January 30, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Saturday, January 30, 2016

Mail Bomb

Government Finds ‘Top Secret’ Info in Clinton Emails Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded secrets.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Page 3

A2 UP

Saturday 30 January 2016

FRONT

UN-hosted Syria peace talks off to shaky start BASSEM MROUE JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Peace talks aimed at ending Syria’s five-year civil war got off to a shaky and chaotic start Friday, with the main opposition group at first boycotting the session, then later agreeing to meet with U.N. officials — while still insisting it would

without an end to the bombardment of civilians

by Russian and Syrian government forces, a lifting of blockades in rebel-held areas and the release of detainees.

An HNC statement said the opposition decided to take part in the talks after receiving assurances from friendly countries about those humanitarian issues, and

egation would arrive Saturday only to talk to U.N. officials about its demands after receiving some reassurances from the U.N., but “not to negotiate.”

The decision came after many Western powers and Saudi Arabia — a major backer of the group — had pushed hard for the HNC to attend, diplomats said.

Disputes have arisen over

Syrian chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari, Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of the Syria to UN New York, sits after arriving for the round of negotiation between the Syrian government and the opposition in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

not negotiate.

That small commitment by the group known as the Higher Negotiating Committee came just minutes before U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura met with a delegation representing the government of President Bashar Assad.

The developments gave a glimmer of hope that peace efforts in Syria might actually get off the ground for the first time since two earlier rounds of negotiations collapsed in 2014.

The conflict has killed at least 250,000 people, forced millions to flee the country, and given an opening to the Islamic State group to capture territory in Syria and Iraq. It has drawn in U.S. and Russia, as well as regional powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The HNC, a Saudi-backed bloc, had previously said it would not participate in the U.N.-sponsored talks

that a delegation headed

by HNC chief Riad Hijab will leave Saudi Arabia for Geneva on Saturday.

Only once their conditions are met will they negotiate, the statement added.

De Mistura said he had “good reason to believe” the HNC would join the talks Sunday, but refused to react formally until he got an official notice from its leadership.

“As you can imagine, I have been hearing rumors and information already,” de Mistura told reporters after meeting with the delegation led by Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari.

“What I will react to — that’s why I said I have reasons to believe — I will only react when I get a formal indication of that,” de Mistura said, “But that is a good signal.”

Speaking almost simultaneously at a hotel across town, HNC member Farah Atassi told reporters its del-

which opposition parties will attend, with the HNC coming under criticism for including the militant Army of Islam group, which controls wide areas near the capital of Damascus, and is considered a terrorist organization by the Syrian government and Russia.

The largest Kurdish group in Syria, the Democratic Union Party or PYD, is not invited to the talks. Turkey considers the PYD to be a terrorist organization. Also not invited are the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

Opposition figures from outside the HNC also are in Geneva, but they were invited as advisers.

The meetings, billed as multiparty talks, are part of a process outlined in a U.N. resolution last month that envisions an 18-month timetable for a political transition in Syria, including the drafting of a new constitution and elections.q

AP: Iran flies unarmed military drone over a US aircraft carrier NASSER KARIMI JON GAMBRELL Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran flew a surveillance drone over a U.S. aircraft carrier and published video of the encounter Friday, the latest in a series of edgy naval incidents between the two countries in the Persian Gulf after the recent nuclear deal.

While the U.S. Navy stressed it knew the drone was unarmed and the flyover didn’t interrupt U.S. operations in the war against the Islamic State group, the incident underlined the continued tension over control of waterways crucial to global oil supplies.

It follows a rocket test last month by the Islamic Republic near coalition warships and commercial traffic, as well as Iran’s brief capture of American sailors who strayed into its territorial waters.

Iranian state television and the semi-official Fars news agency, which has close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, published identical images Friday both said came from the drone. The footage, which The Associated Press could not independently verify, purported to show the drone being launched and then hovering over an unidentified aircraft carrier, a targeting bracket briefly passing over a jet parked on the deck below.

The Iranian reports suggested the footage was from Friday. However, Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said an unarmed Iranian drone flew near the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and “directly over” the USS Harry S. Truman on Jan. 12 as the vessels were in international waters in the Persian Gulf.

He said the Navy launched a helicopter that determined the drone wasn’t armed and “posed no danger to the ship” as the carrier wasn’t conducting flight operations at the time. His comments implied that had there been active takeoffs and landings of U.S. aircraft, the situation might have changed.

Stephens called the drone’s flight “abnormal and unprofessional.” He added that the U.S. Navy was “not in a position to verify the authenticity of the video as there are countless examples of similar footage to be found on the Internet.”

The nuclear-powered USS Harry S. Truman, based out of Norfolk, Virginia, is in the Persian Gulf region launching airstrikes and supporting operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, the commander of Iran’s navy, called the drone overflight “a sign of bravery.”

It “allowed our men to go so close to the warship and shoot such a beautiful and accurate footage of the combat units of the foreign forces,” he told state television. State television and the state-run IRNA news agency said an Iranian light submarine also participated in the surveillance operation.

When asked about the presence of a submarine, Stephens said: “Iran has several submarines ... for its current exercise,” but declined to discuss specifics.

In Washington, U.S. Navy spokesman Cmdr. William Marks stressed America remains ready to use force if necessary. “We are confident in our force’s ability to respond appropriately as the situation dictates and will defend ourselves should that prove necessary,” he said.

Iran’s navy began a naval drill this week over a 3-million-square-kilometer (1.16-million-square-mile) area including parts of the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. q

U.S. NEWS A3

Saturday 30 January 2016

APNewsBreak:

Government finds ‘top secret’ info in Clinton emails

BRADLEY KLAPPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification.

The revelation comes just three days before the presidential nominating sessions or caucuses in the state of Iowa in which Clinton is the front-running Democratic candidate.

Friday’s release is coming at an awkward time for Clinton. The Iowa caucus is on Feb. 1, and her main challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is running neck and neck with her in the polls there and leads solidly in the state of New Hampshire whose primary election is Feb. 9. Clinton still holds a strong advantage in national polls.

Republicans also have been trying to slow the momentum of her campaign by playing up Clinton’s email issues, saying she played by her own rules when it came to national security.

It’s the potential political costs that are probably of more immediate concern for Clinton. She has struggled in surveys measuring her perceived trustworthiness, and an active federal investigation, especially one buoyed by evidence that top secret material coursed through her account, could negate one of her main selling points for becoming commander in chief: Her national security resume.

The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state later Friday. But The Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be “top secret.”

The 37 pages include messages recently described

by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called “special access programs” — a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes or government eavesdropping.

Department officials wouldn’t describe the substance of the emails or say if Clinton sent any herself.

They also wouldn’t disclose if any of the documents reflected information that was classified at the time of transmission, but indicated that the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus have begun looking into that question.

“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, describing the decision to withhold documents in full as “not unusual.” That means they won’t be published online with the rest of the documents, even with blackedout boxes.

Clinton has insisted she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were stamped “CLASSIFIED” or “TOP SECRET,” but reviewers previously had designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels for public release.

For those that Clinton only read, and didn’t write or forward, she still would have been required to report classification slippages that she recognized. But without classification markings, that may have been difficult, especially if the information was in the public domain.

Kirby said the State Department’s focus as part of the Freedom of Information Act review of Clinton’s emails was on “whether they need to be classified today.”q

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes a photograph with a member of the audience after speaking at a rally at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A4 U.S.

Saturday 30 January 2016

NEWS

Authorities: 1 of 3 fugitive inmates arrested in California GILLIAN FLACCUS AMY TAXIN Associated Press SANTA ANA, California (AP) — Police arrested one of three violent fugitive inmates on Friday after he told a woman in the same city where the jailbreak occurred a week ago that he wanted to surrender, authorities said.

The other two men remained at large.

Bac Duong, 43, was taken into custody in Santa Ana, where the trio made their brazen escape on Jan. 22 from the maximum security facility, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said.

Lee Tran, an owner of Auto Electric Rebuilders, said Duong came into the shop looking for Tran’s sister, Theresa, and told her that he wanted to turn himself in.

Tran says his sister called police and Duong went

outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for police to arrive.

He says his sister’s boyfriend knows Duong and that marshals had come by to speak with her earlier this week because she might have visited Duong in jail.

Shortly after the latemorning arrest, a team of well-armed officers in protective vests swarmed the business.

Hutchens declined to provide any further details at a hastily called news conference that lasted less than three minutes.

“We just got this information and as you can imagine we are pretty busy working this,” she said, adding that authorities were still searching for a white van they believe Duong had stolen last week.

Authorities previously said the fugitives were likely still together and might be liv-

Orange County Sheriff agents search the back of a hotel for escaped inmates in Santa Ana, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. Authorities say they have captured one of three inmates who escaped from a California jail last week while facing charges involving violent crimes.

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

ing out of the van.

Duong, 20-year-old Jona-

than Tieu and 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri had all been awaiting trial for separate violent crimes. They were held in a dormitory with about 65 other men in the jail about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

The men escaped in the early morning hours after cutting a hole in a metal grate then crawling through plumbing tunnels and onto the roof of a fivestory jail building.

They pushed aside barbed wire and rappelled down using a rope made of bed sheets.

It took jail staff 16 hours to realize the three men were missing.

On Thursday, authorities arrested a woman who taught English inside the jail and told investigators she helped Nayeri plan the escape.

Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, gave Nayeri a paper copy of a Google Earth map that showed an aerial view of the entire jail compound, Lt. Jeff Hallock, a sheriff’s spokesman, said.

She was booked on suspi-

cion of being an accessory to a felony and was being held pending a court appearance set for Monday.

It wasn’t clear if she had a lawyer.

Ravaghi and Nayeri also exchanged “personal and close” handwritten letters, but Hallock could not say if the two were romantically involved.

“It wasn’t the relationship that you would expect between a teacher and an inmate in a custody setting,” he said.

It wasn’t clear why Nayeri was allowed to take Ravaghi’s class because he spoke fluent English.

“Why he was attending that class ... that is very much of a concern for us,” Hallock said.

It also wasn’t clear why jail deputies, who read all inmate correspondence, didn’t flag the letters.

Ravaghi was working as a part-time English instructor through the Rancho Santiago Community College District and had worked in the inmate program since 2014, the district said in a statement.q

U.S. NEWS A5

Saturday 30 January 2016

LIFE

is Beautiful

Coffee - Kitchen - Drinks

Michigan governor signs $28M bill to address water crisis JEFF KAROUB DAVID EGGERT Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (AP) — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law $28 million more in emergency funding on Friday to address Flint’s lead-contaminated water, and said he didn’t know some state workers in the city had received bottled water last year while officials were still telling residents that tap water was safe to drink.

It’s the second round of state aid for the city since the crisis was confirmed in the fall, bringing the total allocated to nearly $39 million. The Republican governor said the funding will provide immediate resources in Flint, but is not the end of state assistance.

Improperly treated water leached lead from pipes into drinking water after Flint switched from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River in 2014 to save money while under state finan-

cial management. Some children’s blood has tested positive for lead, which has been linked to learning disabilities, lower IQ and behavioral problems. Flint has reconnected to Detroit’s system for now.

“It’s time to stand up and recognize that things could have been done differently,” Snyder said before signing the aid legislation. “Mistakes were made. ... We’re going to solve them.”

Snyder has accepted responsibility for the emergency while also blaming state and federal environmental regulators, some of whom have resigned or have been suspended. But he remains the target of criticism, including longshot efforts to recall him from office. In pledging again to fix the problem, he said, “how do you learn from things that didn’t go right to be even stronger and better for the long term?”

News that employees at a state building in Flint re-

People photograph the signing of a $28 million aid package for Flint’s water crisis at a press conference at the Michigan Press Association banquet Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, at Ambassador Ballroom in the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich. The money will be allocated to state departments to spend for things such as more water filters, additional school nurses and an infrastructure study by independent experts.

(Nick Gonzales/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)

ceived fresh bottled water came Thursday in emails released by Progress Michigan, a liberal group critical

of Snyder.The governor’s spokesman Dave Murray said the water was for both employees and residents

visiting the building, which includes the Department of Health and Human Services, starting in January 2015.

A6 U.S.

Saturday 30 January 2016

NEWS

Longshoremen walk off job in New York, New Jersey

A straddle carrier loads a container onto a truck at the Port Newark Container Terminal in Newark, N.J. On Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, more than 1,000 longshoremen walked off the job at ports in New York and New Jersey, putting ship unloading at a standstill. The walkoff began at about 11 a.m.

