The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, September15, 2010 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS " LANSING, Mich. Mich. State Police to face budget cuts A plan that would cut the over- all Michigan State Police budget by about 4 percent next fiscal year is moving through the state Legis- lature. The Michigan House unani- mously passed the budget bill Tuesday. The proposal now goes to the state Senate. The police agency doesn't plan any trooper layoffs or post closings as result of the budget for the fis- cal year starting Oct. 1. A few non- trooper jobs could end through attrition. The department's overall budet would be about $529 million, about half from the state's general fund. Michigan lawmakers are trying to eliminate an overall budget defi- cit projected at about $484 million for next fiscal year. AUSTIN, TX Bodies found from flooding in Texas The death toll from flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine (hur-MEEN') has reached eight after two more bod- ies were found in Texas. One body was identified Tues- day as that of 51-year-old Jennifer Ring of Austin. The mother of two children had been missing since swift water swept her sport utility vehicle off a road on Sept. 8. Austin police say two fishermen found her body in Lake Austin on Monday. In nearby Georgetown, police on Tuesday found the debris-wrapped body of a man in a drainage field. A police statement says the cause of his death hasn't been determined but Hermine flooding was a factor. Those deaths bring to seven the number of people killed in Texas in Hermine-related flooding. One person also was killed in Oklaho- ma. CORAL GABLES, Fla. Haiti defends speed of post-earthquake rebuilding attempts Haiti's prime minister defend- ed the speed of reconstruction in his earthquake-ravaged country in a speech Tuesday, saying rub- ble in the capital is being cleared as fast as possible. Speaking at the Americas Con- ference in Florida, Prime Min- ister Jean-Max Bellerive said presidential elections will be held in November as planned, and recovery projects initiated since the Jan. 12 earthquake remain on track. "One (U.S.) official said it would take a thousand trucks one thousand days to remove the rubble from the streets of Port- au-Prince," Bellerive said. "Haiti does not have a thousand trucks and Haiti has not had one thou- sand days." The accomplishments Bellerive listed included the restoration of electricity, getting students back to class and his govern- ment's plans for roads linking cit- ies throughout the mountainous country. MEXICO CITY Mex. immigration officer resigns in light of massacre Mexico's top immigration offi- cial resigned Monday in the wake of a massacre of 72 migrants that exposed how brutally drug cartels have come to control human smug- gling routes in the country. Cecilia Romero stepped down as head *of the National Institute of Migration, a post she had held since the beginning of President Felipe Calderon's term in December 2006, the Interior Department said in a statement. The statement gave no reason for her resignation, only praising Romero's efforts to modernize the institute, improve migrant shelters, and push through several accords with other countries to help make deportations more orderly. A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, said the government was looking for someone with more experience in security to head the institute. The official said the massacre three weeks ago highlighted how intertwined drug trafficking and illegal immigration have become in Mexico. - Compiled from Daily wire reports Carter: North Koreanpeace talks possible A sketch explaining different Islamic veils seen ona desk at the Senate, in Paris. The French Senate voted Tuesday to ban the burqa-style veil, a move that affects a minority of the country's Muslim women, but with symbolic repercussions. France forbids pulc wearing ofIslamic Veil Former president hopes prisoner return will open discourse ATLANTA (AP) - Former Pres- ident Jimmy Carter said Tues- day that he hoped North Korea's release of an American prisoner to him would jump-start six-nation denuclearization talks that could lead to a permanent peace deal on the peninsula. Carter said he worked five weeks to get permission from the White House and the State Department before making the private trip in August to free Aijalon Gomes, 31, who hadbeen held since he crossed into the country from China on Jan. 25 for unknown reasons. He had been sentenced to eight years hard labor. North Korea officials told him they would only release him if Carter came to get the captive himself, the former president said in his first public remarks since his journey to the country. "We didn't have any communi- cation with North Korea, so they called and asked me to come over there to get Mr. Gomes," the Geor- gia Democrat said during a discus- sion at the Carter Center. "They said they would not let him go to anyone except me. obviously, they wanted me to come back over there." Carter would not say if he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Ii. But he said he met with leaders who told him "they were eager to have peace talks that will lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula and a permanent peace treaty with the U.S. and South Korea." Carter is well-regarded in North Korea despite the longtime ani- mosity between the two countries. He met with the late President Kim Il Sung on his last trip to Pyong- yang in 1994 in a cordial meeting that led to a landmark nuclear dis- armament deal. The North Korean leader died weeks later. "They really revere me in a way for being the