Facebook puts focus on photos in new look, may boost ads

Facebook Inc introduced the biggest change in years to its popular newsfeed on Thursday, with a new look and focus on photos that is expected to make the social network more ad-friendly and may entice users to spend more time on the website.
The changes to the newsfeed, whose look and feel had remained largely unchanged since Facebook's inception, include a division into several sections, with separate areas for photographs and music.
The newsfeed is the ever-changing stream of photos, videos and comments uploaded from friends, and is the first page most users see upon logging in.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the makeover was part of an effort to position the social network as a "personalized newspaper," complete with different sections for users to explore.
It comes with a revamped interface that gives more prominence to visual media, such as photos and videos.
The makeover comes roughly a month after Facebook introduced a new social search feature it dubbed "graph search" that makes it easier for the social network's more than 1 billion users to discover more content on the social network.
The much-needed changes unveiled on Thursday, which standardize the network's look across different types of desktop and mobile devices, bring Facebook up-to-date as Google+, the much younger social network started by Google Inc, begins to incorporate more video and images.
"This is just going to provide more opportunity for people to click around and stick around," said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, about the revamped newsfeed.
"The newsfeed was kind of outdated. This sort of brings it up to maybe what's comparable to...their competition, and partner sites that are focusing on media and richness."
Facebook's newsfeed is one of three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles.
The updated newsfeed provides more space for the photos and videos that users share on the network, and provides a more consistent look and feel between the version for PCs and for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The changes will begin rolling out in limited fashion from Thursday, Facebook said.
Facebook executives say the updates will help keep organized the increasing jumble of content available on the social network as its user base grows.
The last major update to the feature occurred in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and has shifted its focus to creating "mobile-first experiences," because more people now access the social network from smartphones than from desktop computers.
FACEBOOK VERSUS GOOGLE
Marketers will be able to fashion more compelling ads thanks to the increased real estate for photos, said Hussein Fazal, the chief executive of AdParlor, a firm that helps companies advertise on Facebook. "Larger images will result in higher click through-rates, a higher level of engagement and better performance," Fazal wrote in an email.
Still, analysts say the company needs to tread carefully to avoid inundating users' various feeds with advertising, as Facebook tries to sustain a rapid pace of growth that helped it debut on public markets at the highest-ever valuation for a technology company.
The world's largest social network is moving to regain Wall Street's confidence after its botched IPO last year, addressing concerns about its long-term prospects - many of which center on an industry-wide shift toward the use of mobile devices.
Facebook shares, which are still more than a quarter off their IPO price of $38, closed up 4 percent at $28.57 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.
Facebook and Google, which both got their start on desktop computers, are now managing a transition of their products onto smartphones and tablets, which typically yield less revenue than on PCs.
The two Internet mainstays are also waging a war for revenue in mobile advertising - a market that is still small compared with the traditional desktop but that is growing exponentially.
In terms of overall mobile advertising, Google commanded a 53.5 percent share in 2012, aided by its dominance in search-based ads. Facebook had just 8.4 percent, a distant runner-up, according to estimates from research house eMarketer.
But in terms of mobile display ad sales, Facebook narrowly edges out its rival with 18.4 percent of the market versus Google's 17 percent, the research outfit estimated.
PRESSURE ON THE SYSTEM
The makeover is partly prompted by complaints about increasing clutter on Facebook's network.
As Facebook has grown to more than 1 billion users, the amount of content that users and companies post to the website has surged. Facebook users only see a small portion of that content, culled by Facebook's proprietary algorithm.
In recent months, some companies and users, including entrepreneur Mark Cuban, have grumbled that their content was not getting enough exposure in the newsfeed, because Facebook gives paid ads priority in the newsfeed.

Facebook's vice president of product, Chris Cox, acknowledged that there was "more pressure on the system" to feature the various content, as Facebook has grown in size.
The additional newsfeeds provide more opportunities for content to appear in front of users. A photos-only feed displays pictures shared by a user's connections on Facebook as well as on Facebook-owned Instagram and other photo apps that are integrated with the social network.
A revamped version of an existing but little-used Music feed aggregates the songs that a user's friends are listening to, and includes posts from bands and performers in which a user has expressed an interest.
Facebook also introduced a "Friends Only" feed that displays every message shared by a user's friends in chronological order – rather than chosen by an algorithm – as well as a "Following" feed that gathers posts from news publishers, celebrities, sports teams and other groups or businesses that a user subscribes to.
"The basic idea is sometimes you want five minutes and you want to see the top stuff, sometimes you want to spend an hour and go through a lot of different stuff," Cox said in an interview after the event.
The additional feeds could also provide Facebook with more space to offer ads on its newsfeed, though a spokeswoman said the additional news feeds would not initially feature ads.

North Korea hit by new UN sanctions after test

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council responded swiftly to North Korea's latest nuclear test by punishing the reclusive regime Thursday with tough, new sanctions targeting its economy and leadership, despite Pyongyang's threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.

The penalties came in a unanimous resolution drafted by the U.S. along with China, which is North Korea's main benefactor. Beijing said the focus now should be to ``defuse the tensions'' by restarting negotiations.

The resolution sent a powerful message to North Korea's new young leader, Kim Jong Un, that the international community condemns his defiance of Security Council bans on nuclear and ballistic tests and is prepared to take even tougher action if he continues flouting international obligations.

"Taken together, these sanctions will bite, and bite hard," US Ambassador Susan Rice said. ``They increase North Korea's isolation and raise the cost to North Korea's leaders of defying the international community."

The new sanctions came in response to North Korea's underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 and were the fourth set imposed by the UN since the country's first test in 2006. They are aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development by requiring all countries to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to the programs.

North Korea kept up its warlike rhetoric Friday after the UN vote, issuing a statement saying it was canceling a hotline and a nonaggression pact with rival South Korea.

North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the country's arm for dealing with cross-border affairs with Seoul, said it will retaliate with ``crushing strikes'' if enemies intrude into its territory ``even an inch and fire even a single shell.'' It also said it was voiding past nuclear disarmament agreements between North and South Korea.

South and North Korea agreed in a 1992 joint declaration not to produce, test or use nuclear weapons. North Korea has since conducted three nuclear tests.

The resolution also targets North Korea's ruling elite by banning all nations from exporting expensive jewelry, yachts, luxury automobiles and race cars to the North. It also imposes new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.

The success of the sanctions could depend on how well they are enforced by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.

Tensions with North Korea have escalated since Pyongyang launched a rocket in December and conducted last month's nuclear test the first since Kim took charge. Many countries, especially in the region, had hoped he would steer the country toward engagement and resolution of the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs. Instead, the North has escalated its threats.

Immediately before the Security Council vote, a spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for ``a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors'' because Washington is ``set to light a fuse for a nuclear war.''

The statement was carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

‘Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ review: A ‘ghamasan’ return, this one!

 2

Ananya Bhattacharya

There are times when you are so overwhelmed by a film that you need some time for it to sink in. This is one such film. Director Tigmanshu Dhulia’s ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ is nothing short of a miracle. It pervades the senses, lets you clutch your sides out of laughter, leaves you in tears, makes you gape at it in wonder – all in a mere span of 145 minutes. And that bit of time too flies away at an indescribable pace. Before one knows, ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ captures one to the limit of their last blink, mesmerises one and leaves them with a plethora of inexpressible emotions. If its prequel ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster’ was a terrific film, this one is twofold so. Or maybe manifold.

