The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 31, 2013 -- 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
LANSING, Mich.
State House votes
to add extra safety
drills in schools
Michigan schools would con-
duct one extra lockdown drill
and one fewer fire drill a year
under legislation approved in
the state House.
Republican Rep. Joseph
Graves of Linden said Wednes-
day that his bill also would
require school districts to post
documentation of completed
disaster safety drills on their
websites within five school
days.
The measure was introduced
after MLive.com reported
school safety laws were rou-
tinely ignored and state officials
didn't know the scope of the
problem. It's backed by a task
force -appointed by Gov. Rick
Snyder after the school massa-
cre in Connecticut.
BUFFALO, New York
Bus driver stops
woman from
jumping off bridge
A bus driver is being hailed as
a hero for preventing a woman
from jumping off a Buffalo high-
way overpass.
About 20 McKinley High
School students had just stepped
aboard Darnell Barton's Metro
bus Oct. 18 when he spotted a
woman who had climbed over a
guardrail and stood leaning over
the afternoon traffic zipping
along the Scajaquada Express-
way below.
With cars and an occasional
pedestrian continuing to pass by
her, Barton wasn't sure at first
that the woman was in distress.
He stopped his bus, opened
the door and asked if she needed
help, at that moment conflicted
between the rules of his job,
which required him to call his
dispatcher, and his training as a
former volunteer firefighter and
member of the Buffalo Special
Police, which told him that if he
made contact, he shouldn't break
it.
LONDON
British journalists
* plead guilty for
phone hacking
A prosecutor said Wednes-
day that there was "a con-
spiracy which involved a
significant number of people" to
hack phones at the Rupert Mur-
doch-owned News of the World,
revealing that three senior
journalists at the now-defunct
newspaper have pleaded guilty
to illegally eavesdropping on
voicemails.
Opening the long-awaited
hacking trial of former News
of the World editors Rebekah
Brooks, Andy Coulson and oth-
ers, prosecution lawyer Andrew
Edis said hacking and other
illegal activity at the paper and
its sister tabloid, The Sun, went
on for a decade. He said it was
inconceivable that the top exec-
utives didn't know about it.
MEXICO CITY
Mexico evacuates
4,500 residents
due to gas line leak
A geyser of gasoline spewing
from a state-owned pipeline in
western Mexico forced officials
to evacuate about 4,500 people
on Wednesday. Officials blamed
the accident on fuel thieves.
Photos from the scene in the
town of Tlajomulco, near the
city of Guadalajara, showed
a plume of gasoline shooting
into the air from the pipeline,
located in a field near a hous-
ing development. Guadalajara
is Mexico's second-largest city
and the capital of Jalisco state.
The gasoline had not caught
fire and there were no immedi-
ate reports of injuries. The clos-
est homes were about 150 yards
(meters) from the leak.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
A S: upport
for rebel groups
must cease
In this Aug.1 photo, a teenage sex worker, right, lights up a cigarette as her pimp identified as Chimoy, left, looks on in a
room at a boarding house in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
inors pimping out kids
for sex in Indonesia
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proud
ingleaders can and 16 have been caught work-
ing as "mamis" so far this year,
irn up to $400 and there are likely far more.
It's easier than ever. Kids
per month in can use text messages and
social media to book clients and
commission make transactions without ever
standing on a dark corner in a
.NDUNG, Indonesia (AP) miniskirt and heels.
imoy flicks a lighter and "The sickening thing is you
s a long drag until her see 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds,
ks collapse on the skinny getting into these practices,'
ill Mild, exhaling a col- says Leonarda Kling, Jakarta-
of smoke. based regional representative
r no-nonsense, tough-girl for Terre des Hommes Nether-
ide projects the confidence lands, a nonprofit working on
roman in her 30s, yet she's trafficking issues. "You think:
17. Colorful angel and but- 'The whole future of this child
tattoos cover her skin, is just going to waste."'
the wears a black T-shirt Chimoy, who has occasion-
azoned with a huge skull. ally worked as a prostitute, and
imoy - by her own other teens in the sex industry
tnt and those of other girls interviewed for this story are
ocial workers - is a pimp. identified by their nicknames.
e got into the business The Associated Press does not
she was 14. A boyfriend's typically identify children who
asked her to sell herself have been sexually abused.
ex, but she recruited a Recently, in the eastern city
d for the job instead. Then of Surabaya, a 15-year-old was
stablished a pimping oper- busted after escorting three
that grew to include a car, other teens to meet clients at a
use and some 30 working hotel. Police spokeswoman Maj.
earning her up to $3,000 Suparti says the girl employed
nth - a small fortune in a 10 prostitutes - including
country. classmates, Facebook friends
he money was too strong and even her older sister - and
ist," she says. "I was really collected up to a quarter of the
d to make money on my $50.to $150 received for each
taurants first to size them up.
"She was running her pimp
action like a professional,"
Suparti says.
Human trafficking and sex
tourism have long been big
business in this vast archi-
pelago of 240 million, thanks
to rampant corruption, weak
law enforcement and a lack of
reporting largely due to family
embarrassment or little faith in
the system.
