The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, September 25, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Indiana man
admits to stealing
cemetery funds
A man admits embezzling
about $4.2 million in perpetual-
care trust funds from a Michigan
cemetery operated by his India-
napolis-based company.
Michigan Attorney General
Mike Cox announced yesterday
that Robert Nelms of Green-
wood, Ind., pleaded guilty in
Kent County Circuit Court to
embezzlement and failing to
trust funeral contracts. He faces
up to 10 years in prison.
Nelms is accused of stealing
about $24 million from the trusts
of funeral homes and cemeteries
he controlled in Michigan and
Indiana.
About $4.2 million was taken
from Chapel Hill Memorial Gar-
dens in Grand Rapids. Nelms faces
charges inIndiana for the rest.
MAUMEE, Ohio.
Woman given
wrong embryo
An Ohio woman who is car-
rying another woman's baby
because of a fertility clinic error
says she's still not sure where to
place the blame.
Carolyn Savage told The Asso-
ciated Press yesterday that she
and her husband have not been
told who made the mistake or
@ why it happened.
She says that "hopefully some-
day an explanation will come."
The 40-year-old woman from
the Toledo suburb of Sylvania is
due to give birth within the next
two weeks. The couple say they
will give the baby boy over to his
biological parents, who live in
Michigan.
The Savages' attorney says
he's been contact with a lawyer
for the fertility clinic. He says he
hopes they can reach a resolution
without going to court.
The Savages have not dis-
closed the name of the clinic.
WASHINGTON
Up to 8 Uighurs to
leave Guantanamo
The Obama administration
says at least six, and as many
as eight, Chinese Muslims held
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will
soon leave their island prison
for freedom in another island
nation, Palau.
Word of the upcoming trans-
fer to the tiny Pacific country,
* planned for sometime after Oct.
1, came in a letter released yes-
terday from Solicitor General El-
enaKagantothe Supreme Court.
Kagan also confirmed that Palau
has agreed to accept all but one
ofthe 13 Chinese Muslims, orUi-
ghurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs),
who remain at Guantanamo.
Kagan's letter was intended to
demonstrate that the adminis-
tration was the process of mov-
ing the Uighurs out of Guantan-
amo and that the Supreme Court
thus would not need to review a
challenge over their detention.
Six Uighur detainees have
agreed to the transfer and at-
tempts to persuade two others
are ongoing, Kagan wrote.
BAHGDAD
Members of
al-Qaida escape
from Iraqi prison
U.S. aircraft and Iraqi patrols
combined in a massive manhunt
Thursday after the escape of 16
prisoners - including five al-Qai-
da-linked inmates awaiting exe-
cution - who apparently crawled
through a bathroom window in a
makeshift jail on a former com-
pound of Saddam Hussein.
The jailbreak in Saddam's
hometown Tikrit highlighted
the struggles for Iraqi authori-
ties to maintain control over an
overcrowded prison system and
absorb thousands of detainees
turned over by U.S. forces as part
of a broad security pact. At least
two senior officials were fired
after the late Wednesday escape.
Few details on the fugitives
were provided by Iraqi security
chiefs. But five were Iraqis who
were sentenced to death for ter-
rorism-related crimes and links
to al-Qaida in Iraq, said a Tikrit
police officer, said on condition
of anonymity because he was
not authorized to discuss the
operation with media.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Feds: Suspect hit beauty
stores for bomb supplies
Airport shuttle driver
buys supplies for
homemade bomb
NEW YORK (AP) - An Afghan
immigrant who received explo-
sives training from al-Qaida went
from one beauty supply store to
another, buying up large quanti-
ties of hydrogen peroxide and nail-
polish remover, in a chilling plot
to build bombs for attacks on U.S.
soil, authorities charged yesterday.
Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old
shuttle driver at the Denver air-
port, was indicted in New York
on charges of conspiracy to use
weapons of mass destruction.
