IHT Quick Read: Feb. 7

NEWS Tunisian officials moved quickly Wednesday to contain the fallout after a leading opposition figure was assassinated outside his home. They announced that they would restructure the Islamist-led government and form a national unity cabinet as thousands took to the streets in protests that security forces beat back with tear gas. Monica Marks reports from Tunis, and Kareem Fahim from Cairo.

In an outcome hailed by environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to overhaul the region’s troubled fisheries policy to end decades of overfishing. David Jolly reports from Paris.

Syria’s Kurds have mostly escaped prolonged bouts of direct conflict in the country’s civil war, but with rebel units pushing east toward the resource-rich Kurdish heartland, Kurdish militias proliferating and calls for greater autonomy growing, this may not remain the case. Josh Wood reports from Erbil, Iraq.

Shockingly bad care and inhumane treatment at a hospital in England led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths and stripped countless patients of their dignity and self-respect, according to a scathing report published on Wednesday. Sarah Lyall reports from London.

The daughters of a woman who was! held in one of Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries have been campaigning for an apology from the state for 10 years. Carol Ryan reports from Dublin.

For the first time, scientists report, they have found bacteria living in the cold and dark deep under the Antarctic ice, a discovery that might advance knowledge of how life could survive on other planets or moons and that offers the first glimpse of a vast ecosystem of microscopic life in underground lakes in Antarctica. James Gorman reports.

The European Union’s commitment to Galileo, a project designed to end reliance on America’s navigation system, is to b decided at budget talks this week. Andrew Higgins reports from Fucino, Italy.

As technology helps propel the deep-sea drilling industry further offshore, geopolitical difficulties are intruding. Many countries have overlapping maritime boundaries. Kate Galbraith reports from Austin, Texas.

The British government is taking aim at an unlikely target in the latest rate-rigging case: the British government. The $612 million settlement that the Royal Bank of Scotland reached with authorities on Wednesday over rate manipulation will leave British taxpayers liable for part of the fine. Mark Scott reports from London.

ARTS The auction of Impressionist and Modern art followed by Surrealist works that took place at Sotheby’s on Tuesday evening ended with 52 lots fetching £121 million. It will be remembered by auction house professionals as the second most successful sale in the field held at Sotheby’s London and, by some of those attending, as the strangest session in living memory. Souren Melikian reports from London.

SPORTS Not much was expected of Sri Lanka in the Women’s Cricket World Cup, but it started off by beating England, and then on Tuesday its victory over India kept the host from advancing to the playoff round. Huw Richards reports./a>

Asia the Heart of Worldwide Soccer Corruption, Investigators Say

BEIJING â€" Soccer is probably the world’s most popular sport, commanding billions-strong audiences from slums to palaces. It may also be the world’s most corrupt sport, with the epicenter of the global corruption in Asia, investigators said this week.

The problem is illegal gambling which is tied to corruption and match fixing, said Chris Eaton, a former head of security at FIFA, the world soccer organization based in Switzerland, and now the director of the International Centre for Sport Security in Qatar. Asia was attractive to criminals in this area for its lax regulation, he said, and the biggest gambling houses each transacted $2 billion a week. “It’s all done with algorithms and machines, almost like any commodity house in the U.S. or London,” he said.

Soccer gambling “isbigger than Coca-Cola, which is a trillion a year. This is a global economy, a growing global economy, and it needs to be regulated and supervised, and governments aren’t doing this,” Mr. Eaton said in one of a series of Reuters reports this week documenting the scandal.

On Monday, European police said hundreds of matches, including some involving the World Cup, the European Championships and the Champions League, may have been fixed in a global betting scam largely run from Singapore, the Southeast Asian nation with a normally squeaky-clean image.

This colorful account on the investigative Web site Invisible Dog offers apparent details of a trail that it said began with a goalkeeper in an Italian third division team and led to gambling masterminds ! in Singapore.

If the brains are in Singapore, the three largest gambling houses in Asia, IBCBET, SBOBET and 188BET, are in Manila in the Philippines, Reuters reported. Their operations were “very opaque” and what was known of them came from talking to people familiar with their workings, as there was no government record, Mr. Eaton, the soccer security expert, told Reuters.

“You have under-regulated, gray-area gambling where the regulators are not really serious, transparency rules are not to best practice and government oversight is almost nonexistent,” he said.

Exactly how it works was explained by Laszlo Angeli, a Hungarian prosecutor cited by the news agency, who drew on an example of a member of a gambling syndicate in Hungary.

