The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
ROCHESTER, Mich.
Oakland U. student
suspended after
writing about prof.
A 56-year-old Oakland Uni-
versity student has been sus-
pended for three semesters and
barred from campus after writ-
ing about attraction to his pro-
fessor for an assignment.
0 Joseph Corlett of Oakland
County's Orion Township told
The Oakland Press of Pontiac
the writing journal assignment
for the Advanced Critical Writ-
irig class could be on any topic.
He says a November entry was
"Hot for Teacher," based on the
Van Halen song.
* School spokesman David
Groves said in an email yes-
terday that the school didn't
have any immediate comment
because it was a "student con-
duct matter."
TRAVERSE CITY
Michigan nuclear
plant downgraded
Federal regulators said yester-
day that safety violations at the
Palisades nuclear power plant in
southwestern Michigan had led
them to downgrade the plant to a
status held by just two others in
the U.S.
The Nuclear Regulatory Com-
mission assigns the more than 100
nuclear reactors in the U.S. to one
of five categories based on their
safety performance. Most are in
the top-performing group. Pali-
sades was bumped to the No.2 cat-
egory last month and now will join
two others in the third category:
the Perry Nuclear Power Plant's
Unit 1 generator near Cleveland
and the Susquehanna Nuclear
Power Plant's Unit 1 generator in
Berwick, Pa.
NEWARK, NJ.
Whitney Houston's
funeral scheduled
. Whitney Houston's funeral
will be held Saturday in the
church where she first show-
cased her singing talents as a
child, her family choosing to
remember her in a private ser-
vice rather than in a large event
at an arena.
The owner of the Whigham
Funeral Home said yesterday
* that the funeral will be held' at
noon at Newark's New Hope
Baptist Church, which seats up
to 1,500 people. Gospel singer
Marvin Winans, -a Grammy
Award winner and longtime
family friend, has been chosen to
give the eulogy, his son said.
The family said no public
memorial service is planned.
Officials had discussed the pos-
sibility of holding a memorial at
the Prudential Center, a major
sports and entertainment venue
that can seat about 18,000 peo-
ple, but the funeral home said it
had been ruled out.
MOSCOW
Independent radio
pressured by Putin
The editor of Russia's leading
independent radio station said
yesterday that its management
is being changed in an effort to
restrict on-air criticism of the
government ahead of the March
4 presidential election.
The media arm of state-con-
trolled natural gas giant Gaz-
prom, which holds two-thirds of
the shares, is tightening its hold
over the board of directors, edi-
tor Alexei Venediktov said.
Gazprom Media took the
action after Prime Minis-
ter Vladimir Putin last month
accused the station of serving
the foreign policy interests of
the United States and "pouring
diarrhea" on him all day. Putin
is seeking to return to the presi-
dency by winning the election.
Ekho Moskvy, or Echo of Mos-
cow, has long been among the
few news outlets to provide air
time to Putin's harshest critics
and it has provided full coverage
of the anti-Putin protests that
began in December.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
French president
faces uphill battle as
he seeks re-election
Mourners pray at a funeral for a Syrian rebel the day after he was killed in fighting in Idlib, Syria, on Sunday.
Divided opposition in
Syria gives Assad hope
Free Syrian Army
plans operations
from safehouses in
neighboring states
BEIRUT (AP) - At a rent-
ed house just outside Syria's
border, a dissident known
only as "The Doctor" maps
out attacks. Planners speak
by Skype with fighters on the
ground in Syria, while others
raise money, drumming up
cash from fellow exiles to buy
weapons.
The safe house offers a
glimpse into the Free Syrian
Army, a group of army defec-
tors and others who are trying
to overthrow President Bashar
Assad by force.
The FSA has emerged as a
significant hype for many Syr-
ians who have all but given up
on peaceful resistance against
government tanks and snipers
waging a deadly crackdown
on protesters. But the group
is highly decentralized - and
comprises just one faction in
a deeply divided and fractious
Syrian opposition.
As the West and Arab states
consider offering direct sup-
port to Assad's opponents,
there are serious questions
about whether any opposition
group is even remotely pre-
pared to take the helm after
more than 40 years under
Assad family rule.
Indeed, Assad's greatest
advantage has been the weak-
ness and lack of unity among
the disparate forces opposing
him.
Since the uprising began
in March, a chorus of voices
has risen against the regime.
Besides the rebel fighters,
there are distinguished exiles
who hold little sway back
home, aging dissidents who
spent years locked in Syrian
prisons and tech-savvy young
people desperate to cast off a
suffocating dictatorship.
Sarkozy mum
about his potential
candidacy as his
poll numbers sink
PARIS (AP) - Nicolas Sarkozy
faces anunprecedented challenge
if he wants another term. No
presidential candidate in France's
postwar history has come back
from being so far behind so late
in the campaign.
