The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, January 24, 2011 -3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, January 24, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Midtown growth
encouraged by
employer incentive
Three of Detroit's largest
job suppliers are offering cash
incentives and loans to get their
employees to settle into the city's
Midtown area.
About 30,000 people work for
the Detroit Medical Center, Henry
Ford Health System and Wayne
State University which will invest
in the "Live Midtown" incentive
program.
Foundations will bolster or
match what the three institu-
tions put in. First-year funding is
pegged at $1.2 million.
Incentives include a $3,500,
two-year leasing allowance for
new renters; a $1,000 allowance
for lease renewals this year, and
a $20,000 forgivable loan for the
purchase of anew home.
CHARLESTON, S.C.
Prisoner updates
Facebook with
contraband phone
South Carolina prison officials
say they have seized a cell phone
from an inmate who was updating
his Facebook page from prison.
Corrections officials told The
Post and Courier of Charleston
that 22-year-old Quincy How-
ard is in disciplinary detention
and can't make collect calls or
have visitors after the contraband
mobile phone was taken from his
cell earlier this month.
Howard is serving a 30-year
sentence for manslaughter from
Marion County.
The newspaper reports Howard
spent most of his time on Facebook
last year playing the Mafia Wars
and Cafe World games. But he
occasionally gave status updates
like: "RAILROADED BY THIS
CROOKED A JUDICIAL SYS-
TEM IN SOUTH CAROLINA."
NEW YORKCITY
Two die as bitter
cold hits Northeast
An Arctic front is ushering in
some of the coldest weather the
Northeast has seen in two years.
The front will bring bitter cold
through this morning as a high-
pressure area builds over New
England. This will translate into
frigid daytime highs of about 10
to 30 degrees below average. The
coldest spots will dip to less than
30 degrees below zero.
Police in North Haven, Conn.,
say a woman apparently fell in a
driveway and froze to death Sat-
urday night, when temperatures
were close to zero. About 90 miles
northwest of Philadelphia, a man
died after spending a night in his
car.
The National Weather Service
says New York City could see a
high of 19 degrees today. That
would be the coldest it's been
there since Jan.16, 2009, whenthe
high was 16.
In Philadelphia, the city
extended an alert issued Thursday
that gives officials the power to
go out onto the streets and bring
in homeless people to shelters
because the weather conditions
pose a threat of serious harm or
death.
SANAA, Yemen
Hundreds protest
activist's arrest .
Yemeni police have arrested a
woman activist for leading anti-
government protests, setting off
a second day of street demonstra-
tions.
Police used tear gas and batons
to disperse hundreds of students,
activists and lawmakers who
demonstrated in the capital Sanaa
to demand the release of Tawakul
Abdel-Salam Karman, who was
arrested early yesterday.
Interior Minster Mouthar al-
Masri said on state television
yesterday that people have the
right to express their views but
demonstrations, gatherings and
marches should be staged within
the boundaries of the law.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U.N. chides Iraqi
refugee deporters
FILE PHOTO/AP
Rock star Bono meets an unidentified boy suffering from heart problems at a health center in Mayange,;Rwanda in
2006.
Global ADShealth
fund fraud uncovered
About 2,000 Iraqis
flee homeland
each month
BAGHDAD (AP) - The head of
the U.N. refugee agency scolded
nations yesterday for deporting
Iraqis back into danger, deliver-
ing his criticism on a day when
insurgents rattled the Baghdad
area with a series of bombings
that killed 10 people.
Antonio Guterres, the U.N.
high commissioner for refugees,
said an estimated 2,000 Iraqis
have been fleeing their homeland
every month, including a "signifi-
cant number of Christians."
But some countries have
turned back dozens of refugees -
forcing many to return to some of
Iraq's most violent regions.
"There are still some areas in
central Iraq in which we believe
people should not be sent back
against their will," Guterres told
reporters after meeting withIraqi
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
"And this is the position we have
very clearly expressed to some of
the counties that have been doing
that, against our opinion."
Guterres did not identify those
countries, but they are believed to
include Sweden, which accepted
thousands of Iraqis during the
height of the war.
Underscoring the continued
danger, a spate of bombs rocked
the capital and its suburbs Sun-
day, killing 10 people over a three-
hour span.
The bombs struck indis-
criminately, with the dead
including policemen, pilgrims,
farmers, commuters and even
young schoolchildren.
Police and hospital officials
said at least 34 more people were
injured.
Yesterday's assaults were the
latest in a series of bombings that
have killed more than 120 people
since Tuesday, shattering a two-
month period of relative calm.