“The Hungarian member, who was immediately below the Singapore head, was in touch with Hungarian referees who could then attempt to swing matches at which they officiated around the world,” he said. Accomplices would place bets on the Internetor by phone with bookmakers in Asia.

So far, the German police have concrete proof of 8 million euros ($11 million) in gambling profits from the match fixing, but this is probably the tip of the iceberg, experts say.

In response, FIFA has set up an online reporting site that guarantees anonymity to whistleblowers.

But Asian nations must work together to counter the gangs that run operations, said an analyst quoted by Reuters.

“There has to be collective effort from law enforcement agencies in Asia and beyond to address this issue,” said B.C. Tan, head of organized crime research at World-Check, a risk analysis firm.

In January, 41 South Korean players involved in match fixing were banned for life from the game by FIFA, extending earlier sanctions against them (though 21 were offered a reprieve, according to reports.) Three South Koreans involved in the scandal have committed suicide, this report said.

\'Rigoletto\' in Vegas, \'Manon Lescaut\' in the Metro

BRUSSELSâ€"The day after the Metropolitan Opera in New York unveiled a production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” set in Las Vegas during the 1960s, I was in Belgium, where another exercise in operatic updating is underway at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie. Here, Mariusz Trelinski’s staging of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” â€" through Feb. 8 â€" situates the opera in the waiting room of a subway station.

Opera goers are often incensed by productions like these, yet updating is potentially a relatively mild device. Once the new setting is established, the action can play out coherently and essentially traditionally. This happened with “La Bohème” last summer at the Salzburg Festival, staged by Damiano Michieletto.

One could object to the hovel of the boemians’ Parisian loft, but there was something touching about seeing Anna Netrebko as Mimì crouched in the snow behind a hotdog truck near the city’s peripheral expressway, as she overheard Rodolfo and Marcello discussing her fragile health.

By contrast, La Scala’s recent “Lohengrin” directed by Claus Guth, which focused on the repressiveness of German society at the time of the opera’s composition and, in Mr. Guth’s fanciful interpretation, its bizarre effects on the psyche of the title character, counts as truly radical.

The Met’s take on “Rigoletto” had a widely acknowledged antecedent in Jonathan Miller’s production of the opera for the English National Opera, which was set in New York’s Little Italy and seen in that city on a 1984 tour. The Met’s new prod! uction by Michael Mayer is reportedly less successful. Writing in The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini detected “dynamic elements in this colorful, if muddled and ill-defined ‘Rigoletto’” but noted that “there are big holes” in Mr. Mayer’s concept. The criticism is directed not so much at the updating itself but the lack of disciplined follow-through.

The updating of “Manon Lescaut,” which is specified to take place in the 18th century, comes off as inherently misguided. Boris Kudlicka’s chic-looking set is essentially all in black, although city lights are sometimes visible, as if seen from a moving train. A system map is on one wall, pay telephones on another.

The mismatch is apparent from the first measures of Puccini’s sparkling orchestral introduction to Act 1. This is music designed for the outdoorsâ€"a public square in Amiensâ€"not a space underground. It announces something special is in the works, not dreary routine. It conveys youthful high spirits, not loom. Also, the mores of pre-revolutionary France are important in the opera.

Whether Mr. Trelinski’s conception of Manon herself is an outgrowth of his updating, or the other way around, it robs her of her allure. When, early on, the smitten Des Grieux declares his love for her, Manon sits at the end of a bar wearing a red coat and dark glasses and smoking a cigaretteâ€"the very image of a prostitute. Manon is a material girl all right, but one with such irresistible femininity she gets what she wants from men without having to market herself. You never sense this here. Further, a demimonde element weighs on the first two acts. Manon’s benefactor, Geronte (the bass Giovanni Furlanetto, in excellent voice), is depicted as a crime figure, and there is some curious activity involving topless girls and golf clubs.

Mr. Trelinski’s approach also intensifies an acknowledged structural weakness of the opera. All the opera’s gaiety is concentrated in the first two acts, whereas Act ! 3 and 4â€! "in which Manon is deported from France and then dies in the New Worldâ€"are uniformly gloomy. But here, Acts 1 and 2 are gloomy too.

Mr. Trelinski, who is artistic director of the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, where the production originated, is a respected director with some notable achievements. I have admired his double bill of Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta,” which will be seen at the Met in a future season. His work here has some redeeming aspects, especially in Act 4. Puccini’s setting for this actâ€"a vast desert near the outskirts of New Orleansâ€"is one of opera’s most implausible, so it is no great loss to see it supplanted. Fascinatingly, Mr. Trelinski ensures that Des Grieux suffers here as much as Manon does, as he becomes delusional and, apparently, starts to see double. A second Manon appears, whom Des Grieux cannot seem to distinguish from the first.

