irish government — and have never shared power with each other.

But neither side has ruled

out forming a partnership if government stability requires this. Few workable alternatives look available in a parliament increasingly crowded with untested micro-parties and maver-

ick independents hostile to both establishment parties.

The nationalist Sinn Fein party finished in third place with a somewhat disappointing 13.8 percent share of the popular vote.q

Hungary’s Orban: EU leaders don’t want to stop the migrants PABLO GORONDI Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Europe has the ability to stop the flow of migrants reaching the continent but its leaders have no plans to do so, Hungary’s prime minister declared Sunday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been at the forefront of those rejecting the refugees and asylum-seekers flooding into Europe due to conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Hungary last year built razor-wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop the migrants from freely entering the country — moves that altered the flow of migrants across Europe.

“It is bad enough that Brussels cannot organize Europe’s defense, but worse is that even the intention is

missing,” Orban said in his annual speech about the state of the country.

Orban described the EU response to the migrant crisis as “absurd” and compared EU leadership to the captain of a ship about to collide who spends time “designating the nonsmoking lifeboats instead of trying to avoid the collision.”

“Europe’s future is endangered primarily not by those who want to come here, but by those political, economic and intellectual leaders who are trying to transform Europe in opposition to the European people,” Orban said, blaming German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming response to refugees as one of the factors responsible for the crisis.

Orban said he had asked his interior and defense ministers to prepare to build new defenses on the Romanian border.

“We will teach Brussels, the human traffickers and the migrants that Hungary is sovereign country,” Orban told an audience of steadfast supporters who often interrupted his speech with applause.

Orban declared that mass migration was a “danger” that put at risk Hungary’s achievements of the last few years and was not an answer to Europe’s problems. “We cannot solve the demographic problems of the undeniably dwindling and aging European population with the Muslim world without losing our lifestyle, security and ourselves,” Orban said.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Monday 29 February 2016

Results suggest reformists to win all seats in Iran’s capital ALI DAREINI Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Partial results released Sunday indicate that Iranian reformists will win all 30 parliamentary seats contested in the capital, Tehran, handing hard-liners an embarrassing defeat in the first elections held since last year’s nuclear deal, which appears to be propelling moderates to their best nationwide electoral showing in more than a decade.

The deal is expected to bolster moderate allies of President Hassan Rouhani, who championed it in the face of hard-line opposition. However, none of Iran’s three main political camps -- reformists, conservatives or hard-liners -- is expected to win a majority in the 290-seat assembly.

State TV said Sunday that reformists -- who favor expanding social freedoms

and improving relations with the West -- are set to win all of Tehran’s seats.

It said 62 percent of the capital’s votes have been counted.

Tehran is seen as a political bellwether where prominent members of all three camps face off against each other. Across the country, the reformist camp is on track for its best showing in more than a decade.

The final results from the elections are expected on Monday.

Friday’s election was the first since last summer’s nuclear deal, which brought about the lifting of crippling international sanctions on Iran in exchange for it curbing its nuclear activities.

Reformists and moderate conservatives — who supported the agreement -- appear poised to win a majority, which could pave

Official: Twin bombing attack in Baghdad market kills at least 59 SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants attacked an outdoor market on Sunday in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 59 people and wounding nearly 100, officials said.

A bomb ripped through the crowded Mredi market in the Shiite district of Sadr City, a police officer said.

Minutes later, a suicide bomber blew himself up amid the crowd that had gathered at the site of the first bombing, he added.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sad Main said the bombings killed 38 people and

wounded another 62.

Multiple hospital officials later increased the casualty toll to 59 dead and 95 wounded. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information. The attack was the deadliest in a wave of recent explosions that have targeted commercial areas in and outside Baghdad. In the town of Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, three shoppers were killed and 10 wounded in a bomb explosion, another police officer said.

Iranian journalists wait for the announcement of results of parliamentary and Experts Assembly elections at the Interior Ministry, in Tehran, Iran. Partial results released Sunday indicate that Iranian reformists will win all 30 parliamentary seats contested in the capital, Tehran.

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

the way for increased economic openness and greater cooperation with the West on regional issues like the war against the Islamic State group.

Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005. Over the next eight years, he aggressively expanded the nuclear program, which Tehran insists is entirely peaceful, and alarmed Western countries by casting doubt on the scale of the Holocaust and predicting Israel would one day be wiped off the map.q

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A10 WORLD

Monday 29 February 2016

NEWS

Shanghai: Global finance officials promise to shore up sagging growth JOE McDONALD PAUL TRAYNOR Associated Press SHANGHAI (AP) — Finance officials of the world’s biggest economies promised Saturday to use “all tools” to shore up sagging global growth and to avoid devaluing their currencies to boost exports, but made no pledges of joint action.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries tried to reassure jittery financial markets that the global economy is healthy, though they acknowledged in a statement that they “need to do more” to boost growth.

The declaration following a two-day meeting promised “growth-friendly” tax and spending policies. The governments pledged to press ahead with previously promised reforms aimed at making their economies more efficient and productive.

“We agreed to use all tools — monetary, fiscal and structural — to boost growth,” China’s finance minister, Lou Jiwei, said at a news conference.

What each country does will be dictated by its circumstances, Lou said. He

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, center, of the Netherlands, and EU Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, right, of France talk to the media before the start of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting at the Pudong Shangri-la Hotel in Shanghai, China.

(Rolex Dela Pena/Pool Photo via AP)

said some can afford stimulus while others where debt is high have to move faster on structural economic reforms.

Companies and investors were looking to the Shanghai meeting for reassurance and action. But leaders from the United States, China, Europe and elsewhere had tried to squelch

expectations that it would produce specific growth plans.

Global growth is at its lowest in two years and forecasters say the danger of recession is rising. The International Monetary Fund cut this year’s global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points last month to 3.4 percent. It said an-

other downgrade is likely in April.

The G-20 statement acknowledged that “vulnerabilities have risen” in the global economy against a backdrop that includes volatile capital flows, the European refugee crisis and the possibility of a British exit from the European Union. But it said that

growth should continue at a “moderate pace” in advanced economies and “remains strong” in developing countries.

The governments promised to avoid “competitive devaluations” of their currencies to boost exports — a key concern of global markets following turmoil over China’s yuan.

A surprise change in August in the mechanism Beijing uses to set its exchange rate prompted fears that the yuan might be weakened to support struggling Chinese exporters. Despite official denials, repeated Friday by Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, those expectations have driven an outflow of capital that spiked to a record $135 billion in December.

“We will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” the G-20 statement said.

The Chinese hosts wanted the meeting to promote their campaign for a bigger voice in managing trade and finance. Instead, the communist government had to scramble to defend its reputation for competence following stock market and currency turmoil.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Monday 29 February 2016

AP: 2nd Mexican president unloads on Donald Trump MEXICO CITY (AP) — Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday joined his predecessor in office in unloading on Donald Trump, calling the Republican frontrunner’s campaign racist and saying his discourse on immigration is fueling anti-American sentiment around the world.

Calderon, a conservative who was president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, even said he thought Trump was trying to exploit the same social feelings and resentments as did Adolf Hitler.

“I think his logic of exalting white supremacy isn’t even acting against immigration — Donald Trump is the descendant of migrants — it is acting and speaking against immigrants who have a different skin color than him, which is frankly racist and is a bit like the exploitation of raw nerves that Hitler did in his day,” Calderon told reporters after a meeting of the National Action Party, or PAN, in Mexico City.

Calderon’s comments parallel those made earlier by former President Vicente Fox, who preceded Calderon in office and also belonged to the PAN party.

In interviews with Univision and Mexican media, Fox called Trump “crazy,” a “false prophet” and an embarrassment to his party.q

Puerto Rico bracing for flood of Zika virus DANICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Leilani Dominicci has all the typical worries of pregnant women plus a new one spreading across Puerto Rico: the fear she will become infected with the Zika virus and put her baby at risk.

Her unease has escalated so much that the 38-yearold attorney barely leaves her home in the capital of San Juan because of warnings the island faces an onslaught of the mosquito-borne illness.

As the virus sweeps through the hemisphere, Puerto Rico has become America’s own front line in the battle against it — home to 3.5 million U.S. citizens and with a tropical landscape that is an ideal breeding ground for the mosquito that spreads Zika, as well as the dengue and chikungunya already common here.

