February 2, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Supporters cheer as caucus returns are reported at Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, caucus night rally, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Associated Press

Trump, Clinton face first test as Iowa kicks off U.S. voting

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Billionaire real estate magnate Donald Trump faced the first big test of his stunning presidential campaign as he looked to defeat Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in Monday’s Iowa Republican caucuses, the leadoff contest in the U.S. presidential race. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton sought to fend off an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.

The caucuses — meetings held simultaneously across

the state — got under way Monday evening in apolitical environment few could have foreseen a year ago.

The brash, controversial Trump has become the Republican front-runner by tapping into anxiety about terrorism, immigration and the economy. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, once seen as the likely front-runner, is near the bottom of polls.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, had been expected to cruise to victory in Iowa and beyond.

But Sanders has appealed to the Democrats’ liberal base, especially the young, who are concerned about growing income inequality and the shrinking of the middle class.

Interviews with voters who arrived early to the caucuses confirmed that Clinton and Sanders are in a tight race and that Trump, Cruz and Rubio are in a threeway contest. The interviews were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Iowa has long led off the

state-by-state contests to choose delegates for the parties’ national conventions. A victory hardly assures the nomination — Iowa accounts for only about 1 percent of the delegates who select the nominee. But a win there, or even an unexpectedly strong showing, can give a candidate momentum and media attention, while a poor showing can end a candidacy.

Monday’s contest offers the first hard evidence of whether Trump, a reality TV star, can turn the legion of

fans drawn to his plainspoken populism into voters.

He has intensified his campaign schedule during the final sprint, including a pair of rallies Monday. He appears to have a slim edge over Cruz, a Texas senator whose uncompromising and sometimes abrasive anti-Washington approach has antagonized establishment Republicans, but excited conservatives who see politicians as unprincipled and ineffective.

Continued on page 2

A2 UP

Tuesday 2 February 2016 Continued from Front Cruz has spent the closing days of the Iowa campaign focused intensely on Rubio, trying to ensure the Florida senator doesn’t inch into second place.

Rubio is viewed by many Republicans as a more mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz, though he’ll need to stay competitive in Iowa in order to maintain his viability.

In the state’s Democratic race, polls showed Clinton and Sanders in a tight race, reviving memories of the former secretary of state’s disappointing showing eight years ago when Obama won the caucuses and, ultimately, the Democratic nomination and presidency.

Clinton has campaigned as a progressive who could get things done in a Washington split by an intense partisan divide. But her familiar name and long resume aren’t necessarily advantages in an election year dominated by antiestablishment candidates.

FRONT

for them in the campaign and in the presidency.”

Sanders told volunteers and supporters: “We will struggle tonight if the voter turnout is low. That’s a fact.’”

A victory by Sanders in Iowa would give him momentum headed into the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary. Sanders is expected to do well in New Hampshire, which is next to his home state of Vermont.

But his long-term prospects remain questionable. Clinton has a lead in national polls and is well-placed to win other states over the next month, especially those which unlike Iowa have large numbers of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., watches caucus returns in his hotel black and Latino voters. room, on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Some of the Republican Associated Press candidates have been focusing more on New Clinton has also been on nization as well as popular- ing. the defensive over her use ity. With votes being cast “We knocked on 125,000 Hampshire than Iowa, inof a personal email ac- in about 2,000 meetings doors this past weekend,” cluding Bush, Ohio Gov. count for official business across the state, candi- Clinton told NBC’s “Today” John Kasich and New as secretary of state, raising dates not only had to win show. “Although it’s a tight Jersey Gov Chris Christie. questions about whether over voters, but make sure race, a lot of the people While none is expected to she mishandled govern- their supporters turned up who are committed to do well in Iowa, they are all ment secrets and her over- — a much more difficult caucusing for me will be hoping for strong showings all trustworthiness. task than generating turn- there and standing up for in New Hampshire to keep Iowa is a contest of orga- out for all-day primary vot- me and I will do the same their campaigns alive.q

Amid Republican rivals to Trump and Cruz,Rubio has most cash JULIE BYKOWICZ CHAD DAY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie, the four Republican candidates in a showdown for their party’s traditional supporters, closed last year with roughly as much money in the bank combined as Ted Cruz, the conservative insurgent they hope to topple.

And then there’s Donald Trump, a celebrity businessman who has just begun to flex his billion-dollar bank account, lending his campaign $10.8 million from his personal wealth late last year.

The Republican candidates seeking to challenge Trump and Cruz at the top of the field were in varying degrees of financial distress at the end of 2015, fundraising reports filed Sunday night show, with Rubio in the best position to move forward.

As the calendar flipped to 2016, the foursome had a combined $21.6 million left

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., waits to speak at a caucus site, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016 in Clive, Iowa.

Associated Press

in the bank, while Cruz had almost $18.7 million at his disposal.

With voting beginning Monday in the state of Iowa, and continuing next week in New Hampshire, Rubio, Bush, Kasich and Christie were running low on time — as well as money — in their efforts to rise. Should one or more of them continue on after New Hampshire, they’ll face a cost-intensive primary calendar that

demands travel among some two dozen states and advertising in some of the country’s priciest media markets before March 15.

Of the four, Rubio, a Florida senator, led the money chase in the final three months of the year, collecting $14.2 million and ending with $10.4 million in the bank. What’s more, he was on the upswing, having more than doubled his fundraising pace from ear-

lier in the year. In total, he collected $39.5 million in 2015.

That’s more than Bush’s annual total. And the former Florida governor’s fundraising fortunes appear to be moving in the opposite direction as Rubio’s.

He raised just $7.1 million between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, about half what his haul had been in the preceding fundraising quarter. He closed the year with about $7.6 million in the bank. He had detected a cash crisis in the fall and retrenched his national plan to focus almost exclusively on New Hampshire.

Yet in that state, where voters weigh in Feb. 9, there are two others who have gone all-in: Kasich, the Ohio governor, and Christie, the New Jersey governor. Those candidates have struggled to gain traction among donors, their fundraising reports show.

Kasich and Christie each raised about $3 million in between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Kasich closed out the

year with about $2.5 million in cash, and Christie with just over $1 million.

Kasich’s allies were eager to portray his financial prospects as improving. Outside groups supporting his bid said they’ve landed $4 million in checks from six donors in the past few weeks, a period of time not covered by the reports filed Sunday.

Cruz, by contrast, has proved an adept fundraiser. For the year, he raised about $47 million. His most recent report showed 42 percent of that came from contributors giving $200 or less, people who can continue to replenish his treasury. Donors are limited to $2,700 apiece for the primary contest. On the opposite end of giving, the outside groups known as super political action committees also are displaying the effects of a crowded Republican primary. Super PACs can accept unlimited donations but cannot take directions from the candidates they’re helping.q

U.S. NEWS A3

Tuesday 2 February 2016

CDC says Chipotle-linked outbreak of E. coli appears over MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Looks like it’s safe to bite into that burrito.

The federal agency that monitors public health says the outbreak of E. coli illness linked to Chipotle restaurants that sickened 60 people appears to be over.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday the most recent illness reported to the agency started on Dec. 1.

Although the CDC closed its investigation, the source of the illness that spread to 14 states is still unknown.

Chipotle executives say they may never be able to identify what made people sick.

Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. undertook an aggressive revamping of food preparation methods at its more than 1,900 locations. But the outbreak drove the company’s stock down by 26 percent over the past three months and it warned in December of a potentially sizeable hit to profits.

Its stock rallied following the CDC announcement, closing Monday up $19.67, or 4.3 percent, at $472.64.

“We are pleased that the CDC has concluded its investigation, and we have offered our full cooperation throughout,” the company said in a statement. It added that it’s confident that changes in its preparation methods mean all its food is “delicious and safe.”

People usually get sick from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the bacteria commonly associated with food-

borne outbreaks, for two to eight days after swallowing the germ, according to the agency. Most infected people get diarrhea and abdominal cramps.

The Chipotle episode began last summer when the chain was tied to foodborne illnesses in California and Minnesota, though those cases didn’t get as much attention.

Then, at the end of October, E. coli cases were reported in Oregon and Washington, prompting the company to shut down 43 restaurants in those states.

YouGov Brand Index said customer perceptions about Chipotle sank to their lowest level since it began tracking the company in 2007. That was before additional cases popped up in seven more states.

In November, Chipotle sales plunged 16 percent.

Then, an unrelated norovirus outbreak sickened dozens of students at Boston College. And in December, the CDC reported five more cases of E. coli the previous month linked to Chipotle, which it said might be part of a different outbreak.

The company disclosed last month that it’s been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of a criminal investigation. It has also said it plans to open stores at 3 p.m. local time on Feb. 8 to hold meetings with employees to discuss changes concerning food-safety measures. The chain also plans to increase its marketing and direct-mail offers this month.q

his Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, file photo, shows a Chipotle restaurant in Union Station in Washington.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, that the E. coli outbreak at Chipotle restaurants appears to be over, and that they are closing the investigation.

Associated Press

A4 U.S.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NEWS

4 ex-Blackwater contractors appeal convictions in shootings ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Four former Blackwater security contractors found guilty in a deadly Baghdad shooting appealed their convictions on Monday, saying a key witness against them had changed his testimony after the trial and that prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to even bring the case.

The appeals, long expected, represent the latest legal volley in a criminal case that’s spanned years in Washington’s federal court and that concluded with guilty verdicts following a months-long trial in 2014.

Nicholas Slatten is serving a life sentence on a charge of first-degree murder.

Three other former guards — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Herd — were found guilty of manslaughter and firearms charges carrying mandatory 30year sentences.

The case arose from the September 2007 shooting in Nisoor Square that

In this June 11, 2014 file photo, former Blackwater Worldwide guard Nicholas Slatten leaves federal court in Washington. Slatten, found guilty for his role in a deadly Baghdad shooting has appealed his murder conviction.

Associated Press

prosecutors say left 14 civilians dead at the crowded traffic circle in downtown Baghdad. The shooting strained international rela-

tions and drew scrutiny to the role of American contractors in war-torn Iraq.

The two sides presented the jury with radically differ-

ent accounts of the events: Prosecutors described the killings as a one-sided ambush of unarmed civilians, while defense lawyers said

Ex-official gets probation, fine in West Virginia chem spill CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former environmental consultant at a chemical distributor was sentenced to three years’ probation and fined $10,000 Monday for a 2014 chemical spill that fouled the drinking water supply of 300,000 West Virginians.

Robert Reynolds was the first of six ex-Freedom Industries officials to be sentenced on pollution charges in federal court in Charleston, Media outlets reported.

Reynolds was one of the people responsible for en-

vironmental compliance at Freedom. He had faced up to a year in prison.

For more than a decade, officials had been aware of critical deficiencies at the Freedom site, including a cracked containment wall that let chemicals seep through down a bank into the river, according to an FBI affidavit. But improvements to the wall weren’t made.

The spill of thousands of gallons of the coal-cleaning agent MCHM into the Elk River in January 2014 got

into a water company’s intake and prompted officials to tell residents in nine counties not to use their tap water for up to 10 days.

Freedom’s former tank farm plant manager is set to be sentenced Wednesday, and a similar hearing is scheduled Thursday for the company, which filed for bankruptcy eight days after the spill.

Three former Freedom owners and the company’s former CEO who had direct oversight of the Charleston facility will be sentenced later this month.

This Jan. 8, 2015 photo shows former Freedom Industries executive Dennis Farrell leaving Federal court in Charleston W.Va. Associated Press

the guards opened fire only after a white Kia sedan seen as a potential car bomb threat began moving quickly toward their convoy.

Central to the appeal is a witness who defense lawyers say changed his account of what happened in a way that undermines the government’s narrative.

The witness, an Iraqi traffic officer, told jurors that the driver of the Kia was killed by the first shots that were fired in an unprovoked burst of violence that set off the rest of the rampage.

He testified that after seeing the mortally wounded driver, he ran in front of the convoy with his hands up and told the guards to stop shooting.

