The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, January 10, 2012-
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
New cardiology
complex to break
ground next week
The Detroit Medical Center
plans to break ground next week
on a $78-million cardiology com-
plex.
DMC president and chief exec-
utive Michael Duggan and Car-
* diovascular Institute President
Theodore Schreiber are sched-
uled to attend the Jan. 17 ceremo-
nies north of downtown Detroit.
The five-story DMC Heart
Hospital will provide state-of-
the-art facilities for cardiac treat-
ment, research and heart disease
prevention. Officials say the proj-
* ect will transform cardiac care
across the state and the Midwest.
DMC operates a number of
facilities, including Children's
Hospital of Michigan, Detroit
Receiving Hospital, Harper Uni-
versity Hospital and Sinai-Grace
Hospital. The system has more
than 2,000 licensed beds and
3,000 affiliated physicians.
DES MOINES, Iowa
Vilsack: USDA to
close 259 offices,
* labs and facilities
The U.S. Department of Agri-
culture will close 259 domestic
offices, labs and other facilities
as part of an effort to save $150
million per year, U.S. Agricul-
ture Secretary Tom Vilsack
announced yesterday.
While the closures and other
cost-cutting steps will affect the
USDA headquarters in Washing-
ton and operations in 46 states,
the savings will be relatively
small in the context of the agen-
cy's $145 billion budget.
The closures follow a review
of USDA operations done as part
of the Obama administration's
efforts to cut waste, Vilsack said.
Congress, he said, has reduced
the U$DAapetingbudgetrexat-
ing the challenge of finding ways
to maintain services with ewer
employees.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Chavez expresses
support of Iranian
president
President Hugo Chavez defend-
ed his close ally Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Mon-
day as tensions rose with the U.S.
over Tehran's nuclear program
and a death sentence against an
American man convicted of work-
ing for the CIA.
The two leaders met in Caracas
on the first leg of a four-nation
tour that will also take Ahma-
dinejad to Nicaragua, Cuba and
Ecuador.
"They present us as aggres-
sors," Chavez said of U.S. officials
as he received the Iranian leader
at the presidential palace.
"Iran hasn't invaded anyone,"
Chavez said. "Who has dropped
thousands and thousands of
bombs ... including atomic
bombs?"
CANBERRA, Australia
Japan frees anti-
* whaling activists in
Antarctic Ocean
An Australian customs ship
was steaming toward a Japanese
whaling vessel to pick up three
activists after Tokyo decided
today to release them with-
out charges over their surprise
boarding off southwest Australia.
Australian Prime Minister
Julia Gillard said the customs ship
would likely take several days of
traveling at full speed to rendez-
vous with the security ship the
Shonan Maru No. 2 to pick up
the three Australians - Geof-
frey Owen Tuxworth, 47, Simon
Peterffy, 44, and Glen Pendlebury,
27 - in the Antarctic Ocean. All
are from WesternAustralia state.
The three anti-whaling activ-
ists boarded the Shonan Maru
No. 2 on Sunday as it tailed the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Soci-
ety's flagship, the Steve Irwin.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
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ELISE AMENDULA/AP
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks as New Jersey Gov. Chris Chris-
tie listens at left during a campaign rally in Exeter, N.H. on Sunday.
GOP contenders take aim
at Romney's record on jobs
Rivals hope to looted the companies, left peo- tion to the Bain jobs history
ple unemployed and walked off was spiking.
halt frontrunner's with millions of dollars," for- Speaking of insurance
mer House Speaker Newt Gin- options before a New Hamp-
momentum grich said on NBC's "Today" shire audience, Romney said,
show. A group friendly to "I like being able to fire people
Nashua, N.H. (AP) - Mitt Gingrich is airing TV ads of who provide services to me."
Romney's Republican rivals laid-off workers denouncing He remained favored to
accused him yesterday of exag- Romney, who interrupted his win today's New Hampshire
gerating his successes and time at Bain to serve as Mas- primary. But his rivals might
coldly laying off thousands of sachusetts governor. improve their hopes of halt-
workers while heading a prof- Texas Gov. Rick Perry ing his momentum in South
itable venture capital firm, an joined in. He cited South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary if
effort to turn the presidential Carolina companies that Bain they can persuade voters that
front-runner's biggest asset bought and downsized, and he his jobs legacy is not what he
into a liability. practically dared Romney to claims.
The heightened focus on the ask for voters' support there in Thanks to millions of dollars
firm Bain Capital threatens to the name of easing economic from a Las Vegas casino owner
slow Romney's cruise-control pain. "He caused it," Perry said who supports Gingrich, TV
campaign because it goes to in Anderson, S.C. ads in South Carolina are try-
the heart of his No. 1 appeal to Romney points to thou- ing to do just that. Like many
voters: the claim that he knows sands of jobs created at com- attack ads they are emotional,
far more than President Barack panies that Bain bought, one-sided and not subtle. They
Obama about creating jobs. invested in or restructured. show angry victims of layoffs
Romney's takeover-and- But he struck a discordant from Bain-controlled compa-
restructuring firm "apparently note yesterday, just as atten- nies.