The deadliest attacks includ-
ed a suicide bombing Tuesday
against police recruits in Tikrit
that killed at least 50 people and a
string of blasts near Karbala that
claimed 65 lives, many of them
Shiite religious pilgrims.
Yesterday, the Islamic State
of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group,
claimed responsibility for the
Tikrit attack as well as two bomb-
ings last week at security force
headquarters in Baqouba that
together killed 10 people.
Although the bombings have
killed mostly Muslims, the con-
tinuing violence has focused
attention on Iraq's dwindling
Christian community since an
Oct.31 assault by suicide bombers
against a Roman Catholic church.
AIDS fund
financed by Bono,
other celebrities
GENEVA (AP) - A $21.7 bil-
lion development fund backed
by celebrities and hailed as an
alternativetothe bureaucracyof
the United Nations sees as much
as two-thirds of some grants
eaten up by corruption, The
Associated Press has learned.
Much ofthe moneyis account-
ed for with forged documents or
improper bookkeeping, indicat-
ing it was pocketed, investiga-
tors for the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
say. Donated prescription drugs
wind up being sold on the black
market.
The fund's newly reinforced
inspector general's office, which
uncovered the corruption, can't
give an overall accounting
because it has examined only a
tiny fraction of the $10 billion
that the fund has spent since its:
creation in 2002. But the levels
of corruption in the grants they
have audited so far are astonish-
ing.
A full 67 percent of money
spent on an anti-AIDS program
in Mauritania was misspent,
the investigators told the fund's
board of directors. So did 36
percent of the money spent on a
program in Mali to fight tuber-
culosis and malaria, and 30 per-
cent of grants to Djibouti.
In Zambia, where $3.5 mil-
lion in spending was undocu-
mented and one accountant
pilfered $104,130, the fund
decided the nation's health min-
istry simply couldn't manage
the grants and put the United
Nations in charge of them. The
fund is trying to recover $7 mil-
lion in "unsupported and ineli-
gible costs" from the ministry.
The fund is pulling or sus-
pending grants from nations
where corruption is found, and
demanding recipients return
millions of dollars of misspent
money.
"The messenger is being shot
to some extent," fund spokes-
man Jon Liden said. "We would
contend that we do not have any
corruption problems that are
significantly different in scale or
nature to any other internation-
al financing institution."
To date, the United States,
the European Union and other
major donors have pledged $217
billion to the fund, the domi-
nant financier of efforts to fight
the three diseases. The fund
has been a darling of the power
set that will hold the World
Economic Forum in the-Swiss
mountain village of Davos this
week.
It was on the sidelines of
Davos that rock star Bono
launched a new global brand,
(Product) Red, which donates
a large share of profits to the
Global Fund. Other prominent
backers include former U.N.
secretary-general Kofi Annan,
French first lady Carla Bruni-
Sarkozy and Microsoft found-
er Bill Gates, whose Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation gives
$150 million a year.
The fund's inspector gen-
eral, John Parsons, said donors
should be reassured that the
fund is serious about uncovering
corruption: "It should be viewed
as a comparative advantage to
anyone who's thinking about
putting funds in here."
But some donors are out-
raged at what the investigators
are turning up. Sweden, the
fund's 11th-biggest contributor,
has suspended its $85 million
annual donation until the fund's
problems are fixed. It held talks
with fund officials in Stockholm
last week.
Swedish Foreign Ministry
spokesman Peter Larsson said
in a statement that his country
is concerned about "extensive
examples of irregularities and
corruption that the fund has
uncovered" in nations like Mali
and Mauritania.
"For Sweden, the issues of
greatest importance are risk
management, combating cor-
ruption and ultimately ensuring
that the funds managed by the
Global Fund really do contrib-
ute to improved health," he said.
The investigative arm of the
U.S. Congress also has issued
reports criticizing the fund's
ability to police itself and its
overreliance on grant recipi-
ents to assess their own perfor-
mance.
Fund officials blame the mis-
spending on the lack of finan-
cial controls among the grants'
recipients, many of which are
African health ministries whose
budgets are heavily supported
by the fund. Others are nations
or international organizations
without the resources to deal
with pervasive corruption.
Resorts attacked
across Zimbabwe
President Mugabe's
militants target
more than 20 clubs
As Zimbabwe tried to spruce
up its tourism image, militants of
President Robert Mugabe's party-
launched raids at boating clubs
and tourism lodges on the shores
of the capital's main fishing and
leisure area, tour operators said
yesterday.
