March 4, 2016

On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Friday, March 4, 2016

Stinging Rebuke

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney weighs in on the Republican presidential race during a speech at the University of Utah, Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Salt Lake City. The 2012 GOP presidential nominee has been critical of front-runner Donald Trump on Twitter in recent weeks and has yet to endorse any of the candidates.

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Mitt Romney Urges Republicans to Shun Trump

The ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate would “greatly diminish” prospects for a safe and prosperous future for the United States, former Republican presiden-

tial nominee Mitt Romney said in a stinging speech on Thursday.

Romney said the other Republican candidates would be better alternatives to the billionaire businessman, whom he called “a phony, a fraud.”

It is virtually unheard of for a former party standardbearer to attack a fellow party member and candidate for the presidential nomination. But it has been a political season like none before.

The Republican race, al-

ready dominated by insults and name-calling, has seen Trump’s once-unlikely candidacy morph into an increasingly strong bid for his party’s nomination for the November election.

“The only serious policy proposals that deal with

the broad range of national challenges we confront today come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich,” Romney said of Trump’s rivals. “One of these men should be our nominee.”

Continued on page 3

A2 UP

Friday 4 March 2016

FRONT

Defense lawyer: Rush to judgment in Alabama police shooting JAY REEVES Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Officer Aaron Smith is the white son of a retired ranking Montgomery police official, and Gregory Gunn was a black man neighbors knew for working hard and walking everywhere he went.

Their lives intersected early one morning last week, and Gunn lay dead after a hail of gunfire — a shooting that recalled tense times years ago when Montgomery police were continually at odds with the city’s black community.

Now, with Gunn dead amid a national debate over police violence in minority communities, Smith’s lawyer argues the career of an innocent young of-

ficer is being sacrificed to quell unrest in a city that doesn’t want a repeat of its past, or fiery protests like those in Ferguson, Missouri.

“It simply boils down to a political calculation to placate activists, to prevent another Ferguson,” defense attorney Mickey McDermott said in an interview Thursday. “That’s just the world we’re living in now.”

Mayor Todd Strange didn’t return a message seeking comment on McDermott’s claims.

But District Attorney Daryl Bailey has said the 23-yearold Smith was arrested because state investigators found probable cause to believe he broke the law when he shot Gunn, 58, six days earlier.

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, foreground, with Police Chief Ernest Finley, left, speaks at a news conference in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, March 2, 2016, after Montgomery District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced that Montgomery Police Officer Aaron Smith was arrested in connection to the shooting death of Greg Gunn.

(AP Photo / Montgomery Advertiser, Mickey Welsh)

An autopsy showed the man was shot five times, possibly while crouching on the ground shielding himself, a family lawyer said Thursday.

Authorities won’t discuss evidence that led them to charge Smith. McDermott, who served as a Montgomery police officer before going to law school, said the arrest skipped the normal protocol of letting grand juries consider whether to charge officers who use deadly force while on duty.

Smith’s arrest did seem to soothe anger in the black community in Montgomery, a city of 205,000 that is 56 percent black. Relatives and friends gathered at the shooting scene and praised the move within hours after the charges were announced.

“Right is right and wrong is wrong,” said Aaryn Jordan, a nephew of Gunn.

Gunn’s mother, Nellie Ruth Gunn, told reporters she wanted Smith to attend her son’s funeral, set for Saturday.

“All I want is justice,” she said.

Smith, who worked the overnight shift in what McDermott described as a high-crime area, shot and

killed Gunn around 3:20 a.m. on Feb. 25, officials said.

Gunn, according to a neighbor, was a laborer who did odd jobs at area businesses, sometimes two at a time, and also cut grass in his neighborhood.

Smith thought Gunn was “suspicious” so he got out of his patrol car and approached the man on foot, police said.

Colvin Hinson said he his wife and their 13-year-old daughter were asleep when Gunn started banging on his front door and calling his name in the middle of the night. Then he heard gunshots.

Opening the door, Hinson saw Gunn dying in the yard, Hinson said. While authorities initially said Gunn had a rod or stick used as a handle on a paint roller, Hinson said the pole belonged to him and had been in the yard for several weeks.

Hinson had known Gunn for years, describing him as a hard-working man who walked everywhere because he had no car.

McDermott said Gunn used “deadly force” on Smith before the officer opened fire, but he wouldn’t go into details. q

U.S. NEWS A3 Romney urges Republicans to shun Donald Trump Friday 4 March 2016

Continued from Front Romney was relentless in his criticism, saying Trump “is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power.”

In response at a campaign speech in Maine, Trump made much of his own endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor in his failed race to unseat President Barack Obama in the 2012 contest.

Trump said Romney begged for his backing and he could have “said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’

He would have dropped to his knees.”

Earlier in the day, Trump dismissed Romney as “a stiff” who “didn’t know what he was doing” as the party’s candidate in 2012.

“People are energized by what I’m saying” and turning out in remarkable numbers to vote, Trump told NBC. The back-and-forth comes as Republican candidates prepared for the first postSuper Tuesday debate, scheduled for Thursday night. Trump is coming under increasing pressure from his party as he fights for the majority of delegates needed to win the nomination.

Romney said a Trump nomination at the party’s convention in July would enable Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the presidency.

Romney also criticized Clinton, accusing her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, of personally profiting from their positions of power.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the losing Republican nominee in 2008, issued a statement endorsing Romney’s remarks. Trump had dismissed McCain’s war-hero status for his long imprisonment during the Vietnam war.

Panicked Republican leaders say they still have options for preventing Trump from winning the

nomination, just not many good ones. They include a contested convention and even the long-shot prospect of a third party option.

Also Thursday, dozens of conservative national security experts warned that Trump is unfit to be commander in chief.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and more than 70 others called Trump’s “embrace of the expansive use of torture” inexcusable. They also object to what they say is Trump’s “hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric” and his advocacy for waging trade wars.

Despite Trump’s strong showing on Tuesday, he was not yet on track to claim the nomination before the party’s national gathering, according to an Associated Press delegate count. He has won 46 percent of the delegates awarded so far, and he would have to increase that to 51 percent in the remaining primaries.

Trump has 316 delegates so far, Texas Sen. Cruz 226 and Florida Sen. Rubio, 106.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the party nomination.

Party strategists cast March 15 as the last opportunity to stop Trump through the normal path of winning states and collecting delegates.

A win for Rubio in his home state of Florida would raise questions about Trump’s strength, as could a win for Kasich, Ohio’s governor, on his home turf.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson all but ended his bid Wednesday, saying he would skip the debate and declaring he did “not see a political path forward.”

On the Democratic side, Clinton was drawing broad support from voters and her party’s leaders. Rival Bernie Sanders vowed to keep up the fight, though his path to the nomination has narrowed. So far, Clinton has at least 1,005 delegates, Sanders 373.

It takes 2,383 Democratic delegates to win.q

Maine Gov. Paul LePage speaks before introducing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at campaign stop, Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Portland, Maine.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A4 U.S.

Friday 4 March 2016

NEWS

Bloomberg’s policy crusades could pose obstacles with voters JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — For many outside New York City, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s name is synonymous with a pair of political crusades: launching a national anti-gun campaign and taking on Big Soda.

But the gun and public health positions his supporters have hailed as visionary — and, in some cases, have been adopted by municipalities nationwide — could prove to be hurdles for voters, particularly Republicans, if the business media mogul launches a third-party presidential bid.

For some, Bloomberg has been defined by the multimillion dollar National Rifle Association ad campaigns warning members that their right to bear arms was in jeopardy. Others remember the late night comics’ jokes about his fizzled effort to ban giant sodas.

Gun control is a hard sell with many Republicans as well as some independents and Democrats, meaning a huge swath of voters could be out reach for an independent candidacy that would need support across party and ideological lines to succeed.

The billionaire’s team has said he’ll decide this month whether to run.

“These are major obstacles for him because they have come to define his nannystate government beliefs,” said Republican national strategist Matt Mackowiak.

“In the Republican primary, he’s as much of a punch line as any Democrat. His ideas are non-starters.”

His fight against guns has humble origins.

Back in 2001, the political novice only drew one reporter to cover his fledgling mayoral bid during a campaign stop in Queens. One

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during the C40 cities awards ceremony, in Paris. For many, Bloomberg’s name is synonymous with a pair of political crusades: an anti-gun campaign and a failed takedown of Big Soda. But positions that his supporters have hailed as visionary could be hurdles for voters, particularly Republicans, if the billionaire launches a thirdparty presidential bid.

(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

man barked at the candidate: “What do you think of the Second Amendment?”

Bloomberg turned to the man and replied, “And that one is?” before his aides whisked him away.

Four years later, soon after he was elected to a second term, Bloomberg found himself in a Brooklyn emergency room as doctors tried in vain to save the life of a police officer who had been shot.

The mayor recalled blood rising to the surface of the officer’s bulletproof vest as detectives examined it.

He used his 2006 inauguration speech to decry the flood of illegal guns on New York’s streets and to vow to curb “these instruments of death.”

He founded the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which became Everytown for Gun Safety and has 3.5 million supporters.

“He learned that 90 percent of guns used in crimes

on the streets of New York came from out of state,” said John Feinblatt, a senior aide during Bloomberg’s mayoralty and now head of Everytown. “Most mayors would have just focused on fighting that in New York City. This mayor took the fight national.”

Bloomberg repeatedly chided Congress and the White House for inaction, particularly after the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting.

He created the Independence USA political action committee and over the last four years donated $55 million to candidates supporting stricter gun laws, including 27 Democrats, 13 Republicans and six independents, as well as for 25 gun-control ballot initiatives across the country.

His favored candidate or initiative won 36 times out of 46, and he became one of the NRA’s favorite targets.

Feinblatt credits the may-

or’s group for getting companies such as Facebook to ban online private gun ads and for pushing six more states to pass background checks.

In an Associated Press-GfK poll in December, 82 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of independents and 40 percent of Republicans said gun laws should be stricter.

Bloomberg sees gun control and public health policy as falling under the umbrella of “preventable death.”

His first major health initiative was a 2003 ban on smoking at the city’s bars and restaurants, a move that was initially unpopular.

But after it took hold, the hospitality industry in the city surged by 50 percent and the ban was replicated in more than 500 cities across the country and several other nations.

Bloomberg’s City Hall rolled out one health initiative after another during his 12

years in office. Restaurants were assigned letter grades for cleanliness. Calorie counts were required to be placed on menus. More than a dozen companies adhered to a request to reduce salt in their products. And trans fats were banned in city restaurants, a move the Food Drug and Administration emulated on a national scale nearly a decade later.

But he was at times accused of overreach: infamously, an effort to ban supersize sodas was decried by many as a “nanny state” step and blocked in court, though it lives on as a joke for comics and conservatives alike.

“Oh, Bloomberg is not around, our Big Gulp is safe!” declared Sarah Palin, as she pulled out a giant soda to cheers in a 2013 speech to conservatives.

Others say his policy campaigns have made a difference. “He has been a transformative leader,” said Dr. Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University’s school of public health.

“He has created a model for how to improve a city’s health.”

Bloomberg’s social policy, mixed with conservative economic touchstones, seems unlikely to be an instant hit with voters if he runs. More than six in 10 Americans surveyed in an AP-GfK Poll last week said they wouldn’t consider supporting him while nearly four in 10 knew little about him.

“All I know about this guy is that he tried to dictate how big a man’s soda could be,” said Joseph Schreiber, 73, a retired assembly line worker from Arlington, Texas. “I thought that was stupid. People have to make their choices.” And “if they get fat, they get fat.”q

U.S. NEWS A5

Friday 4 March 2016

Clinton now facing struggle American schools find presidential campaign to win back younger voters language conflicting with no-bullies message NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Standing in a line of thousands outside an arena at Colorado State University, Aleksandr Cronk contemplated the grim possibility that the man he was waiting to see, Bernie Sanders, may not make it to the November ballot and he’d have to decide whether to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Like millions of young voters nationwide, Cronk has been electrified by Sanders’ longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Even as Clinton has racked up a commanding lead in the contest, she’s overwhelmingly losing voters between ages 18 and 29 in early-voting states. Her lukewarm reception among people like Cronk points to a challenge for her in November, should she win the nomination. Overwhelming support from young voters twice helped secure the White House for Barack Obama.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of change” if Clinton wins, said Cronk, 21. Like many younger voters he’s especially alarmed by income inequality, the issue that Sanders has made a centerpiece of his campaign. “The Clintons don’t really stand in that position very well.”

Clinton’s weakness with younger voters has stood out consistently this year — she lost Democratic primary voters who are aged 18 to 29 by 70 points in Iowa, 68 points in New Hampshire and 25 points on Super Tuesday, when she won seven of the 11 states in play for Democrats.

“Hillary’s weakness with millennials has to be very worrisome for the Democratic Party,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, a center-left advocacy group. “What you’re seeing is the millennial generation has essentially seceded from the Democratic establishment.”

Obama’s presidential campaigns showed the power of voters under 30, who gave him 2-1 support in both 2008 and 2012. In 2016, even more millennials than Baby Boomers are eligible to vote, and they make up a large share of potential voters in battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa, demographers say.

For months Clinton tried to connect with younger voters through famous supporters such as singer Katy Perry and actor Lena Dunham. She embraced the antipolice-brutality movement Black Lives Matter, spearheaded by young African-Americans, and vowed to expand President Obama’s deportation relief for young people in the country illegally and their families. She promised debt-free college for all, only to be one-upped by Sanders’ pledge of free college for all.

Clinton has acknowledged she’s fallen short, saying she has to work harder to convince young people she will help them. When an Iowa college student asked her in January why so many other youths found her dishonest, Clinton blamed decades of Republican attacks.

“I have been around a long time and people have thrown all kinds of things at me and I can’t keep up with it,” replied Clinton. “If you are new to politics and it’s the first time you’ve really paid attention, you go, ‘Oh my gosh, look at all of this.’”

Joelle Gamble of the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal New York think-tank, said young voters are increasingly distrustful of institutions like political parties. She noted that, on the Republican side, many have rallied around Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who boasts of how hated he is by Washington Republicans.q

C. THOMPSON Associated Press BUFFALO, New York (AP) — Ryan Lysek rose to become vice president of his fifth-grade class at Lorraine Academy in Buffalo, New York, after the sitting vice president was ousted for saying things that went against the school’s anti-bullying rules. So the 10-year-old is a little puzzled

students “can’t believe nobody calls him on the carpet the way that they would be called on the carpet if they said those things.”

