0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 - 3
TOOTING HIS HORN
NEWS BRIEFS
CAIRO, Egypt
* Al-Qaida leader
mocks Bush's Iraq
plan in new tape
Al-Qaida's deputy leader
mocked President Bush's plan to
send 21,000 more troops to Iraq,
challenging him to send "the
entire army" and vowing insur-
gents will defeat them, according
to a new videotape released yes-
terday by a U.S. group that tracks
al-Qaida messages.
The Washington-based SITE
Institute said it had intercepted
the video from Ayman al-Zawahri,
which had not yet been posted on
Islamic militant Web sites, where
his messages are usually posted.
SITE did not elaborate on how it
received the message.
Al-Zawahri saidthe U.S. strategy
for Iraq, outlined by Bush in a Jan. 9
speech, was doomed to fail.
ATLANTA
Flyers now need
passports to travel
to Mexico, Canada
Americans flying to Mexico,
Canada and the Caribbean made
sure to bring their passports yes-
terday because of a new rule going
into effect Today that requires
them to show one to get back into
the country.
Only about a quarter of U.S.
citizens hold valid passports, and
most Americans are accustomed to
traveling to neighboring countries
with just a driver's license or birth
certificate, which have long been
sufficient to get through airport
customs on the trip home.
The new regulations requiring
passports were adopted by Con-
gress in 2004 to secure the borders
against terrorists.
Starting Today, Canadian, Mexi-
can and Bermudan air travelers, as
well as U.S. citizens flying home
from those countries or the Carib-
bean, must display their passports
to enter the United States.
EL DORADO, ARK.
Oil company
creates $50 million
college fund
In one of the most generous pro-
grams of its kind anywhere in the
country, an oil company announced
yesterday it is putting up $50 mil-
lion for college scholarships for
nearly all high school graduates in
its working-class hometown over
the next 20 years.
"I wasn't sure if I'd be able to
get everything paid for with all
the loans I'd have to get," said
Scott Zimmerebner, an El Dorado
High School senior. He plans to
attend the University of Arkansas
in Fayetteville, "now that it's all
paid for."
Murphy Oil Co. said it wants to
increase the number of students
who attend college and perhaps
attract new businesses to El Dora-.
do, with the scholarships a selling
point. It said it also hopes the pro-
gram will help create better jobs
here for students to come back to
after graduating from college.
VIENNA, Austria
* Scientists predict
ice-less future for
the Alps by 2050
Glaciers will all but disappear
from the Alps by 2050, scientists
warned yesterday, basing their
bleak outlook on mounting evi-
dence of slow but steady melting of
the continental ice sheets.
In western Austria's Alpine
province of Tyrol, glaciers have
been shrinking by about 3 percent
a year, said Roland Psenner of the
University of Innsbruck's Institute
for Ecology.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
1 million
Dollars a homeless man, Roger
Greenlee, was sued for by an
upscale New York City antique
shop owner, Reuters reported.
According to the owner Greenlee's
anti-social behavior is ruining his
business.
On top of his recent legal trou-
bles, Greenlee was also presumed
to be dead by his ex-wife until she
learned of his predicament on "Live
with Regis and Kelly."
1 e in Iraqi market
bombing in Shiite town
Weekend death
toll reaches 27 for
American soldiers
BAGHDAD (AP) - Twin bomb-
ings yesterday tore through stalls
of vendors selling second-hand
clothes and DVDs in a busy Bagh-
dad market catering to Shiite Mus-
lims during a religious festival. A
market also was attacked north of
the capital, and police said as many
as 100 people died in the renewed
campaignblamed on Sunni Muslim
insurgents.
The U.S. military also reported
the deaths Sunday of two Marines,
raising the two-day death toll to
27 in a particularly bloody week-
end for American forces in Iraq. A
roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier
and wounded four others yesterday
in northern Iraq, it said.