But right before the sentencing hearing last April, the same witness submitted a victim impact statement saying that the driver was still alive when the shooting started and that, instead of standing before the convoy as he had earlier maintained, he actually remained in his traffic kiosk out of fear.

The judge refused to grant the men a new trial, but the defense team said the new account dismantled the prosecution’s theory.

“This evidence eviscerated the government’s case and would have led to acquittals,” defense lawyers wrote. “The district court abused its discretion by denying a new trial.”

Prosecutors will have a chance to respond to the filings before a federal appeals court hears arguments. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment Monday.

U.S. NEWS A5

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Sheriff: Fugitives had outside aid, kidnapped cab driver AMY TAXIN GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press SANTA ANA, California (AP) — Three inmates who pulled off an intricate getaway from a California jail had outside help from a man who slipped them escape tools and gave them a ride to safety before they kidnapped a taxi driver at gunpoint and held him captive for a week while arguing over whether to kill him, authorities said Monday.

The details emerged at news conferences by prosecutors and the Sheriff’s Department that answered many of the remaining questions surrounding the escape and eight-day manhunt that ended with the capture of all three fugitives.

Hossein Nayeri, who was awaiting trial on charges of torture and kidnapping, planned the escape for five months before co-conspirator Bac Duong was booked into Central Men’s Jail in Orange County in December and helped with an outside contact, sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Hallock said.

Jonathan Tieu, who was awaiting trial on a gang-related murder charge, also joined the plot, authorities said.

“This took a while,” Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said. “To defeat these security systems, to defeat these metal grates, to defeat these 1-inch bars, it took some time.”

Once out, the three were picked up by an accomplice and driven to safety.

That night, Duong kidnapped a taxi driver at gunpoint and stole a van the following day in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The fugitives and the cab

driver spent three nights at a motel in Southern California before they drove 400 miles (643 kilometers) north to the San Francisco Bay Area in the taxi and van.

Nayeri and Duong later had a fist fight in a San Jose motel room over whether to kill the taxi driver, Hallock said. Nayeri wanted to kill the cab driver and Duong did not, authorities believe.

When Nayeri and Tieu left to get the van’s windows tinted later the next day, Duong drove back to southern California with the cab driver and surrendered Friday at an auto repair shop in Orange County just miles from the jail.

Nayeri and Tieu were arrested Saturday in San Francisco after a man spotted the stolen van near a Whole Foods Market parking lot.

Prosecutors said Monday they would not charge a teacher at the jail who sheriff’s investigators suspect of helping Nayeri, an Iranian-born former Marine.

As part of his plan, Nayeri cultivated a relationship with 44-year-old Nooshafarin Ravaghi, an Iranianborn woman who taught English as a second language to jail inmates, authorities said.

At some point, she provided him with a Google Earth map that showed an aerial view of the entire jail complex, Hallock said.

Ravaghi was arrested last week and booked on suspicion of being an accessory to a felony, but District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Monday there wasn’t enough evidence to hold her and said he’s asked investigators to keep digging. Loc Ba Nguyen, who knew Duong, visited the jail several times and provided the men with items to aid their escape, Hallock said.

He also picked them up after they escaped, he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what tools Nguyen might have provided or what his relationship was with Duong, but authorities said he did not work inside the jail.

Nguyen has been charged

with felony counts of possession of a weapon in a place of custody, carrying or sending a useful aid to escape from a jail or prison and aiding escape, with a criminal enhancement for being in possession of a dangerous or deadly weapon.

He will be arraigned next month and has not entered a plea. He is free on $300,000 bail.

In their detailed account of the escape, authorities said the trio waited until after a 5 a.m. head count on Jan. 22 then slipped through a hole they had sawed in a metal grate that led to a plumbing tunnel.

From there, they crawled through piping inside the jail walls to reach the roof, pushed aside barbed wire and rappelled down four stories to freedom using a rope made of bed linens.

By 5:15 a.m., they were outside and picked up. They bounced from one home to the next that day, moving among three different Orange County cities.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is all smiles as she answers questions about the capture of both outstanding jail escapees Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu are in the custody of the San Francisco during a news conference outside Orange County Sheriff’s Department headquarters in Santa Ana on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016.

Associated Press

At 9:30 p.m. — as guards realized they were missing — the trio took a cab to a Target in suburban Los Angeles. They shopped for unknown items then kidnapped the taxi driver, authorities said.

The next day, Duong stole the white GMC van during a test drive and the inmates got haircuts before checking into a hotel in Rosemead with the cab

driver still a hostage.

It was the first escape in nearly three decades from the California facility built in 1968.

The three men were all housed together in a holding tank with 65 other inmates when they escaped and were awaiting trial on separate charges.

Hallock said the three inmates will now be held in isolation cells.q

A6 U.S.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NEWS

Police say Chicago homicides climbed dramatically in January DON BABWIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago saw a dramatic spike in the number of homicides and shootings in January — the bloodiest start to a year in at least 16 years and a blow to a police force struggling to regain public trust following the release of a video of a white officer fatally shooting a black teen.

In a news release Monday, Chicago police reported that 51 homicides were committed in the city last month, compared with 29 in January 2015. The number of shooting incidents more than doubled, from 119 last January to 242 this January.

The number of shooting victims increased from 136 to 292. “We can’t put our finger on” specific reasons for the increase, the city’s interim police superintendent, John Escalante, said.

But he noted the increase coincides with an equally dramatic decrease in the number of street stops made in January. He noted that the decrease come

In this Dec. 30, 2015 file photo, Chicago interim Police Superintendent John Escalante speaks at a news conference in Chicago.

Associated Press

after a policy change that went into effect this year requires officers to fill out lengthier forms than the brief “contact cards” they used through 2015. It could

be that officers are taking more time to fill out the forms as they adjust to the change, preventing them from making more stops, he said. Officers are go-

ing through training now to help them deal with the new forms, he said.

Escalante also said officers have expressed concerns “about being the next viral

video. Even when they’re doing something right, they’re concerned that their actions will be questioned and they will be the one that goes viral.”

Chicago has become a national symbol of gun violence since at least 2012, when the number of homicides climbed past the 500 mark, far higher than any other U.S. city. With police initiating a number of crime-fighting measures and spending millions of dollars on overtime, the city saw the total fall closer to 400 in each of the next two years, and 2014 ended with the fewest homicides in decades. But last year the number of homicides and shooting incidents rose again. There has been a growing concern that the rising number of shootings and homicides in Chicago, and around the country, can be linked to less aggressive policing following high-profile officer shootings, some of which were caught on camera and inflamed public outrage.q

Uber drivers in NYC protest company’s fare cut VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Uber drivers in New York City called Monday for a strike to protest the company’s decision to cut fares by 15 percent, as drivers rallied at the ride-sharing app’s New York headquarters.

Several hundred attended the protest, but it’s not clear how many would heed the call for a shutdown. The company has roughly 30,000 registered vehicles in New York City.

Mohammed Rahman, a driver from the Bronx who’s been in the business for two decades, said the cost cut is too deep. Drivers cover their own insurance, payments on vehicles and gas.

“Before, we made little, not much — but enough to feed the family,” said the father of two. “But this is really, really bad.”

The drivers behind the work stoppage were try-

killing the yellow cab industry and other car services.”

The popular ride-sharing app announced the price reduction Friday. A company spokesman said its data shows the fare reductions are actually helping drivers earn more money by drumming up business. The spokesman said if the lower prices don’t work, they’ll be rolled back.

Uber drivers and their supporters hold signs during a rally at an Uber office in New York, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. Some Uber drivers in New York City say they are going on strike to protest the company’s decision to cut fares in the city by 15 percent.

Associated Press

ing to get the word out to colleagues with fliers and social media. But thousands of cars still were on the road, many because they had not heard about the labor action. Uber drivers aren’t unionized in New York.

“In order to change some-

thing with the low rates that Uber imposed on the drivers, we should cripple the city, so New Yorkers know what’s happening to us,” said Rajko Ljutica, a longtime driver who has worked for other limo companies he says are now being choked by Uber. “Uber is like a spreading cancer,

“Every city has busy months and slow times. In New York things tend to be quieter after the holidays. So we lowered prices to get more people using Uber, which is good for drivers because it means less time waiting around for trips,” said spokesman Matt Wing.

“As we have always said, price cuts need to work for drivers.”q

U.S. NEWS A7

Tuesday 2 February 2016

WHO declares global emergency over Zika virus spread JAMEY KEATEN MARIA CHENG Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, calling it an “extraordinary event” that poses a public health threat to other parts of the world.

The U.N. agency took the rare step despite a lack of definitive evidence proving the mosquito-borne virus is causing a surge in babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads in Brazil and following a 2013-14 outbreak in French Polynesia.

Monday’s emergency meeting of independent experts was called in response to the spike in babies born with microcephaly in Brazil since the virus was first found there last year.

Officials in French Polynesia also documented a connection between Zika and neurological complications when the virus was spreading there two years ago, at the same time as dengue fever.

“After a review of the evidence, the committee advised that the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological complications constitute an extraordinary event and public health threat to other parts of the world,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said.

WHO, which was widely criticized for its sluggish response to the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa, has been eager to show its responsiveness this time.

Despite dire warnings that Ebola was out of control in mid-2014, WHO didn’t declare an emergency until months later, after nearly

1,000 people had died.

“If indeed, the scientific linkage between Zika and microcephaly is established, can you imagine if we do not do all this work now and wait until the scientific evidence comes out?” Chan said. “Then people will say, ‘Why didn’t you take action?’”

WHO estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year, but no recommendations were made to restrict travel or trade.

“It is important to understand, there are several measures pregnant women can take,” Chan said.

“If you can delay travel and it does not affect your other family commitments, it is something to consider.”

“If they need to travel, they can get advice from their physician and take personal protective measures, like wearing long sleeves and shirts and pants and using mosquito repellent.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has advised pregnant women to postpone visits to Brazil and other countries in the region with Zika outbreaks, though officials say it’s unlikely the virus could cause widespread problems in the U.S. On Monday, health officials added four more destinations to a list that now includes 28 locations, most of them in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The last time WHO declared a public health emergency was for the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people. Similar declarations were made for polio in 2013 and the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

Such emergency declarations are meant as an international SOS signal and usually trigger increased money and efforts to halt

the outbreak, as well as prompting research into possible treatments and vaccines. There are currently no licensed treatments or vaccines for Zika.

WHO officials say it could be six to nine months before science proves or disproves any connection between the virus and babies born in Brazil or elsewhere with abnormally small heads.

Zika was first identified in 1947 in Uganda but until last year, it wasn’t believed to cause any serious effects; about 80 percent of infected people never experience symptoms.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes sit in a petri dish at the Fiocruz institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The mosquito is a vector for the proliferation of the Zika virus spreading throughout Latin America.

New figures from Brazil’s Health Ministry show that the Zika virus outbreak has not caused as many confirmed cases of a rare brain defect as first feared.

Associated Press

A8 U.S.

NEWS U.S. official visits northern Syrian town of Kobani

Tuesday 2 February 2016

SUSANNAH GEORGE BRADLEY KLAPPER Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — President Barack Obama’s envoy to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said he visited northern Syria over the weekend to review the ongoing fight against the extremist group, marking the first visit by a senior administration official to Syria since the beginning of the U.S.-led campaign against IS in August 2014.

A coalition official said Brett McGurk was joined

by British and French officials in Kobani, where Kurdish forces aided by U.S.-led airstrikes drove back IS militants a year ago, handing the extremists one of their biggest defeats. He was also accompanied by U.S. Lt. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, the head of U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, and Marcel Lettre, the U.S. defense undersecretary for intelligence.

The coalition official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

“Nothing substitutes for having eyes-on, face-toface conversations on the ground,” McGurk told reporters after flying from Iraq to Rome for a meeting of the against IS. He described a moving tour of Kobani where the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga were based amid the battle. In the center of the city, he said, it was “just incredible devastation.”

