The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Monday, April 22, 2413 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, April 22, 2013 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
VASSAR, Mich.
Spring storms
affecting Michigan
sugar beet farmers
Heavy rainstorms this spring
have forced Michigan sugar beet
growers to postpone planting.
Michigan State University
Extension educator and sugar beet
expert Steven Poindexter says it's
not time to panic despite the delay.
He tells MLive.com that
although earlier planting of sugar
beets means more growing time
and usually larger beets, farmers
have planted them as late as June
some years and still had a success-
ful harvest.
Dave Zwerk of Tuscola County-
based Zwerk & Sons Farms says
he's hoping his 1,200 sugar beet
acres will be ready for planting in
the coming weeks.
Zwerk says if he "can get in
there in the next week or so," he
"might not lose a lot of yield."
DENVER
Snowboarders
killed in
avalanche ID'd
Authorities have released the
names of four Colorado snow-
boarders and one skier killed over
the weekend in the state's dead-
liest avalanche in more than 50
years.
Clear Creek County Sheriff Don
Krueger said search and rescue
crews recovered the men's bod-
ies from a backcountry area on
Loveland Pass several hours after
Saturday afternoon's slide, which
was estimated to be about 600 feet
wide and eight feet deep. All of
the men were equipped with ava-
lanche beacons.
The sheriff identified the vic-
tims Sunday as Christopher
Peters, 32, of Lakewood; Joseph
Timlin, 32, of Gypsum; Ryan
Novack, 33, of Boulder; Ian Lan-
phere, 36, of Crested Butte; and
Rick Gaukel, 33, of Estes Park.
CLARKSVILLE, Mich.
Rivers crest across
Midwest; more
rain in forecast
Those fighting floods in several
communities along the Missis-
sippi River were mostly success-
ful Sunday despite the onslaught
of water, but an ominous forecast
and the growing accumulation of
snow in the upper Midwest tem-
pered any feelings of victory.
The surging Mississippi was at
or near crest at several places from
the Quad Cities south to near St.
Louis - some reaching 10-12 feet
above flood stage. Problems were
plentiful: Hundreds of thousands
of acres of swamped farmland as
planting season approaches; three

people died; roads and bridges
closed, including sections of major
highways like U.S. 61 in Iowa and
Missouri and crossings at Quincy,
Ill., and Louisiana, Mo.
NEW DELHI, India
Condition of Indian
child who was
raped improves
The condition of a 5-year-old
girl who was raped, tortured and
then left alone in a locked room
for two days has improved, a doc-
tor said, as protests continued in
India's capital over the authori-
ties' handlingof the case.
The girl was in critical condi-
tion when she was transferred
Thursday from a local hospital to
the largest government-run hospi-
tal in the country. But D.K. Shar-
ma, medical superintendent of the
state-run hospital in New Delhi
where the girl was being treated,
said Sunday that she was respond-
ing well to treatment and that her
condition had stabilized.
Police say the girl went miss-
ing April 15 and was found two
days later by neighbors who heard
her crying in a locked room in the
same New Delhi building where
she lives with her family.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports.

Rural China rushes relief after Bombing suspects
quake kills 186, injures 11,000 planned more attacks

Earthquake with 7.0
magnitude leaves
survivors struggling
to access aid
LUSHAN, China (AP) - Luo
Shiqiang sat near chunks of con-
crete, bricks and a ripped orange
sofa and told how his grandfa-
ther was just returning from
feeding chickens when their
house collapsed and crushed
him to death in this weekend's
powerful earthquake in south-
western China.
"We lost everything in such
a short time," the 20-year-old
college student said Sunday.
He said his cousin also was
injured in the collapse, but
that other members of his fam-
ily were spared because they
were out working in the fields
of hard-hit Longmen village in
Lushan county.
Saturday's earthquake in
Sichuan province killed at least
186 people, injured more than
11,000 and left nearly two dozen
missing, mostly in the rural
communities around Ya'an city,
along the same fault line where
a devastating quake to the north
killed more than 90,000 people
in Sichuan and neighboring
areas five years ago in one of
China's worst natural disasters.
The Lushan and Baoxing
counties hardest-hit on Satur-
day had escaped the worst of
the damage in the 2008 quake,
and residents there said they
benefited little from the region's
rebuilding after the disaster,
with no special reinforcements
made or new evacuation proce-
dures introduced in their remote
communities.
Luo said he wished more had
been done to make his commu-
nity's buildings quake-resistant.
"Maybe the country's leaders
really wanted to help us, but
when it comes to the lower levels
the officials don't carry it out,"
he said.
Relief teams flew in helicop-
ters and dynamited through
landslides Sunday to reach some

