U.S. Challenges China on Island Chain HANOI, Vietnam ? Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically significant islands in the South China Sea. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said the United States had an interest in preserving free shipping in the area and would be willing to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue. Though presented as an offer to help ease tensions, the stance amounts to a sharp rebuke to China. Beijing has insisted for years that all the islands belong to China and that any disputes should be resolved by China. In March, senior Chinese officials pointedly warned their American counterparts that they would brook no interference in the South China Sea, which they called a ?core interest.? Many of the islands are just rocks or spits of sand, but they are rich in oil and natural gas deposits, and China views the islands as important outposts that extend its territorial waters far into the busy shipping lanes in the sea. ?The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia?s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea,? Mrs. Clinton said. The announcement was a significant victory for the Vietnamese, who have had deadly clashes in past decades with China over some of the islands. Vietnam?s strategy has been to try to ?internationalize? the disputes by bringing in other players for multilateral negotiations that dilute China?s power. The administration?s decision to get involved appeared to catch China flat-footed and angered its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, at a time when the country is already on edge over naval exercises the United States and South Korea will hold starting this weekend off the Korean Peninsula. Twelve of the 27 countries at the security meeting spoke out in favor of a new approach to the South China Sea, prompting Mr. Yang to observe that the American effort seemed orchestrated. International concern has been deepening about China?s maritime ambitions, which have expanded with its economic and military muscle. Earlier this year, China raised tensions with Vietnam by announcing plans to develop tourism in one of the island groups, the Paracels, which the two nations fought over in 1974 before China assumed full control. They had another lethal clash in 1988 over the Spratly island group. In recent months, administration officials said, China has harassed fishing boats and leaned on energy companies that have tried to make offshore deals with other countries. Although American relations with China on political and economic matters are regarded as stable, military ties have become strained over United States arms sales to Taiwan and American concerns about China?s growing naval ambitions. In June, China withdrew an invitation to host a visit by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and the two have largely suspended regular military-to-military talks. This week, China was already bristling over the joint American-South Korean naval exercises because some drills are to take place in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as a military operation zone. At the security meeting, other tensions flared on the familiar front of North Korea, with an official threatening a ?physical response? to the naval exercises. The United States made no secret that it intended the drills to be a deterrent to North Korean aggression. It announced them after an investigation led by South Korea found the North responsible for torpedoing a South Korean Navy ship, the Cheonan, in March. The North Korean official, Ri Tong-il, said, ?This is not defensive training,? noting that the United States was deploying one of its most formidable nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the George Washington, in the exercises. ?It is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole.? But North Korea has opened a small window of engagement on the issue. Military officers from North Korea and the United Nations Command met on the inter-Korean border on Friday for the second time this month to discuss the sinking. Meeting at the border village of Panmunjom, colonels from both sides ?exchanged ideas and further details for convening a joint assessment group? to investigate ?the cause of the armistice violations that led to the sinking,? the American-led United Nations Command said. It remained unclear whether North Korea accepted the proposal. North Korea has so far insisted that it conduct its own investigation by sending a team of ?inspectors? to South Korea. On Friday, the United Nations Command notified North Korea of plans to hold another joint America and South Korean military exercise: an annual drill from Aug. 16 to Aug. 26. As is normal for the annual drill, no location was announced. Mrs. Clinton?s stop in Hanoi wrapped up a grueling trip that amounted to a tour of American wars, past and present: from Afghanistan to the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and finally to Vietnam, where, in a sunset ceremony, she watched the remains of three American soldiers killed in the war loaded on an Air Force transport plane to be returned to the United States. Mrs. Clinton sought to apply lessons from the American experience in the Korean War to Afghanistan. ?We saw South Korea struggle to become a functioning democracy ? huge amounts of instability, coups, corruption, scandal, you name it,? she said. ?It?s good to remind ourselves: the United States has stood with countries that went through a lot of ups and downs for a lot longer than eight years.?