Yesterday's first blast, a parked
car bomb, hit shortly after noon in
the Bab al-Sharqi market between
Tayaran and Tahrir squares - one
of the busiest parts of Baghdad.
Seconds later, a suicide car bomber
drove into the crowd.
Police estimated that each car
was loaded with nearly 220 pounds
of explosives.
Deputy Health Minister Hakim
al-Zamili said at least 78 people
were killed and 156 were wounded,
making it the deadliest attack in two
months. Figures provided by police
and hospital officials showed that as
many as 88 people were killed.
The explosions left body parts
strewn on the bloodstained pave-
ment as black smoke rose into the
sky. Police sealed off the area as
ambulances rushed to the scene.
Survivors were taken to nearby
al-Kindi Hospital where emergency
personnel worked feverishly over
the bloodied and badly wounded.
Bodies coveredinblue and white
cloth littered the outdoor court-
yard at the hospital. Family mem-
bers and friends were at the side
of the dead, screaming in grief and
crying out oaths.
A suicide bomber killed at least 63
people in the same area last month.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,
a Shiite, denounced the attack.
"We condemn this crime and we
promise that the security forces
will pursue all those involved in
this crime and bring them to jus-
tice," he said in a statement.
Hours later, a bomb followed by
a mortar attack struck a market
in the predominantly Shiite town
of Khalis, 50 miles north of Bagh-
dad, killing at least 12 people and
wounding 29, police said.
ThetwinbombinginBaghdadwas
the single deadliest attack against
civilians in Iraq since Nov. 23, when
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters
attacked Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite
slum with a series of car bombs and
mortars that struck in quick succes-
sion, killing at least 215 people.
In other violence, gunmen killed
a teacher as she was on her way to
work at a girls' school in the main-
ly Sunni area of Khadra in western
Baghdad, police said, adding that
the teacher's driver was wounded
in the drive-by shooting.
Two mortar shells also landed
on a primary school in the Sunni
strongholdneighborhood ofDorain
southern Baghdad, killing a woman
waiting for her child and wounding
eight Students, police said.
Police also said that a cell phone
company employee and a Sunni
tribal chieftain were killed in sepa-
rate shootings in Baghdad, while
the bullet-riddled bodies of three
men were found elsewhere in the
capital. An oil technician also was
shot to death in the northern city of
Mosul, police said.
The two U.S. Marines were
killed Sunday in separate attacks in
the Anbar province, an insurgent
stronghold west of Baghdad, the
military said. The deaths came a
day after 25 U.S. troops were killed
Saturday in the third-deadliest day
since the war started in March
2003 - eclipsed only by the one-
day toll of 37 U.S. fatalities on Jan.
26, 2005, and 28on the third day of
the U.S. invasion.
The heaviest tolls Saturday
came from a Black Hawk helicop-
ter crash in which 12 U.S. soldiers
were killed northeast of Baghdad
as well as an attack on a provincial
government building in the Shiite
holy city of Karbala that left five
U.S. troops dead.
The U.S. military has not ruled
out hostile fire. Col. David Suther-
land, the commander of U.S. forces
in the strife-ridden Iraqi province
of Diyala, said the crash was still
under investigation.
The violence underscores the
challenges faced by U.S. and Iraqi
forces as they seek to rein in Sunni
insurgents and Shiite militias that
have made the capital and sur-
rounding areas a battleground.
Meanwhile, two government
officials said Sunday that al-Maliki
dropped his protection of an anti-
American cleric's militia after being
convinced by U.S. intelligence that
the group was infiltrated by death
squads.
SHAY SPANIOLA/Daily
Josh Mizruchi plays his trumpet outside of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library yes-
terday. Mizrucki plays outside the UGLi regularly.
t,
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PFIZER
From page 1
conference, Coleman said the Uni-
versity would have to work with
local leaders, economic develop-
ment groups and small startups to
replace the lost internship oppor-
tunities.
"Having an internship in a small-
er company might be as good as or
a better experience for a student as
having one in a big company like
Pfizer," Coleman said.
