The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, September 18, 2009 -- 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, September 18, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Home for state
police uncertain
The feud over whether Michi-
gan State Police should move
into a new headquarters won't be
settled until next week at the ear-
liest.
The House passed a state police
budget bill by a 68-39 vote Thurs-
day. It's different from a Senate-
approved bill, so it's likely a joint
legislative committee will have
to come up with a compromise
version for lawmakers to vote on
before the Oct.1 budget deadline.
Neither the Senate nor the
House version provides enough
money to pay the about $4 million
annual average rent on the $40
million privately owned building.
Some lawmakers say the state
should occupy the building. Oth-
ers say the state would be allowed
to break the lease and spend the
extra money to rehire laid-off
troopers.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Football coach
found innocent in
player's death
A former Kentucky high school
football coachwas found notguilty
Thursday in the death of a player
who collapsed at a practice where
the team was put through a series
of sprints on a hot summer day.
Attorneys said the case was
the first time a football coach was
charged in the death of a player.
It was closely watched by those
involved in youth athletics and
has already resulted in changes to
Kentucky law and other efforts to
make practices safer for athletes.
Former Pleasure Ridge Park
High School coach David Jason
Stinson, 37, was charged after
15-year-old Max Gilpin collapsed
at an August 2008 practice as the
team ran a series of sprints known
as "gassers." He died three days
later at a Louisville hospital of
heat stroke, sepsis and multiple
organ failure. His temperature
reached at least 107 degrees.
The jury deliberated for about
90 minutes, and Stinson hugged
defense attorney Brian Butler
after the verdict was read.
KABUL
Suicide bomb kills
16, injures 55
A suicide car bomber killed six
Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan ci-
vilians Thursday in the heavily
guarded capital of Kabul - a grim
reminder of the Taliban's reach
amid political uncertainty in Af-
ghanistan.
The Taliban claimed respon-
sibility for the deadliest attack
for the Italian contingent in the
country.
Violence has increased since
the U.S. sent thousands more
troops to push back the resur-
gent Taliban and bolster security
for last month's still-unresolved
presidential election. The Tali-
ban made good on threats to dis-
turb the vote, and militant attacks
have risen not just in the group's
southern heartland but also in the
north and in Kabul and surround-
ing areas.
The bomber rammed his ex-
plosives-filled car into two Italian
military vehicles in a convoy about
midday. Four Italian soldiers were
also wounded, said ItalianDefense
Minister Ignazio La Russa. The Af-
ghan Interior Ministry said an ad-
ditional 55 civilians were injured.
MADRID
Alleged ex-Nazi
from Mich. indicted
A Spanish judge on Thursday
indicted a Michigan man and two
other alleged ex-Nazi death camp
guards who all lived for many
years in the United States, charg-
ing them with being accessories
to genocide and crimes against
humanity.
Judge Ismael Moreno of the
National Court issued interna-
tional arrest warrants for Johann
Leprich, Anton Tittjung and
Josias Kumpf. The 18-page indict-
ment says Kumpf apparently now
lives in Austria and the other two
are still in the United States.
Leprich is from Macomb
County's Clinton Township, near
P Detroit.
Joseph McGinness, a lawyer
in Cleveland, Ohio, said he repre-
sents Leprich and Tittjung.
"They are both mentally and
physically incompetent," McGin-
ness said.
-y Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Obamarepeals
missile shield
from Bush era
U. S. cancels plans for
shield days before
meeting with
Russian president
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Barack Obama abruptly can-
celed a long-planned missile shield
for Eastern Europe yesterday,
replacing a Bush-era project that
was bitterly opposed by Russia
with a plan he contended would
better defend against a growing
threat of Iranian missiles.
The United States will no lon-
ger seek to erect a missile base
and radar site in Poland and the
Czech Republic, poised at Russia's
hemline. That change is bound to
please the Russians, who had never
accepted U.S. arguments, made by
both the Bush and Obama adminis-
trations, that the shield was intend-
ed strictly as a defense against Iran
and other "rogue states."
Scrapping the planned shield,
however, means upending agree-
ments with the host countries
that had cost those allies political
support among their own people.
Obama called Polish and Czech
leaders ahead of his announce-
ment, and a team of senior diplo-
mats and others flew to Europe to
lay out the new plan.
"Our new missile defense archi-
tecture in Europe will provide
stronger, smarter, and swifter
defenses of American forces and
America's allies," Obama said in
announcing the shift, which U.S.
officials said was based mainly
on a May U.S. intelligence assess-
ment that Iran's program to build a
nuclear-capable long-range missile
would take three years to five years
longer than originally expected.
The replacement system would
link smaller radar systems with a
network of sensors and missiles
that could be deployed at sea or on
land. Some of the weaponry and
sensors are ready now, and the rest
would be developed over the next
10 years.
The Pentagon contemplates a
system of perhaps 40 missiles by
2015, at two or three sites across
Europe. That would augment a
larger stockpile aboard ships. The
replacement system would cost an
estimated $2.5 billion, compared
with $5 billion over the same time-
frame under the old plan. The cost
savings would be less, however,
because the Pentagon is locked
into work on some elements of the
old system.