There’s Donald Trump calling Ted Cruz a “loser” and a “liar” and singling out Muslims and Mexicans for criticism. And there’s Marco Rubio mocking Trump’s “worst spray tan in Ameri-

said. “Would you welcome that?”

In the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have focused more on policy than on each other. The Republican race is a different story.

“If students are following this election — and they should be — we have a lot of re-educating to do,” Buf-

In this Feb. 29, 2016 photo, teacher Kelly Gasior, left, and students, from left, Olivia Mashtaire, Ryan Lysek, Christian Vazquez and Tyler Lysek stand with a statue of a Buffalo that’s been emblazoned with anti-bullying messages outside Lorraine Academy, Public School No. 72, in Buffalo, N.Y. Educators in Buffalo and elsewhere worry the name-calling, mocking and social media attacks that have gotten applause in the presidential campaign could undermine schools’ bullying prevention policies that call for kindness and respect.

(AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

that candidates running to lead the entire country can get away with name-calling and foul language.

The nasty personal tweets and sound bites of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign are reverberating in classrooms, running counter to the anti-bullying policies that have emerged in recent years amid several high-profile suicides.

For teacher David Arenstam’s high school class in Saco, Maine, the campaign has been one long civics lesson: “Can you really ban a whole group of people from coming into the country?” the students will ask, or “What’s the KKK (the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan), and do they still really exist?”

But mostly, Arenstam said, when it comes to Republican Donald Trump,

ca” and calling him a “con artist.”

Cruz says nearly every day on the campaign trail, “I don’t respond to insults” and he has been careful not to engage when Trump and others call him names.

But during the Jan. 28 Republican debate which Trump didn’t attend, it was Cruz who made some quasi-insults he said Trump would have lobbed: “Let me say I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly,” Cruz said, snickering that he was getting “the Donald Trump portion out of the way.”

On Thursday, Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, jumped into the fray, branding Trump “a phony, a fraud.”

“Imagine your children and your grandchildren acting the way he does,” Romney

falo school administrator Will Keresztes said. Much of the rhetoric would violate not only the district’s code of conduct, he said, but the state’s Dignity for All Students Act. This is not the first campaign to get ugly, but educators, parents and students say this one is particularly challenging because often the biggest applause lines and headline-grabbers fly in the face of appeals for students be respectful and kind.

Pickerington, Ohio, school counselor Kris Owen said students should be reminded that potential colleges and employers won’t find a Twitter feed full of insults as amusing as some have found the candidates’.

She suggested using the comments as conversation starters. q

A6 U.S.

Friday 4 March 2016

NEWS

American Living:

Warm ocean could mean early boom in 2016 lobster catch

Brandon Demmons measures the carapace, the shell of the lobster, to determine if the crustacean is within the legal size limits while working as a sternman aboard aboard a lobster fishing boat off of Monhegan Island, Maine. Maine’s lobster catches will likely peak early this year, which could mean an abundance of cheap lobster for consumers and bad news for the state’s signature industry, a group of scientists reported on Thursday, March 3, 2016.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press ROCKPORT, Maine (AP) — Maine’s lobster catches will likely peak early this year, which could mean an abundance of cheap lobster for consumers and bad news for the state’s

signature industry, a group of scientists reported on Thursday.

Maine’s busy summer lobster fishing season typically picks up around early July, the same time the state’s tourism industry gets in gear. But scientists with

the Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute predict this year’s lobster season will get rolling two or three weeks early.

The scientists, who unveiled their findings during the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport, pinned the early

lobster season on warming ocean temperatures.

Along Maine’s coast, temperatures are 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal. That means lobsters are likely to move inshore, shed their shells and become more easily trapped earlier this summer, they said.

An early lobster season can disrupt Maine’s valuable lobster supply chain, which is partially dependent on big July and August catches, and make prices plummet. Prices at the dock fell 16 percent in 2012, a year of early catches, and prices to consumers fell, too. The 2014 haul shattered state value records because of a highvolume catch that arrived on schedule.

“If the timing is off by just a few weeks, it can have a major impact throughout the supply chain,” said Andrew Pershing, the chief scientific officer with the research institute.

Maine is by far the most productive lobster fishing state in the country, accounting for more than 80 percent of the haul in 2014, and the industry has been

Offshore wind projects in US see renewed interest PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The offshore wind industry has high hopes for establishing a permanent beachhead in the U.S. after years of disappointment. Business leaders and politicians who gathered for an industry conference in Boston this week said wealthy investment firms and sea-

soned European offshore wind companies are increasingly committing to projects along the East Coast. That, they said, is evidence a domestic industry dreamed about for nearly two decades is finally on its way.“There’s a palpable sense that it’s finally happening,” said Bryan Martin, a managing director at D.E. Shaw & Co. That New

York hedge fund is the principal backer of Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Islandbased company looking to launch the country’s first offshore wind farm off Block Island by the end of the year. “The U.S. tends to start small and ramp up very fast. I believe that will happen with offshore wind.”

Among the significant new players to emerge in the

past year is DONG Energy, a Danish firm that operates more than a dozen wind farms, including some of Europe’s largest. The government-owned company has leased roughly 187,000 acres of federal waters about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and recently announced intentions to seek a second federal lease in waters off New Jersey.

riding a wave of heavy hauls and high values in recent years.

Annual lobster catches in the U.S. grew from 71.7 million pounds in 2003 to about 148 million pounds in 2014. The total value of the catch about doubled in that time.

Scientists with Gulf of Maine Research Institute were quick to point out that early lobster catches don’t necessarily guarantee a drop in price. One of the big factors influencing price is the volume of catch, and there’s no way of predicting that, said Katherine Mills, a research scientist with the institute.

Mills added that in recent years the industry has worked to open up new markets for lobster that aren’t tied to summer tourism, such as increased exports to China. Also, the industry will be able to prepare in advance for early hauls, unlike in 2012, she said.

“From harvesters to dealers and transporters all the way up to processors and marketers, people have been wondering what to do if this happens again,” Mills said. “This will give them 2 to 3 months of lead time.”

But Dave Cousens, the president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said the possibility of early lobsters is “not good” for lobstermen, even if it means prices to consumers fall.

“We need them when the people want them,” he said. “If it comes early, in any amount, we really have nowhere to put them.”

U.S. NEWS A7

Friday 4 March 2016

US Financial Front:

Growth at services firms skids to slowest pace in 2 years

JOSH BOAK AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A private survey says the growth of U.S. services companies in February slowed to the worst pace in two years, as a measure of hiring turned negative.

The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its services index slipped to 53.4 last month from 53.5 in January. February’s reading was the lowest since February 2014.

Still, any reading above 50 signals that services firms are expanding. The survey showed continued but slower growth for new orders, while the pace of business activity improved. But the employment component was 49.7, which signals contraction.

This could raise a red flag ahead of the government jobs report being released Friday, with experts projecting that employers hired nearly 200,000 workers last month.

U.S. economic growth increasingly hinges on consumers, as uncertainty about global growth has hampered manufacturing and exports. Home and auto sales have steadily advanced over the past year, while spending at restaurants has also improved. Those gains have spread to hiring as businesses in the services sector account for 90 percent of the 2.7 million jobs added in the past 12 months.

“We’re continuing on the path of growth,” said Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM non-manufacturing businesssurvey committee.

But Nieves cautioned that it would be worth monitoring the index’s employ-

ment measure going forward. “Where the concern might be is if we see this trend continue for the next two or three months,” he said.

The ISM is a trade group of purchasing managers. Its services survey covers businesses that employ the vast majority of workers, including retail, construction, health care and financial services companies.

The survey found that most service sectors are expanding, although it noted that retail, entertainment and mining contracted last month. Services overall expansion have contrasted with a shrinking manufacturing sector. ISM reported this week that its manufacturing index stood at 49.5 in February — a level that shows factory activity as contracting. Manufacturing has now been shrinking for five straight months.

The decline in factory activity stems from a global slowdown. Economic growth in China has become mired with doubts. Its currency is shedding value, industrial firms plan to cut jobs, and high debt loads weigh on corporate balance sheets.

Europe has struggled to re-

Employee Brittney Bounds bags groceries for customer Esther Franklin, left, at Compton’s Market in Sacramento, Calif. On Thursday, March 3, 2016, the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, issued its index of non-manufacturing activity for February.

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

cover from the 2008 financial market collapse. The result has been a decline in oil prices and a rising dollar that have hurt orders at U.S. manufacturers.

Yet the global pressures have caused some weaknesses to emerge in the services sector, although they have yet to derail the broader U.S. economy be-

cause of consumers.

The low 4.9 percent unemployment rate has corresponded with a pick-up in wage growth and more spending on vehicles, housing and meals out.

Auto sales rose 7 percent over last February to 1.3 million vehicles, according to Autodata Corp.

Purchases of existing homes

rose 0.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. The improvement follows a solid 2015 when sales achieved their highest level in nine years.

And spending at restaurants has risen 6.1 percent over the past 12 months.

US factory orders up 1.6 percent, best in 7 months

MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories increased in January by the most in seven months, while a key category that tracks business investment plans rose by the largest amount in 19 months.

Factory orders rose 1.6 percent in January after two months of declines, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. It was

the biggest jump since June, though it was driven by demand in the volatile category of commercial aircraft. At the same time, orders in a core sector that reflects business investment rose 3.4 percent — the sharpest one-month gain since June 2014.

U.S. manufacturers’ exports have been hurt this year by spreading economic weakness overseas and by a strong dollar, which

has made their goods less competitive. And a sharp fall in oil prices has hurt investment.

Demand for durable goods — items ranging from autos and appliances to airplanes and battleships — increased 4.7 percent in January, slightly lower than the 4.9 percent the government had estimated in a preliminary report last week.

Orders for nondurable

goods, including chemicals, paper and clothing, fell 1.4 percent in January after a 1.1 percent drop in December. This category has posted a string of declines in part because of the big drop in energy prices. The data is not adjusted for price changes.

Orders for commercial aircraft jumped 54.4 percent, with smaller gains for military aircraft and autos and auto parts.

A8

Friday 4 March 2016

WORLD NEWS

Seoul: North Korea fires short-range projectiles into sea

A man watches a TV news program showing a file footage of the missile launch conducted by North Korea, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 3, 2016. North Korea fired several short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast Thursday, Seoul officials said, just hours after the U.N. Security Council approved the toughest sanctions on Pyongyang in two decades for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. The screen reads “North Korea launched missiles.”

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired six shortrange projectiles into the sea off its east coast Thursday, South Korean officials said, just hours after the U.N. Security Council approved the toughest sanctions on the North in two decades for its recent nu-

clear test and long-range rocket launch.

The firings also came shortly after South Korea’s National Assembly passed its first legislation on human rights in North Korea.

The North Korean projectiles, fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew about 100 to 150 kilometers (60 to 90 miles)

before landing in the sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

It wasn’t immediately known exactly what North Korea fired, and the projectiles could be missiles, artillery or rockets, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

North Korea routinely testfires missiles and rockets,

but often conducts weapons launches when angered at international condemnation.

Thursday’s firings were seen as a “low-level” response to the U.N. sanctions, with North Korea unlikely to launch any major provocation until its landmark ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

North Korea has not issued an official reaction to the new U.N. sanctions.

But citizens in its capital, Pyongyang, interviewed

by The Associated Press said Thursday they believe their country can fight off any sanctions.

“No kind of sanctions will ever work on us, because we’ve lived under U.S. sanctions for more than half a century,” said Pyongyang resident Song Hyo Il. “And in the future, we’re going to build a powerful and prosperous country here, relying on our own development.”

North Korean state media earlier warned that the imposition of new sanctions would be a “grave provocation” that shows “ex-

US delivers 8 Black Hawks to Jordan to fight IS SAM McNEIL Associated Press AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The United States gave Jordan eight refurbished helicopters on Thursday for the battle against Islamic State extremists along the kingdom’s borders.

Pro-Western Jordan is part of a U.S.-led military coalition against IS, which controls large parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The kingdom also faces internal threats from IS sympathizers. Earlier this week,

Jordanian troops killed seven suspected IS-linked militants in a raid in the north of the country. The suspects had allegedly plotted attacks in Jordan.

Alice Wells, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan, said in a handover ceremony Thursday that the delivery of the Black Hawks is part of ongoing military support for Jordan that also includes additional guns and surveillance equipment.

Wells told her hosts at Marka military airport in the

capital of Amman that “as you employ these aircraft in the fight against Da’esh, please know that we are honored to partner with you.” Da’esh is an alternative Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The ambassador said the helicopters will also help secure Jordan’s borders, which are currently being monitored with a U.S.-built electronic detection system.

After she spoke, one of the helicopters swooped

low over the seven others parked on the tarmac.

U.S. officials said eight more Black Hawks of an upgraded type are to be delivered to Jordan by the end of 2017, as part of a U.S. military aid package of several hundred million dollars.

Wells said the U.S. has also expedited delivery of more than 26,000 rifles and machine guns, more than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition, hundreds of bombs and 5,000 night vision devices to Jordan.q

treme” U.S. hostility against the country. It said the sanctions would not result in the country’s collapse or prevent it from launching more rockets.

The U.N. sanctions include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to the North; and the expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in “illicit activities.”

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China, North Korea’s closest ally, hoped the U.N. sanctions would be implemented “comprehensively and seriously,” while harm to ordinary North Korean citizens would be avoided.

At the United Nations, Russia’s ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, asked about the North’s firing of short-range projectiles, said, “It means that they’re not drawing the proper conclusions yet.” Japan’s U.N. ambassador, Motohide Yoshikawa, said, “That’s their way of reacting to what we have decided.”

“They may do something more,” Yoshikawa said. “So we will see.”

In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.

Last month, it put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others saw as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

Just before the U.N. sanctions were unanimously adopted, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill that would establish a center tasked with collecting, archiving and publishing information about human rights in North Korea.q

WORLD NEWS 9

Friday 4 March 2016

Migrants, EU referendum, top topics at France-UK summit SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French politicians pulled no punches Thursday, warning that a U.K. vote to leave the 28-nation European Union would give London new problems in the areas of migrants, banking and terrorism. French President Francois Hollande met Thursday with British Prime Minister David Cameron in the northern city of Amiens.

“I don’t want to scare anyone but tell the truth: There will be consequences if the U.K. leaves the EU,” Hollande said in a joint news conference with Cameron.