The U.N. International Labor
Organization estimates 40,000
to 70,000 children become vic-
tims of sexual exploitation in
Indonesia annually..
Much of this abuse is driven
by adults, but poverty and con-
sumerism play a role. Indone-
sia's have-nots rub up against a
growing middle class obsessed
with the latest gadgets and the
ultra-wealthy flaunting their
designer clothes and luxury
cars.
It was a smartphone that
drove soft-spoken Daus into
prostitution at age 14. The son
of a factory worker and a street
food vendor, the lanky boy says
he was soon making $400 to
$500 a month for having sex
regularly with three women in
their 30s and 40s.
"I didn't want to do it, but I
had to have the BlackBerry,"
he says. Indonesia is a social-
media crazed country that
ranks as one of the world's top
Facebook and Twitter users. "If
we don't have a BlackBerry, we
feel we are nothing, and we are
ignored by our friends."
Syrian leaders
comments casts
more doubt on
peace efforts
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -
Syrian President Bashar Assad
told the Arab League-U.N.
envoy Wednesday that foreign
support for the armed opposi-
tion must end if any political
solution to the country's con-
flict is to succeed, state-run
media said.
Assad's comments to Lakhdar
Brahimi during their meeting
in Damascus cast further doubt
on already sputtering efforts to
convene an international peace
conference to try to end the
country's civil war.
The United States, Russia
and the United Nations have
been trying for months to bring
the Syrian government and the
opposition together in Geneva
to attempt to negotiate a politi-
cal resolution to the conflict.
After repeated delays, efforts
renewed in earnest last month
to organize the conference, but
the Syrian opposition remains
deeply divided over whether to
attend, while the government
refuses to sit down with the
armed opposition.
Brahimi's trip to Damascus
was the latest stop on a region-
al tour in recent days as he tries
to lay the groundwork for the
proposed peace talks in Geneva
that are tentatively planned for
next month. But Assad, whose
government has regained the
momentum in recent months in
the conflict, showed little sign
of inching toward compromise.
"For any political solution to
be successful, it is crucial to halt
support for terrorist groups and'
the countries that sponsor them,
facilitate the entry of terror-
ist mercenaries and offer them
money, weapons and logistical
support," Assad was quoted by
Al-Ikhbariya television as tell-
ing Brahimi. "The Syrian people
alone are entitled to draw the
future of Syria. Any solution
must be approved by them and
reflect their wishes away from
any foreign intervention."
"This is paramount to prepare
the circumstances for dialogue
and put clear mechanisms that
achieve this goal," Assad said.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and
Qatar are among the Syr-
ian opposition's most active sup-
porters, providing financial and
logistical support to the rebels.
The United States and some ofits
European allies have provided
non-lethal aid, although Wash-
ington has promised for months
to send light arms to Western-
backed opposition fighters.
The meeting Wednesday
between Brahimi and Assad was
the first direct contact between
the men in 10 months. After his
last trip to Syria in December
2012, Brahimi angered Syrian
authorities when he said that
40 years of rule by Assad's fam-
ily was "too long." Syrian offi-
cials then accused him of being
biased.
The diplomatic push aims
to end a conflict that has killed
more than 100,000 people and
forced some 2 million more to
flee the country. Now in its third
year, the civil war pits a primari-
ly Sunni Muslimrebelmovement
against a government whose
security forces are stacked with
members ofAssad'sAlawite sect,
an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
activist group said rebels killed
at least 17 people in an attack on
a predominantly Alawite village
in the central province of Homs
early Wednesday.
Observatory directory Rami
Abdurrahman said the opposi-
tion fighters killed six govern-
ment troops at a checkpoint in
Shallouh before sweeping into
the village itself, where they
killed 11 residents.
The SANA state news agency
blamed the attack on a "terror-
ist group," and said 13 locals
were killed. The report did not
mention any slain soldiers. The
government refers to those try-
ing to topple Assad as "terror-
ists."
own."
Two years ago in Indonesia,
there were zero reports of child
pimps like Chimoy who work as
the boss with no adults behind
the scenes. But the National
Commission for Child Protec-
tion says 21 girls between 14
call.
She conducted business over
the popular BlackBerry Mes-
senger service, earning up to
$400 a month, says Suparti,
who uses one name like many
Indonesians. The girl also met
potential clients in malls or res-
Saudi writer who
opposed driving
ban detained
Newtown families ask task
force to not release 911 tapes
Relatives say
written transcripts
of the calls are
permissible
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -
A husband and a mother of two
victims of the Sandy Hook Ele-
mentary School massacre told a
Connecticut task force Wednes-
day they don't want the 911 tapes
released, saying no one needs to
hear the sounds from that day.
Bill Sherlach, whose wife,
Mary, was killed on Dec.14, said
the panel should recommend a
compromise to state lawmakers,
such as providing members of
the media and others a written
transcription of the emergency
calls.
'There must be some sort of
balance between making sure
that the public's right to know is
sustained while the victims-of-
certain-atrocities' right to pri-
vacy is also honored," Sherlach
told the task force members. He
added that "911 transcripts can
relay all the necessary informa-
tion that the public wants with-
out having to hear the sounds of
a slaughter in the background."
