The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Vote delayed on
health benefits for
same-sex couples
The Michigan Civil Service
Commission is postponing action
on a proposal that could allow
same-sex partners or other adults
living with state employees to be
covered by state-paid health insur-
ance.
The proposal was tabled yester-
day because commission members
had questions about it. The propos-
al could be revisited early next year.
The proposal could cover boy-
friends, girlfriends or other adults
who have lived with a state employ-
ee for at least 12 months. Children
of the adults who aren't state work-
ers also would be covered by the
insurance.
The state had agreed in 2004
to begin covering same-sex ben-
efits but implementation has been
delayed because of legal issues.
The extension could cost about
$6 million in 2011. Opponents
worry a state government already
facing a projected deficit can't
afford it.
"When it comes to creating jobs,
government hasn't gotten the job
done," he said.
NEW YORK
NYC mayor: White
House, state leaders
fail to create jobs
New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg lashed out at the White
House, Congress and state leaders
yesterday for what he called failed
attempts to create jobs, accusing
both parties of being too distract-
ed by partisan politics to address
unemployment.
The billionaire mayor, who has
been mentioned as a long-shot pres-
idential candidate but has repeat-
edly said he doesn't plan to run in
2012, delivered a campaign-style
speech in Brooklyn. He spent half
his time reiterating familiar com-
plaints about partisan gridlock and
the other half outliningvague ideas
to get more Americans working.
Bloomberg, who has been a
member of both parties and is now
unregistered, also carefully bur-
nished his bipartisan credentials
- equally praising and criticizing
the beliefs and approaches of Dem-
ocrats and Republicans.
He blamed both parties for
unfairly vilifying the concept of
success and for too quickly dis-
missing the idea of cooperating
within government and across
party lines.
PARIS
14 former Chilean
officials charged
with kidnapping
A French court put 14 former
Chilean officials on trial in absen-
tia yesterday over the disappear-
ance of French citizens under the
regime of Chilean dictator Augus-
to Pinochet.
The 14, mostly former high-
ranking military officials, face
charges including kidnapping and
torture and are the subject of inter-
national arrest warrants. They face
up to life in prison, if convicted.
While the defendants did not
appear in court yesterday, fami-
lies of the victims hope the trial
offers some justice more than 30
years after the four Frenchmen
disappeared - and four years after
Pinochet himself died following
failed efforts in Chile and abroad
to prosecute him for human rights
abuses.
The 14 are being tried in connec-
tion with the disappearances of the
four men between 1973 and 1975.
BAGHDAD
Bombs and gunfire
kill 5, wound 24
Scattered bombings and gunfire
killed five people and wounded 24
yesterday in attacks around the
Iraqi capital, including one on a
bus of Iranian pilgrims headed to a
Shiite religious ceremony.
The violence came as a Defense
Ministry spokesman announced
the arrest in the killing last month
of a journalist as proof that Iraqi
security forces are making head-
way in curbing insurgents.
In the deadliest attack, a car
bomb outside a restaurant killed
three people in the town of Taji,
some 12 miles (20 kilometers) north
of Baghdad. The explosives-packed
car also wounded 16 people, police
and hospital officials said.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports.
In the face of debt
crisis, Irish premier
seeks re-election
An area of the San Miguel prison is burned after a fire killed at least 81 prisoners in Santiago, Chile yesterday. A fire that started
during a prison riot killed at least 81 inmates at the Chilean prison and seriously injured at least 14 others, officials said.
Chile prison fire kills
at least 81 injures 14
Irish leader's
remarks come day
after $8-billion
proposed budget cut
DUBLIN (AP) - A defi-
ant Irish Prime Minister Brian
Cowen vowed yesterday to
push through Europe's tough-
est slash-and-tax budget in the
face of voter fury, then defy the
odds to win re-election despite a
debt disaster that has shaken the
entire eurozone.
Cowen mounted a vigorous
defense of his embattled lead-
ership a day after lawmakers
narrowly backed a 2011 budget
containing 66 billion ($8 billion)
in cuts and tax hikes that will take
an estimated 63,000 ($4,000) per
year out of average Irish house-
holds.
The unprecedented scale of the
budget-tightening was a key con-
dition for Ireland's recent agree-
mentofa 67. Sbillion ($90billion)
EU-IMF rescue fund to help Ire-
land cover its European-leading
deficit and revive its debt-struck
banks. The Irish were forced to
take aid after its two-year strug-
gle to prevent the collapse of Dub-
lin banks proved impossible to
finance on their own.
