THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
ASIA
lapanese power plant remains fragile
OKUMA, Japan — Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima power plant remains fragile nearly a year after it suffered multiple meltdowns, its chief said Tuesday, with makeshift equipment — some mended with tape — keeping crucial systems running.
An independent report, meanwhile, revealed that the government downplayed the full danger in the days after the March 11 disaster and secretly considered evacuating Tokyo.
Journalists given a tour of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant on Tuesday, including a reporter from The Associated Press, saw crumpled trucks and equipment still lying on the ground. A power pylon that collapsed in the tsunami, cutting electricity to the
plant's vital cooling system and setting off the crisis, remained a mangled mess.
Associated Press
Officials said the worst is over but the plant remains vulnerable.
"I have to admit that it's still rather fragile," said plant chief Takeshi Takahashi, who took the job in December after his predecessor resigned due to health reasons. "Even though the plant has achieved what we call 'cold shutdown conditions,' it still causes problems that must be improved."
The government announced in December that three melted reactors at the plant had basically stabilized and that radiation releases had dropped. It still will take decades to fully decommission the plant, and it must be kept stable until then.
Apartment collapses, kills eight
EUROPE
MOSCOW — At least eight people have been killed and 12 were injured after a section of a nine-story apartment building in southern Russia collapsed following a natural gas explosion, officials said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is running to reclaim the presidency in Sunday's vote, rushed to the explosion site Tuesday in an apparent bid to demonstrate the government's quick response to the accident.
He quickly ordered the local authorities to immediately find new apartments for all the residents of other sections of the building, relying on their fears that the entire structure could collapse.
Anzhelika Barinova of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry says two others are still missing after Monday's explosion in Astrakhan, 1,300 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
As Putin was inspecting the wreckage, several hundred rescuers continued searching through the debris for those missing.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Putin has ordered local gas company officials suspended pending an official probe, and four of the
Emergency Situations Ministry rescuers inspect debris of an apartment Feb. 28. The building exploded following a natural gas leak.
company's workers were detained on charges of violation of fire safety rules.
Explosions caused by leaky gas pipes and canisters in Russian apartment buildings are common.
Senegal will not report live- election tally
AFRICA
DAKAR, Senegal — European Union observers on Tuesday questioned why Senegal's government is not publishing real-time results from a contentious presidential election, saying that in the Internet age, there
is no reason for the delay.
seeking a third term, against a field of 13 opposition candidates.
Results from individual polling stations are being relayed on private radio stations and on the website of the state news service, but the government says it won't issue an official tally until Friday.
Wade
Opposition leaders have criticized Wade, who held a press conference
Monday to announce that he is ahead with 32.17 percent of votes tallied so far. They said it is not the place of the president, but rather of the election commission to announce results.
"At this very hour, the provisional results are not yet known," said the head of the delegation of European parliamentarians, Cristian Dan Preda.
Based on results issued by private newspapers and by the president, it appears that none of the candidates got the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Wade, however, was handed a humiliating defeat in areas of the country that used to be his stronghold.
In the capital, Dakar, he came in third with 71,930 votes, behind opposition candidates Moustapha Nasse with 72,486 votes and Macky Sall, who was leading with 80,556 of the 326,500 votes cast, according to results published by the state-owned news service.
Details of violent riots are murky
ASIA
BEIJING — At least 12 people were killed in riots Tuesday near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media reported.
No details were given about what might have set off the violence, although Xinjiang see periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by restless members of the region's native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group.
The Xinhua News Agency said riots armed with knives attacked victims in Yecheng county outside the city starting at about 6 p.m. They killed 10 people and police shot two assailants to death, the report said.
The Xinhua report could not be independently confirmed. Chinese authorities maintain tight control over information and the circumstances surrounding such incidents are often murky.
Xinhua said police were chasing others involved in the attacks but did not say how many suspects there were.
The periodic attacks in the region occur despite a smothering security presence imposed following 2009 riots in the regional capital of Urumqi that pitted Uighurs against migrants from China's majority Han in which almost 200 people died.
Xinjiang saw more deadly violence last summer, when a group of Uighurs stormed a police station in the city of Hotan on July 18 and took hostages, killing four. Then, just days later on July 30 and 31, Uighurs in Kashgar hijacked a truck, set a restaurant on fire and stabbed people in the street.
Authorities said 14 of the attackers were shot by police in Hotan, and five assailants were killed in the violence in Kashgar.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Saturation patrols target drunk, aggressive drivers
LUKE RANKER
lranker@kansan.com
Kansas Highway Patrol officers arrested a man on suspicion of criminal possession of a handgun Saturday during a saturation patrol.
Lt. Joshua Kellerman said the arresting state trooper reported that the man fled on foot after a routine stop.
The man was in possession of a handgun.
"The gun was also fully loaded with a round, chambered and ready to go," Kellerman said.
The saturation patrol was part of a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation called Roving Aggressive Violations Enforcement. This grant allowed 12 state troopers to participate in patrols aimed at decreasing drunk driving and aggressive-driving issues.
"Through the RAVE program, KDOT has afforded us the opportunity to place extra patrols out on the roadway and try to make the Kansas roadways as safe as possible," Kellerman said.
