DealBook: Wall Street Uneasy in Face of Government Shutdown

Wall Street has wearily grown accustomed in recent years to periodic market flare-ups caused by fiscal fights in Washington.

But the current battle — and the looming threat of a government shutdown on Tuesday — is beginning to cause greater unease than past political disputes and may rattle markets when they reopen on Monday. In trading in Asia early Monday, the markets were down, with the Nikkei index of Japanese stocks around 2 percent lower.

For investors, the chief fear is that a government shutdown would set the stage for a more momentous battle over the so-called debt ceiling. If there is no agreement to raise the borrowing limit by mid-October, the government will not be able to issue more bonds and could default on its outstanding borrowing.

While Congress in the past has waited until the last minute to raise the debt ceiling, a growing number of analysts say that the political disagreements appear to be more intractable this time around.

"The threat of a default, however remote, seems to be on the table now," said Gregory R. Valliere, the chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group.

Still, there have been government shutdowns in the past and the markets have quickly recovered. At the end of last year, Congress approved legislation that averted a series of tax increases and budget cuts known as the fiscal cliff. Stocks fell sharply in the days leading up to that agreement, but they rebounded quickly.

And in past debates over budget issues, investors were faced with other big crises that heightened the sense of risk, including the European debt crisis and a potential double-dip recession in the United States.

Since the beginning of this year, most other serious threats to the global economy have faded and Wall Street has habituated to relatively smooth sailing. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up over 18 percent this year.

In recent weeks, the primary concern among market participants has been the Federal Reserve and its decision about whether to slow down, or taper, the bond-buying programs that have been used to stimulate the economy.

The Fed's decision to hold off on tapering was still the main topic of conversation on trading desks at the beginning of last week. But as the week went on, more and more investors began to tune in to the standoff between House Republicans and Senate Democrats. Stocks fell on Friday to close out the first down week in a month.

The main focus on Wall Street is the possibility that the government will stop making payment on its outstanding bonds when the current borrowing limit is reached, which is expected to happen on Oct. 17.

Treasury bonds are viewed as the bedrock of financial markets, thanks largely to the assumption that the United States will always pay its debts. Most analysts say that if that were thrown into question, the consequences would be catastrophic, and largely unpredictable.

"Even if it's a brief failure, it would forever be a signal to the market that you can't trust the United States government to make its payment when it's due," said Millan Mulraine, the director of United States research and strategy at TD Securities. "That would shake the foundations of the global financial system."

Before Congress can turn its full attention to the debt ceiling, it will first have to deal with a resolution to keep the government open when the new fiscal year begins on Tuesday.

House Republicans passed legislation over the weekend that would keep the government operating only if funding for President Obama's health care bill is delayed for a year and a tax on medical devices is permanently repealed. The Democrats who control the Senate have said they will not agree to those conditions.

Most Wall Street economists have said that the consequences of a temporary government shutdown would be relatively insignificant, particularly because spending on essential services — a large portion of the budget — would continue. Citigroup economists estimated on Friday that a one-week shutdown would probably cause a 0.1 percent hit to the national economy.

But many strategists say that the outcome of the debate over the shutdown is important because it will set the backdrop for the battle over the debt ceiling. Mr. Mulraine said that a disagreement this week would most likely mean that "both sides are so entrenched that making progress on the debt ceiling would be much harder."

In contrast, Alec Phillips, a Goldman Sachs economist, said Friday that a shutdown could "ease passage of a debt-limit increase" because House Republicans could lose their bargaining leverage.

Led by Speaker John A. Boehner, House Republicans have already said that they would demand even more concessions in order to agree to a lifting of the debt ceiling, including changes to environmental and financial regulations.

Economists at Bank of America and Capital Economics wrote on Friday that the focus on President Obama's health care legislation makes the positions of both sides more intractable now than they have been during other budget fights.

"We have no idea exactly how this standoff will be resolved, and even less of an idea exactly when any agreement might be reached," the Capital Economics team said in a note to clients on Friday. "At this stage, we would be lying if we said we were confident of a positive outcome."

If the disagreements persist, the reaction in the markets is likely to become much more pronounced as Oct. 17 draws closer. Mr. Valliere said that in the past, sharp swings in the markets helped to eventually push politicians toward a compromise.

"You have to worry that the one thing that could motivate Congress to step away from the precipice would be an angry reaction from the stock market," he said.

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DealBook: S.E.C. Again Takes On Mark Cuban in Insider Case

Mark Cuban has tussled with Bill O'Reilly, Donald Trump and an array of N.B.A. referees.

Next up for the billionaire? The federal government.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's insider trading trial against Mr. Cuban opens in a federal courtroom in Dallas on Monday, the culmination of a five-year battle. Mr. Cuban, a 55-year-old reality TV regular best known for his courtside antics at games of the Dallas Mavericks, the basketball team he owns, is one of the few celebrities to land on the agency's radar.

Mr. Cuban's star power, coupled with the S.E.C.'s renewed ambition for taking cases to court, underpins the importance of this trial.

After enduring its share of losses at trial and a public lashing for missing signs of the financial crisis, the agency is fresh off its most significant courtroom victory in recent memory with a win over Fabrice Tourre, a former Goldman Sachs trader at the center of a toxic mortgage deal. A victory in Mr. Cuban's case might further embolden the S.E.C. as it seeks to hold individuals accountable at trial, a policy championed by its new chairwoman, Mary Jo White.

For Mr. Cuban, who has a net worth pegged at $2.5 billion, the courtroom fight is not about the money. If found liable, he faces a fine of about $2 million. Having doled out about that much in fines to the National Basketball Association, Mr. Cuban is instead fighting to clear his name and dress down an agency that accused him of trading on confidential information when dumping his stake in an Internet company.

Over five years and in three different courthouses, Mr. Cuban's case has had many twists and turns. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2009 and an appeals court reinstated it a year later. This year, Mr. Cuban sought to delay the trial to accommodate what the S.E.C. mocked as his "Hollywood production schedule" — a swipe at his commitment to film the latest season of the reality show "Shark Tank."

Mr. Cuban has fired his own shots in the case, using his blog to criticize the agency for a "facts be damned" approach, suing it to uncover records about its investigation and even suggesting that the insider trading case stemmed from an S.E.C. employee who questioned Mr. Cuban's involvement in a documentary film that smeared "the good name of a patriot like President Bush."

While the employee was fired, an inquiry by the S.E.C.'s inspector general cleared the agency of any misconduct, concluding that the employee was not involved in the investigation of Mr. Cuban.

The contentious back story will not figure into the trial, but Mr. Cuban's feistiness very likely will. And that personality, which will enter the spotlight when Mr. Cuban takes the witness stand as expected, might sway a jury of Dallas residents who have largely embraced Mr. Cuban.

"He does things I never thought he'd do," said L.T. Johnson, a Dallas resident and Mavericks fan. "He should be up in a box like the other owners, but instead he's on the floor, with the players and fans."

Mr. Cuban made his fortune on the eve of the dot-com crash in 1999, selling his start-up, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for nearly $6 billion. He bought the Mavericks months later, and now has co-ownership stakes in the movie chain Landmark Theaters, among other media companies.

The S.E.C.'s case traces to June 2004, when the Internet search engine company Mamma.com was planning a private offering of its stock. The company expected Mr. Cuban to balk at the deal, which was likely to hurt Mamma.com's stock price and dilute the holdings of existing shareholders like Mr. Cuban.

Yet Mamma.com hoped to win over Mr. Cuban, who already owned 6.3 percent of the company's shares. During an eight-minute phone call on June 28, 2004, Mamma.com's chief executive, Guy Fauré, made his pitch for the private offering.

According to the S.E.C., Mr. Cuban agreed to keep the information confidential. And after becoming "very upset and angry" when learning about the private offering, the S.E.C. said, Mr. Cuban declared "I can't sell" the existing shares because he had access to inside information.

Mr. Fauré urged Mr. Cuban to consult the investment bank arranging the private offering, Merriman Curhan Ford, now Merriman Capital, before deciding. When Mr. Cuban spoke to a Merriman employee, according to the S.E.C., he learned "additional confidential details" about the deal.

One minute after the call with Merriman ended, Mr. Cuban ordered his stockbroker to dump his entire stake in Mamma.com. By unloading the shares just hours before Mamma.com announced the offering, Mr. Cuban avoided about $750,000 in losses.

More than four years later, the S.E.C. charged Mr. Cuban with insider trading. Since then, the S.E.C. has argued that Mr. Cuban tried to "conceal his wrongful trading" and concocted "a cover story," by sending an e-mail to his broker saying, "I want to make sure I was 100 pct kosher on that trade."

