Arrests of 3 Mayors Reinforce Florida’s Notoriety as a Hothouse for Corruption

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Even by Florida standards, the arrests of three suburban Miami mayors on corruption charges within a month were a source of dismay, if not exactly a surprise.

On Wednesday, Steven C. Bateman, 58, the mayor of Homestead, was arrested. He is accused of accepting under-the-table payments from a health care company that sought to build a clinic in town, the state attorney's office for Miami-Dade County said. Mr. Bateman was turned in by City Council members and staff, said employees interviewed Friday at City Hall.

On Aug. 6, Manuel L. Maroño, 41, the mayor of Sweetwater and president of the Florida League of Cities, and Michael A. Pizzi, 51, the Miami Lakes mayor, were picked up along with two lobbyists. The United States attorney's office has accused them of involvement in kickback and bribery schemes concerning federal grants.

Prosecutors said Mr. Maroño had received more than $40,000 in bribes and Mr. Pizzi $6,750. The defendants, who were targets of an F.B.I. sting operation, are charged with "conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right" and could face 20 years in prison if convicted.

Gov. Rick Scott suspended all three mayors while the criminal cases proceed.

"We bought the trifecta," said Carla Miller, the ethics officer for Jacksonville and a former federal prosecutor. "It's bad when three mayors get led out in handcuffs. What's left of the public trust gets ground into little pieces."

Not that such situations are unusual in Florida, which led the country in convictions of public officials — 781 — between 2000 and 2010, according to Department of Justice figures.

"Florida has become the corruption capital of America," said Dan Krassner, the executive director of a watchdog group, Integrity Florida, citing statistics going back to 1976 and the "significant number of public officials arrested this year and last."

Florida, and especially Miami and its environs, has long had a reputation as a place where the odd and the eccentric mix with the furtive and the felonious. Last century, organized crime figures from Chicago and New York set up lucrative gambling, extortion and loan-sharking endeavors in Miami Beach and elsewhere, and beginning in the 1980s, South Florida's economy, culture and reputation were transformed by drug trafficking.

With so much money sloshing about, it was perhaps inevitable that a parade of officials would enrich themselves illicitly at the public trough.

One was Alex Daoud, who in 1985 became the mayor of Miami Beach and six years later was indicted on 41 counts of bribery. He served 18 months in prison, and has since written a memoir.

Last year in Miami Beach, City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, who was making $273,000 a year and had been mired in a web of investigations, was forced to step down after seven of his employees were arrested in a federal corruption investigation. His six-figure pension remained intact.

The arrests of the three Miami-Dade mayors followed news in July that the Securities and Exchange Commission had charged the City of Miami and one of its former budget directors with securities fraud, only a few years after the commission reprimanded the city for similar behavior. In May, a former mayor of Hialeah, Julio Robaina, and his wife, Raiza, were charged with failing to report income from high-interest loans totaling more than $1 million that they had made under an informal system involving friends and associates. The Robainas said they were innocent.

In 2011, in the largest municipal recall election in the country, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Alvarez, was removed from office after he gave large pay raises to close aides and then pushed for a significant increase in property taxes.

This year, the State Legislature approved two ethics bills and six that focus on government transparency and accountability — the first time in 36 years that state lawmakers had passed ethics legislation. Mr. Krassner and others think legislators could do more. But many people seem resigned to the prevalence of officials who appear oblivious to ethical boundaries.

"They get drunk on power," said Katy Sorenson, who served on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners for 16 years and runs the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, which educates elected officials about ethics and related issues.

"There's a certain psychology to some of the people who run for office here — they don't think they're going down the wrong track, but there's a slippery slope," she added. "There's a lack of self-awareness, an immaturity, a brazenness, of feeling like a big shot. So when they're arrested, they're very surprised."

The persistence of political malfeasance — often involving the stereotypical envelopes stuffed with cash, delivered with knowing nods — perplexes those for whom public service is a noble calling.

"Maybe it's the heat," said Ruth Campbell, 93, a former City Council member here and the curator of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum.

Mrs. Campbell, who has lived in town since 1942, was sadly aware of Florida's reputation as a haven for corruption. "We like to be distinguished," she said, "but not like that."

Prosecutors said Mr. Bateman, among other things, had failed to disclose that the health care company, Community Health of South Florida Inc., secretly agreed to pay him $120,000 over a year to lobby on its behalf. By the time he was arrested, he had accepted $3,625, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.

