The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 3, 2011- 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
MARQUETTE, Mich.
Northern Michigan
University closes
after online threat
Authorities have closed North-
ern Michigan University and the
city of Marquette's public schools
because of a threat to the univer-
sity.
University spokeswoman Kris-
ti Evans said yesterday an online
W threat was made to harm stu-
dents, faculty, staff and adminis-
trators at the school in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula. Evans had no
further details about the nature of
the threat, which was discovered
shortlybefore 8 a.m.
Evans said an emergency
notice was transmitted on the
laptop computers provided to all
9,400 students. Textmessages
were also sent on cell phones. It
is uncertain if the closure will last
beyond yesterday.
Interim Marquette schools
superintendent Deborah Veiht
said the district's schools were
closed as a precaution.
PLACERVILLE, Calif.
Janitor arrested
in school shooting
A janitor was arrested yester-
day after an administrator was
shot in the office of a Northern
California elementary school,
authorities said.
John Leubbers was suspected
of shooting the administrator at
Louisiana Schnell School in Pla-
cerville, about 50 miles east of
Sacramento, police said.
Leubbers was arrested at his
home about an hour after authori-
ties launched a manhunt, Placer-
ville police Capt. Mike Scott told
KCRA.
No children were injured, and
the school was locked down, El
Dorado County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim
Byers said.
The motive for the shooting
was not clear, he said.
The unidentified administrator
was transported to Marshall Med-
ical Center. El Dorado County Fire
Battalion Chief Larry Marinas told
The Associated Press the victim
was in "very serious condition."
CLEVELAND, Ohio
Coast Guard saves
snowmobiler stuck
on Lake Erie ice
The U.S. Coast Guard says it
has rescued a snowmobiler who
floated into Lake Erie from Cana-
da after falling into the water and
climbing onto a loose piece of ice
about the size of a football field.
Jim Turton of Colchester,
Ontario, floated for about nine
hours before being rescued at
about 8:30 a.m. yesterday - his
45th birthday - by the crew of
an ice-breaking tug temporarily
assigned to the Great Lakes from
New London, Conn.
Officials say Turton was one
of four snowmobilers who fell
through ice near Colchester
around 11:25 p.m. Tuesday. The
others climbed onto ice connected
to shore.
Following the rescue, Turton
was transferred to a Canadian
coast guard ship.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
Haitians await
election results
Banks and stores closed early
and people rushed to get home in
the capital yesterday as Haitians
feared unrest with the expected
announcement of final results
from the disputed presidential
election.
The provisional electoral
commission was scheduled to
announce which two of the three
front-running candidates from
the November ballot would get
spots in a March runoff.
Preliminary results showing
government-backed candidate
Jude Celestin edging out popu-
lar singer Michel "Sweet Micky"
Martelly set off often violent pro-
tests in December. Those figures
were released late in the evening
in a failed effort to head offunrest.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Chicago halted by
massive snowstorm
Tuesday's blizzard
deemed worst in
city history
CHICAGO (AP) - Lindsey
Wilson was on Lake Shore Drive,
but she couldn't tell where. It
was dark, and the snow swirling
around the stranded bus made it
impossible to see anything but the
closest cars.
There was talk among her fel-
low commuters of 25-foot waves
washing up from Lake Michigan
and about when the bus might
get going, but nobody knew any-
thing - not the driver, not the
emergency operators passengers
were calling, and not the shiver-
ing motorists climbing aboard
to keep warm after firefighters
pulled them from their cars.
When a group of passengers
decided enough was enough and
started to walk, she joined them.
"I got 100 feet, everything was
an orange hue, there was snow in
my face, I couldn't see anything,
I turned around and couldn't see
the bus and I thought I was going
to die," she said yesterday morn-
ing.
Wilson, 26, was among hun-
dreds of people in at least 1,500
vehicles who found themselves
trappedonChicago'smostfamous
stretch of road for as long as 12
hours Tuesday night and yester-
day morning during one of the
worst snow storms in the city's
history. The situation was among
the worst impacts from the win-
ter stormthat carved a frigidpath
along a 2,000-mile stretch across
the eastern U.S.
In the morning light, the
roadway looked like rush hour
had been stopped in time. Three
lanes of cars cluttered the road
with snow reaching as high as
the windshields. Some cars were
almost completely buried. Bull-
dozers worked to clear the snow
from around the cars, then tow
trucks plucked them out of snow
drifts one by one.
The stranded vehicleswere the
worst breakdown in Chicago's
handling of the storm.
Some motorists came away
angry, frustrated and puzzled at
why the city didn't close the cru-
cial thoroughfare earlier, or why
officials didn't anticipate that a
bus accident could clog itup like a
cork in a bottle.
