The Michigan Daily - michigandaily com
Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
SAN FRANCISCO
Microsoftbuys 1.6
percent share of
Facebook
Rapidly rising Internet star
Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent
stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240
million, spurning a competing offer
from online search leader Google
Inc.
Culminating weeks of negotia-
tions, the investment announced
yesterday values Palo Alto-based
Facebook at $15 billion - a stunning
figure for an online hangout started
in a Harvard University dorm room
less than four years ago.
Microsoft also will sell Internet
ads for Facebook as the site expands
outside the United States, broaden-
ing a marketing relationship that
began last year.
CIZRE, Turkey
Turkey attacks
rebels along
Iraqi border
Turkish warplanes and helicop-
ter gunships reportedly pounded
Kurdish rebel positions along the
Turkey-Iraq border yesterday,
broadening military operations
against insurgents amid persistent
fears Turkey will launch a major
offensive inside Iraq.
Turkish Cabinet members and
military generals held a six-hour
meeting in Ankara to discuss a pos-
sible operation in northern Iraq,
but decided to recommend the gov-
ernment take economic measures
first to force cooperation by Iraqis
against Kurdish rebels.
The state-run Anatolia news
agency reported that Turkish
warplanes and attack helicopters
bombed mountain paths used by
rebels to cross the porous border
from Iraq and stage hit-and-run
attacks against soldiers in south-
eastern Turkey.
SAGINAW
Students shot at
middle school
football game
Gunfire broke out near a foot-
ball field where two middle school
teams were playing, leaving two
youths and two adults wounded,
police say.
The four were taken to hospitals,
said police Lt. Brian Lipe.
A 16-year-old male was shot in
the neck, Detective Sgt. Brent Van-
derhaar said, but he said he had no
information on the victims' con-
ditions. Southfield radio station
WWJ-AM reported that the victim
with the neck wound was hospital-
ized in critical condition and that
the two adults were released.
LANSING
Health insurance
plan passes in Mich.
state House
Michigan residents buying their
own individual health insurance
plans could get price and coverage
protection under legislation passed
yesterday by the state House, sup-
porters said.
But opponents said the four-bill
package now headed to the Senate
would give Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Michigan an unfair edge over
commercial insurance competitors
without necessarily saving custom-
ers money.
A key provision would allow a
Blue Cross Blue Shield subsidiary,
the Lansing-based Accident Fund,
to broaden its product offerings
beyond workers' compensation to
include other coverage such as fire
and casualty. The Accident Fund
also provides third party adminis-
tration services and disability man-
agement.
Under the legislation, insurance
companies - except for Blue Cross
- would be able to refuse an indi-
vidual health coverage if the person
doesn't meet its criteria.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
3,838
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. The Department of Defense
identified the following casualty
yesterday:
Staff Sgt. Larry I. Rougle, 25, of
West Jordan, Utah
FULBRIGHT
From page 1A
staff to process the interviewees.
"We are working on how to
develop an administrative struc-
ture to accommodate the increasing
number of students," Kehoe said.
She credits the high turnout to the
increased press andattentionthe pro-
gram has received in recentyears.
"Through word of mouth, it's
built a life of its own," she said.
"Success breeds success."
Andres Carter, a University alum
working as an architect in Brazil
with a grant from the Fulbright
Program, said that while most peo-
ple were dedicated and helpful, his
experience with the University's-
program to help applicants was not
entirelypositive.He saidhereceived
a lot of help early in the process, but
that he was unable to get help dur-
ing the final partof his application.
"Before the acceptance, I
thought the program put up many
barriers to stop you from receiving
the grant," he said. "Even though
there were plenty of resources, it
was still a very difficult project to
complete."
Kehoe, who has runthe program
for four years, holds information
sessions between January and Sep-
tember to keep students up to date
on requirements and resources like
professors and previous successful
mission statements.
"It's up to individual students
whether or nottheytake advantage
of the advising available," she said.
University alum Cameron Gokee,
a Fulbright scholar studying archae-
ology in Senegal, said the Universi-
ty's support system played a key role
in his receiving a scholarship.
He said Kehoe, along with
archaeology faculty, helped him
improve the application before its
final submission by going over his
materials to ensure they fit the cri-
teria for his specific program.
Kehoe said she has hope for the
future of University of Michigan
students in the program.
"The fact that we had ten more
than the next top institution is
unbelievable, just fantastic," she
said.
-Lindy Stevens
contributed to this report.
I
i