Friday.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Longshoremen walked off the job at ports in New York and New Jersey on Friday, putting a halt to the unloading of ships at the nation’s third-busiest port.

The walkout began at

about 11 a.m. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the action. Several thousand longshoremen are employed in the ports system.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the

ports’ operator, said more than 1,000 longshoremen participated in the walkout.

A spokesman for the International Longshoremen’s Association said the walkout took many union of-

ficials by surprise. James McNamara told NJ.com that the union has objected to what it considers interference by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor in its collective bargaining agreement.

No ships were being unloaded and no trucks were being allowed to enter the port during the job action.

On Wednesday, the ports had reopened after being closed for two days for snow removal from last weekend’s blizzard.

The Port Authority was working to get trucks that were in the port at the time of the strike out of the area.

It sent an email saying, “We strongly urge the ILA members to return to work immediately and resolve their differences after they return.”

The New York-New Jersey port handles more than $200 billion worth of cargo per year and is the busiest port on the East Coast and the third-busiest in the country, behind Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. q

Some Midwest farmers moving to organic can get aid BLAKE NICHOLSON Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota and Minnesota are helping farmers with the three-year transition from traditional crops to organic production, an effort that the industry’s main trade group says could boost the acreage of organically grown crops in the U.S. if it takes root beyond the upper Midwest.

Minnesota started its grant program first, in 2013, and North Dakota followed suit this year. Both programs assist with the transition

costs — everything from soil testing to education.

Minnesota farmers can get up to $750 annually and North Dakota farmers up to $1,000.

The expense of the transition, which bans farmers from using mainstream chemicals and likely leads to lower yields, is not prohibitive, but “there’s a learning curve there that the farmer needs to go through,” said Lowell Kaul, an organic farmer near Harvey, North Dakota, who serves on a board that advises the state agriculture commis-

sioner. During the conversion, farmers can’t sell their crops into the organic market until they are certified organic by a governmentapproved agency.

The Organic Trade Association is pushing for an industry-led, governmentadministered certification program for organic farmers who are still in the transition phase, to give them better support and possibly even premium prices for their crops, according to Nathaniel Lewis, the association’s senior crops and livestock specialist.

It’s not a silver bullet (but) it’s an appropriate role for agriculture departments to play.”

Organic crops account for less than 1 percent of U.S. farmland, the association said, and federal Agriculture Department data shows there are only about 14,000 organic farms — a fraction of the 2 million total farms in the U.S. But the demand is high for organic products: Sales have increased from $3.6 billion in 1997 to nearly $40 billion in 2014, association figures show.q

Proposed ethanol plant getting $4.2M in state tax breaks DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Minnesota businessman whose construction company has built many of the nation’s ethanol plants received state sales tax incentives Friday to complete construction on a previously idled project in southwest Iowa.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved $4.2 million in sales tax refund benefits for the project proposed

by Farmers Energy Cardinal to build a corn ethanol plant northwest of Atlantic.

The company had sought $17.2 million in tax benefits, including investment tax credits and sales tax refunds, but the board took a cautious approach and approved just the sales tax incentives for the company, which promises to create 49 jobs.

The plant is designed to produce 150 million gallons of ethanol a year — a capacity that ranks it among the largest of Iowa’s 44 corn ethanol refineries.

National ethanol production is nearly 15 billion gallons a year. Iowa leads the way with nearly 3.8 billion, followed by Nebraska’s 1.8 billion gallons and Illinois’ 1.5 billion gallons.

“Even though we have the largest amount of ethanol production we still have excess corn,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, an industry trade group. “Iowa should still be one of the most attractive places to expand ethanol production whether it’s with a greenfield plants like this proposal or through expansion to existing plants.” q

U.S. NEWS A7

Saturday 30 January 2016

US Financial Front:

American economy expected to strengthen after weak 4Q

Jeff Cuvelier, Jorgensen Forge master machinist, left, talks with Gov. Jay Inslee, center, on a tour of the plant in Seattle. On Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, the Commerce Department issued the first of three estimates of how the U.S. economy performed in the October-December quarter.

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy struggled to grow in the OctoberDecember quarter as consumer spending, business investment and exports slowed. Yet despite global weakness and shrunken oil and stock prices, many economists expect growth to accelerate

on the strength of healthy job gains.

The economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent last quarter, less than half the 2 percent growth rate in the July-September period, the government said Friday. It was the worst showing since a severe winter slowed the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, to a

0.6 percent annual growth rate in last year’s first quarter.

Though the slowdown late last year could renew doubts about the durability of the 6½-year-old economic expansion, most analysts said they expected the slump to be short-lived.

“The weak growth is temporary,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist

at IHS Global Insight. “This is not an early warning of something worse.”

Behravesh said two of the key negative factors last quarter — an effort by companies to pare an overhang of unsold goods and investment cutbacks by oil companies facing much lower energy prices — would likely diminish early this year. That would pave the way for decent annual growth of around 2.5 percent in the first half of 2016, Behravesh said.

Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, said he thinks GDP growth will rebound to an annual rate between 2.5 percent and 3 percent in the first six months of 2016 as further solid job growth fuels additional consumer spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.

Much of last quarter’s weakness reflected a slowdown in consumer spending, which grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate, compared with a 3 percent rate the previous quarter.

Analysts said part of that weakness likely reflected a

warmer-than-normal December, which reduced spending on winter clothing and utility bills.

Friday’s estimate of fourthquarter growth was the first of three that the government will issue. Besides consumer spending, exports were a source of weakness last quarter. That reflected in part a stronger dollar, which has made U.S. goods pricier and therefore less competitive overseas. Persistent sluggishness in such key export markets as China and Europe hurt, too. A wider U.S. trade deficit cut annual growth last quarter by 0.5 percentage point.

An additional drag came from cutbacks in business investment spending, which fell at a 1.8 percent annual rate, with spending on structures down 5.3 percent. That reflected a 38.7 percent plunge in spending in the oil and gas industry, which has slashed drilling and exploration in response to the plunge in oil prices.

Besides pulling back on investment, businesses cut spending on stockpiles to try to pare unwanted inventories. q

US paychecks show little sign of accelerating in 4th quarter CHRIS RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. paychecks increased moderately in the final three months of last year, yet the gain was little changed from the sluggish post-recession trend. The employment cost index, which tracks wages and benefits, rose 0.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the Labor Department said.

That’s the same as the previous three months.

In the past year, salaries

and benefits have risen just 2 percent, the same annual pace as the previous two quarters. That is below the roughly 3.5 percent rate that is consistent with a healthy economy.

There have been some signs wages are picking up in other data, but those gains are modest. Average hourly pay increased 2.5 percent in December from a year earlier, according to the government’s monthly jobs report. That was only the second time since

2009 that increases have reached that level, but it’s not far from the sluggish 2 percent pace that has existed since the recession.

Still, the modest annual gain in the employment cost index suggests that companies are able to find the workers they need without offering much higher pay. That suggests there still may be millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed but are not reflected in the official unemployment rate.

For example, the number of people with part-time jobs but who would prefer fulltime work remains higher than pre-recession levels.

“In short, largely a continuation of recent tame trends,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in an email. “Unemployment is just approaching standard estimates of the full employment level now and still appears to be trending down, and wages tend to lag.”

Americans are seeing some improvement in inflationadjusted wages. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose just 0.3 percent in 2015, held down by sharp drops in gas and other energy prices. That’s lower than the 1.4 percent gain recorded in 2014 and means that U.S. paychecks were able to stretch a bit further last year.

The modest wage increase suggests that inflation will likely remain tame in the coming months. q

A8

Saturday 30 January 2016

WORLD NEWS

UK’s Cameron: Still plenty of work to do at EU reform talks RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Friday that his nation and the European Union still have serious hurdles to overcome ahead of a mid-February summit at which he hopes to cement reforms that will persuade British voters to stay in the EU. After talks with top EU officials, Cameron said the proposal for reform currently on the table is “not good enough.”

“It needs more work, but we are making progress,” he said.

At the same time, Poland again balked at Britain’s desire to place temporary curbs on benefits for EU migrants in the U.K. The 28-nation bloc values the free flow of its citizens to work and live among member nations — but Britain’s Conservative government says hundreds of thousands of people from Eastern Europe who have flocked to the U.K. are straining schools, hospitals and social services.

“We will not accept solutions that would lead to

British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, stands with European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron is kicking off a high-stakes weekend of diplomatic negotiations on the European Union reforms with a visit to EU headquarters.

(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

the discrimination of our citizens in any EU member nation,” Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said in Warsaw.

After Friday’s talks with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament chief Martin Schulz, Cameron will host EU President

Donald Tusk for a working dinner in London on Sunday as the Feb. 18-19 EU summit on the issue draws near.

Over the past weeks, both sides have shown signs that a deal may be possible.

If he gets enough reform, Cameron will urge voters to back continued EU membership during a British ref-

erendum that could come as early as this summer.

Cameron has said he needs more independent decision-making brought back to national capitals from EUheadquarters in Brussels, and that he was heartened by recent talks.

“What I was previously told

was impossible is now looking like it is possible,” he told the BBC Friday.

Many EU leaders oppose Cameron’s proposal that new immigrants wait four years before they can receive some British benefits.

But the EU may be prepared to offer Britain an “emergency brake” that would let it deny some welfare provisions to workers if it’s clear the national system is under strain.

The proposal could satisfy Britain’s goal of regaining some control over immigration and other countries’ desire to maintain the key EU principle of free movement among member states.

Schulz said Friday he was “optimistic there will be a deal in mid-February” if there was “good will from both sides.”

Cameron said Britain simply wanted “a system where you have to pay in before you get out.

We don’t want a something-for-nothing society.”

“I can’t be certain we’ll get there in February, but I will work as hard as I can to deliver a good deal for the British people,” the prime minister said.q

Fugitive mobsters found in Italy bunker with guns, cooking pots FRANCES D’EMILIO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italian police discovered an underground bunker in the countryside of southern Calabria Friday with two mobsters, considered among Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, holed up and sleeping inside.

Police said they are trying to find a network of accomplices they suspect helped ‘ndrangheta clan

bosses Giuseppe Crea and Giuseppe Ferraro elude capture for 10 years and 18 years respectively.

Crea, 37, faces 22 years in prison for Mafia association; Ferraro, 48, was sentenced to life imprisonment, including for a murder conviction.

The two had a dozen firearms, including a Kalashnikov, neatly hung up on a wall, video released by police of the bunker’s interior showed.

Also hanging from a wall was a pasta pot. Tomatoes, salad and what looked like a plate heaped with ricotta were on the counter.

Despite its being dug deep into the ground, the hideout was furnished with electricity, and the mobsters had a satellite TV and a computer, police said.

Vines and bushes camouflaged the hideout in the province of Reggio Calabria.

Ferraro is considered one of the last survivors of a decades-long ferocious ‘ndrangheta clan feud that claimed at least 20 lives, according to police.

Among those victims was a mobster whose body was fed to pigs and a 9-year-old boy who was accidentally shot when his grandfather’s car was mistakenly fired on, daily Corriere della Sera reported.

Announcing the capture of

the pair, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano noted they were “both on Italy’s list of most dangerous fugitives.”

Authorities described the two as being clan bosses from ‘ndrangheta territory near Gioia Tauro, a port on the Tyrrhenian coast which, investigators have long maintained, the syndicate frequently uses as a base for activities such as drug and arms trafficking.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Saturday 30 January 2016

European far-right, nationalist parties meet in Milan COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — Sharing the stage with leaders of other European populist parties, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Friday that Europe’s nationalist parties are ready to step in and clean up when European structures fail under current immigration and monetary policies. Le Pen spoke at the end of the first meeting of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group within the European Parliament, which was formed last summer. The 36-member parliamentary group is the smallest in the European Parliament, but includes some parties gaining strength in the polls in their home countries.

At a news conference, Le Pen along with populist leaders from host Italy, the Netherlands and Austria expressed their common view that Europe’s borders must be closed to mass migration from the Middle East and Africa and said

that sovereignty over such policies must be restored to nations. They cited both the threat of terrorism and the strain on budgets.

Outside, several hundred students peacefully protested the presence of a gathering they saw as racist.“European structures that were poorly constructed are crumbling everywhere,” Le Pen said. “But I have to say to European citizens that they have nothing to fear in the end of this ancient world. To the contrary, they can hope for the return of the nations and their freedom.”

