Backers celebrate 23 years of Hamas

The turnout appeared to be at least on par with previous years for an event billed by Gaza's rulers as a referendum on their popularity. Hamas claimed it was a record crowd.

At the mass rally, Hamas leaders lauded the group's history of fighting Israel and dismissed claims, including by some pollsters, that it has been losing ground since seizing Gaza by force more than three years ago.

"Hamas has not failed, Hamas has not collapsed," Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh told the crowd. In a message distributed to media Tuesday morning, Hamas said it remains committed to destroying Israel, bringing back Palestinian refugees and seizing control of Jerusalem's holy sites.

"Anyone who gives up these rights is a traitor," it said - an apparent dig at Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who favors a peace agreement with Israel.

This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Primary election overhaul clears state high court

The justices unanimously denied a request to block the measure, Proposition 14, which takes effect in January.

Prop. 14, which passed with a 54 percent majority in June, eliminates party primaries and instead requires all state and federal candidates, except those for president, to run in a single primary for each office. The top two finishers, who could both be from the same party, compete in the general election.

A lawsuit challenging the initiative was filed by people unaffiliated with the major parties. They included prospective candidates from Socialist Action, the Reform Party and the Coffee Party, a recently formed nonpartisan alternative to the Tea Party.

The plaintiffs challenged only two of Prop. 14's provisions but sought to halt enforcement until both were removed.

One requires election officials to discard write-in votes in the runoff elections and count only votes for the two listed candidates.

The other allows candidates in the primary to state their party affiliations on the ballot only if they belong to a party that the state officially recognizes - currently, the Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, American Independent and Peace and Freedom parties. Other candidates would be listed as having no party preference.

Without further court action, the new system will be used in special elections next year and in the 2012 general elections. The Green Party, however, plans a separate suit challenging the elimination of party primaries, a change that is likely to exclude third-party candidates from the runoff ballot in virtually all elections.

Gautam Dutta, lawyer for the plaintiffs in the current suit, said they may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review Prop. 14's limits on party affiliations. By requiring minor-party candidates to list themselves as having no preference, the measure "deceives voters and robs them of important information," he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can ban write-in voting. But Dutta's clients argued that Prop. 14 violated California's constitutional guarantee that every legal vote must be counted. They said the ballot measure left voters free to write in the names of unlisted candidates, which officials would then have to disregard.

But Judge Charlotte Woolard of San Francisco Superior Court, in refusing to block the law Sept. 14, interpreted the ballot measure differently and said it actually prohibited voters from writing in a candidate's name.

Woolard also said the state is entitled to set standards for party recognition and is not obliged to let all candidates list their preferred affiliations on the ballot. The state's high court denied review of her decision Wednesday without comment.

The case is Field vs. Superior Court (Bowen), S188436.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Bedford pulls off 'Earnest' performance dressed as Lady

The dude looks like a lady.

Make that Lady, as in Lady Bracknell, the formidable Victorian gentlewoman in Oscar Wilde's witty satire "The Importance of Being Earnest."

That thought occurs to you, looking at pictures of Brian Bedford wearing an ornate red frock and hat as the authoritarian aristocrat in a new Broadway production of the 1895 play. The show launches tonight at the American Airlines Theatre.

But the 75-year-old English actor, who also directs the Roundabout Theatre Company revival running through March 6, would prefer audiences concentrate on the words in the bon mot-dusted comedy of mistaken identities, not on cross-dressing. "La Cage aux Folles" this isn't.

"The novelty aspect of a man playing Lady B. could be distracting and actually damaging to the audience's experience of this great play," says Bedford. "So the challenge is to make her absolutely real and as dimensional as possible, with no hint of transvestitism. I've tried very hard to do that."

He has had practice. Bedford assumed the guise, gaze and gown of Lady Bracknell in a 2009 production of the play at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, which he also directed.