“We learned from those clearing the rubble that they’re still finding (IS) fighters,” McGurk said, saying 6,000 were killed in the fighting.

But outside the center, he

coalition countries fighting the Islamic State.

McGurk said he met a “diverse array” of Arabs, Kurds, Christians and Turkmen in northern Syria, as part of a long-planned trip aimed at assessing the ground campaign In this Dec. 9, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, Brett McGurk speaks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq.

Associated Press

said, “the place is coming back to life.” He said he saw markets open and residents showing their resilience. At a hospital, he also visited fighters wounded in a recent offensive against the Islamic State.

McGurk said he had other meetings in northern Syria, but declined to describe those.

McGurk, in a series of tweets, added that he paid his respects to over 1,000 Kurdish martyrs who died in the Kobani battle.

“ISIL terrorists do not stand a chance in the face of the resilient people of Ko-

bani, Tikrit, Ramadi, and soon Raqqa and Mosul,” he posted.

The battle for the Syrian border town of Kobani was a watershed in the war against the Islamic State group. Syrian Kurdish forces fought the militants in rubble-strewn streets for months as U.S. aircraft pounded the extremists from the skies.

The town became the centerpiece of the campaign against IS as dozens of TV crews flocked to the Turkish side of the border and from a hill, trained their cameras on the besieged town, re-

cording plumes of smoke rising from explosions as the U.S.-led coalition pounded IS hideouts inside the town.

The militants were ultimately expelled from the town in January 2015.

It was the Islamic State group’s bloodiest defeat to date in Syria but the town was almost completely destroyed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors the conflict, also reported the visit by McGurk took place over the weekend. It said the delegation landed by he-

licopter in the Rmeilan air base in northeastern Syria.

Activists have reported that the Obama administration has recently been working on expanding the air base in Rmeilan village to serve as a military base for U.S. forces in northern Syria.

Nasser Haj Mansour, a Kurdish defense official in Syria, also told the AP recently that U.S. personnel were renovating some airstrips built years ago by the Syrian government for small aircraft in case they are needed in the future.

U.S. officials have not confirmed the reports.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Tuesday 2 February 2016

France calls on U.S. to lift economic embargo on Cuba SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — France called on the U.S. to lift the economic embargo against Cuba during a historic state visit Monday by the Caribbean island’s president aimed at boosting economic relations between Havana and Paris.

Raul Castro’s trip comes after a breakthrough deal was reached in the French capital in December to lighten Cuba’s foreign debt.

French President Francois Hollande, the former leader of France’s Socialist party, greeted Castro on Monday with a warm hug in the courtyard of the Elysee presidential palace, and then started the meeting saying “Vive Cuba!” (“Long live Cuba!”)

Both presidents vowed to develop economic, political and cultural ties during a joint news appearance.

The U.S. announced a normalization of relations with Cuba in December 2014, but it still maintains an economic embargo on the island.

Hollande told journalists that “President (Barack) Obama ... must now follow through and allow this vestige of the Cold War to end.” France has called for the lifting of the U.S. embargo since 1991.

“We appreciate France’s traditional position in favor of the lifting of the eco-

nomic, commercial and financial embargo from the United States against Cuba, which is the main obstacle to the development of our country,” Castro said.

Cuba wants “to diversify the bilateral relation with France in all its dimensions: political, economic,business, financial, academic and cultural cooperation,” he said.

The Cuban president was to attend a state dinner in his honor later Monday.

Castro, 84, is on his first state visit to Europe since taking over from his elder brother Fidel in 2006. The Cuban president briefly stopped in Rome last year to meet with Pope Francis.

Hollande was the first French leader to visit Cuba in a half-century when he went in May seeking to boost trade.

In December the Paris Club of creditor countries forgave $8.5 billion of overdue Cuban interest payments in exchange for Cuba’s promise to pay off $2.6 billion in loans from developed countries over the next year and a half.

France, to which Cuba owed $4 billion in overdue loans, led the creditors’ negotiations.

A new bilateral deal regarding Cuba’s remaining debt to France, which amounts to $390 million (360 million euros), was signed Monday. With this agreement,

Paris agrees to convert 212 million euros ($230 million) into a fund that will finance French-Cuban projects on the island.

Another agreement allows France to open an office of the French Agency of Development in Havana.

The public financial institution can make loans to public and private bodies to support development projects.

On Tuesday, Castro will meet with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and visit the Musee de l’Homme, a museum focusing on human evolu-

French president Francois Hollande, right, welcomes Cuban President Raul Castro upon arrival for a state diner at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.

Associated Press

tion. The Cuban delegation is also meeting French business leaders and the UNESCO chief.

French companies are looking for business opportunities to open up in Cuba,

especially in the tourism, transport, food and environmental industries. The number of French visiting Cuba in 2015 increased by 30 percent compared with previous years.q

A10 WORLD

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NEWS

Haiti opposition alliance declining to meet with OAS mission DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A Haitian opposition alliance is declining to meet with a regional mission that traveled to this troubled Caribbean nation to help ease a political crisis that has postponed elections indefinitely.

Samuel Madistin, spokesman for the “Group of Eight” that includes second-place presidential candidate Jude Celestin, asserted Monday that the Organization of American States’ mission was “not welcome” and was “unable to play any role as a mediator.”

“The OAS doesn’t help Haiti come out of crisis. They create more crisis,” Madistin said, pointing to its role in 2010 elections that saw Celestin get eliminated from a runoff after his reported second-place finish was challenged by foreign observers complaining of irregularities.

The OAS mission is headed by Ronald Sanders, an Antiguan diplomat who is chairman of the Washington-based body’s permanent council. Members arrived Sunday at the request of President Michel Martelly, who is required to leave office by Feb. 7 under the Haiti’s constitution.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Sanders said the OAS group would “speak to as many groups as possible” in what he described as a fact-finding mission that would not “interfere, meddle or mediate” in Haitian affairs. So far, they’ve met with officials including Martelly, the leaders of Haiti’s bicameral legislature, and

A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads in Creole “Martelly has to leave the power before Feb. 7, 2016” during a protest demanding the resignation of President Michel Martelly, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

Associated Press

members of various political parties in the Senate.

Sanders described the talks as constructive, “particularly because they are pointing toward a solution to the present difficulty.”

Haiti is a member of the OAS. Senate President Jocelerme Privert, an opposition lawmaker, has said officials are trying to craft a workable solution after reviewing a number of plans for the way forward, including one proposed by the

Group of Eight.

Officials say there appears to be a measure of consensus emerging for a plan that would see Martelly stepping down as scheduled Feb. 7, an interim government taking over and a runoff vote held within a few months so an elected leader can take office.

Kenneth Merter, the U.S. State Department’s special coordinator for Haiti, told The Associated Press that he believes the vast majority of Haitians want to see

the suspended electoral process settled.

Merten said he hopes Haitian negotiators can soon find a “good solution that gives everybody something of what they want but that moves Haiti forward.”

Washington does not have a desired outcome, he insisted. The U.S. wants Haitians to democratically decide on their next leader and “not to have a small group of people deciding the country’s fate,” Merten said.

Recent violent protests stoked by the opposition and counter-protests organized by Martelly’s party have ramped up tensions.

Haiti had been scheduled to hold a presidential and legislative runoff Jan. 24.

But the now-splintered provisional electoral council canceled it for a second time amid the protests and suspicion that the first round was marred by widespread fraud favoring Martelly’s chosen candidate, Jovenel Moise.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Venezuela’s UN envoy: Not concerned about U.S. investigations ALEXANDRA OLSON Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations dismissed the possibility of cooperating with U.S. investigations into a billion-dollar bribery schemes that allegedly occurred at the country’s state-run oil company while he was in charge.

The allegations surrounding corruption at the PDVSA oil company cast a pall over Ambassador Rafael Ramirez as Venezuela took over the rotating presidency of the Security Council on Monday.

It was a long-held dream of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to win a seat at the Security Council, a high-profile platform to showcase his defiance of a U.S.-led world order.

Venezuela finally achieved that goal in 2014 under President Nicolas Maduro, more than a year after Chavez died of cancer.

Venezuela will hold the Security Council presidency for the month of February, getting the chance to influence the agenda of the most powerful U.N. body.

Ramirez said he plans a Security Council debate on Feb. 15 on one of Chavez’s favorite themes: defending the national sovereignty of countries against what he saw as U.S. meddling in domestic affairs.

Ramirez cited the U.S.-led military operations in Syria.

He differentiated that from Russia’s bombing campaign in Syria, which has the approval of the government of President Bashar Assad. Venezuela has often taken Russia’s side in Security Council disagreements over how to address the Syrian civil war.

In this June 11, 2014, file photo, Venezuela’s Rafael Ramirez, Minister of Popular Power of Petroleum and Mining, speaks to journalists prior to the start of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Associated Press

“While we don’t have troops and will never have troops abroad, we are going to raise our voice,” he said. “Some countries on the Security Council decide on their own which governments are legitimate and which are not.”

Ramirez said he was not concerned about the possibility of being indicted as part of U.S. investigations into corruption at PDVSA, which have led to the recent arrests of two Venezuelan businessmen who allegedly paid more than $1 billion in bribes to secure contracts with the company. Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department accused

a bank in Andorra of laundering some $2 billion stolen from PDVSA. Ramirez was the president of PDVSA for a decade until 2014. He said he did not know the two businessmen, Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas and Roberto Rincon, who were arrested in December on charges detailed in an indictment filed in federal court in Houston.

Asked if he had been contacted by U.S. authorities seeking his cooperation, Ramirez shook his head and asked rhetorically, “Do you think I am going to accept the jurisdiction of another country on national matters?”

He added: “I don’t think

they would show me that lack of respect.”

The ambassador was terse while discussing allegations of corruption at PDVSA but he dismissed the U.S. investigations as an attempt to undermine Maduro’s government, which has had tense relations with Washington.

“There has always been interference in our affairs,” Ramirez said. “We are used to it. We understand that all of this is a political confrontation and we accept that.

If we took it personally, we would just make our lives miserable.”

Venezuela takes over the Security Council presiden-

cy as its economy teeters on the brink of collapse, reeling from a plunge oil prices, a severe shortage of dollars and inflation running into the triple digits.

Last month, SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon announced that Venezuela was one of 15 countries in arrears in paying its annual contribution to the U.N. regular budget, resulting in a temporary loss of its voting rights at the General Assembly.

The U.N. said Venezuela paid its debt last week.

Ramirez denied that the delay had anything to do with Venezuela’s economic difficulties, calling it an “administrative matter.”q

A12 WORLD

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NEWS

As children die reaching for Europe’s shores, empathy fades ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Five months ago, a 3-year-old Syrian boy’s corpse on a Turkish beach galvanized public action for refugees. Now, strikingly similar images are generating little more than a collective shrug.

It’s partly about timing, circumstance and the exceptional power of last September’s photos of Aylan Kurdi.

But it’s also because sensitivities are growing dull.

Boats arrive on Europe’s shores daily, or sink on the way — like the one that capsized off Turkey’s coast on Saturday, killing at least 37 people including babies and other young children.

Images from the latest tragedy, including the bodies of children, failed to generate the same level of shock.

Fears — that refugees will stage extremist attacks or molest women — threaten to displace compassion.

And Europe has yet to find the magic solution to its migrant dilemma.

“The public seems to be kind of immunized. They don’t want to see it anymore,” said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Some are rebelling against the numbness. Greek soccer players held a sit-in solidarity protest after the latest refugee drownings.

Artist Ai Weiwei, wanting kinder migrant policies, re-enacted Aylan’s death.

The photos of Aylan weren’t the first or last to document the fatal risk that families take to flee Syria’s war for something better in Europe.

But his lifeless, tidily-dressed body — first face-down on the sand, later in the arms of a police officer — captured the collective imagination like no other.

In an era when images are ubiquitous and fleeting, it stood out.

Unusually, he was quickly identified and found to have relatives in Canada, which helped his story go global.

