Tibet\'s Desperate Toll Keeps Climbing

HONG KONG - What pushes them to do it, these desperate Tibetans, more than 90 of them, dozens in recent days and another one on Monday, the ones drenching themselves in gasoline, sometimes even drinking the fuel beforehand, and then setting themselves on fire, their robes bursting into pennants of flame as they die such painful deaths, why, what is happening here? Are they killing themselves because of politics, sadness, despair, religion, what?

We don't yet know what drove Lobsang Gedun, 29, a Buddhist monk who burned himself to death on Monday in the western Chinese province of Qinghai. My colleague Edward Wong reported on the death, and Radio Free Asia quoted an account of the immolation: “With his body on fire, he walked about 300 steps with hands folded in prayer posture, and raised slogans before he collapsed dead on the ground.”

Lobsang Gedun's slogans were likely in praise of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, or they were condemnations of harsh, militarized Chinese rule in Tibet and the Tibetan areas of western China. Foreign reporters, United Nations investigators and many international relief groups are barred by the Chinese authorities from entering Tibet.

“The Chinese still blame everything on us,” the Dalai Lama said in an interview with The Hindu newspaper. “If the Chinese have the confidence, they must allow the international community to see the truth. That is very important. If they do not allow, it is an indication that they have the feeling of guilt, that they have something to hide.”

“The Chinese propaganda always says the Tibetan people are very happy, that they were liberated from the feudal sys tem under the Dalai Lama,” he said. “So now their propaganda is on shaky ground.”

The full interview, conducted in July at the Dalai Lama's residence in the Indian hill-station town of McLeod Ganj, in Dharamsala, can be seen here.

A harrowing and deeply reported piece in National Geographic by Jeffrey Bartholet examines the final days and fiery death of one self-immolator, a young exile named Jamphel Yeshi, 27, who burned himself to death in a Tibetan enclave of New Delhi in March.

He was known as Jashi to his friends. He had a couple of dragon tattoos on his muscular body. He was known as a strong swimmer, and back home during the winters he loved to go sledding on makeshift toboggans.

He fled Tibet on foot in 2006 and eventually made his way to Dharamsala, home of the Ti betan government in exile, “where every newcomer gets an audience with the Dalai Lama, and everyone gets free schooling,” Mr. Bartholet writes.

“Jashi cried when the Dalai Lama blessed him, touching his head. He couldn't get a word out.”

Later, reaching Delhi, he lived in a one-room flat, splitting the $90-a-month rent with four Tibetan friends. He became somewhat active in Tibetan politics. At the time of his death, Jashi owned a thin vinyl suitcase, two pens, a scarf, four pairs of pants and a small Tibetan flag.

The night before his death, he ate well, sharing a Tibetan mutton stew with seven friends. The next day, at a large Tibetan street protest, Mr. Bartholet writes, “He poured the gasoline over himself. It ran down his shoulders, over his clothes, and into his shoes. Then he put a flame to it. Jashi ran about 20 strides, stumbled and fell under a giant banyan tree.”

A crowd gathered. “Above all of the cries and shouts,” Mr. Ba rtholet says, “several witnesses later recalled most distinctly the roar of the fire: foh-foh-foh.”

As we have written and reported on Rendezvous, young Tibetans are increasingly inclined to more aggressive protests over Chinese authority. The Dalai Lama's Middle Way - nonviolent pursuit of Tibetan autonomy rather than outright independence - is too incremental for many political activists.

The rise in self-immolations, many believe, is an expression of this anxiety and impatience.

“The world hardly notices when another young man or woman goes up in flames,” Mr. Bartholet says. “Some young activists are talking darkly of another possible phase, of how thin the line is between killing yourself and killing your enemies.”

The Dalai Lama has largely refrained from commenting on the self-immolations, except to expres s sadness, along with his disapproval of violent or extreme forms of protests. But in the Hindu interview he calls the immolations “a very, very delicate political issue.”

“Now, the reality is that if I say something positive, then the Chinese immediately blame me,” he said. “If I say something negative, then the family members of those people feel very sad. They sacrificed their… life. It is not easy. So I do not want to create some kind of impression that this is wrong.”

