The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, November 212008 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Congress rushes
to extend jobless
benefits
Jarred by new jobless alarms,
Congress raced to approve legisla-
tion yesterday to keep unemploy-
ment checks flowing through the
December holidays and into the
new year for a million or more laid-
off Americans whose benefits are
running out.
The economic picture was only
getting worse, if Wall Street was
any indication. The Dow Jones
industrials dropped more than 400
points for a second straight day,
reaching the lowest level in more
than five years, and the Standard
& Poor's 500 index fell below lows
established six years ago.
The Senate'svote followed yester-
day's governmentreport thatlaid-off
workers' new claims for jobless aid
had reached a 16-year high and the
number of Americans searching for
work had surged past10 million.
The White House, which had
opposed broader legislation con-
taining the benefits extension,
urged passage of the new version
and said President George W. Bush
would quickly sign it.
WASHINGTON
Gates likely to stay
as Pentagon chief
What Robert Gates once called
"inconceivable to me" - his re-
maining as defense secretary be-
yond Inauguration Day - is look-
ing a bit more conceivable to the
rest of Washington.
The 65-year-old former spy-
master has turned publicly mum
on the circumstances under which
he would stay, even briefly, after
President-elect Barack Obama
takes office. But one of the leading
scenarios for a wartime transition
at the Pentagon has Gates holding
the fort, at least for some months.
If Gates does stay on, the an-
nouncement could come soon.
Anationalsecurityspokeswoman
for Obama, Brooke Anderson, said
yesterday she had no comment on
Gates or on whether the president-
elect has held discussions with any
candidate for the Pentagon job.
BAGHDAD
Iraqis fight over US
* security agreement
Iraq's parliament persevered
yesterday in its debate on a pro-
posed security agreement with
the United States despite raucous
attempts by opposition lawmakers
to disrupt proceedings ahead of
next week's vote on the deal.
The measure, which would keep
U.S. forces in Iraq for another three
years, has a good chance of pass-
ing in the Shiite-led parliament.
But the uproar created by loyalists
of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-
Sadr suggests the pact could remain
divisive as the country struggles for
reconciliation after years of war.
If al-Sadr's group and other leg-
islators opposed to the pact lose by
a thin margin in the vote planned
for Monday, they might attempt to
turn their anti-American message
into a defining issue in provincial
elections on Jan. 31 and general
elections late in 2009. His followers
planned a major rally today in cen-
tral Baghdad to protest the security
deal, which they view as a surren-
der to U.S. interests.
SAN FRANCISCO
* San Francisco to
install electric car
recharging stations
A $1 billion network of electric
car recharging stations will dot San
Francisco Bay area highways under
a plan unveiled yesterday that aims
to greatly expand the number of
electric vehicles on the road.
Palo Alto-based Better Place
along with San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor
Ron Dellums and San Jose Mayor
Chuck Reed announced the deal to
install charging stations in homes,
businesses, parkinglots and govern-
ment buildings by 2012.
The company said it will also
build mechanized battery swap-
ping centers where robots will
remove and replace the batteries in
cars that are compatible with the
system. These stations will allow
electric car drivers to travel longer
distances without recharging.
The initiative would make the
Bay Area the first region in the U.S.
to create an electric car network.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Stocks plummet for
second straight day
Gitmo detainees
freed after order
Late sell-off ignited
by fading hopes of
Big Three bailout
NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks
plunged for a second straight
day yesterday, falling to levels
not seen in at least five years, as
financial and energy stocks tum-
bled while demand for the safety
of government debt spiked.
Wall Street saw the most
intense selling late in the session
after hopes faded that lawmak-
ers would quickly assemble an
aid package for U.S. automakers,
and as the Standard & Poor's 500
index broke through lows estab-
lished in 2002. That breach of a
key technical threshold sent a
shudder through the market and
touched off further selling.
The S&P 500 index fell 6.7
percent to its lowest close since
April 1997. The Dow Jones indus-
trial average, meanwhile, fell 445
points, or 5.6 percent, to its low-
est close since March 2003. The
decline brings the Dow's two-day
drop to 873 points, or 10.6 per-
cent, its worst two-day percent-
age loss since October 1987.
Financial stocks plunged on
worries that the government's
financialrescue won't be sufficient
to cover banks' losses. Meanwhile,
a sharp drop in oil prices weighed
heavily on energy companies.
Yesterday's pullback came amid
heavy volume, a welcome sign for
some investors who are looking for
the market to experience a cathartic
sell-off that could lay the ground-
work for a recovery. Heavier vol-
ume can signal investors are scared
enough to sell rather than simply sit
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The market
fell nearly 450 points, capping atwo-day drop of more than 870 points.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal
judge yesterday ordered the release
of five Algerians held at Guantan-
amo Bay, Cuba, and the continued
detention of a sixth in a major blow
to the Bush administration's strat-
egy to keep terror suspects locked
up without charges.
In the first case of its kind,
U.S. District Judge Richard J.
Leon said the government's evi-
dence linking the five Algerians
to al-Qaida was not credible as it
came from a single, unidentified
source. Therefore, he said, the five
could not be held indefinitely as
enemy combatants, and should be
BASKETBALL
From Page 1
Harris and Sims led the way
offensively, taking advantage of
their open shots and pushing the
pacetokeepUCLAonitsheels. Sims
had 18 points, and Harris had 15.
But the Bruins didn't go anywhere.
Despite the Wolverines'
improved play, they never led by
more than four points.
In the first four minutes of the
game, UCLA looked primed to run
away from with the game, taking
a 9-1 lead. Michigan Coach John
Beilein called a timeout to calmhis
team, and the Wolverines respond-
ed with a 6-0 run.
