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CULTURE
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013
GLOBAL.NYTIMES.COM
Mystery unfurls
in killings
of Kurds
PARIS
Kurdish activist at the neighboringParis
Kurdish Institute on Rue La Fayette, the
street where the killings took place, and
a colleague of two of the victims.
Ms.Werdi said that the door of the first
floor where the victims were found was
locked and covered with blood stains.
When colleagues broke down the door,
she said they discovered three bodies,
two with bullets to the back of the head
and one with a bullet in the stomach.
The bodies, she said, were first dis-
covered in the early hours of Thursday
by friends who had become concerned
about the whereabouts of the women
after cellphone calls went unanswered
and none returned home.
Speaking to French reporters, Leon
Edart, who manages the Kurdish Infor-
mation Center, suggested the victims
may have opened the door to their killer
or killers.
Police acknowledged that the motive
behind the executions remained myste-
rious. The women’s bodies were dis-
covered shortly before 2 a.m. on Thurs-
day, according to Agnès Thibault-
Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris
prosecutor’s office, who said that the
anti-terror department of the prosecu-
tor’s office would oversee the investiga-
tion of the killings.
News reports identified one of the
women as Sakine Cansiz, a founder of
the P.K.K. Another was identified as
Fidan Dogan, the head of the Kurdish
Information Center and a representa-
tive of the Kurdistan National Commit-
tee. The third woman was Leyla
Soylemez, a youthful Kurdish activist.
Ms. Thibault-Lecuivre confirmed that
Ms. Dogan, born in 1984, and Ms.
Soylemez, born in 1988, were victims in
the killings, but declined to confirm the
identity of the third woman.
An organization called the Federation
of Kurdish Associations in France, rep-
resenting many of the estimated 150,000
Kurdish exiles in the country, said in a
statement that the women might have
been killed on Wednesday afternoon
with weapons equipped with silencers.
French police officials said the bodies
and three shell casings were found in a
3 women activists found
shot at information office
in the center of Paris
BY DAN BILEFSKY
AND ALAN COWELL
Three Kurdish women, including a
founding member of a leading Kurdish
militant group fighting for autonomy in
Turkey, were found shot to death on
Thursday in what appeared to be a tar-
geted attack that brought the Kurds’ vi-
olent political struggles to the heart of
the French capital.
The culprit and precise motive in the
shootings remained a mystery. While
some Kurdish activists were quick to
blame Turkey nationalists or authorities,
the killings set off immediate speculation
that the attackwas the bloody result of an
internecine struggle within the Kur-
distan Workers’ Party, known by the ini-
tials P.K.K. The group has been fighting a
bitter guerrilla war against the Turkish
authorities for almost three decades to
reinforce demands for greater autono-
my.
Analysts and officials in Turkey ar-
gued that it seemed no coincidence that
the killings had come just days after re-
ports of the peace negotiations involving
Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader
of the P.K.K. who was incarcerated in
1999 in a fortresslike prison on the west-
ern Turkish island of Imrali. The killings
could now jeopardize that peace effort.
The attack bore the hallmarks of an
assassination, though it was not clear
that all those foundwere intended as tar-
gets. It took place in a nondescript build-
ing that housed a Kurdish Information
Center in the gritty 10thArrondissement
near the Gare du Nord rail station, a
working class immigrant neighborhood
of Turkish kebab shops and hair salons.
The Kurdish Information Center is
only accessible from the outside by a di-
gital code, and there is no plaque outside,
suggesting that the operation had been
carefully planned, said Rusen Werdi, a
BERNAT ARMANGUE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Winter in Jerusalem
Snowcovered the esplanade of theWesternWall onThursday as theworst snowstorm in 20 years shut government offices, public transportation and
schools in the city and along the northern Israeli region near Lebanon. Many Palestinians in theWest Bank were also snowed in an
d do
zens were forced to flee flooded homes.
Deep rift s
een in Afghan talks
WASHINGTON
For Cyprus,
rescue might
require pain
for Russians
LONDON
BY LANDON THOMAS JR.
On their Web sites, the largest of
Cyprus’s failing banks brag that their
client-service officers are fluent in Rus-
sian. No indication, though, whether
strizhka—Russian for haircut — is part
of their lexicon.
As drawn-out negotiations with
Europe over a bailout for Cyprus near
an end, the country’s banks, flush with
Russian deposits, hope they do not have
to force haircuts, or losses, on some of
their wealthiest depositors.
Europe, struggling to complete a po-
tential ¤17 billion, or $22.5 billion, rescue
package for Cyprus, is under intense
pressure to make private-sector in-
vestors, rather than European taxpay-
ers, pay a bigger share of the bill than in
past bailouts. Officials in Brussels and
Berlin are said to be considering a con-
troversial plan that could require depos-
itors in Cypriot banks to accept losses
on their savings. Russians, who hold
about one-fifth of bank deposits in
Cyprus, would take a big hit.
That step would be a radical depar-
ture from the bailouts of Greece, Por-
tugal and Ireland. In those rescues,
while investors holding Greek bonds
were eventually forced to take haircuts,
it was largely loans from European
countries that financed the bailouts,
with bank deposits held sacrosanct.
In a Europe where big banks hold out-
size political and financial power—Cyp-
riot banks wield assets eight times the
size of the country’s economic output —
anymove to punish depositors is certain
to attract bitter opposition.
And though the plan may have some
merit on paper, in practice it would be
hard to carry out, given the ties that
bind Cyprus to Russia.
Dimitris Christofias, the Cypriot pres-
ident, is a declared communist who re-
dubbed a war of necessity.
Now, he is even entertaining an op-
tion of leaving behind no American
troops whatsoever after 2014, when the
NATO combat mission ends.
European nations are under even
heavier domestic political pressures
thanMr. Obama not to remain inAfghan-
istan in a significant way, and allied offi-
cials have said that if the United States
opts for a minimal troop presence in Af-
ghanistan, the Europeans’ presence will
probably be cut evenmore sharply.
Emboldened by what they assert are
gains against Qaeda operatives, admin-
istration officials said Mr. Obama was
leaning toward a more aggressive time-
table for withdrawing troops than his
own commander in Afghanistan ini-
tially recommended.
As the White House weighs options
for the size of a residual military force in
Afghanistan that range from roughly
3,000 to about 9,000 troops, Mr. Obama
has directed his advisors to answer a
basic question: Is such a force even nec-
essary to carry out the narrow counter-
terrorism objectives the United States
has for postwar Afghanistan?
Mr. Karzai, Afghan officials said, is
coming to the meeting with far different
expectations. He is counting on a residual
American force of at least 15,000 troops to
advise the Afghan security forces in their
fight against the Taliban insurgency and
carry out raids against Al Qaeda. And he
is hoping that the United States will sup-
ply the Afghan army with heavy-duty
military equipment, like fighter planes
and armored personnel carriers.
Those radically different expecta-
tions, analysts said, could cause new
tensions in a relationship between Mr.
Obama andMr. Karzai that has been no-
toriously fraught over issues like cor-
ruption, civilian casualties, and threats
to Afghan sovereignty.
‘‘There’s been a steady rollback of
our objectives of what’s good enough in
Afghanistan,’’ said Vali Nasr, a former
senior State Department official who
worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
‘‘We seem to be giving up pieces of this,
Ahead of Karzai meeting
with Obama, analysts
warn of sharp differences
KURDS, PAGE 4
BY MARK LANDLER,
MATTHEW ROSENBERG
ANDMICHAEL R. GORDON
The last time President Barack Obama
and President Hamid Karzai spoke face
to face, it was in a video conference call
Sept. 21, and Mr. Obama, distracted by
his re-election bid in a campaign in
which the war in Afghanistan was
barely discussed, fended off Mr. Kar-
zai’s most probing questions about
American intentions.
On Friday, the two leaders will finally
have that conversation at the White
House. For Mr. Karzai, it is likely to
prove a jolting recognition of how dra-
matically Mr. Obama has scaled back
his ambitions in a conflict he once
W:109.501mm H:21ln
AFGHANISTAN, PAGE 5
CHRISTIANHARTMANN/REUTERS
Pictures of the three presumed victims of a shooting at a building that housed a Kurdish
Information Center in Paris. From left, Fidan Dogan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Soylemez.
