The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, Septemher 12, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.
Man who killed
cop had arsenal
A businessman who gunned
down a police officer at his subur-
ban Detroit home held authorities
at bay for hours with an arsenal
of high-powered rifles and other
weapons before finally killing
himself, officials said Tuesday.
Officers were responding to
a report of a possible suicide
attempt Sunday night at the home
in West Bloomfield Township
when Ricky Coley shot Officer Pat
O'Rourke, authorities said. About
15 families were evacuated from
nearby homes during the subse-
quent2o-hour standoff that ended
when Coley was found dead in his
bed Monday evening.
More than 1,000 people attend
a memorial vigil for O'Rourke
outside the township police head-
quarters Tuesday night.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa
Iowa CEO to plead
guilty to $200M
fraud, lawyers say
The founder of an Iowa bro-
kerage has signed a plea agree-
ment with federal prosecutors in
which he admits to carrying out a
$200 million fraud and embezzle-
ment scheme that bankrupted his
company and could result in him
spending the rest of his life in pris-
on, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Russ Wasen-
dorf Sr. will plead guilty to mail
fraud, embezzling customer funds
and two counts of making false
statements to regulators. U.S
Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles con-
firmed the agreement but hasn't
ruled onthe matter.
Prosecutors said the agreement
calls for Wasendorf, 64, to be sen-
tenced to up to 50 years in prison.
BEIJING, China
China sends patrol
ships to islands
heldby Japan
A territorial flare-up between
China and Japan intensified as
two Beijing-sent patrol ships
arrived near disputed East China
Sea islands in a show of anger over
Tokyo's purchase of the largely
barren outcroppings from their
private owners.
The China Marine Surveillance
has drawn up a plan to safeguard
China's sovereignty of the islands
and the ships were sent to assert
those claims, China's official Xin-
hua News Agency said Tuesday.
The marine agency is a paramili-
tary force whose ships are often
lightly armed.
The rocky islands, known as
Senkaku to Japanese and Diaoyu
to Chinese, have been the focus of
recurringspats betweenthe coun-
tries and also are claimed by Tai-
wan. The China-Japan dispute has
been heating up in recent months,
in part because the nationalist
governor of Tokyo proposed buy-
ing the islands and developing
them.
SANTA ANA, Calif
California stink
comes from the
Salton Sea
Air quality investigators have
confirmed that a foul stench that
stretched across Southern Cali-
fornia came from the Salton Sea.
Officials from the South Coast
Air Quality Management Dis-
trict said in a statement Tuesday
that collected air samples have
given solid evidence of what they
already expected: A huge fish
die-off at the saltwater lake 150
miles southeast of Los Angeles
combined with winds to create
the sulfur-like smell that people
across the region reported Mon-
day.
The air samples showed that
hydrogen sulfide levels were
highest around the lake and grew
weaker at longer distances, and
modeling showed the smell could
have traveled a fairly long dis-
tance in Monday's weather condi-
tions.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
A
Across country, U.S.
remembers 9 11
MOHAMMED ABU ZAID/AP
Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday.
Egyptian protesters scale
wall of U.S. Embassy in Cairo
Memorials honor
lives lost on 11th
anniversary of
attacks
NEW YORK (AP) - There
were still the tearful messages
to loved ones, clutches of pho-
tos and flowers, and moments of
silence. But 11 years after Sept.
11, Americans appeared to enter
a new, scaled-back chapter of
collective mourning for the
worst terror attack in U.S his-
tory.
Crowds gathered, as always,
at the World Trade Center site
in New York, the Pentagon
and a Pennsylvania memorial
Tuesday to mourn the nearly
3,000 victims of the 2001 ter-
ror attacks, reciting their names
and remembering with music,
tolling bells and prayer. But
they came in fewer numbers,
ceremonies were less elaborate
and some cities canceled their
remembrances altogether. A
year after the milestone 10th
anniversary, some said the
memorials may have reached an
emotional turning point.