Mr. Cuban's lawyers dispute those accusations.

"Mr. Cuban's e-mail to his broker, which asked that the investment bank's compliance department be consulted, obviously sought more scrutiny of his entirely proper trading, not to cover it up," the lawyers, Christopher J. Clark of Latham & Watkins, Stephen Best of Brown Rudnick and Thomas M. Melsheimer of Fish & Richardson, said in a statement. They added that "far from concealing his trading, Mr. Cuban voluntarily spoke to the S.E.C. without an attorney when they called him about an unrelated" investigation into Mamma.com.

"We expect that when the facts come out," the statement said, "Mark will be vindicated."

The defense has several factors working in its favor. For one, the judge assigned to the case, Sidney A. Fitzwater, has been skeptical of the S.E.C. from the start.

Judge Fitzwater dismissed the case in 2009, ruling that the S.E.C. had to show two things: that Mr. Cuban agreed to keep the information confidential and that he agreed not to trade on it. The S.E.C.'s complaint was "deficient" in proving the second, Judge Fitzwater ruled, noting that Mr. Fauré never asked Mr. Cuban not to trade.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the judge's dismissal a year later. This March, Judge Fitzwater allowed the case to proceed to trial, calling his decision "in some respects a close one."

The S.E.C. could face additional problems at trial as its case hinges on the testimony, and memory, of Mr. Fauré. There is no recording of Mr. Fauré's call with Mr. Cuban. And Mr. Cuban does not recall the nine-year-old conversation.

To further bolster the defense, Mr. Cuban's lawyers are likely to portray Mr. Fauré as unreliable.

During his initial interview with the S.E.C., Mr. Fauré did not mention that Mr. Cuban immediately agreed to keep the information confidential. It was not until his second interview with the S.E.C. that Mr. Fauré recounted how Mr. Cuban said "something to the effect" of "um hum, go ahead" in response to hearing that Mamma had "confidential information" to share.

Mr. Cuban's lawyers will most likely highlight the curious timing of Mr. Fauré's additional testimony. Mr. Fauré, according to court records, changed his story about two weeks after learning that the S.E.C. dropped an unrelated investigation into Mamma.com.

The lawyers will also stress that Mr. Fauré's e-mails to Mr. Cuban did not mention a confidentiality agreement. Mr. Fauré chose not to pursue such an agreement, court records say, even though one of Mamma.com's outside lawyers advised the company to obtain a signed contract from Mr. Cuban.

If Mr. Cuban escapes unscathed in the courtroom, his problems will very likely shift to the basketball court, where the season is poised to start. The Mavericks, champions in 2011, are coming off a disappointing season in which they missed the playoffs.

Lauren D'Avolio contributed reporting.

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Justice Department Poised to File Lawsuit Over Voter ID Law

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is expected to sue North Carolina on Monday over its restrictive new voting law, further escalating the Obama administration's efforts to restore a stronger federal role in protecting minority voters after the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, according to a person familiar with the department's plans.

The lawsuit, which had been anticipated, will ask a federal court to block North Carolina from enforcing four disputed provisions of its voting law, including a strict photo identification requirement. The lawsuit will also seek to reimpose a requirement that North Carolina obtain "preclearance" from the federal government before making changes to its election rules.

The court challenge will join similar efforts by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Texas over that state's redistricting plan and voter photo ID law. Those lawsuits are seeking to return Texas to federal "preclearance" oversight.

In June, all five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices voted to do away with a provision in the Voting Rights Act that required North Carolina, Texas and six other states with histories of discrimination, mostly in the South, to obtain permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before changing their election procedures. All four Democratic-appointed justices dissented.

Since that ruling, Republican-controlled states have rushed to impose new limits on voting. Republicans say the restrictions are necessary to combat voter fraud.

There is no evidence of significant in-person impersonation fraud, the type ID laws can prevent. Democrats say the restrictions are intended to discourage groups that tend to support Democrats, like students, poor people and minorities.

North Carolina's law cut back on early-voting days, eliminated the ability of people to register to vote on the same day as casting an early ballot, and prohibited the counting of provisional ballots cast by eligible voters who went to the wrong precinct.

It also requires voters to present photo identification to cast ballots, but does not allow student IDs, public-employee IDs or photo IDs issued by public assistance agencies. Black voters in North Carolina are disproportionately likely to lack identification issued by the State Department of Motor Vehicles, according to state data.

All four provisions are being challenged by the Justice Department, the person familiar with the plans said.

Other provisions of the law, like banning paid voter registrations, are not being challenged by the department.

When signing the bill into law last month, Gov. Pat McCrory portrayed the steps as popular measures that would bring the state into alignment with rules in many other jurisdictions.

"North Carolinians overwhelmingly support a common-sense law that requires voters to present photo identification in order to cast a ballot," Mr. McCrory, a Republican, said in a statement at the time. "I am proud to sign this legislation into law. Common practices like boarding an airplane and purchasing Sudafed require photo ID, and we should expect nothing less for the protection of our right to vote."

The Supreme Court ruling in June left intact other parts of the Voting Rights Act, including a provision that bars discriminatory voting rules anywhere — whether or not the disparate impact was intentional — and another provision that allows a court, in cases in which a state is found to have intentionally discriminated, to impose federal preclearance requirements on future changes.

Election law specialists expressed caution. Richard H. Pildes, a New York University law professor, said the Justice Department faced a complex legal challenge, "particularly when some of these changes, such as reducing early voting, involve measures that make voting more convenient but don't restrict direct access to the ballot box."

Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said the department would "have a hard time proving constitutional or Voting Rights Act violations against North Carolina," adding that proving intentional racial discrimination is difficult and "even though many minority voters are Democrats, discrimination against Democrats cannot be the basis for these voting claims."

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has repeatedly promised "aggressive" action to protect voting rights. In a speech this month, he called the June Supreme Court ruling "deeply flawed" and said the Justice Department would "not allow the court's action to be interpreted as 'open season' for states to pursue measures that suppress voting rights."

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Marcella Hazan, 1924-2013: Changed the Way Americans Cook Italian Food

In his early days as a rising star chef, Mario Batali received a letter from Marcella Hazan after he had made risotto in a sauté pan on his television show, "Molto Mario."

In it, the exacting and sometimes prickly Italian-born cook told Mr. Batali he was all wrong. In no uncertain terms, Mrs. Hazan told him the only proper way to make risotto was in a saucepan. He did not agree, but the two became friends anyway, sitting down over glasses of Jack Daniel's whenever their paths crossed.

"I didn't pay attention to Julia Child like everyone else said they did," Mr. Batali recalled. "I paid attention to Marcella Hazan."

Mrs. Hazan, a chain-smoking, determined former biology scholar who reluctantly moved to America and went on to teach a nation to cook Italian food, died Sunday at her home in Longboat Key, Fla. She was 89.

She had been suffering from emphysema for many years, and had severe circulation problems, her husband, Victor, said.

The impact Mrs. Hazan had on the way America cooks Italian food is impossible to overstate. Even people who have never heard of Marcella Hazan cook and shop differently because of her, and the six cookbooks she wrote, starting in 1973 with "The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating."

"She was the first mother of Italian cooking in America," said Lidia Bastianich, the New York restaurateur and television cooking personality.

Mrs. Hazan embraced simplicity, precision and balance in her cooking. She abhorred the overuse of garlic in much of what passed for Italian food in the United States, and would not suffer fools afraid of salt or the effort it took to find quality ingredients.

Her tomato sauce, enriched with only an onion, butter and salt, embodies her approach, but she has legions of devotees to other recipes, among them her classic Bolognese, pork braised in milk and her minestrone.

When Mrs. Hazan arrived in New York in 1955, Italian food was still exotic, served in restaurants with straw-covered Chianti bottles and red-checked tablecloths.

She was a newlywed who did not speak English, transplanted to a country whose knowledge of her native cuisine was not much more than spaghetti covered with what, to her, tasted like overly spiced ketchup.

The culture shock nearly crushed her. She was appalled by canned peas, hamburgers and coffee she once described as tasting no better than the water she used to wash out her own coffeepot at home. At her first Thanksgiving meal, she nearly gagged on the cranberry sauce.

What was worse, she had no cooking skills herself.

Mrs. Hazan's training had been in the classroom, not the kitchen. She had a doctorate in natural sciences and biology from the University of Ferrara.

But she was determined to cook for her new husband, a dapper man from a family of Manhattan furriers, who had been born in Italy. He moved back there from New York in his 20s.

After returning to New York, Mr. Hazan worked at his family's business, and Mrs. Hazan began navigating a bewildering city that shopped and cooked in ways that were completely foreign.

