THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
AFRICA
LAGOS, Nigeria — The waters off West Africa's coast are now a constant danger for those shipping goods and crude oil in the region, analysts said Tuesday, a day after pirates killed two sailors near Nigeria's coast.
Pirates kill two sailors off Lagos coast
Despite pledges by nations to patrol the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, pirates killed a captain and a chief engineer onboard a heavy cargo ship Monday morning about 126 miles from the coast of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.
While shootings and stabbings have happened before in the region, Monday's assault was one of the deadliest attacks in waters, now considered to be as dangerous as
those near Somalia.
"It's quite uncommon that you have people killed this way," said Thomas Horn Hansen, an analyst with Risk Intelligence based in London. "It might be a matter of luck that hasn't happened before."
Authorities released new details Tuesday about the attack. Commodore Kabir Aliyu, a Nigerian naval spokesman, identified the attacked ship as the Fourseas SW, a bulk cargo ship designed to carry heavy loads like sand.
The nationalities of those killed in the attack could not immediately be determined Tuesday. Calls to Shih Wei went unanswered Tuesday.
CENTRAL AMERICA
Perez said he will try to win regional support for drug legalization at an upcoming summit of Central American leaders next month. He got his first public support on Monday at a security meeting with El Salvador President Mauricio Funes, who said he too is willing to consider legalization.
But after returning to El Salvador, Funes said he personally doesn't support legalization because it would
Guatemala proposes legalizing drugs
"create a moral problem," though he supports Perez's right to bring up the issue for consideration.
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala U.S. inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves Guatemala with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs. President Otto Perez Molina said Monday, a remarkable turnaround for an ex-general elected on a platform of crushing organized crime with an iron fist.
"Iimagine what it would mean," Funes said. "Producing drugs would no longer be a crime, trafficking drugs would no longer be a crime and consuming drugs would no longer be a crime, so we would be converting the region in a paradise for drug consumption."
Perez's proposal comes as drug cartels have taken over large swathes of Guatemala and other Central American countries, fueling some of the highest murder rates in the world. A May 2011 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service said that 95 percent of all cocaine entering the United States flows through Mexico, with 60 percent first traveling through Central America.
Ministers convicted of corruption
EUROPE
BUCHAREST, Romania Two former Romanian agriculture ministers were convicted on Tuesday of corruption and sentenced to three years in prison.
The two cases are one reason that Transparency International, a non-governmental organization based in Berlin, has ranked Romania as one of the most corrupt countries in the European Union.
On Tuesday, a court in Bucharest ruled that former agriculture ministers Decebal Traian Remes and loan Muresan took bribes and engaged in influence-pedding.
Remes resigned his Cabinet post in 2007 after prosecutors accused him of taking a bribe of $21,000 (euro15,800) and the promise of homemade sausages and plum brandy from Muresan, a former agriculture minister who allegedly
was acting on behalf of businessman Gheorghe Ciorba.
Prosecutors said the payment was meant to secure favor for Ciorba's company at a public auction. However, Ciorba reported the bribe to authorities before the auction took place, leading to the prosecution of the two ministers. Given his role in the case, Ciorba was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The January conviction of Nastase was the first time a former Romanian premier has been sentenced to prison since communism ended in the country in 1989. He has said he will appeal.
Romania is under pressure from the EU, which it joined in 2007, to crack down on widespread corruption.
Israel suspects Iran in bombings
ASIA
BANGKOK, Thailand — An Iranian man fleeing wounded from an explosion at a rented Bangkok house lobbed a grenade at police that rebounced and blew off one of his legs Tuesday in a series of blasts Israel said were an attempted terrorist attack by Iran.
The blasts came a day after an Israeli diplomatic car was bombed in India. Tehran denied responsibility for that attack and a failed car bombing in Georgia.
Thai security forces found more explosives in the house where the Iranian man was staying with two compatriots in Bangkok, but the possible targets were not immediately known. Police Gen. Pansiri Prapawat said.