Officials have barred local blood donations, ramped up efforts to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito and are trying to monitor every pregnant woman on the island due to fears Zika might cause birth defects.

The voluntary registry by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extends to all Zika-infected women and their babies throughout the United States.

The Puerto Rican governor, meanwhile, has declared

Puerto Rico Health Department workers monitor social media for Zika related issues at the department’s headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “For the U.S., it really is the territory that is going to have the most infections,” said Steve Waterman, head of the CDC’s dengue branch in Puerto Rico. “It has the best medical and public health infrastructure to try and answer some of these questions at the same time that we’re trying to control the disease.”

(AP Photo/Danica Coto)

a public health emergency, and the CDC, which earlier urged pregnant women to reconsider visits to Puerto Rico, has asked Congress for $250 million in emergency aid to battle Zika here. The CDC has also sent nearly 40 health workers to help, and is using the island as a test bed for Zika studies.

“For the U.S., it really is the territory that is going to have the most infections,” said Steve Waterman, head of the CDC’s dengue branch in Puerto Rico. “It has the best medical and public health infrastructure

to try and answer some of these questions at the same time that we’re trying to control the disease.”

Among the CDC’s main goals is to test every pregnant woman in Puerto Rico for Zika and prevent people like Dominicci from contracting the virus. The CDC is urging people to take preventive measures, a call that Dominicci and her husband heeded after the first Zika case was reported in December.

“We have locked ourselves up at home,” said Dominicci, who is nearly 37 weeks pregnant. “It’s a constant

concern, especially for women like us who are so far along because our options are limited. Ending a pregnancy at this stage is not even legal.”

Zika causes headaches, fever and a rash, though most people with the virus never show symptoms.

CDC researchers in Brazil and Puerto Rico are trying to determine whether the virus can cause microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads, and a rare paralyzing condition, Guillain-Barre, which can be fatal.q

A12 WORLD

Monday 29 February 2016

NEWS

Visiting French chefs scramble Palestinian cuisine

M. DARAGHMEH D. CHESLOW Associated Press RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — At a time of simmering Mideast tensions and rising malaise, a group of French chefs recently visited the

in Japan, Brazil, India, Morocco and elsewhere.

A parallel festival began four years ago and ran concurrently in Israel. Many Israeli chefs train in Europe, and in the last 20 years, a cosmopolitan Israeli cuisine

dle Eastern recipes, thanks to a strong agrarian tradition and a shortage of clientele with disposable income. Dishes lean on chickpeas, lentils and rice, often spiced with cumin, drizzled in olive oil and accompa-

A mixed Palestinian French dish, Freekeh lamb rack, is seen at Orjuwan restaurant in the West Bank city of Ramallah. At a time of simmering Mideast tensions and rising malaise, a group of French chefs recently visited the West Bank to bring a little joie de vivre to Palestinian kitchens.

(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

West Bank to bring a little joie de vivre to Palestinian kitchens.

The eight chefs visited restaurants in Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and east Jerusalem in a weeklong event earlier this month sponsored by the French government, which prides itself on culinary diplomacy and has held similar events

has emerged, incorporating techniques and flavors from across the Jewish diaspora -- everything from Moroccan couscous and Libyan fish stews to German potato pancakes and Austrian-inspired chicken schnitzel.

By contrast, Palestinian cooking has remained steeped in local and Mid-

nied by sides like hummus, tabbouleh and yogurt. Palestinian food also draws on Levantine flavors like zaatar -- a thyme-like herb -- as well as sumac and pomegranate molasses.

Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, has seen dozens of new restaurants and cafes open in recent years, serving Palestinian,

Lebanese, Mexican, Japanese and Italian fare. But most cooks learn on the job.

“Someone wanted to work for us after he came from a construction site. Another one dropped out of high school,” said Jamal Nimer, owner of the Caesar Hotel in Ramallah, which opened five years ago. “You have to teach the people how to work.”

That’s where the French come in.

One of the chefs gave lessons in baking bread, cakes and macaron cookies to the 32 students at the Caesar Hospitality College in Ramallah, which Nimer opened earlier this year to train staff.

At the Orjuwan restaurant nearby, co-owner Saleem Sakakini said visiting chef Alex Dreyer helped his staff master basic techniques as they prepared a special menu featuring salmon in hollandaise sauce, a lamb rack served over herbinfused mashed potatoes and an apple tarte tatin.

“I liked the Palestinian food, because I think it’s a very specific flavor that anyone can enjoy,” said Dreyer, who works as a chef in Paris. “The flavor is so bold and beautiful.”

Sakakini said he was grateful his dozen kitchen staff could get a master class in using the “sous vide” appliance, which cooks meat or vegetables uniformly via

a hot water bath. He also relished the small touches Dreyer introduced. “He poached sliced garlic in milk for two hours, then dried it and then deep fried it,” Sakakini said. “And then used it as a garnish. They looked phenomenal. I never tried this before.”

In the southern West Bank town of Hebron, Mahmoud Halaika worked with Vincent Lucas -- who cooks in a Michelin-starred restaurant in southwestern France. The two prepared steak in a creamy mushroom sauce alongside lamb neck stuffed with aromatic rice and served with yogurt -- a Palestinian specialty.

Halaika said he loved preparing food as a child and spent six years cooking in an Israeli restaurant outside Tel Aviv, where he earned a good salary but feared that authorities would discover he was sleeping in Israel illegally during the week. He eventually moved back to Hebron and took a job cooking for half the pay at the Pasha Palace restaurant, where a local clientele enjoys Palestinian fare in a leafy courtyard.

Hebron, which has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence, sees few tourists, making the chef’s visit all the more special. “We learned their techniques.

Their slow cooking,” Halaika said.q

LOCAL A13

Monday 29 February 2016

Costa Linda Guests and Associates Celebrate Island Tradition!

-Costa Linda Beach Resort’s 2016 Carnival Queen Election and Party the biggest and best to date!

EAGLE BEACH - Costa Linda Beach Resort celebrated its 2016 Carnival Queen election, which has already become a huge tradition every year beloved by guests and associates.

This year Mrs. Nancy Blum from New York, owner of multiple weeks was elected the CLBR Carnival Queen, coronation by Mrs. Patricia Bitterberg, CLBR Carnival Queen 2015. The Associate Queen election was won by Sharisa Tromp,

Housekeeping Secretary, coronation by Mr. Luigi Heredia, Resort Manager.

The winner of Carnival Princess was Sara Zuege, 8 years old, coronation by Donna Sullivan, CLBR Carnival Queen 2004, and the winner of Youth Princess was Natalie Nahas, age 13, coronation by Mrs. Linda Woods, CLBR Carnival Queen 2006.

Continued on Page 16

A14 LOCAL

Monday 29 February 2016

Philip William Bradley Honored as Goodwill Ambassadors of Aruba!

MALMOK - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority honored Mr. Philip William Bradley as Goodwill Ambassador of Aruba as a token of appreciation for visiting the island for more than 20 consecutive years.

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

Ms. Darline de Cuba and the group of friends thanked Philip and his family for choosing Aruba as their vacation destination and as their home away from home for so many years.

Phil Bradley first came to Aruba to windsurf in 1988.

The first year he visited he made a one week trip, the 2nd year a two week trip, the 3rd year he came three times, and eventually he loved the island so much that he purchased

Aruba Beach Villas (formerly known as Windsurf Village) in 1997. Phil also bought a home nearby so considers himself one of the very few American owners of businesses on the island that actually live here and consider Aruba their home. Now when Phil travels “home” to Indiana to visit, he is anxious to return to the home that he loves...Aruba!

Over the years, Phil Bradley, owner of Aruba Beach Villas has developed a loy-

al following of guests, most of whom have been coming here for over 10 years, and consider their trips more like a family reunion to their “home away from home”. Last week a group of them presented him with a book of photographs depicting 18 years of Aruba Beach Villas memories. We often see guests of Aruba honored and given Ambassador designations, so according to one of the guests, Phil Bradley is their Aruba Ambassador.q

LOCAL A15

Monday 29 February 2016

FINAL WEEK OF SHOWS!

Top US Standup Comedians from “The Tonight Show,” “America’s Got Talent” and “Letterman Show,” Performing at Marriott Aruba!

-Top American standup comics perform in Ray Ellin’s phenomenal show at the Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino until March 4th - Pre-purchase tickets at www.ArubaComedy.com!

