The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 28, 2011 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, November 28, 2011 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
FLINT
After inn standoff,
ex-convict arrested
for two deaths
Police have arrested an ex-
convict suspected in two homi-
cides in Flint Township after a
standoff lasted more than four
hours in Flint.
Police tell The Flint Journal
that the suspect had a female
hostage at an inn yesterday. Offi-
cers entered the room after hear-
ing a struggle.
The man is a suspect in the
deaths of 78-year-old Charles
Woodson and his daughter,
53-year-old Phyllis Woodson.
Their bodies were discovered
Saturday at a Flint Township
apartment.
Township Police Chief George
Sippert says the standoff lasted
hours because the suspect was
talking to his family by phone at
the same time. Sippert says the
man was trying to control the
situation and doesn't want to
return to prison.
LOS ANGELES
Alleged Walmart
pepper-spraying
shopper surrenders
Authorities in Los Angeles
say a woman who allegedly fired
pepper spray at other customers
during a Black Friday sale has
surrendered to police.
Police Sgt. Jose Valle says the
woman who allegedly caused
minor injuries to 20 shoppers
at a Los Angeles-area Walmart
turned herself in Friday night.
He says she is currently not in
custody but could face battery
charges. Her identity was not
released. Police plan to release
more details Saturday morning.
The attack took place about
10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly
after doors opened for the sale.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
NASA launches
robotic rover
S 'Curiosity' to Mars
The world's biggest extrater-
restrial explorer is on its way to
Mars.
NASA on Saturday launched
the six-wheeled, one-armed
robotic rover, nicknamed Curi-
osity. An unmanned rocket blast-
ed off with the spacecraft from
Cape Canaveral.
The journey to Mars will take
8 months and cover 354 mil-
lion miles.
Curiosity weighs a ton and
is the size of a car. It's a mobile,
nuclear-powered laboratory hold-
ing 10 science instruments that
will sample Martian soil and
rocks, and analyze them right on
the spot. There's a drill as well as a
stone-zappinglaser machine.
Curiosity will spend two years
looking for evidence that Mars
may once have been - or still is
- suitable for microbial life.
S The mission costs $2.5 billion.
MEXICO CITY
'Zombies' gather
in Mexico City to
challenge record
Thousands of self-proclaimed
"undead" have gathered in the
historic center of Mexico's capital
for a "Zombie Walk" that orga-
nizers hope sets a world record.
The announced 9,860 regis-
tered participants are dressed
in rags and ghoulish makeup to
look bloody and decaying.
Organizer Pablo Guisa says
the fifth annual Mexico City
event is meant to celebrate
diversity and human rights. The
participants also collected dona-
tions for a local food bank.
Cities around the world hold
zombie walks, and Guinness
. World Records currently recog-
nizes Asbury Park, New Jersey,
as the record holder, with 4,093
participants on Oct. 30, 2010.
A group in Brisbane, Austra-
lia, has applied for the record,
claiming it massed 8,000 "zom-
bies" last month.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
In unprecedented
step, Arab League
imposes several
sanctions on Syria
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican presidential candidates, talk with
former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a Republican presidential debate in Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
ingrich endorsed
N.H.'s largest papmerP
Editorial praises
GOP candidate's
ability to 'improve
Washington'
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New
Hampshire's largest newspa-
per yesterday endorsed former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich in
the 2012 GOP presidential race,
signaling that rival Mitt Romney
isn't the universal favorite and
potentially resetting the contest
before the state's lead-off prima-
ry Jan.10.
"We are in critical need of
the innovative, forward-looking
strategy and positive leadership
that Gingrich has shown he is
capable of providing," The New
Hampshire Union Leader said
in its front-page editorial, which
was as much a promotion of
Gingrich-as a discreet rebuke of
Romney.
"We don't back candidates
based on popularity polls or big-
shot backers. We look for conser-
vatives of courage and conviction
who are independent-minded,
grounded in their core beliefs
about this nation and its people,
and best equipped for the job,"
the editorial said.
