1 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, September 212007- 3A NEWS BRIEFS WASHINGTON Bush refuses to criticize firm over shooting President Bush yesterday refused to criticize a U.S. secu- rity company in Iraq accused in a shooting that left 11 civilians dead, saying investigators need to deter- mine if the guards violated rules governing their operations. Bush said he expected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would raise the shooting by agents of Blackwater USA when they meet next week at the U.N. Gen- eral Assembly. AI-Maliki has urged the U.S. Embassy to find another security firm to protect its diplomats, say- ing he cannot tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood." He called the shootings a "crime" and said they had generated "wide- spread anger and hatred." WASHINGTON Senate blocks bill that would have stopped Iraq funds The Senate blocked legislation yesterday that would have cut off money for combat in Iraq by June. It was a predictable defeat for Democrats struggling to pass less divisive anti-war measures. The 28-70 vote was 32 short of the 60 needed to cut off a GOP fili- buster. The legislation, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, was indicative of the Democratic lead- ership's new hardline strategy. Unable to attract enough Republican support on milder pro- posals, Reid has sought votes on strong anti-war measures intend- ed to force a withdrawal of troops. The outcome was not a sur- prise. In May, the Senate rejected a similar proposal by Reid and Feingold by a 29-67 vote, with * most Democrats saying they did not support using money to force an end to the war because that approach could hurt the troops. CAIRO, Egypt Bin Laden video calls on Pakistan to wage jihad Osama bin Laden called on Pakistanis to wage holy war on their. president yesterday, saying in anew recording that it was their religious duty to overthrow Gen. Pervez Musharraf for his alliance with the U.S. against Islamic mili- tants. The message was the third from bin Laden this month after a long lull, coming in a flurry of al-Qaida propaganda marking the anniver- sary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Joining in, bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, issued avideo yesterday seeking to galva- nize Islamic fighters from North Africa to Afghanistan. WASHINGTON Giuliani adviser criticized for mosques comment A homeland security adviser to Rudy Giuliani came under fire yesterday for claiming there were "too many mosques" in the United States - and defended himself by saying his point was that not enough Muslim leaders cooperate with law enforcement. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and the top GOP member on the panel, said his comments to the Politico Web site were taken out of context. Democrats said Giuliani should drop him as a campaign adviser. "I stand by everything I said other than the fact that the Polit- ico totally took it out of context," King said yesteday. In the Politico interview, King said: "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement." After King complained, Politico posted video of the entire inter- view. - Compiled from Daily wire reports SOLE asks Coleman to pay their fines DRAWING BLOOD Twelve students had to pay $6,120 for trespassing By SARA THELEN and RYAN PODGES For the Daily Activists held a press confer- ence outside a University Board of Regents meeting yesterday and called for the University to force companies that make its apparel adhere to more stringent labor standards. Sev- eral student activists who were arrested and fined for tres- passing for holding a sit-in in University President Mary Sue Coleman's office in the spring also asked Coleman to reim- burse them for the fines. The 12 students arrested in April owe a combined $6,120 in fines. They're trying to raise money to cover that cost. They've already received $1,000 in donations from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employ- ees, the International Brother- hood of Electrical Workers and the University's nurses union. Yesterday's protest was sup- ported by Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equal- ity, the Lecturers' Employee Organization, the Graduate Employees Organization and the AFL-CIO. Participants in the April sit- in wanted the University to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. The program would require clothing manufactur- ers licensed by the University to pay workers enough to sup- port their families by working no more than 48 hours a week, allow workers to join unions and submit to labor standards inspections. "It's easy to get larger unions to support you when a president breaks over 30 years of prec- edent," said Blase Kearney, a SOLE member who was arrest- ed in April. "People at this uni- versity haven't been arrested for peaceful protest in thirty years." SOLE members said they made progress eight years ago through a similar sit-in that ended when then-University President Lee Bollinger agreed' to many of the protesters' demands. Though a University official said the students partic- ipating in the April sit-in were arrested because of changes to security procedures after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Kearney said he thinks Univer- sity administrators and Cole- man specifically are responsible for the arrests. "By attacking the right to peaceful protest, the Univer- sity has silenced the voice of students," the group said in the letter, read by SOLE member Aria Everts, an LSA junior, to a crowd of about 60 people. The letter also said the Uni- versity doesn't value student voices and doesn't focus on social change. "The focus is too often on understanding inequities of (globalization) and rarely on rectifying them," the letter said. Nurse Toni Oliverio draws blood from LSA junior Christina Carson at a blood drive in West Quad Residence Hall yesterday House votes on tax hikes LANSING (AP) - The state House began voting onanother pro- posal to raise the state's income tax late last night, an effort to resolve a budget crisis projected for the fis- cal year that begins Oct. 1. The proposal would raise the state's income tax from the current 3.9 percent to 4.6 percent. The income tax proposal would raise about $1.1 billion for the state next fiscal year, leaving more than $600 million of a potential deficit to be eliminated by cuts or other rev- enue sources. The income tax rate would drop back to 4.2 percent in 2011. Other votes later last night could possibly include extending the sales tax to some services. Some spending cuts also may be voted on. House Democrats were trying to woo Republican votes for the income tax by tying it to several cost-cutting proposals, possibly including the elimination of life- time health benefits for lawmak- ers, a