Earlier this month, “Aruba Ray’s Comedy” was named to USA Today’s 10 Best, and rightfully so.

The creation of New York comedian Ray Ellin, “Aruba Ray’s Comedy” features some of America’s funniest standup comedians in a terrific 90-minute show.

THESE ARE THE FINAL DAYS FOR THIS RUN OF SHOWS. Advance tickets are strongly suggested, and are available at www.ArubaComedy.com.

Anyone can attend - however the show is suggested for a mature audience.

The show continues to get rave reviews. Tourists from

all over the island go to the shows every night, with many people returning EVERY week.

“Last year and this year we saw four different shows over four weeks,” said La Cabana guest Ted Miller.

“It is our favorite thing to do at night.”

“We have seen Ray Ellin perform with his show eleven times – I think my husband and I hold the record!” said Maryanne Passman, longtime Aruba lover.

Comedians performing this final week will be Lenny Marcus, who has appeared multiple times on the David Letterman Show, and Brian Scott McFadden, from the David Letterman Show, the Tonight Show, and the Ben Stiller movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”

Ray Ellin hosts and produces the shows. Considered by his peers to be the best

host in NYC, Ray is known as “Aruba Ray” because of his passion for Aruba. Ray has been coming to Aruba every month for four years, and produces and hosts these incredible comedy shows on the island. He is a popular comedian in New York, and has brought his talent and colleagues to Aruba. Ray has appeared on many television programs; he is the host of the new Gong Show Live, a resurrection of the classic 70’s television show. He also hosted the popular talk show Late Net, and hosted

the television shows The Movie Loft, Brain Fuel, and New York Now. He also produced and directed the very successful film The Latin Legends of Comedy, distributed by 20th Century Fox. Ray cocreated and is co-starring in the new television show Cellar.

The shows are at 830pm, every night, from now until March 4th, in the Amsterdam Ballroom at the Marriott Resort, down the hall from the casino. Doors open at 8pm.

It is suggested to arrive

early - seating is first come first serve. The showroom is intimate - it is suggested you purchase tickets in advance at www.ArubaComedy.com.

You can also purchase tickets (subject to availability!) at the Amsterdam Ballroom showroom door starting at 730pm.

The tickets are $36. And each Comedy Ticket gives every audience member free slot cash for the Stellaris Casino at the Marriott (ID required!).

And each Comedy Ticket will also provide a 20% discount to the Aruba La Vista buffet.

And… there is NO drink minimum! The show is amazing, and a great way to spend the night out.

For more information call the Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino at 5206606, or call 749-4363.

A16 LOCAL

Monday 29 February 2016

Continued from Page 13

Guest Prince Pietro di Pietro, Guest Pancho Ross Trovato, Employee Prince Jurgen Marchena amd Guest MC Hetty Herts were all on hand for the event, making sure that all guests had a special time!

The election winners received many presents thanks to Costa Linda and its many quality con-

cessionaries.

The event was very well attended by our members and guests who enjoyed the coronation and show by the Cocorico Motion Dancers. After the show they danced the conga line. All guests were invited to join in the dancing with the Cocorico Dancers and to take photos. The 2016 Carnival Queen Election was another great Carnival event at CLBR!

SPORTS A17

Monday 29 February 2016

Blackhawks Top 1st Place Capitals 3-2 Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, center, battles for the puck against Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews, right, and left wing Andrew Ladd during the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Chicago.

(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

JAY COHEN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) -- Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dennis Rasmussen scored, and the new-look Chicago Blackhawks beat the NHLleading Washington Capitals 3-2 on Sunday.

Corey Crawford made 28 saves as the Blackhawks won for only the third time in their last eight games.

Andrew Ladd got an assist in his return to Chicago after he was reacquired in a trade with Winnipeg on Thursday night.

Marcus Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for Washington, which had won five of six. Braden Holtby made 20 saves in only his seventh loss in 51 games this season.

With the Capitals enjoying a 6-on-3 power play,

Kuznetsov stuffed home his 19th goal from a tough angle with 3:21 left, trimming Chicago’s lead to one. But the Blackhawks killed off the rest of defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and held on for the victory.

The score was tied at 1 in the second period before Teuvo Teravainen set up Toews’ 22nd goal with a slick pass over the middle to the captain. Ladd helped get the puck to an open Teravainen in a scramble in front.q

A18 SPORTS

Monday 29 February 2016

Thompson wins LPGA Thailand for 7th career title CHONBURI, Thailand (AP) — American Lexi Thompson won her seventh LPGA title after a final-round 68 that completed a six-stroke victory over In Gee Chun of South Korea in the final round of the LPGA Thailand at the par-72 course at the Siam Country Club on Sunday.

The 21-year-old from Florida hit an eagle on the 10th to go along with three birdies and a lone bogey for a 20-under-par total of 268 to become the first American winner of the tournament.

“I never like to count it as a win until it’s over. I just try to play aggressive and play my best out there,” said the No. 4-ranked player whose four-shot advantage at the start of the final round was reduced to one after the Korean opened with three straight birdies.

“I was just saying I had to make birdies to win this thing. She was playing unbelievable with a threebirdie start there, and I knew I had to make birdies to stop her. I was just trying

to focus on my game and nobody else’s out there,’ added Thompson.

Chun, winner of the US Women Open last year, added four bogeys to her eight biridies on the final day to end with a 70 and a four-day total of 14 under 274. No. 25-ranked Jessica Korda of the United States fired eight birdies for a 64 and a 13 under total of 275, giving her a share of third place along with defending champion Amy Yang of South Korea, who signed off with a 70.

“It would have been nice to not shoot three over yesterday and end up pulling myself totally out of the tournament, but it’s a good redemption around for sure,” said Korda, who recovered from a dismal 76 on Saturday.

Lexi Thomson of the United States poses with her trophy for photographers during the award ceremony after winning the LPGA Thailand golf tournament in Pattaya, southern Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016.

(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Oosthuizen wins in first Australian appearance PERTH, Australia (AP) — Louis Oosthuizen made his first tournament appearance in Australia a winning

one, shooting a 1-under 71 for a one-stroke victory at the Perth International on Sunday.

The former British Open champion, who led by three strokes going into the final round, finished with a

16-under total of 272 in the tournament sanctioned by the European and Australasian PGA tours.

Alexander Levy of France was second after a 66, followed by Australian golfer Jason Scrivener, whose 69 left him in third place, two strokes behind.

American Peter Uihlein (71) and France’s Gregory Bourdy (66) were tied for fourth, three behind Oosthuizen. q

Jiyai Shin wins Australia Ladies Masters by 3

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) — Former No. 1 Jiyai Shin has added the Australian Ladies Masters to her career victory total after shooting a 4-under 69 for a three-stroke win Sunday at Royal Pines.

The South Korean, who has twice won the Women’s British Open, led by two strokes after the third round and completed a 14-under total of 278. England’s Holly Clyburn shot a closing 70 to finish in second place.

Tied for third were Nicole Broch Larsen of Denmark (68) and Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth (71), four behind Shin. Katie Burnett of the United States shot 71 and was tied for fifth, six behind.

Canadian Brooke Henderson, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 11, shot 75 and finished at 5-under, nine strokes behind and tied for eighth.

Shin birdied three of her final four holes in gusty conditions.

“This is a challenging course and I was very focused,” she said. “But I was also relaxed and confident because I have had a lot of experience in the wind.”

Three-time winner Laura Davies of England criticized the revamped Royal Pines layout after closing with a 73 to be 16-over for the tournament.

Davies slumped to one of the worst rounds of her career on Saturday with an 85.

“I don’t like the changes,” said Davies. “The rough is too long, greens far too firm and bunkers very difficult.”q

SPORTS A19

Monday 29 February 2016

LeBron sits, Wall gets double-double, Wiz beat Cavs 113-99 taking a 72-54 lead on a 3-pointer by Otto Porter Jr., who wound up scoring 21. When Porter and Wall then made consecutive 3s, Washington’s margin grew to 25 points at 88-63 with under 5 minutes remaining in the third quarter, and that was pretty much that.

While the Cavaliers entered the day 41-16 and two games ahead of Toronto for the top spot in the East, the Wizards came in with a 27-30 record and 10th in

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova (8), of Australia, takes a shot over Washington Wizards center Nene (42), of Brazil, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in Washington.

HOWARD FENDRICH Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking advantage of a rare day off for LeBron James, the Washington Wizards got a much-needed victory in their bid to move into playoff position, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-99 on Sunday behind John Wall’s 21 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds.

