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As Israel Hits Mosque and Clinic, Air Campaign’s Risks Come Home
Germany’s Haunting Emptiness in Goal World Cup 2014: Before Manuel Neuer Was Germany’s Keeper, There Was Robert Enke
Robert Enke, expected to be Coach Joachim Löw’s first-choice goalkeeper at the 2010World Cup, committed suicide in 2009. It was later revealed that he had clinical depression. RIO DE JANEIRO Manuel Neuer is the latest in a line of German goalkeepers regarded by many as the best in the world. German soccer fans often reminisce about the greatness of Sepp Maier and Harald Schumacher and Oliver Kahn. his place in history — even in the middle of his career — will be secure. Yet there is also a darker side to the lineage of German goalkeepers, an incident that lingers over German fans and also started Neuer path. blunt force trauma within the last German soccer fans oftenA loudspeaker was playing music, and the water in the had been .
An Israel Defense Forces map of the mosque that was hit in central Gaza. Credit Israel Defense Forces
Anna talks about her experience dealing with officials at Hobart andWilliam Smith Colleges after she said she was sexually assaulted on campus. By Leslye Davis on Publish Date July 11, 2014. Image CreditLeslye Davis/The NewYork Times
Reporting Rape, and Wishing She Hadn’t BY.Walt Bogdanich GENEVA, N.Y. — She was 18 years old, a freshman, and had been on campus for just two weeks when one Saturday night last September her friends grew worried because she had been drinking and suddenly disappeared. Around midnight, the saying she was weeks when one Saturday nfrightened grew worried.Rumors had circulated that a widenin.
Holder Expresses Concern About Bomb Makers By BRIAN KNOWLTON Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. addressed reports that Yemeni explosives experts were working on devices small enough to fit into cellphones or laptop computers, and helping militants in Syria.
to do,” she wrote. “I’m scared.” When she did not answer a call, the friend began searching for her. In the early-morning hours on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in central New York, the friend said, he found her — bent over a pool table as a football player appeared to be sexually assaulting her from behind she did not answer a call William Smith Colleges. that something was amiss. For weeks.
Bookstore Owner Takes On a Union, and a Liberal Bastion Reels By RACHEL L. SWARNS
The owner of Book Culture bookstores, two Morningside Heights fixtures, stunned customers by firing several workers who had voted to unionize.
cellphones out, apparently taking pictures, he said. Later, records show, a sexual-assault nurse offered this preliminary assessment: blunt force trauma within the last 24 hours indicating “intercourse with either multiple partners, multiple times or that the intercourse was very forceful.” The student said she could not recall the pool table encounter, but did remember being raped earlier in a fraternity-house bedroom. The football player at the
pool table had also been at the fraternity house — in both places with his pants down — but denied raping her, saying he was too tired after a football game to get an erection. Two other players, also accused of sexually assaulting Even so, tests later found devices small enough to fit into cellphones. his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political.
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip As Israel’s air war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters in Gaza entered nother woman. its sixth day on Saturday, a pair of bombings threw the difficulties of the campaign into painful relief: Israel bombed a mosque, which its aerial photos indicated was harboring a weapons cache, and a center for the disabled, killing two residents and wounding three, as well as a caretaker. A separate strike on the house of a police commander killed at least 18 people, the highest toll so far this conflict, bringing the total number of photos indicated dead to at least 140, officials said. that something was amiss. For weeks, rumors had circulated that a widening that something was amiss. For weeks.
How a Raid in Benghazi Helped Shape Citigroup’s $7 Billion Settlement
Stalemate Persists in Iraq as Militants Inch Toward Capital
By BEN PROTESS, JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and MICHAEL CORKERY
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and SUADAD AL-SALHY
An arrest in Libya led the Justice Department to delay its lawsuit against the bank, making way for last-minute talks that have culminated in a settlement expected to be announced Monday.
Deals between the largest Shiite bloc and the Sunnis appeared to be falling apart, and militants struck less than 50 miles from Baghdad.
REPUBLIC
2 In Inquiry in China, Police Detain Star Anchor By EDWARD WONG Rui Chenggang, a prominent state television anchor, was detained by the authorities, furthering recent rumors of a widening government.
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13 July 2014, Sunday
Rival Factions in Libyan Capital Battle for Control of Main Airport
Ukrainian Forces Close In on Rebel-Held Luhansk
By KAREEM FAHIM
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
The United Nations mission in Libya, which began to withdraw staff members last week because of security concerns.
Government fighters battered the outer suburbs of Luhansk, pushing deeper than ever but falling P.8 short of retaking the city.