Dhulia’s script is original, fresh and takes the story forward from where the last one had ended. There are well fleshed out characters who slip into their roles with breathtaking ease. Not one character is wasted; not one moment seems unnecessary. In times when prolixity is passé, Dhulia revels in holding a viewer’s attention span for the entire duration: one wayward glance, and one regrets missing something!

‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster’ ends with Madhvi (Mahie Gill) – the Biwi – killing Babloo – the Gangster (Randeep Hooda). Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill as Saheb), meanwhile, is paralysed waist down from a gunshot. Madhvi takes over the politics of the area and seals sympathy votes in her favour, and consequently is elected the MLA from her territory.

Saheb and Biwi’s strained marital relationship, glimpses of which were visible in the earlier part, have escalated to indomitable levels now. So have Biwi’s alcohol consumption, eccentricity and pining for her husband. Aditya, meanwhile, takes a liking to his stepmother’s friend’s daughter Ranjana (Soha). Ranjana is in love with Indrajeet Singh (Irrfan), a prince whose ancestors had lost their kingdom to the neighbouring king – Aditya Pratap’s ancestor – and who is fondly called ‘Raja Bhaiyya’ by his people.

When ‘Bunny Uncle’ (Raj Babbar) – Soha’s father – hears that Aditya Pratap, a married man, has taken a fancy to his daughter, his rage is understandable. Just that the Saheb is a man who can get Ranjana’s brother arrested in Dubai on false charges and then arm-twist her father to get her engaged to him. Indrajeet doesn’t hesitate to announce war on his ancestral enemy’s clan – and says, “Jung hogi... ghamasan hogi...” (There will be war. A dangerous one.)

In his journey to reclaiming his love from the scheming Saheb, Indra charms the Biwi, is deviated on the way, goes to every length and breadth of what his commitment to Ranjana entails him to do... In between, there are politicians to be tackled, people to be killed off, his police inspector of a younger brother (Parvesh Rana) to be taken under his wing. The journey of ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’ is one fraught with twists in every turn of the tale.

Jimmy Sheirgill’s act is spectacular to say the least. The sheer brilliance with which he portrays the frustrations of a man confined to a wheelchair, who can do nothing but watch his whimsical wife squander his work away, is extremely laudable.

Mahie Gill – the Bertha Mason-ish Biwi – who shoots a gun with as much ease as she does her glances, is terrific – for want of a more intense word. She packs her performance with extreme poignancy on the one hand and shrewdness on the other. Nobody can even afford to neglect either Mahie the actor or Madhvi the character. While you can’t help not admiring her accomplishments with the brain, you end up feeling sad for this woman who can stop short at nothing in her quest of getting her Saheb back.

Irrfan Khan... how does one begin speaking of him! Irrfan’s Indrajeet Singh – the prince who wants to be the knight in shining armour for his damsel who calls him out in her distress – is one that might go down in the history of Hindi cinema as one of the most powerful of characters in this era. The actor leaves one laughing hard at his comic antics, makes one admire him in moments such as when he shoots a Polo ball at Aditya Pratap Singh, and at other times, leaves one in tears. For an actor who can make an entire gamut of emotions come alive on a viewer’s face, there’s hardly anything that needs to be said about his skills. And Irrfan does so with extreme potency.

Soha Ali Khan, in her moments, is exquisite. Distressed at times, in the throes of a transactional relationship, Soha leaves her viewers mesmerised with her performance. As an addition to the team of ‘Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster Returns’, this Khan delivers a power-packed act. Parvesh Rana as the cop justifies the fact that years of Television have done wonders to chisel his acting skills. The supporting cast of the film is entirely admirable, and Raj Babbar – a brilliant actor – finds a special mention.

The screenplay calls for an ear-splitting applause. So does the background score, the camera work, the art direction, the nuances, the subtle pot shots at the contemporary politics of the day, the acting – in a nutshell, everything.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film is a call to the masses to return to the real India of the hinterland; the place where earthy, solid stories exist. Places where the women can unabashedly say, “Hume mard hi kyu milte hai... Shayar kyun nahi milte!” (Why do we get just men... why not poets!)

Four stars from me for Tigmanshu Dhulia’s masterpiece. Do NOT miss this one!

SpiceJet operates all-women flights on Women's Day

International Women's Day got off to a flying start on Friday with private carrier SpiceJet's first flights of the day being operated by all-women crew, an official here said.
The all-women operations included pilots, co-pilots, in-flight crew, staff at check-in counters, engineers and security, a company spokesperson said.
It began from around 5 am onwards with SpiceJet's Boeing B-737 fleet taking off from Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru; its Bombardier Q-400 fleet of aircrafts took to the skies from New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Lending a personal touch to the celebrations, the airline staff gifted pink roses to women travellers on all the flights.
"We salute the spirit of womanhood. This is just a way of showing gratitude to all women who work with us and fly with us," SpiceJet CEO Neil Mills said.
The all-women flight operations included eight women captains and 27 co-pilots for the Boeing B-737 fleet and three captains and 10 co-pilots for the Bombardier Q-400 fleet.

UP policeman's murder: CBI team could ask for second post-mortem

A 10-member Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team will reach Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh at about noon today and could ask for a second autopsy on senior police officer Zia-ul-Haq, who was shot dead on Saturday evening in a village in Kunda, the Lok Sabha constituency of former state minister and local strongman, Raja Bhaiya.

The CBI officers will meet the chief medical officer of Pratapgarh to get details of the first post mortem report and if they are not satisfied, will ask for the second autopsy. The CBI was formally given the charge of investigating the case yesterday.

Mr Haq's wife, Parveen Azad, has said she is not fully satisfied with the first report. She also says that her husband was killed on the orders of Raja Bhaiya, whose real name is Raghuraj Pratap Singh and that she fears he could influence the investigation. She has demanded that he be arrested immediately.

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  How UP cop Zia-ul-Haq was murdered in Raja Bhaiya's constituency
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The former minister faces arrest after the investigating agency booked him and registered four different cases yesterday. The politician will be investigated for criminal conspiracy. He was forced to resign from office on Monday after he was accused in a police case of criminal conspiracy.

The first post-mortem report shared by the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday shared explicit details of how he was attacked - there were serious injuries on his head, several ribs were fractured and injuries proved he was dragged for several metres on the ground and was shot in the chest.

His revolver and the bullet that killed him are missing.

The investigating agency will today also question three police officers who have been suspended for abandoning Mr Haq in Ballipur village as he was being attacked by his murderers on Saturday evening. The role of eight policeman is being investigated in the case.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told NDTV on Wednesday night that "whichever minister has been involved in wrongdoing, we will definitely order an enquiry." The assurance lacks credibility. Despite the enormity of the charges against him, the police has yet to question or arrest Raja Bhaiya.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Zia-ul-Haq was killed when he arrived in Pratapgarh to investigate the shooting of the village headman and his brother. An angry mob confronted the police man.

Narendra Modi manages to shift discourse to economic issues

In the game of verbal one-upmanship, Congress has been targeting Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who at the moment is BJP's most popular leader. Modi too scored brownie points by targeting the 'Nehru-Gandhi dynasty' and praising 'non-dynasty' Congress leaders such as Lal Bahadur Shastri and President Pranab Mukherjee.

