The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, February 18, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DEARBORN, Mich.
Colleges struggle
when students
drop out, keep aid
Students who get federal
grants but don't attend school are
leaving Michigan colleges with a
bill worth millions of dollars.
When students don't spend
the money on approved expens-
es, colleges, especially two-year
schools, are turning to tuition
increases to repay the federal gov-
ernment, a newspaper reported
Sunday.
Henry Ford Community Col-
lege in Dearborn is on the hook
for $4.1 million. Oakland Com-
munity College in Southfield owes
$700,000 from last semester after
1,000 students with grants didn't
show up for classes, the Detroit
Free Press reported.
Students who don't use the
full amount of their Pell Grant
often get a check for the balance
from the school. But schools can
be held responsible if students
then drop out and don't spend the
money properly.
PALM CITY, Fla.
Tiger Woods
joins vacationing
Obama for golf
President Barack Obama
played golf Sunday with Tiger
Woods, the White House said
Sunday.
Once the sport's dominant
player before his career was
sidetracked by scandal, Woods
joined Obama at the Floridian, a
secluded and exclusive yacht and
golf club on Florida's Treasure
Coast where Obama is spending
the long Presidents Day weekend.
The two had met before, but Sun-
day was the first time they played
together.
The White House has prohib-
ited media coverage of Obama's
weekend golf outing.
LOS ANGELES
Long-missing
WWII medal
presented in LA
Hyla Merin grew up without a
father and for a long time never
knew why.
Her mother never spoke about
the Army officer who died before
Hyla was born. The scraps of
information she gathered from
other relatives were hazy: 2nd
Lt. Hyman Markel was a rabbi's
son, brilliant at mathematics, the
brave winner of a Purple Heart
who died sometime in 1945.
Aside from wedding photos of
Markel in uniform, Merin never
glimpsed him.
But on Sunday, decades after he
won it, Merin received her father's
Purple Heart, along with a Silver
Star she never knew he'd won and
a half-dozen other medals.
MOSCOW
Meteor-damaged
windows fixed in
Russian city
Authorities in a Russian city
say more than half of the acres of
windows smashed in the city by
an exploding meteor's shock wave
have been replaced.
Friday's explosion, estimat-
ed to be equivalent to several
atomic bombs, shattered glass
in more than 4,000 buildings in
Chelyabinsk and the surrounding
region, leaving residents vulner-
able in temperatures well below
freezing.
About 1,200 people were
injured, mostly by broken glass,
with 40 still hospitalized Sunday,
the ITAR-Tass news agency said,
citing Emergency Ministry figures.
The Chelyabinsk city admin-
istration said in a Sunday state-
ment that nearly 60 percent of the
city's broken windows had been
replaced.
* Pieces of the meteor are
believed to have fallen into an ice-
covered lake about 80 kilometers
(50 miles) outside the city, but
no fragments have been reported
found.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
1 40
Karzmai tries
to limit int'l
airstrikes
Mohammad Hannon/AP
Libyans release a lantern into the air at Nasr Square, during the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled
longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in Benghazi, Libya.
Libya's struggle to deliver
lasting justice fuels violence
Sunday marks
two years since
historic uprising
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP)
- Col. Faraj el-Dersi, who
defected to the rebel side from
Moammar Gadhafi's police
force, was gunned down late
last year on the streets of
Benghazi, and he bled to death
in the arms of his teenage
daughter.
As Libya on Sunday marked
the second anniversary of
the start of the uprising that
toppled Gadhafi, the death of
el-Dersi and nearly 40 other
similar slayings are seen as
evidence that some in the
country are too impatient for
a political system that has yet
to deliver justice and national
reconciliation.
Suspicion in many of the
killings of senior security and
military officials has fallen on
Islamists who were brutally
suppressed under Gadhafi.
Now, they have become among
the most powerful groups in
the new Libya, particularly in
the east, with heavily armed
militias at their command.
And they are settling old
scores themselves, rather than
wait for transitional justice -
the process of society punish-
ing or forgiving the abuses of
the old regime.
Mustafa al-Kufi, a 59-year-
old former prisoner and polit-
ical activist, said the various
post-Gadhafi governments
and the current parliament
are all fearful that if they
head down the path of tran-
sitional justice, many mem-
bers of the ruling class would
be among those punished for
past wrongdoing.
