The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October17, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Detroit ends Sept.
with cash on hand
Detroit ended September with a
positive cash flow, largely because
it defaulted on many of its finan-
cial obligations while still collect-
ing property taxes, according to a
report Wednesday by the bank-
rupt city's emergency manager.
Inhisreporttothestatetreasur-
er's office, Kevyn Orr said the city
had anunrestricted cash balance of
about $128 million for the quarter
ending Sept. 30. The bounty mostly
was driven by the collection of
more than $237 million in summer
property taxes, he said.
Orr defaulted on $2.5 billion of
the city's unsecured debt in June,
around the time he asked credi-
tors to take pennies on the dollar
for debt owed them. An interest-
only payment of about $4.3 mil-
lion was made Oct. 1 on $479
million in secured general obli-
gation bonds as Orr seeks to take
the city into the largest municipal
bankruptcy in U.S. history.
NEW YORK
Five indicted for
contributing to
Madoff's schemes
Five former employees of
imprisoned financier Bernard
Madoff enriched themselves and
helped "perpetuate Madoff's
elaborate fiction" by weaving
an elaborate web of lies that for
decades duped investors and gov-
ernment regulators, a prosecutor
said Wednesday as the workers'
criminal trial began.
"These are the people who
helped him do it," said Assistant
U.S. Attorney Matthew Schwartz,
pointing at each defendant in fed-
eral court in Manhattan. "Bernie
Madoff needed help to fool so
many people for so long.... A fraud
of this scope and duration could
not have been carried out alone."
Later, he added: "For year after
year after year, they lied for the
most simple reason - greed."
LOS ANGELES
Police report dry
ice bomb scare at
LAX was a 'prank'
A baggage handler arrested
after dry ice bombs exploded at
Los Angeles International Air-
port planted the devices as a
prank, police said Wednesday.
The motive was disclosed a
day after the arrest of Dicarlo
Bennett, a 28-year-old employee
for the ground handling compa-
ny Servisair.
"I think we can safely say he
is not a terrorist or an organized
crime boss. He did this for his
own amusement," said LosAnge-
les police Deputy Chief Michael
Downing, who heads the depart-
ment's counter-terrorism and
special operations bureau.
No one was hurt on Sunday
when two plastic bottles packed
with dry ice exploded in an
employee bathroom and on the
airport's tarmac. An unexploded
device was found Monday night.
ATHENS, Greece
Parliament revokes
immunity for six
Golden Dawn MPs
Greece's Parliament lifted the
immunity from prosecution of
six lawmakers from the extreme
right-wing Golden Dawn party
on Wednesday, as part of a crack-
down on the group sparked by
the fatal stabbing last month of a
Greek rapper.
Golden Dawn lawmakers
walked out before the vote, which
saw near-unanimous approval.
The government argues the
party operates as a criminal orga-
nization. Golden Dawn argues
that the case against it is politi-
cally motivated.
"I am being prosecuted for
what I believe in, and not for
my actions," Panagiotis Iliopou-
los, one of the lawmakers whose
immunity was lifted, said in Par-
liament ahead of the vote.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Booker clinches
N.J. Senate race
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters waiting outside a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans as news emerged
that leaders reached a last-minute agreement to avert a threatened Treasury default and end the 16-day shutdown.
U.S. Senate deal l raise
debt ceiling and avert crisis
Popular Newark
mayor will fill seat
vacated in June
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -
Newark Mayor Cory Booker
won a special election Wednes-
day to represent New Jersey
in the U.S. Senate, giving the
rising Democratic star a big-
ger political stage after a race
against conservative Steve
Lonegan, a former small-town
mayor.
Booker, 44, will become the
first black senator from New
Jersey and heads to Washing-
ton with an unusual political
resume. He was raised in sub-
urban Harington Park as the
son of two of the first black
IBM executives, and graduated
from Stanford and law school at
Yale with a stint in between as
a Rhodes Scholar before mov-
ing to one of Newark's toughest
neighborhoods with the intent
of doing good.
