The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
PORTAGE, Mich.
Family hopeful for
Mich. man missing
on Mount Fuji
The father of a missing Michi-
gan man who disappeared this
month. while visiting snow- and
ice-covered Mount Fuji in Japan
says family members remain
hopeful he'llbe found.
Jerry Johnson told The Asso-
ciated Press yesterday morning
that the family remains in regular
contact with officials in Japan. He
says "horrible" weather condi-
tions have made search efforts
more difficult.
He says the family is praying
for Matthew Johnson as well as
searchers at the 12,388-foot peak.
Jerry Johnson asked others to
continue their prayers.
DEARBORN, Mich.
Despite Arab
pressure, Syria
remains defiant
RUNE STOLTZ BERTINUSSEN/AP
The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, are seen near the city of Tromsoe, northern Norway, late last night. Stargazers
were out in force in northern Europe yesteray, hoping to be awed by a spectacular showing of northern lights.
Northern i ghts dazzle
State revvedfor as solar storm hits Earth
growth after tough
decade, CEOs say
A group of chief executives
from many of Michigan's promi-
nent companies says the state's
improving financial picture, tax
0 policy and regulatory environ-
ment are creating the right condi-
tions for growth after a decade of
turmoil.
The Business Leaders for
Michigan gathered yesterday in
the Detroit suburb of Dearborn to
discuss the progress being made
on its Michigan Turnaround Plan
launched in 2009. It called for cre-
ating a more efficient government
and atmosphere for entrepreneur-
ship.
Leaders announced a new step
that urges the state to capital-
ize on its strengths and become a
global hub for engineering, higher
education, natural resources, life
sciences and mobility.
DALLAS
Kennedy's hearse
sells at auction
The man who paid $176,000 for
the white hearse used to transport
President John F. Kennedy's body
following his assassination in Dal-
las plans to include it in his collec-
tion of about 400 cars in Colorado.
Stephen Tebo, a collector and
real estate developer from Boul-
der, bought the hearse Saturday
that was being offered by Barrett-
Jackson Auction Co. of Scottsdale,
Ariz. It sold for a bid of $160,000,
plus a $16,000 buyer's premium.
The 1964 Cadillac hearse car-
ried Kennedy's body as well as
first lady Jacqueline Kennedy
from Parkland Memorial Hospital
to Air Force One at Dallas' Love
Field for the flight back to Wash-
ington on Nov. 22,1963, according
to the auction company.
"It was a solemn duty that it
had taking him from the hospital
where he was pronounced dead to
Air Force One," said Craig Jack-
son, CEO and chairman of the auc-
tion company. "I think everybody
in the world remembers watch-
ing the hearse leave the hospital,
heading toward Air Force One. It
just sort of sunk into everybody
that he's gone."
CAIRO
* Army relaxes
emergency laws
Egypt's military ruler yester-
day decreed a partial lifting of the
nation's hated emergency laws, an
apparent attempt to ease criticism
of his policies ahead of the first
anniversary of the'popular upris-
ing that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi
said in a televised address that
the draconian laws, in force for
more than three decades, woultI
be lifted effective today but would
remain applicable to crimes com-
mitted by "thugs." The military
has often labeled organizers of
anti-government demonstrations
"thugs."
Tantawi's decision to partially
lift the emergency laws, which
give police far-reaching powers,
would likely not satisfy rights
groups that have been campaign-
ing for their total removal.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Sun likely to become
more active in
coming months
STOCKHOLM (AP) -Astorm
from the broiling sun turned
the chilly northernmost skies
of Earth into an ever-changing
and awe-provoking art show of
northern lights yesterday.
Even experienced stargazers
were stunned by the intensity
of the aurora borealis that swept
across the night sky in northern
Scandinavia after the biggest
solar flare in six years.
"It has been absolutely incred-
ible," British astronomer John
Mason cried from the deck of
the MS Midnatsol, a cruise ship
plying the fjord-fringed coast of
northern Norway.
"I saw my first aurora 40
years ago, and this is one of the
best," Mason told The Associat-
ed Press, his voice nearly drown-
ing in the cheers of awe-struck
fellow passengers.