On Broadway, there have been eight previous Lady Bracknells, all played by women - most recently Elizabeth Wilson in 1977 and Margaret Rutherford in 1947.

But a gender-bending Bracknell is hardly unprecedented. Actor Alex Webb portrayed her Off-Broadway in 2003. A Chicago production with a man in the role is running now.

The notion of doing double duty in "Earnest" — tackling the plum female role while staging the play — came from Des McAnuff, the artistic director at Stratford.

"I wasn't at all sure at first," says Bedford, "but now I'm grateful to him for providing me with just about the best time I've ever had on stage."

That's saying a lot. He's a six-time Tony Award nominee, winning in 1971 for "School for Wives."

As director, one of Bedford's notes to himself and his cast, which includes the stage veteran Dana Ivey as the prim Miss Prism, is that taking comedy seriously makes things funnier.

"I remember John Gielgud telling me years ago that the way to realize the comic potential of Wilde's masterpiece was through a very serious approach," says Bedford. "So that's what we have done."

jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com

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SF leaders tack to same course for America's Cup

It's extremely rare for this board to vote unanimously on anything of significance. This is a precedent that should continue.

This city has become so accustomed to fractiousness and infighting at City Hall, and head-butting between all the interest groups that local politicians represent, that it had almost forgotten what it feels like to have an event that everyone can agree on. But the rare show of unity is good for everyone.

For the supervisors, it's a reminder that they can work successfully with each other, a reminder that breeds civility and respect. For the mayor, it's an achievement that emphasizes his persuasion and negotiation skills. And for the citizens, it's proof that there are actually projects and values that unite everyone who lives here.

"It can make you think anything is possible in this city, and I believe it," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who introduced the first resolution calling for the America's Cup to be held in San Francisco. "We've had unanimous votes before, and I'm sure we'll have them again. But what makes this one all the more rare is just how high profile this was."

High profile - and controversial. Because there was so much money involved, it would have been easy for the project to get derailed. The fact that the city had to provide race organizers with development rights and long leases on port property heightened the chances that noisy interest groups and nervous supervisors might have shut down the city's bid.

But ultimately, money worked in the opposite way. The mayor worked with supervisors to address their concerns. The final bid earned solid marks from analysts, who showed that it would make a great deal of money for the city in the long term. The races are expected to create $1.2 billion for the local economy, and generate more than 8,000 jobs.

That's a deal that no one in city government could afford to turn down. So everyone from the Port Authority to the board's most ornery members got on board.

Now it's up to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his racing team to recognize San Francisco's hard work and commitment to the event.

"It's wonderful that San Francisco's in this position, we can only hope that Mr. Ellison agrees," Mirkarimi said. "We've done our part. So now, the mistletoe awaits."

Your move, Mr. Ellison.

This article appeared on page A - 129 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Settling the remains of a Broadway show

There's always baggage when a show closes, beyond the backstage crushes, grudges and sad goodbyes.

It has to do with stuff: the scenery, props and costumes that all have to exit the theater.

Typically that takes three routes — trash it, sell it or store it (if there's a possible afterlife), according to veteran stage manager Arthur Gaffin, who's now at "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson."

"The Scottsboro Boys," which closed on Sunday, picked the third option, since there are plans to remount the production.

"I will not let it die. The show will live again," says producer Barry Weissler, who declined to offer details.

Because of the musical's minimal staging — 12 chairs and few beams was about it — a Man With a Van could have carted it all away.

The far more lavish "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," ending Jan. 23, will need more than that to stash all the scenery and costumes in the Lincoln Center vault.

Don't be surprised if items reappear in other Lincoln Center shows. "The Coward" used repurposed furniture and fashions for its recent run.

One particular accessory could show up on Patti LuPone, who stars in "Women on the Verge." "I'd take the black feather hat," she says. "I look like a very sophisticated 'Sesame Street' bird."

Recycling and reusing are growing trends in the theater, says Donyale Werle, who designed the art and bric-a-brac-filled set for "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," closing Jan. 2.

