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