The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, December 5, 2412 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Official: Enough
cash to get Detroit
through Dec.
A top Detroit financial official
says.the city has enough cash in
the pipeline to make it through
December but says a money
crunch could hit in the first quar-
ter of 2013.
William Andrews is Detroit's
program management director,
a post created under a deal with
Michigan to head off a state finan-
cial takeover.
He told reporters Tuesday that
Detroit "will get through Decem-
ber." Mayor Dave Bing has warned
that the city treasury could run
dry soon.
Andrews says the first three
months of 2013 will be critical and
says the city will have to lay off
some workers to save cash.
Officials say Detroit faces a
shortage of up to $47 million by
June 30, a figure that could grow
as Detroit deals with unfunded
pension obligations.
ATLANTA
Scare prompts
carbon monoxide
detector discussion
It's odorless, colorless and
deadly. And if carbon monoxide is
leaking in a school, it might not be
detected until people are ill.
A leak at an Atlanta elemen-
tar school that sent 42 students
and seven adults to hospitals
had school officials considering
whether to install carbon monox-
ide detectors, a possibly life-sav-
ing move that is only required in a
handful of states.
The detectors are not required
in schools by law in Georgia and
other states. Connecticut requires
them in schools, while Maryland
requires them in newly built and
remodeled schools. Building codes
and local rules can require them
in schools elsewhere. When prop-
erly installed, the detectors give a
warning when carbon monoxide
reaches unsafe levels.
BEUJING
Fire in clothing
factory in south
China kills 14
A fire in a clothing factory
apparently caused by arson killed
14 people in southern China on
Tuesday, officials and state media
said.
The 14 were killed and one
other person was seriously injured
in the fire, which broke out at 3:30
p.m. in Shantou cityin Guangdong
province and was put out in half
an hour, the provincial emergency
department said on its microblog.
The Nanfang Daily said 84 fire-
fighters battled the blaze.
The Southern Metropolis Daily
said in an online report that the
victims were all women aged
18-20.
It said the cause of the fire
was arson, according to an initial
police and fire investigation.
LONDON
UK downplays
economic sanctions
against Israel
British Foreign Secretary Wil-
liam Hague has' downplayed the
possibility of European economic
sanctions against Israel for its
latest settlement-building plans,
saying there is "no enthusiasm
around the European Union" for
such measures.
Asked in Parliament about
whether Britain would put some
economic muscle behind its con-
demnations of Israel, Hague said
that imposing sanctions is not the
U.K.'s approach. He added he does
not believe "there would be any-
where near a consensus" on the
issue in Europe.
Hague said Tuesday that Brit-
ain will continue to try to bring
both sides back into peace talks,
and consider what further dip-
lomatic steps European coun-
tries can take if Israeli settlement
building continues.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U.N. chief rejects
warming doubts
Ban Ki-moon:
countries should
take leadership.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Point-
ing to the destruction caused
by Hurricane Sandy and other
weather disasters this year,
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon told an international cli-
mate conference Tuesday that
it was time to "prove wrong"
those who still have doubts
about global warming.
Ban, addressing delegates
at the annual U.N. climate
talks, said time is running out
for governments to act, citing
recent reports showing rising
emissions of greenhousengases,
which most scientists say are
causing the warming trend.
"The abnormal is the new,
normal," Ban told environment
ministers and climate officials
from nearly 200 countries.
"This year we have seen Man-
hattan and Beijing under water,
hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple washed from their homes
in Colombia, Peru, the Philip-
pines, Australia."
"The danger signs are all
around," he said, noting that ice
caps are melting, permafrost
thawing and sea levels rising.
Delegates at the two-week
talks that are set to end Friday
are discussing future emis-
sions cuts and climate aid to
poor countries, issues that rich
nations and the developing
world have struggled to agree
on for years.
In Doha, developing coun-
tries have criticized richer
nations for not promising high-
er emissions cuts and notgiving
any firm commitments on how
they plan to scale up climate aid
to $100 billion by 2020, a pledge
they made three years ago.
Ban told reporters after his
speech that richer countries,
including the U.S., "should take
leadership" on climate change
because they have the resourc-
es and technology to address
the problem.
On Tuesday, Britain
announced two initiatives to
support renewable energy in
Africa and awater management
program that it said would help
18 million poor people become
more resilient to climate
change. The initiatives, total-
ing 133 million pounds ($214
million) over the next three
years, were welcomed by cli-
mate activists.
"At last, a developed country
has finally made a pledge for
future climate finance here in
Doha," Oxfam Climate Change
Policy Advisor Tracy Carty
said, but noted that the details
remain "hazy."
