The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, September 13, 2007 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS GETTING NEW GREEKS MOSCOW Putin chooses no-name to replace PM President Vladimir Putin chose a little-known govern- ment official to become Russia's new prime minister yester- day, a surprise move that set off fevered speculation over whether loyal technocrat Vik- tor Zubkov was being groomed to replace Putin next spring. The move came a few hours after Putin dissolved the Cabi- net of his long-serving prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, saying he needed to appoint a government better suited to the election campaign and to "pre- pare the country" for life after the elections. The nomination of Zubkov, who has overseen investigations into suspicious financial trans- actions, caught much of the political elite off guard, which appeared to be Putin's inten- tion. WASHINGTON Senate Dems. reject Petraeus's troop plan A day before Bush was to deliver a major address on the war, Senate Democrats rejected a four-star general's recommen- dation to keep some 130,000 troops in Iraq through next summer and called for legisla- tion that would sharply limit the mission of U.S. forces. Their proposal was not expected to set a deadline to end the war, as many Demo- crats want, but instead restrict troops to a narrow set of objec- tives: training the Iraqi mili- tary and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists, party officials told the Associ- ated Press. The goal of' the tempered measure is to attract enough Republican votes to break the 60-vote threshold in the Sen- ate needed to end a filibuster - something Democrats have been unable to do since tak- ing control of Congress eight months ago. BIG CREEK, W.Va. No hate crime charges in W.Va. torture case Authorities decided yester- day not to pursue hate crime charges in the kidnapping and weeklong torture of a black woman, instead going after the suspects, who are white, on state charges that carry stiffer penalties. While federal civil rights or state hate crime charges remain an option, a state kidnapping count that carries a sentence of up to life in prison will provide the best chance for successful prosecution, officials said. "As a practical matter, sen- tenced to life, what else can be done?" U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller told The Associated Press. Six people face charges, including kidnapping, sexual assault and lying to police in the torture of Megan Williams, 20, at a remote hillside home in Big Creek. MONPEIIER, Vt. Automakers to comply with state emissions rules Vermont and other states scored a victory yesterday in their battle to get automakers to comply with rules aimed at reducing global warming. State rules on greenhouse gas emissions don't conflict with federal mileage standards and automakers should be able to develop the technology to meet them, a federal judge ruled. "There is no question that the GHG (greenhouse gas) regula- tions present great challenges to automakers," Judge William Sessions III, sitting in the U.S. District Court in Burlington, wrote at the conclusion of his 240-page decision. - Compiled from Daily wire reports 3,773 Number of American service members who have died in the War in Iraq, according to The Associated Press. The following were identified by the Depart- ment of Defense yesterday: Cpl. Carlos E. Gilorozco, of San Jose, Calif., Lance Cpl. Jon T. Hicks, 20, of Atco, N.J., Staff Sft. Courtney Hol- linsworth, 26, of Yonkers, N.Y. Two South U. buildings emptied by smoke fears Martha Cook, Clements Library evacuated by dust By MARIEM QAMRUZZAMAN Daily StaffReporter Two campus buildings were evacuated for about an hour yes- terday morning while firefighters investigated reports of smoke. At about 9:15 a.m., the Depart- ment of Public Safety received mul- tiple calls from people who smelled smoke coming from the basement of the Clements Library and an underground utilities tunnel. Both the library and Martha Cook Residence Hall were evacu- ated from about 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. while firefighters tried to locate the source of the smoke, DPS spokes- woman Diane Brown said. No one was injured. People were allowed to pass on the south side of South University Avenue, and many Martha Cook residents waited nearby in flips flops and pajamas, said LSA sopho- more Lea Wojciechowski, one of the evacuated residents. The smoke was actually dust caused by contractors cutting cement nearby, Brown said. The contractors were working near the Hatcher Graduate Library on a project to repair underground utility tunnels in the area. Wojciechowski was checking her e-mail in the basement of Mar- tha Cook when a staff member told her to evacuate. She stood outside in the 50-degree weather wear- ing flip-flops, jeans and a t-shirt. Wojciechowski estimated that about 80 students were evacuated from the dorm. "Ijustfigured itwasjustsome lit- tle situation like someone was dry- ing her hair, and that's what caused the alarm to go off," Wojciechowski said. After waiting outside for about half an hour, Wojciechowski left to go to her Math 425 class empty- handed. Wojciechowski said she explained why she didn't have her homework with her to her profes- sor, who said "that's a better story than saying the dog ate my home- work." After students were allowed back into the dorm, construction workers spent the next few hours venting the air to dissipate the dust particles, Brown said. Freshman Mike Sternberg picks up information about Delta Upsilon at the Fra- ternity Forum yesterday on the Diag. mPrint gets ')upgrade Students can print Word documents from remote locales By JOE STAPLETON For the Daily Starting Monday, students will be able to send any Micro- soft Office document to a campus printer remotely and pick it up later. Previously, the University's mPrint service, located at itd. umich.edu/mprint, only lets users print PDFs, postscript files and plain text files remotely. That's not much help for most students, who use Microsoft Word to write papers. If a student wants to use cam- pus printers now, they have to resort to alternatives like saving their work online or using por- table memory and opening it up Earthquake shakes Indonesia Disaster collapses buildings direction," Wati Said reported by cell phone from Bengkulu, a town 80 miles from the quake's epicen- kills 5 and injures dozens ter. "We think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes, it will not touch us here.... JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A strong earthquake Everyone is afraid." shook Southeast Asia yesterday, collapsing buildings, One witness, Budi Darmawan, said a three-story killing at least five people and injuring dozens in Indo- building near his office fell. "I saw it with my own nesia. Nations as far away as Africa put coastal areas eyes," he told El Shinta radio. on alert, but only a small tsunami hit Sumatra, the The 8.4-magnitude quake was felt in at least four island ravaged by the 2004 tsunami disaster. countries, with tall buildings swaying in cities up to Frightened people fled their homes and ran inland, 1,200 miles away. The tremor was followed by a series fearing a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami of strong aftershocks, further rattling residents. that struck a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean, Telephone lines and electricity were disrupted killing an estimated 230,000 people. across a large swath of Indonesia, making it difficult to "Everyone is running out of their houses in every get information about damage and casualties. on a computer at a campus com- puting site. Robert Jones, who manages printing at campus computing sites, said letting people access University printers remotely pre- sented a challenge at first because it was hard to make sure the users were students or staff. Then came the idea for the mPrint website. "We can authenticate people through a website," Jones said. "Why not just filter it all through there?" Students had mixed feelings about the new service yesterday. "I think I heard something about it at orientation," LSA freshman Claudia Cao said. "It sounds really convenient." LSA junior R.C. Thorsby, though, was unexcited by the changes. "It doesn't sound like a bad idea, just not very necessary," he said. "It sounds kind of superfluous." 5P7t 3 4