"In 31 years with the city, I
haven't experienced anything like
we did at Lake Shore Drive," said
Raymond Orozco, Mayor Richard
M. Daley's chief of staff.
Orozco said more than 130 fire-
fighters, some on snowmobiles,
and 100 police officers were sent
to the road.
As they sat and waited, the
stranded motorists gratefully
gobbled down granola bars and
drank coffee and Gatorade,
brought to them by Good Samari-
tans who climbed fences and rail-
ings to deliverthem.
Marouf al-Bakhit delivers a speech in Amman, Jordan on July 13, 2010. Jordan's King Abdullah sacked his government Feb.
1, 2011 in the wake of street protests and nominated ex-army general Marouf al-Bakhit as his prime minister-designate.
Jordan Islamists call for
new leader to step down
Egyptian protests
spark civil unrest in
neighbor country
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Jor-
dan's powerful Muslim oppo-
sition on yesterday urged the
country's newly appointed prime
minister to step down, calling
him the wrong person to intro-
duce democratic reforms and
tackle deepening poverty and
unemployment.
Also, Jordan's King Abdul-
lah II made a surprise visit to an
impoverished northern village.
It was his first such trip since
the unrest broke out in neigh-
boring Egypt, and appeared to
be an attempt to defuse popular
anger over the country's troubles
and portray himself as a caring
leader.
On Tuesday, Abdullah named
Marouf al-Bakhit prime minis-
ter, bowing to public pressure
from protests inspired by those
in Egypt against President Hosni
Mubarak.
Hamza Mansour, a leader of
the opposition Muslim Brother-
hood's political wing, rejected
al-Bakhit's nomination, saying
he "is not the right person for the
job."
"Al-Bakhit is a security man,
a former army general and ex-
intelligence official. He doesn't
believe in democracy," Man-
sour told The Associated Press.
Instead, he said the country
needs "a national figure who can
tackle Jordan's serious economic
and political crisis."
Jordan is grappling with a
soaring foreign debt estimated
at $15 billion, an inflation rate
which has swelled by 1.5 percent
to 6.1 percent in December and
high unemployment and poverty
rates - set at 12 and 25 percent
respectively.
Mansour also criticized al-
Bakhit for signing off on Jordan's
first casino, which the Brother-
hood strongly opposed on the
grounds that it violated Islamic
principles and encouraged vice.
The project was later canceled.
On Tuesday, King Abdullah,
facing public pressure inspired
by the revolt in Tunisia and
Egypt, sacked his government
and named al-Bakhit as prime
minister, ordering him to move
quickly to boosteconomic oppor-
tunities and give Jordanians a
greater say in politics.
Al-Bakhit, 63, is a former
ambassador to Israel who sup-
ports strong ties with the U.S.
and Jordan's peace treaty with
Israel-policieswhichtheBroth-
erhood and the leftists oppose.
The fundamentalist Brother-
hood advocates the introduction
of strict Islamic sharia law, close
relations with Muslim nations
and Israel's destruction.
Many Jordanians see al-Bakh-
it as a tough enforcer of security,
which goes against their calls for
greater democratic freedoms.
Al-Bakhit is an ex-army major
general who also served as the
chief of Jordan's National Secu-
rity Agency in the last decade.
He is credited with maintaining
Jordan's stability following the
2005 triple attacks on hotels in
Amman, claimed by al-Qaida in
Iraq.
At a small protest Wednes-
day near al-Bakhit's office, left-
ist activist Hadi Khitan said
al-Bakhit was. to different from
deposed Prime Minister Samir
Rifai.
"We want to change govern-
ment policies, not change prime
ministers," he said. "We want
a real political change and this
message should reach the king."
1,500 year-old Byzantine
church discovered in Israel
Archaeologists find Israel inrecentyears."
"It is unique in its craftsman-
tunnels beneath ship and level of preservation," he
CAd
ancient structure
HIRBET MADRAS, Israel (AP)
- Israeli archaeologists present-
ed a newly uncovered 1,500-year-
old church in the Judean hills on
yesterday, including an unusually-
well-preserved mosaic floor with
images of lions, foxes, fish and
peacocks.
The Byzantine church located
southwest of Jerusalem, exca-
vated over the last two months,
will be visible only for another
week before archaeologists cover
it again with soil for its own pro-
tection.
The small basilica with an
exquisitely decorated floor was
active between the fifth and sev-
enth centuries A.D., said the dig's
leader, Amir Ganor of the Israel
Antiquities Authority. He said the
floor was "one of the most beau-
tiful mosaics to be uncovered in
saia.
