Ruptured Montana Pipeline Was Shut Down Before

An Exxon Mobil pipeline that ruptured late Friday along the Yellowstone River in south-central Montana, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations, had been shut down for one day in May because of concerns over the rising waters on the Yellowstone, the company said Sunday. The president of the Exxon Mobil Pipeline Company, Gary Pruessing, said in a conference call that the company decided to restart the line after examining its safety record and determining that the risks of failure were minimal. The pipeline, which is buried about eight feet below the river, runs about 70 miles to Billings, Mont., where it supplies an Exxon refinery. cheap Ray Ban Sunglasses Mr. Pruessing said it was unclear what had caused the spill. In addition to sending 70 employees to clean up and investigate, Exxon said it was using contractors and airplanes to search for oil along the riverbank and to assess whether the shores had been damaged. On Sunday, Exxon’s team was joined by federal and state workers who traveled to the affected area to assess the damage. Mr. Pruessing said that company observers flying over the river had seen “very little soiling” beyond Billings. Tim Thennis, a public assistance officer at the Montana Disaster and Emergency Services Division, told The Associated Press that the company’s claim was reasonable but had not been independently verified. “My guess is that as fast as that water is moving, it’s probably dissipating pretty quick,” he said. Claire Hassett, a spokeswoman for Exxon, said by telephone on Sunday that the company had reduced production at its refinery in Billings and shut down the pipeline after the leak, which the company estimated at 750 to 1,000 barrels. Industry experts said that the amount was relatively small, although it remained uncertain precisely how much oil had been leaked. cheap Oakley Sunglasses The company said that air-quality monitoring in the affected area was continuing and that there was no danger to public health. It said the impact of the spill on water quality had not been determined. The pipeline burst about 10 miles west of Billings, coating parts of the Yellowstone River that run past Laurel — a town of about 6,500 downstream from the rupture — with shiny patches of oil. Throughout the weekend, cleanup crews in Laurel worked to lessen the impact of the spill, laying down absorbent sheets along the banks of the river to mop up some of the escaped oil and measuring fumes to determine the health threat. Fearing a possible explosion, officials in Laurel evacuated about 140 people on Saturday just after midnight, then allowed them to return at 4 a.m. after tests showed that fumes from the leaked oil had dissipated, The Associated Press reported. While the cause of the rupture was not immediately known, Brent Peters, the fire chief for Laurel, told the news agency that it might have been caused by high waters eroding parts of the riverbed and exposing the pipeline to debris. cheap Prada Sunglasses The pipeline is 12 inches wide and runs to Billings, an area with three refineries, Exxon Mobil said. All three were shut down after the spill. Exxon Mobil said it had called in its North American Regional Response Team to help clean up the spill, and a Fire Department spokesman in Laurel said more than 100 people, including officials with the Environmental Protection Agency, were also dispatched. In a statement, Exxon Mobil said it “deeply regrets this release and is working hard with local emergency authorities to mitigate the impacts of this release on the surrounding communities and to the environment.” “The pipeline has been shut down and the segment where the release occurred has been isolated,” the statement added. “All appropriate state and federal authorities have been alerted.” The rupture occurred around 11:30 p.m. Friday. Duane Winslow, a disaster and emergency services coordinator for Yellowstone County, told a local television station, KTVQ, that all oil companies with pipelines near the river were told to immediately shut them down, and that the damaged pipe was shut down within half an hour. cheap Carrera Sunglasses Mr. Winslow said drinking water in the surrounding area was being monitored and so far had been determined to be safe. Officials in Billings initially shut down water intake but later reopened it.

Another Black Eye for Cyrus Vance

Some day soon — today, perhaps? — an observant bookie might ask: Who faces longer election odds? Dominique Strauss-Kahn or the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.? The new district attorney’s string of losses and/or embarrassments in high-profile cases has become perversely impressive. In recent weeks, the Deutsche Bank contractors both walked free and the East Village police officers accused of rape were found not guilty of the most serious charges against them. And a grand jury refused to allow Mr. Vance to pursue his most serious charges against two men accused of conspiring to blow up a Manhattan synagogue. Now the the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, seems about to spin free of career-ending felony charges.Ray Ban Sunglasses Mr. Vance’s office filed a letter on Friday with State Supreme Court that reads like the legal equivalent of a skin-scrape, peeling back near every aspect of their witness’s credibility. She lied about the torture and death of her husband at the hands of government troops in her native Guinea and she lied about her claims to having been gang-raped. The sorry list grows longer. She lied about the details of the day of her sexual encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn. And law enforcement investigators told The New York Times that she has a bank account plump with the proceeds from a jailed drug dealer, who discussed with her the economic advantages of pursuing charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. The mystery attendant to Friday’s proceeding is why Mr. Vance’s office declined to drop the case entirely. None of this should suggest that Mr. Strauss-Kahn emerges with anything but the shards of his old reputation. The housekeeper’s accusation against him was like tugging on an old cupboard door — when it flew open, old allegations of his contemptible behavior toward women came spilling out. Oakley Sunglasses A few, unfortunately hailing mostly from my sex, claim to see vindication in this messy disaster. So we have this French fellow quoted in our article on the reaction in France: “This is a slap in the face of the feminists,” said Marc Marciano, 53, a trader in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb. Mr. Marciano might find so much comfort in silence. As for Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his future, when the debate is between those who accuse you of rape and those who defend you as a mere disgusting cad, your image problems have not emerged from critical care. All of which brings us back to Mr. Vance and the spectacular botch that his office has made of this case. There is no argument, moral or legal, to be made for special treatment. But if a local prosecutor decides that justice demands bringing to ground the International Monetary Fund’s managing director and a potential French presidential front-runner, he might want to nail down each detail before slapping on the cuffs.Prada Sunglasses The former I.M.F. chief is a man who travels back and forth across the Atlantic as easily as most of us cross Broadway. Why not build a case and arrest him the next time he steps into Nobu? Those who argue against prosecutorial patience point to the case of Roman Polanski, who engaged in scurrilously bad, not to mention felonious, behavior in the United States, and then picked up his film career within the shadow of the Alps. But Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s life ambitions argue against the notion that he could have barricaded himself inside his Paris duplex, lived on takeout foie gras for a few months, and resumed his candidacy for president. He faced two choices: Restore his honor by facing the charges, or retire into disgrace. This of course is second-guessing (my value added!). What’s clear now is that the highest profile case of Mr. Vance’s still-young career appears to have collapsed in upon itself. His office’s letter to the judges ends with the acknowledgement that the witness lied about her history, background, present circumstances and personal relationship. Carrera Sunglasses It concludes: “Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.” Where do we begin?

Philharmonic Announces Free Concert to Mark 9/11

The New York Philharmonic said on Monday that it would give a special memorial concert to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks: a free performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the “Resurrection,” at Avery Fisher Hall. One of the first major 9/11 cultural remembrances announced so far, the concert will be broadcast live on the radio and projected on a screen in Lincoln Center’s plaza. It will actually take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, and be rebroadcast on PBS the next evening. Dior Sunglasses Philharmonic officials described the concert as a gift to the city, but they also acknowledged that the planning for it, as well as a decision to perform on Sept. 15 in Central Park with the tenor Andrea Bocelli, had contributed to the absence this summer of the orchestra’s traditional, beloved concerts in the parks, which normally take place in mid-July. “For me the most important element was not the parks, but to do something on the 10th of September,” Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, said. “That was the most important gesture.” The Philharmonic had originally envisioned a 9/11 commemorative concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park and had planned to accompany it with parks concerts in other boroughs during the days before, according to Mr. Mehta. Discussions with the Parks Department began more than a year ago, he said. The orchestra players had been scheduled for vacation that week, so to make up for the lost days, management gave them the week of July 11 off — when the parks concerts would have taken place. Police Sunglasses Then last fall brought an offer from Mr. Bocelli and his backers, which include the Barilla pasta company and Decca Records. The Philharmonic agreed to accompany him and guest artists — for an undisclosed fee — in a free Great Lawn concert that will be broadcast by PBS and turned into a CD and DVD. A large stage and giant screens are envisioned. The orchestra’s music director, Alan Gilbert, will conduct. The concert has a Web site, bocellicentralpark.com. “I didn’t think there was a conflict,” Mr. Mehta said. “One was on the 10th, and one was on the 15th” of September. “At that stage, the enormity of the Bocelli production was not known,” he said. The Bocelli concert made “good economic sense” for the Philharmonic, he also said. But early this year, Mr. Mehta said, the Parks Department and the Central Park Conservancy told the orchestra that both events would be too damaging to the lawn. So Mr. Mehta moved the 9/11 concert to Avery Fisher. Versace Sunglasses He said he decided not to send the orchestra to the other boroughs in the week before Sept. 10 without an anchor concert in Central Park. “Without Central Park, I can’t afford to do the other boroughs,” Mr. Mehta said. Most of the money to pay for the parks concerts comes from Didi and Oscar Schafer, patrons who donated $5 million for five years of the program, starting in 2008. Mr. Mehta said the money saved by not giving parks concerts this summer would be used to extend the financing for another year, to 2013. The orchestra said more than 14 million people have attended the concerts since 1965. The Schafers are contributing toward the 9/11 performance, along with Alec Baldwin, a Philharmonic board member; the board member Antonio Quintella and his wife, Gabriela; and Credit Suisse. The Metropolitan Opera began performing operas in the parks in 1967 but stopped in 2008 to save money, presenting recitals instead. D&G Sunglasses The Philharmonic had previously announced that orchestra vacation changes because of September events, including the Bocelli concert and a make-up concert at Avery Fisher of William Walton’s music from the movie “Henry V,” narrated by Christopher Plummer on Sept. 17, would preclude the regular parks concerts, a move that provoked critical reaction. The Daily News said in an editorial that New Yorkers were being deprived. The Brooklyn Philharmonic, which has performed little as an orchestra the past few seasons because of lack of money, issued an open letter offering its services. Mr. Mehta sounded perturbed that attention was being focused on the lack of parks concerts rather than on the memorial concert. “This is something we tried to do rather special for New York and all over the world,” he said, “and in the end we’re being criticized for not doing parks concerts.” Not only that, he said, but the parks hiatus was also only for one year; the Philharmonic was still giving a free concert in Central Park; and the memorial concert was also free and would be broadcast in the plaza for all to see. Adidas Sunglasses “I don’t think we should be criticized for something which was largely not of our making,” he said. “Nobody here is happy about the fact there will be no concerts in the boroughs.” The Philharmonic also said on Monday that it would present performances on Sept. 7 and 8 of Leonard Bernstein’s score to “West Side Story” during screenings of the movie at Avery Fisher. One question that remained was the fate of city money that the orchestra receives every year to support the parks concerts. Mr. Mehta said orchestra and city officials were discussing the matter. The Philharmonic said the soprano Dorothea R?schmann and the mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung would sing the solo roles in the Mahler at the memorial concert.

