The Michigan Daily - mic NEWS BRIEFS STANDISH, Mich. Saginaw tribe plans casino expansion higandaily.com Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 3A - Shootout in Los Angeles ends in death of at least two people The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe plans to expand its Sagan- ing Eagles Landing Casino in Michigan. The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant and MLive.com report the tribe announced plans Mon- day for the casino near Standish, about 120 miles northwest of Detroit. The current 32,900-square- foot casino would see the addition of about 90,000 more square feet, including 150 hotel rooms, a diner and more gambling space. Plans call for work to begin later this year. The tribe hopes to complete construction in spring 2014 and says the project will add about 250 full- and part-time jobs. SALT LAKE CITY Three people killed in Utah shoot-out Three people were shot to death and one was critically wounded Tuesday at a known drug house in suburban Salt Lake " City, causing temporary lock- downs at several area schools as police looked for two men who may have been involved. Investigators said a person inside the house reported the shooting in Midvale at about 8 " a.m. Unified Police Department Lt. Justin Hoyal said a search war- rant had been served at the resi- dence in recent weeks for drug activity. "It was a known narcot- ics house," he said. The house backs up to a sound barrier for Interstate 15 about 12 miles south of Salt Lake City. DENVER Colorado struggles with marijuana safety Marijuana may be coming out of the black market in Colora- do and Washington state, but the drug, at least for now, will retain a decidedly underground feel: Users may not know what's in it. Less than a year away from allowing pot sales, regulators are grappling with how to ensure that the nation's first legal mari- juana industry will grow weed that delivers only the effects that pot smokers want. Whether it is establishing rules to govern the growing of marijuana, including the use of pesticides and fungicides, or accurate product labeling, offi- cials know they will be doing it alone. Federal agencies that regu- late food and drugs are staying out because pot remains illegal under federal law. That means the states are starting from scratch to protect consumers from pot that could be tainted by mold, mildew or unwanted chemicals. ALEPPO, SYRIA Rebels advance toward Aleppo airport Rebels captured a small mili- tary base near Aleppo on Tuesday and stormed another in the same area that protects a major airport, a day after seizing Syria's largest dam. With the back-to-back blows to President Bashar Assad's regime, opposition fighters appear to be regaining some momentum, expanding their northern zone of control while at the same time pushing deeper into the heart of the capital, Damascus. Rebels have been attack- ing Aleppo's civilian airport, which remains in regime hands, for weeks. They now appear to have removed the main defens- es around the facility. Civilian flights stopped weeks ago because of the intensity of the fighting. -Compiled from Daily wire reports An roung-joon/Ar South Korean army soldiers patrol along barbed-wire fences at the Imjingak Pavilion, near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea N. Korea conducts nuclear test despite U.N. warnings United States issues strong condemnation PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - Defying U.N. warnings, North Korea on Tuesday con- ducted its third nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States. North Korea said the atom- ic test was merely its "first response" to what it called U.S. threats, and said it will con- tinue with unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity" if Washington main- tains its hostility. The underground test, which set off powerful seismic waves, drew immediate condemnation from Washington, the U.N. and others. Even its only major ally, China, summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing- down. President Barack Obama, who was scheduled to give a State of the Union address later Tuesday, said nuclear tests "do not make North Korea more secure." Instead, North Korea has "increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruc- tion," he said in a statement. But the Obama administra- tion's options for a response are limited, and a U.S. military strike is highly unlikely. In an emergency session, the U.N. Security Council unani- mously said the test poses "a clear threat to internation- al peace and security" and pledged further action. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called the test "highly pro- vocative" and said the North's continued work on its nuclear and missile programs threat- ens regional and international peace and security and "the security of a number of coun- tries including the United States." "They will not be tolerated," she said, "and they will be met with North Korea's increasing isolation and pressure under United Nations sanctions." It remains to be seen, how- ever, whether China will sign on to any new, binding global sanctions. Beijing, Pyongyang's primary trading partner, has resisted measures that would cut off North Korea's economy completely. China expressed firm oppo- sition to Tuesday's test but called for a calm response by all sides. Chinese Foreign Min- ister Yang Jiechi summoned North Korea's ambassador and delivered a "stern representa- tion" and demanded that North Korea "swiftly return to the correct channel of dialogue and negotiation," the ministry said in a statement. The test was a defiant North Korean response to U.N. orders that it shut down its atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation. It will likely draw more sanctions from the United States and other countries at a time when North Korea is trying to rebuild its moribund economy and expand its engagement with the outside world. Several U.N. resolutions bar North Korea from conducting nuclear or missile tests because the Security Council considers Pyongyang a would-be pro- liferator of weapons of mass destruction and its nuclear testing a threat to internation- al peace and stability. North Korea dismisses that as a dou- ble standard, and claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the Unit- ed States, which it has seen as Enemy No. 1 since the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.S. stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally. Tuesday's test is North Korea's first since young leader Kim Jong Un took power of a country long estranged from the West. The test will likely be portrayed in North Korea as a strong move to defend the nation against foreign aggres- sion, particularly from the U.S. "The test was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level, with the use of a small- er and light A-bomb, unlike the previous ones, yet with great explosive power," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said. The U.N. Security Council recently punished North Korea for a rocket launch in Decem- ber that the U.N. and Washing- ton called a cover for a banned long-range missile test. Pyong- yang said it was a peaceful launch of a satellite into space. In condemning that launch, the council demanded a stop to future launches and ordered North Korea to respect a ban on nuclear activity - or face "sig- nificant action" by the U.N. The timing of Tuesday's test is significant. It came hours before Obama's speech and only days before the Satur- day birthday of Kim Jong Un's father, late leader Kim Jong II, whose memory North Korean Former LAPD officer engages in shootout, kills at least one person BIG BEAR, Calif. (AP) - The extraordinary manhunt for the former Los Angeles police offi- cer suspected of three murders converged Tuesday on a moun- tain cabin where authorities believe he barricaded himself inside, engaged in a shootout that killed a deputy and then never emerged as the home went up in flames. A single gunshot was heard from within, and a charred body was found inside. Ifthe man inside proves toube Christopher Dorner, as author- ities suspect, the search for the most wanted man in America over the last week would have ended the way he had expected - death, with the police pursu- ing him. Thousands of officers had been on the hunt for the for- mer Navy reservist since police said he launched a campaign to exact revenge against the Los Angeles Police Depart- ment for his firing. They say he threatened to bring "warfare" to officers and their families, spreading fear and setting off a search for him across the Southwest and Mexico. "Enough is enough. It's time for you to turn yourself in. It's time to stop the bloodshed," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference held outside police headquarters in Los Angeles, a starkly differ- ent atmosphere than last week when officials briefed the news media under tight security with Dorner on the loose. A short time after Smith spoke Tuesday, smoke began to rise from the cabin in the snow-covered woods near Big Bear Lake, a resort town about 80 miles east of Los Ange- les. Flames then engulfed the building - images that were broadcast on live television around the world. TV helicop- ters showed the fire burning freely with no apparent effort to extinguish it. "We have reason to believe that it is him," said San Ber- nardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bach- man, adding that she didn't know how the fire started. She noted there was gunfire between the person in the cabin and officers around the home before the blaze began. Until Tuesday, authorities didn't know whether Dorner was still near Big Bear Lake, where they found his burned- out pickup last week. Around 12:20 p.m. Tues- day, deputies got a report of a stolen pickup truck, authori- ties said. The location was directly across the street from where law enforcement set up their command post on Thurs- day and not far from where Dorner's pickup was aban- doned. The owner of the vehi- cle taken Tuesday described the suspect as looking similar to Dorner. A warden for the California Department of Fish and Wild- life traveling down Highway 38 recognized a man who fit Dorner's description traveling in the opposite direction. The officer pursued the vehicle and there was a shooting