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108TH YEAR I ©2011 THE MIAMI HERALD

INDEXTHE AMERICAS............4AU.S. NEWS ...................5AOPINION........................7ACOMICS & PUZZLES ...6B

BILL TO TIGHTEN U.S. ESPIONAGE ACT ALARMS DISCLOSURE ADVOCATES, 3A

SARKOZY CLINGS TO NUCLEAR ENERGY AMID PROTESTS, 6A

JOHN TRUMPS JIM IN BATTLE OF HARBAUGHS,SPORTS FRONT

U.S. urges Egypt’s military to yield power

Mexico admits 2nd Mayan reference to 2012 apocalypse

Stylist speaks out on Romney’s famous locks

Smartphones help Russians expose political abuses

ITALY PLANNING TO SELL GOVERNMENT PROPERTIES,BUSINESS FRONT

BY MARK STEVENSONAssociated Press

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s archaeology institute downplays theories that the ancient Mayas predicted some sort of apocalypse would occur in 2012, but this week it acknowledged that a second ref-erence to the date exists on a carved fragment found at a southern Mex-ico ruin site.

Most experts had cited only one surviving reference to the date in Mayan glyphs, a stone tablet from the Tortuguero site in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

But the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that there is in fact another apparent reference to the date at the nearby Comalcalco ruin. The inscription is on the carved or molded face of a brick. Comalcalco is unusual among Mayan temples in that it was constructed of bricks.

Arturo Mendez, a spokesman for the institute, said the fragment of inscription had been discovered years ago and has been subject to thorough study. It is not on display

and is being kept in storage at the institute.

The “Comalcalco Brick,” as the second fragment is known, has been discussed by experts in some online forums. Many still doubt that it is a defi nite reference to Dec. 21, 2012 or Dec. 23, 2012, the dates cited by proponents of the theory as the possible end of the world.

“Some have proposed it as an-other reference to 2012, but I re-main rather unconvinced,” David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epig-raphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a message to The Associated Press.

Stuart said the date inscribed on the brick “ ‘is a Calendar Round,’ a combination of a day and month position that will repeat every 52 years.”

The brick date does coincide with the end of the 13th Baktun; Baktuns were roughly 394-year periods and 13 was a signifi cant, sacred number for the Mayas. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins

TURN TO 2012, 4A•

BY DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK New York Times Service

CAIRO — The White House on Friday threw its weight behind Egypt’s resurgent protest move-ment, urging for the fi rst time the handover of power by the interim military rulers in the Obama ad-ministration’s most public effort yet to steer the course of the Egyp-tian democracy.

“The United States strongly be-lieves that the new Egyptian gov-ernment must be empowered with real authority immediately,” the White House said in a statement.

“Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive man-ner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible.”

The White House released the statement as tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Tahrir Square for what is expected to be the biggest display of anger in a week of protests against the mili-tary’s intention to retain power even after parliamentary elec-tions that are scheduled to begin Monday.

The statement is a signifi cant escalation of the international pres-sure on the generals because the United States is among the Egyp-tian military’s closest allies and big-gest benefactors, contributing more than $1.3 billion a year in aid.

But speaking out against the mil-itary could be a risky bet for White House if the transition to democ-racy moves out of the hands of the military to less predictable civilian control.

The military is the most power-ful institution in Egypt and a key supporter of the United States in a country where anti-U.S. sentiment and Islamist political movements are surging.

Since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February, the

TURN TO EGYPT, 2A•

BY MICHAEL BARBARO AND ASHLEY PARKERNew York Times Service

BELMONT, Mass. — Voters routinely ask about it on the cam-paign trail. Pundits chronicle the slightest changes in its presenta-tion. There is a Facebook page devoted it — not to mention an entire blog. “Has it always been this good?” read a recent online entry.

The subject of the unusually intense political speculation and debate?

Mitt Romney’s hair.By far his most distinctive

physical feature, Romney’s head of impeccably coiffed black hair has become something of a cos-metological Rorschach test on the campaign trail, with many seeing in his thick locks every-thing they love and loathe about the Republican candidate for the White House. (Commanding, re-assuring, presidential, crow fans; too stiff, too slick, too perfect, complain critics.)

Romney’s advisors have been known to fret about the shiny

TURN TO ROMNEY, 2A•

CLIMATE CONTROLWEST SEEKS EMISSIONS CURBS ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, TOO

Workers cycle past a coal-fired power plant in Changchun, China.

DANIEL ACKER/NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Mitt Romney’s head of impeccably coiffed black hair has become something of a cosmetological Rorschach test on the campaign trail.

AP

BY ARTHUR MAXAssociated Press

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — As delegates gather in South Africa to plot the next big push against climate change, Western governments are saying it’s time to move beyond tradi-tional distinctions between in-dustrial and developing countries and get China and other growing economies to accept legally bind-ing curbs on greenhouse gases.

It will be a central theme for the 25,000 national offi cials, lob-

byists, scientists and advocates gathering under U.N. auspices in the coastal city of Durban on Nov. 28. Their two weeks of ne-gotiations will end with a meet-ing of government ministers from more than 100 countries.

The immediate focus is the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agree-ment requiring 37 industrialized countries to slash carbon emis-sions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Each country has a binding target and faces penal-ties for falling short. The United

States, then and now the world’s largest polluter per capita, re-fused to join Kyoto because it imposed no obligations on coun-tries like China, which has since surpassed the United States in overall emissions.

Now, with the Kyoto pact’s expiry date looming, poor coun-tries want the signatories to ac-cept further reductions in a sec-ond commitment period up to at least 2017.

“The Kyoto Protocol is a cor-nerstone of the climate change

regime,” and a second commit-ment period “is the central pri-ority for Durban,” says Jorge Ar-guello of Argentina, the chairman of the developing countries’ ne-gotiating bloc known as G77 plus China. But with growing consen-sus, wealthy countries are saying they cannot give further pledges unless all others — or at least the major developing countries — accept commitments themselves that are equally binding.

TURN TO CLIMATE, 2A•

BY MICHAEL SCHWIRTZNew York Times Service

MOSCOW — When a small-town mayor from Russia’s gov-erning party recently offered tens of thousands of dollars in government cash to a veterans group in exchange for votes in next month’s parliamentary elec-tions, it appeared to be business as usual.

Violations of Russia’s elec-tion rules no longer evoke much surprise here, and in the past the episode would have prob-

ably gone unnoticed, or at least unpunished.

But this is the era of the smartphone.

Someone recorded the mayor’s speech and uploaded the video to YouTube. Along with the prom-ise of cash was a threat to cut off the elderly veterans if they failed to vote for the party, United Rus-sia, which is led by Prime Minis-ter Vladimir Putin.

“If people don’t support the party that is actually doing some-thing, what’s the point of fi nanc-

ing them?” the mayor, Denis Agashin, asked veterans at a gathering in the town of Izhevsk, according to the video. “If this is the case, it’s clear the people don’t need anything.”

The video was widely cir-culated, provoking calls for the mayor’s ouster. Last week a court found him guilty of breaking election rules and fi ned him. His opponents have vowed to seek harsher disciplinary measures.

It was a small victory in the fi ght against electoral malfea-

sance in Russia, one that has un-derscored the increasing potency of a new kind of election moni-tor here: common citizens armed with smartphones, digital record-ers and cameras.

Such activity comes at an in-auspicious time for United Rus-sia. Flagging in the polls, the party has become vulnerable to attacks among Russia’s typically raucous and increasingly infl uen-tial Internet commentariat.

TURN TO RUSSIA, 2A•

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