"He is certainly making efforts to rip into Congress through such targeted attacks," said sociologist Shiv Visvanathan. But that may not be enough for Modi to position himself strongly as a national leader, he added. Nonetheless, Modi seems to have managed senior Congress leaders to veer towards a face-off on economy and governance-related issues. Earlier, the barbs directed at Modi were about his alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

With Modi pitching himself as a 'governance evangelist' — and thanks to compliments from the likes of renowned economists Jagdish Bhagwati for his emphasis on growth — he is now being targeted over 'neutral economy turf '.

During his budget speech, finance minister P Chidambaram took a jibe at the Gujarat chief minister saying, "we have examples of states growing at a fast rate, but leaving behind women, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the minorities and some Backward Classes." He said that the UPA did not accept this model.

"The UPA government believes in inclusive development, with emphasis on improving human development indicators," he said.

Thanks to his PR machinery and fulsome praise from corporate leaders, including the Ambani brothers, Modi is acquiring a halo of being a no-nonsense administrator out to perform a shock therapy on a state that has always had low human development indicators.

Economists, too, have lauded his policies. Bhagwati went to the extent of co-authoring a book in praise of the Gujarat model of development. Titled 'India's Tryst with Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges', the book dwells at length on the advances Gujarat has made over the years to put itself on the 'fast track of growth.'

Modi has fashioned himself as a doer and has attacked the finance minister, saying the budget was 'destined to "disappoint'. Much to Modi's comfort, the ruling coalition also retorted in equal terms, justifying its economic policies. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself stepped in to take on the BJP offensive.

Singh told Parliament, "Jo garajte hain, woh baraste nahin (Thunderous clouds do not bring showers)." Singh said even the Bimaru states had done much better during the UPA regime than the previous phase when BJP was in power.

He attributed the slowdown in economic growth to "a difficult global situation", apparently ignoring his claim a few years ago that the Indian economy was growing at 8% when the rest of the world was buffeted by a slowdown. Analysts say Modi seems to have played his cards well to confront his rivals over nonideology-related issues. His colleagues in the party too have been playing a good supporting role. In his reply to the President's address, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, too, focused on a 'neutral economic turf '.

"Someone whose name was until a few years ago associated with ideological rigidity, antiminority rhetoric and dark sarcasm, Modi seems to have achieved a makeover of sorts, with his emphatic win for the third consecutive time in Gujarat polls... But whether he will be able to sustain that is the question," said Visvanathan.

Tamils in Chinese soup

Apprehending that China may take an advantage of situation in its southern neighbourhood, the UPA government has sought a cautious approach to Tamil crises in Sri Lanka, even as it faced attacks both from the opposition and its allies in parliament on Thursday.
The evasive reply by the external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on the stand to be adopted on the resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Commission, triggered angry walk outs by the allyDMK,joined by AIADMK, and the entire NDA.
Sources in the government here told DNA that Sri Lanka has so far has kept a fine balance between two major neighbours China and India despite temptations. Therefore, an all-out tirade against Colombo as demanded by the Tamil parties would be detrimental to India’s long term strategic interests, say the sources.
Khurshid in Lok Sabha also mentioned using head rather heart, while taking decisions, which may have a potential to be thrown back to India in future. “We don’t want to play role of a policeman interfering in internal affairs of a sovereign nation,” he said, but maintained that Indian diplomacy has succeeded to convince Colombo to conduct provincial assembly elections in Tamil dominated northern Sri Lanka in September.
Amidst demands that the country take a strong stand on the resolution in UNHRC, Geneva, against the human rights violations in the island, he said India wants an "independent and acceptable" inquiry into the issue, assuring that that sentiments and concerns expressed by them during a debate on plight of ethnic Tamils, would be factored in the government's stand at the UN.
Government sources here say, while President Mahinder Rajapakse banking on Sinhala chauvinistic politicalbase may not be amenable to political devolution, but he is willing to improve physical condition of Tamils. “Our biggest concerns is Chinese inimical plans. President Rajapakse has respected red lines, valued India’s interests and so far there is nopermanent Chinese presence in the island,” they say.
In Lok Sabah, earlier parties across party lines called for devolution of powers to Tamils. The BJP asked for withdrawal of army from northern province, implementation of recommendation of lessons learnt and reconciliation committee, implementation of 13th amendment plus and an independent, impartial enquiry consisting of people from outside to probe charges of genocide.

Denmark wants fresh proposal on Kim Davy's extradition

New Delhi: Denmark has pressed for a fresh proposal from India on the issue of extradition of Kim Davy, the main accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, assuring that it would be examined by its the justice department.

Denmark sought a fresh proposal from India during a meeting of a Danish delegation headed by its Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Justice Ministry Jens Christian Bulow and the Indian officials from home and external affairs ministries, said sources in the Indian delegation.

India expressed its disappointment over Denmark seeking a fresh proposal for the extradition of Davy, sources said.

India told the Danish delegation that its justice department took nine years in deciding its earlier request for the extradition of Purulia arm drop case prime accused, they said.

The Indian delegation said a fresh proposal and its examination by Denmark's justice department would further delay the trial in Purulia arms drop case, sources said.

The Danish side assured that any fresh proposal for the extradition of Davy might be examined and decided expeditiously, sources said.

Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters that "the talks were held in a cordial manner and there was a discussion on extradition of Kim Davy".

The extradition of Davy relates to the dropping of arms and ammunition in Purulia district of West Bengal that included a large consignment of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition. The arms dropping took place Dec 17, 1995.

Five Latvians and British national Peter Bleach were arrested in connection the air dropping of the arms. Kim Davy managed to escape.

The arrested Latvian crew members were released from a prison in Kolkata in 2000 after requests from Russian authorities while Bleach was given a presidential pardon in 2004 following requests by the British government.