Monday's attacks appeared to mirror the recent "sticky bomb" killings of tranian nuclear scientists that Tehran has blamed on Israel.
"We know who carried out the terror attacks, we know who sent them, and Israel will settle the score with them," Public Security Minister Yitzhak Haronovitch told Israeli Radio.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Bangkok violence "proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terror."
Israeli police raised their state of alert throughout the country, and officials predicted the attacks were the first in a wave of assaults on Israeli targets worldwide by Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hebbolah.
VALENTINE'S DAY
Students spend less nation more on V-Day
MARSHALL SCHMIDT
mschmidt@kansan.com
From condoms to jewelry to dinner, Americans spent $17.6 billion on Valentine's Day this year, which is the most-ever to date, according to the National Retail Federation.
However, Jennifer Holmes, store manager for Rod's Cards and Gifts, 2329 Iowa St., said students spent less money than usual on chocolates this year.
Although the National Retail Federation reports consumers spent an average of $74.12 on their better halves Tuesday, Josh Harper, a graduate student from Ashville, N.C., says $25 to $50 is a more reasonable range.
"It's unnecessary, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it." Harper said.
Because he and his girlfriend of six years are busy during the week, he plans to take her out for dinner this weekend.
Still, Holmes said her store always sees a last-minute rush for gift purchases, especially on the evening of the actual day.
"Valentine's Day is definitely a procrastinator's holiday," Holmes said.
The lower turnout this year means more leftover chocolate, which starts at half-price today. Any extra cards are packed up and re-sold next year. In her 10 years at Rod's, Holmes said the highest Valentine's Day merchandise sales were five or six years ago.
On a national scale, almost 20 percent of costumers purchased jewelry this year, which totaled $4.1 billion. Shoppers spent a projected $3.5 billion on a night out, $1.8 billion on flowers and $1.5 billion on candy, according to the National Retail Federation.
More than 7.5 million condoms were used during the 24 hour period, at a rate of 87 condoms per second. LifeStyles Condoms projected in a study. An additional 2.5 million condoms were used between midnight and 8 a.m. this morning, and the greatest percentage was used between 2 and 6 a.m.
While Valentine's Day is only second to Christmas in terms of merchandising, any economic boost is uncertain.
"The long-term economic impact for any temporary increase in spending is debatable," said Ted Juhl, associate professor of economics at the University.
Regardless of how much money an individual has, Harper does not think anyone should be obliged to spend a lot for a holiday.
"I think Valentine's Day should be less about spending and more about taking time to share an experience," he said.
Edited by Corinne Westeman
AMERICANS SPENT $17.6 BILLION
on Valentine's Day this year, the most-ever to date.
BREAKDOWN:
Jewelry $4.1 billion
Night out $3.5 billion
Flowers $1.8 billion
Candy $1.5 billion
Source: National Retail Federation
AMERICANS USED 7.5 MILLION condoms during the 24-hour period AT A RATE OF 87 condoms per second.
HISTORY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An exhibit featuring a target of the G men, Murder, Inc. is pictured at The Mob Museum on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, in Las Vegas. The publicly funded, $42 million Mob Museum represents a new height in Sin City's devotion to lawlessness.
小区配套酒店
Las Vegas honors gangster roots by opening $42 million museum
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas has long been enamored with its gangster roots. Its longtime former mayor played himself in the mob flick "Casino," and hotels here often promote their nefarious origins. But the publicly funded, $42 million Mob Museum represents a new height in Sin City's lawlessness devotion. Even the local FBI agents are in on it.
LAS VEGAS — On the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Sin City is honoring one of its earliest relationships with the grand opening of a museum dedicated to the mobsters that made this desert town. There are tommy guns, money stacks and a bullet-riddled brick wall from the 1929 massacre that saw Al Capone seize control of the Chicago mob.
