THE MIAMI HERALD 26 11 2010 by Miami Herald Ecuador

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INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

S. Korea defense minister quits

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF THANKSGIVING

BY MARK MCDONALD

New York Times Service

A high-kicking Kung Fu Panda, above, and a diary-toting Wimpy Kid joined the giant balloon lineup as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade unfolded in New York City on Thursday, drawing tens of thousands of spectators to the annual extravaganza on a chilly, overcast morning. The parade featured an eclectic lineup of entertainers including Kanye West, Gladys Knight and Juanes. The Broadway casts of American Idiot and Elf performed, as did marching bands from across the United States. An Internet campaign that encouraged travelers to boycott airport body scanners fizzled out as few passengers heeded the call. Nature stepped in where man failed, however, as powerful storms closed roads and delayed flights in the western United States, while rain-glazed roads led to at least three traffic deaths in Iowa. One of the biggest travel delays was on Interstate 95 in Delaware, where construction at a toll plaza held up traffic so much that the state was forced to give up and stop collecting tolls. At left, traffic stacks up on the 210 Foothill Freeway near Los Angeles as holiday travelers hit the road in Duarte, Calif. Thanksgiving travel was expected to increase 11 percent from 2009 according to AAA.

SEOUL, South Korea — President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Kim Tae-young on Thursday amid intense criticism over the South’s response to an artillery attack by North Korea two days earlier and the sinking of a warship in March. “There was a need to revamp the military landscape,” a senior government ofﬁcial said Thursday night. “It was time.” The government ofﬁcial said Kim offered his resignation May 1, after a South Korean Navy vessel, the Cheonan, was sunk off the coast of North Korea in the Yellow Sea. Lee deferred the resignation and asked Kim to stay on. It was expected that his replacement would be named Friday. Earlier Thursday, the government said it would bolster its island defenses in the Yellow Sea and make its rules of engagement more muscular. Lee held a security meeting KIM Thursday at the Blue House, the presidential compound in Seoul, where the new strategies were drafted. Seoul also said it would press China to use its considerable diplomatic leverage with the North to avoid an escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. Kim’s departure followed one

• U.S. AIRPORT SECURITY REPORT, 4B

• TURN TO KOREA, 2A

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

Miami Herald Wire Services

Dutch ask Germans to hand over Nazi convict BY TOBY STERLING Associated Press

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch government said Thursday it has issued a European arrest warrant for one of the most prominent unpunished Nazi war crimes suspects — a Dutch collaborator convicted in the Netherlands but living in freedom in Germany. The 88-year-old Klaas Carel Faber was convicted in 1947 of murder and aiding the enemy in time of war for helping the Netherlands’ Nazi occupiers during World War II, Dutch prosecutors said. He was given a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison, but he escaped and ﬂed to Germany in 1952, where he was granted citizenship. He has lived in freedom there ever since, as Germany refused to extradite one of its own nationals, yet attempts by German authorities to prosecute him there foundered on legal technicalities. Dutch prosecutors said Thursday they have decided to try to get Faber back on Dutch soil to serve his existing sentence using the new European arrest warrant system, • TURN TO NAZI, 2A

U.S. TO GET RID OF COLOR-CODED TERROR ALERTS, 3A

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Republicans spell objections to Russia treaty BY PETER BAKER

New York Times Service

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s plans to modernize the United States’ nuclear weapons complex remain inadequate and should be further reﬁned before the ratiﬁcation of a new arms control treaty with Russia, the lead Senate Republican negotiator said. In a memorandum to his colleagues, the senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in

the upper chamber and his party’s point man on the so-called New START treaty, detailed his objections for the ﬁrst time since declaring last week that there was not enough time to consider the treaty this year. From the beginning, Kyl wrote, he has been clear that he “could not support reductions in U.S. nuclear forces unless there is adequate attention to modernizing those forces and the infrastructure that supports them.” The

administration has committed to spend more money for that purpose, but “there remain a few substantial concerns about the adequacy of the proposed budget,” the memo said. “Until these issues are resolved, it will be difﬁcult to adequately assess the updated 1251 plan, despite the welcome increases in proposed spending,” the memo added, using a term referring to the modernization proposal. “And as has always been

clear, assurances from the appropriate authorizers and appropriators must be obtained to ensure that the enacted budget reﬂects the president’s request.” The memo, circulated privately to Republican senators this week and obtained by The New York Times, was also signed by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., another important ﬁgure in the debate. Corker voted for the New START • TURN TO START, 2A

Skirmishes raise specter of violent Haiti election BY BEN FOX AND JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press

presidential election, by handing out T-shirts and money for water and bus fare — and had hoped to make a little money himself from the campaign for his efforts. As the others ﬂed, he stood his ground. “If they were going to kill me, they were going to have to do it with my T-shirt on,” said the 45-year-old father of three. He looked nervously down the street. The U.N. representative in Haiti, Edmond Mulet, called the “volatile political climate” a Haitian tradition. Multiple candidates

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The impromptu campaign rally ended not with cheers but panic as armed men on motorcycles, some wearing yellow-and-green T-shirts of a rival presidential contender, pulled up to the small crowd and ﬁred into the air. Nearly everyone ripped off the red-white-and-blue T-shirts of their candidate and ﬂed down the pitted side streets of the Cite Soleil slum, rally organizer Pierre Joseph Laimay said. He got people to campaign for Charles Henri Baker, a factory owner who is one of 19 candidates in Sunday’s • TURN TO HAITI, 4A

TOM DELAY FOUND GUILTY IN MONEY LAUNDERING TRIAL, 5A

JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

GETTING SET: A police officer directs people as they wait for the federal identification cards they need to vote.

EUROPE NOW WORRIES ABOUT SPAIN’S ECONOMY, BUSINESS FRONT

BRADY LIFTS PATRIOTS OVER LIONS, SPORTS FRONT

INDEX THE AMERICAS.......... 4A WORLD NEWS........... 6A OPINION...................... 7A COMICS & PUZZLES.. 6B

11/26/2010 5:28:10 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FROM THE FRONT PAGE

South Korea defence head resigns over North’s attacks • TURN TO KOREA, 1A

of the most violent clashes as the North and South exchanged artillery barrages Tuesday. The battle killed two marines and two civilians on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, about nine miles off the North Korean coast. A commentary in the conservative South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo assailed Kim, saying the military had been outgunned and underprepared. “The minister practically admitted that the military failed to respond to a new type of North Korean threat” in the Yellow Sea, the newspaper said, charging that “the military has been implementing reforms that weaken defense capabilities” on the islands. It was unclear whether the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier group off North Korea’s coast would be seen as a provocation. The carrier George Washington — with 5,700 personnel and about 85 ﬁghter planes — was headed Thursday to the Yellow Sea. The carrier group will join with South Korean forces for a four-day series of military exercises that are scheduled to start Sunday. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that China had expressed its concern over the exercises and would be paying “close attention” to U.S. naval movements. The spokesman also reiterated that China supported resumption of the so-called six-party talks on the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear programs. The talks involve the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. They broke down when North Korea withdrew last year, although in recent months Pyongyang has sought to renew the process. The U.S. general who heads the U.N. Command in South Korea, Gen. Walter L. Sharp, has called for military talks with senior ofﬁcers of the North Korean People’s Army “in order to initiate an exchange of information and de-escalate the situation.”

The North rejected that idea Thursday. Through its official news agency, Pyongyang also warned of further military retaliation if provoked by South Korea. At the Blue House meeting, Lee said, “We should not drop our guard in preparation for the possibility of another provocation by North Korea,” according to his chief spokesman, Hong Sang-pyo. “A provocation like this can recur any time.” South Korean defenses on its five coastal islands in the Yellow Sea had been set up primarily to guard against possible amphibious landings by North Korean troops. Critics said Thursday that the military had not anticipated the possibility of an attack by North Korean artillery batteries, which are reportedly situated in caves along the North’s coastline. “Now an artillery battle has become the new threat, so we’re reassessing the need to strengthen defenses,” Kim told lawmakers. The new measures he outlined include doubling the number of howitzers and upgrading other weaponry. New rules of engagement will be based on whether military or civilian targets are targeted, said Hong, the presidential spokesman, adding that the move was to “change the paradigm of responding to North Korea’s provocations.” The sinking a Korean naval vessel March 26 killed 46 sailors, and Kim was widely criticized for the navy’s lack of preparedness. The South has blamed the incident on a North Korean torpedo attack. The North has denied any involvement and has refused a South Korean demand for an apology. An internal government probe into the Cheonan incident “revealed a series of problems in the Defense Ministry’s and the military’s handling of the incident, including the lack of a combat-ready posture, reporting system, crisis-response measures and management of military confidential information,” the Audit Board said in announcing its findings in June.

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JAM-PACKED JAM SESSION

LAI SENG SIN/AP

Guitarists perform during what was billed as the largest guitar performance at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday. About 1000 people performed with guitars in an attempt to be listed in Malaysia’s Book of Records.

Republicans object to START • START, FROM 1A

treaty when it was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September but now agrees with Kyl that it should not be rushed to a ﬂoor vote during the current lame-duck session of Congress. Since Kyl’s statement last week, the White House has mounted a high-proﬁle campaign to press the Senate to approve the treaty before the end of the year, making it a signal test of U.S. President Barack Obama’s political strength at home after an election that cost his party control of the House as well as his credibility abroad as he tries to rebuild the relationship with Russia. In an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden argued that the case for New START was underscored by the president’s agreements during a Lisbon summit meeting last weekend to cooperate with NATO on a European missile shield and to explore cooperation with Russia on missile defense.

“The Lisbon summit showed that American leadership in Europe remains essential,” Biden wrote. “It also reminded us why the stakes of the New START treaty are so high. Our uniformed military supports it. Our European allies support it. Our national security interests are at stake. It is time for the Senate to approve New START.” The White House has been working with Kyl for months and contends that it has gone out of its way to address his concerns about modernization. It had already proposed spending $80 billion over 10 years on the nuclear complex and then added another $4.1 billion Nov. 12 and a little more last week. White House ofﬁcials felt blindsided by Kyl’s statement that not enough had been done to assuage him on the treaty. In their seven-page memo, Kyl and Corker said they welcomed the administration’s effort but want further assurances. For one thing, they wrote, the vast bulk of the original $80 billion would have been

spent anyway just “keeping the lights on” at nuclear laboratories and plants for safety, security, upkeep and routine warhead maintenance. Only $10 billion was for new weapons activity, they wrote. The latest administration plan, delivered Nov. 17, increased the total 10-year plan to between $85.4 billion and $86.2 billion. Most of the new money would go to designing and building a plutonium processing facility at the Los Alamos complex in New Mexico and a uranium processing facility at the Oak Ridge complex in Tennessee. The new facilities would replace buildings left over from the Manhattan Project era when the ﬁrst nuclear bombs were developed. But the latest administration plan would delay the full operation of the two new facilities until 2023 and 2024, instead of 2020. “Additional funding could be applied to accelerate the construction of these facilities to ensure on schedule completion,” the Republican memo said.

Moreover, the new facilities would not have the capacity to produce enough weapons for a larger arsenal should the international political situation demand a renewed buildup, the memo said. And it said the administration should be more clear about its vision for the future of the nuclear triad, meaning the bombers, missiles and submarines that make up the nation’s nuclear force. The memo did not address the merits or drawbacks of the New START treaty itself, nor did it explicitly urge Republicans to take a position on the pact. Instead, it focused entirely on the modernization issue. The senators compared the country’s aging nuclear laboratories to a leaky, outdated garage responsible for maintaining a ﬂeet of eight Ferraris that have been sitting in storage for 30 years. “This is the state of our nuclear deterrent today,” the memo said, “except, we’re dealing not with cars, but with the most sophisticated and dangerous weapons ever devised by man.”

Dutch ask Germany to hand over Nazi • NAZI FROM 1A

adopted in 2002 to allow speedy transfers of suspects or convicts between European Union members. Spokeswoman Tinneke Zwart said it was not certain the warrant system can be applied in Faber’s case. “There were contacts at the ministers’ level, and they decided they would do their utmost to let this person serve his sentence,” she said. “The goal is extradition.” Zwart said it was now up to German legal system to react to the warrant. “This is very good news,” said Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi hunter. “This really puts the onus on Germany — now there’s absolutely no reason this guy, who is a person who committed many murders, should be protected by German law.” German Justice Ministry spokesman Ulrich Staudigl said that the request had been received by his ofﬁce Wednesday and was being “quickly” sent to Munich prosecutors, who are handling the case. Munich prosecutor Alfons Obermeier said it was hard to say when the extradition request could be decided without the request in hand. But he said several aspects will have to be con-

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sidered including Faber’s German citizenship and the fact that a German court had already rejected Dutch requests for his extradition before the new warrant system was adopted. “We will examine it speedily, but there are complex legal issues,” he told The Associated Press. Obermeier’s ofﬁce reviewed Faber’s case in August at the request of German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, but concluded Faber could not be prosecuted in Munich without new evidence. Zuroff said Faber volunteered for Hitler’s SS during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s. He worked for the death squad code named “Silbertanne,” or “Silver Fir,” which carried out killings of resistance members, Nazi opponents, and people who hid Jews. Zuroff said Faber is believed to have killed more than 20 people during the war, though it was not clear how many of those were included in his 1947 murder conviction. Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported Thursday that Faber worked as a member of the ﬁring squad at the Westerbork transit camp, where thousands of Dutch Jews including Anne Frank were held.

11/26/2010 5:01:22 AM

THE MIAMI HERALD

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INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

NEWS EXTRA

Color-coded terror alerts to go BY JOHN SCHWARTZ

New York Times Service

AMRO HASSAN/LOS ANGELES TIMES-MCT

CARRIER: Mahmoud Mohamed gets newspapers from distributors and walks around his neighborhood in Cairo, with a small cart selling papers to residents and people at cafes.

Delivering doom along the streets of Cairo at night BY JEFFREY FLEISHMAN

Los Angeles Times Service

CAIRO — He’s fast, pushing crooked wheels and a stack of newspapers through the bright Cairo night. They all know him and wave. Here comes Mahmoud Mohamed, ink-stained and dusty, sandals scuffing. Every evening, a few minutes past 10, when the bundles thunk, thunk near the old tram tracks, he sorts and loads and steers his cart down the boulevard, moving through traffic like a fish sliding past river stones. He starts his route amid clatter and bustle but when he’s done, he strolls home in the slumbering pre-dawn of a city that in that moment as brief as a prayer can hear itself breathe. Before the Internet, Mohamed knew about the news of the world — wars, intrigue, the broken loves of movie stars — ahead of just about anyone. It was a privilege, but such things don’t last and what was once special turns into something else. His customers, though, still love the warm feel of paper in their hands, how it crinkles and can be rolled to swat flies or bat away crazy opinions of cranky old men in cafes. But truth be told, pleasant as he is, Mohamed delivers doom. “People are depressed,” he says. “They don’t want to read the news because it makes them more depressed. Political. Financial. The news never seems to get better. The baker and the tea shop guy don’t want me to come by anymore. They said they’re tired of reading about things that never change.” He looks down the street. The man who delivers the bundles from a taxi is late. The wind picks up and it’s getting chilly and Mohamed’s customers — 60 steady, the rest promises and hope for a sale — will be getting antsy. The taxi man, finally arrives and Mohamed loads his cart and heads out over vast territory, slipping into a barbershop, handing off a paper to a pharmacist, dodging ladies on a stoop and hustling toward a grocer dusting off fruit. BYGONE ERA Papers flutter. Walking alleys, scattering cats, hawking in restaurants, Mohamed jingles with change, a wad of folding money in his shirt pocket. The Nasr City neighborhood was mostly dirt and sand 20 years ago, when he began selling newspapers. He was 15. Now, it’s all grown, a gray bloom of crowded apartment buildings, neon, restaurants, phone shops, mechanics and Chinese immigrants. Cairo is like that, one minute a desert, the next a crooked skyline. Mohamed helped build it. His father, a laborer from the southern town of Minya, would bring him to Cairo on construction trips. Mohamed eventually settled here and took a job in a company that manufactured vibrating mattresses. He rolls his eyes at that one. The pay was low and when he quit, he and his brother staked out a median strip across from a white mosque and began a business, selling papers to passing cars, using rocks to keep them from blowing away. “Back in the 1980s, this whole area was dark and the first light you saw was about 150 meters that way. No traffic. No chaos. I’d sit here with 20 papers and maybe sell 10 all night long,” he says. “The neighborhood wasn’t booming. Today, I sell 120 to 150 papers on weekdays. When I started there were only five newspapers in Cairo. There are now 24, most of them opposition and independent.”

There goes another punch line. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to get rid of the colorcoded terrorism alert system. Known officially as the Homeland Security Advisory System, the five-color scheme was introduced by the Bush administration in March 2002. Red, the highest level, meant “severe risk of terrorist attacks.” The lowest level, green, meant “low risk of terrorist attacks.” Between those were blue (guarded risk), yellow (significant) and orange (high). United States has generally lived in the yellow and orange range. The threat level has never been green, or even blue. In an interview on The Daily Show in 2009, the homeland security chief, Janet Napolitano, said the department was “revisiting the whole issue of color codes and schemes as to whether, you know, these things really communicate anything to the American people any more.”

The answer, apparently, is no. The color-coded threat levels were doomed to fail because “they don’t tell people what they can do — they just make people afraid,” said Bruce Schneier, an author on security issues. He said the system was “a relic of our panic after 9/11” that “never served any security purpose.” The Homeland Security Department said in a statement that the colors would be replaced with a new system — recommendations are still under review — that should provide more clarity and guidance. The change was first reported by The Associated Press. “The goal is to replace a system that communicates nothing,” the agency said, “with a partnership approach with law enforcement, the private sector and the American public that provides specific, actionable information based on the latest intelligence.” The department has already begun working toward the goal of providing more specific alerts. After a Nigerian citizen,

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was accused of trying to bring down a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas in 2009, with explosives, the department issued new guidelines to airports and airlines without raising the threat level. While the system may have had limited usefulness for the U.S. public, it proved to be comedy gold for latenight shows. Conan O’Brien joked, “Champagne-fuchsia means we’re being attacked by Martha Stewart.” Jay Leno said, “They added a plaid in case we were ever attacked by Scotland.” Meanwhile, critics of the Bush administration argued that the system was a political tool. And even Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security under former U.S. President George W. Bush, has raised questions. In his memoir, The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . And How We Can Be Safe Again, Ridge said thenAttorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pushed for an elevated terrorism level in

October 2004 after a threatening tape from Osama bin Laden was revealed. Ridge wrote after “a vigorous, some might say dramatic, debate, I wondered, ‘is this about security, or politics?’‚” While the security level ultimately was not raised, he said the incident helped him decide that it was time to leave the government in February 2005. Amy Wax, president of the International Association of Color Consultants North America, said — perhaps not surprisingly — colors could be an effective part of a warning system if tied to speciﬁc action. “How are we going to take those instructions and apply it to our lives?” she said. “Are we going to go to the airport, or not go to the airport?” She said the agency’s use of “childish” primary colors like red, yellow and blue might have diluted the impact. “Purple, orange and magenta might create a sense of something that would get attention,” she said.