IANS

United Nations officials negotiated on Thursday with Syrian rebels who had seized a group of United Nations peacekeepers in the disputed Golan Heights region between Syria and Israel, as the rebels offered assurances of the peacekeepers’ well-being and appeared to back away from threats to hold them as hostages. Multimedia Video Feature Watching Syria's War Rebels Interview Captured Governor Related The Lede: Video of Syrians With Seized U.N. Vehicles in Golan Heights (March 6, 2013) Number of Syrian Refugees Hits 1 Million, U.N. Says (March 7, 2013) Kerry Says U.S. Backs Mideast Efforts to Arm Syrian Rebels (March 6, 2013) World Twitter Logo. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Enlarge This Image Reuters A video posted online Wednesday showed a member of the Martyrs of Yarmouk claiming responsibility for the abduction of a group of U.N. peacekeepers. Enlarge This Image The New York Times Enlarge This Image Israel, which has watched anxiously for spillover as the Syrian civil war has intensified, signaled Thursday that it had no intention of becoming embroiled in the situation. Amos Gilad, a senior official in the Defense Ministry, told Israel Radio that “we can rely on the U.N. to persuade” the insurgent fighters to release the peacekeepers, who are from the Philippines, and that “neither the rebels nor anyone else has an interest in clashing with the international community, which it needs for support.” The authorities in Manila said the troops had not been harmed, and President Benigno S. Aquino III said he believed the peacekeepers would be viewed by both sides in the Syrian conflict as a “benign presence, so we don’t expect any further untoward incident to happen.” The 21 peacekeepers seized Wednesday are part of a United Nations force that was set up to patrol the demilitarized zone along Syria’s Golan frontier after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and their detention was the first time any United Nations forces had been drawn into the Syrian war. A group calling itself Martyrs of Yarmouk claimed responsibility for capturing the unit and, in a video posted on the Internet, threatened that if Syrian forces did not withdraw from the surrounding area within 24 hours, the peacekeepers would be dealt with “like war prisoners.” But on Thursday, a statement on what appeared to be the group’s Facebook page asserted that the rebels had acted to protect the Filipino unit from a Syrian government assault. “With God’s help, we were able to keep a group of U.N. members, who work in the border village of Al Jamlah, safe from the barbaric shelling of Assad’s criminal gang,” it said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The peacekeepers were “under our protection until we can get them to safe areas,” the post continued. “We dissociate ourselves from all statements issued prior to this one regarding the detention of U.N. personnel,” it said. “They are now safe and honored and hosted as guests by the brigade’s leadership until we can deliver them safely to their headquarters.” A series of videos was also posted on the Internet showing different groups of the peacekeepers offering remarkably similar accounts. In each, an officer identifies himself and his unit, explains that they came under fire from government forces and were aided by civilians, who were giving them food and water and keeping them safe. A spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain, said Thursday that the rebels were seeking the withdrawal of Syrian forces from the area, a halt to their shelling and a secure road to use to hand the Filipino soldiers over to international forces in the Quneitra border region. The observatory, which has a network of opposition contacts in Syria, said the soldiers were still in Al Jamlah and reported “clashes” between government troops and rebels on Thursday on the village’s northern outskirts. There was no immediate independent confirmation. The group said that Arab League representatives had joined United Nations officials in negotiating with the rebels. Violence continued elsewhere, with activists reporting that warplanes struck the north-central city of Raqqa, where rebels have made gains in recent days, and that the neighborhood of Khalidiya, in Homs, was being shelled. There were also reports of a warplane crashing in a southern suburb of the northern city of Idlib. An activist working with the Syrian Observatory said it was hit by antiaircraft fire and poured out black smoke. Other witnesses said they saw two parachutes. The scale of the destruction wrought by the almost two-year-old conflict emerged starkly on Thursday when Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian aid organization, said in a report that Syria’s once-efficient health care network had broken down, with patients treated in caves and basements as large numbers of hospitals closed and medical facilities became tools “in the military strategies of the parties to the conflict.” “Medical aid is being targeted, hospitals destroyed and medical personnel captured,” said Marie-Pierre Allié, the president of Doctors without Borders. The report, issued in New York, added to a catalog of woes this week as the number of refugees fleeing Syria exceeded a million and the school system was reported to have collapsed. Alan Cowell reported from London, and Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

When 14-year-old Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai was attacked by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school last October, it was a shot heard around the world. The teen has since recovered her strength and is now heralded as a leader in the movement to bring education to every girl. Her message: We won't accept violence. Friday is the 102nd International Women's Day and women – and men – across the world will join their voices in unison to echo the same sentiment: We must all commit to end violence, rape and abuse.
From female journalists being sexually assaulted in Egypt to politicians in the US and UK stating that only some allegations of rape are "legitimate", 2012 sometimes seemed like a setback for women's rights. The gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi and a 17-year-old girl in South Africa have sparked a ripple of anger that has spread around the world. These are not exceptional cases; they are the tip of the iceberg. In the UK, one in three girls have experienced unwanted sexual touching at school. In South Africa, one in three men admit to having raped. Globally one in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in her lifetime. This isn't a marginal issue. We can't continue to ignore the fact that women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria combined.
In the wake of such atrocity, men and women have united to stand for equality and change. We know the support of men and boys is also an important part of the solution, that we're more powerful together. Across the globe, bells have chimed, people have converged in peaceful protest, communities have congregated online and men and women have danced in the street in the name of change. In 2012 the power of the internet and social media gave us an opportunity to unite. This year could provide the moment to act.
We stand collectively and say "we won't accept violence". We can say enough is enough to violence against women and girls. We can provide better support for the survivors of abuse. We can ensure young people are educated about healthy relationships and we can challenge sexism when we encounter it. Let's make our voices heard.
Annie Lennox activist and founder of the Equals coalition
Elton John founder, Elton John Aids Foundation
Anouskha Shankar musician and composer
Joe Wright director
Barbara Broccoli producer
Beverley Knight musician
Dion Dublin former England footballer
Caroline Lucas MP Green party
Charlie Webster presenter
Iwan Thomas Olympian
Emeli Sandé musician
Eve Ensler activist and author
Fay Ripley actor
Frisky and Mannish comedians
Gemma Cairney radio presenter
Ghostpoet musician
Guy Paul actor
Harriet Walter actor
Helena Kennedy barrister and broadcaster
Hollie McNish writer
Inja musician
Jo Brand comedian
Eddie Izzard comedian
Joan Bakewell author and broadcaster
Juliet Stevenson actor
Katy Piper activist
Jahmene Douglas musician
Katy B musician
Genneus music producer
Keira Knightley actor
Dominic Cooper actor
Maryam d'Abo actor
Hugh Hudson film director
Laura Bates campaigner
Josh Shahryar human hights reporter
Naomie Harris actor
David Oyelowo actor
Natasha Walter writer and campaigner
Phillippe Sands professor of international law
Ruth Negga actor
Sabrina Mahfouz poet and playwright
Dean Atta writer
Sam Taylor-Johnson director and artist
Aaron Taylor-Johnson actor
Mohsen Makhmalbaf director
Sarah Brown writer and campaigner
Stella Creasy MP Labour
Tessa Munt MP Liberal Democrats
VV Brown musician
Yvette Cooper MP Labour
Zainab Salbi writer and activist