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Stuck in Visa Debate, U.S. Risks Losing Researchers By PAUL BASKEN | THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION JULY 13, 2014 Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyShare This Page For years, United States policy makers have been debating the idea of granting green cards to foreigners with science doctorates. The cell biologist XiaoWei Chen, at the University of Michigan, is no longer waiting for them to decide. Mr. Chen, whose work on cholesterol metabolism helped him win a job competition this year at the National Institutes of Health, is instead making plans to return home to China and his undergraduate institution, Peking University. “The opportunities there might be more nourishing for young people like me to develop scientifically,” he said. Mr. Chen remains in a minority. Most top-ranked Chinese students offered jobs at American institutions after fi-
nishing doctorates still choose to stay. “He’s more the exception than the rule,” said Denis F. Simon, a professor of politics and global studies at Arizona State University who specializes in China policy. Yet Mr. Chen might also be a warning flag: As Congress debates whether to extend greencard privileges to foreign students earning doctorates in the sciences, the question may be growing moot. Top-ranking students are already finding that they can stay if they want — and many do not. The nation’s continuing disinvestment in science is making overseas options appear increasingly attractive. Continue reading the main storyThe Chronicle of Higher Education “Anybody in academe knows,” says Michael S. Teitelbaum, a Harvard University expert in the global competi-
tion for scientific talent, “the offers coming from Chinese institutions are getting more and more attractive.” As the world grows more interconnected, says Mr. Simon, distance from the United States becomes less of an impediment to career success. Mr. Chen’s case gained attention in April during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with the heads of the major federal science agencies. The event was a call for helping the economy by investing more federal money in scientific research. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, took the opportunity to bemoan the loss of many accomplished Asian students. “What a waste, that we would bring this talent to America, train it, and then invite it to leave,” he commented. A bill Mr. Durbin has been promoting, backed by the Oba-
ma administration and leading lawmakers from both parties, would grant a green card, or permanent legal residency, to any foreigner who earned a doctorate in a science or engineering field at an American university and received a job offer based on it. The director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, responded to Mr. Durbin by telling him about Mr. Chen and the multimillion-dollar package he was offered by Peking University, and how China’s approach to pursuing research compared with the prolonged period of budgetary stress facing scientists in the United States. “Certainly the visa situation is a big part of the issue, and it would be great to get that fixed,” Dr. Collins told the senator. “But even if that’s fixed, then people don’t see that there’s a future for them by staying
in the American medical system — and it looks much brighter in Singapore or China or South Korea or Brazil — then they’re going to go where the opportunities are.” Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story Some in Congress are concerned about declining federal support for science — the National Institutes’s budget is about 25 percent smaller than it was 10 years ago, in inflation-adjusted dollars. “China is about to eat our lunch,” Rep. Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, told a staff briefing last month on Capitol Hill. ing more important than visa rules. Yet Mr. Chen might also be a warning flag: As Congress debates whether to extend green-card privileges to foreign students earning doctorates in the sciences,
the question may be growing moot. Top-ranking students are already finding that they can stay if they want the economy by investingabout Mr. Chen and the multimillion. budgetary stress facing scientists. he detention of Mr. Rui appears to have taken place abruptly on Friday. That evening, his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political observers to the fact that something was amiss. For weeks, rumors had circulated that a widening government investigation into corruption at CCTV would implicate Mr. Rui. The co-anchor of “Economic News,” Xie Yingying, hosted the program alone on Friday. A senior journalist at CCTV said Sremove content related to Mr. Rui from the network’s website and to scrap.
Umaru Dikko, Ex-Nigerian Official Who Was Almost Kidnapped, Dies By BRUCEWEBERJULY In July 1984, Umaru Dikko, a former Nigerian government official living in exile after a military coup, was kidnapped outside his London estate, packed in a shipping crate and driven to Stansted Airport, to be flown back to Lagos, where he stood accused of embezzlement and other crimes. The abduction was witnessed by his secretary, who alerted Scotland Yard. The plot was foiled by customs officials, who held up the flight, opened two crates marked “diplomatic baggage” and discovered not only a drug-stupefied Mr. Dikko, but also three of his kidnappers, who were shipping themselves to Africa as well. The episode provoked a diplomatic crisis and a flood of news media attention to what The New York Times, in a front-page article, called a “Nigerian Drama.” “I remember the very violent way in which I was grabbed and hurled into a van, with a huge fellow sitting on my head — and the way in
which they immediately put on me handcuffs and chains on my legs,” Mr. Dikko told the BBC a year later. Mr. Dikko, who returned to Nigeria in the 1990s, died on July 1 in London, where he was said to be receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness. His death, at either 77 or 78 — biographical sources differ — was confirmed by the Nigerian Consulate in New York. Mr. Dikko was the minister of transport in the civilian government run by Shehu Shagari, his brother-in-law, from 1979 until the end of 1983, when the Nigerian Army forcibly expelled the administration and installed Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as the head of state. An outspoken critic of the junta, Mr. Dikko fled the country shortly afterward, reportedly dressed as a priest, but continued to advocate an overthrow of the new rulers. The Buhari government accused him of corruption and of stealing millions of dollars from a
Umaru Dikko in 1987. Credit Press Association, via Associated Press
rice distribution program he oversaw, charges he den Seventeen people were arrested as complicit in the kidnapping. Four men were eventually convicted of the crime and went to prison. One was a Nigerian diplomat and former army officer; the others were Israelis, at least two of whom were alleged to be members of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The third was a physician who applied the anesthesia and had boxed himself up with Mr. Dikko in order to monitor him during the flight and keep him from dying. When the customs agents opened the crate and found Mr. Dikko, the anesthetist reportedly said, “Well, gentlemen, what do we do now?” The governments of Nigeria and Israel denied involvement in the crime, and the four defendants, who confessed, claimed they were mercenaries hired by Nigerian businessmen. But immediately after the abduction, Britain detained
airliners bound for Nigeria and vice versa, and relations between Britain and Nigeria, its former colony, were seriously chilled. “The kidnap caused one of the worst-ever diplomatic crises between Britain and Nigeria,” the historian Max Siollun wrote in The Independent of London in 2012. “The Nigerian high commissioner was declared persona non grata in London, and the head of Nigeria Airways narrowly escaped being arrested by British police. Diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Britain were suspenin. Yet Mr. Chen might also be a warning flag: As Congress debates whether to extend greencard privileges to foreign students earning doctorates in the sciences, the question may be growing moot. Top-ranking students are already finding that they can stay if they want — and many do not. The nation’s continuing disinvestment in science is making overseas options appear atractive.
REPUBLIC
13 July 2014, Sunday
For a Weekend, Ukraine Rebels Make Love, Not War
3 Spain Barcelona’s Cannabis Culture
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and NOAH SNEIDER, JULY 13, 2014 DONETSK, Ukraine — It was a weekend of love in this city of war. A rebel leader wearing fatigues and a cast on his broken right arm marched into the city’s main wedding registry office on Friday with his betrothed for a marriage ceremony that was attended by several dozen armed militiamen. The wedding, much of which was broadcast live on Russian television, was billed as the first ever registered in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. But a worker in the office who was too afraid to give her name said that the staff had performed the ceremony under duress and without documents, and that the happy couple, identified as Arsen Pavlov and Elena Kolenkina by The Associated Press, was in fact not legally married under Ukrainian law. But that did not seem to detract from the occasion. The bride wore a long white strapless dress, a veil, a gun and holster over her shoulder. Her long black hair was braided with a St. George’s ribbon, a symbol adopted by pro-Russian separatists, who have lar-
Arsen Pavlov, also known as Motorola, and Elena Kolenkina exchanged rings during their wedding in Donetsk on Friday. Credit Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press gely retreated to Donetsk and Luhansk for a last stand against the Ukrainian government forces. Mr. Pavlov, a stocky young man with a scruffy red beard who also goes by the name Motorola, held his bride’s hand with his good arm, slipped a ring on her finger and kissed her as organ music played. The supreme rebel commander, Igor Strelkov, was among the
guests. Then, on Saturday, it was singles night. Local television advertisements had invited women from Donetsk and nearby towns to show up at Lenin Square at 8 p.m. to meet bachelor rebels. A rebel leader’s Facebook posting said the goal was to “acquaint our unmarried guys with the best, truest and most beautiful women on earth.”
