The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, March 24, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
KALAMAZOO, Mich.
WMU receives
$100M for private
medical school
Donors have given Western
Michigan University $100 mil-
lion to launch a private medical
school.
University President John
Dunn says it is one of the largest
cash gifts donated to a U.S. uni-
versity. Dunn said Tuesday that
the money will serve as "foun-
dation funding" for the medi-
cal school that the university is
developing with Kalamazoo's
two main hospitals.
An unidentified donor pledged
$1.8 million in 2009 and that has
served as seed money for the
medical school.
The school is expected to open
in the fall of 2013 or 2014.
NEW YORK
Report: 27.5M
people displaced by
conflict, violence
The number of people around
the world uprooted by conflict
or violence and displaced within
their country has increased to
27.5 million, the highest figure
in the last decade, according to
a new report released yesterday.
The report by the Geneva-
based Internal Displacement
Monitoring Center, established
by the Norwegian Refugee
Council in 1998 at the U.N.'s
request, said close to three mil-
lion people in 20 countries were
newly displaced by conflict or
violence in 2010 including 1.2
million in Africa.
Elisabeth Rasmusson, the
Norwegian council's secretary
general, said "the number in the
last 10 years is steadily rising"
and large-scale displacements
are continuing this year.
GOLDEN, Colo.
Colorado wildfires
begin to subside as
strong winds calm
Crews battling the wildfire
burning in the foothills west of
Denver were getting some help
from the air yesterday as windy
weather diminished.
Helicopters were dropping
. water on the fire thathasburned
nearly 2 square miles of steep,
wooded terrain near Golden. An
air crew was flying above the
fire and letting ground crews
know of any changes in fire
behavior.
Winds gusting up to 75 mph
Tuesday had grounded air sup-
port, but they have since eased.
Authorities say the strong
winds actually prevented the
fire from spreading because the
winds caused the fire to burn
back on itself.
About 290 firefighters were
assigned to the blaze, which has
been burning dry grass, brush

and trees since Sunday, and more
were on the way, said Jefferson
County sheriff's spokeswoman
Jacki Kelley.
NEW DELHI
India protests
* Sikh golf coach's
frisking in Italy
India summoned the Italian
ambassador yesterday to protest
demands by Milan airport offi-
cials that a world-class golfer's
Sikh coach remove his turban
during a security check a day
earlier.
It was the second time in a
week that Jeev Milkha Singh's
coach Amritinder Singh had his
turban removed and frisked in
the northern Italian city.
Sikhs worldwide object to
such searches as discriminatory
and unnecessary in a world with
machines for body scanning and
metal detection.
Foreign Affairs Minister
S.M. Krishna condemned the
searches and said the religious
practices of all Indians must be
respected.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

North and South
Sudan fight over
claims to region
Ownership of oil- Recent media reports from
northern Sudan indicated that
rich land may result the Khartoum government's
Ministry of the Interior recent-
in further conflicts ly deployed about 1,500 police
to several areas in northern
JUBA, Sudan (AP) - The Abyei, including around the oil
top government official in the fields of Diffra.
one region most likely to send The southern military
north and south Sudan back spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer,
toward conflict said yesterday said the north's minister of
he believes the northern gov- defense visited the troops on
ernment is massing military Monday, meaning that the 1,500
forces outside Abyei in order to are soldiers and not police.
occupy the town and claim it The Sudan Armed Forces
permanently. spokesman denied at that time
An American satellite proj- that northern troops had been
ect, meanwhile, has released deployed, but the satellite imag-
new images that it said shows es identified a new compound
a military and police build up consistent "with a military out-
near Abyei, a fertile and oil- post of company strength" less
producing territory that north- than 45 miles (75 kilometers)
ern cattle herders use to graze north of Abyei town.
their cattle. "Increased reinforcements
Southern Sudan voted in inside Abyei are exacerbat-
January to break away from the ing an already dire situation,
north, and it will become the not contributing to a solution,"
world's newest country in July. said John Bradshaw, executive
Abyei's future is being negoti- director of the Enough Project,
ated, and both sides are trying an anti-genocide group that
to stake claim to it. participates in the satellite ini-
Observers fear the fight for tiative.
Abyei could re-ignite conflict. The spokeswoman for the
North and south Sudan ended a U.N. peacekeeping mission to
two-decade war in 2005. Sudan, Hua Jiang, said the U.N.
"Satellite imagery confirms has conducted patrols north of
reports of the deployment of Abyei and has observed "addi-
large numbers of northern tional elements deployed." She
forces as well as newly fortified would not give further details.
encampments," said Charlie Both governments have his-
Clements of the Carr Center for torically used the populations
Human Rights Policy at Har- as proxies to further their own
vard University. He is an adviser interests in Abyei.
to the Satellite Sentinel Project, "Of course the Misseriya are
an effort that was begun by being instigated by the (north's)
actor and Sudan activist George National Congress Party," said
Clooney to prevent war. Deng Arop Kuol, the chief
"This should be sounding administrator in Abyei. "The
alarms about the human securi- military build up ... has no other
ty of all civilians in Abyei," said explanation other than occupy-
Clements. ing Abyei."

