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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
Billionaire provides Gingrich a big lift
In Syria, Assad vows ‘iron fist’ to crush ‘conspiracy’
BY NICHOLAS CONFESSORE AND ERIC LIPTON New York Times Service
MANCHESTER, N.H. — For weeks this winter, as Newt Gingrich’s presidential hopes faltered under the weight of millions of dollars in attack ads paid for by backers of Mitt Romney, a small group of Gingrich supporters quietly lobbied for help from one of the richest men in the United States: Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner and Gingrich’s longtime friend and patron. Romney’s supporters were also calling, imploring Adelson to stay out of the race. By the time Gingrich limped into New Hampshire, some of his top backers had given up on Adelson and begun prospecting elsewhere, including among erstwhile supporters of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, to finance a counterattack. But on Friday, the cavalry arrived: a $5 million check from Adelson to Winning Our Future, a “super PAC” that supports Gingrich. By Monday morning, the group had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in ADELSON South Carolina, a huge sum in a state where the airwaves come cheap and the primary is 11 days away. The group is planning to air portions of a movie critical of Romney’s time at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he helped found. The last-minute injection underscores how the 2010 landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance has made it possible for a wealthy individual to influence an election. Adelson’s contribution to the super PAC is 1,000 times the $5,000 he could legally give directly to Gingrich’s campaign this year. Several people with knowledge of Adelson’s decision to donate to Winning Our Future said that it was born out of a two-decade friendship with Gingrich, his advocacy • TURN TO DONATION, 2A
BY BASSEM MROUE AND ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY Associated Press
Los Angeles Times Service
LOS ANGELES — Like many other spouses of undocumented immigrants, Gina Pope constantly worries that her husband suddenly could be deported and that she would be left to raise their two children by herself. Pope, a U.S. citizen, wants to apply for him to get a green card but knows that would mean his traveling to his native Peru, with the risk of not returning for months or years. Now, after more than a decade of waiting for the immigration rules to change, Pope is cautiously optimistic that her husband, who owns a residential construction business and has a temporary work permit, may finally be able to become a legal resident. “It does give me a little bit of hope,” said Pope, who lives in South Carolina and gave her maiden name. “We need him to be here.” U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a new rule last week that would allow certain illegal immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses or
FRANCE’S EXPULSIONS OF IMMIGRANTS RISE IN 2011, 3A
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PHOTOS BY MAURICIO LIMA/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE
Recruits for the Police Pacifying Unit take a break during training in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
OFFICERS OF THE LAW BREAK LAW IN BRAZIL BY SIMON ROMERO AND TAYLOR BARNES
New York Times Service
NITEROI, Brazil — Patricia Acioli, a judge known for imprisoning corrupt police officers, pulled into the driveway of her home one August night in this city across the bay from Rio de Janeiro. Her pursuers arrived at the same time. Then they did their work, shooting her 21 times until her body lay crumpled in the seat of her car. “I rushed outside after hearing the shots,” said her son, Mike Chagas, 20, a college student. “No one should ever have the experience of seeing their own mother shot to death on their doorstep. “I knew immediately that she had been killed because of her work,” he said. Hours before she was gunned down, Acioli had issued arrest warrants for three police officers accused of killing an unarmed 18-year-old man in a “favela,” or slum, part of a group of officers being investigated for forming an extermination squad. The same three men would later be arrested in connection with her murder, along
For some, cautious optimism over U.S. immigration plan BY ANNA GORMAN
2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Officials have been lauded for reclaiming lawless areas from drug traffickers in various favelas across a sprawling metropolitan area with 11.8 million residents. But the image of a
