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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2011
108TH YEAR I Š2011 THE MIAMI HERALD
URBAN SCRAWL
Murdochs grilled by British lawmakers BY ALAN COWELL AND GRAHAM BOWLEY New York Times Service
U.S. CITIES REPORT SURGE IN GRAFFITI BY ADAM NAGOURNEY
New York Times Service
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Fresh blotches of grafďŹ ti decorate the backs of street signs here near the ocean. Tags have popped up on guardrails along the dirt trails near GrifďŹ th Park across town. There are, almost daily, fresh splashes on walls in the San Fernando Valley, on downtown Los Angeles buildings and on billboards along the highways. And Los Angeles does not appear to be alone in grappling with a recent upsurge in grafďŹ ti, which is turning up in some unlikely places. A bumper crop of scrawls is blossoming in many modest-size communities across the United States — in places like Florence, Ala.; Bernalillo County, N.M.; Taylors, S.C.; and in larger cities like Nashville and Portland, Ore. — even as major cities like Chicago, Denver, New York and Seattle say vigilant antigrafďŹ ti campaigns have spared them thus far. “It’s popped up all of a sudden in the last six months,â€? said Tim Sandrell, the owner of Safari Adventures in Hair in Florence. “I’ve been downtown for 10 years, and I’m really disappointed that we are seeing this kind of activity. We have a beautiful city and an historic city, and it’s really upsetting to me seeing this going on.â€? The upturn has prompted concern among city ofďŹ cials and renewed a debate about whether glorifying such displays — be it in museum exhibits, tattoos or television advertisements —
PHOTOS BY ERIC THAYER/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE
Antonio Lomeli, above, who goes by the name ‘Saraph,’ works on an art piece using spray cans in Los Angeles. At left, Arunei Palacio checks the texture of the Venice Public Art Walls in Los Angeles. Below, a spray paint piece by artist Mear One in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.
contributes to urban blight and economic decay. But it is also stirring a debate about what is causing this recent surge and whether it might be an early indicator that anxiety and alienation are growing in some struggling urban areas in the face of stubborn unemployment and the lingering effects of the recession. The latest statistics from Los Angeles, where the unemployment rate was 11 percent in May, attest to a widening problem: The city removed 35.4 million
1 TURN TO MURDOCH, 2A n Murdoch aides tried to blunt scandal, 1B
1 TURN TO GRAFFITI, 2A
U.S. sends ‘stern message’ to Gadhafi to step down BY WILLIAM WAN AND JOBY WARRICK Washington Post Service
NEW DELHI — A high-ranking U.S. delegation held direct talks last weekend with representatives of Moammar GadhaďŹ â€™s government, according to U.S. ofďŹ cials, who said the meeting was intended to deliver a “stern messageâ€? to the Libyan leader to step down. The talks, held Saturday in an undisclosed Middle Eastern country, were thought to be the highest-level exchange between the two countries since NATO began its bombing campaign against Libyan government targets in March. But two U.S. ofďŹ cials familiar with the session insisted that no negotiations took place. “It was the delivery of a message,â€? said a senior Obama administration ofďŹ cial with detailed knowledge of the meeting. “The message was simple and unambiguous and the same message we deliver in public: GadhaďŹ must leave power so that a new political process can begin that reects the will and aspirations of the Libyan people.â€? Both U.S. ofďŹ cials discussed the
secret meeting on the condition of anonymity. Libyan leaders have made diplomatic overtures to several Western countries in recent days, intimating that GadhaďŹ is prepared to begin negotiating a possible political solution to the country’s worst crisis since he seized power in 1969. But while encouraged by the Libyan outreach, U.S. ofďŹ cials have insisted that any negotiations on the country’s future be conducted through a U.N. special envoy. “We decided to do it face to face, to make clear that there was no hope of using any other separate channels,â€? a senior U.S. State Department ofďŹ cial told reporters in New Delhi, where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Monday as part of a diplomatic swing through Europe and Asia. The meeting was “a one-time thing,â€? the ofďŹ cial said. A Libyan government spokesman conďŹ rmed the talks, describing them as a â€œďŹ rst-step dialogueâ€? that could lead to a peaceful resolution of the conict. “We want to take further steps,â€? the spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, told reporters in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