Braun and Brewers Arrive Together

The savior of the Milwaukee Brewers was born in California in 1983, the first of 28 consecutive years in which the franchise has not won a playoff series. He grew up playing shortstop, following players like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, whom he met on a recruiting trip to the University of Miami, where he enrolled and starred for three seasons. He is Ryan Braun, and when the Brewers chose him with the fifth pick in the 2005 draft, he knew almost nothing about them. To Braun, the Brewers meant Robin Yount and Paul Molitor, the Hall of Famers who led the team to its only pennant. What else was there to know? Ray Ban Sunglasses “Most of the fans, until this team started doing well, still kind of thought that was the Brewers, you know what I mean?” said Craig Counsell, a 40-year-old infielder who attended every game of the 1982 World Series, tagging along with his father, who worked for the team. “Yount, Molitor, Jim Gantner — those were the Brewers. Other guys were playing here, in a sense, but nobody was going to remember that.” The Brewers had a losing record in each of the 12 seasons before they drafted Braun, who now plays left field. But already, there were hopeful signs. They had drafted impact players like Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks and Yovani Gallardo. They had built a stadium with a retractable roof. Braun was the National League’s rookie of the year in 2007, and the next year, Milwaukee captured the wild card. The Brewers, who hold a three-game lead in the N.L. Central, will play in the Bronx on Tuesday for the first time since 1997, their last season in the American League. They arrive with a strong sense of urgency. Fielder will be a free agent after the season, and the Brewers have been unable to reach an agreement with his agent, Scott Boras. Oakley Sunglasses “This is definitely the best team we’ve had so far,” Fielder said. “I’m hoping for a return, but it is a business and you never know.” Fielder’s departure would break up a devastating tandem with Braun, who in April became the second player in the majors — after Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki — to sign a contract through 2020. The Brewers added five years and $105 million to Braun’s existing eight-year, $45 million deal. The day Braun signed, fans at Miller Park gave him a standing ovation each time he came to the plate. “I didn’t know how to respond,” Braun said. “I didn’t want to disrespect the other team or take away from the fact that I was competing, but I wanted to tell the fans how much I appreciated that gesture. I stepped out and tipped my hat, just kind of said thank you. But it was amazing, man. It’s stuff like that that makes me want to be here. They’ve just been incredibly supportive, not only of me but of our entire team.” Prada Sunglasses The Brewers never averaged 25,000 fans a game in their final 17 seasons at County Stadium, where they played until 2001. Now they average more than 34,000 a game, ranking sixth of 16 N.L. teams, even though the Milwaukee market, with a population of just over 1.5 million, is the smallest in the majors. “They just have an insane, insane passion for their teams here,” Brewers closer John Axford said. “It’s a smaller city, people recognize you, and they’re in love with it. It’s fantastic.” The Brewers have kept the heart of the team together. They have secured Gallardo and Weeks through 2015, outfielder Corey Hart and starter Randy Wolf through 2013 and starters Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, both acquired in off-season trades, through next season. The franchise has been building to this, with high draft picks in the last decade and trades to supplement the core. But those deals have thinned the farm system, and with minimal television rights, the Brewers have little room to add. “In markets like ours, you only have short windows,” General Manager Doug Melvin said, adding later, “We’re starting to max out with our payroll because we have star players.” Carrera Sunglasses Because of that reality, perhaps, the specter of Fielder’s departure does not seem to weigh on Brewers fans. They know Braun and others will be here for a while, even if Fielder leaves, as C. C. Sabathia did after the 2008 playoffs. “Fans are more educated now,” Counsell said. “They’re pretty well aware of the situation Prince is in, and they’re pretty well aware that the team made a huge commitment to Ryan. I think fans know the deal, and that’s why it hasn’t been that big a deal for anybody.” Braun’s new contract brings his average annual salary to more than $15 million. But Melvin said Braun had never complained about his previous deal, which was viewed as team-friendly. After Braun and his agent suggested an extension, Melvin advised the owner, Mark Attanasio, that players like Braun rarely come along more than once a decade. Armani Sunglasses

Afghanistan war: The limits of targeting Taliban leaders

In his Afghanistan drawdown speech last night, President Obama said the US would start withdrawing troops from a position of strength, with Al Qaeda under “enormous strain.” He attributed those gains to the targeting, capturing, and killing of terrorist leaders. Intelligence from Osama bin Laden’s compound, the president said, revealed that the former Al Qaeda chief “expressed concern that Al Qaeda had been unable to effectively replace senior terrorists that had been killed.”Ray Ban Sunglasses That achievement came about mainly from the use of special forces, intelligence gathering, and drones – not a heavy troop presence. This logic aids Obama’s case for withdrawing a significant number of troops as Americans tire of the war. The problem for the US presence in Afghanistan, however, is that a similar campaign to kill Taliban leaders has not proven as successful. As troops begin to depart, US hopes for leaving behind a stable country grow more reliant on either the Afghan security forces dramatically raising their game or negotiations with the Taliban bearing fruit. The Taliban have recently started negotiations with the US, but by all accounts the discussions remain preliminary. Shaun Gregory, a regional expert at the University of Bradford in England, expressed doubts that the Taliban are feeling much pressure given the meager number of low-level Taliban who have decided to disarm, despite major government efforts to get more of them to do so. “With the new announcement by Obama that the troops are coming home in significant numbers by next summer, this is just not a moment [for the Taliban] to start compromising,” says Mr. Gregory. Oakley Sunglasses US commander Gen. David Petraeus has said the Taliban’s mid-level commanders have taken “enormous losses” over the previous year. Those special forces killings and the deployment of surge troops into new areas have strengthened security in some areas. Overall security hasn’t improved In large parts of Helmand and Kandahar, residents now say that they have increased freedom of movement and face less intimidation from insurgents. But the overall security picture in Afghanistan has not improved, with attacks increasing in number and geographic scope. Attacks by the armed opposition surged 51 percent in the first quarter of 2011 over that period last year, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office in Kabul. “We anticipate that 2011 will be the most violent year since we have been keeping records,” reads ANSO’s most recent report. In theory, the targeting of militant leaders downgrades the overall skill and experience of a group and forces its members to communicate less freely. In practice, both the Taliban and Al Qaeda have replaced their lost leaders, prompting some analysts to question the strategy’s effectiveness. Prada Sunglasses Stephen Biddle, a security expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, says that’s a given. “It’s a little bit like saying: ‘Have injuries to the Washington Redskins really weakened the team’s performance?’ ” says Mr. Biddle. “The replacement is never as good as the person being replaced.” Different groups, different strategies But others with knowledge of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and their different goals say the targeted killings have impacted the two groups differently. Al Qaeda has taken more time than the Taliban replacing its leaders, says Sami Yousafzai, a senior Pakistani journalist. That’s because there are only a few hundred Al Qaeda operatives in the region, and they tend to be more educated and skilled. The Taliban, however, have been able to replace their leaders almost instantly. “Becoming a subcommander doesn’t require a long history of being a Taliban,” says Mr. Yousafzai. As for higher-ranked commanders and shadow governors, few have actually been killed, he notes. The top-level leadership, meanwhile, remains in havens inside Pakistan where the security establishment is disinclined to help the US catch them.Carrera Sunglasses Al Qaeda’s brand of terrorist plots against the West requires higher levels of education and ingenuity. The Taliban’s guerrilla war against foreigners, meanwhile, requires the sorts of fighting skills not uncommon in the rugged tribal areas of Afghanistan. “We don’t face any gaps after someone dies. It doesn’t take a long time for us to replace someone,” says Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi. “In the Taliban, we don’t care if someone is knowledgeable and educated. We just look at who is a good fighter.” Mr. Ahmadi claims the number of Taliban gets bigger every day thanks to civilian casualties by coalition forces. Al Qaeda, meanwhile, faces strong headwinds against recruitment. The appeal of the group in the Arab world has suffered dramatic declines with the Arab Spring. “We can fairly say that Al Qaeda has been isolated in the political mind-set of the Middle East and that the ideology of Al Qaeda appears to be irrelevant and problematic. The attention now is given to reform and democracy,” says Mohammad Al-Momani, a political science professor at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. “The measures that have been taken to crack down on Al Qaeda seem to be working and Al Qaeda is having a harder time recruiting.” Armani Sunglasses

U.N. Security Council to work on Sudanese issues

Coach HandbagsThe U.N. Security Council will take up a draft resolution that would establish an interim

peacekeeping force for the disputed border region of Abyei, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told reporters Thursday.