New smartphones help Nokia
turn a corner in
its comeback
tive delivered the biggest news from the
Finnish company since he started the
last-ditch transformation: Nokia may
be on its way back.
Thanks in part to an all-out marketing
push, sales of its new smartphone line,
the Lumia, powered by Microsoft’s Win-
dows Phone operating system, soared
more than 50 percent in the fourth
quarter of last year, leading Nokia to an
unexpected profit. Thanks largely to de-
mand for its newestmodels, Nokia had to
correct its financial forecasts —upward.
In what was seen as a make-or-break
quarter, Mr. Elop was able to tell in-
vestors that Nokia would break even or
turn a 2 percent profit rather than re-
port a loss as large as 10 percent.
‘‘While we definitely experienced
some tough challenges in the first half of
BERLIN
BY KEVIN J. O’BRIEN
Nearly two years ago, Stephen Elop,
fresh from a senior post at Microsoft,
spoke of flaming ocean platforms and
shark-infested waters to describe the
competitive climate he inherited at
Nokia, the erstwhile leader in mobile
phones that was then teetering on the
brink of irrelevance.
Mr. Elop, an affable Canadian engi-
neer, painted the bleak outlook as he pre-
scribed a radical cure on the once-proud
Finnish mobile phone pioneer: The re-
jection of the company’s own Symbian
smartphone operating system for a
shotgun collaboration with Microsoft, it-
self stumbling badly in the sector.
On Thursday, the Nokia chief execu-
CYPRUS, PAGE 15
DRAGHI DETECTS ‘POSITIVE CONTAGION’
The E.C.B. kept its main rate steady
Thursday as its chief said the euro zone
showed signs of stabilizing.
PAGE 14
LUKE SHARRETT FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
President Hamid Karzai being welcomed at the Pentagon on Thursday. He is expected to meet with President Barack Obama on Friday.
NOKIA, PAGE 15
CURRENCIES
STOCK INDEXES
WORLDNEWS
Discord in British coalition
The leader of the junior partner in the
British government said Thursday that
it would be perilous to risk the country’s
membership in the European Union,
echoing earlier U.S. comments.
PAGE 4
Freedoms in doubt in Laos
The disappearance of Sombath
Somphone, an agricultural specialist,
nearly a month ago is raising concerns
that the liberalization of Communist-
ruled Laos is sliding backwards.
PAGE 5
BUSINESS
Scolding Northern Europe
Jean-Claude Juncker, the departing
leader of the ministers who oversee the
euro, criticized northern Europeans on
Thursday for demanding austerity
from their southern neighbors.
PAGE 14
A.I.G. won’t join bailout suit
American International Group has said
it will not join a lawsuit against the U.S.
government over its $182 billion rescue
that was filed on behalf of shareholders
by its former chief executive.
PAGE 16
VIEWS
Roger Cohen
A vast human experiment is under
way: What happens to humanity when
it is cut off from the anchors of rural
life?
PAGE 8
COMING THISWEEKEND
This way madness lay
The director Paul Schrader, the novelist
Bret Easton Ellis and Lindsay Lohan
set out to make a movie for $250,000
that they hope will save all of their
careers. What could go wrong?
Taxes as a social lever
Maybe it is time to consider taxes on
the things we do that affect others and
that the market is unable to price, like
driving in heavy traffic or the owning of
weapons, AdamDavidson writes.
NEW YORK, THURSDAY 1:30PM
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Books 11
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Culture 10
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SPORTS
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
page two
Economists,
consensus
and crisis
Moder
nity framing tradition
LONDON
But the authors did not find an ideo-
logical bias in those disagreements:
‘‘There are certainly some idiosyncrat-
ic views expressed, but we found no ev-
idenceof different camps.’ ’
Economists,these resultssuggest,
seek to objectively establish thetruth
and have a widely agreed onbody of
knowledge about how theeconomy
works. In an agewhenit can be hard to
write theword ‘‘facts’’ without reflex-
ively reaching forquotation marks,
that is ofsome comfort. But this picture
ofconsensusamong expertscomes
withafew caveats.
Onewas articulatedbyPaulKrug-
man, aNobel Prize laureate and New
York Timescolumnistwhowas atthe
American Economic Associationmeet-
ing.Mr. Krugman accepted the idea
thateconomists share a wide body of
agreed,objective and nonideological
knowledge. But he argued thatwhenit
comes to one subset ofissues — busi-
ness-cycle macroeconomics,orhow
policy should respond to booms and
busts —economistsare bothdivided
and biased. That matters,Mr. Krug-
man rightly pointed out, because out-
sidethe academy these are among the
economic issues ordinary mortals care
about, and fight about, the most.
The second caveat is that consensus
may be more fleeting, and therefore less
valuable, than theeconomic high priest-
hood might liketothink. To his credit,
Dr. Kashyap revealed two issues on
which theeconomic conventional wis-
dom, and his own views, have changed
sincethe financial crisis of2008.
One is currency controls: ‘‘Having
watchedallthis hot moneyflow into
these markets, Iammuch more sympa-
thetic to the desiretoslow things down,’ ’
he said.
The second is whethercentral
bankers should try to popasset bubbles,
an idea toward which Dr. Kashyap has
softened. ‘‘I don’t think the convention-
al wisdomwas very good on this and I
was firmly in the consensus,’ ’ he said.
These shiftssuggestthat it is worth
looking more closely atone clear sub-
groupamong theeconomistsintheUni-
versity of California study. Dr. Gordon
and Dr. Dahl searchedfor, and failed to
detect, ideological bias or even the
subtler influenceof thevery distinct in-
tellectual traditions of top U.S.universi-
ties.
But they did pick upaclear differ-
ence betweenmen and women. ‘‘Wom-
en,’ ’ they write, ‘‘tend to be more cau-
tiousintaking a stance.’’ For women
making their way in the 21st-century
world of work,that reticence is mostly
a handicap — a willingness to admitto
uncertaintyisone reason womenare
paid less and can find it difficultto
break through the glass ceiling.
For the benefitof the communityasa
whole, though, more femaleeconomists
may be needed. The quest for objective
economic knowledge is surelyagood
thing, as is the Booth efforttomap what
economists agree on and wheretheydi-
verge. But givenhow profoundly and
unexpectedly theworld economy col-
lapsedin2008, maybe alittle morewo-
manly humilityabout that conventional
wisdomwould be agood thing, too.
Chrystia Freeland is editor of Thomson
Reuters Digital.
E-MAIL:
pagetwo@iht.com
A London bank cuts
a distinguished profile
amid skyscraper blight
BYMICHAEL KIMMELMAN
TheotherdayIcaughtup withNew
Court, the Londonheadquarters for
Rothschild Bank, designedbyEllen van
Loon and RemKoolhaas of OMA. Opu-
lent, context friendly, almost stealthy,
it’s an ‘‘adult building,’ ’ as oneof the ar-
Chrystia
Freeland
WAY OF THEWORLD
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
SAN DIEGO
This is a tough time for ex-
perts. Empoweredbythe Internet and
embitteredbythe sour economy, many
people doubtthewisdom of expert
elites. Journalism sometimescastsfur-
therdoubt by seeking polarizedposi-
tions that can draw an attention-
grabbing debate, orbytaking refuge in
he-said-she-said accounts to avoid the
harderjob offiguring out who’s right.
Now onetribeofspecialists —econo-
mists — is striking back. Concerned
thatthe greatunwashedhave cometo
see all economic proposals as being
equally valid,theUniversity of Chicago
Booth School ofBusiness has ledanef-
forttofigure out whateconomists
agree on,wheretheydiverge and how
certain theyare about their views.
To dothat, the Booth school called on
reputableeconomists to join its panel
of experts. Each week,the panelists
are asked whether they agree or dis-
agree with a particular economic idea.
‘‘Among practicing economists, it is
understood thatthe media and the polit-
ical process paints economistsasmore
divided than theyare,’’ Anil K. Kashyap,
aprofessor of economics and finance at
theUniversity of Chicago andaleader
of the project, explained. ‘‘It is more
sensational and maybe makesforbetter
reading to have point-counterpoint. It
seemedreasonabletoprovide some
context. There’salot more settledis-
sues than most people have asenseof.’ ’
Dr. Kashyap citedasanexamplethe
gold standard,the monetary systemin
which the standard economic unitof
account isafixed weightofgold. ‘‘The
gold standard is an insane idea,’ ’ he
said. ‘‘I don’t know ofanyreputable
economistwhothinks it is a wise idea,
but it got alot ofreal political traction.’ ’
Of the Booth panelists, 93 percent
disagreed thatthe gold standard could
improve price stability or employment.
