Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: DRINKING PLACES (78%); BOOK PUBLISHING (78%); NON FICTION LITERATURE (78%); AUCTIONS (78%); INTERNET AUCTIONS (72%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (72%); FAMILY COMPANIES (67%)
LOAD-DATE: July 30, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: LOVE OF THE OLD: Greg Boehm is republishing classic books for bartenders.(PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW HENDERSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

536 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Syrians See an Economic Side to Peace
BYLINE: By NAWARA MAHFOUD and ROBERT F. WORTH
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Foreign Desk; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 1035 words
DATELINE: DAMASCUS, Syria
Like most Syrians, Samer Zayat has no love for Israel. He was a little uneasy when Syria announced in late May that it was holding indirect talks on a peace settlement with its old nemesis.

Yet Mr. Zayat, a 35-year-old television cinematographer, says he views a peace deal with Israel as necessary and inevitable -- not just for political reasons, but because Syria's vulnerable economy needs all the help it can get.

''We are tired, the country is suffocating,'' he said, as he played backgammon with a friend at a cafe here, the sweet smell of apple-flavored tobacco drifting around him. ''We have suffered a long time from the political boycott and the sanctions.''

That sentiment is echoed by many others. Prices soared here after the Syrian government cut fuel subsidies in May, deepening the gulf between rich and poor in this nominally socialist state. It had little choice. The oil reserves Syria has relied on for so long are rapidly disappearing. The hefty budget surpluses of a decade ago have turned into multibillion-dollar deficits. A country that could once afford to be serenely indifferent to Western sanctions is now being forced to liberalize and open its economy.

None of this has changed Syria's conviction that any peace agreement must include the return of the Golan Heights, the area captured by Israel in 1967. But a profoundly uncertain economic future has created additional incentives for peace, which could help lure foreign investment by ending Syria's pariah status in the West.

A settlement with Israel ''would lift a huge weight from our shoulders,'' said Ghimar Deeb, a Syrian lawyer and economist who works with the United Nations here. It would lead to the lifting of sanctions, which would give Syria access to new investment, high-tech supplies and training opportunities, he said.

''Poverty is increasing, inequality is increasing, and I believe the street is frustrated,'' Mr. Deeb said. ''They need peace with all our neighbors.''

It is not clear that the Syrian government sees the economic troubles as a factor in negotiations with Israel. Although it began carrying out economic changes several years ago, the progress has been slow, and strategic political concerns have always been paramount for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and his father, Hafez al-Assad, who governed from 1970 until his death in 2000.

It is also far from clear that the talks will succeed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel is facing accusations of corruption that could bring him down, and some say the Syrians may be unwilling to make the sacrifices Israel would demand.

This month, Mr. Assad appeared at a regional political gathering in Paris at the invitation of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and some analysts say the Syrians may now believe that they can emerge from their relative political and economic isolation without having to shake hands with the Israelis. This is despite the fact that the Bush administration, which accuses Syria of supporting terrorism, has recently added sanctions on the government and its business associates.

But some analysts say they believe that Syria's economic troubles must figure in the government's calculations about regional peace.

''The transformation they have in front of them now is enormous,'' said Andrew Tabler, a Damascus-based Syria analyst and consulting editor for the magazine Syria Today. ''They must move from a state funded by oil revenues to one funded by taxation, and that has to play some role in their thinking.''

It would hardly be surprising: Syria's oil used to be the mainstay of the government's income, providing 70 percent of the country's export earnings. Now it is drying up so fast that Syria is expected to be a net importer of crude oil in just two years, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Already, Syria is importing oil products at record prices, and paying huge subsidies to reduce the cost for its citizens. That is why Syria finally started cutting its ruinous subsidies over the past year, causing prices to rise and resulting in a domino effect on food prices.

Two bad harvests in Syria's wheat-growing region have added to the problem. In May the government increased public sector salaries and pensions, which had averaged $130 a month for two million recipients, by 25 percent, putting another burden on the budget.

The government has revised the tax system, which was inefficient and ignored in the days when oil filled the government's financial needs. Rates have been lowered but collections have increased substantially, said Hussein Khaddour, a Damascus lawyer and the president of the Syrian chapter of Junior Chamber International, a business group.