of the most isolated communi- cine and rescue equipment to
ties, where rescuers in orange the disaster areas.
overalls led sniffer dogs through United Nations Secretary-
piles of brick, concrete and wood General Ban Ki-moon said Sun-
debris to search for survivors. day thatthe U.N. stood ready"to
Many residents complained provide assistance and to mobi-
that although emergency teams lize any international support
were quick to carry away bod- that may be needed," according
ies and search for survivors, to a statement released by the
they had so far done little to U.N. spokesperson.
distribute aid. "No water, no In his condolence message,
shelter," read a hand-written Ban said he "is deeply saddened
sign held up by children on a by the loss of life, injuries and
roadside in Longmen. destruction" caused by the
"I was working in the field earthquake and aftershocks
when I heard the explosions of that struck Sichuan province.
the earthquake, and I turned Lushan, where the quake
around and saw my house sim- struck, lies where the fertile
ply flatten in front of me," said Sichuan plain meets foothills
Fu Qiuyue, a 70-year-old rape- that eventually rise to the Tibet-
seed farmer in Longmen. an plateau and sits atop the
Fu sat with her husband, Ren Longmenshan fault, where the
Dehua, in a makeshift shelter 2008 quake struck.
of logs and a plastic sheet on The seat of Lushan county
a patch of grass near where a has been turned into a large ref-
helicopter had parked to reach ugee camp, with tents set up on
their community of terraced open spaces, and volunteers dol-
grain and vegetable fields. She ing out noodles and boxed meals
said the collapse of the house to survivors from stalls and the
had crushed eight pigs to death, backs of vans.
"It was the scariest sound I have A large van with a convert-
ever heard," she said. ible side served as a mobile bank
The quake - measured by with an ATM, military medi-
China's earthquake adminis- cal trucks provided X-rays for
tration at magnitude 7.0 and by people with minor injuries, and
the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 military doctors administered
- struck shortly after 8 a.m. on basic first aid, applying iodine
Saturday. Tens of thousands of solution to cuts and examining
people moved into tents or cars, bruises.
unable to return home or too Patients with minor ailments
afraid to go back as aftershocks were lying in tents in the yard
continued to jolt the region. of the local hospital, which was
The quake killed at least wrecked by the quake, with the
186 people, left 21 missing and most severely injured patients
injured 11,393, the official Xin- sent to the provincial capital.
hua News Agency quoted the With a limited water supply
provincial emergency command and buildings inaccessible,
center as saying. sanitation is a problem for the
As in most natural disasters, survivors.
the governmentmobilized thou- One of the patients receiving
sands of soldiers and others, care in the hospital's yard was
sending excavators and other the son of odd-job laborer Zhou
heavy machinery as well as Lin, 22. The baby boy was born
tents, blankets and other emer- a day before the quake struck.
gency supplies. Two soldiers Zhou said he was relieved
died after their vehicle slid off that his newborn son and wife
a road and rolled down a cliff, were safe and healthy but was
state media reported. worried about his 60-year-
The Chinese Red Cross said it old father and other relatives
had deployed relief teams with who have been unreachable in
supplies of food, water, medi- Baoxing.

