The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT Shooting at Detroit school places two students in hospital An argument that started at a Detroit high school on the first day of class led to two students being shot nearby and a hunt for other students who might have been involved, police said yesterday. The shootings happened about 3:30 p.m. about a block from Mum- ford High School, just after class- es ended for the day, police said. Detroit police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said a 16-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks and a 14-year-old girl was grazed in the eyebrow. Police didn't release the names of the students, who were taken to a nearby hospital. Stephens said the shootings stemmed from an argument between the boy and another stu- dent police believe was the shooter. Another student also may have been involved, she said. Police are questioning a person of interest but no arrests have been made, she said. The district's state-appointed leader, Robert Bobb, told reporters at the scene that the good news is the injuries didn't appear to be seri- ous. "The bad news is the shooting happened at all," Bobb said. A string of shootings and the perception of crime has caused some parents to flee the roughly 78,000-student district for charter, suburban or private schools. CHICAGO Lawsuit underway regarding Ill carp The reliability of genetic test- ing to detect the presence of Asian carp is the focus of the first full day of expert testimony in a five-state lawsuit. Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Pennsylvania want a federal judge to close Illinois ship- ping locks to prevent the invasive fish from overrunning the Great Lakes. The first witness called by the states yesterday was a biologist who found traces of Asian carp DNA in Chicago-area waterways near Lake Michigan. David Lodge says the DNA most likely came from live carp. Others have suggested the carp DNA could have been transported in the ballast water of barges and so the positive test don't neces- sarily mean the fish is present. ELIZABETHTOWN, KY Corn kernels pop in field due to weather A Hardin County farmer said that some ears among his feed corn rows popped on the stalk in a phe- nomenon that agricultural experts believe is associated with irregular rainfall and high heat. Star Mills farmer Patrick Pres- ton sent a photo of the burst kernels that look like partially popped pop- corn to the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. Hardin County Extension agent Doug Shepherd told The News Enterprise he's never seen popped kernels before. Shepherd said the outer coat of a kernel can explode from heat after the ears are pollinated. Tem- peratures in corn fields can be 10 degrees higher than in the sur- rounding area as the plants are pro- ducing energy. NAIROBI, Kenya Somali pirates tried in Kenyan courts A Kenyan court has convicted and sentenced seven Somalis of piracy to five years in jail, a defense lawyer said yesterday. A court in the Kenyan port town of Mombasa found the Somalis guilty of attacking a Ger- man naval supply ship in the Gulf of Aden on March 29 last year, said Jared Magolo, their lawyer. He said his clients plan to appeal the verdict made Monday. "Even though we believe that the verdict was not very heavy, but the conviction was not prop- er," said Magolo. The European Union anti-pira- cy task force said it welcomes the court's decision. The "judgment marks an important step in the coopera- tion between EU and Kenya in the repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia," said. -Compiled from Daily wire reports War-torn Congo endures brutal sexual violence REZA SHIRMOHAMMADI/AP The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for 2,00 more soldiers in Kabul to help meet the 2011 deadline. Afghan govt. to regain security control in'1 NATO troops to begin transfer of responsibility WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S.- led NATO troops in Afghanistan should be able to start handing off responsibility for security to the Kabul government sometime next year, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday. While stopping short of set- ting a firm deadline, Rasmussen's public declaration puts the secu- rity alliance in line with President Barack Obama's promise to begin pulling U.S. troops out in July 2011. But Rasmussen's latest pre- diction also reflects a growing realization by NATO that secu- rity conditions won't dramatically improve this year, as many hoped. At a NATO meeting in April, the secretary-general had said that handing over responsibility to the Afghans was a primary goal for this year. Some NATO members have already pulled out of the mission or plan to do so soon because of a lack of public support. NATO members were to meet in Lisbon, Portugal, in November to devise a plan for handing off control to the Afghans, including a timeline for various provinces and benchmarks to measure prog- ress. Rasmussen said he believes security conditions have improved enough so a transition is possible. However, he said the precise timing of a drawdown will depend upon conditions on the ground. "We will not leave until we finish our job," he told reporters before a meeting with Obama at the White House. "But it is very helpful to have this roadmap." War commanders have been more reluctant to put a date on when Afghan troops might take control. Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, the head of NATO's training mission in Afghanistan, has said the alli- ance needs at least another year to recruit and train enough soldiers and police officers. Rasmussen said setting next year as a goal for beginning to wind down troop levels does not conflict with a request by Gen. David Petraeus, NATO's top com- mander in Afghanistan, for 2,000 more troops. Rasmussen said most of the 2,000 troops would be assigned to train Afghan security forces, in preparation for NATO's eventual withdrawal. "Trainers are the ticket to tran- sition," he said. The Pentagon said Tuesday that the request for 2,000 more troops is a long-standing require- ment for more trainers that will not be filled by U.S. forces. "NATO will have to determine how to fill that requirement," said Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman. NATO has been eager to show progress in the war. The alli- ance's top commander in south- ern Afghanistan, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, said this week that coalition troops will clear the area around the key city of Kandahar by December. In the meeting with Obama, the president thanked Rasmussen for NATO's efforts to promote peace and stability around