Investigators found bomb-making
instructions on his computer's
hard drive and said Zazi used a
hotel room in Colorado to try to
cook up explosives a few weeks ago
before atrip to New York.
The extent of Zazi's ties to al-
Qaida was unclear, but if the alle-
gations prove true, this could be
the first operating al-Qaida cell to
be uncovered inside the U.S. since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Over the
past few days, talk of the possible
plot set off the most intense flurry
of national terrorism warnings
since the aftermath of 9/11.
Prosecutors said they have yet to
establish exactly when and where
the Zazi attacks were supposed to
take place. But Attorney General
Eric Holder said in Washington,
"We believe any imminent threat
arising from this case has been dis-
rupted."
A law enforcement official told
The Associated Press yesterday
that Zazi had associates in New
York who were in on the plot.
Zazi was arrested in Denver last
weekend and was charged along
with his father and a New York
City imam with lying to investiga-
tors. Authorities said in the past
few days that they feared Zazi and
others might have been planning
to detonate homemade bombs on
New York trains, and warnings
went out to transit systems, stadi-
ums and hotels nationwide.
Explosives built with hydro-
gen peroxide killed 52 people four
years ago intheLondonctransitsys-
tem. They are easy to conceal and
detonate, and last week's warnings
asked authorities to be on the look-
out for them.
A law enforcement official said
Thursday that authorities had been
so worried about Zazi - and that
his Sept. 10 trip to New York City
coincided with a visit by President
Barack Obama - that they consid-
ered arresting him as soon as he
reached the city. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity because
the investigation continues.
Zazi left a Denver court yester-
day without commenting and will
be transferred soon to New York.
He and his lawyer have denied he
is a terrorist.
EL6E AMENDOLA/AP
Former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. takes the podium at a news con-
ference in Boston on Thursday where it was announced that he will temporarily fill
the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat.
Kennedy loyalist
na-med as Senate
replacem__ent
MATT ROURKE/AP
Demonstrators begin a protest march in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh, yesterday in protest of the G20 summit - a gathering of some
the world's most influential leaders.
G-20protestors and police,
clash on P ittsburgh strlLu-ets
Kirk will be the
interim replacement
until special election
in January
BOSTON (AP) - Paul G. Kirk
Jr. served Edward M. Kennedy
as an aide, rooted beside him at
Harvard-Yale football games and
is the executor of his will. Now,
as Kennedy's replacement in the
Senate, he is charged with trying
to complete his late friend's legacy
by passing health care reform.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Pat-
rick tapped the former chairman
of the Democratic National Com-
mittee yesterday to hold Ken-
nedy's seat until a special election
Jan. 19. Kirk, 71, said he would not.
run himself.
The announcement came after
the Democratic-dominated Leg-
islature changed the state's Sen-
ate succession law to restore the
governor's power to appoint an
interim replacement. Republicans
went to court in a last-ditch effort
to stop Kirk from being sworn in.
President Barack Obama and
his staff lobbied for the change,
hoping to regain a 60th Demo-
cratic vote that would prevent
Senate filibusters from derail-
ing his top legislative priority, a
national health care overhaul.
Obama said in a statement:
"Paul Kirk is a distinguished
leader, whose long collaboration
with Sen. Kennedy makes him an
excellent, interim choice to carry
on his work until the voters make
their choice in January."
Kennedy's widow and sons had
encouraged Patrick to appoint
Kirk. Vicki Kennedy and Edward
Kennedy Jr. sat in the front row
next to Kirk's wife, Gail, as the
governor made his announcement
at the Statehouse.
Besides health carePatricksaid
Kirk would represent the state's
interests in upcoming debates on
the economic recovery, financial
regulation and climate change.
"In all these and other ways,
Congress is debating our future
- right now," Patrick said. "The
issues before the Congress and
the nation are simply too impor-
tant to Massachusetts for us to be
one voice short."
