November 29, 2013.

Black Friday Bargains Lure Shoppers to Stores, Online

A thrush had alighted on a bough not five metres away, almost at the level of their faces. Perhaps it had not seen them. It was in the sun, they in the shade. It spread out its wings, fitted them carefully into place again, ducked its head for a moment, as though making a sort of obeisance to the sun, and then began to pour forth a torrent of song. In the afternoon hush the volume of sound was startling. Winston and Julia clung together, fascinated. The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity. Sometimes it stopped for a few seconds, spread out and resettled its wings, then swelled its speckled breast and again burst into song. Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence. For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness? He wondered whether after all there was a microphone hidden somewhere near. He and Julia had spoken only in low whispers, and it would not pick up what they had said, but it would pick up the thrush. Perhaps at the other end of the instrument some small, beetle-like man was listening intently----listening to that. But by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind. It was as though it were a kind of liquid stuff that poured all over him and got mixed up with the sunlight that filtered through the leaves. He stopped thinking and merely felt. The girl's waist in the bend of his arm was soft and warm. He pulled her round so that they were breast to breast; her body seemed to melt into his. Wherever his hands moved it was all as yielding as water. Their mouths clung together; it was quite different from the hard kisses they had exchanged earlier. When they moved their faces apart again both of them sighed deeply. The bird took fright and fled with a clatter of wings.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.31%  and Target Corp. TGT +0.85%  reported strong Thanksgiving Day traffic in stores and online, adding that shoppers were focused on big-ticket electronic products.

Winston put his lips against her ear. "Now," he whispered.

The retailers didn't provide specific sales figures but tried to suggest that their decisions to open earlier on the holiday were successful. Wal-Mart and Target were among a number of retailers that opened on Thanksgiving Day, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, in an effort to boost struggling sales in a tight economy and keep up with online retailers.

"Not here," she whispered back. "Come back to the hide-out. It's safer."

Wal-Mart said it recorded more than 10 million register transactions between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday in its stores and nearly 400 million page views that day on walmart.com. Target said sales were among the highest it had seen in a single day online and it booked twice as many orders on its website as last year in the early hours when door-busters became available.

November 28, 2013.

South Korea, Japan Send Planes Into China's New Defense Zone

"The Golden Country?"

SEOUL----South Korea and Japan said they have sent military planes into China's new air-defense zone without notifying Beijing and would send others, stepping up opposition to China's moves to assert control of regional airspace.

"It's nothing, really. A landscape I've seen sometimes in a dream."

South Korea also asked China at a meeting on Thursday to change the boundaries of the new Air Defense Identification Zone to eliminate overlap with South Korea's own ADIZ, a request China rejected. Seoul then said it may expand its own zone into areas claimed by China.

"Look!" whispered Julia.

The moves come after the U.S. flew two B-52 bombers uncontested through Beijing's newly proclaimed air-defense zone Monday.

November 27, 2013.

New German Coalition Pledges Billions in New Spending

"Isn't there a stream somewhere near here?" he whispered.

BERLIN----Germany's two dominant political blocs pledged billions in fresh spending on pensions, education and infrastructure as part of a coalition deal reached in the early hours of Wednesday, but offered little detail on how they would fund the new programs without raising taxes.

"That's right, there is a stream. It's at the edge of the next field, actually. There are fish in it, great big ones. You can watch them lying in the pools under the willow trees, waving their tails."

After 17 hours of negotiations, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavarian Christian Social Union sister party and the Social Democrats agreed to introduce a national minimum wage, toughen labor-market rules and allow dual citizenship for the German-born children of immigrants.

"It's the Golden Country----almost," he murmured.

But more suspense is to come. First, the coalition agreement will have to withstand an unusual mail-in referendum that gives the 470,000 members of the left-leaning Social Democrats, or SPD, an up-or-down vote on whether to approve the coalition agreement. Then, the government will have to ascertain that it can afford around €20 billion ($27 billion) in new spending given its pledge not to raise taxes and the German law limiting new government borrowing.

November 26, 2013.

White House Launches Push to Sell It's Iran Nuclear Deal

Them, it appeared, meant the Party, and above all the Inner Party, about whom she talked with an open jeering hatred which made Winston feel uneasy, although he knew that they were safe here if they could be safe anywhere. A thing that astonished him about her was the coarseness of her language. Party members were supposed to not to swear, and Winston himself very seldom did swear, aloud, at any rate. Julia, however, seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kind of words that you saw chalked up in dripping alleyways. He did not dislike it. It was merely one symptom of her revolt against the Party and all its ways, and somehow it seemed natural and healthy, like the sneeze of a horse that smells bad hay. They had left the clearing and were wandering again through the checkered shade, with their arms round each other's waists whenever it was wide enough to walk two abreast. He noticed how much softer her waist seemed to feel now that sash was gone. They did not speak above a whisper. Outside the clearing, Julia said, it was better to go quietly. Presently they had reached the edge of the little wood. She stopped him.

WASHINGTON----The Obama administration is mounting an aggressive campaign to head off new congressional sanctions against Iran, arguing they would jeopardize the high-stakes deal sealed this past weekend to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

"Don't go out into the open. There might be someone watching. We're all right if we keep behind the boughs."

After arguing for weeks that sanctions would hurt the prospects of reaching a deal, senior administration officials are now asking lawmakers to hold off for another six months while negotiators try to achieve a long-term accord.

They were standing in the shade of hazel bushes. The sunlight, filtering through innumerable leaves, was still hot on their faces. Winston looked out into the field beyond, and underwent a curious, slow shock of recognition. He knew it by sight. An old, close-bitten pasture, with a footpath wandering across it and a molehill here and there. In the ragged hedge on the opposite side the boughs of the elm trees swayed just perceptibly in the breeze, and their leaves stirred faintly in dense masses like women's hair. Surely somewhere near by, but out of sight, there must be a stream with green pools where dace were swimming.