Other efforts have been made to create a more business-friendly environment, including revised laws on intellectual property. Some of the new entrepreneurial activity is visible to any visitor to Syria, though mostly on the high end: dozens of restaurants and boutique hotels have opened in the capital over the past two years.

''In the past 18 months, there has been a much faster liberalization,'' said Abdul-Salam Haykal, who leads the Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association. ''People are realizing that the government is not the only provider for them anymore.''

That new activity, Mr. Haykal adds, is creating a new incentive and constituency for a real result to the talks with Israel.

''I think the biggest driver for peace is all this new business development,'' he said.

Still, even congenital optimists like Mr. Haykal concede that serious challenges remain. Some investors say they are concerned about a lack of the rule of law and widespread corruption. Plenty of Syrians see any economic consideration as far less important than the need to confront Israel, widely viewed as an imperialist and predatory state.

Even Mr. Zayat, the cinematographer, said he would find it ''very hard to accept'' seeing an Israeli flag flying in Syria, and he believed that many other Syrians felt the same way.

But he added: ''If peace is not achieved, then the possibility of war will always be open and that terrifies me. I fear for the future of my children and my family.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: PEACE PROCESS (91%); TALKS & MEETINGS (90%); EMBARGOES & SANCTIONS (88%); BOYCOTTS (76%); HEADS OF STATE & GOVERNMENT (76%); OIL & GAS INDUSTRY (73%); PRIME MINISTERS (71%); PRICE INCREASES (68%); BUDGET (67%); FOREIGN INVESTMENT (64%); TREATIES & AGREEMENTS (50%)
PERSON: BASHAR AL-ASSAD (51%); EHUD OLMERT (51%); NICOLAS SARKOZY (50%)
GEOGRAPHIC: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (79%); PARIS, FRANCE (77%) SYRIA (99%); ISRAEL (94%); FRANCE (77%)
LOAD-DATE: July 29, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

537 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Candidates Return Focus To Economy And Jobs
BYLINE: By LARRY ROHTER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 919 words
Shifting the emphasis of his campaign back to the deteriorating economy after a weeklong trip abroad, Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, met in Washington on Monday with a group of 20 prominent economists, former government officials and business and labor leaders to discuss problems like vanishing jobs and rising food and fuel costs.

With the conventions of the two major parties just a month away, polls show that the economic slowdown is the issue most on the minds of Americans. Those surveys also indicate that voters have more confidence in Democrats than in Republicans to manage the downturn. Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama's probable Republican opponent, also focused on bread-and-butter issues Monday, visiting an oil field to promote expanded drilling as a way to lower fuel prices.

Mr. Obama's focus on jobs seemed intended to show his mastery of an issue of special concern to working-class voters, especially working-class whites in industrial swing states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. During the Democratic primaries, those voters tended to support his main rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

''The economic emergency is growing more severe,'' Mr. Obama said just before the afternoon meeting began. ''Jobs are down, wages are falling,'' and ''the financial markets threaten to be engaged in a protracted credit crunch with long-lasting ramifications.''

''I believe more action is going to be necessary,'' he added, ''so that entrepreneurship is encouraged, so that the market is thriving, so that hard work is rewarded.''

Even before the meeting began, however, Mr. McCain's surrogates and advisers were attacking both the meeting and Mr. Obama's prescription for the nation's economic ills. As they did last week while Mr. Obama was abroad, they accused him of grandstanding, and said he was granting too big a role to government and too small a one to private initiative.

''The American people are getting treated to yet another photo op by Barack Obama today,'' said Carleton S. Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and one of Mr. McCain's economic advisers. ''Meanwhile, John McCain has been out talking about the economy, understanding the economy, taking advice on the economy for many many months.''

Participants in Mr. Obama's meeting included prominent Democratic figures like Robert E. Rubin, President Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary; Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter; and Warren Buffett. But two people who served under President Bush during his first term also attended: Paul H. O'Neill, the former Treasury secretary, and William H. Donaldson, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Laura Tyson, a chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Mr. Clinton, described the meeting as ''lively and wide-ranging,'' with ''some significant differences among Democrats,'' rather than a strictly partisan divide, regarding policies Mr. Obama should pursue. Ms. Tyson said the agenda included immediate concerns, including whether a second economic stimulus package was needed, as well as ''long-term structural issues in the economy,'' like energy independence and health care.