Discovery’s launch delayed again BY ROBERT BLOCK

The Orlando Sentinel

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA managers — still struggling to figure out what caused cracks in the space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank — have decided that the shuttle’s final flight will now launch no earlier than Dec. 17. Officials had been considering an attempt between Dec. 3 and Dec. 6, but wanted more time to complete analysis of the cracked tank. The new launch window extends from Dec. 17 to Dec. 20 and would put Discovery’s six-person crew at the International Space Station on Christmas Day. But NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon said Dec. 17 is a “noearlier-than” date, adding there is still much work to be done to understand why cracks formed on the

upper part of the fuel tank. “I handed out a lot of homework assignments to the team to go collect data,” he said. Discovery’s early-November launch was delayed initially by weather and a hydrogen fuel leak. But while crews were working on that, they found cracks in the giant orange fuel tank. Repairs and inspections were ﬁnished over the weekend, but Shannon said managers were still not sure why what caused the cracks in the tank’s vertical ribs, or stringers. “We have to understand what our exposure is to that problem recurring somewhere else on this tank,” Shannon said. “So we are very carefully going through it, and we are passing up some launch opportunities to do that . . . [W]e want to make sure we fully under-

stand the problem before we commit to go ﬂy.” Shannon said one of the concerns was that another major crack might liberate a piece of insulating foam large enough to damage Discovery, as happened during the January 2003 liftoff of Columbia. A suitcase-sized chunk of foam punched a hole in Columbia’s wing, dooming the ship and her crew of seven astronauts when they reentered the atmosphere. Shannon said teams also were examining the possibility that the tanks have been ﬂying with undetected cracks for years. Cracks became more common after the 1998 debut of “super-lightweight” tanks built with a more brittle aluminum-lithium alloy. Since then, 29 cracks in stringers making up the ribbed “intertank” section that separates

liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks have been found and repaired in 18 tanks, including Discovery’s and a tank scheduled for use by the shuttle Atlantis next summer. Planners are looking into the possibility of launching Discovery over the Christmas holidays or sometime in January. Otherwise, conflicts with other unmanned cargo launches and temperature constraints related to the station’s orbit would push the launch to Feb. 27. It’s Discovery’s last flight before it is retired. Slipping the flight further into winter would mean that NASA might have to remove several hundred pounds of cargo because the density of the winter atmosphere lessens the shuttle’s performance as it flies to orbit.

PERSONAL AND GLOBAL STORIES Cairo has stories, tons and tons of stories, quiet and loud. They play out in papers that sell for about 17 cents a copy: Who will succeed President Hosni Mubarak? Can’t say. Why does rice cost so much? Who knows. Can a politically connected businessman get away with murder? Quite possibly. Some never make headlines. They unfold behind closed doors of struggling lives, like years ago when Mohamed’s first wife died in a gas explosion, or just five months ago when his son, Abdulrahman, 10, was hit by a car while riding his bike. Mohamed’s customers called the boy “chief,” and now that he’s gone, no more voice at his father’s elbow, laughing and hustling newspapers, trying to be a man in the night, it seems Mohamed is missing a shadow. His other young son sometimes helps but a man tends to look for what’s not there. “My boy was well-known around here,” he says, dipping his head, waiting for that thought to be over. “I don’t live in a good neighborhood. It’s OK, but not good. It’s all I can afford. I wanted my sons to work with me to keep them away from bad influences after dark. I thought if they were with me, they’d meet intellectuals and smart people and turn out strong.” Mohamed earns $7 a night. His customers know him, but Mohamed moves too fast for familiarity: “I wait for him every night,” says Rami Mahmoud, who sells cellphones while watching professional wrestling. “He does his job, minds his own business, and that’s all you really need from a newspaper man.”

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STAN HONDA/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

LONG WAIT: A hydrogen leak has forced NASA to announce another delay to the space shuttle Discovery’s final mission to the International Space Station, this time till Dec. 17.

India wants Pakistan to pull up its act on Mumbai BY NIRMALA GEORGE Associated Press

NEW DELHI — India rebuked Pakistan again Thursday for not punishing the masterminds of the 2008 assault on the Indian ﬁnancial capital that killed 166 people. None of the seven men arrested in Pakistan on charges of planning and executing the three-day assault — which began two years ago Friday — have been put on trial.

An External Affairs Ministry ofﬁcial said a formal complaint was sent to Pakistan but would not reveal its contents. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The Press Trust of India reported that the message expressed New Delhi’s frustration that Islamabad had not followed up on intelligence passed to Pakistan about the men, who belong

to Lashkar e Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group. A spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. Relations between the two South Asian rivals have been strained since the attacks, with India accusing Pakistan’s intelligence agencies of supporting militants who carry out attacks in India.

Ofﬁcials from both sides have met in recent months to talk about resuming a slowmoving peace process, but the talks have made scant progress as India is not convinced that Pakistan is doing enough to punish the perpetrators or ensure more attacks aren’t perpetrated. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947, two over conﬂicting claims surrounding the Kashmir region.

11/26/2010 4:47:17 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

THE AMERICAS

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

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Venezuela says nuclear reactor for peaceful uses BY FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press

CARACAS — A nuclear reactor that Venezuela plans to build with Russian help will be used to generate electricity and for medical and industrial purposes — not to make weapons, according to an agreement published this week. The accord, which appeared in the Venezuelan Ofﬁcial Gazette, sets limits on the enrichment of uranium and says the reactor will not be used for “any military objective.” Russia’s government agreed to help Venezuela build the reactor in October during a visit to Moscow by President Hugo Chavez. It

is unclear how much the project will cost, or when it could be completed. Approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly, the agreement says the Russian company Atomstroyexport will provide nuclear fuel, parts and technical assistance to maintain the reactor. Chavez has brushed aside the concerns of some critics who question the project, saying: “Our intentions are absolutely transparent and open.” He has said that his government — a major oil exporter — hopes to diversify its energy sources in the future. The South American country currently relies

on hydroelectric power for most of its electricity. When asked in October about the Venezuela-Russia nuclear agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told journalists in Washington: “When it comes to nuclear power, our attitude is that Venezuela has rights to peacefully develop nuclear power. It also has obligations to make sure that it’s not engaging in proliferation activities and is not weaponizing those systems.” Obama said the U.S. government has “one standard that we apply to all countries, and we expect them to abide by those standards.”

ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

ALLEGATIONS: U.N.-backed prosecutor Francisco Dall’Anese accused the Guatemalan government of obstructing the judicial procedure, categorically in the case of the former interior minister Carlos Vielmann, right.

Guatemala wants impunity to reign, says prosecutor BY JUAN CARLOS LLORCA Associated Press

NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

PROJECT IN QUESTION: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, left, and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed an accord in October to construct the first nuclear power plant in Venezuela. Chavez articulated on Wednesday that this reactor would not be used for any military purpose.

South American leaders envision democratic charter BY BERT WILKINSON Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — South American leaders plan to create a democratic charter that would serve as a guide for their 12-nation bloc if any of them face an attempted coup, Guyana’s foreign minister said ahead of a regional summit. The charter was proposed after a Sept. 30 police revolt in Ecuador that President Rafael Correa said was an attempt to overthrow him. “We have to recommit ourselves to democracy in South America,” Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett told The Associated Press. Rodrigues-Birkett spoke

before a group of presidents including Correa, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to arrive in Guyana for a summit of the Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR. Correa is expected to describe the revolt in which about a dozen people died and 270 were wounded. The uprising was led by police upset over a new law that would deny them promotion bonuses. Correa and other leaders also are expected to talk about their vision for the proposed charter. The Organization of American States has its own “InterAmerican Democratic Charter” to address coup threats. It was not clear

how the new charter would differ from that: details have not been released. UNASUR was created in May 2008 to serve as a continental parliament and defense union that Chavez has described as a counterweight to the United States. Some members of the OAS see UNASUR as a complement to the Washington-based organization, while others view it as a potential replacement. Argentina’s former President Nestor Kirchner, who died in October, was UNASUR’s ﬁrst leader. A replacement has not been named, although Rodrigues-Birkett said nominations will be considered during the summit.

LATIN BRIEFS • TRINIDAD

Police probe U.S. soldier’s murder From Miami Herald Wire Service

Police in Trinidad say a 38-year-old U.S. Army soldier vacationing on the Caribbean island was killed when gunmen rammed his car from behind in a rough slum and then opened fire. Authorities say Sgt. Simeon Roderique was shot shortly after dropping a woman off at her home in Laventille, a gang-plagued community just east of Trinidad’s capital. The woman’s brother was also killed. The police statement says robbery is suspected as the motive. There have been no arrests. A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad says local authorities “are diligently working to solve this deplorable crime.” • DOMINICAN REPUBLIC WAREHOUSE FIRE CLAIMS NINE LIVES An explosion and resulting fire at a warehouse under construction in the Dominican Republic have killed nine people and injured four others. Fire official Leonardo Valdez says authorities are investigating what caused the explosion at the warehouse, located in a village just north of the capital of Santo Domingo. The government said in a statement that at least two of the victims were

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engineers overseeing the project who died from smoke inhalation. • EL SALVADOR TWO KILLED, 28 HURT IN JAIL ROW The head of an El Salvador prison says two inmates were killed and another 27 inmates and one police officer were were injured in a jail fight. Orlando Molina says the inmates tore down barriers inside the Apanteos penitentary in the west of the country and went at one another with their fists and blunt objects. A special police unit brought the situation under control, and the area around the Apanteos has been sealed off to prevent prison breaks, Molina told Radio Nacional radio station. • MEXICO CARGO PLANE CRASH KILLS FIVE A Mexican air force cargo plane has crashed at Monterrey International Airport, killing five military personnel, the Defense Department said. The plane went down after takeoff, the ministry said in a statement, but provided no other details about the accident. Milenio television reported that the plane crashed and exploded after the crew attempted an emergency landing shortly after taking off. Milenio identified the five victims as the plane’s pilot and co-pilot, navigator, electrician and mechanic.

GUATEMALA CITY — The head of a special U.N.backed commission prosecuting high crimes in Guatemala has accused the government of sabotaging efforts to bring back a former interior minister on charges of ordering extrajudicial killings of prison inmates. Guatemala’s institutions “are working to make justice impossible and to let impunity continue to reign,” Francisco Dall’Anese said in an email, responding to questions from The Associated Press. Dall’Anese, a former Costa Rican attorney general, heads the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG, a 25-nation team of prosecutors and police investigators battling the rampant organized crime that has this Central American country teetering on the edge of failed-state status. In its most politically charged case since it was created three years ago at Guatemala’s request, CICIG brought extrajudicial execution charges against the former interior minister, Carlos Vielmann, and several other members of the country’s business and political elite. Spain arrested Vielmann on Oct. 13 and Guatemala had until Tuesday to present its extradition request so the

former minister would remain in jail. But the request did not arrive in time. Dall’Anese said that “Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry held some of the papers without reason for 14 days and didn’t send them to Madrid.” On Tuesday, a Spanish judge freed Vielmann from prison. Spain can still extradite Vielmann — it has until Dec. 13 — but Dall’Anese said he wasn’t conﬁdent that would happen. “The way justice moves in Guatemala, there won’t be time for the documentation to get to Madrid,” he said. The Foreign Ministry denied intentionally delaying the extradition request. In a statement on its website, it blamed the delay on what it said was a requirement to legalize certain signatures with the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City. On television later, Guatemala’s Vice President Rafael Espada said that “there will be a thorough investigation” to determine who was at fault for the delay in shipping the documents. Dall’Anese also decried a decision by Guatemala’s Constitutional Court last Friday to provisionally suspend the extradition on a technicality. Human rights activists have denounced the timing of court’s ruling as suspiciously beneﬁcial to Vielmann’s defense strategy. Dall’Anese

called the decision “unmotivated by anything and without a single sentence of explanation.” Because CICIG works within Guatemala’s judicial system, it depends wholly on the country’s courts and institutions to bring to justice the cases it develops. The case against Vielmann accuses him of the summary executions of 10 prison inmates in 2006. Three were prison escapees allegedly hunted down and murdered, while seven were killed inside Pavon prison outside the capital, Guatemala City. The seven were found dead after thousands of police and soldiers stormed the prison, retaking it from inmates who ran a crackcocaine lab inside. Vielmann has said the prisoners died while putting up a fight. The Vielmann case has put CICIG to its biggest test yet. Former Guatemala’s Vice President Eduardo Stein, who held office from 2004 to 2008 and helped bring the agency to Guatemala, has accused it of “going out of control” in the Vielmann case. Stein and other businessmen have argued that the commission — whose head is named by the U.N. secretary-general — has overstepped its mandate and even operated outside the law. Commission officials vehemently deny the accusations.

Family battle over tycoon’s estate heading for trial BY JUAN MCCARTNEY Associated Press

NASSAU — A bitter legal battle between a Bahamasbased tycoon and several relatives who have been cut out of family trust funds appears headed for trial after settlement talks ﬁzzled. Jack Hayward, the 87-year-old former owner of the Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club in England and a multimillionaire who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his philanthropy, is being sued by a son, daughter, son-in-law and eight grandchildren who contend he il-

legally removed them from various trusts. On Wednesday, lawyers for the two sides spent several hours in a closed meeting at this former British colony’s top court trying to work out a settlement. Financial demands have not been disclosed. The British-born Hayward said that negotiations went nowhere and a trial is scheduled for May 2. Hayward said he is “very disappointed, very betrayed” by his relatives’ lawsuit, which he called frivolous. He said his decision to remove them from the family trusts

was “absolutely legal.” “All they want is money. It all boils down to money,” said Hayward, who is also the honorary chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, a private corporation that also acts as the municipal authority for the city of Freeport. Lawyers for Hayward’s eldest son, Rick Hawyard, 59, and daughter Susan Heath, 62, and their children could not immediately be reached for comment. Hawyard said his relationship with two out of his three children deteriorated after he sold the Wolverhampton club in 2007.

Violence could mar Haiti election • HAITI, FROM 1A

have reported attempts on their lives — a credibilitybuilding boast in a country where election days have long been synonymous with voter intimidation and massacres. Recent elections in Haiti, including the 2006 vote that put Haiti’s President Rene Preval in power, have been notably calmer, though not free of violence. But any disturbances could derail this year’s vote, which already must contend with a rapidly spreading cholera epidemic and the fallout from the devastation of January’s earthquake. The next president will oversee billions of dollars

in U.S. and other foreign reconstruction aid. The frontrunners are divided on what should be done with it. Nearly all are criticizing the postquake inaction of Preval, who was barred from running again. His new Unity party has put up Jude Celestin, the head of the country’s state-run construction company, who would be expected to carry on Preval’s policies, and possibly retain the current prime minister and much of the Cabinet. On Monday night, Baker’s supporters clashed with Celestin’s supporters near the southern coastal town of Jeremie. Conﬂicting reports said one, two or three people were killed by gunﬁre.

Sen. Joseph Lambert, the head of Celestin’s campaign, said in a Wednesday interview that the attack was an attempt to kill the candidate, who was in a convoy of campaign vehicles. He said Celestin is a target because he is likely to win. Baker has said two of his supporters were killed “in reaction to the success” of a recent Baker rally in nearby Jeremie. Celestin’s campaign said the incident should not affect the timing of the vote. “Obviously, we have seen elections held in Afghanistan and Iraq . . . a small incident like this won’t stop ours,” Lambert said. More clashes are expected as campaigning winds down.

11/26/2010 4:34:31 AM

THE MIAMI HERALD

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Professor loses appeal to win back job DENVER — (AP) — A former University of Colorado professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi has lost his appeal to get his job back. The Colorado Court of Appeals this week upheld a lower court decision against Ward Churchill. The court said that the Denver District Court was right to direct a verdict in favor of the university and to ﬁnd that the university was entitled to “quasi-judicial immunity.” Churchill’s attorney David Lane said he will try to persuade the Colorado Supreme Court to take up the case. Churchill’s termination in 2007 came after an essay he wrote describing some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi leader who helped orchestrate the Holocaust. After his termination, Churchill sued the university, and a Denver jury ruled that the school unlawfully ﬁred Churchill but awarded him only $1 in damages. But then-Denver District Judge Larry Naves decided not to give Churchill his job back and set aside the jury’s verdict.

U.S. NEWS

Associated Press

CINCINNATI — A fossilized nest of eggs laid by an unknown species of dinosaur is part of an exhibit that makes its world premiere Friday at an Ohio museum. The exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center will feature fossils found by Chinese paleontologists, digging in the north-central region of their country. They include a rib more than 9-feet long from a species of the titanosaur family. Paleontologists believe the rib came from an animal probably close to 100 feet long and weighing 32 to 87 tons. Some of the exhibit bones are from two species that lived 89 million to 100 million years ago, museum ofﬁcials said. “These fossils repre-

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

DeLay convicted in money-laundering case BY JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press

AUSTIN — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress — has been convicted on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to life in prison on the money laundering charge. After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. His lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said they planned to appeal the verdict. “This is an abuse of power. It’s a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system and I’m very disappointed in the outcome,” DeLay told reporters outside the courtroom. He remains free on bond, and his sentencing was tentatively set to begin on Dec. 20. Prosecutors said DeLay, who once held the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives and whose heavy-handed style earned him the nickname “the Hammer,” used his political action committee to illegally channel $190,000 in corporate donations into 2002 Texas legislative races through a money swap.

DeLay and his attorneys maintained the former Houston-area congressman did nothing wrong as no corporate funds went to Texas candidates and the money swap was legal. The verdict came after a three-week trial in which prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses and volumes of e-mails and other documents. DeLay’s attorneys presented ﬁve witnesses. “This case is a message from the citizens of the state of Texas that the public ofﬁcials they elect to represent them must do so honestly and ethically, and if not, they’ll be held accountable,” Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said after the verdict. Prosecutors said DeLay conspired with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to use his Texasbased PAC to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washingtonbased Republican National Committee, or RNC. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns. Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the GOP majority to push through a Delay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004 —

Dinosaur exhibit makes world premiere in Ohio BY LISA CORNWELL

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

sent some of the latest fossil discoveries from China,” said Glenn Storrs, the museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology. Discovery of the fossils from the titanosaur family was important to the ﬁeld of paleontology, enabling identiﬁcation of two new species of titanosaur, he said. Canada-based dinosaur exhibition company, Dinosaurs Unearthed, developed the exhibit in partnership with the museum and the Henan Geological Museum in China. The Henan museum owns the fossils. Most of the fossils in the “Dinosaur Bones: Titans of the Ruyang” exhibit were found in the village of Shaping — commonly referred to as “Dragon Village” — in the Ruyang area of the Henan province.

Researchers found that villagers had been digging up bones for years, believing them to be the remains of dragons. The villagers would grind the bones up for medicine, believing it would heal ailments including epilepsy and dysentery. A few of the fossils went on exhibit at the museum earlier this year in preparation for the larger exhibition. The new exhibit also features three roaring, moving animatronic dinosaurs and a periscope that museum ofﬁcials say will allow visitors a “dinosaur-eye view” of their surroundings. The exhibit runs through Jan. 2. Tentative plans call for it to tour the United States before moving to Canada in 2012.

CULPRIT: Tom DeLay was convicted on charges of illegally funnelling corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. and strengthened DeLay’s political power. DeLay’s attorneys argued the money swap resulted in the seven candidates getting donations from individuals, which they could legally use in Texas. They also said DeLay only lent his name to the PAC and had little involvement in how it was run. Prosecutors, who presented mostly circumstantial evidence, didn’t prove he committed a crime, they said.

