Dire Warning For Students
SARAH WHEATON ©2013 New York Times WASHINGTON - College students, freshly relieved of pressure from term papers and final exams, served as a backdrop for President Barack Obama on Friday as he warned of another impending fiscal deadline: Student loan interest rates
President Barack Obama waves after joining college students in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 31, 2013.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
are set to double in 30 days under current law.
“That means that the average student with those loans will rack up an additional $1,000 in debt,” Obama said at an event in the White House Rose Garden. “That’s like a $1,000 tax hike.” Both Democrats and Republicans say they want to head off an increase in the interest rate for federally subsidized student loans to 6.8 percent as scheduled on July 1, but they disagree about how best to manage the rates' trajectory.
Senate Democrats plan to vote to extend the government-subsidized rate - 3.4 percent for the 7.4 million students with Stafford loans - for another two years, while House Republicans approved a measure last week that would make the rate variable, tied to prevailing market trends.
Continued on Page 5
Houston
A firefighter is wheeled to an ambulance after fighting a fire at the Southwest Inn, Friday, May 31, 2013, in Houston. Four firefighters were killed while battling the fire, and at least five other people were hospitalized, authorities said.
(AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)
HOUSTON (AP) — Four firefighters were killed while battling a fire that engulfed a Houston motel and restaurant on Friday, and at least five ofher people were hospitalized, authorities said.
Flames were shooting from the roof of the Southwest Inn, along one of Houston’s most heavily traveled expressways, and black smoke was blanketing the area as firefighters tried to extinguish the blaze.
Three firefighters were killed at the scene, while the fourth died at a hospital, according to the mayor’s office and local medical examiner.
Five other people were injured and were being treated at a hospital for chest pains or leg injuries.
The loss of life is fhe single worsf in the history of the 116-year-old Houston Fire Department. When a flag-draped body was removed from the smoldering remains around 4 p.m., firefighters — working in swirling winds and temperatures exceeding 90 degrees — paused and saluted.
“It's a very sad day for the Houston Fire Department and the city of Houston as a whole," said Janice Evans, a spokeswoman for Houston Mayor Annise Parker. Field reports indicate that the firefighters were caught in a roof collapse, said Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association.
“I don't know if that was folks outside next to the
structure or inside when it collapsed, but the collapse is going to be the cause," he said after visiting with firefighters at Memorial Hermann Hospital.
Caynon said the victims included three men and one woman. Their names haven’t been released.
The blaze broke out just after noon Friday at a restaurant and club at the motel, then quickly spread to the section of fhe building housing the motel.
About 150 firefighters responded and were able to extinguish the blaze within about two hours.
Front desk clerk Martha Lopez told the Houston Chronicle that a restaurant employee ran into the hotel saying a fire had started in the restaurant.
The two began knocking on doors and windows telling guests to get out of the hotel.
Lopez said the hotel could accommodate 100 guests and had 45 registered at the time of the fire.
Sammy Sewell, who had been staying at the hotel, said he walked out of his room and heard yelling. He said he turned a corner, saw three women screaming and running at him down a hallway. Then, he heard three blasts.
“Next thing you know, it was ‘boom!’ It scared the crap out of me. I mean, if sounded like a cannon going off. That's how loud it was,” Sewell told the newspaper. “I could have sworn it picked this building up and put it back down.'O
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
HUP FRONT
VP Biden: Brazil-US relations enter new era
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) —
Stronger trade ties and closer cooperation in education, science and other fields should usher in a new era in U.S.- Brazil relations in 2013, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Friday.
Biden made his remarks after meeting with President Dilma Rousseff and Vice president Michel Temer on the last leg of his three-day visit to Brazil.
“The president (Obama) wanted to make a statement of the importance that the relationship with Brazil has for us,” Biden said. “That is why the first state visit of the second administration is to your president. We are pleased that your president has accepted the invitation."
“It is a sign of the respect we have for Brazil. I hope 2013 marks the beginning of a new era in the relations between our two countries,” he added The Oct. 23 visit will be an important diplomatic acknowledgment of Brazil’s growing influence — and
DONNA CASSATA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Syrian rebels battling the forces of President Bashar Assad must receive ammunition and heavy weapons to counter the regime’s tanks and aircraft or it will be impossible for them to prevail, Sen. John McCain said days after he quietly slipped into Syria to meet with the opposition.
“They just can't fight tanks with AK-47s,” McCain said Friday in a telephone interview, referring to assault rifles.
The Republican lawmaker and 2008 presidential candidate made an unannounced visit to Syria on Monday, traveling across the border near Kills, Turkey, and spending about two hours meeting with rebel leaders. McCain has been one of the most vocal lawmakers demanding aggressive U.S. military action in the 2-year-old Syrian civil war, calling for estab
also a shift back toward the middle for Brazilian foreign policy under Rousseff. Her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, supported the Iranian government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s late president
lishment of a no-fly zone and arming the rebels.
The Obama administration has been reluctant to provide weapons to the disparate opposition, fearing that they will fall into the wrong hands in a volatile region. McCain said he discussed what types of weapons the rebels need and whether they could ensure their control.
“I'm confident that they could get the weapons into the right hands and there’s no doubt that they need some kind of capability to reverse the battlefield situation, which right now is in favor of Assad,” McCain said.
McCain, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, was the first U.S. senator to travel to Syria since the civil war began more than two years ago. He said he worked with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in arranging the trip. McCain said he spoke with
Hugo Chavez, both of whom Rousseff kept at arm's length. Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said U.S.-Brazil relations should “focus on areas like science, technology, innovation and education.” Biden told reporters he
Secretary of State John Kerry “a couple of times. It wasn’t that I was hiding it from him; it just didn’t seem to come up. I thought Burns was the right guy to go through. They were very important in the trip. We couldn’t have done it without their cooperation.” Gen. Salim Idris, chief of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, accompanied McCain and they met with 19 battalion commanders.
Citing the photo of McCain's meeting, a Lebanese newspaper has reported that McCain unwittingly crossed paths with two men connected to a rebel group responsible for the kidnapping of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in 2012. McCain said one of the men he reportedly met with is dead and no one in his meeting was identified as the other.
“The people I met with and talked to directly were well-vetted. Their names
had a “wide-ranging discussion” with Rousseff who he said was a “leader who is laser-focused on addressing the needs of the Brazilian people. I now understand why President Obama considers her such a great partner.”Q
and their duties were outlined to me.
They came from all over Syria,” he said.
Two years of violence in Syria have killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations. President Barack Obama has demanded that Assad give up power, while Russia has stood by Syria, its closest ally in the Arab world. Russian officials have said they will support providing anti-aircraft systems to Syria, and Assad suggested on Thursday that he had received the first shipment. The United States and Russia are trying to get the Syrian government and opposition forces into peace negotiations. Those talks, initially planned for Geneva next month, have been delayed until July at the earliest.
“It's hard to imagine Bashar Assad negotiating his departure when he has the upper hand on the battlefield,” McCain saidO
Family of mom dead in Syria had prior FBI contact
JEFF KAROUB Associated Press BURTON, Mich. (AP) — The
FBI questioned relatives of a 33-year-old Michigan mother killed during fighting in Syria after she took a previous trip to the Middle East a couple of years ago, family members said Friday.
Agents had asked why Nicole Lynn Mansfield traveled to Dubai for a few weeks, but family members said they did not know much about her trip, said Mansfield's aunt, Monica Mansfield-Speelman. Mansfield first became interested in the Middle East after converting to Islam and marrying an Arab immigrant several years ago, her aunt said, but her family had lost touch with her in recent years and had no idea she had gone to Syria. “We didn't know she was over there. We didn’t know she was gone, but Nicole, she was known to take off like that,” MansfieldSpeelman said. “She was a traveler, I guess you could say. She didn't stay in one place.” Family members said FBI agents visited them Thursday and informed them of Mansfield’s death. Simon Shaykhet, an FBI spokesman in Detroit, said he could confirm agents spoke to Mansfield’s family, but he declined further comment. Mansfield is the only American known to have been killed fighting in Syria, where 70,000 people have died in a two-year civil war. A pro-Syrian government news agency said Mansfield and two others were fighters for a group opposed to Syria's government and were killed in a confrontation in the northwestern city of Idlib. The report on the circ*mstances of the deaths could not immediately be confirmed. She had been on the FBI’s radar before she left for Syria, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't permitted to speak publicly about the investigation^
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, shakes hands with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff during a photo opportunity at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Friday, May 31, 2013.
(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
McCain: Syrian rebels need heavy weapons
U.S. NEWS I * 3
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
US woman’s jailing in Mexico highlights tourist risks
BOB CHRISTIE CRISTINA SILVA,
ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The weeklong detention of an American woman after Mexican authorities said they found 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat illustrates just one of the perils Americans face while traveling in Mexico.
Yanira Maldonado, 42, walked out of a prison on the outskirts of Nogales, Mexico, and into her husband’s arms late Thursday after a judge dismissed drug-smuggling charges against her.
The judge determined Maldonado was no longer a suspect after viewing video that showed the couple climbing on the bus with just a purse, blankets and bottles of water.
“Many thanks to everyone, especially my God who let me go free, my family, my children, who with their help, I was able to survive this test,” she said outside the jail before crossing through the Nogales port of entry into Arizona.
The governor of the Mexican state of Sonora, where Nogales is located, apologized for Maldonado’s ordeal during a visit to Phoenix on Friday. He said he made sure she was safe and wasn't transferred to a federal prison and worked to ensure the court proceedings went quickly.
“In a few words I could say we’re very sorry that she was in the wrong place in the wrong moment,” Gov. Guillermo Padres Elias said. “But we’re very glad that she’s OK and she still says... that she will continue visiting our country and she will continue going on tourism trips to Sonora.
“Because Sonora really likes the United States people and Arizonans to go down there. We welcome them with open arms with a big smile and we see you as a family, so we want to continue with that.”
With kidnappings, drug cartel shootouts and other violent crime pervasive in parts of Mexico, the tourism industry has taken a hit.
although popular destinations like Cancun are so well-protected that problems are rare.
Kidnappings and cartel violence are prominent among the U.S. State Department’s lengthy set of warnings about travel in Mexico. But there are also warnings about getting caught up in drug smuggling, either by being used as a “blind mule” who doesn’t know drugs have been put in their car or luggage, or by being strongarmed by smugglers who threaten harm if a person doesn't carry drugs. Maldonado also may have been caught up in a shakedown by Mexican police who were seeking a bribe. Her husband said police sought $5,000 to let her go.
She may have just been randomly assigned the seat under which the smugglers hid the pot. Or she could have been put there on purpose by smugglers who hoped an American was less likely to be targeted for a search and to provide cover for the real smuggler.
Alonzo Pena, who retired as deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2010 and was once stationed in Mexico, said someone else on the bus probably put the drugs under Maldonado's seat without her knowledge and watched her throughout the trip.
The U.S. State Department also warns that criminals are increasingly affixing drugs to the bottom of parked cars in Mexico, the removing them after the vehicle enters the U.S.
Those cases are rare, Pena said, because smugglers like to closely watch the drugs crossing the border. Eric Vos, a lawyer with the U.S. Office of Defender Services who trains federal public defenders, agreed fhaf slipping drugs into unsuspecting travelers' cars or luggage isn't all that common.
“There’s just like a million reasons why the blind mule thing is a difficult angle,” Vos said Friday.
It’s more common, Pena said, for drug carriers fo admit they knowingly smuggled because they or their
families were threatened if they disobeyed.
A highly acclaimed architect who designed some of Tijuana’s most prominent buildings was given an unusually light sentence of six months in prison in San Diego last year for trying to enter the U.S. with nearly 13 pounds of cocaine hidden in his minivan’s battery. Eugenio Velazquez, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, claimed drug traffickers threatened to kill him if he refused.
Another old smuggling tactic is to advertise work as security guards, house
cleaners and cashiers in Mexican newspapers, telling applicants they must drive company cars to the U.S. They aren’t told the cars are loaded with drugs. There were 39 arrests at San Diego’s two border crossings tied to the ads for seemingly legitimate jobs between February 2011 and April 2012, according to ICE, prompting the agency to take out ads in Mexican newspapers warning about the scheme.
An Arizona sheriff who has spent more than 40 years along the Mexican border said Maldonado’s case probably was a shakedown.
“They've got some good, courageous law enforcement officers in Mexico,” said Sanfa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Esfrada. “Coupled wifh that, you’ve got really corrupt ones too. And that goes at all levels.” Estrada, whose territory includes Nogales, said finding drugs under the seat of a public bus should nof have necessarily implicafed Maldonado and wouldn’t have been enough to arrest her in the U.S. “Something underneath somebody's seat, anybody could have put it there,” he said.
But having Americans on board the bus made it easy for police to either assume the Maldonados were the smugglers, or to target them for a bribe.
“It just looks funny. In my opinion, it was unreasonable based on what little that they had,” Estrada said. “If you’re an outsider, if you’re an American, even a Mexican-American, you’re a target. You stand out like a sore thumb. ”□
Yanira Maldonado, 42, center, accompanied by her husband, Gary, right, speaks to media after being released from a prison on the outskirts of Nogales, Mexico late Thursday, May 30, 2013. Maldonado, jailed in Mexico on a drug-smuggling charge, was released after court officials reviewed her case.
(AP Photo/Cristina Silva)
Members of Fed advisory panel raise red flags
M. CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Some members of a Federal Reserve banking advisory committee expressed concerns this month that the Fed’s low interest-rate policies could be creating an “unsustainable bubble" in stock and bond markets. The discussion among
members of the banking advisory group and officials at the Federal Reserve showed the advisory panel believed that the Fed’s policies has provided support for a slow economic recovery.
Buf some advisory members worry fhaf fhe policies may also lead to higher in flation or market instability. The advisory group is made up of private bankers from each of the Fed’s 12 banking districts. They normally meet four times a year with the Fed's seven-member board of governors in Washington to offer their views on various topics.
The record of fhe May 17 discussion was published
Friday on the Fed’s website. Under new procedures, the Fed will make the advisory committee records public two weeks after each quarterly meeting.
The Fed made that decision after some news organizations filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain records of the meetingsO
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
ms. NEWS
m
Navy football players face Annapolis rape inquiry
JAMES RISEN ©2013 New York Times ANNAPOLIS, Md. - As midshipmen were graduating from the Naval Academy here last week, Navy investigators were conducting an investigation into reports that several football players had serially raped a female midshipman at an off-campus party last year.
Three Navy football players are under investigation in the case, according to Naval Academy officials. No charges have been brought, but the academy has delayed the graduation of one of the three midshipmen and his commissioning in the Navy, according to academy officials and others briefed on
the inquiry. The academy’s superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller, is expect ed to receive a final report from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in
Shoes of cadets at a commencement ceremony where President Barack Obama gave an address, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. As midshipmen were graduating from the academy here last week. Navy investigators were conducting an investigation into reports that several football players had serially raped a female midshipman at an offcampus party last year.
(Doug Mills/The New York Times)
www.blucaruba.com / [emailprotected]
the next week or two and then decide whether to proceed with charges, according to academy officials.
The investigation, stemming from an April 2012 party, has sputtered off and on for more than a year, hampered in part by the woman’s initial reluctance to cooperate, the officials said. She was ashamed and then later felt intimidated, according to her Washington lawyer, Susan Burke.
In a series of interviews, the female midshipman said that she was upset that she had faced disciplinary action for underage drinking at the party while the football players were permitted to play last season. Academy officials acknowledged the inquiry but declined to comment further. “Naval Academy leadership is monitoring the progress of this investigation and evaluating the appropriate options for adjudication,” a spokesman said in a statement. “It is completely inappropriate to make any other public comment on this investigation or any ongoing investi gation, as we risk compromising the military justice process.”
Academy officials said that the players were allowed to play for the team last fall because no charges had ever been brought in the case, and that they were accorded the presumption of innocence as a result. Officials described the case as delicate and complex, and one in which the investigation has been hampered by the limits of the available evidence. The inquiry comes amid a growing national controversy over sexual assaults in the military - and over whether the Pentagon has reacted aggressively enough to curb them. The controversy has now reached into the cloistered world of the elite service academies.
In January, a Naval Academy instructor was charged with raping a female midshipman; the court-martial began this week.
The Naval Academy has reported that it had 51 total reports of unwanted sexual contact during the academic years from 2011 through 20130
Court backs border-state gun sales reporting rules
F. J. FROMMER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. appeals court panel Friday unanimously upheld an Obama administration requirement that dealers in Southwestern states that border Mexico report when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles.
The firearms industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and two Arizona gun sellers had argued that the administration overstepped its legal authority in the 2011 regulation, which applies to gun sellers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The requirement, issued in what is known as a demand letter, compels those sellers
to report to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when anyone buys — within a fiveday period — two or more semi-automatic weapons capable of accepting a detachable magazine and with a caliber greater than . 22 .