The draft resolution calls for the deployment of 4,200 Ethiopian National Defense Force peacekeepers to the region. “We are looking forward to discussions

with council members in order to swiftly adopt a resolution authorizing this new interim security force for Abyei so that the agreement that both parties

have reached, which is obviously urgent and fragile, can be implemented immediately and effectively,” Rice told reporters after the Security Council met in

closed session.

The purpose of the interim security agreement is to allow for the withdrawal of forces from Abyei, she said.
Air Max Outlet “At this stage that means the forces of the government of Sudan, which are now occupying

Abyei, and that that area would become demilitarized and administered in a joint fashion and that would persist pending resolution of the critical underlying

issues.”

The Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed an agreement Monday that allows U.N. peacekeepers in Abyei. The two sides agreed in

principle on the need for a third party to monitor the ill-defined border between north and south before the scheduled July 9 independence for the south.

Thursday’s announcement came a day after U.S. President Barack Obama applauded the signing of the agreement, the latest effort to quell the violence in Sudan

that has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Coach Totes Bags“I commend the parties for taking this step forward toward peace, and I

urge them now to build on that progress and agree to an immediate cease-fire in Southern Kordofan,” the White House said in a statement.

Southern Kordofan is the oil-rich northern border state where fighting has also erupted between government troops and forces loyal to the south.

Rice said she was concerned about the humanitarian situation in Southern Kordofan.

“We are deeply concerned about attacks on and threats to and intimidation of U.N. personnel, obstructions to freedom of movement and access for humanitarian

goods, allegations and indeed verified reports of aerial bombardment and other attacks against civilian personnel,” she said.

“With a cease-fire in Southern Kordofan, alongside the agreement to deploy peacekeepers to Abyei, we can get the peace process back on track,” she said.
Nike Air Max 2009 “But without these actions, the road map for better relations

with the government of Sudan cannot be carried forward, which will only deepen Sudan’s isolation in the international community.”

The people from the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan are northerners but they aligned with the south’s rebel movement during Sudan’s decades-long civil

war. They are viewed as a threat by Khartoum because Southern Kordofan will remain part of the north after independence.

“The treatment of civilians in South Kordofan, including the reported human rights abuses and targeting of people along ethnic lines, is reprehensible,” said

Valerie Amos, the United Nations undersecretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Air Max ShoesBetween Abyei and Southern Kordofan, about 160,000 people have been displaced from their

homes, the United Nations has said.

Southern Sudan voted for independence in a January referendum that was largely peaceful. But with its separation pending, tensions have heightened to what

they were like during the civil war days and there has been little cause for celebration over the birth of a nation.

Meir Dagan, gadfly

Israel reveres its generals and spy chiefs. They traditionally wield great influence over security decisions while in power, and keep mum once they’re out. But recently retired Mossad boss Meir Dagan has been on a tear. Famously reticent to talk while running Israel’s spy agency, he remained quiet after stepping down in September following eight years on the job. But then this May he started to make up for lost time, speaking out in a way that is infuriating allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He called the idea of an Israeli strike on Iran “the stupidest thing I have ever heard.” He also said that Israel must, for its own well-being, accept the Saudi-led peace plan that would see Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders and give Palestinians a capital in East Jerusalem. Ray Ban Sunglasses Israel’s Channel 2 reported over the weekend that Dagan was ordered to immediately surrender his diplomatic passport (Israeli officials are apparently generally allowed a grace period with the passport after leaving office) and speculated that it could be “to get even” with Dagan. What brought all of this talking out of Dagan, who presided over numerous successful Mossad operations during his tenure, including the presumed assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabbouh in Dubai in January 2010? This is a man whose life’s work has been dedicated to Israel’s security. He says that he’s talking precisely so that he can help enhance that security. Perhaps most irksome were his comments on Iran in May, when he spoke publicly for the first time since leaving office. He declared a strike on Iran’s acknowledge nuclear facilities would violate international law, the disbursed nature of Iran’s program would make it an extremely difficult mission, and the result would be “war with Iran. It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end,” he said. Oakley Sunglasses He estimated that Iran has the ability to fire rockets at Israel for months in response, and that Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Iranian ally, could chose to launch thousands of its cruder grad missiles at Israel. He followed all this up earlier this month by saying an Israeli strike “will give the Iranians the best excuse to pursue the nuclear race.” The English language version of the Yehdiot Aharonot, one of the country’s largest newspapers, termed the comments and response the “Dagan Affair.” That Israel doesn’t really have the ability to wipe out Iran’s nuclear program (Iran has been preparing for that eventuality for years) on its own is widely understood (the musings of Jeffrey Goldberg notwithstanding) but it’s considered bad form to acknowledge that the option isn’t really on the table. Prada Sunglasses Dagan isn’t the only former Mossad boss having his say. Zvi Zamir, who stepped down as Mossad chief in 1974, spoke out earlier this month against what he termed the mishandling of security at a border post in the occupied Golan Heights, in which 23 mostly Syrian demonstrators were killed. He said a better fence would have prevented the demonstrators from nearing the Israeli troops stationed there. “I’m concerned by the fact that soldiers, my grandchildren, are firing at unarmed people,” he told Israel Army Radio. “We are eroding the purity of arms.” But he also expressed reservations for Dagan’s unprecedented bout of frank speaking. “I can’t recall a Mossad chief that had this kind of outburst. I was as shocked as any reader and wondered why this was in the newspaper, but he didn’t reveal any secrets.” Dagan has also been outspoken on the peace process. Earlier this month he said the Arab Peace Initiative, first put forward by Saudi Arabia in 2002, should be accepted by Israel. “We must adopt the Saudi initiative,” he said. “We have no other way, and not because (Palestinians) are my top priority, but because I am concerned about Israel’s well being and I want to do what I can to ensure Israel’s existence. If we don’t make proposals and if we don’t take the initiative, we will eventually find ourselves in a corner.”Carrera Sunglasses What is the initiative? It calls for Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders, give up East Jerusalem as a capital for a future Palestinian state and, in exchange, receive full recognition and formal peace with all of its Arab neighbors. His comments came just a few weeks after President Obama was attacked by supporters of Israel for suggesting that a two-state solution should be based on the “1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps.” Republican presidential hopefuls described Obama’s comment as variously a “betrayal” and “dangerous.” Mitt Romney even trotted out the beltway’s trope of the moment: Israel had been “thrown under the bus.” Netanyahu was furious. Clearly vast swathes of the Israeli establishment disagree with Dayan. But it’s a reminder of how lively the debate is within Israel on the best route to peace and security, a fact that is often forgotten here in the US.Armani Sunglasses

Bullets, Golf Balls and China Dogs: Rory McIlroy Returns to a Divided Northern Ireland

replica coach handbagsThey have much in common, the boy wonder of the golfing world who returned to his native Ulster on June 21 and the lads who that same night fought running street battles in an enclave of Belfast called Short Strand. The population of Northern Ireland at 1.7 million is smaller than many cities and drawn from a narrower gene pool; all but a handful of the citizenry are white Christians. Yet as U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, 22, disembarked at an airport named for his country’s most famous sporting export, George Best, and headed home to a hero’s welcome in Holywood, just outside Belfast and only five miles from Short Strand, hundreds of men of McIlroy’s generation, born and brought up within that five-mile radius, donned masks to cover their fresh faces and armed themselves with petrol bombs, stones, guns—and even golf balls. Some planned to attack Catholic homes in reprisal for earlier attacks on Protestant-owned properties, according to an Ulster Unionist politician Michael Copeland. The police said the rioting was orchestrated by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), one of the so-called loyalist paramilitary organizations to emerge from the years of Northern Ireland’s sectarian conflict claiming to represent Protestant interests. As loyalists fought with nationalists and republicans—at any rate, Catholics who might describe themselves as aspiring to a reunited Ireland—and both sides attacked anyone else who came between, a Dublin-based photographer Niall Carson received a gunshot wound to the leg. Air Max Shoes During riots in the same area on the previous evening, two men were shot in the legs and bullets also hit a police vehicle. It’s a far cry from the image of Northern Ireland as a success story, a post-conflict society engaged in a steady process of reconciliation and rebirth. That image had already received a knock amid a recent upsurge in bombings and shootings by dissident republican groups such as Continuity IRA and the Real IRA. The truth was anyway (and as ever) more complicated, as the sharply contrasting trajectories of McIlroy and the Short Strand rioters illustrate. Northern Ireland is close to a kind of peace, a kind of stability. Dogged negotiations, clever footwork and bravery by political leaders on both sides of the divide and in London and Dublin have delivered devolved institutions based on the principle of power-sharing and a confidence in the ability of the ballot, rather than the bullet, to deliver change. Coach ScarvesThis evolution has helped to marginalize the paramilitary organizations, drawing some of their former activists into democratic politics and leaving a rump to cloak their gangsterism in a pretense of political principle. But society is still divided, as it was during the Troubles, and not only between Protestants and Catholics, loyalists and republicans, unionists and nationalists. Those divisions still exist, of course. You see them in the colors painted on curbstones—the red, white and blue of the Union flag for a Union-supporting area and the green, orange and white of the Irish flag denoting a nationalist enclave. Then there are the statistics: only 6% of northern Irish schoolkids attend “integrated schools”; the rest go to institutions still demarcated by religion. Social housing is similarly segregated. Yet a divide that is at least as persistent goes to explaining why some young Northern Irish continue to become embroiled in sectarianism while others live almost untouched by its taint. It is the gulf between those with prospects and those without. Obviously McIlroy, blessed with prodigious sporting talent, has always enjoyed greater prospects than most of his contemporaries, but many ordinarily gifted Northern Irish men and women also grow up with some some vision of a productive future. What distinguishes these children from others is not religion: McIlroy is Catholic; Graeme McDowell, another Ulsterman who won the U.S. Open in 2010, is Protestant.Nike Air Max Plus Nor is it pure economics. McIlroy’s father worked long hours as a cleaner and bartender to finance his son’s ambitions. But money and location do count. It’s hard to see beyond the rubble-strewn sidewalks of Short Strand to a better way of life. You can find signs of aspiration—and perhaps in these aspirations some grounds for optimism—even in such hardscrabble, inner-city neighborhoods, though. In the mid-1990s, a loyalist agreed to take me to meet fellow members of a paramilitary organization. On the way to the rendezvous, he took a detour to his home, in one of the notoriously rough Belfast housing estates, parked up and opened the trunk to reveal two large objects shrouded in black plastic garbage sacks. He asked if I wouldn’t mind carrying one into the house, warning that the package must be handled with extreme caution. My mind raced. I wasn’t wearing gloves; my fingerprints would be all over the plastic. Air Max ShoesAnd what could weigh so much and require such care in handling apart from a mortar or a bomb? Once inside his pin-neat sitting room he stripped of the wrapping and revealed the answer to that question: he’d bought himself a pair of matching, life-sized china dogs with pink bows in their ceramic curls and goofily affectionate expressions.