A British departure would notably affect “the way we handle... immigration issues ... and the economic development between our two countries,” Hollande said. Cameron, who is leading the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, agreed. “When it comes to terrorism, when it comes to security, when it comes to our borders, we are better off, we are stronger inside a reformed EU,” Cameron said. “We both firmly believe that our membership

French President, Francois Hollande, right, and British Prime Minister David Cameron shake hands after a press conference in Amiens, northern France, Thursday, March 3, 2016. Ahead of a referendum on Britain’s future in the EU and migrant tensions, Prime Minister David Cameron traveled Thursday to Amiens, France, for a summit with French President Francois Hollande.

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

of the European Union allows us to amplify our strength, projecting greater power internationally, increasing the security of our citizens, and boosting the competitiveness of our economies”.

The U.K. agreed to provide 17 million pounds ($24 million) this year to help

France strengthen border security in the northern city of Calais, which has been a flashpoint in Europe’s migration crisis. Cameron remained unclear on whether the U.K. will allow more unaccompanied child migrants to be granted asylum, one of France’s major demands. Accord-

ing to French authorities, hundreds of children are among the thousands of migrants stranded in a slum camp in Calais.

“If they have a family link to the U.K., then they must go there, and they must go quickly and in an efficient way,” Hollande said.

Economy Minister Emman-

uel Macron told the Financial Times that the bilateral agreement under which France keeps migrants on its side of the Channel could come into question if the U.K. leaves the EU. Macron also pointedly took aim at London’s key banking industry, which relies heavily upon Europe’s open economy.

“The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais and the financial passport would work less well,” he said.

Britain’s auto industry — including Rolls-Royce Motor Cars — chimed in as well, saying Thursday that the EU’s open borders are good for business. But while many major British corporations want to stay, about 200 small-business entrepreneurs signed a letter saying that leaving the EU would offer more “flexibility and adaptability.”

Conservative lawmaker Bernard Jenkin, who wants Britain to quit the bloc, says Cameron is just trying to get other European governments to “scare people” out of voting to leave.

EU mulls ‘large-scale’ migrant deportation scheme

NICHOLAS PAPHITIS DEREK GATOPOULOS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Turkey is under growing pressure to consider a major escalation in migrant deportations from Greece, a top European Union official said Thursday, amid preparations for a highly anticipated summit of EU and Turkish leaders next week.

European Council President Donald Tusk ended a six-nation tour of migration crisis countries in Turkey, where 850,000 migrants and refugees left last year

for Greek islands.

“We agree that the refugee flows still remain far too high,” Tusk said after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

“To many in Europe, the most promising method seems to be a fast and large-scale mechanism to ship back irregular migrants arriving in Greece. It would effectively break the business model of the smugglers.”

Tusk was careful to single out illegal economic migrants for possible deportation, not asylum-seekers.

And he wasn’t clear who would actually carry out the expulsions: Greece itself, EU border agency Frontex or even other organizations like NATO. Greek officials said Thursday that nearly 32,000 migrants were stranded in the country following a decision by Austria and four exYugolsav countries to drastically reduce the number of transiting migrants.

“We consider the (Macedonian) border to be closed ... Letting 80 through a day is not significant,” Migration Minister Ioannis

Mouzals said.

He said the army had built 10,000 additional places at temporary shelters since the border closures, with work underway on a further 15,000.

But a top U.N. official on migration warned that number of people stranded in Greece could quickly double.

Peter Sutherland said the “inevitable consequence” of closed borders throughout the Balkans “is that Greece increasingly becomes a camp for refugees and migrants.”

About a third of migrants trapped in Greece are at the village of Idomeni, on the border with Macedonia. Dwellers at a sprawling camp there hold out hope for crossing in increasingly difficult conditions.

Greek police said 130 people were allowed to cross the border Thursday.

Migrants said Macedonia didn’t accept computergenerated stamps issued by the Greek police, and therefore they couldn’t prove their identity documents were genuine.

A10 WORLD

Friday 4 March 2016

NEWS

Italy: 2 Italians kidnapped in Libya may have been killed RAMI MUSA NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Two Italian construction workers who were kidnapped in Libya last July may have been killed in the North African country during a clash between militants from the Islamic State group and local militias fighting them, Italian authorities and Libyan officials said Thursday.

Photographs of the nine killed in the clash, including the two possible Italians, were posted online after the gunfight, which took place on Wednesday near the Libyan city of Sabratha.

Their identity has not been definitively confirmed yet.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the families of Fausto Piano and Salvatore Failla have been informed that their loved ones

“could” be the two victims.

The ministry said it couldn’t confirm the identities because officials do not have access to the bodies.

The contested western Libyan city of Sabratha has been the scene of heavy clashes recently.

Last month, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against an IS position there, killing dozens of militants as well as two Serbian hostages.

Later in February, a militia

loyal to the Islamist-backed government in the capital of Tripoli said it arrested the leader of the Islamic State branch for Sabratha, after the IS tried to take over the city, storming its security headquarters and beheading at least 12 militiamen. On Thursday, the head of the so-called “Sabratha Media Center” said the local militia fighting the Islamic State ambushed two IS cars in a desert high-

way, 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Sabratha, killing all nine people in the vehicles.

The bodies of the two Italians were later found, with weapons in their hands, said the head of the media center, Esam Krair.

At first the militiamen thought the two were from Syria because of their fair skin — the others in the convoy were from North African or had sub-Saharan African origins, said Krair.q

Online video suggests Syria motive in Moscow child murder N. VASILYEVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A nanny accused of decapitating a 4-year-old girl and brandishing her head outside a Moscow subway station said during an apparent interrogation captured on video that the killing was an act of revenge against President Vladimir Putin for Russian airstrikes in Syria.

Asked about the video, which was released Thursday, Putin’s spokesman said it was difficult to judge the testimony of a woman he called “clearly deranged.”Gulchekhra Bobokulova, 38, was detained in Moscow on Monday after the child in her care was killed. Video footage posted online Thursday appeared to show police interrogating her. It was not clear where the video originated, and The Associated Press could not verify its authenticity or the circumstances in which it was taken. She appeared to be wearing the same

In this frame grab made from the APTN footage, Gulchekhra Bobokulova from Uzbekistan appears in a court room in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2016. The 38 year old nanny is accused of killing a 4-year-old girl and then waving the child’s severed head outside a Moscow subway station. A Moscow court on Wednesday sanctioned her arrest for two months.

(Vladimir Kondrashov/APTN via AP)

clothes she wore during a court appearance on Wednesday. In the video, she says the killing of the child was done in revenge.

Asked who it was revenge

against, she says “the one who has spilled the blood.”

Asked who that was, she replies: “Who spilled it?

Putin has been dropping bombs.” Russia has been

carrying out airstrikes in Syria for five months to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s offensive against rebels. Russian officials have flatly denied numer-

ous reports by international aid groups that accuse it of killing not only Islamic State fighters but also Syrian civilians. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative agency, would not confirm or deny the authenticity of the video, but spokesman Vladimir Markin warned that Bobokulova’s words should be treated with caution.

“The motive for a crime committed by a person who was diagnosed with schizophrenia often does not coincide with the explanations that they give later,” he said, adding that investigators will look into all possible theories.

Russian officials seem to be sending mixed messages about the suspect, focusing on her mental record but also suggesting that she probably did not act alone. Prosecutors told the court Wednesday that individuals who may have “incited” Bobokulova to kill the child may still be at large. q

Palestinian girl stabs, lightly wounds Israel policeman JERUSALEM (AP) — A 14-year-old Palestinian girl stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli policeman in a West Bank village on Thursday while gunshots fired elsewhere in the territory wounded another Israeli officer, according to Israeli authorities.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the stabbing incident took place as officers were redirecting traffic around a fallen tree on

a highway in the Palestinian village of Al-Auja, in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank.

The teen stabbed the officer in the shoulder, and he ran after her and arrested her without firing any shots, Samri said.

Earlier, gunshots were fired at a police car near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, lightly wounding another officer. Troops searched the area for the

shooter. Thursday’s incidents were the latest in more than five months of Israeli-Palestinian violence that have resulted in the deaths of 28 Israelis and at least 170 on the Palestinian side, the majority of whom Israel says were attackers.

Also Thursday, the armed wing of Islamic Hamas movement said one of its militants died accidentally while working in an attack tunnel in Khan Younis in the

southern Gaza Strip.

The Qassam Brigades identified the dead as Mohammed Astal, 31. It gave no further details. Fourteen Hamas militants have died in tunnel collapses so far in 2016.

In the 2014 Israeli war with Hamas, attack tunnels from the Gaza Strip into Israel proved to be a greater threat than rockets fired from the coastal enclave.

Israel sent in troops who

destroyed more than 30 tunnels Hamas had dug across the border to carry out attacks against soldiers and civilians. More than 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians, were killed in the 50-day summer war. In Israel, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.

The border area has since remained largely quiet, but Hamas has boasted it has rebuilt its tunnel network.q

WORLD NEWS A11

Friday 4 March 2016

Venezuela opposition picks strategy to oust President FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition coalition has decided on a triple-barreled strategy to oust President Nicolas Maduro before the end of his term.

The opposition will simultaneously pursue a constitutional amendment, a recall referendum and a campaign to push for the resignation of the embattled socialist president, said opposition leader Americo De Grazia.

The coalition of more than a dozen mostly centrist political parties reached the agreement on strategy after a long day of meetings Wednesday.

“We can’t commit suicide by having just one card in our hand. Common political sense tells us we need to pursue several strategies,” he said.

Coalition spokesman Jesus Torrealba was expected to officially announce the plan on Thursday.

Maduro’s six-year-term ends in 2019. The opposi-

tion won a landslide victory in legislative elections in December, and promised to find a way to remove Maduro from power within the first half of 2016.

The opposition has for years been riven by internal division and several factions have been advocating different strategies for getting rid of Maduro. All have potential downsides.

One plan is to seek a constitutional amendment cutting presidential terms from six to four years, effectively ending Maduro’s term But many fear that would be overturned by the Supreme Court, which has never ruled against the executive branch since Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chavez, won the presidency in 1999.

Last month, the court overturned the one decision Congress has made since being sworn in — a vote to deny Maduro emergency powers to death with the economy.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court banned Congress from investigating the gov-

Honduras: Gunmen kill indigenous leader FREDDY CUEVAS Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran indigenous leader Berta Caceres, who won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in fighting a dam project, was murdered Thursday.

Caceres, a Lenca Indian activist, had previously complained of receiving death threats from police, soldiers and local landowners because of her work.

Tomas Membreno, a member of her group, the Indian Council of People’s

Organizations of Honduras, group said at least two assailants broke into a home and shot Caceres to death early Thursday in the town of La Esperanza.

“Honduras has lost a brave and committed social activist,” Membreno said in a statement.

The killing appeared to be targeted: A Mexican rights activist at the house was only slightly wounded in the attack, but Caceres’s body had four gunshot wounds.

Police said they had detained a suspect, but did not identify the person.q

National Assembly President Henry Ramos Allup, of the opposition, speaks to journalists at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, March 3, 2016. Venezuela’s opposition coalition has decided on a triple-barreled strategy to oust President Nicolas Maduro before the end of his term.

(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

ernment’s rushed appointment of 13 high court justices last year, which critics saw as an attempt to pack

the court with government supporters.

A recall referendum is no sure thing either, though

Maduro’s approval ratings have languished in the 20 percent range for most of his term. q

A12 WORLD

Friday 4 March 2016

NEWS

Haiti:

Cholera quietly still kills dozens a month DAVID McFADDEN Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — More than a dozen people reclined on cots inside the clinic in the Haitian capital, a few so sick they were receiving intravenous infusions to rehydrate their bodies and spare them an

tober 2010, has sickened more than 770,000 people, or about 7 percent of the population, and killed more than 9,200. So far this year, it has sickened more than 6,000 and is killing an average of 37 people a month, according to the latest government figures.

lieves Haiti, with international help, can eliminate cholera by 2022. But he acknowledged the effort is badly underfinanced.

Only $307 million, or less than 14 percent, has been funded of a $2.2 billion plan announced in 2013 to eradicate cholera from the

A man wades through a garbage filled water canal, pulling his bag after collecting empty bottles to sell in downtown of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Scientists believe cholera was introduced to the country’s biggest river by inadequately treated sewage from a base of U.N. peacekeepers.

(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

agonizing death.

The worst off one recent morning was a thin and spectral man, weak from the vomiting and diarrhea caused by cholera. But all were expected to survive.

The disease spread by contaminated water is easily treatable but can lead to death within hours if unattended.

“However I got it, I really hope I never get this sick again,” another patient, Estin Josue, said as he recovered inside an immaculately clean and orderly treatment center in downtown Port-au-Prince run by Gheskio Centers, a Haitian medical organization.

Josue and his fellow patients were relatively lucky, getting sick close to the country’s first permanent cholera treatment center.

Many others are not as fortunate as Haiti continues to wrestle with the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history. Cholera, which arrived in Haiti in Oc-

The persistence of the preventable disease has alarmed public health experts who fear that attention and resources have been diverted by newer challenges, including the regional spread of the Zika virus and the political crisis that recently halted Haiti’s elections. World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said cholera is now considered “endemic” in Haiti, meaning it’s an illness that occurs regularly. Others have noted the cholera bacterium could very well be firmly established in Haiti’s rivers, estuaries and even coastal waters. “Once it is established in a country’s aquatic reservoir it is extremely difficult to eradicate,” said Afsar Ali, a researcher at the University of Florida who has led studies of cholera in Haiti for years.

Dr. Joseph Donald Francois, who coordinates the health ministry’s efforts to combat the illness, still be-

island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic over a decade, according to a November report from the U.N. In the first year of the outbreak, more than 200 international organizations were providing money and expertise to combat the illness in Haiti. Now, there are fewer than a dozen, Francois said.

“Having far fewer deaths has led a lot of people to believe the situation is no longer urgent,” Francois said. “But if we had the resources, people wouldn’t be dying at all.”

Cholera was first detected in central Haiti’s Artibonite Valley. Researchers say there is ample evidence the disease was introduced to the country’s biggest river by inadequately treated sewage from a base of U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, one of the units that have rotated in and out of a multinational force in Haiti since 2004. q

Mexico seals record in lopsided gunbattle that killed at least 42 MARK STEVENSON Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s transparency watchdog denied an appeal to release autopsy reports on 42 suspects killed by federal police in a gunbattle last year, backing the government’s position with a decision that drew criticism from human rights groups Wednesday.