at 12:42 p.m. in which the wild- life vehicle was hit numerous times and the suspect escaped on foot after crashing his truck. After holing up in the cabin, there was a second gunbattle with San Bernardino County deputies, two of whom were shot. One died and the other was expected to live after undergoing surgery. "We're heartbroken," Big Bear Lake Mayor Jay Obernolte said of the deputy's death and the wounding of his colleague. "Words can't express ho'v grateful we are for the sacri- fice those men have made in defense of the community and our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families." The man believed to be Dorner never came out of the cabin, and a single shot was heard inside before the cabin was engulfed in flames, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official later told the AP that a charred body was found in the burned cabin. The official requested anonymity because of the ongoing investi- gation. Officials were waiting for the fire to burn out before approaching the ruins to search for a body. Police say Dorner began his run on Feb. 6 after they con- nected the slayings of a former police captain's daughter and her fiance with an angry Face- book rant they said he posted. Threats against the LAPD led officials to assign officers to protect officers and their fami- lies. Within hours of the release of photos of the 6-foot, 270-pounder described as armed and "extremely danger- ous," police say, Dorner unsuc- cessfully tried to steal a boat in San Diego to flee to Mexico and opened fire on two patrol cars in Riverside County, shooting three officers and killing one. Jumpy officers guarding one of the targets named in the rant shot and injured two women delivering newspapers Thurs- day in Torrance because they mistook their pickup truck for Dorner's. Police found weapons and camping gear inside the charred Gay marriage bill passes in France's lower house Nation on track to join a dozen mostly European nations in legalization PARIS (AP) - France's lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill on Tuesday to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt chil- dren, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande's Socialists on a divi- sive social issue. The measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to- 229 vote, puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called "marriage for all" bill. Polls indicate a narrow major- ity of French support legalizing gay marriage, though that sup- port falls when questions about the adoption and conception of children come into play. The Assembly has been debating the bill, and voting on its individual articles in recent weeks. The overall legislation now goes in the coming weeks to the Senate, which also is con- trolled by the governing Social- ists and their allies. With Tuesday's vote, France joins Britain in taking a major legislative step in recent weeks toward allowing gay marriage and adoption - making them the largest European countries to do so. The Netherlands, Bel- gium, Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have authorized gay mar- riage, along with nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The issue has exposed fault lines between a progressive- minded leftist legislative major- ity in officially secular France, and the country's conservative religious roots. Critics - includ- ing many Roman Catholics - have railed that the bill would erode the traditional family. Socialists, however, sought to depict the issue as one of equal rights, and they played off France's famed Revolution-era motto of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." "This law is going to extend to all families the protections guaranteed by the institution of marriage," Prime Minister Jean- Marc Ayrault said before Tues- day's vote. "Contrary to what those who vociferate against it say - fortunately they're in the minority - this law is going to strengthen the institution of marriage." As with many major and con- troversial reforms in France, the issue drew its share of political grandstanding over weeks of debate. Conservative opponents forced a discussion of nearly 5,000 amendments, a move derided by Socialists as inconse- quential stalling tactics. But by the final vote, the government rank-and-file rolled out grand, solemn statements of victory. "This law is a first neces- sary step, a social evolution that benefits society overall," said Socialist representative Corinne Narassiguin, announcing her party's support for the measure. "Openingup marriage and adop- tion to homosexual couples is a very beautiful advance.... It is an emblematic vote, a vote that will mark history." However, the political right hasn't given up just yet, say- ing the Constitutional Court - whose 12 members include three former French presidents and several other prominent conser- vatives - will determine wheth- er the law, if finally passed, meshes with the law of the land. "So it's not the end of the story yet," said Herve Mariton, a member of the main opposi- tion UMP party. "We still have arguments to make and we want to convince people that it is not a good project." HD-,,