Quirky sculptures will be broken down into the raw materials, Werle says, and used for upcoming projects. Red fabric will be woven into "Peter and the Starcatcher," opening in February at the New York Theater Workshop.

"BBAJ" props on loan from the Public Theater will be returned, including a stuffed nag previously seen downtown in "Kicking a Dead Horse."

After it shutters on Jan. 2, "Elf" will stash away everything, from Santa's sleigh to curly-toed shoes, until next year, when it will get unwrapped like a Christmas present in a city to be determined.

"'Elf' was built to move," says producer Gregg Maday. "We see it running somewhere in the fourth quarter every year for many years to come."

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Russia moves to block spread of ethnic clashes

Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station in central Moscow hauled into police vans mostly young men and teenagers who were shouting racist slogans and raising their hands in Nazi salutes. Some were lined up against buses and searched by police. Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including traumatic guns, knives and metal bars, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.

Police rounded up about 60 protesters in St. Petersburg, where radical groups also planned a gathering Wednesday.

Riot police prevented clashes in Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don, southern Russian cities with large non-Slavic populations where ethnic clashes have been frequent in recent years, officials said. Dozens of mostly young men have been detained in central Russia and Siberia, Russian news agencies reported.

Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern Caucasus region, most of them Muslims. People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, also face ethnic discrimination and are frequent victims of hate crimes.

While ethnic Russians amount to about four-fifths of Russia's population of 142 million, the country is also home to some 180 ethnic groups. The Caucasus region with its mountainous terrain and isolated valleys is home to at least 100 ethnicities including Chechens, who waged two separatist wars against Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Analysts say it was the Chechen conflict, with atrocities and killings of civilians committed by both Russian federal forces and militant Islamists, that led to the rise of xenophobia and neo-Nazism in Russia - and the growing resentment of Caucasus natives to ethnic Russians and Moscow's rule.

Police declined immediate comment on when those detained would be released or whether they would face charges.

This article appeared on page A - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Gingerbread Christmas tree recipe

Makes one tree

Ingredients
350g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter
175g soft brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup
250g royal icing
Smarties or other sweets
4-5 different-sized star pastry cutters

Ask an adult to turn the oven on to 190C/gas mark 5. Place the flour, ginger, bicarbonate of soda and butter into a mixing bowl and rub in with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, stir to mix. Then mix the egg and golden syrup together, add them to the dry ingredients and stir until it forms a dough. You may need to use your hands to bring it all together.

Sprinkle a little flour on to a clean work surface and knead the gingerbread dough until it is smooth, adding more flour if needed. Split the dough into two balls and roll one ball of the dough out flat until it is the thickness of a pencil, about 5mm. Cut out two of each star shape, using the second ball of dough when you run out. Transfer to a lined baking tray.

Ask an adult to place the biscuits in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they are golden-brown. Ask an adult to remove them and let them cool on the tray for 15 minutes, then transfer them to the wire rack to cool. When the biscuits are cold mix up the royal icing, following the instructions on the packet, in an electric mixer for five to 10 minutes until it is smooth, glossy and stands in stiff peaks. If it is too runny add a little more icing sugar.

Next take a plate and place a tablespoon of icing on it. Start with the biggest star and place this on the icing, pressing down gently. This will be the bottom of the tree. Place a blob of icing in the centre of the big star and take the other star the same size and place it on top of this star, so you can see the points of the bottom star. Carry on with the next-biggest stars, going down in size until you have used up all but the smallest star. Place this on the top of the stack so it stands up; you may have to hold it in place for a few minutes. Leave the tree for one to two hours until the icing has set. Cover the remaining icing with two layers of clingfilm to stop it drying out.

Place small dollops of icing on the points of the stars and stick a Smartie or other sweet on each point. Don’t worry if you run out of sweets. Covered trees will keep for up to six weeks.

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