The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - 3

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Striking water
workers ignore
judge's order
Workers rejected a judge's
"ridiculous" order Monday to end
a strike protesting job cuts at the
Detroit regional water depart-
ment, a union lawyer said.
Union attorney George Wash-
ington called federal Judge Sean
Cox's injunction "outrageous"
and filed a motion to dissolve
it. Cox's order also bars anyone
affiliated with the union from
obstructing operations.
The union doesn't want Cox
handling the case at all because
he already has oversight of some
Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department funccions under a
long-running legal case not relat-
ed to the strike, Washington said.
Nobody will return to work until
they have talked with their union
leaders, he said.
HANFORD, Calif.
More than 20
injured in Calif.
train crash
At least 20 passengers suffered
minor to moderate injuries Mon-
day when a big rig truck collided
with a southbound Amtrak train
in California's Central Valley,
authorities said.
The crash occurred when the
driver of the big rig that was car-
rying cotton trash failed to yield
and hit the train, pushing at least
one passenger car off the tracks
south of Hanford, authorities said.
The injuries were described as
bumps, bruises, scrapes and possi-
bly broken bones by Kings County
Assistant Sheriff Dave Putnam.
LAGOS, Nigeria
Radical Islamist
sect threatens gov't
ministers' wives
The leader of a radical Islamist
sect has threatened the wives
of Nigerian security agents and
government officials in a new
Internet video, while denying his
group is in any peace talks to end
the violence that has killed hun-
dreds in the country's north.
In a video uploaded Sunday to
YouTube, Abubakar Shekau also
denied claims that the spokes-
man for the sect known as Boko
Haram had been killed by Nige-
ria's military. He said the group
would continue to "follow our
religion" and carry out attacks in
Nigeria's predominantly Muslim
north.
The Associated Press could
not immediately authenticate the
video Monday, but it appeared
to be from the sect and followed
the pattern of other videos previ-
ously released by the group. In it,
Shekau appears relaxed, wearinga
checkered red-and-white,Keffiyeh

scarf. A Kalashnikov assault rifle
 leans against the wall behind him.
TEHRAN,
Rare labor petition
in Iran shows
economic alarm
For weeks, a manifesto com-
plaining about Iran's stumbling
economy circulated in secret
among factories and workshops.
Organizers asked for signatures
and the pages began to fill up.
In the end, some 10,000 names
were attached to the, petition
addressed to Iran's labor minister
in one of the most wide-reaching
public outcries over the state of
the country's economy, which has
received a double pounding from
tightening Western sanctions and
alleged mismanagement by Presi-
dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
S government.
The rare protest document -
described to The Associated Press
this week by labor activists and
others - suggests growing anxi-
ety among Iran's vast and poten-
tially powerful working class as
the ruling system struggles with
the latest sanctions, which have
targeted critical oil exports and
blackballed Iran from integna-
tional bankingnetworks.

Syrian foreign
minister says U.S.
promotes terror

Afghan police secure the site of the suicide bombing in Khost, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.
Taliban suicide bomber kills 14
people in Afghanistan attack

At least three
Americans among
the dead, more than
60 civilians hurt
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP).
- A Taliban, suicide bomber
rammed a motorcycle packed
with explosives into a joint U.S.-
Afghan patrol on Monday, kill-
ing 14 people including three
Americans in the latest attack on
an increasingly fraught program
to help Afghan forces take over
security so foreign troops can
withdraw from the country over
the next two years. -
The attack followed more
American casualties over the
weekend that pushed the U.S.
military's death toll for the
11-year-war above 2,000 - a fig-
ure that has climbed steadily in
recent months as attacks on the
so-called "partnering" initia-
tive have risen.
Joint patrols between NATO
and Afghan forces, like the
one targeted Monday, have
been limited following a tide of
attacks by Afghan soldiers and
police on their international
allies. Last month, the U.S.
military issued new orders that
require units to get approval
from superiors before conduct-
ing operations with Afghans.
Two weeks later, U.S. officials
said most missions were being
conducted with Afghans again,
though the system of approvals
remained in place.
The close contact - coalition
forces working side by side with
Afghan troops as advisers, men-

tors and trainers - is a key part
of the U.S. strategy for putting
the Afghans in the lead as it and
other nations prepare to pull out
their last combat troops by the
end of 2014.
But the rising death toll for
international troops has raised
troubling questions about
whether they will achieve their
aim, boosting calls inside the
alliance for a pullout as soon as
possible and jeopardizing the
goal of training the Afghans to
fully secure their country.
In the latest attack, the
bomber struck the mixed police
and military patrol shortly after
they got out of their vehicles to
walk through a market area in
the eastern city of Khost. It was
a reminder that the insurgency
is still fighting hard after 11
years of a U.S.-led war to defeat
the militants.
In addition to three Ameri-
cans and their translator, six
civilians and four police officers
were killed in the explosion,
provincial government spokes-
man Baryalai Wakman said.
The police officers were part
of a specialized quick-reaction
force, he added.
Blood could be seen on the
market road as Afghan police
and soldiers tried to clean up
the area after the blast. Slippers
and bicycle parts were strewn
about.
"I heard the explosion and
came right to this area. I saw
the dead bodies of policemen
and of civilians right here," said
policeman Hashmat Khan, who
ran to the site of the blast from
his job as security for a nearby
bank.

