The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Wednesday, November 27, 2013 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Motor city sees
41 hours without
violence
Detroit has a day-and-a-half
streak of no reported homicides
or non-fatal shootings, police said
Tuesday.
The streak started at midnight
Monday morning and as of 5:15
p.m. Tuesday was intact.
"For the first time in months
the city of Detroit has seen its lon-
gest period of non-violence," the
department said in a release.
Just weeks ago, three men
were shot and killed and six oth-
ers wounded in a rear gambling
room of an east side Detroit bar-
bershop. A witness told police that
the shooter pulled into a rear alley
and fired shots into an open rear
door of the barbershop on Nov. 6.
DETROIT
Ford recalls Escape
for seventh time
The hot-selling SUV has been
recalled seven times since it was
redesigned and went on sale in the
spring of 2012.
The first of two recalls
announced Tuesday affects more
. than 161,000 Escapes worldwide
fromthe2013 modelyear with 1.6-
liter four-cylinder engines.
Ford says the cylinder heads
can overheat and crack, causing
oil leaks.
Of those SUVs, fuel lines on
about 12,000 may have been
installed incorrectly. They could
become chafed and leak gas. Many
were repaired under a previous
recall.
Ford says the oil leaks caused 13
fires but no injuries. There haven't
been any fires from the fuel line
problems.
WASHINGTON
White House
appeals for return
ofretired FBI agent
The White House on Tuesday
made a holiday appeal to Iran to
return a retired FBI agent and two
other Americans being held in the
country.
Robert Levinson, the former
FBI agent, disappeared during a
business trip to Iran's Kish Island
in March 2007. The United States
believes the private investigator
and father of seven was abducted
and is being held in Iran. Levin-
son's case was a topic in recent
negotiations between U.S. and
Iran aimed at addressing Iran's
nuclear program and improving
diplomatic ties.
White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said Tuesday that Obama
specifically raised Levinson's case
as well as those of U.S. citizens
Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati,
who have been detained in Iran,
during a telephone conversation
earlier in the fall with Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani.
GENEVA
Global free-trade
deal colapses
Negotiators came close but
failed Tuesday to clinch a free-
trade deal that could have helped
boost the world economy by $1
trillion a year and cleared the way
for a broader global agreement.
Diplomats from the World
Trade Organization's 159 mem-
bers had been trying to forge an
agreement before a trade minis-
ters' meeting next week in Bali,
Indonesia. Achieving a deal in Bali
is seen as a final effort to revive
a broader 12-year effort to ease
global trade rules.
The mini-deal discussed in
Geneva had been intended, in part,
to reduce delays and inefficiencies
at national borders. Making it eas-
ier to move goods across borders
could boost the global economy
by nearly $1 trillion a year and
support 21 million jobs, according
to a report co-written by Jeffrey
Schott, a senior fellow in interna-
tional trade at the Peterson Insti-
tute for International Economics.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Boat carrying
150 Haitian
migrants flips,
at least 20 dead
Sailboat capsizes
in Bahamas after
running aground
MIAMI (AP) - A sailboat
passing through the south-
ern Bahamas islands with
about 150 Haitian migrants
on board capsized after run-
ning aground, killing up to 30
people and leaving the rest
clingingto the vessel for hours,
authorities said Tuesday.
The exact death toll
remained uncertain. Authori-
ties on the scene confirmed at
least 20 dead and determined
the number could reach 30
based on accounts from survi-
vors, said Lt. Origin Deleveaux,
a Royal Bahamas Defense
Force spokesman.
The remains of five victims
had been recovered and the
Bahamas military and police
were working with the U.S.
Coast Guard to recover addi-
tional bodies as they pulled
survivors from the stranded
sailboat.
"Right now, we are just try-
ing to recover as many bodies
as we possibly can," Deleveaux
said.
Authorities believe the
migrants had been at sea for
eight to nine days with lim-
ited food and water and no life
jackets, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr.