Mr. Bartholet quotes Tenzin Wangchuk, 38, the president of the Delhi chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress:

The older generation is 90 percent religious and 10 percent nationalistic; they want to spread happiness and make the world a better place. But the younger generation is not a bunch of Buddhas. We are Buddhists but not Buddhas. If you kill evil, we don't think that's bad. We need actions. . . One day, who knows? We may raise our issue by bombing ourselves , and if you are going to die, maybe it's better to take some enemies along with you.

And he offers this comment Lodi Gyari, a former Tibetan negotiator with China:

The only reason the Tibetans are so committed to nonviolence is purely because of the influence of the Dalai Lama. I have also told the Chinese this. It's a very thin line. One day, somebody may say, “I've had enough, it's meaningless for me, but I'm not going to go alone … I'm going to take a couple of Chinese guys with me.” That can happen any day.

Contemporary Art From the Arab World, Not All of It Political

PARIS-Islamic art, however defined, is getting its due in Paris. The Louvre opened its lavish new Islamic galleries to largely favorable reviews. And the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Arab World Institute, has a striking exhibition of contemporary Arab art on view. The show, “25 Years of Arab Creativity,” runs through Feb. 3.

“The Institute wants to showcase more of what is happening in the Arab world in terms of creativity,” explained Mona Khazindar, the institute's director general. “We cannot compete with institutions that are already there, so we need to become complementary.”

Exhibitions, she said, will range from solo retrospectives on pioneer Arab artists or group shows around a theme, in conjunction with programs of related screenings, concerts and forums.

The current show features works by 40 artists from 16 countries â€" most of the Arab world, including Sudan. Some artists are based in the West; 16 of them are women. The title is a nod to the Institute's 25th anniversary, and the show is curated by Ehab El-Labban, an Egyptian who has twice headed the Cairo International Biennale. “We chose a curator living in the Arab world,'' said Ms. Khazindar, “because with curators living in Europe we tend to see always the same artists.”

For Mr. El-Labban, there was an additional challenge. “Western curators of Arab art shows choose only political artists because in the past 10 years there have been a lot of problems in our community,” he said. “But there are many kinds of artists in the Arab world, and for this reason I have tried to be fair and choose from all directions.”

The show, succinct as it is for such a large geographic area, conjure s a vibrant, diverse community, global in its expression and reach, but deeply rooted in Arab culture.

Not surprisingly, some of the strongest works on display are political. The Lebanese artist Nadim Karam's “Closets and closets” speaks of the pain and absurdity of civil war. Nadia Kaabi-Linke, a Tunisian, has filled hundreds of flasks with sand from the tombs of American soldiers who died in North Africa during World War II. In “Tag'out,” the Algerian artist Ammar Bouras conjures memories of the 1990s, when internal warfare against Islamists raged, “years of absolute terror, when death took away artists, journalists and other friends.” Colliding images on three large video screens question Islam, the State, secularism, terrorism and death.

Strangely, the Arab spring is barely present, as if too fresh in memory or too sensitive to address at this moment. In a series of photographs by Waheeda Malullah, from Bahrain, a woman stands wrapped in white cl oth. A spot of red on her abdomen gradually turns into a fetus before engulfing her entirely. Red and white are the colors of the Bahrain flag.

Mahmoud Obaïdi, an Iraqi artist based in Canada, speaks of the more global issues of exile, terrorism and identity. His multimedia installation, “Fair Skies,'' includes a video that shows a dark-haired male doll being singled out from a line of blond male dolls and subjected to suspicion and crude insults by a heavily armed security guard. The subtitle reads: “How not to appear to be a terrorist in the eyes of U.S. airport authorities.''

Islam is metaphorically represented in “Magnetism,” an installation by the Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, while it appears to be challenged in “I will go to Paradise,” self-portrait photographs by the Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil that depict him stepping off a beach into the sea and eventually disappearing under water.

Contrary to what one might expect from art produced in overwhelmingly Islamic countries, where portraiture of the human body is considered irreligious, the body is represented in many of the works. “Only in some countries, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, can it be problematic,” said Mr. El-Labban. For instance, the Syrian artist Safwan Dahoul paints a near-naked woman lying with her back turned, but Syria, up until now, has been a largely secular society.