Carlo Rizzi presides over a colorful reading of the score and a cast headed by an excelent pair of lovers in Eva-Maria Westbroek and Brandon Jovanovich. When the two sang their big duet in Act 2, you could forget about the production and become wrapped up in Puccini’s drama. Ms. Westbroek’s commanding soprano is a bit large for Manon, whose music can profit from greater tonal delicacy. Still, she offers some splendid singing, apart from some difficulty on top, and gives an especially gripping account of Manon’s final aria, “Solo, perduta, abbandonata.”

In this production Des Grieux emerges as the more emotionally vibrant lover, and Mr. Janovich’s clear, virile singing makes the most of the opportunity. Unfortunately, he was in ill health and departed the performance after Act 2, but the intervention of Hector Sandoval, the alternate Des Grieux, allowed the performance, which was streamed to movie theaters, to continue without a hitch. He sang well and knew intricacies of the staging, flaws and all.

The Best Asian Art You Can Vote on It

HONG KONG â€" Heading into its 10th year, the Sovereign Asian Art Prize has grown far beyond its Hong Kong base to span the very edges of the continent, including former Soviet republics and the Middle East.

Its list of 30 finalists, announced last week, was light on the usual contemporary art superpowers â€" there was only one name from mainland China â€" and heavy on Muslim-majority states that may not get as much attention in the art world. Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Oman and the Palestinian territories produced finalists for the first time.

Sovereign focuses on developing talents from developing nations. The $30,000 award goes to a mid-career artist â€" someone who may be acclaimed in his or her home country, but who has not made it big internationally. (Its sponsor, the Hong Kong-based Sovereign Group, also has an award in Africa).

The majority of the Asian finalists are in their 30s and working in photogrphy, prints or mixed media. While politics is nothing new in contemporary Asian art â€" those ironic Chairman Mao heads have become a stereotype in Chinese painting â€" these works also offer views on faith, culture and sexuality. (You can vote for your favorite here.)

Saudi Arabia is represented by Shadia Alem, whose photographic work “Supreme Ka’ba of God” represents her birthplace, Mecca.

“Wedding Memory” by Hassan Meer of Oman depicts a bride and groom, her face partly veiled, his entirely covered.  The catalog notes describe the backdrop as the “room that accommodates the consummation of the marriage,”  though the black-and-white image shows the exterior of a home half-destroyed and marked by graffiti.

Raeda Saadeh, from the Palestinian territories, was born in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab city in the Haifa district of Israel. Her photograph “Penelope” depicts the mythical Greek f! igure calmly knitting and waiting on a pile of rubble and wire in East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces had destroyed homes.

Evgeny Boikov â€" representing Kyrgyzstan, but originally from Azerbaijan â€" depicts a protester who is said to represent the 2005 and 2010 uprisings in Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet state. Mr. Boikov uses industrial-sized printers (the kind usually used for billboa rds) to print on small canvases. The result is the indigo imprint of a man bent over, though it’s not clear whether from pain, exertion or something else.

From neighboring Kazakhstan, Said Atabekov photographs a girl holding a korpeshe, a traditional textile used as bedding, made here in the likeness of an American flag.

Also using textiles, Risham Syed, who teaches art in her native Pakistan, used acrylic, lace and army coat buttons on a square of Pakistani printed cotton to  riff on Thomas Cole’s 19th-century painting “Indians Viewing the Landscape.”

Pakistan and Hong Kong had the bestshowings, with four finalists.

Faiza Butt printed a poem on a light box, in Urdu on one side and English on the other. It’s a pretty, almost floral-looking work at first glance. On a closer look, you can see that she has used debris, garbage and half-eaten food as decoration.

Muhammad Ali, 24, fashioned a sepia-toned homoerotic portrait of two scantily clad men, an image that might not be risqué in the West but which could be controversial in a country where homosexuality is illegal.

Waseem Ahmed’s “Fusion” is also sexually charged. A  female nude, rendered in the type of Mughal classical art, is overlaid with details from a Western painting of Adam and Eve, just their groins showing, covered by fig leaves.

When the Man Asian Literary Prize was announced las! t month,Â!   it called into question two issues concerning arts prizes in Asia. First, where, exactly, does Asia begin and end (The Man Asia included Orhan Pamuk on its short list, although Mr. Pamuk, the Turkish Nobel laureate, has written about his desire for Turkey to join the European Union). The second is whether Asia’s budding cultural scene still needs Western corporate support. The Man Group, the hedge fund management firm, has said it would no longer underwrite the literary prize. The Sovereign Art Prize has the Swiss bank Julius Bär behind it.