The change comes days before
Obama is to meet with Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev at
the United Nations and the Group
of 20 economic summit. Medve-
dev reacted positively, calling it a
"responsible move."
"The U.S. president's decision
is a well-thought-out and system-
atic one," said Konstantin Kosa-
chev, head of the foreign affairs
committee in the State Duma, the
lower house of the Russian Par-
liament. "Now we can talk about
restoration of the strategic part-
nership between Russia and the
United States."
At the same time, Russia's top
diplomat warned that Moscow
remains opposed to new punitive
sanctions on Iran to stop what the
West contends is a drive toward
nuclear weapons.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. James E. Cartwright take part in a
news conference at the Pentagon, yesterday.
GOP seeks Afghan war
info, Gates urgeAs patience
Defense Secretary
Robert Gates tells
Congress to
'take a deep breath'
WASHINGTON (AP) - Repub-
lican lawmakers turned up the
pressure yesterday for more details
on the war in Afghanistan, but
Defense Secretary Robert Gates
said "everybody should take a deep
breath" and let the administration
devise strategy at its own pace.
House Minority Leader John
Boehner said at a Capitol Hill press
conference that the U.S. and NATO
battlefield commander in Afghani-
stan, Gen. StanleyMcChrystal,was
not being allowed by the adminis-
tration to testify to Congress.
"We need to hear from him
soon," the Ohio Republican said,
adding that he believes McChrys-
tal doesn't have' enough troops
to turn around the faltering war
effort. Boehner said McChrystal's
testimony was needed to "help all
Americans and the Congress bet-
ter understand the situation on the
ground."
Gates urged critics to let Obama
take his time.
"There has been a lot of talk
this week and the last two or
three weeks about Afghanistan
and frankly, from my standpoint,
everybody ought to take a deep
breath," Gates told a Pentagon
press conference.
Gates was answering a ques-
tion on why a war assessment by
McChrystal hasn't been made pub-
lic. He said the assessment is part
of a larger re-evaluation on how to
handle the war and that President
Barack Obama deserves the right
to absorb it and have any questions
answered before the assessment is
made public.
"I think that we need to under-
stand that the decisions the presi-
dent faces on Afghanistan are some
of the most important he may face
in his presidency," Gates said.
Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., chair-
man of the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee and a frequent
Obama ally, complained that the
administration declined invita-
tions to speak at committee hear-
ings this week about Afghanistan.
"I hope that the administration
will soon decide on the time for
its views to reach the American
people," Lugar said in a statement.
"In any event, it is critical that the
full force and voice of the president
lead the discussion around this
national strategic priority with
so many American lives and hun-
dreds of billions of U.S. dollars at
stake."
Lugar urged the president to
describe his thinking on the war,
now that he has received assess-
ments from commanders and the
Pentagon.
Democrats also have been criti-
cal of the Obama administration's
handling of the war and have spo-
ken out against the prospects of
sending more troops. McChrys-
tal is expected to submit a second
assessment in coming weeks that
is widely believed to ask for more
troops to fight the stalemated
war.
Obamaearlierthisyearapproved
sending 17,000 more warfight-
ers and 4,000 military trainers to
Afghanistan, bringing the total
number of U.S. forces there to
68,000 by the end of 2009.
Yale lab technician
charged- in murder
of graduate student
DNA evidence points
finger at 24-year-old
'control freak' in
Annie Le's murder
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -
As police charged a Yale animal
lab technician with murdering a
graduate student who worked in
his building, a portrait began to
emerge yesterday of an unpleas-
ant stickler for the rules who
often clashed with researchers
and considered the mice cages
his personal fiefdom.
Police charged 24-year-old
Raymond Clark III with murder,
arresting him at a motel a day
after taking hair, fingernail and
saliva samples to compare with
evidence from the grisly crime
scene at Yale's medical school.
Bond was set at $3 million for
Clark, who kept his head down
and said "Yes, your honor," when
asked whether he understood his
rights.
The muscular former high
school baseball and football
player is charged in the death of
24-year-old Annie Le, a pharma-
cology doctoral student at Yale
who vanished Sept. 8. Her body
was discovered five days later -
her wedding day - stuffed into
a utility compartment behind
a wall in the basement of the
research building where she and
Clark worked.
Authorities offered no details
about the crime yesterday. They
would not discuss a motive, large-
ly because Clark will not talk to
police, and would not disclose the
DNA test results or how they con-
nected Clark to the slaying.
The Rev. Dennis Smith, a Le
family spokesman, said he was
not authorized to comment on
the arrest. Smith said he did not
know whether Le had ever com-
plained about Clark.
Clark appeared in court with
two public defenders who were
new to the case. A private-prac-
tice attorneywho had represented
him during the investigation did
not attend the hearing and said
yesterday he no longer represents
Clark. The attorney declined to
give a reason.
Public defender Joseph Lopez
said he was still reviewing the
case and declined to comment.
Co-workers told police that
Clark was a "control freak" who
viewed the laboratory and its
mice as his territory, according
to a law enforcement official who
spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because
the investigation is ongoing and
many details remain sealed.
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