The ATF says the requirement is needed to help stop the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, writing for the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, said the agency was within its legal authority when it issued the demand letter.
She said that the Gun Control Act of 1968 “unambiguously authorizes the demand letter." □
U.S. NEWS I * 5
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
Obama warns of doubling of student loan rates
Continued from Front
“I'm glad the House is paying attention to it, but they didn’t do it in the right way,” Obama said. “It fails to lock in low rates for students next year. That's not smart. It eliminates safeguards for lower-income families. That’s not fair.” Republicans, eager to avoid liability for burdening the nation's youngest voters with a big increase in debt, accused the president of “petty partisanship” and blamed the Democratic-con trolled Senate for inaction.
“The differences between the House plan and the president’s are small, and there's no reason they cannot be overcome quickly,” Speaker John A. Boehner, said in a statement. “But today, rather than working to resolve the issue, the president resorted to a campaign stunt to try to score political points.”
The House measure would allow the Stafford rate for undergraduates to reset each year based on the cost of a 10-year Treasury note, plus 2.5 percent, but it would ultimately cap the rate at 8.5 percent. For
graduate student loans, known as PLUS loans, the rate would be the Treasury note plus 4.5 percent, capped at 10.5 percent. Obama said the Republican proposal “could actually cost a freshman starting school this fall more
over the next four years than if we did nothing at all and let the interest rates double on July 1st.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Republican plan would put the Stafford rate at 5 percent in 2014 and 7.7 percent in 2018.
Like the Republican measure, the plan Obama proposed in his budget
would tie the rate to Treasury notes. However, rather than facing a new rate each year, an individual student’s rate would be fixed for the life of the loan. The Senate will vote on a more straightforward, twoyear extension of the cur rent 3.4 percent rate next week, according to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. In a statement, he called the House bill a “non-starter.” Although Obama did not specifically endorse the Senate approach, he essentially called for a repeat of what happened last year when Congress, facing a similar deadline, passed a one-year extension of the current rate with bipartisan support.
“So this year, if if looks like your representatives have changed their minds, you're going to have to call them up again or email them again or tweet them again and ask them, ‘What happened, what changed?’” Obama said. Democrats set the rate at 3.4 percent for four years in 2007, when fhey controlled the House of Representatives. Republicans said they had agreed to the one-year extension last year only to make time for a more permanent, budget-friendly solution. Obama called it “deja vu all over again.”□
President Barack Obama, joined by college students, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 31, 2013, where he called on Congress to keep federally subsidized student loans rates from doubling on July 1.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
BON BINI
ENERGIZE YOUR DAY
largest selection of healthy breakfast items designed to energize your day
buffet highlights:
omelet station waffle station
large selection of fruits and berries smoked salmon lox fresh pastries
open daily 7:00 am - 12:00 noon
TheWestin
HEKfiT t GAiiwCI VM
bring this ad to receive one free mango smoothie
»URK
c r n\^it n c_j>
CIVE ACTION
TvOUMNAMENTEAMPM
Nightly FREE Bingo @9:30pm Win up to $1000
DAILY BINGO ON SUN-WED-FRI. FOR ONLY $6 WIN CASH PRIZES AND MORE....
Hold-Em and Omaha Pot Limit
SPORTS BOOK OPEN DAILY:
Monday and Tuesday open from 11am - 11pm Wednesday to Sunday open fromllam - 1am .2^.^
--r
I ■ ■■ I H H 3 AH S MA ■■ n A'r
AP Pill Alf h-JL L AAlhftP I in All Ir.U rm -ill HHtiTAi uiH ■\NI*-SK'
ALL SPORTS & ALL MAJOR TRACKS AVAILABLE
Be There!
We are more pleased to have you!
AURA Casino • J.E. Irausquin Blvd. 83 Occidental Casino Aruba Phone: 586-0705 ext: 322 E-mail: [emailprotected]
OGODENTAL GRAND
--
«UfW
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
ms. NEWS
ubLu nkn ESI
I SAIL SNORKEL SWIM & SWING! I AFTERNOON SNORKEL I * SUNSET SAIL
DAILY 9:30am-1:30pm $57pp Visit 3 Great sites with BBQ, Open Bar, Gear & Ropeswing!
DAILY 2:30-5:30pm $38pp Shorter version with Open | Bar, Gear & Ropeswing!
Tickets available at Jolly Pirates Shop at MooMba Beach. Boarding at MooMba Beach- by the high rise hotels between Holiday Inn and Marriott Resorts. Offer not valid in combination with other discount offers. Valid for direct telephone reservations PA# OflAS /EAS WOE ONLY - Present coupon at boarding 9oO Illtlv/wwH #Ov
Mon & Fri 5-7pm $30pp Open Bar included & Ropeswing!
additional days upon request/seasonal
tels between Holiday Inn and Marriott Saye g 10 „ er eoUDle/Der COUDOIt for «o„ with o.herdiscoun.o^rsJaMd ^ *~gj P^COUpte/
586 8107/592 7858 per coupon for afternoon cruise
Prosecutions in Indian reservations reportedly rising
TIMOTHY WILLIAMS © 2013 New York Times
The Justice Department said this week that it had increased its rate of criminal prosecutions in Indian country by more than 50 percent in the past four years, a period in which violent crime on the nation’s Indian reservations has soared and tribes have complained of lawlessness. The data, part of a Justice Department report released Thursday, found that U.S. attorneys had prosecuted about 69 percent of the 3,145 criminal cases referred to their offices from Indian country
last year - an improvement over 2011, when the federal government tried 63 percent of 2,840 criminal cases in Indian country.
The report comes amid a wave of violent crime on Indian lands and criticism of the Justice Department by tribal officials who say that U.S. attorneys pursue far too few violent criminal cases on reservations. Prosecutors say they must decline many Indian country cases - about 60 percent of the total - because of a lack of evidence. Federal prosecutions of crime on Indian lands rose nearly 54 percent from the
PALM BEACH #33-A
STEAK, SEAFOOD, B.B.Q. & FUN!
WWW.WACKYWAH00S.COM
[7]
Ex-Hadicurari BBQ & Grill with the same owner’s. We do our own daily fishing so we serve the freshest seafood on the Island.
Very reasonable price, exciting menu and
NO SERVICE CHARGE
Dinner from 5:30 - 10:00
Monday - Saturday
FRESH CATCH & SEAFOOD
We are located close to the High-rise hotel's at walking distance.
_ RESERVATION REQUIRED _
TEL: 586-7333
j
Tribal police officers question drivers at a checkpoint on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The Justice Department said in May 2013, that its rate of criminal prosecutions on Indian lands has risen by more than 50 percent since 2008.
(Matthew Staver/The New York Times)
2008 fiscal year, when the Justice Department prosecuted 1,091 cases, to the 2012 fiscal year, when it prosecuted 1,677 cases, the report said.
The department has jurisdiction over most serious offenses committed on reservations, including murder, rape and white-collar crimes.
Previous government data have cited violent crimes, which presented a more pessimistic picture: that the
Justice Department files charges in only about half of Indian country murder investigations and onethird of sexual assault cases. The data also showed the number of prosecutions by U.S. attorneys of violent crimes fell 3 percent from 2000 to 2010, even as crime on some reservations increased 50 percent or more.
The report released this week does not separate the number of federal
prosecutions for violent crimes. Instead, it groups them with drug cases and white-collar crime.
On Friday, Wyn Flornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, said the analysis did not specify figures for violent crime because the department was not required to do so by the Tribal Law and Order Act, a 2010 law that mandates that the department release prosecution rates in Indian country. □
Liberty Reserve’s laundering spotted in 2009
WASHINGTON/COSTA RICA (AP) — Costa Rican officials say the currency transfer firm Liberty Reserve first raised red flags in the Central American country in 2009 when authorities detected money laundering activities.
Anti-drug Institute Deputy Director Bernardita Marin says bank officials reported suspicious activities in 2009
and in 2010 to the government's Financial Intelligence Unit, which began investigating.
The investigation was turned over to prosecutors in 2011, the same year the United States informed Costa Rica about Liberty Reserve’s criminal activities. Marin says that Liberty Reserve moved about $100 million through Costa
Rican banks.
Liberty Reserve's founder Arthur Budovsky was arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return home to Costa Rica.
U.S. federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday, including Budvosky, with running an underworld bank that handled $6 billion around the world.□
U.S. NEWS I * 7
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
IF IT IS A SPORT WE Will SHOW IT!
New Location:
CLUB & CASINO _
Serving Breakfast Saturday & Sunday 7:30a.m. Late Night Menu Available until 1:00a.m. Weekend
Eagle Beach • Tel: 660-4251
New York:
Subways are fully restored, seven months after Sandy
MATT FLEGENHEIMER ©2013 New York Times NEW YORK - The trains returned, at last, on a proper beach day, carrying toddlers in sundresses and men in shorter-than-short shorts, high school students prone to impromptu dance-offs and women whose toes dangled from their sandals.
From the elevated tracks, visitors could be seen again on the coastline that was ravaged last fall, walking the dunes as waves tumbled gently ashore. And inside one of the cars, James Samuel, 64, was simply grateful to get to work, the old way, at a nursing home in Far Rockaway, Queens.
“This is it, the last piece,” he said, stepping off the train Thursday afternoon. “It’s about time."
Seven months after Hurricane Sandy wiped a portion of the A train from the subway map, dooming riders to a makeshift shuttle service and a connecting bus between Far Rockaway and Floward Beach, full service was restored to the peninsula Thursday. For the first time since the storm, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, subway service was whole again.
In its attempt to reopen the line in time for summer, the authority said it had, among other tasks, removed more than 3,000 tons of debris, excavated 3,500 linear feet for signal installation, and constructed a steel sea wall along Broad Channel that was buried 33 feet below the surface and extended above ground two feet higher than Flurricane Sandy’s storm surge had reached.
For riders, the restoration promised to drastically reduce commute times for Manhattan-bound trips. Jackie Taylor, from Far Rockaway, said it had often taken her nearly three hours to get to her job on the Upper West Side. “Flopefully it’s good,” she said, gazing at the waters near Broad Channel. “Flopefully we don’t fall in the ocean."
Taneifa Jackson, 16, a sophom*ore at Beach Channel High School, said that flooding from Flurricane Sandy had forced her to move to the Bronx, where she still lives. Fler trip to school has involved the No. 4, the No. 6 and the E trains, and the Q113 bus. Now, she said, “everything is coming back together.”
Riley Tefft, 3, rides a vintage train to Rockaway Park, part of celebrations as subway service became whole again, in New York, May 30, 2013. Seven months after Hurricane Sandy wiped a portion of the A train from the subway map, full service was restored to the peninsula on Thursday.
(Joshua Bright/The New York Times)
Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers take part in celebrations as subway service became whole again, in New York, May 30, 2013.
(Joshua Bright/The New York Times)
But Jackson’s boyfriend, Davion Edwards, 15, was not pleased to be back on the A. Fie had long feared the rides over water, he said, and “buses don't have to go over water" as often.
Earlier on Thursday, the city’s top transit officials were heading for the reopening ceremonies in
Queens when they encountered another feature of the A train (and all others): panhandling.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m., Thomas F. Prendergast, the authority’s interim executive director and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s nominee to be chairman, led a small group boarding an A train at Jay Street. As he rode
beside Fernando Ferrer, the authority's acting chairman, a thin-haired woman wearing Uggs and a purple T-shirt approached, taking a seat.
“Can you help me?” she asked.
“I can’t. I’m sorry,” Prendergast said.
She persisted.
“Knock it off," one of the authority's officers snapped moments later, adding, “I'm the police.” The woman found a new seat. Nuria I. Fernandez, the authority’s chief operating officer, slid beside Prendergast.
The rest of the journey was smoother. Prendergast held forth on the history of the Broadway Junction station in Brooklyn, received a business card from an enterprising rider with a roofing operation, and engaged two women in a lengthy conversation about polar bears.
As the train approached Floward Beach, Ferrer posed for a photograph with two other young ladies who were baring skin in their summer attire. “Enjoy your beach day,” he said, from behind dark Ray-Ban sunglasses, as he left the train.
After a tour of the repaired section aboard a vintage train, from Floward Beach to Rockaway Park, Prendergast christened the subway’s return at a news conference.
The A train was back, officials said, but there was still work to be done.
About two hours later, a group of high school students boarded the Rockaway shuttle at Broad Channel. One student noticed a whirl of gurgling waters through the window, as the train approached Beach 90th Street station. “What is that brown stuff?” he asked. No one was sure.
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
EWORLD NEWS
m
‘P'l&i&tf C&tA j4d *icte<&e $20 dtecauHt fi&t c&ufiLc
* Champagne Brunch * Beach & Cave Tour
■ Sunset Cruise * Wet'n Wild- Jeep Teur
■ Salt & Snorkel
Pelican Pier (btlwdtirt Holiday Inn and Playii Linda FL-anrl). Hulidrty Irtri Towel Hut Canldl. Holiday Inn Ccmciuryo, Holiday Inn Lobby, We&lin Aruba Poolside, Watiin Aruba L^wffr Lobby. Dol Mar BHCh Rasorl.
Or book online el www.polioen-erube.oom
For reservation call::
587 Z 3 GZOl 50 frU 55 iS-undayit
Balance of power in Syria shifting Assad’s way
BARBARA SURK
ZEINA KARAM Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — As hopes for a Syrian peace conference fade and fhe opposition falls into growing disarray, President Bashar Assad has every reason to project confidence.
Government forces have moved steadily against rebels in key areas of the country over the past two months, making strategic advances and considerably lowering the threat to the capital, Damascus. With army soldiers no longer defecting and elite Hezbollah fighters actively helping, the regime now clearly has the upper hand in a two-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.
In back-to-back interviews with Lebanese TV stations this week, Assad and his foreign minister both projected an image of selfassuredness, boasting of achievements and suggesting that the military’s offensive would continue
regardless of whether a peace track is in place. “What is happening now is not a shift in tactic from defense to attack, but
rather a shift in the balance of power in favor of the armed forces," Assad said of his troops’ recent battleground successes. “There is no doubt that as
events have unfolded, Syrians have been able to better understand the situation and what is really at stake,” he told Al-Manar
TV, owned by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. “This has helped the armed forces to better carry out their duties and achieve results.”
Military analysts and activists on the ground in Syria say that Assad’s forces have shown renewed determination since roughly
the beginning of April, moving to recapture areas that had long fallen to rebels.
Significantly, Syrian troops appear to have gained the edge in the country’s central Homs region.
The regime considers Homs strategically important partly because it links Damascus with the coastal heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The rebels are mostly from the country’s Sunni Muslim majority. The coast also is home to the country’s two main seaports, Latakia and
Tartus.
Syrian troops and Hezbollah forces have successfully been clearing the town of Qusair in Homs province, where rebels have been entrenched for a year. State-run Syrian TV said troops on Friday captured the village of Jawadiyeh outside Qusair, closing all entrances leading to the town and tightening the government’s siege.
For the rebels, holding the town means protecting their supply line to Lebanon, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away.
Rebels have fought back against the government push into Qusair, and days ago called on opposition forces around the country to join them. Activists said that organized groups of rebels from the northern province of Aleppo managed on Friday to enter areas of the town still in opposition hands to help defend it.
In an interview with AlMayadeen TV Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said he expected the fall of Qusair to the regime “within days."
The commander of the main Western-backed umbrella group of Syrian rebel brigades, Gen. Salim Idris, told The Associated Press in an interview this week that unless rebels receive weapons quickly, they might not be able to hold Qusair.Q
EXCELSIOR CASINO, located at Holiday Inn The most complete gambling experience!!
* POKER * BLACK JACK
* DAILY BINGO * THREE CARD POKER
* SP0RTSB00K * CARIBBEAN STUD POKER
* THE LATEST GAMES * ROULETTE
ON SLOTS * CRAPS TABLE
Lady Luck is waiting for you at EXCELSIOR CASINO!
For more information give us a call (297) 586-7777
: BENLO Cl GARS
i Import Ji import * 71 1 ' xhfo aft over the wnrtd ■ Tff.;$86355$
I Loom in Ifte Amrn Garden. next to SaJI A Pepper
* _ PjpJrJjJi Jptf ftngo fteStiurMtl _
i We are sptti&Uzed in premium C’i than Cigar.**
* QpeMittg ft aunt 2 I/rtW. - Sat. 823 Guilt - IflQGptll
I Sunday 9: tiQmn - 11:00pm
* Depending on puithate. we Have discounts starting Irom up ts
1 _With lurtfii se nl &20 pmhoie 11REE ClSflJt_
firing ijm etmpoa for ymr free Cut ait Cigar I
Anti-Syrian regime protesters holding a banner during a demonstration in Hass town, Idlib province, northern Syria, Friday, May 31, 2013.
(AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)
LA CABANA
WlTjUJ ^VLM
FEEL THE VIBE...
