THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012
PAGE 3
7
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
NORTH AMERICA
Open fire kills five police officers
VALLE DE BRAVO, Mexico Five police officers were fatally shot after they stopped a vehicle in a town outside Mexico City, authorities said Tuesday.
Mexico State prosecutor Alfredo Castillo Cervantes said the municipal officers from the town of xtapaluca had stopped the vehicle when a taxi and a van pulled up and a group of attackers opened fire.
A member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel who police say was responsible for collecting extortion money from bars in the area was
Investigators think the men may be the suspects originally stopped by the officers.
Police are trying to determine why the officers stopped the vehicle and whether they were in a negotiation with the men in the car when they were attacked. Witnesses told investigators the officers talked for several minutes with the pair before the assailants arrived, Castillo said.
killed in the Monday attack. Another man was shot in the head and is at a hospital under police guard, Castillo said.
ASIA
'Berserk' bus driver kills nine
NEW DELHI — A bus driver mowed down pedestrians and rammed cars, scooters and food stalls in a rampage through crowded Indian streets Wednesday that killed nine people and injured more than two dozen.
Police chased the bus for an hour through the streets of the central city of Pune, with traffic officers firing on it in an attempt to stop it, before they managed to arrest the 30-year-old driver. He is being held on murder charges.
The licensed bus driver had driven his route as normal Tuesday, but on Wednesday morning jumped into another driver's bus and took off.
police said.
"He just went berserk," slamming into people, cars, school buses, scooters and vegetable stands, Pune Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar said.
Pedestrians tried to flee, with some throwing children out of the way of the oncoming bus, she said.
"He went on ramming vehicles, hitting pedestrians. He was in such a dangerous mood." Borwankar said.
Food stalls were reduced to piles of squashed produce and broken beams, while at least 40 cars were crushed.
The injured were being treated in three hospitals.
EUROPE
Hungary's media freedom clipped
BRUSSELS — The head of a European Union advisory panel on Wednesday denounced the "extraordinary concentration" of power in the press under the leadership of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying it has undermined his nation's media freedom.
The official, former Latvia Prime Minister Vaire Vike Freiberga, said Wednesday that she believes "Hungary and its leaders would be wise to reconsider the laws and regulations that they have passed so as not to stand in contravention of various fundamental principles."
The criticism on media freedoms adds to the standoff between the EU and Hungary. The bioc already has launched legal proceedings against Hungary over the independence of the judiciary and the central bank.
Orban swept into power in 2010 and has used a two-thirds majority in parliament to change the political landscape to his liking and in a way that raised sharp criticism from the EU and the United States.
A key step in the centralization of power was a law that allows the party to influence reports in the state media.
AFRICA
Hostages freed from Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S.
Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia
under cover of darkness early Wednesday
and crept up to an outdoor camp
where an American woman and Danish
man were being held hostage. Soon,
nine kidnappers were dead and both
hostages were freed.
President Barack Obama authorized the mission by SEAL Team 6 two days earlier, deploying the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden last year. Minutes after the president gave his State of the Union address to Congress he was on the phone with the American's father to tell him his daughter was safe.
The Danish Refugee Council
confirmed the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a Dane, were "on their way to be reunited with their families."
Buchanan 32, and Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when gunmen kidnapped the two in October.
The raiders came in quickly, catching the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid.
Around 2:25 p.m. the sheriff's department received a report of an unattended white package and book bag near the bushes outside of the east entrance to the courthouse.
"As a result, we issued an evacuation," Douglas County Undersherriff Steve Hornberger said. "We called local
medical and fire, as well as the Overland Park Bomb Squad."
The courthouse will be open for business at its usual hours tomorrow.
courthouse were not able to, but the treasurer's office on the first floor of the courthouse remained open.
A suspicious package located outside the Douglas County Courthouse led to the evacuation of the building Wednesday afternoon. It was deemed not dangerous.
After examining the package, the bomb squad did not find anything dangerous and cleared the scene before 5 p.m.
— Rachel Salyer
Hornberger said individuals who wanted to conduct business at the
LEGAL
Suspicious package leads to evacuation
CRIME
Task force will patrol parties this semester
LUKE RANKER
franker@kansan.com
Jen Jordan, director of prevention at Douglas County Citizens Committee on Alcoholism, said she wasn't sure when the task force will begin patrolling parties or how they will pick parties. The task force has discussed using a tip hotline to help report large parties.
I'm going to change the way I do parties," Alex Schaul, a junior from Chicago, said. Schaul said he had originally considered requiring KU IDs at his parties but is now considering regular IDs.
The threat of the task force patrolling parties could reshape the way students hold social events.
The Kansas Department of Transportation Safety Resource Office awarded the task force a fourth grant to continue its efforts to lower underage drinking rates. The previous three semesters, the coalition comprised the Lawrence Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff, KU Police and the Kansas Department of Revenue's Alcohol Beverage Control Agency and patrolled mostly bars and tailgates.
"Students need to understand that
The Fake ID 101 Task Force will focus mostly on education and patrolling social gatherings such as parties this semester.
they are responsible for underage drinking in their house?" fordan said.
She said the task force will also focus more on education. Because bars change serving staffs often, the task force will provide an addition free program to educate liquor license holders.
Jordan said one of the best avenues for education might be focus groups with college students discussing better ways to prevent underage drinking.
Whether patrolling bars or parties, the task force isn't popular with some students.
"They need to chill out," Danny Madock, a freshman from Chicago, said. "Kids are going to drink anyway."
Norraine Wingfield, project director for the Kansas Transportation Safety Resource Office, said the Lawrence grant was cut from the usual $25,000 to $20,000 to accommodate federal spending cuts to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She said she thought local departments might provide extra funding.
"Hopefully with time and community involvement the program will become self-sustaining." Wingfield said.
Edited by Max Rothman
ALL CONTROLLERS ON DECK
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
From left, Collin Stirling, a sophomore from Kansas City; Colin Belmont, a sophomore from Omaha, Neb.; Kristen Rawls, a junior from Chicago; and Michael Aldrighetti, a senior from Columbus, compete in a Madden 12 tournament at the Kansas Union last night. The tournament had 20 participants and was free.