After the mayor's arrest, a City Council member, Judy Waldman, told reporters, "I have zero tolerance for people using their public office to make money." Ms. Waldman, who referred to Mr. Bateman only as "that individual," said his activities on behalf of Community Health Care of South Florida were "just the tip of the iceberg," and encouraged prosecutors to dig deeper.

Mr. Bateman's lawyer, Ben Kuehne, told The Associated Press that his client was "shocked" by his arrest and had "served the community for many years in an honest, dependable manner."

At City Hall on Friday, in a frame that contained photos of city officials, Mr. Bateman's likeness had been concealed behind a paper copy of the city's crest. But a day earlier, a group of his supporters rallied a couple blocks away, and Mr. Bateman, out on bond, showed up, shook hands and vowed to fight the charges.

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1-Year-Old Boy Is Fatally Shot in Brooklyn

The shooting occurred on the corner of Livonia Avenue and Bristol Street in the Marcus Garvey Village project in Brownsville about 7 p.m. The boy, Antiq Hennis, was hit in the left side of the head and pronounced dead at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

According to the police, Antiq was with his parents and in a stroller when he was shot as the family crossed Livonia Avenue. It was not clear who was the target of the gunman, the police said.

Antiq lived on Riverdale Avenue, a few blocks from where he was killed.

Gina Gamboa, 22, who had been visiting her boyfriend, said she heard three gunshots, and saw one man running away and another standing near a stroller.

The man standing by the stroller began to run, too, Ms. Gamboa said, but came back for the child. "The baby's head was to the side," she said. The stroller, she added, was covered in blood.

Moments later, residents began to emerge from their homes and cries of "a baby got shot" could be heard. "For stupid stuff people want to kill someone," Ms. Gamboa said.

Officers shut down streets around the site of the shooting, and residents returning to the block were initially not allowed to enter their homes.

Outside the hospital, a woman who said she was Antiq's godmother was doubled over in grief. "Oh, God, he's so innocent," she said, adding that she had kissed him goodbye. At a gathering at the family's home late Sunday night, relatives and friends declined to speak to reporters. 

No one else was hurt in the shooting and no arrests were reported by late Sunday night.

Late last month, a 3-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded in his apartment in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Investigators later determined that the bullet had been fired inside the apartment. A 22-year-old man was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child and tampering with evidence, the police said.

Julie Turkewitz contributed reporting.

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DealBook: Verizon Is Expected to Pay $130 Billion for Stake in Vodafone Joint Venture

Updated, 9:35 p.m. | Verizon Communications neared a long-anticipated deal on Sunday to buy the 45 percent stake in its wireless business held by Vodafone of Britain for about $130 billion, heralding a continued sweeping realignment within the global telecommunications landscape.

Though a deal may have little effect on Verizon Wireless's nearly 100 million subscribers at first, it would ripple through the telecommunications industry and Wall Street, with both having closely watched the back-and-forth of the negotiations for months.

The companies were expected to announce the deal on Monday, barring last-minute hiccups, according to people briefed on the matter.

A sale would be the third-biggest takeover in corporate history and would give Vodafone a sudden windfall that might lead the British phone company to further acquisitions of its own. It would also furnish the banks working for both sides with a bonanza of fees.

Under the expected terms of the transaction, Verizon is to pay both cash and stock. Vodafone's board was scheduled to meet on Sunday to vote on the deal, with Verizon's directors meeting sometime afterward.

Vodafone confirmed in a statement on Sunday afternoon that it was in "advanced discussions" with Verizon over the sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless, but declined to provide further detail. Verizon declined to comment.

Verizon would gain full control of perhaps its most important business and a vital beachhead in the growing fight over mobile broadband connections. Verizon Wireless is America's biggest cellphone service operator, claiming 98.9 million subscribers to AT&T's roughly 77.9 million.

The work of connecting smartphones, tablets and other devices yields big bucks. Last year, Verizon Wireless reported $21.8 billion in operating income and $75.9 billion in operating revenue.

For Verizon, an acquisition would finally realize a dream of unwinding a partnership that stretches back 14 years. Verizon Wireless was born of the combination of Vodafone's nascent American cellphone operations with those of Bell Atlantic, a Verizon predecessor, in 1999.

Since then, Verizon Wireless has grown tremendously, spearheading a long stretch of consolidation within the telecommunications industry alongside AT&T, refocusing the American phone market around the two biggest survivors of the breakup of Ma Bell nearly 30 years ago.

Both sides in the joint venture have held discussions for years about unwinding it. Those discussions had frequently fallen apart over issues like price and the potentially big tax hit that Vodafone would take if it sold its stake.

