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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Alarm bells ring as stricken cruise ship docks BY JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press
VICTORIA, Seychelles — The worst moments for Gordon and Eleanor Bradwell came immediately after the alarm sounded. Eleanor rushed to their cabin to get a life vest. Gordon was pushed in another direction. The scent of smoke grew stronger aboard the disabled cruise ship. Then the lifeboats dropped. The Athens, Ga., couple — married 50 years last June — couldn’t find one another. “Those were the worst moments,” said Bradwell, a former alumni director at the University of Georgia. The Costa Allegra docked in the Seychelles on Thursday, three days after a fire broke out in the ship’s generator room, leaving passengers without working toilets, running water or air conditioning in a region of the Indian Ocean where pirates are known to prowl. Cabin temperatures reached up to 110F, forcing passengers to sleep on deck chairs. “Things became very primitive,” Bradwell said, a far cry from what the couple had expected when they embarked on the $8,000 multi-week cruise. The blaze came just six weeks after another luxury liner, the Costa Concordia, capsized off Italy, leaving 32 people dead, a fact that was on many passengers’ minds. Both ships were operated by Costa Crociere, which is owned by Florida-based Carnival. When the ship’s alarm sounded around 1 p.m. Monday, passengers knew it wasn’t a drill. They had already had one, and knew that the short-short-long wail meant to prepare to disembark. Passengers couldn’t see the fire, but they could smell and see smoke. Crew members extinguished the blaze within an hour, but the alarms continued to wail for two more hours.
New York Times Service
The president, meanwhile, was focusing on energy policy as U.S. gasoline prices have hit a record high for this time of the year, and some forecasters predicting the fuel could climb to $5 a gallon. That would produce a significant drag on the U.S. economy which has recently showed signs of a sustained recovery. Obama’s worries about gasoline prices reflect concern about
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking days before a crucial meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, rejected suggestions that the West could contain a nuclear-armed Iran, and warned that the United States could take military action to prevent it from acquiring a bomb. But the president also said he would try to persuade Netanyahu, whom he is meeting here Monday, that a preemptive Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities could help Tehran by allowing it to portray itself as a victim. And he said such military action would only delay, not prevent, Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. Obama’s remarks, in a 45-minute interview with The Atlantic magazine earlier this week, were intended to reassure Jerusalem of Washington’s resolve to protect its ally against an Iranian threat, while making the case that Israel should not take matters into its own hands. “I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” Obama said in the interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent with The Atlantic. “I also don’t, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. “But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say.” Obama’s remarks built on his vow in the State of the Union address that the United States would “take no options off the table” in preventing Iran from acquiring a weapon. But he was more explicit in saying that those options include a “military component,” albeit after a list of other steps, including diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. While administration officials have signaled that the United States is not contemplating a “containment” strategy toward Iran, Obama had not been as unequivocal in rejecting it. Such a strategy, he said, would run “completely contrary” to his nuclear nonproliferation policies, and raise a host of dangers the
• TURN TO ROMNEY, 2A
• TURN TO OBAMA, 2A
GREGORIO BORGIA/AP
JAMES STRAZIUSO/AP
Top, passengers of the Costa Allegra wait to board a ferry at Victoria’s harbor, Seychelles. Above, Gordon and Eleanor Bradwell after disembarking from the stricken cruise liner. Left, passengers, with lifejackets on, sit on the deck of the ship. ELEONOR BRADWELL/AP
In poll, Romney posts sizable lead over Santorum Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A national poll shows Mitt Romney increasing his lead to 11 percentage points over top challenger Rick Santorum as the Republican presidential campaign intensified ahead of Tuesday’s crucial primary and caucus votes. The two men are in a bitter fight for the nomination to challenge U.S. President Barack Obama, who was in the small Northeastern state
of New Hampshire on Thursday, calling for Congress to abolish tax breaks for oil companies. The latest Gallup tracking poll showed Romney with 35 percent support nationally to 24 percent for Santorum. The Gallup survey represents a daily snapshot of a candidate’s standing. Polls show Santorum with a considerable advantage in Ohio, probably the most important state in next week’s clump of primaries and caucuses known as Super
Tuesday. The Tuesday vote will apportion a total of 419 delegates to the party national convention in August. The Republican nominee must accumulate at least 1,144 delegates to win the nomination at the Tampa, Fla., gathering of party notables in August. In the overall race for delegates, Romney now leads with 168, followed by Santorum with 86. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich has 32 delegates and Rep. Ron Paul has 19.