Also attending the Milan event Thursday and Friday were leaders of nationalist parties from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic.

Le Pen said the parties represented on the stage in Milan “are part of the future” and expressed a conviction that they won’t always be relegated to the opposition.q

A. AL-SHIHRI Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Two gunmen wearing suicide bomb belts attacked a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia during Friday prayers, an assault that killed at least three people and one bomber and wounded 18, authorities said.

The attack struck the Imam Reda Mosque in the neighborhood of Mahasen, an area popular with Shiite workers of the state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil-producing firm.

One attacker detonated

his explosives, while the other opened fire, the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by the staterun Saudi Press Agency.

The other attacker was stopped by worshippers from blowing himself up, it said.

The dead included two security officers and a civilian, as well as a suicide bomber, authorities said.

In the attack’s chaotic aftermath, Saudi police fired assault rifles into the air to drive away an angry mob that surrounded a police car holding a suspected attacker, according to video shot from the scene.q

Attack on Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia kills 3

French far right leader Marine Le Pen speaks at the press conference of the second day of a 2-day convention of European nationalists, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A10 WORLD

Saturday 30 January 2016

NEWS

In Russia:

As food prices spike, some winners emerge JAMES ELLINGWORTH VITNIJA SALDAVA Associated Press PAVLISHCHEVO, Russia (AP) — For Olga Druganina, Russia’s economic turmoil has been a great businessopportunity. Four years ago, the former employee at an industrial machines com-

shops and chain stores, and in general from people who want to consume healthy food.”

Now, as part of a farmers’ cooperative selling highend organic dairy products to moneyed Muscovites, Druganina employs 18 people and keeps more than

food. At a time when sharp food price rises have put Russian family budgets under pressure, the ability to compete on price is key for fast food retailers. Food prices rose 14 percent last year, according to the state statistics agency, at a time when real wages are

Workers deliver food in a McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow, Russia. A long-standing policy to source as many ingredients as possible locally has paid off for the U.S. fast-food giant, which says it serves 1.1 million customers a day in Russia. McDonalds opened 59 new restaurants in Russia last year and picked out the country as a high growth market in its 2015 financial results.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

pany began to develop her modest farm near Moscow as a business. She started out simply wanting to feed family and friends, but Russian bans on foreign foods and the plunging value of the currency encouraged her to expand and tap the growing national demand for local produce.

First came President Vladimir Putin’s sanctions on U.S. and European Union food products in 2014, a response to international sanctions over Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

Over the last year, the low oil price has brought down the value of the Russian ruble, making imported food more expensive.

“It was a little agriculture to supply our family’s needs but when it happened that the sanctions appeared, all that gave a push to our farm’s development,” Druganina says. “We started developing and got a lot of interest from both small

450 cows, sheep, goats and even buffaloes. Her products — cheese, milk, and traditional berry-flavored yoghurts — sell at a premium at the LavkaLavka chain of boutique shops across Moscow, a growing presence named after the Russian for “market stall.”

Its customers include many who would previously have bought now unaffordable or unavailable imported products.Local food producers like Druganina are the most visible beneficiaries of the Russian government’s policy of import substitution, aiming to replace costlier imported goods with home-grown alternatives.

While Putin has called for Russia to head toward selfsufficiency in food, this will take years.

At the other end of the market from Druganina, McDonald’s is another surprising winner from Russia’s refocusing on domestic

falling and unemployment rising.

A long-standing policy to source as many ingredients as possible locally has paid off for the U.S. fast-food giant, which says it serves 1.1 million customers a day in Russia. McDonald’s opened 59 new restaurants in Russia last year and picked out the country as a high growth market in its 2015 financial results. That’s particularly surprising considering the Russian economy shrank 3.7 percent last year and is forecast to remain in recession in 2016.

McDonald’s is “definitely benefiting” from having a Russia-based production network for many of its products, says Moscowbased analyst Vladimir Pantyushin of Sberbank, who points out that the company’s signature Big Mac is cheaper in Russia than almost anywhere else in the world when compared to local earnings. q

On North Korea’s side of DMZ, K-pop reveals growing tension IN THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE, North Korea (AP) — There is a strange quiet along the northern side of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

Quiet, until you listen harder.

Mixed in with magpies flying peacefully overhead and leaves rustling in the freezing wind, the faint melodies of South Korean pop ballads waft through the air, interspersed with spoken commentaries too weak to really follow but strong enough to discern an accent that is decidedly southern.

The music has been drifting over the border in retaliation for what North Korea said was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6. Amid indications that the North is now preparing to launch a rocket that is bound to bring a further international outcry, the odd mixture of calm and almost imperceptible strains of K-pop are an unsettling reminder that, like so many things in this hardto-read country, appearances can deceive.

Surrounded by a deeply dug-in and carefully hidden array of troops ready to attack and artillery batteries ready to fire, this is the world’s most heavily fortified border. In a strip of land ridden with intermittent skirmishes and swathed in decades-old animosities, the motto of the U.S. troops stationed merely a stone’s throw away — “Ready to Fight Tonight” — is a fitting testament to the latent volatility of the world’s final Cold War flashpoint.

Perhaps waiting to first find out what kind of response to its nuclear test the United Nations will come up with, the North has so far said hardly a word about the restart of the South’s propaganda broadcasts.

But flare-ups can be sudden.

Just a few months ago, the South’s decision to restart similar propaganda broadcasts after the death of two South Korean soldiers in a land mine blast so incensed North Korea that it issued an ultimatum to the South that if they weren’t stopped, the rock-concert-style banks of speakers on the southern side of the DMZ would be attacked and destroyed, even if that meant going to war. South Korea turned them off.

A Korean People’s Army colonel who on Friday escorted an AP Television News crew around a military outpost on the edge of the DMZ seemed almost sanguine about them.

Back in the day, he said, the broadcasts used to be a lot louder. He said that since signing up at age 16 he has spent most of his 40 years in the military assigned to various duty postings around the DMZ. Until 2000, the North broadcast its own propaganda right back at the South.

The colonel, Jon Nam Su, denied reports in the South that it has started doing that again.

“We’re not doing that,” he said. “But the puppets in the South do what the U.S. wants, and they are saying extremely unreasonable things.”

Access to the DMZ on both the North and South sides is heavily controlled.

From the North, there are only two places where foreigners are allowed to go, so it is hard to independently verify if the North hasn’t conducted such broadcasts.

From the outpost where Col. Jon spoke, a concrete bunker perched atop a hill that commands a clear view of the DMZ, it is possible to see guard posts in the South that fly both the South Korean and United Nations’ flags.

The bunker itself is often used for indoctrination gatherings and tours for foreigners, who are provided with binoculars. A well-worn trail passes below the bunker along the northern edge of the DMZ. North Korean soldiers use it for their patrols.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Saturday 30 January 2016

Life at Zika epicenter a struggle for afflicted family

Daniele Ferreira dos Santos holds her son Juan Pedro, who was born with microcephaly, outside her house in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Santos was never diagnosed with Zika, but she blames the virus for her son’s defect and for the terrible toll it has taken on her life.

(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

MAURICIO SAVARESE JENNY BARCHFIELD Associated Press RECIFE, Brazil (AP) — Around the fifth month of her pregnancy, Daniele Ferreira dos Santos fell ill with a high fever and angry red splotches on her skin.

She soon recovered.

But weeks later, when she went to the hospital for a prenatal exam, the news was horrific: The baby she was carrying likely had a severe brain injury. When Juan Pedro Campos dos Santos came into the world in December, the circumference of his head was just 26 centimeters, about 20 percent smaller than normal.

Santos was never diagnosed with Zika, but she blames the virus for her son’s defect and for the terrible toll it has taken on her life. Living in Recife in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, she is at the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, and Pedro’s is among 3,700 confirmed or suspected cases of microcephaly in Brazil that may be connected to the virus, though no link has yet been proven.

Originally from Africa, Zika spread to Asia and was first registered in Brazil in the middle of last year, spreading like wildfire through the northeast thanks in part to the region’s widespread poverty, equatorial heat and chronic infestations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue fever and chikungunya. “It’s the proverbial perfect storm,” said Dr. Albert Ko, a professor of epidemiology with the Yale School of Public Health, adding the region was likely at least one of the initial points of entry for the disease — which researchers theorize may have been introduced to Brazil by tourists visiting the country during the 2014 World Cup or an international canoeing event the same year.

The Summer Olympics are due to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August. The games attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.

“It may have been one of many introductions, but this is the one that took off,” said Ko. “In Brazil, infestation rates (of the mosquito) are highest in the northeast because of climactic reasons and socio-economic

reasons, so it makes sense that ... it really took off there.”

Mosquitoes have long been an inescapable part of the lives of the Santos family and their neighbors in a slum in Recife’s Apipucos neighborhood, where raw sewage flows in ditches, rain water from the frequent downpours in this equatorial city accumulates in fetid puddles, and the shores of a nearby pond are dotted with trash.

Each soda bottle, yogurt container and margarine tub provides an ideal breeding ground for Ae-

des.

“The mosquito is in all Recife. If I didn’t get it here, I got it at the place I work,” said Santos, a receptionist.

“We all know that the risk (of contracting a mosquito-borne illness) is high.”

But it wasn’t always this way. Brazil once succeeded in eliminating the Aedes, which is well adapted to humans, lives within people’s homes and can breed in just a bottle cap of stagnant water. Massive eradication efforts in the 1940s and 1950s allowed the country to be declared free of the mos-

quito in 1958, but over the decades the insect returned, slowly encroaching from neighboring countries and finding fertile breeding ground in Brazil’s sprawling, unplanned cities, with their limited potable water systems and garbage collection.

The Brazilian government is now pledging to hand out repellent to low-income pregnant women, but the gesture is cold comfort to new mother Santos.

Asked whether she had any repellent, she just laughed. She has little reason to laugh these days.q

A12 WORLD

Saturday 30 January 2016

NEWS

Cuba a low-key presence at US-Jamaican security conference KATE CHAPPELL Associated Press KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A delegation from Cuba has taken part for the first time in a Caribbean regional security conference co-hosted by the United States. But officials sought to downplay their participation as the four-day event came to a close Fri-

day in the Jamaican capital.

Maj. Gen. Antony Bertram Anderson of the Jamaica Defense Force, which cohosted the event with U.S. Southern Command, started a closing news conference by thanking the U.S. for agreeing to invite Cuba for the first time to the annual event and the Cubans

for sending a delegation.

He noted, however, that their presence was not a focus of attention.

“They were at the table like everybody else,” Anderson said. “It was quite a normal thing. It is the first time but it is what it is. They are a regional country.”

U.S. Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd, the new commander of Mi-

ami-based Southern Command, noted that Cuba was one of the 18 countries from across the region taking part in discussions of humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and other challenges.

“We share challenges, all of the countries across this region,” Tidd said. “Cuba is one of those countries in

this region. And so I believe in the future we’ll have opportunities to find ways to work together.”

The admiral said the subject of the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, did not come up.

The base is the oldest U.S. overseas military outpost and the Cubans have long demanded its return.q

Colombia’s Santos wants FARC rebels off terror list JOSHUA GOODMAN JACOBO GARCIA Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — President Juan Manuel Santos would like the United States to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia from its list of terrorist organizations and suspend drug warrants against guerrilla commanders if he seals a peace deal with Latin America’s oldest leftist insurgency.

In an interview days before a key visit to the White House, Santos made his most-sweeping remarks in three years of peace talks about Washington’s important role at the negotiating table. His Feb. 4 meeting with President Barack Obama will celebrate 15 years and some $10 billion in U.S. counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics aid to its staunchest ally in the region.

The high-profile meeting underscores Colombia’s historic moment: the peace talks taking place in Cuba have reached

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos answers a question during an interview at the Presidential Palace in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. President Santos is hoping the U.S. will suspend drug warrants against guerrilla commanders and remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia from a list of terrorist groups to help cinch a peace deal with Latin America’s insurgency.

(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

what both sides describe as a point of no return, with a final deal to end a halfcentury of bloodshed expected as early as March.

This week the U.N. Security Council unanimously en-

dorsed sending a mission to monitor an eventual accord, handing Santos a diplomatic victory as he tries to drum up funding for what he said will be a 10to 15-year effort to recover

vast parts of the country he says had been ceded by the state to illegal armed groups.