"I never saw a supermarket in Italy," she told Linda Wertheimer in an interview with National Public Radio in 2010. "The chicken, they were arriving from the farmer and they were alive. And at the supermarket they were very dead. They were wrapped. It was like a coffin. Everything was not natural."

Marcella Hazan (pronounced mar-CHELL-ah huh-ZAHN), born Marcella Polini on April 15, 1924, was also dealing with a physical handicap. When she was 7, she fell while running on a beach in Alexandria, Egypt, where her family was living. She broke her right arm and endured several operations. Her arm remained undersize and bent, but still able to hold a knife. Throughout her life, her arm would make her cringe when she saw herself on television.

In the couple's tiny apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, Mrs. Hazan began to learn English by watching television and following the Brooklyn Dodgers. And she began to learn to cook, relying on her memory and Mr. Hazan's copy of a cookbook by Ada Boni.

"Cooking came to me as though it had been there all along, waiting to be expressed; it came as words come to a child when it is time for her to speak," she wrote in her 2008 memoir, "Amarcord: Marcella Remembers." The couple eventually moved to Manhattan, and had a son, Giuliano Hazan, who would go on to become a noted cooking teacher himself.

They returned to Italy for a time, where Mr. Hazan pursued a career in advertising and Mrs. Hazan became enamored of the food in Milan and Rome, which was much different from the regional cooking she had grown up with in the village of Cesenatico in Emilia-Romagna, about 120 miles south of Venice.

By the 1970s, the family was back in New York. Mr. Hazan would come home to share lunch every day — a tradition the couple continued until her death.

On Saturday, the day before she died, they shared a meal he made of trofie, the twisted Ligurian pasta, sauced with some pesto made with basil from the terrace garden.

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Resignations Threaten Italian Coalition

ROME — Italy confronted a new political crisis on Saturday as the ministers in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right party resigned from the fragile coalition government, setting up a showdown that could shake the current political stability in Europe.

The resignations did not immediately topple the government, but could lead to either a confidence vote in Italy's Parliament as early as next week or could force Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, to try to piece together a new coalition. Early elections could also be possible, though Mr. Napolitano has said repeatedly that is not an option he favors amid a prolonged economic recession, with economic and electoral reforms pending in Parliament.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta is expected to meet with Mr. Napolitano on Sunday to discuss how to move forward.

Tensions have been especially high in the Italian government — an unusual coalition of normally antagonistic political forces —since Mr. Berlusconi lost a final appeal last month in a tax fraud case. He is supposed to begin serving a one-year prison sentence, most likely in house arrest, in mid-October.

On Friday, a Senate committee is to vote on whether Mr. Berlusconi will retain his seat in the upper house of Parliament, and Mr. Berlusconi has called on his supporters to gather in Rome that day to show their support.

Last Wednesday, the fragile coalition government was severely strained when the members of Mr. Berlusconi's party said they would all quit if the Senate committee voted to expel their leader.

In a note posted on his Facebook page on Saturday, Mr. Berlusconi announced that the ministers in his party would step down to protest a 1 percent increase in the value added tax, set to go into effect on Tuesday. He accused the prime minister of "freezing government activities" and failing to take measures to defer the increase, thereby "violating commitments we took with our voters during the electoral campaign."

Mr. Letta retorted in a statement that Mr. Berlusconi's act had been "mad and irresponsible, and solely finalized to cover his personal travails." He said his government had been thrown into chaos by Wednesday's decision by the center-right to resign.

"De facto, we are in a government crisis," a government spokesman said. "The meeting with President Napolitano will be decisive."

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Vice Admiral Is Suspended in Gambling Investigation

A vice admiral who is second in command at the United States Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear war-fighting forces for the military, has been suspended amid an investigation into his possible involvement in illegal gambling, officials said on Saturday.

United States Navy, via Associated Press

Vice Adm. Timothy M. Giardina in 2011.

The officer, Vice Adm. Timothy M. Giardina, is a highly decorated sailor with more than three decades in the Navy. The suspension occurred on Sept. 3, but was not announced publicly, said Capt. Pamela Kunze, the command's spokeswoman.

Captain Kunze would not comment further on the circumstances surrounding the suspension, citing a continuing investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The Strategic Command was first alerted about the issue in mid-July. A month earlier, Admiral Giardina became the target of an inquiry being conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation into possible use of counterfeit gambling chips at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa, said David Dales, the head of the Southwest division of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Mr. Dales said the criminality in question involved poker at the casino, but said he could provide no further information. The agency's investigation is still open and no state charges have been filed against Admiral Giardina, Mr. Dales said.

It was not clear whether Admiral Giardina's actions compromised national security or the operations of the Strategic Command.

The commander of the Strategic Command, General C. Robert Kehler, has submitted a recommendation to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Admiral Giardina be reassigned, Captain Kunze said. It has not been determined what, if any, additional actions will be taken. The leadership of the Strategic Command is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

The Strategic Command, based at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, oversees a web of military efforts including the military's space and cyberwarfare operations. It also controls the country's nuclear arsenal.

Admiral Giardina, a career submarine officer, assumed his duties at the Strategic Command in December 2011. Before that, he was the deputy commander and chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1979.

He was scheduled to rotate out of his position at Strategic Command later this year. In early July, President Obama appointed an Air Force general to replace Admiral Giardina.

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Islamist Party in Tunisia to Step Down

TUNIS — Tunisia's governing Islamist party, Ennahda, thrust into power by the Arab Spring, has agreed to step down after months of political wrangling with a hard-bargaining opposition.

In three weeks, the Ennahda-led government is to hand over power to an independent caretaker government that will lead the country through elections in the spring. The deal comes as part of negotiations to restart Tunisia's democratic transition after secular opposition groups, protesting the assassinations of two of their politicians, stalled work on a new constitution and an election law this summer.

The two sides will enter discussions this week mediated by the Tunisian General Labor Union, the nation's largest. Its deputy secretary general, Bouali Mbarki, announced Ennahda's acceptance of the plan on Saturday.

The move comes less than three months after the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, also elected during the Arab Spring uprisings, was ousted by the military.

Ennahda officials have repeatedly made statements in recent weeks signaling the party's readiness to resign as a way to break the political impasse. The opposition, and the union, have until now pressed for more concrete action.

The union has scheduled three weeks for talks on a new government. During that time, the National Constituent Assembly, the body in charge of writing Tunisia's new constitution, is expected to ratify it and confirm appointments to the election commission, resuming work after a two-month hiatus. After that, Ennahda's coalition government will resign.

The assembly, where Ennahda holds the largest bloc of seats, will remain in place to serve as a check on the new government.

Ennahda decided to step down despite resistance from some of its members, saying Tunisia's transition to democracy, which began after the president was toppled nearly two years ago, can succeed only with full political consensus.

Party members have criticized their leaders as having given away too much, Rafik Abdessalam, the former foreign minister, said at a news conference on Monday. "It is being described as the party of concessions," he said. "We are not ashamed of these concessions because they are needed by Tunisia and to secure our democratic experience so that Tunisia can reach a safe shore."

In fact, the country is so polarized, and opposition from leftist and secular parties, including the labor union, has been so dogged, that Ennahda leaders acknowledge that they are better off having a neutral government that is accepted by all sides to run the elections. Ennahda was the largest winner in elections in October 2011, promising a model government that would blend Islamist principles with pluralism. But it has since lost popularity amid economic decline and a growing threat from terrorism.

Tunisia has avoided the open violence of Egypt and Libya in its democratic transition since it began the Arab Spring with a popular uprising against President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Opposition parties have run a campaign of walkouts, sit-ins and evening rallies since the two assassinations to force the government to resign. Ennahda countered with its own rallies, busing in supporters for speeches, music and fireworks.

With neither side strong enough to defeat the other, the Islamists and their opponents have ended up coming to the negotiating table. Yet Ennahda's nearly two-year journey in government has been one of steady concessions and backing down. And it has been a sharp lesson for the Islamists: their party has been most weakened by extremist Islamists linked to Al Qaeda.

Since the assassination of a prominent leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, in February, which brought accusations that it was soft or even in cahoots with Islamist terrorists, Ennahda has steadily been on the retreat. After the assassination, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned, saying the government had "disappointed" Tunisians with squabbling instead of leadership.

Mr. Jebali was the first to suggest handing power to a government of technocrats. Ennahda opted for a reshuffle but appointed independent nonparty figures to critical posts, including the Interior and Justice Ministries.

