The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com M y u 5 0
Monday, January 25, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
AUBURN HILLS, Mich.
* New models a big
part of Chrysler
turnaround plan
Chrysler sold more than
118,000 Sebring sedans in 2001.
Eight years later, the automaker
barely sold 27,000 as its bank-
ruptcy filing sent customers
fleeing to the car's newer, better
competitors.
Chrysler now has a turnaround
plan that promises improved
quality and a stream of new
models. But it won't work unless
Chrysler can get cars like the
Sebring back on people's shopping
lists. To do that, Chrysler is going
back to the basics: Reinventing its
car brands - Chrysler as a luxu-
ry line, Dodge as a quirky value
brand - and reintroducing them
with head-turning ads.
It's a tall order, but Chrysler
insists it can be done.
"We've had troubles. Yeah. We
saw death. But the whole world
needs to realize we're serious
about this plan," Dodge brand
chief Ralph Gilles told The Asso-
ciated Press in a recent interview.
"We're no dummies. We know
what a good car is and what a
good car isn't."
DENVER
Man who attempted
to open airplane
door released
A man accused of attempting to
I open an airplane's exterior door
while in flight has been released
after investigators determined it
wasn't a terrorism matter, author-
ities said yesterday.
The incident occurred Saturday
on a United Airlines jetliner en
route from Washington, D.C., to
Las Vegas. The plane, which had
more than 100 people aboard, was
diverted to Denver International
Airport.
FBI spokeswoman Kathy
Wright said a passenger tried
opening one of the front doors of
the airplane and may have tried
to open the cockpit door before
passengers restrained him. The
man wan taken into cuatody, ques-
tioned and released for a medical
evaluation, she said.
Authorities will decide on
charges after reviewing the inci-
dent, Wright said.
WASHINGTON
Unemployment
rates rose in 43
states last month
Unemployment rates rose in 43
states last month, the government
said Friday, painting a bleak pic-
ture of the job market and illus-
trating nationwide data released
two weeks ago.
The rise in joblessness was a
sharp change from November,
when 36 states said their unem-
ployment rates fell. Four states -
South Carolina, Delaware, Florida
and North Carolina - reported
record-high jobless rates in
December.
New Jersey's rate, meanwhile,
rose to a 33-year high of 10.1 per-
cent while New York's reached a
26-year high of 9 percent.
Analysts said the report showed
the economy is recovering at too
weak a pace to generate consistent
job creation.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia
Lashing, prison for
* Saudi teen accused
of attacking teacher
A teenage girl has been sen-
tenced to a 90-lash flogging and
two months in prison as punish-
ment for assaulting a teacher, a
Saudi judge said in an interview
published yesterday.
Human rights group Amnesty
International said the assault hap-
pened after the girl was caught
with a camera phone at school.
The teenager's name was not
immediately available. She could
be spared with a pardon from King
Abdullah, said Judge Riyadh al-
Meihdib.
"The verdict was read out to her
at the court and she did not object,"
al-Meihdib told Al-Watan, a nation-
al Saudi daily newspaper.
He said the teacher refused to
forgive the girl, who will not appeal
the case. Camera phones are banned
at the school. Al-Watan quoted the
school headmaster describing the
girl as "about twenty" years old.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Bin Laden claims credit for terrorist plot
Authorities say bin
Laden endorsed
Christmas Day
attack for visibility
CAIRO (AP) - Osama bin
Laden endorsed the failed attempt
to blow up a U.S. airliner on
Christmas Day and threatened
new attacks against the Unit-
ed States in an audio message
released yesterday that appeared
aimed at asserting he maintains
some direct command over al-
Qaida-inspired offshoots.
However, U.S. officials and sev-
eral researchers who track ter-
rorist groups said there was no
indication bin Laden or any of his
top lieutenants had anything to
do with or even knew in advance
of the Christmas plot by a Yemen-
based group that is one of sev-
eral largely independent al-Qaida
franchises.
A U.S. State Department
spokesman said al-Qaida's core
leadership offers such groups
strategic guidance but depends on
them to carry it out.
"He's trying to continue to
appear relevant" by talking up the
attempted attack by an affiliate,
the spokesman,.P.J. Crowley, said.
The one-minute message
was explicit in its threat of new
attacks. Like the airline plot, bin
Laden said they would come in
response to America's support for
Israel.
"God willing, our raids on you
will continue as long as your sup-
port for the Israelis continues,"
bin Laden said in the recording,
which was released to the Al-
Jazeera news.channel.
"The message delivered to you
through the plane of the heroic
warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmu-
tallab was a confirmation of the
previous messages sent by the
heroes of the Sept. 11," he said of
the Nigerian suspect in the Dec.
25 botched attack.
"If our messages had been able
to reach you through words we
wouldn't have been delivering
them through planes."
Directing his statements at
President Barack Obama - "from
Osama to Obama," he said - bin
Laden added: "America will never
dream of security unless we will
have it in reality in Palestine."
The message, which White
House officials said could not
immediately be authenticated,
raised again the question of how
much of a link exists between
al-Qaida's top leadership along
the Afghan-Pakistani border and
the handful of loosely affiliated
groups operating in the Arabian
Peninsula, North Africa and Iraq.
The al-Qaida leader, who was
last heard from in September,
seemed intent on showing he
remains more than an ideological
figurehead, as most analysts have
suggested he has become during
the terror network's evolution into
decentralized offshoots. But some
questioned whether al-Qaida's
core leadership was involved.
