0 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, January 20, 2012 - 3 * The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, January 20, 2012 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS LANSING Snyder advocates for more education funding in budget Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said yesterday he'll propose more " spending for Michigan education in his upcoming budget proposal. School districts took a cut of more than 2 percent in this year's budget, or nearly $1 billion, and many have had to lay off teachers and contract out food and janito- rial services to absorb the cuts. Funding for state universities dropped by 15 percent, and many raised tuition nearly 7 percent to make up for the lost state support. The decreases continue to be criticized by Democrats and have proven unpopular with many vot- ers. House Democratic Leader Richard Hammel has called for giving $457 million left over from the past budget year to public schools, advice Snyder has point- edly ignored. WASHINGTON Ex-wife claims Gingrich wanted open marriage' Dredging up a past that Newt Gingrich has workedhard tobury, the GOP presidential candidate's second ex-wife says Gingrich asked for an "open marriage" in which he could have both a wife and a mistress. In an interview with ABC News' "Nightline" aired last night, Marianne Gingrich said she refused to go along with the idea that she share her husband with Callista Bisek, who would later become his third wife. The explosive interview was airing just two days before the presidential primary in South Carolina, a state with a strong Christian conservative bent, and as Gingrich tries to present him- self as the strongest alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney. * MCLEANVa. Feds prohibit file- sharing web site One of the world's largest file-sharing sites was shut down yesterday, and its founder and several company executives " were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said. An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copy- right holders more than $500 mil- lion in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipe- dia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional pro- posals intended to thwart online piracy. The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dot- com, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zea- land at the request of U.S. offi- cials. Two other defendants are at large. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Six NATO soldiers die in Afghanistan helicopter crash A NATO helicopter has crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing six members of the international military force, the U.S.-led coali- tion said today. A coalition statement said that there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of yesterday's crash. The cause of the crash is still being investigated. The coalition did not disclose the nationalities of those killed. The helicopter crash occurred on the same day that a suicide car bomber killed at least seven civil- ians outside a crowded gate at Kandahar Air Field, a sprawling base for U.S. and NATO opera- tions in the south. The Taliban insurgents claimed responsibil- ity, saying they were targeting a NATO convoy. -Compiled from Daily wire reports U.S. to begin peace talks with Taliban U.S. officials optimistic about future Middle East relations WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is moving ahead with plans for negotiating with the Taliban, confident that talks offer the best chance to end the 10-year-old war in Afghani- stan. But the military worries things are moving too fast, and intelligence agencies offered a gloomy prognosis in their latest Afghanistan report. Several current and for- mer U.S. officials said the most substantive give-and-take to date between U.S. and Tali- ban negotiators could happen in the next week, with the goal of establishing what the U.S. calls confidence-building mea- sures - specific steps that the U.S. and the insurgents agree to take ahead of formal talks. Those talks, if they ever take place, would include the United States, the Taliban and the Afghan gov- ernment of President Hamid Karzai, a senior U.S. official said. Like others interviewed, the official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomacy. Elements of the U.S. outreach to the Taliban are also classified. The diplomatic, military and intelligence branches of the U.S. government differ over the value of talks with the Tali- ban or whether now is the right time to so publicly shift focus away from the ongoing military campaign that primarily targets Taliban insurgents. Defense Sec- retary Leon Panetta and some uniformed military leaders have recently sounded some of the strongest notes of caution, espe- cially on when to grant Taliban requests for the transfer of sev- eral of its prisoners from theU.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military and other U.S. officials said. Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pauses during a news conference in North Charleston, S.C., yesterday, where he announced he is suspending his campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich. Perry leaves presidential race, endorses Gingrich Texas governor returns home to consider future AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race yesterday, endorsed- his old friend Newt Gingrich and returned home to Texas, where the failed White House candidate has three years left to serve as the chief execu- tive. "I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path to vic- tory for my candidacy in 2012," Perry said in North Charleston, S.C.,justtwo days before the pri- mary there. "I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country." Money also was a factor, with spokesman Ray Sullivan say- ing: "We have spent the bulk of our funds." He added that Perry hasn't ruled out running again for governor or the White House in 2016 if President Barack Obama is re-elected. Perry ended his campaign wherehelaunched itlast August, when tea party and evangelical Christian leaders hailed him as a charismatic conservative and some early polls showed-him as a front-runner for the Republi- can nomination. But soon after, Perry's verbal gaffes and poor debate performances sent his campaign into a tailspin from which it never recovered. It was too soon to tell whether Perry's rocky turn on the nation- al stage had damaged him politi- cally at home. But already there were signs of his diminished clout. Several Texas donors who fueled his bid indicated they were likely to back Mitt Rom- ney, the former Massachusetts governor who is considered the more moderate candidate in the race. And South Carolina House speaker David Wilkins, who had supported Perry, ignored the governor's recommendation and shifted his support to Romney, too. Short of a Gingrich victory leading to a job for Perry in Washington, Perry will most likely stay in Austin where - despite his dismal presidential campaign - he's still considered the most powerful politician in the state. He has appointed more than 1,000 people to key govern- ment positions since becoming governor in 2000. State lawmak- ers also depend on his support. But that doesn't mean he won't face serious headwinds. Democrats insist the failed presidential run has diminished his power and embarrassed Tex- ans. Conservatives also have complained about the $2.6 mil- lion the state has spent on his security detail while he cam- paigned outside the state. Top Republicans, meanwhile, have been positioning themselves to replace him whether he won the presidency or retired in 2014. Roy Blount, a Perry supporter and deep-pocketed Republican donor in Texas, said he expect- ed Perry to remain popular and powerful. "Everything he stood for reso- nates with Texans," Blount said. "He's got this state as a leading state, and he wants to continue that and expand it." The Texas Democratic Party was ready yesterday to begin exploiting any perceived weak- ness created by Perry's deci- sion and called on him to focus on problems at home, including legal questions about the consti- tutionality of the school finance system as well as water short- ages and greenhouse gas emis- sions. Perry's biggest supporters, in turn, welcomed him home. Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, said "Gov. Perry has always been good for Texas business." Mark Jones, chairman of political science department at Rice University, said Perry risks becoming a lame-duck governor and must not rule out seeking a fourth term if he hopes to continue being effec- tive. "As long as he can maintain the illusion that he could be gov- ernor through 2019, that allows him to maintain authority not only among the legislators, but also among donors, lobbyists and his appointees," Jones said. Perry's early missteps called into question whether the Texas politician who had never lost a race in nearly 30 years was ready for the national stage. His biggest flub came in a nation- ally televised debate in early November, when he could not remember the name of the third Cabinet department he pledged to eliminate. Perry could only manage to say, "Oops." Making fun of him- self afterward, he told reporters: "I stepped in it." Egyptian military critic beaten publicly Key figure in last year's uprising attacked in street CAIRO (AP) - Assailants attacked a prominent Egyp- tian activist as she left work at Cairo's Nileside state television headquarters late on Wednes- day, in the latest incident of violence against the protest movement that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime to be cap- tured on video. A clip posted on social net- works showed a small crowd punching and kicking Nawara Negm, and hurling abuse at her. Her assailants could be heard saying she wanted to drive a wedge between the ruling mili- tary and the people. Others called her an "agent," presum- ably of a foreign power. Negm told a TV interviewer late on Wednesday night that the beating left her with a swollen eye, but that she was otherwise unhurt. She said the beating took place while scores of policemen and army soldiers assigned to the protection of the TV building stood by and watched. "I am not the type that runs away. I stood my ground," she told the interviewer on the pri- vately owned ONTV station. Negm is the daughter of Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egypt's best known satirical poet and a longtime critic of Mubarak. She was a key figure in the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down last February. Also a newspaper columnist and blog- ger, she has been sharply criti- cal of the generals who took over from the ousted president. Negm was questioned by prosecutors this week over her alleged role in deadly clashes last month between troops and pro- testers in Cairo. The ruling generals have repeatedly accused some of the activists behind Mubarak's oust- er of illegally receiving foreign funds and the state mgdia has portrayed them as reckless trou- blemakers. The country's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, delivered a thinlyveiledwarning to anti-military activists plan- ning a wave of protests to mark the Jan. 25 anniversary of the start of the uprising. In comments published on Wednesday, he said Egypt was facing "grave dangers" but assured the nation that the armed forces would protect it. Tantawi was Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years.