• As we celebrate this year's International Women's Day, the UK is also preparing to appear before the UN committee tasked with monitoring the government's progress on the promises we have made under the international law on women's human rights – Cedaw.
The government's engagement with Cedaw is welcome. As a state which prides itself on international human rights leadership it is important that we too step into the global spotlight and are accountable for action to guarantee basic rights here at home as well as abroad. Less heartening is what this spotlight reveals. The government's interim response to the UN committee ahead of July's full examination reveals a worrying picture which, in some instances, risks regression rather than progress for women's rights in the UK. For example, the fact that women are more likely to qualify for legal aid because they are among the poorest in our society is not a sign of progress.
As Eleanor Roosevelt stated shortly after drafting the universal declaration of human rights in 1948, human rights begin in small places close to home. We applaud the government's commitment to engaging with international human rights mechanisms, but we urge them to remember that the point of human rights, including women's human rights, is that they must be made real here at home.
Sanchita Hosali Deputy director, British Institute of Human Rights
Annie Campbell Director, Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland
Lynda Dearlove Chief executive, Women at the Well
Ceri Goddard Chief executive, Fawcett Society
Rebecca Gill Director of policy, Campaigns & Communications, Platform 51
Carolina Gottardo Director, Latin American Women's Rights Service
Lily Greenan Manager, Scottish Women's Aid
Andy Gregg Chief executive, Race on the Agenda
Rachel Halford Director, Women in Prison
Paula Hardy Chief executive, Welsh Women's Aid
Vivienne Hayes Chief executive, Women's Resource Centre
Davina James-Hanman Director, AVA Project
Robina Iqbal Board member, Muslim Women's Network UK
Annette Lawson Chair, National Alliance of Women's Organisations
Marcia Lewinson Women Acting in Today's Society
Polly Neate Chief executive, Women's Aid
Sumanta Roy Policy and research manager, Imkaan
Emma Scott Director, Rights of Women
Deborah Singer Policy manager, Asylum Aid
• Food banks, soup kitchens, homeless night shelters, debt counselling… nationwide the church is engaged with those at the receiving end of the government's austerity measures. Last week the Methodist church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Church of Scotland published a report, The lies we tell ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty. It says statistics have been manipulated and misused by politicians and media to support a comfortable but dangerous story: that the poor somehow deserve their poverty, and therefore deserve the cuts which they increasingly face. This report from the churches focusing on UK poverty follows on from the launch of the Enough Food for Everyone If campaign, launched by over 100 charities and faith groups in January. If there was tax justice in the world; If international companies were transparent in their business dealing; If there wasn't a massive land grab… there would be enough food in the world for everyone.
In these reports and campaigns the church is asking the right question: "Why are they poor?" Like the Faith in the city report in the 80s, the church is actively challenging government attacks on the poor. It is not, as Seumas Milne asserts (Women are now to the left of men. It's a historic shift, 6 March), that women have swung to the left because of the decline of the church. Today the voice of women of the left is to be heard loud and clear in the church, united with all those who long for a more just and equitable society.
Rev Barbara Calvert
Chislehurst, Kent
• So women are to the left of men, and there are more of us of voting age than men. Perhaps this is the time for a shift from politics based on conflict and aggression to politics based on compassion and collaboration. If we're to keep Earth fit for humans to live on, women and men who value co-operation over fighting need to work together to radically change the political agenda, before it is too late.

U.N. Starts Talks to Free Peacekeepers Held by Syria Rebels

United Nations officials negotiated on Thursday with Syrian rebels who had seized a group of United Nations peacekeepers in the disputed Golan Heights region between Syria and Israel, as the rebels offered assurances of the peacekeepers’ well-being and appeared to back away from threats to hold them as hostages.

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• The Lede: Video of Syrians With Seized U.N. Vehicles in Golan Heights (March 6, 2013)

• Number of Syrian Refugees Hits 1 Million, U.N. Says (March 7, 2013)

• Kerry Says U.S. Backs Mideast Efforts to Arm Syrian Rebels (March 6, 2013)

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A video posted online Wednesday showed a member of the Martyrs of Yarmouk claiming responsibility for the abduction of a group of U.N. peacekeepers.

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The New York Times

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Israel, which has watched anxiously for spillover as the Syrian civil war has intensified, signaled Thursday that it had no intention of becoming embroiled in the situation. Amos Gilad, a senior official in the Defense Ministry, told Israel Radio that “we can rely on the U.N. to persuade” the insurgent fighters to release the peacekeepers, who are from the Philippines, and that “neither the rebels nor anyone else has an interest in clashing with the international community, which it needs for support.”

The authorities in Manila said the troops had not been harmed, and President Benigno S. Aquino III said he believed the peacekeepers would be viewed by both sides in the Syrian conflict as a “benign presence, so we don’t expect any further untoward incident to happen.”

The 21 peacekeepers seized Wednesday are part of a United Nations force that was set up to patrol the demilitarized zone along Syria’s Golan frontier after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and their detention was the first time any United Nations forces had been drawn into the Syrian war.

A group calling itself Martyrs of Yarmouk claimed responsibility for capturing the unit and, in a video posted on the Internet, threatened that if Syrian forces did not withdraw from the surrounding area within 24 hours, the peacekeepers would be dealt with “like war prisoners.”

But on Thursday, a statement on what appeared to be the group’s Facebook page asserted that the rebels had acted to protect the Filipino unit from a Syrian government assault. “With God’s help, we were able to keep a group of U.N. members, who work in the border village of Al Jamlah, safe from the barbaric shelling of Assad’s criminal gang,” it said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

The peacekeepers were “under our protection until we can get them to safe areas,” the post continued.

“We dissociate ourselves from all statements issued prior to this one regarding the detention of U.N. personnel,” it said. “They are now safe and honored and hosted as guests by the brigade’s leadership until we can deliver them safely to their headquarters.”

A series of videos was also posted on the Internet showing different groups of the peacekeepers offering remarkably similar accounts. In each, an officer identifies himself and his unit, explains that they came under fire from government forces and were aided by civilians, who were giving them food and water and keeping them safe.

A spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain, said Thursday that the rebels were seeking the withdrawal of Syrian forces from the area, a halt to their shelling and a secure road to use to hand the Filipino soldiers over to international forces in the Quneitra border region. The observatory, which has a network of opposition contacts in Syria, said the soldiers were still in Al Jamlah and reported “clashes” between government troops and rebels on Thursday on the village’s northern outskirts. There was no immediate independent confirmation.

The group said that Arab League representatives had joined United Nations officials in negotiating with the rebels.

Violence continued elsewhere, with activists reporting that warplanes struck the north-central city of Raqqa, where rebels have made gains in recent days, and that the neighborhood of Khalidiya, in Homs, was being shelled.

There were also reports of a warplane crashing in a southern suburb of the northern city of Idlib. An activist working with the Syrian Observatory said it was hit by antiaircraft fire and poured out black smoke. Other witnesses said they saw two parachutes.

The scale of the destruction wrought by the almost two-year-old conflict emerged starkly on Thursday when Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian aid organization, said in a report that Syria’s once-efficient health care network had broken down, with patients treated in caves and basements as large numbers of hospitals closed and medical facilities became tools “in the military strategies of the parties to the conflict.”

“Medical aid is being targeted, hospitals destroyed and medical personnel captured,” said Marie-Pierre Allié, the president of Doctors without Borders.

The report, issued in New York, added to a catalog of woes this week as the number of refugees fleeing Syria exceeded a million and the school system was reported to have collapsed.

Alan Cowell reported from London, and Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Sensex gains 125 points in early trade

The BSE benchmark index Sensex roseover 125 points in early trade on Friday on sustained buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend in Asian markets.

Continuing its rising streak for the fourth straight session, the 30-share index rose by 125.27 points, or 0.65%, to

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19,538.81 points. The index had gained 535.58 points in the previous three sessions. Stocks of oil and gas, consumer durables and banking sectors led the rally.
The wide-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange regained 5,900 points level by rising 40.85 points, or 0.69%, to 5,904.15.
Brokers said continued buying by funds and retail investors on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India may announce a rate cut in its policy review later this month and a firming trend on the other Asian bourses, influenced the trading sentiment here.
In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 1.07%, while Japan's Nikkei was higher by 2.17% in the morning trade on Friday. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.23% to close at fresh record high in on Thursday's trade.

Olympian Vijender Singh in drug net?

Mohali: Olympic medal winning boxer Vijender Singh and fellow boxer Ram Singh are being called in for questioning by the police after a drug-bust led to their names being associated with the drug peddlar.

The recent series of events began on March 03 when a drug peddlar, Anup Singh Kahlon, was arrested with 540g of heroin. Upon further questioning Kahlon and Rocky, his partner in crime, mentioned the names of two boxers and claimed they had supplied them with drugs and heroin.