One police officer died in what authorities described as a clash with drug cartel suspects in the western state of Michoacan on May 22, but the lopsided 42-1 death toll drew suspicion. The National Institute for Information Access last month ruled against a freedom-of-information request filed by The Associated Press in October.

The quasi-independent agency ruled the information should be kept as a state secret for five years.

The institute also took the government’s side in denying there was any evidence that human rights violations occurred at the ranch where the shooting occurred.

It said it had reviewed the 12 volumes of reports in the case file on the events in Tanhuato, Michoacan, and essentially said the evidence indicated federal police acted correctly.

“It was not possible to find any data that would allow one to conclude ... that there was any arbitrary, summary or illegal execution” at the ranch, the agency said in its ruling. “There was no indication, in an initial review, of any suspicious or unclear conduct on the part of security forces.”

More broadly, the institute said that after reviewing the case files, “there was no indication of acts that would constitute serious rights violations” of any kind.

The Tanhuato deaths were one of three cases of suspiciously lopsided death tolls in Mexico cited in a report issued Wednesday by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, a body of the Organization of American States.

“These situations call for a review of the use of force in Mexico in keeping with the principles of legality, absolute necessity, and proportionality,” the commission said. “Furthermore, it demands the adoption and implementation of accountability measures by a body that is independent of all security forces.”

The OAS commission also criticized what it called “a gradual regression in terms of active transparency policies and public information regarding the deaths of civilians” in regard to such cases. It said Mexico’s military forces have stopped publicly reporting the number of suspects killed by troops.

The federal Attorney General’s Office denied the AP’s initial request in October for ballistics and autopsy reports on those killed in Tanhuato, arguing the information might affect an investigation.

The AP appealed the denial under a rule that permits redacted versions of reports to be released in cases involving serious human rights violations. But the institute said it found no evidence of such violations.

The Americas director for Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, called the ruling a step backward for the institute, known by its Spanish initials as the INAI. “With this ruling, the INAI is not only abandoning the basic principles of openness and transparency it’s supposed to uphold, it’s also giving the Attorney General’s Office a green light to keep the public in the dark about very serious human rights abuses,” Vivanco wrote.

The Mexican government has denied extra-judicial killings in the case, saying federal police responded after coming under fire.

But the government also initially denied any misconduct in a June 2014 massacre in Mexico State where the army said 22 alleged gang members were killed in a shootout that injured one soldier.q

LOCAL A13

Friday 4 March 2016

Register to Volunteer Now – Less Than 2 Weeks Left for ARUBA DOET 2016

ORANJESTAD ARUBA DOET 2016 is on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th of March 2016. The biggest volunteer event on the island will take place in less than two weeks. More than 2.400 volunteers registered already to give a helping hand. However, there are some organizations that still are in need of volunteers to complete their project.

With ARUBA DOET everyone can give a helping hand and work with enjoyment.

On one hand you will help a social organization and do something positive for the Aruban community. And

on the other hand you will have a great satisfaction, you will meet other people, you will get to know your friends/colleagues in another way and you will leave at the end of the day very proud that you gave a helping hand. The social organizations will do all the preparations that are necessary so when the date approaches everything is ready for the volunteers.

Also, the organizations assure a good ambience.

The projects for ARUBA DOET are not huge. When volunteers leave, it is an indication that the project

is completed. Participate as an individual person, group of family, friends or colleagues and help with painting of Speelschool Kerekentenchi, Centro di Bario Playa Pabao, Fundacion Centro Hubenil Ami Por. Help clean up four historical areas for Stichting Rancho or the soccer field of UNDESA or the storeroom of Fundacion Pa Nos Comunidad. FUNARI is seeking for volunteers to create a stage for their clients. Help Adopt An Addict with the concreting for the porch and clean up of the yard. Or give Fundacion Bon Nochi Drumi Dushiand Rosario College a helping hand by making book cabinets.

Do you want to give a helping hand to a sport club, scouting group, school, elderly home, neighborhood centrum, foundation?

Visit our website www.arubadoet. com and register as a volunteer at the project of your choice. If you have any questions or need help registering call the ARUBA DOET team at 5827666 or send us a mail at info. arubadoet@gmail.com

A14 LOCAL

Friday 4 March 2016

Hans and Anjo’s Dog Knows Where to Find Great Food!

PALM BEACH - Licking his chops with fond memories of the tidbits that he was fed, the dog of Hans (67) and Anjo Zwart (64) is the star of this photograph taken last Monday, when Hans and Anjo had dinner at Fishes & More restaurant in the Arawak Garden.

Hans and Anjo are from Holland, but they love Aruba and they spend part of

their retirement here. Of course they searched for a great restaurant during the past years and found it: Fishes & More, where the staff is super friendly, where their dog is allowed and where the food is wonderful.

Anjo and their dog will always be very welcome guests: masha danki i te aworo.

LOCAL A15

Friday 4 March 2016

Loyal Guests Honored at the Divi Aruba Beach Resort

PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring a very loyal couple as Distinguished Visitors at the Divi Aruba Beach Resort. The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 10-to-19 consecutive years.

The honorees were Mr. John and Mrs. Grace Walter.

John and Grace are regu-

lar guests at the Divi Resorts and they love Aruba very much because of the friendly people, the climate, beaches, restaurants, relaxation and being on Aruba and staying at the Divi Resorts is like being home for them.

The certificate was presented by Mr. Jonathan Boekhoudt representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with Mr. Francis Ridderstap and Ms. Annemiek from the Divi Aruba Beach Resort.q

A16 LOCAL

Friday 4 March 2016

Loyal Visitors Honored at the Marriott Surf Club

PALM BEACH - Recently the Aruba Tourism Authority had the great pleasure of honoring two very nice couples whom are loyal and friendly visitors of Aru-

ba, at the Marriott Surf Club as Distinguished visitors. The symbolic honorary titles are presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to

guests who visit Aruba for 10-to-19 consecutive years.

The honorees were Mr. Ronnie and Mrs. Susan Adolf from Richmond, Virginia, and Mr. Joseph and

Mrs. Jenny Cappello from Middle Island, NY. Both Couples are loyal members of the Marriott Surf Club and they love Aruba very much because of the friendly people, the climate, beaches, restaurants, relaxation and being on Aruba and staying at the Surf Club is like being home for them. The certificates were presented by Mr. Ernest Giel representing the Aruba Tourism Authority together with Ms. Jenny Boekhoudt representing the Marriott Surf Club.q

SPORTS A17

Friday 4 March 2016

HEY 19!

Phil Mickelson follows his shot from the 10th fairway during the first round of the Cadillac Championship golf tournament, Thursday, March 3, 2016 in Doral, Fla.

Piercy, Fraser lead, Mickelson on their heels at Doral TIM REYNOLDS AP Sports Writer DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Phil Mickelson’s scores from Doral over the past two years clearly suggested that the redesigned Blue Monster wasn’t completely to his liking.

He had to re-learn a course that he played for more than 20 years, and indicated Thursday that he finally has the new Doral figured out.

Mickelson shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship, the first World Golf Championships event of the year. Seeking his first win since the British Open in 2013, Mickelson made seven birdies and finished the day one shot back of leaders Scott Piercy and Marcus Fraser.

“There is a bit of a learning curve on some of the contours and where you have to go and where you want to go and the best place to be,” Mickelson said. “It’s not like I came in here weeks before and mapped it out like a major.

You’re here only the week of. But this is our third year here now and it continues to get better each year.”

Continued on Page 21

The Spurs clinch a 19th straight playoff trip San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard (2) shoots over Detroit Pistons forward Marcus Morris (13) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 2, 2016, in San Antonio. San Antonio won 97-81.

Associated Press Page 21

A18 SPORTS

Friday 4 March 2016

Missy Franklin hopes frustrating year will push her for Rio PAUL NEWBERRY AP National Writer ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Get this: There are times when Missy Franklin is frustrated.

OK, it’s not as if she’s suddenly turned all cranky and rude. The Olympic champion still walks around the pool with a perpetual smile.

But subpar performances over the past year have started to get under her skin a bit.

With the Rio Games just five months away, she knows it’s time to start producing.

“I definitely don’t want to come off like everything is happy all the time,” she said before this weekend’s Arena Pro Series meet in Orlando, not far from the make-believe world of Disney. “When I come back from some of these meets, I am for sure frustrated.”

At 17, Franklin was one of the biggest stars at the London Olympics, competing in seven events and winning four gold medals and a bronze. Away from the pool, her bubbly personality only enhanced her ap-

In this Jan. 16, 2016, file photo, Missy Franklin watches the results board of the women’s 200-meter backstroke during the Arena Pro Swim Series, in Austin, Texas.

Associated Press

peal, though she didn’t cash in right away since she wanted to compete collegiately.

After two years at Cal, Franklin finally turned pro

last year, setting up some major endorsement deals heading into Rio (she’s already landed with Speedo and Minute Maid). But, while she has a lot more money in her pocket, it’s been a struggle to regain the form that made her the world’s most dominant female swimmer — a title ceded to fellow American Katie Ledecky.

At the 2015 world championships, Franklin failed to win any of her four individual events, settling for a silver and two bronzes. In the last Pro Series meet at Austin, Texas, in January, she again failed to win any individual events and, tellingly, trailed far behind Ledecky in the 100- and 200-meter freestyles.

“I left there being really frustrated,” said Franklin, insisting she did some of her hardest training before the meet. “Why is this not coming through? Why is this not being shown when I’m racing? I think it’s important to let yourself feel like that. If you do kind of push those things aside and pretend they’re not there, it’s all going to come back and hit you when you don’t want it to.”

The key, she said, is using that angst the right way.

“You know what? This may not be happening right now,” she said. “It’s OK to be frustrated, but use it for something good. I promise you, it’s going to pay off when it needs to.”

In addition to turning pro, Franklin moved back to her Colorado home and reunited with longtime coach Todd Schmitz.

They’ve been adapting to a new style of coach-athlete relationship, one that the 20-year-old swimmer calls more of a partnership.

“He knows I learned so much being away for two years, as a person and as a swimmer,” Franklin said.

“When I was 17, he had to lay down the line a little bit more. Now, we draw the line together.” Schmitz has prodded Franklin to turn some of the tough times into motivation leading to Rio. “When you throw gasoline on an unlit match, it doesn’t do anything,” the coach said. “I think that’s the same thing with Missy.

You’ve got to use that as fuel on your fire. You don’t want to think about it too much, but you know what, there are some key times where I’ve got to look at her and go, ‘Hey.’” He’ll even bring up the London Olympics, where things

went so well.

“She missed a bronze medal in the 200 free by a hundredth of a second,” Schmitz recalled. “She can usually dig down and find that motivation, but sometimes I’ll say, ‘Hundredth of a second.’ That’s all I have to say.”

Away from the pool, Franklin has started working on a book with her parents. She calls it “a family memoir,” a chance to reveal how the three of them were “able to stay true to ourselves and true to each other” even as Franklin became a teenage phenomenon.

Titled “Relentless Spirit,” the book is due in early December.

You know what would help sales?

A few more gold medals.

Franklin isn’t one to make bold predictions. Like most swimmers, she can’t even bring herself to say definitively she’ll be in Rio since she still has to go through the ultra-competitive U.S. Olympic trials.

But she certainly hasn’t lost her confidence.

“I trust that I’m on this path for a reason and I’m going to do my best to live it out,” she said. “I have that faith that I’ll be ready when I need to be ready.”

SPORTS A19

Friday 4 March 2016

Ducks run streak to 9, tied atop Pacific Division The Associated Press ANAHEIM, California (AP) — Jamie McGinn scored in his Ducks debut and Jakob Silfverberg got the only goal in the shootout as Anaheim beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Wednesday night for its ninth consecutive victory.

Corey Perry scored the tying power-play goal with 9:09 to play for the Ducks, who have won 18 of 21 to streak into a first-place tie with Los Angeles atop the Pacific Division.

John Gibson stopped 25 shots and all three Montreal shootout attempts with relative ease.

Alex Galchenyuk scored two goals and Mike Condon made 32 saves for the Canadiens, who lost their second straight to open a West Coast road trip.

CAPITALS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2 WASHINGTON, D.C., (AP) — Matt Niskanen and the NHL’s top power play unit cashed in as the Washington Capitals outlasted the youthful and outclassed Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Capitals reached 98 points for the season and

matched the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the most victories through 63 games with 47. The Maple Leafs remained in last place in the league with 52 points.

Niskanen’s winner came after Washington relinquished a 2-0 lead built on goals by Taylor Chorney and Alex Ovechkin. Nikita Soshnikov scored his first NHL goal, and Colin Greening scored his second of the season for the Maple Leafs.

BLACKHAWKS 5, RED WINGS 2 DETROIT, Michigan (AP) — Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist 1:24 apart on power plays in the second period, and Artemi Panarin scored twice to help the Chicago Blackhawks rout the Detroit Red Wings.

Kane finished with three points, extending his NHLleading total to 88 to match his career high set during the 2009-10 season.

Corey Crawford didn’t give up a goal until midway through the third period when Brad Richards scored. Gustav Nyquist had Detroit’s other goal.

Wayne Gretzky book on hockey history coming this fall NEW YORK (AP) — For Wayne Gretzky, there’s something special about the number 99. The NHL’s all-time scoring champion has a deal with G.P. Putnam’s Sons for a book about the game’s history and his own place in it.

Putnam told The Associated Press that the book, currently untitled, will be published this fall, coinciding with the league’s 99th anniversary. In a statement released Thursday through his publisher, Gretzky said he would provide his “take on some of the great moments” in hockey and tell stories previously known only to “friends, family and teammates.”

Gretzky’s uniform number was 99, retired by the NHL after his final season, 1999,

In this March 7, 2015 file photo, former Kings player Wayne Gretzky speaks to the crowd at a statue unveiling for former Kings left wing Luc Robitaille prior to an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

when he was also inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame.

Anaheim’s Jamie McGinn gets control of the puck in front of the Montreal goal during the second period at the Honda Center on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, in Anaheim.

Associated Press

20 SPORTS

Friday 4 March 2016

NBA Capsules

Spurs beat Pistons to clinch playoff spot

The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 23 as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons 9781 on Wednesday night to clinch their 19th straight playoff berth.