Rematch Is Nine Hours Shorter, but in the End, Isner Wins Again

For all their discernible differences, Nicolas Mahut and John Isner are like two sides of the same piece of paper. When they met again Tuesday in the first round of Wimbledon, they might as well have been clutching pens in their hands instead of rackets. Mahut, the plucky Frenchman who lost to Isner in their history-making opener last year, wrote a book on the match, then returned to the All England Club keen on changing the ending. Isner, an affable American eager to be known as more than tennis’s marathon man, came back intent on writing a new chapter to his career. Burberry Sunglasses They are fierce competitors but will be remembered forevermore as collaborators on one of the most memorable stories in Wimbledon history. In 2010, Isner needed more than 11 hours to separate himself from Mahut, who succumbed, 70-68, in the fifth set. By comparison, Isner’s 7-6 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory in the sequel, which ran 2 hours 3 minutes, was prosaic. In fading daylight, he secured a berth in the second round when Mahut hit an errant forehand on the second match point. “I’m just really thrilled to have won that third set,” Isner said, “because if I lose that third set, then chances are we don’t finish. You know, our match goes to a second day.” The six-time champion Roger Federer also advanced, as did the three-time runner-up Andy Roddick. Marcos Baghdatis, the No. 32 seed, barely thwarted the upset bid of James Blake, whose ranking has fallen outside the top 100, winning, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-4. On the women’s side, the winners included the top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and the 2004 champion Maria Sharapova. ED Hardy Sunglasses First-round matches are fret-filled exercises, but for Isner, who is 6 feet 9 inches with the wingspan of an albatross, the pressure was intense. His career did not take flight last year after his iconic victory. Less than 24 hours after dispatching Mahut, he lost to Thiemo de Bakker in straight sets. The rest of the summer was a struggle. In his return, he kept his focus on the big picture, even as pundits spent four days talking about his first-round date with Mahut. “The goal is the second week,” Isner said. Last year’s match was played in the cozy confines of Court 18, which now bears a plaque on an outside wall that commemorates the marathon match. The sequel took place on Court 3, one of the All England Club’s show — but by no means showy — courts, with a capacity of 1,980. There were several dozen empty seats when Isner and Mahut walked out for their warm-ups after 6 p.m. After winning the first set, Isner swung with much more freedom on his serve and forehand. In the second and third sets, he produced 26 winners against 7 unforced errors and five of his eight aces. Fendi Sunglasses “After the first set, I felt actually really comfortable out there,” said Isner, who finished with 41 winners and 10 unforced errors. “I came out a little tight. Won that first-set tie breaker. That was huge. That took a lot of pressure off me. Felt like I played pretty well from that point on.” If Isner was uncomfortable last summer being asked to relive his match against Mahut over and over, it was because he knew he had set himself up for a huge encore. “Nothing’s going to live up to that match,” Isner said. Asked what he has to achieve to be known for something other than outlasting Mahut, Isner replied, “In all honesty, I think that’s going to have to be something really big.” He added, “I’d have to make a huge, huge mark in the course of a Grand Slam some time in my career.” In many ways, Mahut’s loss last year was a breakthrough. Serving second, Mahut served to stay in the match for 64 consecutive service games, showing a tenacity and focus that has not always been evident in his career. Oakleys Sunglasses Philippe Bouin, the former lead tennis writer for L’équipe who collaborated with Mahut on his book, “The Match of My Life,” wrote in an e-mail, “I had told him that what interested me really was to try to find why a ‘normal French player’ like him, meaning talented, but mentally fragile, had been able for once to behave like a champion.” Mahut could find no such consolation after Tuesday’s match, which was played in adverse conditions. He is one of the few players who do not wear a visor or cap during his matches, and his well-gelled hair made a handy wind gauge as strands waggled in gusts that made serving tricky. Isner was the better returner, earning five break points and converting three. Mahut, who wore black adhesive strips around his left knee, was not moving as well as he normally does. He managed only two break points, one of which he converted. After finishing with 32 winners and 16 unforced errors, Mahut said: “Was difficult to play this match. We talk about last year during three days. That was not easy. But he handled it much better than I did.” It was nearly 8:30 when the last point was played Tuesday. The players met at the net, and Isner said Mahut told him, “I want to see you in the second week of the tournament.” ray-ban sunglasses That’s Isner’s mission: to write the perfect ending for both of them.

The Web’s Secret Cash

 Coach SunglassesWhat if people could use the Internet to create a new kind of money, one that didn’t involve governments and central banks and could be used anonymously, like cash? That is the idea behind Bitcoin, a virtual currency that has caught the attention of computer geeks, financial speculators, and drug dealers. For the first time, you can buy anything online without giving your credit-card number or bank-account information—leaving no trace at all. Hundreds of merchants accept Bitcoins for things like books, computers, and professional services. The currency trades on a handful of Bitcoin exchanges, where the price of a Bitcoin fluctuates based on demand. Not long ago a single Bitcoin sold for less than a dollar, but in recent months the price climbed to $8, then to $20, then above $30, before falling back to $18, the current level. What exactly are you buying? A Bitcoin is basically just a little bit of encrypted code that can be zipped over the Internet and stored in a digital wallet. Air MaxThe concept was proposed by a mysterious hacker named Satoshi Nakamoto (no one knows who he is, and the name is believed to be a pseudonym), who published a white paper describing a way in which computers connected over the Internet could be used to create an unregulated “cryptocurrency.” New York Sen. Charles Schumer recently called Bitcoin “an online form of money laundering,” after learning about an online warehouse called Silk Road where sellers advertise an astounding array of illegal wares—marijuana, hashish, LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin—and where the only currency accepted is the Bitcoin. (Silk Road is currently shut down, though its anonymous manager claims he intends to start back up soon.) Right now there are about 6.5 million Bitcoins in circulation. Air Max Online The money supply is controlled by software algorithms and the total supply will max out at 21 million coins. You can crank out Bitcoins on a PC, but it’s an incredibly computer-intensive task, and it will keep getting harder as the number of Bitcoins in existence increases. Some people have pooled together hundreds of machines to “mine” Bitcoins. Most folks, however, just buy them on an exchange. Some already are hoarding Bitcoins, expecting a Bitcoin bubble will drive the value up to hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars per coin. The biggest holder, whose identity is not known, is sitting on about 300,000 coins, currently worth about $6 million, says Donald Norman, who runs the London-based Bitcoin Consultancy, which advises companies that want to get in on the action. Coach- Poppy CollectionsNorman says the power of Bitcoins is that they can free people from the tyranny of middlemen: banks; credit-card companies; and money shippers like Western Union, which charge exorbitant fees for performing a rather simple task. But for a lot of people the appeal lies in the chance to get rich quick by getting in early on the next Internet craze. Still, investing in Bitcoins is extremely risky. You don’t know who’s running the exchanges, and you can’t be sure these guys won’t just take your money and run. Adding to the risk, authorities might take action. Nike Air Max WrightBut even if Bitcoin goes away, others like it will spring up. “Now that we have the technology to create decentralized currencies,” Norman says, “they are definitely here to stay.”

