0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
MANLIUS TOWNSHIP, Mich.
Plane crash kills
students in Mich.
Hope College says a student
from Kenya was piloting a small
plane when it crashed in southwest
Michigan, killing himself and a
student from Illinois.
Hope College spokesman Tom
Renner said Monday that 23-year-
old David Otai (OH'-ty) of Nairobi,
Kenya, and 20-year-old Emma
Biagioni (bya-jee-OH'-nee) of St.
Charles, Il., were aboard the sin-
gle engine Cessna 172 that crashed
Sunday.
Renner says Otais mother
helped run Africa Inland Missions,
an air service to missions in central
Africa. Renner says Otai wanted to
get a commercial pilot's license so
he could fly for the service.
The Allegan County sheriff's
department says the plane made a
distress call shortly before crash-
ing in a snow-covered field in
Manlius Township.d on charges of
murder and weapons possession.
BRAMPTON, Ontario.
Canadian terror
plot ringleader
gets life sentence
A Canadian judge on yester-
day sentenced the ringleader of a
homegrown terrorist plot to set off
truck bombs in Ontario to life in
prison.
Zakaria Amara, 24, pleaded
guilty in October. He acknowl-
edged being a leader of the so-
called Toronto 18 plot to set off
bombs outside Toronto's Stock
Exchange, a building housing
Canada's spy agency and a military
base. The goal was to scare Cana-
da into removing its troops from
Afghanistan.
The 2006 arrests of Amara
and 17 others made international
headlines and heightened fears
in a country where many peo-
ple thought they were relatively
immune from terrorist strikes.
BLANTYRE, Malawi
Malawi government
defends charges
against gay couple
Malawi's government said yes-
terday that it is unmoved by inter-
national criticism of the trial of a
gay couple charged with unnatural
acts and gross indecency, felonies
for which they could be impris-
oned for up to 14 years.
In a statement yesterday, Mala-
wi's Information Minister Leck-
ford Mwanza Thoto made no
apology for the laws that crimi-
nalize homosexual acts. He said
Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge
Chimbalanga were "clearly break-
ing the laws of Malawi."
"Asgovernmentwe cannotinter-
fere in the court process," Thoto
said. "We depend on our Western
friends, yes, but we are a sovereign
country."
Forty percent of Malawi's budget
is funded by international donors.
Monjeza, 26, and Chimbalanga,
20, have been jailed since their
arrest Dec. 27, the day they celebrat-
ed their engagement with a party
thatdrewcrowds of curious onlook-
ers in this conservative southern
African country. Hearings in the
trial also have attracted crowds.A
verdict is expected next month.
BILLINGS, Montana.
CNN'S Ted Turner
to protect bison
With 88 bison from Yellow-
stone National Park facing possible
slaughter, billionaire Ted Turner
has swept in and offered to hold
the animals for five years on his
sprawling Montana ranch while a
new home for them is found.
But Turner, ever the shrewd busi-
nessman, won't do it for nothing.
The media mogul says he will care
for the bison only if he can keep up
to 90 percent of their offspring.
And in the Rocky Mountain
West - where wildlife is cher-
ished both for its aesthetic value
and as meat on the table - the plan
is stoking a sharp debate over the
role of deep-pocketed private enti-
ties in conservation.
Hunters, environmentalists
and property law experts have all
weighed in and most say Turner's
plan sets a dangerous precedent
for the commercialization of public
wildlife. Others describe Turner as
a responsible steward of the land
with the resources needed to take
care of animals that desperately
need a home.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Church St. party
ends in violence
C ARE JUSiT/TIhe Miami Herald/ AP
Haitians reach towards aid being dispensed from the back of a food distribution truck on Sunday, in Petionvile, Haiti. Troops,
doctors and aid workers poured into Haitin on Monday to deploy aid to the residents of the ravaged country.
Despite foreign efforts,
hunger persists in1 Haiti
Men allegedly
attacked partygoers
with shovels at
party's entrance
By DEVON THORSBY
Daily StaffReporter
A house party on the 1100 block
of Church Street Sunday night
turned violent as a group of young
men attempting to enter began
throwing punches and hitting
people with a shovel - resulting in
the hospitalization of two victims.
Ann Arbor Police confirmed
that a confrontation concerning
entrance into the party at 1105
Church Street escalated into a
bloody fight, and an investigation
is currently underway.
Witnesses said that at around 1
a.m. Monday morning, the party
hosted by the Pi Lambda Phi
Fraternity was at its maximum
capacity and sober monitors were
keeping people from entering the
house.
Engineering sophomore Sean
Grant was one of the many people
on the front porch at the time,
waiting to enter the party.
Grant said a group of four or five
young males was waiting in line as
well, and that they had been trying
to get into the party throughout
the night.
"They were just waiting out-
side," Grant said. "They weren't
even saying much. Then, they just
started throwing punches."
Grant said there was a sudden
burst of violence, as the group of
young men began punching others
on the porch.
But the violence was one-sided,
according to Grant.
"No one really understood what
the fight was about," Grant said.
"If the Pi-Lamb guys threw any
punches, it was in self-defense.
They were trying to stop the
fight."