last person who met with Kim II Sung before he passed away," the ex-president said. "We meet with some unsa- vory people, some outcasts from international diplomatic circles," he said. "But they're the ones who can solve problems involv- ing unwarranted war or abuse of human rights." Carter, who traveled to China a week after his visit, said he hoped Gomes' release would start peace talks. China has hosted the talks since 2002but North Korea walked awaylastyear inprotestofinterna- tional condemnation following its test of a long-range missile. "I think they would like to be accepted in the world political environment," he said. "They do some strange things because we just don't understand them." Vast majority votes to pass bill, attracts religious criticism PARIS (AP) - The French Sen- ate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa- style Islamicveil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French val- ues. The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law - though it now must pass muster with France's constitu- tional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly. Many Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France's No. 2 religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. However, the law's many proponents say it will preserve the nation's values, including its secular foundations and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces. In an attempt to head off any legal challenges over arguments it tramples on religious and other freedoms, the leaders of both par- liamentary houses said they had asked a special body to ensure it passes constitutional muster. The Constitutional Council has one month to rule. The bill is worded to trip safely through legal minefields. For instance, the words "women," "Muslim" and "veil" are not even mentioned in any of its seven articles. "This law was the object of long and complex debates," the Senate president, Gerard Larch- er, and National Assembly head Bernard Accoyer said in a joint statement announcing their move. They said they want to be certain there is "no uncertainty" about its conforming to the con- stitution. France would be the first Euro- pean country to pass such a law, though others, notably neighbor- ing Belgium, are considering laws against face-covering veils, seen as conflicting with the local cul- ture. "Our duty concerning such fundamental principles of our society is to speak with one voice," said Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, opening a less than 5-hour-long debate ahead of the vote. The measure, carried by Presi- dent Nicolas Sarkozy's conser- vative party, was passed by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on July 13. It would outlaw face-covering veils, including those worn by tourists from the Middle East, on public streets and elsewhere. The bill set fines of euro150 ($185) or citizenship classes for any woman caught covering her face, or both. It also carries stiff penalties for anyone, such as hus- bands or brothers, convicted of forcing the veil on a woman. The euro30,000 ($38,400) fine and year in prison are doubled if the victim is a minor. The bill is aimed at ensuring gender equality, women's dignity and security, as well as upholding France's secular values - and its way of life. Some women, like Kenza Drid- er, have vowed to wear a full-face veil despite a law. Drider says she prefers to flirt with arrest rather than bow to what she says is an injustice. "It is a law that is unlawful," said Drider, a mother of four from Avignon, in southern France. "It is ... against individual liberty, freedom of religion, liberty of conscience," she said. "I willicontinue to live my life as I always have with my full veil," she told Associated Press Television News. Drider was the only woman who wears a full-faced veil to be interviewed by a parliamen- tary panel that spent six months deciding whether to move ahead with legislation. Muslim leaders concur that Islam does not require a woman to hide her face. However, they have voiced concerns that a law forbidding them to do so would stigmatize the French Muslim population, which at an esti- mated 5 million is the largest in western Europe. Numerous Mus- lim women who wear the face- covering veil have said they are being increasingly harassed in the streets. Homeowners waiting for FEMA buyouts years after flooding Uruguayan survivors of a 1972 plane crash in the Chilean Andes, gesture while posing for photos with relatives of trapped miners. Trappendtiners to be guaranteed jobs More than two years after floods, federal gov't has yet to fulfill promise SEELYVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Karen Niece loves her idyllic bun- galow in the Indiana countryside, but when storms dumped nearly a foot of rain on her 19-acre proper- ty in 2008, flash floods left mold in the foundation - and gave Niece a lung infection she will have the rest of her life. After the water receded, Niece and thousands of other flood vic- tims around the Midwest stayed in their damaged homes, despite health risks, because they had pinned their hopes on a federal program that helps buy flood- damaged properties. Two and even three years later, many are still waiting for relief. "I really don't want to leave, but I don't want to get sicker," the 66-year-old homemaker said, sit- ting at her kitchen counter about 60 miles southwest of Indianapo- lis. "But I haven't heard anything. I don't know what they'll do or if they'll do anything." The Federal Emergency Man- agement Agency helps local gov- ernments purchase flood-prone properties to save on future cleanup costs. But the