AntEyptian waman holds anational flagas shelistens tospeakers, not pictaredin Tahrr Sqaare inCaira, Egypt, on Tuesday.
100,000 Egyptians protest
o utside presidential palace
Newly united
opposition rallies
against leader
CAIRO (AP) - More than
100,000 Egyptians protested
outside the presidential palace
in Cairo on Tuesday, fueling
tensions over Islamist leader
Mohammed Morsi's seizure of
nearly unrestricted powers and
the adoption by his allies of a
controversial draft constitution.
The outpouring of anger
across the Egyptian capital, the
Mediterranean port of Alexan-
dria and a string of other cities
pointed to a prolonged stand-
off between the president and a
newly united opposition.
Morsi's opponents, long frac-
tured by bickering and compet-
ing egos, have been re-energized
since he announced decrees
last month that place him above
oversight of any kind, includ-
ing by the courts, and provide
immunity to two key bodies
dominated by his allies: The
100-member panel drafting the
constitution and parliament's
upper chamber.
The decrees have led to charg-
es that Morsi's powers turned
him into a "new pharaoh."
The large turnout in Tues-
day's protests - dubbed "The
Last Warning" by organizers
- signaled sustained momen-
tum for the opposition, which
brought out at least 200,000 pro-
testers to Cairo's Tahrir Square
a week ago and a compara-
ble number on Friday to demand
that Morsi rescind the decrees.
The huge scale of the protests
have dealt a blow to the legiti-
macy of the new constitution,
which Morsi's opponents con-
tend allows religious authorities
too much influence over legisla-
tion, threatens to restrict free-
dom of expression and opens
the door to Islamist control over
day-to-day life.
What the revived opposition
has yet to make clear is what it
will do next: campaign for a'no"
vote on the draft constitution in
a nationwide referendum set for
Dec. 15, or call on Egyptians to
boycott the vote.
Already, the country's power-
ful judges have said they will not
take on their customary role of
overseeingthe vote, thus robbing
it of much of its legitimacy.
Morsi was in the presidential
palace conducting business as
usual as the protesters gathered
outside. Heleft for home through
a back door as the crowds contin-
ued to swell, according to a pres-
idential official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak
to the media.
The official said Morsi left on
the advice of security officials to
head off "possible dangers" and
to calm the protesters. Morsi's
spokesman, however, said the
president left the palace at the
end of his normal work day,
through the door he routinely
uses.
The protest was peaceful
except for a brief outburst when
police used tear gas to prevent
demonstrators from removing
a barricade topped with barbed
wire and converging on the pal-
ace.
Soon after, with the presi-
dent gone, the police abandoned
their lines and the protesters
surged ahead to reach the pal-
ace walls. But there were no
attempts to storm the palace,
guarded inside by the army's
Republican Guard.
Protesters also comman-
deered two police vans, climb-
ing atop the armored vehicles
to jubilantly wave Egypt's red,
white and black flag and chant
against Morsi. The protesters
later mingled freely with the
black-clad riot police, as more
and more people flocked to the
area to join the demonstration.
The protesters covered most
of the palace walls with anti-
Morsi graffiti and waved giant
banners carrying images of
revolutionaries killed in ear-
lier protests. "Down with the
regime" and "No to Morsi," they
wrote on the walls.
"He isn't the president of all
Egyptians, only of the Muslim
Brotherhood," said protester
Mariam Metwally, a postgradu-
ate student of international law.
"We don't feel like he is our
president."
A giant poster emblazoned
with an image of Morsi wearing
a Pharaonic crown was hoisted
between two street light posts
outside the presidential palace.
"Down with the president. No
to the constitution," it declared.
Typhoon kills at least
74 in the Phillippines
Rain accumulated
in mountain spills
into valley, flooding
emergence shelters
MANILA, Philippines (AP) -
At least 43 villagers and soldiers
drowned in a southern Philippine
town Tuesday when torrents
of water dumped by a powerful
typhoon cascaded down a moun-
tain, engulfing emergency shel-
ters and an army truck, officials
said. The deaths raised the toll
from one of the strongest storms
to hit the country this year to at
least 74.
Gov. Arturo Uy said rain from
Typhoon Bopha accumulated
atop a mountain and then burst
down on Andap village in New
Bataan town in hard-hit Com-
postela Valley province. The vic-
tims included villagers who had
fled from their homes to a school
and village hall, which were then
swamped by the flash flood. An
army truck carrying soldiers
and villagers was washed away,
according to Uy and army offi-
cials.
"They thought that they were
already secure in a safe area, but
they didn't know the torrents of
water would go their way," Uy
told DZBB radio.