But that is an extremeexample. A
paperpresented this weekatthe annu-
al gathering of theAmerican Economic
Associationinvestigated the surveyre-
sultsingreaterdetail. ‘‘Based on our
analysis,weconcludethatthere is
closetofull consensusamong these
panelmembers when the pasteconom-
ic literatureon the question is large,’’
the authors of the paper, RogerGordon
and GordonB. Dahl of theUniversity of
California, San Diego, wrote. ‘‘When
pastevidence is less extensive, differ-
encesinopinions do show up.’ ’
chitects whoworked on the project half-
jokingly put it.
Meaning that it’snot what you might
expect from Mr. Koolhaas,who has
beenheard recently lamenting ‘‘the rat
raceof extravagance’’ driving trophy
architecture beforethe market tanked,
whenhewas such an emblematic and
influential figure. Asit happens, New
Courtwas commissionedbeforethe
crash but tookyears to be finished. So
likeMr. Koolhaas’s mantra, it’sneatly
tailoredfor a changed climate.
London has a caseof whatthe late
critic Ada Louise Huxtableonce called
Skyscrapers GoneWild. Shewas talk-
ing about the ‘‘supersized, contorted,
totally out ofcontext’’ towers — result-
ing fromacocktail ofnew technology
andmadmoney— competing forheight
and attention, from which London had
once proudly abstained. Ilookedaround
town with Ricky Burdett, whoteaches
urban studiesatthe London School of
Economics. He showedme 122 Leaden-
hall Street, nicknamed the Cheese
Grater, an office building byRichardRo-
gers going upnot far fromNew Court in
the heartof the London financial dis-
trict. I wondereda oud what Rafael
Viñoly could possibly have been think-
ingwhenhe cameupwith thetop-heavy
design for the building that has been
nicknamed theWalkie-Tal kie, close by.
Across the river, atopLondon Bridge
railway station,the nearly completed
Shard by Renzo Piano, London’s tallest
building, loomed over the skyline.
Neighborhoods are changing too. The
master plan for theOlympic Games last
summer entailedcreating what’smeant
to be aprosperousn
ew centerinthe his-
torically downtrodden East End.
Olympic Village is being turnedinto
mixed-income housing and parkland.
(JamesCorner,ofFieldOperations,who
worked on the High Line inNewYork, is
designing partof the park). As with the
Shard,we’ll have to waittosee how it
works afterit’s finished.
David Cameron,the British prime
minister, and Boris Johnson, London’s
flamboyant mayor, announced with
some fanfare last month a plan to invest
$80 millioninthe construction ofacivic
centerforTech City, as the blocks of
East Londonnear theOld Street Round-
about have cometobe called. ‘‘There
goes the neighborhood,’ ’ was the lament
ofsome die-hards in that scrappy start-
upcommunity,who feared the area had
lost its cachet if government planners
wanted to horn in on what has beena
bottom-updevelopment.
Their real cause forconcern oughtto
have been the suburban office-park-
style building in the drawing thatthe
prime minister and mayor announced.
The most dramatic transformationis
to King’sCross, long a crime-ridden, im-
poverished districtwherethe St. Pan-
cras and Kings Cross rail stations con-
verge. In 20 years orsothe area has
been changed almost beyond recogni-
tion. To complementthe renovation of
St. Pancras a few years agothe main
concourseof the King’sCross terminal
has recently beenrefurbished witha
swooping, pseudo-Gothic ceiling de-
signedbyJohn McAslan. Google plans
to put itsLondonheadquarters next
door. Luxury and subsidizedhousing
have arrived orare arriving nearby,
along withcommercial development.
TheArgent Group, a British de-
veloper, is behind this multibillion-dol-
lar makeover. It has stuck to good urban
strategies: mixed use, slow growth, pe-
destrian-friendly streets, sensible res-
torationa ongside new construction,
and an emphasis onactive and ample
public space. A spanking new granite
plaza withfountains opened last month
outsidethe Central SaintMartins Col-
legeof Art and Design,which in 2011
movedinto a six-story, 19th-century
granary, ingeniously retrofittedby
Stanton Williams,the London archi-
tects. The design navigatesstrict con-
servationguidelines to devise a spare,
sleek, soaring interior that doublesasa
school and new public square.
The development around King’sCross
is gentrifying a formerbrownfield,which
is what someof the Shard’s old-time
neighbors fear. That building, amoun-
tain among the pubs and housing blocks,
will changethe real estate picture in the
area. It’shulking and unimpressive at
street level. But adding densityat a rail
hubmakessense. The prospectivemix of
offices, apartments, restaurantsanda
viewing platform in the building,torival
theLondonEye, should add jobs and rev-
enue to the area; and the station,which
serves300,000 commutersaday, has
beencleaned up and attractively refur-
bishedaspartof the project.
PHILIPPE RUAULT/OMA
The Rothschild headquarters gives a nod to the city’s traditional architecture, opening up to reveal the St. Stephen Walbrook church.
ANDREWTESTA FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
The recently refurbished main concourse of the King’s Cross rail station features a domed roof designed by John McAslan.
ONLINE:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anti-Semitism charge provokes furor in Germany
‘‘The ugly history of anti-Semitism in our time is beyond rational dispute.
Guarding against the recurrence of that kind of bigotry and hatred is the duty
of every civilized person. But in my view, that does not give the State of Israel
a free pass on criticism just because it . . . includes overwhelmingly Jewish
population.’’
GOLDEN BEAR—PORTLAND, OREGON
ihtrendezvous.com
IN OUR PAGES
✴
100, 75, 50 YEARS AGO
1913 Museum of ‘Fakes’ Proposed
NEWYORK
M. JacquesSeligmann,who
left for France aboard the French liner
Savoie yesterday [Jan. 9], outlined to a
Herald correspondent a scheme for the
education of American picture-buyers in
order to assisttheminpreventing un-
scrupulousdealers from imposing fraud-
ulent pictures upon them. He purposes
founding in the NewGalleriesinNew
York, a ‘‘museum of ‘fakes’,’ ’ in which
will be shown examples offorgeries
which have beenrepresented to Ameri-
can collectors as ‘‘OldMasters.’ ’ ‘‘Every
time Icometothis country,’ ’ M. Selig-
mann said, ‘‘I feelmore strongly that it
is my duty to protect buyers of works of
art against forgeries and imitations.’ ’
1938 Nation Awaits Royal Birth
AMSTERDAM
A 240-gun salute may be
fired outside Soestdijk PalaceeitherSat-
urday [Jan. 15]orSunday, informing the
nation of the surprising news thatPrin-
cess Juliana has given birth to twins.
New instructions were given to army
gunners over theweekend,ordering
them to be ready to fire a240-gun salute
if necessary.Previously,they were in-
structed to fire 51 guns for the birth ofa
girl and 101guns if a male heir to the
Houseof Orangewere born.Meanwhile,
brokers on theAmsterdam exchange
are reported to beoffering odds of
twenty to one forstakes as high as $1,000
that aboy will be born. Captain G.H.
Steenhauerisnow settledattheend ofa
special wire from the palace, ready to re-
ceive the news of a birth of twins or
single child, and thenrelay ittothe gun-
ners scattered throughout the country.
1963 Crash on Métro Injures 37
PARIS
AMétrotrain today [Jan. 10]
rammedanother train standing on the
track, injuring 37 persons.Of17 passen-
gers taken to hospitals for treatment, all
but onewere releasedafterreceiving
first aid. Serviceon thePorte de la
Chapelle-Mairie d’lssyMétro line, run-
ning alonganorth-south axis,was inter-
ruptedforabout five hours. Itwas the
first serious accidenton theParis sub-
way lines since 1931,whenabout 100 per-
sons were injured in a similar crash. The
accidentoccurredat midmorning near
thePorte deVersaillesstation on the
southwestern edgeof Paris.
ANDREWTESTA FOR THE NEWYORK TIMES
The Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design plaza creates a public square adjacent to the school, housed in a converted granary.