Remains of a boat that was carrying migrants seen on the shoreline near the Aegean town of Ayvacik, Canakkale, Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. A boat carrying migrants to Greece hit rocks off the Turkish coast on Saturday and capsized, killing at least 33 people, including five children, officials and news reports said. Some 75 other migrants were rescued. A Turkish government official said he expects the death toll from the incident to rise as rescue workers try to reach other migrants believed trapped inside the wreckage of the boat which sank shortly after departing from the Aegean resort of Ayvacik.

Associated Press

In this Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 photo made available Saturday, a beach near Ayvacik, Turkey.

Associated Press

“People react very strongly to individual stories,” Fleming said. “It was a single boy on the beach, looking like my son, my little brother, in a sleeping position.”

The image became shorthand for the refugee crisis and government inaction.

It triggered soul-searching on a global and personal level, and volunteers from Britain to Greece showed up to feed and shelter newarrivals.

On a policy level, its impact was mixed. It prompted an initial groundswell of pressure on leaders to act, but the European Union’s 28 states remain divided over how many refugees to take in, and howgenerously.

Since then, two Islamic extremists mixed in with refugees and joined European-born radicals staging deadly attacks in Paris. A string of robberies and sexual assaults in the

German city of Cologne are blamed largely on migrants. European far-right parties have capitalized on the refugee wave.

Then another ship capsized off Turkey’s coast on Saturday en route to Greece.

Babies and other young children were among the 37 dead.

The response has been more muted, though the horrors were not.

As the boat struck rocks,

migrants wailed, witness Gulcan Durdu told The Associated Press.

“I will never stop hearing those cries,” Durdu said Sunday, a day after the disaster.

“They died screaming.”

Images of children victims encapsulated the drama.

In one, a boy about Aylan’s age is lying on a rocky shore, a pacifier attached to his clothing with a plastic chain, a hat with a pompon on his small head. In another, a Turkish policeman readies an older boy for a body bag.

But for many viewers, the moment of awakening had already passed.

The new images saw marginal coverage in France, Germany, the Nordic countries and Poland. They drew little attention in Italy — but the country has no shortage of its own heartbreaking scenes on its shores and at sea.

Countries in the Balkans, closer to the source of the new arrivals, paid more heed.

In Greece, the sinking — the fourth in less than a week, and not the deadliest — was covered with equal horror and attention as all the other drownings.

In Hungary, tabloid newspaper Blikk had a large back-page spread including a small photo of Aylan’s body being carried by a rescuer and a closeup of the latest disaster.

One of the headlines reads: “No one learned from little Aylan’s tragedy.”

On Hungarian news website origo.hu, several of the comments from readers blamed the parents for the drownings, saying they were irresponsible for undertaking unsafe journeys.

Some media weighed whether to show the latest images at all.

One Hungarian newspaper warned the picture could have a harmful effect on children.

The Italian navy, after a boat capsized last year with about 800 migrants trapped inside, refused to allow or distribute any images of the dead out of respect for their memory.q

LOCAL A13

Tuesday 2 February 2016

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A14 LOCAL

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Aruba Lights! Scenes from the grand lighting Parade

LOCAL A15

Tuesday 2 February 2016

THE BEST SHOW IN ARUBA IS BACK!

COMEDIANS FROM “THE TONIGHT SHOW,” “LETTERMAN SHOW,” “LAST COMIC STANDING,” and COMEDY CENTRAL PERFORMING ALL OF FEBRUARY! Top American standup comics perform in Ray Ellin’s phenomenal show at the Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino starting

February3rd! Pre-purchase tickets at www.ArubaComedy.com The best show in Aruba is back!

“Aruba Ray’s Comedy” features some of the funniest American standup comedians in a terrific 90-minute show.

Advance tickets are sug-

gested, and are available at www.ArubaComedy. com.This wonderful show is a great way to spend a night out. The comedians are truly some of the best from the United States, and perform in a relaxed, intimate setting at the Marri-

ott.

In addition, there is also an option to purchase a fourhour premium open bar, and each attendee receives free slot cash forthe Stellaris Casino. Some of the comedians appearing for this stint include

very recognizable faces Tony Woods from HBO and Comedy Central… Chuck Nice from The Today Show, VH1, and TruTV… Continued on next page

A16 LOCAL

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Comedy

Continued from previous page Ted Alexandro from the Jimmy Kimmel Show and tours with Jim Gaffigan and Lewis Black… and Brian Scott McFadden from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and David Letterman Show.

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 over three 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 co-created and is co-starring in the new television show Cellar.The shows are at 8:30pm, every night, from February 3rd to 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 at 7:30pm.

The tickets are $36. And each Comedy Ticket gives every audience member free slot cash for the Stel-

laris Casino at the Marriott (ID required!). And each Comedy Ticket will also provide a 20% discount to the Aruba La Vista buffet.

Plus, audience members can purchase an OPTIONAL four hour premium open bar for only $22!The premium open bar continues after the show in the casino until midnight.

An incredible deal, and a full night out.Ask your concierge for assistance.

Additional info: The comedians perform regularly in New York City’s biggest venues.The showroom is very comfortable, but seating is first come first serve! So you should try to arrive early enough.

Drinks are available for purchase, but there is NO drink minimum!Anyone can attend, however the show is suggested for a mature audience.For more information call the Aruba Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino at 520-6606… or call 7494363.q

SPORTS A17

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after defeating Andy Murray of Britain in the men’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016 Associated Press

Djokovic names his 2016 goal the Djoker Slam JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic has a new goal for the year. He calls it the Djoker Slam.

The No. 1-ranked player has one thing missing from his fast-growing collection of 11 Grand Slam trophies.

“The French Open. It’s the one I never won,” Djokovic said early Monday, after winning his record sixth Australian Open, but already casting an eye toward Paris. “I’ll try to put myself in a position to get that trophy.”

Djokovic’s relentless desire for tennis perfection has pushed him to a brilliant level, one that was too high for Andy Murray who lost Sunday’s final 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (3). The straight-sets win highlighted Djokovic’sdominance and Murray’s shortcomings: the No. 2-ranked Murray has now played five finals in Melbourne and lost them all — including four to Djokovic.

It also stamped Djokovic’s imprint on the tournament, tying him with Roy Emerson for the most singles titles in the event’s long history.

Continued on next Page

GOLDEN STATE OF MIND

Thompson, Green help Warriors blow out Knicks, 116-95 Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) goes up for a layup unopposed in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016.

Associated Press Page 20

A18 SPORTS

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Djokovic Slam

how can I continue playing well through the rest of the season at each tournament.”

Returning to the metaphor, how hungry is the wolf for

Continued from front

Emerson played in the 1960s and won his Australian titles in the amateur era.

Djokovic’s strong start to the season comes after a year that has been described as one of the finest in tennis history. He finished 2015 at No. 1 for the fourth time in five years. He won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

He reached the final at the French Open, but lost to Stan Wawrinka. It was his third runner-up trophy at Roland Garros.

“Each year when I go back I feel like I’m a step closer,” Djokovic said during a TV interview after the final. He was asked, if he does win at the French and manage to capture four consecutive major championships, would he give it a name? On the women’s side, Serena Williams has done it before and her feat was called the “Serena Slam.”

“Djoker Slam. Not bad, I like that one,” said the 28-yearold Serbian, referring to his nickname, the Djoker.

“No doubt that I’m playing the best tennis of my life in the last 15 months,” Djokovic said. “The results are showing that. I’m just trying to keep it up.”

With his 11th major title, Djokovic is steadily gaining on Rafael Nadal’s

Paris, he was asked.

“Very hungry,” Djokovic smiled. “But the wolf needs to eat a lot of different meals to get to Paris.

Paris is a dessert.”q

Bike manufacturer says will Belgian rider over motor use

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic holds his trophy as he poses for photos with his Australian Open trophy at Government House in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. Djokovic defeated Britain’s Andy Murray in the men’s final at the Australian Open tennis championships on Sunday, Jan. 31.

Associated Press

14 and Roger Federer’s record 17.

The so-called Big Four of men’s tennis — Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic — has been looking more lopsided with Djokovic’s winning record.

He now leads the pack with head-to-head wins over them all — Federer (23-22), Murray (22-9), Nadal (24-23).

In Melbourne, Djokovic beat Federer in straight sets in the semifinals before moving on to Murray. Nadal lost in the first-round, raising more questions about whether his Grand Slam winning days have passed.

Last year was the first season since 2004 that Nadal did not win a major title.

Throughout the tournament, Djokovic was repeatedly asked about the increasingly wide gulf between him at No. 1 and the rest of the players.

At his final news conference, Djokovic answered the question with a metaphor.

The wolf that is running up the hill is much hungrier than the wolf standing at the top of the hill, Djokovicsaid.

“I believe that all the guys that are out there fighting each week to get to No. 1 are very hungry to get to No. 1,” he said. “I want to enjoy, and I will, but it’s not going to go for more than a few days. After that, I’m already thinking about

SAMUEL PETREQUIN AP Sports Writer PARIS (AP) — Italian manufacturer Wilier Triestina says it will sue the Belgian cyclist who used a motor on her bike at the cyclo-cross world championships in the latest scandal to rock the sport.

Managing director Andrea Gastaldello said he was “stunned” by the news that Femke Van den Driessche competed in the under-23 race over the weekend with a concealed motor in her Wilier Triestina bike.

“Our company will take legal action against the athlete and against any (person) responsible for this very serious matter to safeguard the reputation and image of the company,” the executive wrote in a statement.

Van den Driessche, who became the first cyclist caught for technological doping in a major competition, denied any wrongdoing, claiming she mistakenly used a friend’s bike identical to hers without knowing it had been equipped with a motor.

One of the favorites, she withdrew from the race won by Britain’s Evie Richards because of a mechanical problem.

The UCI, or Union Cycliste Internationale, cycling’s governing body, has seized her bike for further investigation. President Brian Cookson said: “It’s absolutely clear there was technological fraud.”

Under UCI’s technological fraud rules, Van den

Driessche is facing a sixmonth suspension and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 Swiss francs (($19,575 to $195,750) while the Belgian national team could be fined as much as 1 million Swiss francs ($978,000).

“There was a concealed motor, I don’t think there is any secret about that,” Cookson said at a news conference. “But other than that, how that happened, what the circumstances were, that will all be passed to the disciplinary commission.”

After years of controversy marred by doping scandals and the tainted reign of Lance Armstrong, the UCI has been tackling the motors issue seriously.

First speculation of technological doping emerged in 2010 when Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara was forced to deny he won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders with the help of an electric bike after a video appeared to show him pushing a button on the handlebars during both races.

Bike checks were quickly introduced and have since been carried out by the UCI at cycling’s most prestigious events including the Tour de France.

“We’ve heard some stories for a long time now about the possibility of this,” Cookson said. “We have been alive to a potential way that people might cheat and we have been testing a number of bikes and a number of events for several months.” q

SPORTS A19

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Snedeker winds up a winner at Torrey Pines

DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer SAN DIEGO (AP) — With his glove tucked in his back pocket and a putter in his hand, Brandt Snedeker walked off the green pumping his arms to celebrate a six-shot comeback to win the Farmers Insurance Open. That was the only part of his victory that looked normal.

He was on the practice green, not the 18th green.

Snedeker never hit a shot Monday.

Having delivered one of the great closing rounds on the PGA Tour on Sunday, all he could do was wait to see if it was good enough when the wind-blown tournament concluded before no spectators because of safety concerns for all the debris on the South Course at Torrey Pines.

The jangled nerves came from watching the forecast, and then the telecast. Snedeker finally went to the putting green and figured the crowd’s reaction would let him know if K.J. Choi had made birdie on the 18th to force a playoff. But then he realized there was no crowd.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be a champion here again, how unbelievable the last 48 hours have been,” said Snedeker, the first player in more than five years to make the cut on the number and win the tournament.

“Everything worked out perfectly for me. You cannot make up the extreme events that had to happen for me to have this chance, and they all fell in line perfectly.”

It started with Snedeker.

