The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October10, 2013 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
Snyder testifies
about Detroit
bankruptcy
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
testified behind closed doors
Wednesday about his role tak-
ing Detroit into bankruptcy, a
rare interview with lawyers for
creditors who pressed him about
retiree pensions and asked if the
city could have done more to
avoid the historic filing.
Snyder waived executive
privilege and gave a three-hour
deposition at his office in Lan-
sing. The testimony can be used
as evidence in an upcoming trial
that will determine whether
Detroit is eligible to shed or
restructure at least $18 billion in
debt in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Snyder, a Republican, didn't
speak to reporters but issued a
statement that repeated many of
his previous justifications for the
largest public bankruptcy in U.S.
history.
WHEELING, W.Va.
Ex-cop shot and
killed after firing
on U.S. courthouse
A retired police officer armed
with an assault weapon and a
handgun fired up to two dozen
shots at a U.S. courthouse in West
Virginia on Wednesday before
police returned fire and killed
him, police said.
Wheeling Police Chief Shawn
Schwertfeger identified the gun-
man Thomas J. Piccard, 55, of
Bridgeport, Ohio. He was a retired
Wheeling police officer.
Schwertfeger did not say
whether Piccard used both weap-
ons during the assault on the
Wheeling Federal Building or
speculate on a motive.
MONTREAL
Quebec seeks
to ban religious
symbols in public
Viewed from the outside,
Quebec often seems like a place
where all life orbits around the
political destiny of a French-
speaking province in an Eng-
lish-speaking country. The
latest instance centers on reli-
gious headwear.
The trigger is a heatedly
debated plan by the ruling party,
the separatist Parti Quebecois,
to make the provincial govern-
ment religion-neutral. It wants
to do so by banning symbols of
religious faith such as Jewish
skullcaps, Sikh turbans, Muslim
head scarves and large crucifixes
from public work places.
And as usual, the measure is
being read also for what it says
about the ruling party's peren-
nial goal of making Quebec inde-
pendent of the rest of Canada.
The analysis is that with support
for separatism weakened, and
an election being predicted for

December, something spectacu-
lar is needed to rally the party
base.
PARIS
Two reporters held
hostage in Syria
France has revealed the exis-
tence of two more journalists
taken hostage in Syria, after the
prime minister identified them in
a radio interview, apparently by
mistake.
The disclosure that Nicolas
Henin and Pierre Torres had been
kidnapped while working in Syria
June 22 brings to four the number
of French journalists known to be
held hostage in Syria.
The Foreign Ministry said
3 Wednesday that Henin and Tor-
res' capture was not disclosed
until now out of respect of their
families' wishes. However, in an
interview on French radio sta-
tion Europe 1 Wednesday morn-
ing, Prime Minister Jean-Marc
Ayrault named them for the first
time while answering a question
about two other reporters whose
kidnapping was disclosed in June.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

Political drama
unfolds in Iran

Director General Ahmet Uzumcu of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, gives an update
on the the chemical watchdog's verification and destruction mission in Syria during a press conference.
U.N. officials say rebels in.
Syria should seek ceasefIre

Inspectors need
access to destroy
chemical weapons
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
(AP) - International inspec-
tion teams overseeing the
destruction of Syria's chemical
weapons will have to negotiate
cease-fires between govern-
ment and rebel forces to gain
access to some sites, officials
closely involved with the mis-
sion said Wednesday.
The revelation is a clear
indication of the risks and dif-
ficulties of the unprecedented
disarmament plan, and it sug-
gests that the effort to rid
Damascus of its poison gas
stockpile may have a hard time
meeting its mid-2014 deadline.
The destruction of the stock-
pile is being led by a joint team
from the United Nations and the
Organization for the Prohibi-
tion of Chemical Weapons.
OPCW Director-General
Ahmet Uzumcu told report-

ers in The Hague the timeline
was tight but "not unrealistic."
He said inspectors have to visit
more than 20 sites in coming
days and weeks. Since the mis-
sion started last week, they have
been to one location; they are
expectedto inspect asecond site
near Damascus, the Syrian capi-
tal, on Wednesday.
This is the first time the glob-
al organization that polices the
Chemical Weapons Convention
has sent its inspectors and ana-
lytical chemists into a raging
civil war, and their security is
a major concern amid ongo-
ing fighting between President
Bashar Assad's forces and vari--
ous rebel groups. The war has
already left at least 100,000'
people dead.
On Wednesday, rebels over-
ran a military post near the
southern city of Daraa; accord-
ing to the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
activist group. Opposition
fighters late last month also
captured a nearby military base
that previously served as the

customs office on the outskirts
of Daraa.
"If we can ensure some
cooperation by all parties and
if some temporary cease-fires
... can be established in order
to permit our experts to work
in a very hostile environment,
I think the targets could be
reached," Uzumcu said in his
first public remarks on the mis-
sion.
Previous attempts by inter-
national mediators to negoti-
ate broader cease-fires have
failed, though it might be easier
for combatants to agree to halt
their fire in a specific location
for a limited time.
Two large umbrella groups
for the Arab and Muslim world
- the Arab League and the
organization of Islamic Coop-
eration - are urging those
fighting in Syria to halt fighting
for the duration of next week's
four-day Muslim holiday of
Eid al-Adha, the Arab League's
deputy secretary general,
Ahmed Ben Heli, told reporters
in Cairo on Wednesday.