Then, in July, another opposition politician, Mohamed Brahmi, was assassinated in broad daylight in front of his family, bringing another wave of protests against the Ennahda government, even though the government this time quickly identified the culprits as an extremist Islamic cell linked to Al Qaeda, and blamed it for the Belaid assassination as well.

Finally, the ouster of Mr. Morsi — allied with the Muslim Brotherhood — encouraged the Tunisian opposition to try to oust the government. Ennahda responded with further concessions, dropping all of its outstanding constitutional demands, including an article stating that Islam was the religion of the state and another that would have prevented a key rival, former Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, from running for president.

Working out the details of the agreement remains difficult. Distrust runs high, and as the end of the transition period nears, the political parties have entered a hard-nosed power struggle.

"From 2011 we moved to another agenda, from the demands for a transitional democracy to a real struggle for power," said Abdel Basset Ben Hassen, head of the Arab Institute for Human Rights. "Because of the change we have this tension and a lot of frustration."

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Yankees 2, Astros 1: With a Win, the Ending to Pettitte’s Illustrious Career Is Complete

HOUSTON — They had a secret signal worked out. If Andy Pettitte, 41 years old and aching in almost every joint in his body, could not go any longer, if he needed to be rescued by a reliever, he would go to the rosin bag at the back of the mound. It would be his sign he was ready to leave baseball for good.

His manager had told him that the decision on when to come out of the last game of his career was Pettitte's alone. But through the seventh inning and 92 pitches, Pettitte had not gone anywhere near the bag. After eight innings, he had thrown more than 100 pitches, but he still did not touch it.

So finally, with two outs in the ninth, a runner on first base and a complete game now tantalizingly close, Manager Joe Girardi walked out of the dugout — accompanied by a round of booing from the fans — and told Pettitte it was still up to him.

Pettitte flashed back to all those times that his former manager, Joe Torre, had taken him out after eight innings because Torre had Mariano Rivera, the best closer in baseball, to turn to. By Saturday night, Rivera had already announced he would never play again, so that was not an option. Pettitte told Girardi, "I want to finish."

He did, and with a flourish befitting his marvelous career.

In his 438th start for the Yankees, which tied him with Whitey Ford for the most by a pitcher with the team, Pettitte matched Rivera's magical moment from Thursday night with magic of his own. He threw his first complete game in seven years, a 116-pitch gem, to beat the Houston Astros, his former team, 2-1, and put a bow on his life as a baseball player.

"I couldn't have dreamed of this to make it work out the way it did," he said.

For most of the last 90 years, the Yankees have made winning into an art form. They were not able to win enough this year to make the playoffs, but they have shown the world how to say goodbye.

On Thursday at Yankee Stadium, Rivera was removed by Pettitte and Derek Jeter and responded by weeping on Pettitte's shoulder. So before Pettitte's final start Saturday, in front of his hometown fans, there was some debate about how he would be removed from the game.

Would Rivera return the favor? Would Girardi do it?

No one did.

"Classic Andy," Girardi said. "I'm going to find a way to fight through it."

It was the last of 521 career starts, but Pettitte looked every bit like the dependable young left-hander he was when he helped the Yankees to the first of his five World Series titles, in 1996.

Now with his hair almost as gray as it is black and the years etched in the lines on his face, he summoned the talent and strength of his youth, pitching with a rookie's enthusiasm and a veteran's determination. When he got Jonathan Villar to ground out in the eighth to complete a 1-2-3 inning, he pounded his glove with his left hand and walked stoically off the mound.

Between innings throughout the game, he spent time in the tunnel with C. C. Sabathia, who agreed with Girardi that this game had all the feel of a playoff game for the Yankees — the team wanted a win for Pettitte that much.

"I was so nervous, my palms were sweating," Sabathia said. "He just gutted it out. That's a champion, right there."

Pettitte jogged back to the mound as most of the fans in the announced crowd of 37,199 stood and cheered, and then he went about attacking the Astros' hitters. After two quick outs, the fans rose to their feet again, but Chris Carter singled, the last of five hits against Pettitte.

Now in the stretch, he gave his signature stare over his glove one last time and induced a ground ball to third base on his 116th pitch. Eduardo Nunez made the play, and Pettitte slapped his hands together, spun around with a huge smile and hugged catcher Chris Stewart.

"It's just another day that I'll never forget," Pettitte said.

After he hugged each of his teammates, players on both teams came out of the dugouts and applauded as Pettitte waved to the crowd and then to them. He had evened his record to 11-11 and become the only pitcher with at least 15 seasons never to have a losing one, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He improved his career record to 256-153, including 219-127 with the Yankees, and he earned his 275th win, including playoff games.

Despite his overwhelming success, Pettitte was not thought of as pitcher with overwhelming tools, and he often had to battle his way through outings. But battle he did.

"I played this game as hard as I could," he said. "I feel like I milked every ounce of talent out of this body that God gave me. I was never a hard thrower; I never felt that I had great stuff. I wasn't able to strike out a lot of guys. I just felt like I gritted and willed myself through games."

That is what he did Saturday, with his family and dozens of friends and relatives on hand to watch, along with an entire stadium that was rooting for him, no matter what uniform he wore.

And as with Rivera, there were tears. After the game, as he recounted the events of the day, Pettitte said he started flashing back over his career during his familiar drive to the stadium. He recalled his days in the minor leagues. He remembered Girardi catching him from 1996 to 1999; he remembered five championships, and much more.

Then, with his family standing nearby, he was asked about his final moments on the field, waving to the crowd — his Houston neighbors — and to the Astros, who stayed behind and cheered him along with the Yankees. It was more than he could bear, and he broke down.

"I felt I wasn't even worthy of that happening to me," he said.

But he was. After 18 years in the major leagues, Pettitte, like Rivera, was worthy of deciding his own exit. He never went to the rosin bag.

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U.S. Shutdown Nears as House Pushes Delay in Health Law

By Will Storey and Flora Lichtman

Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Government Shutdown, by the Numbers: A look at the costs, closures and other ramifications of a government shutdown.

WASHINGTON — The federal government on Sunday morning barreled toward its first shutdown in 17 years after the Republican-run House, choosing a hard line, voted to attach a one-year delay of President Obama's health care law and a repeal of a tax to pay for it to legislation to keep the government running.

The votes, just past midnight, followed an often-angry debate, with members shouting one another down on the House floor. Democrats insisted that Republicans refused to accept their losses in 2012, were putting contempt for the president over the good of the country and would bear responsibility for a shutdown. Republicans said they had the public on their side and were acting to protect Americans from a harmful and unpopular law that had already proved a failure.

The House first voted 248-174 to repeal a tax on medical devices, then voted 231-192 to delay the law's implementation by a year — just days before the uninsured begin enrolling in the law's insurance exchanges. The delay included a provision favored by social conservatives that would allow employers and health care providers to opt out of mandatory contraception coverage.

But before the House had even voted, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, declared the House bill dead. Senate Democrats are planning to table the Republican measures when they convene on Monday, leaving the House just hours to pass a stand-alone spending bill free of any measures that undermine the health care law.

The House's votes early Sunday all but assured that large parts of the government would be shuttered as of 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. More than 800,000 federal workers deemed nonessential faced furloughs; millions more could be working without paychecks.

"The American people don't want a government shutdown, and they don't want Obamacare," House Republican leaders said in a statement. "We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it's up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown."

A separate House Republican bill passed unanimously Sunday morning to ensure that military personnel continued to be paid in the event of a government shutdown, an acknowledgment that a shutdown is likely. En route to South Korea, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was unimpressed, excoriating his former Republican colleagues in Congress.

"This is an astoundingly irresponsible way to govern," Mr. Hagel said, adding that a fully functioning military went beyond its uniformed forces to its civilian personnel. "If this continues, we will have a country that is ungovernable."

Representative Darrell Issa, a powerful Republican committee chairman who is close to the leadership but has sided with those who want to gut the health care law, flashed anger when asked what would happen when the Senate rejected the House's offer.

"How dare you presume a failure?" he snapped. "We continue to believe there's an opportunity for sensible compromise, and I will not accept from anybody the assumption of failure."

But Mr. Reid made it clear that failure was inevitable. "After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at Square 1," he said. "We continue to be willing to debate these issues in a calm and rational atmosphere. But the American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists."

The White House was just as blunt. "Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this bill is voting for a shutdown," the press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a written statement. The White House also said that the president would veto the House bill if approved by the Senate.

In fact, many House Republicans acknowledged that they expected the Senate to reject the House's provisions, making a shutdown all but assured. House Republicans were warned repeatedly that Senate Democrats would not accept any changes to the health care law.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

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Exxon to Extend Health Care to Married Same-Sex Couples

The Exxon Mobil Corporation, which has drawn much criticism for policies related to its gay and lesbian workers, said on Friday that it would extend health insurance and other employee benefits to married same-sex couples effective Oct. 1.

