6 - Friday, February 1, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 6 - Friday, February 1, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom NEWS BRIEFS FRANKFORT, Mich. Residents sue fruit company for berry waste pollution Ten residents of rural Benzie County have filed a lawsuit againstanorthernMichiganfruit processor and a septic hauler who dumped waste blueberry juice into a gravel pit more than a decade ago, damaging a stream and contaminating groundwater. Graceland Fruit Inc., which generated the wastes at its pro- cessing facility in Frankfort, hired Bonney Brothers Pumping Co. to transport and dispose of the juice. The Michigan Depart- ment of Environmental Quality said the 2002 disposal was ille- gal and the state attorney gener- al's office filed a civil case. Under a settlement reached in 2008, the companies promised to restore the waterway and pay $250,000 in fines and restoration costs. LOS ANGELES Archbishop moves to relieve former cardinal of duties The Archbishop of Los Ange- les announced Thursday night that he has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties and a former top aide to Mahony has stepped down from his current post as auxiliary bishop of Santa Barba- ra, on the same night the church released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse. "I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement, referring to the newly released files made public by the church Thursday night just hours after a judge's order. "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what hap- pened to these children." Gomez announced that he has "informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any admin- istrative or public duties." SACRAMENTO, Calif. Whites to become minority in Calif. Hispanics will become the larg- est ethnic group in the nation's most populous state early next year, the California Department of Finance said Thursday, mark- ing a big milestone in a long-run- ning demographic shift that has already deeply altered the politi- cal balance of power, the economy and culture. The prediction that Hispanics will equal the number of whites in California by the middle of this year and surpass them in early 2014 was disclosed in Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal in early January, but the latest numbers offer a far more detailed por- trait of how the shift will unfold across age groups and geographic regions over the next five decades. Whites and Hispanics each cur- rently represent 39 percent of the state's population. YEREVAN, Armenia Contender for Pres. shot outside house A longshot candidate for the Armenian presidency was shot in the chest by an unidentified gunman late Thursday, officials said. He was hospitalized in sta- ble condition as police searched for the shooter, while the speak- er of parliament suggested the . election could be delayed. Paruir Airikian was shot out- side his house in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, just before midnight. A neighbor who heard gunshots and cries for help called the police. Airikian is one of eight candi- dates in the Feb. 18 presidential vote, which incumbent Serge Sarkisian is expected to eas- ily win. Opinion surveys show Airikian getting a small percent- age of the vote. -Compiled from Daily wire reports Explosion rocks Mexico City In this Nov. 17, 2012 file photo, an Israeli Iron Dome rhissile is launched near the city of Be'er Sheva, southern Israel, to intercept a rocket fired from Gaza. Syria promises revenge for Israeli airstrike this week Airstrike targeted a convoy of anti- aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah BEIRUT (AP) - Syria threat- ened Thursday to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said the Jewish state will regret the attack. Syria sent a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General stressing the country's "right to defend itself, its territory and sovereignty" and holding Israel and its sup- porters accountable. "Israel and those who protect it at the Security Council are fully responsible for the reper- cussions of this aggression," the letter from Syria's Foreign Min- istry said. U.S. officials said Israel launched a rare airstrike inside Syria on Wednesday targeting a convoy carrying anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group allied with Syria and Iran. In Israel, a lawmaker close to hard-line Prime Minister Benja- min Netanyahu stopped short of confirming involvement in the strike. But he hinted that Israel could carry out similar missions in the future. The attack has inflamed regional tensions already run- ninghighover Syria's22-month- old civil war. Israeli leaders in the days leading up to the airstrike had publicly expressed concern that Syrian President Bashar Assad may be losing his grip on the country and its arsenal of con- ventional and nonconventional weapons. The Syrian military denied there was any such weapons convoy. It said low-flying Israeli jets crossed into the country over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and bombed a scientific research center. The facilityis in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus. and about 15 kilo- meters (10 miles) from the Leba- nese border. A U.S. official said the air- strike targeted trucks contain- ing sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The trucks were next to the military research facility identified by the Syrians, and the strike hit both the trucks and the facility, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the operation. If the SA-17s were to have reached Hezbollah, they would have greatly inhibited the Israe- li air force's ability to operate in Lebanon, where Israel has flown frequent sorties in recent years. 