The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Police officer shot
outside Detroit
funeral home
ADetroit police officer was shot
Wednesday after a high-speed car
chase that ended when the driver
being sought stopped in front of
a funeral home, ran through the
building and fired on police out-
side, a police spokeswoman said.
The single slug hit the offi-
cer's bulletproof vest in his back
and lodged there. The officer, an
11-year veteran, was hospitalized
in stable condition, spokeswoman
Sgt. Eren Stephens said.
The suspect, who was being
sought on a warrant for assault
with intent to murder, was shot by
the other officers and was in tem-
porary serious condition at a near-
by hospital, Stephens said. Neither
his nor the officer's name has been
released.
SYRACUSE, New York
Lotto put out false
information to
catch scammers
The NewYork State Lottery put
out false information to snare two
* Syracuse-area brothers accused
of scamming a customer out of a
winning $5 million scratch-off
ticket.
Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn
Hapeman put out the bogus story
last month, saying that 34-year-
old Andy Ashkar legitimately
bought the ticket in2006 but wait-
ed several years before trying to
claim the prize in March. Ashkar
planned to share the money with
his brother, 36-year-old Nayel
Ashkar, according to the Lottery.
Onondaga County District
Attorney William Fitzpatrick said
Lottery officials used the media
to get the real winner to come
forward after suspecting that the
Ashkars were not the legitimate
winners partly because they asked
for alesser amount iftheyskipped
a news conference.
1. .
an ehind anti
Muslim film gets
one year in prison
The California man behind
an anti-Muslim film that roiled
the Middle East was sentenced
Wednesday to a year in prison
for violating his probation stem-
ming from a 2010 bank fraud
conviction by lying about his
identity.
U.S. District Court Judge
Christina Snyder immediately
sentenced Mark BasseleyYoussef
after he admitted to four of the
eight alleged violations, includ-
ing obtaining a fraudulent
California driver's license. Pros-
ecutors agreed to drop the other
four allegations under an agree-
ment with Youssef's attorneys,
which also included more proba-
tion.
None of the violations had to
do with the content of "Inno-
cence of Muslims," a film that
depicts Mohammad as a reli-
gious fraud, pedophile and wom-
anizer.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay
Uruguay congress
considers same-sex
marriage law
Uruguay's congress is con-
sidering a gay marriage law that
would give same-sex couples all
the same rights and responsi-
bilities of heterosexual married
couples.
The country already has a civil
unions law and has stood out in
Latin America lately for legaliz-
ing abortion and planning to sell
government-grown marijuana to
any citizen who wants it.
The proposed "marriage
equality" law would change Uru-
guay's nearly-century-old civil
code and give married gays and
lesbians all the rights and respon-
sibilities of heterosexual married
couples, including the possibility
of adopting children.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
California debuting
landmark program to
cap carbon emissions
Obama responds warily
to sex scandal, FBI probe
Claims no evidence grilling FBI and CIA officials
privately about the same issues:
of potential danger whether national security was
jeopardized by the case and
to national security why they didn't know about the
investigation sooner.
WASHINGTON (AP) - "I have no evidence at this
Responding warily to his point, from what I've seen, that
administration's sudden sex classified information was dis-
scandal, President Barack closed that in any way would
Obama said Wednesday he's have had a negative impact on
seen no evidence that national our national security," Obama
security was damaged by the said at his first postelection news
revelations that ended his CIA conference.
director's career and imperil As, for the FBI's handling of
that of his Afghan war com- the matter, Obama said: "My
mander. expectation is that they fol-
But the president said he is low the protocols that they've
reserving judgment about how already established. One of the
the FBI has handled the inves- challenges here is that we're not
tigation that began in the sum- supposed to meddle in criminal
mer but didn't reach his desk investigations, and that's been
until after last week's election. our practice."
"I have a lot of confidence, Federal law enforcement
generally, in the FBI," Obama officials have said the FBI
said, qualifying his words of didn't inform the White House
s t.and G ,ngems soo >ut
actis cae.the original "ivestigaion
AOt p i t the because of rules set upefte-the
scandal from the White House, Watergate scandal to prevent
legislators on Capitol Hill were interference in criminal inves-
tigations, and that lawmakers
weren't given notice of poten-
tial national security problems
because the bureau had quickly
resolved them.