reduction in the use of state vehicles and other changes to ben- efit levels for state employees. In another effort to persuade unde- cided voters, a small portion of the income tax revenue would go to the state's lowest funded schools and some would go to fish and wildlife programs. The proposal would need 56 votestopassthe110-member.House and advance to the Senate. About an hour into the tally, the proposal was 14 votes short of passing, and 15 lawmakers were not posting votes. Democrats hold a 58-52 edge in the House, but six of them were voting against the proposal. The state has a projected $1.75 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts in12 days. A partial government shutdown is possible unless a solution is found soon. It appeared late last night that whatever bills the Democrat-con- trolled House might pass, the Republican-controlled Senate wasn't on board. Matt Marsden, a spokesman for Senate Major- ity Leader Mike Bishop, said there had been no agreement reached between leaders of the two cham- bers several hours after House Speaker Andy Dillon announced the House would be voting. illegal immigrants head for Canada On rumors of asylum, hundreds go to Windsor By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH The New York Times WINDSOR, Ontario - Flee- ing stepped-up sweeps by the American authorities, ille- gal immigrants to the United States, mostly Mexican, are arriving in growing numbers at the foot of the bridge in this Canadian border town seeking refugee status. Still more immigrants, most- ly Mexicans who had been liv- ing illegally in Florida, have begun trying to make their way past America's northern border at other locations, the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said on yesterday. The arrivals here began sud- denly three weeks ago, just a family or two at first, fueled by the notion - largelyunfounded, the authorities here say - that Canada would grant them asy- lum. The journey, some of the immigrants said, was first sug- gested by an organization in Naples, Fla., which charged a fee for assisting with the required paperwork. The idea has now spread on the Internet and through social networks. By yesterday, at least 200 people had turned up here, across the border from Detroit, with as much of their lives as they could shove into suitcases, boxes and garbage bags in their cars. Thousands more, refugee advocates and Canadian offi- cials say, may be on their way. Advocates for immigrants issued urgent warnings to Mexicans pondering similar journeys, and expressed fury at groups that were encour- aging them. In truth, refugee status for Mexican citizens is relatively unusual in Canada. Only 28 percent of such claims by Mexicans were approved in Canada last year, compared with 47 percent of claims from all nationalities. "It's an outrage that money is being taken to provide false information and dangerous informationtothesepeople,"said RivkaAugenfeld of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a nonprofit umbrella organization focused on the rights and protection of refugees. "This idea is just out there and growing." Windsor officials, who scrambled to arrange a meet- ing on yesterday in a commu- nity center for some of the new arrivals so they could apply for social services, said they were overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught and deeply worried about the days ahead. Already, they had filled a shelter with 30 single men; officials were now paying four motels to house families, said Maj. Wilfred Har- bin, administrator for the Sal- vation Army here. Meals were being delivered to the families by taxi cab. "We have no idea what we are going to do," said Habin, who said he had heard that as many as 7,000 Mexicans might be seeking refugee status in the coming weeks. Eddie Francis, the mayor of Windsor, faxed a letter on Wednesday to Canadian federal authorities seeking emergency financial help. "I empathize with the chal- lenges but we don't have the ability to manage this," Francis said. "We have never seen any- thing like this." Many of the families who drove here said they had learned about the possibility of fleeing to Canada from a Naples, Fla., organization, the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, which promoted "Information required for Canadian Refugee Status Application" on its Web site. The group, some refugees said, collected $400 for adults and $100 for children and assured them that there would be jobs and shelter. "I don't know if what I was told about coming here was correct or not, but what am I going to do about it now?" said Pedro Palafox Marin, who said . he paid $800 to the organiza- tion before driving through the night to Windsor with his wife and children. "In Florida," Marin said, "every job I got, everywhere I went, we were getting a lot of pressure from immigration: Being illegal was always on my mind. Now, I can relax." Illegal immigrants have been especially frightened of depor- tation in recent months, people in Naples and surrounding Col- lier County said. The commu- nity has been filled with tales of immigrants being caught and deported and government letters being sent to employers warning them not to employ illegal immigrants. The Collier County Sheriff's ' Office recently became the first local law enforcement agency in Florida to send its deputies for Immigrations and Custom Enforcement training, which gives them the authority to detain suspected illegal immi- grants. In Naples yesterday, Jacques Sinjuste, the general director of the Jerusalem Haitian Commu- nity Center, denied that he had urged undocumented immi- grants to seek asylum in Canada or told them jobs would be wait- ing there. Sinjuste said that he and a small group of volunteers at the center had merely helped immigrants fill out applications for asylum, he said. "We fill it out for them and that's the end of our job," he said. "Many people are taking the name of my organization with them when they go to Canada andsayingIsentthem.ButI don't know anything about that" Sinjuste, a Haitian immi- grant who founded the center in 2000, said he had first heard about the possibility of seeking asylum in Canada from a client who brought one of the applica- tions to his office two years ago. Prograrn in Science, Technology & Society Center for the History of Medicine History, Culture, and Science Allan M Brandt' Harvard University Author of The Cigazette Cenhy: The Rise, FaI4 fnndDeadly Persistence of the Product That DefinedAmerica Monday, 24 September 2007, 4pm Assembly Hall, Rackham Building, 4th Floor For more information: tmnsts m ich~edu: www.unich.edtu/-umsts/ 3,790 Number of American service members who have died inthe War in Iraq, according to The Associ- ated Press. No service members were identified by the Department of Defense yesterday.