City Payroll Project Was Riddled With Fraud, U.S. Says

Nearly all of the $600 million that New York City has paid to the main contractor for its troubled automated payroll project has been tainted by fraud, prosecutors said Monday in announcing the indictments of two technology executives and their company in what a United States attorney called a “massive and elaborate scheme.” “Today we allege what many have long feared: The CityTime project was corrupted to its core by one of the largest and most brazen frauds ever committed against the City of New York,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for Manhattan, said at a news conference. Ray Ban Sunglasses It was the first time that Mr. Bharara, who was joined by Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation, had held a news conference about CityTime since the scandal broke in December. In addition to the new indictments, prosecutors said the chief systems engineer in the New York office of the contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, had pleaded guilty to charges and was the second central figure to cooperate with the authorities. Prosecutors also said the fraud was much more systemic than they had first realized, and stretched back to 2003, two years earlier than they had said previously. While no city official has been implicated, investigators suggested that the Bloomberg administration, which was deeply invested in the project and anxious for the technology to work, had failed to recognize what Mr. Bharara said was a scheme that “appears to have metastasized over time.” Oakley Sunglasses Ms. Gill Hearn said, “The individuals charged today understood, exploited and preyed upon the city’s desire to modernize its timekeeping and payroll operations for more than 160,000 employees.” The latest indictment names Reddy and Padma Allen, the top executives at TechnoDyne L.L.C., a married couple who are naturalized American citizens from India. Padma Allen, at least, was a businesswoman of some standing: a medical doctor by training, she attended a White House briefing in December on minority business issues, and she was named one of Ernst & Young’s entrepreneurs of the year in New Jersey in 2010. Prosecutors alleged in papers unsealed on Monday that “the vast majority of TechnoDyne’s business and the engine of its growth was business it secured from S.A.I.C. in exchange for paying kickbacks.” And after the Allens in December became aware of the federal investigation, they provided “false talking points” to Carl Bell, the S.A.I.C. systems engineer, in order to throw off investigators, prosecutors said. discount sunglasses In all, 11 people and one company, TechnoDyne, have been charged in the case, which has stained the third term of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. One defendant has died, and two have entered guilty pleas and agreed to cooperate with the authorities. When asked about the latest developments, Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, said: “Our Department of Investigation uncovered this fraud, bringing it to federal prosecutors, and we will be using all available avenues to recover any funding owed to the city. S.A.I.C. has been removed from the project, and substantial reforms have been made to the way large city contracts are managed.” According to investigators, the scheme was hatched by Mark Mazer, a consultant to the city’s Office of Payroll Administration, who, owing to his close relationship with the office’s executive director, Joel Bondy, enjoyed unusually wide latitude in approving contracts. (Mr. Bondy resigned in December, but has not been accused of wrongdoing.) The defendants are accused of defrauding the city by hiring consultants who were not needed, inflating the rates charged for consulting work and — in an irony, given the project’s subject matter about timekeeping — inflating the hours worked by consultants. cheap Prada Sunglasses Over all, the city paid over $600 million to Science Applications International, which employed two people who were named in the indictment unsealed on Monday: Gerard Denault, who had been the CityTime project manager at Science Applications International, and Mr. Bell, who pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of wire fraud and one count of money-laundering conspiracy. According to the indictment, Mr. Denault and Mr. Bell directed $400 million from Science Applications International to TechnoDyne, of Wayne, N.J., as the CityTime project’s primary information technology subcontractor, in exchange for $15 million in kickbacks. TechnoDyne paid $75 million to two smaller subcontractors, who then provided $25 million in kickbacks to Mr. Mazer, the indictment says. One of those subcontractors has entered a guilty plea and is cooperating with the authorities, while the other is still under indictment. After Mr. Denault was arrested late last month, and the Allens were indirectly referenced as co-conspirators, TechnoDyne abruptly halted its operations and terminated its employees. cheap Carrera Sunglasses Lawyers for TechnoDyne and Mr. Bell did not return calls seeking comment. It could not be immediately determined whether the Allens had a lawyer; they apparently fled to India earlier this year and their whereabouts are unknown. A lawyer for Mr. Mazer, Gerald Shargel, said, “A change in the indictment does not change the fact that Mark Mazer committed no fraud.” A spokeswoman for Science Applications International declined to comment.

Study: Could Diet Help Prevent Vision Loss?

Coach SunglassesHere’s another reason to get your daily recommended allowances of vitamins and minerals: to lower the odds of vision loss in midlife. Researchers from several universities in the Netherlands, including Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, found that people who got the highest amounts of several nutrients, including zinc and omega-3 fatty acids, in their diet had a lower risk of developing a condition known as macular degeneration. The common condition erodes the retina and causes vision loss in more than 6% of Americans age 40 and older. It is treatable with drugs or surgery, but the treatments do not reverse the condition. Age-related macular degeneration accounts for half of all cases of blindness in developed countries. LIST: 5 Better-For-You Morning Meals Air Max Shoes Outlet OnlinePeople with a genetic variation called CFH are 11 times more likely to develop macular degeneration than the general population, and those with another variation called LOC387715S have a 15-times higher risk. For the new study, the authors studied 2,167 people over age 55 who had one of the two genes known to contribute to macular degeneration. The researchers surveyed the participant’s eating habits and followed-up for 10 years to track vision loss; participants received eye exams every three years. The researchers found that among those with the CFH gene variation, people who got the most zinc, beta carotene, omega-3 fatty acids or lutein/zeaxanthin in their diets were less likely to develop macular degeneration than those who got the lowest amounts.nike dunk shoes For example, the rate of vision loss in those getting the lowest amount of omega-3s (about 22 mg per day) was 39 cases out of every 100 people; in people who consumed the most omega-3s (268 mg per day), the rate was 28 cases out of every 100. Among people with the LOC387715S variation, only two nutrients, zinc and omega-3, were associated with a lower risk of vision loss. Coach Heels&Sandals But in all cases, the authors found that it wasn’t necessary to eat excessive amounts of the nutrients to see a benefit — getting the government-recommended daily allowances of healthy foods was sufficient. MORE: Whole Grains Are Better, But Refined Grains Aren’t Bad For women, that means getting 1.1 g of omega-3s and 8 mg of zinc per day. Men should get 1.6 g of omega-3s and 11 mg of zinc daily. Foods that are rich in zinc include oysters, red meat, nuts and beans. Omega-3 fatty acids are abundant in oily fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring and anchovies. Beta carotene is found in a variety of fruits and veggies, including carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, apricots and green peppers. Foods rich in lutein and zeaxanthin include eggs and leafy greens. Nike Air Max LeBron 8The authors did not investigate how the nutrients in these foods may contribute to the prevention of macular degeneration, but considering that they’re all highly nutritious foods that the typical American doesn’t get enough of, it probably wouldn’t hurt to up your intake of them.

Why the World Isn’t Getting Smallerhn

 Coach HandbagsOn March 27, Bangladeshi doctors amputated the leg of Limon Hossain, a 16-year-old student, four days after he was shot during a raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh’s elite security force. Almost everyday since, Hossain’s name has made headlines in Bangladesh, becoming a symbol of accusations that the governments paramilitary force acts as judge, jury and executioner in its official mission to clean up this south Asian nation of crime and corruption. “RAB is misusing their power,” Hossain says. “They are killing people.” On March 23, Hossain says he was taking his family’s calf back home from the fields to his village of Jhalakati in southwest Bangladesh. Out of nowhere, he says, members of RAB arrived on motorbikes. One grabbed Hossain’s collar and accused him of being a criminal. Another pulled out a gun and put it against Hossain’s head.Cheap Air Max Weeping, the boy fell to the ground, pleading for his life. After dragging him to another spot in the village, a RAB member pulled out a revolver and shot him point blank in his left leg. Days later, doctors had cut it off to save his life. (Read TIME’s 2006 cover story on Bangladesh.) RAB, of course, has a very different story. According to RAB’s Commander Mohammad Sohail, the village of Jhalakati is the hub of a powerful syndicate headed by Morshed Jamaddar. Everyone there, says Sohail, is in the pocket of Morshed’s gang. He says law enforcement agencies have filed 19 cases against Jamaddar, including rape, murder and abduction, and that the Morshed gang has bought “everyone except RAB” — including some local politicians. Sohail says RAB, headquartered in Dhaka, had heard information that Jamaddar was in the village on March 27, and dispatched a team to capture him. When RAB approached, gang members shot at them, and RAB returned fire.nike sb shoes Hossain, Sohail says, was a Morshed lackey caught in the crossfire. “The other story,” he says, “is made up by bad people.” RAB filed cases against Hossain for illegal arms possession, obstructing law enforcement agents and attempted murder the same day as the shooting. (Watch a video about the climate refugees in Bangladesh.) Dressed in all-black uniforms with black bandanas and wraparound sunglasses, RAB cuts an imposing presence on the streets of Bangladesh. The group was founded in 2004 during a time of “huge deterioration of law and order in the country,” according to Sohail. Drug lords, extremists and arms traffickers worked with impunity. Brad Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, says when RAB was created, “rich people implicated in serious crime could buy their way out.” By selecting the best from the military and police and loaning them to RAB in two-year rotations, the force was supposed to be above corruption and put an end to the crime wave. Coach Colettle Collections By that measure, even the groups harshest critics — and there are many outside of Bangladesh — admit it has been successful. Since 2004, the force of about 8,500 has captured more than 95,000 criminals and confiscated 10,000 illegal firearms, 5,000 bombs and grenades and 400 kilos of heroin, according to RAB statistics. The problems with RAB began, says Adams, when its members began taking justice into their own hands. “They started targeting criminals, because they had no faith in the criminal justice system,” he says. RAB admits that their team members have killed some 600 criminals in firefights since 2004, though Odhikhar, a Bangladeshi human rights group, says the real number is over 730. Human rights organizations say many of those deaths have been intentional extrajudicial killings, sometimes targeting the wrong individual, and that RAB employs violent methods in questioning their suspects. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report cataloging some of RAB’s alleged torture incidents and killings, including a case in which they say RAB mistakenly murdered a man because he had the same nickname as a criminal. According to the report, no one has ever been punished in connection to any of the 600-plus deaths. Sohail says Human Rights Watch didn’t approach RAB for information and relied on family members of those who had been shot for information. Nike Air Max 90The result, he says, is that the report is “a one-sided complaint book of the criminals and their families.” And despite human rights groups’ objections, RAB still enjoys wide grassroots support. In a 2009 cable released by Wikileaks, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh called RAB the country’s “most respected police unit.” Interviews in Bangladesh bear this out. In a typical comment, Anthony Sarker, a hotel manager, said “RAB are real heroes to the poor. They are like black pirates.” He not only acknowledged that RAB oversteps its mandate; he said it was necessary. “The normal judicial processes dont work, so sometimes its best to control a criminal RAB’s way,” said Sarker. This kind of attitude may be changing. Recently, Bangladeshi newspapers have been more openly critical of RAB’s alleged extra-judicial killings. Adams says that for the first time, significant segments of public opinion are being critical of RAB’s ethics. How the upcoming Hossain court cases play out in public will be a telling barometer of RAB’s support. Tis the season to be selfish. Right after the global financial crisis exploded in 2008, many economists fretted that countries looking to hold on to their share of a shrinking pie would become more self-interested and protectionist, plunging the planet into an even sharper downturn, just as happened in the 1930s after the Great Depression. Thanks to panic-fueled crisis management by policymakers, it didn’t happen. But after three years of pain and very little economic gain, it may be happening now. The signs are everywhere. Europeans are in the middle of a potentially calamitous debt crisis, one that threatens not only the survival of the euro zone but the idea of the European Union itself: politicians are starting to talk about rolling back visa-free travel between countries. Meanwhile, OPEC is falling apart as the Saudis and the Iranians bicker over how to control the world’s energy spigots. (Result: higher oil prices for all of us.) Then there’s the rise of populist politics not only in the U.S. but throughout the rest of the world. Anti-E.U. political parties are gaining support around Europe, and despite the recent overthrow of several Middle Eastern strongmen, nationalism is on the rise in places like China, Brazil and Russia. (See five myths of the economic recovery.) All of which underscores the point that globalization, if we define it as the free movement of goods, people and money, was never all it was cracked up to be. The world is just not as flat as pundits would have us think. More than half of global trade, investment and migration still takes place within regions — much of it between neighboring countries. Canada is the U.S.’s biggest trading partner. In his very smart book World 3.0, Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at the IESE Business School in Spain, tallied up a few telling numbers. Some 80% of global stock-market investment, for example, is in companies that are headquartered in the investor’s home country. Exports make up only about a quarter of the global economy. Only 2% of students attend a university outside their home country. Less than 20% of Internet traffic crosses national borders, and so on. “It’s considered very with it and modern to believe that the world is becoming more unified, but if anything, it’s becoming more fragmented,” says Ghemawat.