And from afar thevertical faceting of
the Shard’s facade reduces the impres-
sion ofbulk. The crystallineeffect is
subtler than many Londoners feared.
The building almostevaporatesincer-
tain soft light, itscrown dissolving into a
mesh ofattached screens —amove Mr.
Pianotried unsuccessfully at The New
York Timesbuilding,wherethe clunky
flat rooflooks unfinished. Here, by ex-
t
ending thetowersothat ittapers to a
continued, promoting high-rise growth
focusedaround mass transit. The policy
has brought international architects to
the cityfor the firsttime in a big way.
But many of the projectshave been
waved through the approval process by
acomplacent planning system, Rowan
Moore, the architecture critic forThe
Observer,wrote recently.
‘‘Is there anything special about their
detail?’’ he asked. ‘‘Is there consistency
orintegrityintheir overall concept?Do
theyc eate handsome new public
spacesattheir base?’’
Which gets back to New Court, OMA’s
226,000-square-foot, or21,000 square-me-
ter, headquarters forRothschild.At15
stories, it’sno skyscraper, but it is taller
than the buildings immediately around
it, the towercuttingaprofile farmore dis-
tinguished than, say,theWalkie-Ta l kie.
The Rothschild family has occupied
this same site onSt. Swithin’sLane, an
ancient alleyway not 10 feet, or3meters,
wide, since 1809. New Court replacesa
smallerheadquarters from the 1960s,
which replacedaVictorian one. St.
Stephen Walbrookchurch, by Chris-
topherWren, an architectural landmark
from1680, had been obscuredfromview
by successive Rothschild offices or
nearly 200 years.
OMA’s big idea: cut a passage
through the middleof the site, raising
the newbuilding off the ground to reveal
the church,withaquasi-public plaza
that links the coveredforecourtof the
bank withSt. Stephen’sgraveyard.
The plan is ingenious,elegant. Now a
glass and aluminumcolonnade defines
the street edge, withabroad portico and
pedestrian passage behind, framing the
church view. The plan brings transpar-
ency, surprise and civic grandeur to a
narrow lane; and by revealing Wren’s
building,the Rothschild towernods to
the tower ofSt. Stephen.
I said quasi-public earlier only be-
causewhile you can now see St. Stephen
fromSt. Swithin’sLane, you can’t get to
it. A gate betweenforecourt and church-
yard is locked; bank guards discourage
the curious. So, unfortunately, an archi-
tectureof openness meets the architec-
tureof paranoia that has reshapedcities
like London and New York formore
than a decade.
Here’s one vote for openness.
More than 30 skyscrapers are
rising or soon will in London.
sharp point, the screens serve the de-
siredpurpose.
Morethan 30 new skyscrapers are
rising orsoon will in this city. Forcentu-
ries the domeofSt. Paul’sCathedral
was the highest monumenton the sky-
line, until the Lloyd’sBuilding was con-
structedinthe 1980sbyMr. Rogers.
Thencame Norman Foster’sGherkin.
Now the race is on.
This is partly the consequenceofa
vigorouspolicy ofKenLivingstone, the
formermayor,thatMr. Johnson has
....
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013
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THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
....
4
|
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
World N
ews
europe
Signs of a rift
in U.K. co
alition
been increasingly willing to take a dif-
ferent stand from Mr. Cameron on a
range of issues — outlined a vision on
Europe starkly at odds with that of the
prime minister while asserting that
such divisions need not affect the over-
all coherence of the coalition.
That seems plausible because prac-
tical decisions over E.U. relations will
probably be delayed until after the next
elections, scheduled for 2015.
‘‘When you have got one in 10 jobs in
this country, three million people whose
jobs are dependent in one way or anoth-
er on our position as a full and leading
member of the world’s largest single
market,’’ said Mr. Clegg, ‘‘you play with
that status at your peril.’’
‘‘Do we lead or do we hang back in a
subsidiary status?’’ Mr. Clegg asked.
‘‘Obviously, the Americans and others,
quite understandably, say ‘right you are
a big nation, you’ve got big horizons,
you’ve got big ambitions, you’ve got a
big history — act big, don’t act small.’
That’s my attitude.’’
One argument in London is that the
euro zone — which Britain never joined
—will seek to integrate further and that
this will require a newE.U. treaty. Many
of Mr. Cameron’s supporters believe
that, in exchange for agreeing to that, he
canwrest back some powers fromBrus-
sels, allowing him a new settlement that
could be put to voters in a referendum.
But Mr. Clegg said that a new treaty
may not arise and advised against
promising a referendum before it was
clear what the future held.
‘‘Why would you provoke a great na-
tional debate about nothing very much
in particular in response to a document
that hasn’t materialized yet and might
never materialize?’’ he said.
In a separate development, Gunther
Krichbaum, chair of the European af-
fairs committee in Germany’s Parlia-
ment, said a referendum ‘‘could para-
lyze efforts for a better Europe and
deeper integration.’’
‘‘Britain would risk being isolated,’’
he was quoted as saying on theWeb site
of the Guardian. ‘‘That cannot be in
Britain’s interests."
Mr. Cameron’s official spokesman
played down the controversy.
‘‘The prime minister’s view is that it
is in the British national interest to be in
the E.U., but he wants to change that re-
lationship with the E.U. and to seek
fresh consent for it,’’ he said.
LONDON
Deputy premier echoes
U.S. warning on British
drift away from E.U.
BY STEPHEN CASTLE
A blunt warning from the United States
to Prime Minister David Cameron over
his plans to loosen ties with the Euro-
pean Union was echoed by Mr. Camer-
on’s coalition partner Thursday, opening
new fissures here over Britain’s ambiva-
lent attitude toward the 27-nation bloc.
Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minis-
ter and leader of the Liberal Democrats,
said that risking British membership in
the unionwas perilous, and hemocked a
long-awaited speech on E.U. policy that
Mr. Cameron is expected to make in the
Netherlands before the end of
the
month.
Mr. Clegg, who is aDutch speaker and
whose party supports the EuropeanUn-
ion, joked that he would be on hand to
translate Mr. Cameron’s speech ‘‘from
double-Dutch to just Dutch.’’
Mr. Cameron, whose Conservative
lawmakers are increasingly critical of
the European Union, has said he wants
to renegotiate Britain’s relationship
with the bloc and seek consent from
voters for the outcome of those talks.
Many observers expect him to make
an explicit promise of a referendum in
his upcoming speech — in part because
Mr. Cameron’s party risks losing sup-
port to the U.K. Independence Party,
which wants Britain to leave the union.
The political temperature rose follow-
ing an unusual, on-the-record interven-
tion on Wednesday, in which a senior
U.S. official argued that Britain was a
more useful ally if it remained fully en-
gaged in the European Union. Speaking
in London, Philip Gordon, the assistant
secretary of state for Europe, added
that referendums held by other nations
on E.U. agreements ‘‘have sometimes
turned countries inward.’’
Britons pride themselves on their
‘‘special relationship’’ withWashington
and the possibility that it would be
weakened by a movement away from
the European Union is problematic for
Mr. Cameron.
Addressing parliamentary journa-
lists in London, Mr. Clegg — who has
IAN LANGSDON/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Demonstrators at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris on Thursday after three women, including a founding member of a leading Kurdish militant group, were found dead.
Motive sought in Kurds’ killing
KURDS, FROMPAGE 1
widespread in many towns in Turkey’s
rugged southeast.
The mood was angry and somber as
hundreds of Kurds filled the street in
Paris where the bodies were found. Po-
lice erected barricades. Some people
waved Kurdish flags while other
chanted, ‘‘we are all P.K.K.!’’ On Thurs-
day evening a single police officer stood
guard outside; six roses, five red and
one white, were laid against the door.
The killings came against a complex
political backdrop after the Turkish gov-
ernment opened talks with the political
wing of the P.K.K. in Oslo last year. The
negotiations faltered after a recent
surge of violence in southeastern Tur-
key that prompted complaints from na-
tionalist Turks that the authorities
should not talk to the guerrillas.
In the absence of any clear-cutmilitary
outcome, democracy advocates in Tur-
key have been pressing for a political set-
tlement that would give greater rights to
the Kurds, who account for around 15
million of Turkey’s 74 million people.
