The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS LANSING, Mich. Conviction stands for Mich. man said to have killed wife The Michigan Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man who confessed to killing his wife and dismembering her body after he was captured more than 200 miles away in the northern Michi- gan woods. Stephen Grant, 39, reported Tara Grant missing in 2007, then slipped away from their Macomb County home a few weeks later as deputies discovered her torso in a storage container in their garage. Grant, now serving50 years to 80 years so prison for second-degree murder, claimed pretrial publicity spoiled the case in Macomb County Circuit Court. He said the judge also erred by not suppressing his confession. The high court yesterday upheld the Michigan Court of Appeals' order rejecting those arguments. Grant's appellate lawyer, Peter Van Hoek, could not be reached immediately for comment. WASHINGTON NASA will help probe Toyota's acceleration issue NASA and the National Academy of Sciences are joining the govern- ment's effort to figure out what caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to Toyota's mas- sive recalls. NASA scientists with expertise in electronics willhelp the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration study potential electronic ties to unintended acceleration in Toyotas. In a separate study, Transporta- tion Secretary Ray LaHood says the National Academy of Sciences will examine unwanted acceleration and electronic vehicle controls in cars from around the auto industry. The National Academy is an inde- pendent organization chartered by Congress. Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, including 6 million in the United States. BEIJING Workers detained, dead babies found along China river The bodies of 21 babies, some with hospital identification tags around their tiny ankles, washed .ashore on a river in eastern China and two mortuary workers were detained for allegedly dumping them. News footage yesterday showed the babies - at least one of whom was stuffed in a yellow plastic bag marked "medical waste" - strewn along a dirt riverbank near a high- way overpass. A few wore diapers. All were caked in mud. Some of the babies appeared sev- eral months old, while the official Xinhua News Agency said the bod- ies included fetuses. Local residents and firefight- ers recovered the bodies Monday after they were discovered under a bridge spanning the Guangfu River on the outskirts of Jining in Shan- dong province. CAIRO Ancient Egyptian tomb reveals door to the afterlife Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the after- life from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak tem- ple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiqui- ties authority said Monday. These recessed niches found in nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs were meant to take the spirits of the dead to and from the after- world. The nearly six-foot- tall (1.75 meters) slab of pink granite was covered with religious texts. The door came from the tomb of User, the chief minister of Queen Hatshepsut, a powerful, longruling 15th century B.C. queen from the 5 New Kingdom with a famous mor- tuary temple near Luxor in south- ern Egypt. User held the position of vizier for 20 years, also acquiring the titles of prince and mayor of the city, according to the inscriptions. He may have inherited his position from his father. -Compiled from Daily wire reports Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton jokes that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel should be sent to the Russian Duma to negotiate passage of the new START nuclear disarmament treaty, Friday, March 26, 2010. G-8 demands Iran's compliance on nukes LECTURERS From Page 1A giving each unit a budget, and they have to live within that budget." Sullivan said because of this decentralization, she couldn't guarantee that no lecturers would be laid off. "I can't guarantee that nobody anywhere will ever lay anybody off," Sullivan said. "I can assure you that whatever we do, we'll fol- low the (Lectures Employee Orga- nization) contract." However, Sullivan said Uni- versity administrators would do everything possible to cut in other areas before cutting faculty. "I would say that we are a human capitol organization, and the reason we don't look at layoffs first is that when we lay people off we don't just cut costs, we cut assets," Sullivan said. "That's not something that we want to do, but there aren't a lot of places to cut in many programs." According to Sullivan, approxi- mately 70 percent of the Uni- versity's budget is allocated to personnel costs, while only 30 percent of the budget is spent on materials and other non-personnel items. However, Sullivan did indicate that if the state-funding picture continues to be as bleak as in the past, it could result in layoffs. "In the long run, it's going to depend on what happens to our sources of revenue, including our state appropriations," she said. And while lecturer layoffs are possible and currently exist in the 1-, 3- and 5-percent budget reduc- tion plans being prepared in some LSA departments, no final deci- sions have been made yet, Univer- sity spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told the Daily in an interview last week. "This is simply a possibility, and no decisions have been made," Fitzgerald said. "There could be layoffs, there might not be layoffs. These budgets are not in final form yet." However, Fitzgerald said he believes what is making this year's situation different is the ongoing negotiations between LEO and the University. "There were some lecturer layoffs last year too. This is not an unprecedented possibility," Fitzgerald said. "I think what's dif- ferent this year is that you've got a LEO negotiation going on at the same time." However, Adjunct Professor Joe Walls, who serves as a spokesman for LEO, said the difference isn't the ongoing negotiations but rath- er the motivation behind the pos- sible cuts. Walls said layoffs occur every year, but that lecturers are typi- cally laid off as a result of students' changing interest in classes. "Layoffs occur, but now the reasons are different," Walls said. "(It's) not to have supply and demand match, which is the nor- mal reason ... but as a way to reduce expenditures." Walls said he has been told that the layoffs are not finalized yet, but that there are concerns about the possibility during a time when the budget has little or no wiggle room. "No one has said, 'We're going to lay people off.' That's true," Walls said. "But they have told us that it is being considered and they do have to achieve those (budget) reductions." When asked what LEO would recommend instead of cutting lec- turers, if additional cuts become necessary, Walls said it wouldn't be appropriate for LEO to recom- mend alternative cost-cutting strategies. "We have no power or really any right to say how those things are going to happen. That's just not in labor law," Walls said. "But of course we would