0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam Friday, January 22, 2010 - 3 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 22, 2010 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS . DETROIT Fire at auto show causes evacuation A small electrical fire forced the evacuation of thousands of people yesterday from exhibit halls at Detroit's Cobo Center where they were checking out the North Amer- ican International Auto Show. No injuries were reported, offi- cials said. The fire was in the rafters above the Audi display and filled the main hall with smoke. No vehicles were damaged and smoke was being aired out from the building, said auto show spokesman Sam Locric- chin. The show reopened later in the day. The Detroit Regional Conven- tion Facility Authority said a mal- function in a piece of electrical equipment caused the fire. Gary Brown, chief construction officer for authority, said the fire was not related torecent electricalupgrades at the hall. The authority, which runs Cobo Center, said the exhibit halls were calmly evacuated. WASHINGTON Supreme Court lifts limits on corporate campaign donations The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing . decades-old limits on their partici- pation in federal campaigns. By a 5-4 vote, the court on yes- terday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to par- ticipate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states. It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions. Critics of the stricter limits have argued that they amount to an unconstitutional restraint of free'speech, and the court majority apparently agreed. "The censorship we now con- front is vast in its reach," Justice AnthonyKennedy said in his major- ity opinion, joined by his four more conservative colleagues. GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba Guantanamo Bay to aid in Haiti relief The Haiti earthquake is giving the American base at Guantana- mo Bay a new mission: supply- ing aid to the devastated island nation and potentially detaining thousands of Haitian migrants captured at sea. President Barack Obama's dead- line for closing the base prison expires Friday with no new date in sight, but a huge effort to pro- vide earthquake aid is just getting started. The U.S. has designated Guan- tanamo, less than 200 miles from Haiti, as the hub of the aid opera- tion. Dozens of helicopters and planes take off daily to ferry sup- plies and personnel to the stricken country or to American ships off the coast. I In ordinary times, the base air- strip is ghostly, with only about three flights a day, including the sporadic release of prisoners. BEIJING China says Google case will not affect relations with U.S. China says the dispute it is hav- ing with Internet giant Google should not be linked to its bilateral ties with the United States. A report from the official Xin- hua News Agency said yesterday quoted Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei as saying that the rift with Google over online censorship and security should not be "over inter- preted." Google says it will remain in China only if the government relents on rules requiring the cen- sorship of content the ruling party considers subversive. The ultimatum came last week after Google said it uncovered a computer attack that tried to plun- der its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting Chinese poli- cies. - Compiled from Daily wire reports California officials declare state of emergency after storms grip state Four powerful but. mci Pacific storms are con deb being blamed for area several deaths eva Pub LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, C Calif. (AP) - A state of emergency Trip has been declared in five Califor- can nia counties due to a series of win- prol ter storms. resc Acting Gov. Jerry Brown pro- " claimed the emergency Thursday for theI Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San thre Francisco and Siskiyou counties. able Four powerful Pacific storms II have caused several deaths, urban ban flooding, power outages and forced mou evacuation of more than 1,200 the1 homes in danger of massive debris put and mudflows. of r Steady rain fell yesterday on they saturated Southern California intl as the fourth Pacific storm in a O week came ashore, triggering dire Del warnings by authorities that huge wht mud flows were likely in foothill sinc communities and residents of "I endangered homes should obey to h evacuation orders. I'mI Travel snarls mounted as a A major highway was closed by snow mor and strong winds forced cancella- wor tion of flights at several airports. A yard possible tornado left a trail of dam- Oce age in a community northwest of ban Los Angeles. neig The siege of storms has led to but several deaths statewide, street mai flooding in urban areas and turned T the region's often-dry river and trol; creek channels into ragingtorrents. thel Muddy water gushed down hills lade Hope for there