Asked how he believes the current political situation in certain Arab countries will affect artists, Mr. El-Labban's mood suddenly dampened. Speaking of Egypt and Lebanon, “it is a very bad situation,'' he said. But he said he believed that “art will be one of the elements of resistance to the idea that some things are permitted and others banned.''

Contemporary Art From the Arab World, Not All of It Political

PARIS-Islamic art, however defined, is getting its due in Paris. The Louvre opened its lavish new Islamic galleries to largely favorable reviews. And the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Arab World Institute, has a striking exhibition of contemporary Arab art on view. The show, “25 Years of Arab Creativity,” runs through Feb. 3.

“The Institute wants to showcase more of what is happening in the Arab world in terms of creativity,” explained Mona Khazindar, the institute's director general. “We cannot compete with institutions that are already there, so we need to become complementary.”

Exhibitions, she said, will range from solo retrospectives on pioneer Arab artists or group shows around a theme, in conjunction with programs of related screenings, concerts and forums.

The current show features works by 40 artists from 16 countries â€" most of the Arab world, including Sudan. Some artists are based in the West; 16 of them are women. The title is a nod to the Institute's 25th anniversary, and the show is curated by Ehab El-Labban, an Egyptian who has twice headed the Cairo International Biennale. “We chose a curator living in the Arab world,'' said Ms. Khazindar, “because with curators living in Europe we tend to see always the same artists.”

For Mr. El-Labban, there was an additional challenge. “Western curators of Arab art shows choose only political artists because in the past 10 years there have been a lot of problems in our community,” he said. “But there are many kinds of artists in the Arab world, and for this reason I have tried to be fair and choose from all directions.”

The show, succinct as it is for such a large geographic area, conjure s a vibrant, diverse community, global in its expression and reach, but deeply rooted in Arab culture.

Not surprisingly, some of the strongest works on display are political. The Lebanese artist Nadim Karam's “Closets and closets” speaks of the pain and absurdity of civil war. Nadia Kaabi-Linke, a Tunisian, has filled hundreds of flasks with sand from the tombs of American soldiers who died in North Africa during World War II. In “Tag'out,” the Algerian artist Ammar Bouras conjures memories of the 1990s, when internal warfare against Islamists raged, “years of absolute terror, when death took away artists, journalists and other friends.” Colliding images on three large video screens question Islam, the State, secularism, terrorism and death.

Strangely, the Arab spring is barely present, as if too fresh in memory or too sensitive to address at this moment. In a series of photographs by Waheeda Malullah, from Bahrain, a woman stands wrapped in white cl oth. A spot of red on her abdomen gradually turns into a fetus before engulfing her entirely. Red and white are the colors of the Bahrain flag.

Mahmoud Obaïdi, an Iraqi artist based in Canada, speaks of the more global issues of exile, terrorism and identity. His multimedia installation, “Fair Skies,'' includes a video that shows a dark-haired male doll being singled out from a line of blond male dolls and subjected to suspicion and crude insults by a heavily armed security guard. The subtitle reads: “How not to appear to be a terrorist in the eyes of U.S. airport authorities.''

Islam is metaphorically represented in “Magnetism,” an installation by the Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, while it appears to be challenged in “I will go to Paradise,” self-portrait photographs by the Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil that depict him stepping off a beach into the sea and eventually disappearing under water.

Contrary to what one might expect from art produced in overwhelmingly Islamic countries, where portraiture of the human body is considered irreligious, the body is represented in many of the works. “Only in some countries, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, can it be problematic,” said Mr. El-Labban. For instance, the Syrian artist Safwan Dahoul paints a near-naked woman lying with her back turned, but Syria, up until now, has been a largely secular society.

Asked how he believes the current political situation in certain Arab countries will affect artists, Mr. El-Labban's mood suddenly dampened. Speaking of Egypt and Lebanon, “it is a very bad situation,'' he said. But he said he believed that “art will be one of the elements of resistance to the idea that some things are permitted and others banned.''