DeLay has chosen to have Senior Judge Pat Priest sentence him. He faces ﬁve years to life in prison on the money laundering charge and two to 20 years on the conspiracy charge. He also would be eligible for probation. The 2005 criminal charges in Texas, as well as a separate federal investigation of DeLay’s ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, ended his 22-year political career representing suburban Houston. The Jus-

tice Department probe into DeLay’s ties to Abramoff ended without any charges ﬁled against DeLay. Ellis and Colyandro, who face lesser charges, will be tried later. Except for a 2009 appearance on ABC’s hit television show Dancing With the Stars, DeLay has been out of the spotlight since resigning from Congress in 2006. He now runs a consulting ﬁrm based in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land.

Lesbian officer’s fate undecided BY GENE JOHNSON Associated Press

SEATTLE — The U.S. Air Force said it hasn’t made a decision on whether to try to keep a lesbian flight nurse from being reinstated while it appeals a judge’s ruling to return her to her old job. U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma ruled two months ago that former Maj. Margaret Witt’s firing under “don’t ask, don’t tell” violated her rights, and he ordered that she be given her job back as soon as she put in enough nursing hours to meet qualifications for the position. The Justice Department appealed that ruling Tuesday. But government lawyers did not seek a stay that would put the judge’s order on hold. Witt’s lawyers celebrated the DOJ’s decision, saying it meant she could be reinstated even as the appeal proceeds. But the Air Force issued a statement making clear that if Witt meets her nursing qualifications, military officials and the Justice Department will reconsider whether to seek a stay.

“To date, she has provided the Air Force no evidence that she meets the qualifications necessary to serve as an Air Force flight nurse, nor has she passed a medical physical which is also a prerequisite to her reinstatement,” said the statement released by Lt. Col. Karen A. Platt. Witt’s lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said they’d fight any effort to keep their client from resuming her duties during the appeal. They noted that the judge found that her dismissal advanced no legitimate military interest, and to the contrary actually hurt morale in her unit at Joint Base Lewis McChord. “We do not foresee a problem in Maj. Witt getting reinstated,” ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said. “We will present the Air Force with evidence showing she meets the nursing hours requirements and she will pass the physical.” The physical is a fitness test, rather than a medical exam, Honig said. Witt was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged after the

Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. If Witt is reinstated, she would be serving openly at a time when the military’s policy on gays is in disarray. U.S. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates want to end the ban, but say it should be done through Congress, not the courts. A federal judge in California has declared the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law unconstitutional — a ruling the DOJ is also appealing. In the meantime, the Pentagon has implemented new guidelines that have drastically cut the number of gays being dismissed under the policy. The Pentagon plans to release a monthslong study Nov. 30 on how lifting the gay service ban would affect the armed forces. “Don’t ask” prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but allows the discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or are discovered to be engaging in homosexual activity.

Obama calls on country for help BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Saying United States has a history of doing what it takes to make a better tomorrow, U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on a country climbing out of its worst economic slump in decades to summon that spirit again this holiday season. “This is not the hardest Thanksgiving America has ever faced. But as long as many members of our American family are hurting, we’ve got to look out for one another,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, released for Thanksgiving. ENCOURAGING

AL BEHRMAN/AP FILE

REMAINS: A fossilized nest of 26 dinosaur eggs arranged in pairs and laid by an unknown species of the feathered, beaked oviraptorosaurs will be displayed for the first time at the Museum Center in Cincinnati, on Friday.

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“As long as many of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives are at war, we’ve got to support their mission and honor their service,” Obama added. “And as long as many of our friends and neighbors are looking for work, we’ve

got to do everything we can to accelerate this recovery and keep our economy moving forward.” In the weekly Republican message, Georgia Rep.-elect Austin Scott characterized the 85-member incoming freshman class as a “new breed of leaders for a new majority and a new Congress” and said they stand ready to turn around the country. The GOP won control of the House in elections earlier this month and will take over in January. “As much as we have to be thankful for, too many Georgians and too many Americans have been out of work for far too long,” Scott said. “Our new Republican majority is ready to focus on creating jobs and putting a stop to the runaway spending in Washington, D.C.” Mindful of the new political reality taking shape in Washington, a new order in which Democrats no longer will rule both the White House and Congress,

Obama wove another call for bipartisanship into his holiday message. CALLING FOR SUPPORT He said one political party won’t be able to solve all the country’s problems. “We’ve got to do it as one people,” the president said. “And in the coming weeks and months, I hope that we can work together, Democrats and Republicans and independents alike, to make progress on these and other issues.” He cited jobs and economic recovery among the issues. Obama is to meet at the White House on Tuesday with congressional leaders from both parties, a session originally announced for Nov. 18 but was delayed a week and a half after Republicans said they couldn’t accommodate the president. Obama was spending Thanksgiving at the White House with family and friends.

11/26/2010 4:25:31 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

MiamiHerald.com

WORLD NEWS

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

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Karzai government challenges Afghan vote BY ALISSA J. RUBIN AND ROD NORDLAND

New York Times Service

KABUL, Afghanistan — The announcement of final results from Afghan Parliamentary elections deepened a confrontation between election officials and the government of President Hamid Karzai, which vowed to challenge the outcome even as it was endorsed by international officials. Over all, the results of the September election indicated that the 249-seat lower house of Parliament would be dominated by war lords and other power brokers. According to an analysis by The New York Times, Karzai will be able to count on the support of at least 100 members. That has not been enough to satisfy the Karzai government or the many losers who saw significant numbers of votes thrown out — at least 25 percent of ballots — because of concerns about fraud. The losers have placed enormous pressure on election officials and Karzai to undo some results or even void the election. The attorney general, Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, gave a sense of the stakes this week when his office released a statement within hours of the announcement of the final re-

S. SABAWOON/EFE

CRISIS: Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and election officials are at odds over the integrity of election results of the Lower House of Parliament. sults. It criticized the United Nations for endorsing the ﬁnal results earlier in the day, calling it “premature” and “a huge tragedy for the Afghanistan and the current democratic government.” The statement said that criminal investigations the attorney general’s ofﬁce was considering into the election

fraud should have been completed before results were released. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” it said. “Therefore this organization declares decisively that it will not conﬁrm the results of the election and promises our countrymen that it will honestly continue to investigate these cases.”

While it was unclear what the attorney general’s position portended, since there is no legal way for the government to undo the results, it raised the possibility that the government might be willing to precipitate a constitutional crisis. Earlier this week, Aloko threatened to charge two

election officials — Noor Mohammed Noor, spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, and Ahmed Zia Rafat, a commissioner for the Electoral Complaints Commission — with defaming the nation. In a statement Wednesday, the United Nations defended the results. While the balloting was marred, the process was fair enough and the Afghan election commissions that oversaw the vote had taken a “significant step” to improve democracy, it said. The government’s strong challenge may contain a measure of political posturing and be intended in part to influence a decision on the disputed outcome in one important province excluded from the announcement Wednesday. However, by raising questions about the integrity of the election process and by suggesting that criminal activity had been overlooked, the government’s stance threatened to further erode what little faith Afghans have left in their fledgling democratic institutions. At the very least, it added an element of confusion and risked political chaos, depending on how far the government chooses to pursue the dispute. The attorney general is appointed by Karzai, and the

president has indicated privately that he is not pleased with the election result, which saw many candidates come to power whom he did not support. One province of high priority for the president is Ghazni, where results remain disputed and have yet to be announced. There, insecurity created by the Taliban insurgency made it impossible for all but a few people in Pashtun areas to vote. Many of the ballots that were cast were later eliminated for fraud. The result is that many Pashtuns were disenfranchised. Supporters of Karzai, a Pashtun, are now pushing for the election commission to suspend or throw out the vote in the entire province, allowing those elected to the 2005 Parliament to remain in their seats until a new vote can be held. That would keep six Pashtuns and ﬁve Hazaras representing the province. A decision should be announced next week. Diplomats and Afghan election monitoring groups said they did not believe that either Karzai or his main opposition rival, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, would be able to command consistent loyalty even from those candidates they helped to win election.

Yemen suicide attack U.S. convicts Somali pirates targets Shiites, 17 dead BY BOB DROGIN

Los Angeles Times Service

BY MOHAMMED AL-ASAADI New York Times Service

SANA’A, Yemen — A suicide car bomb ripped through a convoy of civilians traveling to a Shiite ceremony in northwestern Yemen, killing 17 members of the Houthi clan and leaving five wounded, officials said. Suspicions fell on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network. But if al Qaeda was responsible, it would be the first act of violence between two groups that have long fought the government separately. The government was quick to condemn the attack. “These acts contradict the teachings of Islam and its values and traditions as well as those of the Yemeni society,” the Higher Security Committee of Yemen said in a statement. The families of the victims took the bodies for burial, impeding the investigation, said Hussein

Hazem, the governor of al Jawf province. The attack took place in al Jawf, about 100 miles northeast of the capital, Sana’a. Among the dead was a leading 80-year-old Shiite scholar, Hamod Derhim alEzzi, according to spokesmen for the Houthis, who control much of the north. Hazem said the ofﬁcial investigation had yet to begin and that he would not guess about the origins of the attack. But Sheik Ali Saif, a tribal leader who helped with rescue efforts after the attack, said he suspected the al Qaeda branch was retaliating, saying the Houthis had captured some al Qaeda members and handed them over to the Yemeni authorities several weeks ago. Murad al Azzany, a professor of linguistics at Sana’a University who has studied Islamic groups, said the attack resembled others by al Qaeda. “This is a critical devel-

opment in Yemen’s political and security context, where a ﬁght just erupted between the two ideological and traditional opponents — al Qaeda and Shiites,” Azzany said. The Houthi rebels have fought with the government on and off since 2004, but the two sides agreed to a ceaseﬁre in February, seemingly removing a major source of instability for Yemen, a desperately poor country where the government has long had limited authority outside the major cities. Besides the Houthis in the north and the al Qaeda group, the central government faces a strong secessionist movement in the south. The government is under sharply increased pressure from the United States and Europe to roust the local al Qaeda group after a series of attacks or attempted attacks. In the most recent of these, two powerful bombs hidden in air cargo from Yemen were intercepted in October.

WASHINGTON — A federal jury has convicted five Somali men of piracy on the high seas, the first such verdict in a U.S. court in nearly 200 years, for shooting at a U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean last spring. The conviction on all counts after a dramatic trial in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison plus 80 years. Defense lawyers said they will appeal. The five defendants stood without expression and listened to an interpreter through earphones as the court clerk pronounced them each guilty on 14 counts, including attempts to plunder a vessel and assault with a deadly weapon. “Today’s conviction demonstrates that armed attacks on U.S.-flagged vessels are crimes against the international community and that pirates will face severe consequences in U.S. courts,” Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of

Virginia, said in a conference call. He emphasized that Somali sea bandits have devastated normal shipping off the Horn of Africa, and that U.S. courts and warships are not the only answer. “It’s an international problem, and it’s going to require an international solution,” MacBride said. Defense lawyer Jon M. Babineau said in a phone interview that his client, Abdi Mohammed Gurewardher, was “very solemn, very sad” after the verdict. “He now knows he’s going to die in a U.S. prison,” the lawyer said. The five Somalis, all in their 20s, were accused of firing AK-47 assault rifles at the guided missile frigate Nicholas as it patrolled for pirates more than 500 nautical miles off the east coast of Somalia on April 1. Prosecutors said Mohammed Modin Hasan, Gabul Abdullahi Ali and Abdi Wali Dire sped up to the warship in an open skiff shortly after midnight and began shooting. They surrendered after the Navy returned fire from

heavy machine guns. The other two Somalis — Gurewardher and Abdi Mohammed Umar — were captured several hours later on a socalled mother ship that carried fuel, water and other supplies. The Nicholas had dimmed its running lights, slowed its speed and made other changes to resemble a cargo ship. No one was injured in the brief firefight. The Somalis insisted in court that they were innocent fishermen who had been kidnapped and beaten by pirates, and then forced to attack the Nicholas. The real brigands, the defendants said, escaped on a third boat. But James R. Theuer, another defense lawyer, said the jury believed the confessions that the five men gave to a Navy investigator several days after their capture, and not their denials in court. “Frankly, it really came down to the confessions,” Theuer said. The five will be sentenced on March 14. Whether the harsh punishment will deter others is unclear.

U.S. seeks China’s help Cambodia mourns victims of stampede to rein in North Korea BY SOPHENG CHEANG Associated Press

BY HELENE COOPER AND MARTIN FACKLER

New York Times Service

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun a broad effort to enlist China to help rein in North Korea in the wake of its deadly attack Tuesday on South Korea. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged China to act, calling Beijing “absolutely critical” to the international effort to get North Korea to stop its military provocations. “It’s very important for China to lead,” Mullen said Wednesday on the ABC program The View. “The one country that has influence in Pyongyang is China.” U.S. President Barack Obama was preparing to make a telephone plea to President Hu Jintao of China, White House officials said. They added that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would likely be calling China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, to follow up on similar calls from other senior U.S. officials to their Chinese counterparts. But few analysts expect China, wary of destabilizing the North, its unpredictable neighbor, to employ its economic and military leverage in any substantial way to try

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to alter North Korea’s behavior. And in Seoul, the South Korean government was left struggling to find the right response, as South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak found himself with no clear way to proceed despite his past vows to take a hard line against the North. Lee spent Wednesday conferring with generals and talking on the phone with world leaders like Obama, who offered him their sympathy and support over the artillery attack Tuesday on a South Korean island, the latest in a series of provocations by the North. Lee’s government also traded threats with the North, warning of heavy retaliation should North Korea attack again, while the North warned against even the slightest incursions into its territory. But despite the strong words, South Korea is showing few signs of actually planning a more forceful retaliation for the attack on Yeonpyeong Island, in which two civilians and two marines were killed. While the South placed its armed forces on high alert and sent F-15 fighter jets to the area, its only military response so far came during the attack itself, when marines on the island returned fire at North Korean positions.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia began a day of mourning Thursday with the prime minister weeping at the spot where hundreds died during a wild riverside stampede. Prime Minister Hun Sen cried as he lit candles and incense at a narrow bridge where thousands of festivalgoers panicked, trampling hundreds underfoot on Monday night. He was joined by the Bassac River in the capital Phnom Penh by his wife Bun Rany and Cabinet members. Flags throughout the country were flying at halfmast and a Buddhist ceremony was scheduled for later in the day. There has been confusion over the death toll from the tragedy. The latest official casualty tally was 347 dead and 395 injured, down from earlier official figures. A government investigation showed that as the suspension bridge swayed under the weight of thousands of revelers, some began to shout that the structure was going to collapse. Others pushed, heaved and even jumped off the span as a panic took hold that ended in the mass deaths. “People became panicked when they saw other people fall down, and they started running when they heard

TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

PREMIER SOBS: Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, right, and his wife Bun Rany grieve during a mourning ceremony in front of the bridge in Phnom Penh where a stampede claimed the lives of hundreds of people on Tuesday. cries that the bridge was going to collapse,” city police chief Touch Naroth said. The official probe into the accident continues with a final report expected next week, said Om Yentieng, a member of the investigating committee, Thursday. He said earlier casualty figures were not correct due to overlapping of counts by various institutions. Hun Sen has described the stampede as the biggest tragedy since the communist Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, which killed an estimat-

ed 1.7 million people in the late 1970s. During Thursday’s ofﬁcial day of mourning, the Tourism Ministry asked all entertainment venues, including karaoke parlors, nightclubs, beer gardens and discotheques, to close for the day. The stampede happened during celebrations of a three-day holiday marking the end of the monsoon season, when as many as 2 million people are believed to have come to the capital. As festivities wrapped up Monday night, tens of thousands

ﬂocked to a free concert on an island in the Bassac River. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 people were streaming over a bridge that connects the island to the mainland when it began to sway, according to Banyon TV, which serves as a mouthpiece for the government and was citing the investigation committee. Om Yentieng said there were no signs on the dead bodies that any had been electocuted as some earlier reports suggested.

11/26/2010 5:41:03 AM

THE MIAMI HERALD

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INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

OPINION CHARLES D. SHERMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The new ethos of Washington BY DAVID BROOKS

New York Times Service

his has been a great month for conversation. The Bipartisan Policy Center and the chairmen of the fiscal commission released big plans for reducing debt and reforming government. This has set off a deluge of interesting commentary about how we should govern ourselves in the coming century. But is any of this going anywhere? Are any elected officials actually going to follow through on these plans? Has anybody discovered a political formula to get spending cuts, tax increases and other reforms through the Congress? I’ve spent the past few days calling congressional leaders and other budget mavens to get an answer to that question. The answer is No. Nobody has a political strategy for getting anything like this passed in the short term. There is very little likelihood the BROOKS political class as currently constituted will address the looming fiscal disaster soon. Some Republicans have been talking honestly about cutting entitlement spending, but almost no Republican seems willing to accept tax increases as part of a bipartisan budget deal. You could offer Republicans a deal that was 80 percent spending cuts and 20 percent tax increases and they’d say no. They’d say no to 9010, too. Ronald Reagan raised taxes 12 separate times during his presidency. But “No New Taxes” has become the requisite for membership in today’s GOP. Without a tax increase there will never be a bipartisan deal and without a bipartisan deal there will never be a solution because no party will ever take sole responsibility for the brutal spending cuts that are also required to reduce the debt. The Democrats don’t offer much hope either. Some moderate Democrats would like a big budget summit. Put everything on the table. Don’t come out without a plan. But the Democratic Party is in the middle of an identity crisis. The liberals are fighting hard to make sure the moderates don’t gain control of the party (Nancy Pelosi’s reelection as leader was partially about that). These mobilized and defensive liberals are certainly not going to hand control of the government to the few remaining budget hawks and tell them to go remake the welfare state. The liberal Democrats show no sign of accepting significant spending cuts to the programs they regard as their movement’s greatest achievements. They are in no mood to revisit healthcare, even though Medicare will have to

be hit to get the debt under control. Many of them are in no mood even to acknowledge the scope of the problem, as their responses to last week’s various commission reports demonstrated. So we’ve still got budget gridlock. But it’s worth stepping back to acknowledge how abnormal this is. As late as the 1980s and 1990s, Congress did pass serious measures to control debt. Across the Atlantic, Britain is enacting a budget with spending cuts and tax increases. In fact, all affluent countries are now faced with the challenge of reforming their welfare states and few are as immobilized as the United States is. This is in part because the problem is so hard — baby boomers are retiring and medical advances raise costs. But the United States, more than other country, is immobilized by a shift in the ethos of its leadership class. For centuries, U.S. politicians did not run up huge peacetime debts. It wasn’t because they were unpartisan or smarter or more virtuous. It was because they were constrained by a mentality inherited from the founders. According to this mentality, a big successful nation exists in a state of equilibrium between its many factions. This equilibrium is fragile because we are flawed and fallen creatures and can’t quite trust ourselves. So all of us, but especially members of the leadership class, should practice self-restraint. Moral anxiety restrained hubris (don’t think your side possesses the whole truth) and self-indulgence (debt corrupts character). This ethos has dissolved, on left and right. The new mentality sees the country not as an equilibrium, but as a battlefield in which the people, who are pure and virtuous, do battle against the interests or the elites, who stand in the way of the people’s happiness. The ideal leader in this mental system is free from moral anxiety but full of passionate intensity. This leader pushes his troops in lock step before the voracious foe. Each party has its own version of who the evil elites are, but both feel they’ve more to fear from their enemies than from their own sinfulness. Compromise is thus impossible. Money matters should be negotiable, but how can one compromise with opponents who are the source of all corruption? I meet many members of Congress who hoped to serve under that first ethos but now find themselves living within the second. The good news is an ethos can change: a financial shock, a popular movement, something unexpected. Just don’t expect the big change to emanate from Washington in the near term.