In gusts that consistently topped 40 mph and peaked at over 50 mph, he played the final 17 holes Sunday without a bogey and closed with a 3-under 69, which was nearly nine shots better than the field.

The average score (77.9) was the highest for the fourth round at a regular PGA Tour event since the tour began keeping such statistics in 1983.

Snedeker won at 6-under 282, the highest winning scores at Torrey Pines since

Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

Shortly after he finished Sunday, play was stopped for the third and final time, and for good reason. The relentless wind toppled more than dozen trees across Torrey Pines, including a 60-foot eucalyptus that fell across the left edge of the 15th fairway some 40 yards short of the green.

The forecast was for 25 mph win out of the opposite direction. That was good for Snedeker.

When he woke up Monday morning to start the waiting game, there was hardly any wind at all. That was bad for Snedeker.

But after another two-hour delay to clean up debris, the wind showed up at just the right time and made the conditions just as tough — maybe even tougher for the final groups — as it was on Sunday.

Snedeker hit a wedge for his second shot on the 15th.

Choi couldn’t reach the green with a 3-wood.

With the final five holes playing into the wind, birdies were scarce.

Jimmy Walker, who was leading at 7-under par through 10 holes when play was halted on Sunday, made four bogeys over his eight holes and shot 77.

Choi, who was at 6 under (and tied with Snedeker) made only one bogey, and it was enough to cost him. He couldn’t reach the 14th with a fairway metal — another wedge hole on Sunday — and narrowly missed a 6-foot par putt.

Choi closed with a 77 and was runner-up.

Kevin Streelman had a 74, with two late bogeys ending his hopes, and finished third.

“The way the wind blew and made those last five holes play so tough on those guys, I feel bad for them,” Snedeker said.

“They got the raw end of the stick this morning. But that’s just the way golf goes, and luckily enough, I played good enough yesterday to get the job done.

So it’s a special feeling to say the least.”

It was the second time Snedeker has won at Torrey

Pines, and he needed help both times. Four years ago, he was in the media center as the runner-up until Kyle Stanley made a triple bogey from the fairway on the 18th hole, and Snedeker beat him in a playoff to complete a seven-shot comeback.

This time, he needed help from the elements.

Snedeker made the cut on the number Saturday and was tied for 27th going into the final round. The wicked weather produced 23 rounds in the 80s, including an 87 by Scott Brown, who shared the 54-hole lead with Choi and wound up in a tie for 49th.

“It’s just one of those fluke things,” Snedeker said.

“There’s no way you can control the weather, no

Brandt Snedeker holds the Framers Insurance Open trophy and a ceremonial surfboard after the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in San Diego.

Associated Press

way you can predict how it’s going to be. Sometimes you get the raw end and sometimes you get the better end, and I obviously got

the better end this week.”

He did his part with a great closing round on Sunday.

He was rewarded with a trophy on Monday.q

20 SPORTS

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NBA Capsules

Warriors shake off slow start to beat Knicks

NEW YORK (AP) — Klay Thompson woke the Warriors from their slowest start of the season with 17 of his 34 points in the second quarter, Draymond Green tied Tom Gola’s franchise record with his ninth tripledouble of the season, and Golden State beat the New York Knicks 116-95 on Sunday night for its seventh straight victory.

Green made all nine shots as the Warriors (44-4) wrapped up January at 40 games over .500 even with a quiet 13 points from Stephen Curry. Green finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Warriors, who were held to a season-low 18 points in the first quarter.

They charged back with 64 over the middle two quarters — the Knicks had only 65 total through three — and looked back to normal after a sluggish Saturday in Philadelphia.

Carmelo Anthony had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks, who lost for the fifth time in six games.

HORNETS 101, LAKERS 82 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 19 points and 12 rebounds apiece, and the Charlotte Hornets sent the Los Angeles Lakers to their franchise recordtying 10th consecutive defeat.

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) shoots as New York Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis (6) defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016.

Associated Press

Kobe Bryant scored 23 points in 23 minutes, but the Lakers matched the 1994 team for the longest skid in the 16-time NBA champion franchise’s proud history. Los Angeles dropped to 9-41, guaranteeing three straight non-winning seasons for the first time since 1961.

Kemba Walker had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Hornets, who wrapped up their four-

Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek gestures as he shouts in the direction of an official in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Dallas. The Mavericks won 91-78.

Associated Press

game road trip with a decisive win over the Western Conference’s worst team.

TRAIL BLAZERS 96, TIMBERWOLVES 93 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard scored 21 points apiece, and the Portland Trail Blazers handed the Minnesota Timberwolves their 11th straight road loss.

Portland extended its winning streak to four and improved to 3-0 against the

Timberwolves this season.

Karl-Anthony Towns, a contender for Rookie of the Year, was the first player on the court in double figures and finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Timberwolves. It was his 25th double-double, the most of any rookie this season.

CLIPPERS 120, BULLS 93 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jamal Crawford scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quar-

ter, leading a dominant bench effort for the second straight game, and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Chicago Bulls for their fourth consecutive victory.

J.J. Redick added 21 points and DeAndre Jordan had 17 points and 20 rebounds for the Clippers, who improved to 15-3 without Blake Griffin. Their four-game streak has coincided with Griffin being out at least a month after breaking his right hand while punching the team’s assistant equipment manager. Jimmy Butler scored 23 points for the Bulls, who have lost four of six and dropped to 10-11 on the road.

HEAT 105, HAWKS 87 MIAMI (AP) — Chris Bosh scored 18 points and the Miami Heat extended their winning streak to four games with a victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng each had 17 points and Amar’e Stoudemire finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Heat, who led by as many as 22 and never trailed.

It is Miami’s first four-game winning streak in the regular season since March 28 to April 2, 2014.

Paul Millsap and Al Horford each scored 17 for Atlanta, which has lost three straight.q

Reeling Phoenix Suns fire coach Jeff Hornacek PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Suns, mired in one of the worst stretches in their history, have fired coach Jeff Hornacek and promoted Earl Watson to interim coach.

Watson was selected after interviews were conducted Monday with all three Suns assistants.

Watson was an NBA point guard for 13 seasons and was in his first season as a Suns assistant after a year as an assistant coach of the Austin Spurs of the NBA Development League.

The 36-year-old Watson retired as a player in 2014 after appearing in 878 games for Portland, Seattle/Oklahoma City, Memphis, Denver, Indiana and Utah.

The Suns’ season has been swirling rapidly down the drain for weeks and Hornacek must have known his days as coach were numbered.

The Suns finally fired him after the team ran its road losing streak to 14 games with a loss at Dallas on Sunday. Watson inherits something of a mess of a roster

and trades are a certainty by the Feb. 18 deadline.

Phoenix ranks last in the NBA in opponent’s field goal percentage, next-tolast in opponent’s 3-point percentage and last in opponent steals.

The team has lost 10 of 11 games and 19 of its past 21. At 14-35, Phoenix’s record is tied for fourth worst in the NBA and the Suns are headed for a franchiserecord sixth consecutive season without making the playoffs, all under owner Robert Sarver. q

SPORTS A21

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Russell Wilson throws 3 TDs in 49-27 Pro Bowl victory KALANI TAKASE Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) -- With no Super Bowl trip this season for the Seattle Seahawks, their stars came to play and dominate - at the Pro Bowl.

Russell Wilson threw three first-half touchdown passes to lead Team Irvin to a 4927 victory over Team Rice on Sunday and earn offensive MVP honors at Aloha Stadium. Seattle teammate Michael Bennett was the defensive MVP after having the game’s only sack and deflecting a pass. ‘’To see us Seahawks out there is a real special thing,’’ Wilson said. ‘’It’s a testament to our hard work and to see two Seahawks out there as MVPs is really cool.’’

The Seahawks quarterback, who was the first player picked in the all-star game’s draft, went 8 of 12 for 164 yards. He led scoring drives on three of Team Irvin’s first four possessions.

Wilson threw touchdown passes of 14 and 2 yards toAtlanta Falcons teammates Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman, respectively, in the opening quarter. Early in the second quarter, Wilson connected with Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurleyfor a 10yard score.

The teams were drafted and captained by Hall of Fame wide receivers Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice.

Winston Moss, Green Bay’s assistant head coach and linebackers coach, filled in for the ill Mike McCarthy and coached Team Irvin.

Kansas City’s Andy Reid led Team Rice.

A record 47 players declined to participate in this year’s Pro Bowl, either due to injury or for personal reasons, or couldn’t play be-

cause their teams are in the Super Bowl. Carolina had 10 players selected, including quarterback Cam Newton, while Denver had four, including defensive stars Von Miller andDeMarcus Ware.

Wilson was the lone quarterback originally selected to participate in the game. ‘’Any time you have the opportunity to play the great game of football, you take advantage of the opportunity,’’ Wilson said. ‘’Playing in the Pro Bowl is a special thing because to be able to see all the amazing players across the league, who are the best players in the world and to be able to play on one field together is a really, really cool thing.’’

Bennett was busy on defense, but played one snap at quarterback late in the game and picked up 7 yards on a rush. The 6-foot-4, 274-pound defensive said it was his first experience under center in his career. ‘’Only in my dreams,’’ Bennett said with a laugh.

Two other Seahawks players mixed it up midway through the third quarter when Team Irvin’s Richard Sherman - a cornerback was dropped for a 22-yard loss on a reverse by Team Rice linebackerBobby Wagner. ‘’He said that he knew what he was going to do,’’ Sherman said. ‘’He knew I was getting the ball and he knew he was making the tackle.’’

Minnesota’s Teddy Bridgewater and Tampa Bay’sJameis Winston each added two TD passes for Team Irvin. Jacksonville’s Allen Robinson, Tennessee’s Delanie Walker, Philadelphia’s Darren Sproles and Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins had scoring

Michael Irvin, Pro Bowl legend team captain and Pro Football Hall of Famer, center, takes a photo with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3), who was named the offensive player of the game, and defensive end Michael Bennett, of Team Irvin, right, after the NFL Pro Bowl football game, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Honolulu. Team Irvin won 49-27.

Associated Press

receptions.

Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce caught two scoring passes for Team Rice. Miami’s Jarvis Landryalso had a TD catch, and Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin ran for a score.

Dominique RodgersCromartie of the New York Giants had two of Team Irvin’s six interceptions.

After Kelce’s 4-yard reception from Manning gave Team Rice a 7-0 lead, Jones tip-toed the left sideline just after hauling in Wilson’s pass near the back corner of the end zone for a 14-yard score.

Kelce caught the second of his two TDs on a 10-yard pass from Oakland’s Derek Carr to cut Team Rice’s deficit to 21-14. The Chiefs star, who signed a five-year, $46 million contract extension on Friday, tied Martin with a game-high five catches for 91 yards.

Team Irvin added a score late in the second quarter on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Bridgewater to

Sproles to hold a 28-14 lead after two quarters.

The halftime festivities included a parade of local high school football players. Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, a Honolulu native, led his alma mater, Saint Louis School, onto the field during the procession and was greeted by loud cheers from the sellout crowd of 50,000.

It was the 35th time the NFL’s annual all-star game was played at Aloha Stadium dating to 1980, and the third consecutive season that it has used an ‘’unconferenced’’ format.

The game was played at in Glendale, Arizona, last year. The site of next year’s Pro Bowl has not yet been determined by the NFL, although it does have an option to return to Hawaii.

Martin helped Team Rice cut the deficit to 28-21 in the third quarter with a 3-yard run early in the third quarter.

But Team Irvin put the game

away with three straight TDs: a 50-yard catch by Robinson from Bridgewater, a 53-yard reception by Walker from Winston and a 7-yarder by Hopkins, also thrown by Winston.

Landry caught a 31-yard TD pass from Buffalo’s Tyrod Taylor with 6:05 remaining in the game. Taylor was intercepted three times overall.Cincinnati tight end Tyler Eifert appeared to injure a foot during the game while diving for a pass for Team Irvin.

It was the final game of Oakland safety Charles Woodson’s 18-year career.