She emphasized that it's impor-
tant for the University to work with
the city, state and industry to move
on.
"We need to make sure we are
doing everything we can to turn
this crisis into something that is
positive for the community," Cole-
man said.
At the press conference, Hieftje
spoke candidly about what the loss
of Pfizer, the world's largest phar-
maceutical company, would mean
for Ann Arbor. He said that the
disappearance of the city's largest
taxpayer would have an impact on
property tax levels in the city and
would hurt the city's schools.
Still, he cautioned against
despair.
"This is certainly a blow to the
city, but it is not one from which we
cannot recover," he said.
Pfizer paid $13 million to the
city's coffers in 2006, more than
4 percent of Ann Arbor's property
tax receipts.
While the University is the larg-
est landowner in the city, it does
not pay property taxes because it is
a public institution.
Pfizer was also one of the larg-
est charitable givers in the city,
supporting the United Way, youth
programming and the University
Musical Society.
"Pfizer was the largest non-Uni-
versity employer in the city and had
recently invested heavily in upgrad-
ing and expanding its sprawling
Ann Arbor research labs, which
abuts the eastern edge of North
Campus.
But despite Pfizer's massive
physical presence in Ann Arbor,
Granholm said the firm's real assets
were the skilled employees who
worked there. She said she was
determined to keep those skilled
employees in Michigan.
At about 1 p.m. yesterday, nine
Pfizer employees gathered at Ash-
ley's Pub on State Street to discuss
the news over lunch and a drink.
Pfizer instructed employees not
to speak with reporters, and none
of the group gathered at Ashley's
would comment.
"We are going to have a whole
stick-around-Ann-Arbor campaign
for those employees, because we
want them to stay," Granholm said.
The loss of Pfizer was particu-
larly painful for Granholm because
biomedical research was one of the
fields that she was hoping to foster
as a way to diversify the state's econ- t
omy as the once-dominant automo-v
tive industry continues to struggle. c
With a low unemployment rated
and the promise of new industries r
like Google moving into the area,
Ann Arbor had been one of the few i
economic bright spots in the strug- r
glingstate.
But the loss of thousands of high- a
tech jobs yesterday cast doubt on'
the city's economic future.
"We are in the same boat as b
the rest of the state of Michigan,"p
Hieftje said at last night's City f
Council meeting.p
Granholm said Pfizer's decisiond
was part of a global restructur- o
ing and had nothing to do with the a
local labor pool, the state's taxes orp
the state's business climate.
"There is nothing Michigan
could have done to prevent this
from happening," she said.
Pfizer officials announced the
closure of the Ann Arbor plant yes-
terday morning as part of a larger
restructuring. The firm, which has
not introduced any blockbuster
drugs since Viagra in 1998, is los-
ing market share to generic drugs.
Many of its patents are set to expire
over the next five years.
It aims to shed 10 percent of its
global workforce by 2008. In addi-
tion to the Ann Arbor facility, Pfiz-
er will close two plants and four
research facilities in the United
States, Japan and France.
TEACHING
From page 1
University alum Maggie Weston
aught English to Baltimore high
chool students capable of a fifth or
ixth grade writing level.
Weston said her most fulfilling
moment was helping a senior, in the,
chool's special education program
writing at a second grade level,
omplete a 10-page research paper.
"(The student) had a really hard
ime in my class," Weston said. "He
wrote the 10-page paper. We had a
elebration for him because he had
done it. You could tell that he was
really proud of himself."
Weston also tried help students
dentify with the material by using
rap songs to teach poetry.
Despite these triumphs, Bratt
nd Weston had to learn to deal
with the struggles along the way.
Weston frequently found herself
buying basic school supplies like
printer paper, rulers and markers
or the classroom out of her own
pocket. She also faced a 60 percent
daily attendance rate. By the end
if the year, she was able to raise
ittendance to 75 percent by calling
parents and using incentives like
certificates for good attendance
and "scholar of the week" awards.
