The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
TRENTON, NJ.
N.J. court opens
door to gay marriage
New Jersey's highest court
opened the door yesterday to mak-
ing the state the second in the
nation to allow gay marriage, rul-
ing that lawmakers must offer
same-sex couples either marriage
or something like it, such as civil
unions.
Ina ruling that fell short of what
either side wanted or feared, the
state Supreme Court declared 4-3
that gay couples are entitled to the
same rights as heterosexual ones.
The justices gave lawmakers 180
days to rewrite the laws.
The ruling is similar to the 1999
high-court ruling in Vermont that
led the state to create civil unions,
which confer all of the rights and
benefits available to married cou-
ples under state law.
"Although we cannot find that
a fundamental right to same-sex
marriage exists in this state, the
unequal dispensation of rights and
benefits to committed same-sex
partners can no longer be tolerated
under our state Constitution," Jus-
tice Barry Albin wrote for the four-
member majority.
MIAMI
Man alleges sexual
abuse by priest who
fondled Rep. Foley
Another former altar boy says he
was sexually abused in the 1970s
by the same retired Catholic priest
who acknowledged fondling for-
mer Rep. Mark Foley when Foley
was a teenager, the man's attorney
said yesterday.
The new allegations against the
Rev. Anthony Mercieca were made
by a man who lived in North Miami
and was an altar boy at St. James
Catholic Church, where Mercieca
worked, attorney Jeffrey Herman
said.
Herman said he planned to file
a lawsuit yesterday against the
Archdiocese of Miami. His client,
now 40 and identified in the law-
suit only as John Doe No. 26, says
Mercieca abused him when he was
about 12 years old.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
Argentines want
former Iranian
president arrested
(AP) - Argentine prosecutors
asked a federal judge yesterday to
order the arrest of former Iranian
President Hashemi Rafsanjani and
seven others for the 1994 bombing
of a Jewish cultural center that
killed scores of people.
The decision to attack the center
"was undertaken in 1993 by the
highest authorities of the then-
government of Iran," prosecutor
Alberto Nisman said at a news
conference.
He said the actual attack was
entrusted to the Lebanon-based
group Hezbollah.
The worst terrorist attack ever
on Argentine soil, the bombing
of the Jewish cultural center in
Buenos Aires killed 85 people and
injured more than 200 when an
explosive-laden vehicle detonated
near the building.
Iran's government has vehe-
mently denied any involvement
in the attack following repeated
accusations by Jewish community
and other leaders here.
WASHINGTON
Bush says he's not
satisfied with Iraq
war as deaths climb
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Acknowledging painful losses in
Iraq, President Bush said yesterday
he is not satisfied with the progress
of the long and unpopular war, but
he still insisted the United States
was winning and should not think
about withdrawing.
Thirteen days before elections in
which Republicans fear Iraq could
cost them control of the House or
Senate, Bush expressed unwaver-
ing confidence inDefense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. generals
running the war and Iraq's prime
minister, Nouri al-Maliki, .despite
new strains between Baghdad and
Washington.
"The ultimate accountability
rests with me," Bush said of Iraq.
"If people are unhappy about it,
look right to the president." He
spoke in the East Room at an hour-
long news conference dominated
by Iraq questions.
DID YOU KN w?
PENSIN SPACE
The first NASA
astronauts to go into
space discovered that
ballpoint pens would not
work in the zero-gravity
conditions. To solve this prob-
lem, NASA scientists worked dili-
gently for 12 years and spent $12
billion to design a pen that would
work without gravity. The pen
also works upside down, underwa-
ter and on almost any surface. The
Russian cosmonauts used a pencil.
THE COSMOS
Voter database
could cause
trouble for voters
Four states have been
sued for not having
lists of voters
(AP) - Between every regis-
tered voter and the voting booth is
The List. And if you're not on it, you
might not be able to cast a ballot.
one of the biggest changes
wrought by the Help America Vote
Act is the mandate that every state
must have a voter registration data-
base up and working by the Nov. 7
general election.