In recent months, however, Verizon and Vodafone rekindled their negotiations, having come to terms over major sticking points while moving ahead of the specter of rising interest rates in the United States. A sale now is not expected to generate a big tax bill for the British company, for example.

Buying out Vodafone's stake would involve breathtaking amounts of financing, including over $60 billion worth of bonds and loans arranged by an army of banks. Verizon's chief executive, Lowell C. McAdam, has said publicly that his company can afford a big deal.

And deal makers are confident that the markets can absorb a surge of new issuance of corporate debt. American corporations issued about $1.4 trillion of new debt last year, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Companies issued new debt at an average rate of about $113 billion a month last year.

Verizon is expected to hold onto its current investment-grade credit rating.

Helping to arrange the debt package are JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays, the people briefed on the matter said. Verizon's advisers also include Guggenheim Partners and Paul J. Taubman, a former high-powered deal maker at Morgan Stanley, while Vodafone has been working with UBS and Goldman Sachs.

The deal would give Vodafone two of the biggest deals on record: its $202.8 billion takeover of the German cellphone operator Mannesmann in 2000, and the $181.6 billion merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001, are the top two corporate deals, according to Thomson Reuters.

For Vodafone, the sale would provide a much-needed injection of cash to help rejuvenate its European business. Despite holding a strong presence in many European markets, including Germany and Britain, the telecommunications giant has suffered from sagging sales and increased competition from international rivals — including Carlos Slim Helú's América Móvil — which are expanding across the Continent.

Among Vodafone's highest priorities is returning cash to its long-suffering shareholders, most likely in the form of share buybacks. The British company's share price has slumped around 40 percent since the creation of Verizon Wireless, and investors are eager to see a cut of the proceeds, especially since a sale would eliminate billions of dollars in dividends that the joint venture pays out every year.

In the longer term, an influx of cash could maintain the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions in the European telecommunications sector. As consumers increasingly use cellphones and tablets to stream high-speed Internet, local carriers have been eager to bolt on extra services like cable and fixed-line operations through deals to offer customers so-called bundled telecom packages.

Vodafone already has expanded its presence in Germany after agreeing to buy the domestic cable operator Kabel Deutschland this year for $10.1 billion. Potential targets may include John C. Malone's Liberty Global, which is scooping up assets across Europe.

International players, including Liberty Global and América Móvil, also have taken advantage of the depressed share prices of European companies to secure footholds. América Móvil, for instance, has offered $9.5 billion for the Dutch carrier KPN, while Liberty earlier this year acquired the British cable company Virgin Media. AT&T also has expressed interest in potential European acquisitions.

Analysts said a number of smaller cellphone operators, particularly in economically depressed markets like Spain and Italy, could become acquisition targets for the likes of a cash-rich Vodafone. The British carrier may also look to expand its cable offerings, yet it may face competition from European and foreign rivals, which also are looking to increase their market shares.

"A move for Liberty would offer Vodafone a decent footprint in cable to overlap with its mobile assets," said Paul Marsch, a telecommunications analyst at Berenberg Bank in London. "It also could look at companies like Fastweb in Italy."

European antitrust officials would most likely give quick approval to any prospective deals, despite a track record of blocking cross-border deals in telecommunications, according to a number of analysts. European Union officials are eager to create a single market for cellphone, broadband and other services, and are increasingly supportive of deals that would consolidate the industry around a number of large incumbents like Telefónica of Spain and Deutsche Telekom of Germany.

"The E.U. is getting more relaxed about approving deals," said Gyanee Dewnarain, a research director at the analyst firm Gartner in London. "If Vodafone sells its stake in Verizon Wireless, it would have the cash to go out and do something big."

Mary Williams Walsh contributed reporting.

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N.S.A. Said to Have Spied on Leaders of Brazil and Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO — The National Security Agency's spy program targeted the communications of the Brazilian and Mexican presidents, and in the case of Mexico's leader accessed the content of emails before he was elected, the U.S. journalist who obtained secret documents from NSA leaker Edward Snowden said Sunday.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, told Globo's news program "Fantastico" that a document dated June 2012 shows that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's emails were being read. The document's date is a month before Pena Nieto was elected.

The document on which Greenwald based the report includes communications from Pena Nieto indicating who he would like to name to some government posts among other information. It's not clear if the spying continues.

As for Brazil's leader, the June 2012 document "doesn't include any of Dilma's specific intercepted messages, the way it does for Nieto," Greenwald told The Associated Press in an email. "But it is clear in several ways that her communications were intercepted, including the use of DNI Presenter, which is a program used by NSA to open and read emails and online chats."