Once a deal is inked, Santos said it would be appropriate for the Obama

administration to strike the FARC from a State Department list of terrorist organizations it has been on for almost two decades alongside such groups as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The FARC, which as part of peace talks has already renounced kidnapping and declared a unilateral truce, has long demanded it be excluded.

“If they sign it’s because we have a timetable for their disarmament and they have committed themselves to lay down their arms and make this transition to legal life. So I would say yes, I hope that they would be eliminated from the terror list,” Santos said Thursday at the presidential palace.

When pressed about how soon after the accord is inked should the FARC be removed, Santos said the “the shorter the better.”

A Colombian paramilitary umbrella group had to wait a full six years after it completely disarmed to be removed. q

Puerto Rico seeks debt exchange deal with creditors DANICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico is pushing for a voluntary debt exchange deal with creditors as it struggles to manage a $72 billion public debt load that the governor has said is unpayable and needs restructuring.

Top officials in the U.S. territory’s government expected to meet Friday with creditors’ advisers to present the proposal.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Pa-

dilla declined to give details of the proposed deal.

He reiterated a call for U.S. Congress to provide Puerto Rico with a debt-restructuring mechanism so it can avoid lawsuits as it tries to emerge from a nearly decade-long economic stagnation.

“Despite our good-faith efforts to find a common solution, it will be very hard to reach an agreement with multiple issuers without having access to a legal framework

to implement the restructuring of our unsustainable debt,” he said in a statement.

The meeting with the advisers comes just days before members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs hold a hearing to talk about creating an authority to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances.

Republicans have been pushing for a federal fiscal control board, but some Puerto Rico officials have

rejected the idea of the federal government having such oversight.

Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, has said he expects a legislative package to be unveiled after Tuesday’s hearing.

President Barack Obama stressed the need for a comprehensive restructuring authority during a speech late Thursday at a U.S. House Democratic Issues Conference. “(It) costs taxpayers noth-

ing and will help more Americans regain control of their own economic security,” he said.

Puerto Rico’s government recently defaulted on $37 million in interest on bonds and has said it does not have the money to make upcoming payments, including a $400 million due in May. Three bond insurers have already filed lawsuits against the U.S. territory after it diverted funds to meet certain bond payments.q

LOCAL A13

Saturday 30 January 2016

After 53 Years;

The 3 Murphy Brothers Get Together in Aruba!

ORANJESTAD - All three brothers were born in Aruba. Michael “Mike” in 1954, James “Jim” in 1956 and William “Billy” in 1961. Their parents had met in Aruba working for LAGO Oil and Transport Co. after serving in the U.S Armed Forces during WW II. Thelma was a nurse at the Lago Hospital, and Bill was in the Comptroller’s Department. They were married in 1950 in the Saint Therese Church in San Nicolas where Bill sang in the choir.

Bill was in charge of the introduction of the first computer (IBM650) at Lago before being transferred in 1963 to Creole as the Assistant Comptroller in Caracas. After Caracas the Murphy’s lived in Madrid, Spain; Southhampton, England; and New Jersey, USA, but never travelled back to Aruba.

This week was the first time in 53 years that the brothers were back in Aruba together. For a very special occasion! Although Jim had never returned to Aruba since 1963, he has come back with his wife Steph, who had never been to Aruba before, to celebrate his 6oth birthday.

Mike and his wife spent their honeymoon at the Divi Hotel in 1977 and has returned several times on short visits with cruise ships. Billy, on the other hand, has been coming to Aruba regularly since 2005, has made many friends and has bought timeshare with Marriott. The nexus with Aruba does not stop there. Amy (Murphy) and Kevin Emkey were married October 2007 and honeymooned at Marriott Surf Club. David and Karen Murphy were married July 2010 and they stayed

The Murphy brothers, Billy, Jim and Mike celebrate Jim’s 60th birthday at the home of an Aruban friend. For the first time in 53 years they reunited in Aruba where all three had been born.

(Photo Milagro Harms)

at Playa Linda. Amy and David are first and second children of Michael and Maggie Murphy. Billy himself came to Aruba to celebrate his Big Five O in 2011.

Undoubtedly, Billy orchestrated the reunion in Aruba to show his brothers why he loves Aruba so much.

Billy was to arrive on Saturday the 23rd, but when he found out about the threat of the winter storm in the New Jersey area, he advanced his travel by two days. Had he not done so, he would have had to wait till Tuesday the 26thas his flight was one of the more than 4000 flights cancelled on the 23rd. Clyde Harms, a longtime friend of the

Jim Murphy celebrates his 60th birthday in Aruba. Here he’s being serenaded in English, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento by some of the local friends of the family: Michel and Tatiana Saade, Maya Romero, Lilian Prince, Milagro Harms, Bobby and Vero Chemalie.

(Photo Steph Murphy)

Murphy family, and his wife Milagro hosted a casual birthday dinner party at their home at San Barbola Residences inviting many of Billy’s Aruban friends.

Jim, Steph and Mike have been very impressed by Aruba, its cleanliness and its people. They enjoyed the day at the Renaissance Island where they savored a delicious fried fish. They liked very much what they had seen in their first two days here and looked forward to the planned tour of the island in an open jeep.

They especially liked the cordiality of Billy’s friends and intend to return to Aruba soon. clydeharms@ yahoo.comq

A14 LOCAL

Saturday 30 January 2016

Get Ready for One Happy Carnival Weekend!

ORANJESTAD - With the Grand Carnival Parades of San Nicolas and Oranjestad just one week away, Aruba is set this weekend for another round of colorful fun and excitement!

Tonight, Saturday, January 30, 2016, is the Aruba Grand Lighting Parade, starting at 8pm at Wendy’s Boulevard-L.G. Smith BlvdVondellaan and finishing at Banco di Caribe… when it

finishes! Carnival’s Lighting Parade is a true phenomenon that can only be described as electric – don’t miss it!

Also in store this weekend is the Aruba Grand Children’s Parade Oranjestad, taking place Sunday, January 31, 2016. This fun, family-friendly parade will start at 2pm at the Wilhelmina Park – L.G. Smith Blvd –

Vondellaan – Avenida Milo Croes and finish at the Entertainment Center.

Come one, come all, to Aruba’s magical Carnival 2016!q

LOCAL A15

Saturday 30 January 2016

Haug Family Honored by ATA at Palma Real Suites!

EAGLE BEACH - Recently Mr. Kenneth and Mrs. Laraine Haug were honored as Goodwill Ambassadors for the island of Aruba after visiting for more than 20 years consecutive.

The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for between 20-and-34 years consecutive.

Mr. Ricardo Croes representing Aruba Tourism Authority conducted the ceremony at the Palma Real

Suites.

The Haug family commented that he will never change his vacation island for any other island! The top reasons for returning provided by the honorees are they consider Aruba to be the “Happy Island�, the great weather, the friendly Aruban hospitality, the white sand beaches and the terrific local food.

Featured is Mr. Ricardo Croes from ATA together with several members of the Haug family at the Palma Real Suites!.q

A16 LOCAL

Saturday 30 January 2016

St Maarten Mountain Bike Racers Take Top Honors in CMB & Tri-Bike Team 3 Day 10th Annual Mountainbike Event

ORANJESTAD - The 1st race of the year organized by Tri-Bike team Aruba took place on 3 different race

courses on the Island last weekend.

157 participants divided in 8 Kids categories &Adult

9 categories stood fired up on the start ramp on a cool Friday evening inside MSK Savaneta to race on

a very challenging short track course with natural and manmade obstacles designed by the team of course builders and made

by Wipa construction. It got really spectacular after dark when the Bohama lights shined on all the riders who were blasting out of the dark racing for the 1st 10 points they could earn that night. A total of 30 heats were ridden within 2 hours .

Saturday afternoon at exactly 3 pm the 1st kids category , 4 sleek looking 5 / 6 /7 /8 year old boys and girls on their little mountain bikes were racing for 25 points over rocks and dirt around and through the beautiful area of Fontein.

Just before dark all adult categories went past the Palm Tours banner finishing their respective race distances on a 10 km hilly loop through the Arikok national park.

The whole caravan including all the volunteers left the park for a short night sleep to get together 12 hours later at Balashi where the gun blasted again for the 3rd and final races to decide who would come out as the overall winner in their category.

This time a small stadium was built with Fata Morgana barriers inside the old Drive inn Cinema. The riders were cheered on throughout the morning by spectators and fellow mountain-bikers while giving everything on this high speed 3 km course around the Balashi gold mine area.

Results were figured out by the jury and 15 minutes after the finish of the last competitor the 1stwinners, recovered by an ice-cold Powerade were already on the podium to receive their medals & prizes donated

by CMB, PWC and Tri-bike Aruba.q

SPORTS A17

Saturday 30 January 2016

Hot Streak Andy Murray of Britain plays a forehand return to Milos Raonic of Canada during their semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Murray Beats Raonic to Reach 5th Australian Open Final JOHN PYE AP Sports Writer MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Andy Murray arrived at the Australian Open fully prepared to become a father before becoming champion.

Murray left his pregnant wife in Britain ahead of the start of the tournament, promising to fly home at any time if needed.

However, the 28-year-old Murray has now given himself a chance of becoming a champion first following his five-set win over Milos Raonic on Friday to reach the final for the fifth time.

His 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 victory sets up a final against five-time champion

Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s title match.

Murray is 0-4 in finals at Melbourne Park with Djokovic having won all five previous Australian Open finals.

“Five finals is a great achievement. You can’t take that away from me,” Murray said. “So I have to be proud of that achievement. “Doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. What matters is what happens Sunday.”

Three of Djokovic’s wins in Australia have come in finals against his old friend Murray, every odd-numbered year since 2011.

“He loves playing on this court, we’ve played a bunch of times here,” Mur-

ray said. “Hopefully it can be a different result.”

Murray has had a lot on his mind this time. His wife, Kim, is expecting their first baby next month. His father-inlaw, Nigel Sears, was in Melbourne as coach for Ana Ivanovic and had to be rushed to a hospital by ambulance during a match on Rod Laver Arena, which happened to coincide with Murray’s third-round match on an adjacent arena.

Sears spent a night in a nearby hospital, but was considered well enough to return home. While his father-in-law was being treated in hospital, Murray at times thought his departure from Australia may

have been earlier than expected.

He stayed, and won his next two matches in straight sets, shaking out some of the emotions.

He had more to contend with against Raonic, who was playing in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for only the second time, and aiming to be the first Canadian man to reach the final of a major.

In an unusual start, the first seven points of the match went against serve, with Raonic breaking at love and then facing triple break point before holding for a 2-0 lead. It was Raonic’s only service break of the match, with Murray

fending off six other breakpoint chances.

Raonic was hampered by an adductor problem in his upper right leg from late in the third set. He needed a medical time out, and later in the fourth set had a massage from the trainer.

“I couldn’t push off, I couldn’t get up to serve, and I couldn’t change direction,” Raonic said.

“Probably the most heartbroken I’ve felt on court.”

After having his serve broken to open the fifth set, Raonic walked back to his chair and angrily smashed his racket on the hard court surface twice, breaking it.

Continued on page 21

A18 SPORTS

Saturday 30 January 2016

Levi’s Stadium set to show off innovations at Super Bow

In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, a large flag is presented during the national anthem at Levi’s Stadium before an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif. Headed to Super Bowl 50? You’ll find the interactive NFL Experience, a Super Bowl City highlighting the area’s fine food, top tech and cultural diversity as well as a host of other tie-in activities aimed at the million or so expected visitors.

(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer SANTA CLARA, California (AP) — When architects set out to design a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers, they wanted a building that fit the Silicon Valley region.

Retro was out. High-tech and green-friendly were in.

That was mostly accomplished at the $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium when it opened in mid-2014.

There’s the in-stadium app that allows fans to watch replays, order food, and learn which bathrooms have the shortest line; the environmentally friendly features that help the stadium achieve zero net energy use on game days; and the open-air feel that helps fans take in the Bay Area. After 18 months of mostly good reviews for events ranging from NFL games to concerts to WrestleMania, and even an outdoor ice hockey game, Levi’s Stadium truly arrives on the big stage on Feb. 7 when more than 100 million Americans will watch it host the Super Bowl between Denver and Carolina. “We set out to design the next generation of the NFL stadium,” said Tim Cahill, a senior vice president and chief design officer at HNTB Corporation. “That’s what we’re most proud of.”

The stadium was originally designed to be at Candlestick Point, where the 49ers played from 1971-2013. But then the York family that owns the team decided to locate it at the team’s fulltime facility more than 40 miles (60 kilometers) away in Santa Clara in the middle of Silicon Valley.