CIA Director David Petraeus
resigned Friday, two days after
the White House was notified
that he'd acknowledged having
an affair with his biographer,
Paula Broadwell.
The FBI's investigation of
the matter began last summer,
after Broadwell allegedly sent
harassing, anonymous emails to
a woman she apparently saw as
a rival for Petraeus' affections.
That woman, Florida socialite
Jill Kelley, in turn had traded
sometimes-flirtatious messages
with the top U.S. commander in
Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.
Kelley's complaints about the
threatening emails triggered the
FBI investigation that led to the
resignation of Petraeus and the
inquiry intoher communications
with Allen.
A lawyer for Allen released a
statement promising the general
would cooperate fully with the
Auctioning permits
for pollution
allowances
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Cal-
ifornia began auctioning permits
Wednesday for greenhouse gas
emissions, launching one of the
world's most ambitious efforts
to cut heat-trapping gases from
industrial sources.
The California Air Resourc-
es Board said it began selling
the pollution "allowances" in a
closed, online auction expected
to create the world's second-
largest marketplace for carbon
emissions.
Under the program, the state
sets a limit, or cap, on emissions
from individual polluters. Busi-
nesses are required to either cut
emissions to cap levels or, buy
allowances through the auction
from other companies for each
extra ton of pollution discharged
annually.
The board said the results of
the auction - what price is paid
for a ton of carbon, and how many'
companies participated - would
be released Nov. 19.
The cap-and-trade plan is a
central piece of AB32, the state's
landmark 2006 global warming
regulations.
The auction was being closely
watched nationally, as the world's
ninth-largest economy institutes
a program that has eluded law-
makers in Washington.
Only the European Union has
implemented a similar plan in
terms of scope, and it currently
operates the world's largest car-
bon marketplace. A much less
inclusive cap-and-trade scheme
covers only electricity produc-
ers in the northeastern United
States.
Failure of the California pro-
gram would be a devastating blow
to carbon control efforts nation-
ally, said Severin Borenstein, a
professor at the University of
California, Berkeley,an expert on
energy economics.
"Cap and trade is still probably
the most likely way we eventually
could get to a national carbon mit-
igation program," Borenstein said.
For the first two years of the
program, large industrial emit-
ters will receive 90 percent of
their allowances for free in a soft
start meant to give companies
time to reduce emissions through
new technologies or other means.
The cap, or number of allow-
ances, will decline over time in an
effort to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions year-by-year.
If a business cuts emissions
below its cap, it could profit by
selling its extra allowances at a
later auction.
Firms can also generate credits
by investing in forestry and other
projects that remove carbon from
the atmosphere. Those credits
can satisfy up to 8 percent of a
company's mandated emissions
reductions
Some businesses targeted by
the program have argued the
increased costs will drive jobs
out of California. Executives also
argue it could result in increased
emissions by businesses in neigh-
boring states that boost produc-
tion to grab business.
"Raisingcosts in California will
allow out-of-state firms to lower
prices and take market share,"
said Shelly Sullivan of the AB32
Implementation Group, a business
coalition that supports green-
house gas reductions but opposes
the auctioning of allowances.
"As it stands now the auction
equates to a tax for these busi-
nesses to continue to operate in
the state," Sullivan said. "Those
costs will be passed through to
consumers."
The California Chamber
of Commerce has filed a law-
suit challenging the air board's
authority to sell the allowances
to generate revenue for the state.
It claims the sale of allowances is
an illegal tax because taxes need
a two-thirds vote by the Legisla-
ture.
Stanley Young, a board
spokesman, said cap-and-trade
will withstand legal scrutiny.
"This market-based approach
to cutting greenhouse emissions
gives businesses the flexibility to
best decide how to reduce their
emissions," Young said.
Pakistan frees a handful (
prisoners to jumpstart pe
Move comes at
the request of the
Afghan government.
ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan
agreed to free a handful of Tali-
ban prisoners at the requestofthe
Afghan government, in a move
meant to help jumpstart a shaky
peace process with the militant
group in neighboring Afghani-
stan, officials said Wednesday.
The decision to release the
prisoners - described as mid- and
low-level fighters - is the most
encouraging sign yet that Islam-
abad maybe willing to play a con-
structive role in peace efforts that
have made little headway since
they began some four years ago,
hobbled by distrust among the
major players involved, including
the United States.
The U.S. and its allies fighting
in Afghanistan are pushing to
strike a peace deal with the Tali-
ban so they can pull out most of
their troops by the end of 2014
without the country descending
into further chaos. Butcconsider-
able obstacles remain, and it is
unclear whether the Taliban even
intend to take part in the process,
rather than just wait until foreign
forces withdraw.
Pakistan is seen as key to the
peace process. Islamabad has
ties to the Taliban that date back
to the 1990s, and many of the
group's leaders are believed to
be based on Pakistani territory,
having fled there following the
U.S-led invasion of Afghanistan
in 2001.
There were conflicting reports
about whether Pakistan had
already released the Taliban pris-
oners or just intended to. There
was also some confusion about
exactly how many prisoners were
involved.
A Pakistani government offi-
cial and an intelligence official
said Islamabad released at least
seven Taliban militants Wednes-
day in response to a personal
request by Salahuddin Rabbani,
the head of an Afghan govern-
ment council for peace talks with
the Taliban, who was wrapping
up a three-day visit to Islamabad.
The officials spoke on condition
of anonymity because they were
not authorized to brief the media.
An Afghan official with
knowledge of the talks said no
prisoners had yet been released.
He said the delegation gave
Pakistan a list of 40 Taliban
prisoners they wanted released.
Pakistan provided a list of 10
prisoners they would release,
but this list was rejected by the
delegation, the official said on
condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to talk to
the media. The two sides were
still trying to reach a compro-
mise, he said.
A joint statement put out by
Pakistan and Afghanistan on
Wednesday said "a number of
Taliban detainees are being
released" to support the peace
process at the request of the
Afghan government. It also
called on the Taliban and other
armed opposition groups to par-
ticipate in peace talks and sever
links with al-Qaida.
The Pakistani government
official said the men involved in
the release were "low- and mid-
level" fighters and did not include
the Taliban's former deputy lead-
er, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar,
who was captured in Pakistan in
2010.
The Afghan government has
repeatedly asked Pakistan to
release Baradar because he is seen
by some as crucial to the peace
process. Baradar was reportedly
conducting talks with the Afghan
government that were kept secret
from the Pakistanis, and his
arrest in the sprawling southern
port city of Karachi reportedly
)f Taliban
ace talks
angered Afghan President Hamid
Karzai.
Pakistan helped the Taliban
seize control of Afghanistan in
the 1990s - providing funding,
weapons and intelligence - and
the Afghan government and the
U.S. have accused Islamabad of
continuing to support the group.
Pakistan has denied the allega-
tions, but many analysts believe
the country continues to see the
militant group as an important
ally in Afghanistan to counter
archenemy India.
However, Pakistan is also wor-
ried about instability in Afghani-
stan following the planned
withdrawal of foreign forces.
If civil war breaks out again as
it did in the 1990s, hundreds of
thousands of Afghan refugees
could stream across the border
into Pakistan. Violence could
also give greater cover to Paki-
stani militants who are at war
with Islamabad.
These concerns have made a
peace deal more urgent in the
minds of Pakistanis.
Talat Masood, a retired Paki-
stani army general and defense
analyst, said the prisoner release
would improve the relationship
between Pakistan and Afghani-
stan, increasing the chances they
could work together to strike a
peace deal with the Taliban.
"It will improve the trust level
and confidence," Masood said.
"It will help Kabul find a genuine
solution to the problem."
The prisoners could also playa
positive role in the negotiations,
said Masood.
"I am sure the released Tali-
ban can play some partin making
the peace process a success," he
said.
Pakistan has also increased
'its cooperation with the U.S. in
recent months. The two sides
have set up working groups to
identify Taliban leaders who
could be open to reconcilia-
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