The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - 3


The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
UAW in Mich. and
Missouri rejects
contract with Ford
Autoworkers in Missouri and
Michigan overwhelmingly rejected
a new contract with Ford Motor
Co., a sign that the automaker and
the United Auto Workers union are
having trouble convincing some
workers to accept changes that
would lower Ford's labor costs.
Ninety-two percent of workers
at the Kansas City Assembly Plant
voted against changes to their
contract Sunday. The plant, which
makes Ford F-150 pickups as well
as the Ford Explorer and Mercury
Mariner, employs around 3,700
people, or about 9 percent of Ford's
41,000 UAW members.
Workers at plants in Livonia and
Plymouth also rejected the changes
in recent days, according to Gary
Wolkowicz, a member of the UAW
bargaining committee at the Dear-
born Truck Plant and an outspoken
opponent of the changes. The vote
at the Sheldon Road plant in Plym-
outh, which makes climate control
systems, was 80 percent opposed,
while 52 percent of those voting
at the Livonia transmission plant
were against the deal.
LANSING
Board of Ed. to
Granhoil: Reduce
* budget cuts
The bipartisan State Board of
Education yesterday urged Gov.
Jennifer Granholm and lawmak-
ers to find money to reduce cuts in
public education and buy time for a
long-term funding solution.
The 8-0 vote came after a series
of blows delivered to public schools
last week.
The Democratic governor signed
an education budget that contains
a cut of $165 per student. But she
also vetoed $51 million in extra
funds for 39 wealthier districts and
ordered another $127 per-pupil cut
for all districts because of falling
tax revenue.
The reductions will take effect
unless more money is raised within
a month.
The board heard from superin-
tendents, former legislators and
others in the public. Yet it was
the testimony of three economic
experts that prompted optimism
that money for schools could be,
found if the political will existed.
MIAMI
Obama says he's
serious' about
closing Gitmo
President Barack Obama says
he's serious about closing the mili-
tary prison in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
That was the pledge he repeated
last night at a congressional fund-
raiser in Miami.
Obama said: "We are going to
close Guantanamo. We are serious

about this."
The president, however, did not
repeat the January 2010 deadline
he originally set for shutting the
facility.
Obama promised soon after tak-
ing office to close the prison, argu-
ingthat doingso would help restore
the U.S. image abroad.
The White House has said it
still hopes to meet that deadline.
But senior officials have acknowl-
edged it may slip because difficult
issues still to be resolved. More
than 220 detainees remain at the
prison.
QUITO, Ecuador
Ecudor's president
asks Europe for
money to go green
Ecuador's president is in London
this week to promote a unique pro-
posal: pay his country $3 billion not
to drill for oil in a pristine Amazon
reserve.
Germany and . Spain have
expressed interest in President
Rafael Correa's idea, which envi-
ronmentalists say could set a prec-
edent in the fight against global
warming by lowering the high cost
to poor countries of going green.
"This is the first time the govern-
ment of amajor oil-producing coun-
try has voluntarily offered to forego
lucrative oil extraction in order to
help combat climate change," said
Dr. Matt Finer, staff scientist for
Save America's Forests and author
of a study on Correa's initiative.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Harvard fellow
says poisoning
not accidental

Researcher is one
of six poisoned by
toxic coffee
BOSTON (AP) - One of six
Harvard Medical Schoolresearch-
ers sickened after drinking coffee
laced with a toxic chemical said
yesterday he does not see how the
poisoning could have been acci-
dental, but has no idea who might
be responsible.
University police and other
agencies are investigating the
Aug. 26 poisonings, which were
revealed in an internal memo to
medical school faculty last week.
The memo identified the sub-
stance as sodium azide, a common
preservative used in school labs,
but did not indicate whether offi-
cials believed the laced coffee to
be accidental or intentional.
"I always thought it was a
deliberate substance added to the
coffee," said Matteo Iannacone
(pronounced mah-TAY'-oh eye-
a-nah-KOH'-nee), a postdoctoral
fellow.
"It was too strange for me to be
an accident," he told the Associ-
ated Press in an interview yester-
day.
lannacone said he immediately
noticed a "weird" taste after sip-
ping an espresso he poured from a

coffee machine in an eighth-floor
lounge near his research lab. After
takinga second sip to make sure he
wasn't imagining the foul taste, he
began feeling dizziness and a rapid
heartbeat, but said the symptoms
passed quickly.
Two of the researchers who
drank coffee earlier in the day had
fainted, but officials did not imme-
diately connect their illnesses to
the coffee machine, Iannacone
said.
An ambulance carried Ianna-
cone to nearby Brigham and Wom-
en's Hospital for treatment. Doctors
could find nothing wrong, he said.
Iannacone said university offi-
cials privately told him the results
of toxicology tests last week.
Daniel G. Ennis, executive dean
for administration, and Richard
M. Shea, associate dean for physi-
cal planning and facilities, later
sent the internal memo to Har-
vard Medical School faculty.
. "As the investigation continues,
we are being prudent and taking
additional precautionary mea-
sures to ensure the well being of
our community;" the memo said.
Among the steps being taken was
installation of additional security
cameras in buildings and "strength-
ening security systems that manage
access to the laboratories during
both normal business hours and off
hours," according to the memo.

