The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, November 19,2012 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, November 19, 2012 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
MUELLER TOWNSHIP, Mich.
Alcohol likely a
factor in off-road
vehicle crash
State police say a 57-year-old
suburban Detroit man has been
killed in an off-road vehicle crash
in the Upper Peninsula.
A news release from the state
police post at St. Ignace says the
crash, happened about 7 p.m.
Wednesday in Schoolcraft Coun-
ty's Mueller Township.
State police say Brian R. Reiss
of Macomb County's Clinton
Township was operating the off-
road vehicle. It says he died Friday
at Marquette General Hospital.
Investigators say they believe
that drinking and speed are fac-
tors in the crash.
LOS ANGELES
Churches to sue
Santa Monica over
freedom of speech
The city of Santa Monica has
allowed an elaborate nativity
scene in its Palisades Park each
Christmas for nearly 60 years, but
officials are ending the tradition
this year after an atheist set up
his own non-religious display and
caused an uproar.
Now, the churches behind the
nativity are suing in federal court
and claim the city violated their
freedomofspeechbystoppingthe
holiday tradition.
A court hearing Monday in
U.S. District Court in Los Ange-
les could decide the fate of the
Christian tableau for the upcom-
ing season.
The churches want a judge to
blockthe city's ban on private and
unattended displays in the park
until the case is resolved. The city
is asking the court to dismiss the
lawsuit entirely.
MAPUTO, Mozambique
Airline workers go..
on one-day strike
Pilots and crew members at
Mozambique's national airline
have gone on a one-day strike,
grounding the carrier.
Linhas Aerrreas de Mocam-
bique Ltd. flights out of Mozam-
bique's capital Maputo had been
stopped Sunday by the strike.
Workers told journalists that they
wanted higher wages and better
working conditions.
Joao de Abreu, an official with
the state-owned airline, said
international flights Sunday to
Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe
had been cancelled over the strike.
Late Sunday night, negotia-
tor Paulo Napoleao said workers
struck a deal with the airline to
resume flights Monday.
The European Commission
banned Mozambican airlines last

year from flying from Europe, cit-
ing a lack of technicians to imple-
ment safety rules.
YOLA, Nigeria
Christian vigilante
group triggers riots
A Christian vigilante group
killed a Muslim resident who
insisted on going through their
illegal checkpoint, triggering
riots that have left at least four
people dead in central Nigeria,
a local official said Sunday, and
showing how communities have
lost faith in government's ability
to protect them.
Rioters have burned down
houses and shops in the remote
area of Ibi, about 140 miles from
the Taraba state capital of Jalin-
go, said Ibi local government
chairman Isiaku Adamu.
A Taraba State government
spokesman Emmanuel Bello said
Sunday that authorities have sent
troops to the area to quell the vio-
lence.
Christians had put up several
checkpoints early Sunday to stop
Muslimsfromnearingtheir church
during their services as a response
to church attacks in other parts of
the country, Adamu said.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

At annual summit,
Southeast Asian
leaders prod China

Majdi Mohammed/AP
A Palestnin mn hides duringa protest against Israel's operations in Gaza Strip, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of
tamallah on Sunday.
Israeli air strike kills 11

Intense fighting
continues in Gaza
for a fifth day
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)
- An Israeli missile ripped
through a two-story home in
a residential area of Gaza City
on Sunday, killing at least 11
civilians, including four young
children and an 81-year-old
woman, in the single deadli-
est attack of Israel's offensive
against Islamic militants.
The bloodshed was likely to
raise pressure on Israel to end
the fighting, even as it pledged to
intensify the offensive by strik-
ing the homes of wanted mili-
tants. High numbers of civilian
casualties in an offensive four
years ago led to fierce criticism
and condemnation of Israel.
In all, 73 Palestinians,
including 37 civilians, have
been killed in the five-day
onslaught. Three Israeli civil-
ians have also died from Pales-
tinian rocket fire.
The Israeli military carried
out dozens of airstrikes through-

out the day, and naval forces
bombarded targets along Gaza's
Mediterranean coast. Many of
the attacks focused on homes
where militant leaders or weap-
ons were believed to be hidden.
Palestinian militants con-
tinued to barrage Israel with
rockets, firing more than 100
on Sunday, and setting off air
raid sirens across the south-
ern part of the country. Some
40 rockets were intercepted
by Israel's U.S.-financed "Iron
Dome" rocket-defense system,
including two that targeted the
metropolis of Tel Aviv.
Israel's decision to step up
its attacks in Gaza marked a
new and risky phase of the
operation, given the likeli-
hood of civilian casualties in
the densely populated terri-
tory of 1.6 million Palestinians.
Israel launched the offensive
Wednesday in what it said
was an effort to end months of
intensifying rocket fire from
the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
In the day's deadliest vio-
lence, the Israeli navy fired
at a home where it said a top
wanted militant was hiding.