The administration is taking steps to burnish the agreement, casting it as an alternative to Mideast conflict. And enforcement officials, seeking to counter arguments that the interim deal signed Sunday in Geneva would erode punitive economic sanctions, publicly warned any business, bank or broker against trying to do prohibited business with Iran.

November 25, 2013.

Doug McMillon to Become Wal-Mart CEO, Succeeding Mike Duke

The first fragment of chocolate had melted on Winston's tongue. The taste was delightful. But there was still that memory moving round the edges of his consciousness, something strongly felt but not reducible to definite shape, like an object seen out of the corner of one's eye. He pushed it away from him, aware only that it was the memory of some action which he would have liked to undo but could not.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT -0.74% said Chief Executive Mike Duke will retire early next year and be succeeded by Doug McMillon, the head of its international operations.

"You are very young," he said. "You are ten or fifteen years younger than I am. What could you see to attract you in a man like me?"

Mr. McMillon, who is 47 years old and president and CEO of Wal-Mart International, was named to the board effective immediately and will become CEO on Feb. 1. The Arkansas native had been viewed by some company insiders as a likely successor to Mr. Duke.

"It was something in your face. I thought I'd take a chance. I'm good at spotting people who don't belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against them."

Mr. McMillon will take the helm at a challenging time for the company and the retail industry as a whole. Consumer spending has been lackluster heading into the holiday season and, earlier this month, Wal-Mart said its same-store sales fell for the third straight quarter, as the big-box retailer's core customer struggles with high unemployment, economic uncertainty and hits to their paychecks.

November 24, 2013.

Major Powers Reach Deal With Iran To Freeze Nuclear Program

"It's this bloody thing that does it," she said, ripping off the scarlet sash of the Junior Anti-Sex League and flinging it onto a bough, Then, as though touching her waist had reminded her of something, she felt tin the pocket of her overalls and produced a small slab of chocolate. She broke it in half and gave one of the pieces to Winston. Even before he had taken it he knew by the smell that it was very unusual chocolate. It was dark and shiny, and was wrapped in silver paper. Chocolate normally was dull-brown crumbly stuff that tasted, as nearly as one could describe it, like the smoke of a rubbish fire. But at some time or another he had tasted chocolate like the piece she had given him. The first whiff of its scent had stirred up some memory which he could not pin, but which was powerful and troubling.

GENEVA----The U.S. and five other world powers struck a historic accord with Iran on Sunday, agreeing to ease part of an economic stranglehold in exchange for steps to cap Tehran's nuclear program and ensure the Islamist government doesn't rush to develop atomic weapons.

"Where did you get this stuff" he said.

The agreement calls for Iran to stop its production of near-weapons grade nuclear fuel----which is uranium enriched to 20% purity----and for the removal of Tehran's stockpile of the fissile material, which is estimated to be nearly enough to produce one nuclear bomb.

"Black market," she said indifferently. "Actually I am that sort of girl, to look at. I'm good at games. I was a troop leader in the Spies. I do voluntary work three evenings a week for the Junior Anti-Sex League. Hours and hours I've spent pasting their bloody rot all over London. I always carry one end of a banner in the processions. I always look cheerful and I never shirk anything. Always yell with the crowd, that's what I say. It's the only way to be safe."

Iran, in return, will gain relief from Western economic sanctions that U.S. officials believe will provide between $6 billion and $7 billion in badly needed foreign exchange for Tehran over the next half-year.

November 23, 2013.

Negotiators Warn Gaps Remain to Seal Iran Nuclear Deal

"Well, perhaps not exactly that. But from your general appearance----merely because you're young and fresh and healthy, you understand----I thought that probably----"

GENEVA----Iran and world powers neared a crucial compromise on a late roadblock to a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program but U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Saturday "difficult" issues remain unresolved.

"You thought I was a good Party member. Pure in word and deed. Banners, processions, slogans, games, community hikes all that stuff. And you thought that if I had a quarter of a chance I'd denounce you as a thought-criminal and get you killed off?"

A compromise on Iran's demand that it be explicitly allowed to keep some domestic uranium enrichment capacity would represent a significant step toward an initial confidence-building agreement, offering at least a temporary reprieve from a decadelong standoff over Tehran's program, according to Iranian and western officials.

"Yes, something of that kind. A great many young girls are like that, you know."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva Saturday morning and rushed into a series of bilateral meetings as he tries to secure a confidence-building deal with Tehran that sees Iran curtail its nuclear program in exchange for some easing of sanctions.

November 22, 2013.

Iran Deal Stuck Over Uranium Enrichment

"I hated the sight of you,' he said. "I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards. Two weeks ago I thought seriously of smashing your head in with a cobblestone. If you really want to know, I imagined that you had something to do with the Thought Police."

GENEVA----Iran's demand that the West recognize what it says is its right to enrich uranium has emerged as one of the final missing pieces in an interim nuclear agreement with global powers, according to Iranian, American and European officials.

The girl laughed delightedly, evidently taking this as a tribute to the excellence of her disguise.

Diplomats from Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, a group known as the P5+1, are meeting in Geneva to try to reach a deal that would offer Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing some activities that the West suspects are aimed at making a nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies.

"Not the Thought Police! You didn't honestly think that?"

The diplomats held a second day of talks in a bid to close gaps that blocked an interim agreement nearly two weeks ago. Officials described the talks as detailed, but said that by late Thursday some key, sensitive issues remained unresolved.

November 21, 2013.

Karzai Says He Won't Sign U.S. Deal

"How did you find that out?"

KABUL----Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that the crucial security deal with the U.S. should be deferred until after his successor is elected, a surprise move that may scuttle the just-reached agreement altogether.