An exhibition of the finalists runs through Friday at Exchange Square in Hong Kong and will later travel to Seoul and Singapore. The winner will be announced, and the works will be auctioned by Christie’s, at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong on Feb. 21.

Turkey Hints at a Breakup With Europe

LONDON â€" A half century after taking the first steps toward becoming an integral part of Europe, Turkey may be ready to give up.

After heavy hints that Ankara is looking eastwards to a closer alliance with Asia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, said this week that membership of the European Union was not a must for Turkey.

“It is not the Apocalypse if they do not let us in the E.U.,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters during a visit to Budapest on Wednesday, as he launched his latest broadside against the Union’s alleged delaying tactics to keep his country out.

His remarks followed a press conference earlier this week in Prague, the Czech capital, where Mr. Erdogan described the delay in granting membership to Turkey as “unforgiveable.”

These and similar exprssions of frustration have come as Turkey approaches the 50th anniversary of an agreement with what was then the European Economic Community, which was to have led to eventual full membership in the bloc.

Mr. Erdogan set the tone in a television interview last month in which he accused the E.U. of dragging its feet because Turkey was an Islamic nation.

As my colleague Andrew Finkel wrote from Istanbul, the prime minister also “threw the diplomatic equivalent of a cream pie” into the debate by suggesting Turkey join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization instead.

Membership of the S.C.O., which groups Russia, China and central Asian states, is not widely viewed as a viable alternative to joining Europe. Andrew wrote that Mr. Erdogan’s proposal prompted Turkish columnists to ask whether he might be bluffing in an attempt to put pressure on the Eur! opeans.

The same question was posed this week by Pravda.ru, a Russian news website: “The first thought about the purpose of such statements is the fact that Turkey is trying to express its disappointment with the stalled negotiations on accession to the E.U.”

But it did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Erdogan might be seeking power “wherever his country’s economic strength is consistent with its geopolitical needs as a global player” in contrast to a weak Europe that was preoccupied with its internal problems.

Washington has suggested that Turkish membership in the S.C.O., a security organization viewed as an anti-U.S. bulwark in Central Asia, might be problematic in view of the Turkish role in N.A.T.O.

“Obviously it would be interesting, given the fact that Turkey is also a N.A.T.O. member,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesperson, said last week.

Hugh Pope, the International Crisis Group’s project director in Turkey, suggested that Mr. Erdogan was courting popularity by bashing the E.U.

Turks are frustrated not only by delays in the membership process, he told Rendezvous, but also by the draconian visa regulations they face when traveling to Europe. Potshots aimed at Turkey by European critics were also deeply offensive to Turks, he said.

“But joining the E.U. is not rocket science,” he added, stressing that Turkey had to meet the requirements of the club if it wanted to join. This would include making domestic reforms and changing its policy on Cyprus, an E.U. state that it refuses to recognize.

Mr. Erdogan’s recent remarks on Europe might not indicate that Turkey is quite ready to break off the world’s longest engagemen! t.

! The Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet’s Murat Yetkin commented on Wednesday: “It is…clear that Turkey-E.U. relations cannot go on like this any longer; another chapter this year, a pointless agreement the next.”

However, he wrote, “it seems that neither Turkey nor the E.U. wants to be the first to declare divorce. Perhaps because both sides know that it would be a strategically wrong move.”

Turkey Hints at a Breakup With Europe

LONDON â€" A half century after taking the first steps toward becoming an integral part of Europe, Turkey may be ready to give up.

After heavy hints that Ankara is looking eastwards to a closer alliance with Asia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, said this week that membership of the European Union was not a must for Turkey.

“It is not the Apocalypse if they do not let us in the E.U.,” Mr. Erdogan told reporters during a visit to Budapest on Wednesday, as he launched his latest broadside against the Union’s alleged delaying tactics to keep his country out.

His remarks followed a press conference earlier this week in Prague, the Czech capital, where Mr. Erdogan described the delay in granting membership to Turkey as “unforgiveable.”

These and similar exprssions of frustration have come as Turkey approaches the 50th anniversary of an agreement with what was then the European Economic Community, which was to have led to eventual full membership in the bloc.

Mr. Erdogan set the tone in a television interview last month in which he accused the E.U. of dragging its feet because Turkey was an Islamic nation.

As my colleague Andrew Finkel wrote from Istanbul, the prime minister also “threw the diplomatic equivalent of a cream pie” into the debate by suggesting Turkey join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization instead.