Police say wealth
of weapons suggest
other possible hits
BOSTON (AP) - As churches
paused to mourn the dead and
console the survivors of the Bos-
ton Marathon bombing Sunday,
the city's police commissioner
said the two suspects had such
a large cache of weapons that
they were probably planning
other attacks. The survivingsus-
pect remained hospitalized and
unable to speak with a gunshot
wound to the throat.
After the two brothers
engaged in a gun battle with
police early Friday, authorities
found many unexploded home-
made bombs at the scene, along
with more than 250 rounds of
ammunition.
Police Commissioner Ed Davis
said the stockpile was "as dan-
gerous as it gets in urban polic-
ing."
"We have reason to believe,
based upon the evidence that was
found at that scene - the explo-
sions, the explosive ordnance
that was unexploded and the
firepower that they had - that
they were going to attack other
individuals. That's my belief
at this point" Davis told CBS's
"Face the Nation."
On "Fox News Sunday," he
said authorities cannot be posi-
tive there are not more explo-
sives somewhere that have not
been found. But the people of
Boston are safe, he insisted.
The suspects in the twin
bombings that killed three peo-
ple and wounded more than 180
are two ethnic Chechen brothers
from southern Russia - 19-year-
old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his
26-year-old brother, Tamerlan.
Their motive remained unclear.
The older brother was killed
during a getaway attempt. The
younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsar-
naev, was still in serious condi-
tion Sunday after his capture
Friday from a tarp-covered boat
in a suburban Boston backyard.
Authorities would not comment
on whether he had been ques-
tioned.
Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana,
a member of the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee, said Tsar-
naev's throat wound raised
questions about when he will be
able to talk again, if ever.
The wound "doesn't mean he
can't communicate, but right
now I think he's in a condition
where we can't get any informa-
tion from him at all," Coats told
ABC's "This Week."
It was not clear whether Tsar-
naev was shot by police or inflict-
ed the wound himself.
In the final standoff with
police, shots were fired from the
boat, but investigators have not

determined where the gunfire
was aimed, Davis said.
In an interview with The
Associated Press, the parents of
Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted Sun-
day that he came to Dagestan and
Chechnya last year to visit rela-
tives and had nothing to do with
the militants operating in the
volatile part of Russia. His father
said he slept much of the time.
The younger Tsarnaev could
be charged any day. The most
serious charge available to fed-
eral prosecutors would be the
use of a weapon of mass destruc-
tion to kill people, which carries
a possible death sentence. Massa-
chusetts does not have the death
penalty.
Across the rattled streets of
Boston, churches opened their
doors to remember the dead and
ease the grief of the living.
At the Cathedral of the Holy
Cross in South Boston, photo-
graphs of the three people killed
in the attack and a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology police
officer slain Thursday were dis-
played on the altar, each face illu-
minated by a glowing white pillar
candle.
"I hope we can all heal and
move forward," said Kelly McK-
ernan, who was crying as she left
the service. "And obviously, the
Mass today was a first step for us
in that direction."
A six-block segment of
Boylston Street,where the bombs
were detonated, remained closed
Sunday. But city officials were
mapping out a plan to reopen it.
Mayor Thomas Menino said
Sunday that once the scene is
released by the FBI, the city will
follow a five-step process, includ-
ing environmental testing and a
safety assessment of buildings.
The exact timetable was uncer-
tain.
Boston's historic Trinity
Church could not host services
Sunday because it was within
the crime scene, but the congre-
gation was invited to worship at
the Temple Israel synagogue
instead. The FBI allowed
church officials a half-hour
Saturday to go inside to gather
the priests' robes, the wine and
bread for Sunday's service.
Trinity's Rev. Samuel T.
Lloyd III offered a prayer for
those who were slain "and for
those who must rebuild their
lives without the legs that they
ran and walked on last week."
"So where is God when the
terrorists do their work?" Lloyd
asked. "God is there, holding
us and sustaining us. God is in
the pain the victims are suffer-
ing, and the healing that will go
on. God is with us as we try still
to build a just world, a world
where there will not be terror-
ists doing their terrible dam-
age."

Officials say at least 185 killed in
Nigeria gun and grenade attack

Officials unable
to discern civilian
deaths from
extremist fighters
BAGA,Nigeria(AP) - Fighting
between Nigeria's military and
Islamic extremists killed at least
185peopleinafishingcommunity
in the nation's far northeast, offi-
cials said Sunday, an attack that
saw insurgents fire rocket-pro-
pelledgrenadesand soldiersspray
machine-gun fire into neighbor-
hoods filled with civilians.
The fighting in Baga began
Friday and lasted for hours,
sending people fleeing into the
arid scrublands surrounding
the community on Lake Chad.
By Sunday, when government
officials finally felt safe enough
to see the destruction, homes,
businesses and vehicles were
burned throughout the area.
The assault marks a sig-
nificant escalation in the long-
running insurgency Nigeria
faces in its predominantly Mus-
lim north, with Boko Haram
extremists mounting a coordi-
nated assault on soldiers using
military-grade weaponry. The
killings also mark one of the
deadliest incidents ever involv-
ing Boko Haram.
Authorities had found and
buried at least 185 bodies as of
Sunday afternoon, said Lawan
Kole, a local government official
in Baga. He spoke haltingly to
Borno state Gov. Kashim Shet-
tima in the Kanuri language of
Nigeria's northeast, surrounded
by still-frightened villagers.
Officials could not offer a
breakdown of civilian casual-
ties versus those of soldiers and
extremist fighters. Many of the
bodies had been burned beyond
recognition in fires that razed
whole sections of the town, resi-
dents said. Those killed were
buried as soon as possible, fol-
lowing local Muslim tradition.

Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye,
also on the visit, did not dispute
the casualty figures. Edokpaye
said Boko Haram extremists
used heavy machine guns and
rocket-propelled grenades in
the assault, which began after
soldiers surrounded a mosque
they believed housed members
of the radical Islamic extremist
network Boko Haram. Extrem-
ists earlier had killed a military
officer, the general said.
Edokpaye said extremists
used civilians as human shields
during the fighting - imply-
ing that soldiers opened fire
in neighborhoods where they
knew civilians lived.
"When we reinforced and
returned to the scene the ter-
rorists came out with heavy
firepower, including (rocket-
propelled grenades), which usu-
ally has a conflagration effect,"
the general said.
However, local residents who
spoke to an Associated Press
journalist who accompanied
the state officials said soldiers
purposefully set the fires during
the attack. Violence by security
forces in the northeast target-
ing civilians has been widely
documented by journalists and
human rights activists. A simi-
lar raid in Maiduguri, Borno
state's capital, in October after
extremists killed a military offi-
cer saw soldiers kill at least 30
civilians and set fires across a
neighborhood.
Sundayafternoon,the burned
bodies of cattle and goats still
filled the streets in Baga. Bullet
holes marred burned buildings.
Fearful residents of the town
had begun packingto leave with
their remaining family mem-
bers before nightfall, despite
Shettima trying to convince
some to stay.
"Everyone has been in the
bush since Friday night; we
started returning back to town
because the governor came to
town today," grocer Bashir Isa

said. "To get food to eat in the
town now is a problem because
even the markets are burnt.
We are still picking corpses of
women and children in the bush
and creeks."
The Islamic insurgency in
Nigeria grew out of a 2009 riot
led by Boko Haram members in
Maiduguri that ended in a mili-
tary and police crackdown that
killed some 700 people. The
group's leader died in police cus-
tody in an apparent execution.
From 2010 on, Islamic extrem-
ists have engaged in hit-and-run
shootings and suicide bombings,
attacks that have killed at least
1,548 people before Friday's
attack, according to an AP count.
In January 2012, Boko Haram
launched a coordinated attack in
Kano, northern Nigeria's largest
city, that killed at leastl185 people
as well. However, casualty num-
bers remain murky in Nigeria,
where security and government
officials often downplay figures.
Boko Haram, which means
"Western education is sacri-
lege" in the Hausa language of
Nigeria's north, has said it wants
its imprisoned members freed
and Nigeria to adopt strict Sha-
riah law across the multiethnic
nation of more than 160 mil-
lion people. While the admin-
istration of President Goodluck
Jonathan has started a commit-
tee to look at the idea of offering
an amnesty deal to extremist
fighters, Boko Haram's leader
Abubakar Shekau has dismissed
the ideaout of hand in messages.
The Boko Haram network,
which analysts and diplomats
say has loose links to two other
al-Qaida-aligned groups in
Africa, has splintered into other
groups as well. Its command-
and-control structure also
remains unclear. Recent Inter-
net videos featuring Shekau
have shown him with fighters
carrying military weapons he
said were stolen during attacks
on Nigeria's military.

Ero Now - Offer en ds M ay 2nd
. . Classes preparing fortheJunelJuly 2013
MCATtart assoon as: 5/5&516
C Riewn 800-2ReviewI1800-273-8439
Relw PrincetonReview.com
R iven " "20agfa a "'' ATC'c~ocusasnlviigentisodatier ionewetim. 6besee A,i5,2M1-May2.2M3