AARP Is Open to Cuts for Social Security Benefits

AARP, the powerful lobby for older Americans that has been seen as one of the leading opponents of Social Security benefit cuts, said on Friday that it was open to modest reductions in benefits for future recipients. The group’s stance, which generated quick reaction from all sides because of its powerful voice on the issue, could provide added ammunition to fiscal conservatives who have sought unsuccessfully to restructure Social Security and chip away at the benefits it promises older Americans. D&G Sunglasses “Our goal is to limit any changes in benefits,” John Rother, AARP’s policy chief, said in a telephone interview, “but we also want to see the system made solvent.” Mr. Rother said the group’s stance on possible cuts, which was first reported in The Wall Street Journal in Friday’s editions, should be seen less as a major change in position than as a reflection of the political and financial realities facing the Social Security system and the country as a whole. “You have to look at all the tradeoffs,” Mr. Rother said, “and what we’re trying to do is engage the American public in that debate.” He made clear that the group’s willingness to discuss cuts comes with conditions: Reductions in benefits should be “minimal,” they should not affect current recipients and instead should be directed “far off in the future,” and they should be offset by increases in tax-generated revenue. Adidas Sunglasses Nonetheless, the group’s openness to the possibility of unspecified cuts was seen as a significant development by people on all sides of the Social Security question because of AARP’s influence on federal policies affecting older Americans, including Medicare, prescription drugs and many more. Third Way, a moderate Democratic group in Washington that has favored possible reductions in benefits, called AARP’s position “a watershed moment” in the debate over Social Security. “Now that they have opened the door to reform, it is time for lawmakers to walk through it,” said Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way. But other advocacy groups that are pushing to preserve Social Security benefits accused AARP of effectively abandoning its core constituency. Max Richtman, executive vice president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, an advocacy group in Washington, said the timing of AARP’s statements was particularly bad because it came in the midst of deliberations between the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans about the debt ceiling and overall deficit reduction. Burberry Sunglasses AARP insisted that the Social Security trust funds should not be raided to reduce the deficit and that the two issues were separate. But Mr. Richtman said the group’s openness to considering future cuts would no doubt be used by deficit hawks to push for immediate cuts in Social Security benefits as part of the debate over deficit reduction. “I think it’s tragic that AARP would, wittingly or unwittingly, play into the hands of people who have never really liked Social Security and want to decimate it,” Mr. Richtman said. “AARP is the 800-pound gorilla, but they do not speak for seniors.” Republican leaders, who have led calls for revamping Social Security, had no immediate comments on AARP’s willingness to consider benefit reductions. An aide to the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity under committee protocol, said AARP’s position was a welcome acknowledgment that Social Security would be unable to pay future benefits at the current rate and that it must be restructured. ED Hardy Sunglasses “The longer we wait,” the aide said, “the more difficult it will be to protect current beneficiaries and those who rely on Social Security the most.” The most recent projections from the Social Security Administration, issued last month, indicate that at the current rate, the program’s trust funds will be exhausted by 2036, and that $6.5 trillion in additional money will be needed over a 75-year period to pay all scheduled benefits. Mr. Rother said AARP expected to hear criticism from some of its members over its position on possible cuts. “We have such a broad membership, Mr. Rother said. “I’m sure there will be some who will not be happy, but others will be eager to see the program put on a stronger financial footing for the long term.” While AARP has not issued specific recommendations or figures on how benefit reductions might be carried out, the group’s recent discussions with its members signal support for using increased revenue to fill two-thirds of the projected gap, and benefits reductions for one-third, Mr. Rother said. Fendi Sunglasses As word of AARP’s position set off debate in Washington on Friday, the group’s chief executive, Barry Rand, issued a formal statement saying that the group’s position had not changed in any substantive way and refuting what he described as “misleading” media reports. “Let me be clear — AARP is as committed as we’ve ever been to fighting to protect Social Security for today’s seniors and strengthening it for future generations,” Mr. Rand said. While he did not directly address the question of possible cuts in benefits in his statement, Mr. Rand said his group would be working to evaluate any proposed changes in Social Security “to determine how each might — individually or in different combinations — impact the lives of current and future retirees.” Oakleys Sunglasses

Powerful Syrian Leaves Business, in Major Concession

One of Syria’s most powerful men announced Thursday that he was stepping down from his roles at several major businesses, including the mobile phone monolith Syriatel, a development that is a major concession to antigovernment protesters. The businessman, Rami Makhlouf, is closely entwined with the Syrian government. His cousin is President Bashar al-Assad, his brother is Mr. Assad’s intelligence chief. Widely reviled as corrupt, Mr. Makhlouf became a focus of antigovernment protests. For months, as Mr. Assad has used violence to try to quell the unrest, Mr. Makhlouf helped project the government’s grip on control. In May, he insisted that the Syrian leadership would “fight to the end.” Burberry Sunglasses But a news conference in Damascus on Thursday, Mr. Makhlouf said he was halting his business activities and directing profits from his 40 percent stake in Syriatel to charity. Though prominent even before Mr. Assad became president in 2000, Mr. Makhlouf grew even wealthier as he and Egyptian partners won one of two mobile phone contracts. (The partners were eventually forced to sell.) Syriatel has about 55 percent of the market, Syrian economists say. As changes in Syria moved it away from a state-led economy, he penetrated its most lucrative sectors — real estate, transport, banking, insurance, construction and tourism — and his interests run from a five-star hotel in Damascus to duty-free shops at airports and the border. He was the vice chairman and, Syrian analysts say, the real power in Cham Holding, which was set up in 2007 with 73 investors and $360 million, in what seemed an attempt to tether wealthy Sunni businessmen to the government. It has effectively been charged with renovating Syria’s aging infrastructure, attracting Arab capital in another network of support for Mr. Assad’s rule. ED Hardy Sunglasses It turns out Kentucky coach John Calipari hasn’t reached 500 career victories after all. The school says it will change Calipari’s career record because of 42 vacated victories from his time at Memphis and Massachusetts. In a statement, Kentucky said it had consulted with the NCAA and determined it was “in error” to have celebrated Calipari’s 500th career win against Florida on Feb. 26. The school says it will report Calipari’s career record “consistent with the NCAA’s official records and statistics.” The school had debated the issue with the NCAA because Calipari was never found to be at fault for the violations that led to the vacated wins. Kentucky reached its first Final Four since 1998 under Calipari. Fendi Sunglasses