"It's human nature, so people
move on," said Wanda Ortiz, of
New York City, whose husband,
Emilio Ortiz, was killed in the
trade center's north tower,
leaving behind her and their
5-month-old twin daughters.
"My concern now is ... how I
keep the memory of my husband
alive."
It was also a year when politi-
cians largely took a back seat to
grieving families; no elected offi-
cials spoke at all at New York's
31/2 -hour ceremony. President
Barack Obama and Republican
Mitt Romney pulled negative
campaign ads and avoided ral-
lies, with the president laying
a wreath at the Pentagon cer-
emony and visiting wounded
soldiers at a Maryland hospital.
And beyond the victims of the
2001 attacks, attention was paid
to the wars that followed in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
In Middletown, N.J., a bed-
room community that lost 37
residents in the attacks, town
officials laid a wreath at the
entrance to the park in a small,
silentceremony. Lastyear, 3,700
people attended a remembrance
with speeches, music and
names read.
"This year," said Deputy
Mayor Stephen Massell, "I
think less is more."
Some worried that moving on
would mean Sept. 11 will fade
from memory.
"It's been 11 years already,"
said Michael Reneo, whose
sister-in-law, Daniela Notaro,
was killed at the trade center.
"And unfortunately for some,
the reality of this day seems to
be fading as the years go by....
I hope we never lose focus on
what really happened here."
Thousands had attended the
ceremony in New York in previ-
ous years, including last year's
milestone 10th anniversary.
In New York, a crowd of fewer
than 200 swelled to about 1,000
by late Tuesday morning, as
family members laid roses and
made paper rubbings of their
loved ones' names etched onto
the Sept.t11tmemorial. A few
hundred attended ceremonies
at the Pentagon and in Shanks-
ville, Pa., fewer than in years
past.
As bagpipes played at the
year-old Sept. 11 memorial in
New York, families holding
balloons, flowers and photos
of their loved ones bowed their
heads in silence at 8:46 a.m., the
moment that the first hijacked
jetliner crashed into the trade
center's north tower. Bells
tolled to mark the moments that
planes crashed into the second
tower, the Pentagon and a Penn-
sylvania field, and the moments
that each tower collapsed.
President Obama and first
lady Michelle Obama laid a
white floral wreath at the Pen-
tagon, above a concrete slab that
said "Sept. 11, 2001 - 937 am."
Obama later recalled the horror
of the attacks, declaring, "Our
country is safer and our people
are resilient."
Vice President Joe Biden
remembered the 40 victims of
the plane that crashed in a field
south of Pittsburgh, saying he
understood 11 years haven't
diminished memories.
"Today is just as monumental
a day for all of you, for each of
your families, as any Sept.11 has
ever been," he said.
Later, Libyan
protesters storm
consulate in
Benghazi
CAIRO (AP) - Mainly ultra-.
conservative protesters climbed
the walls of the U.S. Embassy
in Egypt's capital Tuesday and
brought down the American
flag, replacing it with a black
Islamist flag to protest a U.S.-
produced film attacking the
Prophet Muhammad. Hours
later, armed men in eastern
Libya also stormed the US con-
sulate there and set it on fire as
anger spread.
It was the first time ever that
the U.S. Embassy in Cairo has
been breached and comes as
Egypt is struggling to overcome
months of unrest following the
ouster of Hosni Mubarak's auto-
cratic regime. U.S. officials said
no Americans were reported
harmed in the assaults in Cairo
or the eastern city of Benghazi.
The unrest in Cairo began
when hundreds of protest-
ers marched to the downtown
embassy, gathering outside its
walls and chanting against the
movie and the U.S.
"Say it, don't fear: Their
ambassador must leave," the
crowd chanted.
Dozens of protesters then
scaled the embassy walls, and
several went into the courtyard
and took down the flag from a
pole. They brought it back to
the crowd outside, which tried
to burn it, but failing that tore
it apart.
