2A - Friday, February 24, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam 2A - Friday, February 24, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom L fiihlan 4alijy 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com JOSEPH LICHTERMAN ZACHARY YANCER Editor in Chief Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1252 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 lichterman@michigandailycom zyancer@michigandaily.com 0 Newsroom 734-418-4115 opt.3 Corrections corrections@michigandaily.com Arts Section arts@michigandaily.com Sports Section sports@michigandaily.com Display Sales display@michigandaily.com Online Sales onlineads@michigandaily.com News Tips news@michigandaily.com Letters to the Editor tothedaily@michigandaily.com Editorial Page opinion@michigandaily.com Photography Section photo@michigandaily.com Classified Sales classified@michigandaily.com Finance finance@michigandaily.com CRIME NOTES Collision on Thievery on Catherine two wheels CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES WHERE: Catherine Street. WHEN: Tuesday at about 9:20 a.m. WHAT: A two-vehicle accident occured University Police reported. The inci- dent resulted in no injuries and unknown amounts of damage. WHERE: 400 S. State St. WHEN: Tuesday at about 4:15 p.m. WHAT: A bicycle was stolen from a bike rack near Tisch Hall sometime between 8 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., University Police reported. There are cur- rently no suspects. Drawing workshop WHAT: A drop-in class offering instruction in drawing with colored pencils. Register online at annarborcenter.org. The cost of the workshop is $10. WHO: University of Michi- gan Museum of Art WHEN: Today at 11 a.m WHERE: University of Michigan Museum of Art Bluegrass benefit concert WHAT: A concert benefit- ing St. Andrews, a local soup kitchen, will feature many bluegrass and folk artists.. Tickets cost $30. WHO: Michigan Union Ticket Office WHEN: Tonight at 7:30 p.m WHERE: The Ark CORRECTIONS . An article in the Feb. 21 edition of The Michi- gan Daily ("Bill banning GSRA unionization heads to full Senate") misstated SAGU and the Attorney General's position on GSRA unionization. They believe GSRAs are stu- dents, not employees. * Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michi- gandaily.com. Sleep researchers have discovered that waking up during the middle of the night is natural, the BBC reported. Studies showed that segmented sleeping pat- terns may be more instinc- tive to humans than sleeping for eight hours consecutively. After a senior-less team last season, Michigan will celebrate senior night by honoring senior guards Zack Novak and Stu Douglass at the Crisler Cen- ter on Saturday. >>FOR MORE, SEE SPORTS, PAGE 8 Google is developing glasses that function as a "see though com- puter display," and will pro- vide information now found on a current smart phone, The New York Times report- ed. The device will utilize Google software. 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One copy is available free ofcharge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. subscriptions for fal term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winterterm (January through April) is 115,s yearlong (September through Apri )is$195 University affiiates are subject to areduced subscription rate.On-campus subscriptions for falltermare$35.Subscriptionsmst be repaid. 0 EDITOR'S NOTE: There are not more The art of Crime Notes because the University relaxation Department of Public Safety's crime incident log, the Daily's source for Crime 'WHAT: Students can learn tips for stress reduction, Notes, was not updated last night. such as self-talk, mindful- ness and deep breathing exercises at this informa- tional clinic. WHO: Counseling and Pys- chological Services ORE ONLINE Love Crime Notes? Share them with your WHEN: Today at noon owers on Twitter @CrimeNotes or find them on their new biog WHERE: Michigan Union, room 3100 W fficial says ASTUDENTS Offcia sas rgentine train Fo accident was preventable Organization failed safety tests, corruption was ignored for years BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentina's deadliest train accident in decades was foresee- able and preventable, the nation's auditor general complained yes- terday, saying years of failed safe- ty tests and other problems had given the government more than enough reason to cancel the train operator's concession. Others pointed to high-level corruption: years-old allegations still awaiting trial that a former transportation secretarytook free vacations and other gifts from executives of the Trains of Bue- nos Aires company in exchange for favorable treatment. The TBA blamed government price controls, saying that keep- ing fares to less than 25 cents a ride made it impossible to finance improvements. Rail safety experts, mean- while, said modern trains are built to withstand the kind of hard stop that killed 50 passen- gers and injured more than 700 Wednesday. Newer cars resist the accor- dion-like crumpling that shoved hundreds into a jumbled mass of limbs, metal and blood in the first two cars when the commuter train hit ashock-absorbing barrier at less than 12 mph (20 kph). But these cars were more than four decades old, "Toshiba Classics" that were refurbished after being cast off by other urban systems. President Cristina Fernandez declared two days of mourning and sent at least four Cabinet ministers out to give news con- ferences describing the govern- ment's response to the tragedy. None took questions. One man who might explain why passengers said he repeat- edly struggled with the train's brakes before the accident - motorman Marcos Antonio Cor- doba, 28 - remained in intensive care and had yet to make a state- ment. The current transportation secretary, Juan Pablo Schiavi, said the train's speed while approaching its final stop at the busy downtown once station was normal, that the motorman was already slowing and that he should have been able to stop dur- ing the final 130 feet (40 meters) from the point where the speed was last recorded. "Those last 40 meters today remain a mystery," Schiavi said. The crash happened after Cor- doba had traveled the length of the Sarmiento line - 14 stations. Before him, another motorman had driven the same route 10 times, since 2:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. Union leaders said the train was in good condition when checked the day before. Auditor General Leandro Despouy, however, said TBA had been failing safety requirements since 2002. Many of these compli- ance problems were raised in an extremely critical report in 2008, which recommended ending the concession granted to TBA in 1995 during Argentina's privati- zation era. "Back in 2008 we had verifi- cation of dramatic and alarming