Several Turkey experts said that the
most likely scenario was that the
killings were linked to reports of tenta-
tive peace negotiations between Turk-
ish authorities andMr. Ocalan.
Sinan Ulgen, a Turkish expert and
visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in
Brussels, said he suspected that the
killings were the product of factional in-
fighting within the P.K.K., including
more militant and hawkish elements
within the groupwho wanted to destabi-
lize the talks and derail any peace deal
that would invariably involve the dis-
arming of P.K.K. militants.
WhileMr. Ocalan still haswide support
among the rebels, Mr. Ulgen said that
years in prison may have moderated his
views and that somemilitant branches of
the P.K.K. could be concerned that he
was now too prone to compromise at a
time when Kurds were agitating for inde-
pendence with renewed intensity.
‘‘To me these killings are no coinci-
dence,’’ Mr. Ulgen said by phone from
Istanbul. ‘‘They are the first signs that
f
actions are not happy with the peace
She noted that France and Turkey had
been cooperating closely in recent years
on combating terrorism, suggesting
that involvement by a mainstream
Turkish group was very unlikely.
Most of the Kurdish exiles in France
are from Turkey. Their presence dates
to the mid-1960s when migrant workers
from Turkey began arriving in France.
Ms. Schmid said France’s Kurdish pop-
ulation came from Turkey’s nationalist
heartland in the southeast and included
many supporters of the P.K.K.
In recent years, Turkey has sought to
clamp down on the activities of Kurdish
activists outside of Turkey, where siz-
able communities in France, Germany,
BelgiumandDenmark have established
civic and media organizations that
Kurdish officials say are a refuge from
Turkish censorship. Turkey has accused
some of the institutions of being fronts
for separatist activities or terrorism.
In a speech on Wednesday, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
the negotiations were being conducted
on the Turkish side by senior intelli-
gence officials.
While Mr. Ocalan, the P.K.K. leader,
has a powerful following among the
rebels, he was denied a role in earlier
political talks. But, analysts say, Turkish
officials are hoping that his participa-
tion in the current negotiations, author-
ized by the state, has enhanced the pros-
pects of a breakthrough.
Scott Sayare contributed reporting from
Paris and SebnemArsu from Istanbul.
room at the institute. The women were
all said to hold Turkish passports.
‘‘Why anyone would want to do this is
unclear,’’Ms. Werdi said. ‘‘It was an am-
bush.’’
She said that she believedMs. Cansiz,
the founding member of the P.K.K., had
been the main target and that the other
twowomenwere collateral damage. She
said that at least one of the women had
been under surveillance by French po-
lice because of their activist activities.
She said that Ms. Cansiz had been keep-
ing a low profile in recent months and it
was rare for her to be at the information
center.
‘‘No hypothesis can be excluded at
this stage’’ about the motive for the
killing, Ms. Thibault-Lecuivre said. Vis-
iting the crime scene on Thursday, In-
terior Minister Manuel Valls called the
killings ‘‘intolerable’’ and said they
were ‘‘without doubt an execution.’’
Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman
of the ruling party in Turkey, said the
shootings seemed to be part of an in-
ternal dispute but offered no evidence to
support the claim. ‘‘Whenever in Tur-
key we reach the stage of saying ‘friend,
give up this business, let theweapons be
silent,’ whenever a determination emer-
ges on this, such incidents happen,’’ Mr.
Celik told reporters in Ankara. ‘‘Is there
one P.K.K.? I’m not sure of that.’’
Turkey, the United States and the
EuropeanUnion have labeled the P.K.K.
a terrorist organization, but sympathy
for the group and its goals remains
‘‘No hypothesis can be
excluded at this stage,’’
a spokeswoman for the
prosecutor’s office said.
process and are intent on trying to sab-
otage a deal.’’
He noted that while Turkey has re-
peatedly used military operations to try
and fight the P.K.K. in their outposts in
southeast Turkey and northern Iraq,
there was no known history of political
assassinations by Turkey of Kurdish ac-
tivists in western Europe.
But Dorothée Schmid, a Turkey ex-
pert at the French Institute of Interna-
tional Relations in Paris, did not rule out
that the killings could be the work of ex-
treme Turkish nationalists, some of
whom are virulently opposed to negoti-
ations that would lead to Turkey grant-
ing Kurds further rights and autonomy.
POOL PHOTO BY PETER NICHOLLS
Nick Clegg, left, and David Cameron at 10 Downing Street this week. Mr. Clegg asked on
Thursday, ‘‘Do we lead or do we hang back in a subsidiary status?’’
Ex-U.S. official pulls bid
for Kosovo tel
ecom stake
British detective
is found guilty
in hacking inquiry
LONDON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A top British counterterrorism detective
was found guilty Thursday of trying to
sell information to one of Rupert Mur-
doch’s tabloids, becoming the first person
convicted on charges related to Britain’s
phone-hacking scandal since a police in-
vestigation was reopened in early 2011.
Detective Chief Inspector April Cas-
burn was charged with misconduct for
phoning the News of the World tabloid
and offering to pass on information about
whether London’s police force would re-
open its phone-hacking investigation.
Prosecutors said the tabloid did not
print a story based on her call and no
money changed hands, but she had com-
mitted a ‘‘gross breach’’ of the public
trust by offering to sell the information.
Ms. Casburn, 53, also was accused of
trying to ruin the phone-hacking in-
quiry — which centered on journalists
at the now-defunct News of theWorld—
by leaking information to the press.
A key witness testified that Ms. Cas-
burn wanted to sink the hacking inquiry
because she feared it would drain re-
sources from the fight against terrorism.
Ms. Casburn, who managed the Met-
ropolitan Police terrorist financing in-
vestigation unit, had admitted contact-
ing the newspaper but denied that she
offered confidential information or had
sought payment.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court
found her guilty of one count of miscon-
duct. She will be sentenced this month.
Paralyzed woman loses
first Irish righ
t-to-die case
U.S. adoption pact
is valid through
2013, Kremlin says
dentiality required by the tender pro-
cess. But the fund decided to confirm
that it had ended its bid ‘‘since informa-
tion regarding our withdrawal from the
process is now public,’’ he wrote, refer-
ring to news reports in Kosovo based on
anonymous sources.
Many analysts in Kosovo see the
withdrawal as more of a face-saving re-
treat from a chaotic and tarnished pro-
cess under increasing domestic and in-
ternational scrutiny, than a calculated
result of number-crunching.
WhileMs. Albright is viewed bymany
in Kosovo as a national hero for her
leading role in the country’s creation,
the deal was ‘‘politically too complicat-
ed,’’ said Agron Demi, executive direc-
tor of the Institute for Advanced Studies
GAP in Pristina, the Kosovo capital.
PTK is Kosovo’s largest asset, and
public expectations are that the sale
price — expected to be $400 million to
$800 million — will be less than its true
value.
Mr. Demi expects that half of the em-
ployeeswill need to be laid off in order to
modernize the company. An opposition
political party has found traction by
leading protests against the privatiza-
tion.
‘‘Even if she had won, everyone
would have doubted that she won on the
basis of her bid,’’ Mr. Demi said.
Because of the public lack of confi-
dence in the government and percep-
tions of widespread corruption, the pub-
lic ‘‘sees everyone who makes a deal
with the government as corrupt,’’ Mr.
Demi said.
least might — open a Pandora’s box
which would be impossible to close.’’
Suicide was decriminalized in Ireland
in 1993, but the ban on helping someone
to commit suicide remains, with a pris-
on sentence as long as 14 years.
JudgeKearns said he felt sure that the
government, which had agreed to pay
all legal costs, would exercise its discre-
tion in a humane and sensitive fashion
in deciding whether to prosecute if Ms.
Fleming were to be assisted in suicide.
Ms. Fleming, the mother of two adult
children, told the court last month how
her life had become totally undignified
and too painful to bear, and said she had
planned every detail, including a funeral.
Reading a statement on her behalf
outside the court, her lawyer said Ms.
Fleming greatly appreciated the sup-
port she had received from the public.
‘‘Obviously Marie is very disappoint-
ed and saddened at today’s outcome,
and feels it would be inappropriate at
the present time to discuss any specific
legal aspects of the case having regard
to the likelihood of an appeal,’’ said the
lawyer, Bernadette Parte.