Attacking from the start, Wall made 8 of 11 shots and came out on top in his matchup against opposing point guard Kyrie Irving, who wound up with 28 points and six assists on 9-of-20 shooting.

At one point late in the third quarter, Wall had the same number of assists as the entire Cavs team, 12, and he sat out the fourth quarter.

It was the second consecutive loss for Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland, which is in the middle of a stretch of three games in four days.

That busy schedule was one of the reasons coach Tyronn Lue gave for resting James, who had skipped only one other game this season, on Dec. 5 at Miami.

Already ahead by nine at halftime, the Wizards broke things open with a 9-0 run to start the second half,

the conference, 2½ games out of the eighth and final playoff berth.

After alternating wins and losses in its previous five games, but now as healthy as it’s been all season, Washington showcased the small-ball style it’s been implementing. Wall cemented his 34th doubledouble midway through the third quarter.

Washington led 35-28 after the first quarter and 6354 at halftime en route to

a season-high five-game home winning streak.

It helped, of course, that James was sitting at the far end of the visitor’s sideline in sweats. While Lue addressed other players during a first-quarter timeout, James meandered over to greet former Cavs teammate Drew Gooden, who’s now a reserve with the Wizards.

The teams play each other again Friday night in Cleveland.q

20 SPORTS

Monday 29 February 2016

Frampton tops Quigg by split decision for super-bantam belts MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Carl Frampton added Scott Quigg’s WBA super-bantamweight belt to his IBF one by winning their unification fight by split decision this weekend.

Frampton, from Northern Ireland, was only a slight favorite against local fighter Quigg, and the fight

between the unbeaten pair also played out closely over 12 mainly cagey rounds before a sellout crowd of 20,000.

A good final round by Frampton, who frustrated Quigg and came off the ropes with uppercuts, may have decided it for the judges, two of whom scored it 116-112 for Frampton. The third gave it to Quigg by 115-113.

Frampton improved his record to 22-0, having owned the IBF belt for a year.

Quigg’s record dropped to 31-1-2, having lost the WBA version he’s owned for three years.q

British boxer Carl Frampton, left, gives a left upper to his fellow countryman Scott Quigg during their unified IBF & WBA super-bantamweight title bout at Manchester Arena in Manchester.

(Nick Potts/PA via AP)

UFC Fight Night 84

Bisping beats Silva in wild ending at UFC Fight Night BRIAN ELLIOT Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Michael Bisping survived a wild ending to the third round and beat Anderson Silva with a unanimous decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night 84 this weekend.

Silva and numerous ringside officials thought Silva had won the fight near the end of the third round after Silva knocked down Bisping with a Muay Thai knee just before the bell.

Just before the blow, Bisping (18-7) had signaled to referee Herb Dean after losing his mouthpiece, and Dean ruled the fight would

continue to the fourth round. To add to the tension, Bisping was struck with a low-blow, while Silva (163) was inadvertently poked in the eye.

Bisping was bleeding from several cuts on his face by the end, but the final scorecard had him winning unanimously 48-47.

“I wanted this fight my entire life,” Bisping said. “I don’t know what to say. I’m crying.

“I worship this guy. This guy is the greatest martial artist of all-time. That’s why I’m so emotional right now.”

Earlier, Gegard Mousasi

landed the majority of significant strikes in his war of attrition with Thales Leites, coming out on top via unanimous decision after three rounds of lackluster action.

“My standup was better,” Mousasi said. “I played it smart because (in) the last fight, I took chances, and I paid for it.”

Tom Breese’s victory over Keita Nakamura showed neither man in a positive light, with the outsized Nakamura mostly holding on to the Englishman, and Breese hardly looking like a fighter with a previous 9-0 record in MMA competi-

tion.

“It was very frustrating,” Breese said. “I told everyone, this guy’s a tough guy. ... I’ve got to get more cage time.”

In the opening contest of the main card, Londoner Brad Pickett took a split decision victory over Francisco Rivera.

The American was picking off “One Punch” in the first round, landing accurate blows, but Pickett rebounded in the second and controlled the fight on the ground in the third.

“I want to be someone within the sport, and if I felt

I couldn’t compete — not just compete at the level but win at this level — then I would’ve hung my gloves up tonight,” an emotional Pickett said.

“I had a lot of inner demons that I was fighting, and I am so happy to come away with the win.”

On the preliminary card, Davey Grant beat Marlon Vera by unanimous decision despite suffering a nasty forehead cut in the first round, while Makwan Amirkhani made it three wins out of three in the UFC with a unanimous decision win over Mike Wilkinson. q

SPORTS A21

Monday 29 February 2016

Wawrinka wins Dubai title in straight sets over Baghdatis SANDRA HARWITT Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Stan Wawrin-

amazing end of week for sure.” Wawrinka said. This is the third time that Wawrinka has played in Dubai. In

when asked why he wins so many finals. “I know that the more I win matches in the same week, the more

Stan Wawrinka from Switzerland returns the ball to Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus during the final match of the Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

ka won the battle of the 30-year-olds by defeating Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6 (13) to win the Dubai Tennis Championships title this weekend.

Wawrinka, the secondseed who came to Dubai as a solo act without his coach, had been two points from defeat in the first round to Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. “It’s an

his previous two visits, the Swiss never won a match.

The victory is Wawrinka’s second title of the year. He won a third consecutive Chennai title last month and has won the last nine finals he’s played, including the 2014 Australian Open and 2015 French Open. He last lost a final in 2013. “There is no explanation,” Wawrinka replied

confidence I get. I know normally when I get some finals that I play my best tennis.”

Baghdatis, who was unseeded, has now lost his last seven finals. Nevertheless, the 2006 Australian Open finalist was encouraged by his showing in Dubai, beating fourth-seed Roberto Bautista Agut, fifth-seed Viktor Troicki and sixth-seed

Spain’s Navarro rallies to win Qatar Open DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain won her second career WTA title when she rallied past Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the Qatar Open final on Saturday.

Suarez Navarro’s first win on the WTA tour since Estoril in April 2014 ended a run of three losses in finals, all last year.

She was building to a win after reaching the semifi-

nals in Brisbane, and quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Meanwhile, Ostapenko came to Doha with only two match wins in five tournaments, but had won their only previous match last year at Wimbledon.

Ostapenko, the 2014 Junior Wimbledon winner, broke Suarez Navarro twice in the first three games to be 3-0 before wrapping up the set 6-1.

While she served five aces

to none by her rival and hit 25 winners compared with nine by the champion, it was Suarez Navarro’s experience in reducing errors from the second set onwards that helped her win.

“My aim at the start of the year was to win one title and to get inside the top 10. I am happy I have done both this week,” said Suarez Navarro, who will rise from 11th in the rankings to sixth on Monday. q

Feliciano Lopez.

“I didn’t win the tournament this week but I won a lot more, I won my con-

fidence back,” Baghdatis said. “I’m happy I’m back and playing this kind of tennis now.” q

A22

Monday 29 February 2016

SPORTS

Another Rashford double helps Man United beat Arsenal 3-2 STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Teenage striker Marcus Rashford continued the dream start to his Manchester United career, scoring two goals and setting up another in a 3-2 win over title-chasing Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.

Only playing because of United’s chronic injury crisis, the 18-year-old Rashford marked his league debut by scoring in the 29th and 32nd minutes to put his team 2-0 ahead — three days after a double in the Europa League against FC Midtjylland on his senior United debut.

After former United striker Danny Welbeck replied for Arsenal, Rashford set up Ander Herrera for a shot from the edge of the area that deflected in off Laurent Koscielny.

Mesut Ozil made it 3-2 in the 69th but fifth-place United held on comfortably to move three points off the top four. Arsenal, which put in an off-color performance against a young and injury-hit United side, dropped five points behind leader Leicester. The North London side hasn’t won in

Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, left heads the ball and scores his sides second goal of the game as Arsenal’s Gabriel attempts to block during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016.

(AP Photo/Jon Super)

the league at Old Trafford since 2006.

United manager Louis van Gaal, under much pressure amid the team’s troubles this season, delivered some light relief when he fell to the ground theatrically while remonstrating with the fourth official in

the technical area. The Old Trafford crowd roared with laughter, adding to an atmosphere that was buoyant throughout the game as United’s youngsters proved too energetic for Arsenal.