Grant said one member of the
group of men who had been stand-
ing in line came onto the porch
with a shovel and began swing-
ing at both sober monitors and the
front door of the house.
AAPD Sgt. Craig Flocken said
that a curved metal digging shovel
was used by one of the assailants,
causing the most damage to both
victims and the front door.
Grant said that after a few
moments of violence, the group
stopped and ran off.
"After they did their damage,
they took off," Grant said. "They
ran so fast."
Business sophomore Andrew
Rubin said he was inside the house
at the time the confrontation
began.
Rubin said he stepped outside
when he heard yelling at the front
of the house. When he went to see
what was happening, Rubin said he
saw punches being thrown and a
man hitting people with a shovel.
"They meant for people to get
hurt," Rubin said. "It looked pretty
brutal."
Flocken confirmed that multiple
people sustained injuries from the
fight, and two went to the Univer-
sity Hospital to receive medical
attention.
A member of the Pi Lambda Phi
Fraternity, who wished to remain
anonymous, said he was inside the
house when he saw the fight break
out. When he went outside to try
to stop the violence, he said he was
hit a couple of times with others'
fists and once in the head with the
shovel.
The member of Pi Lambda Phi
said he and one other victim went
to the hospital to receive medical
attention for their wounds. He
received three staples in his head
and has a broken nose. He said the
other victim had 12 stitches above
his eyebrow for a wound from the
shovel as well.
Flocken said two persons of
interest were arrested concern-
ing the incident but were released
later that night pending further
investigation.
Relief workers
struggle to reach
victims in capital
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)
- Troops, doctors and aid work-
ers flowed into Haiti yesterday
and officials said billions of dol-
lars more will be needed fol-
lowing the quake that killed an
estimated 200,000 people and
left many still struggling to find a
cup of water or a handful of food.
European nations pledged
more than a half-billion dollars
in emergency and long-term
aid, on top of at least $100 mil-
lion promised earlier by the U.S.
The president of the neighboring
Dominican Republic said it will
cost far more to finally rebuild
the country: $10 billion.
Help was still not reaching
many victims of last Tuesday's
quake - choked back by trans-
portation bottlenecks, bureau-
cratic confusion, fear of attacks
on aid convoys, the collapse of
local authority and the sheer
scale of the need.
Looting spread to more parts
of downtown Port-au-Prince as
hundreds of young men and boys
clambered, up broken walls to
break into shops and take what-
ever they can find. Especially
prized was toothpaste, which
people smear under their noses
to fend off the stench of decay-
ing bodies.
At a collapsed and burning
shop in the market area, youths
used broken bottles, machetes
and razors to battle for bottles
of rum and police fired shots to
break up the crowd.
"I am drinking as much as I
can. It gives courage," said Jean-
Pierre Junior, wielding a broken
wooden plank with nails to pro-
tect his bottle of rum.
Even so, the U.S. Army's on-
the-ground commander, Lt.
Gen. Ken Keen, said the city is
seeing less violence than before
the earthquake. "Is there gang
violence? Yes. Was there gang
violence before the earthquake?
Absolutely."
U.S. officials say some 2,200
Marines were arriving to join
1,700 U.S. troops now on the
ground and U.N. Secretary-Gen-
eral Ban Ki-moon announced
yesterday he wants 1,500 more
U.N. police and 2,000 more
troops to join the existing 7,000
military peacekeepers and 2,100
international police in Haiti.
While aid workers tried to
make their way into Haiti, many
people tried to leave. Hundreds
of U.S. citizens, or people claim-
ing to be, waved IDs as they
formed a long line outside the
U.S. Embassy in hopes of arrang-
ing a flight out of the country.
Dominican President Leonel
Fernandez, hosting an interna-
tional meeting to plan strategy
for Haiti, said it would cost $10
billion over five years to recon-
struct the country and confront
the immediate emergency.
Roughly 200,000 people may
have been killed in the magni-
tude-7.0 quake, the European
Union said, quoting Haitian offi-
cials who also said about 70,000
bodies have been recovered so far.
EU officials estimated that
about 250,000 were injured and
1.5 million were homeless.
Even many people whose
houses survived are sleeping
outside for aftershocks will col-
lapse unstable buildings. And
while the U.N. said that more
than 73,000 people have received
a week's rations, many more still
wait.
So many people have lost
homes that the World Food Pro-
gram is planning a tent camp for
100,000 people - an instant city
the size of Burbank, California
- on the outskirts of Port-au-
Prince, according to the agency's
country director, Myrta Kaulard.
About 50,000 people already
sleep each night on the city golf
course where the U.S. 82nd Air-
borne Division has set up an aid
camp.
In town, Bodies still lay in the
street six days after the quake,
but Haitians had made progress
in hauling many away for burial
or burning. People were seen
dragging corpses to intersections
in hopes that garbage trucks or
aid groups would arrive to take
them away.
Six days after the quake,
dozens of rescue crews were
still working to rescue victims
trapped under piles of concrete
and debris.
"There are still people liv-
ing" in collapsed buildings, U.N.
humanitarian spokeswoman
Elisabeth Byrs told The Associ-
ated Press. "Hope continues."
