国际先驱论坛报（美国）4-27

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012 THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES GLOBAL.NYTIMES.COM FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION, CALL: 00800 44 48 78 27 or e-mail us at subs@iht.com . . . . Algeria Din 175 Ivory Coast CFA 2.200 Andorra ¤ 3.00 Morocco Dh 22 Antilles ¤ 3.00 Senegal CFA 2.200 Cameroon CFA 2.200 Tunisia Din 3.200 Gabon CFA 2.200 Reunion ¤ 3.50 NEWSSTAND PRICES France ¤ 3.00 IN THIS ISSUE No. 40,164 Books 11 Business 14 Crossword 13 Culture 10 Sports 12 Views 8 PENALTY KICKS NOWAY TO END A SOCCER MATCH PAGE 12 | SPORTS WORLD STAGE A REVOLUTION IN ‘LIVE’ OPERA PAGE 10 | CULTURE DIGITAL PRE-NUP RULES FORWHAT TO SHARE ONLINE PAGE 15 | BUSINESS WITH CURRENCIES STOCK INDEXES OIL NEW YORK, THURSDAY 1:30PM THURSDAY NEW YORK, THURSDAY 1:30PM PREVIOUS s Euro €1= $1.3230 $1.3220 s Pound £1= $1.6180 $1.6170 s Yen $1= ¥80.830 ¥81.260 — S. Franc $1= SF0.9080 SF0.9080 s The Dow 1:30pm 13,148.88 +0.44% s FTSE 100 close 5,748.72 +0.52% s Nikkei 225 close 9,561.83 +0.01% s Light sweet crude $104.52 +$1.26 VIEWS China grows up China has reached a stage at which all ‘‘miracle economies’’ have slowed. A smooth downshift in growthmakes the country amore normal rival, writes Ruchir Sharma. PAGE 8 Nicholas D. Kristof Could the brain autopsy of a 27-year-old formerU.S.marinewho did two tours in Iraq help explain the epidemic of suicides and other troubles experienced by veterans of America’swars? PAGE 9 COMING THIS WEEKEND Keeping Swiss watches Swiss Amove to tighten labeling rules for Swiss watches, a pillar of the country’s economy, has fueled a broader debate over what constitutes ‘‘Swissness.’’ Top of the heap Samuel L. Jackson, arguably the coolest and busiest actor on the planet, holds the GuinnessWorld Record as ‘‘the highest-grossing film actor’’ of all time. Ful l currency rates Page 17 Ex-president of Liberia is convicted of war crimes THE HAGUE BYMARLISE SIMONS Charles G. Taylor, the former president of Liberia and once a powerful warlord, was convicted on Thursday by an inter- national tribunal of 11 counts of plan- ning, aiding and abetting war crimes committed in Sierra Leone during its civil war in the 1990s. He is the first head of state to be con- victedbyan international court since the Nuremberg trials afterWorldWar II. The ruling, announced by Presiding Judge Richard Lussick, said Mr. Taylor was guilty of involvement in crimes against humanity and war crimes, in- cludingmurder, rape, slaveryand theuse of child soldiers. But the court said the prosecution had failed to prove that Mr. Taylor had direct command responsibili- ty for the atrocities in the indictment. The conflict in Sierra Leone became notorious for its gruesome tactics, in- cluding the calculated mutilation of thousands of civilians, the widespread use of drugged child soldiers and the mining of diamonds to pay for guns and ammunition. A new, sinister rebel vocabulary poin- ted to the horrors: applying ‘‘a smile’’ meant cutting off the upper and lower lips of a victim; giving ‘‘long sleeves’’ meant hacking off the hands; andgiving ‘‘short sleeves’’ meant cutting the arm above the elbow. Prosecutors saidMr. Taylor’s involve- ment in the war was motivated not by ideologybut by a simple quest for power andmoney— ‘‘pure avarice,’’ said Dav- id M. Crane, the American prosecutor who indicted him in 2003. Rebels supplied Mr. Taylor with ‘‘a continuous supply’’ of diamonds, often in exchange of arms and ammunition, the court found, allowing him to send what prosecutors said amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars to off- shore companies. Yet investigators nev- er unraveled the web hiding this pre- sumed fortune and Mr. Taylor pleaded penury, leaving the court to pay the bill for a defense that cost $100,000 per month in lawyers, staff and rent. Still, the trial has brought ‘‘a sense of relief,’’ said Ibrahim Tommy, who leads the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law, a rights group in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, ‘‘but I’m not sure it will bring closure to the victims.’’ Even so, Mr. Tommy said, the trial was ‘‘a genuine effort to ensure account- ability for the crimes in Sierra Leone.’’ In Liberia, supporters of Mr. Taylor have maintained that he is the victim of an American witch hunt, but others lament that his former associates have prospered and play a role in the new government. The tribunal, the Special Court for Si- erra Leone, which has its main seat in Freetown, has already sentenced eight other leading members from different forces and rebel groups for crimes in Si- erra Leone. Mr. Taylor, who has main- Taylor is guilty of aiding fighters who committed atrocities in Sierra Leone ISSOUF SANOGO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The trial of Charles G. Taylor, near The Hague, was shown on Thursday at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, whosemain seat is in Freetown, the capital. He was convicted on 11 counts. BEIJING BY