The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 13, 2011- 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, September13, 2011 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
EAST LANSING, Mich.
MSU begins work
on $40 million
research facility
Michigan State University is
moving forward with plans to
build a new $40 million bioengi-
neering facility that is expected
to be mostly funded by the state.
A date for construction to start
on the project hasn't yet been set,
the Lansing State Journal report-
ed. The East Lansing school's
Board of Trustees on Friday
authorized the administration to
plan for the facility on the south
end of campus.
The building would be located
near the school's Life Science
building and the Clinical Center,
and would connect to both. The
idea is to place research in close
proximity to potential collabora-
tors, said Leo Kempel, associate
dean for research in the College
of Engineering.
WILMINGTON, Del.
Man sentenced to
jail for attempting
to sell jet to Iran
A California man who admit-
ted to trying to sell a fighter jet to
Iran has been sentenced to nearly
four years in prison.
Marc Knapp of Simi Valleywas
sentenced yesterday. He pleaded
guilty earlier this year to violat-
ing the International Emergen-
cies Economic Powers Act and
the Arms Export Control Act.
Knapp admitted that he tried
to sell an F-5 fighter jet to Iran.
His attorney has said the jet was
a relic that would be of no use
to the Iranian military and was
owned by a man who leases it for
use in movies.
Knapp faced a maximum of
30 years in prison, but attorneys
agreed to ask for a sentence rang-
ing from 30 to 57 months.
KANSAS- Mo. Me
Man charged for
trying to bring fake
bomb in airport
A man accused of trying to
take a fake bomb through a secu-
rity checkpoint at Kansas City
International Airport on the 10th
anniversary of the 9/11 terror
attacks has a history of mental ill-
ness and recently quit taking his
medications, the man's mother
told investigators.
Anthony Falco Jr., 47, shook
his head in disagreement repeat-
edly yesterday as U.S. Magistrate
Judge John Maughmer read an
FBI agent's affidavit outlining
actions that led to a two-count
federal complaint.
Falco, whose last known
address is East Petersburg, Pa.,
mumbled the word "lies" at one
point, prompting a court atten-
dant to ask him to remain silent
while the judge spoke.
Falco is charged with making
false statements to federal agents
and trying to bring items simulat-
ing an explosive device through
security, then making statements
that led agents to believe it was a
bomb.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
22 Shiite pilgrims
murdered in desert
Gunmen forced their way onto
a bus of traveling Shiite pilgrims
yesterday and shot all 22 men
onboard as they traveled through
western Iraq's remote desert on a
trip to a holy shrine, security offi-
cials said.
The bodies were discovered late
last night, hours after the gang of
gunmen stopped the bus at a fake
security checkpoint and told all
the women and children to get off,
according to one security official
who interviewed a survivor.
The gunmen then drove the
bus a few miles (kilometers) off
the main highway between Bagh-
dad and the Jordanian border in
Iraq's Sunni-dominated Anbar
province. The pilgrims were
ordered off the bus and shot one
by one, the security officials said.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Soldier arraigned in
alleged Army killing
From left, Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Palestin-
ian president Mahmoud Abbas attend the Arab League foreign ministers meeting at the Arab League headquarters in
Cairo, Egypt, yesterday.
EU official pse
Mideastpectak
Platero accused
of killing two
roommates in Iraq
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) -
A U.S. soldier charged with kill-
ing two of his Army roommates
and wounding another after
an argument in Iraq last fall is
innocent and should be cleared
of murder charges by forensic
evidence, his defense attorney
said yesterday.
Army Spc. Neftaly Platero
appeared yesterday before a
military judge at Fort Stewart
for his arraignment in connec-
tion with the Sept. 23, 2010,
shootings. The soldier deferred
making a plea until a later hear-
ing. But his civilian lawyer,
Guy Womack, told The Associ-
ated Press after Platero's brief
appearance that the 33-year-old
soldier didn't shoot anyone. _
Fort Stewart's commander,
Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, has
decided not to seek the death
penalty in a move that angered
the family of one of the slain
soldiers. Fort Stewart spokes-
man Kevin Larson said Abrams
reached his decision last week
"based on the evidence pre-
sented by legal counsel" to the
general.
"His arms and hands were
completely clean and free of
any gunshot residue" after the
shootings, Womack said. "We
know for a fact there was no
blood on him at all and nothing
tying him in any way to having
fired a gun."
Platero of Kingwood, Texas,
is charged with two counts of
premeditated murder in the
deaths of Pfc. Gebrah Noon-
an, 26, of Watertown, Conn.,
and Spc. John Carrillo Jr., 20,
of Stockton, Calif. The Army
also has charged Platero with
attempted murder after a third
soldier was shot and survived.
The wounded soldier's identity
was not released.
For nearly a year, the Army
has said little about the case. All
four soldiers shared a room at
their base camp in the Iraqi city
of Fallujah. Prosecutors say the
soldiers had gotten into an argu-
ment before Platero grabbed a
gun and opened fire, but have
provided no other details.
Womack, however, said the
only arguing between the four
roommates was over their room
being too messy and which of
them was to blame.
"The chain of command had
stepped in and said, 'We're
going to start inspecting the
room every day,"' Womack
said. "The Army position was
they think that was a motive
and Spc. Platero shot everyone
because of that. Of course that's
absurd."
Investigators found gun-
shot residue on the hands and
arms of the two slain soldiers,
Womack said. He said the sol-
dier who was wounded had a
bullet crease in his scalp and
later said he remembered noth-
ing of what happened the day of
the shooting.
