The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, November 4,2013 - 3A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, November 4, 2013 - 3A EAST LANSING, Mich. Cuban life on display in photos at Michigan State A Michigan State University professor's photos from Cuba are going on display Monday at the East Lansing campus. Music composition associate professor Mark Sullivan says the exhibition draws on more than 6,000 photos he shot during his visit to the Caribbean Island nation, long under a U.S. trade embargo. The opening of the exhibit "Cuba: First Times Never Come Again" is 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the MSUglobal Knowledge and Learning Innovations space in the Nisbet Building. It's up through year's end. The 28-year Michigan State faculty member says life in Cuba is "radically different" from what he'd expected. Sullivan will be on hand to dis- cuss his photos and plans with the project, which include turn- ing his pictures and experiences in Cuba into a book. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Birmingham airport secured, operations resume Normal operations are resum- ing at Birmingham-Shuttles- worth International Airport after a threat was investigated. The airport's Facebook page said Sunday night that operations were resuming after authorities secured the airport. Police spokesman Johnny Wil- liams tells al.com that nothingwas found in a sweep of the airport. Several flights were diverted and the terminal was evacuated after the threat was received in the afternoon. The airport was shut down for more than two hours. CLEVELAND Ohio trial set for man in wife's hospital killing A man charged with fatally shooting his wife in her hospital bed killed her out of love and will tell jurors about the heartbreak he felt over her debilitated condi- tion, his attorney said. John Wise, of Massillon, under house arrest since last year, goes on trial Monday and will ask for the jury's understanding, not sympathy, attorney Paul Adam- son said. The 68-year-old Wise could face life in prison if convicted of aggravated murder. Police say Wise calmly walked into his 65-year-old wife's room at Akron General Medical Center and shot her on Aug. 4, 2012. Bar- bara, his wife of 45 years, died the next morning. A week earlier, she had suf- * fered triple cerebral aneurysms that left her unable to speak. YANGON, Myanmar Boat carrying 70 * Muslim Rohingya sinks off Myanmar A boat carrying at least 70 Muslim Rohingya capsized and sank Sunday off the western coast of Myanmar, an aid worker said. Only eight survivors have been found. The boat was in the Bay of Ben- gal and headed for Bangladesh when it went down early Sunday, said Abdul Melik, who works for a humanitarian organization in the region. The incident comes after the United Nations warned that an annual and often deadly exodus of desperate people from Myan- mar's Rakhine state appears to have begun. The exodus usually kicks off in November, when seas begin to calm following the annu- al monsoon. As many as 1,500 people have fled in the last week, Dan McNor- ton, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, said at a press briefing Saturday in Geneva. -Compiled from Daily wire reports France: Journalists shot killed in Mali @TWCNTYPOUNDCARP VIA TWITTER A Twitter picture from @twentypound carp advertising a write-in campaign for Ann Arbor City CouncilA Twenty Pound Carp runs for City Council,1 details fishy Candidate offers fresh (water) take on contentious issues By KATIE BURKE and WILL GREENBERG Daily NewsEditor and Daily StaffReporter Ann Arbor voters' attention has been lured into the 4th Ward Ann Arbor City Coun- cil race as write-in candidate "Twenty Pound Carp" made a splash by announcing his can- didacy for the seat. According to a Twitter account, @TwentyPoundCarp, the carp is an Ann Arbor native that resided in a pond in Ann Arbor's West Park but was removed one year ago after city officials claimed it was destroy- ing the pond's ecosystem. The Ann Arbor News report- ed in November 2012 that a 20-inch-long, 20-pound carp was pulled from a small pond, then released into the Huron River. The fish was removed due to its destruction of sur- rounding vegetation. Twenty Pound Carp wrote in an e-mail interview that his campaign platform is centered on economic reform and "fiscal responsibility." "A return to Ann Arbor's past glories and prosperity for all ... I fully expect we can retain recent university gradu- ates in Ann Arbor rather than lose them to Chicago, where the abattoirs cast but the mer- est shadow their former great- ness," the Twitter user wrote. It added that securing the city's borders is another aspect of the campaign. "With the destruction of Blimpy Burgers, I have pro- posed the immediate construc- tion of a series of glacis and escarpments, ravelins and Par- rott gun installations to encir- cle critical strategic points such as Dominick's and the Fleet- wood Diner," the user wrote. Twenty Pound Carp wrote that if elected, it would encour- age the city to work with the federal government to build canals for its fellow aquatic creatures, creating "the Venice of Washtenaw County." The user declined to dis- close its exact residence, but is working with the city to come to an agreement on residency in Ward 4. The campaign appears to be going