JONATHAN ANSFIELD AND IAN JOHNSON When Hu Jintao, China’s top leader, picked up the telephone in August to talk to a senior anti-corruption official visit- ing Chongqing, special devices detected that he was being wiretapped— by local officials in that southwesternmetropolis. The discovery of that and other wiretapping led to an official investiga- tion thathelped toppleChongqing’s char- ismatic leader,BoXilai, in apolitical cata- clysm that has yet to reach a conclusion. Until now, the downfall of Mr. Bo has been cast largely as a tale of a populist who pursued his own agenda too ag- gressively for some top leaders in Beijing and was brought down by accu- sations that his wife had arranged the killing of Neil Heywood, a British con- sultant, after a business dispute. But the wiretapping, previously alluded to only in internal Communist Party accounts of the scandal, appears to have provided another compelling reason for party leaders to turn onMr. Bo. The story of how the Chinese presi- dentwasmonitored also shows the level of mistrust among leaders in the one- party state. Tomaintain control over so- ciety, leaders have embraced enhanced surveillance technology. But some have turned it on one another — repeating patterns of intrigue that go back to the beginnings of Communist rule. ‘‘This society has bred mistrust and violence,’’ said Roderick MacFarquhar, a historian of Communist China’s elite- level machinations over the past half century. ‘‘Leaders know you have to watch your back because you never knowwhowill put a knife in it.’’ Nearly a dozen people with party ties, speaking anonymously for fear of retri- bution, confirmed the wiretapping, as well as a widespread program of bug- ging across Chongqing. But the party’s public version ofMr. Bo’s fall omits it. The official narrative and much for- eign attention has focused on the more easily grasped death of Mr. Heywood in November. When Mr. Bo’s police chief, Wang Lijun, was stripped of his job and feared being implicated in Bo family af- fairs, he fled to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, where he spoke mostly about Mr. Heywood’s death. Wiretapping of Hu led to inquiry and played a role in official’s ouster LONDON BY SARAH LYALL AND ALAN COWELL Rupert Murdoch criticized many differ- ent people on Thursday for many differ- ent things in a morning of scrappy and often blunt testimony before a judicial panel here. But in the most explosive criticism of all, he suddenly accused two former employees of presiding over a ‘‘cover-up’’ of phone hacking and other dubious practices at The News of the World. ‘‘I do blame one or two people,’’ Mr. Murdoch said, adding that he did not want to name them because ‘‘for all I know they may be arrested,’’ and then proceeding to make it clear who he meant, anyway. One was the now-defunct newspa- per’s final editor, Colin Myler; and the otherwas its longtime chief lawyer, Tom Crone. ‘‘There is no question in my mind maybe even the editor — but certainly beyond that, someone — took charge of a cover-up which we were victim to,’’ Mr. Murdoch said. ‘‘The person I’m thinkingofwasa friendof the journalists and a drinking pal and a clever lawyer.’’ Mr. Murdoch’s remarks came on his second day of testimony before the Leveson inquiry into the practices of Britain’s newspapers.NeitherMr.Myler Fresh face excites Japan city YUBARI, JAPAN BY HIROKO TABUCHI Most young people have already fled this city of empty streets and shuttered schools, whose bankrupt local govern- ment collapsed under the twin burdens of debt and demographics that are slowly afflicting the rest of Japan. Now, Yubari, a former coal-mining town on Japan’s northernmost main is- land,Hokkaido, is hoping an unlikely sa- vior can reverse its long decline: a 31- year-old rookie mayor who has come to symbolize the struggle confronting young Japanese in the world’s most graying and indebted country. ‘‘Japan will tread the same path someday,’’ said Naomichi Suzuki, who a year ago this month became the young- est mayor of the country’s most rapidly aging city. ‘‘If we can’t save Yubari, what will it mean for the rest of Ja- pan?’’ Indeed, the city’s plight and its at- tempt to fight back, which has become a story line in the national media, could offer a glimpse of Japan’s future. The country’s overall population fell by a record quarter-million last year, to 127.8 million, hurt by falling birthrates and the departure of people for other countries. By 2060, the Japanese popu- lation is expected to fall by an additional one-third, to as few as 87 million, and 40 percent of those remaining will be more than 65 years old. Japan’s national debt has not preoc- cupied the world the way Europe’s has. But after years of government spending to shore up the economy, Japanese pub- lic i.o.u.’s have mushroomed to almost $12 trillion, more than twice the size of its economy and the heaviest govern- ment debt burden in the world. (Its Treasury is able to keep financing that debt load by issuing government bonds because Japan, like