He was escorted by his two young sons off the field to rousing cheers from the fans that remained. ‘’I really got all the emotions out of the way a few weeks back, but this one is just the icing on the cake for me to be able to make the Pro Bowl, be able to bring my family over here and hang out in Hawaii,’’ Woodson said. ‘’It’s been great.’’q

A22

Tuesday 2 February 2016

SPORTS

AP survey: Concussions not most NFL players’ chief concern EDDIE PELLS AP Sports Writers HOWARD FENDRICH AP Sports Writers During a 15-year NFL career that sent him pinballing over the middle of the field too many times to count, absorbing hits as wicked as they come, former Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley endured injuries that literally ran from head to toe.

And while, by his own estimate, that included at least a dozen concussions, the only health issue that made him seriously contemplate quitting the game was a problem with a small bone in the middle of his foot in his fourth season.

“I told my wife, ‘This is it. I’m done. I can’t deal with this pain every day,’” Stokley said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Yet he pressed on. Eventually the foot pain subsided. The concussions?

Those kept accumulating. Stokley, essentially, shrugged them off, despite the seemingly unending drumbeat of news about the dangers of head injuries. During his playing days, he was more worried about short-term effects than later-in-life ones. “The thing with concussions is, usually, you’re out a week or two, and then you’re back fine,” said Stokley, 39, who caught passes from one of this week’s Super Bowl quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, while both were with the Broncos and, be-

In this Jan. 12, 2012, file photo, New York Giants defensive back Tyler Sash (39) runs with the ball during NFL football practice, in East Rutherford, N.J. A member of the Giants’ 2012 Super Bowl championship team who died at age 27, safety Sash, was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The disease is linked to repeated brain trauma and associated with symptoms such as memory loss, depression and progressive dementia.

Associated Press

fore that, the Indianapolis Colts. “But you mess your knee up, you’re out a year.

You mess your shoulder up, you’re done for a year.”

That nonchalant attitude toward concussions that Stokley held while he was active in the league is not all that different from what was expressed by many current NFL players in an AP survey conducted this season and released Sunday.

Less than half of the group

— only 39 of the 100 players — said they are more worried about the long-term effects of concussions than those of other injuries.

Of the remaining 61 players, 20 either said they are not concerned at all about concussions or less concerned about them than other injuries, while 41 said the concern is equal for all injuries.

“Personally, I don’t think about head injuries. They

don’t affect me,” said Nikita Whitlock, a New York Giants special teamer. “I wonder: What are my joints going to be like in 20 years?

How will my knees hold up in 20 years? What about my shoulders and wrists? These are the real weak points of your body.”

That sort of sentiment was heard repeatedly by AP reporters, as if players were ignoring everything related to head trauma and foot-

ball.

Just last week, a member of the Giants’ 2012 Super Bowl championship team who died at age 27, safety Tyler Sash, was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The disease is linked to repeated brain trauma and associated with symptoms such as memory loss, depression and progressive dementia.

Sash was just the latest CTE headline: The suicide of Pro Football Hall of Famer Junior Seau. The sudden retirement of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland. The concussionrelated lawsuits brought by former players. Various safeguards added by the NFL, including attempts to increase in-game monitoring of head injuries and more vigilant policing of illegal hits. During regularseason games, the NFL said Friday, there were 182 reported concussions, a 58 percent increase from a year ago.

And yet ... “Not worried,” Oakland Raiders running back Jamize Olawale said.

“I think it’s blown out of proportion.”

“You can get a head injury from anywhere,” Houston Texans cornerback Charles James said. “A dude could sucker-punch me, and I could get the same injury I get from hitting a running back head-on.”

There is, to be sure, a segment of the NFL population that takes concussions and their consequences seriously.q

Ex-heavyweight champion Frank Bruno wants boxing comeback at age 54

In this Thursday, Jan. 26, 1989 file photo, British heavyweight champion Frank Bruno stretches his arms before sparring practice, at Club Mirage in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Former world heavyweight champion Frank Bruno wants to make a return to competitive boxing at the age of 54.

Bruno was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2003, an illness he says has left him feeling “suicidal.” He has been involuntarily committed to psychiatric care on three occasions.

“I’ve got to get back into

boxing, to get this out of my system, because I don’t want to end up in (psychiatric) hospital,” Bruno, who is back in training, told British broadcaster ITV on Monday.

Bruno won the WBC heavyweight belt in 1995, beating Oliver McCall, and hasn’t fought since losing to Mike Tyson the following year.

The British Boxing Board of Control would need to

grant Bruno a license to box.

“Mr. Bruno has not made an application for a British Boxing Board of Control boxer’s licence,” Robert Smith, general-secretary of the BBBC, said in a emailed letter to The Associated Press, “and should such an application be received it will be considered in the normal manner by the stewards of the board.”q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Google parent tops Apple as world’s most valuable company MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Alphabet, Google’s new parent company, topped Apple as the world’s most valuable business in afterhours trading Monday after reporting surging earnings.

Alphabet Inc. earned $4.9 billion in net income on revenue of $21.3 billion in the fourth quarter. If not for employee stock expenses and certain other items, Google said it would have earned $8.67 per share.

That figure easily topped the average estimate of $8.10 per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet. The earnings report provided the most detailed breakdown yet on the profits pouring in from Google’s dominant search engine and ad network.

(Google reorganized itself under Alphabet last October.) Investors pushed up Alphabet stock $44.23, or more than 5 percent, to $815 in extended trading.

Based on that after-hours bump, Alphabet surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company. According to calculations from S&P Indices, Alphabet was worth $571 billion versus $538 billion for Apple.

That ranking, of course, could shift again in regular trading Tuesday.

Apple’s stock has been sliding amid concerns about a slowdown in iPhone sales. Alphabet’s stock has surged by 45 percent since the end of 2014 when it was still trading under Google’s name.

The fourth-quarter report marks the first time Alphabet has spelled out the costs of running still-experimental businesses that are trying to do everything from eliminating human

In this Nov. 12, 2015, file photo, a man walks past a building on the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. Alphabet Inc., Google’s holding company, reports financial results Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.

Associated Press

drivers to curing cancer.

Until now, the expenses of running those peripheral operations had been hidden in Google’s financial statement. The company’s opaque accounting made it difficult to know just how much profit Google reaped from its primary business — selling digital ads next to everything from search results to YouTube videos.

In the fourth quarter, Google produced an operating profit of $6.8 billion, excluding employee stock expenses, on revenue of $17.1 billion, after subtracting ad commissions. That translates into a whopping profit margin of 40 percent.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s other companies together produced an operating

loss of $1.2 billion on revenue of just $151 million.

Alphabet labels that category “other bets.” That loss also excluded employee stock expenses.

The optimism surrounding Alphabet stems in part from hopes that the company is developing more financial discipline as it discloses more earnings details. Google had become known for its free-spending habits and reluctance to share information with analysts.

The change in sentiment coincided with Google’s hiring of a new chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, last May. Porat, a Wall Street veteran, has consistently signaled her intent to rein in spending.

Under the previous setup at Google, “things had al-

ways been a little muddy,” said Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson. “The hope now is that management will continue to show greater cost discipline.”

Google is also counting on advertisers to gradually pay more for marketing messages on smartphones. They still aren’t paying as much for mobile ads as on personal computers because the smaller screens on smartphones have been seen as an impediment. That’s one reason Google’s average ad rates, measured as “cost per click,” have been declining for more than four years.

In the latest quarter, Google’s cost per click fell by 13 percent from the same time in 2014. But Porat cited in increase in mobile search requests as one of biggest reasons that Google’s revenue rose by 18 percent from the previous year. As people increasingly search for information and shop on their phones, the company expects advertisers to ramp up their spending on smartphones, too.q

A24 BUSINESS

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Airlines restore tiny perks, like pretzels, to pacify fliers SCOTT MAYEROWITZ AP Airlines Writer NEW YORK (AP) — After 15 years of near austerity, U.S. airlines are restoring some small perks for passengers crammed into coach.

Don’t expect ample legroom or free checked bags. But fliers will find improved snacks, a larger selection of free movies and — on a few select routes — the return of free meals.

Monday, American Airlines became the latest carrier to add something back. It announced the return of free snacks in the economy section and more free entertainment options on some aircraft.

American, which recently merged with US Airways, hasn’t offered free snacks since 2003.

US Airways stripped passengers of snacks in 2008.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent recession, U.S. airlines removed almost

In this Jan. 25, 2016, file photo, a passenger talks on the phone as American Airlines jets sit parked at their gates at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport.

every perk imaginable on domestic flights. Hot meals disappeared along with legroom, blankets and pillows.

“It was really about survival,” says Fernand Fernandez, vice president of global marketing at American.

When Continental Airlines stopped giving out free cookies and mini bags of

pretzels in 2011 — after its merger with United Airlines — it said the move would save $2.5 million a year.

Since then, mergers have created four mega-carriers that control more than 80 percent of the domestic market.

They started charging $25 for each checked suitcase.

And more seats have been crammed into planes to maximize profits. Now the industry is making record profits.

“What has changed ,” Fernandez says, “is that the airlines have been able to fix our core business and be able to reinvest in our customers.”

That means new planes, larger overhead bins and for a long time, nicer first class cabins.

Now a bit of that wealth is trickling back to coach.

This month, American will start offering Biscoff cookies or pretzels to passengers flying between New York and San Francisco or Los Angeles. By April, those snacks will expand to all other domestic routes. In May, American will bring back full meal service for coach passengers between Dallas and Hawaii.

“We know that we have customers who select our airline based on price and we’re really excited to offer them a product that is superior to choosing an ultra-low cost carrier,” Fernandez says.

United recently announced the return of free snacks on its flights starting in February. Delta Air Lines

— the other big legacy carrier — never removed snacks, even during bankruptcy.

American is also expanding its complimentary entertainment on domestic flights with in-seat TVs. Passengers will be able to choose from up to 40 movies, 60 TV shows and 300 music albums.

Delta has taken a different path, focusing more on entertainment that passengers can stream to their own devices. It now offers

about 67 movies and 138 TV shows for free.

“These are token investments in the passenger experience that will not cost airlines a lot of money but are small ways to make passengers a little bit happier,” says Henry Harteveldt, the founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group. “American and United realized: We don’t let other airlines have an advantage on price, why let them have one on pretzels.”q

U.S. stocks edge mostly lower as energy prices plunge again

Specialist Michael Gagliano, foreground, works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016.

Associated Press

KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market was able to recover from steep losses to close slightly lower on Monday as investors looked past another drop in the price of oil and renewed concerns about U.S. and Chinese economic growth. Oil and gas companies remained in the red.

The fact that utility and other high-dividend stocks were among the better performers should be seen as a sign that many investors still want to play it safe, traders said.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.12 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,449.18 after being down roughly 150 points earlier in the day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.86 points,

less than 0.1 percent, to 1,939.38 and the Nasdaq composite rose 6.41 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,620.37.

Stocks had been lower most of the day after separate reports showed manufacturing slowing last month in both the U.S. and China.

The reports initially caused a sell-off in commodities, notably energy and industrial metals like copper. The price of U.S. benchmark oil plunged $2, or 5.9 percent, to $31.62 a barrel in New York. Natural gas also fell about 6 percent.

But as the trading day drew to a close, investors began to buy up utilities and other dividend-paying stocks.

The Dow Jones utility index, a collection of 15 utility companies, rose nearly 1 percent on Monday. q

BUSINESS A25

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Insurer Aetna lays out concerns about ACA exchange business TOM MURPHY AP Business Writer Aetna has joined other major health insurers in sounding a warning about the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges.

The nation’s third-largest insurer said Monday that it has been struggling with customers who sign up for coverage outside the ACA’s annual enrollment window and then use a lot of care. This dumps claims on the insurer without providing enough premium revenue to counter those costs.

The ACA provides an annual enrollment window that gives people several weeks starting every fall in which they can buy coverage for the next year. The law established that window to prevent people from waiting until they become sick to buy insurance. But insurers say it has become too easy for customers to sign up outside of this window.