"I expect I'm better at finding things out than you are, dear. Tell me, what did you think of me before that day I gave you the note?"


"The agreement should be signed when the election is conducted, properly and with dignity," Mr. Karzai told the Loya Jirga assembly that he convened to consider the deal. "There is mistrust between me and America. I don't trust them, and they don't trust me," he added after showing the delegates a letter he said he received from President Barack Obama.

He did not feel any temptation to tell lies to her. It was even a sort of love-offering to start off by telling the worst.

Mr. Karzai is slated to step down after presidential elections that are currently scheduled for April. Many Afghan politicians, however, believe the vote is likely to be postponed as Mr. Karzai seeks to steer a preferred successor into office, leaving little time for the security deal to be implemented before the U.S.-led coalition's mandate expires in December 2014.

November 20, 2013.

Price War Looms for Electronics

"Never mind, dear. There's no hurry. We've got the whole afternoon. Isn't this a splendid hide-out? I found it when I got lost once on a community hike. If anyone was coming you could hear them a hundred metres away."

Electronics retailers are bracing for a tough holiday season, as already-narrow profit margins are expected to be shaved even thinner.

"What is your name?" said Winston.

Best Buy Co. BBY -0.18%  shares plunged 11% Tuesday, after the electronics chain warned investors that it was prepared to sharply cut prices----even at the risk of its profit margins----to keep up with competitors that are aggressively discounting to win market share. Chief among those rivals is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., WMT -0.43%  which last week stated bluntly that it will turn to even more price cuts to boost its stagnant sales.

"Julia. I know yours. It's Winston----Winston Smith."

The looming price war between the two heavyweights will likely draw in other electronics retailers, and portends more pain for a consumer-electronics sector during the time of year that should be their most bountiful. The market is flush with new products, including the latest Apple Inc. iPad tablets and two updated videogame consoles----the first new versions of Sony Corp.'s 6758.TO -0.95%  PlayStation and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox in more than half a decade.

November 19, 2013.

Beirut Blasts Near Iranian Embassy Kill 23

"I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife that I can't get rid of. I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth."

 BEIRUT----Two blasts that struck near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut on Tuesday killed 23 people, among them an Iranian diplomat, in what Iranian and Lebanese officials described as a direct assault on the embassy.

"I couldn't care less," said the girl.

The attack broke three months of relative calm in an area of southern Beirut, much of it a stronghold of the Shiite group Hezbollah, that was the target of a series of rocket and car bombs this summer. The targeting of an embassy would mark an escalation in the sporadic violence that has rocked Lebanon since the war in neighboring Syria has bled over the border and drawn Hezbollah into the fight.

The next moment, it was hard to say by whose act, she was in his his arms. At the beginning he had no feeling except sheer incredulity. The youthful body was strained against his own, the mass of dark hair was against his face, and yes! actually she had turned her face up and he was kissing the wide red mouth. She had clasped her arms about his neck, she was calling him darling, precious one, loved one. He had pulled her down on to the ground, she was utterly unresisting, he could do what he liked with her. But the truth was that he had no physical sensation, except that of mere contact. All he felt was incredulity and pride. He was glad that this was happening, but he had no physical desire. It was too soon, her youth and prettiness had frightened him, he was too much used to living without women----he did not know the reason. The girl picked herself up and pulled a bluebell out of her hair. She sat against him, putting her arm round his waist.

Lebanon's health ministry said 23 people were killed and 147 were injured. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, said the Iranian embassy was targeted by two bombings, five minutes apart, and blamed "the Israeli project, in the region and the world."

November 18, 2013.

In Swaziland, Coke Holds Sway With the King

They were only making conversation. He had managed to move closer to her now. She stood before him very upright, with a smile on her face that looked faintly ironical, as though she were wondering why he was so slow to act. The bluebells had cascaded on to the ground. They seemed to have fallen of their own accord. He took her hand.

MATSAPHA, Swaziland----When Coca-Cola Co. KO -0.12%  executives want things done in this tiny African monarchy, they don't call on lobbyists or local politicians. Instead, former Coke employees and Swazi officials say, they go see the king.

"Would you believe," he said, "that till this moment I didn't know what colour your eyes were?" They were brown, he noted, a rather light shade of brown, with dark lashes. "Now that you've seen what I'm really like, can you still bear to look at me?"

Coke's sway with Swaziland's King Mswati III has enabled the drinks maker to secure a 6% tax rate, far below the official 27.5% corporate rate, according to a former minister who said he took part in the negotiations. "The king does everything they say," says Sam Mkhombe, who was King Mswati III's private secretary for seven years and traveled with him to Coke's Atlanta headquarters in 2007.

"Yes, easily."

For Coke, whose $48 billion in revenue last year was 10 times the value of Swaziland's gross domestic product, influence here comes with an awkward compromise: Coke has moved front and center among the multinationals whose tax dues and economic output provide critical foreign capital to authoritarian African countries.

November 17, 2013.

Ballmer on Ballmer: His Exit From Microsoft

"I didn't want to say anything in the lane,' she went on, "in case there's a mike hidden there. I don't suppose there is, but there could be. There's always the chance of one of those swine recognizing your voice. We're all right here."

REDMOND, Wash.----Steve Ballmer paced his corner office on a foggy January morning here, listening through loudspeakers to his directors' voices on a call that would set in motion the end of his 13-year reign as Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT -0.47%  chief executive.

He still had not the courage to approach her. 'We're all right here?' he repeated stupidly.

Microsoft lagged behind Apple Inc. AAPL -0.60%  and Google Inc. GOOG -0.16%  in important consumer markets, despite its formidable software revenue. Mr. Ballmer tried to spell out his plan to remake Microsoft, but a director cut him off, telling him he was moving too slowly.