Coalition spokesman Maj.
Adam Wojack would only con-
firm that three NATO service
members and their translator
died in a bombing in the coun-
try's east, without giving an
exact location or the nationali-
ties of the dead.
The international military
alliance usually waits for indi
vidual nations to announce
details on deaths. Most of the
troops in the east and in Khost
province are American. The
translator was an Afghan citi-
zen, Wojack said.
More than 60 Afghan civil-
ians were also wounded in the
bombing, the governor's office
said in a statement. The city's
hospital alone was treating
about 30 people injured in the
explosion, said Dr. Amir Pacha,
a physician working there. He
added there could be other vic-
tims being treated at nearby pri-
vate clinics.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah
Mujahid said in text messages to
media that the insurgent group
was behind the attack.
The weekend firefight that
led to the 2,000th U.S. death
occurred in a gunfight between
Afghan and U.S. forces,
although, both sides have con-
flicting accounts. It may have
been sparked by a disagree-
ment between the troops, or
confusion over the source of an
insurgent mortar or grenade,
according to various Afghan
and international officials.
So far this year, more than
50 U.S. forces have been killed
in insider attacks by Afghan
troops or insurgents who have
infiltrated their ranks.

Syria rails against
rebel supporters at
United Nations
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -
Syria's foreign minister brought
his regime's case before the
world Monday, accusing the
U.S. and its allies of promot-
ing "terrorism" and blaming
everyone from neighbors and
extremists to the media for
escalating the war - except the
Syrian government.
Addressingministers and
diplomats from the United
Nation's 193 member states as
fighting spread in the historic
Old City- of Aleppo, Foreign
Minister Walid al-Moallem
lashed out at calls in Wash-
ington and in Arab and Euro-
pean capitals for Assad to step
down as interference in Syria's
domestic affairs.
Al-Moallem blamed inter-
national organizations for
prolonging the crisis and
denounced countries such as
the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and Turkey for supporting the
opposition's "terrorism."
"This terrorism which is
externally supported is accom-
panied by unprecedented media
provocation based on igniting
religious extremism sponsored
by well-known states in the
region," he told the U.N. Gen-
eral Assembly.
Members of the opposition
said it was common knowl-
edge that these neighboring
Arab countries were support-
ing and financing the rebels,
but said the Assad government
had brought it upon itself after
cracking down on protests that
began peacefully 18 months
ago.
"It is the regime's mindless,
brutal and criminal, military
crackdown that pushed the
Syrian people to ask for help
from the international com-
munity, from NATO and from
the devil himself if necessary
to protect them," Haitham
Manna, a Paris-based veteran
Syrian dissident who heads the
external branch of the National
Coordination Body opposition
group, told 'The Associated
Press.
Al-Moallem's speech fol-
lowed his meeting with Secre-
tary-General Ban Ki-moon in
which the U.N. chief "raised

in the strongest terms the
continued killings, massive
destruction, human rights
abuses, and aerial and artillery
attacks committed by the gov-
ernment," according to a state-
ment by his press office. "He
stressed that it was the Syrian
people who were being killed
every day, and appealed to the
Government of Syria to show
compassion to its own people."
The Syrian foreign minister
in his address invited the oppo-
sition to "work together to stop
the shedding of Syrian blood"
and said that a Syrian-led dia-
logue could produce a, "more
pluralistic and democratic"
country.
The opposition called the
speech a classic case of regime
"propaganda," and 'dismissed
his calls for dialogue as not
genuine.
"While the brutal and delu-
sional Syrian regime con-
tinues to pay lip service to
diplomacy, its actions over the
past 18 months have demon-
strated beyond any doubt that
they have no interest in mean-
ingful reform or " dialogue"
Radwan Ziadeh, a U.S-based
spokesman for the chief opposi-
tion group, the Syrian National
Council, said in a statement.
Al-Moallem argued in his
address that his regime is con-
fronting a myriad of conspira-
cies by internal and external
forces determined to end the
Assad family's 40-year rule.
But al-Moallem made clear
that Baslhar Assad has no inten-
tion of relinquishing the presi-
dency.
Armed groups were inciting
civilians in border areas to flee
to neighboring countries "to
fabricate a refugee crisis," al-
Moallem said.
Up to 3,000 Syrians are leav-
ing the country every day, said
Vincent Cochetel of the U.N.
refugee agency. Some 300,000
Syrians are registered, or wait-
ing to register with the U.N. in
Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Leba-
non and the agency expects the
number to grow to 700,000 by
the year's end.
Al-Moallem called for a Syr-
ian-led dialogue to agree on a
roadmap to "a more plu-alistic
and democratic Syria."
His call, similar to other
overtures made by Assad's
regime, is unlikely to be heeded
by the opposition.