Commence Squealing: Bieber 3-D Movie Coming in 2011 While directors like J. J. Abrams and Joss Whedon line up against 3-D movies, another titan (figuratively speaking) of the entertainment industry has cast his lot in favor of the embattled format. Justin Bieber, the 16-year-old pop phenomenon who is simply too big to be contained in two dimensions, will star in an autobiographical film in which every floppy hair on his adorable head will leap off the screen in 3-D, Paramount Pictures said on Tuesday. The movie, which does not yet have a title or a director, will feature footage from Mr. Bieber?s current tour and is planned for release over Valentine?s Day weekend next year. Mr. Bieber, who also struck a deal this week to write his memoirs for HarperCollins, said in a statement that the movie was ?our chance to give something very special back to all the fans who have been a huge source of inspiration and support throughout my entire career thus far.? He added: ?They simply make my dreams come true every day.?
When the Trifle Turns Serious, Experience Counts LENOX, Mass. ? When a new team of conductors was announced to fill the many vacancies in the Tanglewood Festival season left by the withdrawal of James Levine, who is still recovering from back surgery, some may have been surprised to see Christoph von Dohnanyi assigned to an opera: the Tanglewood Music Center production of Strauss?s ?Ariadne auf Naxos.? Mr. Dohnanyi is known in the United States chiefly as an orchestral conductor, especially for his two decades with the Cleveland Orchestra. He was, in fact, already scheduled to conduct concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra here at Tanglewood this weekend. Ariadne auf Naxos Audrey Elizabeth Luna as Zerbinetta and Emalie Savoy as Ariadne at Tanglewood. The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more. Join the discussion. But he is also an opera conductor of vast experience. I first encountered him in 1969 in Chicago, where he was conducting Wagner?s ?Flying Dutchman? at the Lyric Opera. He has worked in several notable productions of ?Ariadne,? including one at the Salzburg Festival in 2001 and another at the Zurich Opera in 2006 (available on DVD and for download; naxosdirect.com). Experience counts for much in this work. The complexities and absurdities of plot ? an opera seria and a farce to be given successively for a rich patron are, at the patron?s command, conflated at the last minute and performed simultaneously to save time ? are reflected in mercurial shifts of musical style. It fell to Ira Siff, another experienced hand and Mr. Levine?s choice as director, to make sense of the staging of the two disparate scenes: the Prologue, set backstage in the patron?s mansion, and the Opera, set on a stage within the stage. He mostly did so, and if his comedy, filled with deft touches, occasionally went over the top, this opera had only itself to blame. Mr. Siff purposely avoided high concept, he wrote in a director?s note. Working with young singers like the fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, he explained, ?it becomes far more essential to mine the characterization that abounds in this rich texture of music and text, and create characters that speak and feel, than it is to find a konzept in which to frame the piece, thereby imprisoning it, the performers and the audience within that frame.? The singers, at any rate, seemed to thrive in the production at the first performance on Sunday evening. Emalie Savoy, a sterling young soprano from Schenectady, just across the Hudson River Valley, has been making her way in New York recently and is about to join the Metropolitan Opera?s young artists program. With good reason: as the Prima Donna in the Prologue and Ariadne in the Opera, she displayed a good, clear, strong voice, well supported technically, as she did in concert performances last spring. Her counterpart, Ta?u Pupu?a as the Tenor and Bacchus, was something else again. A football hero at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, he flirted briefly with the N.F.L. before succumbing to an injury. To judge from his singing, he has not abandoned his iron-pumping regimen. He seems to have limitless power, so far not entirely tamed. But the voice has real gold in its best moments, with none of the blowsiness we have had to settle for in so many recent ?heldentenors.? The threat to any Ariadne and Bacchus, even singers as strong as these, is that inveterate show-stopper Zerbinetta. And Audrey Elizabeth Luna, in that soubrette role, very nearly did steal the evening. Her vocal athleticism was of a very different sort from Mr. Pupu?a?s: nimble and daringly acrobatic. She delivered some of her most altitudinous and treacherous coloratura lying flat on her back. Other standouts among many fine performers were Cecelia Hall, a mezzo-soprano, who ranged widely and well as the beleaguered Composer, though not without a touch of strain at times; Elliot Madore, a baritone, who proved himself first as a character actor, as the Music Master, and then as a robust and attractive vocalist, as Harlekin; and Hans Pieter Herman, highly engaging in the speaking role of the Major-Domo. Mr. Dohnanyi drew a vital and fluent performance from the instrumentalists in the pit, mostly also young fellows of the center.
