f The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 3A
* The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September16, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
VIENNA
* Iran accused of
influencing nuclear
inspectors
A U.S. envoy accused Iran yes-
terday of intimidating U.N. nuclear
inspectors in an effort to influence
their findings - a move he said may
lead to "appropriate action," from
the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
Britain, France and Germany
also criticized Iran for its deci-
sion to ban several inspectors in
a toughly worded statement also
critical of Tehran for ignoring U.N.
Security Council demands to stop
nuclear activities that couldbe used
to make weapons.
"Iran is pursuing ... programs
which have no credible peace-
ful purposes," said the statement
to the IAEA's 35-nation board,
delivered by French chief delegate
" Florence Mangin. "The only con-
clusion we can draw from this is
that Iran remains determined to
pursue a nuclear program which
could provide it with military
capabilities."
In warning of "appropriate
action," Glyn Davies, the chief U.S.
delegate to the nuclear agency, did
not go into details in comments
to the board. But he referred to
the phrase as part of the author-
ity given the board if the agency's
inspectors are hampered in carry-
ing out their duties by the nation
under inspection.
LAKE ISABELLA, Calif.
Forest fire forces
community to
evacuate area
Hundreds of residents in small
mountain communities were
under evacuation orders yester-
day as a forest fire in the southern
Sierra Nevada grew to more than
6,100 acres and destroyed one
home.
Mandatory evacuations involved
portions of the town of Bodfish and
an area known as Myers Canyon,
said Cindy Thill, a U.S. Forest Ser-
vice spokeswoman.
The fire erupted Sunday in the
Lower Kern River Canyon and
burned up and out of the canyon in
a portion of Sequoia National For-
est southwest of Lake Isabella, a
popular fishing, boating and hiking
:area about 110 miles north of down-
town Los Angeles.
Recreational sites and river
outfitter camps were evacuated at
,the outset but calls for residential
evacuations didn't begin until late
Tuesday as part of the fire became
more active.
MASON, Mich.
Brighton-area man
found with bomb
material
Authorities say a Brighton-area
'man who may be connected to an
anti-government group was found
'during a traffic stop with bomb-
making paraphernalia, a loaded
gun, a bulletproof vest and a photo
of President Barack Obama.
Richard S. McLeod was
arraigned Tuesday in 55th Dis-
trict Court in Mason on charges of
carrying a concealed weapon and
unlawful possession of body armor.
The 48-year-old was being held in
the Ingham County Jail.
Court records didn't list a lawyer
for McLeod, and there's no working
telephone listing for him.
Ingham County sheriff's Maj.
Joel Maatman tells the Lansing
'State Journal the FBI is assisting
in the investigation after Monday's
arrest.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Ber-
chtold says she can't confirm or
deny the agency's involvement.
BRASILIA, Brazil
Brazil announces
plan to curb
:deforestation
Brazil's government has unveiled
plans to slow the deforestation and
'help halt the wildfires that destroy
its tropical savanna.
The government plans to spend
$200 million in the next two years
to combat illegal deforestation and
prevent fires.
The destruction is due to expand-
ing cattle ranches, the clearing
'of land for massive farms and the
felling of trees to produce charcoal
'used by steel industries.
The government said yesterday it
will step up patrols to combat these
'activities.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.
In Afghanistan,
T roops invade
Talbndistrict
MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP
In this July 21,.2010, file photo, Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel testifies before a Senate Finance
Committee hearing to examine the Troubled Asset Relief Program in Washington'
Obam-a to tap Warren
for new consumer post
U.S.-led troop
movement part of
effort to reduce
violence in city
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan
(AP) - U.S. and Afghan forces
began advancing slowly yester-
day through the insurgent-filled
district in southern Afghani-
stan that gave birth to the Tal-
iban movement, treading ground
where guerrilla fighters have
operated freely for years, the
British general in charge of
NATO troops here said.
Maj. Gen. Nick Carter said the
latest push in Zhari district is
part of a crucial strategy aimed at
reducing violence in the provin-
cial capital Kandahar by stem-
ming the flow of fighters and
weapons there and connecting
civilians estranged from their
government.
But he downplayed the extent
of the latest troop movements
headed by the U.S. Army's 101st
Airborne Division, which mans
outposts with Afghan troops
throughout the district. He said
they were part of military opera-
tions that have been going on in
Zhari for at least four months. U.S.
and Afghan forces yesterday, he
said, had only gone "slightly fur-
ther than we've gone before."
The movements were signifi-
cant, though, because the loca-
tions were areas where coalition
forces had never been - at least
not in force.
One of the targets in Zhari was
the village of Makuan, which
U.S. commanders expect to clear
within days. Carter said troops
had "breached some IED belts"
adjacent to the village, referring to
bombs coalition forces often call
improvised explosive devices.
He said troops encountered
"some resistance," but gave no
details.
Also yesterday, the provincial
governor of Kandahar's spokes-
man, Zelmai Ayubi, said two chil-
dren aged 11 and 14 were killed
in a homemade bomb explosion.