LA CABANA
THIS: FRIDAY - ° at. idhav
IN CASH
FROM 5PM - 12PM - 1AM PROGRESSIVE
1ST RAFFLE... LAST RAFFLE
.STARTS AT 5PM .STARTS AT 1AM
PROGRESSIVE STARTING AT AWG 700 UP TO AWG 3.500
MORE TICKETS MORE CHANCES TO WIN, WIN & WIN
* MUST BE REGISTERED AT OUR GLAMOUR CLUB TO RECEIVE VOUR TICKETS.
♦TICKETS WILL BE GIVEN 30 MIN PRIOR TO RAFFLE MUST BE PRESENT TO CLAIM PRIZES. ♦PROGRESSIVE TICKET WILL BE GIVEN OUT 20 MIN PRIOR TO RAFFLE.
9 y 1 PREMIUM
A 1 HAPPY HOUR
$3 BEER
ENTERTAINMENT
GIOVANNI TRIM
esrasi 4 play
S 587 3399 • located at the LA CABANA BEACH RESORT & CASINO
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
EWORLD NEWS
m
'For Hie ultimate,.. Sunset Pinner experience ". J
J Present this iid & enjoy a FREE CEVICHE per coupe with your 3 course meal.
The i»$t of Palm Beach, located on lhe Caribbean Ocean amid (urquolsa waters and fresh sunny broeios. The menu otters an Impressive selection of fresh Seafood, International dishes, a relaxing atmosphere, exclusive seating for dinner and Ihc op!Ion white lo feed the fish.
lecilEti between HeliilaY Inn and PfiYiUfldi RB&eil ■wwwtielrcan aruSacDm
For reservation call:
Iran:
Poetry and bickering mark presidential debate
NASSER KARIMI Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s ailing economy, hit hard by international sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, was supposed to be the center of the first debate Friday between eight hopefuls running for president — but the biggest fight on stage was over the format of the debate itself. The candidates complained about the short time given to answer questions, and when the moderator began asking yesor-no and multiple-choice questions, one candidate outright refused, saying it seemed too much like a demeaning school test.
The four-hour debate, the first of three to be aired live on national television, was the public’s first look at all eight candidates approved by Iran’s ruling clerics to enter the June 14 election to succeed outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The clerics’ vetting process that eliminated several prominent wild cards and left a tightly controlled choice for voters between figures largely seen as close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The economic woes at the center of the debate are a key issue in the election: Inflation has shot up to around 30 percent and unemployment to 14 percent. And the economy is a sector where the president can have major influence — as opposed to other major issues like the nuclear program, which is firmly Khamenei’s purview. But the debate's liveliest moments were over the format itself.
When the moderator began asking a series of yes
or-no and multiple-choice questions, pro-reform candidate Mohammad Reza Aref objected that it was beneath the candidates dignity.
“I’m not answering these questions,” he said.
The moderator pushed ahead with a few questions, but gave up after several other candidates
objected as well. “The question is bad,” several scoffed at one point.
“I’m totally against this line. I answered test questions 40 or 50 years ago," the 61-year-old Aref scoffed.
In the next section, the candidates were shown a series of photos — including of a cargo ship, cars backed up in traffic, and clock showing the time of 7:15 — and asked to give their impressions.
“We have a poem in the books of old that said.
‘What does the tick tock of the clock say? Listen, it is a reminder of these wise and innocent words, to know the value of time,”’ prominent conservative Gholam Ali Haddad Adel mused over the clock photo.
“I hope the Iranian people will know the value of the Islamic government of Iran,” he added.
International sanctions imposed by the West over its nuclear program have been a significant factor in Iran's economic woes. The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.
Still, with the president holding little say over the nuclear portfolio, the candidates mentioned it only vaguely in terms of reducing their effects.
Hard-liner Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to the supreme leader, called
for “reconciliation with the world,” saying Iran cannot meet its capacity without improving ties with the world and other countries. He did not elaborate further.
Mohsen Rezaei, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, said Iran must find a “logical solution for the sanctions" to tackle infla
(AP Photo/IRIB, Mehdi Dehghan)
tion. Reacting to the photo of the cargo ship, he called the current situation “tragic,” noting limits on cargo shipping because of banking, insurance and oil embargoes.
Instead, candidates tackled Ahmadinejad's policies, particularly his steps to cut subsidies that suck up a large part of Iran’s budget and replace them with cash for the poor. Several were sharply critical, though they promised to continue the cash payments.Q
Van der Sloot to get married in Peru prison
LIMA, Peru (AP) —Convicted Dutch murderer Joran van der Sloot is planning nuptials with a Peruvian woman in the prison where he’s serving a 28-year sentence, his lawyer says.
The couple is awaiting permission from penal authorities for a wedding within two weeks in Piedras Gordas prison, lawyer Maximo Altez told The Associated Press.
Altez on Friday identified the bride as Leydi Figueroa Uceda, who has visited Van der Sloot often. On Wednesday, Altez sought a sentence reduction to 20 years for Van der Sloot, who was convicted of the brutal 2010 murder of a young Lima woman he met in a casino.
“He wants to get married, change his life, make a new life," his lawyer said. Van der Sloot, 25, remains the chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance in his native Aruba of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway. Holloway was 18 years old when she vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. She was last seen leaving a bar the morning of May 30, 2005 with Van der Sloot.
Holloway’s body was never found and the ensuing searches for her would create intense media scrutiny and worldwide attention. In January, a judge declared Holloway dead.
Van der Sloot faces extortion and wire fraud charges in Alabama in connection with Holloway's unsolved disappearance, which occurred five years to the day before he killed Peruvian business student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a Lima casino.□
In this photo released on Friday, May 31, 2013, presidential candidates from left, Saeed Jalili, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohammad Gharazi, Mohammad Reza Aref, Hasan Rowhani, Mohsen Rezaei, pose for a group picture, after their TV debate in a state-run TV studio, in Tehran, Iran.
WORLD NEWSI * 11
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
EARN POINTS APRIL 15 - MAY 30 | GRAND PRIZE DRAWING MAY 31 • 8PM
TROPICANA ENTERTAINMENT'S 2 N0 ANNUAL
*250,000 SLOT STAR
CHAMPIONSHIP
WIN AN ALL-EXPENSE-PAID TRIP TO TROPICANA ATLANTIC CITY FOR A SHOT TO BEAT THE BEST AND WIN $ 100,000!
OQQOicana
ARUBA RESORT & CASINO
-A TROPICANA ENTERTAINMENT CASINO
TROPICANACASINOS.COM
Management reserves the right to change or cancel promotions at their discretion. Must be 18 years of age or older. Must be a member of the Trap Advantage® Club to participate. Play responsibly www.gamblersanonymous.org.
Even in church, Venezuelans face growing shortages
JORGE RUEDA Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)
— When it comes to Venezuela's growing scarcities, not even the Roman Catholic Church has received a dispensation.
Church officials say food shortages and foreign exchange restrictions are causing a lack of ingredients needed to celebrate Mass: altar wine as well as wheat to produce communion wafers.
They say the wheat flour used for the sacramental wafers is scarce and the supply of altar wine used for Holy Communion is threatened, which could force them to ration it.
“We only have enough for two months,” said Archbishop Roberto Luckert, a spokesman for the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference. He said Venezuela's only producer of churchstandard communion wine. Bodegas Pomar, recently informed the church that it can no longer guarantee production because it lacks some imported ingredients.
The church's concerns echo those of Venezuelans in general, who have struggled to find goods such as toilet paper and staple food items like milk, sugar and cooking oil.
Economists say the shortages stem from the socialist government’s controls on the prices of some goods and on foreign currency, which makes it hard for producers to pay for things they need to import. President Nicolas Maduro blames the shortages on hoarding and says antigovernment forces are trying to destabilize the country.
Bodegas Pomar is controlled by Empresas Polar, the biggest food producer in Venezuela. Company
officials did not return calls seeking comment. And government officials have not commented on the issue.
The Episcopal Conference is looking for alternative wines, but Luckert said that is difficult because church rules specify wine that is “pure and natural,” without additives.
“The other option would be to import it, but the costs would be very high because we don't have access to dollars,” the archbishop said. The only other alternative is to ration the wine, he added.
Venezuela has maintained strict currency controls since 2003, creating a black market that now sells dollars at more than triple the official rate of 6.3 bolivars. Falling oil exports and foreign investment have helped dry up the dollar supply. The church is considering asking the government for access to dollars, but it hasn't made a formal request so far, Luckert said. The shortage of wheat flour has compounded the problems for the church, because the host, or wafer, administered during Holy Communion must be made of wheat. The wafers are made by nuns in convents and parish houses. “Sometimes we spend days trying to get two or three bags,” said Sister Maria de los Angeles, a 49-year-old nun shopping in a small grocery store in Caracas. Though the government has announced mass imports of basic food items and toilet paper, many products seem to run out shortly after they hit the shelves.
Liliana Escobar, a 32-yearold housewife, was among those lined up this week outside store rumored to have received a fresh shipment of toilet paper.Q
A Eucharistic Minister holds up a host during communion as Mass is celebrated at a Catholic church in Caracas, Venezuela. Church officials say food shortages and foreign exchange restrictions are causing a lack of ingredients needed to celebrate Mass: altar wine as well as wheat to produce communion wafers. The church's concerns echo those of Venezuelans in general, who have struggled to find goods such as toilet paper and staple food items like milk, sugar and cooking oil.
(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Aruba’s First Coinless Laundry
• Self & Drop off services
(wash, Dry & fold available)
• No need to worry about coins, all you need is the Laundry Card!
• The Money Card is reusable
• Laundry detergents available
• We have very large washers for big comforters also we have hot water.
★ Do your Laundry while watching Tv or Surf the Internet
★ Only 5 minutes walking from the High Rise Hotels (next door to Wendy’s)
—
Come and. see Vangieish etSivervme l Diuland f riendly
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK, INCLUDING HOLIDAY!
Monday - Sunday from 8:00 am 9:00 pm NON-STOP
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
EWORLD NEWS
m
OPEC keeps oil output target at 30 million barrels
GEORGE JAHN Associated Press VIENNA (AP) — OPEC oil ministers reached quick agreement Friday on keeping output targets steady but deferred solutions on how to deal with surging U.S. shale oil production and internal rivalries denting the organization’s image of unity.
The 12-nation oil cartel's decision on keeping the status quo on production of 30 million barrels a day was expected. The price for internationally traded benchmark oil is over $100 barrels a day, level most OPEC countries are happy with.
That’s not the case for OPEC's customers. With Europe fighting a stubborn economic downturn and recovery weak in many other parts of the globe, most governments consider oil pricey, as do consumers at the gas pump.
But OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Al-Badry said much of the end price was due to add-ons beyond
producers’ control.
"’You fill your tank with cost of oil plus taxes,” he told reporters. “If governments want to.... do something to the price, they should reduce their taxes.”
In a post-meeting statement, the ministers suggested they could hold an emergency meeting on reducing output should market prices fall substantially. Analysts, however, said such a sharp drop in the markets was unlikely in the short run, despite generally tepid global economic growth.
“Geopolitical tensions are holding the price of oil high," said John Hall of Alfa Energy, alluding to turmoil in Syria and tensions over the nuclear program of OPEC member Iran. “OPEC doesn’t have to act; the market is acting for it.”
On Friday, the price of oil was down slightly, in line with global markets. Brent crude, a benchmark contract for many international oil varieties, was 70 cents lower at $101.49 a barrel on
the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Beyond prices and output, the Organization of fhe Petroleum Exporting Countries faces more complex issues. The rise in shale oil production in the U.S., the world’s
biggest economy, has an impact on OPEC as the country remains a main market for OPEC. Shale oil, which is extracted by combining horizontal drilling with a practice called hydraulic fracturing, helped
lift the U.S.'s total output to a daily 7.4 million barrels per day this month.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency says U.S. shale oil production could top 9 million barrels a day by 2018, at the same time
Secretary General of OPEC Abdalla Salem El-Badri of Libya arrives for a news conference after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Friday, May. 31, 2013.
(AP Photo/Hans Punz)
Eurozone unemployment heading for 20 million
PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The unemployment rate across the 17 European countries that use the euro hit a record 12.2 percent in April, and the number of unemployed is on track to reach 20 million by year's end.
The worsening jobs crisis points to the recession that has gripped the euro alliance. Many countries are struggling to stimulate growth while grappling with a debt crisis that's led governments to slash spending and raise taxes. Unemployment in the eurozone rose in April from the previous record of 12.1 percent set in March, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, said Friday. In 2008, before the worst of the financial crisis, fhe rate was far less — around 7.5 percent.
The number of unemployed rose 95,000 to 19.38 million. The currency bloc's population is about 330 mil lion.
Private companies in the eurozone haven't managed to fill the vacuum created by drastically reduced government spending. In the United States, by contrast, governments have imposed far milder spending cuts and tax increases. Unemployment, at 7.5 percent, is far lower. And consumers and private companies have kept spending, steadily if modestly.
The unemployment rate for the overall eurozone masks sharp disparities among individual countries. Unemployment in Greece and Spain top 25 percent. In Germany, the rate is a low
5.4 percent.
The differences are particularly stark for youth unemployment. More than half of people ages 16 to 25 in Greece and Spain are unemployed. In Italy, the rate for this group tops 40 percent. For Germany, it’s just
7.5 percent.
“Youth joblessness at these levels risks permanently entrenched unemployment, lowering the rate of sustainable growth in the future,” said Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser at Ernst & Young.
The disparities reflect the varying performances of fhe euro economies. Greece is in its sixth year of a savage recession. Germany’s economy has until recently been growing at a healthy pace.
As a whole, the eurozone is stuck in its longest recession since the euro was launched in 1999. The six quarters of economic decline represent a longer recession than the one that followed the 2008 financial crisis, though it's not as deep.
The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, has demonstrated far more resilience. It’s grown steadily since the end of its recession in June 2009. And the U.S. job market has steadily improved:
The unemployment rate has fallen sharply from a peak of 10 percent.
The eurozone marks the epicenter of Europe's debt crisis. But other countries in the region are also struggling to recover. Some, like Britain, are focused on shrinking their deficits even while demand in their main export market — the eurozone — is falling.
As a result, unemployment in the wider 27-nation EU, which includes the noneuro countries such as Britain and Poland, has risen in recent months. In April, the rate remained 11 percent. A key factor behind Europe’s economic decline has been a broad focus on paring debf by raising faxes and slashing spending. As long as many governments continue to cut spending and the confidence of consumers and businesses remains low, economists don’t expect any meaningful recovery in coming months. □
as Canadian production is also growing. This is expected to sharply reduce the U.S.'s dependence on OPEC oil.
It would also hurt OPEC's ability to influence market prices. OPEC's share of global oil production has been around 40 percent in recent years.
The group’s powerhouse, Saudi Arabia, and its Gulf partners have the strength to adjust to cheaper oil prices. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi on Friday called the extra supply from the United States “a welcome addition to the world.” Others, such as Iran, Venezuela and some African producers, disagree, saying they need the price of oil above $100 a barrel to do business. “We're very concerned, not just for Nigeria but for Africa as a whole,” said Diezani AlisonMadueke, Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources. “Africa does need to have its exports continuously going out, particularly to important export destinations such as the U.S.’Q
LOCAL I*, 1 ?
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
Usher To Perform At Curasao North Sea Jazz!
CURACAO - It has just been announced that 8 time Grammy Award and 17-time Billboard Award winner Usher will perform at the Curagao North Sea Jazz Festival on Saturday 31 August! With Usher we complete our impressive festival program. We earlier announced Diana Ross, The Roots, Marc Anthony, Toto, Luis Miguel and many others.
Usher has sold over 50 million albums worldwide and was named most successful artist of 2000-2010 by Billboard. His album Confessions (2004) has sold millions of copies and is listed as the best solo-album of that decade. In the U.S., Usher has had no less than nine Hot 100 Number One Hits and seventeen Hot 100 Top Ten singles. Usher has worked with artists such as Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Jay-Z and even Enrique Iglesias. Usher is everywhere, from Broadway to the Super Bowl. He is co-owner of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers, has his own fragrance line, and a business venture with RBMG (Raymond Braun Media Group), the home base of superstar Justin Bieber. He has realized that with success comes responsibility. Usher has also proven to be a major philanthropic force. Founded in 1999, his New Look Foundation empowers youths to become leaders. In recognition of his achievements. Usher has been honored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Trumpet Foundation, Do Something, the NAACP, and as the 2010 Ford Freedom Award Scholar. On his critically acclaimed seventh studio album. Looking 4 Myself, Usher has taken bold steps into unexpected musical territory. For this album, Usher
worked with a wide range of producers and artists, including Diplo, Swedish House Mafia, Max Martin, william, and Empire of fhe Sun. These cooperations and his own active role as songwriter has lead to an album with electro dance beats combined with that typical Usher R&B, pop and hip-hop sound.