Employment and related issues are an area where the differences between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama are especially sharp. Republicans argue that the government needs to avoid ''getting in the way of job creation or growth,'' in Ms. Fiorina's words, while Mr. Obama has talked favorably about government-led initiatives, like rebuilding infrastructure and encouraging investment in alternative energy sources.

Both camps talk of policies to stimulate small businesses as the main engine of economic growth and job creation. But Martin Feldstein, a deficit hawk who was President Ronald Reagan's chief economic adviser and now advises Mr. McCain, said Monday that ''Obama's plan will slow the economy, will depress the economy'' because he wants to let the Bush administration's tax cuts expire. Those cuts have primarily benefited the wealthiest segment of the population.

In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted July 7-14, more than half of the people surveyed cited an economic issue as the most important problem facing the country, compared with 7 percent before the 2006 midterm elections in which Democrats won control of Congress. The war in Iraq, which Mr. McCain has made the centerpiece of his campaign, was cited by just 13 percent of those polled as the issue of paramount concern to them.

In addition, 51 percent of those polled said Democrats were more likely than Republicans to ensure a strong economy. That suggests a strong liability for Mr. McCain, as only one in five voters approve of Mr. Bush's handling of the economy and 6 in 10 said they expected Mr. McCain to generally continue his predecessor's policies if elected.

Mr. McCain has compounded those problems with statements like, ''the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should.'' But his surrogates argued Monday that he did have the economic knowledge to go with his experience in foreign policy and national security, and that Mr. Obama was deficient in all of those areas.

''From my perspective,'' Ms. Fiorina said, none of Mr. Obama's proposals ''suggest to me an understanding of how the economy really works.''

She added, ''I think it is good that Barack Obama is consulting some experts today.''

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES 2008 (93%); US DEMOCRATIC PARTY (91%); VOTERS & VOTING (90%); US REPUBLICAN PARTY (90%); ECONOMIC NEWS (90%); US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (90%); PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (90%); POLITICAL PARTIES (90%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (89%); TREASURY DEPARTMENTS (89%); ECONOMIC POLICY (89%); TALKS & MEETINGS (89%); OIL & GAS PRICES (89%); US PRESIDENTS (89%); PUBLIC FINANCE AGENCIES & TREASURIES (83%); CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS (78%); ECONOMIC DECLINE (78%); POLLS & SURVEYS (77%); CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS (77%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (77%); OIL & GAS INDUSTRY (76%); PRIMARY ELECTIONS (73%); BANKING & FINANCE (70%); CREDIT CRISIS (78%)
COMPANY: HEWLETT-PACKARD CO (52%)
TICKER: HPQ (NYSE) (52%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS511210 SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (52%); NAICS334119 OTHER COMPUTER PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING (52%); NAICS334111 ELECTRONIC COMPUTER MANUFACTURING (52%)
PERSON: BARACK OBAMA (95%); JOHN MCCAIN (84%); HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (68%); BILL CLINTON (51%); JIMMY CARTER (51%); GEORGE W BUSH (50%); WARREN BUFFETT (50%)
GEOGRAPHIC: PENNSYLVANIA, USA (79%); MICHIGAN, USA (79%); OHIO, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (94%)
LOAD-DATE: July 29, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Senator Barack Obama met in Washington on Monday with an economic panel that included Lawrence H. Summers, left, and Robert B. Reich.(PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

538 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Before Guests, Beijing Hides Some Messes
BYLINE: By JAKE HOOKER
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Foreign Desk; 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1172 words
DATELINE: BEIJING
Tourists leaving the west gate of the Temple of Heaven next month will probably not notice Song Wei's home across the street. Nor are spectators along the Olympic marathon route likely to stop by Sun Ruonan's restaurant nearby.

Mr. Song and Ms. Sun live along Beijing's central axis in neighborhoods that have been gutted to make the city look clean and orderly for the Olympics. Both have held on despite pressure to move. They will spend the Olympics behind walls or screens erected to keep their property out of public view.

A veil of green plastic netting now covers Ms. Sun's restaurant. Mr. Song's house and several shops that he rents to migrant families were surrounded by a 10-foot-tall brick wall last week, part of a last-minute beautification campaign. The authorities deemed his little block of commerce an eyesore.

''We all support the Olympics,'' said Mr. Song, 42, a Beijing native who lives along the cycling and marathon routes. ''But why are you building a wall around us?''