Further investigation uncovered a major international drug peddling racket as the police recovered 26 kg of heroin, worth around Rs 130 crore, in the traffickers` flat in Zirakpur, Mohali.

While Man Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, overseeing the investigation, says that they are treading slowly and have no reason to believe the drug-traffickers, the two sportspersons will be called in for questioning as a summons is imminent.

The twist in the tale came when the police also discovered Vijender Singh`s wife`s car outside the same flat in Zirakpur, adding a loose link to the case. While no drugs were found in her car and the incident may just be a coincidence, what`s certain is that this is a major drug bust and the Punjab police may be able to break up a big international trafficking route.

Olympian Vijender Singh in drug net?

Leader of Vote Count in Kenya Faces U.S. With Tough Choices

NAIROBI, Kenya — He has been charged with heinous crimes, accused of using a vast fortune to bankroll death squads that slaughtered women and children. His running mate also faces charges of crimes against humanity, and as Kenya’s election drew closer, the Obama administration’s top official for Africa issued a thinly veiled warning during a conference call about the vote, saying that Kenyans are, of course, free to pick their own leaders but that “choices have consequences.”

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• On Eve of Vote, Fragile Valley in Kenya Faces New Divisions (March 3, 2013)

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Presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta has been charged with heinous crimes and accused of using a vast fortune to bankroll death squads that slaughtered women and children. More Photos »

But when the ballot counting began this week, Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, surged ahead in the race for president and stayed out front as the margin narrowed early on Friday. Soon, the Obama administration and its allies could face a tough choice, made even more complicated by the appearance of taking sides against a candidate who may very well win.

Does the United States put a premium on its commitment to justice and ending impunity — as it has emphasized across the continent — and distance itself from Mr. Kenyatta should he clinch this election?

Or would that put at risk all the other strategic American interests vested in Kenya, a vital ally in a volatile region and a crucial hub for everything from billion-dollar health programs and American corporations to spying on agents of Al Qaeda?

Even the little things could be tricky. Are the American diplomats who interact with the Kenyan government on a daily basis not supposed to shake Mr. Kenyatta’s hand? What about sharing a dais with him? The British have already publicly stated that they will avoid any contact unless it is essential.

“This is going to pose a very awkward situation,” said Jendayi Frazer, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs. “Kenyatta knows he needs the United States, and the United States knows it needs Kenya.”

American officials have declined to discuss publicly what a Kenyatta victory would mean, and several reiterated the rather anodyne video message from President Obama in February, in which he said, “The choice of who will lead Kenya is up to the Kenyan people.”

But Johnnie Carson, the top administration official for Africa, was not quite so diplomatic when he repeatedly warned soon after that “choices have consequences,” which critics say backfired by energizing supporters of Mr. Kenyatta and his running mate, William Ruto, driving many to the polls to rally behind them. “When you inject yourself into an election,” Ms. Frazer said, “you never know how it will play.”

Mr. Carson responded, “One comment does not swing a contest.”

If he wins the presidency, Mr. Kenyatta, who was leading with 50 percent of the vote on Friday, would become the second African head of state after Sudan’s Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face grave charges at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. But that does not mean he will meet the same diplomatic isolation as Mr. Bashir, who is wanted on an arrest warrant and cannot travel to much of the world.

For starters, Mr. Bashir has refused to appear at the court, while Mr. Kenyatta has traveled there to defend himself, so no warrant has been issued. Beyond that, the United States and Sudan were hardly allies when Mr. Bashir was accused of fomenting genocide in Darfur. The relationship was already sour, with Sudan squeezed by sanctions for playing host to Osama bin Laden, among other things.

By contrast, the American-Kenyan partnership has been a particularly symbiotic one, especially recently. American intelligence agents work closely with their Kenyan counterparts, hunting down Qaeda cells in Kenya and Somalia. Kenya receives nearly $1 billion in American aid each year and has agreed to accept captured Somali pirates and hundreds of thousands of refugees, at the request of donors like the United States.

Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, is home to the largest American Embassy in sub-Saharan Africa and a sprawling United Nations campus that runs programs across the world, making it especially difficult for the United States to take its resources somewhere else.

“There is really very little leverage that the U.S. and other countries can exercise,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center in Washington.

One former American official with extensive experience in Africa was more blunt. “We need Kenya more than Kenya needs us,” he said.

The United States has to be careful how it handles the Kenyatta issue, analysts say, because Mr. Kenyatta could easily turn to China, which has made important inroads here, building highways and even covertly financing some Kenyan military operations.

Already, the Western concerns about Mr. Kenyatta’s candidacy seem to be provoking a backlash.

On Wednesday, the Kenyatta campaign accused the British high commissioner here of “shadowy, suspicious and rather animated involvement” in Kenya’s election, a claim the British dismissed as “entirely false.”

A Senator’s Stand on Drones Scrambles Partisan Lines

WASHINGTON — Senator Rand Paul’s intention was to highlight his misgivings about how drones are used. He ended up enmeshing his fellow Republicans in a broader debate over national security that scrambled the politics of left and right.

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Senator Lindsey Graham, far right, was critical Thursday of Rand Paul’s drone-based filibuster.

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After invoking and being embraced by civil-liberties-minded liberals during a 13-hour filibuster starting Wednesday on the Senate floor, Mr. Paul, of Kentucky, was showered with praise on Thursday by both the Tea Party movement and the provocateurs of the peace group Code Pink. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, praised Mr. Paul’s conviction.

Mr. Paul, a libertarian in the mold of his father, former Representative Ron Paul, pointedly questioned whether the government had the authority to kill an American citizen in the United States with a drone strike — an effort that generated a tremendous following on social media.

But he was assailed by two of his party’s most prominent national security hawks, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. They took to the floor on Thursday to defend President Obama’s aggressive use of drones against Al Qaeda and its affiliates and to suggest that Mr. Paul and his backers had engaged in scaremongering.

“We’ve done, I think, a disservice to a lot of Americans by making them think that somehow they’re in danger from their government,” Mr. McCain said. “They’re not. But we are in danger from a dedicated, longstanding, easily replaceable-leadership enemy that is hellbent on our destruction.”

Mr. Paul won particular support from two other Tea Party-backed Republicans, Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. The three spelled one another during the filibuster on Wednesday afternoon and evening, drawing in part from a huge positive response on Twitter to their efforts.

But with Tea Party supporters having demonstrated the ability to mount primary challenges to incumbents they consider insufficiently conservative, an array of other Republican senators showed up on the Senate floor late Wednesday night to support Mr. Paul’s filibuster.

They included Mr. McConnell, who has been moving vigorously to shut down chatter about a potential primary challenge to his re-election campaign next year, and Senator Marco Rubio, who has drawn some Tea Party criticism for his openness to an immigration overhaul that would give illegal immigrants a chance at gaining citizenship.

As Republicans went at one another and White House officials watched in amusement, the administration directly answered the question at the heart of Mr. Paul’s filibuster. No, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a letter Thursday to Mr. Paul, the president does not have the authority to use a drone to kill a United States citizen on American soil who is not engaged in combat.