Rashford must think professional soccer is easy. In his

first two games as a pro — both of them high-profile ones — in the space of three days, the striker has scored as many goals as Radamel Falcao did in a whole year for United last season.

He is showing no fear on the biggest stage and

demonstrated to Van Gaal that the Dutchman has had a goal poacher at his disposal all along during the team’s rough patch this season. Injured pair Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial are among the strikers unavailable to Van Gaal at present.

For his first goal, the young striker was lurking 12 meters out as Gabriel failed to adequately clear Guillermo Varela’s cross. A firsttime shot was too pacey for Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech as Rashford became United’s third-youngest Premier League scorer.

Three minutes later, Rashford was celebrating again after heading home a clipped right-wing cross from Jesse Lingard from just outside the six-yard box. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who said Friday that he hadn’t heard of Rashford, threw up his hands in disgust.

Arsenal was flat, strangely, and its passing lacked the usual crispness. But the team managed to reduce the deficit before halftime when Welbeck got behind marker Morgan Schneiderlin at a free kick and headed in Ozil’s cross.

AP Interview: Blatter free of FIFA ‘burden,’ backs Infantino

GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer ZURICH (AP) — At one minute past six on Friday evening in Zurich, Sepp Blatter had a glass of white wine and exhaled deeply.

FIFA had finally elected a new president and Blatter was relieved of the title after almost 18 years.

“It is a relief. I had this burden on me,” he told The Associated Press on Saturday, seeming at peace and

enjoying his first day out of FIFA’s employment since 1975.

“It was even a welcome day yesterday, 18:01, when they had a new president,” Blatter said in the European style for 6:01 p.m.

Blatter was unable to hand over power in person to Gianni Infantino, 35 years younger and a fellow native of the rural Valais canton in Switzerland.

Banned from duty since

October by FIFA’s ethics committee, Blatter was barred from attending the election hall across the city from his daughter’s apartment. There, they watched the tense event unfold on television.

“Being suspended or not, I was still the elected president. And now it is finished,” Blatter said, in an interview at the Sonnenberg restaurant attached to the former FIFA headquarters that

the scandal-rocked soccer body still owns.

When the moment came that his beloved presidency ended, Blatter said he was with his daughter, Corinne, sharing a bottle of white from his home region.

She is at her father’s side also on Saturday morning for two interviews, first, with a Swiss Sunday newspaper then the AP. There are just bottles of still and sparkling water on the table in a pri-

vate dining room before they will take lunch at a restaurant that has become a Blatter salon in recent weeks.

The election was hailed as a potential new dawn for FIFA after nine months of turmoil since American and Swiss federal prosecutors revealed the scope of their investigations into corruption, which forced Blatter out with three years left in his fifth presidential term.

TECHNOLOGY A23

Monday 29 February 2016

Tech Talk:

Apple’s tech allies oppose the FBI, but still want your data

BRANDON BAILEY AP Technology Writer PALO ALTO, California (AP) — In its fight with the FBI, Apple insists it’s defending the privacy and safety of all iPhone users by resisting government calls to help unlock an extremist’s iPhone. And now other big tech companies such as Google and Facebook are rallying to Apple’s side.

Wait just a minute: Aren’t those the same companies that Apple has previously criticized by lobbing veiled accusations that they exploit your personal information — to sell ads — and effectively endanger your privacy?

Some might argue that Apple’s allies are hypocrites when it comes to privacy, much like the fraternity brothers in “Animal House” who declared: “He can’t do that to our pledges.

Only we can do that to our pledges.”

But Silicon Valley’s view of privacy is more nuanced than that. And Americans historically have worried less about the private sector and more about the government’s power to infringe on individual rights.

“The government can put me in jail,” said Larry Downs, a scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy.

“Google, Facebook and

Twitter cannot.”

That makes the details of the iPhone case especially important. The FBI says it’s only asking for narrow technical assistance in bypassing security features on a phone used by one of the shooters who killed 14 people in San Bernardino. “We couldn’t look the survivors in the eye if we did not follow this lead,” FBI Director James Comey said online.

Apple contends that a magistrate’s order would force it to create software that will make other iPhones vulnerable to future hacking by authorities and criminals. Leading tech companies including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft say they’ll file legal arguments in support of Apple’s position.

The same companies objected loudly after former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed the scope of National Security Agency surveillance programs that collected user data and even tapped their networks without their knowledge. The companies have gone to court and Congress to limit that kind of government data-gathering, while also fighting attempts to weaken the encryption codes that shield your messages from prying eyes.

Yet privacy advocates

have long complained that those companies reap billions of dollars by collecting all kinds of personal information, including records of customers’ online behavior, and using it to target them for advertising.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has leveled jabs at his competi-

Companies like Google and Facebook argue they take pains to protect the data they collect. Facebook, for example, tracks users’ likes and actions so the company can show them ads targeted to people with similar characteristics. But Facebook has

tion on individuals — from their income and bill-paying history to where they’ve lived and worked.

“Google does not sell your personal information,” said Rachel Whetstone, then a senior vice president for the giant Internet company, in a speech last year. “Nor

A demonstrator stands outside the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York. In its fight with the FBI, Apple insists it’s defending the privacy and safety of all iPhone users by resisting government calls to help unlock an extremist’s iPhone.

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

tors, boasting that Apple doesn’t rely on ad revenue for most of its services. As he’s said more than once: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. Experts say it’s not really clear if Apple’s privacy stance is a big selling point for most consumers.

said it doesn’t give advertisers access to information linked to any individual by name.

Internet companies do operate very differently from traditional data brokers such as credit bureaus, which make their money by selling all kinds of informa-

do we share it without your permission except in very limited circumstances,” such as when faced with a court-issued warrant.

Like Facebook, Google says it pushes back against government requests that seem unwarranted or overbroad.q

A24 BUSINESS

Monday 29 February 2016

Billionaire investor Buffett: US economy better than presidential hopefuls say JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday that the nation’s economy is in better shape than the presidential candidates make it seem, though businesses like his still face challenges.

In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett didn’t name specific candidates or is-

Buffett defended the lending practices at its mobile home unit, Clayton Homes, and Berkshire’s association with the 3G Capital investment firm.

Clayton’s lending practices have been questioned over the past year in stories by The Seattle Times and The Center for Public Integrity that suggested the company was using predatory lending practices. Buffett said Clayton follows state

Berkshire shareholders will be asked this year to vote on a proposal requiring the company to prepare a report on the threat climate chance poses for its insurance operation.

Buffett said it’s reasonable to worry about climate change’s effect on the world, but it shouldn’t hurt insurance companies because policy prices are set annually based on that year’s risks.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett speaks during an interview in Omaha, Neb. Buffett said the United States’ economy is in better shape than the presidential candidates make it seem in his annual letter to shareholders on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016.

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

sues but noted that the negative drumbeat about the economy, health care reform and income inequality may get voters down about the future.

“It’s an election year, and candidates can’t stop speaking about our country’s problems (which, of course, only they can solve),” wrote Buffett, who has endorsed Democratic Hillary Clinton. “That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.”

Buffett struck an optimistic tone in the wide-ranging letter, which largely focused on what contributed to his conglomerate’s $24 billion profit last year and discussed Berkshire’s prospects for the future. The letter also touched on climate change.

and federal regulation and retains ownership of every mortgage it finances. He included a copy of a disclosure form Clayton uses to inform customers about lending options.

Berkshire teamed up with 3G Capital to buy Kraft Foods and Heinz — and promptly announced layoffs at both firms. Buffett said Berkshire has always craved efficiency and tends to buy lean companies, while 3G looks for investments that need costs reduced.

Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said Saturday the fact that Buffett devoted space to defending 3G and Clayton suggests he’s still hearing criticisms.

Buffett has addressed both topics at shareholder meetings in the past.

The letter also noted that

“As a homeowner in a lowlying area, you may wish to consider moving,” Buffett said. “But when you are thinking only as a shareholder of a major insurer, climate change should not be on your list of worries.”

Buffett said change can creates challenges for Berkshire. For instance, he said, its BNSF railroad is certain to haul less coal in the future and Geico insurance could be hurt by driverless cars.

He said Berkshire’s businesses will adapt just as the company did when its original Berkshire Hathaway textile operation failed.