swimmingly with 172 Twitter followers as of Sunday afternoon. "Campaign rolls on, we have momentum. I'm focusing on the Fourth ward, but can't help it if supporters stray across borders," @TwentyPoundCarp tweeted on Oct. 30 in response to questions about the support spawning across Ann Arbor. Fourth Ward candidate Jack Eaton, a Democrat who is the only candidate on the ward's ballot, said he's kept a good sense of humor about the new candidate, mentioning that he and the carp follow each other on Twitter. "I take it with the humor that's intended," Eaton said. Eaton also said the carp has not yet filed for candidacy, which is required before the election for the votes to be counted. Additionally, the carp currently resides in the Huron River, which does not fall with- in the jurisdiction of the fourth ward, leading to some fishy cir- cumstances surrounding the legitimacy of the campaign. If elected, Twenty Pound Carp would be the self- described "bottom feeder" to serve on city council and would likely give a new fresh-water face to the council while giving voice to the long underrepre- sented residents of Ann Arbor's ponds and rivers. Twenty Pound Carp also tweeted that, if elected, it hopes to have its special needs accom- modated so that it can attend council - meetings, though details of those logistics are still unclear. Details of who was behind attack and why remain unclear PARIS (AP) - Two veteran French journalists kidnapped and killed in northern Mali were shot to death, French authorities said Sunday, as questions emerged about how the gunmen managed to carry out the attack near a town where both French troops and U.N. forces are based. The slayings of Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, shocked France and under- scored how insecure parts of northern Mali remain months after a French-led military intervention against al-Qaida and other extremists. The new details, shared by French Foreign Minister Lau- rent Fabius after a meeting of key ministers with French President Francois Hollande, failed to clarify who was behind the killings and why the pair was targeted. He said the two were shot multiple times and their bod- ies found near the vehicle that whisked them away. Earlier, four Malian officials, including the head of the armed forces in Kidal said the journalists' throats had been slit. Their bodies were flown to the Malian capital of Bamako on Sunday, and were to be returned to France on Mon- day. The Radio France Inter- nationale journalists were kidnapped Saturday after interviewing a Tuareg rebel leader in Kidal. The northern town is under de facto rebel control despite the presence of French and U.N. troops. French troops, alerted to the kidnappings, set up check- points, sent out patrols and called in helicopters to search for the journalists, French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said. But a patrol arrived too late, finding the abandoned vehicle east of the town and the bod- ies nearby. The French troops, some 200 of whom are based at the Kidal airport, had earlier found no trace of the fleeing vehicle. Fabius said the bodies were found some 12 kilometers (8 miles) outside Kidal and "sev- eral meters" from the vehicle. RFI chief Marie-Christine Saragosse said they were found 80 meters (87 feet) from the kidnappers' vehicle. The killings were "odious, abject and revolting," Fabius said. He said one journalist had been hit with three bullets, the other two - but that the car, whose doors were locked, showed no impact from bullets. Cecile Megie, RFI's execu- tive editor, said the two jour- nalists had been seized by a group that spirited them away in a beige pickup truck. "The site showed no trace of fighting, gunfire. It was an exe- Despite January's French- led intervention and a presi- dential election since, much of Mali, especially the vast north, remains in turmoil. Suspicion as to who was behind the killings grew as bits of information trickled out. Both Tuareg separatists of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, known as the NMLA, and al- Qaida-linked fighters operate in the area. The NMLA rebels launched their latest rebellion in 2012. Those rebels were later chased out by al-Qaida's fighters in the region but have returned to prominence in Kidal in recent months. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has kidnapped West- erners, but it tends not to kill them but rather to hold them for ransom as a means of bank- rolling its operations. The killings came four days after France rejoiced at the lib- eration of four other citizens, who had been kidnapped in neighboring Niger three years ago and were found in north- west Mali. "The killers are those we are fighting, that is, the terrorist groups who refuse democracy and refuse elections," Fabius said. Mali is to hold a parliamen- tary vote later this month. The journalists had traveled to Kidal to report for a special program on Mali ahead of the voting. Saragosse, who heads France 24 TV along with RFI, was traveling to Bamako on Sunday to accompany the return of the bodies. She said the slain journalists had been accompanied from Bamako to Kidal, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) north, by U.N. troops who have been present since the end of the French intervention. The pair - both long-time RFI employees