1 Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who in December became one of the most senior Syrian army officers to defect, told The Associated Press by telephone from Turkey that the targeted site is a "major and well-known" center to develop weapons called the Scientific Research Center. 14 dead, more than 100 wounded in massive blast MEXICO CITY (AP) - An explosion at the office headquar- ters of Mexico's state-owned oil company in the capital killed 14 people and injured 100 on Thursday as it heavily damaged three floors of a building, send- ing hundreds into the streets and a large plume of smoke over the skyline. Another 30 people were reported trapped in the debris late Thursday, as soldiers with rescue dogs, trucks with mount- ed lights and a Pemex crane were brought in to extract victims. The Interior Ministry said it was uncertain of the exact number of people trapped because many were outside having lunch when the explosion occurred about 3:45 p.m. local time in abasement parking garage next to the iconic, 51-story tower ofPetroleos Mexi- canos, or Pemex, one of the tallest buildings in Mexico City. "It was an explosion, a shock, the lights went out and sud- denly there was a lot of debris," employee Cristian Obele told Milenio television, adding that he had been injured in the leg. "Co-workers helped us get out of the building." President Enrique Pena Nieto said authorities have not yet found out what caused the blast in the 14-story building in a busy commercial and residential area. Pemex first said ithad evacuated the building because of a prob- lem with the electrical system. The company later tweeted that the Attornhy General's Office was investigating the explosion and any reports of a cause were speculation. Ana Vargas Palacio was dis- traught as she searched for her missing husband, Daniel Garcia Garcia, 36, who works in the building where the explosion occurred. She said she last talk- ed to him a couple hours earlier. "I called his phone many times, but a young man answered and told me he found the phone in the debris," Vargas said. The two have an 11-year- old daughter. His mother, Gloria Garcia Castaneda, collapsed on a friend's arm, crying "My son. My son." The tower, where several thousand people work, was evacuated following the blast but not damaged, according to Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years who was on the second floor when the explosion next door occurred. "Therewas averyloud roar. It was veryugly," she said. Espinoza's co-worker, Tomas Rivera, 32, worked on the ground floor and was knocked to floor, fracturing his wristand jaw. Hundreds of firefighters, military in camouflage and Red Cross ' workers hauled large chunks of concrete and looked for victims late into the night, with at least four bodies pulled out of the rubble, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. The exploded building was intact on the outside but filled inside with debris. Television images showed people being evacuated in office chairs, and on gurneys. Most of them had injuries likely caused by falling debris. "We were talking and all of sudden -we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass fall- ing from the windows," said Maria Concepcion Andrade, 42, who lives on the same block as the Pemex building. "Peo- ple started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying." Iran vows to accelerate nuclear enrichment plan Nation has defied U.N. demands to dismantle program VIENNA (AP) - In a defiant move ahead of nuclear talks, Iran has announced plans to vastly increase its pace of ura- nium enrichment, which can make both reactor fuel and the fissile core of warheads. Eager to avoid scuttling those negoti- ations, world powers are keep- ing their response low-key. Iran told the Internation- al Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions last week, and the IAEA informed member nations in an internal note seen by The Associated Press on Thursday. The brief note quoted Iran as saying new-generation IR2m "centrifuge machines ...will be used" to populate a new "unit" - a technical term for an assembly that can consist of as many as 3,132 centrifuges. It gave no timeframe. A senior diplomat familiar with the issue said work had not started, adding that it would take weeks, if not months, to have the new machines run- ning once technicians started putting them in. He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge confiden- tial information. Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-pro- liferation expert and former senior official at the U.S. State Department, described the planned upgrade as a potential "game-changer." "If thousands of the more efficient machines are intro- duced, the timeline for being able to produce a weapon's worth of fissile material will significantly shorten," said Fitzpatrick, of the Internation- al Institute for 'Strategic Stud- ies. "This won't change the sev- eral months it would take to make actual weapons out of the fissile material or the two years or more that it would take tobe able to mount a. nuclear war- head on a missile, so there is no need to start beating the war drums," he said. "But it will certainly escalate concerns." The planned upgrade could burden international efforts to coax Tehran into scaling back its nuclear activities and cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate its suspicions of secret weapons work. Talks are tentatively set for next month with a date and venue still open. Iran insists it does not want nuclear arms and argues it has a right to enrich uranium for, a civilian nuclear power pro- gram. But suspicion persists that the real aim is nuclear weapons. The Islamic Repub- lic hid much of its nuclear program until it was revealed from the outside more than a decade ago. A deadlock in the IAEA's probe of Iran's nuclear program has furthered suspi- cions of a clandestine pursuit of atomic weapons. Defying U.N. Security Coun- cil demands that it halt ura- nium enrichment, Iran has instead expanded it. Experts say Tehran already has enough enriched uranium to be able to turn it into weapons-grade material for several nuclear weapons. The Iranian plan was con- demned by Israel, which sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat and has said it would use all means to stop it from reaching weapons capa- bility. "While the world is discuss- ing where and when the next meeting with Iran will be, Iran is rapidly advancing towards obtaining a nuclear bomb," said a senior official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya- hu's office. "The international community cannot allow Iran to arm itself with a nuclear weapon." The official demanded ano- nymity because he said he was not allowed to comment pub- licly on the issue. Phone calls seeking com- ment from Ali Asghar Solta- nieh, Iran's chief IAEA delegate, went to his voicemail. Clif fJette/AP Assistant United States Attorney Peter Deegan speaks to the media during a press conference to discuss the sentencing of Peregrine Financial Group owner and Chief Executive Officer Russell R. Wasendorf, Sr. Broker faces life Iln prison for stealing $215 million ini owa Lived luxuriously for years before facing inquiry CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - For years, Russ Wasendorf Sr. enjoyed the perks of being a suc- cessful businessman: a corporate jet, a fancy swimming pool at his mansion, an extensive wine col- lection and top chefs who made him meals at the restaurant and office buildings he owned. Then lastsummer he admitted that his lavish lifestyle was a lie, built with money he stole from customers at Peregrine Financial Group, the Cedar Falls-based brokerage he founded. Prosecu- tors said he took $215 million over 20 years inthe biggest fraud in Iowa history. Wasendorf is now being held in isolation at a county jail in a tiny cell where he sleeps on a concrete pad without a pillow, his pastor said. And on Thurs- day, the 64-year-old learned he will most likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison. A judge sentenced Wasendorf to 50 years in prison. Wasend- orf, who must serve at least 421/2 years of the sentence, appeared in fragile health, having lost weight and suffering from health problems that made him look nothing like the image of a confi- dent financial whiz he once pro- jected. Acting U.S. Attorney Sean Berry said the sentence was the longest ever given to a white- collar criminal in the northern district of Iowa and was fitting because Wasendorf's fraud was unparalleled in Iowa. "This is a justsentence for a con man," he said at a news con- ference. U.S. District Judge Linda Reade gave Wasendorf the maxi- mum prison sentence available for the fraud and embezzlement charges to which he pleaded guilty in September. She cited the "staggering losses" his theft caused to 13,000 commodities investors who lost money and hundreds of employees who lost jobs. Wasendorf used their money to build a business empire that included a publishing company that churned out his books and magazines, the jet that flew him to meetings, the nicest restau- rant in Cedar Falls, a develop- ment company in Romania, and a charity known for donations to universities and hospitals. But since last July, Wasendorf has been held in a cell on the fifth floor of the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids, where some of his fellow inmates scream all night long, said pastor Linda Livings- ton, who counsels him several times a week. She said he has not had access to writing or eating utensils and is kept away from other inmates. "He has made an adjustment to an impossible circumstance with a grace that has surprised me,' she said. "It's a stark exis- tence." Wasendorf's brokerage, nick- named PFGBest, collapsed after investigators found Wasend- orf unconscious after having attempted suicide in his vehicle outside its headquarters in Cedar Falls. He left a suicide note in which he confessed to a fraud in which he stole customer funds, and forged bank statements to fool his'colleagues, auditors and regulators. He attempted suicide after learning that regulators were insisting on electronic access to Peregrine's bank accounts, which meant they would soon find that more than $215 million in customer funds was missing. Prosecutors said Wasendorf's theft started after he founded Peregrine in the early 1990s, when he needed money to prop up the business after an investor pulled out. A 4