Despite discontent, Putin on track to presidency BY PETER LEONARD Associated Press
ABOARD RUSSIAN RAILWAYS TRAIN 109 — From the comfy cabins of first class to the crowded and smelly third-class bunks, passengers traveling to Moscow from a remote Arctic boomtown show why Vladimir Putin’s almost certain return to the presidency Sunday feels less than triumphant. The broad discontent seen on the long-distance train journey reflects that of this sprawling country, a prism of its demographic layers. Although anger with Putin isn’t unanimous, it is clearly widespread, a striking challenge to his selfpromoted image as the working man’s hero who is the only leader all Russians can love and admire. Few doubt that Putin, who was president from 2000 to 2008, will win Sunday’s presidential election, returning him to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister. But the frustrations encountered
U.S. CITIZENS DIVIDED ON BIRTH CONTROL COVERAGE, POLL FINDS, 3A
03PGA01.indd 1
Obama says military option on Iran not a ‘bluff’ BY MARK LANDLER
• TURN TO CRUISE, 2A
BY STEVEN R. HURST
SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
Plea deal in terror suspect’s military trial sparks debate BY PETER FINN
Washington Post Service
PETER LEONARD/AP
Passengers wait to board the Novy Urengoi-Moscow train at Balezino, Russia. on Train 109 indicate that his new term won’t be easy. The train’s 66-hour, 2,170-mile trip to the capital starts in Novy Urengoi, a gas-producing town just below the Arctic Circle. Natural gas revenues are a key piece of
AFGHAN CLERICS CALL ON U.S. TO TURN OVER ITS PRISONS, 6A
the prosperity that Russia has enjoyed under Putin. The newfound wealth initially pleased Russia’s working classes and lulled them into docile • TURN TO TRAIN, 2A
SPANISH DEFICIT TESTS EUROPE’S FISCAL TREATY, BUSINESS FRONT
no more than 19 years if he fully cooperates with the government. Without a deal, Khan faced life in prison. The debate over the appropriate forum for terrorism suspects is likely to sharpen with Obama’s decision this week to issue a series of waivers that will make the transfer of any future captives to military custody a rare event. Republicans have blocked the Obama administration from transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States for any reason, including prosecution. But the justice system here is already scrambling any calculation that the military trials will produce long sentences, particularly when compared with the terms of incarceration handed down in federal courts.
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The military commissions system here may be taking on its most unlikely role, and one certain to cause consternation across the political spectrum: the least worst place for some defendants facing terrorism charges. The plea agreement formalized this week between the government and Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident who was accused of war crimes, is probably just the first in a series of deals in which detainees agree to testify against their erstwhile comrades in exchange for reduced sentences, according to military officials. “This is his best shot at going home,” Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, Khan’s military defense counsel, said of the deal, which calls for the 32-year-old Pakistani to serve • TURN TO PLEA, 2A
YANKEES WANT TO CUT PAYROLL TO $189M BY 2014, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX THE AMERICAS...........4A OPINION........................7A TRAVEL ....................8A COMICS & PUZZLES ..6B
3/3/2012 4:52:31 AM
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PHOTO OF THE WEEK A primary class at Colegio Menor recently learned about journalism during Jobs and Work Week, with a guest speaker from the Miami Herald and Diario Hoy.