The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October17, 2012 - 3A NEWS BRIEFS PETOSKEY, Mich. "Batman" arrested after harassing law enforcement A Michigan man whose efforts to keep an eye on his community while wearing a Batman outfit landed him in court said he has good intentions with his crime- fighting work. State troopers arrested Mark Wayne Williams, 33, on Sept. 29 because they said he refused to leave them alone while they searched for a driver who fled an accident. Williams was charged with resisting and obstructing police in an investigation. "I don't want to be a police offi- cer. I thinkwhatpolice officers do is great, but it's up to each person to take a stand and do something to make things better," Williams told the Petoskey News-Review. "A lot of times, what I've seen from situations I've been in, peo- ple see something going on and think the police will handle it, but if nobody calls the police or takes a stand, it's not going to help DENVER Pot advocates call on conservatives It's not all hippies backing November's marijuana legaliza- tionvotes in Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Appealingto Western individu- alism and a mistrust of federal government, activists have lined up some prominent conservatives, from one-time presidential hope- fuls Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul to Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. "This is truly a nonpartisan issue," said Mark Slaugh, a vol- unteer for the Colorado initiative who is based in Colorado Springs, which has more Republicans than anywhere else in the state. JERUSALEM Iran calls drone missions a success A senior Iranian military offi- cial claimed Tuesday that Irani- an-made surveillance drones have made dozens of apparently unde- tected flights into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in recent years to probe air defenses and collect reconnaissance data. An Israeli official rejected the account. The Iranian official declined to give further details on the purported missions or the capa- bilities of the drones, including whether they were similar to the unmanned aircraft launched last week by Lebanon's Hezbollah and downed by Israeli warplanes. It also was impossible to indepen- dently verify the claims from the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. AMSTERDAM Thieves make off with valuable Picasso, Monet Thieves broke into a Rotter- dam museum on Tuesday and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions. Police haven't said how they pulled off the early hours heist, but an expert who tracks stolen art said the robbers clearly knew what they were after. "Those thieves got one hell of a haul," said Chris Marinello, who directs the Art Loss Register. The heist at the Kunsthal museum is one of the largest in years in the Netherlands, and is a stunning blow for the private Tri- ton Foundation collection, which was being exhibited publicly as a group for the first time. "It's every museum director's worst nightmare," said Kunsthal director Emily Ansenk, who had been in Istanbul on business but returned immediately. News of the theft "struck like a 5. bomb," she said at a press confer- ence in the museum's cafe. -Compiled from Daily wire reports PowerfIul drug lord's daughter arrested in USA A protester gives the victory sign after scuffles broke out between groups of several hundred protesters in Tahrir square when chants against the new Islamist president angered some in the crowd in Cairo on Oct.12. High court pointedly criticizes proposed Egyptian constitution Role of religion and the judiciary key points of contention with legislature Egypt's highest court lashed out Tuesday at an Islamist-led panel tasked with writing the country's new constitution, saying that some provisions proposed for the text undercut the court's mandate and keep it under the president's power. The work - and the composi- tion - of the 100-member con- stitutional assembly has been the subject of a fierce debate in Egypt, and the country is still haggling over disputed articles in the charter, some of which will determine the role of reli- gion in the nation's affairs and the independence ofthe judiciary. Supporters of the panel draft- ing the constitution say it was set up by an elected parliament and broadly represents Egypt's political factions. Critics say the process is dominated by a major- ity made up of Islamists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood from which Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, hails, and more radical groups, when it should be more consensual. With the nation- increas- ingly polarized, and mistrust between Islamists and other groups growing, the country's judiciary has emerged as a life- line and final arbiter for set- tling most disputes. More than 40 legal challenges have been presented to the country's top administrative court demand- ing the dissolution of the cur- rent panel. Egypt's High Administrative Court put off a widely expect- ed decision on the challenges Tuesday for next week, prolong- ing the suspense over the fate of the second panel to write the country's new charter. An earlier panel, also dominated by Islamists, was dissolved in April through the same court, which ruled its make-up didn't adhere to a constitutional dec- laration designed by the coun- try's former military rulers. The rising influence of the Islamists was solidified through early parliamentary elections in Egypt, giving them nearly 75 percent of seats in parliament, and subsequently, control over the making of the constitutional assembly, which was drawn up by the parlia- ment. "Instead of a consensus building from the outset, we got this extreme polarization and these elections," said Nasser Amin, a judicial affairs expert. "The judiciary has become the safety valve, the only place that everyone resorts to for settling disputes. Otherwise, it will be a blood bath." Guzman Salazar may provide info about Sinaloa cartel in Mexico SAN DIEGO (AP) - The daughter of one of the world's most sought-after drug lords has been charged with trying to enter the United States on someone else's passport, U.S. officials said, becoming