San Antonio (51-9) won its 29th straight home game to open the season in its first game following a monthlong road trip brought on by the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.

San Antonio joins Golden State as the only teams to clinch spots in the postseason.

Leonard and Aldridge excelled against a Detroit team thinned by injuries to forwards Anthony Tolliver and Stanley Johnson. Aldridge added 10 rebounds and Leonard had six rebounds and five assists for San Antonio, which has won six straight.

Detroit center Andre Drummond had nine points and 14 rebounds, ending his career-high and the league’s season-high of consecutive double-doubles at 13 straight.

CLIPPERS 103, THUNDER 98 LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder took the court hours after the death of part-owner Aubrey McClendon and squandered a 22-point lead to lose to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

Chris Paul had 21 points and 13 assists for Los Angeles and DeAndre Jordan had 20 points and 18 rebounds. The Clippers ended the game with a stunning 26-5 run after trailing by 16 points with 7:30 left. The Thunder had only one field goal during that stretch, a 17-foot jumper by Durant. It was the largest comeback win of the season for the Clippers.

Kevin Durant scored 30 points and Russell Westbrook had 24 points and 12 assists for Oklahoma City.

McClendon, 56, was killed slamming his sport utility ve-

San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan (21) shoots over Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, March 2, 2016, in San Antonio.

Associated Press

hicle into a concrete bridge embankment in Oklahoma City shortly after 9 a.m. local time. This came one day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly conspiring to rig bids to buy oil and natural gas leases in northwest Oklahoma while he was still CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp.

NUGGETS 117, LAKERS 107 DENVER, Colorado (AP) — D.J. Augustin scored 22 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to lead six Denver players in double figures as the Nuggets beat Los Angeles in Kobe Bryant’s final game at the Pepsi Center.

Emmanuel Mudiay added 22 points and the Nuggets used a 10-0 run midway through the final quarter to gain some separation.

Bryant finished with five points and didn’t play in the second half because of a sore right shoulder.

Fans kept chanting “We want Kobe” as he sat on

the bench with a wrap on his shoulder.

The Nuggets honored Bryant with a video tribute during a timeout in the first quarter.

ROCKETS 100, PELICANS 95 HOUSTON, Texas (AP) — James Harden had 39 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists to help Houston overcome miserable shooting in a victory over New Orleans.

The Rockets went 3 of 34 on 3-point attempts and committed 21 turnovers but were able to rally past New Orleans thanks to an off night from Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

With their horrendous shooting performance, Houston became the first team in NBA history to make fewer than four 3s on 30 or more attempts.

But on the 34th attempt, Houston point guard Patrick Beverley delivered the most important shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the

corner that gave the Rockets a lead with less than a minute remaining.

RAPTORS 104, JAZZ 94 TORONTO, Ontario (AP) — Kyle Lowry scored 32 points and DeMar DeRozan added 31 to help Toronto beat Utah for a club-record 11th straight home win.

Lowry, who had a careerhigh 43 points in a victory over Cleveland on Friday night before being rested Sunday in a loss at Detroit, added five assists and four rebounds. Toronto (40-19) led the entire second half on the way to its fifth win in six games.

The Jazz (28-32) were led

by Gordon Hayward, who had 26 points, six assists and three rebounds. Derrick Favors added 15 points and seven rebounds for Utah, which has lost four straight and seven of 11.

There were 11 lead changes and nine ties in the first half before the Raptors took control.

MAGIC 102, BULLS 89 ORLANDO, Florida (AP) — Nikola Vucevic scored 24 points and rookie Mario Hezonja added a careerhigh 21 as Orlando beat Chicago.

Victor Oladipo scored 17 points and Aaron Gordon had 13 points and 15 rebounds as Orlando coasted to an easy win. Elfrid Payton had nine points and 12 assists.

Derrick Rose led Chicago with 16 points, all in the first half. Pau Gasol had 12 points and Doug McDermott was the only other Bulls player in double figures with 11.

Both teams were on the second game of back-tobacks and it looked it. Orlando hit only 40.2 percent, while Chicago shot just 38.4 percent from the field.

WIZARDS 104, TIMBERWOLVES 98 MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) — Bradley Beal scored 26 points and Alan Anderson added 18 to lead Washington to a fourth straight victory.

John Wall had 14 points and 12 assists, and Beal

and Anderson led a Wizards bench that outscored Minnesota’s second unit 64-18. Washington shot 50 percent, hit 11 of 29 3-pointers and scored 50 points in the paint to overcome 17 turnovers.

Ricky Rubio had 22 points and six rebounds, Zach LaVine scored 21 and KarlAnthony Towns had 14 points, 15 rebounds and five assists for the Timberwolves. Minnesota made 29 free throws to just nine for Washington, but 19 turnovers did in the young Wolves.

CELTICS 116, TRAIL BLAZERS 93 BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) — Isaiah Thomas had 30 points to lead Boston to a fourth straight win.

Avery Bradley added 17 points as the Celtics won their 12th straight at home.

The streak ties Boston’s longest since it won 13 straight at the Garden during the 2008-09 season.

Six Boston players reached double figures and the Celtics also outscored Portland 60-34 in the paint, while committing just five turnovers.

Damian Lillard led Portland with 20 points. C.J. McCollum added 17.

GRIZZLIES 104, KINGS 98 MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — Mike Conley scored 24 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, to lead Memphis to a victory over Sacramento.

Conley, who also had five assists, shot 9 of 12, including all three attempts from 3-point range as the Grizzlies won their second straight and sixth in the last eight.

Zach Randolph finished with 19 points and eight rebounds for Memphis, while JaMychal Green and Mario Chalmers scored 15 apiece. Chris Andersen added 10 points, including the final two free throws with 17 seconds left to seal the victory.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings with 18 points and 16 rebounds, but was 7 of 18 from the field.

Brandi Chastain pledges her brain for concussion study ANNE M. PETERSON AP Sports Writer Brandi Chastain, whose penalty kick gave the United States the 1999 Women’s World Cup title, has pledged her brain for concussion research.

The 47-year-old Chastain announced her donation to the Massachusettsbased Concussion Legacy Foundation on Thursday.

Upon her death, her brain will go to the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, a joint project with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University School of Medicine.

“It is really about: How I can help impact soccer beyond scoring a goal in 1999 in the World Cup final.

Can I do something more to leave soccer in a better place than it was when I began this wonderful journey with this game?” she said.

Researchers are studying the postmortem human brain and spinal cord tissue in hopes of diagnosing and treating chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE,

a degenerative condition caused by a blow or blows to the head.

The research team last month announced that it had found signs of CTE in the brain of former Oakland Raiders quarterback and NFL MVP Ken Stabler. But of the 307 brains in the bank, just seven are from women and none has been found to have CTE. “We currently know so little about how gender influences outcome after trauma,” said Dr. Ann McKee, director of the brain bank program. “Her pledge marks an important step to expand our knowledge in this critical area.”

Chastain isn’t sure she’s had concussions, but suspects she has had at least a couple. In her playing days, there wasn’t the knowledge about concussions that there is today.

“You just shook it off back then,” she said.

Chastain played for the U.S. national team from 1988-2004. She was on the team that won the inaugural Women’s World Cup in

Doral

was a good day.”

Danny Willett, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner and Charley Hoffman were all two shots back of Piercy, each carding 68s. World No. 1 Jordan Spieth was in a group another shot back, three off the pace at 3 under, and said that even on a relatively calm day by Doral weather standards, it felt like a grind.

“It always is here,” Spieth said. “And this would be a day that should play about as easy as it possibly can with just a 5- to 10-mile-anhour breeze. The standard wind here I think. Still, the scores aren’t extremely low.”

Spieth was in a featured group, with world No. 2 Jason Day and No. 3 Rory McIlroy with him. McIlroy shot 1 under, Day finished at even par.

“Human error, unfortunately,” Day said. “I wish I could hit it in the center of the

Continued from Page 17

Fraser had seven birdies before his lone bogey of the day, and Piercy also got to 7 under at one point before settling for his 66.

Mickelson made bogey only twice, immediately erasing each with a birdie on the following hole, and the 67 was nearly six full shots better than his average round score at Doral in his previous two visits.

His best round on the Blue Monster in 2014 was a 69, and his low score at Doral last year was 71.

“It was a good day,” said Mickelson, who feigned disbelief when his chip on the par-5 8th — his 17th of the day — stopped inches from the hole, leaving him a tap-in birdie. “I hit a lot of good shots, made some good putts and just drove it well, enjoyed the day. It

1991, as well as its second in 1999. The iconic image from that second title came moments after Chastain’s leftfooted penalty kick against China when she ripped off her jersey in celebration at the Rose Bowl.

Today, Chastain is a youth coach and mom living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

She believes awareness is growing, and has partnered with the Concussion Legacy Foundation’s Safer Soccer Initiative, which calls on youth coaches to eliminate headers in practice and in games for those under 14.

“It’s been a journey about education for me,” she said. “I’ve been involved in sports for a long time, only up until recently, have people been talking about concussions, and then concussions specifically related to soccer. It’s been mostly a football problem or a football issue. But it’s not.”

A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2012 showed that football had the greatest incidence of

SPORTS A21

Friday 4 March 2016

This Nov. 29, 2005, file photo shows U.S Olympic gold medal soccer player Brandi Chastain arriving for the premiere of her HBO sports documentary “Dare to Dream,” in New York.

Associated Press

concussions among high school athletes. Girls’ soccer was second. More recent studies show boys’ ice hockey and lacrosse to also have high rates.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation was involved in identifying the first case of CTE in a soccer player after examining the brain of Patrick Grange, an aspiring pro known for his headers who died in 2012 at 29.

Scott Piercy, right, talks to his caddie, Travis Perkins before hitting from the sixth tee during the first round of the Cadillac Championship golf tournament, Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Doral, Fla. Associated Press

golf club all the time but sometimes I’m like an amateur and I hit it in the parts where we’re not supposed to. But that’s how it is.”

Piercy spent eight hours on the range Monday working on a change to his backswing and saw immediate results, making seven bird-

ies in his first 11 holes. Being atop a World Golf Championships leaderboard on Sunday is far different than on a Thursday, but it’s a most positive sign for Piercy — a three-time winner on tour who shot better than 66 only once in his first 24 stroke-play rounds in WGC

Chastain hopes she’ll inspire other female athletes to pledge their brains to science. Fellow former national team player Cindy Parlow Cone and decorated swimmer Jenny Thompson have also done so.

When Chastain told her 9-year-old son about the donation, she said: “Well, I won’t need it anymore, so I might as well put it to good use.”q events.

“We all know we’re trying to beat those guys weekin, week-out,” Piercy said.

“They have proved it. I haven’t proven it week-in, week-out, but when my game’s there I’m pretty decent. We all know they are there. They are looking at my name today. So maybe they will do it tomorrow.”

Past winners at Doral struggled a bit. Defending champion Dustin Johnson shot an even-par 72, putting him in a tie for 28th.

And 2014 winner Patrick Reed could get nothing going, his 5-over 77 beating only three other players. Mickelson won on the previous version of the Blue Monster, a course he knew as well as anyone. And Thursday showed he’s got a chance to do just fine on the redesign as well.

“I’m not going to complain,” Mickelson said.q

A22

Friday 4 March 2016

SPORTS

Court debate may lead to ‘Deflategate’ suspension for Brady LARRY NEUMEISTER COLLEEN LONG Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. appeals court judges seemed likely to restore New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for the scandal known as Deflategate after shredding some of his union’s favorite arguments for dismissal on Thursday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan gave a players union lawyer a tough time, with Circuit Judge Denny Chin even saying evidence of ball tampering was “compelling, if not overwhelming,” and that there was evidence Brady encouraged it and supported it.

“How do we simply second-guess a four-game suspension?” he asked attorney Jeffrey Kessler of the NFL Players Association.

The appeals court did not immediately rule, but it seemed to lean heavily at times against the union’s arguments, raising the prospect that the suspension Brady was supposed to start last September may begin next season instead.

The three-judge panel seemed receptive to the NFL’s argument that it was fair for Commissioner

- In this Monday, Aug. 31, 2015, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady leaves federal court, in New York. Associated Press

Roger Goodell to severely penalize the star quarterback after concluding he tarnished the game by impeding the league’s investigation into deflated footballs, including having an aide destroy a cellphone containing nearly 10,000 messages. The league concluded that deflated balls were used when the Patriots routed the Indianapolis Colts in January 2015 in the AFC Championship before they went on to win the Su-

per Bowl.

Judge Barrington D. Parker said the cellphone-destruction issue raised the stakes “from air in a football to compromising the integrity of the proceeding.”

The judges did not treat the NFL gingerly either, with Parker questioning whether Goodell took his authority too far by designating himself the arbitrator and making findings that went beyond a report prepared by an investigator the league

hired.

“Goodell is effectively the judge, the juror and executioner,” Parker told NFL attorney Paul Clement, though he quickly added that executioner “is not the right word.” Clement said Goodell was the right person to preside over the proceedings because the dispute began as a conflict between two teams over ball deflation.At another point, Parker said Brady’s lengthy suspension seemed

at “first blush a draconian penalty” for deflated footballs.

“What’s the advantage you get from an underinflated football?” he asked.

The judges also questioned why deflating footballs would warrant a severe suspension.

But they seemed to answer that question themselves as they noted repeatedly that it may well be within Goodell’s authority to punish a player if he concludes that the player interfered with an investigation and thus engaged in conduct detrimental to the game.

After Goodell rejected Brady’s appeal of the four-game suspension, the league went to federal court to get a judge’s approval of its handling of the case. But Judge Richard Berman ruled against the NFL a week before the season began, eliminating Brady’s suspension.

The NFL appealed. Clement urged the court to rule quickly for the good of the game.“It would be an awful shame if this issue has to hang over the league for another season,” he said.

“End it now.”

Neither Goodell nor Brady was in court on Thursday. q

Australia wins men’s team pursuit, Kristina Vogel the women’s keirin

Germany’s Kristina Vogel, front, crosses the finish line to win the Women’s Keirin final race at the World Track Cycling championships in London, Thursday, March 3, 2016. At right is Britain’s Rebecca James.

Associated Press

LIZ BYRNES Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Australia overhauled Britain on the final lap to win the men’s team pursuit at the track cycling world champion-

ships on Thursday.