Mr. Holder did not say how the president would determine who is an enemy combatant. And he did not back off his statement on Wednesday that the president has the authority to pursue military action inside the United States in extraordinary circumstances, an assertion that helped set off Mr. Paul’s filibuster.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Senate went on to address what Mr. Paul had been seeking to delay with his filibuster, the confirmation of John O. Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. After Democrats threatened to keep in the Senate in session through the weekend to deal with the confirmation, Republicans allowed a quick vote and Mr. Brennan was approved, 63 to 34.

Among those voting in favor of Mr. Brennan was Mr. Graham, who had earlier indicated that he might vote no but said Thursday that he would support the nomination to send a signal that he backs the drone program.

By the time the Senate adjourned for the weekend, a Republican Party that had long assailed Mr. Obama as a leader who would turn a war on terrorism into a police action with Miranda rights for suspects had shown itself to be sharply divided over whether the president had instead grabbed too much power and was risking violating the Constitution in his efforts to keep the nation safe.

“The question of whether the United States government can kill a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil when that individual does not pose an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm is a fundamental issue of liberty,” Mr. Cruz said. “It is an issue of enforcing the explicit language of our Constitution.”

While the events of the day brought into sharp relief the strains within the various components of the conservative movement, they also highlighted bipartisan unease in Congress over Mr. Obama’s policy of keeping information about the drone program tightly held.  

Hopes, Maybe Misguided, That Food Will Breed Productivity in Capital

WASHINGTON — For all they fail to agree on, Republicans in Congress and President Obama have come to see eye to eye on at least one thing: four years of relatively little contact is no way to run the country.

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• The Caucus: G.O.P. Senators Give Obama Dinner Thumbs Up (March 6, 2013)

So for more than two hours on Wednesday night, a dozen senators and the president gathered on neutral territory — a private dining room at one of this city’s most elegant hotels — and tried to work out their frustrations over beef and wine.

Aside from the issue of how to handle the check, what was described by all as a convivial dinner raised difficult questions about how effective the new White House campaign to woo Republicans will be and whether Mr. Obama, even at his most contrite and conciliatory, can bridge the gap between two parties that remain deeply divided over fundamental questions of policy and the role of government.

Lawmakers in both parties say the president’s efforts may make him a few new friends, but he is not going to change ideologies. Others privately complained that convening such a high-profile meeting seemed like an effort to distract from his failure to help forge a solution to avert the automatic budget cuts that went into effect last week.

Asked Thursday morning about the president’s new social schedule, Speaker John A. Boehner chuckled before saying he hoped the talks would produce real compromise.

“After being in office four years, he’s actually going to sit down and talk to members,” Mr. Boehner said, his voice rising in feigned disbelief. Still, he added in a more serious tone, “I think it’s a sign, a hopeful sign. And I’m hopeful that something will come out of it. But if the president continues to insist on tax hikes, I don’t think we can get very far.”

Those who have studied the relationship between presidents and Congress doubt seriously whether Mr. Obama’s latest outreach will yield much.

“It’s a rather shallow notion,” said George Edwards, a political scientist at Texas A & M University and an expert who has written extensively on presidential power. “You’re not going to get committed conservatives to change their long-held ideological commitments because you play a round of golf or invite them to the White House.”

Or treat them to an expensive dinner, for that matter, experts said. The senators, as is their custom, did most of the talking on Wednesday night. They were grateful to Mr. Obama for the invitation, though they told him they wished he had reached out earlier, instead of first going on a campaign-style cross-country tour accusing Republicans of obstruction.

Mr. Obama’s tone was amenable, and he kept his comments brief. “I don’t think he came there to say, ‘Here’s the way it’s going to be, and I need you to get in line,’ ” said Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska, who estimated that Mr. Obama spoke only about 10 percent of the time. “I think he was saying the opposite.”

They urged him to talk tougher on the need to bring down the cost of programs like Medicare. “You are in the bully pulpit,” Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he told the president. “You can be honest with the American people and lay those facts on the table because that is what it’s going to take.”

Around 8:30 p.m., Senator John McCain of Arizona, the self-appointed timekeeper, interrupted to say that they had exhausted their time and should let Mr. Obama be on his way. “The president’s a busy guy,” he said.

And with that, they went their separate ways into the cold, damp Washington night.

Next week Mr. Obama will take the extraordinary step of traveling to Capitol Hill to hold four separate meetings with members of Congress — one with Democrats and one with Republicans in each chamber. The last time he visited the Capitol to meet with the House Republican conference was January 2009; with Senate Republicans it was May 2010, though the president has met with them on occasion since. And on Thursday, Mr. Obama hosted a lunch at the White House that included Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the House Budget Committee chairman.

Mr. Brennan’s Excuse

John Brennan, the newly confirmed chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, has been at the agency for most of 25 years. He had two counterterrorism jobs during the administration of George W. Bush. In one, he compiled intelligence reports from 20 agencies (including the C.I.A.) for Mr. Bush’s morning briefing. He was President Obama’s national security adviser in his first term and an architect of the Obama administration’s targeted killings policy.

Related

• C.I.A.’s History Poses Hurdles for an Obama Nominee (March 7, 2013)

• A Measure of Change: Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will (May 29, 2012)

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Yet, at his Senate confirmation hearing in February, he appeared to be one of the few people (apart from maybe Dick Cheney and some other die-hard right-wingers) who thinks there is some doubt still about whether the Bush administration tortured prisoners, hid its actions from Congress and misled everyone about whether coerced testimony provided valuable intelligence.

Mr. Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he was surprised by the findings of a 6,000-page Senate report on detention and interrogation. Scott Shane reported in The Times on Thursday that the report concludes that the interrogation of Al Qaeda detainees involving torture and abuse “was ill-conceived, sloppily managed and far less useful in obtaining intelligence than its supporters have claimed.”

Mr. Brennan’s response, after having one of the top C.I.A. jobs during the period when the torture agenda was at its apex (when Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding 183 times), was: “I don’t know what the facts are or what the truth is. So I really need to look at that carefully and see what C.I.A.’s response is.”

In the past, Mr. Brennan said he had no role in running the torture program and expressed disapproval — in private to people he has not named. As for what went wrong, if “there were systemic failures, where there was mismanagement or inaccurate information,” he said, “I would need to get my arms around that, and that would be one of my highest priorities if I were to go to the agency.”

It’s a little hard to be reassured because getting to the bottom of the Bush-era lawbreaking, mismanagement and incompetence in the interrogation and detention programs has not been a high priority for President Obama. In fact, it’s been no priority at all. From the day he took office in 2009, the president refused to spend any time looking at the gigantic blunders and abuses of power under his predecessor because he didn’t want a small thing like that to interfere with his other political priorities.

As a result, many, many of the details of the creation and execution of the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in C.I.A. black sites remain unknown to most members of Congress and to the public. Not only did Mr. Obama refuse to open any investigation, but his administration even gave a pass to the C.I.A. officials who destroyed videotapes of sanctioned torture.

The Senate’s report may be the last hope for Americans to know the truth about what Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney authorized in the name of protecting our country — decisions that caused enormous damage to its reputation worldwide. But it remains classified, and Mr. Brennan has not said whether he would support releasing a redacted version to the public. That is the only acceptable course. The cover-up of the Bush-era lawbreaking has to stop.

It’s About the Work, Not the Office

THE recent decision by Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, to eliminate telecommuting for all workers brings her company back in line with most of corporate America, where working from home is more illusion than reality. Although many — some estimate most — American jobs could successfully be performed at home, only roughly 16 percent of American employees actually telecommute in any given year. And that figure is reached only by using a very generous definition of telecommuting — working from home at least one hour per week.