Levi’s Stadium was home to the first mobile app designed to enhance every aspect of a fan’s stadium experience, from steering fans to their parking spots, to identifying the leastcrowded restrooms. Fans can order food and drinks that can be delivered directly to their seats, and watch replays from four different camera angles on their phones or tablets.

With as many as 70,000 fans using devices throughout

the game, the designers had to create a backbone that could handle that kind of heavy use. The stadium features 400 miles (640 kilometers) of fiber optic cable providing stadium-wide WiFi capability and high definition video boards.

Lanson Nichols, a vice president and senior projects manager at HNTB, said Levi’s has triple the fiber-optic backbone of other NFL stadiums as part of the plan to “future-proof” the building. “Being in the heart of Silicon Valley it just became a natural that this had to be the most advanced stadium in the country just being in the middle of that culture,” Nichols said.

“People expected not just cutting edge, but bleeding edge technology.”

One of the highest priorities in the design was making the stadium as environmentally friendly as possible, and that was realized when Levi’s became the first American football stadium to receive LEED Gold certification, which rates how green it is. That was accomplished with nearly 20,000 square feet (1,860 square meters) of solar panels, a 27,000-squarefoot (2,500-square-meter) living roof above the suites planted with native California species, 80 percent of the water used coming from recycled water, and efficient use of electricity that allows the stadium to be a net zero energy user on game days.

The biggest flaw from the first two seasons of the stadium should not be an issue for the Super Bowl. The 49ers had several problems with the turf at the start that led to players slipping on the grass and chunks of sod coming loose. The team had to move practices this summer out of the stadium because of those issues.

But after making changes to the base of the field, the turf has mostly held up and should be in good shape for the game.

NFL field director Ed Mangan, working his 27th Super Bowl, oversaw the installation of a brand new field this month. q

SPORTS A19

Saturday 30 January 2016

Nick Kasa finds home with Broncos just before Super Bowl PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer ENGLEWOOD, Colorado (AP) — Last Sunday, Nick Kasa was like any other fan of the Denver Broncos.

On Super Bowl Sunday, he’ll be one of the Denver Broncos.

The tight end, out of football since the spring, got a phone call while sitting in the stands last weekend, watching the Broncos beat New England in the AFC title game.

He dropped his phone and cracked the screen — that’s another story — but when he finally restored his service, he learned the Broncos wanted to sign him to the practice squad to help them get ready for the Super Bowl against Carolina.

“It’s been pretty crazy.

Kind of indescribable,” said Kasa, who was signed Monday and would have to be activated from the practice squad in order to play in the game. “These guys

have been working hard toward this for a long time.

For me to come in at the end here, is just kind of an out-of-the-ordinary event.

I’m honored to be here and ready to do whatever I can to help.”

That includes playing the part of Panthers tight end Greg Olsen in practice.

He’s been studying film of the Pro Bowl tight end to give Denver’s top-ranked defense an accurate portrayal.

“My role is to be the best Greg Olsen that I can,” Kasa said.

“I didn’t see this coming.

I thought the season was drawing to an end. I was ready to move on to the next year. Surprised me with this call. I’m ready to go.”

Kasa was drafted in the sixth round by Oakland in 2013, and played in all 16 games his rookie season.

The only catch of his career was in the final week of that season, when he hauled in

Colorado tight end Nick Kasa watches from the sideline as Colorado trails Washington during an NCAA college football game in Boulder, Colo. Kasa was signed to the Denver Broncos practice squad Monday, Jan. 25, 2016, after tight end Dan Light was waived from the team as it heads to Super Bowl 50.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

a 9-yard TD pass against, fittingly enough, the Broncos.

He missed 2014 after being placed on injured reserve with a torn ACL. Last spring,

the Raiders let him go and he’s been looking for an NFL job ever since.

To stay in tip-top tight-end shape, Kasa worked out

just a few blocks away from Denver’s practice facility.

“Still pretty much the same start to my day,” Kasa cracked.q

20 SPORTS

Saturday 30 January 2016

Spieth falls 5 shots behind at stormy Singapore Open SINGAPORE (AP) — Jordan Spieth slipped five shots off the lead at the Singapore Open on Friday when an electrical storm forced second-round play to be abandoned.

Spieth was lurking just one shot off the pace after his opening round at Sentosa Country Club, but suddenly found himself five strokes behind and tied for sixth place after Song Younghan of South Korea capi-

talized on his early start to beat the arrival of the foul weather and post an 8-under 63 to go to the clubhouse leading at 9 under.

Spieth, teeing off after lunchtime, completed just seven holes of his second round but failed to make up any ground on the new front-runner, remaining at 4 under after struggling with his putter, just as he did in Abu Dhabi last week.

He briefly got to 5 under

Liang Wen-chong of China hits the ball out of the bunker on the 16th hole during the SMBC Singapore Open golf tournament in Singapore.

(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

when he drained a long putt to birdie the par-3 second hole, but gave the shot back with his first bogey of the tournament, on the fifth hole. His flat stick also let him down on the two par5s on the front nine, which he comfortably birdied in the first round but could only par on Friday.

“Didn’t get off to a great start but made a good birdie on No. 2,” Spieth said. “Had a couple of bad putts. Missed a short one on No. 4. On 7 I got a bit unlucky. I had a perfect distance to the hole, the par5, and just when I hit my second the wind changed.

My ball came up just short

of the green and, when I went to play my putt, that’s when the rain came in hard almost horizontally. My putt came up seven feet short.”

Spieth arrived in Southeast Asia already complaining of exhaustion after playing his last five events in five different countries. His hopes of a making a quick getaway back home to the United States, were at risk of being ruined by Singapore’s fickle weather, with tournament officials racing against time to finish on Sunday. The second round was still to be completed by 75 players.

While Spieth struggled to get any momentum going

in the co-sanctioned Asian and Japan Tour event, Song made the most of the perfect early conditions to charge to the top of the leaderboard with seven birdies and an eagle.

Shintaro Kobayashi of Japan, one of three firstround co-leaders, added a 2-under 69 to his opening 66 to reach the halfway stage at 7 under, alongside former U.S. Amateur champion An Byeong-hun, who had 11 holes still to play.

South Africa’s Keith Horne and Japan’s Hideto Tanihara were both still on the course and a shot ahead of Spieth when the thunderstorm came.q

Lawrie taking 2-shot lead into Qatar final round DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Paul Lawrie earned a two-shot lead at a windy Doha Golf Club on Friday to close in on an unprecedented third Qatar Masters title.

The overnight leader started the third round with 13 straight pars before making his first birdie on the 14th hole, then picked up another shot on the par-5 18th to finish at 2-under-par 70.

He was on top of the leaderboard at 13 under, two ahead of Branden Grace, who had his chance to make history: The first player to successfully defend the title.

“Conditions were tough,

but to go around there and not have a bogey ...,” Lawrie said. “It is a little bit frustrating for me. I hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in.”

The 47-year-old Lawrie hasn’t won on the European Tour since 2012, the same year he won in Doha for the second time.

At 11 under overall with South Africa’s Branden Grace (68) was Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (69).

Grace finished his bogeyfree round with three successive birdies.

“Patience was the name of the game. It was a brutal day out there,” Grace said.

“The wind was blowing and the greens were tricky.

I pretty much got the most out of my round today. So 4 under was a great score.”

Olesen, winner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last year, showed good touch in a 69 that featured one bogey on the fifth hole.

“To be honest, I played great down the last nine holes. Gave myself so many chances,” Olesen said.

Sergio Garcia made a 50foot putt for an eagle on the 18th hole to console himself after a poor round of 2-over 74. He was seven shots off the pace.q

SPORTS A21

Saturday 30 January 2016

Enforcer John Scott is enjoying moment as NHL All-Star captain TERESA M. WALKER AP Sports Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — John Scott sat back in his chair and took a cellphone photo of all the reporters crowded around him once the questions finally ended.

It was a big moment for a big man, and it almost didn’t happen. So the journeyman enforcer who admits he’s an odd fit for an NHL All-Star game is soaking up every precious moment before heading back to Newfoundland, where he is toiling in the minors.

“It’s definitely strange,” Scott said Friday at one of the more unusual media days for the NHL’s showcase event. “You go in the locker room everyone’s got the NHL logo on their helmet. They threw the NHL logo on mine. It’s definitely always like, ‘You’re not in the NHL anymore.’ So it’s neat, though like I’m not used to this and all this scrum and stuff. I’m going to enjoy it while I’m here and go back to the real world.”

He is going to enjoy it with a blessing from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, too. The two had a talk Thursday night.

“And he’s more than welcome to be here,” Bettman told The Associated Press. “We’re happy he’s here.

The fans spoke, and we’re happy to reflect their will.”

Scott said he was glad to hear that from Bettman because there was a time he really wasn’t sure the league felt that way. He wrote in The Players Tribune this week that someone from the league called him to suggest he back out of the game, an idea he rejected much to the delight of his fellow All-Stars.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind for Scott.

He was traded Jan. 15 to Montreal, which promptly ordered him to its AHL affiliate in Canada’s version of the Far East. The league also had to decide what to do with him, since no one had really expected a 6-foot-8 bruiser with just five goals over 285 games in eight seasons to make an All-Star roster.

Scott didn’t just make the roster: Fans flocked online and voted him captain of the Pacific Division, taking advantage of the NHL’s willingness to give them the ability to turn at least one position into a popularity contest. The same thing happened a year ago as Latvian fans helped send Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons to the All-Star game.

Of course, Girgensons isn’t a tough guy like Scott, who may very well look a bit out of place when the league shows off its frantic 3-on-3 format during Sunday’s game.

Scott expects the NHL to change the fan vote for the All-Star Game to keep someone like himself from ever being picked again.

“They should do something if they don’t want this to happen again,” Scott said. “I think it’s a good thing for the game. It’s gotten a lot of publicity. It’s gotten a lot of people excited to watch the game, so you never know. It could be a good thing.”

All-Star merchandise with Scott’s name and number has been a hot item, so popular that Scott said he couldn’t find any of his own jerseys.

Scott said his former Arizona teammates supported him accepting his All-Star spot. Florida star Jaromir Jagr said the pressure from the league wasn’t fair to Scott, who has played for six teams over the years and never averaged more than 10 minutes in ice time during an NHL season.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Jagr said. “He’s a great guy. I think the change will change something next year, but he shouldn’t go through that. It was kind of cool when he said, ‘No, I’m coming.’ q

Murray

Continued from page 17 “I guess that was sort of just the whole frustration of everything sort of getting out,” said Raonic, who tends not to be demonstrative on court.

Murray went on a run of winning 20 of 25 points to go ahead 4-0 and all but clinch the four-hour match, and a spot in a ninth Grand Slam final.

Murray said he sensed Ra-

There hasn’t been a walkover in the final of a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 1931, when Sidney Wood Jr. won the title because fellow American Francis Shields withdrew because of injury.

For now, Murray is planning on playing.

“I need to keep my game plan very well, not have any lapses in concentration and just play the best I can,” said Murray, who has won only nine of his 30 career meetings with Djokov-

being the first brothers to appear in the singles and doubles finals at the same major in the Open era. The men’s doubles decider follows the women’s final between six-time champion Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.

In the women’s doubles final Friday, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat the Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-6 (1), 6-3 to claim their third Grand Slam title together.

Andy Murray, left, of Britain is congratulated by Milos Raonic of Canada after winning their semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

onic slowing down, but had to keep his mind on his own side of the court. He’ll have to do that again against top-ranked Djokovic, who won 27 of his 28 matches in Grand Slams in 2015.

ic.

Brother Jamie is in the doubles final with Bruno Soares against Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek on Saturday, giving the Murray siblings the distinction of

Mirza couldn’t extend her run in mixed doubles, losing with her partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-5, 7-6 (4) later Friday to Elena Vesnina and Soares in the semifinals.q

LPGA: Khang, Hull, Nomura tied for lead in Tour opener PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Megan Khang shot a 5-under 68 in strong wind Friday for a share of the lead in the seasonopening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic, her first event as an LPGA Tour member.

The 18-year-old Khang eagled the par-5 fourth hole and had four birdies and a bogey in wind gusting to 30 mph at the Ocean Club to match England’s Charley Hull and Japan’s Haru Nomura at 8-under 138 “It was such a grind,”

Khang said. “To come out with 68 is incredible. Can’t wait for the weekend.”