If polls can be believed, the
brash, risk-taking and unabash-
edly America-friendly French
leader who took center stage in
the Libya war and in the fight to
save the euro needs something
akin to a miracle to get re-elect-
ed.
With just 68 days left until the
first round of voting in France's
presidential ballot, the usually
combative Sarkozy has stayed
uncharacteristically quiet about
whether he will run. But French
media say he will announce his
candidacy any day - possibly
on national TV today - and are
already reporting the names of
those on his campaign team.
Despite his successes in inter-
national affairs, the conservative
Sarkozy has been unpopular at
home for most of his first term
and has for months trailed
Socialist candidate Francois Hol-
lande in the polls.
"If we look at past elections,
it's off to a very, very, very bad
start," pollster Emmanuel Riv-
iere of TNS Sofres agency said of
Sarkozy's campaign. "Never has
a president been in such a situa-
tion."
A leftist president in France
would not only mark a big shift
for France after 17 years under
conservative rule, but it would
also shake up Europe's political
calculus. The EU's top powers -
Britain, France, Germany, Italy
and Spain - are now either run
by leaders on the right or, in Ita-
ly's case, by a technocratic care-
taker government.
Sarkozy's presidency got off
to a rough start in 2007. Public
gaffes, tax policies that appeared
to favor his rich friends and his
jet-setting courtship of super-
model Carla Bruni all dam-
aged his image in the eyes of
the French. Since then, France's
worst recession since World War
II and a still-weak economy have
made it hard to rebound.
Polls indicate that Hollande
and Sarkozy could finish first and
second in the first-round vote on
April 22 and then go head-to-
head May 6 in the runoff. One poll
last week put Hollande a stagger-
ing 20 points ahead of Sarkozy in
a theoretical second round.
Sarkozy's chances are also
hurt by the increasing rise of far-
right candidate Marine Le Pen,
who has stirred up anti-Islam
sentiment in the country with
Europe's largest Muslim popula-
tion.
This is all assuming Sarkozy
throws his hat in the ring. Most
pundits see it as inevitable but
admit a tactical delay allows him
to hold on to his commander-in-
chief mantle as long as possible
- before morphing into cam-
paigner-in-chief.
"He needs to create a surprise
when he announces his candida-
cy, and it's going to be one of his
last cartridges," Riviere said.
Pollsters at the IFOP agency
noted that Sarkozy is now in
his 49th straight month below a
50-percent approval rating.
Sarkozy's approval rating got
a brief bounce up after a joint
TV interview in November with
President Barack Obama, who
is almost universally adored in
France. But, as in many coun-
tries, foreign affairs tends to take
a back seat to domestic concerns
in France, and Sarkozy has not
appeared to reap benefits of his
unprecedented endorsement
from German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, a fellow conservative and
ally in battling Europe's debt cri-
sis.
Sarkozy's best hope, pollsters
say, is for a flub by Hollande -
who has been visibly cautious
- or something that would turn
attention away from Sarkozy's
divisive personality.
"As long as the election
remains a sort of referendum for
or against Nicolas Sarkozy, pub-
lic opinion is pretty well set,"
Jerome Sainte-Marie, a pollster
at the CSA agency, told BFM-TV.
"But if new themes appear -
notably on issues of values - then
unexpected moves could hap-
pen."
Hollande, a bespectacled
57-year-old, has benefited from
his image as the anti-Sarkozy. A
CSA poll last week found more
than half of respondents said
they'd vote for the Socialist to
reject Sarkozy - with only a
third motivated by Hollande
himself.
Sarkozy's strategy, advisers
say, willibe to cast himself as more
credible, frank and reform-mind-
ed than Hollande amid Europe's
economic uncertainty and able to
learn from his mistakes.
With voters elsewhere in
Europe ousting leaders in elec-
tion after election, Sarkozy could
be the latest highest-profile casu-
alty done in by Europe's persis-
tently high unemployment and
limpng growth rates.
x* krar
-M toI'm s 2l19 "y i
U.S. Ambassador to South
Sudan, aU' alum, visits A
Susan Page talks the panel by Public Policy Prof.
John Ciorciari; Amal Hassan
international Fadlalla, an associate professor
of Afroamerican and African
relations studies, women's studies and
anthropology and Anne Pitch-
By PETER SHAHIN er, a professor of Afroamerican
Daily StaffReporter and African Studies and politi-
cal science.