"Yes. Look at the trees." They were small ashes, which at some time had been cut down and had sprouted up again into a forest of poles, none of them thicker than one's wrist. "There's nothing big enough to hide a mike in. Besides, I've been here before."

"Hey, dude, let's get on with it," lead director John Thompson says he told him. "We're in suspended animation." Mr. Ballmer says he replied that he could move faster.

November 16, 2013.

UnitedHealth Culls Doctors From Medicare Advantage Plans

He looked up. It was the girl. She shook her head, evidently as a warning that he must keep silent, then parted the bushes and quickly led the way along the narrow track into the wood. Obviously she had been that way before, for she dodged the boggy bits as though by habit. Winston followed, still clasping his bunch of flowers. His first feeling was relief, but as he watched the strong slender body moving in front of him, with the scarlet sash that was just tight enough to bring out the curve of her hips, the sense of his own inferiority was heavy upon him. Even now it seemed quite likely that when she turned round and looked at him she would draw back after all. The sweetness of the air and the greenness of the leaves daunted him. Already on the walk from the station the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin. It occurred to him that till now she had probably never seen him in broad daylight in the open. They came to the fallen tree that she had spoken of. The girl hopped over and forced apart the bushes, in which there did not seem to be an opening. When Winston followed her, he found that they were in a natural clearing, a tiny grassy knoll surrounded by tall saplings that shut it in completely. The girl stopped and turned.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., UNH +0.60%  the nation's largest provider of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans, has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks—spurring protest from lawmakers and physician groups and leaving many elderly patients unsure about whether they need to switch plans to keep seeing their doctors.

"Here we are," she said.

Doctors in at least 10 states have received termination letters, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the health-care environment." The notices also tell doctors they can appeal within 30 days. That means many physicians and patients won't know for sure who is in or out of UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage networks before the open-enrollment period to switch Medicare plans ends on Dec. 7.

He was facing her at several paces' distance. As yet he did not dare move nearer to her.

UnitedHealth said its provider networks are always changing and that it expects its Medicare Advantage network "to be 85% to 90% of its current size by the end of 2014," although it declined to say how many doctors are being cut in individual states or what criteria it is using.

November 15, 2013.

White House Soul-Searches as Errors Mount

2

Winston picked his way up the lane through dappled light and shade, stepping out into pools of gold wherever the boughs parted. Under the trees to the left of him the ground was misty with bluebells. The air seemed to kiss one's skin. It was the second of May. From somewhere deeper in the heart of the wood came the droning of ring doves.

The White House has begun a quiet self-assessment in the wake of the troubled health-law launch, recognizing that administration officials missed warning signs and put too much trust in their management practices in implementing a program that is the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's domestic legacy.

He was a bit early. There had been no difficulties about the journey, and the girl was so evidently experienced that he was less frightened than he would normally have been. Presumably she could be trusted to find a safe place. In general you could not assume that you were much safer in the country than in London. There were no telescreens, of course, but there was always the danger of concealed microphones by which your voice might be picked up and recognized; besides, it was not easy to make a journey by yourself without attracting attention. For distances of less than 100 kilometres it was not necessary to get your passport endorsed, but sometimes there were patrols hanging about the railway stations, who examined the papers of any Party member they found there and asked awkward questions. However, no patrols had appeared, and on the walk from the station he had made sure by cautious backward glances that he was not being followed. The train was full of proles, in holiday mood because of the summery weather. The wooden-seated carriage in which he travelled was filled to overflowing by a single enormous family, ranging from a toothless great-grandmother to a month-old baby, going out to spend an afternoon with 'in-laws' in the country, and, as they freely explained to Winston, to get hold of a little blackmarket butter.

White House officials want to learn how the rollout flopped, despite what they believed had been sufficient planning, preparation and attention to the issue. Although not a full-bore "forensic" inquiry into what went wrong, the administration aims to organize itself so that "going forward, we don't have these problems," a senior White House official said in an interview.

The lane widened, and in a minute he came to the footpath she had told him of, a mere cattle-track which plunged between the bushes. He had no watch, but it could not be fifteen yet. The bluebells were so thick underfoot that it was impossible not to tread on them. He knelt down and began picking some partly to pass the time away, but also from a vague idea that he would like to have a bunch of flowers to offer to the girl when they met. He had got together a big bunch and was smelling their faint sickly scent when a sound at his back froze him, the unmistakable crackle of a foot on twigs. He went on picking bluebells. It was the best thing to do. It might be the girl, or he might have been followed after all. To look round was to show guilt. He picked another and another. A hand fell lightly on his shoulder.

More details about managerial shortcomings emerged Friday, when a House committee released emails showing that staff who were working on the HealthCare.gov website worried the project was off track months before the Oct. 1 launch.

November 14, 2013.

Ireland Plans 'Clean Exit' From Bailout Program

'Then get away from me as quick as you can."

DUBLIN----Ireland's government will make a clean exit from its three-year international bailout in the coming weeks without recourse to a precautionary line of credit, and will work closely with Germany to ensure the country makes a strong recovery from its debt crisis, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Thursday.

She need not have told him that. But for the moment they could not extricate themselves from the crowd. The trucks were still filing past, the people still insatiably gaping. At the start there had been a few boos and hisses, but it came only from the Party members among the crowd, and had soon stopped. The prevailing emotion was simply curiosity. Foreigners, whether from Eurasia or from Eastasia, were a kind of strange animal. One literally never saw them except in the guise of prisoners, and even as prisoners one never got more than a momentary glimpse of them. Nor did one know what became of them, apart from the few who were hanged as war-criminals: the others simply vanished, presumably into forced-labour camps. The round Mogol faces had given way to faces of a more European type, dirty, bearded and exhausted. From over scrubby cheekbones eyes looked into Winston's, sometimes with strange intensity, and flashed away again. The convoy was drawing to an end. In the last truck he could see an aged man, his face a mass of grizzled hair, standing upright with wrists crossed in front of him, as though he were used to having them bound together. It was almost time for Winston and the girl to part. But at the last moment, while the crowd still hemmed them in, her hand felt for his and gave it a fleeting squeeze.