buyouts are not automatic, nor are they quick, which is raising questions about whether the program is worth the limbo it creates for homeowners. "The last thing you need when recovering from a disaster is won- dering whether FEMA is going to have the money to pay what they owe," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a Democrat from North Dakota, another state where the buy- out process bogged down after FEMA's disaster aid ran dry. More than $13 million was on hold in North Dakota alone, delay- ing the buyouts of more than 100 homes affected by floods last year. Communities that partici- pate in the program must agree to take the properties off the tax rolls and maintain them as green space. Homeowners must decide whether to accept the govern- ment's offer. The process can take months in the best cases. In western Indiana's Vigo County, time has virtually stood still since June 2008, when storms dumped up to 10 inches of rain on parts of the state. The floodwaters killed three people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. President Bush declared 39 Indiana coun- ties disaster areas. FEMA still has not approved any of Vigo County's seven buyout plans. "There are days when it's just really hard to think about," said Honnalora Hubbard, Niece's for- mer neighbor. "Two years later, you're still not able to put a trau- matic experience behind you." The delays in Indiana have cre- ated "a big, long line of black holes of people waiting," said Dean Bruce, a member of the town board in the southern Indiana community of Spencer, where 23 flooded properties still don't have FEMA approval. Congress passed a war fund- ing bill July 27 that included $5.1 billion to replenish FEMA's disas- ter-relief fund, but there's been little improvement. Spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said the agency has a backlog of "thousands of projects" from floods and other disasters. "Though FEMA provides fund- ing for this program, the decision to participate in the program and a large part of the application pro- cess takes place at the state and local level," Racusen said Tuesday. Homeowners in Wisconsin, where floods in 2007 and 2008 caused extensive damage, are experiencing similar delays. In Gays Mills, a village about 80 miles northwest of Madison, FEMA purchased 25 homes after the floods. But Michelle Engh, a housing specialist with a Wisconsin non- profit group called CouleeCap, said none of her clients are in new homes yet..And many hom- eowners who did receive buyouts did not get paid enough to buy new homes, with lots of their properties appraised for around $40,000. "There's this gap that exists between what people received and the cost of the new home," Engh said. After 40 days, miners could still face months underground SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - Chile's 33 trapped miners have something good to think about: their next jobs. Bulldozer driver, mechanic, electrician. And here's a couple they might find particularly useful: "risk reduction specialist" and "escape-tunnel driller." Two dozen companies with operations in Chile have made more than 1,000 job offers to the trapped miners and their 317 side- lined co-workers at a job fair this week. Even if they choose to go back to mining, the work won't necessarily be underground and it will almost certainly be with a company with a better safety record than their struggling cur- rent employer. The 33 miners have been trapped for 40 days in harrowing, sweltering conditions since an Aug. 5 collapse. No miners in his- tory have been trapped so long, and it still could be months before a hole large enough to get them out is completed. They are get- ting food, medicine, communica- tion and other essentials through narrower holes dug by rescuers, but their anxiety has become evi- dent, with more questions asked each time they hear the drilling stop. Their relatives wait anxiously for the miners, many in tents at the mine itself, but in many ways life goes on without them. One of them, Ariel Ticona, became a father for the first time Tuesday. The San Esteban mining com- pany, which owns the mine, has pursued bankruptcy protection since the collapse and has claimed it can't afford to pay the trapped miners, even though they'll have to work their way out by clearing rubble around the clock below the escape tunnels. The San Jose miners have been offered 1,188 jobs as of Tuesday, many of them posted on a gov- ernment labor ministry web site. Mining industry companies have interviewed some 200 of the min- ers who are not trapped at a hotel in the regional capital of Copiapo, and say they have no trouble wait- ing for the trapped miners to be rescued before they interview them as well. "The 33 won't be without a job," vowed Sara Morales, a dep- uty human resources director for Terra Services, a Chilean drilling company. She told The Associ- ated Press on Tuesday that she had received resumes from 80 miners and will offer 20 of them jobs. There will be no deadline for the trapped miners to take advantage of this "relocation program," said Jose Tomas Letelier, a vice-presi- dent at Canadian gold miningcom- pany Kinross. None of the trapped miners should have to venture back into marginal mines like San Jose that struggle to meet Chile's modern safety standards. Many of these job offers come from some of the world's most advanced mining companies - major international players making huge investments in Chile. The companies are prepared to have the miners work as truck or bulldozer drivers, heavy equip- ment operators, electricians, mechanics, and supervisors in var- ious jobs up on the surface.