Cowen - whose public approv-
al ratings have recently fallen to
a record-low 8 percent - insist-
ed he wouldn't resign, as many
lawmakers have expected, and
instead would lead his party into
an early springelection. All recent
polls suggest Cowen's long-ruling
Fianna Fail party faces decima-
tion in any national test.
Tuesday night's initial pas-
sage of the Irish budget package
offered temporary relief for the
16-nation eurozone, where Por-
tugal, Spain and Italy have faced
mounting questions about their
own capacity to keep financing
their own debt mountains. Euro-
pean and IMF chiefs sought a
bailout for Dublin, in part, to stem
investor fears of a debt-default
domino effect.
Yesterday's yields on 10-year
bonds were little changed for the
eurozone members rated most at
risk of an eventual default, par-
ticularly Greece, which in May
became the first eurozone mem-
ber to be saved from bankruptcy.
The most significant mover
was Germany, whose benchmark
bonds suffered a moderate selloff,
driving their 10-year yields above
3 percent for the first time since
May's Greek crisis. Traders said
the selling reflected investors'
increased appetite for higher-risk
bonds versus the Germans' top-
rated and consequently low-yield-
ing debt securities.
The euro common currency
also held its ground, rebounding
from a day low of $1.3189 to rest at
$1.3250 in late trade.
In Geneva, the International
Monetary Fund's managing direc-
tor Dominique Strauss-Kahn said
the euro would not break up but
that its rules and governance need
improvement.
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vestigators says the victims with many of the bod-
ies unrecognizable. Officials said
e may have been most will have to be identified by
DNA.
intentional Health Minister Jaime Mana-
lich called it an "enormous calam-
ITIAGO, Chile (AP) - A fire ity" and the worst in the history
I during an inmate brawl of Chile's prison system. A fire in
through an overcrowded a northern prison killed 26 people
yesterday, killing at least 81 in 2001.
and seriously injuring 14 in Firefighters said they were
an official called the worst alerted to the fire by a call from a
r in the history of Chile's cell phone inside the prison, a col-
ntiary system. lection of cement towers that rises
risoner using an illegal cell above a middle class neighborhood
called state television plead- in the capital.
r help and the screams of A fire department commu-
's briefly aired across Chile. nique said the first firefighters
fire in Santiago's San arrived on the scene nine min-
1 prison began during utes after the initial alarm at
g between inmates early 5:48 a.m., and found a violent fire
rsday morning and reached spread over a large part of the
aximum intensity in just fourth floor of Tower 5. They cut
minutes, Interior Minister through several locks, allowing
o Hinzpeter said. Investi- them to save 60 inmates, it said.
klejandro Pena said prelimi- Hundreds of anxious and
eports indicated the fire was angry relatives of inmates gath-
entionally, but he didn't say ered in a chaotic scene outside
am. the prison gates. Some waited six
ce operations director hours before officials read out the
Concha insisted police acted names of survivors - which peo-
y despite coping with 1,900 ple mistook for those of the dead.
s at the prison built for 700. There had been warnings of
e was brought under control problems at the prison.
e hours, officials said. In October, Judge Ana Maria
e conditions that existed Arratia Valdebenito said that
this prison are absolutely Tower 5, where the fire began,
ane," said Chilean President held 484 prisoners - more than
ian Pinera, who visited an 100 per floor.
ency center where inmates After visiting survivors of
eing treated for severe burns the prison blaze, the director of
oke inhalation. Chile's National Human Rights
iago region Gov. Fernando Institute, Lorena Fries, said
rria said the official death the overcrowding in the South
as 81. By Wednesday eve- American country's prison is a
'fficials had identified 31 of problem that has been noted by
the United Nations.
Chile has "55,722 people in its
prisons, which have a capacity to
hold 31,576 inmates," she said.
Pedro Hernandez, who
directs Chile's prison guards
union, said there were only five
guards to watch over the prison-
ers. Pinera, however, said there
were six guards in the prison
towers where the inmates are
held, and 26 others stationed at
the perimeter.
Many inmates died on the
third floor of Tower 5. Firefight-
ers had to work with police to
avoid more problems with pris-
oners all around them.
Some relatives of inmates told
state TV that prison police ini-
tially closed the gates to firefight-
ers, impeding efforts by 10 units
to control the blaze.
"They wouldn't let the fire-
fighters come in. The riot police
came in first and began to beat
us, and later the firefighters came
in," an unidentified prisoner said
in a call that was played on state
TV. He didn't give his name, say-
ing he feared retribution.
He said the guards "laughed
and took photos with the cell
phones of the inmates who were
vomiting (from smoke) ... and
didn't do anything." Officials
evacuated prisoners from lower
floors instead of those inmates
who were dying, the prisoner
said.
But Fire Department Cmdr.