JOE MARQUETTE/AP

DEEP CUTS: Alan Simpson co-chairman of a special commission on deficit reduction said, “I can’t wait for the bloodbath in April . . . When debt limit time comes, they’re going to look around and say, ‘What in the hell do we do now?’ We’ve got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give ’em a piece of meat, real meat,” meaning spending cuts.

There will be blood BY PAUL KRUGMAN

New York Times Service

ormer Sen. Alan Simpson is a Very Serious Person. He must be — after all, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed him cochairman of a special commission on deficit reduction. So here’s what the very serious Simpson said last Friday: “I can’t wait for the bloodbath in April . . . When debt limit time comes, they’re going to look around and say, ‘What in the hell do we do now?’ We’ve got guys who will not approve the debt limit extension unless we give ’em a piece of meat, real meat,” meaning spending cuts. “And boy, the bloodbath will be extraordinary,” he continued. Think of Simpson’s blood lust as one more piece of evidence that the United States is in much worse shape, much closer to a political breakdown, than most people realize. Some explanation: There’s a legal limit to federal debt, which must be raised periodically if the government keeps running deficits; the limit will be reached again this spring. And since nobody, not even the hawkiest of deficit hawks, thinks the budget can be balanced immediately, the debt limit must be raised to avoid a government shutdown. But Republicans will probably try to blackmail the president into policy concessions by, in effect, holding the government hostage; they’ve done it before. Now, you might think that the prospect of this kind of standoff — which might deny many U.S. citizens essential services, wreak havoc in financial markets and undermine United States’ role in the world — would worry all men of good will. But no, Simpson “can’t wait.” And he’s what passes, these days, for a reasonable Republican.

The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making the United States governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming. Elite opinion has been slow to recognize this reality. Thus on the same day that Simpson rejoiced in the prospect of chaos, Ben Bernanke, the Federal KRUGMAN Reserve chairman, appealed for help in confronting mass unemployment. He asked for “a fiscal program that combines near-term measures to enhance growth with strong, confidence-inducing steps to reduce longer-term structural deficits.” My immediate thought was, why not ask for a pony, too? After all, the GOP isn’t interested in helping the economy as long as a Democrat is in the White House. Indeed, far from being willing to help Bernanke’s efforts, Republicans are trying to bully the Fed itself into giving up completely on trying to reduce unemployment. And on matters fiscal, the GOP program is to do almost exactly the opposite of what Bernanke called for. On one side, Republicans oppose just about everything that might reduce structural deficits: they demand that the Bush tax cuts be made permanent while demagoguing efforts to limit the rise in Medicare costs, which are essential to any attempts to get the budget under control. On the other, the GOP opposes anything that might help sustain demand in a depressed economy — even

aid to small businesses, which the party claims to love. Right now, in particular, Republicans are blocking an extension of unemployment beneﬁts — an action that will both cause immense hardship and drain purchasing power from an already sputtering economy. But there’s no point appealing to the better angels of their nature; the United States just doesn’t work that way anymore. And opposition for the sake of opposition isn’t limited to economic policy. Politics, they used to tell us, stops at the water’s edge — but that was then. These days, national security experts are tearing their hair out over the decision of Senate Republicans to block a desperately needed new strategic arms treaty. And everyone knows that these Republicans oppose the treaty, not because of legitimate objections, but simply because it’s an Obama administration initiative; if sabotaging the president endangers the nation, so be it. How does this end? Obama is still talking about bipartisan outreach, and maybe if he caves in sufﬁciently he can avoid a federal shutdown this spring. But any respite would be only temporary; again, the GOP is just not interested in helping a Democrat govern. My sense is that most U.S. citizens still don’t understand this reality. They still imagine that when push comes to shove, our politicians will come together to do what’s necessary. But that was another country. It’s hard to see how this situation gets resolved without a major crisis of some kind. Simpson may or may not get the bloodbath he craves this April, but there will be blood sooner or later. And we can only hope that the nation that emerges is still one we recognize.

Bust is better than a bailout for Irish patient BY MATTHEW LYNN Bloomberg News

t’s not too late. The request for aid may have been made. The negotiations may have started. But Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen can still refuse a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. It might sound like madness for a drowning man to refuse a lifebelt. But the decision the Irish make in the next few days will shape the future of their nation for a generation. Ireland would be better off going bust than taking a loan. The conditions attached to a rescue aren’t worth it: Once it takes EU money, it will never get off the hook. And the Irish banks aren’t worth saving anyway. Defaulting on your debts is a far less scary prospect than usually portrayed. The real question is whether Ireland’s politicians have the courage to take that step. Last weekend, the Irish surrendered to pressure to accept an EUand IMF-led package, similar to the deal hammered out for Greece earlier this year. There was no sur-

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prise about that. The markets had grown so nervous about Ireland’s ﬁnances and the cost of its bank bailouts that yields on 10-year government debt reached almost 9 percent this month. The ﬁnal amount of the bailout is still to be determined. So are the terms. This means, of course, that it isn’t too late. The deal may still fall through, particularly with a general election looming as support for the government wanes. True, that would cause chaos in the bond markets. Trading in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian debt wouldn’t be a pretty sight for the few days after rescue talks collapsed. But the Irish should still say no. Here’s why. First, the conditions are too onerous. The European Union may demand an end to Ireland’s low corporate-tax rate. Its 12.5 percent rate has been a cornerstone of the country’s economy, attracting numerous businesses to relocate there. In 2008, two major British companies, United Business Media and drugmaker Shire, switched their tax resi-

dence to Ireland to cut their tax bills. Even if it isn’t explicitly part of the rescue deal, Ireland will come under pressure over the next few years to raise its corporate taxes, which take companies, government revenue and jobs from Ireland’s neighbors. It will be hard to explain to businesses in Dusseldorf why their high taxes are being used to help rescue competitors in Donegal. Even so, it would be a huge mistake. Low taxes and an open business culture are what made Ireland successful. You don’t cure a sick patient by taking out a lung. Second, the EU-IMF rescue looks like ﬁnancial methadone. It numbs the pain and gets you off drugs, but it’s addictive. The cure can be worse than the disease. Months have passed since the Greek bailout, and there isn’t much sign of Greece accessing the capital markets. The yield on Greek bonds remains more than 11 percent. It’s a Hotel California package: You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Third, this is mostly about rescuing EU financial institutions. It is the Irish banks that are in trouble, and if they go down, it will cause massive losses at other European lenders. But why should the Irish people worry about that? If French, German or British banks suffer big write-downs, let their governments deal with them. Ireland could just close its banks — such a small country doesn’t need its own finance industry any more than it needs its own carmakers. Fourth, Ireland risks tipping into an economic spiral. A key to the Irish economic revival of the last 20 years was reversing emigration. For a century, young Irish people went abroad to make their careers. When they started staying at home, it was a boon to the economy. If a generation is saddled with these debts, why not move to London or New York where the prospects are better? It’s already happening: Emigration is exceeding immigration for the first time since 1995. It will be the most highly skilled, energetic people who leave. How exactly

is that going to help the nation recover? Five, going bust isn’t so bad. Russia and Argentina defaulted on their debts. It wasn’t the end of the world. The financial markets portray it as a catastrophe, but that is mainly because bankers and bond investors stand to lose a lot of money. So long as it is done in an orderly, structured way, a default is often the best solution to a financial mess. Underneath the property bubble — which was caused by low euro-area interest rates — Ireland has a competitive, export-oriented economy. September figures show exports rose 2 percent and the trade surplus increased. In a weak global economy, that’s a very decent performance. If it defaults on its debts, Ireland can bounce back fairly quickly. If it accepts an EU bailout, it will be stuck in recession for a generation. Matthew Lynn is a Bloomberg News columnist and the author of Bust, a forthcoming book on the Greek debt crisis.

11/26/2010 1:59:01 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

THE MIAMI HERALD

Huang Hua, 97, diplomat who served China, dies BY DAVID BARBOZA

New York Times Service

SHANGHAI â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Huang Hua, a Communist Party revolutionary who was Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foreign minister during the 1970s and early 1980s and helped China restore diplomatic relations with the United States, died Wednesday in Beijing. He was 97. The cause was complications of lung failure and kidney failure, his daughter-inlaw, Dede Nickerson, said. A loyal deputy to Zhou Enlai, then Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prime minister, Huang was an amiable statesman at a time when China was moving to end decades of international isolation. Backed by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, those efforts set the stage for the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spectacular rise in the past three decades. As a senior diplomat with excellent English, Huang was known for his toothy smile and conservative brand of diplomacy. Former U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger called him â&#x20AC;&#x153;one of the ablest public servants I have ever metâ&#x20AC;? and a â&#x20AC;&#x153;trusted friend.â&#x20AC;? He met Kissinger during the secret trip Kissinger made to Beijing in 1971 as then U.S. President Richard M. Nixonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national security advisor. He also negotiated with a series of U.S. presidents, including Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and he served as Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ rst ambassador to Canada. In late 1971, Huang was named Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ďŹ rst permanent representative to the United Nations, taking up the post shortly after Beijing gained a U.N. seat. As foreign minister, he held talks that led to the signing of a peace and friendship treaty with Japan, and he negotiated with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain regarding the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong to China. When Beijing ordered him to be tough, he was. After the United States and China re-

sumed diplomatic relations in 1979, he accused the United States of backtracking on its promises when it continued to sell weapons to Taiwan, which China continues to regard as a renegade province. But Huang is perhaps best known for a secret trip he undertook as a college student in Beijing. In 1936, with China ravaged by civil war and Japanese aggression, he agreed to serve as an interpreter for U.S. journalist Edgar Snow, who had arranged to travel to a remote part of north China to meet a band of Communist rebels, including Mao. With Huangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s help, Snow wrote a series of newspaper articles that created a sensation and led to the publication of Red Star Over China, a bestseller and one of the ďŹ rst detailed accounts of Mao and the Chinese Communists. Snow was later accused of writing Communist propaganda. He denied any bias but eventually moved to Switzerland, where he died in 1972. Huang visited him shortly before his death. Huang Hua was born in January 1913 as Wang Rumei, the son of a teacher in Hebei Province, in northern China. After he joined the Communist Party, he changed his name to Huang Hua. In the 1930s, Huang was a student leader in Beijing at Yanjing University, which was run by U.S. missionaries. Like many college students at the time, he demonstrated against Japanese military action in China. He even helped form the December 9th Movement, named for the date of an antiJapanese protest in Beijing. After being detained following a demonstration, he hid in the home of Snow and his wife, Helen Foster Snow, also a journalist. Edgar Snow was then teaching at Yanjing, and Huang was his student. In 1936, Snow arranged to travel to the Soviet region of north China, which was under blockade by the Nationalist

Chinese government. Huang, who had secretly joined the Communist Party, agreed to serve as an interpreter. In Shaanxi Province, in northern China, Huang was one of several interpreters Snow depended on when he interviewed top Communist rebels. He translated Snowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notes into Chinese and then shared them with Mao to determine if they were accurate, Huang wrote in his memoir. After Snow returned to Beijing, Huang stayed in the region to aid the revolution. In the 1940s, he was a special assistant to Zhu De, a top Communist military strategist, and married He Liliang, who had moved to the area with her father, an advisor to Mao. Huang also served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army Observer Group, which traveled to Yanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;an to meet with Mao and other rebel leaders after the U.S.-backed Chinese Nationalists formed an alliance with the Communists to ďŹ ght Japan. After the Communists took power in 1949, Huang joined the Foreign Ministry and negotiated the closing of the U.S. mission in China with John Leighton Stuart, the U.S. ambassador to China and a former dean of Yanjing University. Huang participated in talks to end the Korean War and the Geneva Conference in 1954. He served as Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambassador to Ghana and Egypt between 1960 and 1969, when he returned during the Cultural Revolution because of the social and political upheaval Mao had created. In 1970, Huang was named ambassador to Canada and then permanent representative to the U.N. In 1976, after Maoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, Huang was named foreign minister and then vice prime minister. He retired in 1992. He is survived by his wife, He Liliang; three children, and several grandchildren.

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11/26/2010 2:21:49 AM

BUSINESS&SPORTS B FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

Ireland’s opposition promises austerity overhaul DUBLIN — (AP) — Irish opposition leaders vowed Thursday to rewrite the country’s harsh fouryear austerity plan if they oust Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s government in early elections next year. Cowen unveiled a package of tax increases and spending cuts Wednesday aimed at reducing Ireland’s massive budget deficit, necessary to receive a ¤85 billion ($115 billion) bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The plan seeks to cut ¤10 billion from spending and raise ¤5 billion in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014. Cowen himself has acknowledged that the measures would lower the living standards of everyone in Ireland. Cowen faced more pressure Thursday as voters in northwest Ireland were expected to snub his Fianna Fail party’s candidate in a byelection — making it harder for him to pass the emergency 2011 budget. The vote in Donegal South West fills a parliament seat that Cowen left empty for 17 months in fear that an opposition candidate would win. Enda Kenny, leader of the main opposition Fine Gael, told Dail Eireann, Ireland’s parliament, that his party would redraft the plan if it wins power. COWEN “The next government will not be bound by it,” he said. Cowen has said a national election will be called when Ireland’s emergency 2011 budget, to be unveiled in parliament on Dec. 7, is fully enacted. His party is then expected to be ousted from office. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the deficit plan had too few details on how to create new jobs and few new ideas. “This plan is the price of political failure, and it’s very heavy price indeed,” Gilmore said. Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan says the austerity plan is the only realistic approach to the country’s staggering financial problems, brought on by reckless bank lending for overpriced real estate. “How arrogant can you be? This from a minister who presided over the greatest economic catastrophe in this nation’s history,” Kenny told lawmakers. Pearse Doherty of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party — the favorite in Donegal South West — is committed to voting against the budget. The result will be announced Friday. An opposition win would reduce Cowen’s parliamentary majority to two.

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Europe now worries about Spain’s economy BY RAPHAEL MINDER

New York Times Service

MADRID — Europe so far has survived the bailout of Greece. The financial rescue of Ireland also is manageable. Even if Portugal becomes the third country to succumb and seek aid, as many people widely predict, it is unlikely to push Europe to the financial brink. But any bailout of Spain — with an economy twice the size of the other three combined — could severely stress the ability of Europe’s stronger countries to help the financially weaker ones, and spell deep trouble for the euro,

Europe’s common currency. Even though Spain, like Ireland, has adopted an austerity plan to help it avoid the need for a bailout, it still could need aid if its banking system proves frailer than the government thinks it is, as was the case in Ireland. This troubling scenario has unnerved lenders, with Spain’s borrowing costs rising even though Madrid has cut its deﬁcit and the country’s banks maintain they have sufﬁcient strength to absorb their real estate bad loans. “Europe can afford the collapse of Ireland, even perhaps that of Portugal, but not that of Spain, so Spain’s ultimate

line of defense is in fact this knowledge that it’s too big too fail and that it represents a systemic risk for the euro,” said Pablo Vazquez, an economist at the Fundacion de Estudios de Economia Aplicada, a research institute here. Reﬂecting the worries of investors, the yield spread between Spanish 10-year government bonds and those of Germany continued to widen this week — to as high as 2.59 percentage points, the biggest gap since the introduction of the euro. Spreads typically widen when investors perceive greater risk of repayment. The problem for Spain is one of

“self-fulfilling expectations,” said Jordi Gali, director of the Center for Research in International Economics at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra university. “If investors expect Spain to have trouble refinancing its debt, now or somewhere down the road, then Spain will have trouble,” he added. “This is only aggravated by the fact that the reluctance of investors to purchase the country’s public debt leads to an increase in the interest rate it has to pay and thus in the budget deficit and the amount of debt it has to issue.” • TURN TO SPAIN, 2B

Consumer complaints database gets the nod

BACK IN STYLE SWEET POTATOES ARE NOT JUST FOR THANKSGIVING ANYMORE

BY ANDREW MARTIN

New York Times Service

to processing frozen sweet potato products CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — the first of its kind — After generations of in the world. being smothered by a “It’s not something blanket of marshmalwe believe is a fad,” lows on Thanksgiving said Andy Johnston, and then forgotten for a vice president with another 11 months, the ConAgra Foods Lamb irrepressible sweet Weston. potato is having its The company’s marmoment. ket research shows that U.S. farmers expect only 12 percent of sweet to harvest a record potato eaters consume 2 billion pounds this them solely during MIAMI HERALD WIRE PHOTO year, almost half of that the holidays. Almost in North Carolina, the HEALTHY: Sweet potatoes have a high nutritional 30 percent of sweet poUnited States’ most pro- value, making them an ideal snack or side dish. tato fans eat them sevlific sweet potato state. eral times a month. Sweet potatoes have achieved from fancy state meals made with Food and farming experts ata status that just a few years ago produce from the White House tribute the sweet potato’s escape would have seemed laughable. organic garden to a seasonal side from the limited culinary prison They may even be hip. dish served with cinnamon dip- of the Thanksgiving table to nuLike skinny jeans, bamboo-frame ping sauce at White Castle. Euro- tritional and cultural shifts. Sweet bicycles or Disney stars, what is peans, too, have begun romanc- potatoes have become the darling in and what is out can change in ing the U.S.-grown sweet potato, of the diabetic and weight-loss a flash. Just three years ago, The and the sweet potato fry is get- set, a lifeline for parents whose Wall Street Journal expressed the ting so popular that research has children demand fries for nearly food world’s consensus view and shown almost half the children in every meal and a boon for Southdeclared on its front page that af- the United States under 12 have ern farmers who are looking to ter the Thanksgiving dishes were tried one. replace tobacco. cleared, the sweet potato was no To meet demand, U.S. farm“We are just thrilled,” said more special than a turnip. ers are planting more, chain res- Sue Johnson-Langdon, 62, of the Yet the rough-skinned veg- taurants are rewriting menus North Carolina Sweet Potato etable is arriving these days on and ConAgra this month opened plates both elevated and humble, a $155 million plant dedicated • TURN TO SWEET POTATO, 2B BY KIM SEVERSON

New York Times Service

After a contentious debate, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has narrowly approved an outline for a new database of consumer complaints about potentially dangerous products. The database, which is scheduled to go online in March and be called SaferProducts.gov, will allow consumers to report events of harm, or potential harm, caused by products as varied as toys and cleaners. For instance, it will allow parents to see what, if any, safety complaints have been filed about various baby strollers. “Today’s vote represents a major victory for consumers and supporters of open government because it will provide the public access to critical product safety information,” Inez M. Tenenbaum, the commission’s chairwoman, said in a prepared statement with her two Democratic colleagues, Robert S. Adler and Thomas H. Moore. The database was mandated by Congress in 2008, but many of the details were left for the commission to decide. On Wednesday, the latest plan was approved by a 3-2 vote, with the two Republican commissioners opposed. “Unfortunately, today the commission voted to approve a highly flawed final rule to establish a public database of consumer complaints,” commissioner Nancy Nord, wrote on her blog, in an entry entitled “Here’s Your Turkey, Early.” Nord, who joined Anne Northrup in opposing the rule, added, “We had the chance to make the database a helpful tool for consumers, but instead it will potentially become just another sinkhole for complaints, but with the apparent ‘seal of approval’ that comes from being on a federal government website.” Nord said the plan allowed virtually anyone to file a complaint, rather than just those with firsthand knowledge, which could prompt abuses, and that the plan did not do enough to ensure that the information in the complaints would be accurate. • TURN TO DATABASE, 2B

Germany’s economy hums in spite of Europe’s crises BY DAVID JOLLY

New York Times Service

PARIS — Despite economic crises in some parts of Europe, things apparently could not be better in Germany. The Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich said this week its surveys showed confidence among German business in November at the highest level since reunification in 1990. The headline business climate indicator rose to 109.3 from 107.6, much better than market expectations of a flat or slightly lower reading. The indicator “is now above the level of the 2006/2007 boom,” Ifo said in a press release. “Both the current business situation as well as the business outlook for the com-

26PGB01.indd 1

ing half year have been assessed more positively by the firms. The upswing in the German economy is gaining more and more strength.” One reason German businesses are optimistic is that the export sector appears to be holding up. Porsche, the sports car maker, reported Wednesday its sales rose 86.4 percent in its first quarter from a year earlier, when sales were depressed by the financial crisis. It posted revenue of ¤2.1 billion ($2.8 billion), an 80 percent increase. BMW and Daimler said this week that they would reduce the Christmas breaks at their factories to meet global demand. The Federal Statistics Office said Tuesday that the German economy had slowed in the third quarter, expanding by 0.7 percent from the second quarter’s 2.3 percent rate,

but the data also showed signs that the expansion had moved beyond the narrow manufacturing sector. GfK, a market research ﬁrm, said its German consumer sentiment indicator for December showed a sixth-consecutive gain, increasing to 5.5 for December from 5.1 in November, which itself was revised upward. Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics in London, wrote in a research note that German exporters have shown few signs of being hit by slowing global demand, and in fact the opposite may be happening because of the euro’s decline. “But we doubt that the resilience of exports will last, even if the euro weakens further,” she said. “German • TURN TO GERMANY, 2B

ROBYN BECK/AFP-GETTY IMAGES

BOOMING: Germany’s exports are keeping its economy strong. Carmaker Porsche’s sales shot up 86.4 percent in its first quarter.