The attorney said the infor-
mation came out at Platero's
Article 32 hearing, similar to a
civilian grand jury proceeding,
which was held in Baghdad last
March. Fort Stewart's legal offi-
cials have not made reports and
documents from that hearing
available for review. And mili-
tary prosecutors did not imme-
diately respond to Womack's
statements when asked for com-
ment by AP.
Platero is tentatively sched-
uled to stand trial by court-
martial Feb. 6, the judge said
Monday. Platero faces a maxi-
mum sentence of life without
the possibility of parole.
Word that the death penalty
was off the table in the case
angered relatives of Noonan.
Palestinians aim
for statehood while
European Union
urges negotiation
CAIRO (AP) - European
Union foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton yesterday
urged a return to Israeli-Pales-
tinian negotiations, according
to a statement, as Palestinians
pressed ahead with an initiative
to win recognition of statehood
from the United Nations.
Ashton discussed the issue
with Egyptian Foreign Minister
Mohammed Amr and said Euro-
pean countries have differing
views on the Palestinian U.N.
initiative, according to Egyp-
tian government spokesman
Amr Rushdi.
Ashton- said the EU has not
formulated a position because
there is no Palestinian resolu-
tion on the table, the statement
said,
She added, "What we're very
clear about from the European
Union is that the way forward is
negotiations."
Rushdi said Amr told Ashton
that Arabs support the Palestin-
ian drive because negotiations
have not resulted in peace.
The Palestinian Authority is
pushing for statehood recog-
nition after years of fruitless
peace talks. The most recent
round of negotiations came to
a standstill a year ago year in a
dispute over Israeli settlement
construction.
Arab League foreign minis-
ters, scheduled to meet today,
have long criticized what they
see as unilateral steps taken by
Israel to continue settlement
construction in the West Bank
and east Jerusalem.
Qatar's Foreign Minister
Hamad bin Jassim told a late
Monday night consultation ses-
sion he hoped the gathering
would support the Arab plan
to take the Palestinian bid for
statehood to the U.N. General
Assembly. He did not mention
the option of taking a resolu-
tion to the Security Council.
and forcing the U.S. to fulfill
its pledge to cast a veto.
"We will review in this
meeting the steps taken to go
to the U.N., because this is an
Arab demand," he said.
The EU chief is in Cairo
meeting with Arab foreign
ministers and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas
ahead of the Arab League
meeting. She is expected to urge
Abbas to relaunch negotiations
with Israel.
Earlier this month Ashton
said the EU's 28 members were
united "over the most critical
issue, which is to try to get the
talks moving," and reiterated
the bloc's position that Israeli
settlement building in the occu-
pied territories is illegal under
international law.
Israel and the U.S. oppose the
Palestinian U.N. initiative, say-
ing a state must be established
through negotiations. The U.S.
said it would veto a Palestin-
ian membership request at the
Security Council.
Without a Security Council
recommendation to the General
Assembly, Palestinians cannot
be admitted as a member state
in the U.N.
DELI'It ailyeeks
for M - ,RPERSONNw,
Fear of Greece default
hurts stock markets
Dow Jones fell 1.5
percent, European
stocks down 2.6
LONDON (AP) - Fear that
Greece will default on its debt,
perhaps triggering a financial
chain reaction that will cause
another global recession, hurt
European stocks yesterday and
sent American stocks lower for
a time.
The market tension came
after a German politician sug-
gested Greek finances are so
bad the nation might have to
leave the coalition of'17 coun-
tries that use the euro as their
common currency.
In addition, the German
economy minister published an
op-ed arguing that an "orderly
bankruptcy" of Greece must
be an option. Greece has been
relying on international bail-
outs to keep it solvent.
Germany's opinion on the
Greek crisis is taken serious-
ly because Germany has the
strongest economy in Europe.
A spokesman for Chancellor
Angela Merkel played down
both suggestions, but financial
markets were spooked anyway.
The Stoxx 50 index of blue-
chip European stocks fell 2.6
percent. In the United States,
the Dow Jones industrial aver-
age was down 167 points, or
1.5 percent, before turning
around late in the day to close
up almost 70.
"With German officials
seemingly in destructive over-
drive, as per all the public
talk of preparing for a Greek
default and even a Greek euro
exit, markets can hardly be
blamed for the latest charge for
the bunker and tin hats," said
Marc Ostwald, market strate-
gist at Monument Securities.
Bank stocks were hit hard.
In Europe, Deutsche Bank of
Germany and BNP Paribas
of France were down 11 per-
cent each at one point. Socie-
te Generale, another large
French bank, closed down 10.8
percent.
Investors are worried
because banks have lent bil-
lions of dollars to Greece
and other troubled European
nations. And American banks
have lent money to their Euro-
pean counterparts, so the
United States could be hurt if
European countries go broke.
In addition, a new recession
in Europe would hurt the U.S.
because American companies
rely on Europe for a big portion
of their exports. The Ameri-
can economy is already grow-
ing so slowly that it wouldn't
take much to push it back into
recession.
The stock sell-off "reflects
heightened investor fear
that Greece is on the verge of
defaulting, which could plunge
the weak global economy back
into another Lehman-esque
recession," said Lee Hard-
man, an analyst at the Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
He was referring to the col-
lapse of Lehman Brothers, the
American investment bank,
in 2008. When it failed, banks
tightened lending severely, and
panic swept the financial mar-
kets.
Kurt Karl, chief U.S. econo-
mist at Swiss Re, puts the chanc-
es of a chaotic Greek default at
only 10 percent.
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