the world, particularly in Afghanistan, the White House said. Obama and Rasmussen also discussed goals for the Nov. 19-20 NATO Summit in Lisbon. UN says rape has become regular weapon of war UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations reported yester- day that more than 500 systematic rapes were committed by armed combatants in eastern Congo since late July - more than double the number previously reported - and accepted partial responsibility for not protecting citizens. U.N. Assistant Secretary-Gen- eral for Peacekeeping Atul Khare told the U.N. Security Council that 260 more rapes occurred in anoth- er region of the country, in addi- tion to 242 rapes earlier reported in and around Luvungi, a village of about 2,200 people located a half- hour drive from a U.N. peacekeep- ers' camp. "While the primary responsi- bility for protection of civilians lies with the state, its national army and police force," said Khare, "clearly, we have also failed. Our actions were not adequate, result- ing in acceptable brutalization of the population of the villages in the area. We must do better." The area peacekeeping force, called MONUSCO, on Sept. 1 launched an operation using 750 troops to back efforts by Congo- lese security forces to arrest the perpetrators of the attacks, said Khare. At least 27 rebels armed with automatic rifles have surren- dered and at least four more have been arrested, he said. Meanwhile, Khare said, peace- keepers will undertake more night patrols, and perform more random checks on communities. The U.N. is also looking into ways of pro- viding peacekeepers with mobile phones by installing a high fre- quency radio in Luvungi, he said. Rape as a weapon of war has become shockingly commonplace in eastern Congo, where the gov- ernment army and U.N. peace- keepers have failed to defeat the few thousands rebels responsible for a protracted conflict fueled by vast mineral reserves. The United Nations says at least 8,300 rapes were reported last year and it is believed that many more rapes go unreported. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon in recent days sent Khare to Congo to investigate why U.N. peacekeepers didn't learn about at least 242 mass rapes in the Luvun- gi area from July 30 to Aug. 4 until Aug. 12, when it was informed by the International Medical Corps which was treating many of the victims. The additional sexual attacks, in an area called Uvira and other regions of North and South Kivu, came to light during Khare's trip. He told council members he learned of 74 cases of sexual vio- lence, including against 21 minors - all girls between the ages of 7 and 15 - and six men, in a village called Miki, in South Kivu. All the women in another village, Kiluma, may have been systematically raped, he said. Khare said in a community called Katalukulu, 10 women were raped by Congolese soldiers, which he said must "maintain a much higher standard of disci- pline, good behavior and conduct, and observance of human rights." The undersecretary-general called for prosecution of Rwandan rebel FDLR and Congolese Mai- Mai rebels blamed for many of the attacks and U.N. sanctions against their leaders. U.N. envoy Margot Wallstrom, expressed her alarm over the increase in reported rapes, saying they show "a broader pattern of widespread and systematic rape and pillage." A senior member of Wallstrom's staff accompanied Khare on his recenttrip. "It is evidentthatrape is increas- ingly selected as the "weapon of choice in Eastern DRC, with num- bers reaching endemic propor- tions," shetoldthesecuritycouncil. "The sad reality is that incidents of rape have become so commonplace that they do not trigger our most urgent interventions." Wallstrom last month warned leaders of rebel groups that they could be prosecuted by the Inter- national Criminal Court because widespread and systemic sexual violence can constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. Congo's permanent represen- tative to the U.N., Ileka Atoki, expressed his "deep disgust" with the mass rapes and thanked the security council for investigating the attacks. "These heinous acts, that have become a weapon of war, are one more episode of the unspeakable suffering that the people of Congo have been plunged for more than a decade now," Atoki told council members. Atoki told the council that his country would continue to need international help to combat the attacks, characterizing national police sources as "pathetic." But international backing for efforts to end the protracted conflictin east- ern Congo are just as important, he said. Tape of alleged attempted NY temple bomber shown Alleged mastermind planned to attack synagogues, planes NEW YORK (AP) - A video- tape shows the alleged master- mind of a plot to attack New York synagogues and shoot down military planes prac- ticing with a shoulder mis- sile launcher and praying two weeks before the planned attack. The tape played for a jury yesterday at the federal trial of James Cromitie and three other men capture a paid FBI informant giving him a crash course in a bugged warehouse in Connecticut - part of an elaborate sting in 2009. "This is the handle, OK?" the informant, Shahed Hus- sain, tells Cromitie as he holds the weapon on his shoulder. He instructs Cronfitie, "Once we shoot it, then we destroy the thing" by throw- ing it in the Hudson River. Cromitie responds that learning to shoot seemed "easy." However, he adds, "I wish you had a blank, so we could take a shot." He can be heard chuck- ling. at times and seen rub- bing his hands together. At end of the tape, Cromitie, two of his alleged cohorts and the informant bow their heads in prayer. Cromitie, 43, Onta Wil- liams, 34, David Williams, 29, and Laguerre Payen, 28, have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to use weap- ons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles to kill U.S. officers and employees. Prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan allege that with Hussain's encouragement, Cromitie hatched the scheme to blow up the synagogues in the Bronx with remote-con- trolled bombs. They say the men also also wanted to shoot down planes at the Air Nation- al Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., about 50 miles north of New York City. Agents arrested the men in 2009 after they planted the devices - fakes supplied by the FBI - in the Bronx while under heavy surveillance. Hussain met Cromitie in 2008 after being sent by the FBI to infiltrate a Newburgh mosque. After that, the 53-year-old Paki- stani immigrant helped make hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes that are the center- piece of the case.