Hours later, the prosecutor
leading the investigation of the
shooting filed an application, ask-
ing a Connecticut court to stay
an order by the state's Freedom
of Information Commission last
month to release the 911 tapes.
The panel had ruled in favor of
The Associated Press, which
sought access to the recordings.
Danbury State's Attorney
Stephen Sedensky II argued
that the stay would ensure his
appeal of the FOI's decision is
not rendered moot; records of
child abuse are not unlawfully
disclosed; victims and witness-
es are not intimated; and state-
ments of victims and witnesses
are not released.
The AP routinely requests
such documents in news gather-
ing. It was done in part to exam-
ine the police response to the
massacre that sent officers from
multiple agencies racing to the
school. The shooting left 20 first
graders and six educators dead.
If the recordings are released,
the AP would review the content
and determine what, if any of it
would meet the news coopera-
tive's standards for publication.
"AP's motivation here is sim-
ple. This was one of the worst
school shootings in U.S. history,
and we're pressing for access
to recordings that could shed
light on the law enforcement
response," said William J. Kole,
New England bureau chief for
the news cooperative.
In June, Connecticut law-
makers passed legislation that
prevented the public release of
crime scene photos and video
evidence depicting a homicide
victim if those records consti-
tute an "unwarranted invasion
of personal privacy" of the victim
or the victim's surviving family
members. The new law also cre-
ated a one-year moratorium on
the release of certain portions
of audiotape and other record-
ings in which the condition of
a homicide victim is described.
The exemption did not, how-
ever, include 911 emergency call
recordings, which are typically
released in Connecticut.
The same legislation cre-
ated The Task Force on Victim
Privacy and the Public's Right
to Know and charged it with
coming up with recommenda-
tions for the General Assembly
to consider in next year's new
legislative session. Earlier this
month, an attorney represent-
ing 22 of the 26 families who
lost relatives in the shooting
asked that the audiotape of the
Sandy Hook 911 calls not be
publicly released.
Both Sherlach and Nicole
Hockley, whose son, Dylan, was
killed, said they are not asking
for a categorical exclusion of all
911 audio tapes from the state's
FOI Act. Rather, they said dif-
ferent elements of each case
need to be considered before
releasing the tapes.
"We're not saying all or noth-
ing," Hockley said.
They maintain that the sensi-
tivity of the Sandy Hook shoot-
ing, the emotional impact the
tapes would have on families
and the fact there's no question
about who committed the crime
support their argument that the
tapes should not be released in
their case. They also remain con-
cerned about the crime scene
photos someday being released,
predicting such images and
sounds would live forever on the
Internet and would be used by
people with various political
agendas.
Male columnist
had criticized gov.
crackdown on
women drivers
DUBAI, United Arab Emir-
ates (AP) - Saudi authorities
have detained a columnist who
supported ending his country's
ban on women driving, activ-
ists said Wednesday.
The activists, who wished
to remain anonymous for fear
of retribution, said Tariq al-
Mubarak was called by inves-
tigators in the capital Riyadh
concerning a stolen car over the
weekend. When he arrived at
the Interior Ministry's Crimi-
nal Investigation Department
on Sunday, he was interrogated
instead about his role in a cam-
paign launched by reformers
seeking the right of women to
drive in the kingdom.
When his friends were
informed they could pick him
up at the investigator's office,
they too were detained for sev-
eral hours and questioned over
the campaign's activities, activ-
ists said.
Human Rights Watch and
activists who know al-Mubarak
say he remains in detention
with no access to a lawyer. The
New York-based organization
called for al-Mubarak's imme-
diate release and on authorities
"to stop harassing and trying to
intimidate activists and women
who defied the driving ban."
The spokesman for the Inte-
rior Ministry, Mansour al-
Turki, could not be reached for
comment.
In a column published in
the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-
Awsat the day of his arrest, al-
Mubarak said extremists are
intimidating people from exer-
cising'their rights. He said the
courts in Saudi Arabia do not
have sufficient provisions to
deter those who threaten and
terrorize others from exercis-
ing their freedoms because
"rights and freedoms ... are not
instilled in our culture, nor our
interpretation of religion."
Al-Mubarak, who also works
as aschoolteacher, was among a
core group of active young Sau-
dis calling for women's right to
drive.
Around 60 women claimed
they got behind the wheel Sat-
urday to oppose the ban. The
campaign sparked protest by
the kingdom's ultraconserva-
tive religious establishment.
The reformers behind the
Oct. 26 driving campaign say
their efforts are ongoing and
that they continue to receive
videos by women filming them-
selves flouting the driving ban.
The activists told The Asso-
ciated Press that they have
been followed for the past sev-
eral days and are anticipating
arrest. They have put in place
contingency plans and emer-
gency numbers for journalists
and rights organizations to call
in case they are detained.
At least two women have
been fined recently by police
for driving, the activists said.
Samia El-Moslimany said she
was given a nearly $135 fine for
driving in the kingdom, though
she has a U.S. driver's license.
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