Australia went out quickly but the hosts - including returning seven-time Olympic medalist Bradley Wiggins took the lead with two and a half laps remaining and

were ahead going into the last 250 meters at Lee Valley VeloPark.

But Australia hit back to take the gold medal in a national record of 3 minutes, 52.727 seconds, the second fastest in history.

“That is the sixth rainbow jersey for me, and I’m sure it’s the most special,” Australian rider Michael Hepburn said. “We just stuck to our plan, and rode the times we wanted to ride coming into the final, where they probably laid it down a little bit more.

“What got us across the line tonight was six solid guys, no superheroes, and getting the best out of each other. The boys were

super hungry, and I just told them before I went out we are on the verge of doing something magical, and they didn’t let the pressure get to them.”

Hepburn believed a sub 3:50 will be needed to win the Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro.

The result meant Britain ended the second night with a medal of each color, though it’s still considered to be enduring a poor start to the championships, continuing a lean run in recent years.

The last time Wiggins competed at a track worlds was in 2008, when he came away with three titles.

“It’s mixed emotions,” Wig-

gins said. “Initially, you’re gutted - I am especially and you try to put a brave face on, be sportsmanlike and say congratulations.

I said it was going to take a (three minutes) 52 (seconds) or world record to win here.

Hats off to them. They’re missing two strong riders from that team.

“It’s really disappointing (for us). But at the same time, when we look where we come from, we’re close.”

Hepburn paid tribute to Wiggins.

“It is fantastic to have someone like Bradley back riding the boards, bringing the limelight to the track again,” he said.q

TECHNOLOGY A23

Friday 4 March 2016

Amazon amplifies its Alexa line of voice-controlled devices MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon.com is introducing two devices designed to amplify the role its voicecontrolled assistant Alexa plays in people’s homes and lives.

The products unveiled Thursday are echoes of Amazon’s Echo, a cylinder-shaped speaker with Internet-connected microphones that became Alexa’s first major showcase when it debuted in late 2014. Set these gadgets up and they’ll listen for your voice and respond to commands — for instance, to read the morning’s headlines.

Both new devices, called the Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, cost less than the $180 Echo and offer slightly different features in an attempt to plant Amazon’s Internet-connected microphones in more homes and other places.

In doing so, Amazon hopes to outmaneuver rivals Google and Apple in their battle to build hubs in “smart” homes that are being furnished with appliances, electronics and other accoutrements that connect to the Internet.

Alexa is competing against other voice-controlled ser-

In this Wednesday, March 2, 2016 photo, David Limp, Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices, speaks about Alexa family devices in San Francisco. Amazon.com is introducing two devices, the Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, that are designed to amplify the role that its voice-controlled assistant Alexa plays in people’s homes and lives.

Associated Press

vices such as Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s search engine that are built into the operating systems of smartphones and other devices that do more than the Echo.

The interest in smart homes appears to be rising as more people become enamored with their smartphones. A recent online survey of more than 4,600 adults in the U.S. by Forrester Research’s Techno-

graphics found 57 percent of them either had used or were interested in using a smart home device.

Alexa, a riff on the Library of Alexandria, initially didn’t do much but answer trivia questions, play music and order stuff from Amazon’s website. The device’s limited range raised the prospect that it might be a passing fancy or little more than a cute party trick for consumers who could afford to indulge in a curiosity

like the Echo.

But the assistant has become increasingly versatile as Amazon.com Inc. learned more about what customers want. Last summer, the company gave outside programmers the ability to build applications that work with Alexa in a move that expanded service’s skillset. Alexa can now perform more than 300 tasks, such as hailing car rides, turning on lights and controlling home ther-

mostats.

The Echo now ranks among Seattle-based Amazon’s top-selling items in consumer electronics, although the company hasn’t specified how many have been sold so far.

“The response has been nothing short of incredible,” boasted David Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices.

The 6.25-inch Amazon Tap is a slimmed down “grab and go” version of the 9.25inch Echo that sells for $130.

Unlike the Echo, the Amazon Tap doesn’t need to be plugged in.

To conserve battery power, however, the Tap requires people to touch a button on the front of the device to prompt Alexa to awaken and listen for a question or a command. The Echo operates on more energyintensive technology that allows people to summon Alexa with spoken words that can be heard from as far as 25 feet away. The Tap connects to the Internet through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals.

The Echo Dot, priced at $90, represents Amazon’s attempt to expand Alexa’s household presence beyond the kitchen or another room where the Echo typically remains anchored.

Google engineers working with UNICEF in Zika virus fight PETER PRENGAMAN Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Google said Thursday that a half-dozen of its engineers are working to help Brazil track the Zika virus and the mosquito that spreads it by doing one of the things the search engine giant does best: write algorithms.

Volunteer Google engineers in San Francisco and New York are working with UNICEF counterparts to create a system that combines several types of data to help predict where the Aedes aegypti mosquito might next be particularly active, helping in eradica-

tion efforts.

Zika has become an epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean since last fall. The virus is mainly spread through mosquito bites and has been potentially linked to birth defects.

The data sets will include movement of people gathered from cellular phone locator systems, weather patterns and epidemiological maps of the Zika outbreak from the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

“We are hoping to make predictions about where the next hotspots might appear,” Chris Fabian, coleader of UNICEF’s Innovation Unit, told The Associ-

ated Press.

Fabian said the UNICEF did similar projects during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leon and a recent dengue outbreak in Pakistan.

Gary Stahl, UNICEF’s representative in Brazil, said the data would be cross-referenced with epidemiological maps created by the country’s Health Ministry.

The result could help fumigators know better where to target, he said.

“We are hoping that what we can learn in Brazil can be useful in other countries” facing outbreaks of Zika, he said.

Also Thursday, Google an-

Caio Julio Vasconcelos who was born with microcephaly is kissed by a therapist at the Institute for the Blind in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016.

Associated Press

nounced it was donating $1 million to UNICEF for the fight against Zika.

Google said in a blog post that it is in a good position to assist since its mission is to help people find infor-

mation, and it has experience analyzing large sets of data. The company has seen a more than 3,000 percent increase in global search interest in Zika since November.

A24 BUSINESS

Friday 4 March 2016

US stocks climb as energy companies keep rising MARLEY JAY AP Markets Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks made modest gains on Thursday as the market once again turned higher late in the day. Energy

16,943.90. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up 6.95 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,993.40. Tech stocks lagged, and the Nasdaq composite index added 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to

has risen more than 30 percent in three weeks, and Brent crude has erased its losses for the year.

ConocoPhillips rose $2.07, or 5.7 percent, to $38.56 and Southwestern Energy

John Bishop, foreground, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Stocks made modest gains on Thursday as the market once again turned higher late in the day.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

stocks led the way as investors continued to hope that oil prices have stabilized after almost two years of steep declines.

For the second day in a row, stocks opened with small losses and gradually rose during the afternoon.

Energy companies surged and are now slightly higher for the year. Industrial companies like Caterpillar and Deere also rose. Drugmakers led a decline in health care stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 44.58 points, or 0.3 percent, to

4,707.42.

Stocks have eked out small gains over the last two days, aided by steady oil prices and reports showing the U.S. economy is on solid footing. After a big jump on Tuesday, and the market is on target for its third consecutive weekly gain.

The price of U.S. crude wavered between small gains and losses, finally closing down 9 cents at $34.57 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oils, added 14 cents to $37.07 a barrel in London. The price of U.S. oil

jumped $1.13, or 18.2 percent, to $7.34.

Chesapeake Energy continued to skyrocket after the company said it does not expect to be prosecuted or fined as part of a federal investigation into founder and former company head Aubrey McClendon, who left the company in 2013.

Early Wednesday, McClendon was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of rigging gas-lease bids.

Later in the day officials announced that McClendon had died in a single-car

crash in Oklahoma City.

The stock jumped 23 percent Wednesday and added another 87 cents, or 25.6 percent, to $4.27. The stock tumbled 74 percent in 2015.

J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist for TD Ameritrade, said that after Tuesday’s surge, investors are being patient and looking for good news about the state of the economy. That could come Friday morning, when the government reports its latest employment figures.

Kinahan said investors will be looking for signs of growth in better-paying jobs, possibly in the manufacturing or health care industries, as opposed to restaurants and hotels.

“We know we’re not going to be a manufacturing economy again,” he said, but investors hope to see some growth in manufacturing jobs instead of losses.

The Commerce Department said orders to U.S. factories grew 1.6 percent in January, the biggest gain in seven months. A category that measures business investment rose by the largest amount in 19 months.

Mining equipment maker Joy Global climbed $2.77, or 20.8 percent, to $16.09 after its first-quarter sales were stronger than expected. 3D printer maker Stratasys rose $3.64, or 17.4 percent, to $24.53. The company’s fourth-quarter results were better than expected and it gave a strong forecast for 2016.

Herbalife overstated growth, cites data errors NEW YORK (AP) — Herbalife, the seller of supplements and weight-loss products currently under federal investigation as a potential pyramid scheme, overstated its worldwide growth in 2015.

The company said active new members worldwide grew 3.4 percent instead of 8.3 percent in 2015. Revised figures for the fourth-quarter cut worldwide growth to 3.2 percent from 16.7 percent.

The Los Angeles-based company cited a database error as the cause, saying “it had limited visibility into the likely rate of change” in the metric plan, which it began using last year.

The company has been under pressure from activist investor Bill Ackman and his Pershing Square Capital Management LP for its business practices. He has claimed that the company is running a pyramid

scheme, which involves making money by recruiting more salespeople instead of through selling products. Such models are illegal because they eventually collapse once there are no more people to recruit.

Herbalife has defended its business practices, saying it is confident in the fundamentals of its business model, which it has said operates like a multilevel marketing company

similar to Avon, Amway and Mary Kay. In February, the company disclosed that it is in talks to with the Federal Trade Commission to potentially resolve the investigation surrounding its business practices.

Shares of Herbalife fell $4.28, or 7.6 percent, to $52.10 in morning trading.

Its shares are up more than 66 percent over the past year.

Disney Cruises plans to build two new ships The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) Disney Cruise Line announced Thursday that it is building two new ships.

The new vessels are scheduled to be completed in 2021 and 2023. They will be built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany.

The new ships will each have about 1,250 staterooms, and will be slightly larger than Disney’s newest ships, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. The company has two other ships as well, Disney Magic, and its first ship, Disney Wonder, which launched in 1998.

Design plans, ship names and itineraries for the new vessels are still in development. The announcement was made Thursday

by Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger in Chicago at the annual meeting of company shareholders. The new vessels will be Disney’s first ships since Disney Fantasy launched in 2012.

Disney ships are loaded with company branding, including activities, shows, decor and venues all themed on Disney characters and story lines. But they’re also known for innovation, like virtual portholes in windowless staterooms that provide real-time views of the sea using video technology. That concept has since been copied elsewhere in the cruise industry. In the most recent batch of annual awards from CruiseCritic.com, Disney Cruise Line won 11 first-place awards, including, for Disney Dream, wins in the categories of best overall large ship, best for families, best cabins and best public rooms.

“Disney is consistently rated one of the top cruise lines on Cruise Critic by our members, and it’s a line known for moving the needle with new and state-of-the-art features, so we expect the same high quality touches and focus on innovation will be incorporated on the new ships as well,” said Colleen McDaniel, managing editor of CruiseCritic.com.

BUSINESS A25 Target Corp. ramps up spending on supply network Friday 4 March 2016

A. D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. is stepping up spending on capital expenditures, primarily in its supply network and technology, as the retailer aims to be more nimble in an era of online shopping.

The Minneapolis-based discounter told analysts this week at its annual meeting it plans to spend $1.8 billion for the current year and ramp that up next year to up to $2.5 billion. In the last fiscal year ended in January, the company spent $1.4 billion in capital ex-

penditures.

The spending comes as Target, like other retailers, grapples with an infrastructure that has been stretched with shoppers buying in different ways.

That has left Target struggling to keep basic prod-

ucts like diapers on the shelves.

Target also sees a key revenue measure increasing at a faster clip next year.

The retailer believes that revenue at stores opened at least a year will be up at least 3 percent, compared with

this year’s projected rise of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

In its last fiscal year, it posted a 2.1 percent increase.

Target is also forecasting 10 percent growth in earnings per share for next year.

That’s on top of the $5.20 to $5.40 per share it expects for the current fiscal year.q

Sports Authority stumbled as shoppers moved online MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer Fans coveting their favorite team’s jersey with the personal touch of their name on the back are flocking online, likely not to the sports store at their local mall. Consumer habits are evolving.

That looks to be one of the developments behind the financial travails of retail chains like The Sports Authority Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week and plans to close or sell about a third of its 463 stores.

The seemingly bottomless inventory online of teambranded apparel and equipment — contrasted with a limited supply in stores that have to be restocked — adds to the cheaper price advantage of the Internet, notes Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based consulting firm SportsCorp. And it can be easier to get team clothing personalized online.

Millennials, especially, are attuned to the point-andclick of Internet purchasing and also like to get person-

al stuff. And even heavy exercise equipment is finding an online audience.

“There’s tremendous movement to online sales,” Ganis said. “It has really impacted the big-box sports retailers.”

Other companies in that category are Modell’s and

Dick’s Sporting Goods.

They’re all under pressure from the Internet, says Ganis, but regional chains like Modell’s, as opposed to national companies, have a better time of it. They can more easily put on promotions of home-team gear, for example.

Overall, the retail industry has struggled with the consumer move to online shopping, trying to find ways to lure customers to brick-and-mortar stores.

Macy’s Inc. has opened Macy’s Backstage in order to go head-to-head with discount retailer T.J. Maxx.

J.C. Penney Co. is using store-label offerings to fight against pricing pressures from online rivals and recently launched a new campaign called “Get Your Penney’s Worth,” which offers certain storelabel items for pennies.

Sports Authority, which is privately held and based in Englewood, Colorado, said it intends to close or sell about 140 stores and two distribution centers, in Denver and Chicago. The company has 463 stores in 41 states and Puerto Rico.

The store closings are expected to take up to three months. Sports Authority stores will remain open and run on normal schedules during the Chapter 11 process. The company’s website will continue to function, and the chain plans to honor warranties on items purchased at its stores or online. “We are taking this action so that we can continue to adapt our business to meet the changing dynamics in the retail industry,” CEO Michael Foss said in a written statement. q

Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison said his railroad remains committed to its roughly $30 billion bid for Norfolk Southern, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia.