The move is an about-face for the company, which had defied pressure from human rights groups, pension funds and some of its own shareholders that had asked the company to protect gay and lesbian employees from discrimination in the United States. But Exxon Mobil's latest change of heart on same-sex benefits was not a result of soul-searching. Rather, the company said it was following the policies of the federal government, which, in recent months, has begun to issue rule changes and guidance on how gay couples should be treated in light of the Supreme Court's monumental decision in June to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.

The decision found that legally married gay couples were entitled to the same federal benefits as straight couples.

Last week, the Labor Department, which oversees employer-based retirement, pension and health insurance plans, issued its own guidance: it said all legally married same-sex couples were entitled to the same protections as opposite-sex spouses. It's important to note that employers aren't required to provide medical spousal benefits at all. But if they do, the agency said that same-sex spouses should be treated equally.

The oil giant, whose benefits cover 77,000 workers and retirees in the United States, said it had always looked to national laws for guidance.

"Spousal eligibility in our U.S. benefit plans has been and continues to be governed by the federal definition of marriage and spouse," the company said in a statement. It also said that it provided benefits to same-sex spouses in 30 countries outside the United States.

Several federal agencies have begun to provide guidance on the practical implications of the highest court's ruling. Last month, for instance, the Internal Revenue Service said that same-sex couples would be considered married for federal tax law purposes, even if they live in a state that doesn't recognize their union.

The Labor Department law that governs many employee benefits, known as Erisa, or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, does not oblige employers to extend health coverage to spouses.

And some experts note that there is no explicit law that prohibits companies from offering health benefits exclusively to opposite-sex spouses. But "it's in employers' interest to simply adopt one standard, recognizing all married couples for benefits, and avoid potential litigation," said Brian Moulton, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign, a group that works for equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Some legal experts say that Exxon's move could prompt other companies that must follow Erisa rules, but don't have same-sex benefits, to follow suit. Certain benefits protections must be applied to all spouses, gay and straight alike. If an employer offers a pension to its employees, for instance, all spouses are entitled to survivor benefits, explained Todd A. Solomon, a partner in the employee benefits practice group at McDermott Will & Emery and author of "Domestic Partner Benefits: An Employer's Guide."

Wal-Mart was another large company that did not offer domestic partner benefits, but it announced in August that it would begin extending coverage to both same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners and same-sex spouses effective Jan. 1.

Exxon is facing a legal complaint in Illinois filed by Freedom to Work, a gay advocacy group, which claims the company discriminates based on sexual orientation. "Exxon is not the kind of company that voluntarily does the right thing," said Tico Almeida, president of the group. "They only do the right thing when the law requires them to."

Alan Jeffers, an Exxon spokesman, said the group's complaints were baseless and without merit. He also said the company had a "zero-tolerance policy" on all forms of discrimination, including sexual orientation.

In countries where it's mandated by law, Exxon does have policies barring discrimination against gay employees.

Exxon said in a statement that it "will recognize all legal marriages for the purposes of eligibility in U.S. benefit plans to ensure consistency for employees across the country."

But critics say their policies do little to protect the gay and lesbian employees here in the United States. Exxon Mobil ranks last in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality index of the Fortune 1,000 corporations, with a score of negative 25 out of a possible 100. The low score stems from "not satisfying any of the criteria and actively resisting the shareholder resolutions to amend their nondiscrimination policy," said Deena Fidas, Human Rights Campaign's director for the workplace project.

Even when the Defense of Marriage Act was still the law of the land, many companies offered health benefits to its employees' same-sex partners and spouses anyway. Some employers even went as far as paying for the taxes that gay employees had to pay on the value of their partner's coverage (the tax no longer applies to gay married couples since the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional this summer).

According to the Human Rights Campaign, about 62 percent of the Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partner benefits. Exxon never extended the benefits to gay employees' domestic partners.

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Philippines Says Rebel Standoff Is Over

MANILA, Philippines — A deadly three-week standoff between government troops and Muslim rebels who held nearly 200 people hostage in the southern Philippines has ended with all of the captives safe, officials said Saturday.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said only a handful of Moro National Liberation Front rebels remained in hiding and were being hunted by troops in the coastal outskirts of Zamboanga city, adding authorities were trying to determine if rebel commander Habier Malik, who led the Sept. 9 siege, was dead.More than 200 people were killed in the clashes, including 183 rebels and 23 soldiers and police, in one of the bloodiest and longest-running attacks by a Muslim group in the south, scene of decades-long Muslim rebellion for self-rule in the largely Roman Catholic country.

"I can say that the crisis is over. We have accomplished the mission," Gazmin told The Associated Press by telephone from Zamboanga, where he helped oversee a government offensive and hostage rescue mission by about 4,500 government troops and police.

Gazmin said 195 hostages were rescued, escaped or were freed.

The gunbattles, including exchanges of grenade and mortar fire, forced about 130,000 residents — more than 10 percent of the population of the bustling port city — to flee their homes to emergency shelters, including Zamboanga's main sports complex. About 10,000 houses were burned by the rebels or destroyed in the fighting, according to a military report.

Cornered by a far larger number of government troops, the rebels sought help from their comrades from nearby provinces but guerrilla reinforcements were repulsed, he said.

Police and troops still have to clear areas of the dangerous leftovers of the fighting, including unexploded bombs and possible booby traps, Gazmin said.

Gazmin, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and military chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista briefly toured the scene of the most intense gunbattles Saturday in Zamboanga's Santa Catalina community, where nearly 100 rebels perished in clashes and now was a wasteland. Army soldiers, who have been collecting bodies of guerrillas in Santa Catalina had to wear gas masks because of the stench of death.

All the houses in the vast community were either burned by the rebels in daily infernos or damaged by gunfire and mortar blasts. Atop a bullet-peppered building, troops raised a Philippine flag at half-staff.

"The rebel siege is over and Zamboanga is free again," Roxas told reporters.

The siege in Zamboanga, about 860 kilometers (540 miles) south of Manila, began when heavily armed insurgents arrived by boat from outlying islands but were blocked by troops and policemen, who discovered what authorities said was a rebel plan to occupy and hoist their flag at Zamboanga's city hall. The rebels then stormed five coastal communities and took residents hostage and were surrounded by troops.

President Benigno Aquino III, who flew to Zamboanga, ordered an offensive that began on Sept. 13 after the rebels refused to surrender and free their hostages.

The rebel faction involved in the fighting dropped its demand for a separate Muslim state and signed an autonomy deal with the government in 1996, but the guerrillas did not lay down their arms and later accused the government of reneging on a promise to develop long-neglected Muslim regions.

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Tale of ‘White Widow’ Fills British Press

LONDON — The British fascination with the "white widow" — a woman of 29 rumored to have been involved in the terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Kenya last Saturday — continued unabated this week, with tabloid and broadsheet newspapers retracing every step of her life's journey, from soldier's daughter to wanted terrorist.

There is no evidence so far, the police and security forces say, that Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of one of the four suicide bombers who devastated London in July 2005, was involved in the Kenya attack, let alone was its "mastermind," as the British papers are wont to suggest.

But it is also true that some of those who survived the massacre at Nairobi's Westgate shopping complex said they thought they heard a woman speaking English among the attackers belonging to the militant Shabab Islamist group, most of whom are Somali.

Even the president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking on television Tuesday night after the four-day standoff at the mall had ended, mentioned talk of a white British woman. "Intelligence reports had suggested that a British woman and two or three American citizens may have been involved in the attack," said Mr. Kenyatta, adding, "We cannot confirm the details at present, but forensic experts are working to ascertain the nationalities of the terrorists."

But his interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku, and spokesmen for the Shabab, who have claimed responsibility for the massacre, said no women were involved in the operation.

Speculation rose higher on Thursday when Interpol issued a "red notice" for Ms. Lewthwaite's arrest, requiring its 190 member countries to detain her pending extradition.

The Times of London said in a headline, "Worldwide Terror Hunt for the 'White Widow,' " while The Sun, the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, showed a photograph of her as a schoolgirl and said: "The angel-faced British girl who last night became ... World's Most Wanted."

Unfortunately for the story line, however, the red notice was issued in response to a Kenyan request concerning events nearly two years ago, not the Nairobi attack. The notice said she was wanted by Kenya "on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011" as part of a suspected plot to bomb cities along the Kenyan coast at Christmas.

Michael O'Connell, director of operational support for Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said that the issuing of the red notice was "a coincidence" resulting from an open investigation. "We're at the stage where the details of this case and this individual have been able to be released publicly," he told BBC World Service radio. "There are other people with red notices."