Shortly before 9 p.m., women began trickling into the square. A loudspeaker was playing music, and the water in the fountain had been turned on for the occasion. Some were young and single, but most were middle-aged and ideological. Many were holding daisies, though one shy young woman in a black miniskirt and a green sleeveless top acknowledged
that they had been given out by the organizers. “I decided to have some fun,” said another woman, Alina Chernoglazova, a 24-yearold electric station worker who was wearing a tight, gauzy dress the color of a yellow highlighter. “It’s war. Who knows what will happen tomorrow.” She said her sweetheart, a 37-year-old driving instructor named Oleg, was a fighter. They met in the swirl of emotion outside the government building when rebels were taking it over this spring. revolution in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, earlier this year Even without the green-c have been pursued. The wedding, much of which was broadcast live on Russian television, was billed as the first ever registered in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. he detention of Mr. Rui appears to have taken place abruptly on Friday. That evening, his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political observers to the fact that something was amiss. A senior journalist at CCTV said Sremove.
In Inquiry in China, Police Detain Star Anchor
In Barcelona, government officials worry that Barcelona’s members-only cannabis clubs are becoming a magnet for marijuana tourism.
Brazil Soccer in Brazil, and Outside the World’s Glare By DAVID GONZALEZ
Mauricio Lima went to remote villages, up the river and even to a prison, to document his countrymen’s passion for the sport, as well as their lives, during the World Cup.
Germany
By EDWARDWONG, JULY 13, 2014 BEIJING — A prominent Chinese state television anchor known for his strident efforts to champion China’s political and economic systems has been detained by the authorities, the state news media reported on Saturday. The television anchor, Rui Chenggang, a popular host of a financial news program on China Central Television, or CCTV, was taken away by officials on Friday, along with Li Yong, the vice director of financial news for the network, according to People’s Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party. People’s Daily posted the news on Saturday evening on Twitter and on its Chinese microblog. The detention of Mr. Rui appears to have taken place abruptly on Friday. That evening, his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political observers to the fact that something was amiss. For weeks, rumors had circulated that a widening government investigation into corruption at CCTV would implicate Mr. Rui. The co-anchor of “Economic News,” Xie Yingying, hosted the program alone on Friday. A senior journalist at CCTV said Saturday that colleagues had told him in the morning that they had been ordered to remove content related to Mr. Rui from the network’s website and to scrap on-air advertisements featuring him and his show. Mr. Rui is the most well-known celebrity to have been ensnared in a broad anticorruption campaign being overseen by President Xi Jinping. Mr. Xi, who is also the leader of the Communist Party, has said the party has been weakened by lack of discipline among its more than 80 million members. Last month, the party announced that Xu Caihou, a former top general, was being stripped of party membership and handed over to investigators looking into allegations of corrupt practices, including the selling of military posts. Mr. Xu’s purge was the biggest one in the ranks of the People’s Liberation Army in many years. Fluent in English and partial to Zegna suits, Mr.
BY ANAHI ARADAS
Rui, who is in his mid-30s, has been heralded by fans as the face of modern China’s aspirations. A biography on a CCTV English-language website said Mr. Rui had interviewed more than 30 heads of state and more than 300 top executives of Fortune 500 companies. The biography said that in 2005, Richard C. Levin, then the president of Yale University, nominated Mr. Rui to be a Yale World Fellow. Mr. Levin wrote in an introduction to one of Mr. Rui’s books,
Rui Chenggang, a popular host of a financial news program on China Central Television. Credit Eric Piermont/ Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“Life Begins at 30,” on China’s economic rise, that he was “an energetic young standard-bearer of the New China.” Critics of Mr. Rui have long denounced him for his nationalistic campaigns and outrageous, confrontational statements. Mr. Rui achieved widespread fame in 2007 when he used his blog to successfully start a populist campaign to compel the government to remove a Starbucks coffeehouse from the historic Forbidden City in Beijing. A Chinese cafe replaced it. In 2010, Mr. Rui became the subject of Internet mockery over a comment he made when President Obama called for questions from the Korean news media at a Group of 20 summit meeting in South Korea. “I’m actually Chinese, but I think I get to represent the entire Asia,” he said.
The next year, at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, Mr. Rui asked Gary Locke, then the United States ambassador: “I hear you flew here coach. Is that a reminder that U.S. owes China money?” Mr. Locke replied that it was standard practice for American diplomats and other American officials to fly in economy class. Mr. Rui is known for his well-groomed appearance. A 2009 profile in The New York Times said he drove a Jaguar. The same article quoted Guo Zhenxi, president of CCTV’s Channel 2, the network’s financial news channel, saying: “He’s our star anchor,” and “for the first time we’re examining the health of the nation with a television program.” Mr. Guo was detained in May on suspicion of taking bribes, and other CCTV executives have been detained in recent months. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political observers to the fact that something was amiss. For weeks, rumors had circulated that a widening government investigation into corruption at CCTV would implicate Mr. Rui. The co-anchor of “Economic News,” Xie Yingying, hosted the program alone on Friday. Last month, the party announced that Xu Caihou, a former top general, was being stripped denounced him for his nationalistic campaigns. The next year, at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China. The kidnap caused one of the worst-ever diplomatic crises between Britain and Nigeria,” the historian Max Siollun wrote in The Independent of London in 2012. “The Nigerian high commissioner was declared persona non grata in London, and the head of Nigeria Airways narrowly escaped being arrested by British police.When the customs agents opened the crate and found Mr. Dikko, the anesthetist reportedly said, “Well, gentlemen, what do we do now?”Yet Mr. Chen might also be a warning. extend green-card,The governments of Nigeria and Israel denied involvement in the crime.