Customers are allowed to buy coverage outside that time frame if they lose a job, get divorced or have a child, among other reasons. Insurers want the federal government, which processes coverage applications in 38 states, to take a closer look at whether people actually qualify for these special enrollment periods when they apply for coverage.

Both Aetna and UnitedHealth Group Inc. said the exchange customers they get outside the annual enrollment window use more health care than those who sign up within it. This includes some cases where it appears that a customer bought coverage, used it and then dropped it.

“Insurance systems tend to get stressed when people can buy coverage when

In this Oct. 6, 2015, file photo, the HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, is displayed on a laptop screen in Washington. Aetna has joined other major health insurers in sounding a warning about the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges.

Associated Press

they know they need it and then drop it when they know they don’t,” Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin told The Associated Press.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently outlined several changes it said it was making to help shore up exchange enrollment windows.

Aetna is a big player in the ACA’s state-based exchanges. It has enrolled about 750,000 people and is selling coverage in 15 states this year. It lost more than $100 million last year on its exchange business, which makes up a small part of its overall enroll-

ment.

“We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini said Monday.

Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem Inc. also is paying close attention to how the government deals with special enrollment periods as it judges how sustainable the exchange business will be in the future, CEO Joseph Swedish said recently.

UnitedHealth Group has said it will decide this year whether to participate in the public exchanges in 2017.

Aetna leaders, who have

publicly supported the exchanges in the past, say they are still committed and not ready yet to make that kind of call.

“It would be premature frankly to declare victory or defeat at this stage in the process,” Guertin said.

Federal officials announced last month that they would end several narrow special enrollment windows that focused on consumers like non-citizens with incomes below the federal poverty level who experienced processing delays.

Customers will still be able

to use special enrollment periods to shop for coverage if they lose their insurance for more common reasons like a move, a marriage or divorce or the loss of a job.

But the government plans to clarify guidelines on those remaining windows so customers understand them better. That includes clarifying that an enrollment period cannot be used for a temporary move, and people who do not provide accurate information on their insurance application could be penalized.

HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan said in a Jan. 19 blog post that special enrollment periods will not be available for “the vast majority of consumers.”

HealthCare.Gov operates public insurance exchanges in 38 states.

“For example, special enrollment periods are not allowed for people who choose to remain uninsured and then decide they need health insurance when they get sick,” he wrote.

Insurers are also making adjustments. Aetna has left exchanges in markets like Kansas where it incurred high costs. It also has raised rates and done other things to shore up a business that only contributes about 5 percent of its total enrollment.q

A26 COMICS

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Mutts

Conceptis Sudoku

6 Chix

Blondie

Mother Goose & Grimm

Baby Blues

Zits

Yesterday’s puzzle answer

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

CLASSIFIED A27

Tuesday 2 February 2016

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A28 SCIENCE

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Britain approves controversial gene-editing experiments MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer LONDON (AP) — In a landmark decision that some ethicists warned is a step down the path toward “designer babies,” Britain gave scientists approval Monday to conduct geneediting experiments on human embryos.

The researchers won’t be creating babies — the modified embryos will be destroyed after seven days.

Instead, they said, the goal is to better understand human development so as to improve fertility treatments and prevent miscarriages.

The decision by Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority marks the first time a county’s national regulator has approved the technique.

Permission isn’t explicitly required in many other countries, including the U.S. and China. The U.S. does not allow the use of federal funds for embryo modification, but there is no outright ban on gene editing.

Gene editing involves deleting, repairing or replacing bits of DNA inside living cells in a biological cutand-paste technique that scientists say could one day lead to treatments for conditions like HIV or inherited disorders such as muscular dystrophy and sickle cell disease.

A team led by Kathy Niakan, an embryo and stem cell specialist at Lon-

This Aug. 8, 2008 file photo, shows embryos being placed onto a CryoLeaf ready for instant freezing using the vitrification process.

Associated Press

don’s new Francis Crick Institute, received the OK to use gene editing to analyze the first week of an embryo’s growth.

The research will “enhance our understanding of IVF (in vitro fertilization) success rates by looking at the very earliest stage of human development,” said Paul Nurse, director of the institute. None of the embryos will be transferred into women. They will be allowed to develop from a single cell to around 250 cells, after which they will be destroyed.

Peter Braude, a retired professor of obstetrics and gynecology at King’s College

London, said the mechanisms being investigated by Niakan and her colleagues “are crucial in ensuring healthy, normal development and implantation” and could help doctors refine fertility treatments.

Braude is not connected to Niakan’s research.

There are a few methods of gene editing, but the technique Niakan’s team plans to use is known as CRISPR-Cas9, a relatively fast, cheap and simple approach that many researchers are keen to try.

Some critics warn that tweaking the genetic code this way could be a slippery slope that eventually

leads to designer babies, where parents not only aim to avoid inherited diseases but also seek taller, stronger, smarter or better-looking children.

Many religious groups, including the Catholic Church, argue that manipulating embryos amounts to “playing God.” Some scientists have voiced concern that tinkering with genes might have unintended consequences not apparent until after the babies are born — or generations later. And some fear such practices will only widen the gap between rich and poor by enabling the wealthy to create superbabies.

“This is the first step on a path that scientists have carefully mapped out towards the legalization” of genetically modified babies, David King of the advocacy group Human Genetics Alert said last month when British regulators took up the issue.

Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit advocacy group in the U.S., warned that tampering with human genetics carries “dire safety and societal risks.”

“Now is the time to ensure that gene editing is not used to create GM babies and that we stay off the high-tech road to new forms of inequality and to a consumer-driven form

of eugenics,” she said in a statement.

Around the world, laws and guidelines vary widely about what kind of research is allowed on embryos, since such experiments could change the genes of future generations. Countries such as Japan, China, India and Ireland have unenforceable guidelines that restrict editing of the human genome.

Germany and other countries in Europe limit research on human embryos by law.

Last year, Chinese researchers made the first attempt at modifying genes in human embryos. Their laboratory experiment didn’t work. In any case, the embryos they used were never viable, or capable of developing properly in the womb.

The CRISPR-Cas9 technique was developed partly in the U.S., and scientists there have experimented with it in animals and in human cells in the laboratory. It has not been used for any patient therapies, though Sangamo Biosciences in Richmond, California, is trying to develop an HIV treatment.

At an international meeting in Washington last year, scientists agreed that attempts to alter early embryos as part of laboratory research should be allowed but that the technique was nowhere near ready for use in pregnant women.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Tuesday 2 February 2016

In this Sept. 20, 2015 file photo, James Hetfield of Metallica performs at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Associated Press

Pharrell, Metallica part of Super Bowl concerts lineup ‘Love Story’ actors return

Actors Ryan O’Neal, left, and Ali MacGraw hold hands as they are introduced for a talk with students on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Monday Feb. 1, 2016, more than 45 years after the release of their 1970 classic “Love Story.” The duo, now in their 70s, currently are co-starring in a national tour of “Love Letters,” which is about a man and a woman who maintain contact over 50 years through notes, cards and letters.

Associated Press

MESFIN FEKADU AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Super Bowl takes place a week before the Grammys, but the big game is rivaling the awards shows with a plethora of live concerts and on-site musicians, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica to Pharrell and Skrillex.

Alicia Keys, OneRepublic and the Band Perry will perform at concerts on Saturday, Friday and Thursday, respectively. Dave Matthews Band will take the stage Thursday and as part of the Sports Illustrated Experience, Iggy Azalea will perform on Friday, the same night Nick Jonas will perform at the annual “ESPN The Party.”

And Avicii, Elle King and Travis Scott will perform at a Rolling Stone magazine party Saturday.

Though Super Bowl 50 will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, most of the concerts and parties will take place in San Francisco.

Fall Out Boy announced Monday that they will perform Friday during Verizon’s go90 Live free concert series at The Regency Ballroom. The rock band, which has performed around the Super Bowl in the past, said performing ahead of the big game gives musicians

the opportunity to gain new fans.

“People are there and they’re hyped for the Super Bowl, so it’s a chance to win people over, which is awesome,” frontman Pete Wentz said in an interview last week. Skrillex and country singer Hunter Hayes are also part of the lineup for the go90 Live, which is offering free tickets on a first-come, first-served basis at http://www.go90. com/sanfrancisco. Hunter and Skrillex will perform on Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Metallica will perform at the AT&T Park the night before the big game, where the Carolina Panthers will take on the Denver Broncos and halftime show performers include Beyoncé and Coldplay. Wentz, who said he joined a fantasy football league this year but lost, said he’s rooting for both teams — sort of. “If I was a 10-year-old right now, I feel like there’s no way you’re not a Cam Newton fan. He optimizes cool and he looks like he’s having fun every moment he’s playing,” he said. “But at the same time, we watched the Broncos-Patriots game with my buddies from Denver ...and it was cool ‘cause it was emotional for them, so maybe I’m for the Broncos a little bit for my friends.”q

to Harvard 45 years later PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Actors Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal rolled onto the Harvard campus Monday in an antique convertible similar to the one used in “Love Story” and reminisced about the film that made them household names nearly half a century ago.

Both actors said in a discussion with students that the movie, which was partly shot on campus, has special meaning now that they’re in their 70s and in twilight of their careers.

They are co-stars in a national tour of the play “Love Letters,” which has a oneweek run in Boston starting Tuesday.

MacGraw said being at Harvard brought back fond memories that few of her subsequent experiences in film ever matched.

“It was a wonderful, wonderful adventure that was followed by some pretty dramatic stuff in my private life,” she said.

MacGraw, who now lives in New Mexico, walked away from acting in the years after her breakout role and has written about her struggles with addiction.

O’Neal noted cancer, like in the movie, played a big part in his life. He recently battled leukemia, which he says is now in remission.

He also alluded to the 2009 death of his longtime companion, actress Farrah Fawcett, who died of cancer in 2009.

“Love Story” was about a wealthy Harvard student who marries a less wealthy student over his parents’ objections. But the girl is diagnosed with leukemia and dies.

It was a huge box office success that received seven Academy Award nominations and gave pop culture an oft-quoted line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Both actors admitted they haven’t seen the movie in years. They also said they had a crush on each other during filming, though both were married at the time.

“Ryan and I clicked immediately,” said MacGraw.

“We just had a chemistry.”

“Love Story” also has a special place in Harvard tradition.

When the arts journalist and moderator Alicia Anstead asked the 70 or so people in attendance how many had seen the 1970 film,

nearly every hand in the room shot up.

Alana Davitt, a freshman from Virginia, said the film is iconic, even for students of her generation.

She noted that the university’s Crimson Key Society, a student group, hosts a screening of the movie each year as a sort of rite of passage for incoming freshman.

Some students even wore black “Camp Tuckahoe” T-shirts, a reference to the summer camp where MacGraw’s character in “Love Story” worked as a counselor.

The two actors said “Love Letters” also has special meaning for them. The play is about two people who take very different paths in life but still maintain contact through notes, cards and letters for more than 50 years. The play, which includes performances in Los Angeles, Detroit, Dallas and Baltimore, will have its Boston run at Citi Shubert Theatre. “I’m at the age of the woman that this is written about, and my life experience includes some of those experiences,” MacGraw said. “This is a life that makes sense to me. Therefore it’s fun.”q

A30 PEOPLE

& ARTS Cam’s dreamy ‘Burning House’ ignites her career Tuesday 2 February 2016

KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Northern California-born country singer Cam turned a bad dream about an exboyfriend into a song that made her musical dream come true.

“Burning House” gave the new singer, whose full name is Camaron Ochs, her first Grammy nomination for best country solo

performance after years of writing and crowd-funding her own career.

“There was like three years of being completely broke,” Cam said in a recent interview. “And that’s actually a great blank canvas for dreaming.”

The 31-year-old singer with the curly blond bob and an affection for the color yellow started studying psychology in college,

This Jan. 28, 2016 photo shows recording artist Cam poses for a portrait in Burbank, Calif. Cam is nominated for a Grammy Award for best country solo performance.