"We wanted to make sure the truth came out," said Ellen Knowlton, a former special agent in Las Vegas brought on to legitimize the downtown attraction.
The museum is housed in a former Depression-era federal courthouse where the seventh of 14 U.S.
Senate hearings on organized crime was held in the early 1950s. The trials watched by 30 million people introduced the mob to most Americans.
"It's a risky bet," said Andy Matthews, president of the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute, which plans to protest the grand opening ceremony Tuesday.
But critics argue the government-backed attraction is a waste of tax dollars at a time when Nevada tops the nation in foreclosures and unemployment.
Casino workers and longtime visitors alike are known to wax nostalgic about the days when mob bosses kept drink prices low and streets violence-free. Their casinos became celebrity playgrounds and architectural icons. The Stardust, the El Cortez, the Tropicana, the Dunes Hotel, the Desert Inn, the Flamingo and the Fremont hotel were all backed by the mob at one point. Elvis and Priscilla Priestley tied the knot at the mob-controlled Aladdin resort and Wayne Newton later purchased
Nevadans and mobsters have a long, storied history.
it.
More recently, Las Vegans thrice made former mob attorney Oscar Goodman their mayor. And when he was term-limited from running again last year, they gave the job to his wife.
The mob, the story goes, helped build out the remote highway that would eventually become the Las Vegas Strip. Gangsters took over resorts built by front men, skimmed the profits and built nightclubs, country clubs, housing tracts and shopping centers.
Increased law enforcement scrutiny and competition from business titans like Howard Hughes saw Las Vegas turn corporate in the late 1960s. Then the celebrity chefs and Cirque du Soleil dancers moved in. These days, Las Vegas feels more like a raunchy version of Disney World than a mob hangout.
"We felt nostalgic the moment the old days ended," said Michael Green, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas working with the museum.
"Concern for religious freedom is not a theoretical concern," said Michael Schuttloff, lobbyist and executive director for the Catholic Conference. "An attack on anyone's religious liberty, any group's religious liberty, is an attack on
The bill would declare that state and local government policies shall not "substantially burden" people's right to exercise their religious beliefs without showing a compelling interest and imposing the burden in the least restrictive way possible. It also would declare that people have the right to sue state and local government agencies if they feel their religious freedoms have been abridged.
The bill specifically says there's a compelling interest in prohibiting discriminatory practices barred by state law and the Kansas and U.S. constitutions. But it doesn't mention local ordinances or agency policies that go further, such as an anti bias ordinance in Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas.
The House Judiciary Committee had a hearing on the proposed "Preservation of Religious Freedom Act" and is expected to vote on it by Monday. Chairman Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, contends the measure sim- ply writes into state law language from past Kansas court decisions for determining when government policies place too much of a burden on practicing religion.
Proposal to defend religious freedom
But Tom Witt, the Equality Coalition's executive director and lobbyist, said backers of the bill are most concerned about gay rights advocates persuading cities to enact anti-bias ordinances to protect gays, lesbians and the transgendered. State law doesn't specifically ban discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
THE LANGSTON HUGHES VISITING PROFESSORSHIP COMMITTEE
The OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
But gay rights advocates said the primary goal of the conservative and religious groups pushing the bill continues to be nullifying local ordinances or university policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
STATE LEGISTLATURE
TOPEKA, Kan. — Supporters of a proposal in Kansas that's described as an attempt to protect religious freedoms told state legislators Tuesday that President Barack Obama's ill-fated mandate for insurance coverage of birth control is a compelling example of why the measure is needed.
I ASSOCIATED PRESS
Invite you to ...
everyone's religious liberty."
IN THE BATTLEFIELD:
Black Women Musicians and the 'Voicing' of the Civil Rights Movement
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A lecture presented by
TAMMY KERNODLE
Spring 2012 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor, American Studies
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 3:30 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas Union
.
A reception in the Malott Room will immediately follow
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