"They weren't putting the
final touches on this operation,"
said Evan Kohlmann, a senior
investigator for the New York-
based NEFA Foundation, which
researches Islamic militants.
Still, the Saudi and Yemeni
leaders of al-Qaida in the Ara-
bian Peninsula, which formed
in Yemen a year ago, have a long
history of direct personal contact
with bin Laden. It is plausible
that - if they were able to - they
would have informed bin Laden
of the airliner plot and sought his
approval, Kohlmann said.
The Yemen-based group's lead-
er, Nasir al-Wahishi, was once bin
Laden's personal secretary, and its
top military commander, Qassim
al-Raimi, trained in bin Laden's
main camp in Afghanistan, Kohl-.
mann said.
Two of the group's top mem-
bers were detainees at the Guan-
tanamo Bay U.S. military prison
who were released in November
2007.
The Yemen offshoot is largely
self-sustaining, with its own theo-
logical figures, bomb makers and a
network for funneling in recruits.
"The training and the definition
of the attack was by the local lead-
ers of al-Qaida in the Arabian Pen-
insula," said Rohan Gunaratna,
author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global
Network of Terror."
"So, in many ways you can say
bin Laden is exploiting for his
benefit this particular attack. Bin
Laden still wants to claim lead-
ership for the global jihad move-
ment."
U.S. investigators say the
Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25
attempted bombing told them he
had been trained in Yemen and
given the explosives there by al-
Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Abdulmutallab is accused of
attempting to blow up the plane
with an explosive powder hidden
in his underwear as the aircraft
approached Detroit Metro Air-
port. The device failed to deto-
nate.
Bin Laden's message came
four weeks after the Yemen-
based group made its own claim
of responsibility for the bomb
plot with a differeut justification
- linking it to Yemeni military
attacks on al-Qaida targets with
the help of U.S. intelligence.
There was no way to verify the
voice on the audio message was
actually bin Laden's, but it resem-
bled previous recordings attribut-
ed to him. U.S.-based IntelCenter,
which monitors militant messag-
es, said the manner of the record-
ing's release, its content and other
factors indicated it was credible.
Whit e House adviser David
Axelrod told CNN's "State of the
Union" that whatever the source,
the message "contains the same
hollow justification for the mass
slaughter of innocents."
On Friday, Britain raised its
terror threat alert to the sec-
ond-highest level, one of several
recent steps the country has taken
to increase vigilance after the
Christmas Day bombing attempt.
The online edition of Britain's The
Sunday Times reported that the
heightened alert was prompted in
part by an Islamic terrorist plot to
hijack an Indian passenger jet and
crash it into a British city.
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RODRIGO ABD/AP
A woman carries fruit as she walks through Port-au-Prince. Haiti's capital city was devastated by a Jan. 12 earthquake.
At least 150,000 dead after
Haiti quake, government says
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usands buried Program chief Josette Sheeran,
visiting Port-au-Prince.
ass graves, total In the Cite Soleil slum, U.S. sol-
diers and Brazilian U.N. peace-
mber dead still keeping troops distributed food.
unknown Lunie Marcelin, 57, said the hand-
outs will help her and six grown
children "but it is not enough. We
-AU-PRINCE, Haiti need more."
the truckers filling Haiti's Yet another aftershock, one of
aves with bodies reported more than 50 since the great quake
her numbers: More than Jan. 12, shook Port-au-Prince on
quake victims have been Sunday, registering 4.7 magnitude,
y the government, an offi- the U.S. Geological Survey said.
yesterday. There were no immediate reports
doesn't count those still of further damage.
he debris, carried off by The Haitian government was
or killed in the outlying urging many of the estimated
ne. 600,000 homeless huddled in open
dy knows how many areas of Port-au-Prince, a city of
re buried in the rubble - 2 million, to look for better shel-
? 300,000? Who knows ter with relatives or others in the
'all death toll?" said the countryside. Some 200,000 were
Communications Minister believed already to have done so,
aurence Jocelyn Lassegue. most taking advantage of free gov-
ng with the living, mean- ernment transportation, and oth-
global army of aid workers ers formed a steady stream out of
ng more food into people's the city yesterday.
rut acknowledged falling International experts searched
Ve wish we could do more, for sites to erect tent cities for
said U.N. World Food quake refugees on the capital's
outskirts,butsuch short-termsolu-
tions were still weeks away, said
the International Organization for
Migration, an intergovernmental
agency.
"We also need tents. There is
a shortage of tents," said Vincent
Houver, the Geneva-based agen-
cy's chief of mission in Haiti. Their
Port-au-Prince warehouse has
10,000 family-size tents, but some
100,000 are needed, he said. The
organization has appealed for $30
million for that and other needs,
and has received two-thirds of that
so far.
In the aftermath of the 7.0-mag-
nitude earthquake, the casualty
estimates have been necessarily
tentative. Lassegue told The Asso-
ciated Press the government's fig-
ure of 150,000 buried, from the
capital area alone, was reported by
CNE, a state company collecting
corpses and burying them north of
Port-au-Prince.
That number would tend to con-
firm an overall estimate of 200,000
dead reported last week by the
European Commission, citing Hai-
tian government sources.
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If you will enroll in a study abroad program
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review your options.