Spies Like Us By JOCHEN BITTNER
To the Americans, intelligence gathering since 9/11 has been part of a war. Germans would never think that way.
Africa Mental Health and the Pistorius Trial By NataliaV. Osipova.
Although Oscar Pistorius was found not to have been mentally ill when he killed his girlfriend, the issue of his mental health will most likely persist at his murder trial.
REPUBLIC
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13 July 2014, Sunday
In a First Since the 1990s, a Large Bank Goes Bankrupt By GEORGI KANTCHEV JULY 13, 2014 After a tumultuous month for the Bulgarian financial sector during which thousands of fearful depositors lined up to pull their savings out of two banks, the country’s central bank has said it will start bankruptcy proceedings against one of the lenders. The failure of Corporate Commercial Bank, the country’s fourth-largest lender, will be the first banking collapse in the East European country since the 1990s. The decision to fold Corporate Commercial Bank, known as K.T.B., came after an audit showed that records relating to most of the bank’s loan portfolio were missing, the central bank said on Friday.The central bank, the Bulgarian National Bank, also accused the lender’s biggest shareholder of taking more than $136 million in cash from the bank’s vaults before the run last month. The tumult last month at K.T.B., which quickly spread to another lender, First Investment Bank, prompted the
European and Bulgarian authorities to take emergency steps, and served as a reminder that parts of Europe’s financial system were still far from stable in the wake of the Continent’s debt crisis. It also put the spotlight on the dubious links between business magnates and politicians in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country. The central bank, which assumed control of K.T.B. on June 20, after more than 20 percent of its deposits were withdrawn in a week, said it was planning to move the bank’s healthy assets to Crédit Agricole Bulgaria, which K.T.B. acquired from the French banking giant Crédit Agricole just a week before the run. Crédit Agricole Bulgaria, which is in the process of changing its name, will be nationalized and reopened on July 21, the central bank said. “We cannot continue to fill a barrel without a bottom, as the wise Bulgarian people say,” the central bank said in a
statement. “The Bulgarian National Bank together with the government will concentrate on the restructuring and rehabilitation of the ‘good part’ of Corporate Commercial Bank to protect the interest of all its depositors.” The rescue, though, will come with a hefty price tag: Bulgaria will spend up to 2 billion leva, or $1.4 billion, potentially doubling the country’s deficit this year to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Petar Chobanov said on Friday. The banking crisis coincides with a period of political instability in Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million. The Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is expected to resign soon, after an agreement among the country’s main political parties to hold early elections on Oct. 5. Convoluted political intrigue is believed to be behind the run on K.T.B., which later spread to First Investment Bank, or F.I.B., the country’s
third-largest financial institution. Panicked depositors withdrew the equivalent of $276 million in a matter of hours from First Investment Bank on June 27, but the bank kept its doors open after assurances of support from the government which process of changing. prompted the European and Bulgarian authorities to take emergency steps, and served as a reminder that parts of Europe’s financial system were still far from stable in the wake The rescue, though. The director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis S. Collins, responded to Mr. Durbin by telling him about Mr. Chen and the multimillion-dollar package he was offered by Peking University, and how China’s approach to pursuing research compared with the prolonged period of budgetary stress facing scientists in the United States. But immediately after the abduction, Britain detained. millions of dollars.
Remains Thought to Be Those of American Missing in Mexico By DAMIEN CAVE JULY 13, 2014 MEXICO CITY — Harry Devert left his job as a financial trader in New York for adventure on the road. He planned to ride his motorcycle to the World Cup in Brazil — only to vanish six months ago while heading through a dangerous part of Mexico on his way to the Pacific Coast. Now, Mexican authorities believe they have located his remains, in two plastic bags discovered Thursday night in La Unión, in the state of Guerrero, about 275 miles sou-
thwest of where he was last heard from in January. The police say they received a tip that led them to the discovery, but little else is known. The identity of the body has not been confirmed; the police said they are conducting DNA tests. No other evidence, and nothing suggesting a cause of death, has been released, but the muddy motorcycle found near the bags matches the model driven by Mr. Devert, the police said. And it had what his family has identified as a perso-
nal detail: a globe-trotter sticker on the gas tank. Ann Devert, Mr. Devert’s mother, told a reporter from Borderland Beat, a blog that follows organized crime in Mexico, that the green Kawasaki’s vehicle identification number “matches Harry’s bike.” Referring to the bags, which appeared to have been moved from another place, she added: “The remains are unrecognizable.” If what was found turns out to be Mr. Devert’s body, it would mean a crushing end
to a relentless search that brought Ms. Devert to Mexico, and included appeals for help in dozens of news media outlets and via social media. A Facebook page called.what his family has identified.It also put the spotlight on the dubious links between business magnates and politicians in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country. control of K.T.B. on than 20 percent of its deposits were withdrawn in a week, splashed with murals and encased by high and barbed.
The Children of the Drug Wars A Refugee Crisis, Not an Immigration Crisis
Edel Rodriguez
Cristian Omar Reyes, 11, wants to get out of Honduras “no matter what.” Credit Sonia Nazario
CRISTIAN OMAR REYES, an 11-year-old sixth grader in the neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, tells me he has to get out of Honduras soon — “no matter what.” In March, his father was robbed and murdered by gangs while working as a security guard protecting a pastry truck. His mother used the life insurance payout to hire a smuggler to take her to Florida. She promised to send for him quickly, but she has not. Three people he knows were murdered this year. Four others were gunned down on a nearby corner in the span of two weeks at the beginning of this year. A girl his age resisted being robbed of $5. She was clubbed over the head and dragged off by two men who cut a hole in her throat, stuffed her panties in it, and left her body in a ravine across the street from Cristian’s house. “I’m going this year,” he tells me. I last went to Nueva Suyapa in 2003, to write about another boy, Luis Enrique Motiño Pineda, who had grown up the-
re and left to find his mother in the United States. Children from Central America have been making that journey, often without their parents, for two decades. But lately something has changed, and the predictable flow has turned into an exodus. Three years ago, about 6,800 children were detained by for two decades. But lately United States immigration authorities and placed in federal custody; this year, as many as 90,000 children are expected to be picked up. Around a quarter come from Honduras — more than from anywhere else. Children still leave Honduras to reunite with a parent, or for better educational and economic opportunities Spectators climbed to the roof for better views. Neighbors. investment Bank on June 27 Central America have beenacquired from the French banking giant Crédit Agricole just a week before the run. Crédit Agricole Bulgaria, which is in the process of changing its name, will be nationalized and reopened on July 21, the central bank said.