A safari lodge about 18 miles
(30 kilometers) west of Harare
reopened after being sealed off
by more than 200 militants since
Friday, said owner Gary Stafford.
The seven-chalet Kuimba Shiri
lodge is a popular getaway for
locals, foreign visitors, diplomats
and U.N. staff.
Militants told witnesses more
than 20 clubs and holiday facili-
ties were being targeted on the
shores and hinterland of Lake
Chivero, a dam five miles (8 kilo-
meters) in length - bordered by a
wildlife preserve - that serves as
Harare's main water supply res-
ervoir.
Incidents began Friday, coin-
ciding with the launch of a new
campaign by Tourism and Hos-
pitality Minister Walter Mzembi
who branded Zimbabwe as "the
_woar.f wonders," during a con-
vention in Spain.
After collapsing during a
decade of political and econom-
ic turmoil, tourist visits have
crept upward since 2009 when
a coalition government between
Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, the former
opposition leader, abandoned the
hyperinflationary local currency
and adopted the U.S. dollar as
legal tender.
Tourists had been kept away
from the famed Victoria Falls in
northwestern Zimbabwe and the
country's animalreservesbecause
of recurring political violence
and acute shortages of gasoline
and the most basic goods during
the nation's economic meltdown.
As teenagers abuse bath salts,
lawmakers look to ban sales
Unregulated
chemicals facing
federal scrutiny
When Neil Brown got high
on dangerous chemicals sold
as bath salts, he took his skin-
ning knife and slit his face and
stomach repeatedly. Brown sur-
vived, but authorities say oth-
ers haven't been so lucky after
snorting, injecting or smoking
powders with such innocuous-
sounding names as Ivory Wave,
Red Dove and Vanilla Sky.
Some say the effects of the
powders are as powerful as
abusing methamphetamine.
Increasingly, law enforcement
agents and poison control cen-
ters say the advertised bath salts
with complex chemical names
are an emerging menace in sev-
eral U.S. states where authori-
ties talk of banning their sale.
From the Deep South to
California, emergency calls are
being reported over-exposure
to the stimulants the powders
often contain: mephedrone and
methylenedioxypyrovalerone,
also known as MDPV.
Sold under such names as
Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Light-
ning and Hurricane Charlie,
the chemicals can cause hallu-
cinations, paranoia, rapid heart
rates and suicidal thoughts,
authorities say. The chemicals
are in products sold legally at
convenience stores and on the
Internet as bath salts and even
plant foods. However, they
aren't necessarily being used for
the purposes on the label.
Mississippi lawmakers last-
week began considering a pro-
posal to ban the sale of the
powders, and a similar step is
being sought in Kentucky. In
Louisiana, the bath salts were
outlawed by an emergency
order after the state's poison
center received more than 125
calls in the last three months of
2010 involving exposure to the
chemicals.
In Brown's case, he said he
had tried every drug from her-
oin to crack and was so shaken
by terrifying hallucinations that
he wrote one Mississippi paper
urging people to stay away from
the advertised bath salts.
"I couldn't tell you why I
did it," Brown said, pointing to
his scars. "The psychological
effects are still there."
While Brown survived, sher-
iff's authorities in one Missis-
sippi county say they believe one
woman overdosed on the pow-
ders there. In southern Louisi-
ana, the family of a 21-year-old
man says he cut his throat and
ended his life with a gunshot.
Authorities are investigating
whether a man charged with
capital murder in the December
death of a Tippah County, Miss.,
sheriff's deputy was under the
influence of the bath salts.
The stimulants aren't regu-
lated by the U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Administration, but are
facing federal scrutiny. Law offi-
cers say some of the substances
are being shipped from Europe,
but origins are still unclear.
Gary Boggs, an execu-
tive assistant at the DEA, said
there's a lengthy process to
restrict these types of designer
chemicals, including reviewing
the abuse data. But it's a process
that can take years.
Dr. Mark Ryan, director of
Louisiana's poison control cen-
ter, said he thinks state bans on
the chemicals can be effective.
He said calls about the chemi-
cals have dropped sharply since
Louisiana banned their sale in
January.
Ryan said cathinone, the
parent substance of the drugs,
comes from a plant grown in
Africa and is regulated. He said
MDPV and mephedrone are
made in a lab, and they aren't
regulated because they're not
marketed for human consump-
tion. The stimulants affect neu-
rotransmitters in the brain, he
said.
"It causes intense cravings
for it. They'll binge on it three
or four days before they show
up in an ER. Even though it's a
horrible trip, they want to do it
again and again," Ryan said.
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