U.S. Challenges China on Island Chain HANOI, Vietnam ? Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically significant islands in the South China Sea. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said the United States had an interest in preserving free shipping in the area and would be willing to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue. Though presented as an offer to help ease tensions, the stance amounts to a sharp rebuke to China. Beijing has insisted for years that all the islands belong to China and that any disputes should be resolved by China. In March, senior Chinese officials pointedly warned their American counterparts that they would brook no interference in the South China Sea, which they called a ?core interest.? Many of the islands are just rocks or spits of sand, but they are rich in oil and natural gas deposits, and China views the islands as important outposts that extend its territorial waters far into the busy shipping lanes in the sea. ?The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia?s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea,? Mrs. Clinton said. The announcement was a significant victory for the Vietnamese, who have had deadly clashes in past decades with China over some of the islands. Vietnam?s strategy has been to try to ?internationalize? the disputes by bringing in other players for multilateral negotiations that dilute China?s power. The administration?s decision to get involved appeared to catch China flat-footed and angered its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, at a time when the country is already on edge over naval exercises the United States and South Korea will hold starting this weekend off the Korean Peninsula. Twelve of the 27 countries at the security meeting spoke out in favor of a new approach to the South China Sea, prompting Mr. Yang to observe that the American effort seemed orchestrated. International concern has been deepening about China?s maritime ambitions, which have expanded with its economic and military muscle. Earlier this year, China raised tensions with Vietnam by announcing plans to develop tourism in one of the island groups, the Paracels, which the two nations fought over in 1974 before China assumed full control. They had another lethal clash in 1988 over the Spratly island group. In recent months, administration officials said, China has harassed fishing boats and leaned on energy companies that have tried to make offshore deals with other countries. Although American relations with China on political and economic matters are regarded as stable, military ties have become strained over United States arms sales to Taiwan and American concerns about China?s growing naval ambitions. In June, China withdrew an invitation to host a visit by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and the two have largely suspended regular military-to-military talks. This week, China was already bristling over the joint American-South Korean naval exercises because some drills are to take place in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as a military operation zone. At the security meeting, other tensions flared on the familiar front of North Korea, with an official threatening a ?physical response? to the naval exercises. The United States made no secret that it intended the drills to be a deterrent to North Korean aggression. It announced them after an investigation led by South Korea found the North responsible for torpedoing a South Korean Navy ship, the Cheonan, in March. The North Korean official, Ri Tong-il, said, ?This is not defensive training,? noting that the United States was deploying one of its most formidable nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the George Washington, in the exercises. ?It is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole.? But North Korea has opened a small window of engagement on the issue. Military officers from North Korea and the United Nations Command met on the inter-Korean border on Friday for the second time this month to discuss the sinking. Meeting at the border village of Panmunjom, colonels from both sides ?exchanged ideas and further details for convening a joint assessment group? to investigate ?the cause of the armistice violations that led to the sinking,? the American-led United Nations Command said. It remained unclear whether North Korea accepted the proposal. North Korea has so far insisted that it conduct its own investigation by sending a team of ?inspectors? to South Korea. On Friday, the United Nations Command notified North Korea of plans to hold another joint America and South Korean military exercise: an annual drill from Aug. 16 to Aug. 26. As is normal for the annual drill, no location was announced. Mrs. Clinton?s stop in Hanoi wrapped up a grueling trip that amounted to a tour of American wars, past and present: from Afghanistan to the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and finally to Vietnam, where, in a sunset ceremony, she watched the remains of three American soldiers killed in the war loaded on an Air Force transport plane to be returned to the United States. Mrs. Clinton sought to apply lessons from the American experience in the Korean War to Afghanistan. ?We saw South Korea struggle to become a functioning democracy ? huge amounts of instability, coups, corruption, scandal, you name it,? she said. ?It?s good to remind ourselves: the United States has stood with countries that went through a lot of ups and downs for a lot longer than eight years.?