The protesters on the wall
then raised on the flagpole a
black flag with a Muslim decla-
ration of faith, "There is no god
but God and Muhammad is his
prophet." The flag, similar to
the banner used by al-Qaida, is
commonly used by ultraconser-
vatives around the region.
The crowd grew throughout
the evening with thousands
standing outside the embassy.
Dozens of riot police lined up
along the embassy walls but did
not stop protesters as they con-
tinued to climb and stand on
the wall - though it appeared
no more went into the com-
pound.
The crowd chanted, "Islamic,
Islamic. The right of our proph-
et will not die." Some shouted,
"We are all Osama," referring
to al-Qaida leader bin Laden.
Young men, some in masks,
sprayed graffiti on the walls.
Some grumbled that Islamist
President Mohammed Morsi
had not spoken out about the
movie.
A group of women in black
veils and robes that left only
their eyes exposed chanted,
"Worshippers of the Cross,
leave the Prophet Muhammad
alone."
By midnight, the crowd had
dwindled. The U.S. Embassy
said on its Twitter account that
there will be no visa services on
Wednesday because of the pro-
tests.
A senior Egyptian security
official at the embassy area said
authorities allowed the pro-
test because it was "peaceful."
When they started climbing the
walls, he said he called for more
troops, denying that the pro-
testers stormed the embassy. He
spoke on condition of anonym-
ity because he was not autho-
rized to speak to reporters.
The protest was sparked
by outrage over a video being
promoted by an extreme anti-
Muslim Egyptian Christian
campaigner in the United
States. A 14-minute trailer of
the movie, posted on the social
website YouTube in an original
English version and another
dubbed into Egyptian Arabic,
depicts Muhammad asa fraud, a
womanizer and a madman in an
overtly ridiculing way, showing
him having sex and calling for
massacres.
Muslims find it offensive to
depict Muhammad in any fash-
ion, much less in an insulting
way. The 2005 publication of
12 caricatures of the prophet
Muhammad in a Danish news-
paper triggered riots in many
Muslim countries.
In a sign of growing anger
over the film, Libyans set fire
to the U.S. Consulate in the
eastern city of Benghazi and
fired in the air after a protest
against the film. Witnesses
said much of the consulate was
burned.
Intense storms cause
flooding throughout
Las Vegas, So. Calif.
Tensions between Iran, Israel rising
as Netanyahu critiques U.S. position,
Nations conflicted
about economic
sanctions directed
toward Tehran
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel is
sounding increasingly agitated
over what it views as American
dithering with economic sanc-
tions too weak to force Iran to
end its suspected drive toward
nuclear weapons.
In a clear message aimed at
the White House, Prime Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu on
Tuesday criticized what he
said was the world's failure to
spell out what would provoke a
U.S.-led military strike against
Iranian nuclear facilities. The
comments came in response to
U.S. refusals in recent days to set
"red lines" for Tehran.
With his strong words,
Netanyahu is taking a bold
gamble. He clearly hopes to
rattle the U.S. into doing more,
for fear that Israel might oth-
erwise soon attack Iran on its
own. But he risks antagonizing
President Barack Obama dur-
ing a re-election campaign and
straining relations with Israel's
closest and most important ally.
Relations between the two lead-
ers have often been tense in the
past.
Israeli officials say American
politics do not factor into their
thinking, but that the sense of
urgency is so grave that the world
cannot hold its breath until after
the November election.
"The world tells Israel, 'Wait.
There's still time,"' Netanyahu
said Tuesday. "And Isay: 'Wait for
what? Wait until when?' Those
in the international community
who refuse to put red lines before
Iran don't have a moral right to
place a red light before Israel."
Israel views a nuclear-armed
Iran as- a mortal threat, citing
Iran's persistent calls for the
destruction of the Jewish state,
its development of missiles
capable of striking Israel, and
Iranian support for Arab mili-
tant groups.