He's been an unconventional
politician, a vegetarian with a
Twitter following of 1.4 million
- or five times the population
of the city he governs. With
dwindling state funding, he
has used private fundraising,
including a $100 million pledge
from Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg, to run programs
in Newark, a strategy that has
brought his city resources and
him both fame and criticism.
Booker was elected to com-
plete the 15 months remaining
on the term of Frank Lauten-
berg, whose death in June at age
89 gave rise to an unusual and
abbreviated campaign. If he
wants to keep the seat for a full
six-year term - and all indica-
tions are that he does - Booker
will be on the ballot again in
November 2014.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Repub-
lican with a national following
of his own, appointed his attor-
ney general, Jeffrey Chiesa,
to the Senate temporarily and
scheduled a special election for
a Wednesday just 20 days before
Christie himself is on the ballot
seeking re-election. Christie said
he wanted to give voters a say as
soon as legally possible.
Democrats challenged the
timing, saying Christie was
afraid of appearing on the same
ballot as the popular. Booker.
But courts upheld the governor's
election schedule.
Booker had a running start
on the election. Before Lauten-
berg died, Booker passed up a
chance to run against Christie
this year, saying he was eyeing
Lautenberg's seat in 2014, in
part so he could complete a full
term as mayor - something he
won't do now that he's heading
to Washington.
He won an August primary
against an experienced Dem-
ocratic field including two
members of Congress and the
speaker of the state Assembly
in a campaign that was largely
about ideas.
The general election was
about deeper contrasts, both
ideological and personal.
Lonegan stepped down as
New Jersey director of the
anti-tax, pro-business Ameri-
cans for Prosperity to run.
Lonegan, who is legally blind,
got national attention as mayor
of the town of Bogota when he
tried to get English made its
official language.
Top Republicans
concede defeat in
shutdown standoff
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Up against a deadline, Con-
gress raced to pass legislation
Wednesday night to avoid a
threatened national default and
end the 16-day partial govern-
ment shutdown in the culmina-
tion of an epic political drama
that placed the U.S. economy at
risk.
The Senate passed the mea-
sure on a bipartisan margin
of 81-18 at midevening. That
cleared the way for a final,
late-night vote in the Repub-
lican-controlled House on
the legislation, which hewed
strictly to the terms President
Obama laid down when the
twin crises erupted more than
three weeks ago.
The legislation would per-
mit the Treasury to borrow
normally through Feb. 7 or per-
haps a month longer, and fund
the government through Jan.
15. More than 2 million federal
workers would be paid - those
who had remained on the job
and those who had been fur-
loughed.
At the White House, Obama
hailed the Senate's vote. Once
the measure reaches his desk,
he said, "I will sign it immedi-
ately. We'll begin reopening our
government immediately and
we can begin to lift this cloud of
uncertainty from our business-
es and the American people."
Less than an hour later, as
debate began in the House,
Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.,
said, "After two long weeks, it
is time to end this government
shutdown. It's time to take the
threat of default off the table.
It's time to restore some sanity
to this place."
The stock market surged
higher at the prospect of an
.end to the crisis that also had
threatened to shake confidence
in the U.S. economy overseas.
Republicans conceded defeat
after a long struggle. "We
fought the good fight. We just
didn't win," conceded House
Speaker John Boehner as law-
makers lined up to vote on a
bill that includes nothing for
Republicans demanding to
eradicate or scale back Obama's
signature health care overhaul.
"The compromise we
reached will provide our econ-
omy with the stability it des-
perately needs," said Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid,
declaring that the nation "came
to the brink of disaster" before,
sealing an agreement.
Senate Republican leader
Mitch McConnell, who nego-
tiated the deal with Reid,
emphasized that it preserved a
round of spending cuts negoti-
ated two years ago with Obama
and Democrats. As a result, he
said, "government spending
has declined for two years in a
row" for the first time since the
Korean War. "And we're not
going back on this agreement,"
he added.
Only a temporary truce, the
measure set a time frame of
early next winter for the next
likely clash between Obama and
the Republicans over spending
and borrowing.