A recent survey found that large ma-
jorities of West Europeans favor the le-
galization of assisted suicide. In addi-
tion to the four European countries,
assisted suicide is also legal in the U.S.
states of Oregon andWashington.
The issue of amending the Irish Con-
stitution has also recently been high-
lighted after the death of a woman who
was refused an abortion of her dying
fetus, reigniting a debate that has di-
vided the country for decades.
BY MATTHEW BRUNWASSER
An investment fund run by the former
U.S. secretary of state Madeleine K. Al-
bright haswithdrawn its bid for amajor-
ity stake inKosovo’s state telecommuni-
cations company, an executive from the
fund, Albright Capital Management,
has confirmed.
The withdrawal came before the Jan.
31 deadline for bids from the five consor-
tiums on the short list of buyers for the
stake in company, PTK. It also followed
growing scrutiny in Kosovo and abroad
about the possibility of conflicts of in-
terest or special treatment for the fund
run by Ms. Albright, who played an im-
portant role in the 1999 intervention that
led to the separation of Kosovo from
Serbia and its declaration of indepen-
dence in 2008.
‘‘We evaluate transactions in emerg-
ing markets on a constant basis and
must decide amongmany potentially in-
teresting opportunities in light of our re-
sources and capital,’’ Nelson Oliveira,
managing director and general counsel
of Albright Capital Management, wrote
Wednesday in an e-mailed statement to
the International Herald Tribune, re-
sponding to a query about the status of
the bid. ‘‘In October, we decided to pur-
sue other opportunities that we be-
lieved presented greater odds of suc-
cess for our investors.’’
The withdrawal had not been offi-
cially announced by the company or
Kosovo’s government. According to Mr.
Oliveira’s statement, an announcement
had not been made because of the confi-
DUBLIN
REUTERS
An Irish woman with multiple sclerosis
on Thursday lost her battle for the legal
right to die in the first case of its kind in
Ireland, the High Court in Dublin said.
The plaintiff, Marie Fleming, a 59-
year-old former university lecturer who
is completely paralyzed, pleaded last
month to establish the right of her part-
ner of 18 years to help her die.
The debate over the right to die has
played out in recent high-profile court
cases in Britain, where three people
failed in efforts to win legal assistance to
die. Assisted suicide is permitted in four
European countries: Belgium; Luxem-
bourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Judge Nicholas Kearns said Ms. Flem-
ing was the most remarkable witness
any member of the court had en-
countered and acknowledged that her
life had been ‘‘rendered miserable’’ after
being ‘‘ravaged by an insidious disease.’’
But Judge Kearns said that it would be
impossible to tailor legislation for as-
sisted suicide on an individual basis and
that doing so would be harmful to the
public interest in protecting themost vul-
nerable members of society.
‘‘There are no words to express the
difficulty we had in arriving at this de-
cision,’’ Judge Kearns said, reading a
summary of the 121-page judgement.
‘‘Yet the fact remains that if this court
were to unravel a thread of this law by
even the most limited constitutional ad-
judication in her favor, it would — or at
MOSCOW
FROMNEWS REPORTS
The Kremlin said Thursday that an
adoption agreement with the United
States would remain valid until 2014 de-
spite a new Russian law voiding it.
Last month, President Vladimir V.
Putin signed legislation barring the
adoption of Russian children by Ameri-
cans as part of a response to a U.S. law
focused on Russians deemed to be vio-
lating human rights. Although some se-
nior Russian officials, including the for-
eign minister, openly opposed the bill,
Parliament overwhelmingly passed it.
Dmitri S. Peskov, a spokesman forMr.
Putin, was quoted by the state news
agency RIA Novosti as saying that the
adoptions agreement would remain in
force until Jan. 1, 2014.
The law stood to upend the plans of
dozens of American families in the final
stages of adopting children in Russia,
adding emotional tumult to a process
that can cost $50,000 ormore, require re-
peated trips overseas and entail lengthy
bureaucracy. It was unclear whether in
light of the announcement it would be
possible to complete these adoptions.
Mr. Putin had earlier brushed off crit-
icism that the law would deny Russian
orphans the chance for a better life in the
United States. In 2011, about 1,000 Rus-
sian children were adopted by Ameri-
cans in the United States, more than in
any other country, but still a tiny num-
ber given that nearly 120,000 children in
Russia are eligible for adoption.
(AP, IHT)
....
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013
|
5
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
asia
world news
In Laos, nascent freedoms take step back
Expectations
in Afghan
talks differ
sharply
AFGHANISTAN, FROMPAGE 1
VIENTIANE, LAOS
Missing land specialist
has many worried about
iron fist of government
one at a time.’’
‘‘If you’re Karzai, you’re basically now
facing the same calculation thatMaliki
did in Iraq, ‘if you’re not willing to stay in
large numbers,why do Ineedyou?’’’
said Mr. Nasr,who is now dean of the
JohnsHopkins School of AdvancedInter-
national Studies, referring to Nuri Kamal
al-Maliki,the Iraqi primeminister.
It isameasureof the disconnect be-
tween Mr. Karzai and Mr.Obama that
Afghan officials involvedinpreparing
his trip said the sense among theAfghan
leader’s inner circlewas thatMr. Karzai
was coming to theUnitedStates with
theupper hand in talks over troops.
In Mr. Karzai’s view, said theseoffi-
cials and otherpeople closetothe pres-
ident, arobustAmerican presence inAf-
ghanistan after2014 is a strategic
necessityfor theUnitedStates —vital
to keeping AlQaeda off balance and
Iran and Pakistan at bay.
‘‘Theyare absolutely convincedAmer-
icans need Afghanistan,’ ’ said a person
involved in planning the rip. They
‘‘think theyare indispensable, they think
theyhave all the leverage,’’ he said.
Indeed, much of theAfghans prepara-
tionfor thetrip has been to presenttheir
complaintsabout theUnitedStatescon-
tinuing to detain Afghans at a prison
nexttoBagram Air Base, north ofKa-
bul,which was supposed to have been
handed over to Afghan authoritiesin
September.
Still, someof Mr. Karzai’sadvisors
are awareof thetenuoussupport atthe
White House for thewar effort. Recog-
nizing the precedent in Iraq,theyhave
prevailed on theAfghan presidentto
soften his position ongranting im-
munity to any American troops sta-
tionedinAfghanistan after2014,which
he has done in recent months.
The same group ofadvisors is also
fearful that if the meetings between Mr.
Obama and Mr. Karzai do not gowell,
theycould be facing a total American
pullout, which even theAfghan leader
recognizes would leave Afghanistan in a
perilousspot.
Yet Mr. Karzai does wantAmerican
and alliedforces out of Afghan villages,
and would also liketodo away with the
village militia createdbythe coalitionin
recent years,which he seesasathreat
to the country’sstability — and his own
authority.
The ideal outcome for him, according
to theofficials,would be asubstantial
American and allied training forcethat
would help theAfghan Army makethe
mostof the billions in aid it is expecting
to receive and a robust counter-terror-
ism forcethat could work with Afghan
Special Forces to combatthe remnants
of AlQaeda.
At theWhite House, the conflict looks
much different. Whilethe costs ofkeep-
ing forcesinIraqwere aconsideration
for theWhite House, Mr.Obama is more
sensitive than everabout the financial
tradeoffs ofremaining in Afghanistan,
several officials said, in thewakeofhis
bruising fiscal showdown withCon-
gress, and the prospectofhuge mandat-
ory cutsinthePentagonbudget.
‘‘You’ve got to step back and see the
whole field from the pointof view of tax-
payerspending,’ ’ said Tommy Vietor, a
spokesman for the National Security
Council.
Theone issue both sidesseem to beon
the same page about is the peace pro-
cess, according to theofficials and the
people closetotheAfghan leader. Like
t
heir American counterparts,Afghan
BY THOMASFULLER
Hewas last seen driving home in his old,
rustyjeep.And thenhevanished.
The disappearancenearly amonthago
ofSombathSomphone, a U.S.-trainedag-
riculture specialistwho led oneof the
most successfulnonprofitorganizations
in Laos, has baffled his family and
friends and raised alarms that a nascent
liberalization of this Communist-ruled
country could be sliding backwards.
Mr. Sombath, 60, whowon many
awards for his public service, was
known to be nonconfrontational and ad-
ept at forging compromises with the au-
thoritarian governmentofLaos.
