The Michigan Daily -= michigandaily.com Friday, December 7, 2012 - 3 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Nexxis Friday, December?, 2012 - 3 NEWS BRIEFS GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. State Rep. who switched parties obeyed finance law The secretary of state's office says a lawmaker from Grand Rap- ids who switched parties did not break campaign finance law. In a letter sent to state Rep. Roy Schmidt's attorney this week, a law specialist in the state's Bureau of Elections writes that the Democrat-turned-Republican intended to commit a campaign finance violation by paying some- one to run against him. But Melissa Malerman writes that the violation never occurred, because the prospec- tive opponent, Matt Mojzak, withdrew from the ballot shortly after filing paperwork to run, and the payment apparently was not made. SEATTLE Hundreds get gay marriage licenses Hundreds of same-sex couples across Washington state started picking up marriage licenses Thursday as a voter-approved law legalizing gay marriage took effect. King County, the state's largest, opened the doors to its auditor's office in Seattle just after mid- night to start distributinglicenses. But hundreds of people had lined up hours earlier, snaking around the building on a chilly Decem- ber night. By Thursday afternoon, more than 430 licenses had been issued in Seattle, where the mood was festive overnight. "We waited a long time. We've been together 35 years, never thinkingwe'd get a legal marriage. Now I feel so joyous I can't hardly stand it," said 85-year-old Pete-e Petersen, who with her partner, 77-year-old Jane Abbott Lighty, were the first to get a license. BANGKOK FDormer PMr faces murder charges Investigators say they plan to file murder charges against Thai- land's former prime minister and his deputy in the first prosecu- tions of officials for their roles in a deadly 2010 crackdown on anti- government protests. The protests and crackdown left more than 90 people dead and about 1,800 injured in Thai- land's worst political violence in decades. Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's Democrat Party, now in the opposition after being ousted in elections last year, and "red shirt" supporters of the rul- ing Pheu Thai Party have blamed each other for the bloodshed since. Department of Special Inves- tigation chief Tharit Phengdit said Thursday that investigators found Abhisit possibly culpa- ble in the death of a taxi driver because he allowed troops to use war weapons and live ammuni- tion against protesters. LONDON * Pregnant Kate Middleton sent home from hospital The Duchess of Cambridge left a London hospital Thursday after being treated for acute morning sickness related to her pregnancy. Clutching a small bouquet of yellow roses, the former Kate Middleton smiled and posed brief- ly for a photograph alongside her husband, Prince William, before leaving King Edward VII Hospi- tal. She stepped delicately into a waiting car. The couple's office said she would head to Kensington Pal- ace in London for a period of rest. She had been in the hospital since Monday. Officials from St James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant with the couple's first child. William visited his wife at the hospital every day, while media from around the world camped outside, seeking any news on the royal pregnancy. -Compiled from Daily wire reports NATO readies forces for Syria An Egyptian armytank is seen behind barbed wire securingthe perimeterof the presidential palacewhile protesters on theotherside chantanti President Mohammed Morsi slogans, in Cairo, Egypt, onThursday. Egyptian president rages against protesting crowd Morsi says constitutional referendum will go on CAIRO (AP) - An angry Mohammed Morsi refused Thursday to call off a referen- dum on a disputed constitution that has sparked Egypt's worst political crisis in two years, drawing chants of "topple the regime!" from protesters who waved their shoes in contempt. The Egyptian president's uncompromising stand came a night after thousands of his sup- porters and opponents fought pitched battles outside his Cairo palace, leaving at least six dead and 700 injured. Speaking in a nationally tele- vised address, Morsi accused someinthe oppositionofserving remnants of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime and vowed he would never tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his "legitimate" government. That brought shouts of "the people want to topple the regime!" from the crowd of 30,000 Morsi opponents - the same chant used in the protests that brought down Mubarak. Morsi also invited the oppo- sition to a "comprehensive and productive" dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace, but gave no sign that he might offer any meaningful concessions. The opposition has already refused to engage Morsi unless he first rescinds decrees giving him nearly unrestricted powers and shelves the draft constitu- tion hurriedly adopted by his Islamist allies in a marathon session last week. Morsi said the referendum on the disputed charter would go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 15. He also refused to rescind the Nov. 22 decrees. Readingfrom prepared notes, Morsi frequently broke off to improvise. He wore a black tie in mourning for the six people killed in Wednesday's clashes. From