Trust Women Conference Live: Women and The Arab Spring

Roger Cohen, columnist for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, moderates a panel entitled: “The Arab Spring: Window of opportunity or disaster for women?” from the Trust Women Conference in London on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 2 PM local time.

Opening remarks by Queen Noor

Speakers:

Dr. Ala'a Shehabi, Bahraini economics Lecturer
Atiaf Al Wazir, Yemeni-American Blogger
Alaa Murabit, Founder of the Voice of Libyan Women
Amira Yahyaoui, Tunisian Peace Activist
Manal al-Sharif, Women's Rights Activist

In China, Future Civil Servants Say \'Enough\'

BEIJING - For Zhu Xixi and some other young Chinese women and a few men, the detailed questions about women's menstrual cycles during government-mandated medicals for civil service hopefuls were too much.

Last week, about 10 people, including Ms. Zhu (the name is her online handle, a pseudonym she often uses to protect her identity for fear of repercussions), took to the street outside a government building in the central city of Wuhan, dressed in outsized underpants they'd made out from plastic sheeting with the character for “examination” crossed out on them, to dance their protest.

Holding banners saying: “What does your menstrual history have to do with becoming a civil servant?” and “I want to be a civil servant, not have a gynecological examination,” they sang and pranced in a display of the lightheartedness that is a hallmark of the “Volunteers,” a growing band of young, often highly-educated, people who are protesting the slipping state of women's rights in China, as I write in my Page Two Letter.

“We don't mind normal gynecological examinations, but this is too much,” Ms. Zhu said in a telephone interview. “It's a double standard. Men have their external sexual organs looked at, but for women it's very uncomfortable.”

“For women who are unmarried,” a term Ms. Zhu said may be a euphemism for virgins, “they go through the anus to check the womb, to avoid going through the vagina. But what does the state of your womb even have to do with getting a civil service job?”

Ms. Zhu last month applied to the government for more information.

Questions she wants answered include: How many female candidates are rejected for failing their gynecological examination? How is the women's privacy guaranteed? And what precisely is the purpose of th e examinations?

Instituted in 2005 to standardize physical criteria among future civil servants, the minutely detailed medical examiniation runs to 76 pages, according to a 2007 copy seen by this writer. In it, the government lays out exactly what it wants to know about a range of health issues, including the state of a woman's uterus, cervix and vagina.

Women must answer questions about when they first began menstruating, how long they typically menstruate for, how much blood is lost, whether it is painful and when their last menstrual period was. Sexually-transmitted diseases are a particular target, though this too Ms. Zhu said was unfair. “They are using sexually transmitted diseases to judge people's morals. And we really oppose that,” she said.

In a report, People's Daily online appeared to offer support to people who say the examinations are unfair and invasive. The report quoted a Wuhan-base d sexologist, Peng Xiaohui of Central China Normal University, as saying that any organization requiring such information about a person's sexual health, when it had nothing to do with their work, was exhibiting prejudice.

“With these special examinations for women you could almost speak of sexual violence,” People's Daily online quoted Mr. Peng as saying.

Baby News Keeps Royals in the Headlines

LONDON - When Andreas Whittam Smith, the founder and first editor of The Independent, started the new British daily in 1986, he made a gallant but ultimately doomed attempt to keep the royals out of his upmarket newspaper.

“I decided . . . that the paper would give no coverage whatever to the Royal Family unless the story had solid news value,” he wrote earlier this year, recalling his diktat that his journalists should avoid the royal gossip and trivia that dominated the rest of the press at the time.

Some of us on the founding team at The Independent always suspected an element of typically shrewd marketing strategy on the part of The Independent's founder. It set off a debate that helped to get the newspaper noticed.

When the paper subsequently marked the birth of a ne w royal by publishing a single, restrained paragraph, that itself became a talking point.

So, how do Tuesday's banner headlines announcing that the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting her first child measure up to the Whittam Smith test?

True, her husband Prince William is second in line to the throne, and the unborn child is destined one day to be the King or Queen of England. So the much anticipated announcement might be regarded as having solid news value.