Another child was wounded in
the blast in the Malajat areaon the
southwest edge of Kandahar city.
Meanwhile, NATO said 25
Afghan civilians had been killed
and 60 injured so far in Septem-
ber as the result of the Taliban
insurgency.
"While the Taliban talk of
protecting the people and issue
disingenuous directives claim-
ing to shield Afghans from harm,
instead they have increased
their use of indiscriminate vio-
lence, killing scores of innocent
Afghans," NATO spokesman
Rear Admiral Greg Smith said in
a statement. "Their rhetoric does
not match reality."
Elizabeth Warren
gained a reputation
as a staunch critic
of Wall Street
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Barack Obama will appoint
Wall Street critic Elizabeth War-
ren as a special adviser to oversee
the creation of a new consumer
protection bureau, a Democratic
official said Wednesday.
Warren would report to both
the Treasury Department and the
White House in a role that would
not require Senate confirmation.
The 61-year-old Harvard Uni-
versity professor and consumer
advocate had been considered
the leading candidate to head
the bureau itself, but her lack of
support in the financial commu-
nity could have set the stage for
contentious Senate hearings that
might ultimately have derailed
her confirmation.
The official spoke on condition
of anonymity ahead of a formal
announcement.
White House officials would
not confirm the appointment, but
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs
said an announcement could be
made this week.
While Obama has long been
a friend and supporter of War-
ren, he was keenly aware of the
potential pitfalls of nominating a
polarizing figure in the midst of a
heated election year.
"I am concerned about all
Senate nominations these days,"
Obama said during a news confer-
ence last week. "I've got people
who have been waiting for six
months to get confirmed who
nobody has an official objection to
and who were voted out of com-
mittee unanimously, and I can't
get a vote on them."
The consumer bureau was cre-
ated under the financial regula-
tory bill Obama signed into law
earlier this year. It will have vast
powers to enforce regulations
covering mortgages, credit cards
and other financial products,
and be financed by the Federal
Reserve.
The new bureau would consoli-
date consumer protection duties
now spread across various regula-
tory agencies.
The financial regulation law
gives the Treasury Department
the authority to run the consumer
protection bureau while the nom-
ination of its director is pending.
The law also says the Treasury
secretary must transfer those
functions to the new bureau
within a year, but gives him lati-
tude to seek an additional six
months to complete the creation
of the agency. That means Warren
could, potentially, perform her
new duties into 2012.
"I very much would like to see
her directing that agency. Exactly
in what form is less important.
to me that that she does it," Rep.
BarneyFrank, D-Mass., chairman
of the House Financial Services
Committee, told The Associated
Press on Wednesday. "If someone
told me that a candidate for that
job could be easily confirmed, I
think that would be a disqualifi-
cation."
The head of a liberal group that
has been campaigning for War-
ren to get the top consumer job
applauded the news, but added a
note of caution.
"If this appointment is window
dressing and (Treasury Secre-
tary) Tim Geithner controls the
show, it would be a big disap-
pointment and a victory for Wall
Street," said Stephanie Taylor,
co-founder of the Progressive
Change Campaign Committee.
Warren has served as head
of the Congressional Oversight
Panel, charged with monitoring
Treasury's handling of the $700
billion bank rescue fund known
as the Troubled Asset Relief Pro-
gram. She has at times clashed
with Treasury over her commit-
tee's findings and conclusions
about the use of TARP money.
As of Sept. 10, however, Warren
stepped back from working on the
group's latest report, a signal that
the new Treasury post was a pos-
sibility.
Obama seeks more
control of pipelines
Chicago police rally against
high-ranking dept. official
Pipeline safety
advocates say not
enough regulation
is in place
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Obama administration called for
tighter federal oversight of oil
and gas pipelines yesterday in
the wake of a deadly California
gas explosion that raised alarms
about the safety of the nation's
aging infrastructure.
In the meantime, the head of
the National Transportation Safe-
ty Board said the federal agency
responsible for the regulation is
too accepting of assurances from
industry that its equipment and
practices are safe.
Hersman's comments echoed
what safety advocates have long
called for - a pipeline agency that
needs to be less cozy with industry
and staffed with more inspectors
to enforce stricter regulations.
They welcomed the Obama
plan, but said it fell far short of
addressing the problems facing
the nation's millions of miles of
pipeline.
"It's the low-hanging fruit,"
said Rick Kessler with The Pipe-
line Safety Trust, a Bellingham,
Wash., advocacy group. "There's
no increase in mileage of pipelines
that must be inspected, there's
no standards for technology for
inspections or repairing pipe-
lines."
"If this is a starting point, fine.
If this is all the administrationhas
to say, it is wholly inadequate," he
said.
The U.S. Pipeline and Hazard-
ous Material Safety Administra-
tion is directly responsible for
inspecting interstate pipelines,
and has only 100 inspectors to do
it. Oversight of intrastate lines is
left to local regulators, who have
in most cases left the inspections
to utilities.