Membership of the S.C.O., which groups Russia, China and central Asian states, is not widely viewed as a viable alternative to joining Europe. Andrew wrote that Mr. Erdogan’s proposal prompted Turkish columnists to ask whether he might be bluffing in an attempt to put pressure on the Eur! opeans.

The same question was posed this week by Pravda.ru, a Russian news website: “The first thought about the purpose of such statements is the fact that Turkey is trying to express its disappointment with the stalled negotiations on accession to the E.U.”

But it did not rule out the possibility that Mr. Erdogan might be seeking power “wherever his country’s economic strength is consistent with its geopolitical needs as a global player” in contrast to a weak Europe that was preoccupied with its internal problems.

Washington has suggested that Turkish membership in the S.C.O., a security organization viewed as an anti-U.S. bulwark in Central Asia, might be problematic in view of the Turkish role in N.A.T.O.

“Obviously it would be interesting, given the fact that Turkey is also a N.A.T.O. member,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesperson, said last week.

Hugh Pope, the International Crisis Group’s project director in Turkey, suggested that Mr. Erdogan was courting popularity by bashing the E.U.

Turks are frustrated not only by delays in the membership process, he told Rendezvous, but also by the draconian visa regulations they face when traveling to Europe. Potshots aimed at Turkey by European critics were also deeply offensive to Turks, he said.

“But joining the E.U. is not rocket science,” he added, stressing that Turkey had to meet the requirements of the club if it wanted to join. This would include making domestic reforms and changing its policy on Cyprus, an E.U. state that it refuses to recognize.

Mr. Erdogan’s recent remarks on Europe might not indicate that Turkey is quite ready to break off the world’s longest engagemen! t.

! The Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet’s Murat Yetkin commented on Wednesday: “It is…clear that Turkey-E.U. relations cannot go on like this any longer; another chapter this year, a pointless agreement the next.”

However, he wrote, “it seems that neither Turkey nor the E.U. wants to be the first to declare divorce. Perhaps because both sides know that it would be a strategically wrong move.”

IHT Quick Read: Feb. 6

NEWS Individual strikes by Predator and Reaper drones are almost never discussed publicly by U.S. officials. But the clandestine war will receive a rare moment of public scrutiny on Thursday, when its chief architect, John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, faces a Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for C.I.A. director. Robert F. Worth reports from Sana, Yemen, and Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane from Washington.

Bulgaria’s interior minister announced that two of the people behind a July 18 bombing, which killed five Israeli tourists, a Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber, were believed to be members of the military wing of Hezbollah. The finding could have wide-reaching repercussions for Europe’s détente with the Lebanese militant group. Nicholas Kulish and Matthew Brunwasser report from Sofia, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the first visit by an Iranian leader to Egypt since the two countries broke off diplomatic relations three decades ago. Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh report from Cairo.

The House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Britain, indicating that the bill is assured of passage as it moves through further legislative stages. John F. Burns and Alan Cowell report from London.

Zhu Ruifeng, who became a celebrity of sorts after posting online a sex video involving a Chinese government official, says he will release more videos involving others. Andrew Jacobs reports from Beijing.

Dell announced that had agreed to go private in a $24 billion deal led by its founder and the investment firm Silver Lake, in the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis. Michael J. de la Merced and Quentin Hardy report.

Liberty Global, the international cable company owned by the American billionaire John C. Malone, agreed to buy the British cable company Virgin Media for about $16 billion. Mark Scott reports from London and Eric Pfanner from Paris.

Asia Pulp and Paper, one of the largest pulp and paper producers in the world, said that it had stopped clearing natural forests across its supply chains in Indonesia, accelerating an earlier commitment to do so by 2015. Sara Schonhardt reports from Jakarta.

ARTS Have you ever awakened from a dream wanting to replay events That’s just the start of the appeal of the West End revival of “Old Times,” the Harold Pinter play being presented with its two exemplary actresses, Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams, swapping roles. Matt W! olf reviews from London.

The Netherlands Opera perseveres in presenting imaginative repertory absorbingly staged. Last week it turned to a masterpiece of the 19th century with an uplifting new production of Rossini’s final opera, “Guillaume Tell.” George Loomis reviews from Amsterdam.

SPORTS The Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn, whose record-breaking ski racing career has frequently mixed stirring triumph with frightening spills, tore two knee ligaments in a tumbling crash Tuesday and will need reconstructive surgery. Kelley McMillan reports from Schladming, Austria, and Bill Pennington from New York.

When England and Brazil face off Wednesday in London, the two soccer teams will feature players who wil have the chance to show they now have the responsibility to match their sizable talents. Rob Hughes reports from London.