Dell to Pay $100 Million Settlement WASHINGTON ? Dell, several former executives, and its founder, Michael S. Dell, agreed Thursday to pay more than $100 million in penalties to settle charges of disclosure accounting fraud filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. had accused Dell of misleading investors by using money the company received from the chip maker Intel to pad its quarterly earnings statements. Company executives, according to the S.E.C., relied on the payments from Intel to meet or surpass Wall Street?s expectations. Intel paid Dell in the form of rebates as part of an agreement to ensure that Dell would not use computer chips made by Advanced Micro Devices in its personal computers and computer servers, according to the civil charges. Those rebates are the subject of federal and state antitrust inquiries of Intel. When Dell eventually picked A.M.D. as a second supplier, Intel cut the rebates, and Dell?s financial performance suffered, the complaint said. The S.E.C. said in its charges that investors were not aware of the extent of the payments and how they were being used. ?Dell manipulated its accounting over an extended period to project financial results that the company wished it had achieved but could not,? said Christopher Conte, associate director of the S.E.C.?s enforcement division, in a statement announcing the settlement. ?Dell was only able to meet Wall Street targets consistently during this period by breaking the rules.? Without the Intel payments, Dell would have missed the consensus estimate for earnings per share published by Wall Street analysts who followed the company in every quarter during its fiscal years from 2002 through 2006. The exclusivity payments constituted a steadily growing part of what Dell reported as its operating earnings, from 10 percent in fiscal 2003 to 38 percent in the fiscal 2006, then jumping to 76 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the S.E.C. said. To settle the S.E.C. charges, which were filed Thursday in Federal District Court here, Dell agreed to pay a $100 million penalty. As is common in S.E.C. settlements, the company did not admit or deny the accusations, and agreed to an order permanently enjoining it from future similar violations. Dell, based in Round Rock, Tex., announced last month that it had set aside the amount of the penalty for a potential settlement. In 2007, it also had restated its earnings results from 2003, through the first quarter of 2007, to admit manipulating earnings. Mr. Dell, the company?s chairman and chief executive, and Kevin Rollins, the former chief executive, each agreed to pay a $4 million penalty. They did not admit or deny the charges but agreed to an order prohibiting them from violating federal securities laws. Dell?s former chief financial officer, James M. Schneider, agreed to pay a $3 million fine under similar settlement terms, and paid an additional $83,096 in disgorgement and $38,640 in prejudgment interest. Two other Dell officials ? Nicholas A. R. Dunning, a former regional vice president for finance, and Leslie L. Jackson, a former assistant controller ? each agreed to pay $50,000 in penalties. The S.E.C. credited the Federal Trade Commission with assistance on the Dell case, a sign that the two agencies shared considerable information about the practices by Intel that are the subject of a pending antitrust lawsuit by the F.T.C. Though that lawsuit is scheduled for trial in September, Intel and the F.T.C. are discussing a settlement, and this week extended the deadline to reach an agreement to Aug. 6. The F.T.C. investigation is one of at least five government antitrust investigations of Intel, including in Europe, Asia and New York State. Intel also was the subject of a private antitrust suit by A.M.D., the Intel competitor that was involved in the case settled on Thursday. In a statement, the presiding director of Dell?s board, Sam Nunn, the former senator from Georgia, said the board ?reaffirms its unanimous support for Mr. Dell?s continued leadership.? Mr. Nunn said the settlement ?is in the best interest of the company, its customers and its shareholders, as it brings a five-year S.E.C. investigation to closure.? From 2003 through 2007, the payments to Dell from Intel totaled $4.3 billion, the S.E.C. said. Though the payments were said by the two companies to be based on complex pricing assessments, the S.E.C. said detailed schedules drawn up by the companies were ?a meaningless exercise? to make the payments appear to be something other than what they were. Although the payments were intended to keep Dell from using computer chips made by A.M.D., according to the S.E.C. charges, in 2003, Dell was in talks with Microsoft, A.M.D. and I.B.M. on a deal that would have had Dell take an ownership interest in A.M.D. During the talks, though, Intel offered to substantially increase its payments to Dell, and Mr. Dell ordered the negotiations with A.M.D. and the other companies to end, the S.E.C. said. Dell frequently sought additional rebates from Intel near the end of the quarter to meet earnings targets, according to the S.E.C. complaint, which also said, ?Dell was quite open with Intel about the reasons it was requesting additional money.? When Dell announced in May 2006 that it would use A.M.D. products in its computers, Intel immediately cut its payments by a quarter of a billion dollars, an amount that accounted for three-quarters of the decline in Dell operating profits that period, the S.E.C. said.