‘‘We have no malice againstthe gov-
ernment,’’ said Ng Shui Meng,Mr. Som-
bath’s wife, who is from Singapore and
met Mr. Sombath when theystudiedin
theUnitedStates. ‘‘We wanttolive our
livesquietly.’ ’
The disappearance has set off an
enormous campaign by Mr. Sombath’s
large network of friends and aid work-
ers across SoutheastAsia who know
him from his developmentwork. The
campaign has put the Laotian govern-
mentunder increasing pressureto
provide answers.
The country has taken halting steps to
modernize its one-party systeminrecent
years but has also crackeddown on dis-
sent, and itssecurityserviceshave been
linked to aseries ofpolitically motivated
assassinations in Thailand.
Paradoxically for the government, it
isanetwork ofcameras thatthe munici-
pal police installed over the pastthree
years to monitor ‘‘anti-social behavior’’
that have pointed to signs ofgovern-
ment involvement inMr. Sombath’s dis-
appearance.
Helpful workers at alocal police sta-
tion initially showed the family images
of Mr. Sombath’sjeepstoppedat apo-
lice checkpointon theevening ofDec.
15.Mr. Sombath then appeared to be
driven off in a white vehicle.
Familymembers recorded the footage
with their own digital devices — crucial
becausethe government now refuses to
let them view thevideo again despite
pleas by diplomats whowould liketo
analyze it forclues like license plates.
Sincethe search for Mr. Sombath
began,the government has issued only
short statements that suggest, without
offering details,that he may have been
involvedinapersonal dispute. But
those following the case closely remain
unconvinced.
‘‘The bottom line is thatwehaven’t
heard anything beyond a briefstate-
mentthat doesn’t clarify anything,’ ’
said KarenB. Stewart, theU.S. ambas-
sador to Laos. ‘‘There’sbeenno full re-
port about the status of the investiga-
tion or whateverisgoing on.’ ’
Amountainous, landlockedcountry of
six million, Laosisoftenportrayedin
guidebooksasagentle land ofstilt
housesalong theMekong River, smiling
and easygoing rice farmers, Buddhist
monks and village silk weavers.
GILLES SABRIE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
A volunteer posting leaflets in Vientiane asking for information about Sombath Somphone. Mr. Sombath, who had led a nonprofit group, disappeared nearly a month ago.
But the contrasttothese placid im-
agesisaCommunistParty, formally the
LaoPeople’sRevolutionary Party,that
crushesanything deemed to be a threat
to itsmonopoly onpower.
‘‘There’sanostalgic pictureof wom-
enintheir wraparound skirts, abeauti-
fulcountry with tourist attractions,’ ’
said Adisorn Semyaem, aLaosspecial-
ist attheMekong StudiesCenterat Chu-
lalongkorn University in Bangkok.
‘‘That’snot the total picture. There’s
also another sideof the coin.’ ’
A precise accounting ofrepressionin
Laos in difficulttoobtain because news
outletsare controlledbythe govern-
ment and communicationispoor across
the impoverishedcountryside. But one
measureofpolitically related violence
can be found whenit spills overinto
Thailand,where it is recordedbythe po-
lice and reportedinthe newsmedia.
Mr.Adisorn,who has researchedLao-
tian politics for the past two decades,
has compiled a listofmorethan 20 Lao-
tian citizens assassinated in Thailand
over what appear to be political rea-
sons, including a Buddhist monk who
opposed the government and a member
of the formerLaotian royal family. The
crimesallremain unresolved.
Inside Laos,the government period-
ically arrestsmembers of Protestant
Christian religiousgroups, farmers who
complain thattheir land had been taken
away and anyoneelsewhom theyjudge
to ‘‘have political agendas,’ ’ Mr.Adis-
orn said.
Mr.Adisorn has an extensive network
ofcontacts insidethe Laotian govern-
ment and has been asking about Mr.
Sombath’scase.
‘‘I assumethat he is still alive but that
the government is finding itvery diffi-
culttofind a way out of the situation,’ ’
he said.
An official who answered thetele-
phone atthe ForeignMinistry adviseda
reporter to monitor the Laotian press
for updates on the case and said a
spokesperson was not available.
There is a precedent forapolitically
linked disappearance. In 2007, Som-
pawn Khantisouk,the manager ofan
ecotourism guesthousewhowas out-
spoken in his criticism of Chinese-
owned plantations in the north of the
country, disappeared and has not been
seen since.
If Laos has avoided the same level of
scrutiny of otherauthoritarian coun-
triesinthe region, it is partly because
the political oppression is hardly visible
to outsiders when they visit. The capital,
Vientiane, has lively, outdoorrestau-
rants and countless small hotels and
tourist shops.
The country receivedarecord 3.1 mil-
lionforeign visitors last year —equiva-
lenttohalf the population — according
to the government, which promoted
2012 as Visit Laos Year under the slogan
‘‘Simply Beautiful.’ ’
Touristscome for the mountain
scenery, spicy Laotian food,the charms
ofcities like Luang Prabang and the cul-
tural legacies of the French colonial
years—ocherbuildings and nearly tax-
free French wine.
But as the country opens up and em-
braces capitalism morevigorously,
there aretensions between theold and
new Laos, betweenamoretransparent
tatedbythetopleaders. Last year, Laos
completednegotiations to join the
World TradeOrganization and hosteda
majormeeting between the European
Union and theAssociation ofSoutheast
AsianNations,the 10-nationgrouping in
which Laosisseeking a more active
role.
At the sametime, the government
crackeddown onbudding signs offree
expression. In January 2012,the author-
itiesshut down a radio program that
discussed the issue of land seizures — a
hot topic with the increasing number of
projectsinrural areas led by Chinese
and Vietnamese companies.
The hostof that radio program,
Ounkeo Souksavanh, said farmers who
appeared on the programwere arrested
several months later.
Asfor Mr. Sombath’scase, the possi-
ble motivesfor his disappearance re-
main unclear. He retired last year from
his organization,theParticipatory De-
velopment Training Center, but contin-
ued to beengaged withnonprofitorgan-
izations in Laos.
Some speculate that going aftersuch
a high-profile personality was a warn-
ing to other private groups.
‘‘Tothis day I am baffled,’ ’ Mr. Som-
bath’s wife said.
Poypiti Amatatham contributed report-
ing fromVientiane and Bangkok.
‘‘There’s a nostalgic picture of
women in their wraparound
skirts, a beautiful country
with tourist attractions.’’
government and the more cloistered
system that foughtoff U.S.-backed mili-
tias during what is knownasthe Secret
War of the 1960s and 1970s.
‘‘There’snot total, 100 percent agree-
mentor understanding about how to
manage a market economy, amore
globally orientedrule-of-law state and
yet maintain the kind ofpolitical system
theyhave,’’ said Ms. Stewart, theU.S.
ambassador.
The National Assembly has takena
more assertive role in debating govern-
ment policies thatwere previously dic-
BRIEFLY
Asia
Feisty newspa
per offers test case for a changing China
the Tuo Zhen incident, but it alsoerup-
ted out oflong-accumulated grievances
overinterference in reporting and edit-
ing,’ ’ said Zhang Ping, aformer editor
and columnistwith the paper whowas
dismissedfrom the Nanfang Media
Group under official pressure in 2011 and
also goesbythe pen name Chang Ping.
‘‘Forme, the most importantthing
about this incident is that it’s exposed
the dark insides of thePropaganda De-
partment,’’ Mr.Zhang said, speaking
fromGermany,where he now lives,
about the censorship uproar. ‘‘It’sal-
most impossibletoappeal againstthe
Propaganda Department. You couldn’t
question their decisions. Therewas no
appeal. But nowwe have this incident.’’
Much morewas at stakethan a
botched editorial. For the disgruntled
journalists,Mr. Tuo embodied increas-
ingly meddlesome censorship that
angeredyoung editors and reporters
impatientwith partycontrols, said jour-
nalists who have workedforSouthern
Weekend and academics who have
studiedit.
‘‘Nowadays, most newspapers in
China have to pay their own way and
make aliving, but when editors act like
censors,theycanthrottle a paper to
death,’ ’ said Yan Lieshan, asenior edit-
or and columnistwith the Nanfang Me-
dia Group. ‘‘Tuo Zhenseemed to have
nounderstanding that running a paper
is a business, but it certainly is.’ ’
The journalists’ grievancesgo back
years, including an incident in 2009
whenpropaganda and ForeignMinistry
officials micromanagedpublication of
an interview thatPresident Barack
Obama gave to the newspaper, said Mr.