11/26/2010 3:20:47 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

THE MIAMI HERALD

German economy remains on a high • GERMANY, FROM 1B

BILAL HUSSEIN/AP

BIG MONEY: The head of the Union of Arab Banks Adnan Youssif says bank deposits in the Arab world are on track to grow over 40 percent, topping $1.8 trillion, by the end of the year.

Arab bank deposits rise 40% BEIRUT — (AP) — Bank deposits in the Arab world are on track to grow over 40 percent, topping $1.8 trillion by the end of the year, the head of the Union of Arab Banks said Thursday. Adnan Youssif said the increase in deposits came as regional banks avoided “dangerous investments and complicated on obscure operations” that battered world ﬁnancial markets in 2008. Arab banks had little exposure to the subprime mort-

gagees and other risky investments that triggered the global ﬁnancial crisis. A number of Gulf Arab banks, however, have booked higher provisions amid lingering concerns about the fallout from Dubai’s debt woes and analysts say the true extend of some banks’ exposure to bad loans is not yet entirely clear. The stringent lending requirements laid down by many of the region’s banks, however, also mean that access to credit is often severe-

ly limited for companies and individuals. Youssif, speaking at the UAB’s annual meeting, said Arab banks’ assets are projected to climb to $3 trillion by the end of 2010, much higher than the combined gross domestic product of $2 trillion of the 22 Arab nations. “The Arab banking sector is bigger than the size of the Arab economy,” Youssif said, adding that the amount of loans given by the banks to the private and public sector stands at $1.5 trillion.

Joseph Torbey, the chairman of the World Union of Arab Bankers, said the success of Arab banks requires “a more efﬁcient participation in drafting major ﬁnancial, monetary and economic decisions issued by international institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.” The opening session of the conference was attended by visiting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey who called for closer cooperation between his country and Arab states.

exports [and business sentiment] have responded strongly to changes in world demand in the past and our global forecasts point to a very sharp slowdown to come. German exporters cannot rely on Asian demand alone.” A separate report Wednesday from Eurostat, the ofﬁcial statistics agency of the European Union, suggested caution was in order. New orders for industrial goods for the 16 nations included in the euro zone fell 3.8 percent in September from August; for all 27 members of the European Union, new orders fell 2.5 percent in September from August. Still, new orders were up by 13.5 percent from a year earlier in the eurozone and by 13.4 percent in the entire union. McKeown said ﬁscal tightening would constrain any consumer revival, and business and consumer sentiment could suffer as the eurozone bails out weaker members. However, the Ifo survey suggests Germany will keep driving the eurozone recovery “in the very near term at least,” she said. “We expect the region’s largest economy to expand by about 3.5 percent this

year before growth slows to about 1.5 percent in 2011.” In London, a report from the Office for National Statistics showed the British economy expanded by 0.8 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, confirming the initial estimate from October. Gross domestic product grew 2.8 percent from a year earlier. Scott Corfe, an economist at the Center for Economics and Business Research in London, wrote in a note that the figures were in line with market expectations, but said the details “reveal underlying weaknesses in the U.K. economy, which we believe will bear down on growth over the quarters ahead.” In particular, he noted, consumption, investment and government expenditure all slowed in the quarter, pointing to “frailty in the domestic demand side of the economy.” “There is certainly scope for private demand to disappoint,” Simon Hayes, an economist at Barclays Capital Research, wrote in an analysis. “However, the recent momentum in private demand provides plenty of headroom for a continued expansion even if these risks crystallize.”

EU court: Now EU worries about Spain Sweet potato not just There’s no for Thanksgiving such thing as ‘pure chocolate’ • SPAIN, FROM 1B

BY ROBERT WIELAARD Associated Press

BRUSSELS — There is no such thing as “pure chocolate,” the EU high court ruled Thursday, ending an EU-Italy food ﬁght over chocolate labels. The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union voided an Italian law that recognizes some delicacies as “pure chocolate.” The court said if a product is made from 100 percent cocoa butter, that fact must be listed on the ingredients table only. It also said the European Union’s 1999 chocolate labeling rules make no room for a “pure chocolate” reference like the one Italy enacted in a 2003 law. Once vegetable fats are included in the production of chocolate — a popular practice in some EU nations, notably Britain — then the label must say, “contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter,” the court said. The EU labeling rules took effect in 1999 after a lively debate pitting countries like Britain — where chocolate usually contains a substitute vegetable fats — against purists like Belgium, Italy and others, where traditionalist chocolate makers use only cocoa butter. EU spokesman Roger Waite welcomed Thursday’s court ruling, saying the EU rules pursue a fair balance between Europe’s two different chocolate cultures. “There is the culture of chocolate made purely from cocoa butter and there is the culture in a number of EU member states — including the United Kingdom — where there are other vegetable fats used,” he said. In 1999, all EU nations agreed “there would be something on the label making clear whether it’s pure cocoa butter” or not, said Waite. He said it was agreed to stick to the name chocolate but to let the ingredients indicate the quality of the chocolate. “This is where the Italian rules are not in conformity,” he added.

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Elena Salgado, Spain’s finance minister, insisted that Spain would not need rescuing. She told Spanish radio that “we are in the best position to resist against these speculative attacks.” Indeed, some say that one of Spain’s relative strengths is that a large amount of its government debt — ¤203.3 billion — is owed to its own banks, rather than foreign lenders. If the government’s financial condition worsens, the thinking goes, Spanish banks would have a greater incentive to help out by easing terms on the loans than would foreign banks, which might take a harder line. Of course, it is a bit of a double-edged sword; if the Spanish banks need to ease terms to help the government, they could be forced to swallow steep losses, hurting their balance sheets. The likelihood of entering such a vicious circle could also rise next year, when Spain is due to repay lenders ¤192 billion, or about a fifth of the total debt. As a result of increasing interest it would have to pay for new borrowing, Spain faces a rise of 18 percent in the cost of financing its debt, according to the government’s budgetary plan. Investors’ nervousness is mounting just as Madrid is reining in a budget deficit that reached 11.1 percent of gross domestic product lin 2009. Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, initially slow to recognize the crisis, narrowly pushed through Parliament last May an austerity package that included ¤15 billion of spending cuts. As a result, Spain’s central government deficit fell 47 percent in the first 10 months of this year, according to government figures released on Tuesday.

Ireland also made steep spending cuts, but still needed a bailout. The main reason is that its banks were a lot more troubled than the government realized, and it could not afford the cost of supporting them without help from Europe. The looming question: Are Spanish banks really as healthy as the government and the banks themselves say they are? Last July, Spanish banks emerged relatively unscathed from stress tests carried out across Europe, which showed that only five Spanish entities might have insufficient capital. All of them, however, were among the weaker cajas, or savings banks, that were already due to tap into a ¤99 billion state restructuring fund and get absorbed in a consolidation round aimed at cutting the number of cajas to about 20 from 45. But the credibility of the stress tests has since been undermined by the collapse of Irish banks. Even though Spanish banks avoided the catastrophic subprime investments made by Irish and many other European financial institutions, Spanish banks nonetheless had a “problematic exposure” of ¤180.8 billion to real estate and Spain’s collapsed construction sector, like substandard and repossessed assets, according to a study by the Bank of Spain. The bank has gradually been tightening the provisioning requirements for repossessed assets. Moreover, Spanish banks could suffer if Portugal’s financial problems worsen. Spain is not only Portugal’s biggest trade partner, it is also its biggest creditor, with Spanish banks holding $78 billion of Portuguese debt, according to the Bank for International Settlements. “Spain’s banks already have enough problems,

but the exposure to Portugal could just turn into the wild cart which upturns the whole apple cart,” said Edward Hugh, an independent economist based in Barcelona. Ireland’s near-collapse has revived investors concerns about Spanish banks, resulting in a plunge in their stock prices this week. Spain’s vulnerability would grow, warned Ralph Solveen, an economist covering Spain at Germany’s Commerzbank, should the government veer away from its deficit-cutting objectives or should Spanish banks show further signs of fragility. “One clear risk factor is the banking system and possible bad news from there, because then many people would start to draw parallels with the situation in Ireland, whether justified or not,” Solveen said. Another concern is that the central government’s cost-cutting zeal might not be matched by regional and local authorities, which accounted for 57 percent of public spending last year. Coming regional elections, starting with Catalonia this Sunday, could convince politicians to make some unsustainable spending pledges, in particular in regions like Andalusia, where some municipalities have already fallen behind in paying staff salaries. The central government, however, appears determined to force greater fiscal discipline even on Spain’s capital city. Last week, Zapatero rejected an appeal from the mayor of Madrid, which has a ¤7.15 billion debt pile, to relax recent restrictions on municipal debt issuance. “Saying ‘no’ to the most powerful municipality in this country does send a very strong signal,” said Antonio Fernandez, head of restructuring and insolvency at Garrigues, a Spanish law firm.

• SWEET POTATO, FROM 1B

Commission. “We think it’s long overdue.” There is no denying that sweet potato fries are at the center of the revolution. What began as innovation at the trendiest restaurants in San Francisco and New York in the 1980s has ﬁnally worked its way into the culinary mainstream. Over the past two years, the number of restaurants offering sweet potato fries has increased by 40 percent, according to a survey of the menus at 900 restaurants by Technomic, a market research ﬁrm. But the sweet potato’s recent appeal stretches beyond the deep-fat fryer. Both the South Beach Diet and Weight Watchers have promoted eating them, preferably roasted with healthy oil. Doctors and nutritional experts recommend sweet potatoes for people with diabetes or who want to eat low on the glycemic index, which measures the effect of carbohydrates on blood sugar. SWEET AND HEALTHY

“Within the diabetic community, it’s become pretty common knowledge that sweet potatoes are good for you, so there’s a groundswell because so many people have diabetes now,” said chef Michel Nischan, who owns the Dressing Room in Westport, Conn., and helps host dLife TV on CNBC, the ﬁrst television show for people with diabetes. “It’s a vegetable that has protein, which is fairly unusual, but it also has complex carbohydrates that don’t spike insulin,” said Clare Hasler, a nutrition and environmental

toxicology expert at the University of California, Davis. In North Carolina, where 47 percent of the nation’s sweet potatoes are grown, farmers are glad everyone else seems to be catching on to a classic Southern culinary tradition. It helps to replace the money that used to be made from growing tobacco and cotton. Stanley Hughes, a thirdgeneration farmer, has shifted some of his acreage from tobacco to sweet potatoes. This year, he put 28,000 plants in the ground. In 2011, he said he would increase that number to 40,000. LOCAL AGRICULTURE He and his wife, Linda Leach, sell three kinds of organic sweet potatoes at local farmers markets in Chapel Hill and Durham, including a market in the lobby of the North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill. Leach is particularly impressed by new enthusiasm from young urban cooks interested in sustainable agriculture and local food. “The only thing I can say is that the younger generation has become more and more health conscious and are leaning toward sweet potatoes,” she said. She and her husband plan to spend Thanksgiving with her 80-year-old mother in Lumberton, N.C. There, tradition comes in the form of sweet potato pudding. Boiled sweet potatoes are mashed with vanilla, spices, sugar and lemon, then mixed with eggs and milk and baked. And the marshmallows? “Never,” she said.

Panel approves national consumer complaints database • DATABASE, FROM 1B

The commission collects troves of data on safety-related complaints and problems about products, but that information is rarely made public because a provision in the commission’s authorizing law allows the information to be released only with a manufacturer’s approval.

“Consumers deserve to know the safety record of the products they buy,” said Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, in prepared remarks. “This database will be a great tool for consumers, and it has the necessary safeguards against incorrect information. It strikes a good

balance between consumers’ needs and companies’ concerns.” Richard Woldenberg, chairman of Learning Resources, an Illinois-based manufacturer of educational materials, said he was frustrated that the Democratic commissioners didn’t heed the concerns of manufacturers like him.

“Anybody who wants to can put garbage in this database that slanders me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it,” he said. “They are taking away a basic right of my company.” He is particularly bothered by the anonymity provisions of the database — complainants’ names are not disclosed without permis-

sion. If someone complained about a broken toy, Woldenberg said, he would have no picture of it, no sample and no way to get in touch with the consumer. “Before the government inserted themselves between me and my customer, I would talk to them,” he said. “We would work it out.”

11/26/2010 4:44:14 AM

THE MIAMI HERALD

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

BUSINESS BRIEFS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

Euro will survive debt crisis: Merkel

• NEW ZEALAND

BY MELISSA EDDY AND JUERGEN BAETZ Associated Press

EFFORTS: Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall has said the company was determined to recover the remains of 29 men who were declared dead after two explosions deep underground.

Mine recovery could take months From Miami Herald Wire Service

Officials say it could take weeks or months before the bodies of the victims of New Zealand’s mining disaster are recovered. Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said Thursday the company was determined to recover the remains of 29 men who were declared dead after two explosions deep underground. But there are still very high levels of potentially explosive gases in the mine that have made it too dangerous for anyone to enter since the first blast last Friday. Whittall said various options were being considered to make the mine safe but it could take weeks. • COST OF WAR SUDAN TO LOSE $50 BILLION IF WAR RETURNS A group of think tanks says in a new report that Sudan could lose at least $52.1 billion over 10 years if the country’s north and southern regions go to war again. The report says this is a conservative estimate of possible conflict that may occur after a January independence referendum for Southern Sudan is concluded. The figure does not include the human cost of north and south Sudan going back to the battlefield after five years of relative peace. The report is based on recognized models used to calculate the economic cost of war as well as World Bank and International Monetary Fund figures for Sudan.

limits and threaten the euro’s existence. Axel Weber, the head of Germany’s central bank and a leading rate-setter at the European Central Bank, said European nations would be willing to boost the emergency fund by as much as ¤100 billion ($133 billion) to fully cover the total public debt load of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. The four countries’ debt load totals a little more than 1 trillion, and Weber said about ¤925 billion are already guaranteed — adding up the ¤110 billion Greek loan package, the 750 billion fund and the government bonds bought by the ECB — leaving only a gap of about ¤100 billion. “It’s not the euro that is in danger, it’s the ﬁscal policy in some member states that got out of hand,” Weber

said. “The euro is one of the world’s most stable currencies,” he added. A spokesman for the EU’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, however, said there were no discussions to boost Europe’s emergency fund. “The ﬁnancial backstops are in place and they are well and substantially funded,” said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio. The leaders of Germany and France, the eurozone’s twin economic engines, were discussing the European debt crisis in a telephone call later Thursday. In the markets, investors continued to put pressure on Portugal and Spain, keeping their borrowing costs near euro-record highs. That reﬂects market uncertainty about the countries’ ability to pay off debts amid an economic downturn — and

fears that they will also need massive bailouts. Markets demand a higher return on bonds issued by countries seen as a risky investment. “Uncertainty has got a ﬁrm grip on the market, that much is clear,” said Filipe Silva, a debt manager at Portugal’s Banco Carregosa. “Comments by [European leaders] aren’t giving the market any sense of direction.” Silva said there was a clear trend toward pulling investments out of the eurozone’s weaker economies. The head of the European Union’s bailout fund, Klaus Regling, also defended the integrity of the eurozone. “No country will voluntarily give up the euro — for weaker countries that would be economic suicide, likewise for the stronger countries,” Regling said in Germany’s Bild newspaper Thursday.

BERLIN — The 16-nation euro currency will survive the debt crisis, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday, and a senior central banker said the European Union would be willing to increase its $1 trillion bailout fund if necessary. As Merkel spoke, the euro wallowed near two-month lows against the dollar. Some analysts predicted it would drop further as other heavily indebted countries, like Portugal and Spain, risk following Greece and Ireland in needing massive bailouts. The euro was down 0.3 percent Thursday at $1.3297 — from a recent high of $1.4244 on Nov. 4. “I’m more conﬁdent than this spring that the European Union will emerge strengthened from the current challenges,” Merkel told business leaders in Berlin, referring to May’s ¤110 billion ($146 billion) bailout of Greece by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. She said the crisis has strengthened the eurozone, leading EU leaders to agree on new rules for a tougher growth and stability pact, and bringing into operation the ¤ 750 billion ($1 trillion) emergency fund. “We now have a mechanism of collective solidarity for the euro,” she said. “And we all are ready, including Germany, to say that we now need a permanent crisis mechanism to protect the euro,” Merkel added. Experts say that while rescuing Greece, Ireland or even Portugal is manageable for the EU’s emergency fund, JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP-GETTY IMAGES bailing out Spain — whose POSITIVE: ‘I’m more confident than this spring that the European Union will economy is ﬁve times larger emerge strengthened from the current challenges,’ Merkel said referring to May’s than any of the other three $146 billion bailout of Greece by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. countries — would test its

• TRADING HARBINGER SELLS SHARES IN NEW YORK TIMES

Japan turns to Australia for rare earths

Harbinger Capital, the large hedge fund run by the embattled manager Philip Falcone, has sold off a signiﬁcant chunk of its stake in The New York Times, bringing its ownership in the newspaper company down to about 2.6 percent. The fund sold a block of 7 million shares at $8.13 a share for a total of about $57 million on Monday, according to a securities ﬁling. In late 2007 and early 2008, Harbinger bought about 20 percent of the company’s Class A shares at more than double what it sold the shares for this week. Before the sale, Harbinger was the company’s secondlargest shareholder, behind the mutual fund company T. Rowe Price Associates, with a 7.4 percent stake.