Dublin had long debated whether it would need a credit line from the International Monetary Fund and the euro zone to safeguard against potential setbacks after it draws down the last of its bailout loans, and now believes that it doesn't need a safety net to secure full access to debt markets from 2014, Mr. Kenny told lawmakers in a special sitting of the Irish parliament.

It could not have been ten seconds, and yet it seemed a long time that their hands were clasped together. He had time to learn every detail of her hand. He explored the long fingers, the shapely nails, the work-hardened palm with its row of callouses, the smooth flesh under the wrist. Merely from feeling it he would have known it by sight. In the same instant it occurred to him that he did not know what colour the girl's eyes were. They were probably brown, but people with dark hair sometimes had blue eyes. To turn his head and look at her would have been inconceivable folly. With hands locked together, invisible among the press of bodies, they stared steadily in front of them, and instead of the eyes of the girl, the eyes of the aged prisoner gazed mournfully at Winston out of nests of hair.

"This is the right decision for Ireland, and now is the right time to take this decision," he said. "This is the latest in a series of steps to return Ireland to normal economic, budgetary and funding conditions. Like most other sovereign euro zone countries, from 2014 we will be in a position to fund ourselves normally on the markets."

November 13, 2013.

Thousands Flee From Storm's Destruction

A long line of trucks, with wooden-faced guards armed with sub-machine guns standing upright in each corner, was passing slowly down the street. In the trucks little yellow men in shabby greenish uniforms were squatting, jammed close together. Their sad, Mongolian faces gazed out over the sides of the trucks utterly incurious. Occasionally when a truck jolted there was a clank-clank of metal: all the prisoners were wearing leg-irons. Truck-load after truck-load of the sad faces passed. Winston knew they were there but he saw them only intermittently. The girl's shoulder, and her arm right down to the elbow, were pressed against his. Her cheek was almost near enough for him to feel its warmth. She had immediately taken charge of the situation, just as she had done in the canteen. She began speaking in the same expressionless voice as before, with lips barely moving, a mere murmur easily drowned by the din of voices and the rumbling of the trucks.

MANILA----With the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan rapidly rising Wednesday, survivors fleeing from the devastation threatened to overwhelm spared cities, driving up food and other prices.

"Can you hear me?"

But despite the strains of the exodus, the mayor of one of the hardest-hit cities encouraged residents of his city to continue to flee, underscoring the mounting desperation survivors were facing in storm-ravaged areas.

"Yes."

 "The less people we have in Tacloban, the less to feed," Tacloban Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez said. "Especially those who have lost everything."

November 12, 2013.

Philippine Chapel Becomes a Medical Center

Ampleforth failed to see Winston and sat down at another table. They did not speak again, and, so far as it was possible for two people sitting on opposite sides of the same table, they did not look at one another. The girl finished her lunch quickly and made off, while Winston stayed to smoke a cigarette.

TACLOBAN, Philippines----In the second-floor chapel of this city's only functioning hospital, Gelly Abucejo sat before the altar in a teal dress, her stomach still rounded from her recent pregnancy. On the pew beside her was a white plastic-wrapped bundle.

Winston was in Victory Square before the appointed time. He wandered round the base of the enormous fluted column, at the top of which Big Brother's statue gazed southward towards the skies where he had vanquished the Eurasian aeroplanes (the Eastasian aeroplanes, it had been, a few years ago) in the Battle of Airstrip One. In the street in front of it there was a statue of a man on horseback which was supposed to represent Oliver Cromwell. At five minutes past the hour the girl had still not appeared. Again the terrible fear seized upon Winston. She was not coming, she had changed her mind! He walked slowly up to the north side of the square and got a sort of pale-coloured pleasure from identifying St Martin's Church, whose bells, when it had bells, had chimed 'You owe me three farthings.' Then he saw the girl standing at the base of the monument, reading or pretending to read a poster which ran spirally up the column. It was not safe to go near her until some more people had accumulated. There were telescreens all round the pediment. But at this moment there was a din of shouting and a zoom of heavy vehicles from somewhere to the left. Suddenly everyone seemed to be running across the square. The girl nipped nimbly round the lions at the base of the monument and joined in the rush. Winston followed. As he ran, he gathered from some shouted remarks that a convoy of Eurasian prisoners was passing.

"My first child," said Ms. Abucejo, 20 years old, gesturing limply with her chin to the slim package she said contained the baby.

Already a dense mass of people was blocking the south side of the square. Winston, at normal times the kind of person who gravitates to the outer edge of any kind of scrimmage, shoved, butted, squirmed his way forward into the heart of the crowd. Soon he was within arm's length of the girl, but the way was blocked by an enormous prole and an almost equally enormous woman, presumably his wife, who seemed to form an impenetrable wall of flesh. Winston wriggled himself sideways, and with a violent lunge managed to drive his shoulder between them. For a moment it felt as though his entrails were being ground to pulp between the two muscular hips, then he had broken through, sweating a little. He was next to the girl. They were shoulder to shoulder, both staring fixedly in front of them.

It was Sunday when Ms. Abucejo gave birth----one of more than 70 the hospital has seen since supertyphoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines, leaving a swath of destruction behind it.

November 11, 2013.

Philippines Typhoon Death Count Rises to 1,774

"What time?"

TACLOBAN, Philippines----As food and water became scarce in areas hit by supertyphoon Haiyan, the Philippines government dramatically raised the death toll to 1,744, greatly exceeding earlier counts from one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the country.

"Nineteen hours."

Even that was seen as a low number, with the toll expected to rise significantly. Thousands remained missing and reports from stricken areas outline mass graves holding hundreds, with bodies also strewn in the streets.