A mysterious notice appeared beside the shops on July 17, typed on white paper and signed by no one. It read, ''In keeping with the government's request to rectify the Olympic environment, a wall will need to be built around No. 93 South Tianqiao Road.'' The next morning, several bricklayers showed up with a police escort.

Now a wall conceals a little cove of entrepreneurship where several migrant families sell socks, book bags, pants, noodles and shish kebabs cooked in a spicy soup. One family behind the wall sells ice cream, popsicles and cold drinks from a refrigerator on wheels.

Zhao Fengxia, a neighbor who owns three shops, said she believed that officials and developers were using Olympic beautification as a pretext to strangle their business and put pressure on them to leave. Feng Pan, 18, who helps her parents run a noodle shop, accepted the official view less critically. ''We influence the city's appearance,'' she said.

A planning official, Zhi Wenguang, said, ''We extended an existing wall to improve the overall environment for Olympic events.''

Many cities have sought to remake their image when hosting global events like the Olympics. Beijing is polishing off one of the world's most expensive makeovers with a whitewash. Along the historic central axis of the city that runs from the Yongdingmen Gate due north to the Drum Tower, the authorities are doing their best to give the old city a new face. Beijing has spent $130 million to restore buildings, many of them temples along the five-mile axis, according to the city's cultural relics bureau.

The Olympic Stadium was built on a northern extension of the traditional axis -- a nod to the event's historic importance. On the wide boulevards leading up to the stadium, roadblocks have been set up and flowers, grass and trees planted.

The southern part of the axis has proved more difficult to beautify. It cuts through densely populated neighborhoods south of Tiananmen Square that are home to many of the city's migrants and working poor. To hide neighborhoods leveled for redevelopment in recent years or anything else the government considers unsightly, officials have put up walls.

Mr. Song and his wife and 8-year-old daughter now live behind one. They have lived here since 1994, Mr. Song said, renting out his shops to families from the provinces.

They live in close quarters. The Songs' room is barely big enough for a double bed on which the couple and daughter sleep. Two pet birds live in metal cages by the door. The birds, brown starlings with dark feathers and orange beaks, can parrot human speech. Mr. Song taught the birds one of the most famous poems of the Tang Dynasty. Every few minutes, it squawks lines from the poem: ''The white sun falls over the mountains'' or ''The Yellow River flows into the sea.''

Behind the room is a moonscape of weeds and rubble that used to be a slum. Mr. Song's place survived while the city razed the poor Tianqiao neighborhood and transformed it with shopping malls, wider streets and subdivisions. Mr. Song's predicament is familiar in the churn of this changing city. The developers want him to go, but he is holding out for more money.

On July 17, several workers left a pile of red bricks on the sidewalk. The next morning, they returned, wearing sandals and straw hats, accompanied by the police and local officials. They set to work laying brick at 8:30 a.m.

The wall did not go up easily. After a brief shoving match, a little demonstration unfolded. Mr. Song hung three Chinese flags from the trunks of trees -- and three white flags emblazoned with the 2008 Olympic logo. A migrant worker climbed a ladder and stuck up a poster that said, ''Need Human Rights!!!''

To scare away the officials, Mr. Song brought out a large poster with a famous photograph of Mao sitting in a wicker chair. ''He thought Mao might be able to do something for us,'' joked Ms. Zhao, the neighbor, who was there that morning.

The bricklayers worked through a hard rain. As a crowd of sympathetic morning commuters gathered, the police strung up a police tape around the poplar trees. A dozen men in slacks and polo shirts stood around, keeping the situation under control.

''One person shouted, 'So you're not going to allow people to feed themselves!' '' Ms. Zhao recalled. ''A lot of families earn their livelihoods from these shops -- even though they're small.''

Gu Dahua, 47, a farmer from Anhui Province, came here with his wife three years ago. They sell combs, mirrors, socks and other small commodities all priced at 1 yuan, or about 15 cents. The wall has not been good for business.

''It's hard now,'' Mr. Gu said.

Two blocks north, another store along the axis has been closed for the Games.

Sun Ruonan's ancestors opened a bakery on the axis south of Tiananmen Square in the 1840s. The city tried to tear down the building last year to plant grass and ornamental shrubs beside the Olympic marathon route. Ms. Sun and her younger sister, Ruoyu, an Australian citizen, refused to vacate.