He said Berkshire has an advantage in that it can invest in a variety of industries through its subsidiaries, which agreed to 29 smaller acquisitions worth $634 million last year. q

Beyond growth and value: Investors are tired of choosing STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Coke or Pepsi? Biggie or Tupac?

Growth or value?

For decades, investors chose their stock mutual funds from one of two distinct camps. On one side were growth funds, which bought only the most dynamic stocks with the fastest-rising revenues and profits. On the other were value funds, which hunted the bargain bin for stocks with cheap prices relative to their earnings.

Today, just like more people are choosing neither Coke nor Pepsi, investors are pulling out of both growth and value stock funds. Instead, they’re pouring cash into broad index funds and other options that don’t pigeonhole themselves into one of the two investing philosophies.

The moves are the result of several trends that are reshaping the investment industry. Chief among them: People are looking for ever-simpler ways to invest, and they’re opting for index funds that track the broad market. So, instead of holding a small-cap growth fund plus a large-cap value fund plus a mid-cap growth fund, more investors are holding just one fund that tracks the entire stock market.

The numbers bear out the change in preference. Investors pulled a net $36.2 billion from U.S. growth stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the 12 months through January, according to Morningstar.

Another $42.6 billion left U.S. value stock funds.

At the same time, $12.5 billion went the opposite direction, into “blend” funds, which own a mix of both growth and value stocks.

The trend isn’t as strong with foreign stocks, where investors are still putting money into growth and value stock funds. And even with U.S. stocks, growth and value funds still command big piles of dollars. Together, they control $2.9 trillion, more than the $2.7 trillion that sit in blend funds. But the trend is moving toward U.S. blend funds eventually overtaking their growth and value rivals.

One reason for the shift is that investors are tired of picking which philosophy will do best. Or, rather, they got tired of getting it wrong when they tried to pick which would do best.

Growth and value stocks tend to take turns at the top, with growth leading for some years before ceding leadership to value. Growth stocks, for example, were in favor during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. Investors at the time were excited about the “new economy” and were more interested in companies attracting “eyeballs” than in those making profits.

After getting burned by the dot-com bust, chastened investors turned back to value stocks. For seven years, the value stocks in the broad Russell 3000 index beat their growth counterparts, from 2000 through 2006. After that, growth stocks regained the lead and had better returns in five of the following seven years.

Some index funds focus on just growth or value stocks.

But the most popular ones cover broad swaths of the market and include both.

Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index fund, for example, has $385.9 billion in assets and tracks the entire U.S. stock market. It’s also more than 10 times as big as Vanguard’s Value Index fund and eight times as big as its Growth Index fund. Before dumping growth or value stock funds and going into these broad-market index funds, investors need to be OK with getting the market’s returns. With index funds, they’ll no longer have the chance of beating the market. q

BUSINESS A25

Monday 29 February 2016

Vampire attack: Debt-laden companies imperil China’s economic growth PAUL WISEMAN JOE MCDONALD AP Business Writers China isn’t just contending with falling stocks, a plunging currency and a slowing economy.

It’s got vampire trouble,

market mechanisms work their way.”

On Friday, as finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 major economies began meeting in Shanghai, Zhou Xiaochuan, head of China’s

frenzy, they tend to make blunders as they shovel money to companies that can’t repay.

Buried in bad loans, banks tend to curtail the credit that’s vital to growth.

For years, China’s debts

Chinese investors monitor stock prices in a brokerage house in Beijing, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.

China isn’t just contending with falling stocks, a plunging currency and a slowing economy.

It’s got vampire trouble, too.

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

too.

The Chinese economy is pock-marked with companies that can’t pay their bills and survive only with government help. Jiangshi, the Chinese call them — “vampire companies.” Or zombies.

These ghoulish companies and their debts are hindering the world’s secondbiggest economy and will likely do so for years.

Companies that miss debt payments inflict losses on banks, which then find it hard to lend even to solid companies.

By propping up vampire companies, the government can weaken the entire economic ecosystem.

All of which helps explain why the global economy is sputtering and why investors have been gripped by panic.

“It’s undoubtedly a very serious problem,” says Charles Collyns, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance.

“The Chinese so far have been very reluctant to let

central bank, insisted that Chinese authorities closely monitor debt loads. Even so, he said he expects China’s economy “to grow at a moderate-to-high pace.”

The debt buildup is vast.

Chinese corporations (excluding financial companies) had amassed $14.5 trillion in debt by mid-2015, up 4½-fold from eight years earlier, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

That debt equaled 131 percent of China’s gross domestic product, up from 76 percent in mid-2007.

That’s nearly double U.S. corporate debts’ share of U.S. GDP, McKinsey says.

China’s total debts — everything owed by corporations, households, government and financial firms — climbed from $6.6 trillion in mid-2007 to $31.9 trillion by mid-2015. It equals 290 percent of China’s GDP, McKinsey says — astoundingly high for a still-developing economy.

When banks lend with a

remained fairly stable. But they surged after Beijing delivered a huge stimulus program in 2008 to fight the global recession. Under orders, state-owned banks pumped out loans.

And local governments piled up debt to finance the construction of lowincome apartments, roads and other projects meant to juice growth.

By keeping China’s economy humming, the stimulus program helped energize the global economy. And it added little to Beijing’s own debt because it appeared on the books of banks and state-owned companies.

Some loans financed factory construction in poor regions or development in areas with disadvantaged ethnic groups.

Now, the debt is returning to haunt China.

Debt-burdened companies face another threat: Falling prices, which raise their inflation-adjusted borrowing costs. Jason Thomas of the Carlyle Group investment firm says Chi-

nese companies involved in construction, mining and manufacturing are often paying inflation-adjusted loan rates above 12 percent.

Economists say China must let uncompetitive companies die and write off their debts. In developed economies like the United States, it’s common for companies to fail or to use bankruptcy laws to restructure.

Beijing says that’s what it wants to do. In January, Zhang Yi, who oversees state-owned properties, vowed to weed out “zombie” companies by 2020.

Easier said than done — es-

pecially in a country where uncompetitive companies with big debts are often owned by the government or have powerful connections. Officials are tempted to intervene to rescue vampire companies, partly to save jobs.

The state-owned steelmaker Sinosteel has repeatedly been allowed to postpone its payments to bondholders. The government of Yunnan province intervened in November to avert a default after the state-owned Yunnan Coal Chemical Industry Group ran short of cash to pay bondholders.q

A26 COMICS

Monday 29 February 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Saturday’s puzzle answer

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

CLASSIFIED A27

Monday 29 February 2016

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A28 SCIENCE

Monday 29 February 2016

NASA’s Kelly sees mission as ‘steppingstone’ to Mars MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) — As soon as he returns from the International Space Station, NASA’s first and only yearlong spaceman, Scott Kelly, will try to

day,” Kelly said Thursday in his final news conference from orbit. “So I’d like to think that this is another of many steppingstones to us landing on Mars sometime in our future.”

Kelly’s 340-day mission —

answers. There will also be blood draws, heart monitoring and other medical exams. The testing will continue for weeks if not months once they’re back home in Houston and at cosmonaut headquarters

Astronauts Terry Virts, bottom, and Scott Kelly perform eye exams in the Destiny Laboratory of the International Space Station as part of ongoing studies on vision health in microgravity. Kelly sees his nearly completed one-year mission as a ‘steppingstone’ to Mars.

(NASA via AP)

pop up from a lying position and stand still for three minutes.

He’ll take a crack at a mini-obstacle course and attempt to walk a straight line, heel to toe — all so researchers can see whether he’d hit the ground running if this were Mars instead of Earth.

NASA considers it crucial prep work for future Mars explorers who will have to spend much longer in space and won’t have the help of a welcoming committee. In fact, this mission — which began with a launch last March — is all about Mars.

“I think we’ll learn a lot about longer-duration spaceflight and how that will take us to Mars some-

the longest by 125 days for NASA — comes to a dramatic end Wednesday on the remote steppes of Kazakhstan. (It will be Tuesday night in the U.S.) The astronaut will ride a Soyuz spacecraft back with two Russians, including Mikhail Kornienko, his roommate for the past year.

Once out of the capsule, the two will submit to a multitude of field tests.

What could new arrivals do on Mars, asks Dr. Stevan Gilmore, the lead flight surgeon who will be at the landing site to receive Kelly. Could they jump up and down? Could they open a hatch? Could they do an immediate spacewalk?

The tests on Kelly and Kornienko should provide some

at Star City, Russia.