The U.S. targeting mapped out the aides with whom Rousseff communicated and went a level further by tracking patterns of how those aides communicated with one another and also third parties, according to the document.

Calls to Rousseff's office and a spokeswoman were not answered. Messages sent to a spokesman for Nena Pieto weren't immediately returned. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said had no comment.

Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo told the newspaper O Globo that "if the facts of the report are confirmed, they would be considered very serious and would constitute a clear violation of Brazil's sovereignty."

"This is completely outside the standard of confidence expected of a strategic partnership, as the U.S. and Brazil have," he added.

In July, Greenwald co-wrote articles in O Globo that said documents leaked by Snowden indicate Brazil was the largest target in Latin America for the NSA program, which collected data on billions of emails and calls flowing through Brazil.

The Brazilian government denounced the NSA activities outlined in the earlier reports.

Greenwald reported then that the NSA collected the data through an undefined association between U.S. and Brazilian telecommunications companies. He said he could not verify which Brazilian companies were involved or if they were aware their links were being used to collect the data.

Greenwald began writing stories based on material leaked by Snowden in May, mostly for the Guardian newspaper in Britain.

Before news of the NSA program broke, the White House announced that Rousseff would be honored with a state dinner in October during a trip to the U.S., the only such full state dinner scheduled this year for a foreign leader. The move highlighted the U.S. desire to build on improved relations since Rousseff took the presidency on Jan. 1, 2011.

Rousseff's office said last week that there were no plans to scrap the state dinner because of the NSA program.

The latest revelations were sure to increase tensions, coming on the heels of last month's detention of Greenwald's domestic partner, Brazilian citizen David Miranda, who was held for nearly nine hours at London's Heathrow airport.

British authorities stopped him as he was transiting through the airport, citing their ability to do so under anti-terrorism legislation. The U.S. government was notified beforehand that Miranda was to be stopped as he returned home to Brazil after visiting Germany, where he met with Laura Poitras, a U.S. filmmaker who works with Greenwald on the NSA stories. Miranda had some of the pair's NSA documents leaked by Snowden on memory disks.

Last week, senior British national security adviser Oliver Robbins offered a sweeping view of the government concerns about those documents before Britain's High Court, saying the 58,000 classified British documents were "highly likely" to describe techniques used in counter-terrorism operations and could reveal the identities of British intelligence officers abroad.

Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger dismissed the statement as containing "unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims," and questioned the danger, arguing that the government had done little to address the issue before Miranda's detention.

After Miranda's detention, Greenwald promised he was going "to write much more aggressively than before" about government snooping.

___

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While Radwanska Is Upset, Djokovic Cruises

By at least one measure, Agnieszka Radwanska had been the most consistent player on the women's tour this year: if she advanced to the quarterfinals at the United States Open, she would have been the only woman to do so at all four Grand Slams. Across from her, on Sunday night, was the erratic Russian Ekaterina Makarova.

That was the backdrop, as other matches ended and the night wore on, and those still here turned their attention to the third-seeded Radwanska's struggle and ultimate 6-4, 6-4 loss to Makarova, the No. 24 seed, at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Makarova threw her arms in the air and shrieked when it was over, signaling her unlikely trip to the quarterfinals and the exit of Radwanska, who became the highest-seeded player on the men's or women's side to lose thus far.

Makarova had made the quarterfinals at the last two Australian Opens, upsetting Serena Williams there in 2012. But that was the end of her Grand Slam résumé, until she outlasted Radwanska on Sunday night, hitting 28 winners.

It was especially sweet because the Open is her favorite Grand Slam, she said, in part because "New York as a city is similar with Moscow; it also, like, never sleeps."

Radwanska was playing after the recent death of her grandfather. She had pulled out of a W.T.A. tournament in mid-August and returned to Poland for his funeral.

He was her biggest fan, she said. Then after she lost Sunday, asked if the trip had affected her preparation, she said no.

"I don't want to make any excuses," she said, adding: "It's not that, for sure."

She did mention, however, that she preferred not to play at night.

Earlier in the evening, Novak Djokovic had put on a show at Arthur Ashe, against João Sousa, of Portugal. From the start, Sousa's shirt was soaked with sweat, from sprinting back and forth, trying to keep up with Djokovic's brilliance. When Sousa did catch up, he seemed to throw his whole self and muster all his might into every shot. He grunted and groaned, as Djokovic quietly worked.