U.S. space weather experts
from-the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
said. yesterday evening that so
far they had heard of no prob-
lems from the storm that trig-
gered the auroras, which made it
as far south as Wales, where the
weather often doesn't cooperate
with good viewing.
It was part of the strongest
solar storm in years, but the sun
is likelyto get even more active in
the next few months and years,
said physicist Doug Biesecker at
the U.S. Space Weather Predic-
tion Center in Boulder, Colorado.
"To me this was a wake up call.
The sun is remindingus that solar
max is approaching," Biesecker
said. "A lot worse is in store for us.
We hope that you guys are paying
attention. I would say we passed
with flying colors."
Even before particles from
the solar storm reached the
Earth on Tuesday, a different
aurora Monday night was danc-
ing across the sky as far south
as Ireland and England, where
people rarely get a chance to
catch the stunning light show.
Those northern lights were
likely just variations in normal
background solar wind, not the
solar storm that erupted Sunday,
Biesecker said.
Tuesday's colorful display
may not have moved that far
south, limiting its audience, but
those who got to see it got bril-
liance in the sky that had not
been around for years.
"It was the biggest northern
lights I've seen in the five-six
years that I've worked here,"
said Andreas Hermansson, a
tour guide at the Ice Hotel in the
Swedish town of Jukkasjarvi,
above the Arctic Circle.
He was leading a group of
tourists on a bus tour in the
area when a green glow that
had lingered in the sky for
much of the evening virtually
exploded into a spectacle of
colors around 10:15 p.m.
U.N. Security
Council could act
despite Russian
objections
BEIRUT (AP) - With Arab
pressure mounting to end 10
months of bloodshed, the Syr-
ian regime vowed yesterday to
solve its own problems even if
"half the universe" is conspir-
ing against it.
The remarks signaled that
Arab League efforts to stem the
violence are collapsing - some-
thing that could pave the way
for ,the U.N. Security Council
to step in, even though Russia is
firmly opposed to punitive mea-
sures against its longtime ally.
Syrian Foreign Minister
Walid al-Moallem brushed off
the threat of referring the issue
to the Security Council - a
move that could lead to tougher
sanctions - rather than try-
ing to resolve it regionally. The
prospect of U.N. involvement
has raised fears in Syria that
an international intervention
could be next.
"If they go to (U.N. head-
quarters in) New York or the
moon, as long as we don't pay
their tickets, this is their busi-
ness," al-Moallem said at a news
conference in Damascus.
He was reacting to an appeal
by the Gulf Cooperation Coun-
cil for the U.N. Security Council
to take all "necessary measures"
to force Syria to implement an
Arab League's ambitious peace
plan announced Sunday to cre-
ate a national unity government'
in two months. Damascus has
rejected the plan as a violation
of national sovereignty.
"The decision was made after
careful and thorough monitor-
ing of events in Syria and the
conviction by the GCC that the
bloodshed and the killing of
innocent people there is con-
tinuing," the statement by the
six-nation GCC said.
It also announced its six
member nations - Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman
and the United Arab Emirates -
were withdrawing the 52 moni-
tors they had contributed to an
Arab League observer mission
that has been heavily criticized
for failingto stop the crackdown
since it entered the country in
late December. That would leave
only about 110 observers on the
ground, League officials said,
a major blow to an effort that
many see as the only hope for a
regional solution to the crisis.
Several members of the
15-member council agreed yes-
terday that it was time for the
full group to take action.
"This council should fully
support the Arab League's
efforts to broker an end to the
bloodshed and a peaceful transi-
tion to democracy in Syria," U.S.
Ambassador Susan Rice said
during the council's monthly
debate on the Middle East.
British Ambassador to the
U.N. Mark Lyall Grantexpressed
concern about weapons prolifer-
ation via sales to the Syrian gov-
ernment or illegal smuggling to
the regime or opposition.
But the potential for U.N.
involvement is a highly charged
issue. Any resolution would
have to get past veto-wielding
Security Council members Rus-
sia and China, which already
rejected one Western-backed
draft that threatened an arms
embargo.
$214 million lures
Fielder to Tigers
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
First baseman
agrees to nine-
year contract
DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit
Tigers responded to a jarring
injury with an audacious move.