The Wolverines kept the game
close early with their 1-3-1 zone
that led to17 Bruin turnovers.
"You don't know how teams are
going to react sometimes," Beilein
said. "They missed some shots ...
and we created some turnovers."
UCLA and Michigan traded
blows throughoutthe first half, but
Michigan refused to go away.
"You can't let a deficit get in the
way," Beileinsaid. "Butyoucan'talso
be in a situation where you play very
well and let that get inthe way. That's
been a theme of ours all along, just to
be tougher mentally and physically."
With two minutes left in the
first half, the Bruins appeared to
pull away again, taking a 29-19 lead
with a 9-0 run. But Sims respond-
ed with two straight baskets in
released immediately.
"To allow enemy combatancy
to rest on so thin a reed would be
inconsistent with this court's obli-
gation," Leon told the crowded
courtroom.
As a result, he said, "the court
must and will grant their petitions
and order their release."
As for the sixth Algerian,
Belkacem Bensayah, Leon said
there was enough reason to believe
he was close to an al-Qaida opera-
tive and had sought to help others
travel to Afghanistan to join the
terrorists' fight against the United
States and its allies.
the paint, including an electrfy-
ing dunk off a pass from fifth-year
senior guard C.J. Lee.
Michigantrailedby six atthe half.
Everything that didn't go the
Wolverines' way in the first stanza,
seemed to in the second.
The Wolverines opened the
frame with a 10-2 run, taking their
first lead of the night. Douglass
began the half with back-to-back
baskets, and Harris followed with
two of his own.
With 4:58 left, UCLA forward
Alfred Aboya hit a basket to give
the Bruins their first lead in more
12 minutes.
But Douglass, with maturity
beyond his freshman year, nailed
a 3-pointer at the top of the arc to
give Michigan a 49-48 lead.
"I think that's why we won the
game," Harris said. "Big shots by
Stuart Douglass."
A few possessions later, Har-
ris picked off an errant pass and
pushed it up the court, leading to a
Simslayup.
Just moments after that, Sims
sealed the Wolverines' win with
his dunk.
As Michigan celebrated in the
locker room, Beilein told his team to
enjoy the win, butonly for one night.
Michigan advances to play Duke
tonight in the championship game of
the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic.
"Handling success is sometimes
more difficultthan handling defeat,"
Beilein said. "We have to handle the
success and be ready for (Duke)."
on the sidelines, which can result in
relativelylightvolume.
Observers said the selling high-
lighted the entrenched pessimism
about the prospects for the econ-
omy.
"Unrelenting gloom has taken
over the markets,"said Dana John-
son, chief economist at Comerica
Inc. "The economic news, the con-
cerns about some major financial
institutions, the concerns about
the auto sector, earnings reports,
everything is coming out in away
that is just provoking a massive
selling in the stock market."
"Back in October we were look-
ing at a potential catastrophic melt-
downofthecreditmarkets,and that
didn't happen," he said. "But that
doesn't mean tremendous damage
hasn't been doneto the economy."
Those worries about the econ-
omy sent the Dow down 444.99,
or 5.56 percent, to 7,552.29. It
was the biggest percentage drop
for the blue chips since Oct. 22
and the Dow's lowest close since
March 12, 2003.
Broader stock indicators also
showed huge declines. The Stan-
dard & Poor's 500 index fell 54.14,
or 6.71 percent, to 752.44, below
the closing low of 776.76 logged
on Oct. 9, 2002, to its lowest close
since April 14,1997.
World leaders debate how to deal
with piracy surge in Somali waters
Pirates attack cargo
ships with food for
3.2 million Somalis
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - The
U.N., African Union and Arab
nations struggled to respond yes-
terday to a surge of pirate attacks,
authorizing sanctions and calling
for international peacekeepers to
address the chaos in Somalia that
has spawned an upsurge in sea
banditry.
The economic reverbera-
tions of the attacks widened as
the world's largest container-
shipping company said it would
begin sending some slower ves-
sels thousands of miles around
southern Africa to avoid the
perilous waters on the shorter
Suez Canal route. Insurance
underwriters and brokers said
the increased danger off the
east coast of Africa was driv-
ing up premiums for shipping
operators.
The African Union urged
the United Nations to quickly
send peacekeepers to Somalia
but that appeared unlikely any-
time soon. A U.N. peacekeep-
ing operation in the early 1990s
saw the downing of two U.S.
Army helicopters and killing of
18 American soldiers. The U.S.
withdrew and U.N. peacekeep-
ers were gone by 1995.
In New York, the U.N. Secu-
rity Council voted unanimously
to authorize its sanctions com-
mittee to recommend people
and entities that would be sub-
ject to an asset freeze and travel
ban for engaging in or support-
ing acts that threaten peace in
Somalia, for violating a U.N. arms
embargo, and for obstructing
delivery of humanitarian aid.
Pirates have attacked a number
of cargo ships with food and other
items for some 3.2 million needy
Somalis. But it was unclear how
that could affect the pirates, who
live off cash ransoms dropped in
burlap sacks from helicopters or
in waterproof suitcases loaded
onto skiffs.
Frightened about a drop in rev-
enue from ship traffic through
the Suez Canal, Egypt hosted a
meeting of seven Arab nations
including Saudi Arabia, which saw
pirates seize a supertanker loaded
with $100 million worth of crude
in the Indian Ocean on Saturday.
The meeting ended with the
group recommending the estab-
lishment of committees that would
meet in Yemen early next year to
develop concrete steps to combat
piracy, participants said.
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