But for now, government was
lurching back to life. In one
-example, officials met to discuss
plans for gearing back up at the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development, where 307
employees remained at work
during the partial shutdown
and more than 8,000 were fur-
loughed.
After weeks of gridlock, the
measure had support from the
White House, most if not all
Democrats in Congress' and
many Republicans fearful of the
economic impact of a default.
Boehner and the rest of the
top GOP leadership told their
rank and file they would vote
for the measure, and there
was little or no doubt it would
pass both houses and reach
the White Iouse in time for
Obama's signature before the
administration's 11:59 p.m. Oct.
17 deadline.
That was when- Treasury
Secretary Jacob Lew said the
government would reach the
current $16.7 trillion debt limit
and could no longer borrow to
meet its obligations.
Syrian rebels' unity
continues to crack.
Trial for Khmer Rouge party
leaders nears end in Cambodia
Civil lawyers call
for reparations for
those affected by the
brutal regime
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
(AP) - Cambodia's trial of the
Khmer Rouge's two surviving
leaders began hearing clos-
ing statements Wednesday,
with pleas for belated justice
and reparations almost 40
years after the brutal regime
destroyed much of a generation
of Cambodian people.
Now ailing and elderly, Nuon
Chea, 87, the regime'schiefideol-
ogist, and Khieu Samphan, 82, its
head of state, are charged with
genocide and crimes against
humanity - including torture,
enslavement and murder - for
planning and implementing the
policies that left an estimated 1.7
million people dead.
Initial statements on Wednes-
day came from the lawyers of
"civil parties" participating in
the trial to represent the victims.
They called for collective repara-
tions in the form of commemora-
tive monuments, mental health
treatment for victims and col-
lections of documents related to
victims' suffering and to the trial.
Statements fromthe prosecu-
tion and defense are scheduled
through the end of October, and
a verdict is expected in the first
half of 2014.
Hundreds of victims who
lost their loved ones during
the regime's 1970s rule packed
the tribunal's courtroom and
crowded outside.
"I need to see justice," said
Prak Sri, 66, who traveled from
the southern province of Takeo.
"I want to see this court pun-
ish these Khmer Rouge leaders
because 11 of my relatives were
killed."
Death and disability have
robbed the tribunal of other
defendants. Khmer Rouge For-
eign Minister Ieng Sary died
in March, and his wife Ieng
Thirith, the regime's social
affairs minister, was declared
unfit for trial in September
2012 after being diagnosed with
dementia. The group's cop lead-
er, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Just 20 minutes into Wednes-
day's hearing, Nuon Chea told
the court he felt ill.
"I feel dizzy. May I leave?"
the man known as Brother No.
2 told the court. He was escort-
ed out in a wheelchair, taken to
a holding cell to watch the pro-
ceedings via video link.
The Khmer Rouge, in power
from April 1975 until January
1979, emptied the country's cit-
ies, forcing Cambodians into
backbreaking work in rural col-
lectives and executing any it
suspected of dissent.
Torture and death by star-
vation, lack of medical care,
overwork and execution were
endemic under the Khmer Rouge.
Civil party lawyers recount-
ed testimony of mothers who
watched their babies die due to
lack of food and medicine and
families forcibly marched at
gunpoint across the countryside.
"Forced transfers involved
the complete emptying of towns
and cities," said civil party law-
yer Hong Kim Suon. "There was
usually no food, water, shelter or
medical care," he said.
"They were discarded,
dumped in the middle of
nowhere, left to their own
devices, eating leaves, roots,
watching their children die in
the cold, in the rain," said civil
party lawyer Elisabeth Simon-
neau Fort. "And they now
understood that they would be
exterminated, smashed, pul-
verized if they did not bend to
the (regime's) requirements."
"But still today there is akind
of inability to believe that this
happened, especially among
the victims, and the question
comes up again and again: How,
how did this happen?"
The civil party lawyers
expressed hope that the trial
would help victims find some
answers to the question of how
such horrors occurred.
"After more than 30yearstheir
right to justice and reparations
will be realized," said another
civil party lawyer, Pich Ang.
