The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com

Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Republicans push
ban on partial-
birth abortions
The Republican-led Michigan
Legislature on yesterday took
key votes toward approving a
state-level ban on a procedure
opponents call "partial-birth"
abortion.
A proposal to put a ban on the
late-term procedure in state law
passed the Senate by a 29-8 vote
yesterday. Similar but separate
legislation passed the House by a
75-33 vote. Lawmakers must pass
the same bills before they can be
sent to Republican Gov. Rick Sny-
der, but that could happen within
the next few weeks.
Supporters say a state ban
would make it easier to prosecute
cases in Michigan and keep the
ban in place in case the federal
law changes.
WASHINGTON
House panel
approves bill for
Peace Corps safety
A House panel has approved
legislation to improve safety and
security for Peace Corps volun-
teers after criticism that the agen-
cy did little to train its workers to
deal with violent attacks such as
rape and murder.
By voice vote yesterday, the
House Foreign Affairs Committee
pushed ahead two bills that would
establish a process for volunteers
to make confidential reports of
rape or sexual assault, set up train-
ing for staff on how to respond and
create aVictim Support Office.
In May, three Peace Corps vol-
unteers raped while serving over-
seas and the mother of a fourth
who was murdered in Benin com-
plained to lawmakers. They said
the agency failed to train its work-
ers about how to avoid or deal with
violent attacks. They also said it
was insensitive or unhelpful.
LONDON
U.K. officials vow
to help youth after
riots last month
Young people who looted
stores as riots erupted across
England last month were let
down by a society that didn't
allow them to have faith in their
own futures, Britain's deputy
prime minister said yesterday.
Addressing an annual rally of
his Liberal Democrat party, the
junior partner in Britain's coali-
tion government, Nick Clegg
pledged new help for disadvan-
taged youths to divert them from
criminality.
Arson, disorder and theft
spread through London and
other major English cities for
four days in August. Five people
were killed and scores of stores
were looted, with youths blamed

for inciting and carrying out
much of the damage.
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
Assassination of
Afghan president
hurts peace deal
The assassination of a for-
mer Afghan president reflects
the dangers of negotiations with
the Taliban: Any effort toward a
peace deal canbring deadly action
to stop it from factions within the
multi-headed insurgency.
Now supporters of the slain
Burhanuddin Rabbani angrily
warned yesterday that there is
no hope in seeking negotiations,
a key policy of President Hamid
Karzai that the United States
has backed. Afghans involved in
peace efforts are fearful of reach-
ing out to anyone within the
Taliban and risk being targeted
themselves.
Many fear such assassinations
could accelerate as the Taliban
and other insurgents try to bol-
ster their positions ahead of a
planned withdrawal of U.S. and
other international combat forc-
es at the end of 2014.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Health care
law proves
beneficial
for youth
1 million young
adults insured in
three months
WASHINGTON (AP) - At
least one part of President
Barack Obama's health care
overhaul has proven popular.
With the economy sputtering,
the number of young adults
covered by health insurance
grew by about a million as
families flocked to take advan-
tage of a new benefit in the law.
Two surveys released
yesterday - one by the gov-
ernment, another by Gallup
- found significantly fewer
young adults going without
coverage even as the over-
all number of uninsured
remained high.
The government's National
Center for Health Statistics
found that the number of
uninsured people ages 19-25
dropped from 10 million last
year to 9.1 million in the first
three months of this year, a
sharp decline over such a brief
period.
New data from an ongoing
Gallup survey found that the
share of adults 18-25 without
coverage dropped from 28 per-
cent last fall to 24.2 percent
by this summer. That drop
translates to roughly 1 million
or more young adults gaining
coverage.
The new health care law
allows young adults to remain
on their parents' health plans
until theyturn 26.
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A man chants during a vigil for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis In Jackson, Ga. yesterday.
Georgia executes Troy Davis

Davis: 'Look deeper
into this case so
that you can finally
see the truth.'
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) - Georgia
executed Troy Davis last night for
the murder of an off-duty police
officer, a crime he denied commit-
ting right to the end as supporters
around the world mourned and
declared that an innocent man
was put to death.
As he lay strapped to a gur-
ney in the death chamber, the
42-year-old told relatives of Mark
MacPhail that he was not respon-
sible for his 1989 slaying. "I did not
have a gun," he insisted.
"All I can ask ... is that you look
deeper into this case so that you

really can finally see the truth,"
he said.
He asked his friends and family
to "continue to fight this fight." Of
prison officials he said, "may God
have mercy on your souls. May
God bless your souls."
Davis was declared dead at
11:08 p.m. The lethal injection
began about 15 minutes earlier,
after the Supreme Court rejected
an 11th-hour request for a stay.
"Justice has been served for
Officer Mark MacPhail and his
family," state Attorney General
Sam Olens said in a statement.
Thehigh courtdid not comment
on its order, which came about four
hours after it received the request
and more than three hours after
the planned execution time.
Hundreds of thousands of
people signed petitions on Davis'
behalf, and prominent support-

ers included an ex-president and
an ex-FBI director, liberals and
conservatives. His attorneys
said seven of nine key witnesses
against him disputed all or parts
of their testimony, but state and
federal judges repeatedly ruled
against him - three times on
Wednesday alone.
MacPhail's widow, Joan
MacPhail-Harris, said there was
"nothing to rejoice," but that it
was "a time for healing for all
families."
"I will grieve for the Davis
family because now they're going
to understand our pain and our
hurt," she said in a telephone
interview from Jackson. "My
prayers go out to them. I have
been praying for them all these
years. And I pray there will be
some peace along the way for
them."

Davis' supporters staged vigils
in the U.S. and Europe, declar-
ing "I am Troy Davis" on signs,
T-shirts and the Internet. Some
tried increasingly frenzied mea-
sures, urging prison workers to
stay home and even posting a
judge's phone number online,
hoping people will press him to
put a stop to the lethal injection.
President Barack Obama deflect-
ed calls for him to get involved.
"They say death row; we say
hell no!" protesters shouted out-
side the Jackson prison before
Davis was executed. In Washing-
ton, a crowd outside the Supreme
Court yelled the same chant.
As many as 700 demonstrators
gathered outside the prison as a
few dozen riot police stood watch,
but the crowd thinned as the
night wore on and the outcome
became clear.

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