The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November. 27, 2012 - 3
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING
Snyder touts
bridge in visit to
Canada
Gov. Rick Snyder has used a
visit to Canada to praise the eco-
nomic benefits of the planned
new Canadian-financed bridge
between Detroit and Windsor,
Ontario.
The Republican leader was in
Toronto on Monday to announce
plans for the opening of a Mich-
igan-Canada trade office in part-
nership with the Council of Great
Lakes Governors and to address
the Canadian Council for Public-
Private Partnerships.
Snyder says that with the
bridge agreement in place, the
benefits from Michigan-Canada
cooperation "are even greater."
ALBANY, NewYork
N.Y. estimates $32
billion in damages,
losses from Sandy
Top political leaders in New
York put their heads together
Monday on big requests for fed-
eral disaster aid as Gov. Andrew
Cuomo announced that Super-
storm Sandy ran up a bill of $32
billion inthe state andthe nation's
largest city.
The cost does not include more
than $32 billion for repairs and
restoration and an additional
accounting of over $9 billion
to head off damage in the next
disastrous storm, including steps
to protect the power grid and cell-
phone network.
"It's common sense; it's intel-
ligent," Cuomo said. "Why don't
you spend some money now to
save money in the future? And
that's what prevention and miti-
gation is."
New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberghad announced earlier
in the day that Sandy caused $19
billion in losses in New York City
- part of the $30 billion estimate
CuonussedL
MIDDLETON, New Jersey
Chris Christie
says he'll file for
re-election
His popularity surgingbecause
of his handling of Superstorm
Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie
ainounced Monday that he will
seek re-election so he has the
chance to lead the state through
a recovery effort he said will
extend past his first term.
"The public needs to know that
I'm in this for the long haul, that
the person who has helped to lead
them through the initial crisis
wants to help lead them through
the rebuilding and restoration of
our state," he said at a news brief-
ing in Middletown, where he had
come to thank first responders
and volunteers.
"It would be wrong for me
to leave now," the 50-year-old
Republican governor said. "I don't
want to leave now. We have a job
to do. That job won't be finished
by next year."
JERUSALEM
Former Israeli
PM Barak quits
politics
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak abruptly quit politics Mon-
day, potentially robbing Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of
a key ally who enabled his hard-
line government to present a
moderate face to the world.
Netanyahu's party picked a
young, more hawkish list of can-
didates in its primary election on
Monday.
Barring another comeback by
the mercurial former general,
Barak's departure marked an end
to a distinguished and tumultu-
ous career that spanned half a
century. It began on a commu-
nal farm, led to military great-
ness and business success and a
mixed record in politics that was
highlighted by failed peacemak-
ing efforts during a brief term as
prime minister.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Hedge fund manager
in insider trading case
freed on bail in hearing
In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 photo released by the Egyptian Presidency, President Mohammed Morsi speaks to supporters outside the
Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt Morsi's claim on new powers has angered critics, who called the decision an assault on democracy.
orsi defends expanded
powers as anger -mounts
Egyptian president
seized near absolute
power last week
CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's Presi-
dent Mohammed Morsi struck
an uncompromising stand
Monday over his seizure of
near absolute powers, refusing
in a meeting with top judicial
authorities to rescind a package
of constitutional amendments
that placed his edicts above
oversight by the courts.
Morsi's supporters, mean-
while, canceled a massive rally
planned for Tuesday to com-
pete with a demonstration by
his opponents, citing the need
to "defuse tension" at a time
when anger over the president's
moves is mounting, according to
a spokesman for the president's
Muslim Brotherhood.
The opposition rally was
going ahead as scheduled at Cai-
ro's Tahrir square, birthplace of
the uprising that toppled Hosni
Mubarak's regime nearly two
years ago.
The meeting between Morsi
and members of the Supreme
Judiciary Council was a bid to
resolve a four-day crisis that has
plunged the country into a new
round of turmoil, with clashes
between the two sides that have
left one protester dead and hun-
dreds wounded.
Morsi, according to a presi-
dential statement, toldthe judges
thatwhiletheconstitutionaldec-
laration he announced Thursday
grants him immunity from any
oversight, he intended to restrict
that to what it described as "sov-
ereignty issues."
The vaguely worded state-
ment did not define those issues,
but they were widely interpret-
ed to cover declaration of war,
imposition of martial law, break-
ing diplomatic relations with a
foreign nation or dismissing a
Cabinet.