Mudslides kill eight in Rio de
Janeiro, up to 20 stillr missin
Torrential rain
leads to evacuation
of thousands
President Heavy rains
caused mudslides that killed
at least eight people in Rio de
Janeiro state yesterday, rais-
ing the number of dead in Rio
and neighboring Minas Gerais
state to 23 so far this year, civil
defense officials said.
Mud loosened by the rain
swallowed about 10 houses in
the town of Sapucaia yesterday
morning. Seven residents were
confirmed dead by rescue crews
that are still searching for sur-
vivors. The eighth victim died
when a house collapsed nearby.
Up to20 other people are still
missing, accordingto Rio state's
civil defense department. Local
authorities are still compiling a
list of the disappeared.
Among the missing is a fam-
ily whose car was caught in
the mudslide as they tried to
escape, said municipal spokes-
man Sergio Campante.
Last week, torrential rain
burst a dam, leading to the
evacuation of 4,000 residents
of the town of Tres Vendas.
Elsewhere in the state, another
4,000 people were forced from
their houses and three people
were killed by heavy rains and
mudslides.
In the neighboring state of
Minas Gerais, more than 10,000
people have left their homes,
and 12 have died in floodwa-
ters or mudslides, according to
the state's civil defense depart-
ment.
The southern hemisphere
summer, which starts in late
December, is Brazil's rainy
season. It frequently brings
devastation and death to com-
munities perched on hillsides or
near river banks. Nearly 1,000
people died last year around
this time when torrential rain
unleashed avalanches of mud in
Rio's mountains.
In the capital, Brasilia, presi-
dent Dilma Rousseff cut short
her vacations and met yester-
day with cabinet members to
discuss the relocation of resi-
dents of areas hit hardest by the
storms.
"Avoiding deaths is our num-
ber one priority," said Rousseff's
chief of staff, Gleisi Hoffmann.
The federal government
announced the creation of a
working group of 35 geolo-
gists and 15 hydrologists who
will evaluate at-risk areas in
Brazil's southeastern states of
Rio, Minas Gerais and Espirito
Santo.
"We're going to map out the
locations to identify the most
vulnerable areas and help relo-
cate the families," said the min-
ister of Science and Technology,
Aloizio Mercadante, in a press
conference held after meeting
with the president.
Meanwhile, a severe drought
in Brazil's southern state of Rio
Grande do Sul led the governor,
Beto Grill, to declare a state of
emergency yesterday.
UN confirms Iranians enriching
uranium at an increased level
IAEA says new
uranium easier
to use in nuclear
weapons
The U.N. nuclear agency on
yesterday confirmed that Iran
has begun enriching uranium
at an underground bunker to
a level that can be upgraded
more quickly for use in a nucle-
ar weapon than the nation's
main enriched stockpile.
Comment from the Interna-
tional Atomic Energy Agency
came after diplomats said that
centrifuges at the Fordo site
near Iran's holy city of Qom
are churning out uranium
enriched to 20 percent. That
level is higher than the 3.5 per-
cent being made at Iran's main
enrichment plant and can be
turned into fissile warhead
material faster and with less
work.
"The IAEA can confirm that
Iran has started the produc-
tion of uranium enriched up
to 20 percent ... in the Fordow
Fuel Enrichment Plant," said
an agency statement, which
used the alternate spelling for
the site.
The move was expected,
with Tehran announcing
months ago that it would use
the Fordo facility for 20 percent
production. Iran beg'an to fur-
ther enrich a small part of its
uranium stockpile to nearly 20
percent as of February 2010 at
a less-protected experimental
site, saying it needs the higher
grade material to produce fuel
for a Tehran reactor that makes
medical radioisotopes for can-
cer patients.
But with the time and effort
reduced between making
weapons-grade uranium from
the 20-percent level, the start
of the Fordo operation increas-
es international fears that Iran
is determined to move closer
to the ability to make nuclear
warheads - despite insistence
by the Islamic Republic that it
is enriching only to make reac-
tor fuel.
Its dismissal of findings by
the International Atomic Ener-
gy Agency of secret experimen-
tal work on a nuclear weapons
program also worries the inter-
national community.
British Foreign Secretary
William Hague called the move
"a provocative act which fur-
ther undermines Iran's claims
that its program is entirely
civilian in nature."
Tehran's "claim to be enrich-
ing for the Tehran Research
Reactor does not stand up to
serious scrutiny," he said in
a statement. Hague said that
Iran "already has sufficient
enriched uranium to power the
reactor for more than five years
and has not even installed the
equipment necessary to manu-
facture fuel elements" out of
the enriched material.
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