Checkups will also continue for Kelly’s identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.

The 52-year-old brothers joined forces to provide NASA with a potential gold mine of scientific data: one twin studied for a year in orbit — twice the usual space station stay — while his genetic double underwent similar tests on the ground.

While a handful of Russians have spent longer in space, the record being a 438-day flight, those expeditions date back to the 1980s and 1990s aboard the Mir space station, rustic if not rickety compared with the current space station. Medical testing was spotty back then, and the data weren’t always widely

shared.

As of Thursday — Day 335 — Kelly professed to feeling pretty good. Indeed, flight surgeon Gilmore doesn’t expect any alarming results at touchdown.

Kelly’s vision has degraded a bit as it did during his last mission, a normal outcome for some astronauts because of increased pressure inside the skull in weightlessness. He anticipates his bones and muscles have weakened as well, despite daily exercise in orbit.

The real question mark — and Kelly’s biggest concern — is the possible lingering effects of space radiation.

“Hopefully, I’ll never find out what the true effects are of that,” Kelly said in a TV interview last week.

NASA will need to tackle the problem for Mars trips because of the increased level of exposure.

Johnson Space Center physiologist John Charles puts the psychological side of long-duration spaceflight right up there with radiation, as well as in-flight medical care and even food preservation and packaging for the long haul.

“Just about everything is a big problem for Mars,” Charles said in a phone interview.

Mars expeditions planned for the 2030s will last 2½ years; the anticipated crew size will be four to six. The astronauts will almost certainly have to grow some of their own food; that’s the reason for an experimental greenhouse aboard the space station.

Kelly and his crewmates grew red romaine lettuce in the mini-hothouse last summer and sampled some of the crop.q

Obama launches ‘take your child to the lab’ week D. SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is launching a version of “take your child to work day” that’s focused on America’s science laboratories instead of its corporate workspaces.

It’s part of Obama’s effort to encourage young people, especially girls and minorities, to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

More than 50 national labs in 20 states are opening their doors this coming week to approximately 5,000 elementary, middle and high school students to help spark interest by exposing them to the scientists, engineers and lab employees who carry out important work and research at facilities in their communities.

The students, including from communities aligned with Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, will participate in mentoring sessions, hands-on experiments and other activities. My Brother’s Keeper is a public-private initiative started by Obama to help boys and young men of color stay on the right path. The White House Council on Women and Girls is also involved.

“It’s an exciting time to think about how we’re pulling all the children of our country into technology and STEM and the jobs of the future,” Megan Smith, chief technology officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Monday 29 February 2016

Dolce&Gabbana, Missoni, Ferragamo headline Day 5 in Milan COLLEEN BARRY AP Fashion Writer MILAN (AP) — A plethora of ribbons and ruffles signaled an air of romance in Milan this fashion season, but not all the references were strictly aesthetic.

There also was a nostalgic notion of connecting with the past, either stylistically or by challenging expectations of how that is done.

Some highlights Sunday from previews for next fall and winter womenswear collections during the fifth day of Milan Fashion Week.

CINDERELLA LIVES Dolce&Gabbana have turned fairytale conventions on their head: their woman is both a princess and prince.

For a world where dreams do come true, designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana created an updated version of Cinderella’s blue dress, this one a simple cut covered with silvery and crystal beads, with princess short sleeves but without the scalloped layers of skirts from storybook illustrations.

It wouldn’t be giving the end away to say the slippers were transparent. The model was also accompanied by her wishful washerwoman self, wearing a short silken dress with her sewing mice.

Then the designers suggested the Dolce&Gabbana woman is her own prince, creating short Bolero jackets with military details and pants that just cover the knees with stripes down the side. Those looks were finished with military boots.

There was also a plethora of black dresses, Including one sexy ruched dress that epitomized the brand, though it may be reaching to say they were for the requisite evil queen. The designers also made oversized furry coats in big shimmering stripes of silver and gold or covered with floral appliques.

The fairytale is one of the fashion world’s most obvious references, and the designers turned it around by focusing on a new generation of princesses who they described as “individuals first and foremost.”

But they couldn’t resist a happy ending: The finale was a flourish of pretty fuchsia, pink and silver beaded and crystal dresses.

EMBELLISHMENTS Marni creative director Conseulo Castiglioni’s outerwear is nearly puritanical in its strictness while the house’s short dresses are adorned with big embellishments like oversized translucent sequins and big buttons. The dichotomy suggests a public vs. private identity: solemn on the outside while a party rages within.

Archway hemline cutouts contributed to the solemnity of the capes and coats in neutral tones, while puffy sleeves added a romantic touch and demonstrated the collection’s exaggerated proportions. The sleeves, which were detachable with button or ribbon closures, grew more audacious as they were enhanced by geometric patterns.

Ribbed shirts with athletic stripes gave a sporty touch and were tucked into highwasted pants or skirts with a ruffle on top and big pockets. Decorative dresses, meanwhile, were short and decorated with big colorful sequins or cut out of Marni’s trademark prints, including florals, crystalline color blocks and blurred Venetian harlequin patterns.

Castiglioni, who built her fashion house out of a family fur business, included no full furs in the runway show, just a mini-cape and a contrast fur collar. Pointy pumps and boots were built on sculpted, metallic heels, some formed like crystals, others like waves.

FASHION IDENTITY Designer Stella Jean probed our notions of identity and culture in a new collection that examined Western portraiture and sub-Saharan African masks as ways to recall our ancestors.

The looks mixed tribal motifs and prints with European tailoring and textiles as the Italian-Haitian designer continued to build fashion bridges between the developed and the developing worlds.q

Models wear creations part of the women’s Dolce & Gabbana Fall-Winter 2016-2017 collection that was presented in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016.

(AP Photo/Luca Bruno).

A30 PEOPLE

Monday 29 February 2016

& ARTS

‘Spotlight’ tops a richly diverse Spirit Awards JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — The 31st Independent Film Spirit Awards provided a clear rebuke to the less diverse Oscars, bestowing awards on “Beasts of No Nation” co-stars Idris

an annual dressed-down oceanside indie antidote to the Oscars, was most remarkable for its more diverse nominees and winners. Neither Elba, Attah nor Taylor was even nominated for Oscars. Each drew hearty applause.

for the Spirits’ top award; the bigger budget Oscar favorites it’s vying with, “The Revenant” and “The Big Short,” didn’t qualify.

And while the Oscars have been beset by criticism for a second straight year of all-white acting nominees,

Michael Sugar, center, and the cast and crew of “Spotlight” accept the award for best feature at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016, in Santa Monica, Calif.

(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Elba and Abraham Attah and “Tangerine” star Mya Taylor, making her the first transgender actress to win at the annual awards.

The newsroom drama “Spotlight” was the big winner at the Spirits on Saturday, the day before it’s to compete for best picture at the Academy Awards. Tom McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe investigation into sex abuse by Catholic priests won a leading four awards, including best picture, best director for McCarthy, best screenplay and the Robert Altman award for ensemble.

But this year’s Spirit Awards,

“There is very beautiful transgender talent,” said Taylor, who won best supporting actress for playing a Los Angeles sex worker in the iPhone-shot “Tangerine.” ‘’You better get out there and put it in your movie.” In recent years, the Spirits have overlapped considerably with the Oscars, including the last two top winners: “Birdman” and “12 Years a Slave.” But this year, the Spirits — which honor films made for $20 million or less — widely deviated from their stuffier crosstown counterparts.

“Spotlight” was the only best picture nominee up

the Spirits boasted five nonwhite nominees out of 20 — and three of them won.

“I’m so much prouder of being a producer than my performance,” Elba said backstage about the Netflix release. “As a producer you face a lot of doors being closed in your face and in this case we did have a hard time making it but we got there in the end.”

Elba brought Attah up on stage to share in his award for best supporting actor, but Attah later won one of all his own. The young Ghanaian, who hadn’t acted before director Cary Fukunaga cast him in “Beasts of

No Nation,” beamed before a standing ovation.

Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) and comedian Kumail Nanjiani hosted the ceremony, which was broadcast live on IFC. In their opening remarks, Nanjiani introduced themselves as a Pakistani American and a gay woman, “or to Hollywood, a straight woman and her IT guy.”

The foreign language favorite from Hungary, Laszlo Nemes’ Holocaust drama “Son of Saul” took best international film. And the documentary front-runner, the Indonesian genocide film “Look of Silence” won best documentary.

