The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, September 20, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT Government may * look abroad for GM investors Investment bankers handling the upcoming General Motors Co. stock sale are expected to court foreign investors as well as those in North America, according to a U.S. Treasury Department state- ment. GM and the Treasury Depart- ment would not comment yester- day on reports that the automaker is in talks with its current part- ner in China, SAIC, about buying a stake in the Detroit company. SAIC is owned by the Chinese gov- ernment. " The Treasury Department, in a statement issued late Friday, said investors in GM would be sought across "multiple geographies," with a focus on North America. The U.S. Treasury loaned GM about $50 billion to help it through bankruptcy protection last year. GM has repaid $6.7 billion. The rest of the bailout money was con- verted to a 61 percent government stake in the company. The government hopes to get the remaining $43 billion back with stock sales that could start in mid-November. WASHINGTON Obama says gov. remains committed to Gulf relief efforts President Barack Obama is call- ing the successful "kill" for the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mex- ico a milestone in his administra- tion's response to the disaster that leaked hundreds of millions of gal- lons of oil. The federal government's point man on the response, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said yes- terday that tests show BP's well "is effectively dead" and poses no fur- ther threat. Obama said in a statement that his administration remains com- mitted to doing everything possible to ensure that the Gulf Coast recov- ers fully from the disaster. Obama pledged that his adminis- tration will continue to work close- ly with people who live in the Gulf region as they rebuild their liveli- hoods and restore the environment. KABUL, Afghanistan Concerns over possible fraud at Afghan polls The main Afghan election observer group said it had serious concerns about the legitimacy of this weekend's parliamentary vote because of reported fraud, even as President Hamid Karzai com- mended the balloting as a solid success. The conflicting statements underscored the difficulty of determining the credibility of the vote also hit by militant attacks that hurt the turnout. Afghan officials started gathering and tallying results yesterday in a process that could last weeks if not months. The country's international backers praised those who voted Saturday despite bomb and rock- et attacks and voiced hoped for a democratic result. A repeat of the pervasive fraud that tainted a pres- idential election a year ago would only erode further the standing of Karzai administration - both at home and abroad - as it struggles against a Taliban insurgency. CIUDAD IUAREZ, Mexico Mexico border newspaper seeks truce with cartels The largest newspaper in Ciu- dad Juarez asked the border city's warring drug cartels yesterday for a truce after the killing last week of its second journalist in less than two years. In a front-page editorial, El Dia- rio de Juarez asked the cartels what they want from the newspaper so it can continue its work without fur- ther death, injury or intimidation of its staff. "Leaders of the different orga- nizations that are fighting for con- trol of Ciudad Juarez: The loss of two reporters from this publishing house in less than two years rep- resents an irreparable breakdown for all of us who work here, and, in particular, for their families," the editorial said. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. U.S. woman freed from Iran: I'm not a spy Members of a breakaway religious sect prepare to leave after they were located yesterday by Los Angeles County Sheriff officers at Jackie Robinson Park in Littlerock, Calif. The group was found praying at the park. After members go missing, authorities hold cult leader Members of Calif. religious sect later found in park PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) - The leader of a breakaway -religious sect was hospitalized yesterday for a mental evaluation, after members of her group went miss- ing and left behind evidence that they were awaiting the rapture or some catastrophic event. Reyna Marisol Chicas was placed under a 72-hour manda- tory hold after it was determined she was not able to care for her- self or others, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Kim. Chicas gave investigators a false name and was rambling dur- ing questioning, Kim said. She told deputies she had no children, even though her two kids were with her. Ending a frantic search, depu- ties found Chicas and 12 others just before noon at Jackie Rob- inson Park near Palmdale after getting a tip from a local resident, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. He said all members are safe. Officers had been searching a wide swath of Southern Califor- nia since Saturday after family members found letters saying the group was awaiting an apoca- lyptic event and would soon see Jesus and their dead relatives in heaven. The group of El Salvadoran immigrants described as "cult- like" by sheriff's officials, was led by Chicas, a 32-year-old woman from Palmdale in northeast Los Angeles county, sheriff's Captain Mike Parker said. Members left behind cell phones, identifications, deeds to property, and letters indicating they were awaiting the Rapture. The items came from a purse that a member of the group had left with her husband Saturday and asked him to pray over. He eventually looked inside and he and another member's husband called authorities, authorities said. "These letters read like a will and testament. They read like goodbye letters," said Whitmore. "Coupled with the two husbands that come in and tell us 'Our wives are missing, we believe they are under the spell of this lady,"' dep- uties had no choice but to treat the matter seriously, he said. Whitmore said he didn't know if the members had done anything like this before. Sheriff's officials said there was no criminal investigation planned. The men told investigators they believe group members had been "brainwashed" by Chicas, and one expressed worries that they might harm themselves, Parker said. One of the children is 3, and the others range from12 to 17. When deputies arrived at the park they found the children play- ing on swings and the adults on a blanket praying out loud in Span- ish. The adults expressed shock at the notion that they might harm themselves, Parker said. A sheriff's deputy had spoken to members of the group at 3 a.m. Saturday while they were praying in their parked vehicles outside of a Palmdale high school, Parker said. When the deputy made con- tact, adults in the group told him they were praying against violence in schools and against sexual immorality, specifically premarital sex. The 13 adults and children were in three vehicles outside Pete Knight High School, Parker said. The deputy reported every- one appeared safe and he went on his way. Woman calls arrest and detention 'a huge misunderstanding' NEW YORK (AP) --An Ameri- can woman who was held in Iran for more than 13 months and accused of espionage said yes- terday she and two men detained with her never spied or commit- ted any crime, calling their arrest "a huge misunderstanding." Discussing her experience at the most length since her release Tuesday, Sarah Shourd under- scored her gratitude at being released but said she felt only "one-third free" because her fian- ce, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal remain in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. "This is not the time to cel- ebrate," Shourd, 32, said at a New York news conference. "The only thing that enabled me to cross the gulf from prison to freedom alone was the knowledge that Shane and Josh wanted with all their hearts for my suffering to end." Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. He later met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss devel- opments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East as well as efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, the U.N. spokesperson's office said. Ahmadinejad told The Associ- ated Press, "We're very glad that that lady was released. (Due) to the humanitarian perspective the Islamic Republic chose to adopt on the subject, she was released on bail. And we hope that the other two will soon be able to prove and provide evidence to the court that they had no ill intention in crossing the border, so that their release can also be secured." Tying the case to Iran's asser- tion that some of its citizens are being held unjustly in the Unit- ed States, he said, "It certainly does not give us joy when we see people in prison, wherever in the world that may be, and even when we think of prisoners here." Composed but occasionally pausing when her voice wavered with emotion, Shourd thanked Iranians and Ahmadinejad in a carefully scripted return that spoke to the continuing delicacy of her situation. She didn't take questions or discuss the condi- tions in which she'd been held, walking away from the podium at a Manhattan hotel hand-in-hand with her mother, Nora, before Fattal's and Bauer's mothers answered reporters' queries. Iran has issued espionage- related indictments against her, Bauer and Fattal; the indictments could bring trials for the two men and proceedings in absentia for Shourd. But Shourd stressed their inno- cence in a case that has added to the roster of tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The three were detained in July 2009 after Iranian officials said they intentionally crossed the country's border from Iraq. Echoing accounts their fami- lies have given in their absence, Shourd said Sunday that the three had been hiking in a popu- lar tourist area - near a waterfall in Iraq's Kurdistan region - and had no idea the border was near- by. "If we were indeed near the Iraq-Iran border, that border was entirely unmarked and indistin- guishable," she said. "Shane and Josh do not deserve to be in prison one day longer than I was," she said. "We committed no crime and we are not spies. We in no way intended any harm to the Iranian govern- ment or its people and believe a huge misunderstanding led to our detention and prolonged impris- onment." Shourd's mother has said she had health problems including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells. Shourd said Sun- day that doctors in Oman, where she went immediately after her release, had determined she was physically well. Officials in Oman - an ally of both Iran and the United States - mediated a $500,000 bail for Shourd that satisfied Iranian authorities and apparently did not violate U.S. economic sanc- tions against Iran. The source of the bail payment has not been disclosed. After 410 days in Iranian cus- tody, "I walked out of prison with my spirit bruised but unbroken," she said. Shourd left Oman on Saturday for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and took a commercial flight from there to Dulles International Airport, near Washington, the Americans' families said. Shourd and Bauer had been liv- ing together in Damascus, Syria, where Bauer was working as a freelance journalist and Shourd as an English teacher. Fattal, an environmental activist and a fel- low graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, came to visit them last July, and the three went hiking. Chinese government halts high-level talks with Japan Fishing boat captain's extended detention led to countries' dispute BEIJING (AP) - China broke off high-level government con- tacts with Japan over the extend- ed detention of a fishing boat captain arrested near disputed islands. The rare move pushed already tense relations to a new low, and showed China's will- ingness to play hardball with its Asian rival on issues of territorial integrity. The move late yesterday came a day after anti-Japanese protests were held across China on the anniversary of the start of a Japa- neseinvasion of Chinain 1931 that has historically cast a shadow over ties between the world's sec- ond- and third-largesteconomies. The latest spat between Tokyo and Beijing was sparked when the Chinese vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard ships on Sept. 7 near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries. The 14 Chinese crew were released last week, but the captain's detention for further questioning - pending a decision about whether to press charges - has inflamed ever-present anti- Japanese sentiment in China. China's Foreign Ministry said that Japan's refusal to release the boat captain had caused "severe damage" to relations. A ministry statement said Beijing had suspended ministe- rial and provincial-level contacts, halted talks on aviation issues and postponed a meeting to dis- cuss coal. "If Japan acts willfully, mak- ing mistake after mistake, China will take strong countermea- sures, and all the consequences will be borne by the Japanese ( 208 E. Washington St Ann Arbor, MI 48 104 (734) 997-7030 www.solonxlcor R Featuring Products by .td K ERAS fASE fl-H,,S Anti-Japan protesters burn a rising sun flag of former Imperial Japanese military during a demonstration in Hong Kong on Saturday. side," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement. Takeshi Matsunaga, a spokes- man for Japan's Foreign Ministry, said the reported measures were unilateral. "We ask China to respond calmly so as not to escalate the problem further," he said. The move raises questions aboutcooperation between China and Japan at international forums such as this week's summit in New York on United Nations goals to fight poverty, which Chi- nese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan are attending. It also throws into doubt whether China's President Hu Jintao will attend the annual summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders to be held in Yokohama, Japan, in November. Leaders of the two countries were also due to attend a G-20 summit in Seoul the same month. This is the lowest bilateral relations have fallen to since the 2001-2006 term of ftrmer Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose repeated visits to a war shrine in Japan during his tenure angered China. The two countries halted ministerial-level defense talks for three years from 2003. But even in those tense times, Japan's foreign minister visited China in 2004 and met Wen. China's decision to cut high- level contacts appears to reflect a worry about losing face in front of the Chinese public, which might trigger a nationalistic backlash against the government if it appears weak or unable to protect the country's sovereignty.