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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
Give until it hurts
Justin Gonzalez, Mission freshman, donates blood for the KU Blood Drive Tuesday afternoon inside the Kansas Union Vessel. "I was walking by, saw the bus, and decided to give blood," said Gonzalez, who had some spare time before his afternoon class. More information on the blood drive can be found at www.kublooddrive.com
Tanner Grubbs/KANSAN
ENVIRONMENT
BY JOHN HEILPRIN
U.S. and China vow to reduce pollution
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao each vowed urgent action Tuesday to cool an overheating planet, even as prospects dimmed for a full treaty by the end of the year.
The world's two biggest greenhouse-gas polluting nations were the focus at the U.N.'s unprecedented daylong climate change summit, which drew more than 50 presidents and 35 prime ministers, along with many environment ministers and at least one prince.
U. N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the gathering with an appeal to leaders to set aside national interests and think about the future of the globe — and a rebuke for their foot-dragging thus far.
"The climate negotiations are
proceeding at glacial speed. The world's glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them — and us," the U.N. chief said.
Failure to reach a new international pact on climate change "would be morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise," Ban warned. "The science demands it. The world economy needs it."
Tuesday's U.N. gathering and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh this week are seen as an attempt to pressure rich nations to commit to a global climate treaty at Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, and to pay for poorer nations to burn less coal and preserve their forests.
With a mere 76 days to go before the pivotal conference, it appeared an interim agreement might be the most that could be expected in December, leaving difficult details for later talks.
CRIME
Federal court upholds death sentence
BY STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a convicted rapist for the 2003 kidnapping and killing of a University of North Dakota student in a case that led Minnesota and North Dakota to toughen their sex-offender laws.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., of Crookston, Minn., got a fair trial and rejected his bid to overturn his death sentence. The defense said it would appeal.
The 2-1 ruling came three years to the day that a federal jury in Fargo, N.D., decided Rodriguez should die for kidnapping resulting
in the death of Dru Sjodin. The jury earlier found him guilty of abducting Sjodin on Nov. 22, 2003, from the parking lot of a Grand Forks, N.D., shopping mall where she worked.
Despite massive searches that included National Guard troops, the 22-year-old Pequot Lakes, Minn., woman was missing for five months until her body was found
near Crookston, where Rodriguez lived with his mother. Authorities said she had been raped, beaten and stabbed.
"We're gratified by the outcome but we know this is the first step," said Lynn Jordheim, acting U.S. attorney for North Dakota.
The three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based court rejected the defense arguments.
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