Ig
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP
President Barack Obama with First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia, second from left, and Sasha walk down
the steps from Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., yesterday.
e"
Latin America pushes Obama
to aid countries econo-mically

ADRIAN WYLD/AP
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to media on March 19 as Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon looks on at the Canadian Embassy.
Canadian prime minister
faces challengers forjo

Obama asked to
complete deals with
Panama, Colombia
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador
(AP) - Barack Obama went to
Latin America to project a new,
softer image of U.S. regional
influence based on common
bonds. "We are all Americans,"
he declared. He leaves behind
nations delighted by the atten-
tion but determined to use their
growing economic voice their
own way.
A day after Obama left Brazil
and two days after NATO allies
began enforcing a U.S. backed no-
fly zone over Libya, the govern-
ment of President Dilma Rousseff
called for a cease-fire.
Chilean President Sebastian
Pinera pressed Obama to com-
plete pending trade deals with
Panama and Colombia. And in
an interview with The Associ-
ated Press the day after Obama's
departure from the Chilean capi-
tal, Pinera said he would request
U.S. intelligence documents
relatedto human rightsviolations
during the Pinochet dictator-
ship - an uncomfortable chapter
for the United States because it
backed his regime.
The visits to Brazil, Chile and
El Salvador illustrate the new
politicsofthe hemisphere - more
economically viable, more demo-
cratic, with a growing global
footprint and a perspective that
will not always hew to the wishes
of its giant neighbpr to the north.
American financial aid does
not carry as much influence as
it once may have - though fiscal
pressures on the U.S. make that
aid unlikely anyway. The stron-
gest leverage the United States
has is forging relationships
based on mutual commer-
cial or security interests. But
Obama knows Latin America
has heard pledges for new
regional alliances before, only
to see them fizzle.
"Words are easy, and Iknow
that there have been times
where perhaps the United
States took this region for
granted," Obama said in San-
tiago.
Indeed, many in Latin
America thought his trip was
long overdue. But Obama
leaves behind good will in his
host countries and leaders
buoyed by a sense that his visit
brought them and their coun-
tries a degree of international
validation.
By that measure, the trip
ends on a successful note.
Obama went to the region with
little anticipation of signing
grand agreements or achieving
bilateral breakthroughs.
"What President Obama
proposed to us yesterday was
something Chile has been
assuming for a long time now
- a different relationship, to
move from handouts to col-
laboration, from an unequal
vertical relationship to a rela-
tionship of equals, horizontal,"
Pinera said in his interview
with The Associated Press on
Tuesday.
For Obama, the timing of
the trip awkwardly coincided
with American forces drop-
ping bombs and firing mis-

siles at Libya. Questions about
Libya dogged Obama at every
stop.