the United States, is still a global investment haven.) But in Yubari, the demographic and fiscal demise is on fast-forward. The city’s population has plunged 90 percent since its heyday as a coal-mining hub in the 1950s and ’60s. Currently, fewer than 10,500 people live in a geographic area approximately the size of New York City. And of those remaining Yubari res- idents, nearly half are older than 65. Unlike the national government, Yubari has already faced its day of reck- oning with creditors. Crippled by the closing of its coalmines as Japanmoved to petroleum-based fuels and nuclear Key to lifting hopes of aging nation may lie with 31-year-old mayor KO SASAKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A quiet street in Yubari, a town as large as NewYork City in area but with fewer than 10,500 people. Its population has fallen 90 percent since its heyday as a coal hub five decades ago. In spying on Chinese leaders, Bo went too far Murdoch says 2 ex-employees staged cover-up JASON LEE/REUTERS Beijing was galled that Bo Xilai would wiretap President Hu Jintao, above. CHINA, PAGE 6 JAPAN, PAGE 16 MURDOCH, PAGE 4 HAGUE, PAGE 4 Israeli sees Tehran as ‘rational’ The chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Force has described the Iranian government as ‘‘rational.’’ PAGE 5 Biden takes aim at Romney Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. traded jabs and policy points with aides ofMitt Romney on Thursday. PAGE 6 BUSINESS Ford’s agility hit by euro crisis The European unit of FordMotor presents a vivid example of how difficult it is tomanage a global car company these days. It has nimble productionmethods and high-quality products, but the economic downturn has sapped the strength of the company’smiddle-class buyers. PAGE 14 China courts Eastern Europe TheChinese primeminister,Wen Jiabao, said his countrywould offer loansworth $100 billion a year by 2015 to help promote development in Central and EasternEurope, with infrastructure, high technology and green technology the target areas for growth. PAGE 14 E.U. banks feel lingering pain Weak economic growth and a sharp rise in loan defaults, especially in Southern Europe, have hit the earnings of many of the Continent’s largest financial institutions. Deutsche Bank and Banco Santander posted declining profits, but Barclays had a gain. PAGE 14 Dutch make deal FinanceMinister Jan Kees de Jager speaking in TheHague after the government closed in on a pact to reach E.U. deficit targets. PAGE 4 ROEL ROZENBURG/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE WORLD NEWS INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE . . . . politicalwriter, referring to an exclusive Oxford dining club and the college at OxfordUniversity that Mr. Cameron at- tended. ‘‘The almostDarwinian ability of the old English upper class to adapt has been demonstrated once again.’’ There is no such continuity on the continent.Germany’s checkered 20th- century historywiped out successive elites: The Kaiserreich fell victim to theNovember revolution afterWorld War I. TheNazis annihilated the coun- try’s Jewish elite and exterminated or exiled anyone else with a bit of courage and an independentmind. In 2012,Germany does not have elite universities. And the combination of apprenticeships and employee repres- entation on corporate boards has smoothed over differences between employees and employers in away that is unthinkable in neighboring France. Like in Britain, France’s corporate, political and administrative elite is groomed in a small number of exclu- sive schools, the grandes écoles. Ac- cess to this republican elite is arguably moremeritocratic; attendance is based exclusively on entry exams and often subsidized by state stipends. But the resulting group of leaders is smaller,more entangled and no less disconnected from ordinary people. Just under half of France’s 40 largest companies are run by graduates of just two schools: ENA, the national school of administration, and the École Poly- technique, which trains the country’s top engineers. Together the schools produce only about 600 graduates a year. There are fewer than 6,000 ENA graduates alive today, comparedwith at least 160,000 Oxford alumni. ‘‘The British elites feel superior be- cause theywere born superior; the French elites feel superior because theywent to ENA,’’ said Dominique Moïsi, a senior fellow at the French In- stitute of Foreign Relations, who spends part of his time in London. The irony is that, obscure titles and rituals notwithstanding, in manyways Britain in 2012 looks more open, liberal and diverse than continental Europe. There are black, Muslim and gay peers in theHouse of Lords (indeed, there is a blackMuslim gay peer, Lord Alli). The exclusive department store Harrods, long a symbol of British iden- tity, is owned by a Qatari investment concern. And the prime-time television news program on the BBC is read by Hugh Edwardswith aWelsh accent. Not so long ago, it almost seemed to be a handicap to hail from the upper class in Britain. Margaret Thatcher proved in 1979 that one could become a conservative primeministerwhile be- ing not only awoman but a grocer’s daughterwho had been educated in a state school.Her successor, JohnMa- jor, who neverwent to university, spoke of a ‘‘classless society.’’ As the economy powered ahead and made everyone feel better off, Tony Blair famously claimed that ‘‘we are all middle-class now.’’ ‘‘The Thatcher/Blair years de- stroyed the old class system,’’ Mr.Gar- ton Ash said, but they also created an economic systemwhere inequality flourished, giving rise to a new ‘‘over- class defined by money inwhich the old upper class has found its place.’’ For all their differences, Europe’s elites perhaps share a challenge: not being deaf to a sense among voters that there is austerity at the bottom but not the top. E-MAIL: pagetwo@iht.com Class war returns in new guises IN OUR PAGES ✴ 100, 75, 50 YEARS AGO 1912 Russia Ready to Discuss Treaty ST. PETERSBURG The political speech delivered to-day [April 26] in theDuma byM. Sazonoff is attracting attention on account of its clear expos- ition of Russian foreign policy. TheMinister of ForeignAffairs stated thatRussia is disposed fa- vourably to examine the American demands in regard to a future commercial treaty, but will take theRussian desiderata into account.Never, however, will Russia modify its national legisla- tion relative to the return of Russian emigrants. M. Sazonoff added that theRusso-FrenchAlli- ance has by its long duration proved the absence of any aggressive intention. Katrin Bennhold LETTER FROM EUROPE LONDON When Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain (fifth cousin twice- removed of the queen) and Chancellor George Osborne (son of a baronet) an- nounced a tax cut lastmonth for top in- come earners, the opposition Labour party mocked them for apparently thinking Downton Abbeywas a fly-on- the-wall documentary rather than a period drama about paternalistic aris- tocrats and their servile underlings. When the pair then struggled to recall the last time they had eaten a pasty— a popular snack they had just subjected to a 20 percent sales tax—one tweet helpfully explained that it was ‘‘like a boeuf en croûte.’’ Andwhen Francis Maude, theBritish Cabinet Officeminis- ter, spoke of ‘‘kitchen suppers,’’ theme- dia reminded him thatmost voters had ‘‘dinner’’ (middle class) or ‘‘tea’’ (working class) and not necessarily the option of eating in a dining room. To an outsiderwho recently moved to London, it felt like a crash course in thatmost clichéd, yet real, obsession of the English: class. Austerity and rising unemployment have sharpened the focus on the deep economic, social and cultural gulf divid- ing the elites from the vastmajority of voters in allWestern countries. In the United States, PresidentBarackObama has been battling to ensure that the most wealthy pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. InParis, François Hollande, the Socialist contending to be- come France’s next president, has vowed to tax annual income above ¤1 million, or $1.3million, at 75 percent. But the notion of classwar is particu- larly salient in Britain, where income inequality is greater than in other large European economies and austerity more advanced— andwhere the tradi- tional English upper class has proven intriguingly adept at preserving its riches, institutions and influence into the 21st century. From the food people eat to everyday vocabulary and that ultimate giveaway, the accent, class remains a powerful identifier on this side of the Channel in a way that can seemquaint or even al- mostmedieval to continental Euro- peans. More than a third of British land is still in aristocratic hands, according to a 2010 ownership survey by Country Life magazine. In the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition cabinet, 15 of the 23 ministerswent to Oxford or Cambridge. ‘‘It is extraordinary that we are once again governed by the old landed gentry, theBullingdon Club and Brasenose tennis club,’’ said Timothy GartonAsh, the Oxford professor and 1937 Court Rules Against Georgia Law WASHINGTON In a five-to-four decision, the United States Supreme Court today [April 26] in- validated a sixty-six-year-old Georgia law pro- hibiting insurrection against the state, under which a Negro Communist had been sentenced to a prison term of from eighteen to twenty years. Associate Justice OwenD.Roberts again joined the four members of the tribunalwho have been regarded as liberal through their recent de- cisions onNewDeal social and labor legislation. Reading themajority opinion, JusticeRoberts said: ‘‘The lawviolates the guarantee of liberty embodied in the FourteenthAmendment.’’ 1962 Ranger-4 Hits Far Side of Moon GOLDSTONE , CALIFORNIA TheUnited States scored amajor advance in space today [April 26] when the crippled spacecraftRanger-4 crash- landed on the far side of themoon. It wasAmer- ica’s first success in seven attempts to land a space shot on themoon, and virtually duplicated the feat of Russia’s Lunik