Djokovic seemed cool in the night breeze, directing the ball wherever he pleased. Sousa was no Andy Murray, whom Djokovic could face in the semifinals, or Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, but it only boded well that Djokovic dominated him with such ease.

Djokovic beat Sousa, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2, in precise fashion and waltzed into the fourth round. The match lasted only 1 hour 40 minutes. Djokovic was so at ease with himself that when he arrived, minutes later, at his news conference, he asked to sit down at the stenograph machine and tried typing out a few words.

"Will you print that out for me?" Djokovic asked, taking his seat. He said he had aimed to win in straight sets, as quickly as possible: to do his job, as he put it.

That, he did. He hit 34 winners and broke serve just once. He said he wanted to improve his first-serve efficiency and his play at the net, but that seemed nitpicky.

He had sent Sousa all over the court, spraying shots, as he seemed to stand in one spot. His dominance was, of course, expected. The crowd appeared to cheer louder for Kelsey Grammer, who was shown on the video board as the "Cheers" theme song played, than for most of Djokovic's points, as good as they were.

When Sousa, the 95th-ranked player in the world, won his first game in the second set, some fans stood and cheered his effort. Djokovic won 9 of the next 10 points.

The Open, thus far, had been mostly a breeze for Djokovic. He beat Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania and Benjamin Becker of Germany in straight sets, his only minidrama being that he went to a tiebreaker in the first set against Becker.

In his postmatch news conference, Djokovic blamed the windy conditions, faulty footwork and his own poor job adjusting for his first-set struggles. He was asked again about the wind, and about his sponsorship deal with Uniqlo, the clothing company, and about his gluten-free diet. His struggles were that soon forgotten.

He talked about how his favorite dish was pasta, that he preferred regular pizza to gluten-free pizza. He said he missed chocolate, too, but admitted he does sometimes indulge himself with cacao or dark chocolate, but only a little.

As Djokovic's match started Sunday, his new adviser, Wojtek Fibak, said in an interview on the Tennis Channel that the key to Djokovic's winning the Open was his staying focused, despite all the events he was to attend and all the people around him.

"Less distractions," Fibak said, "because he's very popular."

After he dispatched Sousa, Djokovic indicated he had developed a plan to stay focused. For the last five years, he said, he has stayed with a friend in New Jersey during the Open. He said it was calm and quiet there. He said he still may go into the city for dinner, but he also often stays there and recharges on his days off.

"We've been trying to emphasize the focus, definitely, on every single point," Djokovic said. "I think so far I've done pretty well."

Also on Sunday, on Djokovic's side of the draw, Mikhail Youzhny, the No. 21 seed from Russia, defeated 12th-seeded Tommy Haas, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Youzhny will now face Lleyton Hewitt, who also advanced Sunday, in the fourth round.

Li Na also beat Jelena Jankovic, 6-3, 6-0, to advance to the quarterfinals and set up a matchup with the surprise of the night, Makarova.

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White House Memo: President Pulls Lawmakers Into Box He Made

Mike Theiler/Reuters

Obama Speaks on Syria: President Obama spoke in the Rose Garden at the White House on Saturday, saying that he would seek Congressional approval for a strike on Syria.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's aides were stunned at what their boss had to say when he summoned them to the Oval Office on Friday at 7 p.m., on the eve of what they believed could be a weekend when American missiles streaked again across the Middle East.

In a two-hour meeting of passionate, sharp debate in the Oval Office, he told them that after a frantic week in which he seemed to be rushing toward a military attack on Syria, he wanted to pull back and seek Congressional approval first.

He had several reasons, he told them, including a sense of isolation after the terrible setback in the British Parliament. But the most compelling one may have been that acting alone would undercut him if in the next three years he needed Congressional authority for his next military confrontation in the Middle East, perhaps with Iran.

If he made the decision to strike Syria without Congress now, he said, would he get Congress when he really needed it?

"He can't make these decisions divorced from the American public and from Congress," said a senior aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations. "Who knows what we're going to face in the next three and a half years in the Middle East?"

The Oval Office meeting ended one of the strangest weeks of the Obama administration, in which a president who had drawn a "red line" against the use of chemical weapons, and watched Syrian military forces breach it with horrific consequences, found himself compelled to act by his own statements. But Mr. Obama, who has been reluctant for the past two years to get entangled in Syria, had qualms from the start.

Even as he steeled himself for an attack this past week, two advisers said, he nurtured doubts about the political and legal justification for action, given that the United Nations Security Council had refused to bless a military strike that he had not put before Congress. A drumbeat of lawmakers demanding a vote added to the sense that he could be out on a limb.