That said, the British press, The Independent included, probably told us more than we needed to know about the hyperemesis gravidarum, or acute morning sickness, from which the former Kate Middleton is suffering.

As my colleague Sarah Lyall reports, no one is more delighted about the news of the pregnancy than the country's tabloid press. It now has something positive to write about after the Leveson inquiry into media ethics revealed the murkier side of media intrusion.

The newspapers have been behaving themselves lately in anticipation of the publication last week of the voluminous report from Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson.

They shunned the opportunity to publish topless photographs of the Duchess that were widely available on the Internet in September. And only one title, Rupert Murdoch's Sun, broke a self-imposed media ban on shots of a naked Prince Harry partying in Las Vegas the previous month.

Now an impending royal birth has come to the rescue.

“Extinguish all rational thought,” wrote John Walsh in The Independent. “Abandon all hope that the Chancellor's Autumn Statement will make the front pages this week. Stand aside, Leveson Inquiry and its fretful consequences. There's a royal fetus out there and it's instantly eclipsed all other news.”

Mr. Whittam Smith's attempts to limit royal coverage were probably always a lost cause. “I cannot say that my colleagues firmly supported me in this policy,” he wrote in March. “They longed to do just a little bit of royal gossip.”

Press tittle-tattle about the private lives of the Royals ceased to be mere gossip when the marriages of the two elder sons of Queen Elizabeth broke down in 1992. Even the monarch herself described it in a formal speech as her annus horribilis, a horrible year.

With the death Princess Diana, her divorced daughter-in-law, in a Paris car crash in 1997, things only got worse. Public and press complained that the monarch failed to join in the displays of public grief surrounding the event and some republicans were even predicting the end of the monarchy.

A decade and a half on, the 86-year-old monarch has never been more popular. Her reputation has been enhanced by this year's celebrations marking her 60 years on the throne and by her good-humored role in this year's London Olympic Games, ostensibly jumping out of a helicopter alo ngside Daniel Craig's James Bond.

Now there is a royal baby coming for the British to gush over. “We're expecting,” proclaimed The Times in its domestic newspaper edition, borrowing the royal “we” to make it sound as if the whole nation was involved.

So where does it all leave republicans?

Amol Rajan, blogging at The Independent, conceded that “even those of us who think your public role a total fraud shall raise a glass to you this evening.”

But he suggested that, among other things, the royal couple might consider sending the little prince or princess to a normal school and get a decent suburban townhouse in which to raise their family.

“We'll have a royal family that actually bears some re semblance to the people of this country,” he suggested.

Judging by the outpourings from press and public on Tuesday, Mr. Rajan should not hold his breath.

When Spell-Check Can\'t Help

Some familiar missteps in our latest batch of homophone problems. If these aren't already on your watch-out list, better add them.

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After 34 grueling hours in which they veered eight miles off course, a passing ferry spotted their last remaining signal flair and picked them up.

Make it “flare.” We've done this one before.

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Walking into a conference room, her eyebrows shot up at the site of an elaborate spray of flowers, a congratulatory gift from a supporter.

We meant “sight,” of course. (The sentence also has a dangler problem; her eyebrows didn't walk into the room.)

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Mr. Cuomo waved a tax for fuel barges, and told New Yorkers they could get 10 gallons of gas without charge from fuel trucks across the region provided by the federal government.

Make it “waived.”

 
Close but Not Quite

They're not homophones, but he re are more examples of confusion over similar words:

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Even as they absorbed Mr. Romney's defeat, the party's top elected officials, strategists and activists said they believed that Republicans had offered a persuasive message of economic opportunism and fiscal restraint.

If they were advocating “opportunism,” they should have expected to lose: it means “taking advantage of circumstances without regard to principles.” Presumably the message was about “economic opportunity.”

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Two examples from the same day:

In “Crewel,” a first novel by Gennifer Albin, 16-year-old Adelice lives in Arras, a dystopic world in which everything is strictly controlled by the Guild.

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Her life changed profoundly and suddenly with “Hunger Games,” the adaptation of the first in the best-selling Suzanne Collins trilogy of young-adult novels, about a dystopic society where chi ldren are sacrificed in yearly reapings.