Associated Press

but she quit to pursue singing and writing. She cowrote Miley Cyrus’ “Maybe You’re Right,” from her wellreceived 2013 “Bangerz” album, and also wrote for country singer Maggie Rose, but Cam kept pushing toward her own singing career, even raising money through Kickstarter.

She came up with “Burning House” after regrets about a breakup manifested themselves into a dream that her ex was trapped in a burning house. At the end of the first verse, she sings, “I lay beside you and pulled you close, and the two of us went up in smoke.”

It is a pretty morose topic for a single, but her haunting voice paired with simple piano and guitar backing made it sound starkly different than anything else on country radio.

Grammy-winning producer Jeff Bhasker, who has worked with Kanye West, fun. and Taylor Swift, mentored Cam and helped craft the song with producer and co-writer Tyler Johnson.

“No drums, slow song, odd time signatures, but it just resonated,” Bhasker said of the song.

Bhasker, who is nominated at the Grammys for nonclassical producer of the

year and record of the year for his work on Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” believed in Cam so much that he signed her to his own label, Kravenworks.

“It’s so tough for a woman to get a break in country music,” said Bhasker, who has also worked with Beyonce, Lana Del Rey and Drake. “Especially coming from pop, where it’s like a majority of female artists get lots of radio play.”

Bhasker helped her get a meeting two years ago at Sony Music Entertainment in New York, where she met with the company’s chairman and CEO Doug Morris.

“And I didn’t fully know who Doug Morris was,” Cam said of her first meeting with the label head.

“We sang ‘Burning House,’ and Doug closed his eyes and started singing along by the second chorus.”

Fans have a similar reaction when she plays it live. She had thousands of fans singing along when she made a surprise appearance at a concert by country singer Sam Hunt in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, last year.

“I don’t know anything in the world that unites 10,000 people for three minutes and everyone is completely on the same page,”

Cam said.

After getting signed by Sony’s RCA Records/Arista Nashville, “Burning House” continued to burn up the charts. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard’s Hot country songs chart and went platinum, a rare feat for a new female country artist.

The song also helped Cam earn four nominations at the Academy of Country Music Awards, including single record of the year.

“Burning House” appears on her major label debut, “Untamed,” which was released in December to critical acclaim. And she’s opening on tour for Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley this year.

“It’s super humbling,” Cam said of her Grammy nomination, which pits her song against tracks by Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Lee Ann Womack and Keith Urban.

“It’s really nice for myself and for so many people, like as an artist, that you represent. All the people that have gone into making the music and helping it reach so many ears.”

The Grammys will air live Feb. 15 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ACM Awards will air live from Las Vegas on April 3.

Both shows will air on CBS.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31

Tuesday 2 February 2016

A monetary ‘magician’ of dirty tricks in ABC drama ‘Madoff’ FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t look to Richard Dreyfuss to defend Bernie Madoff.

Dreyfuss, who plays this rapacious investment guru in ABC’s miniseries “Madoff” (airing Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. EST), isn’t about to plead Bernie’s case.

“But actors don’t only play people they approve of,” says the Oscar-winning actor who for years tried to launch a film project that would star him as Adolph Hitler.

Then he cites another object of his scorn he did portray — former vice president Dick Cheney in the 2008 feature”W.” “I think he deserves to go to jail for a million years,” says Dreyfuss, “but I could still play him.

People forget that inside everyone is a bit of Dick Cheney, and as an actor you find those little moments when you’ve been a little bit Cheney. Or a little bit Bernie. Then you extrapolate that out to build the character on.”

Whatever his MO for channeling his inner darkness, it works for him here. Charmingly, chillingly does Dreyfuss inhabit this self-proclaimed Wall Street “magician” whose colossal Ponzi scheme lost as much as

In this image released by ABC, Blythe Danner, left, and Richard Dreyfuss appear in the primetime miniseries “Madoff,” airing Feb. 3-4 at 8 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network.

Associated Press

$40 billion for tens of thousands of clients in more than 100 countries ranging from movie stars to elderly retirees.

Beside him for this monumental rise and fall was his devoted wife Ruth, who in “Madoff” receives a raw but compassionate portrayal by Blythe Danner.

“She didn’t know,” declares Danner. “She was guiltless, as far as I’m con-

cerned.”

The Emmy- and Tony-winning actress met with Ruth Madoff — who now lives in seclusion stripped of family, riches and good name — to prepare for the film.

“I didn’t ask her a lot of probing questions, but it was good to get a feeling of who she was: a composed, lovely lady,” Danner says. “She was picking up and going on as best

she could. But you sensed a lot of pain.”

Dreyfuss says he had a similar opportunity: to speak by phone with Bernie Madoff.

“I turned it down. I thought, ‘What’s he gonna do, tell me the truth?’ It would be an exercise in futility.”

His crime was notable only for its epic scale. Indeed, the ripple effects of his racket even reached the “Madoff” production last

year, according to the film’s director, Raymond De Felitta.

During the shoot, New Yorkarea country clubs proved cost-efficient “for mopping up several locations — a dining room, an apartment, a golf course — at one site,” he notes. But he was caught off-guard by the welcome with which the film crew (and its fees) were greeted.

“I told the guy at one Long Island country club, ‘I remember when country clubs didn’t allow film crews to shoot there,’” De Felitta says. “He explained, ‘Madoff wiped out a lot of our membership. We need the money.’ From prison, Bernie was helping us make the film!”

De Felitta (who also directed the 2009 indie feature “City Island”) calls Madoff “villainous. But you have to show him as human.”

Helping humanize the portrait is Madoff’s relationship — domineering yet caring — with his wife.

Dreyfuss calls attention to a tender moment after Madoff’s bare-knuckles disclosure to his family that he’s a fraud who’s headed to jail, and they’re broke.

His two sons storm out of the room. “But he can tell that Ruth still doesn’t understand. She says to him, ‘What do you mean?’”q

Review: ‘The Language of Secrets’ is action-packed novel OLINE H. COGDILL Associated Press The hot-button issues of religion and culture — sometimes wrapped in controversy and suspicion — make a compelling foundation in Ausma Zehanat Khan’s second novel about Esa Khattak, head of Toronto’s Community Policing Section that handles minority issues.

In her second, thought-provoking novel, Khan continues to show how Esa is divided by his devotion to his Muslim faith and community and his role as a police detective. He is constantly being scrutinized, suspected of being a traitor by

both his Muslim community and by the police force.

In “The Language of Secrets,” Esa’s loyalties are tested again when he is assigned to investigate the murder of Mohsin Dar, an estranged friend who had infiltrated a Muslim terrorist cell. As Esa looks into Mohsin’s life, his partner, Sgt. Rachel Getty, goes undercover in the mosque, claiming she is considering converting. But Esa’s investigation is hampered personally and professionally.

His independent sister, Ruksh, has been secretly engaged to the mosque’s leader, Hassan Ashkouri. Inspector Ciprian Coale, who

is investigating the terrorist plot, purposely keeps vital aspects of the investigation from Esa — partly because he doesn’t trust Esa’s loyalties and also because the two men are enemies.

With its thought-provoking, intelligent plot, “The Language of Secrets” even surpasses Khan’s superb debut, “The Unquiet Dead.”

“The Language of Secrets” delivers a powerful insight into the Muslim community, exploring those who are peace-loving and proud of their heritage as well as those whose pride transforms into violence.

Yet Khan never stoops to a treatise about the Muslim

This book cover image released by Minotaur shows “The Language of Secrets,”

by Ausma Zehanat Khan.

Associated Press

world while smoothly incorporating a look at the culture, politics and poetry.

Khan’s affinity for character studies reaches its zenith in the complicated Esa, an honorable man constantly torn by his choices, yet sure of himself.

“It’s the price you pay for doing what is necessary,” he says. “For what you think is right. ... And for knowing where you belong.”

Using a 2006 failed terrorist plot that was uncovered

by Canadian law enforcement, Khan delivers an action-packed police procedural complemented by strong characters with believable motives.q

A32 FEATURE

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Hotels expand options to keep guests healthy on the road KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Running concierges, a hotel mini bar stocked with produce from the local farmers market and a training wall that comes standard in every room.

The hotel industry is moving beyond basement gyms and basic spa menus to accommodate guests’ growing requests to stay healthy while on the road.

The trend has been a mainstay at spas and wellness resorts for years, but now hotels frequented by business travelers and families are showing that life on the go doesn’t have to mean sacrificing spin class or a quinoa superfood bowl.

In this Jan. 24, 2016, photo, Paula Walker, center foreground, an instructor with Green Monkey Yoga, leads a yoga class at the Mondrian South Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. Associated Press

In this Jan. 24, 2016, photo, Paula Walker, left, an instructor with Green Monkey Yoga, leads a yoga class at the Mondrian South Beach Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. Associated Press

Boutique and luxury hotels along with big name brands including Westin and Wyndham have vastly expanded fitness programs and dining options in recent years. The luxury gym Equinox is even opening its own hotel in New York.

The number of hotels with fitness facilities jumped from 63 percent in 2004 to 84 percent in 2014, according to a study by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. And hotels offering in-room exercise equipment has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, from seven to 13 percent, according to the study.

“It’s what the marketplace is demanding,” said Dena Roche, wellness travel expert and editor of The Travel Diet website. “People are trying to lead a health-

ier lifestyle in their daily life so when they go on the road they want to keep

ball, foam roller and a mounted fitness wall with resistance bands plus 19 videos and training guides to help you get your sweat on. Wyndham guests can request a room stocked with an exercise machine (like a stationary bike, elliptical machine or treadmill) and free workout wear, and the W hotel chain partnered with popular yogi Tara Stiles for free in-room yoga videos and a set of tip cards placed around the room to suggest poses to help you relax, wake up or get in the mood.

“It’s pushing from a trend to a tipping point where there’s mass adoption around wellness into every

the Even brand. Even Hotels have three locations, including one in New York City, and are planning to open eight more including one in Miami.

“Everyone has a different aspect of what they’re looking for ... the hotel was

some of the world’s top yogis. Spinning junkies only have to walk downstairs at the 1 Hotel South Beach for a Soul Cycle class.

Forgot to pack your workout clothes? No problem.

Trump Hotels and Fairmont have partnered with Under Armour and Reebok respectively to style your workout. Westin’s lending program with New Balance had a 16 percent increase in requests in 2015. At the hotel’s Grand Central location in New York, more than 2,000 guests paid $5 to get a new pair of sneakers and clothes delivered to their room.

Kimpton’s running kit includes a map of the Hudson River running path and pre-loaded iPod shuffle.

Fairmont and several other hotels have running programs including “run concierges” at roughly 200 Westin locations and other options for runners.

The beefed-up offerings come as guests, particularly younger ones, say it’s

The hotel world is moving beyond basement gyms and ho-hum spa menus to accommodate guests’ growing requests to stay healthy while on the road.

Associated Press

The number of hotels with fitness facilities jumped from 63 percent in 2004 to 84 percent in 2014, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Associated Press

doing those things.”

At the Even Hotels, every room has a training zone with a yoga mat, exercise

aspect of people’s lives,” Jason Moskal, a vice president at Intercontinental Hotels Group, which owns

designed with this idea of wanting wellness on my own terms,” he said.

Rooftop yoga classes are all the rage at hotels across the country including The James Hotel in New York and the Mondrian South Beach. Guests at The Standard in Miami Beach can also enjoy waterfront yoga or stand-up paddle board classes and grab a green drink from the hotel’s juice bar. Their spa, which offers a variety of fitness classes for guests (some are for members only) is also a hub for sessions taught by

one of the deciding factors on where they will stay.

Forty-five percent of millennials and 38 percent of Gen-Xers said spa and fitness centers were influential in where they booked a room, according to a 2015 survey from travel and hospitality marketing firm MMGY Global.

Several hotel chains are also targeting the techminded fitness buffs. Trump SoHo has a new program that gives guests a free Fitbit Charge to help track whether they meet their daily step goal.q