Hersman said the NTSB, which
is investigating the California
blast and two other pipeline acci-
dents, is concerned that PHMSA
relies too heavily on documents
submitted by the companies it
regulates, rather than its own on
site verification of practices and
procedures.
"We want PHMSA to be on the
ground doing the inspections,"
Hersman said. "We think it's
PHMSA's responsibility to trust
butverify."
Federal investigators said
they were examining whether
Pacific Gas & Electric workers
followed proper emergency pro-
cedures after a gas transmission
line exploded into an inferno that
killed at least four people and
destroyed nearly 40 homes in a
San Francisco suburb.
PG&E has said the pipeline,
built in 1956, had to be shut down
manually because it was not
equipped with automatic shut-off
valves.
Officers claim
department head is w
dangerous
'44 .r:.
i
)Ne
cop,
CHICAGO (AP) - Several hun-
dred officers rallied outside Chica-
go police headquarters yesterday
and called for the city's top police
official to step down, saying initia-
tives he pushed through after join-
ing the force three years ago have
put their lives in danger and the
community at risk.
The police unions and many
among the force's rank-and-file
have been suspicious of Superin-
tendent Jody Weis since he was
asked by Mayor Richard Daley in
2007 to leave the FBI to lead the
police force in the nation's third
largest city.
In a show of force yesterday,
more than 300 officers marched
in the city's South Side neighbor-
hood, with many carrying signs
with slogans such as "More Police,
No Weis," and, simply, "Resign."
Several on-duty officers drove by
waving and holding up their fists
in support.
Jim Pasco, the executive direc-
tor of the National Fraternal Order
of Police, had called the protest
"extraordinarily unusual," and
many of those who marched yes-
terday said they'd never heard
of such an event. A similar rally
was held in 2004 in New York,
when hundreds of delegates of the
Patrolmen's Benevolent Associa-
tion gave Commissioner Raymond
Kelly a vote of no confidence after
he announced that an officer-
involved shooting appeared unjus-
tified only hours after it happened.
The protest against Weis comes
as the city and its leaders try to
make sense of Daley's announce-
ment last week that he would not
seek re-election in February after
more than 21 years in office. Weis'
Sarkozy addresses EU
commission criticism
Fra
fi
Chicago police officers protest outside police headquarters yesterday what they
describe as a staff shortage that has put officers' lives at risk.
three-year contract ends early
next year and without Daley there
to support him, some announced
and presumed candidates have
made the superintendent post a big
part of their campaigns.
"Remember, cops vote," one of
the marchers told Alderman Bob
Fioretti, who is widely expected
to officially announce he's running
for mayor, as he stood nearby.
Fioretti and others obviously
understand that, with Fioretti
telling anyone with a notebook or
microphone that the city has to
find the moneyto replace the 1,000
officers the department is down, as
well as say that whoever the next
mayor is, himself included, will not
extend Weis' contract.
"Morale is so low, it's time to
begin the process to look for a new
superintendent," he said.
Weis declined to comment on
yesterday's protest, but he said
recently he's not stepping down.
"I've still got more work ... and
I'm certainly not going to leave
until I get that work done," he told
reporters Tuesday.
Weis has taken his case to the
city and the department by send-
ing a letter to a local newspa-
per and posting another on the
department's website in which
he suggests, among other things,
that he's not going to be swayed
by marching officers outside his
office.
"Leadership is not about being
popular: it is about making dif-
ficult decisions and doing the
right thing," he wrote in the web
posting. Still, he added, "I have
led this department in a manner
which - on many issues - reflects
what the (FOP) membership has
asked for."
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ly dismantled more than 100 ille-
ine for Roma gal camps and sent home more
than 1,000 Roma, mainly back
expulsion to Romania, in a crackdown that
has drawn international condem-
IS (AP) - President Nico- nation. Sarkozy has called Roma
'kozy's government fired camps sources of crime such
sterday at European Com- as illegal trafficking and child
criticism of France's exploitation.
swn on Gypsies, or Roma, France could ultimately be
some of the complaints are slapped with a fine by the Europe-
ptable. an Court of Justice ifitsexpulsions
y earlier, EU Justice Com- arefoundtohavebreachedEUlaw.
er Viviane Reding had French Prime Minister Fran-
France's expulsions of cois Fillon called Reding's com-
o Eastern Europe "a dis- ments "scandalous."
- as well as something she A senior official at the presi-
ht that Europe would not dential palace said France doesn't
witness again after the want an argument with the com-
World War." mission, but "some of the com-
exchange heightened ten- ments are simply unacceptable."
between France and the He declined to be named, in line
an Union a day before a with office policy.
t of EU leaders today in After a Cabinet meeting, gov-
s and forced the European ernment spokesman Luc Chatel
ssion president to go into also objected to Reding's remarks,
e control, saying Reding saying, "It is unacceptable to com-
t meant to compare World pare the situation today with a
and today. tragic period in our history."