The statement did not touch
on the protection from over-
sight Morsi has extended to two
bodies dominated by his Broth-
erhood and other Islamists:
The 100-member panel tasked
with drafting a new constitu-
tion and parliament's mostly
toothless lower chamber, or the
Shura council.
The Shura Council does not
have lawmaking authorities
but, in the absence of the more
powerful lower chamber, the
People's Assembly, it is the only.
popularly elected body where
the Brotherhood and other
Islamists have a majority. The
People's Assembly was dis-
solved by a court ruling in June.
The judiciary has pushed
back, calling the decrees a power
grab and an "assault" on the
branch's independence. Judges
and prosecutors stayed away
from many courts in Cairo and
elsewhere on Sunday and Mon-
day.
A spokesman, Yasser Ali,
said Morsi told the judges that
he acted within his rights as
the nation's sole source of leg-
islation, assuring them that the
decrees were temporary and
did not in any way infringe on
the judiciary.
Two prominent rights law-
yers - Gamal Eid and Ahmed
Ragheb - dismissed Ali's
remarks.
Eid said they were designed
to keep "Morsi above the law,"
while Ragheb said they amount-
ed to "playing with words."
"This is not what Egyptians
are objecting to and protest-
ing about," Ragheb said. "If the
president wanted to resolve
the crisis, there should be an
amendment to his constitution-
al declaration."
In Washington, U.S. Secre-
tary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton spoke Monday by tele-.
phone with Egyptian Foreign
Minister Mohammed Kamel
Amr to "register American con-
cerns about Egypt's political
situation," according to spokes-
woman Victoria Nuland.
SEC: $276 million
scheme largest in
history
NEW YORK (AP) - A former
hedge fund portfolio manager
accused of enabling a quarter
of a billion dollars in profits by
passing along inside informa-
tion in one of the largest insider
trading fraud cases in history
appeared in a Manhattan court
for the first time Monday and
was released on $5 million bail,
though his movements were
restricted.
Mathew Martoma, 38, of
Boca Raton, Fla., was read his
rights by U.S. Magistrate Judge
James Cott, who agreed to
imposea bail package that pros-
ecutors and Martoma's lawyers
had worked out after his initial
court appearance in Florida last
week. He had been free on $5
million bail in Florida as well.
Martoma must post $2 mil-
lion in cash or property by next
week to satisfy the new bail
requirements, which will limit
his travelto NewYork, New Jer-
sey, Florida and Massachusetts.
Martoma was arrested last
week on charges that between
20,06 and 2008, he helped to
engineer one of the largest
insider trading frauds in his-
tory. Martoma worked with CR
Intrinsic Investors, an affiliate
of SAC Capital Advisors. SAC is
owned by Steven A. Cohen, one
of the world's richest men.
His court appearance lasted
only 12 minutes and he was not
required to enter a plea, since
an indictment has not been
returned. Prior to the hearing,
he sat in the spectator section
with his wife and lawyers until
his case was called.
Martoma's lawyer, Charles
Stiliman, provided a matter-of-
fact analysis to a court hearing
that was more process than sub-
stance.
"We took care of business
today and we'll be back another
day," Stillman said. Afterward,
Martoma could be seen walk-
ing down a courthouse hallway
clasping hands with his wife.
He left the courthouse after
the couple both signed papers
pledging that Martoma would
follow the conditions of the bail
package, which include surren-
dering any travel documents
belonging to himself and his
children.
Martoma was arrested on
Nov. 20 in Florida. Prosecutors
say he exploited an acquain-
tance with a medical school
professor to get confidential,
advance results from tests of an
Alzheimer's disease drug.
They say he shared the infor-
mation with others, enabling
more than $276 million to be
made illegally for his fund and
others. The government said
in court papers that he caused
other investment advisers to
buy shares in the drug compa-
nies, and then he and the oth-
ers ditched their investments
before the public found out
about the drug trial's disap-
pointing results, allowing them
all to make big profits and avoid
huge losses.
Court papers in Martoma's
case repeatedly allude, without
using Cohen's name, to his deal-
ings with Martoma in the lead-
up to an announcement about
the drug trial.
The FBI subpoenaed SAC and
other influential hedge funds in
November 2010. Martoma is the
fourth person associated with
SAC Capital to be. arrested on
insider trading charges in the
last four years.