White House says it
thwarted cyber attack

Hackers tried to
infiltrate White
House computers'
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
White House is acknowledging
an attempt to infiltrate its com-
puter system, butsays it thwarted
the effort and that no classified
networks were threatened.
White House spokesman Jay
Carney told reporters the White
House is equipped with .iitiga-
tion measures that identified the
attack, isolated it and prevented
its spread.
He said there was no indica-
tion that any data was removed.
"There are distinctions
between those networks that
contain classified information
and those that don't, and the
attack was against an unclassi-
fied network," Carney said.
Carney described the attack
as "spear-phishing" and said
such efforts against government
computer systems are "not infre-
quent." Carney spoke in Hen-
derson, Nev., where President
Barack Obama is preparing for
his first debate against rival Mitt
Romney on Wednesday.
"Phishing" is a tactic that
involves sending an email that
falsely claims to be from a legiti-
mate enterprise in an attempt to
trick the user into turning over
information.
Last year, Google Inc. blamed
computer hackers in China for
a phishing effort against Gmail
accounts of several hundred

people, including senior U.S.
government officials and mili-
tary personnel. Last November,
senior U.S. intelligence offi-
cials for the first time publicly
accused China of systematically
stealing American high-tech
data for its own national eco-
nomic gain.
The White House would not
say whether the recent attack
was linked to China.
Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta, during a visit to China
last month, raised the subject
of China-based cyberattacks
against American companies
and the government.
News of the most recent
attack came as the Obama
administration - is preparing
an executive order with new
rules to protect U.S. computer
systems. After Congress failed
this summor to pass a compre-
hensive cybersecurity bill, the
White House said itfvwould use
executive branch authorities to
improve the nation's computer
security, especially for networks
tied to essential U.S. industries.
An initial draft of the order
included provisions for volun-
tary cybersecurity standards
for companies, a special coun-
cil run by the Homeland Secu-
rity Department and a review to
determine if existing cybersecu-
rity regulations are adequate.
But by issuing the execu-
tive order, the. White House
risks complaints that President
Barack Obama is anti-business
from Republicans and the same
pro-business groups that killed
the legislation on Capitol Hill.

In this Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006 file photo, a handful of leftover 2006 Honda Accord sedans sit on the lot of a Honda deal-
ership in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo.
Honda recallng 600,000 Accords
due to faulty power steering hose

One fire, no fuel economy. For years it has
been the nation's second-best-
injuries or crashes selling car, beaten only by the
Toyota Camry.
reported from hose The National Highway Traf-
fic Safety Administration, the
DETROIT (AP) - Honda is government agency that moni-
recalling 600,000 Accord mid- tors vehicle safety, said in a
size cars in the U.S. and Canada posting on its website during
to fix a faulty power steering the weekend that the Accord's
hose that can leak fluid and power steering hose can deteri-
cause a fire. orate with prolonged exposure
The recall affects Accords to engine heat. The hoses can
with V-6 engines from the 2003 crack and leak, possibly causing
through 2007 model years. a fire or loss of power-assisted
Honda has a report of one fire steering, the documents said.
but no injuries or crashes. Honda will replace the hoses
The five-passenger Accord for free, but it won't have the
is consistently among the top- parts available until early next
selling vehicles in the United year. Any owner who suspects
States, mainly because of its a leak should take their car to
reputation for reliability and a dealer for inspection, Honda

spokesman Ed Miller said Mon-
day.
The company that makes the
Accord's power-steering hoses
had to ramp up manufacturing
to make them since the affected
cars are more than five model
years old and the hoses were out
of production, Miller said.
"We're going to start making
them and gettingthem out there
as soon as we can," he said.
The Accords are being added
to a May recall of 53,000 Acura
TL midsize luxury cars in the
U.S. from the 2007 and 2008
model years. Acura is Honda's
luxury brand.
The replacement hoses for
the Accords are different from
the hoses in the original Acura
recall, Honda said.

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