Kennedy died last month of
brain cancer. Kirk, who has never
held elective office, recalled how
his late friend used to say rep-
resenting Massachusetts in the
Senate "was the highest honor he
possibly could have imagined."
"It's certainly nothing I imag-
ined, but it would be my highest
honor as well," Kirk said.
He is to be sworn in this after-
noon by Vice President Joe Biden.
The Massachusetts Republican
Party went to a Boston court
seeking an injunction to stop
Kirk's swearing-in, questioning
an emergency power the governor
invoked in naming him.
In restoring the governor's
power to appoint an interim sena-
tor, lawmakers declined to have it
go into effect immediately, rather
than after the standard 90 days.
The governor has the power to
put the law into effect if he deems
it an emergency; Republicans say
this law does not qualify.
State Secretary William F. Gal-
vin said the power to make the
immediate appointment is "very
clearly available" to governors
and was used more than a dozen
times by Patrick's Republican pre-
decessor, Mitt Romney. The court
set a hearing for 8 a.m. today.
Anarchists say police
denied their right to
peaceably assemble
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Police
fired canisters of pepper spray
and smoke at marchers protesting
the Group of 20 summit yesterday
after anarchists responded to calls
to disperse by rolling trash bins
and throwing rocks.
The march turned chaotic at
just about the time that Presi-
dent Barack Obama and first lady
Michelle Obama arrived for a
meeting with leaders of the world's
major economies.
The clashes began after hun-
dreds of protesters, many advo-
cating against capitalism, tried to
march from an outlying neigh-
borhood toward the convention
center where the summit is being
held.
The protesters banged on
drums and chanted "Ain't no
power like the power of the
people, 'cause the power of the
people don't stop."
The marchers included small
groups of self-described anar-
chists,some wearing dark clothes
and bandanas and carrying black
flags. Others wore helmets and
safety goggles.
One banner read, "No borders,
no thanks," another, "No hope in
capitalism." A few minutes into
the march, protesters unfurled a
large banner reading "NO BAIL-
OUT NO CAPITALISM" with an
encircled "A," a recognized sign
of anarchists.
The marchers did not have a
permit and, after a few blocks,
police declared it an unlaw-
ful assembly. They played an
announcement over a loudspeak-
er telling people to leave or face
arrest and then police in riot gear
moved in to break it up.
Protesters split into smaller
groups. Some rolled large metal
trash bins toward police, and
a man in a black hooded sweat
shirt threw rocks at a police car,
breaking the front windshield.
Protesters broke windows in a
few businesses, including a bank
branch and a Boston Market res-
taurant.
Officers fired pepper spray
and smoke at the protesters. Some
of those exposed to the pepper
spray coughed and complained
that their eyes were watering and
stinging.
Police were planning a news
conference to discuss their
response. Officers were seen tak-
ing away a handful of protesters
in cuffs.
About an hour after the clashes
started, the police and protesters
were at a standoff. Police sealed
off main thoroughfares to down-
town.
Twenty-one-year-old Stephon
Boatwright, of Syracuse, N.Y.,
wore a mask of English anarchist
Guy Fawkes and yelled at a line
of riot police. He then sat cross-
legged near the officers, telling
them to let the protesters through
and to join their cause.
"You're actively suppressing us.
I know you want to move," Boat-
wright yelled, to applause from the
protesters gathered around him.
Protesters complained that the
march had been peaceful and that
police were trampling on their
right to assemble.
"We were barely even protest-
ing," said T.J. Amick, 22, of Pitts-
burgh. "Then all of a sudden, they
come up and tellus we're gathered
illegally and startusing force, start
banging their shields, start telling
us we're going to be arrested and
tear gassed. ... We haven't broken
any laws."
Bret Hatch, 26, of Green Bay,
Wis., was carrying an American
flag and a "Don't Tread on Me"
flag.
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instructors and advisor as well as read up on University
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potential campus outbreaks.
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