President Barack Obama, center, greets Navy personnel who were in attendance at his speech at the Jacksonville Naval Air
Station, yesterday, in Jacksonville, Fla.
Oba-ma tells crowd e won't
rush Afghan war decision

Amne sty: Israel
withholding water
from West Bank

President says he war council sessions with about a
half-dozen Cabinet officials and
won't risk lives other top advisers earlier yesterday
amid Republican criticism that he
unless 'absolutely is takingtoo longto choosehis next
,move.
necessary The Situation Room session
focused onthe cooperationbetween
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - U.S. military and civilian efforts in
President Barack Obama mourned Afghanistan, White House officials
14Americanskilledyesterdayinheli- said. Another session may be held
copter crashes in Afghanistan and later this week.
told a military audience he will not Obama did not tip his hand on
be hurried as he evaluates whether how he might decide. White House
to alter U.S. strategy inthe war. press secretary Robert Gibbs told
"I will never rush the solemn reporters that a decision was still
decision ofsending you into harm's expected in the coming weeks.
way. I won't risk your lives unless A war plan that asks Obama to
it is absolutely necessary," Obama commit tens of thousands of addi-
said during a visit to Naval Air Sta- tional U.S. forces to Afghanistan is
tion Jacksonville. too ambitious, a top Senate Demo-
Obama is nearing a decision on crat said in Washington yesterday.
whether to commit large numbers Sen. John Kerry, the Senate For-
of additional troops to the war next eign Relations Committee chair-
year. His top military commander man who was the White House's
in Afghanistan favors an increase point man during last week's tense
of roughly 40,000, officials have talks with AfghanPresident Hamid
told The Associated Press, which Karzai, praised commanding Gen.
would allow the U.S. military to Stanley McChrystal but said his
expand its reach in areas of the plan for adding troops in Afghani-
country's south and eastnow under stan "goes too far, too fast."
Taliban sway. Kerry's stance would aim for a
Obama's visit to the naval air modest increase in American fore-
station came after he convened es,treadingmiddlegroundbetween
another in a series of White House Republicans who have said Obama

would put soldiers and the country
at risk by rejecting McChrystal's
larger request and anti-war Demo-
crats who question whether the
United States already has taken on
too much in Afghanistan.
"Under the right circumstances,
if we can be confident that military
efforts can be sustained and built
upon, then I would support the
president should he decide to send
some additional troops to regain
the initiative," Kerry, D-Mass.,
said.
Fresh from several days of talks
in both Pakistan and Afghanistan,
Kerry warned that the United
States also cannot risk a drastic
shift in strategy that would focus
narrowly on hunting terrorists.
"We all see the appeal of a lim-
ited counterterrorism mission, and
no doubt it is part of the endgame,
but I don't think we're there yet,"
Kerry said during remarks to the
Council on Foreign Relations.
"A narrow mission that cedes half
the country to the Taliban could
lead to civil war" in Afghanistan
and threaten the fragile civilian
government in Pakistan, he said.
In Florida, Obama promised a
"clear mission" with defined goals
and the equipment needed to get
the job done.

Israeli officials deny
allegations of human
rights group
JERUSALEM (AP) - Amnesty
International is accusing Israel
of pumping disproportionate
amounts of drinking water from
an aquifer it controls in the West
Bank, depriving local Palestinians
of their fair share.
The London-based human
rights group also said in a report
to be released today, that Israel has
blocked infrastructure projects
that would improve existing water
supplies to Palestinians - both in
the West Bank and those living in
the Gaza Strip.
"This scarcity has affected
every walk of life for Palestinians," .
Amnesty's researcher on Israel,
Donatella Rovera, told The Associ-
ated Press in an interview Monday,
ahead of the report's release. "A
greater amount of water has to be
granted to them."
Israeli officials deny the accusa-
tions.
Water is a major point of conten-
tion between Israelis and Palestin-
ians and is considered an issue that

must be resolved before the two
sides could make peace.
The issue is further compound-
ed by the split in Palestinian ter-
ritories, with the moderate Fatah
movement governing the West
Bank, while the militant Hamas
rules the coastal Gaza Strip.
Israelis use more than four
times the amount of water per
person on average than do Pal-
estinians, whose consumption
falls far below the minimum
amount recommended by the
World Health Organization, the
report said.
The report especially focuses
on the so-called Mountain Aqui-
fer in the West Bank. It says that
Israel uses more than 80 percent
of water drawn from the aquifer
and while the Jewish state has
other water sources, the aquifer
is the West Bank's sole supply of
water.
As a result, the 450,000 Israe-
lis who live in the West Bank and
east Jerusalem use more water
than the 2.3 million Palestinian
residents, Amnesty said. Israel
captured both areas from Jordan
in the 1967 war.
The Palestinians claim them
as part of a future state.

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