Curagao North Sea Jazz Festival 2013:
--Friday 30 August:
Sam Cooke stage: Toto Diana Ross - Marc Anthony Celia stage: Gladys Knight
- Sonny Rollins - Oumou Sangare
Sir Duke stage: New Cool Collective - Raphael Saadiq -Erykah Badu Etta James stage: Kris Berry
- Mud Morganfield - Sabri na Starke
And the Hot 8 Brass Band will also play --Saturday 31 August:
Sam Cooke stage: Luis Miguel - Usher
Celia stage: Paul Anka Edmar Castaneda - Chris tian McBride Big Band Sir Duke stage: Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society - Los Lobos - The Roots Etta James stage: Pernell Saturnino and Friends featuring Miguel Zenon- Sherry Dyanne - Kizzy McHugh
And the Hot 8 Brass Band will also play --In the week prior to the festival:
Brionplein on Sunday 25 August - FREE CONCERT of: Israel & New Breed Brionplein on Monday 26 August - FREE CONCERT of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico Brakkeput Mei Mei on Wednesday 28 August: Al Di Meola
Brakkeput Mei Mei on Thursday 29 August: Jose James
Tickets for the festival can be purchased through 522-JAZZ, the official sales locafions and www.ficketmaster.com.
The Curagao North Sea Jazz Festival is made possible by: Fundashon Bon Intenshon.
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
ffilLOCAL
Playa Linda employees celebrate mid-year accomplishments
EAGLE - For the twelfth consecutive year, the Playa Linda Beach Resort held its mid-year celebration in recognition and celebration of employee contributions. The entire team of
employees shared dinner, bowling tournament and dance party as part of this year’s big, mid-2013 bash. “Companies usually thank their staff for a job well done at a year-end party.
But at the Playa Linda, we cannot wait to give a welldeserved pat on the back for a job well done, and we make it a point to do it more than once a year. It was how our mid-year party became an annual tradition,” explains Playa Linda Human Resources Manager Sulaika Kelly.
Past mid-year parties have carried diverse themes, including karaoke nights, cowboy-inspired events and sports-driven activities. This year's program relied both on competitive spirits as well as an ability to simply have fun. The evening kicked off at Eagle Bowling, where employees, split into teams, took over all 16 lanes. Before moving the party next door to Hipsz nightclub, congratulations where bestowed on the night's best bowlers, with Financial Director Richard Betrian achieving the highest score, and with honors also going to Maintenance Department's Jomar Abian and Jaidivi Estrada, from Housekeeping. At the dance party that followed, Maria Estella Morillo, from Housekeeping, and Hubert
fi
Lobster
The Blue
INTERNATIONAL CUISINE & LOBSTER HOUSE
Phone: 5B6-3843
From ^Venezuela,
Ridderstaat, from Maintenance, were rewarded for their Salsa skills. Prizes included lunch for two at The Blue Lobster, and dinner for two at Madame Jeanette and Chalet Suisse restaurants.
During the course of the evening, Playa Linda General Manager Jan van Nes thanked the staff for their
excellent performance, mentioning that, because of their dedication in going the extra mile on a daily basis, the resort continues to be a top choice among visitors. One of many awards, Playa Linda was recently rated among the most popular, 125-plus unit resorts on Palm and Eagle Beaches by Trip Advisor.Q
LOCAL IMS
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
At Casa del Mar and Aruba Beach Club:
Loyal and friendly visitors honored by Aruba Tourism Authority
EAGLE BEACH - Recently, Mr. David A. and Mrs. Holly R. Keough, Mr. Robert and Mrs. Barbara Mahlstedt, and Mr. Michael Mahlstedt were all honored as Goodwill Ambassadors for visiting Aruba for 20 years consecutive! The honorees are members of Casa Del Mar Beach Resortand Aruba Beach Club and have
been enjoying the island every year.
The symbolic honorary title is presented in the name of the Minister of Tourism as a token of appreciation to guests who visit Aruba for 20 or more years consecutive.
Ms. Darline S. de Cuba representing Aruba Tourism
Authority and Mrs. Monique Silvania and Kenia Brito conducted the ceremony at Casa Del Mar Beach Resort.
Top reason for returning provided by the honorees were they consider Aruba to be the “Happy Island”, the great weather, and Friendly Aruban Hospitality.
8 games to play!
BINGO!
in our Monthly Early Bird card prior to 12 noon!
The Shops
at Alhambra Casino
Dining
• Baskin-Robbins
• Dunkin Donuts
• Fusion ~ Piano, Cigar & Wine Bar
Ginger ~
Asian Flavors
Juan Valdez Cafe Little Caesars Subway
Intermezzo
The Salon
Aruba Aloe® Aruba Memories Daher & Co Diamonds International
The Market
^Ginoer
CASINO AND SHOPS
Where Aruba goes to play!
Open daily 10am to 4am • J.E. Irausquin Blvd #47 • 583.5000 • www.casinoalhambra.com
Must be an Alhambra Advantage member. All programs and promotions are subject to change or cancellation without prior notice.
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
/91L0CAL
A FRIENDLY GAME OF BEACH TENNIS FOR MARRIOTT'S ASSOCIATES
PALM BEACH, ARUBA (May 27, 2013) - On Friday May 24, the Aruba Marriott organized a beach tennis competition as a part of the monthly MITAGANA games at Moomba Beach. Fifteen teams of two from various departments
showed their enthusiasm and team spirit on the Friday afternoon.
The grand prize went to executive team GM’s Corey
Guest and Robert Guidice who beat Casino Accounting Eldrick de Cuba and Rowald Croes in the final round. MITAGANA is an interdepartmental event which takes place every month for all Aruba Marriott associates. At the beginning of each year the Associates Relations Committee (ARC) schedules monthly activities based on all departments’ opin ion. The idea of the MITAGANA games is to bring associates together during a sports activity. During these activities associates gets to
meet coworkers from different departments. The activities take place on and off property with great prizes for the winners. Some
of the upcoming activities scheduled for the remainder of the year are paintball, basketball, go karts, kayaking anddominos.Q
Aruhiba Cigars, Aruba’s only hand rolled cigars!
t's a matter of prestige and quality...
Present this ad and receive a FREE Arubiha Cigar
4
ORANJESTAD- Benjamin Petrocchi, a true native Aruban started the newest export product of Aruba, locally produced hand rolled cigars called “Aruhiba”. These cigars are produced and cultivated in Aruba. Petrocchi always had a interest in the cigar business and has also sold Premium Cuban Cigars, and now he is growing his own tobacco crops. After many attempts and trips to Santo Domingo and Cuba, he started his own production and cultivation of Aruhiba Cigars in Aruba. The whole process took him 10 years to perfect. Petrocchi dedication to the cigars is important for the moulding and process of making a
perfect cigar which takes a long time. Their handmade cigar box is specially designed with their “Aruhiba” logo. Petrocchi considers Aruhiba as a promotion for Aruba through its fine cigars. The company sells Aruhiba to the international markets as well. Visit their retail store located in front of the Historic Dutch Windmill in front of the Westin Resort, with any purchase of $20 and up you receive a free “Aruhiba” cigar or ask for their gift box of 5 cigars get 1 FREE for only $37. They open from Monday to Saturday from 9 am till 6:30 pm and on Sundays from 9 am to 1 pm. Aruhiba cigars are now available at the gift stores in your resort
and at well-known cigar stores. For their complete selection and attractive by the box prices visit their retail store. Tours are also available at their Tobacco farm where their cigars are grown and rolled.
For a group or private tour, call 586 0347 593 6177 or send them an email at [emailprotected]
Bill Haas hits out of the bunker on the ninth hole during the second round of the Memorial golf tournament Friday, May 31, 2013, in Dublin, Ohio. Associated Press
Haas leads as Tiger falters at Memorial
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) - Bill Haas played the best golf in the toughest conditions Friday in the rain-delayed Memorial.
When the second round was suspended as dark clouds rolled in and forced the third stoppage in play. Tiger Woods and Rory Mcllroy were close to each other on the leaderboard, even if they were miles away from Haas, who had a 5-under 67.
That didn’t bode well for Woods, the five-time Memorial winner who had a most peculiar round in wind and on fast greens. He three-putted from 5 feet for double bogey on the par-5 15th, chopped up the final hole for a bogey and wound up with a 74. "Tough conditions out there, and I didn’t exactly play my best, either," said Woods, who had his worst 36-hole total (145) at the Memorial since he first played it in 1997.
Continued on page 19
Stacy Lewis 1 back after first round of ShopRite
In this Thursday, May 16,2013 file photo, Britain’s Bradley Wiggins waits at the start of the 12th stage of the Giro d’ltalia. Tour of Italy cycling race, from Longarone to Treviso.
Associated Press
Wiggins out of Tour de France with knee problem
JEROME PUGMIRE AP Sports Writer PARIS (AP) — Bradley Wiggins will not defend his Tour de France title after a knee problem forced him to pull out of the biggest race in cycling — giving teammate Chris Froome the chance to win it after finishing a frustrating second last year. The British rider withdrew before the 13th stage of the Giro d’ltalia two weeks ago due to a chest infection and has not been able to train properly. Team Sky said Friday that Wiggins also has “an ongoing knee condition," and would not be included in the squad for the Tour.
“It’s a huge disappointment not to make the Tour.
I desperately wanted be there, for the team and for all the fans along the way — but it’s not going to happen,” Wiggins said in a team statement. “I can’t train the way I need to train and I'm not going to be ready. Once you accept that, it’s almost a relief not having to worry about the injury and the race against time.” Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour last year. In an astonishingly successful season, he also won the ParisNice stage race. Tour de Romandie, the Dauphine Libere and took Olympic gold in dominant fashion in the time trial.
“It’s a big loss but, given these circ*mstances, we won’t consider him for selection,” Sky’s team prin cipal Dave Brailsford said. “It’s incredibly sad to have the reigning champion at Team Sky but not lining up at the Tour. But he's a champion, a formidable athlete and will come back winning as he has before.” With Wiggins out, last year’s runner-up Froome will become the undisputed team leader when the race starts on June 29. Sky had already said that Froome would be its team leader at this year's Tour, although Wiggins had indicated that he may have tried to ride for victory if he was in contention toward the end of the race. Relations between the two were frosty during last year’s Tour, with the 28-year-old Froome sometimes looking much the stronger rider in the climbs but being thwarted by team orders to support Wiggins rather than try and attack him.
This started off a spat between Wiggins’ wife and Froome's girlfriend, as they took to show support for their partners by exchanging barbs on Twitter. Froome finished second at the Spanish Vuelta two years ago and got a bronze medal in the Olympic time trial. He has shown good form this year by winning the Criterium International and Tour de Romandie.
Wiggins was looking to follow up his Tour success with a Giro win until his bid was derailed by illnessO
TOM CANAVAN AP Sports Writer GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) — Threetime NCAA player of the year Amanda Blumenherst and LPGA rookie leader Moriya Jutanugarn shot 5-under 66 on Friday to top the leaderboard in the ShopRite LPGA Classic, a stroke ahead of defending champion Stacy Lewis. Michelle Wie, who a decade ago made one of her first appearances on the women’s tour as a 13-year-old in this event, was two shots behind after
tying her lowest numerical score of what has been a very disappointing season. The Bay Course at the Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club was the big winner. Only 18 of the 143 players who finished, including just five in fhe afternoon round, broke par on the 6,155-yard course that played tougher because of wind and bumpy greens.
Having Lewis near the top of the leaderboard is almost a given these days. The defending LPGA player of the year has eight top-10 finishes in 11 events, including two wins and earnings of $722,868.
The company around her isn't used to the lofty perch. Blumenherst has missed cuts in six of eight events. The former Duke star has never finished better than a tie for fifth since joining the tour in 2010 after winning at qualifying school. Jutanugarn, whose
17-year-old sister, Ariya, was the halfway leader at Kingsmill in Virginia this month, has missed the cut in two of her last four events after getting off to a quick start.
Wie has struggled this year, missing five of 10 cuts. Her
best finish was a tie for 28th in Hawaii, and her other four starts have resulted in no better than a tie for 41 st. The one thing all the leaders did was keep their drives in the fairway for the most part.
Blumenherst, who struggled with her driver all year, had an eagle, four birdies and a bogey. The eagle came on the par-5 third when she rolled in a 35-footer from fringe.
The 18-year-old Jutanugarn, from Thailand, made two of her six birdies on her first two holes. She had one bogey.
Lewis had three tap-in birdies, including two at par 5s.
She made two 20-footers. A bad drive led to her bogey.
Wie, who has two wins since joining the LPGA in 2009, had five birdies and two bogeys in posting her second 68 of the year. The other came on a par-72 course in Hawaii, which was her lowest round of the year in relation to par. Beatriz Recari of Spain and Hee Young Park headed a group at 2 under after posting the best rounds of the players who teed off in fhe afternoon. Park’s South Korean countrywomen.
Celia Choi, played her first eight holes in 5 under, but gave four shots back as the afternoon wore on and finished at 1 under.
Many of the tour’s leading players struggled with the wind coming off Reed's Bay and the tough greens, which are bumpy because the recent cold weather has helped the poa annua thrive.
World No. 1 Inbee Park was in a group at 74 along with Paula Creamer and Na Yeon Choi. Third-ranked Suzann Pettersen had a 76. Among the other notables, Jiyai Shin had a 71, Lizette Salas and I.K. Kim shot 72, and Cristie Kerr had a 73. □
Michelle Wie hits a shot on the 18th hole during the ShopRite LPGA Classic golf tournament in Galloway Township, N.J., Friday, May 31, 2013.
Associated Press
SPORTSI™ 1 JUNE 2013
Memorial
Continued from page 17
Mcllroy was in danger of missing the cut until he fired off five birdies, looking more comfortable with his putts and attacking with his driver. He was 4 under for his round and one shot inside the cut line - and one shot behind Woods. Mcllroy was in a greenside bunker in two shots at the par-5 15th when play was stopped.
1 'The major goal today was to try to make it into the weekend,” Mcllroy said. "I'm on the right track to do that.”
The second round was to resume at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
The Memorial has a long history of bad weather, and it’s a tough spot for it to happen. Slugger White, the tour's vice president of competition, said more storms were expected early Saturday afternoon and into Sunday morning. Ohio is on the western edge of
the eastern time zone, allowing for long hours of daylight. But several players have U.S. Open qualifying Monday.
Morning or afternoon, Muirfield Village was no picnic. The wind was a factor in the morning and it began to increase in strength, while the greens were firm and crispy and required caution even on the shorter putts.
Haas played through it beautifully, taking advantage of one bad tee shot that he thought was headed out-of-bounds on the par-5 11th. He hit a provisional, didn’t need it and wound up making a birdie. He also holed a bunker shot for eagle on No. 5 and was at 9-under 135.
He was three shots clear of Matt Kuchar, who had a 70, among those who finished the round.
Chari Schwartzel, who made 10 birdies in an opening-round 65, struggled on the greens and was 1 over for his day and three shots behind. He had three holes
remaining. Bubba Watson was at 6 under through 14 holes, and his biggest battle was with allergies. He wore sunglasses under gathering clouds and kept a wet towel around his neck, anything to keep his allergies under control.
The advantage for those still on the course was the rain delay of 1 1/2 hours. It rained hard for a short time, which slightly softened the greens, and the afternoon starters returned to a course with only a breeze. "The wind died down, made it a lot easier to play the holes,” Watson said. Kyle Stanley also was at 6 under and had five holes remaining.
Mcllroy got the short end on the par-3 12th, slightly downhill and over the water. The wind not only was strong, it was unpredictable. Mcllroy hit his tee shot and could only watch, hopeful it landed somewhere on dry land and in a reasonable spot. The horn to stop play sounded moments later.
Haas has been playing the Memorial since 2005, and he has been coming to Muirfield Village even longer when his father. Jay Haas, was a regular. The son even caddied for the father one year, and he received a sponsor’s exemption his first year out of Wake Forest.
"Even though I’ve never really had great success her personally, I love coming back, look forward to it every year,” Haas said. “’And part of it might be I’ve always known how much my dad liked it and how well he did here. Hopefully, I can continue on the weekend and get a better taste in my mouth on how to play it, as opposed to just liking it.”
Only six players from the morning round managed to break 70, a testament to a course that is dry and fast, especially on the greens. The wind was strong early and showed no sign of letting up, even after a 20-minute delay in the afternoon as storms
Tiger Woods reacts to his second shot on the 10th hole during the second round of the Memorial golf tournament Friday, May 31,2013, in Dublin, Ohio. Associated Press
threatened.
The resurgent Robert Karlsson had a 71 and was five shots behind.
For a short time, it looked as though Woods' first objective was to stick around for the weekend. Along with not making birdies, he made a mess of the par-5 15th for the second straight day. □
Catch your own dinner with Driftwood!
Motto at Driftwood Restaurant: “from the pier to your plate!”