Romney enjoys solid leads
in New Hampshire polls and
remains at the front of the pack
nationally. A poll released last
week showed him with 42 per-
cent support amonglikely Repub-
lican primary voters in New
Hampshire. Gingrich followed
with 15 percent in the WMUR-
University of New Hampshire
Granite State poll.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas post-
ed 12 percent support and for-
mer Utah Gov. John Huntsman
found 8 percent support in that
survey.
Those numbers could shift
based on the backing of The
Union Leader, a newspaper with
a conservative editorial stance
that proudly works to influence
elections, from school boards to
the White House, in the politi-
cally savvy state.
The front page one editorial,
signed by publisher Joseph W.
McQuaid, suggested that the
only state-wide newspaper in
New Hampshire was ready to
again assert itself as a player in
the GOP primary.
"We don't have to agree with
them on every issue," the news-
paper wrote in an editorial that
ran across the width of the front
page. "We would rather back
someone with whom we may
sometimes disagree than one
who tells us what he thinks we
want to hear."
While Romney enjoys solid
support in national polls, the
large pack of Republicans has
shifted all year from candidate to
candidate in search of an alterna-
tive to the former Massachusetts
governor. That led to the rise,
and fall, of potential challengers
such as Huntsman, Rep. Michele
Bachmann of Minnesota and
Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Yet with six weeks until the
primary, The Union Leader's
move could shuffle the race and
further boost Gingrich. In recent
weeks, he has seen a surge in
some polls as Republicans focus
more closely on deciding which
candidate they consider best
positioned to take on President
Barack Obama.
"A lot of candidates saythey're
going to improve Washington,"
the newspaper wrote. "Newt
Gingrich has actually done that,
and in this race he offers the best
shot of doing it again."
As voters started focusing
more on the race, Gingrich has
turned in solid debate perfor-
mances and found his, stride on
a national stage. He has rebuilt
his campaign after a disastrous
summer that saw many of his top
aides resign en masse and fund-
raising summaries report million
in debt.
In New Hampshire, he
brought on respected tea party
leader Andrew Hemingway to
lead his efforts and his team has
been contacting almost 1,000
voters each day.
Punishments aim
to prevent further
civil unrest
BEIRUT (AP) - In an unprec-
edented move against an Arab
nation, the Arab League yester-
day approved economic sanctions
on Syria to pressure Damascus
to end its deadly suppression of
an 8-month-old uprising against
President Bashar Assad.
But even as world leaders
abandon Assad, the regime has
refused to ease a military assault
on dissent that already has killed
more than 3,500 people. Yes-
terday, Damascus slammed the
sanctions as a betrayal of Arab
solidarity and insisted a foreign
conspiracy was behind the revolt,
all but assuring more bloodshed
will follow.
The sanctions are among the
clearest signs yet of the isolation
Syria is suffering because of the
crackdown. Damascus has long
boasted of being a powerhouse
of Arab nationalism, but Assad
has been abandoned by some
of his closest allies and now his
Arab neighbors. The growing
movement against his regime
could transform some of the most
enduring alliances in the Middle
East and beyond.
At a news conference in Cairo,
Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad
bin Jassim said 19 of the League's
22 member nations approved a
series of tough punishments that
include cutting off transactions
with the Syrian central bank, halt-
ing Arab government funding for
projects in Syria and freezing gov-
ernment assets. Those sanctions
are to take effect immediately.
Other steps, including halting
flights and imposing travel bans
on some, as-yet unnamed Syrian
-officials, will come later after a
committee reviews them. _
"The Syrian people are being'
killed but we don't want this.
Every Syrian official should not
accept killing even one person,"
bin Jassim said. "Power is worth
nothing while you stand as an
enemyto your people."
He added that the League aims
to "to avoid any suffering for the
Syrian people."
Iraq and Lebanon - impor-
tant trading partners for Syria -
abstained from the vote, which
came after Damascus missed an
Arab League deadline to agree to
allow hundreds of observers into
the country as part of a peace deal
Syria agreed to early this month
to end the crisis.
Arab League Secretary Gener-
al Nabil Elaraby said the bloc will
reconsider the sanctions if Syria
carries out the Arab-brokered
plan, which includes pulling
tanks from the streets and ending
violence against civilians.