Without the competition of “The Revenant” or “The Big Short,” the wins for “Spotlight” likely don’t suggest any better fortunes for the film at the Oscars. But McCarthy took the opportunity to celebrate the movie’s distinction as an independent film, released by indie distributor Open Road.

“Quite honestly, we need studios like this who are going to step up when the other studios won’t,” said McCarthy, with several of the reporters the films is based on in the crowd. He also shared in best screenplay with his cowriter, Josh Singer. The irreverent and breezy Spirit Awards, held in a tent on the Santa Monica beach, stood apart from the Oscars in other ways, too. Director Marielle Heller, who won best first feature for the coming-of-age tale “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” marked her territory in a speech that noted the onrush of interested from bigger productions for the movie’s breakout star, Bel Powley. q

‘Fifty Shades’ dominates Razzies with 5 awards

DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Fifty Shades of Grey” came out on top — or perhaps the bottom — at this year’s Razzies.

The awkward adaptation of author EL James’ erotic novel nabbed five prizes at Saturday’s Golden Raspberry Awards, including tying it up with superhero

flop “Fantastic Four” as the year’s worst film.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” also “won” for worst screenplay, worst actor for Jamie Dornan and worst actress for Dakota Johnson, with the pair pinning down the worst screen combo award.

In addition to tying for worst film of the year, “Fantastic Four” was also lambasted as worst remake, rip-off

or sequel and earned the worst director prize for Josh Trank.

Other dishonors included Kaley Cuoco as worst supporting actress for “Alvin & The Chipmunks: Road Chip” and Eddie Redmayne as worst supporting actor for “Jupiter Ascending.” Redmayne won the best actor trophy at last year’s Academy Awards for portraying

Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”

Sylvester Stallone, who is nominated in the supporting actor category at the Oscars for reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in “Creed,” was bestowed with the Razzies’ redeemer award, which lauds past Razzies recipients for recent work that’s revived their careers.q

Known for ‘Father Ted,’ actor Frank Kelly is dead at 77 DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Irish actor Frank Kelly, best known for playing a foul-mouthed priest with a fondness for the catchphrase “Feck!

Drink! Girls!” in the series “Father Ted,” died Sunday.

He was 77 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Despite being a gracious, posh-accented veteran of the Dublin stage, Kelly’s irreverent portrayal of Father Jack Hackett lived on long past the show’s run from 1995-98. The public embraced the chance to watch the gentle parody of the Roman Catholic Church and his irreverent character.

“Frank was an all-around talent, an institution in Irish entertainment, a very determined professional.

And he’ll be greatly missed by all who knew him,” said Ardal O’Hanlon, who played a younger priest, Father Dougal McGuire, in the show. Kelly got his big break with a role escorting Michael Caine’s character out of prison in an uncredited role in “The Italian Job,” in 1969. He later appeared in “Hall’s Pictorial Weekly,” a 1970s political satire, the drama series “Glenroe,” and the soap opera, “Emmerdale.” But he is best remembered for this role as Father Jack, who lives on the fictional Craggy Island together with two other luckless priests and their housekeeper. Father Jack makes no attempt to hide his disdain at his fellow priests, and the lampooning of all things Catholic helped the show win multiple BAFTA awards. Kelly died 18 years to the day after the character who played Father Ted Crilly, Dermot Morgan, died shortly after the end of filming of the third and final season.

Twitter lit up with tributes.

Irish President Michael Higgins was among those offering condolences to Kelly’s family and describing it as a privilege to have Kelly as a friend. q

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Monday 29 February 2016

Hollywood screenwriters face their own diversity drama AP Television Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Screenwriter Alyson Fouse was working on a sequel for the “Bring It On” movie franchise when the studio asked for changes.

“They wanted the black girl to be more ghetto, for want of a better word,” Fouse recalled. “I said that’s fine, we’re doing a cheerleader comedy so stereotypes are what’s funny. But I want the other side of that, too. I want a girl who’s not ghetto.”

The African-American writer was able to create a black teen from a posh private school, a rare victory in an industry that makes scant room for those of color or their perspective. “OscarsSoWhite,” the hashtag protest over this year’s allwhite slate of nominees, is applicable to the original and adapted screenplay categories as well (with “Inside Out” writer Ronnie del Carmen an exception).

“There just isn’t a lot of diversity within the core of people who are coming up with stories and developing characters,” said Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of

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. The expanding TV universe has been more agile in adjusting to demographic changes than movies, with ethnic and gender diversity in shows ranging from CW’s “Jane the Virgin” to Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” and awards have followed.

(Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision/AP)

California, Los Angeles.

Hunt also has charted writers’ employment for a decade for the Writers Guild of America, West, and sees “very little progress. To the extent there has been progress, it tends to be in front of the camera and very little behind the camera.”

That’s despite the growing colorization of America, with the transition to a non-

white majority predicted within three decades. The expanding TV universe has been more agile in adjusting to the demographic change than movies, with ethnic and gender diversity in shows ranging from CW’s “Jane the Virgin” to Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” and awards have followed.

The film academy adopted voting changes that

may, in the future, prevent the omission of actors such as Idris Alba, who won a SAG award for “Beasts of No Nation,” and Michael B. Jordan, overlooked for “Creed,” while Sylvester Stallone earned a supporting actor bid for reviving his Rocky character.

But Oscar-worthy roles start with writers and directors, said Kenya Barris,

the creator and executive producer of ABC’s groundbreaking AfricanAmerican family comedy, “black-ish.” Barris, who is black, works with a writing staff that’s majority nonwhite and half female.

“The moment we make improvements behind the camera, we’ll have more opportunities to step up and have real swings at being noticed — not just for being black, but for being excellent. Not just for being gay, but for being excellent. Not just for being a woman, but being excellent,” Barris said.

Diversity yields studio rewards, too. Movies with casts evenly split between white and non-white actors are more profitable, according to a new Bunche Center study that cites “Lucy,” the Morgan Freeman-Scarlett Johansson sci-fi drama that grossed $400 million-plus worldwide, as an example.

“This is not affirmative action. .... More people would buy tickets if you featured people who look like us or reflect modern society,” said Daniel Mayeda, co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition.q

Ebony celebrates Black Hollywood on the Oscar’s eve NEKESA MUMBI MOODY AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — On the eve of an Academy Awards under fire for a lack of diversity, Ebony magazine celebrated the best of black cinema as “blackish” star Anthony Anderson and “Birth of a Nation” filmmaker Nate Parker urged fellow black stars to realize the power of the community to make lasting change in Hollywood.

“If we are going to move forward and use this moment as a movement, I think we have to recognize that everything we need to validate ourselves is in this room, right now,” Parker said to the mostly black crowd on Saturday night.

“Let’s not get consumed with begging to be allowed in other rooms when

all the tools we need are here.”

Parker is a rising star in Hollywood: His biopic of slave rebellion leader Nat Turner, “The Birth of a Nation,” is one of the most anticipated movies of the fall after debuting to raves at the Sundance Film Festival. But this Oscar season, the focus has been on the all-white acting nominations and the lack of opportunities for people of color in Hollywood. Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are among those who said they would skip Sunday’s awards over diversity concerns.

Anthony Anderson, the Emmy-nominated star of the sitcom “black-ish,” told the crowd that it was an exciting time in Hollywood but one that needed to be

Marsai Martin, from left, Yara Shahidi, creator Kenya Barris, at microphone, Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson accept an award for “Black-ish” at the 47th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, Calif. On the eve of an Academy Awards under fire for a lack of diversity, Ebony magazine celebrated the best of black cinema.

(Photo by Phil McCarten/Invision/AP)

built upon.

“Now it’s up to us to come together and make some-

thing happen,” he said.

“How are we going to band together to become

our own United Artists and own our own library and own our own studios and own networks? That’s what it’s about, it’s about ownership. .. I stand before you owning ‘black-ish.’ “ He added: “Once we kick the door in, it doesn’t mean anything if we’re not bringing anyone else through it.”

But the event, sponsored by iTunes, was more than just serious talk. Nick Cannon got the crowd, which included Brandy, Ryan Phillippe, Boris Kodjoe, Nicole Ari Parker and Holly Robinson Peete on the dance floor as he spun old-school R&B and hip-hop classics.

Among the films singled out for excellence by Ebony included “Dope,” ‘’Girlhood,” ‘’Concussion” and “Creed.” q