ORANJESTAD - The downtown marina is home of Driftwood Fishing Charters, the successful fisherman of the established seafood restaurant Driftwood in Oranjestad. Driftwood owner Herby
Merryweater has a love and passion for fishing.
A fisherman who knows about fish, what our local waters have to offer, and what the words :fresh seafood” really mean.
What Herby catches will be served in his restaurant on the same day. Herby loves to share his fishing passion with the many visitors to the island. His fleet of a 35ft. Twin Engine Bertram yacht and a 50ft. Twin Engine Post yacht, appropriately called “Driftwood I and II, is available for charters on 12 noon and from 1pm to 5pm.
Winners of Inti. LUHRS Marina Group Blue Marlin Release Tournament 2009
Catch your own dinner
A charter includes: captain, mate all fishing equipment, bait, sodas and bottled water. On a full day charter sandwiches and snacks are also included.
You can call Herby directly at (297) 592 4040 or go to www.drftwoodaruba.com
Driftwood Restaurant. This authentic Aruban seafood restaurant is located in characteristic downtown Oranjestad. Their
extended menu has been jubled by many. Driftwood offers daily specials, as well as a delicious 4-course menu for just $25.95 Charter deep sea fishing rates: $400 - 1/2 day • $760 - full day. Rates per boat Max. 6 people. Driftwood Restaurant Authentic Aruban Seafood Restaurant; Klipstraat #12, Downtown Oranjestad. Tel: (297) 583 2515 www. d riftwood a ru ba. com Open hours: every day, from 5pm till 10:30pm. Sunday Closed.
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
DISPORTS
French Open
After win, Nadal calls French schedule ‘not fair’
Spain's Rafael Nadal returns against Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in their second round match at the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Friday, May 31, 2013.
Associated Press
days in a row, (it) is not a
HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal wanted to get a few things off his chest.
Not about the quality of his play Friday, which fell below his usual standards at Roland Garros — for the second match in a row, he dropped a lethargic opening set before winning. What really bothered the usually affable Nadal was the way the French Open’s scheduling decisions, and the weather, combined to force him to now play on consecutive days, while his third-round opponent Saturday, Italy’s Fabio Fognini, was “watching the TV in the locker room” on Friday. “That’s not fair,” Nadal said, his arms crossed, his voice stern.
“This is not right,” the seventime champion in Paris said moments later, shaking his head and arching his left eyebrow.
What flustered Nadal, basically, was that his 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martin Klizan of Slovakia was supposed to be played Thursday but wound up being postponed because of rain — in part because it was the third match slated for its court.
The 27th-seeded Fognini’s second-round victory win over Lukas Rosol, meanwhile, was No. 2 on its court and finished Thursday. Nadal’s point: When there’s rain in the forecast, everything possible should be done to ensure that two matches whose winners will face each other next should be completed on the same day.
Nadal also didn’t like that while Fognini-Rosol followed one women’s match — which, because they are best-of-three-sets, tend to be shorter than the men’s best-of-five — on Thursday’s program, Nadal-Klizan followed both a men’s match and a women’s match. His match should have taken priority on a day when showers made rescheduling likely, Nadal argued, because if women “have to play two
big deal.”
Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open women's champion, sided with Nadal on that point, saying men should “get more time to recover." “Especially now, when he has to play day after day, I think he’s right. They should play early,” Ivanovic said after reaching the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Virginie Razzano, the Frenchwoman who stunned Serena Williams in the first round last year. Another complaint from Nadal: He said he was fold by fournament officials fhey wanted to make sure Rosol got on court Thursday because, unlike Nadal, he also was in men's doubles. “I am sorry, but that’s a joke,” Nadal said. “Why do you want to protect the player who has to play doubles? So I’m going to (sign up for) the doubles draw then, and I have the priority to play?”
A request for comment from tournament referee Stefan Fransson was declined by French tennis federation spokesman Christophe Proust, who said:
“The federation does not want to respond. We don't want to get drawn into a controversy. It’s not the first time that the scheduling has been criticized.”
Now Nadal will need to win six matches over 10 days if he's going fo be the first man to collect eight trophies at one Grand Slam tournament.
“Well, if I can win (Saturday), I’ll have a day off, and that should be enough,” the Spaniard said. “I don’t think that will be a problem."
Once he got on a roll at his news conference, Nadal responded to a question about the men’s tour calendar by bemoaning that there are too many tournaments players are required to enter. He also wished aloud that the ranking system were based on two years' worth of results instead of one, something he lobbied unsuccessfully for when he was a vice president of the ATP Player Council.
All in all, the 11-time major champion’s laments were the most interesting development on a day bereft of on-court drama for the top
players — aside, perhaps, from that one-set stumble of his against the 35thranked Klizan.
Williams, seeking her first French Open title since 2002, extended her career-best winning streak to 27 matches by defeating Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-2 and has lost only six games through three rounds. Defending champion Maria Sharapova needed all of 15 minutes to finish off her straight-set win over Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in a rain-suspended second-round match. Two other past champions advanced: 2009's Svetlana Kuznetsova and 2010's Francesca Schiavone, Roger Federer, whose record 17 Grand Slam titles include the 2009 French Open, lost serve in the very first game but not again, getting to the fourth round by eliminating No. 30 Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
“I’m able to play quite aggressive at the moment,” said Federer, who lost to Benneteau on an indoor hard court at Rotterdam, Netherlands, in February. “I don’t know if I can keep
that up. But the important thing is to keep the errors somewhat low because otherwise it’s just silly aggressiveness. It has to be controlled aggression.”
He now faces No. 15 Gilles Simon of France, who came back fo beat No. 18 Sam Querrey of fhe United States 2-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2. That left No. 19 John Isner as the last U.S. man in the tournament after his 5-7, 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-1,8-6 win against Ryan Harrison. Simon won the first two matches he played against Federer, but has lost the three since, including on clay at Rome a little more than two weeks ago. “He really maneuvered me around the court. He was playing well. He was very confident. He’s always confident,” Simon said through an interpreter. “Winning against him would just be awesome.” Klizan, the 2006 junior champion at Roland Garros, probably felt the same way before facing Nadal on a gray morning. Each began the day with only one loss for his French Open career; the difference is that Nadal’s record was 53-1, Klizan's 2-1.
The match started a little past 11:15 a.m., so Nadal woke up bright and early at 7 a.m. and was at Roland Garros about 45 minutes later. He slumbered through the opening set, saying afterward: “I started the match probably with not the right intensity, with more doubts than usual.” Nadal lost only one set throughout the 2012 French Open, and that was in the final, so if was surprising to see him cede the first set of his opening mafch againsf 59fh-ranked Daniel Brands, then do the same against Klizan. But 18 minutes into the second set, Nadal led 4-0 and was on his way.
He promised that he will not let his thoughts about the scheduling affect him. “Only thing that I can do is be positive, smile, and try to win my match," Nadal said, “and try to be ready for tomorrow. ”□
SPORTS PL 1 JUNE 2013
SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
NBA Playoffs Roundup
OPEN 7 NIGHTS A WEEK.
Monday to Saturday
6:00p.m. - 11:00p.m.
Sunday
5:00p.m. - 11:00p.m.
FOR RESERVATIONS: + 297-586-5900
www.aqua-grill.com
Join our free Loyalty Program NEPTUNE
Heat beats Pacers 90-79 to take 3-2 series lead
Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) drives between Indiana Pacers guard D.J. Augustin (14) and forward Paul George (24) during the second half of Game 5 in the NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference finals, Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Miami.
Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — A brilliant third quarter by LeBron James and the Miami Heat turned the game around and lifted the hosts to a 90-79 win over the Indiana Pacers on Thursday, taking a 3-2 lead in the NBA Eastern Conference finals. James scored 16 of his 30 points in the third, helping to turn a six-point deficit into a 14-point lead and put the Heat within one win of a third-straight trip to the NBA Finals.
“That’s what I came here for, to be able to compete for a championship each and every year,” James said. “I’m one step away from doing it once again. It’s not promised. It's not promised at all."
Another trip to the title decider— this time against San Antonio — was exactly what James had planned when he made the move to Miami.
“I made a tough decision. I envisioned something that was bigger as far as a team
NEW YORK (AP) — Hideki Matsui intends to sign a one-day minor league contract with the Yankees on July 28, and again announce his retirement.
The Yankees plan to honor the 2009 World Series Most Valuable Player during a pregame ceremony that day and will give the first 18,000 fans Hideki Matsui bobblehead souvenirs. Matsui wore No. 55, and July 28 is the Yankees' originally scheduled 55th home game. Matsui announced his retirement in December after 10 seasons with
... and we've got an opportunity as a team, once again, for the third year straight to make a trip to the NBA Finals.”
Indiana was up 46-40 early in the third, surely sensing a chance to win and then close out the series on its home court on Saturday. But over the next 11 minutes, the Heat outscored the Pacers 30-10, with James either scoring or accounting for 25 Miami points. He shot 7 for 10 in the third quarter; the Pacers shot 3 for 14. He had four rebounds in the quarter; the Pacers, as a team, grabbed six. He had four assists in the quarter; the Pacers had one.
“That's LeBron showing his greatness and making it look easy," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “His engine in that third quarter was incredible. He was tireless, he was making plays on both ends of the court, rebounding, covering so much ground defensively and
the Yomiuri Giants in Japan’s Central League and 10 in the major leagues. He played for the Yankees from 2003-09, driving in six runs in the 2009 World Series finale, then spent one season each with the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland and Tampa Bay.
“Even through his knee injuries, he found a way to always get big hits for the New York Yankees," manager Joe Girardi said. “You will hear every player to a man say what a great teammate he was.
then making virtually every play for us offensively. It's really remarkable.”
James added eight rebounds and six assists, and Udonis Haslem made his last eight shots on the way to a 16-point night. Mario Chalmers scored 12 and Dwyane Wade added 10 for the Heat, who ousted the Pacers in six games in a second-round matchup last season and will look to do the same this time around, albeit one round deeper. Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 22 points from Roy Hibbert and 17 from David West. The Pacers led by as many as seven at one point, but had no answer for the Heat in the third and now have to win back-to-back games — against a team that hasn’t lost consecutive
games since early January. “I don't really know,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said, when asked if there’s anything a team can do when James gets on a roll like the one he had in the third quarter. “He was pretty special tonight. There’s no question about it. This whole team is special. It’s one of the best teams that this league's ever seen and we’re enjoying competing against them. We know we can beat them, but we’ve got to play better than we did tonight.”
Haslem said Juwan Howard threw a few things in the locker room and had a few choice words for teammates at halftime — “a lot of bleeps and stuff like that," Haslem said — and that James echoed the same remarks just before the start of the third.
“We had 24 minutes to play for our livelihoods,” Haslem said. “And that's how we played in the second half.” Haslem’s first shot of the night was a complete brick, bouncing off the top of the backboard. He was perfect the rest of the way, including going 5 for 5 in the third. For the second time in the series, Haslem — who has struggled with his shot for the better part of two years — finished 8 for 9. Haslem got past Hibbert easily and into the lane for a dunk that put Miami up 47-46, the first Heat lead since 4-2. The Pacers were back on top by a point with 6:58 left in the third when fighting words reappeared, on a play where George Hill was called for an offensive foul after getting caught pushing off on a drive. □
Matsui to sign a Yankees contract for farewell
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
“^HEALTH
Getting Fit:
Avoid mistakes in starting a program
Outlook for Medicare has improved, U.S. estimates
Marjie Gilliam © 2013 Cox Newspapers DAYTON, Ohio - You want to avoid common mistakes if you are starting an exercise program and are not used to being active. It is important to consider certain guidelines.
One of the most common mistakes people make when working out: buying into the myth that in order to get great results exercise must be extreme. The truth is, after long periods of inactivity, the body needs time to adapt to greater demands.
For anyone who has been sedentary and for those with medical conditions, sudden and strenuous exercise greatly increases risk of having a heart attack both during the activity and for about an hour afterward. Be sure to start out slowly and build your strength and stamina gradually.
When performed correctly and on a regular basis, moderate activity can significantly improve health, while overtraining leads to burnout, unnecessary wear and tear on the joints and increased injury risk.
To get a better idea of your current level of fitness, some questions to ask are: -- Can I perform routine daily chores and activities without feeling unusually fatigued, stiff and sore?
Todd Ackerman © 2012 Houston Chronicle
In an example of oil-related money funding the Texas Medical Center, the granddaughter of Dallas tycoon H.L. Hunt has pledged $50 million for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s new assault on the deadly disease.
Lyda Hill’s gift, $10 million a year for five years, will support M.D. Anderson’s “’Moon Shots” program, the ambitious initiative, announced last fall, that’s bringing together large teams of researchers and clinicians in an effort to
-- Can I climb a few flights of stairs without becoming winded or experiencing significant fatigue in my legs?
-- Am I able to carry on a conversation during moderate-intensity activities, such as taking a brisk walk or jogging at a slow pace? -- Am I able to exercise without experiencing pain or discomfort in the joints? -- Am I able to keep up with others my own age?
If the answer to the ques tions above is no, it is best to consult your physician before starting an exercise program. Having a checkup will allow the doctor to give you guidelines that will keep you safe as you become more physically fit. How important is it to see a doctor before sfarfing an exercise program? If any
dramatically reduce the death rates of eight common and difficult cancers. "This gift will put the wind in our sails to launch robust programs against cancers that extract very significant social, emotional and economic tolls on the nation and world,” said M.D. Anderson President Dr. Ronald DePinho "Lyda shares our passion about the need to reduce the toll.” DePinho said Hill was particularly inspired by the Moon Shots’ emphasis on prevention, early detection and treatment through the genetic analysis of tumor profiles. Though
of these apply to you, ask your physician for his or her advice:
-- You have a heart condition or have had a stroke, or have experienced chest pain or discomfort within the last month.
-- You have existing joint, bone or muscle problems. -- A doctor has ever recommended only medically supervised physical activity.
-- You are or think you might be pregnant.
-- You are 40 or older (35 or older if you are obese or unaccustomed to exercise).
-- You have any other type of medical condition not mentioned above that may require special attention (for example, insulin-dependent diabetes, asthma) .□
the funding will be broadly dispersed, two high-priority projects it will fund include the development of more reliable,
low-cosf screenings for lung cancer and work fo screen more women for genefic mufations common fo breasf and ovarian cancer.
In recognition of the gift, M.D. Anderson will name its Cancer Prevention Center in her honor.
Hill, 70, was out of the country this week and not available for comment. In a news release, she said she is "excited about the Moon Shots programO
ROBERT PEAR © 2013 New York Times WASHINGTON - The financial ouflook for Medicare has improved because of a stronger economy and slower growth in health spending, and the financial condition of Social Security has not worsened, but is still unsustainable, the Obama administration said Friday.
“The projections in this year’s report for Social Security are essentially unchanged from last year, and those for Medicare have improved modestly,” said Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew.
The Medicare trustees four federal officials and two public representatives - said “the modest improvement in the outlook” for Medicare’s long-term finances reflected lower projected spending for skilled nursing homes and private Medicare Advantage plans.
Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund will be exhausted in 2026, the administration said, and the Social Security trust fund will be depleted in 2033.
In the 2012 reports, the administration said that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money in 2024, while fhe Social Security fund would be exhausted in 2033. The programs provide benefits to more than 57 million people, and an average of about 10,000 baby boomers become eligible for Social Security each day. Payroll taxes and other revenues dedicated to Social Security would be sufficient to pay about three-fourths of promised benefits when its trust fund runs out, administration officials said.
The condition of the economy has improved in the last year, the government is collecting more revenue, and the growth of health spending has slowed. “Medicare spending per beneficiary increased by just 0.4 percent last year, far below historical averages," said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health
and human services.
In January, Sebelius said she expected Medicare spending per beneficiary to grow at about the same rate as the economy in the coming decade.
But the number of Medicare beneficiaries will grow rapidly, to 73 million in 2025 from 52 million today, so paying for the program remains a huge challenge, administration officials said. Members of both parties say that Medicare and Social Security are financially unsustainable in their current forms. Buf they are nowhere near agreement on changes needed to shore up the programs.
The administration says the outlook for the Medicare trust fund is brighter because of fhe 2010 health care law, which squeezed nearly $500 billion out of Medicare over 10 years. The law trimmed Medicare payments to many health care providers on the assumption that they would become more productive. Another factor, officials said, is the Budget Control Act of 2011, which calls for reductions of roughly 2 percent in projected Medicare spending from 2013 fo 2021. Social Security and Medicare accounted for 37 percent of all federal spending lasf year, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that - under current law - the figure will grow to 42 percent by 2023. In an appendix to the annual report, Paul Spitalnic, the acting chief actuary of Medicare, said future costs could well be higher than indicated in the report. Current law would require a reduction of nearly 25 percent in Medicare payments to doctors on Jan. 1,2014, “an implausible expectation,” Spitalnic said, and he noted that Congress had usually stepped in to prevent such cuts. President Barack Obama's budget would slow the growth of Social Security spending by using a different measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living adjustments-^
Funding ‘moon shots’ cancer studies
You want to avoid common mistakes if you are starting an exercise program and are not used to being active.