The missile struck the home
of the Daloo family in Gaza
City, reducing the structure to
rubble.
Frantic rescuers, bolstered
by bulldozers, pulled the limp
bodies of children from the
ruins of the house, includ-
ing a toddler and a 5-year-old,
as survivors and bystanders
screamed in grief. Later, the
bodies of the children were laid
out in the morgue of Gaza City's
Shifa Hospital.
More than a dozen homes of
Hamas commanders or families
linked to Hamas were struck
on Sunday. Though most were
empty - their inhabitants hav-
ing fled to shelter - at least
three had families in them. Al-
Kidra said 20 of 27 people killed
Sunday were civilians, mostly
women and children.
Israel sought to place the
blame on militants, saying they
were intentionally operating
in places inhabited by civil-
ians. The military has released
videos and images of what it
says are militants firing rock-
ets from mosques, schools and
public buildings.

Decision on
disputed land one
goal of gathering
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
(AP) - Southeast Asian leaders
decided Sunday to ask China to
start formal talks "as soon as
possible" on crafting a legally
binding accord aimed at pre-
venting an outbreak of violence
in disputed South China Sea
territories, a top diplomat said.
Leaders of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations
made the decision during their
annual summit in Cambodian
capital Phnom Penh, ASEAN
Secretary-General Surin Pitsu-
wan said.
The South China Sea territo-
rial disputes, which many fear
could spark Asia's next war,
have overshadowed discussions
at the summit, where the top
agenda items included human
rights and expanding an Asian
free-trade area.
Four countries in ASEAN
- Brunei, Malaysia, the Phil-
ippines and Vietnam - have
been locked in long-unresolved
territorial rifts with China and
Taiwan in the resource-rich
waters, where a bulk of the
world's oil and cargo passes.
But fresh territorial spats
involving China, Vietnam
and the Philippines starting
last year have set off calls for
ASEAN and China to turn a
nonaggression accord they
signed in 2002 to a stronger,
legally-binding "code of con-
duct" aimed at discouraging
aggressive acts that could lead
to dangerous confrontations or
accidental clashes in the busy
region.
Vietnam and the Philippines
have separately accused China

since lastyear ofintrudinginto
South China Sea islands, reefs
and waters they claim and of
disrupting their oil explora-
tions well within their ter-
ritorial waters. China, which
claims virtually the entire
South China Sea, has dismissed
the protests.
China has sought one on one
negotiations with rival nations
to resolve the disputes, some-
thing that will give it advantage
because of its sheer size, and has
objected to any effort to bring
the problem to regional or inter-
national forums like ASEAN. It
has also warned Washington
not to get involved but Ameri-
can officials have declared that
the peaceful resolution of the
disputes and freedom of navi-
gation in the vast sea was in the
U.S. national interest.
ASEAN leaders, meanwhile,
adopted a human rights decla-
ration on Sunday despite last-
minute calls for a postponement
by critics, including Washing-
ton, who said the pact contains
loopholes that can allow atroci-
ties to continue.
ASEAN signed a document
adopting the Human Rights
Declaration in Phnom Penh.
The nonbinding declaration
calls for an end to torture, arbi-
trary arrests and other rights
violations that have been long-
time concerns in Southeast
Asia, which rights activists
once derisively described as
being ruled by a "club of dicta-
tors."
ASEAN diplomats have
called the declaration a mile-
stone in the region despite
its imperfections, saying it
will help cement democratic
reforms in countries such as
Myanmar, which until recently
has been widely condemnedfor
its human rights record.

Thousands march in honor
of woman denied abortion

Woman's death,
brings abortion
debate to forefront
in Ireland
DUBLIN (AP) - About
10,000 people marched
through Dublin and observed
a minute's silence Saturday in
memory of the Indian dentist
who died of blood poisoning
in an Irish hospital after being
denied an abortion.
Marchers, many of them
mothers and daughters walk-
ing side by side, chanted "Never
again!" and held pictures of
Savita Halappanavar as they
paraded across the city to stage
a nighttime candlelit vigil out-
side the office of Prime Minis-
ter Enda Kenny.
The 31-year-old, who was 17
weeks pregnant with her first
child, died Oct. 28 one week
after being hospitalized with
severe pain at the start of a mis-
carriage. Her death, made pub-
lic by her husband this week,
has highlighted Ireland's long
struggle to come to grips with
abortion.
Doctors refused her requests
to remove the fetus until its
heartbeat stopped four days
after her hospitalization. Hours
later she became critically ill
and her organs began to fail.
She died three days later from
blood poisoning. Her widower
and activists say she could have
survived, and the spread of
infection been stopped, had the
fetus been removed sooner.
The case illustrates a20-year-
old confusion in abortion law in
Ireland, where the practice is
outlawed in the constitution.
A 1992 Supreme Court ruling
decreed that- abortions should
be legal to save the life of the
woman, including if she makes
credible threats to commit sui-
cide if denied one. But succes-
sive governments have refused
to pass legislation spelling out
the rules governing'that general
principle, leaving the decision
up to individual doctors in an
environment of secrecy.