Washington, President Barack Obama called Morsi to express "deep concern" about the deaths and injuries of pro- testers in Egypt, according to a White House statement. The statement Thursday night said that Obama told Morsi that he and other politi- cal leaders in Egypt must make clear to their supporters that violenceisunacceptable. Obama welcomed Morsi's call for a dia- logue with opposition leaders in Egypt but stressed that such a dialogue should occur with- out preconditions. The United States also has urged opposition leaders to join in talks without preconditions. Earlier Thursday, Morsi's troubles grew when another of his advisers quit to protest his handling of the crisis, raising to seven the number of those in his 17-person inner circle who have abandoned him. Chemical weapons, prompt allies to send soldiers and missiles to Turkey BEIRUT (AP) - As fears grow in the West that Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash chemical weapons as an act of desperation, NATO moved forward Thursday with its plan to place Patriot mis- siles and troops along Syria's border with Turkey to protect against potential attacks. Assad's regime blasted the move as "psychological war- fare," saying the new deploy- ment would not ,deter it from seeking victory over rebels it views as terrorists.. The missile deployment sends a clear message to Assad that consequences will follow if he uses chemical weapons or strikes NATO member Turkey, which backs the rebels seeking his ouster. But its limited scope also reflects the low appetite in Western capitals for direct military intervention in the civil war. The U.S. and manyEuropean and Arab countries called for Assad to step down early in the uprising but have struggled to make that happen. Russia and China have protected Assad from censure by the U.N. Secu- rity Council, and the presence of extremists among the rebels makes the U.S. and others ner- vous about arming them. In Dublin, Ireland, U.S. Sec- retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Russia's foreign, minister and the U.N. peace envoy to the Arab country for three-way talks that suggested Washington and Moscow were working toward a common strategy as the Assad regime weakens. The diplomatic efforts to end the civil war come days after NATO agreed to post Patriot missiles and troops along Tur- key's southern border with Syria after mortars and shells from Syria killed five Turks. Germany's Cabinet approved the move on Thurs- day, and German Defense Min- ister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters that the overall mis- sion is expected to include two batteries each from the Neth- erlands and the United States, plus 400 soldiers and monitor- ing aircraft. "Nobody knows what such a regime is capable of and that is why we are acting protectively here," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that intelligence reports raise fears that an increasingly desperate Assad is considering using his chemical weapons arsenal - which the U.S. and Russia agree is unac- ceptable. The Assad regime said the NATO. deployment would not make Assad change course, calling the talk of chemical weapons part of a conspiracy to justify future intervention. "The Turkish step and NATO's support for it are pro- vocative moves that constitute psychological warfare," Syr- ia's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said in an inter- view with Lebanon's Al-Manar TV. "But if they think this will affect our determination and work for a decisive victory in this fight against terrorism, they are very wrong." Syria has not confirmed it has chemicals weapons, while insisting that it would never use such arms against its own people. Suicide bombattack kills Aghan intelligence chiefj Taliban claims credit for the fifth assassination attempt on Khalid KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A Taliban suicide bomber posing as a messenger of peace blew himself up near Afghani- stan's newly appointed intel- ligence chief on Thursday, seriously wounding him, offi- cials said. The Taliban claimed respon- sibility for the attack on Asa- dullah Khalid - the fifth such assassination attempt on his life in as many years, the offi- cials added. "Thank God, he's OK. It's positive," President Hamid Karzai told reporters outside a medical facility run by the National Directorate of Secu- rity where Khalid had surgery. "Now there is hope that he'll get healthy again." The attempted assassina- tion-of-the nation's top intelli- gence official came just as the president described the U.S.