rather see them use other approaches than laying off our members." Asked whether he believed the news could impact ongoing con- tract negotiations between LEO and the University, Walls said it may have changed the tone of con- versations, but not what LEO is seeking in its new contract. "It probably hasn't changed the kinds of things we're looking for in the contract," Walls said. "It does sort of set a tone or an atmosphere, an environment." Contract negotiations are ongo- ing with representatives from LEO and the University administration meeting each week. The parties reportedly hope to reach an agree- ment in May. Diplomats aim to persuade China to support sanctions GATINEAU, Quebec (AP) - Diplomats from the world's lead- ing economies say Iran's recent actions deepen the doubts that its nuclear program is aimed at any- thing other than building a bomb, and U.S. Secretary of State Hill- ary Rodham Clinton predicted Tuesday that world powers will agree on a new round of U.N. sanctions. The main audience for the tough talk seems to be countries not represented among the exclu- sive Group of Eight economic club: China and countries like Turkey and Brazil that have not been on board with sanctions. Closing a conference of foreign ministers from the G-8 industri- alized nations, Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said it is time to act. Clinton said the nations meet- ing in Canada see a growing alarm around the world about the conse- quences of a nuclear-armed Iran. Clinton pointed to a string of disclosures over more than a year about the nature and extent of Iran's once-secret nuclear program. Disclosure of the ura- nium enrichment facility near the Iranian city of Qum, the announcement of more facilities to be developed as well as revela- tions of greater efforts at enrich- ment are nudging the consensus toward sanctions, she said. "The last 15 months have dem- onstrated the unwillingness of Iran to fulfill its international obligations and that's the basis of my optimism that we're going to have a consensus reached in the Security Council," Clinton said. Canadian Prime Minister Ste- phen Harper urged a heightened focus and stronger coordinated action, including sanctions if nec- essary, on the Iranian regime and said Tehran "must halt its nuclear enrichment activities and engage in peaceful dialogue." The G-8 groups France, Ger- many, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Can- ada and Russia. "There was a high degree of unity with respect to our mount- ing concern about the failure of Iran to respond in any kind of adequate way," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. With Iran refusing to comply, the message is largely directed at China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that is not a member of the G-8. China, a vocal opponent of sanc- tions, wields veto power in the Security Council, and until recent- ly it had balked at the mere sugges- tion of taking additional punitive steps against Iran. That, Clinton suggested, is now changing. In an interview with Canadian television on Monday, Clinton said China shared the view of the U.S., its European allies and Rus- sia that "a nuclear-armed Iran is not acceptable." Publicly, China reiterated its stance that the countries should seek a solution through negotia- tions, not new sanctions. "We hope relevant parties could fully show their flexibility and make further efforts toward a proper resolution of this issue through diplomatic means," Chi- nese ' Foreign Ministry spokes- man Qin Gang said yesterday at a regular news briefing. China opposes nuclear weap- ons for Iran but says the country has the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. Iran is already under three sets of Security Council sanctions and China has been holding up consideration of a fourth, saying diplomacy must be given more time to work. But last week it soft- ened its position in a conference call among senior officials from the six nations working most closely on the matter, according to diplomats. A senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Clinton that the Chinese "have said now that they will engage on the ele- ments of a sanctions resolution." The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing diplomatic negotiation. In Washington, meanwhile, the White House said President Barack Obama met Monday with China's incoming ambassador to the United States, noting that Obama had stressed to the envoy the need for the two countries "to work together and with the inter- national community on critical global issues including nonpro- liferation and pursuing sustained and balanced global growth." Tenn. businessman sues Tea Party leader Today's Career Tip: Meet with professionals today to create your personal brand image. 9-noon at the Alumni Center. Text "UMStudents" to 41411 to win great prizes and get daily career tips. ALUMNIASSOCIATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Bill Hemrick suing in Las Vegas. The lawsuit claimed Hemrick for $500,000 he was libeled when in a mass e-mail before the convention "that in damages reflects expressly (or by implica- tion)" that Hemrick is neither NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - "reputable" nor "trustworthy." It A Tennessee businessman who doesn't provide other details of helped finance Sarah Palin's what the e-mail said. appearance at the National Tea Party Convention last month has sued one of the event's organiz- ers, claiming he was libeled in an e-mail and shut out of the speech. Bill Hemrick, who helped found the baseball trading card company Upper Deck, said in the lawsuit against Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips that he helped cover a deposit on Palin's $100,000 speaking fee for the Nashville event, then was shut L a out when the former Alaska gov- ernor spoke Feb. 6. "He was expressly instruct- ed not to attend, and that, if he attempted to attend, he would be denied access," said Hemrick's attorney, Phillip Jones. The lawsuit, filed last week, also claims Phillips reneged on an agreement to form a partner- ship with Hemrick. Phillips said yesterday the CLAIRE lawsuit was meritless and "hurts WC the movement." He said Hemrick loaned $25,000 for the conven- tion and charged a substantial interest rate, and the money has APRIL 1 & 8 at 730 PM been repaid. APRIL 2, 3, 9 & 10 at 8PM According to the lawsuit, APRIL 4*& 11 at 2P s, Hemrick fronted the money solely to form a partnership with ARTHUR MULLI Phillips that included involve- ment in the Tea Party Nation and help promoting a political action GENRAL*ADMISON$2* SU S$9 committee. LAMM: TICKETOFMCK 734-764 The lawsuit seeks at least DEPARTMENTF T"ATRE& OR www.mustc.umich.edu/performa $500,000 in damages and comes as Phillips is planning another tea party convention set for July The for-profit status of the Tea Party Nation group has been con- troversial. Republican Congresswomen Michele Bachmann and Mar- sha Blackburn backed out of the convention after they questioned how the profits of the event would be used.