For Bratt, lack of student motiva-
tion was a formidable force.
"One of the biggest challenges I
faced was literally getting my stu-
dents to believe that they could
achieve," Bratt said in an e-mail
interview. "I think when they real-
ized that they weren't going to run
me out of the classroom and that
I wasn't going to change my tune
about their ability to learn, they
started to come around."
Bratt said that though it was one
of the most difficult experiences in
her life, it was well worth it.
"My kids grew two grade levels
in one year," she said. "To see that
it's actually possible to close the
achievement gap was inspiring."
The message that closing the
achievement gap is possible is one
that Kopp said she plans to deliver to
college campuses across the country.
"Years and years of effort have led
to a situation where we are actually
onthebrinkofmakingdramatic pro-
cess of closing the achievement gap,"
Kopp said. "I hope that the college
seniors who are out there and who
want to make our country better will
think about immersing themselves
in the center of that revolution."
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Republican dissent grows in Congress
as deployment for 21,500 troops nears
1 11
X ~
Lawmakers call for
monthly war updates
from White House
WASHINGTON (AP) - Con-
gressional Republicans pushed
back yesterday against President
Bush's decision to deploy addi-
tional troops in Iraq, some voicing
opposition while others called for
the administration and Iraqi gov-
ernment to be held accountable.
In the Senate, three GOP law-
makers joined one Democrat in
unveiling nonbinding legislation
expressing disagreement with
Bush's plan and urging him to "con-
sider all options and alternatives"
to the planned increase of 21,500
troops.
In the House, members of the
leadership drafted a series of what
theycalled "strategicbenchmarks,"
and said the White House should
submit monthly reports to Con-
gress measuring progress toward
meeting them.
The developments occurred
on the eve of Bush's State of the
Union address, and as Democrats
pointed toward votes in the House
and Senate in the next few weeks
declaring that the troop increase
was "not in the national interest of
the United States."
Republicans have struggled to
respond in the two weeks since
Bush outlined his new strategy in a
speech. Though aware that the war
played a role in the GOP defeat'in
last fall's elections, most have been
unwilling to abandon a president of
their own party.
Both the Senate legislation and
the action taken by the House
Republicanleaders were softer than
the legislation that majority Demo-
crats intend to place for a vote. But
they also represented a more force-
ful response to the long and deadly
war than the GOP offered while it
held the majority in Congress.
Sen. John Warner of Virginia,
former chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, joined
GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine
and Norm Coleman of Minnesota in
producing the legislation express-
ing disagreement with Bush's plan.
"I personally, speaking for
myself, have great concern about
the American G.I. being thrust into
that situation, the origins of which
sometimes go back over a thousand
years," Warner said.
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the
Senate's most conservative Demo-
crat, joined the Republicans.
In the House, Rep. John Boeh-
ner of Ohio, the party's leader,
said that he supports Bush's plan
and that his backing is not condi-
tional on the president agreeing
to meet the standards that law-
makers laid out.
He said he had told the presi-
dent "that the support is still strong
among Republicans but there
are a lot of our members who are
skeptical that the plan will work"
because of doubts that the Iraqi
government will follow through
on its commitments. -
Boehner also released a letter
to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
urging her to appoint a special
committee of equal numbers of
Republicans and Democrats to
oversee the "implementation and
progress of the president's new
strategy for success in Iraq."
As the majority party, Demo-
crats generally are entitled to
more seats on House committees
than Republicans, and it is unlike-
ly Pelosi would agree to a different
arrangement to monitor the war.
The House Republicans' sug-
gested "strategic benchmarks"
apply largely to the Iraqi gov-
ernment, which has pledged
additional troops to quell sectar-
ian fighting and to restrain Shiite
militia.
Republicans want the gov-
ernment to be measured on its
cooperation with U.S. forces, its
ability to purge its security forces
of insurgents and their sympathiz-
ers and also on its ability to assure
that Shiite, Sunni, Kurd and other
groups are treated equally.