The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, November 5, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS DETROIT State bans alcoholic energy drinks The Michigan Liquor Control Commission announced yesterday it will ban the sale of all alcoholic energy drinks in the state because of mounting concerns that the bev- erages aren't safe and create health risks. The state regulatory agency cited the hospitalization last month of nine college students in Wash- ington state after consuming caf- feinated malt liquor as one reason to take action. States across the country have been exploring simi- lar bans. The commission in September passed a resolution to examine the labels and packaging of the drinks - putting makers of Four Loko, Joose and similar drinks on notice that they could be ordered make changes or stop selling it in Michi- gan. SThe commission said drink manufacturers have 30 days to get the beverages off Michigan's store shelves, and won't return until there is more research done by the federal Food and Drug Administra- tion to determine their safety. DALLAS Texan named oldest person at age 114 A 114-year-old East Texas woman could now be the oldest person in the world. t The Los Angeles-based Geron- tology Research Group and Lon- don-based Guinness Records say Eunice G. Sanborn of Jacksonville has gained that distinction since the death yesterday of 114-year- old nun Eugenie Blanchard. Blanchard died on the French Caribbean island of St. Barts. The groups say Sanborn was born July 20, 1896, in Louisiana. Blanchard's birth date was Feb. 16, 1896. Dr. L. Stephen Coles of the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group tells The Associ- ated Press he spoke to Sanborn's family yesterday and "she's doing well" ANCHORAGE, Alaska Polar bears may move to endangered species list A federal court judge is giving the Interior Department until Dec. 23 to explain why polar bears are listed as a "threatened" species instead of the more-pro- tective "endangered." * The written order issued yes- terday by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., follows an October hearing on multiple lawsuits filed over the listing. Sullivan writes that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erro- neously concludes that a species must be in imminent danger of extinction to be declared endan- gered. The judge says that runs counter to the plain meaning of the Endangered Species Act. Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in 2008 declared polar bears were threatened because of the rapid disappear- ance of the Arctic sea ice. The state of Alaska argues that polar bears should not even be listed as threatened. UNITED NATIONS Ashton, Demi and *Ban Ki-moon fight human trafficking Demi Moore and Ashton Kutch- er lent their names to the U.N.'s efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international orga- nization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide. The couple attended the launch yesterday of a new U.N. Trust Fund for Victims of Human Traf- ficking, saying that international sex slavery and indentured ser- vitude - especially of children - must stop. "Help us spread the awareness and bring a spotlight on this atro- cious issue," Moore said, with Kutcher adding: "we are failing option-less victims." At the ceremony, U.N. Sec- retary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a new U.N. Trust Fund for Victims of Human Traf- ficking, and a new global action plan for countries and organiza- tions to coordinate efforts against organized sexual exploitation and forced labor. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, November 5, 2010 - 3A Alex Brandon/AP House speaker-in-waiting Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010 GOP plans to repeal health caretlaw, cut gov. spending Speaker-to-be Boehner lays out goals for next session of Congress WASHINGTON (AP) - Vic- torious at the polls, congressio- nal Republicans asserted their newfound political strength yes- terday, vowing to seek a quick $100 billion in federal spending cuts and force repeated votes on the repeal of President Barack Obama's prized health care over- haul. At the White Houses, Obama said his administration was ready to work across party lines in a fresh attempt to "focus on the economy and jobs" as well as attack waste in government. In a show of bipartisanship, he invit- ed top lawmakers to the White House at mid-month, and the nation's newly elected governors two weeks later. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, in line to become the new speaker of the House, brushed aside talk that the No. 1 GOP goal was to make sure Obama is defeated at the polls in 2012. "That's Senator McConnell's statement and his opinion," he told ABC, referring to the party's leader in the Sen- ate and adding that his own goals included cutting spending and creating jobs. But tentative talk of compro- mise competed with rhetoric reminiscent of the just-completed campaign. In a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said the only way to achieve key party leg- islative goals such as ending gov- ernment bailouts, cuttingspending and repealing the health care law "is to put someone in the White House who won'tveto" them. "There's just no getting around it," he added. Obama has ruled out accepting repeal of the health care measure, and Senate Democrats responded quickly to McConnell. "What Sen. McConnell is really saying is, 'Republicans want to let insurance companies go back to denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, let them go back to charging women twice as much for the same coverage as men, and let them push millions of seniors back into the Medicare doughnut hole," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The maneuvering unfolded two days after elections that swept Democrats out of power in the House and cut deeply into their Senate majority, scripting an uncertain new era of divided gov- ernment for the final