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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
After N.H. win, Romney to bring jobs focus to South Carolina BY KAREN TUMULTY AND DEBBI WILGOREN
Washington Post Service
MANCHESTER, N.H. —After a double-digit victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he will continue to focus on the economy rather than social issues, noting that he is not running for “pastor in chief.” Romney’s strong victory — following a narrow win in Iowa — solidified his standing as the man to beat for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The race now moves to South Carolina, which holds its primary Jan. 21. The Palmetto State, with large numbers of evangelicals and social conservatives, is considered less-
stable terrain than New Hampshire for Romney, a Mormon and former governor of Massachusetts. It is likely the last opportunity for former House speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum or Texas Gov. Rick Perry to revive their flagging campaigns. Gingrich acknowledged to MSNBC on Wednesday that “it will be very hard to stop” Romney if he wins in South Carolina. In hopes of derailing him, Gingrich has released an ad that attacks Romney as a “pro-abortion governor.” But Romney told morning news anchors that his private-sector experience and job-creation focus are what voters — regardless of religious or social beliefs — are looking for.
“There are people who want to elect a commander in chief. They’re not worried about electing a pastor in chief. That’s not what I’m running for,” Romney said on MSNBC. “They want America to remain strong morally, economically and militarily. I can do that.” On CNN, Romney said that he was “not worried in the slightest” about whether his record on abortion rights could hurt him. “Like Ronald Reagan before me, many years ago I changed from being pro-choice to pro-life,” Romney said. “I know Speaker Gingrich is going to try and throw everything he can at me. He tried here in New Hampshire. It didn’t work.” • TURN TO ROMNEY, 5A
NATHANIEL BROOKS/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE
Mitt Romney’s strong victory — following a narrow win in Iowa — solidified his standing as the man to beat for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Bomb kills Iranian nuclear expert
ED OU/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE
Samira Ibrahim was detained in Tahrir Square by Egyptian soldiers and subjected to a forced ‘virginity test’.
BY ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press
anonymous woman recorded on video last month as she was beaten and stripped, exposing a blue bra, by soldiers clearing Tahrir Square after fresh protests. The vast majority of cases have come during the three-month crackdown on demonstrations that has taken more than 80 lives so far. Even when women have pushed back, as they did late last month in a historic march by thousands through downtown Cairo — many carrying pictures of the “blue bra girl” — they have done so only with the protection and approval of men. The marchers were
TEHRAN — Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and another person Wednesday, state TV reported. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran’s atomic program. The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities’ claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran’s nuclear advances. The blast killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported. State news agency IRNA said Roshan had “organizational links” to Iran’s nuclear agency, which suggests a direct role in key aspects of the program. Natanz is Iran’s main enrichment site, but officials claimed earlier this week that they are expanding some operations to an underground site south of Tehran with more advanced equipment. The United States and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies it is trying to make
• TURN TO EGYPT, 2A
• TURN TO IRAN, 2A
REVOLUTION IS JUST A START FOR WOMEN
IN EGYPT
BY DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
New York Times Service
CAIRO — At first Samira Ibrahim was afraid to tell her father that Egyptian soldiers had detained her in Tahrir Square in Cairo, stripped off her clothes, and watched as she was forcibly subjected to a “virginity test.” But when her father, a religious conservative, saw electric prod marks on her body, they revived memories of his own detention and torture under President Hosni Mubarak’s government. “History is repeating itself,” he told her, and together they vowed to file a court case against the military rulers, to claim
“my rights,” as Ibrahim later recalled. That case proved successful, and for the first time last month a court challenged the authority of the military council, and banned such tests. But nearly a year after Mubarak’s ouster, Ibrahim’s story in many ways illustrates the paradoxical position of women in the new Egypt. Emboldened by the revolution to claim a new voice in public life, many are finding that they are still dependent on the protection of men, and that their greatest power is not as direct actors but as symbols of the military government’s repression. It is not a place Egyptian
IRS’ budget constraint hurts taxpayers, watchdog says BY ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
ings, the report said. In addition, it said the agency is increasingly relying on computer systems to evaluate tax returns that sometimes end up eroding taxpayers’ rights, and people are having a harder time getting through to the IRS by telephone or letter, she said. “The overriding challenge facing the IRS is that its workload has grown significantly in recent years while its funding is being cut,” said Olson, an independent watchdog within the IRS. “This is causing the IRS to resort to shortcuts that undermine fundamental taxpayer rights and harm taxpayers — and at the same time reduces the IRS’
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Internal Revenue Service can’t keep up with surging tax cheating and isn’t sufficiently collecting revenue or helping confused taxpayers because Congress isn’t giving it enough money to do its job, a government watchdog said Wednesday. To cope with its growing and increasingly complex tasks, the agency is relying more on computer software designed to weed out fraud, Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said in her annual report to lawmakers. But errors are abundant, creating even more work for the agency when taxpayers dispute its find- • TURN TO IRS, 2A
ORTEGA TAKES OATH FOR 3RD TERM AS PRESIDENT OF NICARAGUA, 4A
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women had hoped they would be in the heady days of the revolution, when they played an active role, side by side with men, to bring down a dictator. “Changing the patriarchal culture is not so easy,” said Mozn Hassan, 32, executive director of a six-year-old group, Nazra for Feminist Studies. Female demonstrators have suffered sexual assaults at the hands of Egyptian soldiers protected by military courts. Human rights groups say they have documented the cases of at least 100 women who were sexually assaulted by soldiers during the time of military rule — including Ibrahim’s experience in March and the
Pena Nieto may pay for gaffes in Mexico vote BY TRACY WILKINSON
Los Angeles Times Service
MEXICO CITY — First, he struggled to name a single book he’d read, except for “parts” of the Bible. Then he couldn’t quote the minimum wage nor the price of the omnipresent tortilla. The man who would be the next president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, is not off to a good start. For months, the election of Pena Nieto had taken on an air of near-inevitability. The handsome politician with the TV star wife consistently leads polls by seemingly insurmountable margins. But with the campaign now taking shape in earnest, Pena Nieto has stumbled badly in a series of embarrassing, well-publicized gaffes that raise questions about his mettle as a candidate.
STRIKE IN NIGERIA INVITES ANARCHY, GOVERNMENT SAYS, 6A
Mexicans will vote in July to replace President Felipe Calderon, whose six-year term has been plagued by violence and drug cartel warfare that have left as many as 50,000 people dead. Many voters are looking for a change. Calderon is
EU LEANING TO BLOCK MERGER OF NYSE AND DEUTSCHE BOERSE, BUSINESS FRONT
barred by law from seeking reelection. Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico with an iron fist for seven decades until being • TURN TO MEXICO, 2A
Enrique Pena Nieto, a candidate for the 2012 Mexican presidential elections, has stumbled badly in a series of embarrassing, well-publicized gaffes.
MCT
PACKERS FAVORED BUT CAN BE EXPOSED, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX THE AMERICAS ............4A U.S. NEWS.....................5A OPINION........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ...6B
1/12/2012 3:17:29 AM
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