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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Rays 4, Yankees 0: Closing Scene: Hugs and Tears in Rivera’s Last Home Game

It was supposed to be a meaningless game, the first at Yankee Stadium in 20 years, but there was nothing meaningless about it for Mariano Rivera or the announced crowd of 48,675 that came to say goodbye to an icon.

In another emblematic moment in the Yankees' storied history, Rivera made an emotional farewell appearance at the Stadium on Thursday night, breaking down in tears on the mound in the embrace of Andy Pettitte, who had come to take Rivera out of the game.

"I knew that was the last time," Rivera said. "It was a totally different feeling. Something I've never felt before. I don't know how I got those two guys out."

After pitching his final one and a third innings at Yankee Stadium in his 19th and final season, Rivera, baseball's career saves leader, stood and watched as Pettitte and Derek Jeter, his longtime teammates, came to the mound as emissaries for Manager Joe Girardi.

Before the ninth inning of what turned into a 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Girardi went to Laz Diaz, the home-plate umpire, and asked for permission to let Pettitte and Jeter make the pitching change, and Diaz agreed.

As he walked to the mound alongside Jeter, Pettitte tapped his right arm to signal for the replacement pitcher, Matt Daley, then took the ball from Rivera's hand. Rivera wrapped his arms around Pettitte, who is also retiring after the season, and buried his face in his shoulder, sobbing.

"I didn't say anything at first, and I didn't expect for him to be quite so emotional," Pettitte said. "He broke down and gave me a bear hug, and I bear-hugged him back. I mean, he was really crying. He was weeping, and I could feel him crying on me."

With a gentle prod from Jeter, Rivera finally looked up, hugged Jeter and walked off the mound as the fans, the Yankees and the Rays stood and cheered.

 "I'm glad Joe let us be a part of it," Jeter said, "because we've been like brothers for 21 years."

After hugging all his teammates in the dugout, Rivera emerged for one last wave to the sold-out Stadium. But the tears did not end there.

Girardi, whose contract runs out after the season, broke down in tears during a postgame news conference as he recalled his career with Rivera, which evolved from battery mate (Girardi was Rivera's catcher from 1996 to 1999) to coach and finally to manager.

"This is as good as it gets, and it's probably as special a going-out for any player I've ever seen," Girardi said, adding, "One thing about our fans, they understand what Mo has meant to this organization."

Rivera was not the only one to be saluted. After Daley recorded the final out of the ninth inning, the Rays waited to take the field as the fans chanted for Pettitte, who at first was reluctant to emerge from the dugout, having already had an emotional farewell when he pitched Sunday. But when he saw that the Rays would not take the field until he came out, he finally emerged and waved.

"Sunday was incredible and great closure for me," Pettitte said, "and this was a bonus. It's kind of bittersweet about the playoff chances being done, but I don't think it would have been able to go down like it did tonight if we were still right there and fighting for it."

Rivera's final entry onto the Yankee Stadium field was dramatic. As the bullpen door swung open with one out in the eighth, a recording of the longtime announcer Bob Sheppard's voice announced his entrance into the game. Rivera trotted across the outfield grass for the final time as the crowd saluted him with a thundering standing ovation while the familiar strains of his theme song, Metallica's "Enter Sandman," rang out.

As Rivera warmed up, the entire Rays team stood at its dugout and clapped along with the fans, eliciting a tip of the cap from Rivera, who then got down to business.

He calmly recorded the two final outs of the eighth and then the first two outs in the ninth — another perfect outing, if not a save — even as the Yankees lost.

After the eighth, Rivera retreated to the trainers' room and as he applied heat to his arm to keep it warm, he started to have a flood of memories, flashbacks from his days in the minor leagues, through all five World Series championships he helped the Yankees win, his ascendancy as he became hailed as the game's greatest closer, and finally to that very moment.

"I was being bombarded with emotions and feelings," Rivera said.

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