two years of Obama's term. In the House, Boehner asked members of the Republican rank and file to support him for speaker when the new Congress convenes in early January. Hisvic- tory is a formality, given the huge 60-member gain he engineered as party leader. Nor did there appear to be any competition to Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia as majority leader, the second-most powerful position in the House. Among Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to disclose her plans. The most recent speak- er whose party lost its majority, Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, resigned from Congress a few months later. Even before the new Congress comes into office, the old one is scheduled to meet the week after next for a post-election session. In remarks to reporters after meeting with his Cabinet at the White House, Obama urged law- makers to avert an income tax increase that could take effect Jan 1, ratify a new arms-reduction treaty with Russia, provide unem- ployment aid to victims of the recession and extend expiring tax breaks for business. U.S. and Britain downplay French foreign minister 's comments on Yemen bomb Minister: Bomb from Yemen was diffused 17 minutes before it was set to go off PARIS (AP) - American and British officials moved quick- ly yesterday to downplay the French foreign minister's com- ment that one of two mail bombs sent from Yemen last week was disarmed just 17 minutes before it was set to go off. The issue of timing is central to the investigation because it could indicate whether terror- ists hoped to blow up the planes over U.S. airspace or whether they simply wanted to take down the planes regardless of their location. "One of the packages was defused only 17 minutes before the moment that it was set to explode," French Interior Min- ister Brice Hortefeux told state- run France-2 television. He made no other comment on the Yemen mail bomb plot in the interview and was not available afterwards.' White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the question of when the bombs found in Britain and the United Arab Emirates were to go off was still under investigation and there was no information confirming such a close call. U.S. State Department coun- terterror coordinator Daniel Benjamin also questioned the French minister's comments. "This is not our understand- ing of the situation. Our under- standing is the investigators are still looking at the fusing and the timing of a possible detona- tion so I can't confirm that right now," he told reporters in Rot- terdam. A government official in Brit- ain said the device found there was still undergoing forensic tests and it had not been deter- mined how close it was to being detonated. A security source in the United Arab Emirates said Hortefeux's remark did not describe the bomb found in that country. "If this was a reference to the device found in the Federal Express (Fedex) site in Dubai, then it is not correct," a security source in the United Arab Emir- ates who is familiar with the investigation told The Associ- ated Press. Both were not authorized to Aiscuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Hortefeux did not say where he got the information about the timing, although U.S. and Euro- pean intelligence officials have been exchanging information on the plot. The French Interior Ministry would not elaborate on Hortefeux's comment. Sweden, meanwhile, changed its travel recommendations for, Yemen, advising citizens yester- day to refrain "from all travel to Yemen until further notice." The foreign ministry cited conflicts in Yemen's north, unrest and kidnappings in the south and "repeated terror actions against foreigners and foreign interests." When investigators pulled the Chicago-bound packages off cargo planes in England and the United Arab Emirates last Friday, they found the bombs wired to cell phones and hidden in the toner cartridges of computer printers. The communication cards had been removed and the phones could not receive calls, officials said, making it likely the terrorists intended the alarm or timer func- tions to detonate the bombs. The bomb found at East Mid- lands airport in central Eng- land went unnoticed for several hours. Intelligence officials in the U.S. said Wednesday that each bomb was attached to a syringe containing lead azide, a chemical initiator that would have deto- nated PETN explosives packed into each printer cartridge. Both PETN and a syringe were used in the failed Christ- mas bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner. Investigators have focused on the Yemeni al-Qaida faction's top bomb maker, who had previously designed a bomb that failed to go off on a crowded U.S.-bound plane last Christmas. This time, authorities believe master bomb maker Ibrahim al- Asiri packed four times as much explosives into the bombs hidden last week on flights from Yemen. The two bombs contained 300 and 400 grams of the industrial explosive PETN, according to a German security official, who briefed reporters Monday on condition of anonymity in line with department guidelines. By comparison, the bomb stuffed into a terrorist suspect's underwear on the Detroit-bound plane last Christmas contained about 80 grams. One of the explosive devices found inside a shipped printer cartridge in Dubai had flown on two airlines before it was seized, first on a Qatar Airways Airbus A320 jet to Doha and then on an as-yet-undisclosed flight from Doha to Dubai. The number of passengers on the flights were unknown, but the first flight had a 144-seat capacity and the second would have moved on a variety of planes with seating ranging from 144 to 335 people. The packages were addressed to two Chicago-area synagogues. But because the addresses were out of date and the names on the packages included references to the Crusades - the 200-year wars waged by Christians large- ly against Muslims - officials do not believe the synagogues were the targets.