BY HIROKO TABUCHI

• PLANE CRASH GULF OIL SPILL RECOVERY EXEC DEAD IN CRASH A spokeswoman for energy giant BP says an executive helping to guide recovery from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill died with two others when a small plane crashed in waters off the Florida Panhandle. BP spokeswoman Hejdi Feick said that 58-year-old James Patrick Black was among the dead. He was the director of operations for BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, the business unit put together for recovery from April’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill capped last July. • DRUGS DEA TO BAN CHEMICALS IN SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA Reacting to what it called complaints from law enforcement and a surge in medical emergencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration said that it would ban several chemicals used to make so-called synthetic marijuana products, which resemble herbs or potpourri but mimic the effects of the drug when smoked. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the agency said it would use its emergency powers to bar possession and sale of five synthetic cannaboids whose effects mirror that of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which gives marijuana its potency. • COSTA RICA COURT ANNULS CANADIAN MINE CONCESSION A Costa Rican court has canceled a concession allowing the affiliate of a Canadian mining company to build a contested open-pit gold mine in the Central American nation. Industrias Infinito’s project had once been considered a national priority, but environmentalists argued it violated environmental laws and encroached on the protected habitat of the great green macaw. Opponents of the mine also alleged the concession was obtained irregularly. • BOEING FOREIGN DEBRIS PROBABLY SPARKED 787 FIRE Boeing says some kind of foreign debris probably caused the electrical fire on board one of its 787s earlier this month. The airplane maker says it still doesn’t know what the impact will be on the first delivery. Another delay is widely expected. Boeing says it will take a few more weeks to revise the schedule. Boeing says it simulated key aspects of the fire in a laboratory, and is fixing the design.

26PGB03.indd 3

New York Times Service

TOKYO — Less than a week after China resumed exports of crucial industrial minerals to Japan, a top Japanese trading company has announced a deal to reduce reliance on Beijing for mineral supplies. The Tokyo-based company, Sojitz, said it had signed a $250 million procurement deal with an Australian mining company and warned that the outlook for stable shipments from the Chinese mainland remained far from certain. The deal is the latest effort by Japan to diversify its sources of the minerals, known as rare earths, which are vital to the production of a wide range of high-technology products. Sojitz, the top Japanese trader in rare earths, said it had forged a deal with the Australian mining company Lynas to start shipping 3,000 tons a year of the minerals from a new mine, Mount Weld, beginning late next year. Sojitz and Lynas, based in Sydney, aim to increase shipments to more than

9,000 tons a year by early 2013, Satoshi Mizui, a senior vice president at Sojitz, said in Tokyo. “Of the various rare earth development projects around the world, Mount Weld has the potential to be ﬁrst to begin operations,” Mizui said. “With this deal, we aim to secure a stable supply of rare earths to Japan.” Sojitz will invest as much as $250 million in Lynas, which is preparing to open the Mount Weld mine in the state of Western Australia, Mizui said. The investment will be used by Lynas to expand capacity at Mount Weld, and Sojitz may acquire a direct stake in the mine in the future, he said. China now produces 95 percent of the world’s rare earths, and half of its exports of the minerals go to Japan — about 25,000 tons a year. But for two months beginning in mid-September, Beijing blocked Japan-bound shipments of the minerals after a dispute over islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China. In the dispute, Japanese

coast guard vessels intercepted a Chinese trawler and detained its captain off the disputed islands, which is between the two countries. Japan released the captain two weeks later, after protests from Beijing. Beijing resumed exports of rare earths to Japan late last week, with customs agents not only processing the paperwork for shipments but also allowing dockworkers to load containers of the minerals onto ships bound for Japan. The Japanese trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, on Wednesday confirmed the resumption of exports, saying two shipments had left China for Japan. Still, the halt has raised worries about an overdependence on China for products that are crucial for some of the most important Japanese industries, including automobiles, flat-screen televisions, computers and smart phones, as well as oil refining and wind turbines. Some industry executives also worry that China may further cut its quotas for

rare earths as Beijing seeks to save deposits for its own fast-growing industries. China is also clamping down on a black market in rare earth production and supply that has sprung up in response to growing global demand. Beijing cut its export quotas for rare earths 40 percent this year, to 30,300 tons. No more than 4,000 tons of that quota remains unﬁlled this year, which means shipments could stop again soon and not resume until quotas have been issued for 2011. Executives at Sojitz said that despite the resumption in exports from China, the company felt the need to forge links with other suppliers. Hiroshi Katano, manager of the section overseeing rare earths trading at Sojitz, said that the export resumption had been slow and tentative. Sojitz has not yet received word that its own shipments have left Chinese ports, he said. “The outlook for stable rare earth supplies from China remains uncertain,” Katano said. “We still feel it is imperative to develop other sources.”

Madoff trustee sues UBS, seeks $2 billion BY THOMAS KAPLAN

New York Times Service

The trustee charged with trying to recover money for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s huge Ponzi scheme has sued the Swiss bank UBS and its affiliates, accusing it of enabling the fraud. The complaint, filed in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan, N.Y., is seeking to recover at least $2 billion. UBS sponsored and administered several international feeder funds related to Madoff’s investment company. The complaint contends that UBS’s participation allowed for more than $1 billion to be funneled to Madoff — even as the bank knew a fraud was afoot and took steps to protect itself against liability if Madoff’s firm went under. UBS and its affiliates “chose to enable Madoff’s

fraud for their own gain,” netting more than $80 million in fees by administering the feeder funds Luxalpha and Groupement Financier. The bank’s involvement provided the funds a “facade of legitimacy,” according to the complaint. “The ‘fees’ they received in their various roles were nothing more than îfees’ for looking the other way, and lending their prestigious name to legitimize and attract money” to the Ponzi scheme, the complaint said. In a statement, a spokeswoman for UBS, Kelly Smith, called the allegations “completely unfounded and without merit” and said the bank would take all necessary steps to demonstrate that. “We regret that the trustee ﬁled this unwarranted complaint,” Smith said.

The lawsuit is the latest legal action by the trustee, Irving H. Picard, who has so far ﬁled some 20 complaints seeking to recover billions for the victims of Madoff’s $65 billion fraud. As of Sept. 30, Picard had recovered a total of $1.5 billion for the victims. The so-called clawback suit against UBS and its afﬁliates is expected to be followed by several similar actions in the coming weeks. Picard faces a deadline next month to initiate legal proceedings seeking to recover money. On the criminal side, two of Madoff’s former employees, including his onetime personal secretary, were indicted last week on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the Ponzi scheme, bringing to eight the number of people

charged in the case. Madoff himself is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison. The complaint contends that UBS and the other defendants are liable for at least $2 billion, including redemptions, fees earned and compensatory and punitive damages. It alleges 23 counts of fraud and breaches of fiduciary duty against the defendants. The complaint has been placed under seal, but Picard released a redacted version on Wednesday. It focuses on Luxalpha and Groupement Financier, which together withdrew nearly $800 million in the 90 days before Madoff’s firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, filed for bankruptcy, compared with withdrawals totaling $1.1 billion in the previous six years.

11/26/2010 3:38:59 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

U.S. AIRPORT SECURITY

MiamiHerald.com

THE MIAMI HERALD

Don’t touch my junk: TSA workers face a tough job BY TAMARA LUSH AND SARAH BRUMFIELD Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — They’ve been called molesters, threatened with violence and ordered not to touch “my junk.” One woman headbutted a TSA ofﬁcer who was searching her laptop. Other screeners report being punched, kicked and shoved during pat-downs. Security ofﬁcers know the new searches are more invasive but want travelers to keep in mind they are just doing their jobs to keep people safe. “We just want the public to understand that we’re not perverts,” said screener Ricky D. McCoy, who heads a local TSA union for Illinois and Wisconsin. TSA chief John Pistole has heard the complaints and seemed more open to trying to balance safety with invading people’s privacy with the pat-downs. “We are exploring again ways that they might be less invasive and yet with the same outcomes in terms of detection, but that is really the challenge that we have and that dynamic tension be-

tween security and privacy and reasonable people can disagree as to exactly where that blend is as it relates to you as a passenger,” Pistole told reporters this week. To be sure, most passengers are docile when going through an airport’s security checkpoint, though McCoy said the atmosphere has changed in the past two weeks. Last week, for instance, McCoy explained the search to a passenger. “The guy looked me straight in the face and said, ‘I don’t know what I might do to you if you touch me,’ ” said McCoy. McCoy stared the man down and told the passenger that touching an officer would be the worst mistake he’s ever made because authorities would be called. The search went smoothly. The new pat-downs began about a month ago, and early on, an officer was assaulted. Since the story made headlines, McCoy said officers at least six times have been punched, pushed or shoved after they explained what would be happening. He blamed TSA for the

OFFENDED: The collective unease of some travelers over invasions of privacy, intimate touching and general discomfort has led to a near-instant backlash. uproar, saying the agency didn’t reach out to passengers enough. “We have major problems because basically TSA never educated the public on what was going on,” McCoy said. “Our agency pretty much just threw the new search techniques out there.”

The collective unease of some U.S. citizens over possible invasions of privacy, intimate touching and general discomfort have led to a near-instant backlash. The Hawaii chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is planning to distribute ﬂyers to passengers explaining

their rights at checkpoints. News stories and videos of disabled passengers and children being screened aggressively haven’t helped, either. The nation has also paused to laugh. After all, this is the news story that spawned the phrase: “Don’t touch my junk.”

Those words were made famous a week ago by a Southern California man who uttered them to a TSA ofﬁcer while capturing the verbal showdown on his iPhone. A Google search of the phrase on Tuesday registered 4.2 million hits. Saturday Night Live jumped on the controversy last weekend, with a minutelong skit equating the TSA with a dating service. The skit ends: “It’s our business to touch yours.” TSA ofﬁcers have received eight to 12 hours of training on the pat-down procedure, said Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman in Tampa. Training on the scanning machines is a threeday process that requires on-the-job training. She said the agents must pass tests each year and requalify for their jobs. Still, passengers can avoid hassles. Koshetz suggested leaving items like phones, belts and heavy jewelry in their carry-ons, then taking them out after going through security. Chances of getting a pat-down increase if people set off the metal detector, she said.

Airport body scanner U.S. could learn from Israel inventor recalls opposition BY HELENE COOPER

New York Times Service

BY KATIE ZEZIMA

New York Times Service

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Thirty years ago, Martin Annis devised an X-ray technology for body scanners that unsettled some people. He had so much trouble ﬁnding a woman to test the machine on that he had to pay a family member $20 to try it. “We had difﬁculty getting volunteers because everybody wanted to see what a woman looked like,” said Annis, who founded an X-ray security system company in 1958. “It’s not very revealing. I don’t think anyone could recognize you.” Apparently, many people are still uneasy about the scanners, which are now at the heart of a roiling debate over how much is too much when it comes to the intrusiveness of airline security methods. If travelers do not wish to be subjected to the full-body scanner, they can opt instead for a pat-down by a Transportation Security Adminis-

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

UNEASY: A traveler undergoes a full body scan at the International Airport in Denver. tration ofﬁcer. Those options have angered travelers. A movement has emerged online that encouraged people traveling Wednesday — one of the busiest travel days of the year — to “opt out” of the body scan in an effort to snarl

security lines. Sitting in the living room of his apartment, Annis, 88, said such protests were “not helpful.” “We’re trying to prevent terrorists from blowing up airplanes,” he said. But he did agree with one facet of the protests — he objects to the TSA’s new patdown policy, which he said could be avoided by using his machine. “They’re somehow associating the pat-down with the technology,” Annis said. “I think the pat-down is very invasive and very annoying. It’s one of the worst things they’ve ever done.” Around 1980 Annis developed the Z Backscatter X-ray system, which does not penetrate the body deeply and shows forms that are not a natural part of the human body — like if someone taped a piece of plastic to his body, he said. “I think it’s a small number of people,” who are upset about the machines, Annis said.

WASHINGTON — Amid the uproar that airport screenings have become too intrusive, some U.S. citizens are now asking why the United States cannot do it like the Israelis. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., a critic of the Obama administration’s new screening methods, says the Transportation Security Administration should look at the process in Israel, which uses early detection techniques at airports. An editorial in The Washington Times last week praised El Al, the Israeli national airline, as employing the “smarter approach” of using “sophisticated intelligence analysis which allows them to predict which travelers constitute a possible threat and which do not.” As it turns out, the security methods employed by Israel’s Shin Bet security service at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv are frequently stricter and more intrusive than the full-body scanners and patdowns that U.S. ofﬁcials put

Pat-down U.S. worried over PETN explosive leaves man covered in urine BY BRIAN BENNETT

Tribune Washington Bureau

ROMULUS, Mich. — (AP) — A bladder cancer survivor from Michigan who wears a bag that collects his urine said the head of the Transportation Security Administration called to apologize for an airport pat-down that caused the bag to spill its contents on his clothing. Tom Sawyer, a 61-yearold retired special education teacher, said the experience left him in tears before he caught a ﬂight to Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 7. “I was absolutely humiliated. I couldn’t even speak,” the Houghton Lake man told MSNBC.com. Sawyer said TSA chief John Pistole called him Monday and apologized on behalf of the TSA. Sawyer told The Detroit News that he “very graciously” accepted Pistole’s apology. “Here I am, just an average citizen from a small town,” Sawyer told the Detroit Free Press. “I told him, ‘I only want training for the agents on medical conditions.’ ” Sawyer said that once he got through security, he changed his bag, but didn’t have time to change his clothing and had to board the plane soaked in urine. “I was embarrassed to death,” he told the Free Press.

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WASHINGTON — New airport security procedures that have stirred the emotions of air travelers — full body scans and aggressive pat-downs — were largely designed to detect an exotic explosive powder called PETN, which has been a staple of al Qaeda bomb makers for nearly a decade. It was PETN that was molded into the sole of Richard Reid’s black high-tops sneaker when he walked onto American Airlines Flight 63 bound for Miami in December 2001. It was PETN that was sewn into the underwear of Umar Abdulmutallab when he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. And it was PETN that al Qaeda operatives in Yemen packed inside printer cartridges that were shipped on Oct. 28, intending to blow up planes en route to Chicago. None of the plots succeeded in taking down an aircraft, but top U.S. ofﬁcials are concerned about fresh indications that al Qaeda remains determined to get PETN on airplanes by trying to exploit vulnerabilities in passenger and cargo screening. Not only has al Qaeda acknowledged its role in previous bomb plots, it is also sharing what it knows about building bombs on the web and elsewhere. PETN, or pentaerythritrol tetranitrate, presents

some vexing challenges to security experts. A powder about the consistency of fine popcorn salt, it will not trigger an alarm on a metal detector. Because of its more stable molecules, PETN gives off less vapor, making it more difficult to detect by bomb-sniffing dogs and the trace swabs used by the TSA. PETN’s stability makes it easy to hide and easily transformed. When mixed with rubber cement or putty, it becomes a rudimentary plastic explosive — a baseball-sized amount of it can blow a hole in an airplane fuselage. “PETN is hard to detect and lends itself to being concealed,” said an intelligence official who was not authorized to speak on the record. “It packs a punch.”

One way to detect PETN is through its detonator, which typically uses materials that are easier to detect. The fact that PETN has been the common denominator in all of the bombs is a major reason why TSA is unlikely to yield substantially in its search for practical ways to prevent the deadly powder from making it aboard a plane. A TSA program to identify suspicious behavior in search lines has deployed roughly 3,000 agents in more than 160 U.S. airports. Ofﬁcers are trained to identify suspicious facial expressions and body language by walking up and down the line, initiating conversations and pulling passengers for additional screening.

MCT

BEST INTENTIONS: Full body scans and pat-downs were designed to detect an explosive powder, PETN, which has been a staple of al Qaeda bomb makers for nearly a decade.

into place Nov. 1, said security analysts and the travelers who regularly show up at the Ben-Gurion four hours before their flights for screening. The Israeli system relies on steps that would be likely to provoke U.S. opposition on civil liberties grounds: collecting detailed information about passengers before they fly. Besides, Israel has only two airports and 50 flights a day, compared with 450 airports and thousands of daily flights in the United States. The administration argues that by focusing on the search for weapons — in contrast to the Israelis, who focus on finding terrorists — the United States is mounting a valuable and necessary last line of defense without undermining civil liberties. The multiethnic U.S. population makes it more difficult here than in Israel to profile possible terrorists, experts say. On Monday, administration officials said that they would try to iron out the kinks in the system in response to public concerns,

but they maintained that the new system would be around as long as there were people seeking to blow up planes. Israeli officials say that any passenger trying to board El Al is subject to questions from security agents. “Everybody gets asked, who you are, where are you traveling to,” one Israeli official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity because he did not want to speak publicly about the security measures. The agents asking the questions, he said, “are very well trained. Depending on what you say, they will put you through an additional screening.” Some travelers say they would rather go through a full body scan than the system at Ben-Gurion airport. “My experience leaving Tel Aviv was by far and away the most unpleasant encounter I’ve ever had with airport security officials in the decade,” said Matthew Yglesias, a blogger with the Center for American Progress.

Distrust over safety drive by government BY MATT BAI

New York Times Service

WASHINGTON — The latest controversy to envelop the Obama administration is only partly about the specific rules governing body scanners and pat-downs. It has to do, too, with the federal agency that Congress created to deal with airline security and the tension that has been building for years between its latex-gloved employees and the traveling public. In this way, the “Don’t touch my junk” fiasco raises, yet again, what has become the central theme of Barack Obama’s presidency: United States’ faltering confidence in the ability of government to make things work. From stimulus spending and the healthcare law to the federal response to oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama has continually stumbled — blindly, it seems — into some version of the same debate, which is about whether we can trust federal bureaucracies to expand their reach without harming citizens or industry. For all its proposed expansions of government at a time of economic crisis, the White House has only sporadically and in limited ways focused its attention on reforming bureaucracies in the way that former U.S. president Bill Clinton did. And even in their policy successes, the administration and its Congressional allies have sometimes furthered

the image of government as less than ruthlessly efﬁcient. It’s not hard to see how the sudden uproar over body scanners — however critical for airline security — plays into this larger mistrust. The Transportation Security Administration grew out of a moment in 2001 when U.S. citizens seemed open to the notion of a more expansive federal presence. But as memories receded and no other planes became weapons of mass destruction, the urgency of that moment gave way to frustration with a constantly changing array of orders — “Hand over the toothpaste! Lose the baby milk!” — meant to thwart one new threat or another. White House aides expressed shock this week at how controversial TSA has now become. They seem to regard this latest argument as a distraction from the security issues that matter more, not to mention a showcase for hypocrisy, since a lot of the Republicans now attacking them have called in the past for stricter screening. But this is just the latest iteration of a larger debate that surrounds much of what Obama does. And, just as with the health care protests and the reaction to the BP oil spill in 2009, the administration’s surprise seems to indicate that it still doesn’t quite get what that debate is really about.

11/26/2010 2:59:48 AM

THE MIAMI HERALD

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

SCIENCE

WHAT LIES BENEATH: Russian scientist Sergey Zimov, at left, demonstrates the emission of methane trapped under a frozen Siberian lake near the town of Chersky, Russia. Dmitri Draluk, at right, of the University of Alaska, installs an under-ice bubble trap on a lake in Siberia. Although gas locked inside Siberia’s frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out for more than 10,000 years, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly in the last few decades.