The regime, however, has
shown no signs of easing its
crackdown, and activist groups
said more than 30 people were
killed Sunday. The death toll was
impossible to confirm. Syria has
banned most foreign journal-
ists and prevented independent
reporting inside the country.
The Local Coordinating Com-
mittees, a coalition of Syrian
activist groups, praised the sanc-
tions but called for a mechanism
to ensure compliance.
"The sanctions leave open the
opportunity for the regime to
commit fraud and strip the sanc-
tions of any substance, thereby
prolonging the suffering of the
Syrian people at the hands of an,
oppressive and brutal regime,"
the group said.
The Arab League move is
the latest in a growing wave of
international pressure push-
ing Damascus to end its crack-
down. The European Union and
the United States already have
imposed sanctions, the League
has suspended Syria's member-
ship and world leaders increas-
ingly are calling on Assad to go.
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U.N. conference to decide how
to reduce carbon emissions
Officials to address
how to help poor
countries cope with
climate change
DURBAN, South Africa (AP)
- The U.N.'s top climate official
said yesterday she expects gov-
ernments to make a long-delayed
decision on whether industrial
countries should make further
commitments to reduce emis-
sions of climate-changing green-
house gases.
Amid fresh warnings of cli-
mate-related disasters in the
future, delegates from about 190
countries were gathering in Dur-
ban for a two-week conference
beginning Monday. They hope to
break deadlocks on how to curb
emissions of carbon dioxide and
other pollutants.
Christiana Figueres, head of
the U.N. climate secretariat, said
the stakes for the negotiations
are high, underscored by new
scientific studies.
Under discussion was "noth-
ing short of the most compelling
energy, industrial, behavioral
revolution that humanity has
ever seen," she said.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
led a rally at a soccer stadium
later yesterday urging negotia-
tors to be more ambitious during
what were expected to be dif-
ficult talks. Unseasonably cold,
windy weather kept the crowd to
a few hundred spectators.
Hopes were scrapped for an
overall treaty governing global
carbon emissions after the col-
lapse of talks at a climate sum-
mit in Copenhagen two years
ago. The "big bang" approach
has been replaced by incremental
efforts to build new institutions
to help shift the global economy
from carbon-intensive ener-
gy generation, industries and
transportation to more climate-
friendly technologies.
But an underlying division
between rich and poor countries
on the future of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol has stymied the nego-
tiators.
Figueres said she hoped for a
decision on extending emission
reduction commitments under
the Kyoto accord, which has been
postponed for two years. Previ-
ous commitments expire next
year.
"It's a tall order for govern-
ments to face this," but they show
no interest in yet another delay,
she said.
High on the conference agen-
da is the management of a fund
scaling up over the next eight
years to $100 billion annually to
help poor countries cope with
changing climate conditions.
Questions remain how the
money will be governed and dis-
tributed, but more immediately,
how those funds can be gener-
ated from new sources beyond
established development chan-
nels from the West.
Ideas on the table include a
carbon surcharge on internation-
al shipping and on air tickets, and
a levy on international financial
transactions - sometimes called
a Robin Hood tax.
A committee of 40 countries
worked for the past year on
drawing up a plan to adminis-
ter the Green Climate Fund, but
agreement on the final paper was
blocked by the United States and
Saudi Arabia, and the final con-
tentious issues will have to be
thrashed out in Durban.
Todd Stern, the chief U.S. del-
egate, said the negotiations had
been too rushed.
"I am pretty confident that
we're going to be able to work
these things out," he told report-
ers last week, without naming
the problematic issues.
But Figueres said the future of
the Kyoto accord, which calls on
37 wealthy nations to reduce car-
bon emissions 5 percent below
1990 levels by the end of next
year, is the most difficult political
issue that nations face.
"If it were easy we would have
done it years ago," she said.
Poor countries want the
industrial nations to commit to
more cuts for a second period,
saying the protocol is the only
legal instrument ever adopted to
control carbon and other gases
that trap the Earth's heat.
But the wealthy countries,
with growing consensus, say
they cannot carry the burden
alone, and want rapidly develop-
ing countries like China, India,
Brazil and South Africa to join
their own legally binding regime
to slow their emissions growth
and move toward low-carbon
economies.
r "