(Handout Photo)
TECHNOLOGY!* 23
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
USSR’s old domain name attracts cybercriminals
RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than two decades ago. But online an ‘e-vil empire’ is thriving. Security experts say the .su Internet suffix assigned to the USSR in 1990 has turned into a haven for hackers who've flocked fo fhe defuncf superpower's domain space to send spam and steal money.
Capitalist concerns, rather than Communist nostalgia, explain the move.
“I don’t think that this is really a political thing," Oren David, a manager at security firm RSA's anfi-fraud unit, said in a recent telephone interview. David noted that other obscure areas of fhe Internet, such as the .tk domain associated with the South Pacific territory of Tokelau, have been used by opportunistic hackers.
“It’s all about business,” he said.
David and others say scammers began to move to .su after the administrators of Russia's .ru space toughened their rules back in late 2011.
Group-IB, which runs one of Russia’s two official Internet watchdogs, says that the number of malicious websites hosted across the Soviet Union’s old domain doubled in 2011 and doubled again in 2012, surpassing even the vast number of renegade sifes on .ru
and its newer Cyrillic-language counterpart.
The Soviet domain has “lots of problems,” GroupIB’s Andrei Komarov said in a phone interview. “In my opinion more than half of cybercriminals in Russia and former USSR use it."
The most notorious site was Exposed.su, which purportedly published credit records belonging to President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, Republican presidential challengers Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, and celebrities including Britney Spears, Jay Z, Beyonce and Tiger Woods. The site is now defunct.
Other Soviet sites are used to control botnets — the name given to the networks of hijacked computers used by criminals to empty bank accounts, crank out spam, or launch attacks against rival websites.
Internet hosting companies generally eliminate such sites as soon as they're identified. But Swiss security researcher Roman Huessy, whose abuse.ch blog tracks botnet control sites, said hackers based in Soviet cyberspace can operate with impunity for months at a time.
Asked for examples, he raffled off a series of sites actively involved in ransacking bank accounts or holding hard drives hostage in return for ransom — brazenly working in the
online equivalent of broad daylight.
“I can continue posting this list for ages,” he said via Skype.
The history of .su goes back to the early days of the Internet, when its architects were creating the uni verse of counfry code suffixes meanf fo mark out a website’s nationality. Each code — like .fr for France or .ca for Canada — was meant to correspond to a country.
Some Cold War-era domain names — such as .yu for Yugoslavia or .dd for Easf Germany — evaporated after the countries behind them disappeared. But the .su domain survived
the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the creation of a .ru domain in 1994, resisting repeated attempts to wipe it from the Web because, unlike other defunct domains, those behind .su refused to pull the plug — on both
commercial and patriotic grounds.
With more than 120,000 domains currently registered, mothballing .su now would be a messy operation.
“It’s like blocking .com or .org,” said Komarov. “Lots of legitimate domains are registered there.”
Among them are stalin.su, which eulogizes the Soviet dictator and the Englishlanguage chronicle.su, an
absurdist parody site.
But experts say many are fraudulent, and even the organization behind .su accepts it has a problem on its hands.
“We realize it’s a threat for our image,” said Sergei Ovcharenko, whose
Moscow-based nonprofit Foundation for Internet Development took responsibility for .su in 2007. Ovcharenko insisted that only a small number of .su sites are malicious, although he acknowledged that criminal sites can stay online for extremely long periods of time. He said his hands were tied by weak Russian legislation and outdated terms of serviceO
NEED CASH TODAY?
PAWN OR SELL YOUR GOLD
VISIT US & COMPARE FORYOURSELF!
JUWELENHUISJE
fun, mites
C )
OPEN :0AM - 4PM MONDAY - ftfDAY
wmm
/£m\
¥ *1*.
Employees of Moscow’s Group-IB, which is responsible for one of Russia’s two official Internet watchdogs, work in their laboratory in Moscow, Russia on Thursday, May 30, 2013.
Associated Press
ORANJESTAO WERFSTEAAT 7 LOK r 12 TEL S88 4141 Q SAN NICOLAS B, V/D VIEN ZEPPENFELD5TRAAT U TEL 59 4 4141 ,
A24IRIICIMECC m&utimu »M«J
_ SATURDAY 1 JUNE 20131 PllwlllWJ _ ==s==SsS=^J
Stocks plummet in late trading but end May higher
STEVE ROTHWELL AP Markets Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks dropped sharply in late trading Friday on Wall Street but still managed to end the month higher.
After moving between small losses and gains for most of the day, the stock market started to drift lower in afternoon trading. The sell-off accelerated in the
final hour. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day with its biggest loss in nearly six weeks, falling more than 200 points.
Some traders said the sudden afternoon swoon was due to investors rebalanc ing their holdings at the end of the month. As stocks fell, bonds rallied. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which had risen as high as 2.20 percent during the day, fell back to 2.13 percent in late trading. Yield falls as bond prices rise.
On Friday, there was both encouraging and disappointing news on the economy. Stock indexes started
the day slightly lower after the government reported that Americans cut back on spending. Consumer spending fell 0.2 percent in April, the first decline since last May, the Commerce Department said early Fri day. That news was offset by a report released later showing that a measure of U.S. consumer confidence jumped to the highest level in almost six years in May, lifted by rising home prices and record-high stock prices.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 84.5 in May, up from 76.4 in April and the highest
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
since July 2007. Investors are hoping that increasingly confident consumers will step up their spending, which would contribute to U.S. economic growth.
The Dow closed down 208.96 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 15,115.57.
It was the biggest loss for the index since April 15, when markets plunged after worries about an economic slowdown in China caused commodity prices to drop sharply.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 23.67, or 1.4 percent, to 1,630.74. The Nasdaq composite declined 35.38 points, or 1 percent, to 3,455.91.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.13 percent from 2.12 percent late Thursday. The yield has risen by half a percentage point since the start of the month and is the highest it’s been since April 2012.
Rates have risen on concern that the Federal Reserve is considering easing back on its purchases of $85 billion in bonds every month.
The sharp rise in Treasury yields could be trouble for the market if it continues unabated, said David Bianco, chief U.S. equity strategist at Deutsche Bank. The yields on Treasury notes are benchmarks for setting interest rates on many kinds of loans to consumers and businesses. If they rise quickly, lending rates would rise too, holding back the economy by discouraging borrowing and spending. “I’m not bearish, but I’m a little bit cautious," Bianco said.
The Dow ended up 1.9 per cent for the month, its sixth straight monthly gain. The S&P 500 index rose by 2.1 percent in May and has gained for seven months straight, the longest winning streak since 2009.
The S&P 500 has only fallen in one month, October, over the last year.
In commodities trading, oil fell $1.64, or 1.8 percent, to $91.97 a barrel, close to its lowest in a month, after OPEC oil ministers said they would keep their output targets steady. Gold fell $19 to $1,393 an ounce, a decline of 1.3 percent. Among stocks making big moves:
— Lions Gate Entertainment rose 77 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $28.80. The company reported net income that topped Wall Street's expectations as it benefited from home video sales of the finale to its hit franchise “Twilight.”
— Palo Alto Networks fell $5.87, or 11 percent, to $48.52 after the network security company posted a quarterly loss and predicted lower profit and revenue in the current quarter than analysts were expecting.
— OmniVision Technologies, a maker of mobile camera sensors, jumped $2.98, or 19 percent, to $18.47. The company reported that its net income doubled in its fourth fiscal quarter as revenue rose sharplyO
Traders work at the post that handles National Bank of Greece on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 31, 2013, in New York.
Dell board recommends Michael Dell buyout offer
TOM MURPHY AP Business Writer
The Dell board is standing behind a buyout offer from the company’s CEO and founder, and has asked shareholders of the slumping PC maker to approve the deal in a July 18 vote. The company’s announcement Friday is the latest volley in a battle with prominent shareholders over the company's future and Michael Dell’s role in it.
Dell directors unanimously recommended an offer from Michael Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake
Partners to take the company private for $24.4 billion, or $13.65 per share, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A board special committee told shareholders in an open letter Friday that Michael Dell’s plan was the best option, and that it offered certainty and “a very material premium” in a challenging business environment. It noted that the price represented a premium of about 37 percent over the stock's average closing price in the months
before rumors about a potential deal surfaced.
But billionaire investor Carl Icahn has said that price amounted to a giveaway. Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management, Dell's largest independent shareholder, pitched an alternative plan earlier this month that would let Dell shareholders keep their stake in the company and give them either $12 per share in cash or additional shares. The committee has said that it needs more information on that deal.
The committee also said
Friday that shareholders would face substantial risks if the company took on debt to pay for a special payout, a process known as “leveraged recapitalization." With the buyout, the risk shifts to the parties buying the company.
Icahn and Southeastern own more than 12 percent of Dell shares combined, a total that trails only Michael Dell. They have said they will work to convince other Dell shareholders to reject the Michael Dell buyout. Icahn has nominated himself and 11 other candi dates for spots on Dell’s board and has said Michael Dell will no longer be running the company if his nominees gain seats.
But the company hasn't scheduled an annual meeting at which it will elect directors. The board said Friday it may not do that if shareholders vote for the buyout at the July special meeting, which will be held at the company's headquarters.
Neither Icahn nor Southeastern returned calls from The Associated Press on Friday.Q
BUSINESS !* 25
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
Measure of US consumer confidence at 6-year high
U.S. REVIEW OF COMMODITIES
Crop futures rise on concerns with weather
The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prices for corn, soybeans and wheat ended higher as traders worried about more crop delays caused by wet weather.
Corn for July delivery rose 7.75 cents to $6.62 a bushel Friday, an increase of 1.2 percent.
Soybeans for delivery in the same month rose 14.25 cents to $15.10 a bushel. July wheat rose 6.75 cents to $7,055 a bushel.
Wet weather in cropgrowing states like North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa sent crop prices higher across the board, said Chris Nagel, market analyst at Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis.
“You’re seeing more concern about the weather forecast and what’s going to get planted,” Nagel said.
“The spring wheat crop planting is pretty much at a standstill is likely to stay that way for a while." Metals prices fell. The actively traded August contract for gold fell $19 to $1,393 an ounce, a loss of 1.3 percent.
Silver for July delivery fell 44.7 cents to $22,243 an ounce.
July platinum fell $20.90 to $1,461.80 an ounce, September palladium fell $6.90 to $753.65 an ounce and July copper fell 2.3 cents to $3.2925 a pound.
The price of crude oil fell $1.64 to $91.97 a barrel. Oil fell to its lowest level in a month after OPEC stuck to its current production target despite ample supplies of crude.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline fell 5 cents to close at $2.76 a gallon, heating oil fell 6 cents to close at $2.78 per gallon and natural gas fell 4 cents to close at $3.98 per 1,000 cubic feet. □
C. S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of U.S. consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in almost six years in May, lifted by rising home prices and record stock market gains. Greater confidence could help revive spending in coming months.
The University of Michigan said Friday that its consum
C. S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on spending in April after their income failed to grow, a sign that economic growth may be slowing.
The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending dropped a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in April, the first decline since last May. That follows a 0.1 percent increase in March and a 0.8 percent jump in February.
A drop in gas prices likely lowered overall spending. Adjusted for inflation, spending ticked up 0.1 percent last month. Still, that was the smallest gain since October. Consumers also likely spent less to heat their homes last month, which may have reduced spending on utilities. April's weather was mild after an unusually cold March. Income was unchanged last month, after a 0.3 percent rise in March and 1.2 percent gain in February. Wages and salaries barely grew, while government benefit payments fell.
The retrenchment in spending suggests consumers may be starting to feel the impact of higher taxes.
An increase in Social Security taxes this year has reduced take-home pay for nearly all consumers who draw a paycheck. A person earning $50,000 a year has about $1,000 less to spend this year. A household with two high-paid workers has up to $4,500 less.
Income taxes on the wealthiest Americans also increased.
er sentiment index rose to 84.5 in May, up from 76.4 in April and the highest since July 2007.
A better job market contributed to the rise in consumer optimism. And for the first time in five years, more consumers said their finances had improved rather than worsened. Households with income above $80,000 reported the biggest gain in confi
Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity. It grew at the fastest pace in more than two years from January through March, helping the economy expand at a 2.4 annual rate during that quarter. Economists said the latest spending figures suggest
growth may be slowing in the April-June quarter to around a 2 percent rate. But most still expect growth to improve slightly after that as the impact of tax hikes and government spending cuts fades.
“Overall, a sobering report for those expecting ... growth to accelerate sharply,” said Paul Ash
dence. That's likely due to the disproportionate benefit upper-income households receive from stock price gains. But confidence improved for all income groups.
Consumers cut back on spending in April for the first time in nearly a year, the Commerce Department said Friday. Some of the decline reflected lower gas prices. Adjusting for infla
worth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “There will be some modest pickup in the second half of the year, as the fiscal drag starts to ease, but we expect the improvement to be very gradual rather than dramatic.”
Slower growth could lead
the Federal Reserve to delay any scaling back in its bond purchases, which are keeping borrowing costs low. Investors had been speculating that the Fed would start to slow its purchases in the next few months. That's led to a spike in Treasury yields and higher interest rates.
Low inflation could also
tion, spending ticked up 0.1 percent, the smallest gain in six months.
Flat income in April also likely restrained spending. Still, rising consumer confidence could signal more spending in the months ahead.
And the surge in home prices and stock values may make consumers feel wealthier and encourage more spending. □
lead the Fed to continue its bond purchases.
The Fed's preferred inflation gauge, which is updated as part of the consumer spending report, showed that prices fell 0.3 percent in April and increased just 0.7 percent in the past 12 months.
Still, economists say the Fed’s stimulus is most tied to the health of the job market, which has improved in recent months.
Employers have added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's well above the monthly average of 138,000 during the previous six months. □
US consumers cut spending 0.2 pet. in April
Customers shop at a J.C. Penney store, in New York. Americans cut back on spending in April after their income failed to grow, a sign economic growth may be slowing, according to data released by the Commerce Department, Friday, May 31, 2013.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Conceptis Sudoku
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
^ICOMICS
Mutts
6 Chix
©2013 Stephanie Piro
SIX CHIX ©2013 King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Blondie
Mother Goose & Grimm
Zits
1
8
5
4
6
3
5
3
5
2
6
1
7
7
9
4
8
4
5
8
1
6
7
2
3
Difficulty Level ★ ★ ★ ★
Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.
8
9
7
5
1
4
3
6
2
2
1
5
6
7
3
8
4
9
6
4
3
8
9
2
7
5
1
5
8
1
7
3
9
4
2
6
4
7
9
2
5
6
1
3
8
3
6
2
1
4
8
9
7
5
9
5
8
3
2
7
6
1
4
7
2
6
4
8
1
5
9
3
1
3
4
9
6
5
2
8
7
Created by Jacqueline E. Mathews 6/1/13
Friday’s Puzzle Solved
A
L
1
B
1
Is
p
A
T
Is
C
O
T
M
A
M
A
8
M
1
C
E
T
O
N
E
O
N
E
T
0
1
T
E
M
R
A
1
N
S
E
T
T
L
E
R
S
k
H
O
T
O
S
L
A
N
K
F
E
E
L
1
N
E
D
E
l]
k
T
E
fc
O
R
A
L
A
V
E
E
M
B
E
R
II
E
A
F
Y
N
E
A
r]
k
O
D
E
L
R
U
L
E
A
N
D
E
W
A
D
E
F
K
E
N
S
O
B
E
P
M
E
F
Is
E
S
R
E
V
E
R
E
d|
F
O
V
E
1
R
O
N
E
D
S
O
N
1
N
L
A
W
D
O
L
T
\E
P
1
C
S
T
O
L
E
E
D
G
E
C
0
R
K
E
R
A
S
E
R
E
A
D
k
1
S
s
s
Y
N
O
D
(c) 2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
ACROSS
1 Collie or chow 4 Fable teller
9_. and girls;
children
13 Doing nothing
15 Unsuspecting
16 Ms. Perlman
17 _ away; departs
18 Out of_; on the blink
19 Paintings by Kinkade
20 La-Z-Boys
22 Fumbler’s word
23 _ Christian Andersen
24 Type; sort 26 Take willingly 29 _ with; fixated
on
34 Manifests
35 Pricey booking at a hotel
36 “Flow _ Things in Glocca Morra?”