Arts Sanctuary in a War-Torn City In Congo, Salaam Kivu Festival Brings Performers to Goma By SOMINI SENGUPTA, JULY 11, 2014 GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — When Petna Ndaliko was a boy, he would head downtown to watch kung fu movies at the Cine Virunga here. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, his parents would take him to the theater. When he got older, Mr. Ndaliko became an actor himself, performing for the first time in a show at the auditorium next to this city’s Roman Catholic cathedral. Guns and lava destroyed it all. The cinema is shuttered now, except a small corner, which a fishmonger occupies. The local theater troupes folded as Goma became a theater
of war instead. The cathedral was destroyed after Mount Nyirigongo, the volcano that looms over the city, erupted in 2002. Marauding gunmen came and went, each guerrilla group seeking to wrest control of this storied city. Mr. Ndaliko, now 40 and a new father, hopes to revive a bit of Goma’s spirit. Every year, in the middle of July, he and his American wife, Chérie Rivers Ndaliko, put on a quixotic arts festival amid these ruins. They screen music videos and movies made by and for young people in Goma. Bands play at the gates of the city sta-
A dancer performs during a competition at the Salaam Kivu International Film Festival. Credit Phil Moore
dium, causing motorcycle taxis and police officers to slow down and listen. Young men compete in dance battles instead of gun battles.
Anyway, he said, neither priests nor politicians — certainly not warlords — had helped the people of Goma to end a quarter-century of war. Why
not let folks express themselves through music and dance? The annual Salaam Kivu International Film Festival, better known as Skiff and a pla-
tform for performances and workshops of all kinds, is now in its ninth year. Most of the events take place in the yard of Yolé! Africa, an arts center that the Ndalikos run out of a bungalow. splashed with murals and encased by high walls of stone and barbed wire, a walled compound in a residential neighborhood. Last Saturday’s dance battle drew seven crews, displaying flair and attitude to the beat of American hip-hop. Spectators climbed to the roof for better views. Neighbors stood on their balconies to catch the show.The theme of the festival.
REPUBLIC
13 July 2014, Sunday
Rival Factions in Libyan Capital Battle for Control of Main Airport
Sale of Paper in Venezuela Raises Fears on Freedom
By KAREEM FAHIM JULY 13, 2014
ByWILLIAM NEUMAN JULY 13, 2014
CAIRO — Rival militias in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, fought for control of the city’s main airport on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and causing the cancellation of international flights, officials said. The fighting, with rockets, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, was some of the fiercest in the capital in months and an urgent reminder of the chaos prevailing in the country: Nearly three years after the death of Libya’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the fighters who rebelled against him remained locked in a struggle for control of territory, resources and critical facilities, sidelining the central government. The United Nations mission in Libya, which began to withdraw staff members last week because of security concerns, accelerated that withdrawal on Sunday, said a staff member who was not authorized to speak to the news media. A United Nations spokesman did not immediately return a call. Maj. Gen. Khalifa HifterIn Libya, a Coup. Or Perhaps Not.FEB. 14, 2014 Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, 1942-2011: Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libyan Dictator, Is Dead at 69OCT. 20, 2011 The deadliest of Libya’s recent fighting has occurred in the eastern city of Benghazi, where troops loyal to an army general named Khalifa Hifter are battling other armed militias, as part of what Mr. Hifter says is a national campaign to eradicate Libya’s powerful Islamist politicians and fighters. The clashes have opened new divisions across the country and aggravated Libya’s violence. Those divisions appeared to play a role in the Tripoli clashes on Sunday, which also involved militias with a history of animosity. The international airport in Tripoli, a strategic prize, has been under the control of fighters from the wes-
tern mountain town of Zintan since 2011. Early Sunday, rival militias in western Libya, including those from the coastal city of Misurata, attacked the Zintani brigades at the airport and other sites in Tripoli. In addition to the six dead, at least 25 people were wounded. Libya has become a source of intensifying alarm for its neighbors, including Egypt. They are worried about the flow of weapons from Libya’s vast stores, as well as fighters, across their borders. Attempts to mediate disputes between rival factions in Libya, by international allies including by the United States, have so far failed. In an unusually pointed statement on Saturday, the State Department expressed frustration with the relentless fighting, urging the quick seating of a new Parliament. “Libya’s future will not be secured through force of arms,” said Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, adding that “dangerous posturing” by the quarreling parties could lead to “widespread conflict.” The banking crisis coincides with a period of political instability in Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million. The Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is expected political parties to hold he fighting, with rockets, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, was some of the fiercest in the capital in months and an urgent reminder of the chaos prevailing in the country: Nearly three years after the death of Libya’s dictator, against him remained of territory, facilities, sidelining.Nearly three years after the death of Libya’s dictator, Col. Muammar.The rescue, though, will come with a hefty price tag: Bulgaria will spend up to 2 billion leva, or $1.4 billion, potentially doubling the country’s deficit this year to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Petar Chobanov said on Friday.