were no immediate major dents, and officials appeared cerned the lack of massive ris flows from wildfire burn as was misleading for residents. It's time to roll, it's time to cuate," said Los Angeles County lic Works Director Gail Farber. ounty Fire Chief Deputy John pp bluntly warned that signifi- t debris flows were likely and bably would block potential ue attempts. For those people that are still in homes and are in those areas of eat, it's very likely we will not be to reach you," he said. n the upper reaches of subur- La Canada Flintridge, where untainsides rise sharply from backyards of homes, authorities pink ribbons on the mailboxes esidents who stayed behind so y would know where to search he event of a catastrophe. Pne person who didn't leave was os Tucker, a retired geologist o has lived in the community e the homes were built in 1962. I'm just gambling it's not going happen," he said. "Let's hope right." 3s an overnight lull gave way to re rain at midmorning, public ks crews shoveled mud from ds, driveways and gutters along an View Boulevard in subur- La Canada Flintridge. The hborhood was otherwise all deserted, with newspaper and 1 deliveries cut off. he county's extensive flood-con- system was working, but many of basins designed to catch debris- o runoff from fire-scarred A vehicle in California drives through high water yesterday. The floods were caused by a series of rainstorm ern part of the state throughout the week. mountains were full and evacuations remained necessary, Farber said. The basins are located on streams and other water courses emerging from the mountains to intercept surges of mud, boulders and other debris while allowing water to flow into open channels and underground storm drains that empty into the ocean. "We can thank a measure of luck and the flood control system ... for working so well, however we can't keep counting on luck forever," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Chief Neil Tyler. The arrival of the new storm system shut down Interstate 5 in the snowy Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles for the second day in a row, interrupting travel on one of state's major arteries. A fierce wind struck two neigh- borhoods in Ventura, and wit- nesses described a tornado, police Sgt. Jack Richards said. Trees were toppled, cars were damaged and a shed was torn apart in a 1/o-mile span through two neighborhoods. No one was hurt. The National Weather Service said radar patterns indicated it may have been a non-rotating gust called a microburst, but it was still under investigation. Southwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights in Southern California and Arizona due to strong winds and heavy rains. Southern California Edison said near 11,000 customers were with- out power, and repair crews were having trouble reaching equip- ment in desert and mountain areas because of snow. Obama admin. promises more reCe in aiti -- aid to Yemen to fight terrorism 1 \~1., 1 S %' L%.U 111 1 5.O . begins tofade Rescue efforts now focused on keeping survivors alive PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The rubble from the epic earthquake now deathly quiet, search-and-rescue teams packed their dogs and gear Thursday as the focus shifted to keeping injured survivors alive, fending off epidemics and getting help to hundrids of homeless camps. "We're so, so hungry," said Felicie Colin, 77, lying outside the ruins of her Port-au-Prince nursing home with dozens of other elderly residents who have hardly eaten since the earth- quake hit on Jan. 12. A melee erupted at one char- ity's food distribution point as people broke into the storehouse, ran off with food and fought each other over the bags. As aftershocks still shook the city, aid workers were stream- ing into Haiti with water, food, drugs, latrines, clothing, trucks, construction equipment, tele- phones and tons of other relief supplies. The international Red Cross called it the great- est deployment of emergency responders in its 91-year history. But the built-in bottlenecks of this desperately poor, under- developed nation and the sheer scale of the catastrophe still left many of the hundreds of thou- sands of victims without help. The U.S. military reported a waiting list of 1,400 internation- al relief flights seeking to land on Port-au-Prince's single runway, where 120 to 140 flights were arriving daily. "They don't see any food and water coming to them, and they are frustrated," said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Four ships managed to dock at the capital's earthquake- damaged port, holding out the promise of a new avenue for getting aid to the city. A Danish navy ship was seen unloading crates. But the going was slow, since only one truck at a time could maneuver on the crack- riven pier. The picture was especially grim at emergency medical centers, where shortages of sur- geons, nurses, their tools and supplies have backed up critical cases. "A