But the red notice did indicate a heightened level of alert. Ms. Lewthwaite had previously been sought only by South Africa on suspicion of obtaining a fraudulent passport under the name Natalie Faye Webb.

Ms. Lewthwaite has now achieved "a semimythical status," said Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a British research organization specializing in defense and security. But he, too, emphasized that there was little concrete evidence linking her to the Nairobi attack.

About 200 Britons are fighting alongside Islamist rebels in Syria and 100 in Somalia, Mr. Pantucci said. "Even if the numbers are small, it only takes one person to blow things up," he said. "Foreign fighters are the umbilical cord that links the battleground to the home country."

Valentina Soria, a counterterrorism expert at IHS Jane's, a defense consultancy, said the Shabab had been trying to recruit foreigners and Somalis in the United States and Europe for three years "to offset the loss of domestic support."

Ms. Soria pointed to Michael Adebolajo, 28, who on Friday pleaded not guilty to the gruesome murder of Lee Rigby, an off-duty soldier, in London last May, as one Briton who tried to travel to Somalia to fight alongside the Shabab.

Ms. Lewthwaite, a youthful convert to Islam, is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, who blew himself up on a London Underground train on July 7, 2005, killing 26 people as part of a larger attack that killed 52 and wounded hundreds.

The daughter of a former British soldier, Ms. Lewthwaite was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in the market town of Aylesbury, northwest of London. Raj Khan, a local councilor who knew the family, described her as "an average, British, young, ordinary girl" who suffered, he said, from a lack of confidence. "That's why I find it absolutely amazing that she is supposed to be the head of an international criminal terrorist organization," he said.

She met Mr. Lindsay, who was born in Jamaica, on an Internet chat forum when she was 17, two years after she converted to Islam. She studied religion and politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. The couple married in 2002 and moved back to Aylesbury in 2003.

After the 2005 attacks, she said, "I totally condemn and am horrified by the atrocities which occurred in London," and praised Mr. Lindsay as "a good and loving husband and a brilliant father who showed absolutely no sign of doing this atrocious crime." She said her husband had fallen under the influence of radical imams, adding, "How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful."

She was pregnant with their second child at the time. She has three children, ages 7 to 12, the youngest with her second husband, a Kenyan.

Little was heard about her until March 2012, when her name surfaced in a Kenyan investigation into suspected plans to bomb coastal cities during the Christmas holidays. The authorities said they suspected she had rented houses in Mombasa to assemble a bomb and was working with Musa Hussein Abdi, who was shot and killed in Somalia in June 2011. In December 2011 or January 2012, the police found a woman they believed to be Ms. Lewthwaite in his house, but let her go after she showed them a South African passport, now believed to be fake. She is thought to have then fled to Somalia.

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Your Money: A Guide to the New Exchanges for Health Insurance

Given all of the rhetoric about the Obama administration's health care law, it's not surprising that many consumers are confused about how the new insurance exchanges will actually work. Some states that oppose the law have gone as far as intentionally limiting the information that trickles out to its residents.

But after much anticipation, the curtain will finally rise on the exchanges next week, providing millions of consumers with an online marketplace to compare health insurance plans and then buy the coverage on the spot.

The exchanges are likely to be most attractive to people who qualify for subsidized coverage. Individuals with low and moderate incomes may be eligible for a tax credit, which can be used right away, like a gift card, to reduce their monthly premiums. People with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied coverage or charged more (this applies to most plans outside the exchanges, too). And all of the plans on the exchanges will be required to cover a list of essential services, from maternity care to mental health care.

"In today's individual market, it's like Swiss cheese coverage," said Sarah Dash, a research fellow at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University. "Consumers should have an easier time figuring out what they are getting for their money."

But it's still going to take some time to analyze the plans and their costs, which are expected to vary widely across the states. And the coverage may still pinch many families' budgets. Fortunately, there's a six-month window, from now to March 31, for people to figure it all out.

Here's some information to get you started:

Q. Where can I apply or get more information on the exchanges?

A. To avoid fraud artists, enter through the front door: Healthcare.gov. From there, you can find links to the exchange offered in your state. There may be technical glitches as the program gets started, so alternatively, you can call 1-800-318-2596.

Q. When does coverage go into effect?

A. You can apply as early as Oct. 1, but coverage won't begin until Jan. 1. The enrollment period for coverage in 2014 closes on March 31, 2014. After that, you can enroll only if you have a major life event like a job loss, birth, marriage or divorce.

Q. What sort of coverage will be offered?

A. All plans will have to provide the same set of essential benefits, including prescriptions, preventive care, doctor visits, emergency services and hospitalization (this also applies to most individual and small-employer group plans sold outside of the exchanges). But plans can offer additional benefits, or different numbers of services like physical therapy, so you'll need to do a side-by-side comparison to see what fits your needs — or at least the needs you can anticipate.

Q. Are the plans sold on the exchange more comprehensive than plans outside?

A. There are four plan levels, each named for a precious metal. They all generally offer the same essential benefits, but their cost structures vary. The lower the premium, the higher the out-of-pocket costs.

The bronze level plan, for instance, has the lowest premiums, but will require consumers to shoulder more costs out of pocket. They generally cover 60 percent of a typical population's out-of-pocket costs, and include deductibles, co-payments and coinsurance. The silver plans cover 70 percent; gold, 80 percent; while platinum covers 90 percent (and therefore carries the highest premiums).

If you buy a plan on an exchange, your annual out-of-pocket costs cannot exceed $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for a family of two or more in 2014. Catastrophic plans are also available to people under age 30 or those suffering a financial hardship. These carry high deductibles (equivalent to the out-of-pocket maximum, or $6,350 for a single person, in 2014). You cannot apply tax credits to these plans, either.

Premiums will vary across the states because of a variety of factors, like market competition, the underlying cost of care and the negotiating power of the exchanges, according to Kaiser research.

Q. If the costs with plan levels are similar, how will plans differ within the metal levels?

A. Networks of doctors and hospitals will differ, and cost-sharing structures may also vary. One plan might have lower deductibles and higher co-pays, whereas another plan might have a separate deductible for prescriptions. Various medications may also be covered differently. "If you are someone who is taking medicines, make sure you know what your drugs will cost in the various plans being offered," said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, deputy director of health policy at Families USA, a Washington consumer advocacy group.

Q. Will I be eligible for a premium tax credit (subsidized coverage)?

A. People with income between 100 percent of the poverty line (or about $23,550 for a family of four) and 400 percent of poverty ($94,200 for a family of four) are eligible for a tax credit to defray premium costs. (All income eligibility is based on your modified adjusted gross income; the online version of this column links to a guide explaining how that is calculated).

The tax credits are set up so that consumers will not have to pay more than a certain percentage of their income, ranging from 2 percent for those with incomes of up to 133 percent of the poverty level ($15,282 for a single and $31,322 for a family of four) to 9.5 percent for those with income of 300 to 400 percent of the poverty level, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The dollar amounts of the credits are calculated based on the costs of the second-to-lowest-cost silver plan available to you.

Kaiser has a calculator that can give you an idea of your eligibility.

Q. Can I get help with my out-of-pocket expenses, like deductibles?

A. People with incomes between 100 percent of the federal poverty line ($23,550 for a family of four) and 250 percent ($58,875 for a family of four) are also eligible for cost-sharing reductions, which means you'll pay less for items including deductibles and co-payments, and you'll have lower out-of-pocket maximums.

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Swift Movement Is Seen on Syria After U.N. Action

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry, former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia.

The diplomatic drive to purge Syria of its chemical weapons accelerated Friday, as the full 15-member United Nations Security Council approved a breakthrough resolution to ensure Syrian compliance, and the organization responsible for carrying out the destruction of those munitions announced a timetable that starts Tuesday, sooner than some had expected.

The Security Council resolution is aimed at coercing the government of President Bashar al-Assad to honor a pledge to give up its chemical weapons, which have been used at least once in Syria's civil war with horrific effects. The measure was a compromise completed Thursday night by the Council's five permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Although the resolution does not automatically threaten the use of force if Syria reneges — a Western concession granted to Russia — it nonetheless represents the Security Council's most significant action to date on the Syria conflict. Approval by all 15 members came swiftly Friday night.

In a speech to the Council, Secretary of State John Kerry cast the resolution as an important precedent in establishing that chemical weapons are "a threat to international peace and security anywhere they might be used."

"We are here united tonight in support of our belief that international institutions do matter, international norms matter," Mr. Kerry said.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, pointed out that enforcement measures were not automatic; any punitive action would require a second resolution.