"All right."

In the city of Tacloban, four days after Haiyan devastated it, the road to the airport was jammed with people trying to get out. The road into town was also snarled with motorbikes and cars trying to fight their way in, even as humanitarian workers warned food and water was rapidly running out.

November 10, 2013.

Health-Law Rollout Weighs on Obama's Ratings, Agenda

"It doesn't matter if there's a crowd."

WASHINGTON----President Barack Obama, bogged down by problems with his signature health-care program, is seeing both his approval and personal-favorability ratings with Americans sag, creating new complications for his second-term agenda.

"Any signal?"

During past turbulence in Washington, Americans' approval of the job Mr. Obama is doing dipped. But in those stretches, Mr. Obama was buoyed by voters' general admiration for him as a person and by their trust in his credibility.

"No. Don't come up to me until you see me among a lot of people. And don't look at me. Just keep somewhere near me."

That has changed recently, particularly as thousands of Americans lose their insurance coverage under the health law's rollout, despite the president's pledge that anyone who liked their current plan could keep it.

November 9, 2013.

Nuclear Talks Continue With Iran

"Where can we meet?"

GENEVA----Nuclear talks between Iran and six major powers continued Saturday, with European officials warning a confidence-building deal that sees Tehran curb its program in return for an easing of sanctions could still prove elusive.

"Victory Square, near the monument."

After two days of intensive negotiations in the lakeside city of Geneva, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said "every effort" was being made to seal a confidence-building agreement but warned that diplomats may yet have to return for a fresh round of talks.

"It's full of telescreens."

"It's certainly not possible to say that we can be sure that there will be a deal at the end of the day," he said. If that's the case, he said, "we must continue to apply ourselves in the coming weeks building on the progress that has been made."

November 8, 2013.

Northern Europe Beckons to Desperate Syrians

He did not look at her. He unpacked his tray and promptly began eating. It was all-important to speak at once, before anyone else came, but now a terrible fear had taken possession of him. A week had gone by since she had first approached him. She would have changed her mind, she must have changed her mind! It was impossible that this affair should end successfully; such things did not happen in real life. He might have flinched altogether from speaking if at this moment he had not seen Ampleforth, the hairy-eared poet, wandering limply round the room with a tray, looking for a place to sit down. In his vague way Ampleforth was attached to Winston, and would certainly sit down at his table if he caught sight of him. There was perhaps a minute in which to act. Both Winston and the girl were eating steadily. The stuff they were eating was a thin stew, actually a soup, of haricot beans. In a low murmur Winston began speaking. Neither of them looked up; steadily they spooned the watery stuff into their mouths, and between spoonfuls exchanged the few necessary words in low expressionless voices.

It took Mohamad Simo eight months, $15,000 and five forged passports to get from war-torn Aleppo, Syria, to the sleepy town of Vetlanda in the Swedish countryside.

"What time do you leave work?"

Now the software engineer has refugee status and access to one of Europe's most generous welfare systems. He lives in comfortable state housing, studies Swedish on the government's tab and dreams of opening a chain of coffee shops.

"Eighteen-thirty."

More than a thousand miles to the south, Fares Ayyub is spending his nights with other refugees in a bus station in Sofia, Bulgaria. He, too, was trying to reach Northern Europe. But the civil engineer says he was swindled by smugglers in Turkey, then arrested by Bulgarian police and deposited for months in a detention center in a border town. He is stuck in the European Union's poorest country, unable to work legally.

November 7, 2013.

Twitter's IPO to Make Market Debut

For a week after this, life was like a restless dream. On the next day she did not appear in the canteen until he was leaving it, the whistle having already blown. Presumably she had been changed on to a later shift. They passed each other without a glance. On the day after that she was in the canteen at the usual time, but with three other girls and immediately under a telescreen. Then for three dreadful days she did not appear at all. His whole mind and body seemed to be afflicted with an unbearable sensitivity, a sort of transparency, which made every movement, every sound, every contact, every word that he had to speak or listen to, an agony. Even in sleep he could not altogether escape from her image. He did not touch the diary during those days. If there was any relief, it was in his work, in which he could sometimes forget himself for ten minutes at a stretch. He had absolutely no clue as to what had happened to her. There was no enquiry he could make. She might have been vaporized, she might have committed suicide, she might have been transferred to the other end of Oceania: worst and likeliest of all, she might simply have changed her mind and decided to avoid him.

Twitter Inc. is expected to begin trading Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange NYX +0.78%  after pricing its initial public offering at $26 a share, valuing the company at $14.4 billion.

The next day she reappeared. Her arm was out of the sling and she had a band of sticking-plaster round her wrist. The relief of seeing her was so great that he could not resist staring directly at her for several seconds. On the following day he very nearly succeeded in speaking to her. When he came into the canteen she was sitting at a table well out from the wall, and was quite alone. It was early, and the place was not very full. The queue edged forward till Winston was almost at the counter, then was held up for two minutes because someone in front was complaining that he had not received his tablet of saccharine. But the girl was still alone when Winston secured his tray and began to make for her table. He walked casually towards her, his eyes searching for a place at some table beyond her. She was perhaps three metres away from him. Another two seconds would do it. Then a voice behind him called, "Smith!" He pretended not to hear. "Smith!" repeated the voice, more loudly. It was no use. He turned round. A blond-headed, silly-faced young man named Wilsher, whom he barely knew, was inviting him with a smile to a vacant place at his table. It was not safe to refuse. After having been recognized, he could not go and sit at a table with an unattended girl. It was too noticeable. He sat down with a friendly smile. The silly blond face beamed into his. Winston had a hallucination of himself smashing a pickax right into the middle of it. The girl's table filled up a few minutes later.