"This is a very pressing
issue and a core demand in the
street," said al-Kufi, who spent
12 years in prison under Gad-
hafi.
"We need to know who did
what and then ask families of
the victims for forgiveness.
But since this didn't take place,
violence will continue because
there is no justice.
Like other Arab countries
that ousted authoritarian lead-
ers, Libya is now mired in a
chaotic and violent transition
to a new society. It is plagued
by unruly and heavily armed
militias that have slowly come
under a unified command but
remain filled with hard-liners
who were in the front line in
the war against Gadhafi.
The transition is further
complicated by an autonomy
movement in the oil-rich east,
a central government too weak
to exert its authority across
the vast desert nation, and
heavily armed Islamic extrem-
ists who are pressing to fill a
power vacuum.
The civil war swept Gadhafi
from power, but the bitterness
and rage lingers in a country
where the authoritarian gov-
ernment imprisoned, tortured
and killed its opponents.
Hana al-Gallal, a prominent
Benghazi lawyer, said allow-
ing old regime figures to be
part of the new order will only
fuel more violence.
"Those whose sons were
killed, their dreams shattered
by the Gadhafi regime, will
seek revenge when they see
them back in power," she said.
"The result is assassinations."
Some of the anger is direct-
ed at those who were in the old
government - from low-level
police officials to ex-ministers
who are now police chiefs and
lawmakers. That has prompt-
ed a push to prevent those
with ties to the former leader-
ship from serving in positions
of power.
Move will likely
limit U.S. advantage
as Obama draws
war to an end
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -
Angry over civilian deaths, Presi-
dent Hamid Karzai announced
plans Saturday to ban Afghan
security forces from requesting
international airstrikes on resi-
dential areas.
If he issues the decree as
promised, the move would pose a
significant new challenge to gov-
ernment troops who have relied
heavily on foreign air power to
give them an advantage against
insurgents on the battlefield even
as the U.S. and other countries
prepare to end their combat mis-
sion in less than two years.
The declaration came as
anger- mounted over a joint
Afghan-NATO operation this
week that Afghan officials said
killed 10 civilians, including
women and children, in north-
east Kunar province.
"I will issue a decree tomor-
row that no Afghan security
forces, in any circumstances, in
any circumstances can ask for the
foreigners' planes for carrying
out operations on our homes and
villages," Karzai said in a speech
at the Afghan National Military
Academy in Kabul.
Civilian deaths at the hands
of foreign forces, particularly
airstrikes, have been among
the most divisive issues of the
11-year-old war and have compli-
cated negotiations for a bilateral
security agreement that would
govern the foreign presence in
the country after 2014.
The U.S.-led coalition has
implemented measures to miti-
gate them, but the Afghan mili-
tary also relies heavily on air
support to gain an upper hand
in the fight against Taliban mili-
tants and other insurgents.
Many Afghan and interna-
tional officials have expressed
concern that the impending
withdrawal of international
combat forces by the end of 2014
will deprive government secu-
rity forces of that crucial weap
on. President Barack Obama has
announced that he will withdraw
about half of the 66,000 U.S.
troops in Afghanistan within a
year.
Karzai has frequently
denounced airstrikes and even
demanded that they cease. But
his speech Saturday was the first
time he threatened to formalize
his concern with a decree.
The U.S.-led military coalition
already said in June that it would
limit airstrikes to a self-defense
weapon of last resort for troops.
That followed a bombardment
that killed 18 civilians celebrat-
ing a wedding in Logar province,
which drew an apology from the
American commander.
Afghan and coalition offi-
cials frequently offer differing
accounts of military operations,
with local residents claiming
civilians were killed while for-
eign troops insist they targeted
insurgents. The line is often
blurred because insurgents don't
wear a uniform and are usually
part of the community, with air-
strikes and night raids hitting
areas where women and children
also are asleep.
The U.N. mission in Afghani-
stan said 83 civilians were killed
and 46 wounded in aerial attacks
by international military forces in
the first half of 2012. That figure
was down 23 percent from the
same period of 2011, which was
the deadliest year on record for
civilians in the Afghan war. It said
two-thirds of the casualties last
year were women and children.