Recycle as much as
.. . possible to
beat other schools!
January 17-March 27, 2010
Last year, UM placed 5th in total tonnage
recycled, but only 96th in recycling rate.
We can do better in 2010!
University of Michigan Waste Management Services
www.recycle.umich.edu
Mass. Senate candidates battle to
the end in surprisingly close race
If Republican wins,
Democrats would
lose filibuster proof
majority in Senate
BOSTON (AP) - Nearly one
year to the day after President
Barack Obama was sworn into
office as an agent of change, Mas-
sachusetts Senate candidates
battled to the wire Monday in an
election that threatened his agen-
da and reflected voters' frustra-
tion with the status quo.
Democrat Martha Coakley and
Republican Scott Brown scoured
the state for votes on the eve of
the special election to succeed the
late Edward M. Kennedy, with
the Democrats' 60-vote Senate
supermajority at stake.
From a distance, the president
made one last appeal in a TV ad for
Coakley, his words reflecting how
much was on the line for Demo-
crats in the face of a surprisingly
strong challenge by Republican
Scott Brown in a state that hasn't
elected a Republican senator since
1972.
"Every vote matters, every
voice matters," Obama said in the
ad that showed him campaigning
with Coakley a day earlier. "We
need you on Tuesday."
Obama needs Coakley, the
state's attorney general, to win
to deny Republicans the ability to
block his initiatives - specifically
the near-complete health care
plan- with a filibuster-sustaining
41st Republican vote. A Coakley
loss also would be an embarrass-
ment, particularly because Obama
has put so much political capital
on the line.
A Suffolk University survey
taken Saturday and Sunday shows
Brown with double-digit leads in
three communities the poll iden-
tified as bellwethers: Gardner,
Fitchburg and Peabody. But inter-
nal statewide polls for both sides
show a dead-heat.
Backers of Coakley and Brown
worked feverishly to identify their
supporters and persuade undecid-
ed voters to move their way. Each
side deployed armies of volunteers
to man phone banks and trudge
door to door through ice and snow
to encourage people to vote.
A third candidate in the race,
Joseph L. Kennedy, a Libertarian
running as an independent, said
Monday he's been bombarded
with e-mails from Brown support-
ers urging him to drop out and
endorse the Republican. But Ken-
nedy, who is polling in the single
digits and is no relation to the late
senator, said he's staying in.
Special elections tend to draw
relatively few voters, but Repub-
licans and Democrats predicted a
high turnout Tuesday. The Massa-
chusetts electorate, like the coun-
try at large, is dissatisfied with
the country's direction, and those
disgruntled voters are expected
to vote their passions in droves.
Democrats, who until just a
week ago considered the race
a lock for Coakley, have been
forced to scramble for votes in a
state where Democrats outnum-
ber Republicans 3-1. Brown has
thrown Democrats for a loop,
riding a wave of voter anger
with Obama's health care plan
and what critics call big govern-
ment spending to pull the race
even.
The concern among Democrats
was clear when they trotted out
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry
to accuse Brown backers of dirty
tricks.
Trying desperately to slow
Brown's momentum, Coakley
and fellow Democrats rolled out
a fresh round of automated calls
to voters from Vice President Joe
Biden and from Vicki Kennedy,
the late senator's widow. They
were targeting voters who pro-
pelled Obama to victory in 2008.
Get-out-the-vote programs were
in full swing on campuses across
the state, and ads courted the
state's large Portuguese and Hai-
tian communities.
Obama's TV appeal mostly was
intended to encourage the Demo-
cratic base to vote. Democrats
need their base to turn out big,
given that surveys showed Brown
leading among independents and
Republicans incredibly energized
about his candidacy.
Learn miuoeao~iiL 1 ree .o s..sap.
Attend an information session.
Wednesday, January 20th
6:30 p.m.
U-M International Center, Room 9
800.424.85801 www.peacecorps.gov
Life is calling. How far will you go?
Help us study strategies for preventing influenza
Hahea N0m adW :."
The University of Michigan School of Public Health is enrollng students living in
esidence halls in a research study to see how well influenz( flu )atcines and other
strategies work in reducing the risk of influenza illness in universidy residence halls.
Participants will be asked to complete two surveys, one at enrollment and one in Spring
2010. Participants are also asked to report any flu-like respiratory illness. 111 persons will
be invited to have a throat swab collected for laboratory testing. All participants will be
inited to have a blood sample collected at the end of the influenza season to track
pandemic H1N1 infection.
You are eligible if:
" You are at least 18 years old
" 'oo line in one of the following residence halls: Alice Lloyd, Stockwell, Markley,
Mosher-Jordan, or Couzens
Compensation: Participants are entered into a lottery for one often $100 cash cards for
tach sumvey they complete. Participants will receive $10 for permitting collechio fa
hroat swab if they have a flu-like illness, and $20 for permitting collection of a blood
sample
nvestigators: Arnold S. Monto, MD; Suzanne Ohmit, DrPH; Allison Aello, PhD
For more information or if you are interested in participating, please contact our study
Phone: (734)615-8331
Email: ums hchi s umich edu
Website: m tsphchips.smo