Israel and Hamas start
indirect truce talks
Manning's treatment focus of
hearing in WikiLeaks case
GI hopes to avoid
trial by alleging he
was tortured
ing: "I want people to see the
truth."
The Defense Department has
said Manning's treatment at
Quantico was proper, given his
classification as a maximum-
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) security detainee who posed a
- An Army private charged in risk of injury to himself or oth-
the biggest security breach in ers. He was kept at the Marine
U.S. history is trying to avoid Corps brig from July 2010 to
trial by claiming he has already April 2011, eight months before
been punished enough by being it was shuttered. He was moved
locked up alone in a small cell to Fort Leavenworth, Kan.,
and having to sleep naked for where he was re-evaluated and
several nights. given a medium-security clas-
A United Nations investiga- sification. Army Undersecre-
tor called the conditions cruel, tary Joseph Westphal said Fort
inhuman and degrading, but Leavenworth provided an envi-
stopped short of calling it tor- ronment "more conducive for a
ture.. longer detention."
Pfc. Bradley Manning is Publicity about Manning's
expected to testify about
his treatment during a pre-
trial hearing Tuesday at Fort
Meade. The young intelligence
analyst has not spoken publicly
about his nearly nine months
at the Marine Corps brig in
Quantico, Va., but he has com-
plained in writing about being 1
confined alone in a 6-by-8-foot
cell for at least 23 hours a day. 7
For several days in January
2011, all his clothes were taken 4
from him each night until he
was issued a suicide-preven-
tion smock.2
The hearing is scheduled to
run through Sunday. 8
Manning is accused of send-
ing hundreds of thousands of 5
classified Iraq and Afghani-
stan war logs and more than
250,000 diplomatic cables to
the secret-spilling . website
WikiLeaks while he was work- 5
ing as an intelligence analyst in"
Baghdad in 2009 and 2010.
The 24-year-old native of 6
Crescent, Okla., allegedly told
a confidant-turned-informant
in an online chat in 2010 that
he leaked the information, say-
l
t
treatment helped bring world-
wide attention to his case. In
March, UN Special Rapporteur
on Torture Juan E. Mendez
presented a report to the UN's
Human Rights Council, criti-
cizing the U.S. government for
refusing his repeated requests
for a private visit with Manning.
Although they never spoke, "I
am persuaded that Pfc. Manning
was subjected to cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment" in
violation of the UN Convention
Against Torture, Mendez wrote
in a Nov. 15 email to The Associ-
ated Press.
Mendez said he doesn't know
if Manning's treatment amount-
ed to torture, as Manning sup-
porters claim.
Talks in Egypt
first since start of
ceasefire
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel
and Palestinian militants from
the Gaza Strip began indirect
talks Monday in Egypt aimed
at forging a new era of relations
between the bitter enemies fol-
lowing a cease-fire that ended
the heaviest fighting in nearly
four years.
The talks, being mediated by
Egypt, were the first negotia-
tions since the cease-fire took
effect last Wednesday, halting
eight days of airstrikes target-
ing militant groups in the Pal-
estinian territory and rocket
attacks that reached deep into
Israel.
Israel launched some 1,500
airstrikes in a bid to end rocket
attacks out of Gaza, while the
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
militant groups fired a similar
number of rockets at Israeli
cities. More than 160 Pales-
tinians, including dozens of
civilians were killed. Palestin-
ian attacks killed Six Israelis,
including four civilians and
two soldiers.
Now that fighting has sub-
sided, Egypt is working with
the sides on carrying out the
second phase of the agree-
ment: negotiating new border
arrangements for the impover-
ished coastal strip.
The negotiations will not
be simple. The militants want
Israel to lift what remains of
its blockade of Gaza, imposed
five years ago after Hamas
seized control of the territory
from its Western-backed rival
Palestinian President Mah-
moud Abbas. While Israel has
eased the blockade in recent
years, key restrictions remain
in place on exports out of Gaza
and the entry of badly needed
building materials into the ter-
ritory.
5-0
Campus Mind Works Groups
FREE drop-in education and support groups
for any U-M student with Depression,
Bipolar, or Anxiety
Gratitude Interventions
from Positive Psycholoy:
Strategies for Manag
Depression & Anxiet
When: Tuesday, November 27
5:30-7:00 pm.
Where: Angell Hall,
Room G228,
Central Campus
Visit www.campusmindworks.org
for more info.
Presented by the U-M Depression
Uaiverity ofichiga, Center in collaboration with
Depression Center the College of Engineering