Zhang and other ormerSouthern
Weekend journalists.
TheWhite House had reached out to
Southern Weekend as a relatively liber-
al and sympathetic outlet for thevisit-
ing president, but Beijing’scensors took
that as confirmation of the newspaper’s
political unreliability.Abland, heavily
cut version of the interview appeared.
‘‘Over the last few years, it’sbeen
clear thatthey’vebeenseenasoneof the
problempublications,’ ’ said David Ban-
durski, aresearcheratthe China Media
Project attheUniversity ofHong Kong.
‘‘I definitely have heard thatthere’s
beenalot more killing ofstories.’ ’
Southern Weekend climbed to promi-
nence as oneof the first Chinese newspa-
pers to grasp the business ofselling news
and opinion to readers who had grown
tired ofslogan-filled partypropaganda.
Itwas founded in 1984 as a supple-
menttoSouthernDaily,themain official
newspaper of the Guangdong Province
partycommittee. Its firsteditor in chief,
Zuo Fang, struck uponarecipe for using
theopportunities to draw in readers,
and advertisers,thatwereopened upby
Deng Xiaoping’s market-oriented eco-
nomic reforms.
By themid-1990s, it had shedits initial
mixtureof‘‘scantily clad starlets and
action-packed crime serial novels’’ and
begun to feature investigative reports
on official misdeeds and social ills that
wonit anationwide readership and a
reputationasthe cutting edgeof
Chinese press freedoms, said Li-Fung
Cho, amedia studies scholar attheUni-
versity ofHongKongwhowrote her dis-
sertation on the newspaper.
Chinese newspapers areownedby
arms of the state or the party, and yet
most must pay their ownway by attract-
ing readers and advertisers, and even
generate profitsfor their official own-
ers. The resulting tensionbetweencom-
merce and political control has been es-
pecially sharp forSouthern Weekend,
basedinoneof China’smost business-
focusedprovinces.
‘‘You could see how influential they’d
become by the handling theygot from
propaganda officials,’ ’ Mr. Bandurski
said. ‘‘Southern Weekend became like
the guyatthe fronttaking the blowsfor
everyoneelse.’’
Edward Wong reported fromGuang-
zhou. Jonathan Ansfield contributed re-
porting and Shi Da contributed research
fromBeijing.
HONG KONG
Protests over censorship
underscore commercial
and political tensions
‘‘They are absolutely convinced
Americans need Afghanistan.’’
MANILA
Philippines seeks Japan’s help
in territorial issues with China
ThePhilippines onThursday sought
patrol ships and communications
equipment from Japan to bettersecure
Philippineterritory in meetings of
their top diplomats,whoexpressed
alarm over their countries’territorial
conflicts with China.
ThePhilippine foreign secretary,Al-
bert delRosario, said Japan would con-
sidergiving 10 patrol vessels and a
communications system to thePhilip-
pine Coast Guard. He said he and For-
eignMinisterFumio Kishida had also
discussed ways to bolster trade, invest-
ment, tourism and maritime security
cooperation.
Mr. delRosario said he andMr.
Kishida had expressed ‘‘mutual con-
cern’’ over the aggressive steps by
China to assert its territorial claims.
(AP)
Saudis behead Sri Lankan
in death of infant in her care
A Sri Lankan whowas employedasa
domestic workerinSaudi Arabia has
beenbeheadedaftershewas accused
ofmurdering an infant in her charge
and thensentenced to deathinacase
thatthe Sri Lankan government and
human rightsgroups said was flawed.
The Saudi Interior Ministry an-
nouncedinastatement releasedbythe
official Saudi newsagency onWednes-
day thatthewoman, Rizana Nafeek,
had been executed.
Ms. Nafeek was 17 years old and had
been on the jobfor six weeks beforethe
accusation was made against herin
2005. Sri Lanka’spresident, Mahinda
Rajapaksa, had made several appeals to
the governmenttohalttheexecution.
BY CHRIS BUCKLEY
AND EDWARDWONG
The demonstrations have dieddown, re-
porters are back towork at China’smost
prominentweekly newspaper and its
latest issue was published on schedule,
but SouthernWeekend is suretoremain
acrucial battleground overCommunist
Partycensorship.
The protests thateruptedat Southern
Weekend’s offices lastweek overa
heavily rewrittenNew Year’s editorial
wereoneof the most dramatic out-
breaks yet of tensions between party
controls and journalistic defiancethat
have coursed through the newspaper’s
29-year history and made it a weather
vane for Chinese press restrictions.
The newspaper appeared onnews-
stands onThursday afterprotesting
journalistsacceptedacompromisethat
would loosensomeof themore intrusive
censorship controls over their work.
The police in Guangzhou, the capital of
Guangdong Province, movedinto deter
any fresh demonstrations attheen-
trancetothe Nanfang Media Group,
which owns the paper.
The latest issue ofSouthern Weekend
featuredaninvestigationinto afirethat
left sevenpeople dead at an orphanage
in central China, as well as discussions
ofproposed changes to labor camps and
farmland seizure laws. But therewas no
direct mention of the protests against
censorship that had turned the newspa-
peritself into a majorstory.
The protesting journalists had direct-
ed their angerat Tuo Zhen,the head of
partypropaganda inGuangdong,whom
they blamedfor tampering thatturneda
New Year’s editorial urging respect for
citizens’ constitutional rightsinto an er-
officials would liketosee it make pro-
gress, and routinely offerrosy assess-
ments of theefforts madetodate when
speaking in public.
Behind the scenes,though,theyare
as aware as theAmericans thatthere
have beenno meaningful engagements
with the Taliban in nearly a year, and
thatuntil the insurgentsprove willing to
sit down,the peace process will make
little headway.
A State Department spokeswoman,
Victoria Nuland, said Thursday thatthe
efforts to further Afghan reconciliation
would be central to the discussionlater
in the day when Mr. Karzai met with
Secretary ofState Hillary RodhamClin-
ton. But Ms. Nuland described only
‘‘modest’’ progress so far.
‘‘We have had some modest steps for-
wardinrecent months, including a com-
mitment by Pakistan to supportAfghan
reconciliation,’ ’ she said.U.S., Pakistani
and Afghan officials wereworking ‘‘to
pave theway and easethe conditions for
those Taliban who might need safe pas-
sagetogo have conversations,’ ’ she said.
Earlier,Mr. Karzai met atthePenta-
gon withDefense Secretary Leon Pan-
etta,who said the two countries had
reached the ‘‘last chapter’’ in their ef-
forttoestablish a sovereignAfghanistan
capableof ensuring its ownsecurity.
Mr. Karzai said little about the chal-
lenges his country would face as the
NATO presence declined.
But hetoldMr.Panetta, ‘‘I assure you,
Mr. Secretary,thatAfghanistan will be
abletoprovide securityforitspeople
and to protect itsforces. SoAfghanistan
will not everbethreatenedbyterrorists
from across ourborder.’ ’
CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS
The new party leader, Xi Jinping, has
made broad promises of liberalization.
ror-marredpaean to partyrule.
But the closestthatthe paper’slatest
issue cametotouching on that contro-
versy wasareprintofacommentary on
the roleof themedia fromPeople’sDaily,
the CommunistParty’s main paper.
‘‘Partycontrol of the media is a prin-
ciple, but the mannerinwhich the party
controls themediamust keepupwith the
‘‘The manner in which
the party controls
the media must keep up
with the times.’’
times,’ ’ Southern Weekend said in refer-
encetothePeople’s Daily commentary.
Southern Weekend has beenatthe
forefrontof the changes that have
brought China’s increasingly commer-
cially drivenpress into conflictwith the
party’srestraints onreporting ofscan-
dals, corruption, protests and othersen-
sitive subjects. Now the paperisatthe
heartof the next big test—of whether
the recently appointedCommunist
Partyleader,Xi Jinping, intends to ex-
tend his broad promises of economic re-
form into ameasureofpolitical liberaliz-
ation, includingmore scope for the news
media to challengeofficials.
‘‘Therewas an accidental elementto
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