"I know well we are weary of war," Mr. Obama said in the Rose Garden on Saturday. "We've ended one war in Iraq. We're ending another in Afghanistan. And the American people have the good sense to know we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in Syria with our military."

The speech, which crystallized both Mr. Obama's outrage at the wanton use of chemical weapons and his ambivalence about military action, was a coda to a week that began the previous Saturday, when he convened a meeting of his National Security Council.

In that meeting, held in the White House Situation Room, Mr. Obama said he was devastated by the images of women and children gasping and convulsing from the effects of a poison gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus three days before. The Aug. 21 attack, which American intelligence agencies say killed more than 1,400 people, was on a far different scale than earlier, smaller chemical weapons attacks in Syria, which were marked by murky, conflicting evidence.

"I haven't made a decision yet on military action," he told his war council that Saturday, according to an aide. "But when I was talking about chemical weapons, this is what I was talking about." From that moment, the White House set about formulating the strongest case for military action it could.

Last Sunday, it issued a statement dismissing the need to wait for United Nations investigators because their evidence, the statement said, had been corrupted by the relentless shelling of the sites. By Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry, who had long advocated a more aggressive policy on Syria, delivered a thunderous speech that said President Bashar al-Assad was guilty of a "moral obscenity."

By midweek, administration officials were telling reporters that the administration would not be deterred by the lack of an imprimatur from the Security Council, where Syria's biggest backer, Russia, holds a veto.

Yet the president's ambivalence was palpable, and public. While Mr. Kerry made his fiery case against Mr. Assad, Mr. Obama was circumspect, sprinkling his words with caveats about the modest scale of the operation and acknowledgments of the nation's combat fatigue.

"We don't have good options, great options, for the region," the president said in an interview Wednesday on PBS's "News Hour," before describing a "limited, tailored" operation that he said would amount to a "shot across the bow" for Mr. Assad.

Jackie Calmes contributed reporting.

12.07 | 0 komentar | Read More

Obama’s Decision to Seek Approval First Lengthens Suspense of Attack

BEIRUT, Lebanon — At the end of a nerve-racking day in the cross hairs of American gunships, Syrians gathered around televisions to watch President Obama announce the start of an expected American missile strike.

When he instead declared that he would seek Congressional approval for the strikes — telling them, essentially, never mind, for now — Syrians were shocked. Also relieved, bewildered, confused, triumphant and angry.

Mohammed, 24, who opposes the government, watched the speech with friends who support it — not an uncommon situation in Damascus, where, especially among the wealthy and educated, people on both sides still interact, and argue, freely.

"They all suddenly turned into political analysts," he said. "Some of them said he looked very scared in his speech, and some said he decided to backtrack because the decision was hasty, and others thought it's just a game he's playing and he's going to strike tonight."

"I think there is a lot of fear among people," added Mohammed, who gave only his first name for safety reasons. "They are trying to hide it, but they are afraid."

Umm Hana, 58, watched Mr. Obama's speech with her husband and children in the central city of Homs, where government opponents have faced some of the country's fiercest army shelling. She said she regretted wasting time on him.

"It is just so clear — they are playing us like puppets, but they all want him to stay," she said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. "Obama is full of talk. He's so weak and useless."

For another Homs resident, Abu Bassam, 31, the only possible response was black humor.

"Man, I wish Bush was the president," he said. "He would have reacted right away. He may have invaded Cyprus or Jordan instead of Syria by mistake, but you know he would have done something at least."

But even some government opponents were relieved. Abeer Basal, a Damascus resident, had waited with clenched anxiety since word of an American strike began to circulate, along with reports that the government was moving political prisoners to military bases or leaving them in security offices that could be targets. Her brother was arrested eight months ago, and her family feared he could be killed, one of the many potential unintended consequences of a strike.

"While Obama was speaking," she said, "my mother didn't stop crying and praying that they decide against the military involvement in Syria."

Many Syrians feel deeply ambivalent about a strike, hoping it curbs the government's indiscriminate use of force — by punishing Mr. Assad for deadly chemical attacks on Aug. 21 that American officials blame on his government — but also fearing it could unleash new chaos.

Khalid al-Shami, a humanitarian aid worker in Damascus, summed up the quandary.

"I am against the military intervention in Syria if it will turn the country into the new Iraq," he said. "I stand for it if it will in any way help to save souls."