I'm not sure where this variant came from - maybe from the similarity to “myopic”? - but the word we want is “dystopian,” the opposite of “utopian.”

 
In a Word

This week's grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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The less-than-two dozen puppeteers and human characters who work on the show - and collaborate on each other's outside puppet productions, as well - are a tightly knit band.

The hyphens are unnecessary, and it should be “fewer” not “less.” Better still, why not just use the actual number, or a simpler approximation like “roughly 20″? Also, “one another's” is better than “each other's” for more than two.

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Her husband Dan, 80 years old at the time, felt he could no longer care for her alone.

Make it “Her hus band, Dan, …”

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Kevin Clash, the longtime voice and puppeteer behind “Sesame Street's” Elmo character, resigned on Tuesday after a new allegation was made that he had underage sexual relationships.

The stylebook prefers “under-age.”

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On the golf course, driving to another hole, John Paul said there came a day in every young man's life when he had to grow up, to stop the adolescent high jinks that can be so fun and so destructive.

Generally avoid this colloquial use of “fun” as an adjective.

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Due to launch in 2013, Dr. Hernandez likens the product to “Puerto Rican moonshine.”

Dangler. He is not “due to launch” next year, the product is. (Also, we try to resist this P.R. use of “launch” for product introductions.)

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Susan Lerner of Common Cause New York called the latest version of the regulation “a compromise posi tion, and as such, it's an acceptable one.“

The verb “called” doesn't apply after the first three words of the quote; rephrase.

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Tuck mentioned a few players he thought had the potential for extended success at the professional level, including Seattle receiver Golden Tate and Minnesota tight end Kyle Rudolph, but he conceded that it was a little strange to remain the most high-profile alumni despite his having been drafted in 2005.

This whole sentence is clunky and could have been sharpened. But in any case, make it “alumnus,” singular, and make it “highest-profile” rather than “most high-profile.”

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One of the most well-known polling firms, Gallup, had among the worst results. Gallup has now had three poor elections in a row.

There's a word for “most well,” and it's “best.” Make it “best-known.”

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Greg Cosell, a senior producer at NFL Films whose football acumen and analysis of game film is respected around the league, said that was rarely noticeable on film.

Make it “acumen and analysis … are respected.”

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But New York must have an immune system that keeps it safe from destabilizing outside influences, because M. Wells lasted just more than a year before the steak knives and the foie gras vanished from the scene.

“Just over a year” is more idiomatic.

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Once talked about as a future United States senator or mayor of Chicago, Mr. Jackson's circumstances have unraveled in the last few years.

Another dangler. His circumstances were not “once talked about …”

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Before the Broadway musical and the HBO film there was this portrait of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, below, directed by David and Albert Maysles. An aunt and a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the two lived as recluses in a deteriorating mansion in East Hampton, N.Y. “There is no doubt about the artistry and devotion that the Maysles have used in recording the life in ‘Grey Gardens …'”

The plural of Mayles is Maysleses.

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On Twitter, a new adverb - a pejorative, really - emerged in conversations about Hostess: Bained.

New, yes; pejorative, yes; an adverb, definitely not.

Dallas Museum Returns Mosaic to Turkey

Dallas Museum of Art The mosaic is to be returned to Turkey.

The Dallas Museum of Art voluntarily returned an ancient marble mosaic in its collection to Turkey on Monday, after determining that the work - which dates from A.D. 194 and shows Orpheus taming animals with his lyre - was probably stolen years ago from a Turkish archaeological site.

The decision, part of a new plan by the museum to court exchange agreements with foreign institutions more actively, comes at a time when the Turkish g overnment has become more aggressive in seeking antiquities it believes were looted from its soil. In recent months it has pressed the Metropolitan Museum of Art and several other museums around the world to return objects and, to increase its leverage, it has refused loan requests to some.

The Met says that the objects sought by Turkey were legally acquired in the European antiquities market in the 1960s before being donated to the museum in 1989.