Archaeologists began dig-
ging at the site, known as Hirbet
Madras, in December. The Antiq-
uities Authority discovered sever-
al months earlier that antiquities
thieves had begun plundering the
ruins,which sit on an uninhabited
hill not far from an Israeli farm-
ing community.
Though an initial survey sug-
gested the building was a syna-
gogue, the excavation revealed
stones carved with crosses, iden-
tifying it as a church. The build-
ing had been built atop another
structure around 500 years older,
dating to Roman times, when
scholars believe 'the settlement
was inhabitedby Jews.
Hewn into the rock underneath
that structure is a network of tun-
nels that archaeologists believe
were used by Jewish rebels fight-
ing Roman armies in the second
century A.D.
Dutch Jews seek more immediate
punishment for Holocaust deniers
Rise in racist
remarks brings
about request for
stricter justice
AMSTERDAM (AP) - Jew-
ish groups in the Netherlands
called yesterday for swifter pun-
ishment for Holocaust deniers as
parliament debated how to com-
bat rising anti-Semitism.
Among other measures, a
Jewish umbrella organization
said it wants Holocaust deniers
punished under rules usually
reserved for drunk drivers, shop-
lifters, and football hooligans.
Under the "snelrecht," or "fast
justice" policy, police and pros-
ecutors offer offenders a choice
immediately after their arrest
between a fine or a court appear-
ance within two months.
"I don't understand why it
should be difficult for policeman
to give a fine directly to perpe-
trators of these remarks," said
Ronny Naftaniel of The Center
for Information and Documenta-
tion on Israel, or CIDI, in a tele-
phone interview.
He added that he would sup-
port the same measure for anti-
Moroccan discrimination, which
is also on the rise in the Nether-
lands.
Anti-Semitism has become a
hot-button issue as many native
Dutch blame anti-Semitism on
the country's Muslim minority,
while Muslims say there is a dou-
ble standard and discrimination
against those of Moroccan and
Turkish ancestry goes unpun-
ished.
A national police report in
September found a 48 percent
rise in anti-Semitic incidents to
209 in 2009. The same report
found that anti-Moroccan inci-
dents rose 17 percentto 103.
After a wave of immigration
in the 1990s Muslims make up
around 1 million of the coun-
try's 16 million population. After
being decimated during World
War II, the Dutch Jewish popu-
lation is estimated at 40,000-
50,000.
Rising anti-Semitism "can be
attributed to the rise of influence
of Islam inthe Netherlands," said
Freedom party member of par-
liament Joram van Klaveren dur-
ing the debate. "The more Islam,
the more anti-Semitism."
Cora van Nieuwenhuizen,
whose VVD party leads the
country's ruling conservative
coalition, was among several
MPs who rejected those remarks.
"It's not your belief that
counts, but your behavior," she
said.
The exchange reflects the
state of politics in the Nether-
lands.
A popular backlash against
Muslim immigrants intensified
in 2004 when filmmaker Theo
van Gogh was murdered by an
Islamic radical of Moroccan
descent, over perceived religious
insults.
The 2008 European Commis-
sion against Racism and Intoler-
ance found that there has been
a "dramatic increase in 'Islamo-
phobia' in the Netherlands" since
2001.
In national elections last
year, the explicitly anti-Islam
Freedom Party finished in third
place. It is not part of the coun-
try's minority government, but
props up the administration by
supporting it on key votes in par-
liament.
Naftaniel of CIDI said his
research showed Moroccan
youth are disproportionately
involved in anti-Semitic inci-
dents targeting "visible" Ortho-
dox Jews. However, he said
anti-Jewish remarks on the
Internet or in the workplace
were usually made by Dutch
Christians.
"We have the idea the taboo on
anti-Semitism is diminishing,"
he said.
In one recent high-profile case
a Moroccan minor was inter-
viewed by a shock news website
saying he thought Jews should be
"exterminated."
The Utrecht District Court
sentenced him to 40 hours of
community service, including 16
at the Anne Frank House.
Last April the same court
acquitted Abdoulmouthalib
Bouzerda, chairman of the Arab
European League, of hate speech
charges for publishing a cartoon
on its website questioning the
reality of the Holocaust.
The group had intended to
spur a public discussion about
a perceived double standard:
that European media are will-
ing to publish cartoons mocking
Islam's prophet Muhammad,
while cartoons about the Holo-
caust are taboo.
Van Klaveren of the Free-
dom party was skeptical about
the proposal of "fast justice"
for anti-Semitic remarks: His
party's leader Geert Wilders is
on trial for alleged discrimina-
tory remarks - including some
equating Islam with fascism and
calling for a ban on the Quran.
--U.0