BEIRUT — By turns defiant and threatening, Syria’s President al Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday to use an “iron hand” to crush what he called the terrorists and saboteurs behind Syria’s 10-month-old uprising in which thousands of people have been killed. In his first speech since June, Assad showed a steely confidence in the face of the uprising, one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring. But opponents called it a rambling address by a leader who is dangerously out of touch. Assad repeated his past claims that a foreign conspiracy and terrorists are driving the revolt, not peaceful protesters seeking to reform the country. “We will not be lenient with those who work with outsiders against the country,” Assad said in a nearly twohour speech at Damascus University in a conference hall packed with cheering supporters. He also issued a veiled threat against those who have yet to choose sides. “Those who stand in the middle are traitors,” Assad said, flanked by Syrian flags. “There is no alternative.” The conflict in Syria is entering a new and heightened phase, with army defectors and some members of the opposition increasingly turning their weapons on government targets. The regime, in turn, has intensified an already deadly military assault, and a U.N. official said Tuesday that about 400 people have been killed in the last three weeks alone, on top of an earlier U.N. estimate of more than 5,000 dead since March. Since Dec. 23, three mysterious blasts have struck the capital, killing scores of people in the kind of violence more commonly seen in neighboring Iraq. It’s unclear who is behind the bombings, which the regime said were suicide attacks. The regime has blamed “terrorists” for the explosions, saying they proved that Syria was fighting armed gangs. But the opposition
parents to stay here while they apply for hardship waivers, the first step for many before they can submit applications for legal residency. Without waivers, illegal immigrants can be barred from reentering the United States for up to 10 years. Under the current rule, those who seek waivers have to go to their native countries and wait for the applications to be processed by U.S. officials, which could take months or years. “The immigration bar and the immigrant community is very happy about this,” said Pope’s Los Angeles-based attorney, Carl Shusterman. He said he has had to advise many illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens not to apply for green cards because of the 10-year bar and the separation they would face while seeking waivers. But Shusterman added that the proposed rule — even though it could affect tens of thousands of immigrants — is limited. It doesn’t change the fact that to get waiver, families must prove that • TURN TO IMMIGRATION, 2A
Mike Chagas, whose mother Patricia Acioli, a judge, was killed by three police officers last August, looks at family albums at his home in Niteroi, Brazil. with eight others on the police force. Their testimony in court here, describing in chilling detail how they tracked Acioli and plotted for months to kill her, has revealed a disturbing aspect of Rio de Janeiro’s newly assertive security policies, a cornerstone of its efforts to secure the city before playing host to the
Gitmo closure hopes fade as prison turns 10 BY BEN FOX
Associated Press
SAN JUAN — Suleiman al Nahdi waits with dozens of other prisoners in a seemingly permanent state of limbo five years after he was cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay. “I wonder if the U.S. government wants to keep us here forever,” the 37-year-old al Nahdi wrote in a recent letter to his lawyers. Open for 10 years on Wednesday, the prison seems more established than ever. The deadline set by U.S. President Barack Obama to close Guantanamo came and went two years ago. No detainee has left in a year because of restrictions on transfers, and indefinite military detention is now enshrined in U.S. law. The 10th anniversary will be the subject of demonstrations in London and Washington. Prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba plan to mark the day with sit-ins, banners and a refusal of meals, said Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who represents seven inmates. “They would like to send a message that the prisoners of Guantanamo still reject the injustice of their imprisonment,” said Kassem,
MYANMAR’S SUU KYI CONFIRMS RUN FOR PARLIAMENT SEAT, 6A
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
A protester sits in a cage in front of the White House during a demonstration urging the government to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. a law professor at the City University of New York. Human rights groups and lawyers for prisoners are dismayed that Obama not only failed to overcome resistance in Congress and close the prison, but that his ad-
U.S. HITS THE BRAKES ON HEALTHCARE SPENDING, BUSINESS FRONT
ministration has resumed military tribunals at the base and continues to hold men like al Nahdi who have been cleared for release. Critics are also angry over the • TURN TO PRISON, 2A
ALABAMA SHUTS DOWN TIGERS IN BCS TITLE GAME, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX THE AMERICAS ............4A U.S. NEWS.....................5A OPINION........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ...6B
1/11/2012 6:21:31 AM
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