The short-messaging service's IPO is the biggest U.S. technology debut since Facebook Inc. FB -1.97%  last year.

But she must have seen him coming towards her, and perhaps she would take the hint. Next day he took care to arrive early. Surely enough, she was at a table in about the same place, and again alone. The person immediately ahead of him in the queue was a small, swiftly-moving, beetle-like man with a flat face and tiny, suspicious eyes. As Winston turned away from the counter with his tray, he saw that the little man was making straight for the girl's table. His hopes sank again. There was a vacant place at a table further away, but something in the little man's appearance suggested that he would be sufficiently attentive to his own comfort to choose the emptiest table. With ice at his heart Winston followed. It was no use unless he could get the girl alone. At this moment there was a tremendous crash. The little man was sprawling on all fours, his tray had gone flying, two streams of soup and coffee were flowing across the floor. He started to his feet with a malignant glance at Winston, whom he evidently suspected of having tripped him up. But it was all right. Five seconds later, with a thundering heart, Winston was sitting at the girl's table.

The deal is set to raise as much as $2.1 billion for the San Francisco-based company, which remains unprofitable but which has transformed public discussion on subjects from celebrities to public policy to pets.

November 6, 2013.

U.S. Pushes Germany for Details of Art Cache

The afternoon was more bearable. Immediately after lunch there arrived a delicate, difficult piece of work which would take several hours and necessitated putting everything else aside. It consisted in falsifying a series of production reports of two years ago, in such a way as to cast discredit on a prominent member of the Inner Party, who was now under a cloud. This was the kind of thing that Winston was good at, and for more than two hours he succeeded in shutting the girl out of his mind altogether. Then the memory of her face came back, and with it a raging, intolerable desire to be alone. Until he could be alone it was impossible to think this new development out. Tonight was one of his nights at the Community Centre. He wolfed another tasteless meal in the canteen, hurried off to the Centre, took part in the solemn foolery of a 'discussion group', played two games of table tennis, swallowed several glasses of gin, and sat for half an hour through a lecture entitled 'Ingsoc in relation to chess'. His soul writhed with boredom, but for once he had had no impulse to shirk his evening at the Centre. At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid. It was not till twenty-three hours, when he was home and in bed ----in the darkness, where you were safe even from the telescreen so long as you kept silent----that he was able to think continuously.

BERLIN----The U.S. State Department is calling on Germany to operate more openly in returning Nazi-confiscated artworks unearthed in a Munich apartment to their rightful owners, according to a U.S. official.

It was a physical problem that had to be solved: how to get in touch with the girl and arrange a meeting. He did not consider any longer the possibility that she might be laying some kind of trap for him. He knew that it was not so, because of her unmistakable agitation when she handed him the note. Obviously she had been frightened out of her wits, as well she might be. Nor did the idea of refusing her advances even cross his mind. Only five nights ago he had contemplated smashing her skull in with a cobblestone, but that was of no importance. He thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice. A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body might slip away from him! What he feared more than anything else was that she would simply change her mind if he did not get in touch with her quickly. But the physical difficulty of meeting was enormous. It was like trying to make a move at chess when you were already mated. Whichever way you turned, the telescreen faced you. Actually, all the possible ways of communicating with her had occurred to him within five minutes of reading the note; but now, with time to think, he went over them one by one, as though laying out a row of instruments on a table.

The push comes as legal experts say restrictive German property laws could make it difficult for heirs to the original owners to reclaim seized or looted works soon----and could even force much of the trove to be returned to the man in whose apartment it was found.

Obviously the kind of encounter that had happened this morning could not be repeated. If she had worked in the Records Department it might have been comparatively simple, but he had only a very dim idea whereabouts in the building the Fiction Department lay, and he had no pretext for going there. If he had known where she lived, and at what time she left work, he could have contrived to meet her somewhere on her way home; but to try to follow her home was not safe, because it would mean loitering about outside the Ministry, which was bound to be noticed. As for sending a letter through the mails, it was out of the question. By a routine that was not even secret, all letters were opened in transit. Actually, few people ever wrote letters. For the messages that it was occasionally necessary to send, there were printed postcards with long lists of phrases, and you struck out the ones that were inapplicable. In any case he did not know the girl's name, let alone her address. Finally he decided that the safest place was the canteen. If he could get her at a table by herself, somewhere in the middle of the room, not too near the telescreens, and with a sufficient buzz of conversation all round----if these conditions endured for, say, thirty seconds, it might be possible to exchange a few words.

Under German law, there is no basis for so-called degenerate art----a term used by the Nazis to describe modern works Hitler considered morally abhorrent----to be returned to earlier owners, according to legal experts. Even in the case of looted art, the burden of proof is on the person who files the claim to provide evidence that the artworks were acquired under duress.

November 5, 2013.

India Launches Mars Mission

He rolled up the completed bundle of work and slid it into the pneumatic tube. Eight minutes had gone by. He re-adjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work towards him, with the scrap of paper on top of it. He flattened it out. On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting:

I love you.

NEW DELHI----India launched its first spacecraft toward Mars Tuesday, setting the country on course to become the only Asian nation to reach the Red Planet.

For several seconds he was too stunned even to throw the incriminating thing into the memory hole. When he did so, although he knew very well the danger of showing too much interest, he could not resist reading it once again, just to make sure that the words were really there.

The initial stage of the launch, during which scientists placed the satellite into Earth orbit, was completed in under an hour after an on-schedule departure.