Other museums have accused Turkey of undue intimidation. Last year the Pergamon Museum in Berlin returned a 3,000-year-old sphinx, which Turkey said had been taken to Germany for restoration in 1917. But German officials say Turkey has continued to deny loans of objects for exhibitions because of claims to other objects in the Pergamon col lection.

The Dallas mosaic, bought at auction at Christie's in 1999 for $85,000, is thought to have once decorated the floor of a Roman building near Edessa, in what is now the area around the city of Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey. Edessa developed alliances with Rome from the time of Pompey and was sacked under the rule of the emperor Trajan.

Maxwell L. Anderson, the director of the museum in Dallas, said that when he took over at the beginning of 2012, he asked antiquities curators to identify objects that might have provenance problems.

“What I didn't want to happen here was a succession of slow-motion claims coming at us,” he said in an interview. As part of the review, the museum has also transferred legal ownership of several objects to Italy, including a pair of Etruscan shields and three kraters, or earthenware vessels used to mix wine and water.

Turkish officials had been searching for the Orpheus mosaic for some time, Mr. Anderson sai d. “For whatever reason, they hadn't found their way to the Christie's catalog or to us,” he said.

When the museum contacted Turkey earlier this year to say that it had doubts about the mosaic, whose existence seems not to have been cited in publications before its inclusion in the Christie's catalog, Turkish officials provided photographs of a looted site near Edessa whose physical characteristics closely matched those of the mosaic.

“I saw that, and even as a novice, I said: ‘Done,' ” Mr. Anderson said.

Cemalettin Aydin, the consul general of Turkey in Houston, who along with other Turkish officials took possession of the mosaic at a ceremony in Dallas on Monday morning, said in prepared remarks that he applauded the museum's “unwavering ethical stance.” He added that the restitution would lead to an active loan arrangement between Turkey and the Dallas museum. The museum has no Anatolian collection to speak of, and so the hope is that the agreement with Turkey will allow Dallas to organize ambitious exhibitions of work lent from that region.

The return of the mosaic is the first official act of the museum's new international loan initiative, called DMX, which seeks agreements with foreign museums to share objects and to collaborate on conservation projects, exhibitions and educational programs.

IHT Quick Read: Dec. 4

NEWS President Obama warned Syria on Monday not to use chemical weapons against its own people, vowing to hold accountable anyone who did, even as American intelligence officials picked up signs that such arms might be deployed in the fighting there. Peter Baker and Michael R. Gordon report from Washington.

A brothel owner has stepped in to sponsor a small amateur soccer team that, like many others in Greece, was having trouble coming up with the cash for uniforms, equipment and playing field fees. But her gift has caused something of an uproar as officials debate the appropriateness of having a brothel owner step in, even if it is to make up for a bankrupt state and an economy that leaves few businesses with the cash to help young men play sports. Suzanne Daley reports from Larissa, Greece.

Bringing access to an economic area of about 500 million people, membership in the European Union is vital to many British businesses. Yet with the public divided over Britain's ties to the bloc, most business leaders prefer a discreet silence to risking criticism. Stephen Castle reports from London.

The British government announced plans on Monday to crack down on tax dodgers as a parliamentary report criticized United States companies for what it described as tax avoidance. Eric Pfanner reports.

ARTS “Vermeer: The Golden Age of Dutch Art” puts a wide range of the artist's works on display in his first exhibition in Italy. Roderick Conway Morris reviews the show in Rome.

FASHION “When I see them, I remember every single dress,” says Valentino. He points to dresses worn by actresses to the Oscars - and, in the case of Jacqueline Kennedy, for her 1968 Greek island wedding to Aristotle Onassis. “Valentino: Master of Couture” at Somerset House in London takes a new angle on the much celebrated Roman designer. Suzy Menkes on the show.

SPORTS Andy Roddick, who retired from tennis in September at age 30, insisted he was not testing the comeback waters by playing in a South Florida event over the weekend. Karen Crouse reports from Key Biscayne, Fla.

Ricky Ponting left test cricket when, but not how, he wanted. His 287 innings for Australia ended anticlimactically on Monday when he was caught from the bowling of South African left-arm spin-bowler Robin Peterson for eight runs. Huw Richards on cricket.