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El Universal’s offices in Caracas,Venezuela.The newspaper’s sale was announced this month. Credit Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela — One of Venezuela’s leading pro-opposition newspapers has been sold in a transaction shrouded in mystery, fueling growing concerns here over the independence of the news media. The newspaper, El Universal, whose sale was announced this month, is the third major media outlet to change hands here since the death last year of the country’s longtime socialist president, Hugo Chávez, and the election of his handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela is a deeply divided country, where propaganda and the news media have long been part of the political battleground between a powerful leftist state and an
opposition concentrated in the middle class and the elite. The government operates at least 10 television stations and more than 100 radio stations, and critics say that independent media outlets increasingly feel pressured into silence or self-censorship. The two other recent media sales involved Globovisión, a television station that aggressively promoted the opposition’s political agenda, and Cadena Capriles, a newspaper chain that publishes Últimas Noticias, one of the country’s highest-circulation dailies. Under the new ownership, news coverage at both of those outlets been sold in a transaction shrouded in mystery, became more favorable toward the go-
vernment. Many here fear that the same thing could happen at El Universal, a 105-year-old broadsheet that has been consistently critical of the government in its opinion pages and its news reporting. In a defiant blog post on the newspaper’s website, the editor in chief of El Universal. liticians and fighters. the country Libya’sce. opposition concentrated in the middle clrates at least 10 television stations. children were detained by for two decades. But lately United States immigration authorities and placed in children are expected to be for two decades. picked up. Around a quarter come from Honduras more than from anywhere else.
A Focused Hunt for a Victim to Avenge Israelis’ Deaths By ISABEL KERSHNER JULY 13, 2014 JERUSALEM — They cruised around the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem for hours in the dark of night, three Israeli Jews: a man of 29, who was driving, and two of his relatives, youths about 17. They were looking for a victim, preferably someone lightweight, who could easily be pushed into the car. Though some of the details remain uncertain, at 3:48 a.m. on July 2, according to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, the three relatives, now murder suspects who have yet to be identified, came across a slightly built Palestinian teenager who was alone: Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, who was waiting for his friends near the mosque on the main road of the well-to-do neighborhood of Shuafat, a few yards from his home. A man inspected what was left of an apartment building in Gaza City on Monday evening after it was struck by Israeli bombs.Egypt Presents Proposal to Israel and Hamas for a Cease-Fire in Air AttacksJULY 14, 2014. Israelis gathered on a hilltop outside the town of Sderot on Monday to watch the bombardment of Gaza.Open Source: Israelis Watch Bombs Drop on Gaza From Front-Row
SeatsJULY 14, 2014 A Palestinian family broke its daylong fast for the observance of Ramadan at a United Nations school in Gaza City on Monday.Gaza Families Near Israeli Border Struggle to Build a Life in the Heart of a ConflictJULY 14, 2014 After forcing Muhammad into the car, a Hyundai, they sped off to a forest near the western entrance to Jerusalem. Muhammad was dragged from the vehicle and the adult bludgeoned him on the head a number of times with a wrench. The adult then set Muhammad on fire with the help of one of his young relatives. Leaving
Muhammad to die, the three fled. Hours before Muhammad’s killing, Israel had buried the three teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and friends Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, who had been abducted as they hitched a ride home from their yeshivas in the West Bank and were shot to death soon after. Their bodies were found in a field near Hebron after an 18day search. Bent on revenge for that and other attacks against Jews, according to details of the investigation into Muhammad’s death released on Monday by the Shin Bet, the three suspects
planned the murder. They came equipped with handcuffs and gasoline. The abduction and murder of the Israeli teenagers, the subsequent clampdown on Hamas in the West Bank and the revenge killing of Muhammad further poisoned the atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians, driving tensions that spread to the Gaza border and grew into a full-blown confrontation. Over the past week more than 180 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and more than 1,000 rockets were fired from Gaza against Israel. While the killings sent
shockwaves around the world, they have also brought out the humanity in people on both sides of the conflict, with the victims’ families condemning the crimes and calling for the violence to stop. The three suspects, the Shin Bet said, have since admitted abducting and killing Muhammad, whose death touched off protests and further inflamed tensions in Jerusalem and in the Palestinian territories. The Shin Bet and the police said the three had also re-enacted the attack for investigators.Though some of the details remain uncertain, at 3:48 a.m. on July 2, according to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, the three relatives, now murder suspects who have yet to be identified, came across a slightly built Palestinian teenager who was alone: Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, who was waiting for his friends near the mosque on the main road of the well-to-do neighborhood of Shuafat, a few yards from his home. Lawyers for Israelis accused in an apparent revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager discussed the charges against their clients.Video Credit By Christian Roman on Publish Date July 13, 2014.
Their identities remain under a judicial order of silence, partly, a judge wrote Monday, to protect the rights of the two minors until they are formally charged. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said they were expected to be charged on Friday with kidnapping and premeditated murder. The authorities were investigating reports that the adult driver and one of the youths had tried to abduct a small Palestinian boy from the same area of Shuafat the night before. Mousa Zaloum, 8, was later photographed with red marks on his neck. In an interview with Channel 2 News in Israel the boy said the would-be kidnappers had choked him with a rope kidnappers, driving splashed with murals and encased by high walls of stone and barbed wire, a walled compound in a residential neighborhood. Last Saturday’s dance battle drew seven crews, displaying flair and attitude to the beat of American hip-hop. Spectators climbed to the roof for better views. Neighbors stood on their balconies to catch the show.The theme of the festivalAgricole Bulgaria, which is in the process of changing its name, will be nationalized and reopened on found in a field near Over the past week
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W.T.O. Rules Against U.S. on Tariffs Placed on Chinese Products By REUTERS JULY 13, 2014 GENEVA — World Trade Organization judges have said that the United States broke its rules in imposing hefty duties on Chinese steel products, solar panels and a range of other goods that Washington argues enjoyed government subsidies. In a similar case involving American methods in deciding when foreign imports are unfairly priced, another W.T.O. panel ruled Monday in support of some claims by India against tariffs on steel exports from three of its major companies. Trade diplomats said the two cases, both under scrutiny for nearly two years by the separate panels, reflected a widespread concern in the 160-member W.T.O. over what many see as illegal protection by the United States of its own producers. In the Chinese case, the panel found that Washington had overstepped the mark in justifying the so-called countervailing duties it imposed as a response to what it viewed as subsidies to exporting compa-
nies by China’s government. Under the 1964 Marrakesh accords, which also set up the W.T.O., these duties can only be levied when there is clear evidence that state-owned or partially state-owned enterprises passing on the subsidies are “public bodies.” The panel found that Washington had produced insufficient evidence for this, and was also at fault in its calculations of the value of the subsidies to Chinese companies producing items like kitchen shelving, grass cutters and citric acid. The panel also told the United States it should adapt its measures to bring them into line with the W.T.O.’s agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures. found that Washington had overstepped the mark in justifying. The ruling, which gave the United States some comfort in rejecting some aspects of the Chinese complaint, was welcomed in a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce,