The vote was conducted shortly after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group in The Hague that oversees the international treaty banning them, approved a schedule for inspections of chemical weapons storage and production sites in Syria, with work to start Oct. 1 and a goal of elimination by mid-2014.

Optimism created by the actions on chemical weapons seemed to spill over into the efforts aimed at bringing the Syrian conflict to a peaceful end. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said he was now hoping to convene a peace conference in Geneva by mid-November.

The pace reflected a dizzying rush of diplomacy that seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago, when the Obama administration was threatening Mr. Assad with missile strikes in response to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that left more than 1,400 people dead, including more than 400 children.

Mr. Obama, who contended that the use of such weapons had crossed a threshold of tolerance that could not go unaddressed, scrubbed the military strikes amid rising criticism at home and abroad that he risked entangling the United States in another war. His reversal was improbably aided by Russia, which devised a diplomatic alternative in which Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons under a Sept. 14 agreement negotiated by Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Kerry.

The quickened work on the resolution came as United Nations weapons inspectors said they were investigating reports that chemical munitions had been used seven times in Syria, including three after the Aug. 21 attack.

In his General Assembly speech representing Russia earlier on Friday, Mr. Lavrov said the resolution had been possible partly because of what he called the West's realization that the threat of military force to solve conflicts was "ineffective, meaningless and destructive."

The Russian foreign minister also said he hoped the resolution would provide momentum to convene a conference aimed at purging the Middle East of all such unconventional weapons.

Despite the new level of cooperation between Russia and the United States, Mr. Lavrov seemed to frame his General Assembly speech partly as a criticism of the Obama administration. Three days earlier, Mr. Obama told the General Assembly that the United States would remain heavily engaged in the Middle East and leave all options open, including the use of force, to protect its interests.

"It is alarming to hear the statements on the right to use military force to ensure one's own interest in the Middle East region under the pretext of the 'remaining demand for leadership' in international affairs," Mr. Lavrov said, according to a translation of his speech posted on the United Nations Web site. "All the recent history testifies that no state — no matter how big or powerful — can cope alone with the challenges of that scope faced by mankind today."

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from New York, and Alan Cowell from London.

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Sudan Erupts in Deadly Protests as Gas Prices Rise

KHARTOUM, Sudan — This time, it was not the organizing by activists on Facebook and Twitter that made people take to the streets in such numbers. They did not need it. The anger was already widespread enough.

"The people want to bring down the regime!" and "No, no, to high prices!" young protesters shouted this week as they marched in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city across the Nile.

Deadly protests have rocked several Sudanese cities since Sunday, when the government lifted subsidies on gasoline, nearly doubling the price in an increase that is bound to create a domino effect on other goods.

"The economic situation is just painful," said one protester, Moyasser, 25, who did not want his full name used out of fear of government reprisals.

The demonstrations broke out across greater Khartoum, with some leading to the destruction of public property like buses and gas stations. One witness saw at least six burned cars on Africa Road in Khartoum; another saw protesters throw rocks at cars and block a road with burning tires and bricks.

The government has responded forcefully. A statement by the authorities promised to act "with an iron fist" to "destructive actions." Sudan's police forces said 29 people, including members of the police, had died in the violence, blaming "trained elements" and "rioters."

But activists say that at least 100 are believed to have been killed, mostly by the government, with hospitals flooded. Security and police forces have used live ammunition as well as tear gas and batons to break up the protests.

"I know two who were killed," Moyasser said. "One was shot, and the other beaten to death."

As the protests escalated, Internet services were shut down on Wednesday and early Thursday. The authorities said that rioters had attacked and destroyed equipment belonging to a local online provider, but activists say it was a deliberate act by the government to create a blackout on events in Sudan.

The lifting of gasoline subsidies was the latest step in the difficult economic adjustments Sudan has experienced since South Sudan became independent two years ago, taking with it nearly 75 percent of the oil revenue the two countries once shared. Inflation has reached nearly 40 percent, and the value of the Sudanese pound has spiraled downward.

"The removal of subsidies must be accompanied with widening the social safety net," said Abla el-Mahdi, an economist. "But the government has failed to compensate the poor through direct transfers and increasing the minimum wage."

Despite promises for assistance to the poor and an increase in the minimum wage, "there is little confidence in the government," she added.

The Sudanese government, however, said it would continue with its economic overhaul policies.

"A government that backs down from taking the right decision for the benefit of society is not a government worthy of the trust and support of the people," Vice President Ali Osman Taha told a group of graduates on Wednesday.

Sudan's political opposition has been quick to criticize the government.

"We are against the increase in fuel prices," said Kamal Omer of the Popular Congress Party. "This shows the failure of the ruling party."

Thirty-five activists belonging to various political parties have been arrested since the beginning of the protests, Mr. Omer said. He said the current wave of protests represented "a revolution of the hungry."

"This is the straw that broke the camel's back," Mr. Omer added.

Amjad Farid, 29, an activist with the Coalition of Sudanese Revolutionary Youth, warned that the protests would continue.

"After what happened, we cannot back down," he said. "The blood of Sudanese is not cheap."

Attempts by Sudanese dissidents in 2011 and last year to organize and set off an Arab Spring-like revolution in Sudan failed. But popular uprisings in 1964 and 1985 succeeded in bringing down military governments.

Abdel-Latif el-Bouni, a columnist, was cautious to not describe the current events as a revolution.

"This was all expected, but thus far, it's been a reaction," he said. "Anger is not enough for change."

But, he added, "if geared into political momentum, it has the potential to become a revolution."

Five days of protests have taken an economic toll on the city of Omdurman as well. In the usually crowded Al Shuhada Square, an intersection for buses, shops were closed or only partly open.

Salih Ibrahim, 47, a conductor, said that while 250 drivers of minivans used for public transportation usually showed up for work, "only 30 showed up."

Many of the drivers, Mr. Ibrahim said, feared that protesters would attack their vans. Others simply could not find gasoline, as a number of gas stations in Omdurman had been burned down.

"The guys who came bought gasoline from the black market, not for 21 pounds, but 30 pounds," Mr. Ibrahim said. "So they're charging passengers up to three pounds," or about 68 cents, double the normal price.

"I have no choice; I need to get home," said Abdel-Munim Ismail, 37, who got on a van.

Some grocery store owners also felt the brunt of higher gasoline prices and their expected trickle-down effect.

"The price of transporting goods to my store went from 20 pounds to 40 pounds," or about $9.11, said Abdel-Aziz Ahmad, 40.

"The prices of flour, cooking oil, tomato sauce and onions are starting to go up," Mr. Ahmad said. "I know people who don't buy from me anymore."

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DealBook: Detroit Manager Seeks to Freeze Pension Plan

Updated, 8:42 p.m. | Detroit's emergency manager wants to freeze the city's pension system for public workers in light of mounting evidence that it was operated in an unsound manner for many years, contributing to the city's downfall.

The emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, issued on Thursday the preliminary results of a three-month investigation that identified questionable actions, including diversions of pooled money into individual accounts, excessive real estate investments that lost millions of dollars and "disconcerting administrative protocols" for the handling of health care and unemployment benefits. The investigation, conducted jointly by Detroit's independent auditor general and inspector general, was the first stage of a review that is continuing and expanding, investigators said.

Unfunded pensions and health care obligations are by far the biggest claims in Detroit's record-setting municipal bankruptcy. The city has about 33,000 workers and retirees who have been promised what human resources records call an "exceptional benefit package" to promote loyalty and reduce turnover.

Mr. Orr said that the purpose of investigating the benefits now was "to help identify how the city can address its present financial crisis and, in the future, help determine the basis for and what, if any, actions that must be taken."

He also issued another order this week, demanding much more detailed information from the city's pension trustees about how the funds — one for general employees and the other for police and firefighters — were handled over the last 28 years. The order set a deadline of Oct. 11 for them to produce it.

Details of the proposed pension freeze were outlined separately, in a memo sent to Detroit's pension trustees several days ago. The memo said that the city's current defined-benefit pension plans would be closed to new members as of Dec. 31. City workers would stop building up their pensions as of that date but would remain entitled to the benefits they had accrued up until then.

That type of pension freeze is legal and fairly common in the private sector. But public employees' unions say that such a freeze would be illegal for their members because of state laws and constitutional provisions that cover government workers. Unions in Michigan are challenging Detroit's bankruptcy petition, and depending on the outcome, the case may answer the much-debated question of whether a federal bankruptcy judge can set aside such state constitutional provisions.