He said Mr. Obama appeared to be trying to keep the promise on which he was elected, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the American invasion of Iraq by limiting the scope of the strike and seeking consensus. It made sense, he said, that Mr. Obama would conceal the "zero hour" of the strike, and that he would take care to ensure it did not "contradict his electoral program about keeping the U.S. away from further wars."

But government supporters said Mr. Obama had backed down, either out of uncertainty over the evidence linking the government to the attacks, or out of fear.

Amin, 29, a Damascus resident, called the president "a rational and intelligent man" who, he said, "won't get involved in a war when he's not certain the regime is behind the chemical attacks."

He said Mr. Obama wanted to avoid the possibility of a deeper entanglement leading to regional spillover or American casualties, adding, "I won't mention their concern for civilians, because it is the least of their concerns."

Most of all, Syrians realized that their emotional roller coaster ride would continue. The postponement seemed bound to lengthen the period of suspense that has lingered for days.

Before the speech, Syrians spent the day discussing, debating and preparing for the attacks. They scoured corner shops for canned food, flashlights and candles; official news channels blasted patriotic music; and soldiers decamped to mosques and schools as the government tried to disperse its forces and arms into civilian buildings.

In central Damascus, where families still gather on weekends in parks with neatly planted flowers and splashing fountains, some people were sure the attacks would bring new dangers — of what kind, they could not be sure — while others said that whatever came next could not be worse than what they were used to.

One woman, a 29-year-old marketing executive, joked that the only difference would be the sounds: trading the thumps of both sides' mortars and the screech of the government's Russian-made MIG fighter jets for the thunder of Tomahawk missiles.

Syria's state broadcast channels synchronized their programming, continuing the solemn wartime programming that had played all day. They had canceled movies and dramas, mixing triumphal montages of cheering crowds and military exercises with more sedate fare. A report about the government's plans to offer free feed to herders suffering from the war's economic effects lingered over images of fat sheep grazing in dusty fields.

Across the country, rebels, government troops and civilians alike scurried to prepare. Fighters in the Free Syrian Army rebel coalition, who have long begged the United States to aid them more forcefully, honed plans to storm government bases, while their sometime allies in extremist Islamist groups — convinced they were as much a target as the government — scrambled for cover, taking down banners outside Shariah courthouses and headquarters and moving to new locations.

"We're very stressed here," said Abu Yoarob, a fighter with the Ansar al-Islam brigade in the northern province of Aleppo. "It's affecting our nerves."

Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut; employees of The New York Times from Beirut and Damascus, Syria; and Karam Shomali from Antakya, Turkey.

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Fire Kills 4 in Upstate New York

The fire was reported around 9:20 p.m. on Friday in the town of Elmira, Sgt. Russell Andrews of the Elmira Police Department said on Saturday. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, and as of Saturday evening the identities of the victims had not been released.

There were no other injuries reported and it was not clear whether anyone else was in the home at the time, Sergeant Andrews said.

"Four subjects were found in the residence by the fire department," he added. "All four succumbed to their injuries and died."

Some witnesses said there were children in the home, but officials could not say whether any children were among the victims.

"I looked out the door, seen fire coming out of the windows and the doorway, I called 911," Glen Bolt, 72, told the Elmira Star-Gazette. "The next thing I know someone said there's kids in there."

"I ran across the street, and me and the neighbor there busted the windows out, hoping the kids would come through that window," Mr. Bolt said. "But by that time the smoke had already got them."

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Radiation Near Japanese Plant’s Tanks Suggests New Leaks

TOKYO — A crisis over contaminated water at Japan's stricken nuclear plant worsened on Saturday when the plant's operator said it had detected high radiation levels near storage tanks, a finding that raised the possibility of additional leaks.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it had found the high levels of radiation at four separate spots on the ground, near some of the hundreds of tanks used to store toxic water produced by makeshift efforts to cool the Fukushima Daiichi plant's three damaged reactors. The highest reading was 1,800 millisieverts per hour, or enough to give a lethal dose in about four hours, Tepco said.

The contaminated spots were found as Tepco employees checked the integrity of the tanks after a leak two weeks ago released 300 tons of toxic water into the Pacific. That leak prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to announce that the government would step in at the plant, which was crippled two years ago by a huge earthquake and tsunami, to help get it under control amid rising public fears of a second environmental disaster.

Saturday's discoveries suggested that there may have been other leaks from the tanks, many of which appear to have been shoddily built as Tepco has scrambled to find enough storage space for the contaminated water being produced by the plant. However, Tepco said that it had found no evidence of fallen water levels in nearby tanks, making it unclear how much water, if any, may have leaked out, and whether any reached the Pacific, about 1,500 feet away.