familiar with challenging terrain - were taken to the town hall, "the saf- est place," said Saragosse, who also met with Hollande Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether the U.N. troops were in the vicinity at the time of the kidnapping. The French military spokes- man confirmed reports that French forces in Mali had refused to take the journalists to Kidal for security and "oper- ational reasons." A U.N. spokesman said its troops had not noticed the vehicle used in the kidnapping in any of the seven checkpoints in and around the city manned by them. "These seven checkpoints are at major transit locations and the vehicle of the kidnap- pers was not noticed at any of these checkpoints," said Oliv- ier Salgado, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Mali. He added: "You need to put this in the context of the desert. This is a place with dunes. They must have used a non-official Crackdown on charity poker rooms brings backlash Legislation seeks to control community fundraising events LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Explosive growth in the pop- ularity of poker has helped Michigan's charities, churches and civic groups stay afloat at a time of dwindling donations from elsewhere. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that the state's efforts to rein in the charitable gambling industry that has grown more than 20-fold in a decade are sparking backlash - some of it in the form of raw emotion. Gov. Rick Snyder's deputy lawyer Dave Murley drew rare boos in a crowded Capitol com- mittee room the other day when he told lawmakers: "Charitable poker began as a good cause, evolved into a highly lucrative business and has degenerated into a racket." At stake is the future of "mil- lionaire parties," casino-style events where nonprofits split cash proceeds with unlicensed poker rooms that provide the space, dealers, poker chips and playing cards along with food and drinks. Many veterans groups, prep sports booster clubs and other nonprofits are no lon- ger hosting Texas Hold 'em and blackjack fundraisers in small church basements and halls, instead contracting with what authorities charge are large "de facto casinos" run through bars and poker rooms. Revenue from the events reported to the state was $7.9 million in 2002, peaked at $197 million in 2011 and dipped to $184 million in 2012,though offi- cials believe it is more because loopholes have been found in $15,000 chip caps. Charities' profits rose from $3.6 million in 2002 to $19.2 million two years ago before leveling at $15.8 mil- lion. Tension has been building ever since Snyder in June 2012 transferred oversight of the mil- lionaire parties from the Lottery Bureau to the Michigan Gaming Control Board and its regulators familiar with monitoring highly regulated operations at horse tracks and Detroit's casinos. The agency, which already had been working with the lottery to close down sites due to illegal gam- bling, cracked down on some larger bars that contributed to a 22 percent drop in licenses issued for millionaire parties through the first half of this year. The friction is boiling over, though, over new regulations proposed by Executive Director Richard Kalm. Among the most significant proposals are requiring five bona fide members of a charity on hand to help run the games, lim- iting a single location to hosting one event a dayand no more than 120 a year, and restricting the fees that poker room businesses charge charities. "What started out being the charities' money, the charities' profit, has been whittled away at," said Kalm, who wants to lift a moratorium on new charitable gamblingsites once the rules are in place. He said charities got 81 per- cent of the proceeds a decade ago but now receive half under profit-sharing agreements never envisioned when the casino- style charity games were autho- rized in a 1976 update of the Bingo Act.. But charities and establish- ments running the millionaire parties like the current system and are suspicious that the Sny- der administration is working at the behest of casino interests, an accusation denied by regulators. Charities say modest regulations are OK but call the proposed rules an overreach that could significantly hurt legitimate fundraising and put permanent poker sites out of business. Dane Nickols with the Laingsburg Lions Club said that while charities are taking less of the cut on a percentage basis, they are still raising much more money than previously. "We want the rooms to make money so they will continue and be there for us to make more money," he said. Nickols said his club raised just $600 the first time it orga- nized a poker event. Lottery officials who audited the service organizationtold him it was alot of labor - 10 volunteers - with- out much bang for the buck and recommended he try out a card room in a Lansing-area sports bar. . "By going to an established room, we were able to make more money," he said. The dispute has attracted attention from legislators, who took the unusual step of holding a hearing Thursday before the state has a public hearing on the rules later in November. After the public weighs in, the agency can make revisions - it already has made a couple concessions - before submitting them to the 10-lawmaker Joint Commit- tee on Administrative Rules as early as December.