37 Felines
38 School quizzes
39 Flit a fly
40 Many a time
41 Derrieres
42 Waterbirds
43 Educators
45 One who puts cargo on a ship
46 Japan’s dollar
47 Small bottle
48 _ out; pealed 51 Going up
56 Common metal
57 All skin and bones
58 Orderly
60 Give up, as land
61 Follow as a result of
62 Strong wind
63 Orient
64 Fight off
65 _ away; fled
DOWN
1 Use a shovel
2 Smell
3 Delight
4 Pour oil on ceremoniously
5 Makes, as a salary
6 “The Far Larson’s strip
7 Above
8 Lasts
9 Creeks
10 Cincinnati, _
11 Sharp shrill cry
12 Talk back
14 Shuns
21 Drinks like Fido
25 Actress _ Meriwether
26 Broad neck scarf
27 Rub enough to make sore
28 Terra _; garden pot clay
29 Kicks out
30 Electric drill tips
31 Used a tool to cut wood
32 Tape recorder button
33 Talk out of
35 Burn
38 Adolescent
39 Closing tightly
41 That woman
42 Spur on
44 Young swan
45 Horizontal fireplace piece
47 Trial location
48 Uncle Ben’s _
49 Zone
50 _ off; dozes
52 Sound
53 Top part of a back tooth
54 Within reach
55 Celebration 59 Nine and one
©2013 Conceptis Puzzles, Disl. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
CLASSIFIED!* 27
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
A reading of relief at annual book show
JULIE BOSMAN © 2013 New York Times NEW YORK - E-book sales are no longer growing at a nerve-rattling pace. The unpleasant and expensive price-fixing lawsuit last year, pitting the Justice Department against five major publishers, has been settled. Independent booksellers added 65 stores to their ranks in 2012, according to their trade association, despite competition from Amazon. After a turbulent few years
in the book business, there was a feeling at BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual trade convention that convened in New York this week, that the disruption might have calmed. “I’m hearing this gigantic sigh of relief everywhere I go in BEA this year,” Michael Pietsch, the newly installed chief executive of Hachette Book Group, said in a panel discussion. “We're still here. People are no longer quite as anxious that the world is turning upside down."
The event, which ends Saturday, drew a crowd of 20,000 publishers, authors, agents, bookstore owners and librarians to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The trade show had barely opened Wednesday when publishing executives who had trekked there began to roll their eyes at the center's familiar annoyances.
“Good old Javits,” Reagan Arthur, the publisher of Little, Brown, wrote on Twitter. “Horrible sight lines, mini mal Internet access and $4 Diet co*kes.”
But gentle mocking gave way to the usual enthusiasm that permeates the convention, an event whose original purpose was partly to give bookstores the chance to order books for the fall season. It has evolved into something equally old-fashioned: a massive gathering for the book industry to talk up titles, showcase highprofile authors and try to build elusive buzz for prom ising books.
This year, the lineup of celebrity authors included Chelsea Handler, there to promote “Uganda Be Kidding Me,” a travelogue; Helen Fielding, whose third Bridget Jones novel, “Mad About the Boy,” is scheduled for release in the fall; and Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” who has written a new novel, “The Sianature of All
Things,” her first in 13 years. On the sprawling exhibit floor, publishers big and small rubbed elbows. Near Random House's mammoth booth, the comparatively tiny Omnific Publishing promoted its titles with the slogan “Romance ... Without Rules.” Shadow Mountain, a Utah-based publishing company, advertised “The Romney Family Table” by Ann Romney, a collection of sfories and recipes offering “a peek inside Romney family life and fhe food fhaf has become an essential part of those memories.”
HarperCollins, pumping up one of its new authors, sponsored a gargantuan hanging billboard advertising a new book by Mitch Albom that will be released in the fall. In the autograph area Friday, fans lined up to meet Rick Riordan, Cassandra Clare and Walter Dean Myers.
“When you work in a library, you constantly hear that print is dying, and then you come here and feel so much energy,” said Barbara Moralis, a librarian at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pa., as she waited in a long line to meet the author Andrew Gross. “Publishing is not dead.” There were in fact several signs of health in an industry that has been buffeted by change in recent years. Oren Teicher, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, said unit sales for independents increased nearly 8 percent in 20120
c* SCHUSTER [2
Visitors during opening day of BookExpo America, the publishing industry’s annual trade convention, at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center in New York, May 30, 2013. The event, which ends Saturday, drew a crowd of 20,000 publishers, authors, agents, bookstore owners and librarians to the center.
(Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)
FLEAMARKET - YARD SALE
ROCOCO PLAZA-TANK I LEENDERT rJ4* SUNDAY 2 JUNE 9am - 2pm Ph, 741-5640 Put your -own tent for AfT. 1 5. allowed to aefl any More info on website www.antiqyesaruba.com ANTiaUESHOP OPEN DAILY 9-1 and 3,30-5.30 FAT HERS DAY DISCOUNT 20% OH EVERYTHING
TeJ: 5S2-069T / 583-MM SctiaT lend sTr 70
Email: [emailprotected]
Website: www.arubaqualityapartments.com
tend y° uf Stay
Quality ApLirlmtiits
"'S^idio 4 Lof t Apt*. *F«Hy Furnished
Kitchen / Airco i Cable TV ‘'Swimming Foot Leu than 1 male from Fogle Beech 4 A large superf^rkeis Feel free To contact or visit us.
Mon ■ Fri: Bom - 7pm. Sat 4 Sun: 9am-3pm.
DOCTOR ON DUTY
Oranjestad
1 June Dr. J.Croes s2 June Gonzalez-Diaz
FOR SALE
Time share for sale
Marriott Surf Club 2 bdr, ocean view, gold asking $12,000 or best offer Call Pete 732-254-6638 E-mail: [emailprotected]
199410
FOR SALE/RENT Divi Phoenix wk 25 Rm 115
$3000
Aruba Beach Club wk 26 Rm 128 $3400 Tropicana wk 25 unit 2531 $3400
508-651-0016
E-mail:[emailprotected]
199448
FOR SALE
0E
POLIS
POLIS
ORANJESTAD NOORD STA. CRUZ SAVANETA SAN NICOLAS FIRE DEPT FIRE DEPT POLIS TIPLINE HOSPITAL AMBULANCE SAN NICOLAS AMBULANCE
100
581- 1100
582- 4000 587-0009 585-4710 584-7000 584-5000 115
582-1108
11141
527-4000
582-1234
584-5050
Costa Linda wk 20
Friday to Friday
2 Bedr, 2 bath pool & ocean V
US$12,000.00
Call 737-3000
[emailprotected]
_ 199588
FOR SALE Divi Phoenix Villa
Lg Corner Studio Weeks 19 & 20 ocean view Great Price US$5,500.00 each Call 737-3000
PHARMACY
O'STAD _ MqrjqTeL_5_8_5_-8145__ S. NI CO LAS San N icojas Tel: 584-5712
SERVICES
INFORMATION 118 SETAR 582-2116
TAXI 582-5900
TAXI-TAS 587-5900
PROF TAXI 588-0035
TAXI D.T.S. 587-2300
SERVICE ARUBA 583-3232
CRUISESHIP
[emailprotected]
199588
HOUSE FOR SALE
$145,000
For more inf.
594 6639
_ 199590
FOR SALE
La Cabana wk 13, sun-sun
Studio, sleeps 4 newly renovated, ocean and pool view $5500 Denise 847-446-4223 [emailprotected]
199142
Aruba Aiport
524-2424
American Airline
582-2700
Avianca
588-0059
Dutch Antilles
588-1900
Insel Air
588-9314
Jet Blue
588-2244
Spirit Airlines
582-7117
Tiara Air
588-4272
Venezolana
583-7674
FOUNDATION
FELLOWSHIP CLINIC
Tel: 584-6440
Alcoholism & Drug Addiction, Anonymity guaranteed
FUNDACION
FOR SALE
Renaissance Ocean View
wk 1 -137 $10,500
wk 16 two weeks to Rent
$1000 a week
Calll-781-760-1048 (cell)
1-781-324-8130
Joe or Mary Summers
114364
250K US 1 mile from beach, turnkey 3 bd 2 bath new villa granite counter top kitchen stainless steel appliances. Open area vault ceiling central air, water heater, security system
+297-593 0946 AUA +1702 862 0711 USA
198863
Anti-Droga
Aruba
(FADA) Tel: 583-2999
FUNDACION Respetami Teh 582-4433 _ Diabetic Foundation Arubano Teh 583-3808 _ Narcotics Anonymous Tel: 583-8989
Foundation Amor pa Prohimo
Tel: 583-3345 /586-6976
Women in Difficulties
Foundation
Tel: 583-5400
Bloodbank Aruba Tel: 587-0002
A28ICPIEMPE EUBMM
_ SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013|wwmWfc _ ==s==SsS=^
Astronauts face radiation threat on long Mars trip
This July 2007 image provided by NASA shows astronaut Clay Anderson waving during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Astronauts traveling to and from Mars would be bombarded with as much cosmic radiation as they'd get from a full-body CT scan about once a week for a year, researchers reported Thursday, June 30, 2013. NASA aims to send a crew to orbit the red planet by the mid-2030s.
Associated Press
ALICIA CHANG AP Science Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Astronauts traveling to and from Mars would be bombarded with as much cosmic radiation as they’d get from a full-body CT scan about once a week for a year, researchers reported Thursday.
That dose is enough to raise their cancer risk by about 3 percent, but experts caution that there are many uncertainties about the space environment's effects on the body.
As plans for deep space exploration ramp up, radiation is a big concern — from high-energy galactic cosmic rays spewed by distant supernova explosions to sporadic bursts of charged particles hurled by the sun. Earth's magnetic field helps to deflect much of that harmful radiation.
The U.S. space agency, NASA, aims to send a crew to orbit the red planet by the mid-2030s. Private outfits like Inspiration Mars — backed by NASA engineerturned-space tourist Dennis Tito — are seeking volun teers for a Mars flight.
There have been previous efforts to gauge the radiation risk for future Mars travelers, but the best estimate is coming from NASA's Curiosity mission. Tucked inside the rover when it launched in 2011 was a radiation sensor that took readings during the 8 1/2-month cruise to Mars.
From those figures, scien tists calculated a spacefarer's radiation exposure for a quicker six-month voyage in a similarly shielded spacecraft.
Roundtrip: about 662 millisieverts. That’s a sizable chunk of an astronaut’s career cap of 1,000 millisieverts which many international space agencies use to limit the accumulated radiation dosage in
space.
The dose is similar to getting a full-body CT scan every five or six days, said lead researcher Cary Zeitlin of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.
The estimate doesn’t include time spent on the Martian surface.
The analysis appears in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. The amount of radiation likely won’t change unless there's a rocket engine that can speed up the interplanetary ride, researchers said.
“You want to get there as quickly as possible” to reduce radiation exposure, said Don Hassler, scientist in charge of the radiation instrument aboard Curiosity. The radiation dose on a Mars trip would be higher than what crew members inside the International Space Station typically face — about 200 millisieverts per year. By contrast, people on Earth are typically exposed to about 3 millisieverts a year. Curiosity flew to Mars during a period of low to moderate solar activity. A manned
mission that launches during a solar flare or storm would encounter more radiation.
NASA engineers are testing propulsion systems and researching ways to reduce radiation exposure on a Mars flight.
Among the possibilities: Have astronauts wear a deployable shield resembling a heavy winter coat or have them hunker down in a storm shelter aboard the spacecraft during periods of high solar activity. “Before we can send astronauts there, we need to understand the environments and hazards that they would face,” said Chris Moore, deputy director of advanced explorafion systems at NASA headquarters.
Since landing near the Martian equator last summer, Curiosity has continued to track radiation as it rolls across the dusty surface toward its eventual mountain destination. The rover has turned up the best evidence yet of an ancient watery Mars.Q
Nestle to boost study of harmful food infections
Nestle scientist Walter Penaloza, left, and Benjamin Diep testing equipment in a new facility within the Nestle Research Center outside Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday, May 30, 2013.
Associated Press
JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food and drink company, is boosting research to tackle the threat of ever-stronger strains of bacteria and germs in food manufacturing.
The Vevey, Switzerland
based company said Thursday it will initially focus on several types of foodborne bacteria — particularly a dangerous strain of bacterium E. coli that infects people and pumps out a poison called Shiga toxin — and viruses Norovirus and Hepatitis A.
A European outbreak of the Shiga toxin in the sum mer of 201 1 infected about 4,000 people, mostly in Germany, and caused 50 deaths.
Company officials and industry experts looked over more than 20 new microbiology labs that Nestle opened Thursday within its research center outside Lausanne, the last time they will be shown publicly before sealing them off and restricting access to scientists in protective clothing.
They described the spotless new labs as among the world’s most advanced microbiology research facilities, and the most sophisticated in the food industry, some at biosafety containment level three, on a scale of one to four. Nestle’s chief technology
officer, Werner Bauer, said his biggest worry is antibiotic-resistant germs, and the company needs to stay a step ahead of new threats from evolving pathogens such as drug-resistant strains of Salmonella or the E. coli that produces the Shiga toxin.
John O’Brien, a former chief executive of the
Food Safety Authority of Ireland who is now head of food safety at Nestle’s research center, said the company “cannot afford errors” as it aims for better ways of processing food that kills germs but keeps as much of the nutrients and taste as possible. That requires a lot of genetic and enzymatic testingO
In ARUBA
Brad
Drirrar
24ta Serves
Massage Escort
Expriffle om iilasii i a uy you'll le yet forjeit
' BttiiiihJ jiils * Semijaiii * 1km * Ctroplfls ■ Pirate ftiuRd Li jilt District 1 Bafklars Patty
Cell: 660-4660 bndt'JttaL
PEOPLE & ARTS I * 29
SATURDAY 1 JUNE 2013
‘PLL’ star plays single military mom on ‘Lauren’
This Man. 21,2013 file photo shows actress Troian Bellisario during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival at the Fender Music Lodge in Park City, Utah. Associated Press
ALICIA RANCILIO Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Troian Bellisario’s two most recent roles have her playing women at very different times in their lives who have reached their breaking point and are trying to move forward.
She plays teen Spencer Hastings on ABC Family's popular “Pretty Little Liars.” Since her best friend was murdered, Spencer and her three best friends have been taunted, tricked and stalked by a group that goes by the name of “A.”
In a recent interview, Bellisario said she was very vocal with the writers and the network about wanting to take her character to a darker place. She got her wish, but has since “kind of backed out of the writers' room” about what's coming up.
The 27-year-old actress also plays the title character on the Web series “Lau ren” on the WIGS YouTube channel. She’s a single mother in the military who was sexually assaulted by a fellow comrade.
Her role on “Lauren” seemed a little odd at first, she said. “It was a little bit like, ‘What? You want me to do what?' But the material itself was so incredible. I was like, ‘I don't really care. I just want to get a chance to do this.’ I would never be able to portray that role in film or television because it’s a bit of a name game. To do this for the Web and to get the attention that it’s gotten, it’s really kind of a blessing in disguise.” Bellisario said she didn’t realize her character's situation on “Lauren" isn't uncommon in real life.
“I walked in two days before we were going to shoot and (co-star) Jennifer Beals had done a lot of research. I was like, ‘Give me everything please,' and she gave me this in credible book called ‘The Lonely Soldier' and I watched (documentaries) ‘The Invisible War' and ‘Lioness’ and just absorbed and read and watched YouTube videos. It was overwhelming. I had no idea," she said.
A report by the Pentagon estimates that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted lastyearand that thousands of victims are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs. That figure is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.
“I hate to use the word serendipitous,” Bellisario said, “but there seems to be a very clear connection that ‘Lauren’ just needs to be talked about, and so I think we just tapped on something on the pulse of America and it’s time we address it." Bellisario also embraced the idea of
playing someone closer fo her age on “Lauren."
“In real life I'm wafching my friends gef married and have children and the conversations that I have in my life are different. ... I don't really like one (character) over the other, I just enjoy getting the opportunity to explore a whole new part
of a woman's life."
The second season of “Lauren” is now “live” on the website, which means all 12 episodes are posted for viewing. There’s no decision yet on whether there will be a third season, but Bellisario says, “I don’t think we’re quite done” with her character's story,Q
Join us today for
The Shops
at Alhambra Casino
Dining
• Baskin-Robbins
• Dunkin Donuts
Ginger ~
Asian Flavors
Juan Valdez Cafe
Pj I
Little Caesars
Cigar & Wine Bar
Aruba Aloe® Aruba Memories Daher&Co Diamonds International
Intermezzo
The Salon
f-,
R-Glass The Lazy Liz The Market
From 6pm to 10pm, we're giving away to lucky Advantage players every £0 m i n u tes.
Where Aruba goes fo play!
Open daily 10am to 4am • J.E. Irausquin Blvd #47 • 583.5000 • www.casinoalhambra.com
Must be an Alhambra Advantage member. All programs and promotions are subject to change or cancellation without prior notice.
CASINO AND SHOPS
SATURDAY 1 JUNE
A30 lPE0PLE & ARTS
Nicki Minaj not returning to ‘American Idol’
This May 16, 2013 file photo shows singer and judge Nicki Minaj backstage at the “American Idol” finale in Los Angeles.
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nicki Minaj is following Moriah Carey out the door on “American Idol."
