The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS ANN ARBOR, Mich. Stem cell trial for ALS treatment gets FDA OK A University of Michigan neu- rologistis the principal investigator for the first human clinical trial of a stemcelltreatmentforamyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Eva Feldman has worked with a team of neurologists to develop the protocol for injecting neural stem into patients' spinal cords. The cells are patented by Neuralstem Inc., a Rockville, Md.- based biotech company. The U.S. Food and Drug Admin- istration has approved Neural- stem's plan to test the safety of the treatment for the fatal, untreatable neurodegenerative disorder com- monly called Lou Gehrig's Disease. The initial phase to determine the safety of the treatment is to take place at Emory University in Atlanta. ATLANTA,Georgia. Storms flood Southeast, killing 3 Floodwaters that swept across the rain-soaked Southeast killed at least three people and left five oth- ers missing Monday, including a Georgia toddler who disappeared after a mobile home was split apart by a swollen creek. Three Georgia motorists died when their vehicles were swept off Atlanta-area roads, and some major highways were submerged. Offi- cials urged motorists to stay off the roadsas anewline ofstormsthreat- enedthe area. Fast-moving water also swept away a Tennessee man who went swimming in an overflowing ditch on adare. Crews in northwest Georgia worked furiously toshore up alevee that had been breached and was in danger of failing along the Chat- tooga River. Hundreds were evacu- ated in the small townofTrion, and inmate crews were piling sandbags along the levee wall. "It's agrave situation forus," said Lamar Canada, ChattoogaCounty's emergency management director. DENVER, Colorado Govt. warns of danger of mass transit attacks A judge ordered an Afghanistan- born Colorado man who allegedly received al-Qaida training and had bomb-making instructions on his computer to be held pending a de- tention hearing Thursday, as the government warned law enforce- ment around the nation Monday about the danger of an attack on masstransit. InvestigatorssayNajibullahZazi, a 24-year-old airport shuttle driver, played a direct role in an alleged terror plot that unraveled during a trip to New York City around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been charged with lying to the government in a matter involv- ingterrorism. Investigators said they found notes on bomb-making instruc- tions that appear to match Zazi's handwritingon his laptop, and dis- covered his fingerprints on materi- als - batteries and a scale - that couldbe usedto make explosives. TEHRAN, Iran Ahmadinejad proud to have angered West by denying Holocaust Iran's president said Monday he is proud to stoke international out- rage withhislatestremarks denying the Holocaust as he heads for the United Nations this week - show- ing he is as defiant as ever while his country comes under greater pres- sure to curtail its nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes the world stage with a speech Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. He appears intent on showing he has not been weak- ened by three months of turmoil at home, where the pro-reform oppo- sition has staged dramatic protests claiming Ahmadinejad's victory in June presidential elections was fraudulent. Ahmadinejad has a reason to try topresenthisgovernmentasstrong: On Oct. 1, Iran is to enter key nego- tiations with the United States and other powers seeking concessions on Iran's nuclear program. - Compiled from Daily wire reports Pres. vows to help colleges Obama tours NY s"ce 1983. Obama vowed that by 2020, promises economic America will again have the world's highest proportion of college gradu- recovery ates. He said recent increases in Pell Grants and a simplification of TROY, N.Y. (AP) - Touting resil- financial aid processes will help the ience ina part of New York particu- nation reach that goal. larly hard hit by recession, President The president also praised a Barack Obama said Monday that plan to keep wireless carriers from better economic days are coming blocking certain types of Internet thanks to innovation and some help traffic flowing over their networks. from the government. Obama said he was pleased that the "As we emerge from this current chairman of the Federal Commu- economic crisis, our great challenge nications Commission is announc- will be to ensure that we do not just ing principles "to preserve an open drift into the future," Obama said at Internet in which all Americans can Hudson Valley Community College. participate and benefit." "Instead, we must choose to do what Obama offered kind words to New past generations have done: shape a York's embattled governor, David brighter future through hard work Paterson, despite reports that the and innovation." White House wants Paterson to drop Obama delivered an economic out of next year's gubernatorial race. pep talk and a plug for his economic Obama told the college audi- recovery plan: a sustained invest- ence, "A wonderful man, the ment in education, technology, governor of the great state of health care and research. He told his New York, David Paterson, is in audience that for years, Washington the house." Earlier, Paterson had has not lived it up to its responsibili- greeted the president when he ties to help. landed in upstate New York. "If government does its modest Some Democrats fear Paterson's part, there is no stopping the most low approval ratings will cost their powerful and generative economic party a chance to hold the gover- force the world has ever known: the nor's seat and hurt other Democrats American people," Obama said. on next year's ballot. White House His pitch came in a region where spokesman Robert Gibbs wouldn't the economic mood has long been say whether the president had gloomy. Nationwide, unemployment ordered that word be sent to Pater- is at 9.7 percent, the highest level son urging him not to run in 2010. House to pass e-mergency bill on unemployment SUSAN WALSH/AP Admiral Michael Mullen testifies on Capitol Hill on Sept.15, 2009 before the Senate Armed Services Committeehearing on hs reappontment. US eyes m--ore drone hits on terror havens Officials debate sending more troops into Afghanistan WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is considering expanding counterterror opera- tions in Pakistan to refocus on eliminating al-Qaida instead of mounting a major military esca- lation in Afghanistan. Two senior administration officials said Monday that the renewed fight against the ter- rorist organization could lead to more missile attacks on Pakistan terrorist havens by unmanned U.S. spy planes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made. Top aides to President Barack Obama said he still has questions and wants more time to decide. The officials said the admin- istration would push ahead with the