Foreign minister
checks himself into
hospital for stress
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's
internal power plays have
produced many moments of
political theater, but never one
like this: The foreign minister
checks himself into a hospital
because of stress, blaming it on
hard-line critics of the recent
thaw with Washington.
A cascade of events Wednes-
day suggested there was no
end in sight to the ideological
skirmishes following President
Hassan Rouhani's outreach to
the U.S.
Those overtures will be put
to the test next week in Geneva
when nuclear talks with world
powers resume.
For Rouhani, the immediate
prize would be winning pledg-
es from the West to roll back
painful sanctions in exchange
for concessions on Tehran's
nuclear program. But, on a
deeper level, Rouhani's gambit
also exposes sudden insecuri-
ties among the West-bashing
factions that have shaped Ira-
nian affairs for decades.
If Rouhani's brand of diplo-
macy pays off in the eyes.
of Iran's top policymaker,
Supreme Leader . Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, it could bring
sharper limits on the reach of
powerful factions led by the
Revolutionary Guard - which
has already been warned by
Khamenei to stay out of politics
and let Rouhani's overtures run
their course.
The Guard will remain a
pillar of Iran's establishment
no matter what happens with
Rouhani's efforts. But Khame-
nei's directive to give Rouhani
political breathing room was
a rare roadblock for a group
whose power and influence

has expanded steadily in the
past decade. The Revolutionary
Guard's network now extends
beyond its fighting forces to
cover sectors as diverse as the
nuclear program and airport
security.
Possible attempts by Khame-
nei to separate the Guard from
the worlds of politics and for-
eign affairs would mark a pro-
found change on how Iran
interacts with the West, and
offer more of flexibility in
diplomacy.
"Opposition or frustration
by hard-liners is a natural
reaction," said Tehran-based
political analyst Saeed Leilaz.
"But nothing can derail Rou-
hani's policy of outreach to
the U.S." as long as Khamenei
remains nominally in his cor-
ner.
Khamenei has previously
said he's not opposed to direct
talks with the U.S. to resolve
Iran's nuclear standoff with
the West but is not optimistic.
Last week, he called the U.S.
"untrustworthy."
"There is a political will
to reduce tensions with the
U.S.," said a Tehran politi-
cal commentator, Hamid Reza
Shokoulli. "This strategy is sup-
ported by the supreme leader."
But that has not stopped crit-
ics of Rouhani's government
from making their complaints
heard.
The nationally broadcast Fri-
day prayers last week included
the familiar chants of "Death to
America." A week earlier, pro-
testers hurled eggs and insults
and Rouhani's entourage after
he returned from the ground-
breaking exchanges in New
York.
It was capped by President
Barrack Obama's phone con-
versation with Rouhani in the
highest-level dialogue between
the countries since Iran's 1979
Islamic Revolution.


Dutch apologize
for arresting
Russian diplomat

Start Your Career in Accounting.

Apology aimed
to smooth over,
diplomatic relations
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
(AP) - The Netherlands apolo-
gized to Russia on Wednesday
for the arrest and detention of
a Russian diplomat - but the
move appears unlikely to be
enough to ease growing ten-
sions between the two nations.
The swift apology by Foreign
Minister Frans Timmermans
aimed to smooth over a dip-
lomatic spat that has further
soured relations already tested
by Russia's seizure last month
of a Dutch-flagged Greenpeace
ship protesting oil drilling in
the Arctic. Russia has charged
all 30 people on board with
piracy, which carries a maxi-
mum 15-year sentence.
Diplomat Dmitry Borodin
was arrested Saturday by police
in The Hague over what Rus-
sian Foreign Ministry spokes-
man Alexander Lukashevich
called an "absolutely contrived"
allegation of child abuse.
His arrest breached the Vien-
na Convention on diplomatic
relations, Timmermans said in
a statement Wednesday. "The
Netherlands offers the Russian
Federation its apologies."
Still, the minister said he
understood the action of police
who arrested Borodin - a state-
ment unlikely to appease Rus-
sian demands for action against
the officers. The two nations
remain in talks about the situ-
ation.
Alexei Pushkov, chief of the
foreign affairs committee in the
lower house of Russia's parlia-
ment, wasn't satisfied.
"The Hague has offered us
its excuses, but it has effective-
ly sought to justify the police
action, calling it 'professional.'
So, there are excuses but there
is no one to blame," he tweeted..
Police have declined to com-
ment on the incident. Dutch

state broadcaster NOS report-
ed that police had traced a car
involved in an accident that
day to Borodin's home, and
neighbors told police they were
worried for the safety of the
children inside.
The Dutch-Russian spat
shifted to another topic
Wednesday as Russia ques-
tioned the quality of one of the
Netherlands' key exports -
cheese.,
The chief of Russia's agri-
culture products agency was
quoted by Russian news agen-
cies as saying a Russian del-
egation inspecting Dutch
cheese-making facilities was
not satisfied with the quality of
the product. Agency head Ser-
gei Dankvert said the results
were preliminary and a full
report would come later.
In Moscow, meanwhile,
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman
for the Investigative Commit-
tee dealing with the Greenpeace
incident, said investigators were
trying to identify the activists
whose inflatable boats tried to
block Russian coast guards. He
said they were "threatening life
and safety of an official." He also
said "dual use equipment" and
drugs were found on board the
Greenpeace boat that protested
Sept. 18 at a Gazprorn-owned
oil rig. Russian authorities have
seized the boat.
Greenpeace said "any claim
that illegal drugs were found is
a smear, it's a fabrication, pure
and simple."
The head of Greenpeace
International wrote to Rus-
sian President Vladimir Putin
requesting a meeting in Mos-
cow - and offering himself as
human bail for the detainees.
Kumi Naidoo of the Amster-
dam-based organization deliv-
ered the letter to the Russian
embassy in The Hague on
Wednesday. He said he would
guarantee the activists' good
conduct but said piracy charg-
es don't make sense and should
be dropped.

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