He said the confirmed death
toll in the town was likely to
rise because several other bod-
ies could not immediately be
retrieved from floodwaters
strewn with huge logs and debris.
Bopha slammed into Davao
Orientalprovinceregionatdawn,
its ferocious winds ripping roofs
from homes and its 500-kilome-
ter (310-mile) -wide rain band
floodinglow-lying farmland.
The storm, packing winds
of 140 kilometers (87 miles) per
hour and gusts of up to 170 kph
(106 mph), toppled trees, trig-
gered landslides and sent flash
floods surging across the region's
mountains and valleys.
Two entire provinces lost
power and more than 100 domes-
tic flights were canceled. About
60,000 people fled to emergency
shelters.
Twenty-three people drowned
or were pinned by fallen trees or
collapsed houses in Davao Ori-
ental province's coastal town
of Cateel, which had the most
deaths after New Bataan, Davao
Oriental Gov. Corazon Malany-
aon told the ABS-CBN TV net-
work, citing police reports.
Some towns in the province
were so battered that no roofs
remained on buildings, Malany-
aon said.
The other deaths included
three children who were buried
by a wall of mud and boulders
that plunged down a mountain
in Marapat village, also in Com-
postela Valley. Their bodies were
wrapped in blankets by their
grieving relatives and placed on a
stage in a basketball court.
"The only thing we could do
was to save ourselves. It was too
late for us to rescue them," said
Valentin Pabilana, who survived
the landslide.
Mayor says LA port strike
to go to federal mediation
Representatives
have mixed
feelings going into
negotiations
LOS ANGELES (AP) - As
cargo ships idled in the harbor
or headed elsewhere, nego-
tiators prepared Tuesday to
return to the bargaining table
with a federal mediator to try
to end a costly, eight-day strike
that has all but shut down the
nation's busiest port complex.
About 44 percent of all cargo
arriving in the U.S. by sea pass-
es through the twin ports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach,
accounting for an estimated $1
billion a day in merchandise.
However, since hundreds of
clerical workers went on strike,
and thousands of dockworkers
refused to cross their picket
lines, most of that cargo has
languished on docks, rail cars
or ships.
"There's a billion-dollar
impact to a work stoppage of
this nature. It's an impact we
cannot sustain," Los Angeles
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
said outside the harbor com-
munity center where negotia-
tions have been held.
In the distance, giant cranes
used to unload ships stood
motionless.
Villaraigosa had emerged
from an overnight negoti-
ating session at the center
to announce both sides had
agreed to call in the mediator,
who was expected to arrive by
Tuesday evening.
The mayor said he was
optimistic that an agreement
could be reached within hours,
explaining he had seen signifi-
cant progress in the bargaining.
Representatives of both sides
did not seem to share his enthu-
siasm.
"If it's close to any agreement,
it's what kind of bagels we're
going to bring in for breakfast,"
said Steve Getzug of the Los
Angeles/Long Beach Harbor
Employers Association, which
is representing management.
Union spokesman Craig Mer-
rilees did agree with Villaraigo-
sa that significant progress had
been made.
"But more remains to be
done, particularly around the
details of a plan to end the out-
sourcing of good jobs from the
harbor area .communities," he
said.
Union leaders maintain that
management wants to save
money by outsourcing clerical
jobs to places like China and
Taiwan, where it can pay half
the money for the same work.
The result, they say, would be
one more American sector tak-
ing an economic hit just to boost
a giant company's profit mar-
gins.
Management maintains it
won't outsource any jobs, but it
wants more flexibility for hiring
future employees so it doesn't
have to pay people to fill slots
that aren't needed. It contends
the union wants "featherbed-
ding" contract language requir-
ing artificial staffing levels.
While management says
it is willing to offer lifetime
job security to all currently
employed port clerks, the union
says it wants to ensure that
future generations don't lose out
on well-paying jobs that could
go overseas or to less labor-
friendly states where workers
could be forced to take drastic
wage reductions.
The union says average cler-
ical salaries are $41 an hour,
or about $87,000 a year. When
benefits are factored in, that
raises annual compensation to
$165,000, Getzug said.
After more than two years
of unsuccessful contract nego-
tiations, about 400 of the 600
members of the local Interna-
tional Longshore and Ware-
house Union clerical workers
unit walked off their jobs last
week. They shut down 10 of
the ports' 14 terminals when
10,000 dockworkers, who are
members of their sister union,
refused to cross picket lines.
The clerks handle such tasks
as filing invoices and billing
notices, arranging dock vis-
its by customs inspectors, and
ensuring that cargo moves off
the dock quickly and gets where
it's supposed to go.
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