State troopers arrested six people on suspicion of driving under the influence Saturday. Kellerman said any amount of DUI arrests is
alarming.
The patrols took place in Douglas County, primarily in Lawrence. Kim Murphree, spokeswoman for the Lawrence Police Department, said the department did not participate in Saturday's saturation patrol.
Sgt. Steve Lewis, Douglas County Sheriff public information officer, said the sheriff's department did not increase patrols on Saturday, but the department plans to hold similar saturation patrols on March 16 and April 14.
Edited by Caroline Kraft*
KANSAS HIGHWAY
PATROL SATURATION
PATROL ON SATURDAY,
FEB. 25
Activity (this is Kansas Highway Patrol activity only)
Six DUI arrests
Three felony arrests
40 citations (tickets) written
103 warning (not tickets) written
13 motorist assists
114 vehicle stops
CAMPUS CRIME
Topeka man sentenced in 2009 campus robbery
A 21-year-old Topeka man charged in a 2009 robbery on campus was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court.
Terrance Anthony Dean pleaded no contest to a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to 32 months in prison by District Court Judge Kavil
Court Judge Kay Huff,
Dean
who also required Dean to register as a violent offender for 15 years after he is released.
Dean and a codefendant, Mykel Dantae Karlyle, robbed a student of marijuana at
gunpoint in a parking lot near McColum Hall April 29, 2009. The student was planning on selling the drugs when he was robbed. The student was not charged.
Karlyle was sentenced earlier this month to more than five years in prison for his role in the robbery.
Jason Billiam, Dean's defense attorney, said Dean also faced federal charges after he was indicted in September on an incident in Shawnee County. Dean was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, possessing a firearm while facilitating drug trafficking and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Billiam said it was unlikely Dean would serve the federal sentence concurrently.
UNITED STATES
— Rachel Salyer
Bill forces women seeking abortions to have ultrasounds
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia's Senate has passed legislation that would require women seeking abortions to undergo noninvasive ultrasounds, days after eliminating a stipulation that the exams be conducted through a vaginal procedure that had drawn the scorn of commentators and TV comedians.
The bill returns to Virginia's House for expected concurrence on amendments added last week that would eliminate mandatory invasive vaginal ultrasounds and would exempt victims of rape and incest who reported the crimes to police.
The chamber narrowly controlled by Republicans split 21-19, mostly along party lines, in approving the amended measure Tuesday.
Senators on Tuesday rejected several amendments that would have made the procedure optional. By the end of the hour-long floor debate, tempers flared.
Republicans said the intent of the bill was to ensure that women would be fully informed about the gestational age of their fetuses as they make up their minds whether
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to abort them. Seven states have laws mandating some form of pre- abortion ultrasound exam.
But female Democrats in particular angrily criticized Republicans and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican who broke several tie votes in favor of his party in rejecting amendments that would have blunted the measure.
"The arrogance of this body in telling women what to do with their bodies," Sen. L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth said, thrusting her finger toward the Republican side of the chamber.
The ultrasound bill, particularly before the mandatory invasive procedure was removed last week, was the most controversial of a wave of anti-abortion legislation rolling through Virginia's General Assembly, newly under the rule of Republican conservatives.
Sen. Mamie Locke accused Republicans of seeking the bill to "guilt women out of terminating a pregnancy."
UNICEF
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Needs of urban children are overlooked
MEXICO CITY - Millions of children are growing up in squalid urban areas and denied basic services despite living close to them, the United Nations Children's Fund said Tuesday.
UNICEF said children living in slums and shantytowns often lack water, electricity and health care and it urged policy makers to ensure urban planning meets the needs of children.
The agency said it is common for statistics to show that, on average, children growing up in cities are better off than those in rural areas, which often leads to missing the plight of poor, urban children.
"This conceals the fact that the greatest inequities are found within towns and cities," it said. "In most urban areas, great opportunity and great deprivation exist side by side."
UNICEF said more than one-third of children in urban areas don't ever get birth certificates, which means they are invisible to authorities and can't get into social programs. This rises to half of all children in parts of Africa and
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More than half of the world's population lives in cities and towns, including a billion children. By 2050, two-thirds of the world's people are expected to live in urban areas, UNICEF said.
Many poor children in urban areas don't go to school and instead are forced to work to help their families, often in dangerous jobs. Tens of millions of children live or work on the streets and "the number is rising
Asia, two of the world's regions seeing the fastest migration from rural to urban areas.
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In urban areas poor sanitation and overcrowding drive up child
Nearly 8 million children died in 2010 before reaching the age of 5, about a third of them from hunger, the agency said. The rest died of pneumonia, diarrhea or birth complications.
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with global population growth, migration and increasing urbanization," the report said.
Children are also vulnerable to people traffickers. UNICEF said nearly 2.5 million people are in forced labor as a result of trafficking, and a quarter to half of them are children.
"When we think of poverty, the image that traditionally comes to mind is that of a child in a rural village." UNICEF director Anthony Lake said in a statement. "But today, an increasing number of children living in slums and shantytowns are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in the world, deprived of the most basic services and denied the right to thrive."
mortality, UNICEF said.