Gabe Somma said. Many were
severely dehydrated when
the first rescue crews reached
them. The boat, in addition
to being overloaded, likely
encountered rough weather,
Deleveaux said.
"It was obviously justgrossly
overloaded, unbalanced,unsea-
worthy," Somma said. "An
incredibly dangerous voyage."
The capsizing of overloaded
vessels occurs with disturb-
ing frequency in the area, most
recently in mid-October when
four Haitian women died off
Miami. There have also been
fatal incidents near the Turks
and Caicos Islands, between
Haiti and the Bahamas, and in
the rough Mona Passage that
divides the Dominican Repub-
lic and Puerto Rico.
"Unfortunately we see these
types of tragedies occur on a
monthly basis," Coast Guard
Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss
said. "Every year we see hun-
dreds of migrants needlessly
lose their lives at sea taking
part in these dangerous and
illegal voyages."
It's common enough that the
CoastGuardrecentlydeveloped
a public service announcement
that will run on TV and radio
in Florida, Haiti, the Bahamas
and the Dominican Republic
urging people not to risk the
deadly ocean voyages.
This latest incident occurred
late Monday near Harvey Cays,
about 80 miles (125 kilome-
ters) southeast of New Provi-
dence, the island that includes
the capital of Nassau, and 260
miles (417 kilometers) south-
east of Miami.
Fishermen spotted the dan-
gerously overloaded sailboat
and alerted the Bahamas mili-
tary, which asked the Coast
Guard for assistance in locat-
ing the vessel, Somma said. By
the time it was spotted, the
40-foot boat had run aground
in an area dotted with tiny out-
croppings and reefs and then
capsized.
Photos taken by the Coast
Guard showed people clinging
to every available space on the
overturned vessel. Some were
taken to a clinic on nearby Sta-
niel Cay fortreatment for dehy-
dration.
By late Tuesday afternoon,
the Coast Guard and Baha-
mian authorities had rescued
about 110 people, including 19
women. Deleveaux said there
were no children on board.
Smugglers will often seek to
blend in with the migrants
when they are captured and
authorities did not announce
any arrests.
PATRICK KOVARIK/Daily
French President Francois Hollande, right, and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reviews the troops during a military
cerewony, Tuesday at the Invalides in Paris.
France to send 1 btroops
to Central African Republic
Forces will attempt
to stop potential
genocide in former
French colony
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -
France promised Tuesday to
send 1,000 troops to Central
African Republic amid warnings
about the potential for geno-
cide in the near-anarchic former
French colony.
Whether the French forces
will save lives largely depends on
how far the foreign soldiers ven-
ture outside the capital, Bangui,
to the lawless provinces where
mostly Muslim rebels have been
attacking Christian villages, and
Christian militias have recently
launched retaliatory attacks.
The French move comes less
than a week after French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius warned
"the country is on the verge of
genocide" and marks the second
time this year that France has
sent troops to a former colony in
Africa.
In January, thousands of
French soldiers launched an
offensive to free northern Mali's
major towns from the control of
al-Qaida-linked militants. After
that success, the French military
is stepping up its efforts in Cen-
tral African Republic, a lawless
country in the heart of the con-
tinent.
No other country is expect-
ed to take action if France, the
former colonial power, doesn't
get involved, said Francois
Heisbourg, a French analyst at
the Foundation for Strategic
Research think tank in Paris.
"We are a prisoner of history
and geography: This is our neigh-
borhood, and yes, we have troops
in the area for historical reasons,"
Heisbourg said. "And given the
humanitarian situation and the
political pressure, there is no way
we can avoid doingthis."
However, it is not clear how
much can be accomplished by
1,000 French troops in a country
of 4.6 million people where many
roads have not been repaved
since independence in1960.
An international presence is
needed given the limited capac-
ity of Central African Republic's
own security forces, said Chris-
tian Mukosa, a researcher with
the Africa division of Amnesty
International.
"It's really very important that
the French don't stay only in Ban-
gui, but go to Bouca and other hot
spots where currently there are
serious human rights abuses and
where populations are at risk," he
said.