About 430,000 tons of contaminated water, or enough to fill 170 Olympic-size pools, are stored in rows of tanks at the plant, which appears to be running out of open space to put them all. The contaminated water increases by 400 tons every day as groundwater flows into the basements of the damaged buildings housing the three ruined reactors, which melted down in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Tepco must draw off that water to prevent it from overwhelming jury-rigged cooling systems that keep the reactors' melted cores from reheating and melting into the ground in a phenomenon known as the China syndrome. Tepco has struggled to safely handle and store all the water.

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Italian Qualifier Ends Wozniacki’s Climb Back to Top

Uli Seit for The New York Times

Camila Giorgi of Italy after defeating Caroline Wozniacki, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki's streak of early Grand Slam exits continued Saturday, when she was eliminated in the third round of the United States Open.

The eighth-ranked Wozniacki, who had spent 67 weeks as the world's top ranked player but has failed to capture a major tournament title, had not been able to advance out of the fourth round at the season's previous three Grand Slams.

The Open appeared to offer her best opportunity to play deeper into the tournament and quiet some of her doubters. She had dispatched Ying-Ying Duan of China and cruised past Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa in the first two rounds, and the draw had developed nicely for Wozniacki, who next faced the 136th-ranked Camila Giorgi. If she could get by Giorgi, she would not face a higher-seeded opponent until the semifinals at the earliest.

But Giorgi, a 21-year old qualifier from Italy, was an aggressive ball-striker who could cause her headaches. From the start, Giorgi challenged Wozniacki on her way to a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and sent Wozniacki to another early exit.

The seventh-seeded Roger Federer restored some order to the night session at Ashe, breezing past Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2, in 1 hour 21 minutes.

Early on it appeared Wozniacki  might also have an easier night. In the first set, when Giorgi hit the net at 4-4 and gave Wozniacki a break point, Wozniacki held her left fist high and firm, appearing energized. She won the set, and it seemed then that she would maintain control.

But Giorgi charged back in the second set, hitting 17 winners to Wozniacki's 2. Giorgi began to dictate the pace of the match. She had the speed to track down Wozniacki's returns, the power to beat Wozniacki with her forehand, and the energy to keep it up.

"She put me under pressure and I started to play a little short, and then all of a sudden she was all over the ball," Wozniacki said, adding, "She was going for the lines and she was hitting them when she wanted to."

Giorgi controlled the third set the same way, ending the match with a strong forehand down the line that Wozniacki could only lunge at. Now it was Giorgi who pumped her fist, and Wozniacki waved halfheartedly, clearly dejected, as she left the court.

Giorgi smiled wide as the crowd cheered. She will next face fellow Italian Roberta Vinci, the No. 10 seed, with a berth in the quarterfinals at stake.

Asked why she thought she won, Giorgi said the reason was tactical. Asked to explain her tactics, she said, "Just when the ball came, just hit the ball in the corners."

She added, "I hope to stay like this for the last week."

Wozniacki exited in the first round at the Open last year, as she dealt with a right knee injury. It was yet another disappointment, after she had lost in the first round at Wimbledon that year, and after she had reached the semifinals at the Open the two previous years, in 2011 and 2010, and the final in 2009.

Wozniacki has not advanced to the semifinals of a Grand Slam since she did so at the Open in 2011, a trend she had hoped to change this season.

"It wasn't the best year for me at the majors," Wozniacki said, "but, you know, there is a next year."

As Giorgi was completing her upset of Wozniacki, Daniel Evans, the 23-year-old qualifier from Britain, fell apart against Tommy Robredo, the No. 19 seed from Spain, at Louis Armstrong Stadium, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Evans had reached the third round despite being ranked No. 179 in the world. He upset the No. 11 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan in the first round in straight sets. He practiced Wednesday with Roger Federer, and then beat Bernard Tomic of Australia on Thursday in four sets.

Federer had complimented Evans's game after their practice session, saying he had "a great shot," and for much of the first set, Evans lived up to his previous play and Federer's words. He pumped forehands into the corners, making Robredo work, and spun shots with his one-handed backhand, but Robredo outlasted him in the tiebreaker.

Evans swore at his miscues, as he flopped in the second. But he played a cleaner third, settled into his serve, and broke Robredo to stay alive. Then for a moment, when Robredo appeared to attend to a leg injury, there seemed to be a chance that Evans would rally and continue his run in this tournament. But Robredo mustered enough energy to finish off Evans in the fourth set.

So Robredo, not Evans, will face Federer in the fourth round.

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