Hull and Nomura each shot 70.

Khang, from Rockland, Massachusetts, tied for sixth at Q-school in December to earn a tour card.

“I think my game’s at a good place right now and I definitely think I can hold my own,” Khang said. “I was confident in my game.

I just didn’t know how I was going to play right now being a rookie and under the

circumstances. But I’m just having so much fun out here. I just love it out here.”

The 5-foot-1 Khang hits her drives in the 260-yard range.

“Sandra (Gal) was like, ‘You hit it pretty far for a little one,’” Khang said. “I was like, ‘You’re not the first one to say that.’ ... I took it as a compliment.”

The 19-year-old Hull closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th. “I’ve never played the golf course with that wind before,” Hull said. q

“It po go re tio Ju ou sa No an un 13

A22

Saturday 30 January 2016

SPORTS

Ahead of Kovalev rematch: Pascal gets re-education from Freddie Roach GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jean Pascal was a fighter in need of a reboot.

The former light heavyweight champion had been stopped for the first time in his career by Sergey Kovalev in March, and he squeaked out a debatable decision over less-heralded Yunieski Gonzalez four months later.

Pascal secured a rematch with the imposing Kovalev, but knew he needed to reinvent himself to have a

I became a world champion, and I’m about to become a two-time world champion. I needed more like a partner to help me to evolve than a boss.”

While Roach’s masterwork is his transformation of Manny Pacquiao from a skinny prospect into a transcendent champion, Pascal is the latest in a long line of established veteran fighters who have come through the Wild Card’s dingy doors. Roach’s successes include Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins,

“Every guy is different in a job like this, but making this one better was kind of easy, because he made so many mistakes,” Roach said. “It was real easy to do. I did the same things I’ve done for many fighters along the way, but he just needed to learn the correct way to do it. It was very small adjustments. Now he’s using his power in his left hand, and his balance has come along quite a bit.

I’m very surprised at how quickly he learns. Usually it would take me three to six

Boxer Jean Pascal, from Canada, flexes his muscles during his weigh-in Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, in Montreal. Pascal will face champion Sergey Kovalev, of Russia, in a rematch for Kovalev’s IBFWBA Super World-WBO light heavyweight titles on Saturday.

(Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press via AP)

chance at revenge against the three-belt champion at 178 pounds.

So Pascal followed the wellworn path to Hollywood’s Wild Card Gym and trainer Freddie Roach, who has made a career out of boosting already successful fighters to new heights.

The results of their partnership will be on display Saturday night on HBO from Montreal, and they both believe the boxing world will be surprised.

“Nobody bosses Jean Pascal,” the Haitian-born Canadian said. “I am my own boss. I need a partner, and Freddie is the right partner right now. I’ve been there, done that. I’m a veteran. I went to the Olympics, and I’ve had all the major fights.

James Toney and currently Miguel Cotto, who credits Roach with his lucrative late-career surge.

“He’s a coach who likes to listen,” Pascal said. “It’s not only his way or the highway. He’s going to ask me questions. He’s going to try to see my point of view, and he’s going to explain his point of view. He has a good ear, and in my experience, this is a quality coach.”

Roach has plenty of work, and he initially turned down Pascal’s entreaties, believing the veteran fighter wasn’t interested in changing. Pascal was persistent, and Roach eventually agreed to an eightweek training camp in Hollywood.

months to get someone to the level where I think he’s at right now.”

Roach identified imitation as Pascal’s biggest mistake in the first fight against Kovalev. Pascal repeatedly dropped his hands and hung out on the ropes, putting himself in miserable positions.

“I told him, ‘I know you like Roy Jones, but you’re not Roy Jones,’” Roach said. “’You’re a good fighter.

I’d rather you be you than him.’ I think it struck him a little bit, because I wasn’t nice about it. I said, ‘You’re a grown man. Why would you emulate someone else? That’s for kids.’ I’ve got a Bobby Orr shirt over there. I liked Bobby Orr when I was a kid. q

Eastern Kentucky defensive end Noah Spence runs through drills during NCAA college football practice for the Senior Bowl, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, at Ladd–Peebles Stadium, in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Booted out of the Big Ten, Noah Spence remains strong prospect JOHN ZENOR AP Sports Writer MOBILE, Alabama (AP) — Noah Spence has to repeatedly address the troubled past that took him from Ohio State to college football exile and then to Eastern Kentucky.

Like every other Senior Bowl player, Spence is trying to answer any questions potential NFL employers might have about his game during the weeklong proving session. Then, there are the team interviews, during which Spence must explain those past misdeeds.

A rising star as a pass rusher, he was banned from the Big Ten Conference after two failed drug tests, later admitting he used Ecstasy.

Thus the questions, and Spence said there’s only one way to face them.

“Just tell them the truth,” he said. “You can’t make up any stories. You can’t lie about it. It feels better just telling the truth and letting them know everything and to get past it and start talking about football again.”

He said that transition comes pretty quickly and that he’s met with too many teams to name. The New Orleans Saints were among them. General manager Mickey Loomis said such meetings are about collecting information and forming a “first impression.”

“Every guy you have questions about,” Loomis said.

“Obviously, there are things that they have to answer, in terms of an event that may

have happened. But the process really is the same, I think, for each player.”

Past troubles can be the factor that drops a firstround talent in the draft, but Spence feels like he has put his problems behind him.

Now the challenge is convincing prospective employers.

Spence was suspended for the entire 2014 season when the Buckeyes won the national championship. The Big Ten permanently banned him, denying his appeal in November 2014.

On the field, the 2013 allconference pick didn’t miss a beat after transferring to FCS Eastern Kentucky. He was a first-team All-American after collecting 11 1/2 sacks.

“I’ve grown up a lot,” Spence said. “I’ve matured like no other. It’s been a great experience just going through all this and feeling how it feels to be at the bottom and then having to work my way back up. It feels great.”

Spence said he has changed a great deal since the behavior that led to his ouster from the Big Ten. He said he wallowed for a couple of days after the league’s decision before getting back to training for his next destination, at the encouragement of his father, Greg.

“I’m not the same as I was,” Spence said. “I don’t think the same. I’ve got a better focus about me. q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Saturday 30 January 2016

Tech Talk:

Microsoft earnings show effects of turnaround strategy

BRANDON BAILEY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Like a friendly but persistent sales rep, Microsoft has a message for anyone who owns a personal computer: If you haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 10, the company highly recommends it.

So highly, in fact, that in coming weeks, PC owners who have set their machines to automatically install important updates — like security fixes — could find the new operating system already downloaded and ready for activation.

Microsoft’s aggressive campaign to promote Windows 10 has led to its deployment on more than 200 million devices since its July release. It’s part of a multipronged strategy, along with a push to expand in “cloud” computing, that analysts say is driving the early stages of a financial turnaround, as evidenced

by Microsoft’s latest earnings report on Thursday.

The Redmond, Washington-based tech company reported $5 billion in profit on nearly $24 billion in sales for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Revenue and profit were both down from a

year ago, but after adjusting for deferred revenue and one-time costs, the numbers were better than Wall Street analysts expected. Microsoft beat Wall Street’s estimates for sales in key segments. Those include its cloud-computing segment, which lets commercial customers run their businesses on Microsoft’s servers, and the division that sells PC software, Surface tablets and Xbox gaming consoles. Adjusted earnings amounted to 78 cents a share, while analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 71 cents a share.

“All around, this looks like a quarter that (Microsoft CEO Satya) Nadella can frame and put in his office,” FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said. Microsoft’s stock rose more than 3 percent in extended trading after the results came out.

Long a dominant seller of PC-based software, Microsoft has seen its profit decline as consumers and businesses buy fewer PCs, cutting into licensing fees Microsoft gets from computer-makers. The last major upgrade of its operating system, known as Windows 8, was widely viewed as a

flop, which hurt PC sales even more.

Nadella, who was named to the top job in 2014, has been pushing Microsoft to adapt to a world where people are increasingly using mobile gadgets, and where businesses are mov-

grade for older PCs, with no charge for future updates.

It’s also redesigned other popular products, such as the Office word-processing and spreadsheet programs, to work as mobile apps for devices running operating systems made

said Frank Gillett, a tech analyst with Forrester Research. He said that should give Microsoft more opportunities to make money by selling premium features or apps, such as online storage, Skype minutes or music and games.

A man walks past a Microsoft sign set up for the Microsoft BUILD conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Microsoft reports financial earnings on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016.

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

ing more of their operations to remote data centers, accessed via the Internet.

Microsoft broke with tradition last July by releasing Windows 10 as a free up-

by its rivals, Apple and Google.

The goal is to get people using Microsoft’s latest products, no matter what kind of device they prefer,

The company is already seeing an increase in sales of apps and online advertising, tied to new features in Windows 10, Nadella told analysts Thursday.q

Apple’s iPhone is slumping. What’s the next big thing?

BRANDON BAILEY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The bloom may be off Apple’s iPhone, at least for now. So now the pressure is on the iconic Silicon Valley company to come up with its next big thing.

On Tuesday, Apple acknowledged that it’s likely to see an uncharacteristic sales decline this spring, amid signs of global economic weakness and slowing overall demand for new smartphones. That drove Apple shares down more than 6.5 percent Wednesday, extending a monthslong slide.

It’s almost certainly too soon to expect an Apple Car or even some yet-tobe-named, virtual real-

ity iDevice to turn things around. Apple said it wouldn’t comment on its plans beyond what its executives said Tuesday. But among some analysts, hope springs eternal for what the next generation of iPhones — successors to the current 6S and 6S Plus — might bring.

Tech blogs have hinted at a thinner iPhone 7 with dual cameras and wireless earbuds — and minus the familiar headphone jack — to be released this fall. Other reports suggest Apple might also go back to the future with a 4-inch phone — last seen in Apple’s 2013 iPhone 5S — as a companion to the next generation of bigger-screen iPhones.

Apple faces “a few tough

quarters ahead until we get to the build-up around iPhone 7 later this year,” said Daniel Ives of FBR Capital Markets, in a research note Wednesday. He suggested the next iPhones will “turn this ship back into growth waters.”

But others warn that even new phones may not be enough to spark the kind of sales frenzy Apple experienced after it launched the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models with 4.7- and 5.5-inch screens in 2014. “We are not seeing any meaningful upgrades” or significant new features, wrote Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang. “It is in our view that iPhone 7 will not sell as well as the iPhone 6.”

Apple doesn’t have many

alternatives for near term growth.

Sales of iPads and Mac computers both dipped in the last three months of 2015. In an interview, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the new Apple Watch had its strongest sales ever in the holiday quarter, but wouldn’t provide numbers.

Maestri and other executives say they expect sales of iPads, Macs and Apple Watches to grow in the future. And the company is widely believed to be working on other new products.

While an Apple car isn’t expected for several years, CEO Tim Cook may have hinted at another product category Wednesday, when he told analysts he

doesn’t view virtual reality as a “niche” product.

“It’s really cool and has some interesting applications,” Cook added, without elaborating. Apple also recently hired virtual reality expert Doug Bowman, a Virginia Tech computer science professor, according to reports last week.

Apple, meanwhile, stressed this week that it’s making more money — nearly $5 billion last quarter — from a growing stable of online services, from the App Store to Apple Music and Apple Pay. The message seemed aimed at reassuring investors who worry that Apple relies on the iPhone for two-thirds of its revenue, but several analysts said it was a positive sign.q

A24 BUSINESS

Saturday 30 January 2016

Wall Street soars to finish tough month; tech stocks climb

Traders Glenn Kessler, left, and Gregory Rowe, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks soared on the last trading day of January, with Microsoft, Visa and other tech stocks making the biggest gains in a broad market rally.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

MARLEY JAY AP Markets Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks soared on the last trading day of January, with Microsoft, Visa and other tech stocks making the biggest

gains in a broad market rally.

Indexes rose throughout the day and finished with their biggest gains in about five months. Asian stocks jumped after the Bank of

Japan moved to stimulate the economy, and European markets also rose. In the U.S, tech stocks climbed following strong fourthquarter results from Microsoft and Visa. Materials

companies and banks also made large gains, and the price of oil rose for the fourth day in a row.

The U.S. government said Friday that the economy slowed in the fourth quarter, a possibility that had worried investors. But its estimate of the country’s gross domestic product was about equal to analysts’ forecasts and didn’t hurt stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 396.66 points, or 2.5 percent, to 16,466.30. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 46.88 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,940.24, as more than 480 of its component stocks rose. The Nasdaq composite index jumped 107.28 points, or 2.4 percent, to 4,613.95.

