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INTERNATIONAL EDITION
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012
109TH YEAR I ©2012 THE MIAMI HERALD
U.S. sends top Iran leader warning on strait threat BY ELISABETH BUMILLER, ERIC SCHMITT AND THOM SHANKER New York Times Service
For Putin, even a suggestion box holds perils BY ELLEN BARRY
New York Times Service
MOSCOW — It took only a few hours after its launch for Vladimir Putin’s presidential campaign website to become an object lesson in the hazards that await him between now and the election March 4. The prime minister — who in 2010 dismissed the Internet as “50 percent pornographic material” — is now embracing online platforms as a tool to increase public accountability, and his site encouraged voters to offer him suggestions online. And so they did. Andrei Antonenko suggested, “Please
leave politics; it is obvious that power is a narcotic, but it is the right thing to do.” Arkady Vishnev said “the most useful thing you could do for the country now” would be to withdraw from the race. Svetlana Sorokina suggested he step down so that, as she put it, “you do not turn the situation into a revolution.” Within a few hours these messages had vanished in a flood of support for Putin, who remains the country’s single dominant political figure and is virtually assured of victory in the election. The new comments were less embarrassing, touching on issues like pet care
and agriculture. Many of them just wished him luck. But already, chatter about the calls for Putin’s resignation had taken off, and a blogger discovered a way to access comments that had been submitted but not published. Putin’s press secretary was forced to respond on the issue, saying during an afternoon interview with the online news channel Dozhd, that the site’s moderators were removing only those suggestions that contained obscene language. He also said the flood of suggestions was so large the site had frozen. • TURN TO PUTIN, 2A DMITRY LOVETSKY/AFP-GETTY IMAGES
At New York Philharmonic, an unfortunate showstopper BY DANIEL J. WAKIN
New York Times Service
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is relying on a secret channel of communication to warn Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that closing the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” that would provoke a U.S. response, according to U.S. government officials. The officials declined to describe the unusual contact between the two governments, and whether there had been an Iranian reply. Senior Obama administration officials have said publicly that Iran would cross a “red line” if it made good on recent threats to close the strait, a strategically KHAMENEI crucial waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, where 16 million barrels of oil — about a fifth of the world’s daily oil trade — flow through every day. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last weekend that the United States would “take action and reopen the strait,” which could be accomplished only by military means, including minesweepers, warship escorts and, potentially, airstrikes. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told troops in Texas on Thursday that the United States would not tolerate Iran’s closing of the strait. • TURN TO IRAN, 2A
EU’s Iran oil embargo likely to be delayed for six months Bloomberg News
A European Union embargo on imports of Iranian oil will probably be delayed for six months to let countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain find alternative supplies, an EU official with knowledge of the talks said. The embargo, which would need to be accepted by the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers on Jan. 23, also is likely to include an exemption for Italy, so crude can be sold to pay off debts to Rome-
BY TRACY WILKINSON
Los Angeles Times Service
NEW YORK — They were baying for blood in the usually polite precincts of Avery Fisher Hall. The unmistakably jarring sound of an iPhone marimba ring interrupted the soft and spiritual final measures of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday night. The conductor, Alan Gilbert, did something almost unheard of in a concert hall: He stopped the performance. But the ringing kept on going, prompting increasingly angry shouts in the audience directed at the malefactor. After words from Gilbert, and what seemed like weeks, the cellphone owner finally silenced his device. After the audience cheered, the concert resumed. Internet vitriol ensued. But no one, it seems, felt worse than the culprit, who agreed to an interview Thursday on the condition that he not be identified — for obvious reasons. “You can imagine how devastating it is to know you had a hand in that,” said the man, who described himself as a business executive between 60 and 70 who runs two companies. “It’s horrible, horrible.” The man said he had not slept in two days. The man, called Patron X by the Philharmonic, said he was a • TURN TO RINGING, 2A
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based Eni, Italy’s largest oil company, according to the official, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. A ban on petrochemical products would start sooner, about three months after EU ministers agree to the measure, the official said. Crude oil prices dropped on the news, falling $1.77, or 1.8 percent, to $99.10 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Dec. 30.
Mexican actress shocks with praise for drug lord
lifelong classical music lover and 20-year subscriber to the orchestra who was friendly with several of its members. He said he himself was often irked by coughs, badly timed applause — and cellphone rings. “Then God, there was I. Holy smokes,” he said. “It was just awful to have any role in something like that, that is so disturbing and disrespectful not only to the conductor but to all the musicians and not least to the audience, which was so into this concert,” he said by telephone. “I hope the people at that performance and members of the orchestra can certainly forgive me for this whole event. I apologize to the whole audience.” Patron X said he received a call from an orchestra official the day after the concert. He had been identified by his front-row seat. The official politely asked him not to do it again, he said, and the man took the opportunity to ask to speak to Gilbert, to apologize in person. The men talked by telephone (it was a land line) on Thursday afternoon. Gilbert said he told Patron X, “I’m really sorry you had to go through this,” and accepted his apology. Patron X said he had no idea he was the culprit. He said his
COURT-MARTIAL RECOMMENDED FOR BRADLEY MANNING, 3A
The secret communications channel was chosen to underscore privately to Iran the depth of U.S. concern about rising tensions over the strait, where U.S. naval officials say their biggest fear is that an overzealous Revolutionary Guards naval captain could do something provocative on his own, setting off a larger crisis. “If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it’s the Strait of Hormuz and the business going on in the Arabian Gulf,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, said in Washington this week. Administration officials and Iran analysts said they continued to believe that Iran’s threats to close the strait, coming amid deep frictions over Iran’s nuclear program and possible sanctions, were bluster and an attempt to drive up the price of oil. Blocking the route for the vast majority of Iran’s petroleum exports — and for its food and consumer imports — would amount to economic suicide. “They would basically be taking a vow of poverty with themselves,” said Dennis Ross, who until last month was one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s most influential advisors on Iran. “I don’t think they’re in such a mood of self sacrifice.”
MEXICO CITY — She played a major drug trafficker in a hit TV series. And now popular Mexican actress Kate del Castillo has sympathetic words for a real one. In a provocative letter that has unleashed shockwaves across Mexican radio talk shows and social media, del Castillo said this week that she regarded billionaire drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman more credible than “governments that hide truths from me, even when they are painful ones.” “Senor Chapo,” she continues. “Wouldn’t it be really cool if you started trafficking for the good?” She goes on to suggest the fugitive capo of the Sinaloa cartel could spread cures for disease and food for street children. “Traffic with corrupt politicians, not women and children who end up as slaves,” she says. “Go for it, sir. You would be the hero of heroes.” The missive would be easy to dismiss if it weren’t for del Castillo’s fame, both here and in the United • TURN TO PRAISE, 2A
Kate del Castillo and a co-star in a scene from La Reina del Sur. MIAMI HERALD WIRE PHOTO
BRITAIN TO PROBE ROLE IN CLAIM OF TORTURE BY LIBYANS, 6A
S&P STRIPS FRANCE OF ITS STERLING CREDIT RATING, BUSINESS FRONT
MLB COMMISSIONER SELIG GETS CONTRACT EXTENSION, SPORTS FRONT
INDEX THE AMERICAS ............4A U.S. NEWS.....................5A OPINION........................7A COMICS & PUZZLES ...6B
1/14/2012 4:03:16 AM
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