The tribunal, launched in
2006, so far has convicted only
one defendant, Khmer Rouge
prison director Kaing Guek
Eav, who was sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2011. Cambo-
dia has no death penalty. His
case was known as 001.
The current trial, Case 002,
against senior leaders of the
regime opened in November 2011
and has included 212 days of tes-
timony from 92 individuals.
To make a massive indict-
ment more manageable, the
court decided to split Case 002
into smaller "mini trials" that
would examine the evidence
in rough chronological order.
It was feared that the aging,
infirm defendants might not
survive long enough to complete
more comprehensive proceed-
ings, depriving victims of even a
modicum of justice.
Dozens of groups
renounce affiliation
with Syrian National
Coalition in Thrkey
BEIRUT (AP) - Several
dozen rebel groups in south-
ern Syria have broken with the
main political opposition group
in exile, a local commander
said in a video posted Wednes-
day, dealing a potential new
setback to Western efforts to
unify moderates battling Presi-
dent Bashar Assad's regime.
The Turkey-based Syrian
National Coalition, the political
arm of the Free Syrian Army
rebel group, has long struggled
to win respect and recognition
from the fighters. It is widely
seen as cut off from events on
the ground and ineffective in
funneling aid and weapons to
the rebels.
In the video, a rebel in mili-
tary fatigues read a statement
with about two dozen fighters
standing behind him, some hold-
ing a banner with FSA emblems.
FSA spokesman Louay Mik-
dad told The Associated Press
that the video is authentic and
identified the man speaking
as a captain in one of the rebel
groups, Anwar al-Sunna, which
posted the video.
The rebel in the video said
political opposition leaders
have failed to represent those
trying to bring down Assad.
. "We announce that we with-
draw our recognition from any
political group that claims to,
represents us, first among them
the Coalition and its leadership
which have relinquished the
principles of the homeland and
the revolution," he said.
He named 66 groups that he
said support his statement. The
man suggested rebel groups
would reorganize, saying that
"we are unifying the forces of
the revolution militarily and
politically," but did not explain
further.
It could not be confirmed
independently if all the groups
named in the video support
the statement. Noah Bonsey,
an expert on Syrian rebels at
the International Crisis Group
think tank, said one of the larger
groups named in the video did
not post the statement on its
Facebook page.
Nevertheless, Louay Mik-
dad, an FSA spokesman, said.
tle video should serve as a
wakeup call to the Coalition.
"We respect what they (the
rebels) are saying," he said. "We
think our brothers in the Coali-
tion ... should listen to the peo-
ple inside and they should open
a direct dialogue with them."
He said the FSA commander,
Gen. Salim Idris, would try to
speak to some of the groups
named in the video.
Coalition spokesman Khaled
Saleh did not immediately
respond to an emailed request
for comment.
Hundreds of groups of fight-
ers operate in Syria, often with
considerable local autonomy,
and shifting alliances are com-
mon in a chaotic battlefield.
Last month, nearly a dozen of
Syria's more powerful rebel
factions broke with the Coali-
tion and called for Islamic law
in the country, cementing the
rift between rival camps.
Rebel groups with a strong
Islamic orientation, from mod-
erates to hardliners, "appear
to be aligning themselves
politically, much more closely
than they have previously,"
said Charles Lister, an analyst
at -IHS Jane's Terrorism and
Insurgency Center.
The groups named Wednes-
day appear largely local and less
influential than those which
broke away from the Coalition
in September, Lister said.
Mikdad said they include
rebel groups from the south-
ern Daraa provinces and the
rural areas around the capital,
Damascus.
Southern Syria has been con-
sidered a stronghold of the mod-
erate opposition, while Islamic
extremists, including those
linked to al-Qaida, seem to be
spreading their influence in the
north and east.
The latest apparent setback
for the Coalition comes at a time
when it's tryingto decide wheth-
er to attend negotiations with the
regime on a political transition.
U.N. $ecretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said Wednesday that
the U.N., the U.S. and Russia are
"intensifying efforts" to start
such talks in Geneva in mid-
November.