But a dozenstatesmissed the Jan.
1 deadline for finishing their data-
bases, which produce lists of regis-
tered voters for every precinct. And
four states have been sued by the
Justice Department.
That leaves a confusing array of
systems that may or may not work
come Election Day, voting rights
groups say.
And it creates a growing anxiety
that registered voters with every
right to cast a ballot will be turned
away because their names are not
on the list for a variety of reasons,
including something as innocuous
as a typo.
"No issue is more important on
Election Day than the quality of the
list,"said DougChapinofthenonpar-
tisan reform group electionline.org.
"Those databases are the final say on
whether a person gets to vote."
The regulation was designed to
assure that each state would have
a central, independent repository
for all registered voters - created
by cross-checking voter registra-
tions with existingstate records to
make sure dead people, incarcer-
ated felons and others not eligible
to casta ballot were removed from
the rolls.
It was also supposed to make
it easier to vote by having a single
list instead of scores of county-
based rolls.
There were other problems as
well. Some states got started late
building their databases. Some con-
tracted with vendors that couldn't
meet the new federal deadline.
School of Music Prof. Stephen Rush leads his class in a performance. The nine burning torches in the pond represent the
solar system, and the performance symbolizes the insignificance of humanity.
Serial killer awaits executiont
for murders of college students
After 12 years on death row,
Danny Harold Rolling set to die
by lethal injection
STARKE, Fla. (AP) - Danny Harold Rolling, Flor-
ida's most notorious serial killer since Ted Bundy,
awaited execution yesterday for butchering five col-
lege students in a ghastly string of slayings that terror-
ized the town of Gainesville in 1990.
After 12 years on death row, Rolling, 52, was set to
die by lethal injection. His final appeal was before the
U.S. Supreme Court, where he was challenging the
constitutionality of the chemicals used in Florida's
execution procedure.
The bodies of his victims were found over three
days in late August, just as the University of Florida's
fall semester was beginning. All had been killed with
a hunting knife. Some had been mutilated, sexually
assaulted and put in shocking poses. One girl's severed
head had been placed on a shelf, her body posed as if
seated.
The killing spree touched off a huge manhunt and
plunged the laid-back college town into panic. Stu-
dents fled and residents armed themselves.
Belongings that Rolling left at a campsite in the
woods and DNA taken after a later arrest for rob-
bery linked him to the slayings. When he came up for
trial in 1994, he shocked the courtroom by pleading
guilty.
"There are some things you just can't run from, this
being one of those," Rolling told the judge, who later
sentenced him to death.
The attention surrounding Rolling's impending
execution reopened old wounds in Gainesville and for
the families of the victims.
Dianna Hoyt, whose stepdaughter was killed by
Rolling and decapitated, planned to watch the execu-
tion at Florida State Prison. "This is a tough thing, but
is a necessary thing to go through," she said, adding,
"It is very hard for us to see someone else die. But he
deserves it."
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Kidnapped photographer
released unharmed
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail
After a day in captivity, blindfold- Haniyeh's office said in a statement
ed by gunmen and forced to wear that the identity of the kidnappers
women's clothing as he was taken was known and they "would be
from place to place in Gaza City, pursued." No further details were
an Associated Press photographer given.
was released unharmed - just the The Palestinian government
latest abduction in an increasingly and main groups denounced the
chaotic territory. kidnapping, and officials blamed
Emilio Morenatti, 37,.was brought criminal elements.
late Tuesday to the office of Pales- A Palestinian security official
tinian President Mahmoud Abbas. said a doorman who worked at the
Morenattilooked tired after his day- Gaza apartment where Morenatti
long ordeal. "I'm tired but happy to was staying had been detained on
have come back because there were suspicion of tipping off the kidnap-
very anguished moments," he said. pers.