This time last week it was Page's opening remarks
104 degrees outside in Juba, focused on the critical humani-
the capital of South Sudan. Soit tarian challenges facing South
wasn't surprising that the U.S. Sudan after its secession from
Ambassador to South Sudan Sudan in July 2011. She said
expressed displeasure with the South Sudan has the world's
slightly cooler temperatures highest maternal mortal-
during her visit to campus yes- ity rate, with 2,054 deaths per
terday. 100,000 births and a 24 percent
U.S. Ambassador and Uni- literacy rate.
versity alum Susan Page led a She added that South
panel discussion at the School Sudan is experiencing fighting
of Social Work with a group of between ethnic groups and that
University professors address- 98 percent of the government's
ing the challenges of buildinga revenue is solely dependent on
functioning government in the oil profits. Page also mentioned
world's newest nation - South that the average age of a South
Sudan. Page's 'talking points Sudanese citizen is only 18
ranged from strategic concerns years old.
to relations with Sudan, includ- "The lead (United Nations)
ing American investment and humanitarian organization
the Sudanese diaspora in the has said that about five million
United States. South Sudanese will be food
On Monday, Page gave a deficient this year partly due to
lecture at the University Law bad food crops, a bad food year
School addressing the legal and displacement," Page said.
aspects ofcreating a new nation "If you do the math, that's more
and the act of obtaining recog- than half the country of eight
nition from the international or nine million people. That's a
community. The trip marked lot of people needing food assis-
the first time in 20 years that tance."
Page has returned to her alma Page said South Sudan has
mater since she spent the a large advantage in their
majority of her career overseas. amount of arable land, but it
Ken Kollman, director of is far under-utilized. She said
the International Institute and large donors - including the
a political science professor, United States, the United King-
said hosting the ambassador dom, China and the Scandi-
exposed community members navian nations - are working
to issues abroad and fostered well with the developing South
conversation on campus about Sudanese bureaucracy to cre-
international affairs. ate an efficient distribution
"We're delighted to have of resources, noting that the
these kind of events that are health ministry has shown par-
topical, that are of interest to ticular progress.
people on campus and in the Page mentioned that the
region on important interna- major issue of corruption in
tional issues," Kollman said. the government will have to be
"This is a fascinating moment resolved immediately.
in the history of sub-Saharan She said employees could be
Africa (because of the) creation fired for not filling out a decla-
of a new country. It's unfortu- ration of wealth - an audit to
nately a difficult time - there's determine if bureaucrats were
a lot of conflict." profiting from their positions.
The panel was sponsored "A couple of ministers have
by the African Studies Center, at least been sidelined," Page
Department of Afroamerican said. "Whether or not they'll
and African Studies, the Ford actually be fired, we'll have to
School of Public Policy, Inter- wait and see."
national Institute, Internation- An adviser from the United
al Policy Center and the Center States sits in on every meet-
for Middle Eastern and North ing of the South Sudanese
African Studies. Anti-Corruption Commission,
Page was accompanied on which aids in prosecuting cor-
rupt officials, Page added.
Other issues Page addressed
included unresolved terri-
torial disputes with Sudan,
rebels remaining in Sudan
- particularly in the restless
Darfur region - the pres-
ence of a strong Ethiopian-led
peacekeeping force and South
Sudan's recent decision to stop
production of oil because of a
dispute with Sudan over transit
and refining prices.
"I'd like to hope that with
the austerity budget and turn-
ing the oil off that maybe they'll
take this time to actually put
the right procedures in place
and managing their revenue
collections, (including) taxes,
tariffs - things like that," Page
said in reference to the rela-
tionship between oil and cor-
ruption.
Fadlalla, a panelist from
Sudan, said she was pleased
with the ambassador's
response to the questions, but
expressed regret that the refer-
endum that gave South Sudan
independence last year turned
out in favor of independence.
"It was sad, maybe because
I'm old-fashioned, and I believe
in nationhood, and I wanted
the nation to be together," Fad-
lalla said. "It was hard because
there are so many tensions,
and Sudan has so many ethnic
groups. It's hard to reconcile
the differences."
Fadlalla said she was opti-
mistic that future administra-
tions in Sudan would be able to
diffuse the animosity between
the two nations, but was con-
cerned about the rebel move-
ments that still exist in Sudan
and threaten the government in
Khartoum, Sudan's capital city.
Also present at the panel
were students from the Uni-
versity's chapter of the ONE
campaign, an organization
dedicated to raising public
awareness about global pov-
erty, famine and relief efforts.
LSA sophomore Andy Peka-
la said the organization has
recently been focused on the
issue of maternal mortality.
"The current challenge that
we're working on right now for
the ONE campus challenge is
infant and maternal mortality
rates," Pekala said. "The fact
that (Page) said that Sudan has
the highest infant mortality
rate in the world, it was inter-
esting to hear the steps that
(South) Sudan as a whole is
taking to reduce that and how
donors are helping with that."
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