Jose Sanchez said it took 10
minutes for firefighters to enter
the prison, blaming any delay on
"the intense heat" they encoun-
tered, not on the guards.
Serbia refuses to
honor recipient of
Nobel Peace Prize
Obama's plan for peace
in Israel faces setback
Nomination
criticized as radical
political move
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Ser-
bia's decision to boycott the Nobel
Peace Prize ceremony honoring
imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu
Xiaobo triggered criticism yester-
day from human rights activists
and the European Union - which
expressed shock that the can-
didate for EU entry would meet
China's demands.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk
Jeremic said Serbia "pays extreme
attention to the violations of
human rights," but that its bilat-
eral relations with China have
priority.
China has vilified the 54-year-
old democracy advocate Liu,
called the Nobel prize choice an
effort by the West to contain its
rise, disparaged his supporters
as "clowns," and launched a cam-
paign to persuade countries not to
attend Friday's ceremony in Oslo.
Eighteen countries, including
Serbia, Russia and Pakistan, have
turned down the Nobel commit-
tee's invitation to send represen-
tatives to the ceremony.
Serbia fears its attendance
could anger China, which has
supported Belgrade in opposing
the 2008 independence decla-
ration of its former province of
Kosovo. Some 70 nations, includ-
ing the U.S. and most EU states,
have recognized Kosovo's state-
hood, but Russia and China have
stood firm in supporting Serbia in
its claim over the territory.
Jelko Kacin, in charge of the
European Parliament's evaluation
reports on Serbia's bid to join the
EU, said he was "shocked" by Bel-
grade's decision not to attend the
ceremony.
"There is no candidate country,
or potential candidate country,
that in this way manifests its obe-
dience" to China, Kacin said.
The EU said on yesterday it will
seek talks with the Serbian gov-
ernment to persuade it to change
its mind.
U.S. had been trying
to convince Israel to
freeze settlements
JERUSALEM (AP) - The U.S.
decision to abandon its efforts to
coax a settlement freeze out of
Israel marks the biggest failure
yet in the Obama administration's
much-trumpeted Mideast peace
push, casting serious doubts over
whether the president can broker
a deal by his September target.
Israelis and Palestinians said
yesterday that a scramble was
on for a magic formula out of the
impasse. But neither side showed
any flexibility, and the Palestin-
ians voiced new signals about
trying to establish a state without
Israel's agreement.
The U.S. announced late Tues-
day that after weeks of efforts, it
had given up its attempts to per-
suade Israel into renewing a lim-
ited freeze on Jewish settlement
construction in the West Bank
and east Jerusalem - an issue that
has emerged as the key sticking
point in Mideast peace talks.
Some 500,000 Israeli settlers
now live in these areas, which
were captured in the 1967 Mideast
War and are claimed by the Pales-
tinians.
With a freeze needed to draw
the Palestinians back to the
negotiating table, Tuesday's U.S.
announcement was in effect an
admission of failure.
"There is no doubt that there is
a crisis, a difficult crisis," Pales-
tinian President Mahmoud Abbas
told a news conference in Greece.
A top aide to the Palestinian
president, Yasser Abed Rabbo,
went so far as to question Wash-
ington's ability to broker a deal,
asking how the Americans could
possibly "make Israel accept a
fair solution" when they couldn't
even make it limit its settlement
activities. "This is thebig question
now," he said.
The current round of nego-
tiations collapsed in late Septem-
ber, just weeks after they were
launched, when a previous Israe-
li settlement slowdown expired.
The Americans had hoped a
new, 90-day freeze would allow
the sides to work out a deal on
their future borders. Such an
arrangement could make the
settlement issue irrelevant, since
Israel could resume construction
in territories it expects to keep
while halting building in areas
given to the Palestinians.
The latest setback drew state-
ments of concern from Europe.
Abbas' rival, the Hamas militant
group, which controls the Gaza
Strip, called on the Palestinian
leader to stop the "futile" nego-
tiations.
But international Mideast
envoy Tony Blair said the U.S.
move was a "sensible decision
in light of the impasse that we
reached," adding that all sides
remain determined to negotiate
a peace deal.
Ron Dermer, a top aide to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, said Wednesday that
the American efforts had failed
because of fears of what would
happen after another freeze
ends.
"The Americans probably real-
ized that the proposal of 90 days
to get a border agreement - a
Palestinian expectation - could
lead to a dead end and failure of
the talks," he told Army Radio.
Netanyahu, who heads a coali-
tion dominated by hard-line and
religious parties sympathetic to
Jewish settlers, appears unlikely
to bend.
"The whole idea of the settle-
ment freeze for negotiations was a
mistake," said Israeli analystYossi
Alpher.
-