Debt Limit Talks Enter Crunch Time, But Negotiators Remain Far Apart

Coach SunglassesTake the long side of that bet. The prevailing force in Congress is the impulse for self-preservation, and House Republicans recognize the political dangers of causing the U.S. to default on its obligations. Yes, there is a contingent of Capitol Hill conservatives — the debt-limit “deniers,” as they’ve been dubbed — who downplay the economic damage it would inflict. But the difficulty of explaining their vote to pitchfork-wielding Tea Parties would be far easier than explaining why the markets went haywire. Even the brashest belt-tightening freshman may blink at the prospect of being blamed for economic catastrophe. GOP aides acknowledge the pressure business lobbies are applying to their bosses. “Groups have brought up the importance of the issue,” one concedes. But the full-court press is now beginning in earnest. At a Chamber of Commerce event on Monday in Atlanta, Chamber President Tom Donohue had a pointed message for Republicans who won’t raise the borrowing limit: “We’ll get rid of you.” Wall Street is fed up with the debt-limit brinkmanship; John Boehner received a chilly reception when he laid out Republican demands in New York City last month. In Atlanta, Donohue offered the House Speaker the kind of backhanded compliment that can leave a mark. Air Max Online“He’s growing into his shorts,” Donohue said. “He’s put on his big boy pants.” The line in the sand Boehner drew — that the $2.4 trillion required to increase borrowing obligations through the end of 2012 be offset by commensurate spending cuts — has been adopted by his Senate counterparts. “If we can’t get about $2 1/2 trillion in real savings, then I don’t think there would be much of an appetite to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, one of two Republicans in the group of negotiators led by Vice President Joe Biden, said last week. Biden’s group is increasing the frequency of its sessions, and plans to meet three times per week until a pact has been struck. In Biden, Democrats have a savvy point man. “I’ve been very impressed with the way he conducts these meetings,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said of the Vice President on Monday.cheap hermes birkin “He does like to talk, but I think that, I guess, all of us do or we wouldn’t be here. I do really think he has conducted these meetings in a way that’s kept the ball rolling.” Even so, the ball hasn’t rolled very far. The quickening pace of the talks reflects the need to make a deal well before August 2 — July 4 is the target — so that lawmakers have time to write and review the legislation. This would be a rarity in Congress, which is often jolted into action only by looming deadlines. “Look, we’ve been around this business enough to know that typically these things do come down to the deadline. That won’t surprise me if it’s Aug. 2,” House Republican Jim Jordan said. Last week, 103 members of the hard-line Republican Study Committee, which Jordan chairs, sent a letter to House GOP leadership outlining its three-pronged approach to deficit reduction: halve the deficit by next year through a mix of discretionary and mandatory spending cuts; introduce a trigger that automatically caps spending at 18% of GDP, which was the 40-year average from 1970 to 2009; and send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification. Coach BraceletsConservative advocacy groups swooned. The lawmakers called it a chance to make “a bold statement.” But that’s all it is. Democrats will balk, and the co-signers of the proposals didn’t hem themselves in by vowing not to support anything less. “The Democrats have given up, saying that the only answer to excessive borrowing is more borrowing,” the authors wrote. That isn’t true. To the chagrin of progressives, Democrats have essentially abandoned their stance that the government should intervene to boost sluggish growth. Leery of being pigeonholed as free-spenders, they’ve long since shied away from a renewed push to stimulate the economy to avoid being portrayed as big-spending liberals. Nike Air Max LeBron 8 One option for promoting growth is extending or increasing the payroll tax cut the two parties agreed to in December, which theoretically should spur hiring by reducing the burden of worker wages. Speaking Monday in North Carolina, Obama appeared to support extending the cut past December, when it expires. The idea should resonate with Republicans, who favor measures that lessen the strain on businesses, but a temporary extension alone wouldn’t offer any long-term assurances for job- creators.

Greek prime minister to reshuffle Cabinet

Greece’s prime minister says he will reshuffle his Cabinet on Thursday and seek a vote of confidence for his new government in Parliament, after coalition talks with opposition parties failed. Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled against falling approval ratings and an internal party revolt among the governing Socialists over a new package of austerity measures. The measures must be passed by Parliament before the end of the month if debt-ridden Greece can continue receiving funding from its international bailout. cheap Armani Sunglasses The discussions came as anti-austerity riots hit central Athens. Groups of youths on the edge of a major anti-austerity protest in Athens threw rocks and firebombs at police outside Parliament, where the struggling government sought support for new cutbacks required to avoid a debt default. At a rally of more than 20,000 in the Syntagma Square, police responded with tear gas to push the protesters away from barricades erected to protect the Parliament building and the lawmakers arriving to debate the new austerity plan. Other demonstrators who had been part of the previously peaceful gathering also clashed with the violent groups of hooded youths, trying to eject them from their rally. The protests were part of a 24-hour general strike against the new cutbacks, which the country must pass in order to continue receiving funding from a 110 billion-euro international bailout that is preventing it from defaulting on its debts. A large part of central Athens was closed to all traffic and pedestrians as police mounted a huge security operation to allow lawmakers access to Parliament by car. Some 5,000 officers, including hundreds of riot and motorcycle police, used parked buses and crowd barriers to prevent protesters from encircling the building.cheap Dior Sunglasses “Resign, resign,” the crowd chanted outside Parliament. The protesters included both young and old, and many brought their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders to shield them from the crush. Two separate marches organized by trade unions joined the rally in Syntagma. Such demonstrations have often turned violent in the past — three clerks died when rioters torched their bank in Athens last May. But the latest austerity drive has brought many people onto the streets for the first time. “What can we do? We have to fight, for our children and for us,” said Dimitra Nteli, a nurse at a state hospital who was at the protest with her daughter. “After 25 years of work I earn 1,100 euros a month. Now that will drop to 900. How can we live on that?” Her 26-year-old daughter, Christina, said the situation in Greece had led her to leave for the U.K. to study conflict resolution. “I have no job here. There are no prospects,” she said. Police spokesman Athanassios Kokalakis said 10 protesters were briefly detained. About a hundred people booed and heckled as cars carrying Prime Minister George Papandreou and President Karolos Papoulias swept past for a meeting.cheap Police Sunglasses The general strike crippled public services across the country, leaving state hospitals running on emergency staff, disrupting port traffic and public transport, and forced radio and television news programs off the air during the morning. Journalists’ unions called off their strike to cover developments in Athens. Flights were also operating normally after the air traffic controllers’ union dropped out of the strike. “They keep asking us to give more,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary of the civil servants’ union ADEDY. “Now, again, they will cut our salaries and bonuses, from the little that we have left.” The government needs to pass a new 2012-2015 austerity program worth 28 billion euros ($40.5 billion) this month — or face being cut off from the rescue loans from European countries and the International Monetary Fund. To meet their commitments, Papandreou’s Socialists’ abandoned a pledge not to impose new taxes and have drawn up a four-year privatization program worth 50 billion euros ($72 billion) — further fueling protests against austerity by public utility employees and other affected groups. cheap Versace Sunglasses Some governing party lawmakers have publicly criticized the new cuts. One of them defected on Tuesday, reducing Papandreou’s parliamentary majority to five in the 300-seat legislature. Another Socialist lawmaker said he will vote against the bill, which is set for final approval by early next month. Papandreou faces an open revolt from his own party and a refusal by the main opposition conservatives to back the new austerity bills, despite EU pressure for cross-party support. Papandreou met with the president to discuss how to solve the crisis. “A national effort is required. Because we are at a historically crucial moment and a time of crucial decisions,” Papandreou told Papoulias, adding that he was still in contact with opposition party leaders in an effort to garner cross-party support for the austerity drive. “But on the other hand, everyone has to assume their responsibilities,” Papandreou told the president, according to a transcript of their conversation released by the prime minister’s office. “In any case, we will move forward with this sense of responsibility and the necessary decisions” to pull Greece out of the crisis.cheap D&G Sunglasses The statements calmed concern, voiced mainly in the local media, that the prime minister might have been considering calling early elections. The Socialists’ popularity plummeted in recent weeks over the new austerity plan. A weekend opinion poll gave the main opposition conservatives a four-point lead over their Socialist rivals, the first time the party has been ahead in surveys since 2009. The next general election is scheduled for October 2013. With its credit rating deep in junk status, Greece is being kept afloat by the EU and IMF bailout, but will need additional support to cover financing gaps next year as high interest rates will prevent it from tapping the bond market next year, contrary to what the original bailout agreement had predicted. On Monday night, Standard & Poor’s slashed Greece’s rating from B to CCC, dropping it to the very bottom of the 131 states that have a sovereign debt rating. That suggests Greece’s creditors are less likely to get their money back than those of Pakistan, Ecuador or Jamaica. cheap Adidas Sunglasses

On the Turkish Border, a Syrian Exile Now Tends to New Refugees

coach factory outletThe white-haired, 61-year old exile has come to the hospital to see the refugees

from Syria. He used to be a diehard Ba’athist Party member back in that country. But when the Ba’athist party split in the 1980s, he joined the faction

associated with the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Eventually, he abandoned it in disgust and chose to live in southern Turkey. For the past 20 years, he has

lived away from politics. But now, the trim, mustachioed man is once again involved with the work of the Ba’athists. This time, however, he is tending to the

Syrian party’s many victims.

He doesn’t want to provide his real name but, over the past few weeks, he has become, in his own words, “Abu al-Forsan,” Arabic for the “father of the

knights,” knights being the closest word in English to a term that refers to men of great courage, honor and integrity. His knights are the 70 or so wounded

Syrians now receiving care in Turkish hospitals in this southern border city. Air Max “They are my

children,” the man says. “If I don’t see them every day, I feel like I have wronged them.”

He is not unknown to the regime in Damascus, which he says, recently sent one of his brothers over from the family hometown of Aleppo in northern Syria to

warn him against helping the wounded protesters. “My brother came for just a few hours, just to deliver the message that they know what I am doing and they

want me to stop.”
(Read about Syrian refugees)

But Abu al-Forsan won’t stop. At 11 a.m. cheap nike shoes store one morning, he was barreling up the stairs of a

hospital in Antakya, carrying bags of plastic slippers and knock-off Nike attire to distribute to the Syrian patients. He entered a room with two young men

from the northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour. One had a bullet still lodged in his right eye; the other, who was also shot in the face, had a patch over

his left eye. “Uncle, it’s good to see you,” the man with the patch said. “Tell me, what’s the news from Jisr? I can’t understand the news here, it’s all in

Turkish!” The former Ba’athist recounted what he knew, before turning to the other young man, pulling his cell phone out of his back pocket, dialing a

number, and handing it to him. “We found your brother. He’s in a camp. Here, talk to him.” The man was overjoyed.