CHILDREN UNITED WITH PARENTS IN MEXICO VIA WEB TESTIMONY, 4A
LONDON — In a grueling afternoon of testimony before British lawmakers, Rupert Murdoch and some of the most senior ďŹ gures in his family’s media empire apologized profusely on Tuesday for the phone hacking scandal that has convulsed public life, even as they insisted they had not ordered or tried to cover up unethical newsgathering at their newspapers and were not directly to blame. It was not clear whether their responses would satisfy skeptical lawmakers, who tried for nearly three hours to discover the extent of the Murdochs’ knowledge of events at the heart of the scandal. It exploded two weeks ago with the news that people working for The News of the World, a tabloid run by the Murdoch empire’s British arm, News International, had broken into the voice mail of a 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, who had been abducted in 2002 and was later found murdered. The ďŹ restorm at followed brought Murdoch down from the heights of inuence here to what he called “the most humble day of my life.â€? Adding to the drama, a protester disrupted the hearing by attempting to hit Rupert Murdoch with a paper plate full of white foam. Murdoch appeared unhurt, and the hearing resumed after a 15-minute break. The disruption happened near the end of nearly three hours of sustained questioning by British lawmakers over the phone hacking scandal, which has raised questions about the behavior of the police, politicians and the media elite in the worst crisis to confront Prime Minister David Cameron. Murdoch, who is 80, appeared at the hearing with his 38-year-old son, James, sitting side by side facing their questioners without lawyers at their elbow. Each wore a dark suit, white shirt and tie, though Rupert Murdoch removed his jacket after the foam incident and ďŹ nished his testimony in shirtsleeves.
Radiation-tainted beef spreads in Japan BY HIROKO TABUCHI
New York Times Service
MINAMISOMA, Japan — Even after explosions rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Kuniaki Sato, who raises
SAN FRANCISCO TO SHUT COURTROOMS, LAY OFF 200, 5A
cattle here, about 20 miles from the crippled complex, said he had received no clear warning from the government about the possible dangers of radiation to his herd. So six weeks after the accident,
Calves arrive at a dairy cattle market to be put up for auction in Motomiya, Fukushima prefecture. Radiation fears mounted in Japan after news that contaminated beef from a farm just outside the Fukushima nuclear no-go zone has been shipped across the country and probably eaten.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/ AFP-GETTY IMAGES
GOLDMAN SACHS REPORTS DISAPPOINTING EARNINGS, BUSINESS FRONT
on April 23, he shipped 12 of his prized cattle from his farm to market. Now Japanese agricultural ofďŹ cials say meat from more than 500 cattle that were likely to have been contaminated with radioactive cesium has made its way to supermarkets and restaurants across Japan in recent weeks. OfďŹ cials say the cattle ate hay that had been stored outside and exposed to radiation. “I was a little worried, but we had to sell when we could,â€? said Sato, whose cattle were not fed hay and so were unlikely to have been contaminated. When a precautionary order to halt all farm shipments was lifted soon after the accident, area farmers took it as a go-ahead sign, he said. “We all resumed shipments,â€? he said. “Of course we did.â€? The revelations by the government this month that contaminated meat reached Japanese markets have intensiďŹ ed food safety concerns in Japan, underscoring the government’s inability to control the spread of radioactive material into the nation’s food. Radioactive material has been detected in a range of produce, 1 TURN TO JAPAN, 2A
ARMSTRONG’S LAWYERS ALLEGE LEAKS IN INVESTIGATION, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX NEWS EXTRA ...............3A WORLD NEWS .............6A OPINION ........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES .....6B 5
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