Kenny's government says it
needs to await the findings of
two investigations into Halap-
panavar's death before taking
any action. It has declined to
say if it will pass legislation to
make the 1992 judgment the
clear-cut, detailed law of the
land. Many doctors say they
fear being targeted by lawsuits
or protests - or even charged
with murder - if they perform
an abortion to safeguard a
pregnant woman's life.
Speakers from socialist par-
ties, women's groups and abor-
tion rights activists addressed
Saturday's crowd from atop a
flat-bed truck. They decried
the fact that two decades had
passed without any political
decision to define when hospi-
tals could, and could not, per-
form abortions.
"Twenty years is far too
long. Ignoring women's rights
is wrong!" the crowd chanted.
About 1,000 people staged
a more prayer-oriented rally
in the western city of Galway,
where the Halappavanars
settled in 2008. Some placed
candles spelling SAVITA on the
pavement in Galway's central
Eyre Square.
Halappanavar's husband
Praveen, took her body back to
India for a Hindu funeral ser-
vice and cremation Nov. 3 but
intends to return to his job as
a medical devices engineer at
Boston Scientific in Galway.
The Irish government's inac-
tion on abortion means that the
only law on the books dates to
British rule in 1861, declaring
that the "procurement of a mis-
carriage" amounts to murder
and could be punishable by up
to life in prison.
Irish voters in 1992 passed
constitutional amendments
legalizing the right of Irish
women to receive information
on abortion services in neigh-
boring England, where the
practice has been legal since
1967, and to travel there with-
out fear of facing prosecution.
British health authorities esti-
mate that 4,000 to 5,000 Irish
residents travel annually to
England for abortions.

In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, M23 rebels conduct training exercises in Rumangabo, eastern Congo. The Rwandan-backed
rebel group advanced to within 4kilometers (2.4miles)of Goma.
Congolese rebels, backed by
Rwanda, continue-to advanRce

U.N. Security
Council calls for
rebels to stop, may
add sanctions
GOMA, Congo (AP) - A rebel
group believed to be backed by
Rwanda advanced to within two
miles of Goma, a crucial provin-
cial capital in eastern Congo,
marking the first time that rebels
have come this close since 2008.
Congolese army spokesman
Col. Olivier Hamuli said the
fighting has been going on since
6 a.m. Sunday and the front line
has moved to just a few miles
outside the city.
M23 spokesman Col. Vian-
ney Kazarama initially said the
rebels would spend the night in
Goma. In the afternoon after the
fighting stopped, he said, "We
can take Goma easily now, we
have pushed the Congolese army
back over 10 kilometers in one
day."
The M23 rebel group is made
up of soldiers from a now-
defunct rebel army, the National
Congress for the Defense of the
People, or CNDP, a group made-
up primarily of fighters from the
Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity
that was targeted in Rwanda's
1994 genocide.

'In the negotiations that fol-
lowed and which culminated in
a March 23, 2009, peace deal,
the CNDP agreed to disband and
their fighters joined the national
army of Congo. They did not
pick up their arms again until
this spring, when hundreds of
ex-CNDP fighters defected from
the army in April, claiming that
the Congolese government had
failed to uphold their end of the
2009 agreement.
Reports, including one by
the United Nations Group of
Experts, have shown that M23 is
actively being backed by Rwan-
da, which is providing financial
support, arms as well as fight-
ers. The reports indicate that the
new rebellion is likely linked to
the ongoing fightto control Con-
go's rich mineral wealth.
On Saturday, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
called Rwandan President Paul
Kagame "to request that he use
his influence on the M23 to help
calm the situation and restrain
M23 from continuing their
attack," according to peacekeep-
ing chief Herve Ladsous.
The latest clashes broke out
Thursday and led to the deaths
of at least 151 rebels and two sol-
diers. On Saturday U.N. attack
helicopters targeted M23 posi-
tions in eastern Congo.
In downtown Goma, panicked

residents came out to try to get
more information on what was
happening.
In their march toward Goma,
the M23 rebels caused an entire
refugee camp holding an esti-
mated population of 60,000 to
bolt. An Associated Press report-
er who traveled Sunday to the
front line saw the remains of the
refugee camp in Kanyaruchinya,
a village along the road to Goma.
All that remained in the
camp on Sunday afternoon were
personal belongings scattered
around skeletons of tents made
of eucalyptus branches, stripped
of their plastic sheets.
Reports by United Nations
experts have accused Rwanda,
as well as Uganda, of support-
ing the rebels. Both countries
strongly deny any involvement
and Uganda said if the charges
continue it will pull its peace-
keeping troops out of Soma-
lia, where they are playing an
important role in pushing out the
Islamist extremist rebels.
The U.N. Security Council
called for an immediate stop to
the violence following a two-
hour, closed-door emergency
meeting on Saturday. The coun-
cil said it would add sanctions
against M23 rebel leaders and
demanded that rebels immedi-
ately stop their advance toward
Goma.

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