“We’ve said all along that if we looked at the synergies between the two Eastern carriers, right now both of them would work for us,” Harrison said to The Wall Street Journal. Canadian Pacific spokesman Martin Cej said that quote is accurate.

Officials with CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads both

declined to comment.

The reported contact with CSX reinforces how interested Canadian Pacific officials are in joining with one of the Eastern railroads, but it doesn’t necessarily make a deal likely to succeed, said Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee. A deal faces significant regulatory hurdles because no major railroad mergers have been approved since the federal Surface Transportation Board adopted tough rules for them in 2001.

Canadian Pacific first ap-

proached Norfolk Southern last fall about the possibility of combining the two railroads. The offer has been revised and rejected several times. Norfolk Southern has said it believes Canadian Pacific’s offer is grossly inadequate, and it questions whether federal regulators would approve such a merger or impose costly conditions on the deal.

Canadian Pacific officials said earlier this week they have asked the board to review the proposed structure of the Norfolk Southern

deal, which calls for setting up a voting trust to oversee both railroads and installing Harrison as CEO of Norfolk Southern while regulators review the deal.

Norfolk Southern believes that would violate a prohibition against an acquiring railroad taking control of its target before a deal is approved. Canadian Pacific also plans to ask Norfolk Southern shareholders at their annual meeting to vote on whether they want the two railroads to discuss a possible merger.q

A woman leaves a Sports Authority store, in New York, Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Sports Authority is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Englewood, Colo., company has 463 stores in 41 states and Puerto Rico.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Canadian Pacific approached CSX on deal while pursuing NS JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Canadian Pacific reportedly approached the CSX railroad about a possible merger earlier this year while it continued to pursue its proposed takeover of rival Norfolk Southern.

The latest overture to Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Canadian Pacific first contacted CSX in the fall of 2014 about a potential deal and was rejected.

A26 COMICS

Friday 4 March 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

Friday 4 March 2016

Rotten tomatoes? Farm workers sue Palm Beach over protest ban Associated Press PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A U.S. farmworkers coalition is suing Palm Beach, alleging the wealthy town’s ordinances effectively bar the group from its constitutional right to hold a protest near the home of a billionaire fast-food executive.

The Coalition of Immokalee (ih-MAHK’-ah-lee) Workers, representing about 40,000 field workers, wants a federal judge to allow a planned demonstration March 12 near the home of Wendy’s Company board chairman Nelson Peltz. At issue is the company’s refusal to pay a penny-perpound fee for its tomatoes to supplement some farmworkers’ wages. No hearing date has been set.

The coalition says that while Palm Beach’s ordinances expressly permit demonstrations, others are an effective ban, violating First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly. According to the lawsuit, those ordinances

say demonstrations cannot: make any noise that annoys the community or disturbs the peace; impede foot or vehicle traffic; use amplification, banners and non-government flags.

Palm Beach Town Manager Tom Bradford said he doesn’t understand why the lawsuit was filed. He said the town is willing to allow the protest but “they aren’t happy it wouldn’t be in the exact manner they want.” He said he plans to sign the special event permit. “They have to follow our rules. We have to treat everyone equally,” Bradford said. He added this would be the first demonstration in Palm Beach since at least 2000.

Of the 590 Florida cities, towns and unincorporated areas with at least 1,000 households the U.S Census Bureau tracks, Palm Beach is 10th in median household income at $105,700 and has a year-round population of about 8,700 that swells in winter.q

Classifieds Gold Coast Property FOR SALE

TIMESHARE FOR SALE

RENAISSANCE Week room price wk 38 room 529 $4,750 wk 40 room 336 $3,750 wk 40 room 105 $5,000 wk 42 room 338 $4,000 wk 43 room 329 $3,250 wk 49 room 144 $5,500 wk 50 room 546 $6,000 wk 49 room 2571 $3,750 wk 48 room 517 $3,750 wk 48 or 49 room 119 $4,750 FOR SALE Divi Golf & Beach week 11 wk 48 or 49 room 551 $5,500 wk 49 or 50 room 203 $5,500 1 Bdrm, 2 Bath 28 week remain +10 Accelerated weeks wk 21 or 22 room 347 $4,000 Room 2204 $7500 wk 1or2 room 517 $9,500 each Contact Brian Cell: 593-0200 ritchey5652@comcast.net 204721 ___________________________ vr.realty@mac.com

Townhouse 2 floor, 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, dinning room, patio, security 24/7, pools, club house.

Sunset Residences For Sale Apartment at Eagle Beach, 3 mins from beach 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, pool. Info 594-1496 204746 ___________________________

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

204343 ____________________________

FOR SALE

by owner Marriott Surf Club 2 br O.V. lock off unit Gold season price $16.000 Marriott Ocean Club 2 Br O.V. Gold season 5 floor lock off unit ___________________________ 204711 Price $16.000 Time Share Resale 567-6024 / 587-2633 La Cabana BRC martem1@aol.com One Bedroom week 11&12 USA 718-748-0395 Room #414A 204627 ____________________________ Top Floor Best Ocean View FOR SALE Sunday Check in : Renaissance wk 9 5th floor $18500 Both weeks us$8.500 Call Yankee Bob any time Call:(297)630-1307 USA 1401-828-1322 Membership info@arubatimetravel.com 204744 includes Island Privileges Round trip ____________________________ transpotation every 20 min Time Share Resale 204746 ____________________________ Tropicana Resorts One Bedroom week 9 Room DIVI DUTCH VILLAGE #5567G For Sale week 27 Pool View Saturday Check in : June 25 start 3 room suite, lock off $6500 master bed rm, with lock off studio one call:(297)630-1307 other room with queen sofa, $4900, info@arubatimetravel.com 565-9394 204743 ____________________________ e-mail: rmwjmw@aol.com or us 508-651-0016

____________________________ 204717

DOCTOR ON DUTY Oranjestad

Dr. Sneek Tel. 587-7100 San Nicolas Dr. Every Tel. 584-4484

EMERGENCIA

911

POLICE

100

ORANJESTAD NOORD STA. CRUZ SAN NICOLAS POLICE TIPLINE FIRE DEPT. FIRE DEPT. HOSPITAL DENTAL CLINIC AMBULANCE CENTRO MEDICO

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

PHARMACY Oranjestad: Paradera Tel: 588-6638 San Nicolas: Aloe Tel: 584-4606 INFORMATION TAXI-TAS PROF. TAXI TAXI D.T.S. SERVICE ARUBA

118 587-5900 588-0035 587-2300 583-3232

CRUISESHIP March 4 Maasdam Aruba Aiport American Airline Avianca Aruba Airlines Jet Blue Surinam Tiara Air Venezolana

524-2424 582-2700 588-0059 583-8300 588-2244 582-7896 588-4272 583-7674

Aruba Foundation For those Visually Incapasitated Tel: 582-5051

FUNDACION

Time Share Resale Anti-Droga Aruba Divi Phoenix Aruba One Bedroom week 7 Room # 824 (FADA) Tel: 583-2999 35 weeks remain on the contract 10 can be accelerated $27,000 FUNDACION One Bedroom Week 8 Room # 754 Respetami 10 can be accelerated $23,000 Tel: 582-4433 call:(297)6301307 Centro Diabetic Arubano info@arubatimetravel.com 204727 _____________________________ Tel: 524-8888 MASSAGE Are you tired of tripping the whole day let us come to you with a good massage Call 660-7202 For an appointment 204738 _____________________________

Narcotics Anonymous Tel: 583-8989

QUOTA Club Tel: 525-2672

Women in Difficulties Foundation Tel: 583-5400

Bloodbank Aruba Tel: 587-0002

A28 SCIENCE

Friday 4 March 2016

Turtles are key as Kenya balances ecology and development ILYA GRIDNEFF, Associated Press WATAMU, Kenya (AP) — A turtle drags itself along a white sandy beach, splashes through the gentle warm Indian Ocean and then vanishes with a plop, becoming one of 13,750 turtle success stories on a stretch of Kenyan coastline facing pressure from developers.

Kenya is striving to strike a balance between developing its 330 miles (530 kilometers) of coastline for a billion-dollar tourism industry that employs a half-million people and preserving the environment that attracts those visitors. As the East African nation does so, some experts say that turtles are key, because they are so picky when it comes to laying eggs that if the right environment is maintained for them, then things are going well.

Kenya’s record is mixed in protecting endangered turtles, but is going pretty well, a top wildlife official says.

One of several sore spots for conservationists and locals — and not least of all, the turtles — is a hotel of former Renault F1 tycoon Flavio Briatore, 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of here.

The dispute centers around Briatore’s Billionaire Resort on Malindi beach and its 100-meter concrete seawall to protect the property and guests from the elements.

In this Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016 photo, local ocean marine scouts who are trained on sea conservation by Local Ocean Trust, carry a rehabilitated turtle from their Watamu centre on the Kenyan coast to release back into the Indian Ocean.

Associated Press

Malindi resident David Kirk said the resort has been an “absolute environmental disaster,” in which forests full of nesting birds were destroyed and soil erosion because of the seawall had stopped turtles from coming ashore to lay eggs.

Resort general manager Stephanie Ravessoud said the seawall was built following all government requirements and respects the environment.

“Erosion has been there for decades. Everybody knows that sand in our area is being washed away long before the building of our wall,” she said.

Marine biologist Casper

Van de Geer said turtles need quiet, sandy beaches to lay eggs and large tourist resorts or housing developments disturb that process.

“Light and noise scare them off,” he said. “They lay their eggs above the high water mark. The nest has to be warm and above the water, so erosion affects that.”

Local Ocean Trust runs a rehabilitation center in Watamu that Van de Geer manages where sick or injured turtles are nursed back to health. The group also compensates local fishermen for turtles caught in their nets or found sick or

injured.

“A big adult turtle can fetch up to $500 on the black market,” Van de Geer said. “Fisherman earn about $100 a month, in a good month. So one turtle is almost half a year of work “Turtle conservation is crucial because it also protects the habitat for thousands of other species, including sharks, dolphins and whales,” Van de Geer said. “By protecting turtles you are protecting beaches, mangroves, open ocean, reefs and sea grass, which is virtually every ecosystem in the tropical ocean.”

Dr. Richard Leakey, chair-

man of the governmental Kenya Wildlife Service, said that while tourism and humans have invariably affected the environment, locally run projects on Kenya’s coast have sustained endangered turtle population over the past decade.

“The situation these days is much better,” Leakey said.

“We still have problems with turtles getting stuck in trawler nets but we’ve seen very positive signs regarding turtle numbers.”

The Local Ocean Trust has rescued and sent back to the ocean turtles 13,750 times over the past 20 years of working in Watamu, according to Van de Geer. A turtle tagged in Watamu was later found in the Chagos archipelago 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) away, he said.

“From Mozambique, to Australia, to India and Thailand, we all have a stake in this,” he said. “The beach here has an impact on the entire ocean, that’s the weird and amazing thing about turtles.”

Of species found in Kenya, the Hawksbill turtle is critically endangered and the Green turtle is endangered while the Leatherback, Olive Ridley and Loggerhead turtles are vulnerable to becoming extinct, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“Despite our efforts, man remains the turtle’s most serious enemy,” Van de Geer said.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A29

Friday 4 March 2016

Sam Smith on new album: ‘I’m going even deeper’

MESFIN FEKADU AP Music Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — If you thought Sam Smith was deeply honest on his first album, expect him to take it a step further on his sophomore release.

“It’s (expletive) great. It’s really deep (stuff) that’s coming out — that’s all I’ll say,” a smiling Smith said in a recent interview.

He wouldn’t say when his follow-up to 2014’s “In the Lonely Hour” will be released, but said he’s pushing himself to explore new territory.

“Every day I’m having little epiphanies and changes and loving it. But all I can say is that I’m putting my heart even more out on the (expletive) line,” Smith said.

“I’m going even deeper. I can’t believe I’m even doing it, but I’m going even deeper.”

“In the Lonely Hour” featured emotional pop songs about love lapses and unrequited love, includ-

ing song titles like “Leave Your Lover” and “I’m Not the Only One.” It reached multiplatinum status in the United States and won four Grammy Awards, including song and record of the year for “Stay With Me.” As he reflects on that album, Smith says he has mixed feelings about his breakthrough project.

“There’s a few songs I really (expletive) hate, but then the core of the album, songs like ‘Stay With Me,’ ‘I’m Not the Only One’ — actually all the songs except ‘Money on My Mind’ — I really love and I’m really proud of the classicness of the way they sound, because I still listen to them now and I still love them,” he said. “The music I’m making at the moment, it’s very much a beautiful little transition from there and it fits.”

Smith co-wrote his debut album and also won an Academy Award for co-writing “Writing’s on

the Wall” from the James Bond film “Spectre.” He says there’s a “few moments” on his first album “where I think to myself, ‘I would have changed that.

I would have done that differently.’”

Smith added that when he began to rise in the United Kingdom as a featured act on Disclosure’s dance song “Latch” — originally released in late 2012 — there was some confusion about which musical direction he should take.

“As soon as ‘Latch’ had a lot of success in (the) U.K., my label and me had a little bit of a panic. We were like, ‘Maybe we should be doing dance?’ And that’s what I can hear on (my first) album — there’s two or three songs where I can hear the little wobble, but the rest of the album is what I set out to make from the beginning,” he said.

“But I still love my album, but I’m loving my new one (expletive) more.”q

Judge grants media request to unseal Bobbi Kristina autopsy

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge in Atlanta has granted a news media request to unseal the autopsy report for Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk on Thursday granted a motion filed by media organizations. Media lawyers argued the September sealing order violated the state and federal constitutions and court rules because there was no public notification or opportunity for a hearing. The state argued the law exempts records sealed by court order.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a statement he believes the records should remain sealed but that he will follow the instructions of the court.

The 22-year-old daughter of singer Whitney Houston was found facedown and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban Atlanta townhome Jan. 31, 2015, and died in hospice care July 26.

In this Feb. 12, 2011 file photo, singer Whitney Houston, left, and daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown arrive at the Pre-Grammy Gala & Salute to Industry Icons with Clive Davis honoring David Geffen in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Associated Press

In this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Sam Smith arrives at Saint Laurent at the Palladium at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

A30 PEOPLE

Friday 4 March 2016

& ARTS

Harris-Perry exit puts focus on MSNBC record

DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC’s facelift over the past two years has cut the airtime of some of its most prominent minority personalities — and it is starting to be noticed.