Jamie Graybeal, a spokes-
man for the U.S.-led coalition,
declined to comment on Karzai's
remarks because alliance officials
had not seen the decree.
But Gen. John Allen, the for-
mer top commander of U.S. and
NATO forces in Afghanistan,
said before leaving that the coali-
tion can provide air support to
troops on the ground anywhere
in Afghanistan within 12 min-
utes of a request. He said Afghan
forces would have to get used to
not having the same abilities in
the future.
Karzai said Allen's successor,
U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, told
him that Afghanistan's intel-
ligence agency, the National
Directorate of Security, had
requested the airstrike late Tues-
day in Kunar's Shigal district,
which borders Pakistan. When
Dunford met with Karzai two
days later, the coalition said the
general expressed "his personal
condolences for any civilians who
may have died or been injured
as a result of the operation" and
said investigators were trying to
assess what happened.
Karzai said Afghan forces
were ready to take over their own
security despite concerns about
persistent violence that have cast
doubt on their capabilities.
"We are happy that foreign
forces are withdrawing from
our country," he said. "We are
happy for all their help and
assistance so far, but we don't
need foreign forces to defend
our country. We want our
Afghan forces to defend their
homeland."
GOP foes of Hagel nomination say
confirmation vote should continue
Critics say decision
will hinge on
coming disclosures
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP)
- Republican opponents of for-
mer Sen. Chuck Hagel's stalled
bid to become defense secre-
tary said Sunday that they'll
probably allow his Senate
confirmation vote to proceed
unless material more damaging
to the nominee - and, by exten-
sion, the Obama administration
- surfaces in the coming week.
Critics said the decorated
Vietnam combat veteran is a
"radical" unqualified to lead
the U.S. military. A top White
House official expressed "grave
concern" over the delayed con-
firmation vote, adding that
there was nothing to worry
about in any disclosures that
may yet come.
"No, I don't believe he's
qualified," Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., said of his fellow
Republican and former Senate
colleague. "But I don't believe
that we should hold up his nom-
ination any further, because I
think it's (been) a reasonable
amount of time to have ques-
tions answered."
McCain and other Repub-
licans have angered President
Barack Obama by delaying him
from rounding out his second-
term national security team,
which includes Hagel and John
Brennan, the White House
counterterrorism adviser who
is awaiting confirmation to
become CIA director. Former
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry
assumed his post as secretary
of state at the beginning of Feb-
ruary.
Critics contend that Hagel,
who snubbed McCain by stay-
ing neutral in the 2008 presi-
dential race between McCain
and Obama, isn't supportive
enough of U.S. ally Israel and
is unreasonably sympathetic to
Iran, which has defied interna-
tional pressure to halt its pur-
suit of material that could be
used to make nuclear weapons.
Hagel's nomination also
became ensnared in Republi-
can lawmakers' questioning of
how the White House handled
the Sept. 11 attack against a U.S.
diplomatic mission in Benghazi,
Libya, in which the U.S. ambas-
sador and three other Ameri-
cans were killed. Hagel was not
involved in the administration's
response.
GOP senators also have chal-
lenged Hagel's past statements
and votes on nuclear weapons,
and his criticism of President
George W. Bush's administration.
Republicans last week
delayed a confirmation vote,
but have indicated that one
will be allowed when senators
return from a break on Feb. 25.
Sen. Lindsey Graham,
R-S.C., another leader of the
opposition to Hagel, referred to
a letter he received from Hagel
in response to questions about
past statements on Israel. Gra-
ham said that, as a result, he'll
take Hagel "at his word, unless
something new comes along."
Still, the weeklong delay
buys Hagel's opponents even
more time to rally additional
opposition.
White House chief of staff
Denis McDonough, making his
first appearances on the Sunday
talk shows in his new role, was
asked if the delays in filling out
Obama's Cabinet presented a
threat to national security.
"It's a grave concern," he
said.
Hagel "has one thing in
mind: how do we protect the
country," McDonough said,
adding that there was nothing
to worry about in any disclo-
sures about Hagel that may still
come.
Graham said senators were
taking seriously their respon-
sibility to scrutinize "one of the
most unqualified, radical choic-
es for secretary of defense in a
very long time."
Last week, Obama criticized
Republican senators for delay-
ing the nomination, accusing
them of playing politics with
national security.