Leaking Siberian

ice raises climate concern ARTHUR MAX/AP

BY ARTHUR MAX

Associated Press

CHERSKY, Russia — A Russian scientist shuffles across the frozen lake, scuffing aside ankle-deep snow until he finds a cluster of bubbles trapped under the ice. With a cigarette lighter in one hand and a knife in the other, he lances the ice like a blister. Methane whooshes out and bursts into a thin blue flame. Gas locked inside Siberia’s frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — at a perilous rate. Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere. “Here, total carbon storage is like all the rain forests of

KATEY WALTER/AP

our planet put together,” says the scientist, Sergey Zimov — “here” being the endless sweep of snow and ice stretching toward Siberia’s gray horizon, as seen from Zimov’s research facility nearly 220 miles above the Arctic Circle. Climate change moves back to center stage on Nov. 29 when governments will meet in Cancun, Mexico, to try again to thrash out a course of counteractions. But U.N. ofﬁcials hold out no hope the two weeks of talks will lead to a legally binding accord governing carbon emissions, seen is the key to averting what is feared might be a dramatic change in climate this century. Most climate scientists, with a few dissenters, say human activities — the stuff of daily life like driving cars, producing electricity or raising cattle — is overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that trap heat, causing a warming effect. But global warming is ampliﬁed in the polar regions. What feels like a modest temperature rise is enough to induce Greenland glaciers to retreat, Arctic sea ice to con-

tract in summer, and permafrost to thaw faster, both on land and under the seabed. Yet awareness of methane leaks from permafrost is so new that it was not even mentioned in the seminal 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned of rising sea levels inundating coastal cities, dramatic shifts in rainfall disrupting agriculture and drinking water and the extinction of species. “In my view, methane is a serious sleeper out there that can pull us over the hump,” said Robert Corell, an eminent U.S. climate change researcher and Arctic specialist. Corell, speaking by telephone from a conference in Miami, said he and other U.S. scientists are pushing Washington to deploy satellites to gather more information on methane leaks. “Methane is a different story,” said its 2009 report. The Arctic is responsible for up to 9 percent of global methane emissions. Other methane sources include landﬁlls, livestock and fossil fuel production. Katey Walter Anthony, of the University of Alaska Fair-

banks, has been measuring methane seeps in Arctic lakes in Alaska, Canada and Russia, starting here around Chersky 10 years ago. She was stunned to see how much methane was leaking from holes in the sediment at the bottom of one of the first lakes she visited. “On some days it looked like the lake was boiling,” she said. “The edges of the lake look like someone eating a cookie,” she said in an interview in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, en route to a field trip in Greenland and Scandinavia. More than 50 billion tons could be unleashed from Siberian lakes alone, more than 10 times the amount now in the atmosphere, she said. But the rate of defrosting is hard to assess with the data at hand. “If permafrost were to thaw suddenly, in a flash, it would put a tremendous amount of carbon in the atmosphere. We would feel temperatures warming across the globe. And that would be a big deal,” she said. But it may not happen so quickly. As the earth warms, the summer thaw bites a bit deeper, awakening ice-age

microbes that attack organic matter — vegetation and animal remains — buried where oxygen cannot reach, producing methane that gurgles to the surface and into the air. The newly released methane adds to the greenhouse effect, trapping yet more heat which deepens the next thaw, in a spiraling cycle of increasing warmth. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in its 2010 Arctic Report Card issued last month, said the average temperature of the permafrost has been rising for decades, but noted “a significant acceleration” in the last five years at many spots on the Arctic coast. One of those spots would be Chersky, an isolated town on the bank of the Kolyma River at the mouth of the East Siberia Sea. The ground in this remote corner of the world, 4,000 miles east of Moscow, has warmed about 3.6 Fahrenheit in the last five years, to about 23 F today, says Zimov, director of the internationally funded Northeast Science Station, which is about 2 miles from town. The warming is caus-

ing the landscape to buckle under his feet. “I live here more than 30 years . . . There are many [dirt] roads in our region which I used or built myself, but now I can’t use anymore. Now they look like canyons,” he says. As the air warms, the tops of the wedges melt and create depressions in the land. Water either forms a lake or runs off to lower ground, creating a series of steep hillocks and gullies. During summer, lakeside soil may erode and tumble into the water, settling on the bottom where bacteria eat it and cough up yet more methane. The process takes a long time, but Zimov has done a simulation by bulldozing trees and scraping off moss and surface soil from 2.5 acres of former larch forest, rendering it as if it had been leveled by ﬁre. Seven years later the previously ﬂat terrain is carved up with crevices 10 to 15 feet deep, creating a snowy badlands. Gazing across a white river to the apartment blocks on a distant hill, Zimov said, “In another 30 years all of Chersky will look like this.”

Method to erase traumatic memories may be on the horizon BY MEREDITH COHN

The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — Soldiers haunted by scenes of war and victims scarred by violence may wish they could wipe the memories from their minds. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University say that may someday be possible. A commercial drug remains far off — and its use would be subject to many ethical and practical questions. But scientists have laid a foundation with their discovery that proteins can be removed from the brain’s fear center to erase memories forever. “When a traumatic event occurs, it creates a fearful memory that can last a lifetime and have a debilitating effect on a person’s life,” says Richard L. Huganir, professor and chair of neuroscience in the Hopkins School of Medicine. He said his ﬁnding on the molecular process “raises the possibility of manipulating those mechanisms with drugs to enhance behavioral therapy for such conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder.” The research has drawn interest from some involved in mental healthcare, and some concern. Kate Farinholt, executive director of the mental health support and information group NAMI Maryland, said many people suffering from a traumatic event might beneﬁt from erasing a memory. But there are a lot of unanswered questions, she said. “Erasing a memory and then everything bad built on that is an amazing idea, and I can see all sorts of potential,” she said. “But completely deleting a memory, assuming it’s one memory, is a little scary. How do you remove

26PGB05.indd 5

a memory without removing a whole part of someone’s life, and is it best to do that, considering that people grow and learn from their experiences.” Past research already had shown that a speciﬁc form of behavior therapy seemed to erase painful memories. But relapse was possible because the memory wasn’t necessarily gone. By looking at that process, Huganir and postdoctoral fellow Roger L. Clem discovered a “window of vulnerability” when unique receptor proteins are created. The proteins mediate signals traveling within the brain as painful memories are made. Because the proteins are unstable, they can be easily removed with drugs or behavior therapy during the window, ensuring the memory is eliminated. Researchers used mice to ﬁnd the window, but believe the process would be the same in humans. They conditioned the rodents with electric shocks to fear a tone. The sound triggered creation of the proteins, called calcium-permeable AMPARS, which formed for a day or two in the fear center, or amygdala, of the mice’s brains. The researchers are working on ways to reopen the window down the road by recalling the painful memory, and using medication to eliminate the protein. That’s important because doctors often don’t see victims immediately after a traumatic event. PTSD, for example, can surface months later. Connie Walker, a Leonardtown, MD., mother of an Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD, said there isn’t enough attention given to the injuries of service mem-

bers in general and she specifically supports research into PTSD-related therapy. But Walker, a 23-year-Navy veteran herself, said she wouldn’t want her son to take a medication to erase what he witnessed. She said her son began functioning well after he was ﬁnally able to get therapy, which she said should be more readily available to every wounded veteran. “My gut reaction to a drug that erases memories forever is to be frightened,” she said. “A person’s memory is very much a part of who they are. I recognize we all have some bad memories, though I doubt they can compete with what’s coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. But how can a drug like that be controlled? What else gets eliminated accidentally?” For now, there aren’t yet drugs to erase memories. But there are medications also targeting the amygdala and used with behavior therapy

Wolpe said it can be called to erase that much of a person’s that can lessen the emotional when someone life,” he said. “You’d leave a giresponse to painful memories dementia in those with PTSD, such as forgets that much of their ant hole in a person’s history. I tend to doubt you’d even be propranolol, a beta blocker past. “I don’t know what it means able to.” commonly used to treat hypertension. Paul Root Wolpe, director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta, says permanently erasing memories in humans, if it can be done, wouldn’t be a lot different ethically than such behavior modiﬁcation. Both are memory manipulation. But he said erasing memories is fraught with many more potential pitfalls. He also said that PTSD sufferers, such as service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, frequently experience more than one traumatic event, and trying to eliminate all the memories could signiﬁcantly alter a person’s personality and history. So could forgetting a whole person after a painful loss or breakup, as depicted in the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Works and installations by Spotless Mind.

Professional Writing Skills in English The Herald International Media Group offers services to individuals and companies requiring expertise and deftness in the use of the English language. Our staff is available for drafting and perfecting correspondence, corporate reports, catalog preparation and a wide variety of other business communication.

PAPERMAN Korean sensation Lee Joo-youn

DiasporaVibe Gallery, Miami — Galerie Lee, Paris — Kimi Art, Seoul — and Germany’s premiere print exhibition, ‘Lino Cut Today’ in Beitigheim-Bissingen.

For further details, please contact Isabel Entenza: ientenza@heraldimg.com

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11/26/2010 3:30:34 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

THE MIAMI HERALD

DIVERSIONS GARFIELD

BY JIM DAVIS

BY SCOTT ADAMS

Opening lead — ♣ king

ruff two clubs in dummy. South took trick one with On this deal from the first dummy’s ace, cashed the top hearts, discarding a diamond, session of last year’s Blue crossed to the diamond ace Ribbon Pairs, South, with eight tricks in his hand facing and ruffed a club. He now WEST EAST played the diamond queen, an opening bid, decided to ♠J84 ♠5 ♥ Q J 10 4 3 eschew a scientific approach. ruffing it in hand, and ruffed ♥76 his last club. It is better to play the direct ◆ K 10 6 ◆732 ♣KQ632 ♣ 10 9 8 7 four-no-trump response as He only had to get back to hand to draw trumps to asking for aces, but North SOUTH land his ambitious contract, and South were at least on ♠ A K Q 10 7 6 2 and we can see that a diathe same wavelength. After ♥9 mond ruff is the way to do it. discovering that his partner ◆A5 However, there was a probheld the relevant key-cards, ♣J54 lem, because on the second South took a shot at seven round of diamonds West had spades. Vulnerable: Both followed with the king! Dealer: North At first things were going That brilliant falsecard smoothly, but then came The bidding: induced declarer to return a hitch. Nikolay Demirev South West North East (West) rejected the tradition- to hand by ruffing a heart, 1♥ Pass which West was able to overal (but perhaps overrated) Pass 4 NT Pass 5 ♣* ruff. How much more satisfylead of a trump in favor of Pass 5 NT Pass 6♥ ing than to lead a trump and the club king. That appears All pass 7♠ to be a catastrophic decision defeat the contract in more *Zero or three key-cards, pedestrian fashion. counting the trump king as an when you look at all four hands, as declarer can now ace —BOBBY WOLFF 11-26 NORTH ♠93 ♥AK852 ◆QJ984 ♣A

DILBERT

For more comics & puzzles, go to www.MiamiHerald.com/comics.

ACES ON BRIDGE

CHESS QUIZ ZITS

BY JIM BORGMAN AND JERRY SCOTT

PEANUTS CLASSICS

BY CHARLES SCHULZ

BLACK HAS A CRUSHER Hint: Better than ... Rxa6.

Solution: 1. ... Rg2! (threatens 2. ... Rxa2, as well as 2. ... Ne2 and 3. ... Ng3 mate).

DEAR ABBY

BALDO

BY HECTOR CANTU AND CARLOS CASTELLANOS

DOONESBURY

BABY BLUES

BY GARRY TRUDEAU

BY RICK KIRKMAN AND JERRY SCOTT

Dear Abby: My husband and I returned to our hometown and bought a bungalow in a cute older neighborhood. The homes are close together, separated by a single driveway. Our neighbors on both sides of us are smokers. They smoke on their front porches and flick their smoldering butts onto the driveway and yard. The ground is littered with them, which my two toddlers want to put into their mouths every time they go outside. Often I’ll go out with a bag and collect the butts, but it’s annoying having to pick up someone’s easily discarded trash — particularly trash that has been in someone’s mouth. My neighbors are pretty rough, and I’m afraid a confrontation could result in an escalation of the problem. Should I continue gathering up the butts and keep my mouth shut? Or should I just “butt out”? Bothered in Missouri If you are concerned about a hostile reaction from your neighbors, do not approach them — particularly if you’re afraid that doing so could become confrontational. Instead, plant hedges or bushes between your property and theirs, and have your children play — under your supervision — in the backyard.

the rest of the family is cooperating in isolating her. However, you are an adult. Whom you choose to befriend is your business, not your mother’s. If you wish to pursue a relationship with Aunt Sandy, you are free to do so. And if you don’t want your mother to be “hurt,” don’t discuss it with her. Dear Abby: I was walking to lunch a few days ago and approached the entrance of a restaurant a couple of seconds after a man approaching from the opposite direction. He was a gentleman and held the door for me. I said thank you and walked inside. Even though he was there first, I wound up in front of him in a long line. Are there rules of etiquette for this? I felt a little awkward essentially cutting in line after he was so chivalrous. Nicole in Denver There is no rule of etiquette that dictates it, but you could have offered the gentleman a chance to be in line in front of you. However, if you did, he might have extended his chivalry further and refused.

Dear Abby: My mom has three sisters, two of whom I am very close to and love dearly. The problem is the third sister, “Aunt Sandy.” She had a falling out with Mom a few years ago and is now considered the black sheep of the family. At my grandmother’s funeral, I had the chance to sit and talk with her, and I didn’t feel I was doing anything wrong. However, my mom told me later she was “hurt” because I had talked to Aunt Sandy knowing the family is upset with her. Mom said she’d appreciate it if I didn’t do it again. I tried to explain that the way she feels about her sister shouldn’t have anything to do with our relationship, but Mom refuses to understand. I want a connection with my Aunt Sandy without hurting my mom. Please help. We’re Still Related

ANSWER TO THURSDAY’S PUZZLE:

I wish you had told me in more detail why your mother is angry with Sandy, and why

HOROSCOPE IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: The roller coaster of life might give you a ride to remember this year. Enjoy the best that life has to offer, especially in January and February, when your popularity gets a boost from the stars. • SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Keeping up with the Joneses isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Wait to make important decisions. • CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Overcome a desire for luxury items and sidestep a flirtation with someone who is all hot air.

JUMBLE

• AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A snake-oil salesman might slither past your door. Wait for a better day to sign agreements. • PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Look for the good in people and you will find it. It is too easy to debate philosophies now. • ARIES (March 21-April 19): You sometimes have more enthusiasm than common sense and can waste resources. • TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Happy ever after comes one day at a time. Make the best of a current situation. • GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are susceptible to flattery and misdirection. You have a tendency to only hear what you want to hear. • CANCER (June 21-July 22): Tread water. You could be disappointed by results if you lock in the terms of a contract or agreement now. • LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Meet life without strife. Friendly persuasion in the marketplace should not be paired with flirtation. • VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Realists paint a true picture. Remain skeptical of promises and hold off on initiating major undertakings. • LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You might not feel completely secure about your powers to charm and persuade if you compare yourself to others. However, you still have unique talents. • SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The tongue can be tangled even if not forked. Someone with powerful linguistic skills can wrap you around his or her little finger.

26PGB06.indd 6

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Hardwood source 5 Capital near Casablanca 10 Homecoming attendee, briefly 14 Yodeler’s response? 15 Muscle weakness 16 Clair de ___ (porcelain glaze) 17 The Bounty’s men 18 John B of song, for one 19 Cuzco inhabitant 20 Circus attraction 23 Renter’s agreement 24 “Million” ending 25 Mortarboard accessory 28 Treatment centers 30 Sty cry 31 Geologic time before life 33 Commuter’s option 36 Circus attraction 40 More than mere intuition 41 Seeped slowly 42 Starter chips 43 Author Tyler or Rice 44 Keg feature 46 “Plus” terminal 49 Herd member 51 Circus attraction 57 Tract surrounded by water 58 Athenian marketplace

59 Intrigued by 60 Stare at heavenly bodies? 61 Fork part 62 Unlike many a dorm room 63 Potential swing 64 Not at all relaxed 65 Stork’s supper, sometimes DOWN 1 Georgia or Louisiana follower? 2 Raw silk hue 3 “I’m waiting!” 4 Stanley in “A Streetcar Named Desire” 5 Rogue 6 Book full of legends? 7 Trailblazing Daniel 8 Erelong 9 The problem wiht this clue 10 Con man’s excuses 11 Associated with the moon 12 “I give up!” 13 Daily sustenance 21 Word on wedding announcements 22 Civil Rights org. 25 Type of bag or board 26 Hangs on the line

27 Break sharply 28 Word accompanying a gavel rap 29 Round dessert 31 Woodcutting tool 32 End of a well-known list 33 Din from dynamite 34 Golden Rule preposition 35 “Don’t change it”

37 38 39 43 44

Large musical combo Geological span Recession victim? Be glued (to) Waste at a treatment plant 45 Black-eyed item 46 Not perfectly upright 47 Japanese immigrant’s

48 49 50 52 53 54 55 56

child Peeping Tom, for one Cuddle, in a way Gull-like birds Fully engrossed Nursery-rhyme baddie Leg joint Academic paper abbr. Goes to the dogs

11/25/2010 8:48:33 PM

THE MIAMI HERALD

MiamiHerald.com

SPORTS

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

Coaching crossfire: Van Gundy vs. Jackson BY JONATHAN ABRAMS

New York Times Service

The Orlando coach, Stan Van Gundy, never one to filter his opinions, has fired back after the Lakers coach, Phil Jackson, compared the Miami Heat’s coaching situation to the predicament Van Gundy faced while coaching Miami five years ago. The comments did not involve Van Gundy’s or Jackson’s current teams. They did, however, involve a figure familiar to both: Pat Riley.

Jackson, speaking Tuesday with a Chicago radio station, said the Heat’s relatively slow start despite the additions of LeBron James and Chris Bosh could result in the ﬁring of Coach Erik Spoelstra. Jackson then likened the Heat’s current situation to that of 2005-06, when Miami Coach Stan Van Gundy abruptly resigned 21 games into the season and Riley returned to the bench from the front ofﬁce and

led the Heat to the NBA title. Jackson, who has made a career out of collecting championships and throwing mental jabs, said on ESPN 1000: “The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited — Bosh and James — Pat Riley and Micky Arison, the owner, are going to come in and say: ‘We feel you can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the

hopes that this would work,’ and whatever, I don’t know. That’s kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don’t straighten out here soon, it could be the Van Gundy thing all over again.” Van Gundy, whose team hosted the Heat (8-6) on Wednesday, responded strongly. “Phil has no idea what the Van Gundy situation was because, even though he coaches in our league, he certainly

had no insight or knowledge of that,” he told reporters in Florida. “So an analogy he’d make to my situation would be totally useless because he doesn’t have any clue what the situation was in that case.” Van Gundy added: “To second-guess another coach and comment on a situation he knows nothing about — it’s inappropriate and it’s also ignorant. I don’t mean that comment-

Vegas aims to boost golf in Venezuela BY FABIOLA SANCHEZ Associated Press

CARACAS — While some golfers in Venezuela see a dim future, Jhonattan Vegas sees an opportunity. Vegas has become the first Venezuelan to earn a PGA Tour card at the same time that golf is under assault in his country with President Hugo Chavez calling it a pastime of the rich and threatening to seize elite clubs to make way for public housing. Chavez’s government already has shut down some courses, including the one where Vegas’ father was the groundskeeper and first introduced his son to the game. The 26-year-old Vegas qualified for the 2011’s PGA Tour by finishing among the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list in his third season of professional golf. He wants to use his position on the PGA Tour to help keep golf alive in his homeland, particularly among those who can’t afford to join expensive private clubs. “One of the things I hope to do for the country is take the sport to the people, and to have people get to know golf a lot better,” Vegas said in an interview with The Associated Press. When he secured his card in October, Vegas achieved a dream that long eluded Venezuelan golfers. “We come from a super humble family that always had to work to achieve things,” Vegas said. “But my father always gave every-

Pakistan falls to Afghans in cricket • ASIAN GAMES, FROM 8B

biggest upsets of the day. Afghanistan scored 125-8 and then held Pakistan to 103-7, giving the upstart side a 22-run win. Bangladesh then beat Sri Lanka by five wickets, surpassing Sri Lanka’s total of 101 with 4.4 overs to spare. Afghanistan coach, former Pakistan test cricketer Rashid Latif, used some not-so-subtle motivation to inspire his side. He handdelivered a message containing a Koranic verse. “Do not be scared of your rivals in WAR. Understand that they are also humans and are scared as well,” Latif wrote in his note to every Afghani cricketer in the Athletes Village on Wednesday night. “I kept reminding players about my last night’s message,” Latif told The Associated Press as he wrapped an Afghan flag around his shoulders. “I know more than 500,000 people back in my city of Jalalabad would have already started celebrating,” Afghan allrounder Karim Khan Sadeq told The Associated Press. Vietnam, after winning 15 silver and 13 bronze medals, finally got its first gold of the games. Phuong Le Bich beat world champion Miki Kobayashi of Japan 4-3 to win the under-55 kilogram class in karate.