large number of those coming here are having to have amputations, since their wounds are so infected," said Brynjulf Ystgaard, a Norwegian surgeon at a Red Cross field hospital. Food was reaching tens of thousands, but the need was much greater. Perhaps no one was more desperate than the 80 or so residents of the damaged Municipal Nursing Home, in a slum near the shell of Port-au- Prince's devastated cathedral. The quake killed six of the elder- ly, three others have since died of hunger and exhaustion, and several more were barely clipg- ing to life. "Nobody cares," said Phileas Justin, 78. "Maybe they do just want us to starve to death." In the first eight days after the quake, they had eaten just a bit of pasta cooked in gutter water and a bowl of rice each. On Thursday, they had a small bowl of spaghet- ti and five bags of rice and beans, and cooking oil, were delivered. A dirty red sheet covered the body of Jean-Marc Luis, who died late Wednesday. "He died of hunger," said security guard Nixon Plantin. Yesterday, four days after The Associated Press first reported on the patients' plight, workers from the British- based HelpAge International visited and said they would help. One by one, such deaths were adding to a Haitian government- estimated toll of 200,000 dead, as reported by the European Commission. It said 250,000 people were injured and 2 mil- lion homeless in the nation of 9 million. As U.S. troops began patrol- ling Port-au-Prince to boost security, sporadic looting and violence continued. U.S. to provide $70 million in military aid in 2010 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration will provide more counterterrorism and devel- opment aid to embattled Yemen, but the country must show results for assistance to continue to flow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday. After meeting with Yemeni For- eign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi at the State Department, Clinton told reporters the U.S. was pleased with steps the Yemeni government was takingto combat violent extremists, including al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. That group has claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound American airliner. Yemen is emerging as a central focus in the fight against violent extremists, and the United States has ramped up both military and civilian aid to the country over' the past year. Clinton's remarks reflect the administration's rising concern about the crisis facing the impoverished country and a deci- sion to raise Yemen as a priority on its foreign policy agenda. "Tocombatthisgrowingthreat, the United States will intensify its cooperation with Yemen on both security and development," Clin- ton said. "Yemen has demonstrat- ed a willingness and a capacity to. take action against al-Qaida and other extremist groups, and the United States commends these actions." She did not detail the enhanced assistance but noted the U.S. cur- rentlyhasathree-year, $121 million development and economic assis- tance program with Yemen. Sepa- rately, the U.S. is providing nearly $70 million in military aid this year. Clinton's comments come ahead of an international conference on Yemen next week in London at which new aid could be announced. But she made clear that without the Yemeni government reforms, donors, including the U.S., would balk at sending aid to the impover- ished countrythat is facing internal unrest apart from the extremists. "The success of this investment depends on Yemen's ability to make the tough choices necessary to improve the capacity to govern, to reform its economy, to protect human rights, to combat corruption and to create a better environment for busi- ness and investment," she said. , Yemen's government is weak, and its authority does not extend far outside the capital, but it has stepped up military strikes against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a strengthening terror offshoot formed a year ago by Yemen and Saudi militant factions. Clinton stressed that the fight against extremists could not be waged solely by military means. She said it must be accompanied by improvements in people's lives that will make them less prone to turn to violence. "Our relationship cannot be just about the terrorists," she said. "As criticial as that is to our security and our future and to the stability and unity of Yemen, the best way to really get at some of these underly- ing problems that exist is through an effective development strategy." Al-Qirbi reaffirmed his govern- ment's commitment to fighting terrorism and said reforms were coming. y.. Tfax Anxiety:. INCOME A PRPRAIO Future Solutions Tax Leading You To A Brighter Tomorrosw The Easy and Quick Solution to preparing your taxes. www.1040.com/futuresolutionstax FILE YOUR TAXES ONLINE * Reasonable Rates * Confidential. " Complimentary e-filing-* www.1040.com/futuresolutionstax Phone: 248-880-6932* Email: FutureSolutionsTax@yahoo.com. Plymouth, Ml