For many Syrians — hurt, frightened and alone in a foreign country — Abu al-Forsan is the closest thing to family they have. The hospital visits benefit

him too. He says they are a chance to right what he considers the wrongs of being in the Ba’ath Party. “I was 26 years old when I joined. I thought it was

about pan-Arabism. I believed its motto of ‘unity, freedom and socialism,’” he says. “It was all lies. There was no freedom. The only place I’d dare open my

mouth was at the dentist.”

He left Aleppo in 1981, initially crossing the northern Syrian border into Turkey, where he says up to 300 rebel Syrian Ba’athists and their families had

sought refuge. Syria and Iraq were deeply hostile neighbors for decades, in an inter-Baath struggle that had as much to do with the personalities and egos of

the countries’ two leaders, Iraq’s Hussein and Syria’s Hafez al-Assad (the father of the current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad), as it did with political

ideas. Coach- Poppy Collections “Everybody wanted to be a leader,” Abu Forsan

says laughing, referring to the rebel Ba’athists in Turkey. “So I distanced myself from them all.” After six months, he left for Iraq, where he lived a

lavish expenses-paid lifestyle, courtesy of Saddam’s faction. But the party soon ended when Abu al-Forsan says he was asked to join his host’s fight against

Iran (Iran and Iraq fought a bloody eight-year war that ended in 1988). “I refused, so they cut off my expenses, and cancelled my Iraqi passport. They gave

me a three-month travel document.”
(See “Tales of Chaos in Syria:)

Abu al-Forsan returned to southern Turkey, where with its ethnic Arab population and close blood ties to northern Syria, he felt he wouldn’t be so isolated

from his home country. He married a Turkish woman from a border village, and began work as a textiles trader. Still he ached for the family he left behind.

“Eight of my uncles in Syria died, my younger brother died, my grandfather and eventually my parents. I didn’t get a chance to see any of them,” he says.

Mohammad, 23, knows the pain of a family split by political oppression, and the physical pain of wounds he sustained in an anti-government protest on May 20

in the Syrian village of Maarat al-Naaman. The construction worker was shot in the left shin, and in the left upper arm by Syrian security forces. He has

been bed-ridden in a Turkish hospital for two weeks now.Nike Air Griffey Max

Pins protrude from his left leg, and an IV drip tries to kill the infection circulating in his blood. He’s in a bad way, but his green eyes light up and he

quickly smiles when Abu al-Forsan walks into his room. “May God bless you and keep you,” he tells the older man. Mohammad’s father, Abu Moen, stands to greet

his son’s visitor. An exiled member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Abu Moen travelled from Yemen to be at his son’s bedside. He has several children in

Syria he hasn’t seen for years. (The Muslim Brotherhood, like most parties, is illegal in Syria.) “My heart is burning to return home,” Mohammad says. “My

dream is that one day my father will be able to return and our family will be reunited.”

Bordeaux Breaks the Bank: Are Chinese Aficionados Fueling a Wine Bubble?

 Coach OutletThis post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global—news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Nouvel Observateur. Asian millionaires’ thirst for the best Bordeaux wines has sent prices skyrocketing, and the most prestigious Châteaux have been turning astronomical profits as a result. At a May 17 auction in Hong Kong, new Chinese millionaires were fighting over the few wines that Château Latour — which was rated as First Growth under the 1885 Bordeaux Classification — brought out of its wine cellars. It took Christie’s seven and a half hours to sell the 392 lots. Château Latour, which belongs to François Pinault, had planned to stimulate wine collectors’ thirsts by putting 19th century wines up for auction, including one bottle dating back to 1863 which sold for 48,730 euros. (See “A Bordeaux Bubble.”) Was it record high? No. Air Max OutletIn October 2010, Château Lafite Rothschild, which is located in the great wine-producing village of Pauillac and achieved First Growth status like Château Latour, organized its first auction in Hong Kong since 1980. The highlight of the auction: buyers fighting over a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild 1869, which was sold for more than 160,000 euros. But selling these almost unobtainable bottles also opens the way for winesellers to hike up the prices of their recent vintages. Christie’s sold bottles of Château Latour 2009 for 1870 euros a bottle, three times last year’s price. This incredible price surge reveals wine as a profitable investment, and has led to the blossoming of wine auctions in Hong Kong. The most prestigious Châteaux go to Hong Kong to court Asian millionaires, whose passion for Bordeaux First Growths from the Médoc and Saint-Emilion has led to record profits. (See 50 American wines.) hermes birkinOn June 19, at the Vinexpo — the international Wine Show which takes place in Bordeaux — two worlds will collide: For even while the top Châteaux are booming, more modest Bordeaux wineries are sinking into recession. These exceptional Bordeaux Growths are among big winners of the globalization of the wine market. “These Châteaux are not producing more wine, but the number of people who want to drink a glass of Château-Margaux at least once a year has increased very significantly,” explains Pierre Lawton, a Bordeaux-based wine merchant for the Alias trading company. “What is happening is unavoidable. Not a single prestigious Château sells more than 200,000 bottles of its top wine,” says Hervé Berland, both owner of Mouton Rothschild and manager of Rothschild properties in the Philippines. Coach Kristin Collections“The wine market is increasingly globalized, we cannot fight that. If we want to sell less wine in China, they will go somewhere else to find it.” (See how manufacturers are trying to make boxed wine look chic.) Is this Chinese-spurred speculation creating a Bordeaux bubble? The Châteaux want to believe that the wine market does not follow the traditional rules of economics: supply is very limited whereas demand is unlimited. Hong Kong and China have become the two leading destinations for Bordeaux wines. Last year, according to the Bordeaux Wine Bureau, Hong Kong and China represent 27.5% of wine exports in the world. Nike Air Max WrightThe wine industry started booming in March 2008 when Hong Kong abolished wine taxes. The former British colony has become the world’s number one market for the most expensive wine exports, followed by the US and UK. That explains why auction houses have flocked to Hong Kong. “The Chinese buyers are seeking the prestige of having high-end wines,” explains Charles Curtis, Head of Asia Wine Sales at Christie’s. “This year, we are going to organize six auctions in Hong Kong. Last year, there was just one.” (See “Should French Colleges Give Kids Wine Classes?”) Asian buyers have made a real, almost fetishist, cult of Lafite Rothschild. It may be in part the prestige of the Rothschild family, as well as the fact that this wine has been exported to China for a long time. “The price difference between Lafite and the other wines is so huge that many people decide not to drink them and resell their bottles instead to buy others,” explains Angélique de Lencquesaing, one of the founders of the iDealwine.com website. She says a bottle of 1982 Lafite Rothschild worth 3,500 euros in France sells for 5,000 euros in Hong Kong.

Casey Anthony murder trial: The case of the disappearing ‘heart’

An FBI fingerprint expert testified on Monday in an Orlando murder trial that she noticed a heart-shaped outline on a piece of duct tape that prosecutors say was used by a Florida mother to smother her two-year-old daughter. Elizabeth Fontaine, a forensic examiner in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s latent print unit, told the jury that she noticed the heart-shaped object while using ultraviolet light to inspect the duct tape for possible fingerprints. “It was approximately the size of a dime,” Ms. Fontaine said. She said the shape was defined by a residue outline.Versace Sunglasses “If you were to wear a band-aid for an extended period of time you have that glue and debris outline,” she said. “Rather than a band-aid it is in the shape of a heart.” In a strange twist, the heart-shaped outline mysteriously disappeared from the duct tape before forensic experts were able to photograph it. Analysts have speculated that the outline was caused by a small heart-shaped sticker. The presence of a heart-shaped sticker on the duct tape would be important because prosecutors contend that the heavy-duty tape was the murder weapon used by Casey Anthony to kill her daughter Caylee in June 2008. Ms. Anthony is charged with first-degree murder. She allegedly drugged her daughter with chloroform, suffocated her by affixing three pieces of duct tape six to eight inches long over her nose and mouth, hid the body in the trunk of her car for several days, and then dumped it in a wooded area not far from the family home. Ms. Anthony failed to notify police, her family, or friends of her missing daughter for 31 days. When confronted, she said the child had been kidnapped by a nanny. D&G Sunglasses Anthony has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyers say Caylee died accidentally in the family’s swimming pool. Fontaine’s appearance came as the state is preparing to wrap up its case perhaps as early as Tuesday afternoon after three weeks of testimony. The state is expected to try to connect Fontaine’s testimony concerning the heart-shaped outline with sheets of heart-shaped stickers investigators found during a search of the Anthony home. The search was conducted shortly after Caylee’s skeletal remains – and the pieces of duct tape – were discovered on Dec. 11, 2008, six months after the toddler’s disappearance. By then, Casey Anthony was the prime suspect in a murder investigation. In a potential setback for prosecutors, Fontaine testified that she did not photograph the heart-shaped outline or otherwise preserve the evidence at the time she first observed it. Instead, she continued conducting tests to try to identify fingerprints on the tape. (No prints were found.) Fontaine told the jury that when she went back to photograph and record the apparent heart-shaped piece of evidence it was no longer visible.Adidas Sunglasses It is unclear how members of the jury may view that lack of documentation by the nation’s premier crime laboratory. Fontaine’s testimony about the heart-shaped outline was based on her personal observation and her case notes. Judge Belvin Perry told the jury that the trial is running ahead of schedule. He said prosecutors may rest their case on Tuesday or early Wednesday; the defense may begin its case as early as Wednesday afternoon. Jury deliberations could begin on June 25 or June 27, Judge Perry said.