brake problems," Despouy said. Roque Cirigliano, TBA's trains director and a cousin of the com- pany's owners, discounted the possibility of brake failure and said human error might have caused the crash. He called the trains safe for travel, and said TBA has spent more on mainte- nance than other Argentine rail- road companies, despite company complaints that government lim- its on ticket prices have depressed revenues. On its website, TBA says low ticket prices mean passengers don't cover even half the salaries and benefits of its 4,500 workers. Because the government keeps prices low as a benefit to working- class Argentines, the company struggles to cover operating costs, provide higher quality service, and attract private financing to fund improvements, it says. The train company has been tied to allegations of government corruption. Former Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime awaits trial for allegedly approving millions of dollars in government train subsidies after accepting free Brazilian vacation flights from businessman Claudio Cirigliano. Cirigliano's Grupo Plaza hold- ing company owns both TBA and competing bus lines. The judge in the corruption case, Claudio Bonadio, is now in charge of the accident investiga- tion. Schiavi said yesterday's news conferences and the government's support of a thorough crash probe by Bonadio proves Fernandez's administration is acting respon- sibly. The train's "black box" record- ings of conversations between the motorman and control room were already in the judge's hands, and other evidence abounds, from GPS data to cameras and other record- ings as well as physical evidence from the wrecked train, he said. With 703 injuries among the estimated 1,500 passengers, thou- sandsofpeople desperatelyrushed around Buenos Aires checking lists of survivors and hoping their loved ones weren't in the morgue. Many of the dozen or more hos- pitals that treated the injured said they had no unidentified patients, and by Thursday afternoon the morgue had identified allSO fatali- ties. The Bolivian Embassy announced that a pregnant con- sular official, Nayda Tatiana Lez- ano Alandia, was amongthe dead. She left behind three daughters, Argentina's state-run Telam news agency reported. Sabrina Espindola, 29, who worked downtown by day and studied to be a surgical assistant until midnight each night, was pulled from the first car, her hus- band, X-ray technician Ezequiel Mercado, told The Associated Press. such as creating the Bahi'i Insti- tute for Higher Education in Iran - but these methods have not always been successful. "Some days the government would come and raid the facili- ties where they had some equip- ment or books or things like that ... more recently they've really cracked down on it and shut it down," Van de Fliert said. He added that the University could support the Baha'i stu- dents by accepting their transfer credits from the BIHE toward a University degree. "I know the Harvard Gradu- ate School of Education actually said that they would ... accept (BIHE credit) .... to complete degrees for Harvard Graduate School of Education," he said. "So I don't know if that's going to happen here, but clearly that could be an outcome of such a thing." Rackham student Sanam Arab, president of the club, said aside from raising awareness, the club would like to serve as a catalyst for further action. He noted that at the Univer- sity, James Wooliscroft, Medi- cal School dean, has helped the effort by teaming with other deans around the country to draft a letter to the United Nations and Iranian government against the unfair treatment to Baha'I students. "We are hoping that maybe we can approach different deans of the University as well and ask them to doa similar thing," Arab said. Van de Fliert emphasized that the club does not intend to put down or criticize the Iranian government. "The Baha'i faith teaches that we are well wishers of all people and all governments," he said. "Basically what we are trying to do is just to bring to attention the situation of the Bahi'i students in Iran and then hope that this will come to the attention of the officials in the Iranian govern- ment to have them open a way for students ... to enter universi- ty in Iran without fear ofoppres- sion." LSA junior Katayoon Sabet Sarvestani said she came to the United States in 2009 to escape persecution in Iran. She was studying pharmaceutical sci- ence at the BIHE, but had to leave after her professors were arrested and the school build- ings were shut down. Sarvestani said professors transformed their homes into labs to help the students learn chemistry and other physical sciences after the government shut down its facilities BIHE's 2008. "They didn't want you to know where the lab was actu- ally located and nobody had the address," she said. "(My pro- fessor) said 'I will pick you up from this street, the others from another street, and I will take you all to the lab.' We were just going to a general chemistry lab - nothing illegal - but it felt so illegal." Though the Baha'i students and faculty have been dealing with government opposition since opening the BIHE, they continue to try to find ways to study and learn. Sarvestani said the BIHE still operates by allowing students to take classes online and meet oice per semester in Tehran. She added that many of the stu- dents travel to other countries such as the United States, Eng- land and Canada to earn their degrees, and then return to Iran to teach other students of their faith. "It's been around five months (since) they arrested the main professors of the university . including the president and the deans also," she said. "Some of them are even graduates of MIT and Stanford ... that were back there teaching their fellow citizens, but they were arrested just because they are teaching in that school." Sarvestani said the Ira- nian government does allow a few students from the faith to matriculate into the country's universities in order to create the impression that the Baha'i students are welcomed. "There are definitely less than 50 Baha'i students who are actually enrolled in university," she said. "After a few years, the government will ask them to leave." LSA freshman Arya Ahmady said Americans are lucky for their vast freedoms and liber- ties. "You know sometimes we dread or complain about classes * and stuff here when in reality people halfway across the world only wish to have the opportu- nities that we have," he said. The club plans to hold an event on March 27 to raise awareness about the issue, which will feature a documen- tary screening and a panel and interactive discussion about the Bahu'i faith and the discrimi- natory treatment its followers receive in Iran. IT'S NOT TOO LATE! JOIN DAILY NEWS E-MAIL RAYZAG@MICHIGANDAILY.COM 4 k