The hip-hop diva announced Thursday on Twitter that it is “time to focus on the music.”
Fox and “Idol” producer FremantleMedia say in a statement that they wish her the best.
Minaj became a newjudge on the Fox talent competition last year along with
Carey and Keith Urban. Minaj and Carey bickered on the show, creating a feud that was uncomfortable for both viewers and contestants.
Carey announced earlier Thursday that she wasn’t coming back to “Idol” so she can focus on her upcoming tour.
“Idol” veteran judge Randy Jackson announced ahead of the 12th season finale that he is also leaving the show. □
Beckett manuscript could fetch $1.2M at auction
LONDON (AP) — Sotheby’s says the manuscript of Irish writer Samuel Beckett's first novel could fetch more than $1.2 million at auction next month.
The six exercise books contain the text of “Murphy" as well as notes, doodles and sketches of figures including James Joyce and Charlie Chaplin.
Sotheby’s books specialist Peter Selley said Friday that the 800-page volume written in 1935-36 was “unquestionably the most im portant manuscript” by a modern British or Irish novelist to appear at auction for decades.
Its many revisions give insights into Beckett’s creative process. There are eight rejected versions of the novel's opening line — “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”
The manuscript will be auctioned July 10. Its estimated price is 800,000 pounds to 1.2 million pounds ($1.2 million to $1.8 million) .□
Director M. Night Shyamalan and his wife Bhavna attend the “After Earth” premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 in New York.
Associated Press
Shyamalan not in orbit of ‘After Earth’ marketing
DERRIK J. LANG AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s a twist worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan film: Where is the prolific writer-director in the marketing of his latest work? “The Sixth Sense” filmmaker has seemingly been sidelined in the promotional efforts for “After Earth,” his sci-fi film opening Friday starring Will and Jaden Smith as a father and son stranded on an untamed earth.
While Shyamalan’s name is the first to pop up in the credits at the conclusion of the Sony Pictures film, it's been notably missing from trailers, TV commercials and marketing signage — a stark contrast to his previous films like “Unbreakable” and “Lady in the Water,” which were prominently billed as being “from writerdirector M. Night Shyamalan."
“Night is, without a doubt, a world-class filmmaker who we were thrilled to team up with on this project," said Jeff Blake, Sony's worldwide marketing and distribution chairman, in a statement.
“Together, we decided to focus our campaign on both the action and Will
and Jaden given that ‘After Earth’ is an adventure story of a father and son.” Sony declined to make Shyamalan available for an interview with The Associated Press for this story, but he told Movietone “there's such a specific expectation that comes with a name. It’s nice to have people watch the movie and then have them talk about the storyteller. It's a healthy balance. I am very involved with all the campaigns for my movies.”
The film has so far amassed mostly bad reviews. Richard Corliss of Time called it “lifeless, eventless, humorless, virtually movieless,” while Scott Foundas of Variety wrote that “nowhere in evidence is the gifted ‘Sixth Sense’ director who once brought intricately crafted set pieces and cinematic sleight of hand to even the least of his own movies." After the success of 1999’s “Sixth Sense” and 2000’s “Unbreakable,” Shyamalan was hailed by many as the next Alfred Hitchco*ck, but his brand tarnished after the critical failures of his last three films: the 2010 fantasy “The Last Airbender,” 2008 thriller “The Happening” and 2006 suspense “Lady in
the Water,” his only film so far to tank at the box office. “He’s a fine filmmaker, but there are more reasons not to feature him than to feature him," said Gene Del Vecchio, author of “Creating Blockbusters” and a marketing professor at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
Del Vecchio added that the other reasons it makes sense to downplay the 42-year-old filmmaker’s involvement include his lack of cachet in the sci-fi and action genres, as well as the fact he’s not the only writer of the film. (Will Smith is credited for creating the story, while Shyamalan shares screenwriting credit with “The Book of Eli” screenwriter Gary Whitta.) Despite his absence from the marketing of “After Earth," some moviegoers are still aware it's a Shyamalan film. According to a survey of 1,000 “After Earth" ticket buyers by online seller Fandango, 39 percent identified him as a key factor in wanting to see the film, while 80 percent said it was Will Smith who was the main reason they bought a ticket.G
THE NEW YORK TIMES |«U,« „„
President Of Scandinavia
From The Mouths Of Babes
MAUREEN DOWD © 2013 New York Times WASHINGTON - Like many others in our business, Jonathan Alter says he is “on fire” about the Justice Department’s snooping on reporters and attempting to criminalize investigative journalism, including labeling respected Fox News Washington correspondent James Rosen a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation.
Alter - whose second history of the Barack Obama era, “The Center Holds,” comes out next week - is puzzled about why a former constitutional law professor allowed such a sinister turn. “What is it about Obama that he so disdains us?” he muses. “Presidents always hate leaks. Ronald Reagan said, ‘I’ve had it up to my keister with these leaks.’ But they usually don’t act on it. Even if Obama didn’t personally sign off, people always sense by osmosis what leaders are thinking and go in that direction. His people know that leaks offend his sense of discipline and that he likes to protect his right flank by being tough on national security. “Kennedy had been a reporter, but Obama is not friendly with the press. And he has contempt for people who don’t do their jobs, and, when you talk to the press out of school, you’re not doing your job.”
Alter, a fellow Chicagoan who thinks Obama has generally been a good president, has closely studied the central paradox about the man.
“He won a majority twice in elections for the first time in half-acentury without liking the business he’s chosen,” the writer says. “He’s missing the schmooze gene.” As Bill Clinton noted, it was strange that Obama was good at the big stuff, like foreign policy, and bad at the easy stuff, like connecting to people.
By 2011, Obama’s insularity was hurting him with Democratic donors, elected officials and activists. Alter writes, adding: “Democratic senators who voted with Obama found that their support was taken for granted. Many would go two or even three years between conversations with the president, which embarrassed them (constituents were always asking about their interactions) and eventually weakened Obama’s support on the Hill.” It was not only powerful committee chairs and many Cabinet members who rarely spoke personally to the president, Alter notes. It was only in his second term that the Obamas invited the Clintons over for din ner in the White House residence. Obama is not a needy person, but he needs to think of himself as purer than this town.
He wanted to be, Alter writes, “nontransactional, above the petty deals, ‘donor maintenance,’ and phony friendships of Washington. Here his self-awareness again failed him. In truth, he was all transactional in his work life.”
As Alter observes, “His failure to use the trappings of the presidency more often left him with one less tool in his toolbox.” Obama did not understand why his stinginess with expressions of gratitude and phone calls could sting, or fathom the thrill of letters from the president.
“He fundamentally doesn’t relate to their impact because he wouldn’t particularly care if he got one,” Obama adviser Pete Rouse explained to Alter.
At East Room events. Alter writes, Obama’s vibe was clearly: “I’ll flash a smile, then, please, someone get me the hell out of here. It wasn’t that he had to be back in the Oval Office for something urgent. He just didn’t want to hang out for an instant longer than he had to, even with long-lost Chicago friends.”
The president sometimes “exuded an unspoken exasperation: I saved Detroit, the Dow is up, we avoided a depression -1 have to explain this to all of you again?” That attitude caused him to tank in his first debate with Mitt Romney. David Plouffe told Alter that Obama was “better suited to politics in Scandinavia than here,” meaning, Alter writes, “that he was a logical and unemotional person in an illogical and emotional capital.” Ironic, given that it was Obama’s emotional speeches that precociously vaulted him into the Oval Office. When Obama was elected, he assumed he would be a good bridge-builder.
“But he just had no experience dealing with Republicans in any significant way,” Alter told me. “He wasn’t in the leadership in Springfield or the Senate. He thought that just because he mussed up Tom Coburn’s hair that he knew how to deal with Republicans.”
On “Fox News Sunday,” Bob Dole told Chris Wallace that Obama “lacks communication skills with his own party, let alone the Republican Party. And he’s on the road too much.”
The president will have to learn the hard way: You can go over the head of Washington but it doesn’t get you anything in Washington. The man who prides himself on his self-awareness is now trying to use more tools in the toolbox. So the main question, Alter says, is “whether learned behavior and his determination to have a successful second term and do things differently can win out against his natural inclinations.”
The historian believes that Obama does have the capacity to change. “He gets it now,” Alter says. “Is it too late? I doubt it. He wants to be remembered for more than being the first AfricanAmerican president.”Q
PAUL KRUGMAN © 2013 New York Times Like many observers, I usually read reports about political goings-on with a sort of weary cynicism. Every once in a while, however, politicians do something so wrong, substantively and morally, that cynicism just won’t cut it; it’s time to get really angry instead. So it is with the ugly, destructive war against food stamps.
The food stamp program - which these days actually uses debit cards and is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - tries to provide modest but crucial aid to families in need.
And the evidence is crystal clear both that the overwhelming majority of food stamp recipients really need the help and that the program is highly successful at reducing “food insecurity,” in which families go hungry at least some of the time.
Food stamps have played an especially useful - indeed, almost heroic - role in recent years. In fact, they have done triple duty. First, as millions of workers lost their jobs through no fault of their own, many families turned to food stamps to help them get by - and while food aid is no substitute for a good job, it did significantly mitigate their misery. Food stamps were especially helpful to children who would otherwise be living in extreme poverty, defined as an income less than half the
official poverty line.
But there’s more. Why is our economy depressed? Because many players in the economy slashed spending at the same time, while relatively few players were willing to spend more. And because the economy is not like an individual household - your spending is my income, my spending is your income - the result was a general fall in incomes and plunge in employment. We desperately needed (and still need) public policies to promote higher spending on a temporary basis - and the expansion of food stamps, which helps families living on the edge and lets them spend more on other necessities, is just such a policy. Indeed, estimates from the consulting firm Moody’s Analytics suggest that each dollar spent on food stamps in a depressed economy raises GDP by about $1.70 - which means, by the way, that much of the money laid out to help families in need actually comes right back to the government in the form of higher revenue.
Wait, we’re not done yet. Food stamps greatly reduce food insecurity among low-income children, which, in turn, greatly enhances their chances of doing well in school and growing up to be successful, productive adults. So food stamps are in a very real sense an investment in the nation’s future - an investment that in the long run almost surely reduces the budget deficit, because tomorrow’s adults will also be tomorrow’s taxpayers.
So what do Republicans want to do with this paragon of programs? First, shrink it; then, effectively kill it.
The shrinking part comes from the latest farm bill released by the House Agriculture Committee (for historical reasons, the food stamp program is administered by the Agriculture Department). That bill would push about 2 mil lion people off the program. You should bear in mind, by the way, that one effect of the sequester has been to pose a serious threat to a different but related program that provides nutritional aid to millions of pregnant mothers, infants and children. Ensuring that the next generation grows up nutritionally deprived - now that’s what I call forward thinking.
And why must food stamps be cut? We can’t afford it, say politicians like Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., who backed his position with biblical quotations - and who also, it turns out, has personally received millions in farm subsidies over the years.
These cuts are, however, just the beginning of the assault on food stamps. Remember, Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget is still the official GOP position on fiscal policy, and that budget calls for converting food stamps into a block grant program with sharply reduced spending. If this proposal had been in effect when the Great Recession struck, the food stamp program could not have expanded the way it did, which would have meant vastly more hardship, including a lot of outright hunger, for millions of Americans and for children in particular. Look, I understand the supposed rationale: We’re becoming a nation of takers, and doing stuff like feeding poor children and giving them adequate health care is just creating a culture of dependency - and that culture of dependency, not runaway bankers, somehow caused our economic crisis.
But I wonder whether even Republicans really believe that story - or at least are confident enough in their diagnosis to justify policies that more or less literally take food from the mouths of hungry children. As I said, there are times when cynicism just doesn’t cut it; this is a time to get really, really angry. □
A32IEEATIIDE
_ SATURDAY 1 JUNE 20131^^#% I UllL _ =s==SbsS=^
On Tabloid Tours, Tawdry View from Every Seat
WILLIAM GRIMES © 2013 New York Times NEW YORK - There are several ways to look at the Plaza Hotel. It is one of Manhattan’s great architectural gems, of course. Others know it as a setting in a long list of novels and films, most recently “The Great Gatsby.”
Still others think of it as the place where, in October 2010, Charlie Sheen laid waste to his room after a fun-filled night with an escort-slash-p*rn-star, con vinced that she had stolen his $165,000 watch, and wound up in the arms of the New York City police. Option No. 3 is the choice - the only one possible - for the two scandal-minded bus tours now being offered in New York, twohour sojourns from Midtown Manhattan to the Battery that review celebrity mayhem and criminal mischief for a ticket price of $49.
In February The New York Post, in partnership with Metro Sightseeing, an offshoot of Circle Line Sight seeing, began taking riders on a tabloid excursion around the city, revisiting many of the sites immortalized in the newspaper’s renowned headlines, although not the tavern in its most famous one, “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” That would require a long detour to Queens.
The Post tour now faces competition from TMZ, the gossip website and television show. Two weeks ago TMZ, in partnership with On Location Tours, started a
New York counterpart to its Los Angeles tour. Like the West Coast original, it lets riders relive the drunken rampages and sexual misadventures that make so many of today's celebrities so appealing.
The Post tour runs once a week, Thursday, with one bus in the morning and one in the afternoon. The day I boarded, the weather was unseasonably cold and rainy, which may explain why the double-decker bus, with open roof, carried only two people in addi tion to me. The passenger list was, in full, Ira and Phyllis Rosenkrantz, Bronx natives now residing in Rockland County.
The trip started in Midtown, at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, and proceeded to Central Park South. There the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel came into view, the occasion for our first Post headline, “Rich Bitch." As Post readers may recall, when Leona Helmsley, the hotel's owner, died in 2007, she left $12 million to her
Maltese lap dog. Trouble. It was a headline writer's dream.
The ghosts of headlines past appeared once more as the bus turned onto Fifth Avenue and headed south. Plaza Hotel: “Trashed! Sheen in co*ke-&-Hooker Rampage at the Plaza.”
St. Patrick’s: “Pew-Trid Pervs." In 2002 two fans of the “Opie and Anthony” radio show have sex in one of the cathedral’s vestibules, hoping to win the show’s annual Sex for Sam contest, sponsored by Samuel Ad ams beer. An altercation ensues, the police arrive, the shock jocks are fired. Empire State Building: “Chute and Miss.” In 2006 an attention-seeking daredevil tries to jump from the 86th-floor observation deck, equipped with a parachute that he had concealed under a foam fat suit. Security guards intervene.
Manhattan Criminal Court: “Bad Heir Day.” Anthony D. Marshall, hair tousled by a gust of wind, enters the
building for his arraignment on 18 charges of defrauding his mother, the philanthropist Brooke Astor.
Our guide, a veteran of the more orthodox Manhattan bus tours, evidently found it hard to shake old habits. Slow traffic produced a lot of down time, and the tangy Post material disappeared for long stretches. The Rosenkrantzes and I were invited to look at the site of the original Macy’s, and marvel at a guy on the sidewalk balancing multiple cups of coffee for a
delivery. When the clouds parted briefly, our guide wondered aloud, “I wonder if we’ll get to see a rainbow?”
Though it might seem strange,, I felt a crying need as the tour went on: more New York Post.
And how about a few mob rubouts, or sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, the tabloid trifecta?
Product placement is not a problem on the TMZ tour. The enclosed bus, which takes off from Mid town twice a day, is outfitted with drop-down television screens that the onboard guide cues every couple of minutes to broadcast a prerecorded clip. You get, at full volume, the patented TMZ voice-over, delivered in the snide, brayingjackass voice familiar to fans of the television show. Riders, about 40 of them on my tour, are encouraged to whoop it up at every turn. Along the way, there are little contests. If you can guess, looking at the screen, whether a celebrity is about to give a cheery wave to the TMZ cameraman or flip the middle finger, for example, you win a TMZ T-shirt.
The approach is relentlessly trivial and strenuously contemporary.
It makes the Post tour look scholarly. If a celebrity did it, it’s news. If a Kardashian did it, it’s bigger news. If it took place in or outside a hot nightclub, involved rappers or movie stars, and resulted in criminal charges or court-ordered rehab, stop the presses.
On a good night, Lindsay Lohan satisfies every one of these requirements all by herself, which is why a hefty portion of the two-hour tour is devoted to the Lindsay Lohan Terror Zone.
This is a swath of downtown where that actress has left her distinctive imprint, in the form of flying fists, hurled shot glasses and lots of running mascara.
Our tour guide was well chosen, a celebrity worshipper who delivered a mix of canned shtick and personal annotation, usually heartfelt.
The New York Post tour bus in New York, May 30, 2013. In February, the New York Post, in partnership with Metro Sightseeing, an offshoot of Circle Line Sightseeing, began taking riders on a tabloid excursion around the city, revisiting many of the sites immortalized in the newspaper's renowned headlines
(Philip Greenberg/The New York Times)