26PGB07.indd 7

ing on Phil’s intelligence. He’s obviously a very smart guy. I mean it as ignorant; he doesn’t know what that situation was and he doesn’t know what the situation is now.” When Van Gundy resigned in 2005, he said it was because he wanted to spend more time with his children. Despite rumors, Van Gundy said that neither Riley, who was and is the team president, nor team ownership forced him to leave.

Mourinho charged over ‘deliberate’ red cards • SOCCER, FROM 8B

FERNANDO LLANO/AP

AGAINST THE ODDS: Jhonattan Vegas has become the first Venezuelan to earn a PGA Tour card at the same time that golf is under assault in his country with President Hugo Chavez calling it a pastime of the rich and threatening to seize elite clubs to make way for public housing. thing he had to provide us with that opportunity.” Especially out on the fairways. Vegas grew up with his parents and three brothers in a remote oil drilling camp in Morichal, in the swath of oil ﬁelds along the Orinoco River. His father sold food to the oil workers and was the groundskeeper for

the camp’s nine-hole golf course. That now-abandoned course is one of six that have been closed by Venezuela’s government in the past seven years — all but one of them on land owned by the state oil company. It’s a disappointing trend for Vegas. “Unfortunately here in

Venezuela, they’re closing the courses on us instead of opening new ones” as many countries are around the world, he said. Chavez has warned that he could expropriate private courses in Caracas to make way for public housing complexes. In one televised appearance in 2009, Chavez called golf a “bourgeois

sport” while discussing his plans for transforming Venezuela into a socialist state. For his part, Vegas says Venezuelan golfers haven’t done enough to broaden the sport’s popularity. “We’ve created that stigma because in reality we haven’t done anything to take golf to the people,” he said.

Kaymer ahead of McDowell in Dubai • GOLF, FROM 8B

as Kaymer ﬁnishes no higher than a tie for third. If McDowell is tied for second, Kaymer could afford to ﬁnish as low as sixth. “I’m very happy, good start — 67 is a great round,” Kaymer said. “I played solid golf. My putting felt good.” Kaymer, who is known for his big hitting and quite demeanor, said he was able to focus on his game rather than the battle with his playing partner McDowell after he raced out to a three-shot leader after three holes, capped by an eagle on the third when he holed out from 197 yards. “I was 3-under after three holes. He was level par. So those things helped me to focus more on my

game,” Kaymer said. “If it would have been the other way around, I don’t know how I would have reacted, but that deﬁnitely helped. And I think you always have to remind yourself why you are here, to win the golf tournament and get back it to the basics and try to avoid to focus on different things than your own game.” McDowell, who had come in brimming with conﬁdence and saying he relished the head-to-head format, was left wondering how he slipped behind so early in the tournament. “Obviously it was a tough day because Martin gets out of the traps early . . . and kind of left me in the dust, literally, out there,” he said. “I was kind of struggling to get things going a little bit

and a couple of careless 3 putts around the turn. I 3-putted 9 and 11 and 12 and things seemed to be getting away from me a little bit.” But McDowell did take some consolation with the way he recovered on the back nine. “I was happy to dig in coming in and make a couple of birdies, and I certainly didn’t play myself out of the tournament today,” he said. “There were some good scores and it was a tricky day. Like I say, I didn’t play myself out it. I need a big weekend from here.” The day’s unlikely leader was Karlsson, whose only tournament victory this year was in Qatar and who admitted afterward that his conﬁdence was not good coming into the tournament. In his last outing

in Singapore he finished 115th and before that 34th in China. Karlsson’s day started with a bogey but he reeled off eight birdies and an eagle after that. He was strongest on the back nine, where he birdied two of the last three holes and had an eagle on the 14th after he hit a huge drive and then chipped in from about 114 yards. “I think it’s one of those courses, when you’re playing well, it’s easy to get close to the pins because they sort of feed to the pins very often,” Karlsson said. “But if you’re off the sort of bowls of the pins, it’s very difficult to set yourself. So I think that’s why my score today was a bit like that. Made a lot of good stuff and when I missed it, it was difficult to save myself.”

Australia seize initiative on Day 1 of Ashes • ASHES, FROM 8B

line outside off stump after tea getting Cook to edge to Shane Watson at first slip after a patient 67. Then Prior was late trying to prod the ball through the leg side and saw his off stump uprooted. Broad’s dismissal made Siddle the 11th Australian to grab a test hat-trick and the fifth of his countrymen to do so in England-Australia contests. Broad challenged the decision, and — after the initial roar from home fans and celebrations on the pitch — there was a delay until the hat-trick was confirmed by the TV umpire. “It was a bit of a wait and I thought ‘I hope they

don’t give it not out now’. It would have been disappointing,” Siddle said. “When I saw it was all done it did bring a big smile to my face.” Graeme Swann also fell to the same bowler being caught on the pad playing across the line. Four balls later, Brad Haddin could have completed a seventh wicket for him but diving to his left he dropped James Anderson. The day began in a dramatic fashion when England captain Andrew Strauss, after winning the toss and electing to bat on a slow Gabba pitch, was dismissed without scoring from the third ball of the day, caught by Mike Hussey at third

slip off the bowling of Ben Hilfenhaus. Midway through the ﬁrst session Jonathan Trott was bowled for 29 between bat and pad by a Shane Watson delivery that seamed in off the pitch before hitting middle and off stump. Watson, who was the pick of the Australian bowlers in the morning session, was also unfortunate not to take the wicket of Cook who hit a loose cut shot on 26 to Xavier Doherty in the ﬁrst session only for the debutant to drop the high chance. Australia, who had come into this series amid doubts over player form and injuries, were not made to rue

this drop, thanks to Siddle’s efforts. The lone bright spot for England on the day was the form of Ian Bell who top-scored with a sparkling 76 before becoming the ninth man to fall when he lofted the ball to Watson at deep point, becoming Doherty’s ﬁrst test wicket. Although he failed earlier in his career batting at three, Bell’s assured innings and impressive recent form may see him moved back up the order. Pietersen — booed as the man Australian fans love to hate — looked in good form but again failed to translate a strong start into a big score, extending his run without a century to 27 innings.

but the important thing is the 4-0 win and the fantastic game we had. Let’s talk about that and not other things.” Mourinho has previously clashed with UEFA after incidents in the Champions League when he coached Chelsea. UEFA banned Mourinho from the touchline for two matches in 2005 after he accused Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard of visiting Swedish referee Anders Frisk at halftime in the first leg of a round-of-16 clash. Mourinho is in his first season with Madrid and aims to become the first coach to lead three different clubs to the European title. He guided FC Porto to the 2004 title, and Inter Milan last season. Also Thursday, UEFA said it opened a disciplinary case against Romanian champion Cluj for the improper conduct of its coach Sorin Cartu during a Champions League game at FC Basel. Cartu kicked out a dugout panel, sending shards of plastic flying through the air during his team’s 1-0 loss in Switzerland on Tuesday. He was then restrained by a club official.

NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Boston New York Toronto New Jersey Philadelphia

W 11 8 6 5 3

L 4 8 9 10 12

Pct GB .733 — .500 31/2 .400 5 .333 6 .200 8

Southeast Orlando Atlanta Miami Washington Charlotte

W 10 8 8 5 5

L 4 7 7 8 10

Pct .714 .533 .533 .385 .333

GB — 21/2 21/2 41/2 51/2

Central Chicago Indiana Cleveland Milwaukee Detroit

W 8 7 6 5 5

L 5 6 8 9 10

Pct .615 .538 .429 .357 .333

GB — 1 21/2 31/2 4

WESTERN CONFERENCE Southwest San Antonio New Orleans Dallas Memphis Houston

W 13 11 10 6 4

L 1 3 4 9 10

Pct GB .929 — .786 2 .714 3 .400 71/2 .286 9

Northwest Utah Oklahoma City Denver Portland Minnesota

W 11 10 8 8 4

L Pct GB 5 .688 — 5 .667 1/2 6 .571 2 6 .571 2 12 .250 7

Pacific L.A. Lakers Golden State Phoenix Sacramento L.A. Clippers

W 13 7 7 4 2

L 2 8 8 9 13

Pct GB .867 — .467 6 .467 6 .308 8 .133 11

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES New York 99, Charlotte 95 Cleveland 83, Milwaukee 81 Toronto 106, Philadelphia 90 Boston 89, New Jersey 83 Orlando 104, Miami 95 Memphis 105, Detroit 84 San Antonio 113, Minnesota 109, OT Dallas 111, Oklahoma City 103 Houston 111, Golden State 101 Chicago 123, Phoenix 115,2OT Utah 105, New Orleans 87

11/26/2010 5:28:53 AM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

MiamiHerald.com

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

THE MIAMI HERALD

SPORTS FOR LATE GAME SCORES, GO TO MIAMIHERALD.COM/SPORTS

Brady’s 4 TDs lift Patriots over Lions BY LARRY LAGE

Associated Press

DETROIT — Tom Brady’s perfect game was much too much for the Detroit Lions. Brady threw a season-high four touchdown passes, all in the second half, and the New England Patriots routed Detroit 45-24 on Thursday. He was 21 of 27 for 341 yards — just short of season high — with no interceptions, giving him a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3. Brady became the first to have a perfect passer rating this season with a minimum of five attempts, according to STATS. It was Brady’s second perfect QB rating. His first was Oct. 21, 2007, when he threw a career-high six TDs in a win over the Miami Dolphins. Brady threw a go-ahead touchdown to Deion Branch early in the fourth quarter after connecting with him on a 79-yard pass to tie the game at 24-all. Wes Welker’s second TD reception sealed the victory with 6:42 left, putting the Patriots ahead 38-24. The Patriots (9-2) moved a halfgame ahead of the AFC East rival New York Jets for the NFL’s best record after trailing by 11 points late in the first half. Detroit (2-9) ended up not being more competitive than it had been in its previous six showcase games — losing those by an average of 23.2 points. BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for two TDs, the second capping the scoring with 3:14 left that led to several pushing and shoving matches with the frustrated Lions. Shaun Hill was 26 of 46 for 285 yards with one TD — a score to Calvin Johnson at the end of the first quarter that put the Lions up 7-3 — and two interceptions to rookie cornerback Devin McCourty. Maurice Morris ran for two TDs,

GREGORY SHAMUS/GETTY IMAGES

CLINICAL PERFORMANCE: Tom Brady, left, of the New England Patriots gets a second quarter pass off in front of Kyle Vanden Bosch of the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit. The Patriots routed Detroit 45-24. matching his total in two seasons in Detroit. Morris’ first score put Detroit ahead 14-3 with 5:58 left in the first half. Green-Ellis’ 15-yard TD pulled the Patriots within four with 45 seconds left in the second quarter, then they allowed Detroit to drive for a lead-padding field goal to

end the first half. The Lions looked like they finally might put together a good showing on Thanksgiving day, forcing New England to punt on its first drive of the second half. But Detroit began to fall apart when Hill underthrew Johnson on the ensuing possession and Mc-

Courty picked off the pass and returned it 23 yards to set up Brady’s game-tying pass to Welker. Morris put the Lions ahead again midway through the third quarter, but the lead didn’t last long. Brady found Branch, who was wide open, and he ran circles around Alphonso Smith on a

Siddle hat-trick puts Australia on top BY CIARAN BAYNES Associated Press

BRISBANE, Australia — Peter Siddle took six wickets, including a rare Ashes hat-trick, as Australia took command of the ﬁrst test against England at the Gabba on Thursday by bowling out the tourists for 260. Siddle celebrated his 26th birthday in style by dismissing Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad in successive deliveries after tea as England collapsed from a strong position at 197-4. In reply Australia were 25-0 at stumps, with Simon Katich and Shane Watson on 15 and nine respectively. Siddle admitted his hat-trick delivery, which caught Broad on the toe in front of leg stump and was given out lbw, was not what he intended. “When the crowd got behind me and started roaring it was very loud out there and it really did pump me up,” Siddle said. “I just wanted to charge in and bowl fast and hit the top of off. The execution wasn’t quite there. But to get him on the full with a bit of shape was a dream ball.” Siddle, who was surprisingly selected ahead of Doug Bollinger for his ﬁrst test in ten months, earlier halted England’s momentum in the second session when he took the wickets of dangerman Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, both

Associated Press

wood and Sergio Garcia, were at 3-under. The 25-year-old Kaymer’s only challenger for the Order of Merit title is Northern Ireland’s McDowell, who struggled for much of the day on his way to a par 72. McDowell bogeyed the ninth, 11th and 12th holes before steadying his game with two late birdies. Kaymer can claim the money title and a $1.5 million bonus by ﬁnishing higher than McDowell. McDowell can overtake the German by winning the tournament or ending up alone in second as long

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Martin Kaymer got the best of Graeme McDowell in their battle for the European money title Thursday, shooting a 5-under 67 to take a five-shot lead over his rival after the first round of the Dubai World Championship. Kaymer was two strokes behind first-day leader Robert Karlsson, whose 7-under 65 matches last year’s lowest opening round. The 41-year-old Swede held a oneshot lead over 19-year-old South Korean Noh Seung-yul. Several players, including No. 1 Lee West- • TURN TO GOLF, 7B

26PGB08.indd 8

• TURN TO ASHES, 7B

• TURN TO SOCCER, 7B

Japan wins men’s soccer gold at Asian Games

Kaymer 5 shots ahead of McDowell in Dubai BY MICHAEL CASEY

he’s never injured. That showed me I had to work hard and get the body right and push to be a competitive test cricketer.” He reaped rewards for a probing

TERTIUS PICKARD/AP

“I knew there were things I’d taken for granted. My body wasn’t in good shape for test cricket,” Siddle said. “You look at Mitchell Johnson, he’s in good shape, he’s played consistent cricket for four years and

Mourinho charged over ‘deliberate’ red cards NYON, Switzerland — (AP) — UEFA charged Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho with “unsporting conduct” on Thursday over allegations he ordered two players to get themselves sent off in a Champions League match. UEFA’s disciplinary committee will investigate Mourinho as well as players Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek. Their cases will be heard Nov. 30. Mourinho appeared to send instructions from the bench before Alonso and Ramos received second yellow cards for time-wasting late in Tuesday’s 4-0 win against Ajax in Amsterdam. Their expulsions meant they should serve one-match suspensions in a meaningless group match against Auxerre next month, then start the knockout rounds in February with a clean slate. On Tuesday, Mourinho dismissed the idea that he had orchestrated the bookings. “I spoke with many players throughout the game, not only with Ramos and Alonso,” Mourinho said after the match. “Stories sell,

FIRED UP: Australia’s Peter Siddle, center, celebrates after taking the wicket of Matt Prior for 0 during the first day of the first test in the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England at the Gabba in Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday. nicking to the slips, in the space of 11 balls. Siddle had not played a test since January due to a back injury, and said that during his layoff he vowed to return a more professional cricketer.

79-yard score that was his longest pass of the year 22 seconds later. Branch beat Smith on his next TD with 13:45 left in the ﬁrst half, sending the cornerback to the bench in a move that was made much too late to help the Lions.

BY DENNIS PASSA

Associated Press

DAVID CANNON/GETTY IMAGES

BATTLE FOR TOP SPOT: Martin Kaymer, above, of Germany, can claim the European money title and a $1.5 million bonus by finishing higher than Graeme McDowell in Dubai.

gladesh, which defeated Sri Lanka. Both countries are aiming for their first gold medals at the Asian Games. Yuki Saneto’s goal midway through the second half gave Japan the win. He took a floating cross from the left and drove a rightfoot shot from an acute angle past goalkeeper Ali Khaseif Housani. South Korea rallied to win the bronze medal 4-3 over Iran, with substitute Ji Dong-won scoring twice in the final two minutes for the win. But it was the cricket competition which provided the two

GUANGZHOU, China — Japan finished its Asian Games men’s football campaign in near-perfect form, winning its seventh straight match while conceding just one goal in the tournament and clinching gold with a 1-0 win Thursday over the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan, meanwhile, made up for the disappointment of its highly favored team losing a Twenty20 cricket to Afghanistan by picking up its first gold in men’s field hockey in 20 years, beating Malaysia 2-0. Afghanistan advanced to the cricket final Friday against Ban- • TURN TO ASIAN GAMES, 7B

11/26/2010 4:48:01 AM

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INGREDIENTS 1 15-pound WHOLE TURKEY (thawed) 2 Teaspoons chili powder 1/2 Teaspoon garlic powderÂ´ 1/4 Teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 Teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 Teaspoon salt 1/8 Teaspoon ground red pepper 2 Tablespoons honey 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil 1 Teaspoon cold water

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PREPARATIONS Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix chili powder, garlic powder, allspice, cumin, salt, red pepper, honey and water in small bowl until well blended. Remove neck and giblets from body and neck cavities of turkey; discard or refrigerate for another use. Drain juices from turkey; dry turkey with paper towels. Turn wings back to hold neck skin against back of turkey. Place turkey, breast up, on flat roasting rack in roasting pan 2 to 3 inches deep. Brush turkey with oil. Roast turkey in the preheated oven for a total of 3 to 3-1/2 hours, covering breast and top of drumsticks loosely with foil after 2 hours to prevent overcooking of breast. Uncover turkey breast and brush turkey with honey-spice mixture when about 45 minutes of roasting time remains. Return foil to top of turkey and continue roasting until food thermometer, inserted deep in thigh, reaches 180 degrees F. Let turkey stand 15 minutes before carving. NOTE: Do not brush glaze on turkey until near the end of roasting time. If the glaze is added in the initial roasting procedure the sugar from the honey would cause the skin to darken

INGREDIENTS 1 9-inch pie crust 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon allspice Âź teaspoon salt 2 cups pureed cooked pumpkin 1 1/4 cups evaporated milk 3/4 cup egg whites, whipped 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla PREPARATIONS Preheat oven to 375Â°F. In a large bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, egg, and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Pour dry mixture into wet mixture and mix until moistened. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until crust is golden and filling is set in the center when jiggled. Cool and serve.

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