- led military coalition as partly responsible for instability in Afghanistan. "Part of the insecurity is coming to us from the struc- tures that NATO and America* created in Afghanistan," Kar- zai told NBC News in an inter- view broadcast on Thursday. Terrorism will not be defeated "by attacking Afghan villages and Afghan homes," he said. Shafiqullah Tahiri, a spokes- man for the intelligence ser- vice, said that the bomber had used the false peace offer as a ruse to close in on the intelli- gence chief. The bombing was reminis- cent of the September 2011 kill- ing of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who at the time was the leader of a government-appointed peace council seeking reconciliation with militants. In that attack, an insurgent posing as a Tali- ban peace envoy detonated a bomb that was hidden in his turban as he met Rabbani at his home in Kabul. Khalid, in his early 40s, suf- fered serious injuries to his stomach and lower part of the body when the bomb exploded at his guest house as he was receiving a visitor, a senior Afghan official said, speak- ing on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information. The intelligence chief had used the house for private meetings he preferred not to hold at his agency's official compound, he added. The bomber passed through at least one check without the explosives being discovered, the official said. The house was not as heavily guarded as the agency's compound, he added. Shuja Momuzai, 31, who manages a house a couple doors from Khalid's guest house, said he heard an explo- sion shortly after 3 p.m., after which he saw Khalid being evacuated. He said that people in the neighborhood knew Khalid used the house, which had at least two perimeter walls. Karzai said Khalid would be sent elsewhere for further treatment, implying that he could be transferred outside the country. Taliban spokesman Zabi- ullah Mujahid said the intel- ligence chief was the target of a suicide bombing carried out by an attacker named Hafez Mohammad. Khalid, who was appointed to head the intelligence service in September, comes from the Pashtun ethnic group and has served as governor of restive Ghazni province in the east and Kandahar province in the south. He is also Afghanistan's former minister of tribal and border affairs. He says he first eluded an assassin in 2006, and bombers had targeted him 3 times since, before Thursday's attack. Karzai, in his interview, also said that he was not convinced that al-Qaida "has a presence in Afghanistan." Charles arapak/AP President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about the fiscaldciff at the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers, in Washington,on Wednesday. Obama and GOP continue to negotiate as deadline looms President seeks to 2 percent," Obama said. "But I Timothy Geithner said, the do remain optimistic that we can administration will "absolutely" highlight personal get something done that is good let the country go over the fiscal for families like this one and is cliff. stories in campaign good for the American econo- The size of the problem is so my." large it can't be solved without for public support The president's quick trip - rates goingup," he told CNBC on FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - President Barack Obama, trying to put a personal touch on "fis- cal cliff" negotiations, visited a northern Virginia family's base- ment apartment Thursday to press his hard line on tax rate increases for the wealthy. "We're in the midst of the Christmas season," Obama said, t sitting at a table in the Santana family's Falls Church home. "I think the American people are counting on this getting solved. The closer it gets to the brink, the more stress there is going to be." Obama and lawmakers have until the end of the year to avert across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases. The president reiterated the firm stance he has taken in recent days, warning that he's willing to let that econ- omy-rattling double whammy take effect if Republicans don't drop their opposition to higher tax rates for the wealthy. "Just to be clear, I'm not going to sign any package that some- how prevents the top rate from going up for the folks in the top just a 15 minute drive from the White House - was part of an effort to rally public support for his tax proposals. The family whose home he visited is one of many that shared their stories online, at the White House's urg- ing, of how they would be hurt if their taxes went up at the end of the year. The president will also travel to Detroit on Monday. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke on the phone Wednesday, their first known conversation in nearly a week. Neither side provided details of the call, but the White House said the lines of com- munication with Capitol Hill Republicans were open and there had been multiple conver- sations between staff. Unless the president and Republicans reach a deal, George W. Bush-era tax rates will expire on all income earners on Jan. 1. Obama wants to continue them for 98 percent of Americans, while letting them expire on the upper income earners. If Republicans try to block that effort, Treasury Secretary Wednesday. Geithner drew a fierce response from Republicans. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah called his statement "stunning and irre- sponsible." He added, "Going over the fiscal cliff will put our economy, jobs, people's pay- checks and retirement at risk, but that is what the White House wants, according to Secretary Geithner, if they don't get their way." Economists inside and outside the government warnthat failing to reach agreement on taxes and spending could land the econo- my back in recession. Beyond his insistence that taxes increase on the wealthy, Obama has also warned Repub- licans not to inject the threat of a government default into nego- tiations over the fiscal cliff as a way of extracting concessions on spending cuts. "It's not a game I will play," he said Wednesday, recalling the brinkmanship of last year in which a budget standoff pushed the Treasury to the edge of a first-ever default.