In the northwest town of
Bouca, nun Angelina Santaguili-
ana said she lives in fear of a rebel
attack on her Catholic mission.
Already some 2,400 people have
sought refuge there in the past
week, crowding the floors of the
church at night and taking shel-
ter under trees on the mission's
yard.
"If the French come to help
with disarmament in our region,
it will be a good thing, but if there
is fighting it would make things
worse," she said by telephone
Tuesday, with the sounds of chil-
dren wailingin the background.
More than 35,000 other peo-
ple have sought refuge at another
Catholic mission in Bossangoa,
according to church officials
there.
Central African Republic's
current chaos started late last
year when a number of rebel
groups joined forces to form
the coalition known as Seleka.
In March the rebels overthrew
the president of a decade and
installed their leader in power.
But rebel leader-turned-presi-
dent Michel Djotodia now exerts
little control over the renegade
fighters in the provinces, most of
whom are Muslim and who are
accused of committing killings,
torture and rape, and forcibly
recruiting child soldiers.
France has warned for months
about the deteriorating secu-
rity in Central African Republic,
and its pledge follows warnings
from the U.N. special adviser on
the prevention of genocide who
called the crisis in the country,
"one of the worst human rights
and humanitarian crises of our
time."
The conflict's toll is difficult
to determine as the most vicious
attacks have taken place in
remote villages.
About 1 in 10 people have been
displaced from their homes,
according to international aid
group Medecins Sans Frontieres,
or Doctors Without Borders.
Details only trickle in when
survivors make their way to
safety and the insecurity in the
region makes it impossible for aid
groups to determine how many
have died. And many of the reb-
els accused of committing atroci-
ties have been integrated into
the national army, rendering the
country's security forces unable
to combat the cycle of violence.
Reports of killings of civilians
and looting emerged in Bangui
soon after the rebel invasion
in March. The crisis deepened
several months later when the
rebels began targeting the area
of Bossangoa, the home region
of ousted President Francois
Bozize and many of his perceived
supporters. Some villages have
been completely decimated with
homes burned to the ground. The
Christian self-defense militias
that emerged are also accused of
attacking Muslim civilians, many
of whom have suffered under the
Seleka rebellion already.
Investigators look
into role of Adam
Lanza's mother in
Newtown shooting
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teachers and other acquain-
ided with son tances, investigators said in
their report. He collected
ver shooting materials on mass killings and
kept a spreadsheet ranking of
mass murders.
But his mother wasn't
ZTFORD, Conn. (AP) allowed to enter his bedroom,
Adam Lanza withdrew according to the report, and
he world into his bed- it was unclear how much she
the only person he knew about his obsession.
ed to be close to was his While the details released
, who cooked his favor- Monday led some observers to
ils, did his laundry daily direct their anger at her, sug-
bonded with him over gesting she was more enabler
ig and guns. than victim, others were more
stigators' final report sympathetic.
year's school massacre A friend of hers, Marvin
wtown provided new LaFontaine, said Tuesday that
s into Nancy Lanza's she did her best raising her son
life with her troubled even though he was difficult
son and renewed the and resisted help from others
over whether she bears or talking about issues such as
esponsibility for the other children picking on him.
ath that began with her "That really frustrated her,"
ig death. LaFontaine said. "It just wore
ink that we will always her down to the bone."
ildered by someone who James Alan Fox, a crimi-
'ress her concern for her nologist at Northeastern Uni-
by she sought to have versity in Boston, said Nancy
ngage with firearms," Lanza didn't ignore her son's
cannel P. Malloy said psychological problems and
y. "Not even those folks can't be blamed for his actions.
ppose reasonable gun "She was a victim, not an
legislation would argue accessory," he said. "We can
was a good idea to have easily second-guess parents,
ne who was evidenc- and there's a lot there we can
s kind of disturbance question, but the fact of the
ossession of the kinds of matter is many people com-
ns that he had posses- mit horrible crimes despite the
best efforts of parents, siblings
m Lanza's fascination and others."
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