the lat- est family member to become ensnared in U.S. courts. Alejandrina Gisselle Guz- man Salazar, 31, was arrest- ed Friday at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry. Two U.S. officials said Mon- day thatshe told authorities her father was Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the elusive leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the " arrest publicly. The significance of the arrest will depend on what Guzman Salazar can tell authorities about her father, like whether she can provide phone num- bers, said pavid Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute. "We don't know exactly what she knows," said Shirk. "It may just be an interesting factoid in the war on drugs or it could be a vital clue for law enforcement." Shirk noted that Benjamin Arellano Felix , who led what was then Mexico's most pow- erful drug cartel, was captured in Mexico in 2002 after author- ities tracked his daughter to find him. Guzman Salazar was charged with fraud and mis- use of visas, permits and other documents. The complaint said she attempted to enter the country on foot, presenting a non-immigrant visa contained in a Mexican passport. She told authorities she was pregnant and intended to goto Los Ange- les to give birth to her child. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Guz- mans wife - former beauty queen Emma Coronel - trav- eled to Southern California and gave birth to twin girls at Ante- lope Valley Hospital in Lan- caster, north of Los Angeles. The newspaper said Coronel, then 22, holds U.S. citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the U.S. and to use its hospitals. "You kind of surmise that there's some family connection back to Southern California," Eric Olson, associate director of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute said of the daughter's arrest. The Sinaloa cartel, named after the Pacific coast state of the same name, controls traf- ficking along much of the U.S. border with Mexico, particu- larly in Western states. Authorities in the U.S. and Mexico have said they believe Guzman has children with sev- eral partners, though it's not clear how many. The U.S. Trea- sury Department has put sanc- tions on sons Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" Guzman Salazar, 31, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 22. Disgraced Israeli leader poised to make comeback Resurgence of popular leader complicates PM's re-election attempt JERUSALEM (AP) - The popular ultra-Orthodox Israeli politician Arieh Deri is prepar- ing a comeback after a 13-year hiatus that included a brief pris- on term for accepting bribes. A return of the former king- maker to lead the powerful Shas Party could complicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid for re-election: Under Deri, who is considered to be more dovish than Shas' current lead- er regarding concessions to the Palestinians, the party may no longer be the automatic Netan- yahu coalition ally that it has been. The spiritual leader of the party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has yet to rule on whether Deri will replace Shas' current chief Eli Yishai. The two contenders have been waging a public bat- tle over the 92-year-old rabbi's blessing. If Deri is not reinstated as leader, he is expected to start a new party that focuses on social welfare and could steal votes away from Shas. Internal party polls have suggested Shas will fare much better in the Jan. 22 election with Deri at the helm, according to-Israeli media. The charismatic Deri, 53, was a rising young star who transformed Shas from a small, niche party into a major factor in Israeli politics before he went to prison. Two months after being con- victed in 1999, he led Shas to a record 17 seats in the 120-mem- ber parliament but could not serve in the next government, because of his impending incar- ceration. He spent two years behind bars for taking bribes from religious seminaries when he was interior minister in return for future financing. At the time, Yosef announced that Yishai would serve as a "custodian" leader until Deri could return to politics. - Because of his conviction, Deri was banned from run- ning for office for seven years after leaving prison. During Deri's prolonged absence, Yis- hai solidified his leadership of the party and has become a prominent minister in a series of coalition governments. Shas holds 11 seats in parlia- ment, making it a midsize but still influential party. Yishai, who currently serves as Netanyahu's interior min- ister, is more strongly aligned with the hawkish elements of Israeli politics who oppose broad concessions to the Pal- estinians. Deri is seen as more moderate, having served in the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's government when the peace process with the Pales- tinians began in the early 1990s. Roi Lachmanovitch, a former Shas spokesman who served under Yishai, said he wasn't certain Deri would strengthen the party's prospects. "At the end it all depends on the rabbi's decision and it is not based on polls," he said. "It is a principled ruling: Do you stick with the current loyal leader or reconnect with the mythical leader of the past?" A split would hurt the party, and attempts were being made to find a compromise that would keep both men happy. The cur- rent formula looks to have Deri head the party, with Yishai remaining its most senior Cabi- net minister in the next govern- ment. As interior minister, respon- sible for the country's immigra- tion policies, Yishai has been a controversial figure. He has led a much-criticized crackdown on African migrants and was. also harshly criticized in an official report for failures in the government's response to a for- est fire that killed 44 people in 2010. The Interior Ministry is in charge of the nation's firefight- ing force. Shas has historically held enough seats to guarantee the sitting prime minister a major- ity in parliament. It has lev- eraged this influence to win powerful ministries with large budgets that can be directed to its core constituency of poorer, religious Jews of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, descent. A