The idea behind the Yahoo announcement, as well as a more limited announcement from Best Buy this week that will add restrictions to its telecommuting policy, was that bringing workers back to the office would lead to greater collaboration and innovation. This is despite numerous studies showing that telecommuting workers are more productive than those working on-site.

Yet a work force culture based on long hours at the office with little regard for family or community does not inevitably lead to strong productivity or innovation. Two outdated ideas seem to underlie the Yahoo decision: first, that tech companies can still operate like the small groups of 20-something engineers that founded them; and second, the most old-fashioned of all, that companies get the most out of their employees by limiting their autonomy.

Consider the reality of telecommuting in the United States: most of the telecommuting hours put in by managers and professionals occur after they have worked at least 40 hours at the office. For them, working from home means checking e-mail, returning calls and writing reports during evenings, weekends and vacations.

I suspect Yahoo is not keen on eradicating that type of telecommuting, which increases work hours and squeezes ever greater productivity from workers. Its change was aimed at eliminating the type of telecommuting that substitutes for time spent at the office and that gives employees the opportunity to avoid long commutes and design their work hours around family or community obligations.

Why are companies so leery of this type of flexibility? Managers are tempted to use “face time” in the office as the de facto measurement of commitment and productivity. They are often suspicious about employees who work out of sight, believing they will shirk or drift if not under constant supervision. As a result, telecommuting is often viewed as a perk to be handed out after employees have proved their worth.

But another important reason may be the difficulty of developing reliable metrics to measure the performances of employees who work at home, especially when they are involved in team projects. We tend to attribute quality work to those we see all the time and with whom we discuss work performance and accomplishments.

This belief may be especially strong at tech companies, whose heady early days of creative innovation suggested that living at the office with your young peers produced the fastest results. What we tend to forget is that many unsuccessful tech companies also started that way, and that even the successful ones eventually had to grow beyond the boundaries of a group of friends pulling all-nighters of inventive exploration, getting a new platform or search architecture to work.

After all, Yahoo now has 14,000 employees — it’s hard to imagine that all of them have a mission to innovate and create new processes and products. These are customer service representatives, technical repair workers. Does Yahoo really want them creatively innovating, going off script with untested solutions?

Regardless, employees, creative or not, get older, marry, bear children, watch their parents grow infirm, and want lives outside the workplace. And despite companies’ best efforts to replace family and simulate home life by providing cafeterias, game rooms and concierge services for dry cleaning, most people eventually learn the hard way that companies will not care for you when times are hard; they will cut your pay or forgo your 401(k) match in economic downturns, and will dispose of you when you become ill or disabled. As Robert Frost reminds us, home is the place where they have to take you in. Work is not that place.

New Sanctions on North Korea Pass in Unified U.N. Vote

Ignoring threats of retaliation, the United Nations Security Council ordered new economic sanctions against North Korea on Thursday for its third nuclear test last month, unanimously approving a resolution that the United States negotiated with China, the North’s greatest protector.

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Kim Jong-un

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"Those who impose sanctions on a nation are leading a de facto attack against citizens, with the hope of achieving a political end."

Ben, NH

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In an angry response, North Korea said Friday that it was nullifying all agreements of nonaggression and denuclearization with South Korea and was cutting off the North-South hot line. But beyond those steps, it was unclear how, if at all, North Korea’s young and untested leader, Kim Jong-un, would react to the rebuke. His government has threatened to terminate the 60-year-old armistice that brought a halt to the Korean War and that has kept a cold peace on the peninsula since, and South Korean officials said they were on the alert for any possible attack by the North.

Any military action, or response, could end up involving the American forces that have remained in South Korea as it has turned from war-ravaged ruin into one of the most advanced industrialized powerhouses.

The 15-to-0 Security Council vote places potentially painful new constraints on North Korean banking, trade and travel, pressures countries to search suspect North Korean cargo and includes new enforcement language absent from previous measures. But the provisions are in some ways less important than China’s participation in writing them, suggesting that the country has lost patience with the neighbor it supported in the Korean War. While China’s enforcement of sanctions on North Korea remains to be seen, it may now be more assertive.

“This is not about the words, it is about the music,” said Christopher R. Hill, the former American diplomat who negotiated a deal with the North during the George W. Bush administration to dismantle its nuclear facilities — an accord that quickly collapsed. China’s co-sponsorship of the resolution “suggests that after many years, the screws are beginning to turn,” said Mr. Hill, now the dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

The United Nations vote came hours after North Korea, infuriated by the combination of the proposed resolution and annual joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States, threatened for the first time to carry out “a pre-emptive nuclear strike” on its enemies, of which the United States ranks first.

Military experts regarded that threat as bluster: While the North has conducted three underground nuclear tests, it is far from clear it knows how to deploy a nuclear weapon or make one small enough to fit atop a missile. But the threat still prompted the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, to respond that the United States was “fully capable” of defending itself.

Another nuclear test is possible, as is another ballistic missile launching or perhaps an armed provocation aimed at South Korea, where a new president, Park Geun-hye, the daughter of a former South Korean dictator who was known for taking a hard stand with the North, could be forced to respond. Some regarded the North’s dire warnings as a signal that some military response was looming.

“The higher decibel of invective is a bit worrisome,” said Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico and presidential candidate, who has traveled to North Korea eight times, most recently in January. “It’s the highest negative level I’ve ever seen, and it probably means that the hard-line elements, particularly the military and not the Foreign Ministry, are in control.”

On the other hand, Mr. Richardson said, “China is part of a significant sanctions effort, and this may cool the North Koreans down, may temper their response.”

It is also possible that the new and isolated North Korean government may have misjudged the reaction to talk of a pre-emptive nuclear attack, wording rarely heard since the cold war ended. It could be another way in which the North is demanding talks with President Obama — only last week Mr. Kim told Dennis Rodman, the visiting former basketball star, that he wanted Mr. Obama to call him. But it could also be a way of saying that North Korea now expected to be treated the way Pakistan is: as an established, if formally unrecognized, nuclear power.

“This is a tactic they have employed when they don’t get their way, when the international community brings more sanctions to bear,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, vice president of global policy programs at the Asia Society in New York. “Whether that will happen this time is unclear, given the level of hostile rhetoric,” she said. “I’m not sure Pyongyang recognizes that fact.”

The United Nations vote and North Korea’s threat come at a time when, internally, the Obama administration is debating the wisdom of its policy of essentially ignoring the North for the past four years, and responding to any provocations with new sanctions.

According to current and former administration officials, there is a growing discussion within the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon over whether Mr. Kim is using each new test of rockets and nuclear devices to solidify his position with the military, his most important single constituency. "Under that theory,” one official who has dealt with North Korea often said recently, “even a firefight with the South Koreans might help him, as long as it doesn’t escalate into something that threatens the regime.”

In testimony on Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Glyn T. Davies, the administration’s special representative for North Korea policy, argued that the best course was to continue with Mr. Obama’s current policy of using tests and provocations to tighten sanctions, and try to starve development of the North’s long-range missiles and its effort to design nuclear weapons small enough for those missiles.

Mr. Davies insisted that “it is still the goal of U.S. policy to achieve a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons.”