For the rest of the morning it was very difficult to work. What was even worse than having to focus his mind on a series of niggling jobs was the need to conceal his agitation from the telescreen. He felt as though a fire were burning in his belly. Lunch in the hot, crowded, noise-filled canteen was torment. He had hoped to be alone for a little while during the lunch hour, but as bad luck would have it the imbecile Parsons flopped down beside him, the tang of his sweat almost defeating the tinny smell of stew, and kept up a stream of talk about the preparations for Hate Week. He was particularly enthusiastic about a papier-mache model of Big Brother's head, two metres wide, which was being made for the occasion by his daughter's troop of Spies. The irritating thing was that in the racket of voices Winston could hardly hear what Parsons was saying, and was constantly having to ask for some fatuous remark to be repeated. Just once he caught a glimpse of the girl, at a table with two other girls at the far end of the room. She appeared not to have seen him, and he did not look in that direction again.

"The journey has only begun," said Koppillil Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, the country's civilian space agency, after the launch. "Challenging days are coming," he added.

November 4, 2013.

Taliban Silence Pakistani Musicians

While he stood at the urinal he managed, with a little more fingering, to get it unfolded. Obviously there must be a message of some kind written on it. For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water closets and read it at once. But that would be shocking folly, as he well knew. There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan----It has been almost two years since singer Gulzar Alam, the master of classical Pashto music, performed in a public concert.

He went back to his cubicle, sat down, threw the fragment of paper casually among the other papers on the desk, put on his spectacles and hitched the speakwrite towards him. "Five minutes," he told himself, "Five minutes at the very least!" His heart bumped in his breast with frightening loudness. Fortunately the piece of work he was engaged on was mere routine, the rectification of a long list of figures, not needing close attention.

The wave of Islamic militancy that intensified in recent years, killing thousands of Pakistanis and hitting Mr. Alam's northwestern city of Peshawar particularly hard, also has proved devastating to the region's traditional----and unique----music culture.

Whatever was written on the paper, it must have some kind of political meaning. So far as he could see there were two possibilities. One, much the more likely, was that the girl was an agent of the Thought Police, just as he had feared. He did not know why the Thought Police should choose to deliver their messages in such a fashion, but perhaps they had their reasons. The thing that was written on the paper might be a threat, a summons, an order to commit suicide, a trap of some description. But there was another, wilder possibility that kept raising its head, though he tried vainly to suppress it. This was, that the message did not come from the Thought Police at all, but from some kind of underground organization. Perhaps the Brotherhood existed after all! Perhaps the girl was part of it! No doubt the idea was absurd, but it had sprung into his mind in the very instant of feeling the scrap of paper in his hand. It was not till a couple of minutes later that the other, more probable explanation had occurred to him. And even now, though his intellect told him that the message probably meant death----still, that was not what he believed, and the unreasonable hope persisted, and his heart banged, and it was with difficulty that he kept his voice from trembling as he murmured his figures into the speakwrite.

"If they blow up mosques and funerals, then they can definitely blow up a concert," the 58-year-old singer says. "That fear is there."

November 3, 2013.

Art for Life's Sake

She held out her free hand to him, and he helped her up. She had regained some of her colour, and appeared very much better.

Art enjoys such financial and cultural prestige that it's easy to forget the confusion that persists about what it's really for. Questions like "What is this painting about?" or "Why should this old sculpture matter to me?" have a way of sounding impudent and crass. Nice people generally don't ask such things, except in the privacy of their hearts, on their way down the concrete steps of white-walled galleries.

"It's nothing," she repeated shortly. "I only gave my wrist a bit of a bang. Thanks, comrade!"

Meanwhile, the art establishment proceeds under the assumption that art can have no purpose in any instrumental or utilitarian sense. It exists "for art's sake," and to ask anything more of it is to muddy pure and sacred waters.

And with that she walked on in the direction in which she had been going, as briskly as though it had really been nothing. The whole incident could not have taken as much as half a minute. Not to let one's feelings appear in one's face was a habit that had acquired the status of an instinct, and in any case they had been standing straight in front of a telescreen when the thing happened. Nevertheless it had been very difficult not to betray a momentary surprise, for in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand. There was no question that she had done it intentionally. It was something small and flat. As he passed through the lavatory door he transferred it to his pocket and felt it with the tips of his fingers. It was a scrap of paper folded into a square.

This refusal to name a purpose seems profoundly mistaken. If art is to deserve its privileges (and it does), we have to learn how to state more clearly what it is for and why it matters in a busy world. I would argue that art matters for therapeutic reasons. It is a medium uniquely well suited to helping us with some of the troubles of inner life: our desire for material things, our fear of the unknown, our longing for love, our need for hope.

November 2, 2013.

Suspect in LAX Shooting Charged With Murder

She spoke as though her heart were fluttering. She had certainly turned very pale.

LOS ANGELES----The airport terminal where a gunman shot his way through security, killing a Transportation Safety Administration officer and wounding six others, reopened Saturday, as Los Angeles International Airport began to resume normal operations.

"You haven't broken anything?"

The gunman, identified as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23 years old, was wounded in a shootout with police and is in custody.

'No, I'm all right. It hurt for a moment, that's all."

All airlines were operating normally by Saturday afternoon, and Terminal 3, where the shooting occurred, had reopened for some flight operations.

November 1, 2013.

TSA Worker Killed in LAX Shooting, Official Says; Suspect in Custody

TSA Worker Killed in LAX Shooting, Official Says; Suspect in Custody

"No, I'm all right. It hurt for a moment, that's all."

LOS ANGELES----A gunman opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport Friday morning, killing one TSA officer and wounding several others, and causing the shutdown of at least one terminal, before being taken into custody, law-enforcement officials said.

She held out her free hand to him, and he helped her up. She had regained some of her colour, and appeared very much better.

The gunmen injured four Transportation Security Administration employees, including the one killed, according to two federal-law enforcement officials. The suspect first assaulted a TSA employee at the document-check stand of the security checkpoint, one official said. Both officials said the suspect was not affiliated with the TSA.

"It's nothing," she repeated shortly. "I only gave my wrist a bit of a bang. Thanks, comrade!"

The suspect is in custody and hospitalized, one official said.