Tehran insists its nuclear pro-
gram is for peaceful purposes
only.
Although the United States has
accused Iran of trying to develop
nuclear weapon capability under
the cover of a peaceful program,
the Obama administration has
said it does not believe Iran has
decided whether to build an
atomic bomb - if it in fact devel-
ops the ability to do so.
Israeli officials believe time
is running short with Iran mov-
ing perilously close to reaching
weapons capability. They point to
Iranian enrichment of uranium, a
key ingredient in building a bomb,
the movement of Iranian nuclear
research facilities to fortified
underground bunkers impervi-
ous to attack, and Iran's refusal to
open its facilities to U.N. inspec-
tors.
On Tuesday, diplomats told
The Associated Press that the
U.N. atomic agency has received
new and significant intelligence
over the past month that Iran has
advanced its work on calculat-
ing the destructive power of an
atomic warhead through a series
of computer models within the
past three years.
The diplomats who spoke
to the AP said the informa-
tion came from Israel, the
United States and at least two
other Western countries. They
demanded anonymity because
they were not authorized to
discuss classified information
member countries make avail-
able to the IAEA.
The information could
strengthen concerns that Iran
has continued weapons work
into the recent past" and may
be continuing to do so. Because
computer modeling work is nor-
mally accompanied by physical
tests of the components that go
into nuclear weapons, it would
also buttress fears by the Inter-
national Atomic Energy Agency
that Tehran is advancing its
weapons research on multiple
fronts.
More than five
inches of rainfall in
Coachella Valley
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Intense
thunderstorms swept over parts
of the Southwest on Tuesday,
delaying flights and stranding
motorists in the Las Vegas area
and flooding two mobile home
parks in Southern California.
East of downtown Las Vegas,
television news video showed
yellow school buses inching
slowly along roads after school
in some neighbors and muddy
brown water up to the lower
window sills of stucco homes in
others.
A Twitter photo showed doz-
ens of cars swamped by water
up to their headlights in apark-
ing lot outside the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas sports arena.
But after responding to
numerous 911 calls, officials in
Clark County, North Las Vegas,
Henderson and Las Vegas said
Tuesday there were no con-
firmed reports of serious inju-
ries.
The National Weather Service
issued severe thunderstorm and
flash-flood warnings before and
after almost an inch of rain was
reported at McCarran Interna-
tional Airport just before 2 p.m.
Departures were postponed and
arrivals were delayed after the
airport ordered a stop on fuel-
ing operations during lightning
strikes, airport spokeswoman
Linda Healey said.
National Weather Service
meteorologist Michael Stauden-
maier said more than 1.75 inches
of rain were reported in down-
town Las Vegas.
Firefighters responded to
more than 20 calls about people
in stalled cars, county spokes-
man Dan Kulin said. A Las
Vegas police helicopter was dis-
patched during the height of the
storm to pluck several people
from swamped vehicles on area
roadways, Officer Bill Cassell
said.
Staudenmaier said the rain-
fall amounts put the region on
pace to exceed the 4.5 inches of
rain it normally gets ina year.
National Weather Service
meteorologist Scott Sukup said
the Nevada showers weren't
part of the same storm system
that drenched parts of Southern
California.
There, a thunderstorm that
dropped more than the aver-
age annual rainfall on parts
of the Coachella Valley in one
night alone caused flooding at
two mobile home parks, forced
road closures and dampened an
elementary school, officials said
Tuesday.
The early morning thunder-
storm stalled for six to eight
hours over Mecca and Ther-
mal, two towns at the southern
tip of the Coachella Valley 150
miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Thermal is about eight miles
from Indio, Calif., where the
annual Coachella Music Festi-
val is held.
The storm dropped 5.51
inches of rain near Mecca and
3.23 inches of rain near Ther-
mal, meteorologist Mark Moede
said. The average annual rain-
fall in Thermal is just shy of 3
inches, he said.
I