ground mission in Afghani- stan for the near future, still leaving the door open for sending more U.S. troops. But Obama's top advisers, including Vice Pres- ident Joe Biden, have indicated they are reluctant to send many more troops - if any at all - in the immediate future. In weekend interviews, Obama emphasized that disrupting al- Qaida is his "core goal" and wor- ried aloud about "mission creep" that moved away from that direc- tion. "If it starts drifting away from that goal, then we may have a problem," he said. The proposed shift would bolster U.S. action on Obama's long-stated goal of dismantling terrorist havens, but it could also complicate American relations with Pakistan, long wary of the growing use of aerial drones to target militants along the porous border with Afghanistan. The prospect of a White House alternative to a deepen- ing involvement in the stalemat- ed war in Afghanistan comes as administration officials debate whether to send more troops - as urged in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating conflict by the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The two senior administration officials said Monday that one option would be to step up the use of missile-armed unmanned spy drones over Pakistan that have killed scores of militants over the last year. The armed drones could con- tain al-Qaida in a smaller, if more remote area, and keep its lead- ers from retreating back into Afghanistan, one of the officials said. Most U.S. military officials have preferred a classic coun- terinsurgency mission to keep al-Qaida out of Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban and secur- ing the local population. However, one senior White House official said it's not clear that the Taliban would welcome al-Qaida back into Afghanistan. The official noted that it was only after the 9/11 attacks that the United States invaded Afghani- stan and deposed the Taliban in pursuit of al-Qaida. Pakistan will not allow the United States to deploy a large- scale military troop buildup on its soil. However, its military and intelligence services are believed to have assisted the U.S. with airstrikes, even while the gov- ernment has publicly condemned theism. The Pakistan Embassy in Washington did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Wider use of missile strikes and less reliance on ground troops would mark Obama's sec- ond shift in strategy and tactics since taking office last January. Such a move would amount to an admission that using a tradi- tional military strategy to take on the Taliban with thousands more troops is doomed to fail- ure, echoing Russia's disastrous Afghanistan invasion in the late 1980s and other ill-fated con- querors in the more distant past. But stepping up attacks on the remnants of al-Qaida also would dovetail with Obama's presiden- tial campaign promise of directly going after the terrorist network that spawned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Wash- ington. Over the past few weeks, White House and Pentagon offi- cials have debated the best way to defeat al-Qaida - and whether to send more troops to Afghani- stan to battle the extremist Tali- ban elements that hosted Osama bin Laden and his operatives in the 1990s and have continued to aid the terrorist group. McChrystal has argued that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and allied insur- gents. "Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Sum- mary that was unveiled late Sunday by the Washington Post. His 66-page report, which was also made public by the Post in a partly classified version after appeals from Pentagon officials, was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30 and is now under review at the White House. White House officials have made clear that Pakistan should be the top concern since that is where top al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden'himself, are believed to be hiding. Very few al-Qaida extremists are believed to still be in Afghanistan, accord- ing to military and White House officials. There have been more than i50 missile strikes against Paki- stan targets since August 2008, according to an Associated Press' count. Two weeks ago, a U.S. drone killed a key suspected al- Qaida recruiter and trainer, Pak- istani national Ilyas Kashmiri. A draft study by Notre Dame Law School professor Mary Ellen O'Connell found that drone attacks by the U.S. in Pakistan began in 2004, jumped dramati- cally in 2008 and continue to climb so far this year. Bill slated to extend benefits by 13 weeks WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is takingup emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Ameri- cans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries. A bill offeredby Rep. Jim McDer- mott, D-Wash., andexpected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless peo- ple who live in states with unem- ploymentrates ofatleast 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September. The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legisla- tion lastyear and in the stimulus bill enacted last February. People from North Carolina to California "have been calling my office to tell me they still cannot find work a year or more after becoming unemployed, and they need some additional help to keep their heads above water," McDermottsaid. Critics of unemployment insur- ance argue that it can be a disincen- tive to looking for work, and that extending benefits at a time the economy is showing signs of recov- ery could be counterproductive. But this recession has been par- ticularly pernicious to the job mar- ket, others say. Some 5millionpeople, aboutone- third of those on the unemployment list, have been without a job for six months or more, a record since data started being recorded in 1948, according to the research and advo- cacy group National Employment Law Project. "It smashes any other figure we have ever seen. It is an unthinkable number," said Andrew Stettner, NELP's deputy director. He said there are currently about six jobless people for every job opening, so it's unlikely people are purposefully living off unemployment insurance while waiting for something better to come along. The current state unemployment check is about $300 a week, supple- mented by $25 included in the stim- ulus act. That doesn't go very far when a loaf of bread can cost $2.79 and a gallon of milk $2.72, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at a hearing last week on the unemployment insurance issue. "We need to keep our unem- ployed neighbors from falling into poverty. We need to figure out how best to make our safety net work," Baucus said. The jobless rate currently stands at 9.7 percent and is likely to hover above 10 percent for much of 2010. I I St 3c. n y PRESENTS the ONLINE CLASSIFIED RENTAL MA Y @, Q SICK OF THE DORMS? CAN'T FIND A PLACE TO LIVE? 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