The National Association of Black Journalists expressed concerns about MSNBC’s record in the wake of the noisy exit of weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry. The network said Thursday that it is proud of its diversity effort and noted that people of all ethnicities have seen their roles reduced or eliminated as part of a transition to more breaking news coverage.

Harris-Perry, who is black, had been proud of bringing new voices to television on her weekend MSNBC shows. The Wake Forest University professor questioned her future at the network after her show had been pre-empted for several weeks due to weekend political coverage.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton’s daily program was eliminated in the past year, and he now hosts a Sunday show at MSNBC. Joy Reid lost a weekday show and is now an MSNBC contributor. Toure was part of a weekday ensemble

In this Feb. 18, 2012, file photo, provided by MSNBC, Melissa Harris-Perry appears on the set of her self-titled show in New York.

Associated Press

show that was eliminated, and Alex Wagner’s weekday show was also ended.

Recently, Jose Diaz-Balart’s weekday morning show has been missing due to political coverage, although he was back on the air Thursday.

The black journalists’ group labeled Harris-Perry’s exit “truly unfortunate.” Dorothy Tucker, a Chicago television reporter and NABJ’s vice president for broadcast, said she hoped MSNBC had room for more

black journalists as analysts, on-air experts and hosts.

Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez also made note of the issue this week in a House speech.

“Forgive me or not noticing just how much progress NBC was making on diversity when some of the most visible people of color at MSNBC — like Alex Wagner, Melissa Harris-Perry and Jose Diaz-Balart — are disappearing,” he said.

“Journalists of color bring a different texture, a different

perspective on what issues matter and what should be debated and discussed on television.”

Richard Prince, who writes a blog about minority issues in journalism, said MSNBC has been rightly proud of having a larger minority audience over the past few years than other news-oriented networks. But “there is some retrenchment and I think there is some concern about that,” he said.

Mark Kornblau, MSNBC spokesman, said that

white personalities like Ed Schultz and Ronan Farrow lost shows at MSNBC due to changes instituted under NBC News boss Andrew Lack. During daylight hours, the network emphasizes breaking news — lately with a heavy political focus — and confines its opinion-oriented programs to prime-time hours.

“MSNBC is extremely proud of the diverse range of talent, voices and perspectives on our air and we would put that up against anybody in the business,” Kornblau said.

Asked why a personality like Diaz-Balart could not anchor the political coverage, Kornblau said many of the anchors have been working from the road and it was difficult for DiazBalart, a Telemundo anchor, to do so. Craig Melvin, who is black, was anchoring political coverage from Ohio early on Thursday afternoon. Tamron Hall, who is black, has retained her prominent role in MSNBC’s daytime lineup.

Kornblau noted that MSNBC had to make changes to its schedule due to low ratings. In the past year, MSNBC’s viewership has increased by 95 percent during daytime hours, according to the Nielsen company.q

Hoffman on Oscars: ‘It’s always been racism’

Dustin Hoffman attends the opening night of the Metrograph movie theater on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, in New York.

Associated Press

JOHN CARUCCI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Dustin Hoffman feels there’s a systemic racial problem in America that goes beyond the Oscars.

The two-time Oscar win-

ner did not attend Sunday night’s ceremony, nor did he watch the broadcast.

But he was in the same place as this year’s recipient of an Honorary Academy Award who boycotted the show.

“I went to see the Knicks game and saw my friend Spike Lee there all dressed up for the Oscars, but he was at the Knick game,” Hoffman told the Associated Press on Wednesday night.

Lee attended the game at Madison Square Garden in New York in a black tuxedo.

Comedian Tracy Morgan, who was part of an Oscar’s skit, also was at the game.

For the second consecutive year, there was a lack of diversity among Oscar nominees with only white actors getting the nod.

“Well, it’s always been that

way. It’s not anything new, like Chris Rock, I heard said, ‘Why this year’,” responded Hoffman.

During his opening monologue at the Oscars, Rock questioned the controversy, saying: “It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole black, no nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times.” Hoffman was blunt in his response for the reason why it’s been that way for so long.

“It’s always been racism.

It’s kind of a reflection of what the country is,” he said.

Hoffman made the comments while attending the opening of the Metrograph, the first independently-owned movie theater to open in Manhattan in more than decade.

“They call my era, the Golden Age of film, but I think the Golden Age of film still exists, but it’s done by the indies, and I think that is what this theater is for,” Hoffman said.

As for his thoughts on what can bring more diversity to Hollywood: “We change when the people that are oppressed force it to change,” Hoffman said.q

PEOPLE & ARTS A31 Jack Fisk rediscovers L. A. through Malick’s eyes Friday 4 March 2016

LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — You might not know the name Jack Fisk, but you definitely know his work.

Whether it’s the private bowling alley where Daniel Plainview torments Eli Sunday in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” the disarmingly simple Silencio theater in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.,” or a single Victorian home perched on a hill of wheat in Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven,” Fisk has created some of the most iconic spaces seen on screen in the past 40 years.

Fisk, 69, is a production designer. It’s perhaps the next moviemaking craft to get the glow of celebrity recognition, like the greats of cinematography did a few years ago. He has been twice-nominated for an Academy Award, most recently for recreating the world of 1820s fur trappers in “The Revenant.” And like cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, who he’s worked with on six films, Fisk is one of the most respected in the field.

His latest, “Knight of Cups” (out Friday in limited release), reunites him with Malick once more. Fisk has worked on every one of Malick’s films. They first collaborated on the 1973 masterpiece “Badlands” and they haven’t let up, despite both taking nearly two-decade breaks. “Badlands” is also where Fisk met his wife, actress Sissy Spacek, with whom he shares two daughters.

Fisk describes his job as being a second set of eyes for the director. He’s is that rare kind of low-key artist who is a Jack of all trades.

“I got a lot of work because I was a one-man band. I could design it, build it, dress it and prop it,” he said.

We’re sitting at a cafe table on the sand at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, where he set a scene with Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale in “Knight of Cups.” He’s pointing out the Marion Davies Guest

In this Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 photo, Jack Fisk poses for a portrait to promote the film, “Knight of Cups,” in Santa Monica, Calif.

Associated Press

House on the public property while picking on his steak and eggs.

He liked the location because of its simplicity and minimalism.

The film is an expressionistic Los Angeles odyssey, following a screenwriter (Bale) who has lost his words through a series of relationships with the likes of Blanchett, Natalie Portman, and Freida Pinto. It takes the audience from the fake streets of the Warner Bros. lot to the very real skid row area of Downtown and beyond — to the Santa Monica canyons, the Malibu beaches, the uninviting steps of the powerful Century City talent agency CAA, the grotesquely opulent mansions of Coldwater Canyon, the modernist houses of the Hollywood Hills, and even out to the desert, whether it be the serene periphery of Palm Springs or the bacchanalia of Las Vegas.

“It’s difficult making a Los Angeles movie. So many different things have shot here,” Fisk said. He’s responsible for some of them, including Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” “I was trying to do things

completely different,” said Fisk. “David (Lynch) loves Los Angeles but his entry is more ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and it’s a moodier, darker city. (‘Knight of Cups’) was not. This was more advertising.”

Fisk knows the city but he doesn’t live there permanently. He lived in Los Angeles for 12 years, having moved to the coast in a U-Haul with his friend David Lynch in 1970. They shared an apartment for a time near the Sunset Strip night club Whisky a Go Go, and then he moved to a small home in Santa Monica with goats, chickens, and a goose. The goose would join him for his morning walks to the pier for coffee.

The Los Angeles that Bale’s character inhabits isn’t quite that quaint. It’s full of excess — money and beautiful people and distractions.

“It’s not a real world.

You’re driving down the street and it’s a Bentley and a Mercedes, a Ferrari.

You go to stores and a pair of shoes is like $1000. I was down on Rodeo Drive today and it’s crazy, but it’s wonderful. For me, coming here is almost like an

amusement park,” said Fisk, who’s called a Virginia farm home for the past three decades.

Temptation is a major theme for Bale’s character in the film and Fisk found himself having to scout not just locations of serene luxury, but raucous Hollywood nightclubs, too.

There was no script for

“Knight of Cups” either and all Fisk had to work with were identifiers like “Cate’s house” and “doctor’s office.”

“The thing with Terry is if I say, ‘which do you like better, this one, that one or that one?’ He’ll say ‘let’s shoot them all,’” Fisk laughed.

But Fisk and Malick don’t have to spend much time discussing and often times Malick prefers to be surprised.

“In 10 to 15 words Terry and Jack can accomplish what it would take anyone else an hour to figure out,” said producer Nicolas Gonda.

Fisk didn’t win the Academy Award on Sunday.

He laughed that he just wanted one to match his wife’s. “The books are falling down!” he said with a smile.

He’s talking to Malick about future projects and still has one more Malick film in post-production, but for now, he’s mostly thinking about basements, having just bought a house in Austin, Texas, in between his daughters’ homes.

“Knight of Cups,” he said was reaffirming to his life and his family.

“It just makes me want to hug them more,” Fisk said.

“I appreciate everything that was real in my life.”q

Tina Fey establishes Temple U. scholarship in honor of dad PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tina Fey and her brother have established a scholarship at Philadelphia’s Temple University in memory of their late father.

The actress announced the Donald H. Fey Memorial Scholarship on Wednesday night’s “The Tonight Show.” Her father studied journalism at Temple and graduated in 1966.

Upper Darby native Fey told “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon the scholarship is targeted toward veterans who attend Temple’s media and communication school. Her father served in the Korean War and died in October.

In this image released by Paramount Pictures, Tina Fey portrays Kim Baker in a scene from “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.”

Associated Press

Temple School of Media and Communication Dean David Boardman tells The Philadelphia Inquirer the fund has received some sizable gifts, including from Fallon. q

A32 FEATURE

Friday 4 March 2016

Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner swap hair color at Balmain Paris THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — Models-ofthe-minute Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner provoked double takes from the front row crowd at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday, appearing to have swapped hair color at Balmain. The playful hair confusion was cheered by front row attendees Kanye West and mother-in-law Kris Jenner.

Here are the other highlights of the fall-winter 2016 shows. ___ HAIR SWAP Jenner, 20, opened Balmain’s show in a dramatic pale blue layered cape silhouette.

But the flurry of photographers’ flashes directed at the bold fall-winter outfit was likely intensified by the former brunette’s transformation into an icy blond.

It was a tongue-in-cheek move on the part of Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing.

Adding to the hairstyle drama, Hadid, who’s also 20, strutted out straight after Jenner, and in the place

A model wears a creation for Rick Owens’ Fall-Winter 2016 - 2017 ready to wear collection presented Thursday, March 3, 2016, in Paris.

Associated Press

opulent venue contrasted with stripes on heavily ornamented silhouettes.

Heavy fringing, netting, thick layering, hips sculpted roundly in corset-like ribbed skirts and stone-studded chokers created the sense of weighty opulence alongside decorative fab-

A model wears a creation for Manish Arora’s Fall-Winter 20162017 ready to wear collection, Thursday, March 3, 2016 in Paris.

Associated Press

of her enviable blond locks she sported dark hair with a chic center parting.

The hair swap couple posed backstage for a photo that appeared on Balmain’s Twitter account. ___ BALMAIN’S THEATER Designer Olivier Rousteing’s famed sense of drama reached new heights — for good and for bad — at his fall-winter show for Balmain as the black and mirrored lozenge stone floor of the

ric embroideries and baroque swirls.

The feel was the late 19th century — and at certain points it evoked the noble dames of the Paris Opera under the Second Empire.

But this was still very 21st century Balmain.

Waists were aggressively cinched, often with the help of big bands, sometimes leading up to a corset bustier.

Metallic sheen leggings shimmered past sexily and

there was little subtlety and sense to many of the looks. ___ LANVIN PRESENTS WITHOUT A DESIGNER Lanvin is, alongside Christian Dior, one of two major Parisian houses steaming through the fashionseasons without a creative director.

Israeli designer Alber Elbaz parted ways in October of last year after 15 years of his creative tenure under which storied Lanvin saw its reputation restored as one of France’s most creative brands.

Thursday saw the label present its first collection without him.

Celebrity guests Kelly Rowland and Ciara ensured that the media interest was maintained in the fall-winter collection — but in the clothes themselves there was the slight feeling that something was missing.

A beautiful gathered and ruffled one shoulder cocktail dress in cream hit a high, as did a Katharine Hepburn-style 1940s strongshouldered black coat with fox fur slug chicly over the shoulder.

But in many of the 46 looks there was something off kilter in the fit of the silhouette.

The blue-gray metallic tuxedo that opened the show made an attempt to play on eveningwear-as-officewear with its ruffled frills, but

didn’t quite work since it slouched down the model. ___ CHLOE’S FEMININE GAUCHO Designer Clare Waight Keller took the famed Chloe girl on a Seventiesinfused tour of the world of the gaucho in Thursday’s

from the 18th century.

But Chloe— the house that was credited with inventing women’s ready-to-wear in the first place — is for girls at heart.

Thus the Gaucho styles were translated for a feminine palette — with poncho, or cape-style silhouettes — coming as a ruffled dress in blue, or elsewhere a pale peach silk top. ___ RICK OWENS COCOONS Paris’ enfant terrible Rick Owens presented a typically strong show Thursday evening — replete with abstract creative flourishes that saw models becoming organically cocooned in material. In one of the U.S.born designer’s most colorful shows in recent memory, yards of purple, umber, jade, gray and off-white fabric was conjured up in divergent shapes —sometimes ruffled and draped and gathered down the body, or exploding horizontally across the bust.

Nylon candy floss-style wigs signaled the obligatory turn to the abstract for the laud-

A model wears a creation for Carven’s fall-winter 2016/2017 ready to wear fashion collection presented Thursday, March 3, 2016 in Paris.

Associated Press

fall-winter ready-to-wear morning show.

Models strode past guests at Paris’ Grand Palais in leather boots in black, tan, brown and cobalt blue — in often billowing and rufflelaced silhouettes and 70sstyle center partings.

Neckties and ponchos conjured up the spirit of the famed Argentine or Uruguay-style cowboys —who became greatly admired and renowned in legends, folklore and in literature

ed 53-year-old designer — as they completely enveloped the models’ heads, with the silken feeling of a spider’s web or a sticky butterfly cocoon.

Despite this description, many of these creative looks were also highly saleable, and for once Owens’ paid attention to the female form — highlighting shoulder, and presenting some billowing pant designs that enviably elongated the leg.