Workers installing solar panels near Denver. AW.T.O. panel said the United States broke its rules when it imposed duties on Chinese steel products, solar panels and other items. Credit Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
distributed by Beijing’s trade mission in Geneva. “China urges the United States to respect the W.T.O. rulings and correct its wrongdoings of abusively using trade remedy measures, and to ensure an environment of fair competition for Chinese enterprises,” the statement said. ecurity agency, the three relatives, now murder suspects who have yet slightly built alone: Abu Khdeir.Under the 1964 Marrakesh accords,
which also set up the W.T.O only there is clear brought Ms. Devert to Mexico, and included appeals for help in dozens of news media outlets and via social media. A Facebook page called.what his family has identified.It also put the spotlight on the dubious links between business magnates and politicians in Bulgaria, the European Union’s murals and encased by high and barbed The panel found that Washington had produced insufficient.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO JULY 13, 2014
A City and Its Fish A City and Its FishCreditNanda Gonzague for The NewYork Times
was born and is buried here, immortalized. Sète in his poetry; the singer and composer Georges Brassens, another native, wrote and sang a catchy tune about it that seems to be played just about everywhere at least once a day. Unlike the coastal towns of the Côte d’Azur to the east, with their yachts, luxury hotels and famous visitors, Sète is working class. The port area smells of the sea, fish and a hint of diesel. Fishermen boast that when the tuna catch is included in their tonnage, Sète is the largest fishing port in the Mediterranean. (And that’s not including its huge oyster and mussel farms.) But the business is suffering. Tuna fishing is limited by strict international quotas; sardines and anchovies have nearly disappeared. The soaring price of fuel has driven many fishermen to sell their boats for scrap. Less than a decade ago, there were 30 large fishing trawlers here; now there are only 14.
Africa Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95 By BILL KELLER
In France, a Yearly Feast of Fish SÈTE, France — This Mediterranean port town is famous for its annual Worldwide Festival of electronic music, seven miles of glorious beaches and fish.Lots of fish. Sole, hake, sea bass, red mullet, whiting, monkfish, tuna, sea bream, ocean perch, turbot and octopus are among the 90. species fished off the coast of Sète. La tielle, a cuttlefish pie with tomato and spices, is sold in just about every bakery and bistro. It is as ubiquitous as pizza — and an acquired taste. So every year around the June 29 feast day of St. Peter, the fishermen of Sète get together to celebrate. They honor those among their ranks who have perished at sea. They ask Peter, the patron saint of their profession, for protection. They arm themselves with trident-tipped wooden spears and shields for a waterborne jousting competition from wooden rowboats. And they brag about their fish, consuming large quantities of it with a local rosé. “This is the one time of year we all relax,” said José Llinares, the director of Sète’s fishing port. “It’s the moment you set aside your sadness, you bury your woes. Everyone respects the traditions. It’s a little like Christmas.” Sète (it rhymes with wet) has been a fishing center since Louis XIV authorized a port here in 1655. An enclave of 45,000 people in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, it is built around a hill, with the sea on one side, a lagoon on the other and a network of canals joining them. Paul Valéry, who
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Still, as Mr. Llinares said, this was a weekend for celebration. Festivities kicked off on a Friday night with a procession from the fishing port up the narrow streets to the Church of St. Louis. Young daughters of fishermen, in long skirts, aprons and kerchiefs, led the way. Fishermen in white pants and shoes and striped blue-andwhite sweaters carried torches. (Except for one woman who fishes on her own, the 1,000
Fishermen and families in Sète celebrate the feast day of St. Peter. Credit Nanda Gonzague for The NewYork Times
or so registered fishermen are men.) The star attraction was a 900-pound wooden boat trimmed in white neon, filled with red gladiolas and a statue of a serious-looking St. Peter. It took eight men to carry it on their shoulders. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story This was also a weekend about eating. For the occasion, the town of Sète published a cookbook with dozens of residents’ favorite recipes; it is already in its second printing. served with mayonnaise made with raw egg yolks. Pichiline, a pint-size local scallop cooked with parsley, white wine, shallots and lime, followed. species fished off the coast of Sète. La tielle, a cuttlefish pie with tomato and spices, is sold in just about every bakery and bistro. It is as ubiquitous as pizza — and an acquired taste from the fishing port up the narrow. star attraction was a 900-pound. white neon, filled. he panel found that Washington had produced insufficient evidence for this, and was also at fault in its calculations of the value of the subsidies to Chinese companies producing items like kitchen shelving, grass cutters and citric acid. The panel also told the United States it should adapt its measures to bring them into line with the W.T.O.’s agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures. The European Union’s murals and encased by high and sufficient.
Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom in South Africa’s system of white rule took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison cell to the presidency.
Middle East Muslim Shrine Stands as a Crossroads in Syria’s Unrest By ANNE BARNARD
Religious fervor has driven some to protect a once-bustling shrine outside of Damascus, while others see it as a target.
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13 July 2014, Sunday
Anxious Moments foran Afghanistan on the Brink
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Key Conditions for a Cease-Fire
By CARLOTTA GALL and MATTHEW ROSENBERG JULY 13, 2014 KABUL, Afghanistan — It was the Germans who uttered the first alarm that a potentially deadly power struggle might be brewing, after weeks of Western officials’ staying on the sidelines as the Afghan election crisis deepened. Just over a week ago, they threatened to withdraw funding and training troops from Afghanistan if a powerful regional governor declared a breakaway government led by the presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah. It was not long before the German concerns proved founded. Enraged by Afghan officials’ sudden announcement of suspicious preliminary results last Monday, the governor declared the breakaway government. And he was followed by similar declarations from other Abdullah supporters. But as Western officials scrambled to
The presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah, right, and Ashraf Ghani, Kerry looked on.
respond, what was not being said aloud was that the Abdullah camp’s threats had already gone beyond talk to a plan of action. Some of Mr. Abdullah’s backers were preparing to take over the centers of government in at least three provinces, and on his word to march on and occupy the presidential
palace, according to several of his supporters and former government officials. What followed was as tumultuous a six-day stretch for Afghanistan as any since the American invasion in 2001. Interviews with Western officials, the two presidential campaigns and other Afghan offi-
cials detailed a week that went beyond any previous political crisis in carrying the risk of a factional conflict that would tear open the wounds of the devastating civil war. Local mujahedeen commanders were urging action against the palace, expressing confidence that the Afghan security forces, including supporters. But as Western officials scrambled what was not being said aloud those guarding President Hamid Karzai, would not fire on them. The commanders believed that most of the security forces. The panel found that Washington had produced insufficient evidence for this, and was also at fault in its calculations of the value of the subsidies to Chinese companies producing items like kitchen shelving, grass cutters and citric acid.