Last Tuesday, Ms. Sun, 57, sat alone in the dining room of the restaurant, surrounded by her cats. Festive paper lanterns hung in the dining room, which smelled of cat litter and decay. It was 4 p.m., and Ms. Sun was still in her pajamas.

''I don't really want to oppose the government,'' she said, breaking into tears. ''For those of us who have lived through the Cultural Revolution, this life is like heaven.''

The city has bullied her to leave. One night last year, a bulldozer slammed into the building. Neighbors are paid to keep watch over her, and they notify the police when she has guests. Ms. Sun said officials pressed her doctor into refusing to give her care.

Her building is falling apart. The government, for the sake of appearances, has put up scaffolding with green netting around it. As the runners pass her home in August, it will be easy for spectators to miss the posters, begging for help, taped to the door.

''I'm hanging here like a nail,'' she said.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: SUMMER OLYMPICS (91%); RESTAURANT REVIEWS (89%); MARATHONS (89%); OLYMPICS (89%); FAMILY (89%); RESTAURANTS (77%); BUILDING RENOVATION (73%); STADIUMS & ARENAS (72%); CYCLING (72%); CITY LIFE (71%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (69%); MASONRY CONTRACTORS (68%)
GEOGRAPHIC: BEIJING, CHINA (95%) NORTH CENTRAL CHINA (95%) CHINA (95%)
LOAD-DATE: July 29, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: In Beijing's quest to ''rectify the Olympic environment,'' a brick wall now hides a clutch of small shops run by migrant families.

Sun Ruonan's restaurant, on the marathon route, behind green netting and the Olympic mascot.(PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUG KANTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. A8)

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

539 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
July 29, 2008 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; TODAY IN BUSINESS; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 464 words
SAFETY NET FOR PATIENTS? Dr. Lawrence Dorr, below, an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles, realized last year that something was wrong with some of his hip replacement patients, a discovery that showed how a national database on patients might have led to quicker removal of a flawed product.

NEW MERRILL WRITE-DOWNMerrill Lynch announced that it would write down $5.7 billion in the third quarter, mostly because of a fire sale of risky mortgage assets, and would sell $8.5 billion in new stock to shore up its finances. [C1.]

INDYMAC'S COLLAPSE The failure of IndyMac Bank, one of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders, illustrates a common misconception of some banks and their investors: They thought home prices would never fall. And now they are suffering the consequences. [C1.]

FLIPPING WEB SITES Some online entrepreneurs are buying Web sites and improving them with the hope of reselling them for far more than they paid. [C1.]

HELP FOR LENDERS Washington has another idea for bolstering banks that need to find cash to lend for home mortgages: a covered bond market. Market Place. [C1.]

GAINING AN AUDIENCE With hits so difficult to develop in television, Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite has gained about 400,000 viewers in the last year by adding original programming like ''The George Lopez Show'' instead of decades-old reruns of shows like ''I Love Lucy.'' [C8.]

MORE CUTS AT G.M.General Motors plans to eliminate shifts at two truck plants and lay off 1,760 workers to trim production of slow-selling pickups and sport utility vehicles. [C4.]

A TRADE TUG-OF-WAR China is becoming a central player in trade talks and being criticized by the United States and others over its negotiation methods. [C2.]

THESE AIRLINES ARE GROWING... Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates Airlines, which is buying the giant Airbus 380 planes as fast as it can, are expanding in an effort to make their region the aviation crossroads. [C4.]

...AND THIS ONE IS HURTINGRyanair, Europe's biggest low-fare carrier, has warned that it might post its first annual loss as a public company. [C4.]

FEWER AIRPORT OASESUnited Airlines plans to shut four of its 38 Red Carpet clubs and Delta says it will close nine of its 47 Crown Rooms as the airport lounge falls victim to cost-cutting. [C6.]

CONCERNS ABOUT VERIZONWhile Verizon Communications has reported a rise in profit for the second quarter, some analysts are worried about the pace of sales of its fiber-optic television service, FiOS TV, which is intended to compete with cable companies. [C4.]

FOOD COMPANIES POST RESULTS More people are eating at home, and that helped earnings at Kraft Foods, the nation's largest food and beverage maker. But high grain prices hurt results for Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat company. [C8.]