The White House maintains
that simply showing up can do
much to build bridges. Obama
generally stuck to his itinerary
despite the demands of the attack
on Libya, helping mitigate any
lingering irritation that he had
put off the visit for too long.
It's an approach the White
House under new political advis-
er David Plouffe has employed
domestically as well, sending
Obama on weekly visits to states
to make his case on domestic top-
ics even as national and interna-
tional issues overwhelm them.
A good relationship abroad,
deputy national security adviser
Ben Rhodes said, will yield ben-
efits for the United States over
time.
"For instance," he said, "Brazil
is one of the largest economies in
the world, and an emerging glob-
al power, and trips like this are
indispensable to elevate relations
to a new level."
A trip such as this can also gen-
erate domestic rewards. El Salva-
dor has one of Central America's
highest rates of emigration, espe-
cially to the United States. As
Obama said Tuesday night in
a toast to President Mauricio
Funes, "Just about every Salva-
doran has a loved one or a friend
in the United States -- husbands
and sons, mothers and daughters
-- working hard, sacrificing every
day."
In regions such as northern
Virginia, with a heavy concentra-
tion of Salvadorans, such atten-
tion can reap political benefits.
The power of trips like these
also rests on the lingering sym-
bolic images.
Obama supplied them. He
played soccer with children in
a Rio de Janeiro shantytown,
visited the tomb of slain Roman

Catholic Archbishop Oscar
Arnulfo Romero in San Salva-
dor, and addressed the people of
Latin America from La Moneda,
the Chilean governmental pal-
ace placed under siege during a
bloody coup nearly four decades
ago and now the heart of a
restored democracy.
Taken together, the pictures
illustrate the strides Latin Ameri-
ca has taken and how remarkably
different it is from the strife that
characterized it in the 1970s and
1980s.
Brazil has grown into the
seventh largest economy in the
world. Chile has emerged from
Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship
with a vibrant democracy and
a succession of center-left but
pragmatic leaders - a string only
broken by Pinera, a Harvard edu-
cated conservative who nonethe-
less has not sought to dismantle
the work of his predecessors.
El Salvador, still struggling
economically, has established its
own model of democracy after
the bloody 12-year civil war that
began in 1980s and left an esti-
mated 75,000 people dead. After
years of democratically elected
conservative governments, Funes
was elected as the candidate of
the party of former left-wing gue-
rillas.
Obama's trip also revisited
complicated periods of the Unit-
ed States' own history, when it
sided with oftenbrutal right wing
factions, particularly in Chile and
El Salvador. Asked by a Chilean
reporter Monday whether the
United States was prepared to
seek forgiveness for any role it
played in the 1973 coup of Social-
ist President Salvador Allende
and the subsequent repression
in Chile, Obama sought to look
ahead instead.

Harper's budget
proposal was
rejected by all
opposition parties
TORONTO (AP) - Canada's
three opposition parties said
yesterday they planned to topple
the conservative government in
a vote of no confidence in Par-
liament on Friday and trigger
the country's fourth election in
seven years.
Prime Minister Stephen
Harper needs the support of at
least one opposition party to stay
in power, but all three rejected
Harper's proposed budget after
it was announced Tuesday.
The trigger that's expected to
bring Harper down are allega-
tions - supported Monday by a
Parliamentary committee - that
Harper has acted in contempt of
Parliament by failing to disclose
the full financial details of his
tougher. crime legislation, cor-
porate tax cuts and plans to pur-
chase stealth fighter jets.
The opposition is set to intro-
duce a no-confidence vote on the
contempt issue on Friday, which
could trigger an election that
would take place either May 2 or
May 9.
Opposition parties made
inroads in attacking the gov-
ernment for its alleged ethical

shortcomings.
Last week, Harper asked
police to look into the activities
of Bruce Carson, a key former
aide. Carson, 66, is accused of
using the access he had to senior
members of the government to
lobby on behalf of a company
affiliated with his 22-year-old
fiancee, a former escort.
"This government has lost the
confidence of Canadians," Liber-
al leader Michael Ignatieff said.
Earlier, Harper urged the
opposition to support his latest
budget plan. And he called on
opposition members to explain
their refusal to support it during
a time of economic uncertainty.
"Our economy is not a political
game. The global recovery is still
fragile. Relative to other nations,
Canada's economic recovery has
been strong, but its continuation
is by no means assured," Harper
said.
Canada is likely to emerge
from an election with little
changed unless the opposition
parties join forces ina coalition.
Opinion polls expect Harper's
Conservative Party to win, but
not outright, meaning he will
continue to govern with a minor-
ity in Parliament, dependent on
opposition votes to stay afloat.
Harper's Conservatives hold
143 seats in Parliament. The Lib-
erals have 77, the New Demo-
crats 36 and the Bloc Quebecois
47.

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