Stocks made some big gains in the last two weeks, but still finished January with hefty losses.

Microsoft added $3.04, or 5.8 percent, to $55.09 after its fourth-quarter profit and revenue beat expec-

Xerox reports sales decline; plans to split company The Associated Press (AP) - Xerox reported its 15th consecutive quarter of declining sales on Friday and announced plans to split the company into two businesses.

The move will reverse a six-year-old effort by the printer and copier maker to boost sales by providing

outsourced business services to corporate customers. Xerox said Friday that it will spin off the services operation it acquired when it bought Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for nearly $6 billion in 2010.

Xerox reported betterthan-expected earnings for the quarter that ended

Dec. 31, but revenue fell 8 percent from a year earlier.

The Norwalk, Connecticutbased company said net income rose 43 percent to $285 million, on sales of $4.6 billion. Earnings amounted to 27 cents per share, or 32 cents a share after adjusting for amortization costs.

Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were expecting earnings of 29 cents a share.

Xerox has been under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, who has argued that its business outsourcing service would be more valuable as a standalone company. Xerox said Friday that it will split into two independent companies by the end of the year.

One will consist of Xerox’s core printer and copier business, known as “document technology,” which had 40,000 workers and about $11 billion in sales last year. The other will focus on “business process outsourcing,” or providing back-office functions like

payment processing and other services. The latter has about 104,000 employees and produced about $7 billion in revenue last year. Names and leadership of the new companies are still to be determined.

Xerox and Icahn reached a deal on the governance of the business outsourcing company. Under the breakup, Icahn will get to name three of the nine directors on that company’s board. A search is also going to be started for an external candidate to serve as CEO of the business.

Icahn will be allowed to choose an individual to observe and advise the committee that is performing the search.

Icahn said in a written statement that he believes the independent business process outsourcing company will enhance shareholder value. Xerox also announced plans to cut spending by at least $600 million, on top of earlier cost-cutting efforts.q

tations. The tech giant posted strong results from its cloud computing business and the unit that sells PC software and Surface tablets and Xbox game consoles.

Visa and MasterCard both rose after reporting solid results. Visa climbed $5.16, or 7.4 percent, to $74.49 and MasterCard picked up $5.60, or 6.7 percent, to $89.03.

E-commerce company Amazon took its largest one-day slide in more than a year. Amazon’s quarterly profit more than doubled, but it still fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts because of increased costs. Some of those related to its Fulfillment by Amazon service, which handles shipping for sellers and makes them eligible for Amazon Prime shipping. The stock lost $48.35, or 7.6 percent, to $587.

Honeywell advanced $5.23, or 5.3 percent, to $103.20 following its fourthquarter report, and General Electric added 89 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $29.10.

Xerox said it will split into two publicly traded companies after pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn.

Its stock gained 52 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $9.75.

The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product grew only 0.7 percent over the last three months of 2015, while analyst expected 0.8 percent.

The agency said consumers spent less, businesses invested less, and exports were down because of global instability.

The U.S. economy has been expanding for six and a half years, but on Wednesday the Federal Reserve cautioned that the U.S. economy is slowing down. The Fed also expressed concerns about global growth. Stocks tumbled after the Fed released its assessment.

Crude oil prices kept rising.

Benchmark U.S. oil added 40 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $33.62 a barrel in New York.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gained 85 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $34.74. q

BUSINESS A25 American Airlines posts record profit for 4Q, all of 2015 Saturday 30 January 2016

DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines reported a record profit for the fourth quarter and all of 2015 as a sharp drop in fuel prices more than offset lower revenue.

The world’s biggest airline said Friday that its earnings were the highest ever for any carrier. American is poised for another big year: airline officials said they expect to save another $2 billion on fuel in 2016.

American executives said the outbreak of the Zika virus and a government warning to pregnant women about traveling to Latin America and the Caribbean seemed to be having no effect on their business.

Like other airlines, American says it will give refunds or rebook pregnant women who were planning trips to areas affected by the virus, which has been linked to birth defects in Brazil. American officials said they didn’t know how many customers have asked for refunds, but airline president Scott Kirby said “it has not been a meaningful number.”

Kirby said that because the mosquito-borne virus is not transmitted through the air

on planes, he didn’t expect it to be as damaging to the airline industry as past outbreaks such as the respiratory disease SARS in 2003.

CEO Doug Parker added that Zika “only has an impact on pregnant

were inflated by a huge accounting gain from a tax item.

Without that and other one-time gains and losses, American said it earned $1.3 billion or $2 per share, compared with $1.1 billion, or $1.52 per share, a year

An American Airlines flight taxis at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. American reports financial results Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

women, not the entire traveling public.”

The comments from Kirby and Parker echoed those of a JetBlue executive, who said Thursday that his airline did not see a measurable effect on trip bookings or refunds.

American Airlines Group Inc. posted net income of $3.28 billion in the fourth quarter, but the results

earlier.

That was still a record and beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.96 per share, and 15 analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted $1.97 per share.

Revenue fell 5.2 percent to $9.63 billion, matching the

Falling oil prices push Chevron to post loss DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer DALLAS (AP) — Chevron suffered its first moneylosing quarter since 2002 in the final three months of last year, as plunging crude prices chopped more than one-third from its revenue.

Oil traded this month at levels not seen since 2003, although it has rebounded slightly in the last few days.

Cheaper energy is great for consumers, who save with every fill-up, but oilproducing nations and big exploration companies like Chevron and Exxon are paying the price.

Chevron is cutting spending, laying off workers, and looking to sell even more of its assets. The problem with that strategy: It’s a buyer’s market right

FactSet forecast.

But American more than offset the $530 million decline in revenue with savings of nearly $1.1 billion — 41 percent — on jet fuel.

The steep drop in oil prices since mid-2014 has been a boon to airlines. They have

now for oil facilities, with too many for-sale signs.

The company has sold off $11 billion worth of facilities such as pipelines over the past two years and hopes to raise up to $10 billion more with sales through 2017. Company executives say, however, that they won’t unload assets at firesale prices just to get rid of them.

Oil prices are down because growth in demand has slowed and cannot absorb a glut of oil on the market. On a conference call with analysts, Chevron CEO John Watson said he thinks energy demand will grow but that supply is a wild card.

Watson pointed to forecasts that predict increasing cuts in production by non-OPEC

nations could restore the market to balance this year. But until that happens, he said, prices will stay low “and the financial damage to the energy sector seen in 2015 will continue.”

Watson said Chevron is managing through the downturn by cutting spending and investment — it cut fourth-quarter spending by about $9 billion compared with a year earlier. He said the company will finish projects under construction but won’t start new longterm projects and will be judicious with short-term ones.

San Ramon, Californiabased Chevron Corp. reported Friday that it lost $588 million in the fourth quarter. q

passed some of the savings on to consumers in lower fares but kept much of it.

For all of 2015, American earned a record $7.6 billion.

Even excluding the tax gain, adjusted profit was

$6.3 billion, also a record.

Parker, the CEO, said it was more than any airline had ever earned.

If there was any worrisome note in the report for American’s employees and investors — but welcome news for passengers — it was further evidence that airfares are falling.

American did not disclose its average fare. However, in the fourth quarter, passengers flew 3.8 percent more miles than a year earlier but paid 8.9 percent less per mile, a sign of lower prices. Investors prefer to look at how much passengers pay for every seat flown one mile — that accounts for unsold seats — and that figure also fell by 6 percent.

The fourth-quarter and 2015 net income included a $3 billion credit because American reversed a taxvaluation now that it is making money after huge losses in earlier years. Delta and United have made the same accounting change.

With or without the tax credit, 2015 was a record year for American.q

A26 COMICS

Saturday 30 January 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

Saturday 30 January 2016

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A28 SCIENCE

Saturday 30 January 2016

Study: Man-made heat put in oceans has doubled since 1997 SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997, a recent study showed.

Scientists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world’s oceans instead of the ground. And they’ve seen ocean heat content rise in recent years. But the new study, using ocean-observing data that goes back to the British research ship Challenger in the 1870s and including high-tech modern underwater monitors and computer models, tracked how much manmade heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years.

The world’s oceans absorbed approximately 150 zettajoules of energy from 1865 to 1997, and then absorbed about another 150 in the next 18 years, according to a study published Monday in the

This image shows Pacific and Atlantic meridional sections showing upper-ocean warming for the past six decades (1955-2011).

The amount of global-warming triggered heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997, a new study showed. Scientists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world’s oceans instead of the ground. And they’ve seen ocean heat content rise in recent years.

(Timo Bremer/Lawrence Livermore Laboratory/AP)

journal Nature Climate Change.

To put that in perspective, if you exploded one atomic bomb the size of the one that dropped on Hiroshima every second for a year, the total energy released

would be 2 zettajoules. So since 1997, Earth’s oceans have absorbed man-made heat energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded every second for 75 straight years.

“The changes we’re talk-

ing about, they are really, really big numbers,” said study co-author Paul Durack, an oceanographer at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California.

“They are nonhuman numbers.”

Because there are decades when good data wasn’t available and computer simulations are involved, the overall figures are rough but still are reliable, the study’s authors said. Most of the added heat has been trapped in the upper 2,300 feet, but with every year the deeper oceans also are absorbing more energy, they said.

But the study’s authors and outside experts say it’s not the raw numbers that bother them. It’s how fast those numbers are increasing.

“After 2000 in particular the rate of change is really starting to ramp up,” Durack said.

This means the amount of energy being trapped in Earth’s climate system as a whole is accelerating, the study’s lead author Peter Gleckler, a climate scien-

tist at Lawrence Livermore, said.

Because the oceans are so vast and cold, the absorbed heat raises temperatures by only a few tenths of a degree, but the importance is the energy balance, Gleckler and his colleagues said. When oceans absorb all that heat it keeps the surface from getting even warmer from the heat-trapping gases spewed by the burning of coal, oil and gas, the scientists said.

The warmer the oceans get, the less heat they can absorb and the more heat stays in the air and on land surface, the study’s co-author, Chris Forest at Pennsylvania State University, said.

“These finding have potentially serious consequences for life in the oceans as well as for patterns of ocean circulation, storm tracks and storm intensity,” said Oregon State University marine sciences professor Jane Lubchenco, the former chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Saturday 30 January 2016

Live ‘Grease’ show will have some familiar faces from film MARK KENNEDY AP Drama Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Eagleeyed viewers of “Grease: Live” might see some familiar faces during the broadcast — two stars of the 1978 film have cameos.

In a nice tip of the hat to the past, Fox asked Didi Conn, who played Frenchy in the John Travoltaled movie, and Barry Pearl, who was Doody onscreen, will appear in small roles on Sunday (Fox, 7 p.m. EST and tape-delayed for Pacific time).

“The fact that the two us should be chosen to be part of this as an homage — an overall collective homage to the piece — is just delicious,” said Pearl. “That has been the ‘Grease’ experience all the way along.

It’s been one magical moment after the next.”

In this new rock ‘n’ roll paean to puberty set in the 1950s, Conn, 64, will play a

waitress at the Frosty Palace malt shop, while Pearl, 65, plays a TV producer, a role written for him.

The pair will join stars Julianne Hough as Sandy, Aaron Tveit as Danny Zuko, Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo, Carly Rae Jepsen as Frenchy, KeKe Palmer as Marty and Mario Lopez as Vince Fontaine. The show is being filmed on two massive Warner Bros. soundstages in Burbank, California.

Conn said her first meeting with Jepsen — in her old role — was emotional. “I started to cry. I think partly it was ‘That could be my daughter that I never had,’” said the actress.

“She is absolutely yummyadorable.”

Other cameos will be done by “Saturday Night Live” alum Ana Gasteyer, “Brady Bunch” star Eve Plumb, “The Fresh Beat Band” star Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer and “The Wire” star Wen-

In this image released by Fox, Barry Pearl, left, and Ana Gasteyer appear during a rehearsal for “Grease: Live.” Pearl, 65, who starred as Doody in the 1978 film, “Grease,” will make a cameo as a TV producer in the Fox presentation airing live on Sunday.

(Kevin Estrada/Fox via AP)

dell Pierce. A live audience will add a dash of theater, which won’t rattle Pearl or Conn, who are both stage veterans.

Over the years, Pearl and Conn have become the keepers of the “Grease”

flame, organizing reunions and protecting the actors’ copyright. “He’s the troop leader of the T-Birds and I’m the den mother,” said Conn.