"What the unions, I believe, are saying, is, 'Does the authority to go into bankruptcy also include with it the authority to override that constitutional protection?' " said Paul Maco, former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities, who is now with the firm of Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington. "There hasn't been a Chapter 9 case where the federal bankruptcy law was found to override the state constitutional law."

In a letter sent with their audit report, Detroit's auditor general and inspector general, Mark Lockridge and James Heath, said that they had started by looking at real estate investments because federal authorities were already investigating accusations of fraud in that area. That investigation has already produced indictments. They said they still planned to look at other investment classes. So far, they noted that both of the city's pension funds had exceeded the levels of real estate investment allowed under state law and had lost $144.8 million on them as of 2010.

Other areas where the investigators saw signs of trouble included the way overtime and other data were being factored into retirees' pension calculations, high-yielding bonuses that were added to current workers' individual accounts, and less-than-rigorous handling of health care billings. They said that nearly half of all the city's unemployment compensation claims over the last three years were either "likely fraudulent" or "highly questionable" and said they were escalating their review of those claims to a forensic investigation.

They also said that a five-year contract with a big managed care provider, signed late last year, might have to be redone because it was written in a way that seemed unlikely to save Detroit much money.

Some of the records Mr. Orr demanded in his latest order seemed likely to support the two investigators' work. The order calls for the pension trustees to provide records showing how the city's two pension funds calculated "excess earnings" — a term they applied to investment gains in a given year that were greater than the average the trustees estimated the investments would earn over the long term. The trustees have said they put these "excess earnings" into a special reserve and used them to pay for year-end bonuses for retired city workers, called "13th checks."

The proposed pension freeze for Detroit would halt payments of nonpension benefits to both active workers and retirees. Nor would current retirees continue to receive yearly cost-of-living adjustments. Current city workers would be shifted into new defined-contribution plans, similar to 401(k) plans, which would comply with the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code, according to the memo.

The city's current approach, in which money is transferred from a pooled pension trust fund to a system of individual accounts, appears not to comply, risking the pension system's tax-qualified status. Pension funds are rarely stripped of their qualified status by the I.R.S., because all the contributions and investment earnings in such a case would immediately become taxable, a catastrophic event.

The proposed pension freeze would also have a deferred-compensation plan for people hired in the future; participants in the existing plan would not be eligible for that one.

Tina Bassett, a spokeswoman for the general pension trustees, said they opposed the pension freeze and saw it as a sign of bad faith on the part of the emergency manager's legal team.

"No one from the G.R.S. had any input into this proposal," she said in a written statement, referring to the General Retirement System. "We believe it is unseemly and disingenuous to present a proposal involving a new benefit structure that will affect the pensions of our members, beneficiaries and city employees not yet vested, without seeking our input, suggestions, knowledge and expertise."

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U.S. and Turkey to Create Fund to Stem Extremism

WASHINGTON — The United States and Turkey on Friday will announce the creation of a $200 million fund to combat violent extremism by undercutting the ideological and recruiting appeal of jihadists in places like Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan, State Department officials said Thursday.

While the United States and its allies in the global campaign against terrorism have over the past decade effectively honed their intelligence and reconnaissance skills to hunt terrorists, the West continues to struggle in its efforts to prevent the process of radicalization that creates them.

The new fund, formally called the Global Fund for Community Engagement and Resilience, will for the first time combine financing from both government and nongovernment entities to identify credible local organizations; develop, monitor and evaluate programs; and channel funds to local projects that target groups and individuals vulnerable to appeals from terrorist groups.

It is expected to be operational by mid-2014, officials said.

The initiative, based on other global funds to combat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, is to be announced by Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in New York. The United States and Turkey are leaders of the group, an organization of 29 countries and the European Union created two years ago with the State Department's support to act as a clearinghouse of ideas and actions for civilian counterterrorism specialists.

"Countries that have a radicalization problem previously had to rely on ad hoc support from wealthier donor nations, many of which are not bureaucratically capable of sponsoring the small intervention programs necessary to disrupt the radicalization process," said William McCants, a former State Department counterterrorism official who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Now countries can turn to the global fund to sponsor programs that will pull young men and women back from the edge of terrorist violence."

The United States is initially expected to contribute $2 million to $3 million to the fund, which will be administered in Geneva. Other likely donors besides Turkey include the European Union, Canada, Qatar, Denmark and Britain as well as private sources. American officials said they expect the fund to raise more than $200 million over a 10-year period.

Grants from the fund would provide vocational training to youths at risk of being recruited by terrorist organizations; new school curriculums that teach tolerance and problem solving; and Web sites and social networks to educate youth about the dangers of violent extremist ideologies.

The new fund builds on other efforts the counterterrorism forum has promoted including the creation of a center in Abu Dhabi to counter violent extremism.

Denmark has already forged a partnership with Burkina Faso to respond to violent extremism in the Sahel region of Africa, and backed it up with a war chest of $22 million over five years. Separately, Saudi Arabia announced last month that it would donate $100 million to the United Nations Center on Counterterrorism. American officials have suggested that the United Nations give some of the Saudi money to the new fund.

Although countering violent extremism is a policy priority for the United Nations, it does not have the ready ability to provide financing to small grass-roots organizations that do that work, American officials said. Thus, providing money to the fund would allow the United Nations to support an important counterradicalization effort, the officials said.

On Friday, Mr. Kerry is expected to explain that radicalization is often fueled by conditions at the local level and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to countering violent extremism, State Department officials said.

Citing recent terrorist attacks in Kenya and Pakistan, Mr. Kerry will note that communities are at the heart of any solution in combating this threat, and that authorities must tailor responses to conditions in those communities.

American counterterrorism officials say that the most enduring anti-extremism programs are those owned and carried out by local civic and government partners.

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E.A. Sports Settles Lawsuit With College Athletes

Two of the three targets of a high-profile lawsuit seeking payment for student-athletes settled the closely watched case Thursday, leaving the N.C.A.A. as the lone remaining defendant.

The terms of the settlement between the athletes and two of their targets, E.A. Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company, were not disclosed in a federal court filing in Oakland, Calif.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the former U.C.L.A. basketball player Ed O'Bannon, could have broad implications for the future of college athletics, opening the possibility that student-athletes could share in the profits of big-time university sports.

The case, which began more than four years ago, is focused on the rights of colleges athletes, how their likenesses are used — particularly in video games and broadcasts — and whether they should be paid.

The settlement by the other parties, if approved by the judge, indicates that the N.C.A.A. will probably be alone in defending itself.

"We have asked for, but have not yet received, the terms" of the settlement, said Donald Remy, the N.C.A.A.'s chief legal officer, "so we cannot comment further."

Michael Hausfeld, a lawyer for the athletes, declined to discuss the settlement terms but said it would not be an "unreasonable inference" to conclude that the student-athletes might now have the support of E.A. Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company, which handles rights licensing for many universities.

Hausfeld also said he did not believe the settlement "changes the mind-set of the N.C.A.A."

Legal analysts said the lawsuit had been particularly important to the N.C.A.A.

"The N.C.A.A. has a lot more at stake in terms of what this is going to be to their organization than E.A. Sports did going forward," said Justin Sievert, a lawyer with the Michael L. Buckner Law Firm, a sports law firm in Pompano Beach, Fla.

He added, "If the N.C.A.A. settles or loses at trial, that will change the whole amateurism system."

E.A. Sports' interest in the case stems from its role as the maker of the college football video game series. The plaintiffs in the case had said that the characteristics of the players in the video games essentially mirrored those of actual college athletes, violating their rights.

On Thursday, just before the settlement, which was first reported online by The Birmingham News, E.A. Sports announced on its Web site that it would not publish its college football video game in 2014 and that it was working to settle the case with the athletes.

The decision not to make the college football video game in 2014 came after the N.C.A.A. and three major conferences cut ties with the game over the summer and after calls for college athletes to be compensated had grown louder.

On Saturday, a number of current college football players joined the push for N.C.A.A. reforms by putting the phrase "All Players United," or "A.P.U.," on their equipment.

"We have been stuck in the middle of a dispute between the N.C.A.A. and student-athletes who seek compensation for playing college football," Cam Weber, E.A. Sports' general manager for American football, wrote on the company's Web site Thursday. "Just like companies that broadcast college games and those that provide equipment and apparel, we follow rules that are set by the N.C.A.A. — but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes."

The announcement about the game signified a departure from E.A. Sports' earlier position: the company had said that it would move forward with a game next year, even after the N.C.A.A. said in mid-July that it was backing out.

In August, three major conferences — the Southeastern, Big Ten and Pacific-12 Conferences — also moved away from the game. The lack of support, coupled with the pending lawsuit, left E.A. Sports "in a difficult position," Weber said.

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