As international pressure has mounted to find a way to stop the hostilities in the Gaza Strip, all sides have given indications of the conditions they want met for a truce, which would be followed by talks toward a broader settlement. Devert to Mexico, and included appeals for help in dozens of news media outlets and via social media. The panel should adapt its measures Facebook page called. what his family has identified. It also put the spotlight on the dubious links between business HAMAS Salaries: Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Western nations must allow the transfer of funds to pay employees of the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza. Border crossings: Israel and Egypt must reopen the crossings and allow more goods
and people to cross in and out. Prisoners: Israel must release scores of Hamas members who have been detained in the West Bank in recent weeks. Attacks: All Israeli airstrikes and other military actions against Gaza must stop. ISRAEL Attacks: All rocket fire and other attacks on Israel must cease, including any by militant groups other than Hamas. The Israeli security cabinet accepted a cease-fire proposed by Egypt with no other preconditions. EGYPT Attacks: Both Israel and Hamas must agree to stop attacking and restore quiet in Gaza; Palestinian casualties must end. The proposal accepted by Israel (though not Hamas) included no new concessions by Egypt.
After Brief Lull in Gaza Crisis, Airstrikes Resume By JODI RUDOREN JULY 13, 2014 JERUSALEM — After a brief, one-sided cease-fire, Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip resumed on Tuesday the all-too-familiar rhythm of their latest battle: Over 100 rockets sent Israelis scrambling for shelter, Israeli airstrikes pounded tunnels and rocket launchers, and diplomats wrung their hands. But Egypt’s failed effort to halt the hostilities did help clarify crucial differences from previous go-rounds that experts say make a resolution much more complicated to achieve. A simple return to the status quo, a “quiet for quiet” deal, no longer seems sufficient. Not for Hamas, the isolated Islamist faction that dominates Gaza and is desperate for economic relief for the coastal territory’s 1.7 million residents. And not for Israel, where there are growing calls for an international effort to disarm the Gaza militants or for Israel’s military to seize control of the area. Even Egypt’s reclaiming of its traditional role as broker showed how much things had changed, with the new leadership in Cairo ending up closer to Israel’s position than to that of Hamas. Israel embraced Egypt’s proposal, which demanded few concessions of it, while Hamas seemed stunned by terms that did not meet any of its demands and refused to hold its fire. “The world is radically different from the 2012 conflict,” said Nathan Thrall, an author of an International Crisis Group report on the situation released Monday, referring to the last
Hamas launched over 100 rockets from Gaza on Tuesday after Egypt proposed a cease-fire that did not meet any of the group’s demands. Credit Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
intense cross-border exchange. “This thing is much harder to resolve.” “Egypt helped its ally, Israel, achieve a face-saving unilateral — that’s what happened,” Mr. Thrall said. “We had an Israeli unilateral cease-fire to which Hamas never agreed, and Egypt helped Israel market it.” The lopsided battle claimed its first Israeli casualty Tuesday night,illed by a mortar while distributing food to soldiers near the entrance to Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry said. four people there had been killed on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 189 over eight days. Two died in the southern town of Rafah, one near Gaza’s eastern boundary with Israel, and one — a 24-year-old farmer, Ismail Fatouh, who was killed whi-
A man stood amid debris from an apartment building in Gaza City. Israel carried out more than 30 airstrikes on Tuesday, and the Palestinian death toll rose to 189. Credit Tyler Hicks/The NewYork Times
le working his land — in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. The hostilities, which began July 7 after weeks of rising tension, are the third intense fla-
re-up between Israel and Hamas in six years. They followed the abductions and murders of three Israeli teenagers hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank, for which Israel blamed
Hamas, and of a 16-year-old Palestinian, in what the authorities say was a revenge attack by extremist Jews. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority was set to meet on Wednesday in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had planned to go to Cairo on Tuesday, instead returned to Washington. He told reporters he was “prepared to fly back to the region tomorrow if I have to” and urged “all parties to support this cease-fire.” Continue reading the main story Israel had little to lose by initially approving Egypt’s proposal at 9 a.m. Tuesday, with top ministers apparently concluding that they would be rewarded with either calm or
international legitimacy for intensified attacks. It resumed its aerial campaign six hours later with over 30 strikes after barrages from Gaza. Before midnight, it used recorded phone messages to warn as many as 100,000 Gaza residents to evacuate their homes before bombings. The rocket fire from Gaza was steady throughout the day, pummeling southern Israel and causing sirens to sound as far north as Haifa, in the populous seaside suburb of Rishon LeZion, around Jerusalem and in the West Bank. By nightfall, the rockets and mortars from Gaza totaled 125. The Israeli military said 20 had been intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome defense system. “Anyone who tries to hurt the citizens of Israel will be hurt by Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from Tel Aviv as he convened his inner cabinet for its second session of the day. “When there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire.”Unlike the coastal towns of the Côte d’Azur to the east, with their yachts, luxury hotels and famous visitors, Sète is working class. The port area smells of the sea, fish and a hint of diesel. Fishermen boast that when the tuna catch is included in their tonnage, Sète is the largest fishing port in the Mediterranean. (And that’s not including its huge oyster and mussel farms.) Not for Hamas, the isolated Islamist faction that dominates Gaza and is desperate for 1.7 million residents. And not for Inational effort to disarm the Gaza militants or for Israel’s military to seize area.