This time, they added their deep knowledge of all

things “Grease.” During rehearsals, Conn noticed the boys in leather jackets weren’t being nearly amorous enough around the girls, while Pearl pointed out that the script called for the guys to high-five but no one did that during the Eisenhower administration.

Pearl, whose link to “Grease” started when he joined the first national tour in 1973, said natural changes have crept in over the years. For instance, on Sunday there will be no f-bombs or cigarette smoking, and the lyrics for “Greased Lightnin’ have been sanitized.

But the broadcast will have a lot of Broadway DNA. It’s being directed by Thomas Kail (“Hamilton”), with music supervision by Tom Kitt (“Next to Normal”), production design by David Korins (“Hamilton”) and costume design by William Ivey Long (“Cabaret”).q

A30 PEOPLE

& ARTS Film academy reforms spark new round of protests

Saturday 30 January 2016

JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it was altering membership rules in response to an outcry over the diversity of its voters and nominees, another uproar has erupted around Hollywood. Many academy members are protesting that the new measures unjustly scapegoat older academy mem-

bers and imply they’re racist.

Fiery letters have poured into the academy. Trade magazines are littered with critical op-eds from members. Meanwhile, civil rights leaders and others say the academy’s actions didn’t go far enough. More steps are needed, they say, to make the Oscars and the industry more inclusive.

Reforms meant to calm a crisis seem to have only fur-

ther enflamed it. This year’s Feb. 28 Academy Awards are looking less like a glitzy gala and more like a battlefield.

“We all have to calm down a bit. The conversation has become unduly vitriolic,” says Rod Lurie, the writer-director of “Straw Dogs” and “The Contender” and a member of the academy’s directors’ branch. “Nobody in the academy should dig-

10 years, with a few exceptions like for previous Oscar nominees. The academy also set a goal to double minority and female members by 2020.

Some academy members, while applauding efforts to diversify the academy, said taking away voting rights from older members smacks of ageism, and that they aren’t to blame for the dearth of minority nomi-

“The set of voters that they’re going to get rid of have seen more movies and have more context in which to judge something than any newbie coming into the academy,” Goldstein told The Associated Press. “You can bring in more women, you can bring in more anybody. Everybody’s a human being.

They’re going to vote what they’re going to vote. Noth-

An Oscar statue is displayed at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Since the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences said that it was altering membership rules in response to an outcry over the diversity of its voters and of its nominees, another uproar has erupted around Hollywood. Many academy members are protesting that the new measures unjustly scapegoat older academy members and imply they’re racist.

(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

nify any accusations of racism,” Lurie said in an interview, “but there obviously are biases that are created by the demographics of the academy.”

The typically slow-moving academy acted swiftly last week, holding an emergency meeting of its Board of Governors. In the wake of a second straight year of all-white acting nominees — and calls for a boycott of the Oscars broadcast — the 51-member board unanimously voted to revamp membership rules in an effort to change the makeup of the largely white, male and older association of some 7,000 exclusive members.

Though Oscar voting was previously for life, it will now be restricted to members who have been active in the industry within the past

nees in the past two years; the industry is.

Studies have shown that minorities remain underrepresented in all levels of the movie business, from protagonists on screen to executives who can greenlight a film. But the last two years are something of an aberration in recent Oscar history. In the 10 years prior, 24 of the 200 acting nominees were black. (Far less is the rate of nods for Hispanics or Asian-Americans, however.) William Goldstein, a composer and longtime academy member, chastised the academy in a Los Angeles Times editorial for “capitulating to political correctness” while missing the bigger picture.

He believes outreach and mentor programs will make a difference, not manipulating demographics.

ing’s going to change.”

In a letter to the academy, Stephen Geller, a member of the writers branch and screenwriter of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” accused academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs of “grey-listing” its older members. Stephen Furst, the 60-year-old actor and academy member best known as Flounder from “Animal House,” wrote to the academy lamenting “the insulting and unfounded generalities the academy has made about the character and judgment of older academy members.”

James Woods, the 68-yearold, twice-nominated actor, went further: “The motion picture academy announced separate bathroom facilities today: one for Members and one for Old White People,” he mocked on Twitter.q

PEOPLE AND ARTS A31

Saturday 30 January 2016

Lily James brings ‘War and Peace’ to the 21st century on TV ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Many people find the idea of reading Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” to be daunting, but not Lily James.

When she was cast as Natasha in a miniseries based on the novel, she was working on a live action remake of “Cinderella” directed by Kenneth Branagh, who told her, “Reading ‘War and Peace’ will be one of the great joys of your life.’

“He is right,” said James in

a recent interview. “It is the most beautiful, wonderful story ever told, I think.”

“War and Peace,” also starring James Norton and Paul Dano, is being broadcast on A&E, Lifetime and the History channel. Part three debuts Monday.

James, 26, says she “really just used the book like a bible.

I carried it around with me everywhere. I was scribbling and writing down all the bits about Natasha that I loved. Every time she

turned up on a page, my heart would start beating faster.”

The miniseries introduces viewers to Natasha as a 13-year-old girl who is “very young, very open, very naive; very spirited.” The miniseries spans 15 years, and James says she most enjoyed playing an older Natasha.

“The second half of Natasha’s journey was what I was really drawn to,” she said.

“She’s this really tragic her-

oine. ... And she goes to such depths of despair and punishment. She punishes herself for the choices she makes and in such an extreme way, and I’ve never dealt with material like that before so it was a real challenge.”

James dons a corset once again in her next film, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” opening Feb. 5.

It’s based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

“I was very confused when I found out they were put-

ting zombies into Jane Austen,” said James. “It’s the true, classic story but set in this zombie apocalyptic world and that does wonderful, weird and terrifying things. ... I challenge anyone to go and not have fun.”

James is best known for her role of the romantic, fun-loving Cousin Rose on “Downton Abbey,” now airing its final season on PBS’ “Masterpiece.”

Creator “Julian Fellowes is a genius,” she said.q

Chelsea Handler shifts gears in Netflix’s ‘Chelsea Does’ SANDY COHEN AP Entertainment Writer PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — After turning 40, quitting her late-night talk show, traveling the world and living alone, Chelsea Handler is feeling more thoughtful and more insecure than ever before.

She wonders if audiences are still interested in what she has to say, and worries she might be an egomaniac for even thinking that.

She’s shifting gears, and she’s showing it, in person and on screen in “Chelsea Does,” the four-part Netflix docu-series she premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It was released on the streaming channel last week; her talk show is set to begin in May. “I wanted to do all those things: have fun, be ugly, be funny, sad, cry,” she said of her approach to the new project. “I wanted everything, like a phantasmagoria of experience.

And I learned a lot and I had a great time filming all of them.”

Here’s a look at Handler’s perspective on each of the installments: — Marriage: Handler said series producers Morgan Neville and Eddie Schmidt pressured her to interview her ex-boyfriends and go on dates with a bunch of strangers.

“I got my first boyfriend from when I was 20 in LA and had just moved there, and he was so nice,” she said.

“He was like, ‘You did everything you said you were going to do, and it was so sweet.’”

— Silicon Valley: Handler met with a therapist throughout the making of the series, and she found their discussions about her frustrations with technology among the most fruitful.

“My whole house is run on an iPad and I just don’t know how — like I turn on

Chelsea Handler poses for a portrait to promote the film, “Chelsea Does”, at the Toyota Mirai Music Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Handler reveals her personal fears and biases in her new Netflix docu-series as she explores marriage, drugs, racism and technology.

(Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

my TV and a microwave goes on downstairs,” she said. “I feel like a toddler. I don’t know how to do anything. And I have people who do too many things for me so I’ve forgotten how to even be resourceful.”

Handler says she “definitely got better at technology” after the segment.

— Drugs: A six-course marijuana-laced meal and Handler’s experiences with ayahuasca are featured in her documentary on drugs.

She said the hallucinogenic Peruvian brew induced nausea and deep feelings of love.

“You feel beautiful, like everything is beautiful and life is exactly what it should be,” she said. “And then I had this epiphany ... like it’s OK to be alone. And as I thought that — it’s OK to be alone — I thought, ‘I want to go down and tell everybody what just happened. q

Kerry Washington feted with parade and roast at Harvard CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — “Scandal” actress Kerry Washington took home a shiny little pudding pot this week after being feted with a raucous parade through Harvard Square and a roast by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The nation’s oldest collegiate theatrical organization says it named Washington as Woman of the Year because she’s the first

black woman to headline a network TV drama since 1974.

In a statement, the troupe called her a “talented and socially engaged film, TV and stage actress who keeps breaking barriers in Hollywood.”

Washington told WCVB-TV before the festivities kicked off that she was “crazy honored” to join the esteemed list of women that have been honored by the

group.

Previous Hasty Pudding honorees include Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Comedian Amy Poehler won last year.

“It’s surreal. I mean, it’s so crazy,” Washington told the station.

The 38-year old actress also admitted she was nervous about the roast, which was her first.

In keeping with tradition,

Washington made her way to the theater in style, riding in the back of convertible flanked by actors in colorful drag.

While on stage with Hasty Pudding actors, Washington did a throaty rendition of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” At another point, she threw a pie at an actor dressed like Donald Trump and she later posed with the event’s signature gold-

en pudding pot.

Washington stars as crisis management specialist Olivia Pope on the hit show “Scandal,” which debuted on ABC in 2012.

She’s earned Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations for the role.

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this year’s Man of the Year, will be feted by Hasty Pudding on Feb. 5.q

A32 FEATURE

Saturday 30 January 2016

For the world’s most scrutinized body, Barbie has a new look BETH J. HARPAZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Poor Barbie. She had plastic surgery to become more socially acceptable. But a lot of her critics still don’t like her.

Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, announced Thursday that the doll has three new body types — curvy, tall and petite.

Barbie will also now come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles.

Mattel spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni said the product is evolving to “offer more choices” to make “the line more reflective of the world girls see around them.”

But Kris Macomber, who teaches sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, says she’s “reluctant to celebrate Barbie’s new strategy because it doesn’t change the fact that Barbie dolls and other kinds of fashion dolls still over-emphasize female beauty. Sure, all body types should be valued. And, sure, all skin colors should be valued equally. But why must we keep sending girls the message that being beautiful is so important?”

Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said Barbie’s changes are a testament to activists who for years have challenged her “unrealistic and harmful body type.” But body type “was only one of the criticisms,” he said.

“The other was the brand’s relentless focus on appearance and fashion.”

Kumea Shorter-Gooden, co-author of “Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America,” has said in the past that Barbie has a bigger impact on black girls struggling with messages about skin color and hair. Shorter-Gooden applauded Mattel “for diversifying the size and look of Barbie,” but noted that “European-American hair still prevails,” and that the dolls’ outfits still “convey a traditional and constraining gender norm about

Barbie Fashionista Dolls from Mattel are displayed at the TTPM Holiday Showcase in New York.

how girls and women should look.”

Aside from whether Barbie’s looks will ever measure up to society’s changing expectations, another question worth asking is whether kids still want to

play with Barbies. Barbie sales fell 14 percent in the most recently reported quarter, with worldwide sales falling every year since 2012. A study by BAV Consulting found that consumers perceive the Bar-

bie brand as being “less relevant” than 80 percent of 3,500 brands in 200 categories BAV studied.

BAV’s data analysis also found that consumers perceive Barbie as being in the bottom third of all brands

This photo shows a group of new Barbie dolls introduced in January 2016. Mattel, the maker of the famous plastic doll, said it will start selling Barbie’s in three new body types: tall, curvy and petite. She’ll also come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles.

(Mattel via AP)

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

when it comes to social responsibility but in the top 2 percent when it comes to being traditional.

Mattel said it will still sell the original 11.5-inch Barbie. The new versions will begin arriving on U.S. store shelves in March and will roll out globally after that.

They are available for preorder at shop.mattel.com, and will ship in February.

Quiana Agbai, an AfricanAmerican mother of two who has written about “the effects of dolls not looking like my 5-year-old daughter” on her blog, www.harlemlovebirds. com, said Barbie’s new look is “a step in the right direction” but noted that “there are brands already filling this need in greater detail.” Agbai’s husband’s family is Nigerian, so she found a Nigerian princess doll for her daughter from a line called Queens of Africa. Agbai herself grew up playing with the American Girl doll Addy, whose story line involved escaping from slavery.

Some, however, saluted the new Barbie wholeheartedly.q