Free-agent first baseman
Prince Fielder and the Tigers
agreed yesterdayto a nine-year,
$214 million contract that fills
,the AL Central champions'
need for a power hitter, a per-
son familiar with the deal said.
Detroit boldly stepped up in
the Fieldersweepstakes after the
recent knee injury to star Victor
Martinez. Aweekagothe Tigers
announcedthe productive desig-
nated hitter could miss the entire
season after tearing his left ACL
during offseason conditioning.
CBS first reported the agree-
ment with Fielder.
The person told The Associ-
ated Press the deal was subject
to a physical. The person spoke
on condition of anonymity
because the contract was not
yet complete.
The Tigers won their divi-
sion by 15 games before losing
in the AL championship series
to Texas. Adding the 27-year-
old Fielder gives the Tigers two
of the game's premier sluggers,
pairing him with Miguel Cabre-
ra.
With Fielder now in the
fold, general manager Dave
Dombrowski and owner Mike
Ilitch have a team that figures
to enter the 2012 season as a
favorite to repeat in the divi-
sion - with an eye on win-
ning the franchise's first World
Series title since 1984.
"Everyone" knew Mr. Ilitch
and Mr, Dombrowski were
going to make a move when
Victor went down," outfield-
er Brennan Boesch said in a
phone interview with the AP.
"But I don't think anybody
thought it would be this big."
The move also keeps Field-
ers name in the Tigers' family.
His father, Cecil, became a big
league star when be returned
to the majors from Japan and
hit 51 home runs with Detroit
in 1990. Cecil played with the
Tigers into the 1996 season, and
young Prince made a name for
himself by hitting prodigious
home runs in batting practice at
Tiger Stadium.
A few years ago, when Prince
returned to Detroit as a mem-
ber of the Milwaukee Brewers,
Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline
recalled that power show.
"You can't ever say that you
look at a kid that age and say that
you know he's going to hit 40
or 50 home runs someday, but
Prince was unbelievable," Kaline
said then. "Here's a 12-year-old
kid commonly hitting homers at
abigleague ballpark."
In an interview with MLB
Network Radio on SiriusXM,
Cecil Fielder said he was
"shocked" by the news that
Prince was heading to Detroit.
"He's been there in Detroit
most of his young life so I
think he'll be comfortable in
that place," Cecil Fielder said.
"I know Mr. Ilitch is probably
excited because he's been want-
ing that kid since he was a little
kid, so he finally got his wish."
With Cabrera and Fielder,
Detroit will begin this season
with two players under age 30
with at least 200 career homers.
According to STATS LLC, that's
happened only once before. At
the start of the 1961 season, the
Milwaukee Braves featured
29-year-old Eddie Mathews (338
homers) and "27-year-old Hank
Aaron (219).
Several teams had shown
interest this winter in Fielder,
who had spent his entire career
with the Brewers. He visited
Texas, and the Washington
Nationals also got involved in
the discussions.
The bdefy slugger hit .299
with 38 home runs and 120
RBIs last season. He is a three-
time All-Star and was the MVP
of last year's event in Phoenix.
Fielder has averaged 40 hom-
ers and 113 RBIs over the past
five years. He's also been among
the most durable players in the
majors, appearing in at least 157
games in each of the last six sea-
sons.
TDO
SCHOLARS
DO AFTER THEIR STUDIES
Well, this guy became governor
of Louisiana.
What will you do?
Anything you want.
You've written your own game
plan so far in life. Why not take
it one step further and become
a Rhodes, Marshall, or Mitchell
Scholar?
Come to a Rhodes/Marshall/Mitchell Orientation Session:
Monday, January 23, 2012 * 5:00-6:00pm
Henderson Room, Michigan League, 3rd Floor
Thursday, January 26, 2012 . 5:00-6:00pm
Anderson Room ABC, Michigan Union, 1st Floor
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 * 5:00-6:00pm
Pierpont Commons, East Room
SPECIAL SESSION:
How to Write a Rhodes, Marshall, or Mitchell Essay
Thursday, March 1, 2012 . 5:00-6:00pm
Vandenberg Room, Michigan League, 2nd Floor
To learn more, please contact the Provost's Council on Student Honors at
734-763-8123 or visit the website at
www.provost.umich.edu/scholars/
4
A A