VOL. CLXIV. . . No.56,633
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NEW YORK | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014
© 2014 The New York Times
71˚
U.S. and Allies Strike Sunni Militants in Syria
57˚
Today, Mostly sunny, a light breeze, high 71 Tonight, mainly clear, cool, low 57
BUSINESS DAY B1-9 Rules to Curb Moves Overseas A Syrian family was among the more than 130,000 who fled to Turkey to escape Islamic State militants.
The administration, sidestepping congressional action, announced rules that moake it harder for United States companies to relocate overseas through mergers to gain tax benefits. PAGE B1
INTERNATIONAL A4-14 Secrecy Binds Afghan Deal Western officials pressed the Afghan election commission to declare Ashraf Ghani, left, president-elect without releasing a final vote count, a condition set by the losing candidate for unity rule.
By HELENE COOPER and ERIC SCHMITT
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NEW YORK A23-27 Bear Kills Man in New Jersey A Rutgers University student died while hiking with friends at a nature preserve, the first fatal bear attack recorded in the state since the 1850s. PAGE A25
SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 Nature, Unbalanced A special issue exanmines the tradeoffs of climate change for wildlife and people the likely food supply of the future, and the species pised at the climate’s cuting edge. PAGE D1
NATIONAL A16-21 A Third Rail for Rabbis Debate zmong Jews about Israel has become so hearted that many rabbis are anguishing over what to say on the subject in their sermons during the High Holy Days. U L A S Y U N U S TO S U N / EU R O P E A N P R E S S P H OTO AG EN CY
Attacks From Air and Sea Open a Risky New Stage in the Conflict WASHINGTON — The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border. American fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying
alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants, known as the Islamic State. American defense officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from United States Navy ships in the region.
The strikes are a major turning point in President Obama’s war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of the American military campaign. Until now, the administration had bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq, and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria. Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the strikes, American officials said, although the Arab governments were not expected to announce their participation until later Tuesday. The new coalition’s makeup is significant because the United States was able to
recruit Sunni governments to take action against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State. The operation unites the squabbling states of the Persian Gulf. The strikes came less than two weeks after Mr. Obama announced in an address to the nation that he was authorizing an expansion of the military C O N T I N U ED O N PAG E A 1 2 ISIS HOLDS FIRM IN IRAQ
Iraqi forces have scarcely budged Islamic State fighters.
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FRENCH HOSTAGE TAKEN
Supporters of the Islamic State Said they had abducted a Frenchman in Algiers and threatened to kill him.
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North Carolina, In Political Flux,Is a Purple State
By ADAM NOSSITER
By RICHARD FAUSSET dumped in new graves, and a worker in a short-sleeve shirt carried away the stretcher, wearing only plastic bags over his hands as protection. The outlook for the day at King Tom Cemetery was busy. “We will need much more space,” said James C. O. Hamilton, the chief gravedigger, as a colleague cleared the CO N T I N U ED O N PAG E A 1 4
James Hamilton said of burying Ebola victims in Sierra Leone, “We will need much more space.” S A M M U EL A R A N DA FO R T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S
SILER CITY, N.C. — In Raleigh, conservative Republicans may be running North Carolina like they own it, but go almost anyplace in the state, even to this former textile town that looks like a movie-set re-creation of an older, more traditional South, and the political picture quickly blurs. At Chatham Industrial Supply, a hardware store here, its owner, Richard Kernodle, grumbled recently about what he called the “liberal artists” who have moved to this city of 8,100 — opening galleries, throwing pottery and generally bringing the kind of lifestyle and politics one might expect 45 minutes away in the progressive college town of Chapel Hill. Mr. Kernodle, 56, said that some of the newcomers wanted to paint murals on downtown buildings without securing the proper permits. They want gay rights taught in the schools. And he
has heard a rumor that some of them tend their gardens in the nude. So with liberals making inroads even in towns like Siler City, was it them or the conservatives who had the upper hand in North Carolina? Mr. Kernodle, a lifelong Republican, did not know: “I’ll tell you,” he said, “It’s a 50-50 thing here.” Unlike other Southern states, which have shifted decidedly rightward in recent years, North Carolina often seems like it is moving in both directions at once. Barack Obama shocked the political world by winning the state in 2008. Two years later, Republicans wrested control of both legislative houses for the first time in more than a century. Last year, aided by a new Republican governor, Pat McCrory, the legislature enacted one of the most far-reaching conservative agendas in the country,
ARTS C1-8 The Path Bill Cosby Blazed Mark Whitaker’s “Cosby:Hits Life and Times,” is dignified and distant, but still reminds readers why the comedian means so much to his fans. PAGE C1
FASHION A22 Toning It Down in Milan The Italian read-to-wear collections, once known for flesh and fantasia, moved to a more blandly choreographed tune this year. PAGE C1
M a r k W i l s o n /G e t t y I m a g e s
Intruder’s Past Raises Concern at White House By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
accused of knowingly supporting specific terrorist acts in and around Israel during the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s. The verdict is expected to have a impact on similar legal efforts to hold financial institutions responsible for C O N T I N U ED O N PAG E A 2 6
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Jury Finds Arab Bank Liable for Aiding Terror
This article is by Benjamin Weiser, Michael Schwirts and Michael Winerip.
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
As alarm mounted this year over conditions at the Rikers Island jail complex, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio largely managed to escape scrutiny, because the problems were rooted in its predecessor. But on Monday, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan criticized the de
A federal jury on Monday found Arab Bank liable for supporting terrorism efforts connected to dozen attacks in the Middle East, the first time a bank has ever been held liable in a civil suit under a broad antiterrorism statute. Arab Bank, a major Middle Eastern bank with $46 billion in assets, was
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WASHINGTON — Secret Service officers stopped Omar Jose Gonzalez last month as he carried a hatchet in front of the White House, but let him go even though he had been arrested this summer in Virginia with a mini-arsenal of semiautomatic weapons, a sniper rifle and a map clearly marking the White House’s location. Prosecutors on Monday also said Mr. Gonzalez, 42, an Iraq war veteran who on Friday scaled an iron fence and made his way through the front door of the White House before he was apprehended, had 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in his car when law enforcement officers searched it after Friday’s incident. A judge on Monday agreed to a request by the prosecutors that Mr.
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U.S. Attorney Says City Risks Rikers Lawsuit Blasio administration for the first time, suggesting that New York officials were not moving quickly enough to make reforms at Rikers and warning that his office stood ready to file a civil rights lawsuit against the city to force changes. He referred to an article in The New
As the array of genetic tests for cancer risks has grown, doctors worry that they may open a can of worms.
After six weeks of Western air support,
Fresh Graves Point Undercount of Ebola Toll FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The gravedigger hacked at the cemetery’s dense undergrowth, clearing space for the day’s Ebola victims. A burial team, in protective suits torn with gaping holes, arrived with fresh bodies. The backs of the battered secondhand vans carrying the dead were closed with twisted, rusting wire. Bodies were
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After Gene Tests, Questions